[
428]
Wilson instantly remounted the divisions of
Knipe and
Hatch, and sent them toward
Franklin, down the
Granny White pike, with the hope that they might reach that place ahead of the fugitives.
A mile on their way, they came to a barricade across the road, and behind it were
Chalmer's cavalry.
The position was immediately charged and carried by
Colonel Spaulding and his Twelfth Tennessee Cavalry, who scattered the
Confederates and took some prisoners, among whom was
General E. W. Rucker.
This detention allowed the fugitives to escape.
It was too late for the pursuers to reach
Franklin that night: they lay down upon the field of their victory, and slept on their arms.
The chase was renewed the next morning.
Knipe overtook the rear-guard of the
Confederates at Hollow Tree Gap, four miles north of
Franklin, and captured four hundred and thirteen of them.
Meanwhile,
Wilson had pushed on toward
Franklin, and there he found
Hood confronting him at the passage of the
Harpeth.
Johnson had gone rapidly down the
Hillsboroa pike, and now coming suddenly upon
Hood's rear, caused him to resume his flight in great haste, leaving behind him in
Franklin eighteen hundred of his own wounded, and two hundred of the maimed
Nationals, whom he had taken prisoners.
Four miles south of
Franklin his rear-guard made another stand, when
Wilson's body-guard (Fourth Regular Cavalry) dashed through its center, while
Knipe and
Hatch pressed its flanks.
It was scattered in confusion and lost more guns.
Night came on, and the
Confederates escaped.
The pursuit continued several days, while rain fell copiously.
The country was flooded, and the streams were filled to the brim.
The fugitives destroyed the bridges behind them, and rendered a successful pursuit impossible, for
Thomas's pontoons were with
Sherman.
Then the weather became bitter cold, and the frozen, cut — up roads were almost impassable.
Finally, at
Columbia,
Forrest, who was away on a raid when
Thomas sallied out upon
Hood, joined the latter, and, with his cavalry and four thousand infantry as a rear-guard, covered the broken Confederate army most effectually.
This guard struck back occasionally, but the pursuit was continued to
Lexington, in Alabama, where, on the 28th,
it was suspended, when it was known that
Hood had escaped across the
Tennessee at
Bainbridge, evading the gun-boats which
Admiral S. P. Lee had sent up the river, at
Thomas's request, to intercept him.
1
In the mean time
Thomas had sent
Steedman with his forces across from
Franklin to Murfreesboroa, with directions to proceed around by railway to
Decatur, in Alabama, and thus to threaten
Hood's railroad communications west of
Florence.
He was instructed to send back
