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horses in the struggle.
Finally, at eight o'clock in the evening, the gun-boat
Fair Play,
Lieutenant-commanding Fitch, came up, and gave the astonished Confederates a raking fire that dismayed them.
They fled precipitately, and well for them they did, for other gun-boats were soon there.
In this engagement
Harding lost one hundred and twenty-six men, of whom fifty were made prisoners.
Wheeler's loss was estimated at nearly six hundred.
He left one hundred and fifty men dead on the field, and an equal number as prisoners.
He withdrew to
Franklin, and did not again attempt to capture
Fort Donelson.
While
Wheeler was upon the
Cumberland,
General J. C. Davis, with two brigades of cavalry under
Colonel Minty, and a division of infantry, was operating in his rear.
Davis went westward from Murfreesboroa,
and in the course of thirteen days his force swept over a considerable space, in detachments, and returned to camp without having engaged in any serious encounter.
The fruit of the expedition was the capture of one hundred and forty-one of
Wheeler's men, including two colonels and several officers of lower rank.
Both armies were now quiet for awhile.
At length it was ascertained that
General Van Dorn, with a considerable force of cavalry and mounted infantry, was hovering in the vicinity of
Franklin; and
Colonel John Colburn, of the Thirty-third Indiana, stationed at the latter place, and
General Sheridan at Murfreesboroa, were ordered to move in the direction of this menacing force.
They marched simultaneously.
Colburn's command consisted of nearly twenty-seven hundred men, of whom six hundred were cavalry.
1 He was directed to move on
Spring Hill, twelve miles south of
Franklin.
He had marched but a little way when he fell in with a party of Confederates, with whom he skirmished.
They were repulsed, and he moved on; but toward evening they again appeared, with an additional force, and boldly confronted him.
Colburn halted and encamped for the night, and soon after moving forward the next morning,
he was attacked by a greatly superior number of men, under
Van Dorn and
Forrest.
After fighting until his ammunition was exhausted,
Colburn was compelled to surrender about thirteen hundred of his infantry.
The remainder of his infantry, and the cavalry and artillery not engaged in the fight, escaped.
Van Dorn's force consisted of six brigades of mounted men.
Sheridan, with his division, and about eighteen hundred cavalry, under
Colonel Minty, first swept down toward
Shelbyville, and then around toward
Franklin, skirmishing in several places with detachments of
Van Dorn's and
Forrest's men. In a sharp fight at
Thompson's Station, he captured some of the force which encountered
Colburn.
He finally drove
Van Dorn beyond the
Duck River, and then returned
to Murfreesboroa, with a loss during his ten days ride and skirmishing of only five men killed and five wounded. His gain was nearly one hundred prisoners.
On the 18th of March,
Colonel A. S. Hall, with a little over fourteen
