MILITARY: Sabre Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dragoons in the War of 1861-1865 - Chapter 7 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/1picts/dornblaser/sabre-strokes.htm ________________________________________________ SABRE STROKES of the PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS in the WAR OF 1861-1865. INTERSPERSED WITH PERSONAL REMINISCENCES By T. F. DORNBLASER PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 71 CHAPTER VII. SUMMER CAMPAIGN OF 1862. AFTER the battle, the "Seventh" returned to their camp at Nashville. Frequent alarms were given of the threatening attitude of the enemy. We were under strict orders to be ready to leap into the saddle at a moment's warning: In the latter part of May, it was reported that Morgan and Floyd, with seven thousand men, were contemplating an attack on our garrison at Murfreesboro. Our battalion at once moved to Lavergne, where we were reinforced by two hundred of the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry. Here we remained for several hours, when we counter-marched - the report having been proven groundless. The weather was delightful. Farmers were in the midst of haymaking. The noise of the mower was heard in every direction. The first week in June, our battalion was ordered out with two days' rations and forty rounds of ammunition, under command of Lieut. Col. Sipes. In the afternoon we crossed the Cumberland river in ferry-boats. We took a northwest course, under the guide of a "Tennessee Scout." The clouds began to thicken over our heads. All night long 72 SABRE STROKES. we marched through a drenching rain. It was a night of Egyptian darkness, made hideous by the frequent lightning and thunder. The road led through dismal forests, over hills, through swamps and creeks. One member of Company "K" was badly bruised by his horse falling on him. Next morning we arrived in a small village called Coopertown. Here we halted and fed. The citizens invited us to breakfast with them. From three to twenty were distributed to each house. After the command had breakfasted, Lieut. Allison, with a squad of Company "E," who had been sent in advance, came back with a prisoner and twenty good rifles. The prisoner was a gunsmith, and had been manufacturing arms for the rebel army. He was taken to Nashville, and the rifles were distributed among the Union men of Coopertown and vicinity. The following letter of "Dragoon" was written for the Clinton Democrat, on the 21st of June, 1862, from "Camp Worth," Nashville. "MR. EDITOR. - As this is the longest day of the year, I will remember it by writing a short letter to the Democrat. "We have just returned from a two weeks' expedition in Eastern Tennessee. Our battalion started from Nashville with two regiments of infantry and two sections of artillery. At Murfreesboro we were joined by two additional regiments of infantry, the First and Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, and a battery of artillery. The entire PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 73 force was estimated at four thousand. We led the advance from Murfreesboro, toward McMinnville, where the enemy was reported in force and strongly entrenched. "Three hundred of Forest's cavalry had been at Readsville, twelve miles east of Murfreesboro, a few days before, where they captured fifty-two prisoners and killed three of our men. Twenty-three of the prisoners were members of the third battalion of our regiment. The captured party had been on a scout; they were on their way back with a number of prisoners. At Readesville they stopped to breakfast; and, while thus engaged, the enemy surrounded them like the Irishman did the Hessians. "We marched day and night. The advance charged into McMinnville and captured a few of the rear-guard of the enemy. The next objective point was Pikeville, thirty miles east of McMinnville, across the Cumberland mountains. The road was almost impassable for artillery and wagons, but we crossed the mountain in the night, and next morning charged into Pikeville. A few scattering gray-coats were surprised and captured without a fight." That night in the mountains, we shall never forget. It was the most tedious and vexatious march we had in all the four years. The column would move a few hundred yards, and then halt. The boys would dismount, and in less than a minute would lie on the ground sound asleep. The next minute the bugle would sound "To horse." This tormenting and jerking movement was kept up the live-long night. Many of the boys would gladly have given a month's wages for one solid hour of uninterrupted sleep. It was the third night that we had spent almost wholly in the saddle. In the 74 SABRE STROKES. morning a goodly number were bare-headed, having lost their hats in napping and nodding on their horses. At Pikeville, the Union people flocked into our camp to welcome the "Yankees." Young men offered themselves to join our army; old men urged their sons to enlist. The spirit of Parson Brownlow was prevalent in that section of Tennessee. We came away with ten recruits for the bloody "Seventh." We returned from this tiresome and dusty expedition without any serious engagement with the enemy. During the month of July, General Nelson assumed command of the Federal troops at Murfreesboro. A considerable force of infantry and cavalry was concentrated at this point to protect the left flank of Buell's army. General Nelson was the Goliath of our army. He towered head and shoulders above his fellows. He was massive. His average weight was about three hundred pounds. He rode a mammoth black; and, when he marched at the head of his columns, he looked like Hannibal on an elephant. He was as arbitrary and dictatorial as a Mogul chief. His breast was a magazine of passion, ready to be touched off by the slightest provocation. When thoroughly enraged, he stormed like a tornado on legs. PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 75 One night his whole command was under arms to await an attack of the enemy. The cavalry halted in column on the pike. The word passed along the line: "Nelson is coming. Clear the way." That meant "Right and left into the fence corners - march." A Lieutenant of the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, took it into his head that Nelson had no better right to the road than he had, and he proposed to stand his ground. Nelson ordered him to clear the way; the Lieutenant refused to move a peg. The general drew his sword; he struck at the officer, and would have carved him into mince-meat if he had not beat a hasty retreat. Next day the general was riding in the midst of an infantry column, marching at "right shoulder shift." A soldier in front of the general was carrying his musket somewhat carelessly; the bayonet pointed dangerously near the general's tender stomach. Uttering a few mastiff growls, he seized the bayonet and hurled the soldier and his musket into the nearest fence-corner, leaving him there to pick himself up as best he could. On one occasion while our regiment was occupying the outposts on the banks of Stone river, an order came at midnight, to report immediately at his head-quarters in Murfreesboro. In a short time the regiment was in the saddle, moving toward town. For miles the clatter of hoofs was heard on 76 SABRE STROKES. the pike. The inside pickets were not apprised of our coming, and consequently they mistook us for the enemy. When we came within range of their carbines, they fired a volley into the head of our column, but fortunately every bullet passed over us without doing any hurt. The cavalry pickets retreated to the infantry outposts, and at once the "long roll" was sounded; and in a few minutes the whole command was under arms, and the general in his saddle, giving directions for a bold defense. When the facts were reported at head-quarters, the general raved and fumed like a madman. "Send those horse-thieves back to where they came from," was his peremptory order. With a few unsavory compliments for General Nelson, we counter-marched, and the same night returned to the camp we had deserted a few hours before. About this time, it was my fortune to receive the appointment as orderly to General Nelson. This gave me still a better opportunity to study this strange phenomenon in military circles. On the twenty-fifth of July, a few of his escort accompanied him a few miles out of town, in order to review a few infantry regiments. After the general had taken his position, the command prepared to march in review. A corps of drummer boys headed the column. By some misunderstanding, the drummers halted in front of the general, giving no room for PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 77 the column to pass, and thus blocking the way. Nelson had no patience for such blunders, and instantly thrusting the spurs into his horse, he charged on the drummers, scattering them in every direction, then, turning to the colonel, he denounced him as an ignoramus, and threatened to divest him of his "shoulder-straps." In the latter part of July, we accompanied him in an expedition to McMinnville and Sparta. From McMinnville he sent six of his escort with a dispatch to Manchester. The distance was twenty-six miles southwest. Outside of our picket lines the country was infested with bush-whackers and guerrillas. The general's instructions were to move as rapidly as possible, and if any of our horses gave out, we should seize any horses we could find along the route. We left McMinnville at eight in the morning, and rode into Manchester at twelve, noon. Resting our horses over night, we rode back next day. We stopped to dine with a rebel citizen. His colored servants informed us that thirty guerrillas were secreted in the woods a few miles distant. We kept our carbines at our side while sitting at the table, regaling our appetites on cornbread and sorghum. The shiny-faced cook whispered to one of the boys - that "massa did'nt give the best he had to the Yankees." She showed him a dozen or more loaves of wheat-bread in the out-kitchen, and a bin 78 SABRE STROKES. full of smoked hams. The sight of these was too tempting for the young man, and without asking permission he seized a loaf and a ham, and carried them with him to camp. The next day the command moved toward Sparta. The roads were exceedingly heavy for wagons and artillery. During the day Nelson rode to the rear to see how the artillery was getting up the steep hills. He found all the teams in the first battery stuck on a hill-side. He ordered me to bring him a rocking-chair from a house near by; and there, on the brow of the hill, he sat watching the novel performance of the teamsters. He said it was as good as a circus to see the drivers yelling and whipping as if Beelzebub was after them. Finally he took command himself. He forbid any of the drivers to open his mouth - he proposed to do the yelling himself. After resting the horses, he gave directions to each driver to lay on the whip, when he (the general) gave the "yell." No sooner was the clarion voice of Nelson heard, than the horses laid in their traces and galloped to the top of the hill without stopping. A little farther on we came to a wagon in the middle of the road with a broken tongue. The teamster was sitting in a fence-corner near at hand, leisurely drinking his coffee. The general inquired how he came to break the tongue. The teamster wished to drink his coffee before it would cool, and therefore seemed to be in no particular hurry to PENNSYLVANIA DRAGOONS. 79 make reply. The general swore furiously, and turning his flashing eye upon the "orderly," said "You draw your sword and cut that scoundrel's head off!" Upon making a few harmless gesticulations, the teamster stood trembling under the eye of Nelson. That same day we received orders to countermarch, and return to Murfreesboro. Soon after this Nelson was sent to Louisville, where he met his tragic death. At last this bantering Goliath met his David. To those acquainted with his disposition, it was no surprise. He was a brave officer. At Pittsburg Landing he shamed the fugitives by saying: "If the rebels cannot hit me, they cannot hit a hay-stack." His valuable services in that memorable battle will never be forgotten by a grateful people, and it will always be a source of regret that so gallant an officer had to fall by the pistol shot of one of our own generals.