Was General Thomas Slow at Nashville? / With a Description of the Greatest Cavalry Movement of the War and General James H. Wilson's Cavalry Operations in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia

by Henry V. Boynton

THE ATTACK ON HOOD.

The developments of the battle, the energy and success of the pursuit, and the marvelous results of the whole, namely, the virtual destruction of a veteran army, reveal at every step what General Thomas had in mind when he insisted upon waiting till he could remount his cavalry.

In no other battle of the war did cavalry play such a prominent part as in that of Nashville. In no other pursuit did it so distinguish itself. Students of the movement will find themselves constantly questioning, as their investigations proceed, whether, with the force of infantry which General Thomas had been able to gather, Hood could have been driven from his position in front of Nashville without the co-operation of the cavalry. Had Thomas been obliged to fight without it, as the authorities at City Point and Washington tried to compel him to do, it is no reflection upon his infantry to say that there is ground for serious doubt as to the result. Hood was intrenched on strong ground. His positions were commanding. The infantry force against him was not sufficient in numbers and experience to make up for the usual difference due to field works placed as Hood’s were and manned by veterans. Unquestionably Wilson’s cavalry was the dominating and controlling element of the battle. To say this does not detract from the distinguished infantry generals or their excellent and brilliant work. But General Thomas’s plan turned on cavalry work as its directrix. His consultations with General Wilson had been exhaustive. That officer was charged with reorganizing, remounting, and refitting a great cavalry force, even as Thomas was organizing a new army—under fire. There had been nothing like either of those herculean tasks in any campaign.

Many officers have organized and built up an effective cavalry force in times of rest and peace, but no one except General Wilson ever did it in the heat and hurry of a desperate midwinter campaign. And he could not have succeeded, nor could any man have accomplished it, in the face of the interferences which were attempted, but for the protection and support of the peerless and imperturbable Thomas.

When General Thomas felt himself to be ready, or so nearly ready that he believed success attainable, he delivered the battle of Nashville. In his whole career he had never struck a blow till he felt himself ready. He looked upon the lives of his soldiers as a sacred trust, not to be carelessly imperiled. Whenever he moved to battle, it was certain that everything had been done that prudence, deliberation, thought, and cool judgment could do under surrounding circumstances to insure success commensurate with the cost of the lives of men. And so it came to pass that when the war ended it could be truthfully written of Thomas alone that he never lost a movement or a battle.

It was an unprecedented array for attack. The inner lines about the city were held by quartermasters’ employees. Half the outer, or main line, was manned mostly by convalescents and new troops; the other, or right of this line, was occupied by General A. J. Smith’s division. Steedman’s provisional division and his two colored brigades were on the extreme left of the front, and opened the battle. The order of infantry in the line from right to left was Smith’s Corps (Thirteenth), Wood’s Corps (Fourth), Schofield’s Corps (Twenty-third), and Steedman’s troops.