Savage fighting ensued as Cleburne's Confederates briefly penetrated the inner Federal defenses near the cotton gin; Federal soldiers wrote of desperately trying to stop the onrushing tide not just with rifles, but with axes, hatchets, and "anything that came into hand."What Lowrey's Brigade Faced at the Battle of Franklin, From Soldiers' Views, statement of Private Nelson A. Pinney, Co. D, 104th Ohio Regiment. Cleburne was killed fifty yards from the breastworks, after having two horses shot out from under him and running the rest of the way on foot, sword in one hand and his kepi hat in the other.
