WHO WAS IT THAT BLUNDERED?

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even unsupported and alone,) ordered his infantry to open fire, as if the battle were to be fought on that ground.*

* That it was the commander of the division who blundered at this awful moment, is but too evident. The author of "The Retreat from Pulaski to Nashville," thus reports what he himself saw and heard: "The writer was standing on the parapet of the 100th Ohio Regiment, urging the men to strengthen their works, and talking with General Wagner. The General was reclining on his elbow, with a staff or crutch in his hand: he had fallen with his horse and was lame. We remarked that the musketry firing was becoming more rapid, also from the two guns in front. By-and-by a staff officer rode fast from one of the brigades, and reported excitedly, 'The enemy are forming in heavy columns. We can see them distinctly in the open timber and all along our front.' Wagner said firmly 'Stand there and fight them,' and then turning to me, said, 'And that stubbed, curly-headed Dutchman,' meaning one of his brigade commanders (General Conrad], ' will fight them too.' General,' the officer said, 'the orders are not to stand, except against cavalry and skirmishers; but to fall back behind the main line if a general engagement is threatened.' In a short time another officer rode in from the right in great haste, and told him the Rebels were advancing in heavy force. He received the same order. The officer added, 'But Hood's entire army is coming.' Then Wagner struck the ground with his stick, and said 'Never mind: fight them!' Soon we heard the Rebel yell and heavy firing."

'But,

It was a dreadful mistake, for which he had to suffer in the way that a soldier feels most: for in less than a week, General Thomas, after careful investigation, relieved him of his command, and that was the end of his military career. But soldiers are generous in their judgments, and quick to forgive the mistakes of one who has been brave, and so the writer of the above adds: Wagner was a great fighter. It is said that bullets rattled out of his clothes for a month after the battle of Stone River. . . . . He is now dead; his soul is in heaven with the heroes; and let us draw over this one error the mantle of charity, and cherish the memory of his personal valor and dauntless courage on the hard-fought battlefields of the West."

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WHY WERE THESE BRIGADES THERE?

The only explanation of his thus acting, not only without orders, but against orders, is that he "lost his head"bad thing to lose in a battle.* It were better that

a very

*This terrible disaster at the opening of the battle has often led to the inquiry, why these brigades were placed in such an exposed position? And gentle home critics think that they detect here a fault of strategy. A word of explanation, with the help of the map, may relieve their minds, and show them that there was no mistake at all in the disposition of the Union army.

The reader must bear in mind the position of Gen. Schofield on that morning. He had not planned for a battle at Franklin, but had intended, in accordance with the orders of Thomas, to continue his march to Nashville, as he would have done if he had found bridges or pontoons to cross the Harpeth river. Disappointed in this, he had to change his plan, and prepare for the contingency of battle where he was. As yet he was wholly in the dark as to the intentions of the enemy. Judging from the movement of Hood at Columbia, in crossing the river and endeavoring to get in his rear, it seemed probable that he would repeat the same movement at Franklin; and instead of attacking in front, where the Twenty-third corps held a strong line of defence, would cross the river, and making a circuit, move round the town, so as to take the Federal army in the rear, and cut off its retreat to Nashville. In anticipation of such a movement, one division of the Fourth corps, to be followed by others, if necessary, had been got across the river to the bluff on the other side, where General Schofield, from the earthworks (designated on the map as Fort Granger, the only point of sufficient elevation to command a view of the whole field), was able to watch the advance of the enemy, and change his own movements to meet the attack from whichever quarter it might come.

It was with an eye in both directions, that the two brigades had been placed in front, to observe the movements of the enemy; and if he should turn towards the river, to swing round with him, keeping in his front, and fending off the attack till the interior lines could be reformed to meet the tremendous shock that must follow. The plan was perfect in every detail. As Gen. Cox, repelling the criticisms which had been made on his com

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CONFEDERATES DRIVEN BACK.

he had lost his life, for by this act of madness he lost a thousand men! The result was what might have been expected. As the enemy's line of battle overlapped these brigades on both sides, it instantly closed in upon them, and poured in such a fire that in a few moments they were utterly broken, and rushed at full speed back to the entrenchments, the Confederates following in hot pursuit. This was a double disaster. Not only were the brigades themselves overwhelmed, but the whole line had to hold its fire for fear of killing its own men; and so when the column rushed into the works, their pursuers rushed in after them, and were inside of the Federal lines, where they seized the shotted guns, and whirled them about to pour their contents into the flying crowd. But in the wild. uproar, even the horses had caught the panic, and tearing away fled down the road, with the limbers containing the primers, so that the guns could not be discharged; and in the midst of this confusion, the tide of battle rolled back again, and all was recovered.

But this was not accomplished without a terrific conflict. In the rear of the line the ground descends in a gentle slope, and here a reserve brigade of two thousand men, under Colonel Opdycke, had been ordered to lie down, that they might not be exposed till they were needed. They had been warned of the danger of a break in the line, and now, at the call of their leader, they sprang to their feet, and rushed upon their assailants with the bay

66

manding officer for this disposition, as also for his being at Fort Granger instead of being with him at the front, said with emphasis, General Schofield was exactly where he ought to have been, and the orders issued were exactly what they ought to have been." He might have added, that if those orders had been strictly obeyed, the result would have been not only the defeat but the entire destruction of Hood's army.

GENERALS RALLYING THE MEN.

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onet. So sudden was this apparition of armed men, starting up as if they had literally come out of the ground, and so tremendous their onset, that some accounts make their commander the hero of the battle. It would be more correct to say one of the heroes: for there is no need to exalt him at the expense of others, who shared in the same achievement. This brave officer now sleeps in a soldier's grave, and no praise can be too great for his courage at that decisive moment. But with his brigade were the portions of the two divisions under Reilly and Strickland that had been pushed back by the rush of Wagner's men, with the avalanche of Confederates behind; but who, as soon as the mingled mass swept by, so that they could distinguish friend from foe, reformed under those gallant soldiers. All those in high command did their duty on this great day. General Stanley had been so sure that the attack of the enemy, when it came, would be on the other side of the river, where he was, that he had remained there with General Schofield till the firing began. Then he mounted his horse, and spurred to the front just in time to meet Wagner's brigades (that belonged to his own Fourth Corps) in full retreat; and exerted himself with the utmost energy to rally them, when his horse was shot under him, and he was wounded, and compelled, very much against his will, to return to his quarters for surgical skill. This threw the whole burden of command upon General Cox at a moment when the fate of the army was at stake. The imminent peril inspired him to increased activity, so that he seemed to fly from point to point. The voice of command could not be heard in the uproar of battle; but soldiers along the line could see that figure waving his sword in air, and dashing wherever the combat was the deepest and the danger the greatest; and catching the inspiration, they reformed their broken ranks, and rushed