gallant and meritorious service here, he received an official vote of thanks from the Congress of the Confederate States. In this action he received a singular wound. The missile, a minie rifle ball, entered the aperture of the mouth while his mouth was open, in the act of giving a command to the troops in action, without touching his lips, and passed out of the left chek, carrying away in its course five lower teeth, without touching or injuring the bone. This wound did not prevent his taking part in the battle of Perryville on the 8th of October following, where he rejoined my command, and was again wounded while leading his brigade in a gallant charge.
An incident occurred in the march out of Kentucky, which will serve to illustrate Cleburne s indomitable will and energy. On the road selected for the passage of ordnance and supply trains of the army, was a very difficult hill, at which the trains unable to pass over it, or to go round it, came to a dead halt. The enemy were pressing the rear, the trains were immovable, and nothing seemed left but to destroy them, to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy ; orders had actually been given for their destruction when Cleburne, who was disabled and off duty on account of his wound, came up. He asked and was given unlimited authority in the premises. He at once stationed guards in the road, arrested every straggler and passing officer and soldier, collected a large force, organised fatigue parties, and literally lifted the trains over the hill. The trains thus preserved contained munitions and subsistence of the utmost value and necessity to the Confederates. It is by no means certain even that the army could have made its subsequent long march through a sterile and wasted country without them.
In December 1862, General Bragg concentrated his army at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to oppose the Federal forces assembled at Nashville under Rosecraris. At this time, Major-general Buckner, then commanding the division of which Cleburne's brigade formed a part, was transferred to other service, and the President of the Confederate States, who was on a visit to the army at the time, promoted Cleburne to the vacant division. Rosecrans advance upon Bragg brought on the battle of Murfreesboro, Dec. 31. 1862. In the action of this day Cleburne's was one of the two divisions under my command, which attacked the right wing of the Federal army, under M Cook. This wing was beaten and driven three miles, until its extreme right was doubled back upon the centre of the Federal army. During the day, Cleburne's division in single line of battle, without reinforcement, rest, or refreshment, encountered and drove before it five successive lines of battle, which the Federal commander-in-chief withdrew from his intact centre and left to reinforce his broken right. The general results of the day were not
