Hammond, in his report, says: "During this campaign I have had continual occasion to admire the bravery of both officers and men, and to lament want of discipline." The discipline of our regiment was fairly good; the officers, as a rule, had the respect and confidence of their men, who yielded prompt obedience to all orders. Gen. Hammond never issued an order, either in battle, on the march or in camp, that we did not try to obey, whatever we may have thought of the wisdom of it.
It is the deliberate opinion of the writer, after twenty years' experience with all sorts of people, that no finer body of men ever lived than served together in the 9th Indiana Cavalry, and certain it is no braver soldiers ever marched to battle.
Map of battle, December 1, 1861.
THE NINTH AT FRANKLIN.
Those who were present will admit that Capt. Hayden's account of the 9th at Franklin is but a conservative statement of the facts. On the day after the fight, while we were all feeling very well satisfied with ourselves and the part the regiment had taken in the affair, I wrote a letter to the Cincinnati Commercial, which was published in its issue of December 29, 1864. I think it sufficiently pertinent to justify the insertion of the greater part of it.
D. W. C.
Camp of the 9th Indiana Cavalry,
Near Franklin, Tennessee, December 18, 1864.
It is a lamentable fact, that, for some reason as yet ungiven, the cavalry arm of our service has not, until quite recently, been distinguished for any special efficiency. Its connection, however, with the late brilliant victories in the Shenandoah Valley, have won for it at least the respect of the country, and caused the withdrawal of Major General Hooker's standing offer of twenty dollars for a dead cavalryman of the Potomac Army. In the West this branch of the army, as your readers are aware, has been organized into the corps of the Military Division of the Mississippi, under command of Brevet Major General Wilson, whose dash and splendid abilities, while eminently fitting him for the responsible position he holds, have fully warranted his promotion from Lieutenant Colonel to his present rank. The late complete successes of his command are evinced in those sure and substantial evidences of victory—prisoners, battle-flags and guns; and in this department no corps can show more of them than the cavalry.
While all the troops in this command have behaved with credit to themselves and honor to the cause in which they fight, for pluck, coolness and promptness in the hour that tests men's courage, among all the regiments taking part in the late move in front of Nashville, the 9th Indiana Cavalry of brigadier General Hammond's brigade, is worthy of special and honorable mention, and, particularly, its splendid charge upon the works and forces of the enemy at Franklin yesterday—an exploit unsurpassed by anything written of the war, and compared to which in point of success, Major Zagonyi's celebrated charge at Springfield, which created such a sensation at the beginning of the war, and interested the principal artists of the country in the face of a homely but ordinary man, becomes tame and unimportant. Some five hundred yards, over undulating grounds, made miry by recent rains, from the advance, (9th Indiana Cavalry, Colonel George W. Jackson commanding), of Hammond's brigade, and upon the north side of Big Harpeth river was a section of a battery, supported by two regiments of infantry, strongly entrenched behind abatis and rifle-pits; in front of them a regiment of cavalry drawn up to receive a charge. On the south side of the river four guns were so planted as to enfilade the road. Filing and forming to the right and left of the road, with a coolness, which seemed utterly regardless of the terrible accuracy with which the rebel guns were aimed, while their shells were mangling horses and their riders, the men seated themselves more firmly in their saddles, tightened the reins, and "looked on sky and tree and plain" as sights they might never see again. Led in person by Colonel Jackson, in a line which would have awakened the admiration of Old Hardee himself, the 9th, at a walk, advanced to victory—many of them, alas, to death. From a walk to a trot, from a trot to a gallop, the short distance of five hundred yards was soon traversed, and the Hoosier boys measured arms with the chivalry from Georgia, Alabama and Texas. Overwhelmed by the celerity and boldness of the movement, many of the enemy were sabered and captured before they had fairly entered into the spirit of the fight. Before the impetuous Jackson three men in gray fell in less time than it takes now to tell it. A little Sergeant from Company K, George Leslie, with no weapon but his sabre, took from their gun a Lieutenant and artilleryman.