Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

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Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867
planks on the wagon bridge were laid in place, the 6th Illinois Cavalry moved
on in pursuit, followed closely by another cavalry regiment and the column’s
artillery. Soon afterward, the men of the 2d Tennessee (AD) heard firing and
the 6th Illinois Cavalry reappeared “in much disorder,” as Kendrick described
the scene. “The bridge soon became obstructed with artillery, caissons, and
wagons from the train which had got over, and great numbers of the retreating
cavalry plunged headlong into the river, which, though narrow, is deep and
rapid, and many men and horses were thus lost.” 22
The officer commanding the 7th Illinois Cavalry, the third regiment in the column,
agreed with Kendrick:
When we got to the bridge it was so clogged with horses, ambulances, wagons, and
artillery that it was almost impossible to get a man across it. Several of the horses
had broken through the bridge and were [stuck] fast, and the bridge was so torn up
that it was impossible to clear it. I ordered my men across, and succeeded by jumping
our horses, crawling under wagons and ambulances, &c., in getting about 50
men across. . . . Several were knocked off the bridge into the river. I found it impossible
to get any more men across without their swimming, which so injured their
ammunition as to nearly render it useless.
By this time, Kendrick had reinforced the guard on the wagon bridge and stationed
two companies at the railroad bridge, some three hundred yards away.
The balance of the regiment, with a few cannon, occupied an earthwork that
commanded both bridges. Confederate cavalry appeared, first at the wagon
bridge and soon afterward at the railroad bridge. The 2d Tennessee (AD) defended
both, while the 7th Illinois Cavalry struggled to rescue the artillery
that had crossed the wagon bridge. After an hour of fighting, sometimes hand
to hand, the cavalrymen managed to retrieve the cannon, and the entire Union
force was once more on the east side of the river. All the while, men of the
2d Tennessee (AD) who had been detailed to serve the cannon directed fire
from their fort at the attacks on both bridges. As cavalry on both sides usually
did, the Confederates had left their horses in the care of every fourth trooper
while the remaining three men advanced to fight on foot. After several artillery
rounds landed among the horses, the Confederate force withdrew. 23
Such raids by organized bodies of Confederates rarely troubled construction
crews along the Nashville and Northwestern track, which lay more than
one hundred miles northeast of the Memphis and Charleston, but sporadic attacks
by enemy irregulars required vigilance. “We have alarms every night,”
Colonel Trauernicht reported from a camp of the 13th USCI. During one of
several attacks in November, a shot fired by “guerrillas” wounded Sgt. Joshua
Hancock of the 12th USCI while he commanded an outpost on the railroad
thirty-eight miles west of Nashville. Both regiments spent that fall and winter
guarding the railroad and sometimes furnishing crews to lay track while other
22 Ibid., pt. 1, p. 584.
23 Ibid., p. 586.