The Red Acorn | Page 3

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This Etext prepared by Brett Fishburne ([email protected])

The Red Acorn
by John McElroy

Preface

The name given this story is that made glorious by the valor and
achievements of the splendid First Division of the Fourteenth Army
Corps, the cognizance of which was a crimson acorn, worn on the
breasts of its gallant soldiers, and borne upon their battle flags. There
are few gatherings of men into which one can go to-day without finding
some one wearing, as his most cherished ornament, a red acorn,
frequently wrought in gold and studded with precious stones, and
which tells that its wearer is a veteran of Mill Springs, Perryville,
Shiloh, Corinth, Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Atlanta,
Jonesville, March to the Sea, and Bentonville.
The Fourteenth Corps was the heart of the grand old Army of the
Cumberland--an army that never new defeat. Its nucleus was a few
scattered regiments in Eastern Kentucky, in 1861, which had the good
fortune to be commanded by Gen. George H. Thomas. With them he
won the first real victory that blessed our arms. It grew as he grew, and
under his superb leadership it was shaped and welded and tempered
into one of the mightiest military weapons the world ever saw. With it
Thomas wrung victory from defeat on the bloody fields of Stone River
and Chickamauga; with it he dealt the final crushing blow of the
Atlanta campaign, and with it defeat was again turned to victory at
Bentonville.
The characters introduced into the story all belonged to or co-operated

with the First Division of the Fourteenth Corps. The Corps' badge was
the Acorn. As was the custom in the army, the divisions in each Corps
were distinguished by the color of the badges--the First's being red, the
Second's white, and the Third's blue. There was a time when this
explanation was hardly necessary, but now eighteen years have elapsed
since the Acorn flags fluttered victoriously over the last field of battle,
and a generation has grown up to which they are but a tradition. J. M.

Contents.

Chapter I
.--A Declaration, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 9
Chapter II
.--First Shots, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 18
Chapter III
.--A Race, - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 28
Chapter IV
.--Disgrace, - - - - - - -