Death at the Edge of the Cedars: An Account from the 29th Mississippi

Filing this one under the category of "I wish I had this when I wrote Hell by the Acre..." 

    Writing nearly 50 years after the Battle of Stones River, Private Edward A. Smith of Co. A, 29th Mississippi recalled the intensity of the fighting as his regiment approached the northern end of the cedar forest around midday on December 31, 1862. 

    "Our brigade had driven the Federals slowly but steadily through what is known in the history of the battle as the cedar grove. When the Federals reached the back side, they found a field 500 yards wife which, with the leaden hail we were throwing at them, they knew it was death to cross. Their officers got them halted and they turned on us with the fierceness of a lion at bay. They had no idea of going further and we had an idea that they must go further and there we stood 125 yards apart belching death at each other with all our might. In the meantime, Lieutenant Wilkins called my attention to a superb-looking officer on horseback who was evidently their commander. He urged me to do my best to shoot him, saying that he believed that with him out of the way, they would run. I stepped up to a tree, took deliberate aim and fired. When the smoke cleared away, my man had fallen. Another brigade, Sears [I think Smith is mistaken, this was most likely General James E. Rains’ brigade] came up just then and the enemy fled, but not half of them reached the other side. Many doubtless fell from exhaustion besides those who were wounded or killed. We advanced to the edge of the woods and lay down. Then their reserve batteries turned loose on us with such terrible effect that we were ordered to fall back 75 yards in the grove so they could not see us."

    Throughout the spring and summer of 1910, Rev. Edward A. Smith provided a weekly column of reminiscences of life in antebellum Oxford, Mississippi to the Oxford Eagle newspaper. He devoted several columns to his military service with the 29th Mississippi and the following account is drawn from those columns. It provides one of the finest descriptions of the late morning fighting at the edge of the cedars that I’ve yet encountered.

 

The 29th Mississippi fought at Stones River under the command of Brigadier General J. Patton Anderson who assumed temporary command of the brigade when General Edward Walthall went home on leave to attend to his sick wife. The brigade suffered horrendous casualties in its first assault on the cedars and the action Private Smith describes below occurred during the pursuit of Negley's division north through the cedar forest. 

An incident occurred at the Battle of Murfreesboro which is well worth relating. Wading in almost a pool of their own blood as well as that of their enemies, Walthall’s brigade [then under the command of General J. Patton Anderson as Walthall was on leave] had driven the Federals slowly but steadily through what is known in the history of the battle as the cedar grove. When the Federals reached the back side, they found a field 500 yards wife which, with the leaden hail we were throwing at them, they knew it was death to cross. Their officers got them halted and they turned on us with the fierceness of a lion at bay.

          They had no idea of going further and we had an idea that they must go further and there we stood 125 yards apart belching death at each other with all our might. In the meantime, Lieutenant [Washington Porter] Wilkins called my attention to a superb-looking officer on horseback who was evidently their commander. He urged me to do my best to shoot him, saying that he believed that with him out of the way, they would run. I stepped up to a tree, took deliberate aim and fired. When the smoke cleared away, my man had fallen.

[Based on Smith’s location at the edge of the cedars and the time this event likely occurred, it is possible that the officer he shot down was Major Stephen D. Carpenter, commanding the First Battalion of the 19th U.S. Infantry of the Regular Brigade. Major Carpenter was shot from his horse late morning in this same approximate location as the Regulars were trying to cover the retreat of Negley and Sheridan’s divisions. For a Federal perspective on this event, please check out “Retrieving Major Carpenter: Joseph R. Prentice Earns His Medal of Honor at Stones River.”]

          Another brigade, Sears [I think Smith is mistaken, this was most likely General James E. Rains’ brigade] came up just then and the enemy fled, but not half of them reached the other side. Many doubtless fell from exhaustion besides those who were wounded or killed. We advanced to the edge of the woods and lay down. Then their reserve batteries turned loose on us with such terrible effect that we were ordered to fall back 75 yards in the grove so they could not see us.

Private John Shanks
Co. K, 29th Mississippi

          After shelling us for an hour, they suddenly ceased. “Look out men,” said Lieutenant Colonel [James B.] Morgan, “something is going to happen. Be sure your guns are loaded.” In a few minutes a long line of skirmishers, about 80 in number, could be seen advancing with all the steadiness and accuracy of alignment of trained regulars which indeed they were. Captain [George S.] Caldwell’s company [Co. D] was rushed forward to the edge of the woods to meet them and when they came within 50 yards, Captain Caldwell called out, “You are within 100 yards of a Confederate line of battle! Thrown down your arms and come in!” [Lt. Col. Morgan assumed command after Colonel William F. Brantley was knocked senseless by a shell explosion during the regiment’s first assault on Negley’s division around 10 o’clock that morning.]

          “Halt! Rally by fours and fire,” yelled their captain It was a silly order for men in an open field but they obeyed to their utter undoing for they were nearly all shot down. Four of them had picked up a corpse and started off with it, but two or three of them were shot and the corpse was dropped. I learned afterwards that it was a company of U.S. regulars who had voluntarily offered to go to the battle line where the brave officer fell and return with his body or died in the effort.

He was reported to me by one who said he knew all the circumstances and said the officer was one of noblest, bravest, and knightliest characters that ever gave a command or waved a sword on the field of battle. He was a colonel and thought to be commanding a brigade and I doubt not he was the officer whom it was my lot to kill, or at least try to kill, on that fateful field. A splendid monument has been built near where he fell dedicated to his memory. [The Regular Brigade monument stands at the center of Stones River National Cemetery.]

To learn more about the Battle of Stones River, be sure to purchase a copy of my campaign study Hell by the Acre, recently awarded the Richard B. Harwell Award from the Atlanta Civil War Roundtable as best Civil War book of 2024. Available now through Savas Beatie. 

Source:

Memoirs of Private Edward A. Smith, Co. A, 29th Mississippi Infantry, Oxford Eagle (Mississippi), August 19, 1910, pg. 2; also, August 25, 1910, pg. 2

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on t...
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true ...
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of h...
Read more

Arming the Union: Federal Contract Model 1861 Springfield Rifle Muskets

Image
A t the outset of the Civil War, the Federal government ran into a serious issue when the Confederacy occupied Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, the home of one of the nation’s two armories, and carted the gun making equipment off to Richmond, Virginia. This left just the Springfield Armory in Springfield, Massachusetts as the sole government-operated entity to produce longarms for the Union army.           But it quickly became apparent that production at Springfield would have to be supplemented, so the War Department pursued two tracks to increase the weapons supply. Agents were dispatched to Europe to purchase suitable weapons from England, France, Austria, Belgium, and Prussia. Over time, these agents acquired hundreds of thousands of European arms of different designs and origins that equipped Federal regiments in the first years of the war.           In the meantime, operations at the Springfiel...
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on se...
Read more

Cotton Burning on the Levee: A Civilian Witnesses the Federal Seizure of New Orleans

Image
F or one Ohio-born resident of New Orleans, the arrival of Admiral David Farragut’s fleet on April 25, 1862, marked a day of liberation. “Yesterday about half past 1 o’clock, the cry was raised that the Yankees were upon us,” wrote Louis M. Beyers in a letter to his mother. “I started toward the levee where the Federal vessels were said to be lying. Reaching the river, what a sight breaks upon my view. The steamboat William Morrison was one mass of flames. All the shipping was sending forth the most dense black smoke. The Mississippi , a ram which was nearly finished and which, if completed, would have demolished the whole fleet in one hour, floating slowly by with the smoke issuing from every opening and several other important like vessels in various parts of the river, all showing that the torch has been applied to them.” “Together with the thunder which came peal after peal gave a scene of the utmost grandeur. There proudly floating in the smoke and rain were the glorious old ...
Read more

A Different Vista on the Civil War: An "Ohio" Marked Lorenz Rifle

Image
          While the focus of this blog has been almost exclusively on chronicling the services of Ohioans during the Civil War through their own words, once in a while it is worthwhile to look into object-based history to help further illuminate the times. Object-based history provides a different vista through which to view past events, by studying the manufacture, use, and history of the objects themselves. Today's post marks my first entry into studying the Civil War through its relics and objects. Unidentified Yankee private holding a Lorenz rifle and Colt revolver (Library of Congress)            I recently acquired an Ohio-marked M1854 Austrian-made .54 caliber Lorenz rifle from a longtime Civil War collector. When I decided to purchase the rifle, I knew little beyond the fact that I had come across dozens of references to this usually well-regarded longarm in my research over the years and it was one of the more att...
Read more

Arming the Empire State: Arms Issues to New York Infantry Regiments in 1861

Image
     During the Civil War, the state of New York provided more than 400,000 men to the Union army, the highest number of soldiers of any state, and as can be imagined, the task of arming those hundreds of thousands of volunteers was a very difficult one. At the outbreak of hostilities, the state militia numbered 19,000 men but the state possessed only about 8,000 long arms nearly all of which were utilized to arm the eleven militia regiments which left the state in the earliest days of the war. The state dispatched an agent to England on April 24 th to purchase 25,000 Enfield pattern rifle muskets but upon his arrival, he found those weapons hard to find as Confederate agents had already been busy buying up the stock. Eventually, he was able to secure 19,000 Enfields at a cost of $335,000; these weapons arrived in bits and pieces over the next several months and were issued out soon after their arrival to newly formed regiments.  A perusal of the adjutant general’...
Read more

Last Minute Reprieve at Murfreesboro

Image
A t the end of chapter 3 of Hell by the Acre , I tell the story of the military executions that took place at Murfreesboro on December 26, 1862. Three soldiers and one civilian were slated for execution that day, most famously, that of Private Asa Lewis of the 6 th Kentucky whose execution became a cause celebre within the Orphan Brigade. The story of the second soldier, Edward P. Norman of the 28 th Alabama, was also described in the book “while the final deserter from the 24 th Tennessee received a reprieve from Bragg just as he was about to be executed.” It was not until recently that I learned the story of how this Tennessean was saved at the last possible moment by the intrepid efforts of a Confederate enrolling officer. A total of three executions took place in Murfreesboro on December 26, 1862. The first was a civilian spy named Gray who was hung near the railroad depot. The military executions took place in an open field south of town where just a few weeks before Presiden...
Read more

The 53rd Ohio and the Shame of Shiloh

Image
     The 53rd Ohio, perhaps more than any other Federal regiment, was marked by what I would call "the shame of Shiloh." The initial newspaper reporting of the battle specifically called out the 53rd Ohio (among others) for running away without firing a shot, labeling the Ohioans cowards who "cut and run like so many sheep," and that men of the regiment were bayonetted in their beds; all of this was the purest bunk and a fine Civil War era example of "fake news," but the men certainly felt the sting of public criticism of their actions and chafed considerably at being labeled as cowards not only by the press, but by their own divisional commander William Tecumseh Sherman.  The confidence that the men had in Colonel Jesse J. Appler of the 53rd Ohio was destroyed in the opening moments of the Battle of Shiloh. Appler failed to meet the harsh test of Civil War combat and was branded a coward. No one could have predicted such a result during the heady days at ...
Read more