Things Began to Assume a Serious Aspect: A 4th Michigan Cavalryman Recalls the Horrors of the Nashville Pike

Leonard Beck of the 4th Michigan Cavalry only saw action on the first few days of the Stones River campaign before being sent back to Nashville on December 29th guarding a group of 58 Confederate prisoners of war. What he saw along Nashville Pike upon arriving at Murfreesboro in early January filled him with horror.

          “While the battle was progressing in front of Murfreesboro, a considerable force of Rebels got in our rear and committed many atrocious deeds,” he related. “Negroes employed by the government as teamsters were ruthlessly murdered and their bodies thrown into the ditches bordering on the pike. Whole wagon trains were burned and the road strewn with dead mules, horses, Negroes, etc. LaVergne is supposed to have been the principal point where the Rebels committed these depredations and as a retaliation, our forces burned the principal buildings of the town.”

          Private Beck’s account first saw publication in the January 29, 1863 edition of the Adrian Watchtower in his hometown of Adrian, Michigan.


 

Page 88 of the February 7, 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly features this haunting Thomas Nast image depicting the massacre of Negroes at Murfreesboro Pike. Leonard Beck's description of what he found along the pike a few days after Wheeler's Raid coincides with the Harper's Weekly depiction. Harper's correspondent reported that the bodies of 21 slain Negro teamsters were found in the ditch along the pike.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

January 8, 1863

          We paid a high price in blood to secure Murfreesboro but a great victory was won by our brave soldiers and after five days of bloody fighting we conquered and sent the Rebels from this vicinity. On the 26th day of December, the day on which your letter was dated, the 4th Michigan started for this town. The grand army of the Cumberland moved the same day. We marched until noon when skirmishing commenced. Our regiment had the road in the advance, two other cavalry regiments occupied the right and left while the remainder of Crittenden’s corps followed along in the rear.

          Brisk skirmishing was kept up until about 2 p.m. when we were brought to a sudden standstill by Rebel shells thrown from LaVergne, a rabid Secesh hole two miles in our front. All of our regiment except our company was sent to the right, This deployment left Co. F in a precarious position. Six pieces of artillery came to the front and commenced firing with vigor upon the Rebels. The enemy fired and their shells being so close we were ordered to leave the road. The order was obeyed with unusual alacrity. Their shells came very near us.

          While in the road, the shells came howling directly over our heads causing considerable dodging and after getting over the fence, a shell passed directly in our rear between us and the fence. This shot was a good one, the ball passing near the ground, throwing the sand in every direction. Things began to assume a serious aspect.

          We were ordered to dismount and move to the front to support the battery. With rifles in we passed the battery and took position 15 paces in advance lying on the ground under a fence, our guns resting on the second rail and pointed in the direction of the enemy’s battery to repulse any infantry attack they might make. Occasionally some of us would raise our heads to see what was going on then an order would come from two of these battery officers, “Keep your heads down! Don’t you see the shells? Lie low or they will hit you!” Pretty good advice we thought.

Private Leonard Beck and his wife in a postwar view from the Record of Lenawee County, Michigan. Beck joined Co. F of the 4th Michigan Cavalry in August 1862 and the Stones River campaign marked his first combat experience. Beck would see fighting at Chickamauga and throughout the Atlanta campaign before being promoted to regimental commissary sergeant. Among the most notable incidents of his service was one that occurred after the end of the war; he was in Macon, Georgia and witnessed the arrival of a detachment of the 4th Michigan Cavalry bringing in their most celebrated prisoner of the war: President Jefferson Davis. 


          We lay there throughout three hours during which time heavy firing was kept up on both sides. A Rebel shell burst over one of our batteries killing an artilleryman, wounding another, and injuring several horses. Then we encamped for the night.

          At daybreak, we formed in line of battle and commenced moving upon LaVergne. Our line presented a more hostile array than the day previous for by this time our infantry and the remainder of our artillery had come up and taken position. Our regiment was ordered to the right to act as flankers. We took peaceful possession of the town and marched along. [See "The LaVergne Skirmish" by Captain John James 26th Ohio] We saw but little fighting on Saturday. At night we encamped within 11 miles of Murfreesboro and remained inactive through Sunday to our great joy.

          On Monday morning, an order came for Co. F to escort 58 Rebel prisoners to Nashville. We returned to Nashville and as the Rebels had got into the rear of our army and were committing unheard-of depredations along the Nashville Pike, the general commanding the city retained Co. F to our great disappointment and consequently we saw no more of the fight. After remaining in Nashville for one week we were permitted to return to the regiment which we learned had won some glory. It had made two of three brilliant charges and many tongues teemed with praise to the gallant 4th Michigan.


The 4th Michigan Cavalry earned a stellar reputation during the Stones River, particularly for their charge on the afternoon of December 27, 1862 where a portion of the regiment under Captain Frank Mix captured a bridge over Stewart's Creek. The Wolverines would serve in General Robert H.G. Minty's celebrated Saber Brigade for the balance of the war. 


          In our march hither we did not pass over the grounds where the noble struggle ensued, but along the pike we saw enough to convince us the carnage was terrible. The ground for miles around was a scene of devastation. Every hour was riddled with grape and canister, fences were town down and burned, forest trees were stripped of their limbs and every shrub was marked with a rifle shot. Strange as it may appear to you, we actually saw trees twelve inches in diameter on which we counted 20 bullet holes within six feet of their roots.

          Consider if you can the chances of a man in the battle of Murfreesboro. Grave were seen on every side, some of them 40 feet in length and others of smaller dimensions. While the battle was progressing in front of Murfreesboro, a considerable force of Rebels got in our rear and committed many atrocious deeds. Negroes employed by the government as teamsters were ruthlessly murdered and their bodies thrown into the ditches bordering on the pike. Whole wagon trains were burned and the road strewn with dead mules, horses, Negroes, etc. [See also "A Sentence of Fire: Wheeler's Raid Around Rosecrans at Murfreesboro." for a Confederate account of Wheeler's Raid and "Hooping, Yelling, and Rushing About Like Madmen: An Indianan Captured on Wheeler's Ride." for a Federal account.] 

LaVergne is supposed to have been the principal point where the Rebels committed these depredations and as a retaliation, our forces burned the principal buildings of the town. A battalion of 1st Michigan Engineers arrived at LaVergne in time to barricade themselves and gave the Rebels a good whipping. [See "A Gallant Defense: The 1st Michigan Engineers and the Fight for LaVergne."]

Source:

Letter from Private Leonard Beck, Co. F, 4th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry, Adrian Daily Watchtower (Michigan), January 29, 1863, pg. 1

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