Concerning the Battle of Bentonville

Confederate Veteran
Volume 6, Number 4, Page 153 - 154
April 1898
(Note: This article is reprinted in September 1898)

J. A. Holman, Company F, Texas Rangers, writes from Comanche, Tex.:
Mention is made by comrades of a very critical moment in the situation of Johnston's little army at Bentonville, March 21, 1865. I will give an account of what I saw, and I feel confident that many of Terry's Rangers now living will bear me out in the main statements. In the January (1895) Veteran, page 20, Comrade B. L. Ridley quote from his journal, "kept at the time:" "Cummings' Brigade charged the enemy in front, Eighth Texas Cavalry struck the two divisions of the Seventeenth Army Corps in flank and routed them." In the February number of the same year, page 37, Capt. Guild calls Comrade Ridley 10 "taw," and states: "About three o'clock on the evening in question Gen. Mower's Division of the Federal army advanced so far and unexpectedly on our left rear as to threaten the bridge. Everything was in great confusion. Gen. Hardee came rushing down the road, and the first troops he came across were a part of the Texas brigade (Eighth Texas and Fourth Tennessee Regiments), commanded by Col. Baxter Smith. He at once ordered Col. Smith to charge, which he did in gallant style with these two regiments, throwing Mower's Division into confusion and driving them back."

Now, to mend matters, in the February (1897) number, page 68, Comrade Fuller, doubtless speaking of the same event, states: "The Yankees, about six thousand strong, poured through the gap between the left of Wheeler's Cavalry and the river. These six thousand valiant veterans were hurled back not by an equal number, but by one hundred and eighty men and officers, a fragment of Cummings' old Brigade and a South Carolina battery."

The creek, across which was the bridge, runs north and south (?), and our line of battle in the morning faced southeast, with the Rangers on the extreme left. The troops on that part of the line during the day had repulsed several assaults of the enemy in an effort to turn our left, which necessitated the continual shifting of lines farther north and in the direction of the road leading to the bridge and running parallel with the creek. In repelling these assaults the Texas brigade lost heavily, including the entire field and staff officers of the Eight Texas, which left Capt. "Dock" Matthews a smooth faced boy, as gallant as ever drew sword under the Confederate flag in command of the regiment. In the confusion Gen. Hardee came up in great haste, and, after apparently a few words with Capt. Matthews, the regiment filed left, and moved rapidly north. It came into the road before mentioned just as a body of demoralized cavalry had passed on toward the bridge. We understood these to be South Carolinians. The regiment was right faced into line, the charge was sounded, and down they went through the heavy pines and thick underbrush, and soon ran over the enemy's skirmish line, killing and capturing about all in their front, and on to a double line of infantry, who poured a volley into them at only a few paces' distance. After the third charge, they retreated some distance up the hill, when a body of Confederate infantry came to their support. This may have been Cummings' Brigade, but it was understood at the time to have been Cheatham's Division.

The regiment was estimated at about two hundred men when it went into action, and among the losses in killed was the sixteen year old son of Gen. Hardee, who had joined the Rangers a few days before, the father not knowing but what his son was at Chapel Hill in school until after his death.

If any other portion of the Texas Brigade was in this charge, but few if any of us knew it. At all events, it is certain that the Rangers were personally complimented by Gen. Hardee, and the gallant charge was the general talk among the infantry for several days after.

No, comrades, we did not strike these fellows in the flank, but square to the front.

In a concluding sentence Comrade Holman says: "Boys, subscribe for the Veteran."