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Gen. Thomas H. Ruger
Cowan’s recently auctioned off several items related to Gen. Thomas H. Ruger, who commanded at the Battle of Franklin.
In the first week of November, Ruger was offered command of a Division in 28th Corps in Tennessee under George Thomas unless Sherman and Slocum (who did not want to have him leave their command) could offer him one. Ruger describes his meeting with Sherman:
“I gave [Sherman] Gen. Slocum’s letter and remarked that if the two Corps of the Army of the Cumberland the 14th and 20th were to be operated as an army it would place Gen. Williams in command of the 20th Corps and that would give me the Division during the campaign at least. He shook his head and said enough to let me know he had no such intention and directed the order for my transfer to be made out, said that it was not a good plan to ’stay too long in one hole’ and besides Gen Schofield was very anxious to have me come.”
He received command of 2nd Div., 28 Corps, shortly before the Battle of Franklin, where he would earn a lasting reputation.
Nov. 28: “I want you to make your position perfectly secure so as to render it impossible for the enemy to effect a crossing at that place. You may retain the guns which you have without horses even at the risk of losing them. If the bridge is not sufficiently burned to render it useless to the enemy complete it tonight under the cover of darkness….”
At 8 a.m. on the 29th, word the order went out “The enemy is coming in force above us,” ordering Ruger to leave a regiment to guard the river.
When it was over, Ruger described the Battle of Franklin to his wife:
“The attack of the enemy was very strong and determined much the hardest I have seen west a good deal like the attacks of [Stonewall] Jackson. We repulsed the enemy with loss, but as A.J. Smith’s command and other were not up we fell back here where they are for concentration. The force we had was much smaller than the enemy….”
Historian David Fraley was a recent guest of Dr. Dobson’s Focus on the Family. Listen to the entire program.
Dr. James Dobson recently visited the Carter House, a museum located on the site where the Civil War Battle of Franklin took place in Franklin, Tenn. Here, Dr. Dobson (right) sits down to interview David Fraley, a historian and the curator of the Carter House. The two discussed the remarkable battle that occurred on the site.
O.R.–SERIES I–VOLUME XLV/1 [S# 93]
NOVEMBER 14, 1864-JANUARY 23, 1865.–Campaign in North Alabama and Middle Tennessee.
No. 1.–Report of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, U. S. Army, commanding Department of the Cumberland.
[The following section of Thomas' report relates specifically to the action at Franklin on 30 November, 1864.]
The withdrawal of the main force from in front of Columbia was safely effected after dark on the 29th; Spring Hill was passed without molestation about midnight, and making a night march of twenty-five miles, the whole command got into position at Franklin at an early hour on the morning of the 30th; the cavalry moved on the Lewisburg pike, on the right or east of the infantry.
At Franklin General Schofield formed line of battle on the southern edge of the town to await the coming of the enemy, and in the meanwhile hastened the crossing of the trains to the north side of Harpeth River.
On the evacuation of Columbia orders were sent to Major-General Milroy, at Tullahoma, to abandon that post and retire to Murfreesborough, joining forces with General Rousseau at the latter place. General Milroy was instructed, however, to maintain the garrison in the block-house at Elk River bridge. Nashville was placed in a state of defense and the fortifications manned by the garrison, re-enforced by a volunteer force, which had been previously organized into a division, under Bvt. Brig. Gen. J. L. Donaldson, from the employés of the quartermaster’s and commissary departments. This latter force, aided by railroad employés, the whole under the direction of Brigadier-General Tower, worked assiduously to construct additional defenses. Major-General Steedman, with a command numbering 5,000, composed of detachments belonging to General Sherman’s column, left behind at Chattanooga (of which mention has heretofore been made), and also a brigade of colored troops, started from Chattanooga by rail on the 29th of November, and reached Cowan on the morning of the 30th, where orders were sent him to proceed direct to Nashville. At an early hour on the morning of the 30th the advance of Maj. Gen. A. J. Smith’s command reached Nashville by transports from Saint Louis. My infantry force was now nearly equal to that of the enemy, although he still outnumbered me very greatly in effective cavalry; but as soon as a few thousand of the latter arm could be mounted I should be in a condition to take the field offensively and dispute the possession of Tennessee with Hood’s army.
The enemy followed closely after General Schofield’s rear guard in the retreat to Franklin, and upon coming up with the main force, formed rapidly and advanced to assault our works, repeating attack after attack during the entire afternoon, and as late as 10 p.m. his efforts to break our line were continued. General Schofield’s position was excellently chosen, with both flanks resting upon the river, and the men firmly held their ground against an overwhelming enemy, who was repulsed in every assault along the whole line. Our loss, as given by General Schofield in his report transmitted herewith (and to which I respectfully refer), is, 189 killed, 1,033 wounded, and 1,104 missing, making an aggregate of 2,326. We captured and sent to Nashville 702 prisoners, including I general officer, and 33 stand of colors. Maj. Gen. D. S. Stanley, commanding Fourth Corps, was severely wounded at Franklin whilst engaged in rallying a portion of his command which had been temporarily overpowered by an overwhelming attack of the enemy. At the time of the battle the enemy’s loss was known to be severe, and was estimated at 5,000. The exact figures were only obtained, however, on the reoccupation of Franklin by our forces, after the battles of December 15 and 16, at Brentwood Hills, near Nashville, and are given as follows: Buried upon the field, 1,750; disabled and placed in hospital at Franklin, 3,800, which, with the 702 prisoners already reported, makes an aggregate loss to Hood’s army of 6,252, among whom were 6 general officers killed, 6 wounded, and I captured. The important results of the signal victory cannot be too highly appreciated, for it not only seriously checked the enemy’s advance, and gave General Schofield time to remove his troops and all his property to Nashville, but it also caused deep depression among the men of Hood’s army, making them doubly cautious in their subsequent movements.
Not willing to risk a renewal of the battle on the morrow, and having accomplished the object of the day’s operations, viz, to cover the withdrawal of his trains, General Schofield, by my advice and direction, fell back during the night to Nashville, in front of which city line of battle was formed by noon of the 1st of December, on the heights immediately surrounding Nashville, with Maj. Gen. A. J. Smith’s command occupying the right, his right resting on the Cumberland River, below the city; the Fourth Corps (Brig. Gen. T. J. Wood temporarily in command) in the center; and General Schofield’s troops (Twenty-third Army Corps) on the left, extending to Nolensville pike. The cavalry, under General Wilson, was directed to take post on the left of General Schofield, which would make secure the interval between his left and the river above the city.
Casualty reports
The Carter Farm office building still stands. It has evidence of hundreds of bullets hitting it from the fighting at Franklin, 30 November 1864. It is THE most battle damaged (as defined by the number of authentic bullet holes) still extant, in the United States. The Federal defensive line was placed here and faced South as the Confederate Army of Tennessee made the assault that Indian summer day in late November.
Former Carter house Director, Thomas Cartwright, gives us his insights into the action and fighting along the Union line in front of the Carter house facing south that fateful day.
Strickland’s Brigade, on the Union line near the Carter House.
* 72nd Illinois
* 44th Missouri
* 50th Ohio
* 183rd Ohio
Former Carter house Director, Thomas Cartwright, delivers a visually stunning summary of the action in and around the Carter house itself, especially as it involves Strickland’s Brigade.
WARNING: graphic battle descriptions.
“The position we occupied was just in front of the Carter House, and the 50th Regiment [Ohio] actually tore down the Carter barn to help build our breastworks. It had been built of hewn logs, and we even put on a row of head logs. Our second line of works joined on to the Carter smokehouse, which lay west of the house.” – Lt. Thomas C. Thoburn, 50th Ohio, Strickland’s Brigade
Eric Jacobson describes A.P. Stewart’s Confederate Corps made up of the Divisions of Loring, Walthall and French, coming across the Eastern flank, across the McGavock farm, as the battle unfolded [Watch now, 1:42]
Read about the dedication of the marker to Loring’s Division on the Eastern flank in June 2008.
The divisions of Cleburne and Brown made the assault upon the Federal works around 4:30 pm. The shock-attach was so powerful it knocked three Federal regiments on their heels. The Rebels nearly landed a knock-out punch at Franklin. But Emerson Opdycke’s Brigade staunched the flow and saved the day for the Federals. In the assault, Cleburne was shot through the heart.
A historical marker on the site where Cleburne’s assault and death took place honors the fallen Confederate hero. Recently, the Franklin community – through the leadership of Franklin’s Charge – recovered a one-acre piece of ground that was part of the epicenter of this assault. Read about the historic event.
Cleburne’s death was a devastating loss for the Army of Tennessee. The December 3rd edition of The New York Times headlined, “The Rebel General Cleburne Killed.”
Pistol image is used by permission of the Layland Musuem, Cleburne, texas.
General Patrick R. Cleburne
Wiley Sword (from pages 223-224):
“About forty yards from Reilly’s works, and nearly in front of the salient at the cotton gin, an ounce of lead, little more than a half inch in diameter and traveling about 1,000 feet per second, found its mark. It was the work of but an instant; a great chasm in Southern history frozen in microseconds. In one shocking moment Pat Cleburne collapsed to the ground, carrying with him perhaps the best hopes of a dying Confederacy’s western army. A lone minie ball had struck just below and to the left of his heart, shredding veins and arteries like tissue paper as it ripped through his body. In a few moments he breathed his last. Pat Cleburne lay dead, his battle saber still grasped firmly in his hand, and his lifeblood soaking the white linen shirt and gray uniform vest with a slowly expanding blotch of crimson. After all the glory and the anguish, it had come to this. Perhaps the South’s most brilliant major general, the “Stonewall Jackson of the West,” his ideas scorned by his president and his competence punished by his commanding general, had been required to lead a suicidal frontal attack like some captain of infantry. Was it God’s decreed fate, or simply man’s stupidity?”
Watch a video of historian Eric Jacobson describing the action around the Cotton gin during the Battle of Franklin.
The following newspaper account was printed in the New York Times, December 3rd, 1864 issue.
The pistol in this picture is Cleburne’s actual Colt revolver, now on display in the Layland Museum in Cleburne, Texas. Courtesy, the the Layland Museum.
Want more?
- Read the article “From mystery to history: the story of Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne’s once-lost pistol”.
- Read other article/posts on this web site about Cleburne.
- Browse over the Franklin battlefield Google map, accessible at www.FranklinBattlefield.com where you will find the only web-based interactive map of the Battle of Franklin; including troops positions, authentic accounts and pictures – all in the Google map interface. Easy to use.
The McGavock Confederate Cemetery is a real place one can visit in Franklin, TN, just a few minutes south of Nashville. It is the largest privately owned military cemetery in the United States. There are nearly 1,500 Confederate soldiers resting at McGavock.
Almost 150 years ago some 60,000 American Civil War soldiers—North and South—met close to downtown Franklin on a beautiful Indian summer evening, November 30, 1864. The carnage resulting from this late autumn clash would have a devastating impact on Franklin and the Confederacy.
By late 1864, the South was in desperate need of a victory to maintain their way of life and their cause. It seemed that a Confederate victory in Nashville would revive the hopes of the Southern Confederate States, and maybe even turn the tide of a nearly four year old war. A war that had already costs hundreds of thousands of lives for both sides. Many thought that the Confederate Army of Tennessee, coming home to their native State, just might infuse the Southern cause with new energy and purpose.
So when Confederate John Bell Hood’s troops clashed with Union General John M. Schofield’s forces around the Fountain Branch Carter farm some 10,000 men became casualties of the blood-bath. The battle was fought from four to nine that day resulting in nearly 2,000 killed outright. The amazing thing is that the battle was completely unexpected because the Federal army was held up at Franklin, due to bridges being out, that delayed them from actually getting to Nashville.
Most of the battle was fought after dark, and also with rare hand-to-hand combat. Historians say it was the “bloodiest five hours of the American Civil War”.
The entire town of Franklin only had 750-900 residents at that time. Imagine a town having to deal with battle casualties ten times its own size. The after-battle scene, caring and tending to the wounded and dying, dragged this sleepy little middle Tennessee town into a story of unimaginable horror. Every available home and business was used as a field-hospital to tend to the thousands of casualties.
The most famous Franklin field-hospital was the John and Carrie McGavock residence—Carnton. Carrie McGavock became famously known as the ‘Good Samaritan of Williamson County’ as a result of caring for the hundreds of wounded and dying in her own home. She would later be immortalized in Robert Hicks’s novel as the Widow of the South.
The scars would heal and the screams would subside but the memories would never fade nor the bloodstains be completely washed away from the floors of many Franklin homes. The ripple-effects of this battle can still be felt almost 150 years today. The recent story of how the preservation community in Franklin successfully reclaimed over 100 acres of original Franklin battlefield land—formerly a country club– is evidence that the Battle of Franklin has become the Battle FOR Franklin.
The plan is to use this newly reclaimed land as the main base for the future official National Franklin Battlefield Park. This newly reclaimed land is the largest, most successful battlefield reclamation project in the history of Civil War preservation in the United States.
As mentioned in the last post, the Confederate Army of Tennessee marched across over open ground for over a mile before they finally reached the Federal line near downtown Franklin. A soldier in the 104th Ohio wrote about that scene. Hess writes about this kind of troop assault movement then quotes the Ohio soldier:
When the terrain and vegetation allowed the troops to fire at longer ranges, they could maximize the damage done to attacking forces. At the battle of Franklin, Confederate division advanced over open, rolling ground for a mile before they attacked heavy fortifications. The Federals were ready for them and opened fire as soon as they could. Andrew Moon of the 104th Ohio scampered over the battlefield that night before his regiment pulled out of the works.
“Well, for 400 yards in front, I could hardly step without stepping on dead and wounded men. The ground was in a perfect slop and mud with blood and, oh, such cries that would come up from the wounded was awful.”
The Union Soldier in Battle: Enduring the Ordeal of Combat. Earl J. Hess, p. 156
Massed troop formation in the re-enactment of the Battle of Franklin.
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