



Produced by Greg Bergquist and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)









Military Order
OF THE
Loyal Legion of the United States

COMMANDERY OF THE
STATE OF MISSOURI

The Battle of Spring Hill, Tennessee.

PREPARED BY
Companion Captain John K. Shellenberger

READ AFTER THE
STATED MEETING
HELD FEBRUARY
2d, 1907




PREFACE.


More than twenty-five years have passed since I began to collect the
materials from which this pamphlet has been evolved. As a substantial
basis, to begin with, I was an eye-witness of all the fighting in the
vicinity of Spring Hill, that amounted to anything, from the time
Forrest attacked the 64th Ohio on the skirmish line until Cleburne's
Division recoiled from the fire of the battery posted at the village.

Since I began collecting I have neglected no opportunity to increase my
stock of information by conversation, reading or correspondence. I have
twice revisited the battlefield. I have the Government volume containing
the official reports, all of which I have carefully studied. Among my
correspondents, on the Union side, have been Generals Stanley, Wilson,
Opdycke, Lane and Bradley, besides many others of lesser rank. I am as
confident, from their letters, that my paper would have the approval of
those named, who are now dead, as I am sure it has the approval of
General Wilson, to whom a manuscript copy was submitted for criticism.

Among other Confederates, I wrote to General S.D. Lee, who referred me
to Judge J.P. Young, of Memphis Tennessee, with the statement that he
had exhausted the subject on the Confederate side. He was present at
Spring Hill as a boy soldier in Forrest's cavalry, and for years has
been engaged in writing a history of the Confederate Army of Tennessee,
to which he has given an enormous amount of careful research. To him I
am indebted for much of the most valuable part of my information
concerning the Confederate troops. From the materials thus gathered I
have tried to give, within the compass of a Loyal Legion paper, a clear
and truthful account of the affair just as it happened. That opinions
will differ, is shown by the fact that Judge Young holds General Brown
responsible for the Confederate failure, while I believe that Cheatham,
Stewart and Bate were all greater sinners than Brown. He was acting
under the eye of Cheatham, who could easily have forced an attack by
Brown's Division if he had been equal to the occasion.

By a curious coincidence General Lee was present as the guest of the
Missouri Commandery at the meeting when the paper was read, and, in
commenting on it, General Lee stated that I had told the truth about as
it had occurred. The deductions made from the facts stated are my own.




THE BATTLE OF SPRING HILL.


It may be fairly claimed that the success of General Sherman's famous
March to the Sea hung on the issue of a minor battle fought at Spring
Hill, in Middle Tennessee, the evening of November 29th, 1864, when
Sherman and his army were hundreds of miles away in the heart of
Georgia. It will be remembered that when Sherman started from Atlanta
for Savannah his old antagonist, General Hood, was at Florence, Alabama,
refitting his army to the limit of the waning resources of the
Confederacy, for an aggressive campaign into Tennessee. If Hood's
campaign had proved successful Sherman's unopposed march through Georgia
would have been derided as a crazy freak, and, no doubt, the old charge
of insanity would have been revived against him. By how narrow a margin
Hood missed a brilliant success, a truthful account of the Spring Hill
affair will disclose. Much has been written by interested generals of
both sides, and by their partisan friends, to mislead as to the real
situation. With no personal friendships or enmities to subserve, it is
the intention of this paper to tell the truth without any regard to its
effect on the reputation of any general, Federal or Confederate.

The Administration gave a reluctant consent to Sherman's plan on the
condition that he would leave with General Thomas, commanding in
Tennessee, a force strong enough to defeat Hood. On paper Thomas had
plenty of men, but Sherman had taken his pick of infantry, cavalry,
artillery and transportation, leaving the odds and ends with Thomas,
consisting largely of post troops garrisoning