Posted on 01/20/2003 5:39:50 AM PST by SAMWolf
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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After the battle of Franklin on Nov. 30, Maj.Gen. George H. Thomas, commanding at Nashville ordered Gen. Schofield to fall back to that city, where Thomas had been industriously engaged for some time in collecting an army of sufficient strength to drive the Confederate forces under Gen. Hood out of the State of Tennessee. Gen. A. J. Smith, with three divisions of the Army of the Tennessee, had been expected to arrive from Missouri in time to reinforce Schofield at Franklin, but he did not reach Nashville until the last day of November. Hood's army was organized as follows:
Nashville is situated on the south side of the Cumberland river. In December, 1864, several turnpike roads radiated from the city between the southeast and southwest, all running through a country somewhat broken. Six miles due south are the Brentwood hills, along the east side of which ran the Franklin pike, while the Hillsboro pike ran along the western base. Two creeks rise in these hills, their sources being less than a mile apart. Brown's creek flows northeast, emptying into the Cumberland above the city, and Richland creek flows northwest into the river some distance below. Along the ridge between the two streams ran the Granny White pike. The Nolensville pike entered the cite from the southeast, crossing Brown's creek not far from the Chattanooga railroad, while north of the railroad, and between it and the river, ran the Murfreesboro, Chicken and Lebanon pikes. Another range of hills near the city had been fortified by order of Thomas. Hood followed Schofield from Franklin and during the afternoon of Dec. 2, his cavalry engaged the Union skirmishers in front of Nashville. The next day the whole Confederate force appeared, the Federal skirmishers were crowded back, and Hood proceeded to form his main line on the hills immediately south of the Union fortifications. The morning of the 4th found his salient on Montgomery hill, within 600 yards of the Union works. Cheatham's corps on the right occupied a position behind Brown's creek, extending from the railroad to the Franklin pike , Stewart's corps formed the center and lay across the Granny White pike, while Smith's corps on the left extended the line to the Hillsboro pike. From there to the river below, across the Hardin and Charlotte pikes, and from Cheatham's right to the river above the cavalry was posted. Having taken this position Hood did not attack the works in front of the city, but spent several days in reducing some of the smaller outlying garrisons and blockhouses along the railroad. This gave Thomas time to complete his preparations, to mount and equip his cavalry and thoroughly organize his troops. Gen. Grant in Virginia and the authorities at Washington grew impatient at the delay, fearing that Hood would eventually elude Thomas' pass round Nashville, and invade Kentucky as Bragg had done in the summer of 1862. But Thomas was guarding the fords and bridges with his cavalry, and the gunboats of Fitch's squadron were patrolling the river above and below the city. Gen. Lyon, with a detachment of Confederate cavalry, did succeed in crossing at Clarksville on the 9th with a view to destroying the Louisville & Nashville railroad, but Thomas despatched Gen. E. M. McCook, with two brigades of the 1st cavalry division, to look after Lyon, so that the latter's expedition proved fruitless. Grant, however, was of the opinion that Thomas should have given battle before the enemy had time to recover from the blow received at Franklin, and on Dec. 2, he telegraphed Thomas to leave the defenses of Nashville to Donaldson's division and attack Hood at once. Although this telegram was not an official order, its language was scarcely less imperative, but Thomas was so anxious to increase his force of cavalry, and so certain that he could do so within a few days, he decided to wait until he could attack with every assurance of success. In reply to Grant's telegrams Thomas said: "I now have infantry enough to assume the offensive, if I had more cavalry, and will take the field anyhow as soon as the remainder of Gen. McCook's division of cavalry reaches here, which I hope will be in two or three days. We can get neither reinforcements nor equipments at this great distance from the North very easily, and it must be remembered that my command was made up of the two weakest corps of Gen. Sherman's army, and all the dismounted cavalry except one brigade, and the task of reorganizing and equipping has met with many delays, which have enabled Hood to take advantage of my crippled condition. I earnestly hope, however, in a few more days I shall be able to give him a fight." This explanation was evidently not satisfactory, either to Grant or to Sec. of War Stanton, and Thomas was again urged to attack the enemy in his front. It was a case of the man at the desk a thousand miles away trying to direct the operations of the man in the field. The record of Thomas at Mill Springs and Chickamauga ought to have been a sufficient guarantee of his ability to command an army or to plan a campaign, yet that record availed him nothing now, when the secretary of war and the lieutenant- general of the Federal armies were "spoiling for a fight." On the 6th Grant sent another telegram to Thomas, directing him to attack at once, and to wait no longer to remount his cavalry. To this Thomas replied that he would make the necessary dispo- sition and attack, "agreeably to your orders, though I believe it will be hazardous with the small force of cavalry now at my command." This elicited a sarcastic telegram from Stanton to Grant, in which he said: "Thomas seems unwilling to attack because it is hazardous, as if all war was any but hazardous. If he waits for Wilson to get ready, Gabriel will be blowing his last horn." To such sneers as this the hero of Chickamauga paid no at tention but went quietly ahead completing his arrangements for a battle that was to forever destroy the usefulness of Hood's army as a factor in the War of the Rebellion. By the 9th he was ready to attack, but a severe storm came on, covering the ground with a thick coating of sleet, over which it was impos- sible to move troops with that celerity so essential to success in making an assault on an enemy. On the 9th Gen. Halleck telegraphed him as follows: "Lieut.-Gen. Grant expresses much dissatisfaction at your delay in attacking the enemy." To this Thomas replied: "I feel conscious I have done everything in my power, and that the troops could not have been gotten ready before this. If Gen. Grant should order me to be relieved, I will submit without a murmur." He seems to have had a premonition of what was about to occur, for on the same day Grant asked the war department to relieve Thomas and turn over the command of the army at Nashville to Schofield. When notice of this order was received at Nashville, Thomas called a council of his corps commanders and asked their advice, informing them that he was ordered to give battle immediately or surrender his command. The council was unanimous in the opinion that it was impracticable to make any attack until the ice should melt. The order relieving Thomas was then suspended, but on the 13th Grant again became impatient and ordered Gen. Logan to proceed at once to Nashville, and the next day started for that place himself to assume command of the army in person.
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Arkancide was the first thing I thought, too...I wouldn't be at all surprised to read the news in a few weeks or months only to learn that "Scott Ritter, horrifically shamed by his pedophilia and the mean-spirited RightWingChristianConservativeOnslaught, tragically took his own life. Authorities ruled out foul play as the bullet-riddled body was cremated on orders of Attorney General Ashcroft!!"
LOL...MUD
DOLLYou'll love this one too.
Today's classic warship, USS San Pablo (AVP-30)
Barnegat class seaplane tender
Displacement. 1,766
Lenght. 311'8"
Beam. 41'1"
Draft. 13'6"
Speed. 20 k.
Complement. 215
Armament. 4 5"
San Pablo (AVP-30) was laid down on 2 July 1941 by the Associated Shipbuilding Co., Seattle, Wash. Launched on 31 March 1942; sponsored by Mrs. W. A Hall; and commissioned on 15 March 1943, Comdr. R. R. Darron in command.
Following commissioning and outfitting, San Pablo conducted shakedown in the Puget Sound area and then steamed to San Diego for readiness training. On 15 June, the small seaplane tender departed the west coast and headed for the South Pacific. At Espiritu Santo, San Pablo embarked marines and deck cargo then proceeded to Noumea, New Caledonia. After offloading there, she went to Brisbane, Australia, to pick up the flight crews and aviation supplies, including spare parts and fuel, of patrol squadron VP-101; then returned to Noumea to commence operations as tender and base for "Black-Cat" (night-fighting, air-search, and reconnaissance) PBM's and PBY's.
With VP-101 and assigned crash boats, San Pablo formed Task Group 73.1 and established their seaplane base by charting the bay, setting out mooring and marker buoys, and constructing quarters for squadron personnel at nearby Honey Hollow. They also built an advanced base at Samarai, Papua, New Guinea. For the next several months, the "Black Cats" operated from these bases, preying on enemy shipping along the coasts of New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland, and in the Bismarck Sea. They inflicted great losses on inter-island barge traffic as well as to heavy shipping; harassed enemy troops with night bombing and strafing missions; conducted photo intelligence operations; provided at-sea search and rescue support for downed Army fliers and sailors of sunken vessels; and carried high ranking officers, friendly coast watchers, and native guerrilla units.
While continuously on the alert for enemy air attack, San Pablo sailors worked around the clock to fuel, repair, arm, and control the seaplanes, and to feed and care for their crews. On 9 October, she was relieved by Half Moon (AVP-26) and sailed to Brisbane for long needed repair, replenishment, and shore leave. She returned to Noumea on 20 December and resumed operations with VP-52. During January 1944, she gave direct support to the force which occupied Finschhafen, New Guinea, and helped to establish a new advance base at Langemak Bay. At times, she also tended the planes of VP-34, then flying rescue missions for the 5th AAF from Port Moresby. She once temporarily based two OS2U scout planes from Boise (CL-47).
From Langemak Bay, San Pablo's planes helped to prevent the Japanese from supplying garrisons on Rabaul and Kavieng. On 25 February, relieved again by Half Moon, San Pablo returned to Noumea for repairs alongside Dobbin (AD-3). During the work, she assisted in removing a screw from Aaron Ward (DM34) using her seaplane winch. This speeded repairs to the destroyer-minelayer and allowed her to reach Ulithi in time to prepare for the forthcoming Okinawa campaign.
By 24 March, San Pablo was conducting operations at Seeadler Harbor, Admiralty Islands, with VP-3 and VP-52 planes. They carried out night bombing missions in the Carolines and search flights by day. The pace had so quickened by the end of March that Tangier (AV-8) was brought in to help carry the load. On 13 May, they moved to Hollandia to patrol the approaches to Wake Island prior to Allied landings there. Relieved by Orca (AVP-49) on 26 May, Sun Pablo then refueled PT boats at Humboldt Bay and transported personnel and cargo between Manus Seeadler, Emirau, and Woendi. On 19 August, she commenced ASW patrols with VP-11 planes at Woendi and, during October and November, conducted ASW operations off Morotai and Hollandia. Later relieved by San Carlos (AVP-51), she moved to Anibongon Bay Leyte, to support planes conducting search missions in the Philippines.
On 8 December, San Pablo received survivors of Mahan (DD-364) who had been picked up by one of her PBM's after that destroyer had suffered three kamikaze hits and sank in Ormoc Bay. She then joined a convoy en route to Mindoro and came under severe attack by suicide planes for ten consecutive days. Most of the kamikazes were beaten off by AA fire from the convoy screen or by CAP planes. However, one hit an ammunition ship which completely disintegrated in a tremendous explosion, and another crashed into a Liberty ship and caused severe damage. On 30 December at Mindoro, a Val barely passed astern of San Pablo and crashed into Orestes (AGP-10), wounding four San Pablo men with shrapnel. On the 31st, a Betty bombed nearby Porcupine (IX-126) and then crashed into Gansevoort (DD-608). Through January and early February 1945, San Pablo made search missions in the South China Sea and along the China coast with VPB-25 and VP-33 squadrons. On 13 February, she was relieved by Tangier and returned to Leyte.
Through April, she escorted LST-777, Chestatee (AOG-49), and various merchant transports between Leyte and Palawan. She then steamed, via Morotai, to Manus. At the end of June, she moved to Samar and the Lingayen Gulf area for air search and rescue operations in the South China Sea-Formosa area. These lasted until 15 August when she received orders to cease offensive operations. On 2 September, the day of Japan's formal surrender ceremony, San Pablo was in Lingayen Gulf providing ASW patrols to cover occupation convoys bound for Japan.
San Pablo returned to Bremerton, Wash., on 17 November to prepare for inactivation. She moved to Alameda, Calif., on 25 March 1946 and remained idle until placed out of commission, in reserve, on 13 January 1947.
Following conversion to a hydrographic-survey vessel, San Pablo was recommissioned on 17 September 1948 at San Francisco, Comdr. T. E. Chambers in command. She conducted shakedown training off San Diego from 29 October to 15 November and was then ordered to report to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. San Pablo reached Portsmouth, Va., on 14 December and completed outfitting prior to sailing on 3 February 1949 in company with Rehoboth (AVP-50) for oceanographic work in the western approaches to the Mediterranean. Calling at Ponta Delgada, Azores, Plymouth England, Gibraltar, and Bermuda, she returned to Philadelphia on 18 April. During the remainder of the year, she conducted two similar cruises to survey and measure ocean currents, and, during the last made a study of the North Atlantic Drift. She included in her ports of call Scapa Flow; the Orkney Islands; Oslo, Norway; and Copenhagen, Denmark. San Pablo was redesignated AGS-30, effective 25 August 1949.
Beginning 18 January 1950, she conducted a survey of the Gulf Stream; and, from 5 to 26 June, served as Survey Headquarters Ship for a group of American and Canadian vessels engaged in broad coverage behavioral studies of that massive current. After a cruise to Casablanca, French Morocco, in July and August, she returned to the east coast of the United States to conduct survey operations between New London and Key West for the remainder of the year.
During 1951, San Pablo conducted oceanographic studies during various cruises, ranging from Scotland to the Mediterranean and along the coast in the Narragansett Bay operating area. Her tasks included making accurate profile studies of the ocean bottom for the purpose of evaluating new sonar devices. In 1952 she spent the majority of her time in the North Atlantic, and devoted the latter part of the year to training operations out of Norfolk. From 1953 through 1968 San Pablo alternated between the North Atlantic and the Caribbean conducting studies on salinity, sound reflectivity, underwater photography techniques, deep bottom core sampling, bottom profile mapping, sub surface wave phenomena, and other topics still classified. For several months during 1965, she utilized the port and docking facilities at Rosyth, Scotland, as a temporary home port, courtesy of the British Royal Navy. From 1 January to 29 May 1969, she underwent inactivation at Philadelphia.
San Pablo was decommissioned on 29 May 1969 and struck from the Navy list on 1 June. After being used by the Ocean Science Center of the Atlantic Commission, Savannah, Georgia, she was sold on 14 September 1971 to Mrs. Margo Zahardis of Vancouver, Wash.
San Pablo earned four battle stars for World War II service.
Today's classic warship post is in memory of actor Richard Crenna, who played the Command Officer of the USS San Pablo (a ficticious gunboat) in the movie "The Sand Pebbles". Mr. Crenna passed away 17 January 2003. He was 75.
The Battle of Nashville
(December 15-16, 1864)
Click on picture for extensive details of this battle including Official Records.
by Benjamin F. Peixotto
The distant roar of the fiercely raging battle. each moment became fainter as they bore me on a stretcher from the field. I was semi-conscious by turns only, and then naught but a confused, rumbling sound smote upon my ear. When at length my comrades rested, a momentary gleam of intelligence shot through my hot brain; then all was gloom and darkness, as if the shadow of death hovering above had descended, and my frail anatomy had ceased to pulsate with the breath of mortality. When next I awoke, I lay in the hospital--twenty mortal hours had passed in the interval--I came to suddenly, and as quickly passed away again.
How long I lay in this state I know not, I shall never know, except as I have learned it from those who watched over me with a tenderness and solicitude that, while "memory holds a seat in this distracted globe," I shall ever most gratefully remember. At that time, as returning consciousness came back to me, I could only then recall "a mass of things, but nothing distinctly." It was the day of Nashville. Who that participated in that splendid action can ever forget it? GRANT had captured the garrison of Vicksburg, and driven Bragg pell mell from his investment of Chattanooga; SHERMAN had forced Hood out of every stronghold, from the Tennessee to Atlanta; but here at Nashville, on the 15th day of December, 1864, our gallant chieftain, the sturdy hero [George] THOMAS, having gathered into his hand the scattered forces with which he had been left to oppose the victorious army of Hood, hurled them like a thunderbolt upon the astounded rebels, over line after line of breastworks, until a few panic-stricken men, without organization or discipline, stole across the Tennessee a hundred miles from Nashville, never again to attempt a campaign.
Now, as I look back, I more completely realize the magnitude of the occasion. I remember how our General spoke to us on that morning. His words come to me in all the startling fervor of his eloquent appeal. "Hood successful," he said, "Kentucky lies open to his victorious army; our own Ohio becomes his prey. Fire, destruction and death, will mark his onward march and desolation every foot of his way. Best him here, and the last hope of the despairing Confederacy expires. Forward--follow me!" He was gone, I saw his heroic form borne here and there at the head of the advancing column, it rose, it fell; it rose again and then, alas! I saw him no more forever. Even then--there--at that moment, I, too, went down, and my eyes looked not again upon the field of battle during the short remnant that remained of the war.
But to return. When in that low, long room I lay tossing with fever each day, wilder became my fancy. At times, it required the strength of both my nurses to keep me on my pallet. Only then, a hemorrhage stayed my frantic purpose. I fell back, fainting; and when at length restored, the same sweet, sad face looked upon me that for hours, days, weeks, had watched with the gentleness and devotion of a woman.
One day he left me. Oh! I shall never forget that day! Those around me were rapidly convalescing and, though I blush to say it, were taunting me with my religion!
"How now, Jew, how is thy pulse? Hast thou any more of thy gibberish-Hebrew thou call'st it, forsooth--to worry us withal?" "Say thy prayers like a Christian, idiot, forswear thy stock, pray the Lord Jesus to forgive thy sins and die in salvation!"
"Halloe, thou unbelieving son of Abraham, hast thou got a piece of pork at length into thy clutches? No! Well, then, it were better that thou had'st, for until thou eatest swine's flesh, thou never can'st be saved!"
I was too weak for remonstrance at the time, but, as I grew stronger, I found voice to give utterance to words that smote them with silence. That passage from Shylock, especially, struck one--the least intellectual, as he was the most brutal, among them. "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath now a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same Summer and Winter, as a Christian? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"
"No!" I added, "No, for centuries we have borne your oppression, tyranny, persecution, scorn, contumely, hatred and violence, but we have never lifted our hands in revenge. Yet we can feel, and do feel, as we have felt, as I now feel, the wrong you put upon us, upon me. 'Vengeance is mine' saith the Lord, and to Him we look for justice. Think not, if Heaven yet spare me, you can change or alter by your unthinking cruel words my heart's devotion to that noble flag--not less the emblem of freedom than toleration. We have both fought and bled. My constancy will be true to the last!"
When I again awoke, for this effort so prostrated me that I fell away into the likeness of death, the same spiritually pale face that had so often watched beside me, looked down upon me and a voice musical with pathos said: "How dost thou do today, Benoni*!"
"Better, much better."
"I am rejoiced to hear it, for I have come to take thee hence to the home of our kindred. Dost thou think thou canst bear to be removed."
"Oh, yes, take me hence," I said.
And gently I was borne to the abode of one of my own people. Here I remained, rapidly convalescing, till one morning, in the early days of April, the booming cannon shook the city with convulsions of delight and joy as the glad news ran from house to house, "Lee has surrendered, the war is over, glory to G-d on High, peace once more, Hallelu-ah, hallele-ah!"
In those days of convalescence, I sought to gain from my host--a kind, though not over-intelligent co-religionist of Teutonic extraction [Peixotto was a Sephardi.] some inkling of the to me mysterious friend who (he had recently left me and gone to the North), had so tenderly nursed me and whom I shall always believe under Providence, saved my life. All I could gain, was the simple intelligence that he was a civilian who had come South to visit our armies and to behold a battle. He had found me where my companions were compelled to leave me, in a piece of woods; dismounted from his own horse and bore me to the nearest hospital. Here he had watched beside me and nursed me for a month. Called home to the North, he had come again, and again had cared for and rescued me as 'twere from the "jaws of death." Removing me to the abode where I now found myself fast recovering, and having seen me fairly on the road to life, he paid all my bills and departed--leaving only a note--a little missive behind, to be opened on the day I should leave Nashville. This is all that I could learn.
The day for my departure arrived, at length, I had taken my place on the train for Louisville, the engine whistled and away we went, even as I tore open the envelope and read these lines, "Brother, the Good Shepherd hath restored thee, thy life is given back to thee again, I have been but a humble instrument in the hands of a mightier Power. Chance drew me to the spot on the field of battle where stricken you lay, life's purple current ebbing fast away. I stanched your wounds and bore you safely to where, on awakening to consciousness, you discovered me. I nursed, and when I could no more do so--from inexorable duty that called me elsewhere--caused others to nurse thee. Thou art at length restored, thou hast passed through the valley of the shadow and hath escaped death. Thou art free. And in the simple dignity of man, standest apart untempted; do not lose the great occasion thou hast plucked from misery, nor play the spendthrift, but use it nobly. We may meet again. If we do not, do even as I have done, whenever thou findest the opportunity, then shall thou be truly in fact, what thou art, and I am to the last A BEN BERITH."
The mystery was solved--I knew my preserver now. Five years before, I had linked myself with the noble Order of B'nai B'rith, and had borne on my person since I had entered the service a little silver badge with those eloquent words, no Ben Berith can ever be stranger to--that appeal he can never pass by. I had been "recognized" and to be "recognized" was to be rescued and saved. And so passing from beneath the clouds, the dank dew of death, I came out in the sunshine, the warmth and gladness of life. I put on my regalia anew--the regalia, not of human hands but of divine workmanship. I bear it in my eye, my heart, my hand, and even so, as I would that man should do unto me, even so will I do--unto all men. B.F.P.
*Benoni--Hebrew for "son of pain", but another translation is "ordinary one"
From: Jews in the Civil War
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