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
taking some prisoners and running off the rest. Two days later, after the Confederates
returned, Morgan’s troops drove them off again, this time at the cost of some
half-dozen wounded. “In this, as in the other affair,” Elgin recorded, “the Colored
Troops did as well as any Troops could do. The movement was witnessed by a
great many soldiers and citizens all of whom speak in the highest praise of the
conduct of the Col[ored] Troops. For our part we feel proud of the command.” 83
General Grant, from his headquarters in Virginia, had been urging Thomas to
attack the Confederates since 2 December, the day Hood’s army arrived outside
Nashville. Thomas delayed, claiming that he required fifty-five hundred additional
horses to mount all of his twelve thousand five hundred cavalrymen in order for
them to act effectively in pursuit after Hood’s prospective defeat. On 6 December,
Grant issued a direct order: “Attack Hood at once, and wait no longer for a remount
of your cavalry.” While Thomas continued to demur and Grant and Stanton discussed
relieving him of command, a storm on 9 December covered the hills around
Nashville with a sheet of ice that immobilized both armies. 84
Disgusted at Thomas’ inaction, Grant dispatched Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, a
former corps commander in Sherman’s army, to relieve him. On 13 December, as
the Adjutant General’s Office in Washington issued Logan’s orders, Thomas noted
“indications of a favorable change in the weather” at Nashville. “As soon as there
is I shall . . . assume the offensive,” he wrote to Halleck. 85
Thomas called a conference of his senior generals on the afternoon of 14 December.
On the right of the federal line, Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Smith would lead two
divisions, veterans of the Red River Campaign and the Tupelo expedition earlier
that year, to deliver “a vigorous assault” on the Confederate position. Elsewhere
along the line, the IV and XXIII Corps would play supporting and subsidiary roles.
Steedman’s force, which included eight U.S. Colored Infantry regiments, numbered
more than nine thousand officers and men present for duty—12 percent of
the available infantry. Stationed on the extreme left of the Union line, on the southeastern
edge of Nashville, it had orders to hold its position and to “act according
to the exigencies which may arise during these operations.” Its real role on the first
day was to create a diversion and cause the Confederates to reinforce their right
and weaken their left, where Smith’s troops would deliver the main attack. That
evening, orders took the 16th USCI to the rear to guard the army’s pontoon train,
which stood ready to bridge rivers during the anticipated pursuit of a defeated Confederate
army. A brigade of white troops took the place of the 16th. 86
The next morning, fog “lay like a winding sheet over the two armies,” Colonel
Morgan reported. About 7:00, as it lifted, the 14th USCI moved forward deployed
as skirmishers, followed by the 17th and 44th in line of battle. When rifle fire
83 Colonel Morgan’s report gave the number of prisoners as eight; Chaplain Elgin gave the
number as seventeen. OR, ser. 1, vol. 45, pt. 1, p. 535; Elgin Jnl, 5 Dec 1864. Regimental records
show five wounded on 7 December; Elgin said there were five in the 14th USCI alone. NA M594,
roll 207, 14th and 18th USCIs; Elgin Jnl, 7 Dec 1864 (“In this”).
84 OR, ser. 1, vol. 45, pt. 1, pp. 37, 127, 153–54, 359, 747, and pt. 2, pp. 17, 29, 70 (quotation), 84,
96, 118–19, 132–33, 143. The figures are from the report of Thomas’ cavalry commander, Maj. Gen.
J. H. Wilson (pt. 1, p. 551).
85 Ibid., pt. 2, pp. 169 (quotation), 171, 230, 265; Brooks D. Simpson, Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph
over Adversity, 1822–1865 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), pp. 393–98.
86 OR, ser. 1, vol. 45, pt. 1, pp. 37 (quotation), 54–55, 94, 526–27, 535.