Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/708

Rh redoubts from seven in the morning until two in the afternoon, and after losing 800 out of 2,000 men were compelled to retire by the approach of Sherman, who had signalled Corse, commanding the garrison, "Hold the fort, for I am coming." Sears' brigade lost 37 killed and 114 wounded and 200 missing. Among the killed was Col. W. H. Clark, Forty-sixth regiment; Colonel Barry, Thirty-fifth, and Major Parkin, Thirty-sixth, were among the wounded.

Nowhere in the course of the great war was the reckless valor of the Mississippians more brilliantly illustrated than on that gloomy November evening when the army of George H. Thomas, brought to bay on the Harpeth river, was fiercely assailed by the Confederates. At this battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, the armies of Mississippi and Tennessee lost so many brave officers and men that the fact they were afterward able to besiege Nashville, rather than their defeat there, is a matter of wonder. The Mississippi brigades of Cheatham's and Stewart's corps went forward in the general assault. The enemy was driven from his outer works and fiercely assailed in his second. The ground over which Loring's division advanced was obstructed by a deep railroad cut and an abatis and hedge, but otherwise open and swept by a terribly destructive cross-fire of artillery from the works and the opposite side of Harpeth. The men, however, pressed forward again and again with dauntless courage, Stewart reported, to the ditch around the inner line of works, which they failed to carry, but where many of them remained, separated from the enemy only by the parapet, until the Federal army withdrew. The loss of the divisions of Loring, French and Walthall was over 2,000, including many of the best officers and bravest men. Gen. John Adams was killed, his horse being found lying across the inner line of the enemy's works. Generals Scott, Cockrell, Quarles and Walthall were all disabled. Colonel Farrell, Colonel Brown,