If I close my eyes, I can smell the powder
and hear the cannons. Federal troops
advance across a cornfield, taking casualties from artillery fire. They move up a hill and charge the
Confederate entrenchments. Minnesota
troops plant their battle flag atop the Confederate positions.
Lieutenant Colonel William Shy is shot in the
head as he attempts to stem the raging torrent of Federal troops. The Confederate defense collapses. 1500 men are captured. Thousands more stream towards the rear,
trying to escape total disaster.
Federal Cavalry come within 700 yards of
cutting off their escape. But the Army
of Tennessee stages a fighting withdrawal that allows thousands of men to reach
safety across the Tennessee state line.
Though they would fight again in smaller actions, the Battle of
Nashville marks the dénouement for the Army of
Tennessee, the Confederacy’s hard luck soldiers.
I am always partial
to the underdog and in the American Civil War, the soldiers of the Army of
Tennessee were the ultimate underdogs.
Plagued by bad leadership at the top and political interference, they
fought fanatically against a foe superior in numbers and material. Their greatest victory at Chickamauga proved
hollow. Their worst defeat at Nashville
nearly destroyed them. There are no
major motion pictures devoted to their service.
They died along the muddy hollows around Shiloh Church, the fields of
Perryville, the high ground of Kennesaw Mountain, and the cold, wet earth
outside Nashville. Pound for pound they
were some of the toughest troops our country has ever produced, yet we barely
remember them now.
I salute the
Confederate soldiers of the Army of Tennessee along with their Western Federal
opponents. Fortes creantur fortibus.
I am Lee Hutch and I
am a Civil War addict.
