We went for wool and were shorn ourselves: A Hoosier Colonel Explains the Debacle at Thompson Station

 On March 4, 1863, General William S. Rosecrans directed a general reconnaissance all along the army’s lines in middle Tennessee to develop the strength of the Confederate army. On his far right, Brigadier General John Coburn’s brigade consisting of the 33rd Indiana, 85th Indiana, 19th Michigan, 124th Ohio, 22nd Wisconsin, and 18th Ohio Battery drew the task of marching south to meet and escort a Federal foraging train of 80 wagons. About 600 cavalrymen under Colonel Thomas J. Jordan from the 9th Pennsylvania, 2nd Michigan, and 4th Kentucky accompanied the expedition giving Coburn had a total force of 2,837 men of all arms. 

          Coburn’s orders from General Charles Gilbert directed him to march to Spring Hill then divide his force, sending a portion to Rally Hill to the east to meet the advancing forage train while the balance of the command continued marching south to scope out enemy intentions. Coburn shared his misgivings with the intractable General Charles Gilbert who directed the Hoosier to carry out his orders. The Hoosier colonel ran into a lot more than he bargained for as on that very day General Earl Van Dorn was leading north a massive cavalry column totaling more than 10,000 men.

The two forces met a few miles south of Spring Hill in a swirling fight near Thompson’s Station. The Federals fought for nearly four hours before being surrounded and running out of ammunition, nearly the entire command having to surrender. “Would to God that I could avoid writing that line,” Colonel John P. Baird of the 85th Indiana wrote. Expecting to fight only a single brigade of Rebel horsemen, Baird bitterly remarked that “we went for wool and were shorn ourselves.”

          A few weeks later while sitting in Libby Prison in Richmond, Colonel Baird of Terre Haute provided the following detailed account of the Battle of Thompson’s Station which first saw publication in the April 18, 1863 edition of the Princeton Clarion-Ledger.

 

Colonel John P. Baird, 85th Indiana spent months as a prisoner of war as a result of the Battle of Thompson's Station. "A great blunder has been made by someone and it is not proper for me to make charges," he wrote.


Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia

March 30, 1863

 

          Lieutenant Josiah Sherman [Co. A] is going home today and I will give you an account of our doings lately. On the 4th of March, our brigade being parts of the 33rd and 85th Indiana, 22nd Wisconsin, and 19th Michigan numbering in all 1,489 together with the 124th Ohio and 600 cavalry along with one battery of small guns were ordered to proceed from Franklin to Spring Hill ten miles south on the Columbia Pike. Colonel John Coburn of the 33rd Indiana was in command.

          When we were about four miles out, we met the enemy and after a sharp skirmish drove him back without loss on our side; their loss was 15 killed and wounded. We encamped for the night a short distance beyond the ground occupied by the enemy. On the morning of the 5th we started early, the 124th Ohio being left in the rear of our wagon train which was large. After marching about two miles, our cavalry met the enemy’s pickets and outposts and severe skirmishing was kept up until we came in sight of Thompson’s Station, the enemy falling back. About a half mile from the station, the railroad approaches the pike on the west side and runs parallel with the pike between two high hills for 600 yards and bears off to the west on a plain about half a mile wide, hills rising again on the south side of the plant, the station being about midway between the two ridges.

          When we reached the point where the railroad joins the pike, the enemy opened on us with a heavy battery. Colonel Coburn here discovered that our battery, the 18th Ohio Battery, was commanded by an arrant coward for upon the first shot being fired, he turned his guns back and started for Franklin and it was with difficulty that Colonel Gilbert of the 19th Michigan and your correspondent kept him from running clear away. Colonel Coburn soon ordered one section of the battery to take position on the hill on the left of the pike and deployed the 19th Michigan and 22nd Wisconsin to support it. The other three guns took position on the hill on the right supported by the 33rd and 85th Indiana.

Baird's 85th Indiana regiment held the far right of the Union line at Thompson's Station before falling back along the Columbia Turnpike and getting captured. 


          The enemy had two batteries on the range of hills south of us three quarters of a mile. The plain before us was cultivated and there were some six strings of rail fences and one or two stone walls between us. The enemy showed no front and the batteries having got the range pretty closely, Colonel Coburn ordered the 33rd and 85th Indiana to make a demonstration on the left of the enemy to draw him out if in force, and if not, to charge his battery. These two regiments marched out from the cover of the hills in columns of companies across the fields about 600 yards under a galling fire from the enemy’s batteries. We were in plain view and having fences to tear down as we went, and wholly unable to return the fire by a single shot. When we reached the station, we started up their sharpshooters and your humble servant soon found that he and several of his friends were regarded with some interest by the secesh the way the bullets whistled past our heads.

          Our skirmishers soon started up the enemy and we found posted behind stone walls, fences, and brush at the foot of the hill two whole brigades of dismounted cavalry. Seeing it impossible to advance further, the two regiments lay down and were covered by the buildings and fences. The enemy made no motion to advance on us or attack us at all; except the incessant fire of sharpshooters trying to pick off our mounted officers. We were not long here before Colonel Coburn ordered us back to the hill from which we started. We started back and as soon as we were unmasked from the buildings, two regiments from Arkansas and Texas started after us with a yell, pursuing and firing on us all the way back which, with their batteries playing on us also, made our situation pretty. Both of our regiments lost several killed and wounded going and returned and all this time not a shot had been fired by us. But so soon as we reached the hill we turned and drove back the enemy than he came, killing Colonel Earl of Arkansas. They again rallied and charged on us but were driven back. It now became evident that we had encountered the whole of Van Dorn’s and Forrest’s forces.

Ultimately 1,220 officers and men of Coburn's command were captured at Thompson's Station, among them Colonel Baird who blamed Captain Charles Aleshire of the 18th Ohio Battery as well as the cavalrymen for failing to provide support.  


          On our left, the enemy had been repulsed near the pike but Forrest had taken a circuit with his whole force away beyond the ground occupied by our force to the east and was desiring to turn our left flank. About this time Captain Charles C. Aleshire took his battery and ran off, the wagon train and the ammunition wagon also left, the 124th Ohio going with them to guard against it being cut off. Our cavalry, whose duty it was to protect our left flank or in case of their inability to do so to notify Colonel Coburn, also left and we heard nothing from them.

          Colonel Coburn now brought the 19th Michigan and 22nd Wisconsin on the west side of the pike and left the 33rd Indiana to protect the hill on its southern front. The 19th Michigan and 85th Indiana were formed facing the enemy east at right angles, with the 22nd in the rear of the 85th except three companies that Lieutenant Colonel Edward Bloodgood and Major Charles W. Smith took and run away with as the regiment crossed the road. Our new lines were hardly formed, the men laying down behind the crest of the hill, when Armstrong’s brigade charged in from the east and the Texans from the south; the fighting was terrific. We reserved our fire until they were within 30 paces. Three times they gallantly charged up the hill from the east and thrice we forced them back. In one of their charges the 19th Michigan captured the colors of the 4th Mississippi and four prisoners, and we were so near each other that one man was shot by the soldiers of the 85th Indiana from the window of a schoolhouse he was trying to get in at the door.

          During this time, one battery was throwing shells at us and having got possession of the hill on the east of the road, they hurled grape and canister at short range like hail. Old soldiers on both sides say they never saw hotter work while it lasted. But it was evident to us all, privates as well as officers, that the struggle was unavailing, and it was only a question of time as to our defeat. Our ammunition was nearly out, Forrest having gotten between us and Franklin and the next closing in on us from the north. But officers and soldiers did their duty. We formed a new line with all four of our regiments facing north to meet our new foe. We formed about 300 yards further to the west and about the same distance to the north. Here we met and checked Forrest and held till our last round was fired. We fixed bayonets to charge and break his lines and try to escape. But just as we were about to charge, we discovered that Forrest had still another line in reserve and a battery began to open from a new position that made it hopeless to think of escape. So, we surrendered. Would to God that I could avoid writing that line, not that I feel there is anything to be ashamed of in surrender, nor that any blame can be attached to anyone of our command for with the exceptions I have named, officers and men behaved nobly. But death on the battlefield is preferable to the sufferings of our soldiers have endured at the hands of our foes since we have been prisoners.

          You will observe that none but our brigade took any part in the fight: 1,206 officers and men were taken, the rest killed, wounded, or escaped. Of this number not taken there were probably 100, 150-200 escaped, 50-60 killed and wounded. The 85th Indiana had 300 men in the fight and 229 were taken. I know of seven or eight who were killed and 30 wounded but was at the wrong end of the pike to know exactly our loss. Captain Abner Floyd [Co. A] was dangerously wounded; Captain Lewis Puckett’s [Co. K] leg was broken while Lieutenant Anderson is missing. No other officers of the regiment were hurt, nor were then any officers of the brigade hurt which is almost miraculous as the field and staff officers of the 33rd and 85th were exposed, crossing and recrossing the fields on horseback to the fire of ten regiments, a battery, and all the sharpshooters, and not less than a thousand shots were aimed at them.

          The enemy was all cavalry and mounted infantry, but all fought on foot, every fourth man holding four horses, and his force consisted of six brigades under Major General Earl Van Dorn, Brigadier Generals French, Armstrong, Crosby, Martin, and Jackson. Infantry had no chance to escape after the fight began. A great blunder has been made by someone and it is not proper for me to make charges. All I can say is that General Charles Gilbert sent us out to Spring Hill with the understanding that he had positive information that the enemy had but three regiments or at most one brigade north of the Duck River. Such a force we would have easily whipped, but the fact was Van Dorn’s whole force had been at Spring Hill for three days before we left Franklin and, not knowing that our brigade had left Brentwood, were preparing to attack Franklin and had started that day for that purpose. The result was we went for wool and were shorn ourselves.

 

Source:

Letter from Colonel John Pierson Baird, 85th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Princeton Clarion-Ledger (Indiana), April 18, 1863, pg. 1

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