Battle that inspired a song

At the 1863 Northwestern Sanitary Fair in Chicago, the public saw a few fragments

At the 1863 Northwestern Sanitary Fair in Chicago, the public saw a few fragments of the battle flag of the 19th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. On these fragments, the words “Who’ll Save the Left” were still legible. They were a reminder of the Stones River campaign (also known as the Battle of Murfreesboro) fought near the end of 1862 and into early 1863.

Four militia companies from Chicago had formed the nucleus of the 19th Illinois Regiment and were among the 81,000 who fought at Stones River, Tenn. Col. Joseph R. Scott commanded one of the companies.

Confederate forces attacked at dawn on Dec. 31, 1862. The Chicago Tribune’s “own reporter” stood on the highest available point between the railroad and the turnpike, watching a key point in the Federal position.

“The scene at this time was as grand and awful as anything that I ever expect to witness,” he wrote. If the Confederates could capture this position and “the immense train of wagons packed along the turnpike,” the Union Army would be defeated and its line of retreat cut off.

“The roar of the cannon, the crashing of shot through the trees, the whizzing and bursting of shells, the uninterrupted rattle of 20,000 muskets all mingled in one prolonged and tremendous volume of sounds.”

Above all this the reporter heard “wild cheers” as “body after body of our troops gave way and were pushed back toward the turnpike.” Suddenly he could see “crowds of ten thousand fugitives” in “every possible phase of wild and uncontrollable disorder” bursting out of the cedar thickets and rushing into the open space between the cedars and the turnpike. They were under heavy fire; hardly half a dozen members of the same regiment could be seen together.

He watched as “long lines of the enemy emerged from the woods, rank behind rank, and with a demoniac yell, intended to strike terror into the souls of the Yankees who stood before them, charged with fearful energy almost to the very muzzle of the cannon.”

A dazzling sheet of flame burst from the ranks of the Union forces. An awful roar shook the earth and the foremost line of the Confederates literally was swept from the field; then both armies were enveloped in a vast cloud of smoke, which hid everything from the eye. …

“For ten minutes, the thunder of battle burst forth from the cloud. When our battalions advanced, they found no rebels between the woods and turnpike except the dead, dying and disabled. There were hundreds of these, and their blood soaked and reddened the ground.”

On Jan. 2, the fighting resumed. According to the Tribune reporter, “when the rebels were making the most terrific assaults upon our left, there came a moment when Gen. [James] Negley’s practiced eye saw disaster, if quick and effectual support were not given. Negley rode to the front and asked what regiment would save the left.”

Scott shouted “The Nineteenth, sir!” The charge was made and the enemy scattered. The battle of Stones River went into history as a Union victory.

Scott,mortally wounded on the final day of the battle, was given a hero’s funeral in Chicago. The city’s best-known bands played.

The Chicago Tribune printed a full description of the funeral procession and added the words of a new song, titled “Who’ll Save the Left.” The words were by Russell Tompkins, the music by George Root, who by this time was well on his way to becoming what one periodical would call “the acknowledged war musician of the Federal army.”

The publisher advertised the song as “a vivid description of the brilliant charge of the 19th in response to Gen. Negley’s call.” It was not a simple, easy song, but the publisher was “confident” that “singers who have energetic voices and good descriptive and declamatory power” would “produce great effect” with it:

Through two long days the battle raged

In front of Murfreesboro,

And cannon balls tore up the earth

As plows turn up the furrow

Brave soldiers by the hundred fell in fierce assault and sally

While bursting shell hiss’d, scream’d and fell

Like demons in the valley.

The Northman, and the Southron met,

In bold defiant manner,

Now vict’ry perched on Union flag,

And now on rebel banner;

But see! upon the Union’s left,

Bear down in countless numbers,

With shouts that seem to wake the hills

From their eternal slumbers,

The rebel hosts, whose iron rain

Beats down our weaker forces,

And covers all the battle plain

With torn and mangled corses;

Still onward press the rebel hordes

More boldly, fiercer, faster,

But Negley’s practiced eye discerns

The swift and dread disaster.

“Who’ll save the left,” his voice rang out

Above the roar of battle,

“The Nineteenth” shouted Colonel Scott,

Amid the muskets rattle

“The Nineteenth be it, Make the charge!”

Quick as the word was given,

The Nineteenth fell upon the foe

As lightning falls from heaven.

The second half of the song describes the 19th Illinois attacking. It ends: “The charge was triumphant, the great battle won.”

P.H. Carder is writing a book about George F. Root. She is a member of the Roanoke Civil War Round Table.