The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 22, July 1918 - April, 1919 Page: 74

The Southwestern Historical Quarterly

hurt?" He said, "I think I am." I said, "I will excuse you
now. You can retire and my men will stay here without you."
So I sent him off with a man to help him if he needed help.
This ball shivered his left arm just below the shoulder joint and
had to be taken off at the shoulder to save his life. He was shot
out of service, but he demonstrated to his comrades in arms what
true bravery could accomplish. I met this brave hero many years
after in Coleman, Texas. He had studied medicine after the war
and made a success in that profession. A while after Beaumont
was sent to the rear, the Colonel sent me word to withdraw my
company and fall back to my position. This ended the fighting
for the day, and that night, after viewing the enemy's encamp-
ments with Company F, trying as best I could to make an esti-
mate of their numbers and reporting the same to the Colonel, we
rested.
The regiment moved to Murfreesboro where two armies were
rapidly gathering for one of the great battles of the Civil War.
Just whether we moved that night, or fell back gradually as the
enemy advanced to Murfreesboro I cannot now recall, but on the
first day of January, 1863, brigade skirmish line was formed from
our brigade and I was ordered to take charge of this line. The
men were placed in line ten feet apart on foot in one side of an
old field grown ulp in long weeds about as high as a man's head.
The enemy were in the other side of the same field. Our skirm-
ishers were armed with rifles or muskets for the occasion. I was
told to keep the men to their places so there would be no weak
spot and no bunching of our men on the line, to keep them
firing continually, etc., etc. As I rode along that long line of
men-I was the only man on horseback in that line--I saw that
Bill Simpson of Company F was about two feet, or three feet at
the most, from a high poplar stump in line with the men, so I
said, "Bill, take the stump. There it is but a little ways from
your place and it may save your life or your limbs." He
looked up. at me and said, "I thank you, I am doing very well
here," and refused to use it. These two lines of skirmishers were
in what was afterward known as the left flank of our army dur-
ing the battle and as far as I am able to tell now this was the
beginning of that great battle.
We were relieved after a while by some infantry and we re-