William Nicholson to his Sister, January 18, 1863

Miss Mary A. Nicholson
Bastrop,
Bastrop Co.,
Texas.

Shelbyville, Tenn.,
Jan. 18, 1863.

My Dear Sister—

I expect you have looked long and anxiously for a letter from me. My last letter home was written while we were at Nolensville. The date of it was about the 10th of Dec. as well as I recollect. There are very few letters received now by our regiment. I rec'd a letter from you while I was on the battle field at Murfreesboro. Its date was Nov. 28th/62. * * *

Charlie Caldwell left us a few days after the retreat from Murfreesboro. I did not have a chance to write by him, which I regretted very much. I hope he will reach home early and safely. He should have started home long ago. You have ere this heard of the great Battle of Murfreesboro which commenced so far as our bridgade is concnered, on the 25th Dec. six or eight miles below Nolensville on that day. We skirmished with the enemy all day—Myself with several others rec'd an invitation a few days before Christmas to come and spend the day, but hte Yankees seeing fit to spend Christmas with us, our anticipated pleasures were deferred till night. It was at the house of a Mr. Taylor and in the vicinity of where we had been skirmishing late in the evening. Mr. Taylor has two beautiful and accomplished daughters, Miss Mollie and MIss Rebecca. As we were not acquainted with the other young ladies of the neighborhoood, Miss Mollie took part of our squad to some of her neighbors' houses and introduced us to the young ladies so that we could accompany them to the house of Mr. Taylor. Miss Becca likewise did her part until we had assembled together about ten young ladies and about the same number of us soldiers. You may depend that we had our fun and enjoyment until 12 o'clock that night. The party was conversational interspersed with plays. Some of the young men werevery anxious to have a dance but were unsuccessful as the young leadies were nealy all religiously opposed to such modes of enjoyment. We however had an eggnogg which was partaken of by nearly all. You now have an idea what kind of a time I had on Chrsitmas. Now comes the remainder of the battle. The next day the Yankees attacked our pickets and drove us from our camps between Nolensville and Triune. Jesse P. Billingsley received a flesh wound on the 25th and D. D. Nunn rec'd a slight wound on the 26th. The enemy fought us all the next day and engaged Gen. Woods' Brigade of Infantry which had been camped at Triune. We fought them all that day and then fell back rapidly to Murfreesboro where the general engagement took place. During the battle our cavalry fought the enemy's cavalry nearly all the time. They had a great deal of cavalry and they appeared much bolder than I ever saw them before. On one day Gen. Wheeler's Cavalry made the complete circuit of the enemy's whole force, capturing and burning a quantity of waggons and also captured quite a number of prisoners. At another time our brigae captured a wagon train with a number of prisoners, but the enemy succeeded into the enemy's rear at LaVergne, which is midway between Nashville and Murfreesboro. We had some pretty hard fighting to do at that place. Our Battery was with us and our Company was detached to support it, so we did not have much fighting to do, though we were exposed somewhat to the enemy's fire at a distance. We captured two pieces of artillery, between two and three hundred prisoners, burned a good many waggons and succeeded in getting some of the waggons off with quite a number of mules and horses. The waggons were principally loaded with arms, clothing and blankets, which our men supplied themselves with.

We stayed in LaVergne till sundown and it took us nearly all night to get back to a place of safety. After our return from La Vergne, we were placed on the extremem right wing of our Army. We did not have quite so much fighting to do there as we did on the left. We were in such a position the evening before the retreat that we could see an engagement between Gen. Breckinridge's division and the enemy. Gen. B. drove the enemy across the open field under a tremendous heavy fire of cannon and musketry. The Confederate flag and Federal flag were in a few paces of one another at one time. The enemy were driven back on their reserve which opened such a heavy fire upon our men that they were compelled to fall back. Gen. B. received a slight wound there. Our cavalry was on the right of the scene of action and in full view. Our little Battery opened on te enemy but they eeither did not hear it or did not have time to notice it. They were so much engaged in firing on our infantry. The evening the retreat commenced I got permissionto go to the waggons as I did not fee very well. I soon got entirely well as I was only unwell from fatigue and exhaustion. The waggons moved 4 miles above Shelbyville on Duck River where they stayed a few days and then moved back 4 miles below S. on the M. pike. The number of men killed, wounded and missing in the regiment is about 70—Our Company lost 10, wounded and missing and none killed. They were D. D. Nunn, W.; Jesse Billingsley, W.; P. M. Mullen, W.; W. Hamilton, W.; K. K. Rector, W.; S. Friedberger, W.; Jo Ford and R. B. Shipp, missing; John Hill and P. J. Watkins, prisoners. S. Friedberger was wounded by our men through mistake. Jo Ford has made his escape so it is reported. I like to have forgotten to tell you that I have a sword that I took from an infantry captrain but sorry to say I did not succeed in getting him off the field.

From your affectionate Brother,
W. Nicholson.

Jones, Margaret Belle, ed. Bastrop; a compilation of material relating to the history of the town of Bastrop, with letters written by Terry Rangers. Bastrop: NP. 1936.

 

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