494 NortH Carouina Troops, 1861-’65.

adopt other tactics. So the army swung around, recrossed
the Chattahoochee river and opened the way to an almost un-
interrupted march of Sherman to the sea; while, in the short-
sighted policy of the powers at Richmond, the movement was
supposed to cut their supplies from Nashville, little thinking
of the communications Sherman was opening up ahead of
him.
THE MARCH ON NASHVILLE.

Passing through North Georgia, North Alabama, crossing
the Tennessee river at Florence, where a small force of Fed-
erals offered slight resistance, but were easily overcome by
the troops of which the Sixtieth was a part, the march was
continued into and through a section of the State very ap-
propriately called “The Wilderness,” where it might have
been justly said, in the language of Sheridan, “that a crow
in flying over it would have to carry his rations with him.”
The men subsisted principally upon scant supplies of “corn
dodger” and “sorghum molasses.”

The transition from this barren land into that fertile re-
gion known as the Blue Grass section of middle Tennessee,
can hardly be imagined. Here, at Columbia, on Duck river,
another body of Federals was encountered, and a sharp lit-
tle engagement took place, the Sixtieth suffering somewhat,
particularly in the loss of a brave young officer, Lieutenant
Moreno, who had been assigned to duty with the regiment,
having refugeed a short time before from Pensacola, Fla.

FRANKLIN.

Instead of pressing the retreating foe and forcing a battle
upon the ground where each contestant would have been on an
equal footing, or, what would have been better, outflank-
ing him, a thing seeming altogether practicable, he was
allowed, uninterruptedly it might be said, to fall back on
Franklin and ample time given to strongly fortify. Then
when the Federals, it might be presumed, said, ‘““Now we are
ready, you may advance!” the Confederates, never counting
odds, or reckoning obstacles, did advance. But what a
scene of blood and carnage. The forces were more nearly

SIxTreTH REGIMENT. 495

equal as to numbers than in most battles of the war, the Con-
federates having 18,000 to 20,000, the Federals 22,000 to
24,000. But by reason of the one being so thoroughly en-
trenched and the other compelled to advance through broad,
open fields, the odds actually might be said, not unreasona-
bly either, to have been about five to one. The battle was a
most terrific one, the Confederates fighting with a determina-
tion scarcely ever equalled, even by themselves. Privates
and officers alike went down in the melee, like trees in the
sweep of a tornado. The casualties were indeed appalling,
especially so on the Confederate side. Six general officers
were killed and six wounded. Major-General John Adams
of Stewart’s Corps, and that indomitable old war horse of
the same rank, Pat. Cleburne, went down in death, with Brig-
adier-Generals Granberry, Carter, Gist and Strahl. Thir-
teen regimental commanders were killed and_ thirty-two
wounded. Many other field and line officers were killed and
wounded, while about 6,000 of the rank and file were left
dead or disabled upon the field, on the banks of, and in, the
ditches that they were so gallantly charging. The Federal
losses were estimated at one-half or two-thirds less, and yet it
was counted a Confederate victory, because the Federals were
driven from their strongholds and retired upon Nashville.
The fewer of such victories the better for the victors, and
that the battle of Franklin should ever have been fought was
a mistake and a misfortune that no one, at all conversant with
the facts, will for a moment question.

THE RETREAT FROM NASHVILLE.

The advance was then upon Nashville, the Sixtieth having
a position from which the capital city could be seen, but into
which it was never permitted to enter. In the engagement
in front of Nashville the Confederates were defeated and
commenced a retreat that with slight interruptions ended
only in the surrender of the army in North Carolina. The
Sixtieth, with a certain part of the troops, fell back on Mur-
freesboro, and while in line of battle here, with no active en-
gagement on hand, the daring and gallant Lieutenant-Colonel