In honor of the 161st anniversary of Hood’s push into Lawrence County, please enjoy these stories told by men who was present with the army during the action, in their own words.

Robert L. Morris was part of the cavalry screen for the easternmost column of Hood’s army as it pushed into Lawrence County, which traveled the Military Road directly to Lawrenceburg. Writing in the ‘Military Annals of Tennessee’ about twenty years after the War, he recalled the fighting faced by his 21st Tennessee Cavalry outside of Lawrenceburg:

“About the 21st of November found the regiment, still in the van, encamped for the night within five miles of Lawrenceburg. Early next morning, about daylight, Capt. Withers, with a picked body of men, numbering about twenty-five, went forward to drive in the pickets and feel of the enemy in the town of Lawrenceburg, as they were thought to be in considerable force there.

The pickets were driven in, and the town found to be alive with the enemy, to the number of four or five thousand, in command of Gen. Hatch. A courier was dispatched to Col. Hill with the information, and position was taken by Wither and his little command on a hill overlooking Lawrenceburg and across the road leading south.

In a little while a pretty heavy skirmish line was put forward by the enemy, when, falling still farther back, a better position was obtained by Capt. Withers where the road led up a narrow valley. Word was here received from Col. Hill that Jackson’s division was yet several miles in the rear; that he was fortifying with rails, and for him (Withers) to check the advance of the enemy if possible.

It was soon discovered that the Federals were making a reconnaissance in force, as they approached in pretty solid column, with their flanks well extended. Waiting until they were well in the narrow valley and had begun the ascent of the hill, the command to charge was given, and, spurring their horses, the little band boldly struck the head of the column, and penetrated some distance into their lines.

For a few minutes a desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued. Turning, the company made its way out with the loss of only one man, but nearly every horse was more or less badly wounded. Several of the Federals were slain. The Confederate killed in this encounter was Mac Halfacre, of Co. F, recently transferred from the signal corps–a brave and gallant soldier.

The attack was sufficient to check the advance of the enemy, and they retired to Lawrenceburg. With the appearance of Jackson his artillery was favorably stationed and fire opened on the town. In the afternoon, with the troops dismounted, an assault was made. The Twenty-first Tennessee and Twenty-eighth Mississippi, occupying the center of the line, bore the brunt of the engagement. So swiftly and hardly were the enemy pressed that their camp was taken and a good deal of valuable material and much-needed rations captured.”

Among the men near the rear of the central column was Sgt. Edmund T. Eggleston of the First Mississippi Artillery. Eggleston kept a diary of the army’s movements. On November 22, he remarked that he and his men entered Tennessee in the evening.

“Tuesd 22d

Marched at 11 A.M. in a snow storm, our teams are nearly used up. Made 15 miles by 11 o’clock P.M. with some of the pieces but one or two did not get up until 4 A.M. We suffered very much with the cold but it was clear and our sufferings would have been greater had it been windy & snowy.”