Claiborne's History of Terry's Texas Rangers (part 1)

A Confederate Cavalry Regiment Engaged in the Unfortunate War Between the States
NEW BIRMINGHAM TIMES, undated clipping, 1891.

continued from last issue

FIRST PITCHED BATTLE.

At the camp at Bowling Green, Ky., in October 1861 they began to feel the trip to the seat of war. Here the germ of swamp fever of Grande Marle, Louisiana, bloomed, and the "flower was death."

Undeveloped boys, scarcely from the leading strings of mothers, from a perennial climate transported to this frigid zone, could scarcely bear the transition, and the fell destroyer, was among them, yet, while filling the homes of the good people of Nashville, Tenn., with the sick, and their grave yards with the darling sons of agonized mothers in Texas, the fire of patriotism burned as brightly and as beautiful as ever, while the few that were unstricken did the duty for the many, along the line, at the front, they being constituted both the eyes and ears of the army. At one time, in November, 1861, only 78 out of the 1002 answered roll call. From that day on, as they recovered from disease, they returned for duty. They will never forget that winter in Kentucky. Let me call up, (just to refresh the mind) Goose Neck, Bear Wallow, Horse Cave, Cave City, Mammoth Cave, and the ever memorable Jimtown. The joys, the sorrows the fears and hopes of that winter, until the 17th day of December, 1861. On the 7th day of that month, laying in the [torn]ds of pain, were over 800 of that immortal band, there came to them from Col. Terry, the intelligence that there would be a fight before the holidays. To hear these emanciated (sic) men, or boys, begging to be restored, quick, so they would not miss the fight, was pitiably pathetic indeed. Then as the rumor came that a fight was more and more eminent--to see them steal away to the front, created a scene that made us love to be a Texan, and especially one of the more than spartan band, and from the nucleus of less than one hundred men in camp, the return of the sick (more scarcely able for duty)on the morning of the 17th day of December, 1864, one hundred and eighty-one of them went forth to do their first battle for their God, their country, their family, their sacred altars, institutions and firesides. With this number they went into the engagement at Woodsonville, Ky., (called by the Federals, Munfordsville, or Camp Woods). Of this and all other battles, I have elected that other pens shall tell the tale and give honor where honor is due.

Having carried them from Houston, Texas, and put them facing the enemy for the first time and the soil of the dark and bloody ground, let us now see what of their action in Kentucky, how they did and how they acted in the very jaws of death, opposed by ten times their number, directly, with a reserve still behind the enemy, inside of fortifications, and all the enemy, old soldiers, and Hessians, who could not speak the English language. In reading the note at foot, you will have discovered that the battle of Woodsonville was not only a great necessity, but of vast import to the future of Johnson's army, then but little better than a badly armed mob of undisciplined men, in a country about equally confederate and abolitionist. The vicious being of the lower class and bitter against the slave holder and the wealthy. Their object was treason and for spoils--nothing to lose and all to gain. They gave the enemy daily and nightly information regarding Johnston's army, while the better class had all to lose and were too conscientious to spy out and report Thomas and Willich's movements or the movements of Grant and others on the Cumberland, near Donaldson, therefore Johnston was forced to rely on the Rangers, which was all the available, well armed and mounted cavalry in his army, at that date, and therefore the duty was hard, very hard, yet mortal man never heard a single complaint.

A letter from the camp near Green river, written by Capt. W. R. Jarmon to his old law partner Gen. Webb, pays a high tribute to this body of men at that period. While the letter was in the interest of his company, "F" in which he spoke of many acts of that company, he said, "although they (the Rangers) are upon sick beds, although each day they are being made fresh graves, although the cold is intolerable, this band of young men, sons of the best blood of Texas, and who never knew a hardship, are uncomplaining, and go t duty like veterans, and without murmur or complaint. There is little discipline, none is required, they seem to know their duty, and do it in a way that is most satisfactory and commendable, and only a few to discharge the duty for the many both sick and dead. They are a grand body of men, worthy the name of Rangers and Texas."

The battle of Woodsonville or Rowletts Station, called by the Federals Mumfordville, or Camp Wood, which later place was the main encampment of the Federals. Col. Terry came to his picket line about 9:30 a.m., December the 17th, 1861 having passed General Hindman with his infantry brigade about two miles in the rear. Getting near to Rowletts Station, the usual maneuvering was indulged in to ascertain precisely the position of the enemy, small scouting parties were sent out on the flanks, and to high places overlooking the river bottom lands and the wheat fields in the front of the federal command. Within an hour or less, the scouts and flankers cane in and reports made, when there rang out in the clear iced-bound air the clarion voice of Terry, "Attention rangers, reiterated by the company commanders. Count fours, by fours, right into line; when Capt. S. C. Ferrell, ranking captain present, assumed command of second division of 87 men. (There being no Lieutenant Colonel or Major present, each being sick.)

"Capt. Ferrell," said Col. Terry; "You will take command of your own company and the four others in your rear, and move to the right of the railway to the hay ricks and fodder stacks, in the field. I will take the first five companies, (Senior Capt. Jno. G. Walker) and go to the left of the railway until I reach the cabins in the field on that side of the cut in the railway. You will watch my movements as the deep cut on the railway will prevent any communication until we can meet on level ground at the camp of the enemy. First division please observe distance and follow your leader and obey commands, which will be but few. Every man will do his duty, as a Texan knows how, in the hour of danger, and in the patriotic discharge of his duty to his state, his country and his mother. Forward March."

Capt. Ferrell said to the second division, "You have heard what Col. Terry has said. You will follow me. Forward guides right, keep your distance. Move together." Four or five hundred yards had been traversed in perfect order when, upon the second division, the Springfield rifles of the enemy were opened, and halt was commanded in order to see what the first division were doing, who were away 400 yards to the left of the second division. At that moment the guns of the first division flashed and the charge was on, and they were at once mixed with the enemy, at the same moment the gallant an fearless (sic) Ferrell gave the order to charge. The field fence crossed under a galling fire from the Duch (sic) soldiers behind the hay mow and fodder stacks. In a moment more, the Ranger was in his element, he having first discharged his double barrel gun among the enemy [as] soon as he got within twenty to thirty yards. Now they are together, [torn] The federals have empty guns and the Ranger his two six- shooting pistols, of which he is a perfect master, and the carnage is dreadful and frightful to behold--163 ghastly faces are upturned about the hay mow and fodder stacks, and they fall as they retreat by the dozen, then the Rangers' guns and pistols were empty, and a galling fire was being poured upon them from the deep cut in the railway. Taking advantage of the friendly hay mow and fodder stacks they reloaded and are ready to move again, when they could discover what Terry was doing. At that moment the tall commanding form of a Capt. M. H. Royston, adjutant, is seen to cross a narrow bridge across the railway cut under the fire of a thousand shots, coming with all the rapidity he could get from a steed already fairly exhausted, from the service with the first division, only to inform Capt. Ferrell that Terry and others were killed, and Capt. Walker and Lieut. Morris , of Co. K., severely wounded, and that Capt. Ferrell was in command. The fighting of the first division was terrific. Col Terry leading with a part of the five splendid companies, 98 men all told, and doing the fighting of 500 men. They charged right on top of the enemy behind houses, fences, friendly stumps, etc. Ferrell from his position scanned the field, the first division having moved back some three or four hundred yards and he reluctantly moved back, carrying his dead and wounded with him to the station at Rowletts, and the battle of Woodsonville has been fought and the Rangers withstood a greater loss than the enemy, not numerically by a [torn] percent, but in the royalty of the blood spilt by the Rangers, freeman Americans, and the country of an irreparable loss in the death of Col. Terry. Company D, Ferrell's company, were the heaviest losers on the right in that engagement, while K. Capt Walker lost most heavily on the left. The muster rolls of the companies will show the casualties (in the obituary of Col. Terry, the manner of his death will be set out.) Notwithstanding this was the first fight, and many of the men were never under fire before, none failed in that full duty and acts of heroism displayed that few veterans ever display. Notwithstanding the fact that it was learned that Hindman was moving back with great celerity, and that while the Rangers were waiting, the enemies cavalry showed in sight on the flank, notwithstanding the federals had got their big guns in position and were throwing shells in their direction, the loss of an idolized commander, the severity of the labor of the day, (for it is now nearly night) and almost unbearable cold and hunger of the men, each performed every duty asked of them, and as night threw her friendly shadow over the earth, they moved in funeral procession, back toward the camp the left that morning, and no man showed a sign of fear, or failed to discharge every duty. Those are the men that the reader and his children are to hear of as long as the prowess of an American soldier shall be spoken of. The defenders of Themopolia, the old guard of Napoleon, the Cossack or the 600 at Balaclava, were not their equals and none on earth their superiors.

A FEDERAL OFFICERS AND PARTICIPANTS OPINION OF THE TEXAS RANGERS AT WOODSONVILLE.

Some ten days after the battle, the scout picked up a federal officer who was in this fight, and was on Terry's side of the railway, upon him was a letter he had written home to his Dutch sweetheart, in which he says in describing the Texas Ranger, "They are quick like lightning; they ride like Arabs , shoot like [torn --Kentuckians ?] at a mark, fight like devils and are well personified. They rode upon our bayonets like charging a commissary department, and are totally without fear themselves, and have no respect for a man who wants to surrender.

Another, a man of God, so called, on the other side, says they are

AMERICAN MAMELUKES.

The Battle of the Pyramids, in which the Mamelukes made such daring and desperate, but vain efforts to break the French squares, finds a parallel in the following episode of the Civil War.

Chaplain Ganter of the Fifteenth Ohio Regiment, gives the following account of the fight that took place near Camp George Wood, (Woodsonville) Ky., on the 17th of December, 1861.

"The noted Terry Texas Rangers have been for some time dodging and dashing about us in a desperate manner. Sunday last we had a skirmish with them in which Colonel Willich had two men wounded and one sergeant taken prisoner. Yesterday (Tuesday, 17th day), Col. Willich sent over six or eight companies t watch them. About noon the trumpeter came to the bank on the opposite side of the river and blew the signal for re-enforcements. Immediately four or five companies (of Colonel Willich's regiment) crossed the river at double-quick (across the bridge which they had just completed). They ran in eagerness to fight, stimulated to rage, to revenge their wounded comrades of Sunday last. When they crossed the river they deployed as skirmishers and double-quicked it over fences, through the woods, when all at once one of the men cried halt, and seeing a horse in the woods near by, he fired, and the horse fell. Immediately a yell echoed through the woods, and about one hundred and fifty Rangers issued forth, and came within ten feet of the muzzles of the guns of our men. Here they halted and did not stir or budge one inch until each one of their number had fired fourteen shoots, being armed with a pair of revolvers and double shotgun apiece, But while this was going on our men were not idle. Rangers dropped-Rangers yelled, groaned, and cursed-horses Rangerless and riderless, were galloping in all directions. When the Rangers had perfected their shooting a cool, careless way, they just as coolly turned round an retired. They had no sooner disappeared, and our men were once more advancing-than another company of Rangers galloped up, and performed the same remarkable fourteen-shot feet in the same cool, determined manner, and were met by the same sturdy, brave German square. Once more Rangers and Germans mingled dying groans when at length, after the Rangers had gone through this extra program several times, one or two hundred of them made one grand rush, with the evident intention of breaking the German Carre, or square. They came up with the same dash, and fired their shots with the same apparent neglect of life-some were literally lifted from their horses on the points of the bayonet-some were knocked off with butts of the guns. It became a hand to hand fight-Rangers retreating and Germans following up. Lieutenant Saxe at this point of the fight was somewhat in advance. He was surrounded by Rangers-they asked him to surrender-but instead of replying he rushed at the man who made this request, but before he reached the object of his attack dropped dead in his tracks, receiving five bullets in the chest and about twenty buckshot in the abdomen. The struggle became fiercer and hotter, when all at once the Germans found themselves in a net. On the right came the firing from concealed infantry; and on the left the boom of cannons from a masked battery startled the heroes. Seven hundred cavalry at once came into view int front. We could see the whole affair from the high bluff on the opposite side of Green River. Re-enforcements were hurried across-Cotter's Batteries opened from our bluff-Germans slowly, but unwillingly, retired to the woods, and just by chance, the nearest in the world, escaped from a dreadful slaughter."

In the foregoing graphic description by the Federal Chaplain, (while in the main a fair picture), he makes the mistakes of saying that the Rangers had an infantry support-they had none. Also that their artillery was brought to action, when in fact, while the fight was going on, there was no Confederate artillery in less than two miles. He also makes an error in his estimate of the number of the Rangers, and underestimates that of the Federal troops. The Federal record of the fight shows [torn--198 ?] killed and 83 wounded and [torn] missing; while the rangers loss, all told, was 16, but they were of more value than the whole of the force opposed, and had every man of Willich's been killed, it would not have paid for the life of one Ranger, and he the poorest in the lot. One, the citizen patriot, the other, hired Hessians, without family or citizenship.

We pass off to other fields in the next issue, from Woodsonville to Shiloh.

NOTE:-The compiler of this data at the time was but a boy, just out of a sick bed with measles, but was put on or rather volunteered to go on picket, and upon investigation, noted the fact that there were ten times more campfires ont the opposite side of the river than he had ever seen at one sight before, and had no idea that the Rangers would dare make a fight alone, but on the 12th day of December he read a letter written by Col. Terry to a line officer, in Nashville, that in less than ten days the Rangers would be in a great battle and those who come to fight and were able, should come to camp at once, and the next night, with thirteen others, went to the front and on the night of the 16th. under command of Lieutenant W. R. Doak, Company D. went on a picket. No fires were allowed and it was most intensely cold, Aaron Burleson and the writer, at 11 o'clock p.m. went on the outpost for the second time that night. It being so cold that a man on picket every 30 minutes, would become so completely benumbed that he could not handle his gun. Aaron and myself concluded that we would alarm Lieut. Doak, and cause him to run in and alarm the camp. Ten or fifteen minutes after we went on the outpost Aaron fired his gun, and we fell back on the reserve, found it thrown in line across the pike (a macadam road( ready to meet and charge the enemy if necessary. We saw that we were foiled, for at once Lieut. Doak sent us back to make a reconnaissance and report, while he kept the whole picket drawn up across the pike with the North ice-laden wind having a fair stretch of over three miles in direct line, and there he staid in tact until the regiment came up and relieved us, so that we could go in the fight. (But I have digressed). It was charged against Col. Terry then, and afterwards, that the fight was made without orders--foolhardy, and unnecessary bravado, and without ordinary judgement, and even criminal.

It was general talk among the conservative and older line officers,and men, but in that quiet and differential manner due the distinguished commander who gave up his life in an act that he thought was for the glory and gain of his country. I never knew the facts for many years--I saw much action in what is known as forlorn hope. That action had the features of what was subsequently known to me to a necessity, i.e. a few must be sacrificed for the many. I have seen Rangers in the ranks volunteer for this kind of service, knowing what will almost results. Terry did by order that which private soldiers volunteered to do afterwards freely. Col. Brewster, Gen. A. Sidney Johnston confidential staff officer, told me in person after the close of the war that Terry was ordered to make a forced reconnaissance to develop fully the enemy and to push it sufficiently to cause the enemy to think there was a general advance and divert the movements of Gen. Thomas who was moving in order to get in the rear of Gen. Jonson and between him and his supplies and base of operation at Nashville and along the Cumberland, and from giving the enemy moving on Fort Donaldson. He also said that Hindmans infantry was to have given the Rangers support, but were, in fact,, on the march to the rear, when Terry made the attack. All going to show that Terry and those who fell with him at Woodsonville, gave up their lives for the benefit of the Army of A. Sidney Johnson, who was enabled by the action of Terry, to get safely out of Kentucky and across the Cumberland the fight having stopped Gen. Thomas' division for many days, who had evidently intended to intercept the advance of Johnson at Tyrell Springs--having first intended to do so at Franklin, Ky. or Gallatin, Tenn. cut the bridges at Nashville, burn that city and the supply train of Johnson.

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