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By: David Slay
During October 1864 as General John Bell Hood left the environs of Atlanta to strike at General William T. Sherman's supply lines, the cavalry corps of the Army of Tennessee became spread quite thin. This forced Hood to enlist the aid of cavalry from other departments to screen his line of march from his Federal pursuers. One of these units scavenged from Alabama was Charles G. Armistead's brigade. Armistead's brigade along with Thomas Harrison's brigade of Texas and Arkansas cavalry were combined to form a make shift cavalry division with Thomas Harrison as commander. Freeman's battery of Tennessee artillery accompanied the division to give it artillery support. On October 12, 1864, Hood ordered Harrison to demonstrate in front of Rome, Georgia, in order to prevent any Federal troops from striking his flank after he crossed the Coosa River 10 miles west of Rome, Georgia.
At about the same time as Harrison's men arrived at Rome, Federal General Kenner Garrard's cavalry division was exiting the town a patrol. The Federal division had only partially crossed the pontoon bridge over the Coosa River in downtown Rome when its vanguard discovered the Confederates in line of battle astride the Coosaville Road on Alfred Shorter's land where present day Shorter College stands. After some desultry skirmishing, the Federals finally launched a coordinated assault on the Confederates who implemented an orderly retreat under fire. The hilly terrain combined with the a bend in the road confused the Federal commanders and they spent the rest of the day disentangling their commands rather than pursuing Armistead's men.
The Confederates took advantage of the situation and retired to another position one and a half miles farther west on the Coosaville Road near the present day intersection of Redmond Circle and Shorter Avenue. The Federals, having wasted the better part of a day reorganizing their lines, contented themselves by going into camp near the Confederates but not pressing the matter anymore that day.
The next morning the Federal troopers roused themselves from camp expecting to mount an assault on Harrison's command. The Confederates, posted behind a rail fence on a hill, decided their position was militarily weak and conducted a fighting retreat which the Federal horsemen found maddening. Ordered to dismount and fight on foot the Federal troopers had thread their way through briars, around bushes, and over fallen trees only to discover that their opponents had withdrawn to other concealed positions.
The Coosaville Road crosses Beech Creek five miles from. Cultivated fields bordered both sides of the creek with a low but steep ridge emerging a few hundred yards to the west and running parallel to it. This is where Harrison decided to make his stand. The position was a strong one by all accounts. He further strengthened his position by mounting both guns of Freeman's Battery in the road to wreak havoc when the expected assault finally came.
Two brigades of Federal troopers dismounted and formed a line of battle in the field east of the creek. The remaining brigade remained mounted in reserve. The Federal forces were further bolstered by two divisions of infantry under the command of Union General Jacob Cox. The Confederate troopers must have been dismayed at the realization that they now faced three veteran Federal divisions.
Unfortunately for Harrison's command, the threat to their position was not arrayed in their front but rather huddled in a ravine along the banks of Beech Creek on their flank. The Confederates were so mesmerized by the rapidly increasing force in their front that they failed to notice the lone remaining mounted Union cavalry brigade had disappeared from their front.
That particular brigade of seasoned cavalrymen consisted of the 7th Pennsylvania and 4th U. S. cavalry regiments. Their only warning was by men of the regulars shouting, "Make way for the Fourth!" as they poured out of the ravine in columns of fours heading directly toward the Harrison's two pieces of artillery. The ferocity and surprise of the charge completely unnerved many of his men. Rattled, their survival instincts took over and they fled in every direction. A handful of Texans rallied around the two cannon and fought a savage battle to protect the guns. Alas, with too many Federals surrounding them and with their comrades fleeing pell mell, the Texans relinquished the guns which the Confederate army had captured at Stones River the previous year.
The battle degenerated into a melee with intensely personal fights occurring throughout the backroads and trails in the area as the Federals attempted to roundup the fleeing Confederates. The main body of Harrison's men who were able to retrieve their horses fled for several miles until they reached the Narrows, a pass in the hills farther west on the Coosaville Road. Another band of fleeing Confederates hiked on foot through the woods to the Coosa River to the south which they crossed in order to seek refuge at Cedartown some twenty miles distant. The remaining fugitives hid in thickets and farm houses until they could emerge at a later date to rejoin their command. For all intents and purposes, Harrison's command ceased to exist that day. Many many years after the war, after the horrors faded in their memories, members of the 8th Texas Cavalry dubbed the two day battle the Rome Races in commemoration of their flight from the Federal cavalry.
Order of Battle