previous next
[686] greater steadiness than those who now lay down on their arms, prepared to finish their work on the morrow.

The second day opened with an advance by Wood, pushing back the enemy's skirmishers eastward across the Franklin pike, and then, inclining to the right, moving due south from Nashville till he confronted Hood's new line of defenses on Overton's hill, five miles from the city. Hereupon, Gen. Steedman, pushing rapidly down the Nolensville pike, closed in on Wood's left flank ; while Smith came in on Wood's right; Schofield, facing eastward, threatened the enemy's left flank ; and Wilson, still farther to the right, and more advanced, gained the Rebel rear — reaching across the Granny White pike, and threatening to cut them off from any line of retreat on Franklin. And now, while this movement against his, rear was prosecuted, our entire front advanced till within 600 yards of the enemy; and, at 3 P. M., Post's brigade, supported by Streight's, was directed by Wood to assault Overton's hill in front; while Col. Morgan's Black brigade was impelled by Steedman against it farther to our left.

The assault was duly made; but the enemy had seen all the preparations for it, had concentrated accordingly, and now received it with such a storm of grape, canister, and musketry, as our men charged over abatis up the hill, that they were driven back, terribly cut up--Col. Post being among the wounded. But the survivors were promptly reformed by Wood, and his front restored; while Smith's and Schofield's men, instantly charging on our right, swept over tile enemy's works in their front; Wilson's troopers, dismounted, charging still farther to the right, and barring all retreat by the Granny White pike. And now, hearing the shouts of victory on our right, Wood's and Steedman's corps renewed the assault on Overton's hill, and, though they encountered a heavy fire, swept all before them. The routed Rebels fled through the Brentwood pass, leaving most of their guns, and many of their comrades as prisoners.

Wilson instantly mounted Knipe's and Hatch's divisions of cavalry, and pushed them down the Granny White pike, hoping to reach Franklin ahead of the fugitive host, and bar their farther flight; but, after proceeding a mile, he found a barricade across the road, and the enemy's cavalry under Chalmers behind it. Col. Spalding, 12th Tennessee cavalry, charged and carried the position, scattering the enemy, and taking some prisoners, including Gen. E. W. Rucker; but it was now too late to reach Franklin that night, and our men lay down on their arms, while the enemy pursued their disorderly flight.

In this two days battle, Thomas had taken 4,462 prisoners, including 287 officers (one of them a Major-General), 53 guns, and many small arms. Hood's invasion had been suddenly finished, and his army utterly demoralized.

Our cavalry followed closely next day; Knipe's division riding over a rear-guard that had been posted at Hollow Tree gap, 4 miles north of Franklin; taking 413 prisoners. Pressing on after the fugitives, Wilson found them again facing him in

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)
hide People (automatically extracted)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: