R.Danny Witt, President John M.Coski, editor
5500 Ashton Park Way 1201 E.Clay St.
Glen Allen, VA 23059 Richmond, VA 23219
May 2000 PROGRAM
Thomas Cartwright
"The Battles of Spring Hill and Franklin, Tennessee"
8:00 p.m., Tuesdav, April 9, 2000
Boulevard United Methodist Church, 321 N. Boulevard
(corner of Boulevard and Stuart Ave.)
Enter basement door from Boulevard side.
Thomas Cartwright is historian and manager at the Carter
House in Franklin, Tennessee. The mansion is the most
famous landmark on the battlefield of Franklin where, on
November 30, 1864, the Confederate Army of Tennessee
suffered one of its most disastrous defeats. According to
tradition, the bodies of six Confederate generals killed in
the battle, including that of Patrick R. Cleburne, were
laid out on the front porch of the Carter mansion after the
battle.
Although Franklin is associated with Confederate defeat,
that battle and the battle of Spring Hill a week earlier
presented opportunities for Confederate victory in Middle
Tennessee. Mr. Cartwright will recount the events of this
pivotal and decisive campaign.
Mr. Cartwright is also known for his impersonation of Cpl.
Sam Watkins, the colorful author of Co Aytch: A Side Show of
the Big Show. Watkins and his regiment, the 1st Tennessee
Infantry, participated in the battles of Spring Hill and
Franklin. Perhaps we will hear something of Cpl. Watkins's
perspective.
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Review of March Program
by Sam Craghead
When Union prisoner of war Sgt. J. Osborne Coburn died in
March 1864, a hospital steward wrote to Coburn's father to
recount the late soldier's last days. Coburn, the steward
wrote, was "a man of more than ordinary intelligence." The
story narrated by our April speaker, Don Allison, revealed
not only that Coburn was an intelligent man, but a man of
great emotion as well. His diary entries, sometimes written
in the form of letters or thoughts to his wife, Eva, suggest
that Coburn had a great will to live, but also that he
reasonably expected to die on Belle Isle.
A young attorney before the war, Coburn enlisted in Company
I, 6th Michigan Cavalry in the fall of 1862. He served for
a year on the relatively quiet Potomac River front, coping
with the effects of Col. John Mosby's guerrilla raids.
Coburn became a prisoner when Gen. John D. Imboden
captured him and more than 400 members of the Charles Town,
[West] Virginia, garrison on October 18, 1863. Imprisoned
first in Smith's warehouse in Richmond, Coburn lost to his
guards most of the money he had managed to save. On the
night of November 2-3, 1863, Coburn was transferred to Belle
Isle.
In his diary, Coburn described how he and the other
prisoners suffered from the cold, the lack of shelter, and
the extreme overcrowding. He recounted the ingenuity he
used to obtain extra rations and other privileges. And
while Coburn complained of the notoriously weak soup, he
also noted that the rations on Belle Isle were at times
tolerable. With similar balance, Mr. Allison noted in his
presentation that the suffering of the Belle Isle prisoners
owed in part to the conscious decision of U.S. authorities
to not exchange prisoners (because the Federal armies could
compensate for the loss of manpower) and that Confederate
guards also suffered from poor rations.
As the unseasonably cold winter wore on, Coburn's diary
filled up and his morale dipped. On February 4, 1864 Coburn
wrote: "hereafter I shall not try to keep a daily record of
events as this book is nearly full and I don't know how to
keep another. Suffice it to say here that general prospects
of our release do not increase except as time passing brings
us nearer to an end -perhaps our own in time." A month later
Coburn died of chronic diarrhea in Hospital # 21 at 25th and
Cary streets. The hospital steward wrote Coburn's family
about his last days. The journal somehow found its way to
the midwest, and a transcript of it was published in an Ohio
newspaper.
Mr. Allison and his wife Diane have placed a marker in the
Seven Pines National Cemetery, where Sgt. Coburn is buried.
Mr. Allison is continuing work on a co-authored history of
the 38th Ohio Infantry. He is contemplating writing a
history of Belle Isle.
_____________________________
An Unpublished Account of the Battles of Spring Hill
and Franklin
Capt. George A. Williams to Capt. Irving A. Buck,
December 14, 1864, near Franklin, Tennessee [excerpts from
12-page letter courtesy of Eleanor S. Brockenbrough
Library, The Museum of the Confederacy]
Note: Williams was assistant adjutant general for Brig. Gen. Daniel
Govan; Capt. Irving A. Buck was AAG to Maj. Gen. Patrick R.
Cleburne. Buck had been wounded at the battle of Jonesboro and was
absent from the army.
Let me tell you of our doings since I last wrote you. We
marched from Florence on the 21" ult. in snow, cold, and
wind, moving by Waynesboro & Mt. Pleasant to Columbia,
where we arrived on the 26". We found the place occupied
by the enemy, and invested it on the south side.
The Yankees evacuated on the night of the 27", but remained
on the opposite bank of Duck River, whence they shelled
the town. At daylight on the morning of the 29" we
crossed 4 mi[les]s above and marched for their rear, Forrest
proceeding us. We reached the neighborhood of Spring
Hill late in the evening & found the Yankees there in
force. Our Div., being first was at once formed, &
we attacked, driving the enemy from his rail
barricades at the first onset. Gen. Cleburne had his
horse, Red Pepper, wounded in three places. It was an
easy-going thing. We could now see the Yankees in the
village, & they continued to shell us, to which we could not
reply, having brought no artillery in consequence of our
rapid movement. We waited for Bate & Brown (Cheatham)
to move in conjunction with us, but the former did not
get into position until night and the latter finding the
enemy overlapping he did not advance. Thus was lost
the golden opportunity. When we attacked, a part of
the enemy was yet at Columbia, and we had them completely
cut off, while we could easily have beaten those in our
front. But they retired under cover of night...
The next morning we started off in pursuit in high glee,
little thinking what serious work we would have yet that
day... Three miles from Franklin we came to a
high ridge from which we could see the enemy's rear moving
into their lines, which extended far & blue all around
the town... We began advancing about... hour before
sunset, by the night of regiments to the front... The
enemy's artillery opened upon us at a mile's distance. The
ground over which we advanced was perfectly open; not a
tree, a fence or a stump to stop a bullet...
Immediately we were into the heaviest and
deadliest fire I have ever witnessed... Gen. Hood had
notified the troops that to carry Franklin would open
to them Nashville & Kentucky. He was somewhat piqued that
we failed to take the place...
Every one expected the deadly conflict to be
renewed at dawn. But light found the enemy gone. It was
an unfortunate affair. Night prevented a success which
day would most probably have seen accomplished, and after
having dealt us a heavy blow the enemy retired without
being injured to the same extent, & he is now ensconced
in his works at Nashville.
Gens Cleburne, Granberry & Strahl were buried at Columbia.
My dear Pat, I sympathize with you in the loss of your
chief, in addition to my sorrow for the death of so good &
noted a leader. I know you will be grieved to lose so good
a friend; him with whom you have served so long to
his satisfaction, and who was perhaps more attached to
yourself than any other with whom he had
intercourse. On the morning of his death he rode with us,
was in high spirits, & spoke of several members of his
staff, of you especially in high terms, of your
coolness on the field & your general efficiency... He
was admitted the best division commander in the Army
& had made an enviable and deserved reputation. He will
be sadly missed, and by none I think more than by
yourself...
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Richmond Civil War Round Table Newsletter
John M. Coski, editor
1201 E. Clay St.
Richmond, Virginia 23219
