by Mike Jolin
In obedience to instructions from brigade headquarters, I have the honor to make the following report of the movementsBattles of Franklin, Spring Hill, and operations of a detached contingent of our esteemed unit during the recent engagement in the vicinity of Franklin, Tennessee. The men who embarked on this adventure included Harry Connelly, Paul Rainey and me. A young 20 year-old lad from Massachusetts named Jay Smith joined us as well.
We arrived near Nashville on the eve of September 30. Upon the recommendation of brevetted Corporal Connelly, we bivouacked at a beautiful site that the locals call The Comfort Inn. It turned out to be a great decision. The men were able to secure their dinner rations from a new commissary that bills itself as O'Charley's ("At the Corner of Good Food and Good Times!"). After a fine repast, we were able to catch the first of the three debates from the Presidential candidates at our encampment and then retire for the evening.
On the morning of October 1, we received our rations issue at the Waffle House where this private inadvertantly ordered pancakes. After donning our gear, we reached our designated position around 10:30 a.m. Hostilities were to start at noon. The site for the operations was located on good ground. Entrenchments had already been prepared by units who must have arrived earlier. They were in fine shape and received the approval of our small contingent of CRs.
On October 1-3, 2004 several CR members participated in the 140th anniversary reenactment of the 1864 Tennessee campaign in the ranks of the Army of the Pacific. Mike Jolin filed this report with The Columbia Examiner.
We were ordered to link up with the Army of the Pacific, led by the highly regarded Dom da Bello. Only a dozen guys of our assigned company (Company G) had arrived at this point so we didn't miss out on any of the activities by "camping" at The Comfort Inn the night before. Our first stop after reporting in was to the AoP sutler. We traded our pay for chits. All sorts of "correct" items were available to fulfill our needs. They included lemon drops, cookies, journals, stationary, pencils, candles and elixirs, among other things. It sure did buoy our well-traveled spirits and added much to the campaign.
The AoP has an esteemed reputation and it's easy to see why. There was plenty of guard duty to keep the idle hands of the soldiers occupied. The rations that they issued throughout the campaign included salted beef, potato, onion, hardtack, raisins, canned peaches, canned tomatoes, and peanuts. Water was plentiful and brought up to the men by wagon and horse. Suffice to say we were well-provisioned.
Capt. Matt Woodburn was our company commander and enjoyed the respect of all of the men. It was easy to see why he received this commission. Company G also had the good fortune to have the service of knowledgeable, experienced NCOs. They included First Sgt. John Duffer and Second Sgt. Brian Hicks. Our lieutenant was an exuberant young chap by the name of Nate Petersburg. Lt. Petersburg was the envy of all with his resplendent uniform. He is a soldier that ably assisted the captain and was well-liked by his underlings.
One of the few disappointments emanating from this fine group was in the poor manner in which they stacked their long arms. At points it became comical. One would think with all of the bayonet twisting and turning that stacking and unstacking arms was an activity never heretofore seen. Indeed, it was done enough times during this campaign alone that a large number of the Jonahs should have caught on. But they never did. Rumor has it that these men had I have the honor to make the following report of the movements and operations of a detached contingent of the Columbia Rifles during the recent engagement in the vicinity of Franklin, Tennessee. Our men who embarked on this adventure were Harry Connelly, Paul Rainey, and me, together with a 20-year-old lad from Massachusetts named Jay Smith.
We arrived near Nashville on the eve of September 30. Upon the recommendation of brevetted Corporal Connelly, we bivouacked at a beautiful site that the locals call the Comfort Inn. It turned out to be a great decision. The men were able to secure their dinner rations from a new commissary that bills itself as O'Charley's ("At the Corner of Good Food and Good Times!"). After a fine repast, we were able to catch the first of the three debates from the Presidential candidates at our encampment and then retire for the evening.
On Friday morning, October 1, we received our rations issue at the Waffle House - a "hardcore" tradition, as legend has it - where this private inadvertently ordered pancakes. After donning our gear, we reached our designated position around 10:30 a.m. Hostilities were to start at noon. The site for the operations was located on good ground. Entrenchments had already been prepared by units who must have arrived earlier. They were in fine shape and received the approval of our small contingent of CRs.
We were ordered to link up with the Army of the Pacific (AoP), led by the highly regarded Dom Dal Bello. Only a dozen guys from Company G, to which we were assigned, had arrived by this time so we had not missed any activities by "camping" at the Comfort Inn the night before. Our first stop after reporting in was to the AoP's sutler impressionist. We traded our pay for chits. All sorts of "period-correct" items were available to fulfill our needs, including lemon drops, cookies, journals, stationary, pencils, candles and elixirs, among other things. It sure did buoy our well-traveled spirits and added much to the campaign.
The men who fall in to create the AoP have an esteemed reputation and it's easy to see why. There was plenty of guard duty to keep the soldier's idle hands occupied. The rations issued throughout the campaign included salted beef, potato, onion, hardtack, raisins, canned peaches, canned tomatoes, and peanuts. Water was plentiful and brought up to the men by wagon and horse. Suffice to say we were well-provisioned.
Captain Matt Woodburn (GHTI)) was our company commander and enjoyed the respect of all of the men, and it was easy to see why he received this commission. Company G also had the good fortune to have the service of knowledgeable, experienced non-commissioned officers, including Orderly Sgt. John Duffer and Sgt. Brian Hicks. Our lieutenant was the exuberant young Nate Petersburg. Lt. Petersburg was the envy of all with his resplendent uniform. He is a soldier that ably assisted the captain and was well liked by his underlings.
One of the few disappointments emanating from this fine group was in the poor manner in which they stacked arms; at points it became comical. One would think with all the bayonet twisting and turning that stacking and unstacking arms was an activity never heretofore seen. Indeed, it was done enough times during this campaign alone that a large number of the Jonahs should have caught on, but they never did. Rumor has it that these men adopted the "Kentucky Swing" from Hardee's manual earlier in their training and the switch to the Silas Casey's method espoused by Silas Casey caused much distress. Sadly, Corporal Harry's ramrod became a casualty of this farcical affair. One : one of the boys entangled his bayonet metal band on Harry's aforementioned bayonet's locking ring on Harry's rammer. Before and, before our curmudgeonly corporal could take the appropriate action, this particular Jonah extricated his piece with enough force and determination to bend the ramrod all to hell. When the offender attempted to correct the error by bending it back, it snapped off in front of Harry's face. , and Happy Harry was not amused. Unfortunately our poor Jonah never did the right thing by offering to make reparations for the damage he inflicted upon the brevetted corporal's thin rod.
The only other note of distress regarding this otherwise enviable cadre of soldiers was their penchant for non-stop "modern" talk. If I might speak freely, kind sirs, I am not of the school of thought at this point in my service that desires to speak "period" for the entire duration of a campaign. However; however, it was obvious that there was a conscious decision not to engage in appropriate conversation at any point during the event except for the battles. Aside from these small points, one could not ask to serve with better men.
Later on the first Friday afternoon of the campaign, the AoP, in connection with the rest of the Federal forces, was ordered to the front where it formed a line of battle to engage the enemy. The AoP formed the center of the line and other brigades supported our flanks. At this time skirmishers from an unknown regiment engaged the enemy in our front and soon fell back. Our line advanced to the middle of the field to bring the "fight" to our foes. in a re-creation of the battle of Spring Hill.
The officers and men behaved well. Indeed, during battle, all of the officers and men engaged in "period" commands and other excited utterances. The Captain shouted the yards at which we were to sight our rifles and directed our fire at various officers, regimental color bearers, and specific companies of Johnnies. Certain skulkers were quickly forced back in line by the bayonet. There is was no question that our gallant commanders rose to the occasion when the smell of burnt powder hung in the air! Once we drove back the enemy, the line retired in splendid order.
Following the battle, we marched a couple of miles to a position that would become our home for the night. There, we bivouacked in line of battle along side recently dug trenches that were to protect us from the anticipated and expected assault. With thanks Thanks to a Divine Providence, a nighttime attack failed to materialize. The evening was cool and dry and as a result, shelter proved was unnecessary.
On the Saturday morning of, October 2, the Rebs' attack finally came, but with our well-prepared earthworks, it met with little success. I felt somewhat sorry for them for, because they looked splendid marching through the early morning fog that hung close to the ground. Their silhouetted forms approaching our lines were magnificent. But but, in the end, the protection afforded by Mother Earth provided sufficient cover for us to beat them back. The fact that an ambulance had to rush onto the field to attend to one of the enemy's involuntarily dismounted cavalrymen helped quell the fight too.
After that battle, we marched back to the site of the Friday battle where, on a different part of the huge field (it was a large piece of land), Company G took up a position in some entrenchments that somebody was kind enough to digelse kindly dug for us. Idle because idle hands are the Devil's workshop and our officers are not Satanists, we were ordered to improve on them all afternoon. I took my turn with the shovel and pick and had a fine time of it. We added tree limbs and fortified the outer wall. Around this time we were also given our daily rations issue at this time. It; it was similar fare to the previous issue yesterday's grub but included some of the aforementioned peaches. What a treat!
Later that afternoon, the Secesh came on at us again to re-create the battle of Franklin. Unlike our previous engagements with our foe, this particular battle was a much larger affair that lasted for what seemed to be ages. Company G had so many men for our small area of earthworks that we pulled a page from our enemy's book at Fredericksburg. One, where one man would load and handloaded and handed the rifle to the soldier in front and he would fire. That way we kept up a steady fire that chilled even the stoutest Reb. A couple of the traitors made it to the trenches but we quickly captured them.
I went through more cartridges at in this engagement than I had in any of the previous events of the past year combined. Our company held fast but some of our chums further down the line took the brunt of the attack and hand-to-hand combat ensued. Most of the company tried to help our distressed comrades but I saw it as utter folly and attempted to get assistance from the rear. Woefully, my good-faith retreat met the sole of Lt. Petersburg's finely crafted boot and with a less-than-gentle push back into the entrenchments, I had a change of heart and went to help my brothers-in-arms. Near the end of the interminable battle, one of our brave lads secured the regimental colors of our foe! It was a joy to behold.
But as seems typical at these larger affairs, my eyes saw many strange occurrences. There were plenty of dismounted cavalry with no horses in sight, troops that resembled the gentler sex, interesting firing distances, and, again with thanks to Our Protector, very few casualties for what was a long, heated engagement.
When battle was finally done, we were told to march to the next bivouac site. Knowing these works were going to be occupied by the traitors Secesh after we left,. But Orderly Sgt. Duffer had the presence of mind to give the order to urinate in the trenches. Being dutiful soldiers and with an order being an order after all, the men lined up and quickly commenced urination. complied. We had some trash left over from the rations issue, so we tossed that in the trench for good measure as well. It was a gift I'm sure our vaunted foe will not soon forget.
Our final destination was a field tucked in a wooded hamlet. It was a handsome spot to bivouac as it was removed from any type of "modern" distraction.
Paul, Jay, and I had to do some guard duty on Saturday night. What a pretty sight it was to look over the scene of the campfires and hearing the hushed tones of conversations among the weary men. Corporal Harry, of course, missed out on this lovely "moment." With his usual knack for knowing certain people, he shirked guard duty because he had a pass to go into town. He attended some type of meeting for "bricklayers." Most or "masons" or something - most curious! He ended up staying in town and thus avoided sleeping out on a night that was clear and starry but awfully cold. I slept beautifully though as, however, because I had never managed to hang on to my overcoat during the campaign. I didn't didn't have to use it until early hours of the morning and even then just used it as a cover. My it was needed only as an extra blanket. While my back didn't enjoy carrying the extra load but, the rest of my toasty body was singing my praises for that overcoat around 3 a.m.!
After our missing corporal arrived back in camp from his excursion, our little mess left at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning, the Third3rd of October, for an extended leave-of-absence back furlough home. We used Paul's horseless carriage to get home and ended up traveling straight on through the night. I arrived back in "Little Rhody" at 4:30 a.m. on Monday after dropping Harry off Harry in New Jersey. That gave, giving me all day of Monday to sleep and relax. Paul had a further three -hour ride to Maine but made it home safely and without incident.
On the ride back, our little mess gave the event a rating from 1-10 and the consensus was of 8. on a scale of 1 to 10. We all had a great time and properly discharged our duties in a manner we felt was fitting for those who represent Columbia. and her Rifles. The experience of going out ""west"" was definitely worth it, but the private found that it was strangely akin to doing a Recon-like event at Cedar Creek. Be that as it may, Tennessee is some of the most handsome land anywhere and its kinfolk were found to be first rate, our comrades in Company G were great fellows.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
Michael Jolin
Mike Jolin is a member of the Columbia
Rifles from Rhode Island