Personal record of the Thirteenth Regiment, Tennessee Infantry

by Alfred J. Vaughan

J. P. Farrow and Wm. J. Dunlap were the first men in the regiment who yielded their young lives in battle to the Confederate cause, and were killed by the first volley of the enemy's fire.

Early in action Colonel John V. Wright was painfully injured in the knee by the fall of his horse which was shot under him. I, who then took command of the regiment, had two horses shot under me: the first at the very commencement of the engagement; the second (which had been cut out of Watson's Battery after its men had been driven from their guns) was shot just as I reached the river bank.

Never did men display more heroic courage and deport themselves in a more soldierlike manner, and while it is impossible in this brief sketch to refer to all the acts of devotion and fidelity to the Southern cause performed by the officers and men of this regiment, Lieutenant Matthew Rhea certainly deserves special mention. As soon as the regiment took position in line of battle, in command of his company (A) he was sent to the extreme left of our line with instruction to extend his line to the river, which he did. By some means the enemy got in between him and the regiment, thus cutting him off. Though surrounded he continued to fight, and rather than surrender his sword, which had been worthily worn by his grandfather, he fell at the hands of the enemy. A braver, truer or more faithful officer never fought for any cause.

About this time, if not on the very day of the battle of Belmont, Colonel John V. Wright was elected to the Confederate Congress, and resigned his position as Colonel of the regiment. No man ever stood higher in the estimation of his soldiers or was more beloved by them.

Upon the resignation of Colonel Wright I was unanimously elected Colonel of the regiment. I was a disciplinarian while on duty of the strictest school, which for the first months of the war made me very unpopular with volunteer soldiers, but only one fight was necessary to satisfy them that an undisciplined army was nothing more than an armed mob. Adjutant W. E. Morgan was now elected Lieutenant-Colonel, and Lieutenant Richard M. Harwell of Company E was appointed Adjutant.

After the battle of Belmont and while at Columbus, Ky., the measles broke out in the regiment, and it was a matter of surprise that there should be so many grown men who had never had the measles. So many were down at one time that there were scarcely enough well ones to wait on the sick, and many died.

Early in the spring it became necessary to move our lines further south, and Columbus was evacuated March 12, 1862. The Thirteenth was ordered to Union City, and four days later to Corinth, Miss., where it arrived March 19, 1862. Before leaving Columbus, however, there had been some changes made in the command. General B. F. Cheatham had been promoted to a division commander, and the Thirteenth was assigned to Colonel R. M. Russell's Brigade, General Chas. Clark's Division. In this brigade and division the regiment remained until after the battle of Shiloh.

About this time the enemy was known to be landing and concentrating a large force at Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee river. It was determined by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, who had been placed in command, to give battle; so on the 3rd of April, 1862, the regiment, with the whole army, was moved toward the point of attack, but heavy rains and bad roads prevented forming line of battle until the evening of the 5th of April. That night a council of war was held, and though some officers were opposed, an attack was determined upon.

On the morning of the 6th, just as the sun in all its splendor was rising above the horizon, and while in the second line of battle, General Clark rode up to us and stated that Marks' Louisiana Regiment had been repulsed, and asked, "Can you take that battery yonder, which is annoying our troops so much?" Having such unlimited confidence in the Thirteenth, I replied, "We can take it." Whereupon the regiment was moved by the right flank, under cover of a hill, until in proper position, and then fronted the battery and advanced rapidly up the hill. All was well until the crest of the hill was reached, when the enemy opened fire with canister, grape and musketry, which was so severe that it literally tore the regiment in two. But, though, for a moment checked, nothing daunted, our officers and men gallantly stood their ground, and poured into the ranks of the enemy such deadly volleys as to cause them to waver, and then with the "rebel yell" rushed so impetuously upon them that they could no longer stand, precipitately fleeing and leaving battery and dead and wounded on the field.

This was indeed a brilliant charge, and only equaled on that battlefield by the charge made shortly afterward by that magnificent regiment, the Fourth Tennessee. But the loss to the regiment was terrible; some of Tennessee's best blood was shed here, and many a noble spirit sank to rise no more.