| Ole Bedford’s birthday bash in the ’Boro |
By: SHIRLEY FARRIS JONES, Special to the Post
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Posted: Sunday, July 5, 2009 8:13 am
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Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest
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On, July 13, 1862, 147 years ago, a new day would dawn for the citizens of Murfreesborough.
The spring of 1862 had not been a good one for the Confederacy. First, the defeats at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the surrender of Nashville, and then the evacuation of Murfreesboro, followed by the disaster at Shiloh and the retreat to Corinth, Miss., and suddenly the Western Confederacy was facing the prospect of almost certain military capitulation after only a year of armed confrontation. Thus, they turned to the cavalry as a means and a hope for preserving the dream of Southern independence.
One name had already emerged as their knight in shining armor, that of the dashing, daring cavalryman from Kentucky, Col. John Hunt Morgan. Another was in the making – one with less polish, less charisma, and one not of the aristocratic South, but perhaps one of the greatest military minds ever, despite his lack of formal military training. He would be affectionately known to his men as “Ole Bedford.”
By the summer of 1862 all romantic notions Middle Tennesseans might have ever entertained about the war were gone. Although the first few weeks of Yankee occupation were not as bad as anticipated, the atmosphere suddenly changed following Shiloh. The Yankees quickly realized that the Southern boys would not go home and now they had a war on their hands.
The Federal policy toward secessionists changed as well. No longer were farmers automatically paid for produce taken by the Army and no longer did Union officers see themselves as missionaries in a foreign land. Most of the “civil” disappeared from the conflict, and things became down right “un-civil” for all concerned.
Middle and West Tennesseans watched helplessly as Union soldiers took over their towns, rode arrogantly along their streets and roads, loaded their wagons from the cribs of defenseless farmers, and then destroyed what they couldn’t take.
In Rutherford County, Charles Anderson, a member of Forrest’s Cavalry noted: “McCook’s cavalry formed in front of my house and soon every building as well as my residence was in flames. They took my portraits out of which I had two, smashed their frames, tacked the canvass to trees, and jabbed their sabers through the eyes. They drove my negroes out of their houses and fired the buildings.”
And while things were getting worse and worse for the people of Middle Tennessee, Braxton Bragg, who had just been placed in charge of the Army of Tennessee, was entertaining the notion of moving all of his troops to Chattanooga with the hope of retaking the state. Morgan was already there, having arrived in late May after his ill-fated expedition at Lebanon, which had not only cost him his favorite steed, but most of his men from the 2nd Kentucky, as well. Forrest, who had just been promoted, arrived in mid-June and began assembling his men and organizing his plans. His new cavalry brigade would consist of the 1st Kentucky, 8th Texas, 1st Louisiana and 2nd Georgia regiments.
Late in June, Forrest is known to have had conversations with John Morgan regarding their mutual wish that the Confederate War Department would swap Forrest’s Kentuckians to Morgan for some other cavalrymen from Tennessee. Murfreesboro was much on the minds of both cavalry leaders, but for different reasons. For Morgan, it was the home of his bride-to-be, Miss Mattie Ready. For Forrest, it was the destination to try and disrupt the Federals drive against Chattanooga.
This was an especially bold plan for a command with which he was unfamiliar, and some of his commanding officers were not all that impressed with his non-military background and felt it could lead to disaster. On July 4, less than a week after Morgan left for his first raid into his home state, he cut telegraph wires near Horse Cave, Kentucky, assumed a name, and sent, ostensibly from a U.S. provost marshal at Nashville, a bogus and cavalier message to the Federal provost at Louisville: Nashville, Tenn., July10th, 1862 Henry Dent, Provost-Marshal, Louisville, Ky.
General Forrest, commanding brigade, attacked Murfreesborough, routing our forces, and is now moving on Nashville. Morgan is reported to be between Scottsville and Gallatin and will act in concert with Forrest, it is believed. Inform general commanding.” Stanley Mathews, Provost-Marshal. This was a tactic that Morgan used quite effectively on many occasions but one cannot help but wonder what Forrest’s thoughts might have been had he known, since what Morgan described was more or less what Forrest was planning to do.
On July 6, Forrest crossed the Tennessee River with the 8th Texas and 2nd Georgia regiments, heading toward what was thought to be his destination of McMinnville. Apparently, he had not mentioned his plan to strike Murfreesboro.
In the meantime, Buell’s entire Federal Army was now moving eastward across northern Alabama toward East Tennessee and was within 35 miles of Chattanooga. The Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad served as his primary supply line and Forrest realized that by striking Murfreesboro, he could effectively sever the principal artery of survival for Buell’s army in the field.
By the evening of July 11, Forrest had made camp 7 miles northeast of McMinnville at Rock Martins along the Caney Fork River. It was here that Forrest began to organize his men into a functional brigade, which by now numbered more than 1,400, while he awaited a full scouting report. Although many of the men had heard of his exploits at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, they were still uncertain as to whether to place their trust in this citizen soldier with no formal military training. One member of the 8th Texas later wrote, “At this time but little was known of this great soldier. He had not become famous and there were not wanting officers of high rank who predicted disaster as the result of his operations.”
Meanwhile, just down the road in nearby Woodbury, earlier that day a Federal patrol had arrested most of the men and boys of the community and taken them to Murfreesboro, where they were confined with other hostages. According to local citizen, William King, “Twelve arrested citizens were incarcerated in an upper room of the Court House, closely guarded by about 200 soldiers, with no communication allowed between them and anxious relatives. … By Friday, July 11, over 400 citizens were being held at the Court House, the City Jail apparently overflowing. … Among the prisoners in the City Jail were a Capt. William Richardson from Alabama and a man using the assumed name of James Paul. Both were accused of spying and were told they would be executed at sunrise on the 13th.”
The next night, July 12, six of those men waited for the hangman’s noose at daybreak. Many of the wives, mothers, and children of these prisoners had followed their men to jail and begged in vain for their release but the Yankees were in no mood for mercy. King further stated, “The entire county was bowed in deep sympathy and sorrow over the decree of the cruel despots, the consummation of which would initiate a rule of terror over the whole country that would keep every man and woman in constant jeopardy.” Around midnight, the townspeople of Murfreesboro came to the jail and took the grieving relatives to their homes for the night, while the condemned prisoners resigned themselves to their unfortunate fate, and all prayed for a miracle. Unknown to them, one hour earlier, that “miracle” had just led his cavalry onto the town square of Woodbury at 11 a.m.
Forrest was still suffering from a wound he had received at Shiloh, and with noticeable agitation, he shifted in his saddle and listened to the tearful accounts of the arrests of the men of Woodbury.
Soon his anger began to stir imagination and energy as he listened to the women’s stories, and as they concluded, he begged them to calm their fears. Without the least pretense of boasting, Forrest promised that they “might confidently look for the restoration of their husbands and kinsmen by the next sunset.”
The women were so encouraged by his assurances that they hurried to their homes and quickly returned with pies, cakes and other food for the hungry cavalrymen, and the remaining men of the area brought forage for the horses. Men and beasts rested and enjoyed the hospitality provided by the citizens of Woodbury for over an hour and a half, but Murfreesboro was 18 miles away and there was no time to waste. Forrest welcomed the opportunity to train his inexperienced command on real live Yankees, and he had found just the right incentive.
At one o’clock in the morning, Forrest and his men mounted up and headed through the darkness to an unsuspecting foe. Drawing up the command on the road, Forrest rode out and took post front and center. He told his men what he intended to do and called upon them to sustain him in the attack. Most of these men were not veterans, in fact, slightly better than recruits, but filled with enthusiasm for the task at hand. Forrest told them that “this day was his birthday – he was 41 – and would like to celebrate it in a becoming manner, particularly since he would have occasion to so near his birthplace. “The men promised to contribute what they could to the jollification. They were now men on a mission!
Greatly animated, the brigade rode steadily forward. Five miles out of Murfreesboro, the order to “dismount, fix-saddles, and tighten girts” went down the line. Lack of sleep, fatigue, sore backs, all were forgotten as the march resumed cautiously, with Forrest riding at the head of the column that he might see and not be seen, that he might surprise and not be surprised. It was almost daylight when Forrest reached the outskirts of town. Scouts, sent in previously, reported back that “all was quiet, and no notice of the impending danger seemed to have been given, and they appeared not to apprehend it.”
They further reported that the opposing forces seemed about equal in number. The 3rd Minnesota Regiment with a battery of four guns was west of town near the road leading to Nashville on the east bank of the Stones River. The 9th Michigan, with a detachment of Pennsylvania cavalry, was northeast of the town, and a provost guard from Michigan was at the Courthouse and jail, guarding the prisoners. |
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