Dec. 9, 1862. |
Dec. 12. |
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[542]
contrary to an agreement between Rosecrans and Bragg.
The former waived the matter for that time, and received his plundered men.1
The battle of Hartsville was followed, two days later,
by a dash of Wheeler, with a heavy force of cavalry and mounted infantry, upon a National brigade2 under Colonel Stanley Matthews, guarding a forage train at Dobbins's Ferry, on Mill Creek.
After a short fight Wheeler was repulsed, and Matthews took his train to camp unharmed.
Three days after this, General Stanley allowed his men to try the efficacy of two thousand revolving rifles, which he had just received.
They pushed down the road toward Franklin, drove the Confederate vedettes from that village,
obtained some important information, and returned with a few prisoners.
Such were a few of the minor operations of the Army of the Cumberland, while its commander was preparing for more important movements.
The hour for those movements had now arrived.
On Christmas eve he had in store at Nashville thirty days provisions and supplies.
Bragg had no idea that Rosecrans would advance and undertake a winter campaign, and had sent a large portion of his cavalry to operate upon his antagonist's lines of communication and supply.
The loyal people, worried by the tardiness and failure of Buell, had become exceedingly impatient of further delay; yet the commanding general was very properly deaf to the public clamor, for it is seldom an intelligent expression.
But now, being fully supplied, and his army well in hand,3 he determined to move upon Bragg.
At dawn on the morning of the 26th of December, a chilling rain falling copiously, the National army moved southward: McCook, with three divisions (fifteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-three men), along the Nolensville pike, toward Triune; Thomas, with two divisions (thirteen thousand three hundred and ninety-five men), by the Franklin and Wilson's pike; and Crittenden, with three divisions (thirteen thousand two hundred and eighty-eight men), on the Murfreesboroa pike, toward Lavergne.
The brigade of engineers under Morton numbered seventeen hundred men. These covered all the roads leading southward from the city.
It was intended that McCook, with Thomas's two divisions at Nolensville as a support, should attack Hardee at Triune, and if the latter should be beaten or should retreat, and the Confederates should meet the Nationals at Stewart's Creek, five miles south of Lavergne, Crittenden was to attack them.
Thomas was to come in on the left flank, and McCook, in the event of Hardee's flight southward, was to move with the remainder of his force on his rear.
Stanley was to cover these movements with his cavalry, which he disposed in good order.4
1 The plunder of prisoners of war was a common occurrence in the army of Bragg, whose sense of honor seldom troubled his conscience in such matters. With the same lack of that soldierly quality that marked his conduct toward the gallant Worden, at the beginning of the strife (see page 869, volume I.), he now behaved toward his antagonist. Rosecrans complained of the robbery and violation of the agreement. Bragg wrote characteristic replies, and then, to “fire the Southern heart,” he published his replies in the Confederate newspapers. He also permitted and justified the violations of flags of truce, and showed himself so perfidious that Rosecrans refused to have any further intercourse with him excepting by shot and shell.
2 Fifty-first Ohio, Thirty-fifth Indiana, Eighth and Twenty-first Kentucky, and a section of Swallow's Seventh Indiana battery.
3 The Army of the Cumberland now fit for duty numbered 46,910 men, of whom 41,421 were infantry, 2,223 artillery, with 150 guns, and 3,266 cavalry, the greater portion of the latter being raw recruits.
4 Colonel Minty, with the First brigade, moved along the Murfreesboroa pike in advance of the left wing. The Second brigade, under Colonel Zahn, of the Third Ohio, moved along the Franklin road. The reserves, composed of nine regiments, and commanded by Stanley himself, preceded McCook's command on the Nolensville road. Colonel John Kennett commanded the left of the cavalry; and the Fourth regulars, under Captain Otis, was reserved for courier and escort duty.
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