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In
the winter of 1864, while Sherman was
marching his army toward the sea, raiding
parties and expeditions were sent out from
the several departments to intercept rebel
communications, destroy telegraph lines,
railroads and stores ; in nearly all of
which Phalanx troops actively participated,
and shared the perils and honors of the
achievements.
From Vicksburg, Miss., Brevet Brigadier-General E.
D. Osband, with the Third Phalanx
Regiment, on the 27th of November captured
and destroyed the Mississippi Central
Railroad bridge over the Big Black River,
near Canton, also thirty miles of the
railroad, with two locomotives and a large
amount of stores.
In the meantime, General Breckenridge, with a large
confederate force, attacked the Federals
under General Gillem, near
Morristown, Tenn., captured the artillery,
with several hundred men, and drove the
remainder of Gillem's troops into
Knoxville. Breckenridge soon retired,
however, pursued by General
Ammen's forces. On the 12th of
December, General Stoneman
having concentrated the commands of
Generals Burbridge and Gillem,
near Bean Station, Tenn., started in pursuit
of Breckenridge intending to drive him into
Virginia and to destroy the railroad and
Salt Works at Saltville, "West Virginia.
General Burbridge's command
was principally composed of Kentucky troops,
three brigades, numbering about five
thousand men, all mounted. The 6th
Phalanx Cavalry
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SERVING REFRESHMENTS TO UNION TROOPS
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was attached to the 3rd brigade, which
Colonel Jas. F. Wade, of the 6th,
commanded. Gillem's defeat rather
inspired the men in the new column, and they
dashed forward with a determination to
annihilate the enemy. Four days after
leaving Bean Station, the confederates were
overtaken at Marion, General
Vaughn being in command, and were
routed, the Federals capturing all their
guns, trains and a number of prisoners.
Vaughn fell back to Wytheville,
pursued by the Federals, who captured and
destroyed the town, with its stores and
supplies and the extensive lead mines.
Having accomplished their mission, the Federals about
faced for Marion, where they met with a
large force of confederates under
Breckenridge, including the garrison of
Saltville. Now came the decisive
struggle for the Salt Works between the two
forces. The Federals had been enjoying
their signal victory, which they now
attempted to enhance by pressing the enemy,
who had crossed a bridge and there taken up
a position. During the night an
advance regiment succeeded in crossing the
bridge, after re-laying the planks which the
confederates had torn up, but they were
driven back , and there remained till the
next morning. The 6th Phalanx was
assigned its usual position, and was held in
reserve. The battle opened in the
morning, and continued with varying success
during the day. Late in the afternoon
General Stoneman found his troops badly
beaten, and unable to extricate them selves
from the confederate coil; they were not the
"Old Guard," and the question with them was
not "victory or death," but surrender or
death. Nor was this long a question.
General Stoneman ordered up
the 6th Phalanx, dividing them into three
columns, placing himself at the head of one,
and giving one each to Colonel
Wade, (their valiant colonel), and his
chief of staff, General Brisbin.
The regiment dashed into the light for the
rescue of the pro-slavery Kentuckians and
haughty Tennesseeians, who were now
nearly annihilated. The historian of
this campaign, General Brisbin,
who but a day or two previous to this battle
had attempted to shoot one of the brave
black
[Pg. 310]
boys of the 6th for retaliating for the
murder of one of his comrades by shooting a
confederate prisoner, thus writes,
twenty-two years afterwards, about the
battle and the conduct of the 6th:
"Early in the day General Stoneman
had sent General Gillem off to
the right with orders to get in
Breckeuridge's rear and if possible cut
him off from the salt works. It
was believed the Kentucky troops could
handle Breckenridge until Gillem
could strike in the rear, but the action in
front about noon became terrific and
Gillem was recalled to aid Burbridge.
Our right flank had been driven back and our
extreme left was almost at right angles with
the original position held early in the
morning. To add to our misfortunes, a
party of Confederate cavalry had got in our
rear and captured some of our pack train.
The packers had at one time become
demoralized and fell back almost into the
hands of the Confederates operating in our
rear. General Burbridge
saw the movement, and drawing his revolver
placed himself in front of the leading packs
and ordered them back, but the crazy men
kept on until the General wounded the man
who was leading them off, and with the aid
of some officers who used their sabres
freely, the packs were forced back into the
timber close to our lines and compelled to
stay there. Thus over five hundred
packs and animals were saved to the army by
the prompt action of the General and his
aids.
"At 3:30 o'clock the situation was critical in the
extreme. Colonel Boyle had been
killed in leading a charge and his regiment
repulsed. The Twelfth Ohio Cavalry had
promptly come to Boyle's support and
checked the confederates, who were coming
into our centre. The hospital in our
rear, where our sick were, had been charged,
and for a short time was in the hands of the
enemy. Burbridge and
Stoneman had their headquarters on a
little knoll near the centre of our line,
where they could see the fighting. The
Confederate right, in swinging around, had
covered this hill and it was no longer
tenable. A lieutenant, in reporting to
General Burbridge on this
knoll, had been shot by a Confederate
rifleman through the head and fell dead at
the General's feet. Orderlies, horses and
men were being shot down, and I begged
General Burbridge to retire.
He asked me if there were no more troops we
could bring up and put into action. I
told him all we had left was the Sixth
United States Colored Cavalry and the
horse-holders. He said:
"'Well, go and bring up the negroes and tell everybody
to tie the horses as well as they can.
We might as well lose them as to be whipped,
when we will lose them anyway.'
"I made haste to bring up the Sixth Colored
and all the horse-holders I could get.
The Sixth Colored was a fine regiment, but
few had faith in the fighting qualities of
the negroes. General
Burbridge divided them into three
columns, and taking one himself gave the
other two to General Wade and
myself. Wade had the right,
Burbridge the left and I was in the
centre. Wade got off first and
sailed in in gallant style.
[Pg. 311]
Burbridge piled his overcoat on the
ground, and drawing his sword led his column
forward. The men were all on foot and
most of the officers. But few were
mounted. It was unpleasant riding
under fire where so many were on foot.
Wade's horse was soon shot, but he
kept on with his men, leading on foot.
Looking to the left I saw Burbridge
surrounded by a black crowd of men, his form
towering above them and his sword pointing
to the enemy. Wade was first to strike
the Confederate line. They fired and
fired, but the darkies kept straight on,
closing for a hand-to-hand fight. Then
the cry was raised along the Confederate
lines that the negroes were killing the
wounded. Wade went through the
Confederate line like an iron wedge, and it
broke and fled. Burbridge hit
hard, but the resistence was less stubborn
than in Wade's front. Of my own
part in the action I prefer not to write.
Suffice it to say that never did soldiers do
better on any battle-field than the black
men I led that day.
"When their guns were empty they clubbed them, and I
saw one negro fighting with a gun barrel,
swinging it about his head like a club, and
going straight for the enemy. He did
not hit anybody for nobody waited to be hit,
but some of the Confederates jumped fully
fifteen feet down the opposite side of that
hill to get out of the way of the negroes,
and I would have jumped too, probably, if I
had been on their side, for I never yet saw
anything in battle so terrible as an
infuriated negro.
"Gillem returned just as night was putting an
end to the fighting and in the approaching
darkness we mistook his column for a new
column of the enemy coming in on our right
and rear. Burbridge hurried
back with his victorious negroes and was
about to advance with the Twelfth Ohio
Cavalry and Eleventh Michigan, when the glad
news came that the supposed Confederates
were Gillem's column returning to our
support.
"During the night Breckenridge retreated in the
direction of the salt works, but Colonel
Buckley, returning from the direction
of the lead mines with his brigade, and
having got in Breckenridge's rear at Seven
Mile Ford, charged his advance, capturing
ten prisoners. Breckenridge, no
doubt thinking he had been outflanked and
was about to be enclosed between two
columns, abandoned all idea of going to the
salt works and put back in confusion to
Marion, where he took the North Carolina
road and fled over the mountains.
Colonel, Bentley, with his
Twelfth Ohio, was sent up with
Breckenridge's rear. The
Confederates felled trees across the road to
retard Bentley's advance, but he
cleared them out and he and his gallant
regiment hammered Breckenridge's rear
all the way into North Carolina."
The road to the Salt Works was thus opened and their
destruction accomplished by the bravery and
matchless
valor of the gallent Sixth.
Many of the regiment forfeited their lives
in rescuing the force from defeat, and
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securing a victory; those who survived the
terrible struggle no longer had opprobrious
epithets hurled at them, but modestly
received the just encomiums that were
showered upon them by the white troops, who,
amid the huzzas of victory, greeted them
with loud shouts of "Comrades!"
General Brisbin, continuing, says:
"There were many instances of personal
bravery, but I shall only mention one.
A negro soldier had got a stump quite close
to the Confederate line, and despite all
efforts to dislodge him, there he stuck,
picking off their men. The
Confederates charged the stump, but the
Federal line observing it concentrated their
fire on the advancing men and drove them
back. Then there were long and loud
cheers for the brave darkey, who stuck to
his stump and fired away with a regularity
that was wonderful. His stump was
riddled with bullets, but he stuck to it,
although he was at times nearer the
Confederate lines than our own."
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