Freeman's Battery

As the Union line withdrew to the split-rail fence, General Nathan Bedford Forrest shifted his artillery to form an arc around the new Union position. Captain Samuel Freeman moved his battery of two 6-pounder bronze smoothbores and two bronze 12-pounder howitzers east onto the flank of the Union line, and, on Forrest's order to open immediately, his guns joined Lieutenant John Morton's two guns in the center and two mountain howitzers on the west in a deadly barrage against the Federals. Although the fire badly shook the Union troops, they held at the fence and did not break. Samuel Freeman had begun service as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 11th Tennessee Artillery Corps of the Provisional Army of Tennessee, received a Confederate commission with the same rank on September 17, 1861, served with Monsarrat's Battery, and after its reorganization as Freeman's Battery in July 1862 was promoted to captain. In October the battery joined Forrest's command, and although Forrest abandoned some artillery when Union reinforcements arrived at Parker's Crossroads, Freeman's Battery is thought to have escaped the battlefield. Freeman remained with Forrest until April 10, 1863, when Union cavalry killed him at Franklin, Tennessee.

Parker's Crossroads, Tennessee · United States