"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."...
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...
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.
On the 17th day of December the regiment made a reconnaissance
up near Woodsonville, Kentucky. The turnpike ran parallel with the railroad
for some distance before we reached the village. Colonel Terry sent two
companies up the railroad and the balance of the regiment kept the pike.
On near approach to the village on Green River, the two companies came suddenly
upon about an equal number of the enemy who were concealed behind some haystacks
and a fence near the railroad, who saluted the Texans with a volley of musketry
which told heavily upon them, but the Texans charged them on horseback and
drove them back toward the village. In the meantime the balance of the regiment
had come up on a rise or deviation in the pike in view of the conflict,
several hundred yards from us to our right. We were halted there for a little
while and sitting on our horses in column of twos when suddenly without
the least suspicion of what was about to happen, a heavy volley of musketry
was turned upon us from a black jack thicket on the hillside east of us
and very close to us. Colonel Terry immediately ordered a charge, emphasizing
the order with an oath not easily forgotten, so we made a rush for those
bushes concealing a considerable force with bayonets fixed ready to receive
us. With our shotguns loaded with buckshot we killed, wounded, and scattered
that command in short order. Our casualties were comparatively few in numbers,
but fearful in results, as we lost our Colonel, shot through the jaw, the
bullet ranging up through the brain. He and his horse and three of the enemy
fell in a heap. He had shot two and a ranger near him, I think, shot the
third one.
This was the 32nd Indiana Regiment of Infantry we fought, commanded by
Colonel Willich so we were informed by the prisoners we captured. This
was our first battle and the first engagement of the army of Tennessee.
We had ridden into an ambuscade and if the enemy had lowered their fire
sufficiently in that first volley, there is no good reason why we would
not all have been killed or wounded. One lesson we learned from that experience
that served us well in future operations. That was to have flankers out
on each side of a moving column as well as a vanguard whenever we might
suspect an enemy, so as to avoid ambuscades.
In the engagement at Woodsonville Captain Walker of Company K was wounded
by a bayonet passing through his lower arm and slightly wounding him in
the chest. What the losses were on each side, I cannot now recall.5
When Colonel Terry was killed, Lieutenant Colonel Lubbock was dangerously
sick and died in a short time afterwards, so under our "bill of rights"
as we believed, we held another election for Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel
and to fill some vacancies in line officers where they had resigned and
gone home. At this election we chose Captain Wharton of Company B for
Colonel, Captain Walker of Company K for Lieutenant Colonel and in Company
F, B. E. Joiner Third Lieutenant instead of Wm. Tate, resigned. We continued
our scouting, picketing, and patrolling in that section of Kentucky through
that severe winter 1861 until February, 1862. In the meantime we received
boxes of heavy clothing from our home folks in Texas which was badly needed
and duly apppreciated, for ours was thread-bare and too light for the
cold weather.
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