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THE JAMES VERNER SCAIFE COLLECTION
CIVIL WAR LITERATURE
THE GIFT OP
JAMES VERNER SCAIFE
CLASS OF 1689
1919
Cornell University Library E525.4 .S65
The history of Fuller's Ohio brigade, 18
3 1924 030 913 218
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Cornell University Library
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924030913218
The History of
Fuller s Ohio Brigade
" 1861-1865 '
Its Great March, with Roster
Portraits, Battle Maps
and Biographies.
BY
CHARLES H. SMITH
Major Xwenty-Seventn Onio Regiment, V eteran V olunteer Infantry
CLEVELAND, OHIO 1909
press of A J Watt
CLEVELAND
This Volume is Respectfully Dedicated
to THE
Soldiers of Fuller's Ohio Brigade and Their Compatriots
in Memory of
Their Brave Deeds, Their Toils, Their Sufferings
and Their Triumphs.
CHARLES H. SMITH
Major 27lh O. V. V. I. Historian
INDEX.
PAGES
Preface 17-18
Our Contributors 19
Gathering the Pictorial Part 20
Introduction 21-22-23
Chapter 1.
Conditions of Affairs at the Opening of the War 24-25
The Call for Troops. Distribution of the Armies.
Chapter 2.
The Organization of the Four Regiments 26-27-29-30
The Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-third and Sixty-third.
Chapter 3.
Discipline of the Regiments 31-32
Battle of Wilson's Creek 31
Fremont's Order to Major Sturgess 31-32
Movements of Forces under Major Sturgess 32-33-34
Chapter 4.
March to the Relief of Lexington, Missouri 35-36
Hardships on the Way 35-36
Arrival at Kansas City 36-37
Chapter 5.
March to Springfield, Missouri 38-39
Chapter 6.
Territory in Possession of the Union Army 40
Chapter 7.
The Retrograde Movement of the Army 41-43
Chapter 8.
The Great Winter March to St. Louis 44-45
Advance upon New Madrid and Island Ten 46
Chapter 9.
Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten 47-48-49-50-51
Report of General John Pope 53-54-55-56-57-58-59-60
Report of General Schuyler Hamilton of New Madrid and Island Ten 60-61
Report of General D. S. Stanley 61-62
Report of Colonel John Groesbeck 62-63
Report of Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith 63-64
Report of Colonel John W. Sprague 64-65
Union and Confederate Forces Engaged in Battle at New Madrid and
Island Ten 65-66
Chapter HI
Reminiscences of the Fort Pillow Expedition 67-68
Transfer of the Army to Hamburg Landing Middle, Tennessee 67-68-69
Chapter 11
Preparation for Siege cf Corinth 70
Report of General D. S. Stanley of the Monteray Engagement 70
Siege of Corinth. Engagement at Farmington 70-71-72-73
Report of General John Pope to Halleck 73
Capture of Corinth 73
Pursuit of the Enemy 74
Chapter 12.
Reorganization of the Commands 75
Campaigns and Battles of Iuka and Corinth 76-77
Battle of Iuka 77-79
Union and Confederate Forces Engaged at Iuka 79-80
Reports of Battles by General Stanley and Colonel Fuller 80-81
Pursuit of the Enemy 81-82
10 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
Chapter 13. pages
Battle of Corinth 82-83-84-85-86-87-89-90
Report of General W. S. Rosecrans 90-91-92
Report of Colonel John W. Fuller 92-94-96-97-98-99-100
Chapter 14.
A Hero at Corinth 101
Correspondence Accompanying the Message 101-102
Report of Major Z. S. Spaulding 102-103
Report of Lieutenant Colonel Edward F. Noyes 103-104
Report of Lieutenant Colonel Wager Swavne 104-106
Report of Colonel John W. Sprague 106-107-108
Report of Captain Edward H. Cummings, C. S. A., to Beauregard 108-109-110
Partial Report of General Earl Van Dorn, C. S. A 110-111
Partial Report of Price Ill
Lieutenant Labruzan, 42nd Alabama, C. S. A 111-112-113
Chapter IS
Retreat of the Enemy from Corinth 114-115
Union Forces Engaged at Corinth 115-116
Confederate Forces Engaged at Corinth 116-117
The Charge of the 27th Ohio at Corinth by Young 117-118
Possibilities of Further Success 118
Chapter 16.
Central Mississippi Campaign 119-120-121
Daily Marches of the Brigade 119-120
Grouping of Forces. Formation of the 16th Army Corps 121-122
Chapter 17.
Defeat of the Rebel General Forrest in Grand Raid on Grants Line of Communication. How it was Frustrated and the Enemy Expelled
from the Country 122-123-124-125-126-127-128
Battle of Parker's Cross Roads, December, 1862 122
Pursuit of General Forrest 127-128
Forrest Abandons the Country 127
March of Great Severity 128
Heavy Tax on the Command 130-131
Raid Through the Cherokee and Choctow Valleys 132-133
Duty at Corinth and Memphis 133-134
Chapter 18.
March to Prospect, Tennessee 135-136
Order to Move to Prospect, from General Dodge to General Fuller 136
Chapter 19.
Re-enlistments in the Regiments 137
Trip to Ohio and Return 137-138
Chapter 20.
Capture of Decatur, Alabama 139
Changes and Re-assignment of Regiments of Fuller's Ohio Brigade 140
Chapter 21.
M arch to Chattanooga 142
General Grant's Plan of Campaign 142-143
Chapter 22.
Campaign Through Northern Georgia 144-145
Advance on and Battle of Resaca 146-147-148
Battle of Dallas 149-150-151
Capture of Big and Little Kenesaw 152-153-154-156-157
Charge of Fuller's Ohio Brigade at Nick-ojack Creek 157-158-160
Investment of Atlanta 162-164-165
Battle of Atlanta, July 22 165-167-169-171-172-173
Movement of Union Army to the Right 173
Battle near Atlanta, July 28 174
Index. n
Chapter 23. pages
Sherman's Great Flank Movement 178-179
Capture of Atlanta 180
Reports —
Mai or General Sherman 182-183-184-185-186-187-188-189-190
Major General Dodge 190-191-192-193-194-195-196-197-198-199-200
Brigadier General Fuller 200-201-202-203-204-205-206-207-208-209-210
Colonel John W. Sprague 211-212-213-215-216-217
Lieutenant Colonel McDowell 215-216-217
Colonel Churchill 218-219-220-221-222-223-224
Colonel Swavne 224-225-227
Major Fouls" 228-229-230-231
Colonel John Cladick 231-232-233
Lieutenant Colonel Wm. H. Henry 233-234-235-237
Chapter 24.
Organization of the Union Army in the Field 235-236
Forces under Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign, May 3 to Sept. 22, 1864. .235-236 Effective Strength of the Army under Sherman in the Atlanta Campaign.. .236-243
Strength and Losses of the Opposing Armies in the Atlanta Campaign 236
Organization of the First Division, 17th Army Corps 236
Chapter 25.
Movement of Confederate Army Northward 237-238-239-240
Condition of Affairs in the Confederate Ranks, November, 1864 241-242
Conquered Territory, Changes and Assignments
Chapter 26.
Preparations for the March Through Georgia 245
The March Through Georgia 246-247-248-249-250
Siege of Savannah 251-253-254-255
Raid to Altamaha River
Poem 255
Capture and Occupation of Savannah 255
Property Captured and Destroyed 256
Letter of Congratulation to Sherman 256
Resolution of Thanks from Congress 258
Chapter 27.
Transfer to Beaufort, South Carolina 258
Chapter 28.
General Order No. 3 2S8
Chapter 29.
Campaign Through the Carolinas 259-261
Whippy Swamc Pocotaligo 261-263-264
Rivers Bridge. North and South Edisto Rivers 264-265-266-267
Capture of Columbia. Charleston 267-268
Movements on the Minsboro Road 268
Captured Cheraw. Fayetteville 268-269-271 -272-273
Battle Bentonville. Goldsboro 273-277
Chapter 30.
Regiments in Organization of the First Division, 17th Army Corps 2/8
Report of Sherman from Goldsboro 279-280-281-282-283-284-285
Report of Fuller from Goldsboro 285-286-287
Report of Weber Concerning Operations February 2nd and 4th and
March 21st, 1865 287-288
Report of Montgomery Concerning Operations January 29th, February
3rd and 9th 289ion
Report of Property Captured (Mower) 90190?
Resolution of Congratulations *"*
Re-organization of the Army. Changes in Commands 291-^
March to Raleigh, North Carolina 292-293
Surrender of Johnston's Army 293
End of the War ~y4
12 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
Chapter 31. pages
March Across Virginia 29S-297
Review at Washington 297-298
Muster Out of Thirty-fifth New Jersey 301
Twenty-fifth and Thirty-second Wisconsin 301
Chapter 32.
Order to go to Louisville, Kentucky 303
Muster Out of Twenty-seventh, Thirty-nine, Forty-third and Sixty-third
Ohio Regiments 304
Return of Soldiers to Their Homes 304
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Brevet Major General John W. Fuller 307-313
Major General G. M. Dodge 314-316
Major General David S. Stanley 317-319
Brevet Brigadier General Mendal Churchill 320-322
Brevet Brigadier General Samuel Thomas 323
Major Charles H. Smith 324-326
Captain Charles W. Green 327
Colonel John Groesbeck 328-329
Colonel Edward F. Noyes 330-332
Colonel Daniel Weber 333-334
Captain W. H. H. Minturn 335
Colonel Joseph L. Kirby Smith 336-338
Colonel Wager Swayne 339-340
Captain Hinchman S. Prophet 341-343
Brevet Major General John W. Sprague 344-348
Brigadier General Charles E. Brown 349-351
Colonel Oscar L. Jackson 352-358
Captain Andrew R. Robinson '.-.' 359
Captain Charles M. Harrison 360-362
Captain Daniel T. Thorne 363
Lieutenant Mathew F. Madigan 364
Lieutenant Peter Zinn 365-366
Adjutant Howard Forrer 367
Lieutenant Francis A. Gibbons 368-369
Sergeant Joseph H. Lapham 370-371
Thomas J. Smith 372-373
David McMullen 374-375
Charles I. Adkins 376-377
Judge Thomas E. Scroggy 378-380
Sergeant Fred F. Adams 381-382
Corporal Isaac Jarvis 383-384
Sergeant Robert Terry 385-386
David Auld 387-388
James W. Conger 389-391
REMINISCENCES OF SOLDIER LIFE.
Reunion of Fuller's Ohio Brigade 393-394
General John W. Fuller's Address 395-406
Raid to the Altamaha River 406
First Sergeant's Duties 407
Sixtv-third Ohio Infantry 407-413
Battle of Colliersville 414-416
Colonel Horace Park's Address 417-418
A Scout 418-419
Brave Acts Unrewarded 419-420
The Passage of the Salkahatchie and Edisto Rivers 420-421
Index. 13
Incidents of the Last Days of the War : 422-423
The Twenty-seventh Ohio Veteran Infantry .423-425
An Incident at Rivers Bridge ' ! 425-426
The Iron Nerve of a Soldier ". 426
A Trip with Prisoners 427-429
Capturing the Flag 429
What a Drummer Boy. Saw 43O.435
Incidents on the Mississippi River 435.438
Address by General G. M. Dodge 439.444
MISCELLANEOUS.
Camp of the Twenty-seventh Ohio Infantry 445
Casualties in the War 445
Lessons of the War 446
Commanders of the Army of the Tennessee 446
Facts Worth Knowing 446
Organization 447
Roster of Ohio Soldiers — Its Errors 447
Official List of Battles 449.450
Roster of the Regiments —
Twenty-seventh Ohio 451-486
Thirty-ninth Ohio 488-536
Forty-third Ohio 538-584
Sixty-third Ohio 586-626
MAPS.
Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio Lines of March in Missouri 42
Mississippi River Bend, New Madrid and Island Ten 56
Battle of Corinth, Miss. Relative Positions of Forces Oct. 3rd and 4th 95
Battle of Corinth, Miss. Relative position of Union and Confederate Forces.... 96
Lines of March and Battle, Chattanooga to Atlanta 163
Battle Lines, Atlanta, July 22nd, 1864 1 70
Battle Lines, Ezra Church 175
Atlanta to Savannah Lines of March 252
Campaign of the Carolinas, Lines of March 270
PORTRAITS.
Major Charles H. Smith, Historian 1
Our Commander, Brevet Major General John W. Fuller 2
Group of Officers of the Forty-third O. V. V. 1 28
Group of Officers of Fuller's Ohio Brigade 46
Rice B. Bostec, both a Confederate and a Union Soldier 53
Major General Grenville M. Dodge 130
John McClay 179-
Brevet Major Genera! John W. Fuller, Brigade Commander 307
Major General Grenville M. Dodge 314
Major General David S. Stanley 317
Brigadier General Mendal Churchill 320
Major Charles H. Smith in Zouave Uniform 324
Colonel John Groesbeck 328
Colonel Edward F. Noyes 330
Colonel Joseph L. Kirby Smith 336
Colonel Wager Swayne 339
Captain H. S. Prophet 341
Brevet Major General John W. Sprague 344
Brigadier General Charles E. Brown 351
Colonel Oscar L. Jackson 352
Captain Andrew R. Robison 359
14 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
Captain Charles M. Harrison 360
Lieutenant Peter Zinn 365
Lieutenant Francis A. Gibbons 368
Sergeant Joseph PI. Lapham 370
David McMullen 374
Charles I. Adkins 376
Judge Thomas Scroggy 378
Sergeant Fred F. Adams 381
Corporal Isaac Jarvis 383
Sergeant Robert Terry 385
David Auld 387
James W. Conger 389
George W. Wolf 392
John Beeman 392
John Smedley 392
David Auld, Drummer 430
ILLUSTRATIONS.
A Very Raw Recruit . . . '. 30
Recruits. The First Drill 32
The Battle of Lexington, Missouri 36
A Recruit and an Experienced Soldier 47
Charging Through a Cornfield 48
Taking the Top Rail 51
Debarkation of Fuller's Ohio Brigade on the Mississippi River at Watson's
Landing 52
The Ohio Brigade Marching on Corinth 71
Battle of luka, Miss. The Ohio Brigade Going Forward 78
A Confederate Sharp Shooter at Corinth, Miss 85
The 27th O. V. V. I. Capturing the Flag of the 9th Texas— Corinth, Miss 88
The Battle of Corinth, Oct. 4th, 1862. Repelling the Confederate Assault 93
The 43rd O. V. V. I. Defending Battery Robinett 105
The 16th Army Corps Badge 121
Fuller's Ohio Brigade Crossing the Tennessee River 140
Drum Corps— 43rd Ohio 141
Battle of Resaca, Ga 147
Badge of 15th Army Corps 148
Battle of Resaca, Ga.— 43rd and 63rd Ohio 149
Skirmish Line. "Feeling" the Enemy 152
Battle of Kenesaw Mountain 155
Confederate Artillery Being Hauled up Kenesaw Mountain 156
Charge and Capture of the Enemy's Works at Nick-ojack by the 27th and 39th
Ohio Regiments 159
Battle of Atlanta, 16th Army Corps Engaged 166
Battle of Atlanta, General Fuller with Flag at the Front 168
Battle near Atlanta, Ezra Church 174
Seventeenth Army Corps Badge 178
First Division, 17th Army Corps, Tearing up Railroad 248
A Typical Camp Servant 249
Battle of Atlanta. Defence of Supply Trains at Decatur 214
Battle near Atlanta. Driving the Confederate Lines 226
Battle at Salkehatchie River 262
First Division, 17th Army Corps, in South Carolina Swamps 265
Artillery in South Carolina Swamps 271
Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina 274
Grand Review of Sherman's Army 296
Grand Review of Sprague's Brigade 300
Survivors of the Brigade at Toledo, Ohio 302
Regimental Flags of Fuller's Ohio Brigade 305
Drum Corps, 43rd Ohio, After the War 434
PREFACE.
FORTY-TWO YEARS had passed since the close of the Civil War, and yet no history had been written of the splendid services rendered to the government by the soldiers of the Twenty-seventh, Thirty- ninth, Forty-third and Sixty-third Regiments of Ohio Infantry, composing what was known officially and designated in the field as Fuller's Ohio Bri- gade. This Brigade never lost a flag, but after four years of war, each one was brought back to Ohio with every star upon its folds shining more glor- iously bright, thereby reflecting the highest honor on the state of Ohio.
During the war I had kept a memorandum of events, jotted clown as they occurred under my observation. My comrades urged me to publish it, and this I finally consented to do. At the annual reunion of the surviving members of the Brigade, held in Columbus, Ohio, on September 4th, 1907, a resolution was unanimously passed appointing me Historian and authoriz- ing me to compile and publish the military history of Fuller's Ohio Brigade, and to select assistants for the work. Their names were announced at the evening meeting as follows :
From the Twenty-seventh Ohio : Captain Oscar Sheppard, E. C. Fuller (son of General Fuller and honorary member of the Brigade), Cap- tain J. A. Evans, Captain Jonathan Reese, Corporal Philip R. Harpel, Captain J. S. Stuckey, Captain C. C. Chadwick, Charles I. Adkins, First Sergeant E. S. Moorehead and H. C. Evans.
From the Thirty-ninth : Captain W. H. H. Minturn, Captain Ethan O. Hurd, Captain Andrew R. Robison, D. T. Stathem, R. D. Wall, Sergeant J. H. Lapham, W. H. Garrett, John F. Harlan, Charles C. Barrows, and Frank Babb.
From the Forty-third Ohio: James W. Conger, David Auld, Colonel J. H. Rhoades, Captain E. L. Lybarger, George H. Wise, James E. Graham, D. P. Host, Captain M. M. Murphy, Lieutenant Peter Zinn, John McClay.
From the Sixty-third : Colonel Oscar L. Jackson, First Sergeant Simon Jarvis, Joel A. Jarvis, Captain Reuben S. Mason, George B. Bartlett, Angus McDonald, H. Beckett, Joseph Bell, D. E. Heisey and J. W. Savely.
I entered upon this task with the sincere desire of doing justice to every officer and soldier who helped- maintain our country's honor, and whose achievements made the Brigade famous. All deserve praise, but all that was accomplished by them could not be fully recorded in this volume, for the subject is toe vast, Xo attempt at literary style has been made in the following pages — the desire is simply to preserve the military history of the Brigade. The labor necessary to prepare a work of this kind, takes years to accomplish and is much more difficult than would be supposed from an examination of its results. How faithfully and well it has been done can only be understood by those who are familiar with this sort of work.
To the survivors who have manifested their love of country, and to the rising generation who may yet learn that a land and a government such as ours is worth fighting for and dying for, if need be, I trust a perusal of these pages will prove profitable and interesting.
Major Charles H. Smith, Historian.
Foot Note. — All the material of the book has been collected from official records and from my memorandum, and has been verified by mem- bers of the Brigade.
PREFACE.
FORTY-TWO- YEARS had passed since the close of the Civil War, and yet no history had been written of the splendid services rendered to the government by the soldiers of the Twenty-seventh, Thirty- ninth, Forty-third and Sixty-third Regiments of Ohio Infantry, composing what was known officially and designated in the field as Fuller's Ohio Bri- gade. This Brigade never lost a flag, but after four years of war, each one was brought back to Ohio with every star upon its folds shining more glor- iously bright, thereby reflecting the highest honor on the state of Ohio.
During the war I had kept a memorandum of events, jotted down as they occured under my observation. My comrades urged me to publish it, and this I finally consented to do. At the annual reunion of the surviving members of the Brigade, held in Columbus, Ohio, on September 4th, 1904, a resolution was unanimously passed appointing me Historian and authoriz- ing me to compile and publish the military history of Fuller's Ohio Brigade, and to select assistants for the work. Their names were announced at the evening meeting as follows :
From the Twenty-seventh Ohio, Captain Oscar Sheppard, E. C. Fuller (son of General Fuller and honorary member of the Brigade), Captain J. A. Evans, Captain Jojiathan Reese, Corporal Philip R. Harpel, Captain J. S. Stuckey, Captain C. C. Chadwick, Charles I. Adkins, First Sergeant E. S. Moorehead and H. C. Evans.
From the Thirty-ninth, Captain W. H. H. Minturn, Captain Ethan O. Hurd, Captain Andrew R. Robison, D. T. Stathem, R. D. Wall, Sergeant J. H. Lapham, W. H. Garret, John F. Harlan, Charles C. Barrows, and Frank Babb.
From the Sixty-third, Colonel Oscar L. Jackson, First Sergeant Simon J. H. Rhoades, Captain E. L. Lybarger, George H. Wise, James E. Graham, D. P. Host, Captain M. M. Murphy, Lieutenant Peter Zinn, John McClay.
From the Sixty-third, Colonel Oscar L. Jackson, First Sergeant Simon Jarvis, Joel A. Jarvis, Captain Reuben S. Mason, George B. Bartlett, Angus McDonald, H. Beckett, Joseph Bell, D. E. Heisey and J. W. Savely.
I entered upon this task with the sincere desire of doing justice to every officer and soldier who helped maintain our country's honor, and whose achievements made the Brigade famous. All deserve praise, but all
18 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
that was accomplished by them could not be fully recorded in this volume, for the subject is too vast. No attempt at literary style has been made in the following pages, the desire is simply to preserve the military history of the Brigade. The labor necessary to prepare a work of this kind, takes years to accomplish and is much more difficult than would be supposed from an examination of its results. How faithfully and well it has been done, can only be understood by those who are familiar with this sort of work.
To the survivors who have manifested their love of country, and to the rising generation who may yet learn that a land and a government such as ours is worth fighting for and dying for, if need be, I trust a perusal of these pages will prove profitable and interesting.
Major Charles H. Smith, Historian.
Foot Note. — All the material of the book has been collected from of- fical records and from my memorandum, and has been verified by members of the Brigade.
OUR CONTRIBUTORS.
THOSE who have most generously contributed toward the financing of this publication are General Grenville M. Dodge, Edward C. Ful- ler and Rathbun Fuller, sons of General John W. Fuller; Mrs. Mary McKenzie, niece of General Mendal Churchill ; Alfred H. Swayne, son of General Wager Swayne ; comrades James W. Conger and David Auld, Jr., and Colonel Oscar L. Jackson.
To Comrade Auld, we are indebted for his care in selecting the illus- trations, for his critical supervision of the engravings, and for his contri- bution of their cost. To him and to comrade Conger, we are further in- debted for encouraging words of advice and for time given to the detail of the work.
The above-named have aided the Historian in making it possible to save from oblivion the unsurpassed military record of Fuller's Ohio Bri- gade, to interest the veterans in their own memories, and in a measure to instruct succeeding generations who will read of the great struggle for a national existence and human liberty.
TO MY COMRADES OF THE OHIO BRIGADE.
It has always been with me a great and growing desire to see a com- plete record of what was suffered and the work that was accomplished for our country during those trying years 1861 to 1865 left to our prosperity, and it is now one of my greatest pleasures that I have been able to con- tribute in a small way to this work that has been carried through to com- pletion under such great difficulties by our faithful friend and comrade Major Chas. H. Smith, (our Historian). This history of the Ohio Brigade and the drum that I carried to arouse the boys from their slumbers many times by the reveille, and some times by the long roll for battle, and marked time for their soldierly tread on many long marches and bloody field, will be among my most cherished relics.
When my name was mentioned by the Historian as one of the Com- mittee, on publication, I very much doubted my ability to add anything of value, but remembering my liking for drawing and sketching pictures of scenes that appealed to me during the war, I began to look over old trunks, drawers, etc., and soon unearthed many engravings, sketches, lithographs, photographs, maps, etc., long since forgotten. I never could pass anything in this line that referred to our Brigade and Regimental operations without annexing them to my collection. The result was that I had a great mass of crude material from which to build the pictorial part of the history. My fingers are not so nimble as in '61 to '65, but with the help of modern pho- tography, and the half tone art of reproducing, I am able to give you the result of my best efforts and a clearer understanding of many of our most important operations and struggles. I do not claim these are all original or infallible, but I do believe they more nearly represent the scenes as they appeared to you than the material from any other source at this late day could supply. If you enjoy their perusal as much as I have en- joyed their collection and preparation, them my recompense will be com- plete and I dedicate them to you.
David Auld, Drummer, j^rd Ohio.
INTRODUCTION.
DISPUTES between the states of the American Union originated with the formation of the federal government itself. The question of States Rights was perhaps the most vital. Washington foresaw the danger and in his solicitude for the welfare of his people, and in contem- plating the causes which might disturb the union, gave voice to them in his farewell address in 1796. He said in part :
"It is necessary to have unity of government, which constitutes you one people, for it is the main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility, at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But it is easy to foresee that from different quarters and from different causes, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth, though often covertly and insidiously directed. It is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union in your collective and individual happiness, accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity, watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety, discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can, in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest. Every portion of our country finds the most commanding motives for carefully guarding and preserving the union of the whole. You have in a common cause, fought and triumphed together. The independence and liberty you possess are the work of joint council and joint efforts, of common dangers, suffering and successes. In union all the parts combined cannot fail to find, in the united mass of means and efforts, greater strength, greater resource, proportionably greater security from external danger, a less frequent interruption to their peace by foreign nations, and what is of more inestimable value, they must derive from union an exemp- tion from those broils and wars between themselves."
Up to 1832 there had been frequent murmurings of discontent among political leaders. President Jackson in his proclamation to the people of South Carolina, which state had undertaken to annul the revenue law and secede from the union, said in part :
''The power to annul the law of the United States assumed by one state is incompatible with the existence of the union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded and destructive of the great object for which it was formed. Our constitution does not contain the absurdity of giving the power to make laws, and another power to resist them. The
22 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
crisis that the conduct of South Carolina presents, would recur whenever any law of the United States displeased any of the states, and we should soon cease to exist as a nation. The constitution of the United States forms a government, not a league. Our government has the right by law of self defence, to punish offenders, to make war, levy taxes, exercise legislative and judicial powers, make treaties and all alliances, in the name of all. Troops are raised for the joint defence. In the preamble of the constitution made in the name and by the authority of the people of the United States, among the most important objects was one to form a more perfect union. That decisive step was taken jointly. We declare ourselves a nation jointly, not by several action. The several states agreed that they would collectively from one nation, declaring that every state shall abide by the determination of Congress. To give the right of resisting laws, coupled with the uncontrolled right to decide what laws are right, is to give the power of resisting all laws, for by that theory, there is no appeal, the reasons alleged by the state, good or bad must prevail. Public opinion is a sufficient guard against the passage of an unconstitutional act passed by Congress, one to the people and the states, the other to the judiciary. Our social pact in express terms declares that the laws of the United States, its Constitution and the treaties made under it, are the supreme law of the land and for greater caution adds that the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, everything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary, notwithstanding. No federative government could exist with- out a similar provision."
Agitation of the question of States Rights increased up to the election of Lincoln, who in his inaugural address, March 4th, 1861, gave expression to these memorable and patriotic words :
"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of Civil War. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to protect and defend it. We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
Honorable Stephen A. Douglass, in a speech delivered in Chicago May 1st, 1861, spoke of the secession conspiracy as follows:
"What cause, what excuse do the disunionists give us for breaking up the best government upon which the sun of heaven ever shed its rays ? They are dissatisfied with the results of the Presidential election. The slavery question is a mere excuse, the election of Lincoln a mere pretext. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy formed more than a year since by leaders in the southern Confederacy. They use the slavery question as a means to aid the accomplishment of
Introduction 23
their ends. When the history of the two years from the Lecompton Char- ter down to the Presidential election shall be written, it will be shown that the scheme was deliberately made to break up this union. The conspiracy is now known. There are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war, only patriots or traitors."
Civil War was apprehended by leading statesmen of the United States during the half century preceding hostilities, by reason of slavery. In 1860, the slave population was about four million. Their estimated value was twenty-five million dollars. This monied interest overcame the moral side of the question with most southern citizens and with some people of the north.
The southern politicians openly proposed civil war in 1850 and again in 1856. There was no concealment of declaration of and preparation for war in the south after the election of Mr. Lincoln, but because the north did not immediately raise an army, they seemed convinced that the north was cowardly, and not willing to fight for the great principle of our govern- ment. The southern leaders were thereby enabled to commit their people finally to the war, claiming it to be a defence of their slave property.
CHAPTER I.
T
CONDITIONS OF AFFAIRS AT THE OPENING OF THE WAR.
HE ordinance of secession was passed by the State of South Carolina on December 20th, 1860. Other states followed, eleven in number. Hostilities against the United States Government commenced at Charleston, South Carolina, by an artillery fire, January 9th, 1861, upon the Steamer "Star of the West."
Actual war between the North and the South began when Fort Sumpter was fired upon, April 12th, at half past four in the morning. Soon after this, a number of United States arsenals and forts were seized, the Missouri River was blockaded, and Pensacola and Norfolk Navy Yard was surrendered.
During the last months of 1860, acts of treason were committed all over the South. Floyd, while Secretary of War in Buchanan's Cabinet, traitorously stripped all the arsenals in the North of their arms and mili- tary stores, and collected them in the South. By one single order, one hundred and fifty thousand small arms of the most approved pattern were moved. He felonously took $870,000 of the Indian trust bonds from the vaults of the Department of the Interior and sent them south. During the trying winter of 1860-1861, the southern people were so defiant that they would not allow within their borders the expression of a sentiment hostile to their views. Before the outbreak of the war, the Southern Con- federacy was well established, and its troops had been drilling for months. These acts of treason were intended to make our American civilization go backward. They were the acts of the few against the many.
During this time in the North, continued concessions to secession were adopted. Prominent men in public and private life and a portion of the press promulgated the doctrine that the "government had no power to coerce the South into submission to the laws of the land,'' also that "if the North raised armies and sent them south, they would have to march over the dead bodies of the speakers."
Even the President of the United States, James Buchanan, announced that while a state had no right to secede, the constitution gave no power to the government to coerce a state which had, or was attempting to withdraw from the Union. This was in direct conflict to President Jackson's views. In 1832 he proclaimed to the people that there was nothing in the constitu- tion which gave the right to withdraw from the Union and that "the
Conditions. 25
Federal Union must and shall be preserved." He used prompt and ener- getic measures and completely crushed the contemplated secession of South Carolina at that time.
It was deemed unsafe for the President elect to go to the capitol of the nation to be sworn into office and he was obliged to be smuggled into Washington on the day previous to the one set for his arrival.
Gradually it dawned upon the loyal people, that a great conspiracy, called by many "the great slave-holders' rebellion," controlled by the prin- cipal politicians of the South was determined upon, for the purpose of establishing a Confederacy founded upon slavery and aristocracy.
On April 15th, 1861, when President Lincoln's first call for 75,000 troops came, the young men of the North flew to the defence of the nation, which the soldiers of 1776 fought to establish. And now these volunteers were to fight to preserve and maintain that which their forefathers intended these United States *to be — a perpetual union with power to protect and preserve its own existence, to show that the union of states was not a de- lusion and a sham, and that the old claim of "states rights" whereby men were taught that their first duty was to the state, be swept aside.
The boys who enlisted were fired with a determination to save the na- tion. The motive for which they enlisted and offered their lives was that the American flag, without a single star erased, should float forever, over every part of the country.
Then followed a period of four years almost incessant hostilities, over fields of operation which embraced in their vast areas, forests and cultivated plains, mountain ranges and valleys, sea coasts, bayous, lakes, rivers, and trackless swamps.
The armed participants were numbered by the millions. The Federal armies distributed from the Potomac to the Missouri Rivers, were organized in three principal grand divisions, designated as the Army of the Potomac in the east, the Army of the Cumberland in the center, and the Army of the Tennessee and the Mississippi in the west, extending as far as New Mexico. Beside the great distances covered by lines in front, many hun- dred miles of transportation were guarded in the rear. In hostile array in front of the Union Army were the Rebel Armies of V;rginia, of Georgia, of the Tennessee and Missouri, also their army of slaves, four million in number, used for the purpose of building fortifications and cultivating the land, for teamsters, blacksmiths, and servants.
It was under the second call for troops, by President Lincoln, on May 9th, 1861, for three hundred thousand men for three years' service, that the regiments of the Ohio Brigade were organized.
CHAPTER II.
ORGANIZATION OF THE REGIMENTS.
The Twenty-seventh Ohio Regiment was organized in July, 1861, at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, and mustered in, August 16th, under Colonel John W. Fuller. Colonel Fuller had recently returned from a three months' service in West Virginia, as Chief -of -staff to General Charles W. Hill. The Twenty-seventh was the sixth regiment formed for three years' service. Its rank and file represented nearly every county in the state and the cities of Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Williamsburg, Ironton and Circleville. They marched out of camp on August 20th, 1861, nine hun- dred and fifty strong, each soldier clothed in uniform and equipped with knapsack, canteen, haversack, old Springfield rifle and cartridge box. At Columbus, Ohio, they took cars for Cincinnati, where they embarked by steamer for Lawrenceburg, Indiana, the soldiers receiving a most cordial reception by the citizens there and again at Washington, Indiana, and other places, men women and children bringing well-filled baskets of refresh- ments to them.
They arrived at St. Louis on the following day. There being no bridge, they were ferried over the Mississippi River on the morning of the 22nd imd marched through the city to Benton Barracks, stopping on the way at the headquarters of General Fremont, who reviewed the regiment. At the same time, Mrs. Jessie Fremont presented a United States flag to the organization. At St. Louis they were joined with the Thirty-ninth Ohio, which had arrived two days previous, and with them served through- out the war.
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE THIRTY-NINTH.
The Thirty-ninth Ohio Regiment rendezvoused at Camp Colerain, ten miles north of Cincinnati, during the month of July, 1861. On the 31st of July, seven companies were mustered into service and on the 2nd of August, they moved to Camp Dennison, where the remaining three com- panies and the field and staff officers were mustered in. The Thirty-ninth was the third regiment to enlist from Ohio for three years. Being fully armed and equipped, the regiment moved on Sunday, August 18th, 1861, under command of Colonel John Groesbeck to St. Louis to join the forces or- ganizing under General Fremont, U. S. A., commanding the western de- partment, which comprehended Illinois, the states and territories west of
Organization of the Thirty-Ninth 27
the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and New Mexico. At Fre- mont's earnest solicitation, the Thirty-ninth and the Twenty-seventh Ohio regiments had been sent by the War Department. These two regiments were the first and only Ohio regiments to enter the state of Missouri in 1861.
troops ordered.
St. Louis, Aug. 13, 1861. To the Secretary of War:
Gen. Lyon's aid reports engagement with great loss on both sides : General Lyon killed, Colonel Sigel in command, retiring in good order from Springfield to Rolla. Let the Governor of Ohio be ordered forthwith to send me what disposable force he has. Order the utmost promptitude. The Thirty-ninth Regiment (Groesbeck's) might be telegraphed directly
here
J. C. Fremont, General.
War Department, Aug. 16, 1861. His Excellency, Governor Wm. Dennison, Columbus, Ohio:
Send Groesbeck's Thirty-ninth Regiment and Fuller's Twenty-seventh Regiment and all other available force to General Fremont without a moment's delay. Give them full supply of field artillery and small arms. Advise this department of your action.
Simon Cameron, Secretary of War.
FIELD OFFICERS OF THE 4l!d O. T. V. I.
Organization of the Forty-Third 29
THE FORTY-THIRD OHIO.
The Forty-third Ohio Regiment was organized principally from men living in central and eastern Ohio, at Camp Andrews, Mount Vernon, Ohio, on February 7th, 1862, parts of two companies having been formed by Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith, a graduate of West Point, at Camp Chase, Ohio, in September 1861. Part of Company H was from Lorain County. It was recruited at a time when men were very difficult to procure, but through the energy and perseverence of Lieutenant-Colonel Wager Swayne, the Regiment was filled to the minimum number and mustered into service. After having been well drilled by its Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith, it left its rendezvous for the front on the 21st of February, 1862; were conveyed by boat down the Ohio River to Cairo, Illinois, and reported to Brigadier-Gen- eral John Pope at Commerce, Missouri. The Regiment was at once assigned to John W. Fuller's Ohio Brigade, General D. S. Stanley's First Division.
THE SIXTY-THIRD OHIO.
The Sixty-third Ohio Regiment was organized by the consolidation of two battalions of recruits known as the Twenty-second and the Sixty-third Regiments, O. V. I. The battalion of the Twenty-second was recruited at Camp Worthington, Chillicothe, Ohio, and furnished for the new organi- zation six companies, A., B., E., H., I., K. The battalion of the Sixty-third was recruited at Marietta, Ohio.
The consolidation was occasioned by the earnest call of the govern- ment upon the state authorities for troops, directing that recruits be pushed into the field as rapidly as possible. The order for the consolidation was issued at Columbus, on the 18th of January, 1862, and the organization was completed on the 23rd of the same month, the Twenty-second having been ordered to report at Marietta, Ohio.
The Regiment was commanded by Colonel Sprague, who had been a Captain in the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry during a three months' service. The Regiment moved from Marietta on the 18th of February, under orders to report at Paducah, Kentucky. From this place it was or- dered to join Major-General John Pope's Army of the Mississippi at Com- merce, Missouri, and there was assigned to Fuller's Ohio Brigade, Stanley's First Division, in which it was united with the Twenty-seventh and Thirty- ninth, and Forty-third Ohio. Over ninety-five per cent of the men in these regiments were American born. Their average age was less than twenty years, and they composed the flower of Ohio youth. Among these regi- ments there was a unanimity of loyal sentiment and cordial, kindly feeling, which lasted throughout their service and to the end of the war.
30
Fuller's Ohio Brigade
In April, May and June of 1861, many people of St. Louis, Missouri, were in sympathy with the South and the enemy's flag was displayed from residences and recruiting offices. The State of Missouri was in active rebellion against national authority. The Battle of Bull Run had been a severe blow to the prestige of the Union. Armed men swarmed over the state. A Confederate force of nearly fifty thousand men was already on the southern frontier, Pillow with twelve thousand, was advancing upon Cairo ; Thompson with five thousand, upon Girardeau, Hardee with five thousand, upon Ironton, and Price with an estimated force of twenty-five thousand upon Lyon at Springfield. Their movement was intended to over- run Missouri and, supported by over a million of friendly population, to sieze St. Louis and make that city a center of operations for the invasion of Loyal states.
To meet this advancing force, Fremont, during the last days of July 1861, had twenty-three thousand men of ail arms, ten thousand of whom were three months men, whose term of service was expiring. General John Pope was fully occupied in North Missouri. General M. B. Prentiss had two regiments at Cairo, where fever and dysentery prevailed. General Lyon at Springfield had six thousand men, unpaid and badly fed and in need of clothing.
The soldiers in Missouri at this time who later rose to fame, were Lyon, Fremont, Grant, Blair, Schofield, Sherman, Steel, Pope, Halleck, and Sheridan.
A VERY RAW RECRUIT.
CHAPTER III.
DISCIPLINE OF THE REGIMENTS — BATTLE OF WILSON'S CREEK MOVEMENTS
OF FORCES UNDER MAJOR STURGESS.
The soldiers of the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio Regiments received their first lessons at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, and at Camp Dennison, respectively, and during their stay in Camp Benton, St. Louis, Missouri, the instruction was given principally by the commissioned and non-commissioned officers, who had just passed through the experience of three months' service and also under instructions of officers of the regular army, just come from frontier service. The discipline was severe, averag- ing ten hours a day, consisting mainly of field movements, battalion and squad drill, Zouave drill with musket, strikes and parries, loading and firing while kneeling or lying down, deploying as skirmishers and rallies upon the flag. It brought the men to a high state of prefection and effectiveness for the coming work in the field.
During drill hours, much good-natured bantering passed between the tall men who were placed on the right of a company and the short men on the left, the former being nick-named "Shanghais" and the latter "Little Roosters." Occupying this camp were several Missouri Regiments. The recruits were dressed in butternut clothing. They were thoroughly loyal to the Union, some of them having participated in the battle of Wilson's Creek, which took place August 10th, the bloodiest engagement thus far in the Civil War, in point of numbers.
General Lyon, commanding, at Wilson's Creek, against great odds fell upon the enemy with great fury and inspired his soldiers to deeds of almost super-human daring. While leading a column in a bayonet charge at the supreme moment, after having been wounded, he fell from his horse pierced by a bullet, and expired instantly. Major Sturgess, upon whom the com- mand now devolved, ordered a retreat and withdrew to Springfield. On returning shortly afterward to St. Louis, General Fremont gave him com- mand of a force to move to the aid of Union forces under Colonel Williams in an attack upon Green's band of rebels at Macon City.
The Order received by General Sturgess reads as follows :
St. Louis, Missouri, Sept. 6, 1861.
Brigadier-General Sturgess, Commanding the Arsenal:
Colonel Williams has been forced to retreat with his command of eight hundred men from Shelbina, to Macon City, by a band of rebels under
32
Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
Green, numbering three thousand, where he is now cut off from all lines of communication east of his position. In order to arrest the constant dep- redations in Marion, Shelby, Macon and adjoining counties, and to visit them with the whole vigor of martial law, I have resolved a combined attack on Green's men. To carry this movement, you will assume command of the following forces :
The Twenty-seventh Ohio, Colonel Fuller.
The Thirty-ninth Ohio, Colonel Groesbeck.
The First Squadron of Fremont's Hussars, Captain Blume.
Captain Swartz' full battery under command of the First Lieutenant.
Your main endeavor will be to cut off the enemy from the road leading to Shelbyville, and generally to render impossible the dispersion of his forces by squads, and to annihilate the gang of rebels as a whole. Communication between you and General Pope is subject to hazzard of interruption. Re- port when necessary to these headquarters.
Major-General Fremont, Commanding.
Nine companies of the Twenty-seventh and nine companies of the Thirty-ninth Ohio (one company of each regiment having been left at St. Louis in charge of camp equipage) moved up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, sixty miles to St. Charles on the steamers "January" and "H. D. Bacon," thence to the town of Mexico in freight cars, where the command pulled down the rebel flag and hoisted in its place the "stars and stripes."
General Sturgess reported from St. Charles on September 7th, that his troops were still on boats, that the artillery and cavalry had not yet arrived, and that Major Krekel of the Home Guards, had started north the same morning, with an engine and eighteen cars, for troops of his own command and was thereby delayed.
->&
RECRUITS. THE FIRST DRILL.
DISCIPLINE OF THE REGIMENTS, 33
At St. Charles, an incident occured which showed the nervous state of mind of the soldiers who were constantly hearing camp rumors of danger and attack by the enemy. After the twelve o'clock midnight relief had been posted, the sound of a heavy musket shot came from the direction of an outer sentry. Long roll was sounded vigorously, and in a moment there was consternation and commotion from upper and lower deck of the crowded steamers. It was the first time these men had heard the long roll and it caused a more intense thrill of excitement than at any other time during the service. Companies fully armed, equipped and supplied with forty rounds of ammunition, were rapidly marched ashore and formed in line of battle. Hasty orders were given to load guns, fix bayonets, and be in readiness until further orders. For an hour, the men stood waiting and watching for trouble, while the skirmishing companies went in search of the enemy. Finally the word came that the sentinel on the outpost had fired on a squad of the enemy and killed two, and again that the sentinel had been shot. While they were considering with each other what should be done with their personal effects, should they not survive the conflict at hand, the skirmishers returned and reported that there was no enemy, no one killed nor wounded, but that the alarm was caused by a soldier standing in a lonely nook, firing at what he supposed to be the enemy approaching his beat, but which proved to be two hideous looking scare-crows posted astride of a fence in a back lot.
September 16th, the command arrived at Macon on cattle cars. Four companies of the Thirty-ninth Ohio were ordered to St. Joseph, Missouri, where they performed guard duty on the North Missouri Railroad. This separation lasted until about February 1st, when they were ordered to St. Louis and rejoined the company left there.
General Sturgess now received orders to go to the relief of the Union forces, besieged at Lexington. He moved his command to Utica, over the Hannibal and St. Joe Railroad. This was a most hazardous ride. The train, consisting of one locomotive and freight cars, rushed all night long, twist- ing, thumping and jerking over a worn-out road bed, anything but safe, at the rate of sixty miles an hour. The men riding on the tops of the cars, in danger every moment, clutched for safety with a death grip. This ride was through a country which the enemy showed a disposition to claim by shooting into the cars.
Arriving at Utica, a detail was made from the two regiments to unload cars. The young gentlemen of Company B and G, Twenty-seventh Regi- ment, whose spirits had never been curbed, whose enterprise over-reached their discretion, having in mind the possibilities of putting down the rebel- lion by taking some of the luxuries belonging to the enemy, raided some
34 Fuller's Ohio Brigade
nearby bee-hives. The owner at once complained to General Sturgess, who became very angry at what he considered a breach of discipline and caused them to be drawn up in line. While they were standing in the hot sun, the honey melted in their haversacks and ran down their clothing, upon which the bees began to settle. Upon every bristle of their army pants was a bee. Then this commander posing as an army General, cursing them and threat- ening in a violent manner, demanded to know why they had committed the "crime." But the bees were getting lively and stung the General between the eyes. He retreated, swinging his arms in an effort to keep them off, while the boys disappeared in the opposite direction. Sturgess placed the men of Company B under arrest, their muskets were taken from them, and the Captain was obliged to surrender his sword. The orderly was hand- cuffed and in that condition, was made to march all that day. On another occasion, he ordered a man tied to a cannon for some trifling offence, and at other times men were tied to fences for taking rails. General Sturgess' orders were at all times to protect the property of known secessionists, not- withstanding the fact that was pointed out to him that the very men whose property he was protecting were shooting Union citizens and soldiers.
General Sturgess was excitable and had a bad temper. He gave atten- tion to small things, never allowing the Volunteer Soldier the right of self- defence, and when aroused, treated him without the consideration to which he was entitled. General Sturgess' military career had been most unfortu- nate. He had ordered the needless retreat from the battle field of Wilson's Creek. He was found unsuited to lead armies and was relieved of his command at Springfield, in the following November, but was afterward given another command of other forces. On the other hand, General Stur- gess had a fine presence, was an educated soldier, and when the occasion required, could be a perfect gentleman. The writer found him so, when visiting him at his headquarter's tent for the purpose of having several sol- diers liberated from further punishment. His manner and language on that occasion were most polite and cordial. He died after the war at St. Paul, Minnesota.
The camp equipage and commissary stores unloaded at Utica, consisted of commodious Sibly tents, each suitable for eight men, when sleeping close together, a wagon drawn by four or six mules for each company, with army rations of bacon, hard bread, sugar, coffee, peas, beans, vinegar, rice, mo- lasses, candles, and soap. Subsequently all the above-named articles were eliminated from regular issue except hard bread, sugar, coffee and bacon.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MARCH TO THE RELIEF OF LEXINGTON MISSOURI HARDSHIPS ON THE
WAY — ARRIVAL AT KANSAS CITY.
On September 17th at eleven o'clock in the morning, twelve hundred men under Sturgess commenced a rapid march forward to relieve Mulli- gan's forces, then beseiged by Price's Army at Lexington. The sun shone hot from a clear sky, and long stretches of the way afforded no water. The country was almost a wilderness, containing few inhabitants. The roads were new across the vast rolling prairies, the grass as high as the men's shoulders, was swept by the wind like the waves of the sea. It was a land- scape of grandeur.
The command bivouacked at Ellis Creek. The men marched twenty- two miles on the 18th and were off at two o'clock on the morning of the 19th. At daylight, the sound of heavy guns was heard at Lexing- ton. Arriving about noon, opposite that place, information was re- ceived from scouts that the enemy had possession of Lexington, and was moving across the river with three thousand infantry and artillery. Gen- eral Sturgess formed his small force in battle line, passed the word that "Lyon" was to be the battle cry, and then moved rapidly (seven miles in one hour) through deep bottom lands and corn fields, encountering the enemy's pickets and a Confederate Regiment, losing a few men. and cap- turing several prisoners. He then marched them to Richmond, where the exhausted soldiers rested upon their knapsacks, in the streets. At Rich- mond, many wounded rebels were brought in.
The march was resumed in the afternoon, and the men arrived at Camden Hill at sundown, burning with thirst, owing to heat, dust and rapid marching, having covered a distance, that day, of twenty-six miles. They rushed into the Missouri River for water and after filling their canteens, and slacking their thirst, bivouacked without food or shelter.
They (Sturgess' Command) started at two o'clock in the morning amidst a storm of rain, thunder and lightning, marching all day and covering a distance of thirty-three miles. Their clothing, blankets and ac- cutrements were soaked with water. Physically, the men were "used up." It was their first great march. They had travelled one hundred and ten miles in four days, averaging twenty-seven miles a day. Bivouacking in a field near Liberty, Missouri, they fell into a deep sleep. During the night, two soldiers of the Thirty-ninth Ohio, who had thrown away their blankets
36
Fuller's Ohio Brigade
on the march, crept over to the sleeping forms of two men in the Twenty- seventh Ohio, and after removing the blankets that covered them, actually rolled them off the blankets they lay on, without awakening them.
A story is told by the soldiers, that the enemy's cavalry scouts following this column as it ascended a hill, saw the large, highly-polished brass instruments carried by the members of the Twenty-seventh Ohio Regimental Band. The scouts retreated immediately and reported to Gen- eral Price that the Yankees had a full battery of brass cannon and could not be attacked.
On September 21st, after a general cleaning of guns, accoutrements and clothing, the command marched to Liberty Landing on the Missouri River and embarked on the steamer "A. Majors'' for Kansas City. After landing there, by some unaccountable neglect, they were left to bivouack on the levee, amid the debris of the river, and with only the muddy water of that stream to drink.
BATTLE OF LEXINGTON, MISSOURI
March to the Relief of Lexington. 37
While ascending the river, the pilot ran the boat on a sand bar and Colonel Fuller immediately put him under guard until the boat moved off.
No railroads entered Kansas City at the time, so that all outside com- munication was by river. It was a great distributing point for army sup- plies. A sand-bag fort occupied the high bluff which commanded the passage of the river.
The two regiments (Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth) moved on the following day to the open fields near the town, remaining a few days, and then into store houses on the main street. They were instructed and drilled continuously in maneuvering and the use of arms. There were drills for commissioned officers and squad and regimental drills, commenc- ing often at five in the morning and ending with dress parade at six in the evening. The men became very proficient and the discipline was equal to that of any soldiers in the world. Yet it is a remarkable fact that very little of this drill could be made useful in actual warfare. Most of the practice was for the soldier of the past. Skillful soldiers are made by being pitted against the enemy; there they learn unheard-of things. They find ways to use stumps, trees, rocks, earth, hills and valleys, to protect themselves, while inflicting all possible damage to the enemy. Showy uni- forms are thrown away, their clothing becomes stained the color of the earth upon which they sleep, a shade least liable to be a mark for the enemy.
Captain Minken, Sergeants Thomas Morgan, E. B. Temple, John Toms and Corporal William E. More published a paper while the regiments re- mained in Kansas City, from which we copy the following, so important to the soldier :
"What we chiefly dread in war is rifle balls, or saber cuts, or bayonet thrusts, or bomb shells, or over fatigue in marching, but the vital statistics of war prove that there is another great agent of destruction that is far more potent than any or all of these and that is disease."
October 16th, re-enforcements of Kansas troops, Indian scouts and Mexican teamsters arrived under command of General James Lane, includ- ing also the Seventh Kansas Cavalry known to the Brigade as the "Kansas Jay Hawkers," with whom they served in many later campaigns.
The clothing furnished by the government in refitting men for active service was good but many misfits occured. Shoes were too large, and blouses and trousers were often baggy.
CHAPTER V.
THE MARCH TO SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI.
On October 16th, the Brigade with the whole command under General Sturgess, marched to join General Fremont's forces at Springfield, in south- west Missouri, moving from the wooded bottom lands of the Missouri River to the rolling prairies and plantations of corn, cotton and tobacco, over the counties of Jackson, Cass, Johnson, Henry, St. Clair and Polk, and through the towns of Pleasant Hill, Oseola, Bolivar and Greenfield. The Brigade crossed seven rivers enroute, some of which the men waded during the night, with the water and air at the freezing point. The Osage, a large and deep river, was crossed on a scow drawn over by ropes.
The soldiers were often supplied by the settlers with corn pone cakes which had been baked in skillets over red-hot coals. The boys added mo- lasses and the cake was considered a luxury.
This country was known in early geography as the eastern end of the great American dessert. However, there was no dessert. It was a plateau or tableland over which the wind swept and chilled our soldiers to the marrow.
The two Regiments arrived at Greenfield on October 27th, raised the Union flag over the Court House, and on the 30th, late in the afternoon, after being reviewed by General Sturgess and double-quicked through the streets for several hours, received urgent orders to join Fremont. They marched all night and the following day, arrived in Springfield just at dusk, with bands playing and flags flying. They were hungry and thirsty and covered with dust, and they had waded three small rivers during the night. They marched forty-five miles during the twenty-four hours and a total distance of two hundred and thirty miles in fourteen days, subsisting on scanty rations of pork and cornmeal. Soldiers from their camps lined the roadway and greeted the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio with up- roars of delight, exclaiming, "Here come the regulars." This was a compli- ment to the fine marching and discipline. On noticing the Ohio banners, cheers were given for the "twin Buckeye regiments."
Fremont's army now numbered about fifty thousand men, all gathered in a great camp of white tents. Here was heard near by and in the distance, the martial sound of bugle call, of fife and drum, and the music of bands. This and the artillery salutes to the flag at sunrise and sunset seemed to the minds of the Ohio soldiers who had just marched out of the wilderness, magical and inspiring, and it filled them with patriotic emotions.
March to Springfield. 39
Camp was made on the grounds where Major Zagoni of Fremont's staff led a bold movement with two hundred and fifty horsemen and de- feated a thousand rebel recruits of Price's Army. While here the regi- ments Were sent on a march of twelve miles to Wilson's Creek to bury the dead left after the battle. The work of interment was done as humanely as possible, but was difficult on account of the rocky and irregular surface of the battle field.
Many Unionists living in this section of the country gave the soldiers a warm greeting. While crossing the prairies, each company when about to camp and pitch tents, marched four abreast, making a circle and tramp- ing down the grass. It is wonderful how proficient the soldiers became in putting up their tents, "striking" them (taking them down) and loading them into wagons neatly and quickly.
CHAPTER VI.
THE TERRITORY IN POSSESSION OF THE UNION ARMIES.
The situation of all the armies at this time (last days of September, 1861,) was in part as follows: The United States was in possession of Fortress Monroe and the adjacent waters of the sound, also from a point a few miles south of Washington, D. C, through Harper's Ferry, Mary- land, through West Virginia, just south of the Ohio River, then in Ken- tucky near the Dick and Kentucky Rivers to the Ohio River near Paducah, from Cairo, Illinois, along the Mississippi River to points a little south of St. Louis, thence west to Kansas City and south to Springfield, Missouri. The Missouri River was a Federal highway from its source to its mouth. Nearly the whole territory south of the above line was controlled by the so- called Confederacy.
The Army of the Potomac in the east under McClellan was inactive though organized in the midst of loyal advisors and surroundings, under the eyes of the President. Missouri, a border state, had represented all the evils of bitter civil strife. Military operations had to be initiated in the midst of revolutionary conditions and a rebellious people, where all laws were set at defiance. "The consummation of General Lyon's well-conserved campaign and Frank Blair's statesmanship had made it impossible for Mis- souri to secede or contribute any more men or material to the south." Gen- eral Fremont had sent officers into the states of Tennessee and Kentucky, within the Confederate lines to observe and ascertain the strength of the enemy, who upon returning, had brought important information concerning the position of the enemy. He had ordered General Grant to Cairo to take possession of Paducah, to hold the mouths of the Cumberland and Tennes- see Rivers which were threatened by the enemy, to take command of south- east Missouri, and had laid plans for operations on the Mississippi River with gunboats, which he had ordered built.
On November 4th, General McKinstry inspected and reviewed the First Brigade and First Division, to which the Twenty-seventh and Thirty- ninth had been assigned at Springfield.
The general routine of duty until the 9th of November, 1861, con- sisted principally of roll call, drill four times each day and dress parade. The army was on half rations, for the train of thousands of wagons failed to supply rations in sufficient quantities.
CHAPTER VII.
THE RETROGRADE MOVEMENT OF THE ARMY.
On the 2nd of November, General Fremont was relieved of command of the Army of the Northwest. The government thought he had not filled the high expectations which his opportunities merited. The dis- aster of the battle of Springfield and the death of Lyon, to whom loyal Missouri owed so much, turned censure sharply upon Fremont, whose short- comings as a commander had been noticed. General Hunter now assumed command. He failed to realize that the Army could live on the country, but unfortunately moved his army back to their base of supplies on the railroads at Sedalia, necessitating a march of one hundred and twenty-five miles. The Confederate General Price's Army followed and occupied Springfield, consuming all subsistence raised in that country, especially that belonging to the Union people.
While camped near Springfield, Missouri, Colonel Fuller, command- ing the Twenty-seventh Ohio Regiment, was so reduced by sickness that he could not be moved and was left in the hospital when our army moved to Sedalia. All the sick in the hospital fell into the Hands of the Confed- erates. They were very kind to General Fuller, General Price himself be- stowing much personal attention upon him. As soon as General Fuller could be moved with safety, he was sent into the Union lines.
Part of the retrograde march was over dusty roads, made so by great numbers of wagons and the tramping of thousands of men. The soldiers became so covered with dust, that they were hardly recognizable. About the 15th of November, the weather turned cold and there was much rain. The men carrying their knapsacks suffered a great deal from toil and hardship. The Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth camped at Georgetown, situated in a rolling country, then moved three miles to a new camp at Sedalia, which was at the time the western terminus of the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
Sedalia, a frontier town, was situated on a flat and swampy prairie, where the small population lived in cheaply constructed houses, without other foundation than blocks of wood. The Thirty-ninth Ohio went into camp at Syracuse. The low, wet camp at Sedalia was soon cut up by the wheels of the artillery, commissary, and ammunition wagons, and became a quagmire, causing such a great amount of sickness among the soldiers that the surgeons became alarmed. Large numbers of men were sent to the hospitals, which at this time were poorly managed.
J^-...;^i^fee
ap or
ATI ON S IN
OURI, 1361.
* S ~^v
OPERATIONS IN MISSOURI, 1861 AND 1862. Marches of the 27th and 39th 0. V. !.
Retrograde Movement of Army. 43
The men were furnished large Fremont tents, yet they suffered from the severe weather and exposure during the heavy falls of snow. While standing on picket or on camp guard, a great many had their hands, ears or feet frozen. Details of axemen were sent to the woods for fuel. Some- times large trees were cut down, trimmed and then hauled by six mule wagon teams over the frozen ground, a distance of two miles. Log-heap fires were kept burning in the company streets, around which the soldiers would stand and by turning around and around, could keep warm on one side of their bodies, all of the time. The regimental sutler sold his goods at very high prices, but supplies of home-cooked meats, bread and apple butter, brought in wagons and corn baskets by the farmers were bought much cheaper. It was at Sedalia that the soldiers received their first green- backs issued by the government in payment for their services.
On November 19th, General Halleck assumed command of the Depart- ment of the Northwest, the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio Regi- ments being attached to the First Brigade, First Division. On December 12th, these two regiments were assembled to march with a scouting force, composed of cavalry, artillery and infantry, under command of General John Pope. The troops were supplied with two days' rations, forty rounds of cartridges and extra ammunition in wagons. By forced marches, they covered fourteen miles, the first day, and thirty-five miles on the second day, then went into a camp on a prairie.
The weather was very cold and the ground was frozen hard, no tents could be pitched. The men slept on prairie brush and corn fodder. It .was here that a bushwhacker who had been captured, while attempting to break through the guard, was shot.
On the 15th, near Warrensburg, a wagon train was captured, contain- ing supplies for Price's Army. On the 18th, the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio Regiments, after marching northeasterly, some distance went into camp, but at eight o'clock in the evening, the long roll was sounded, and they were hurriedly formed in ranks and marched forward three miles to Blackwater River. The regiments halted and formed ranks in open order and thirteen hundred rebel prisoners composing General McGoffin's command were marched in between our two lines, and were guarded back to Sedalia. The distance covered by our troops during this scout, was one hundred miles.
While out scouting on this expedition, sixty-two men belonging to the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio Regiments were taken prisoners and made to take an oath not to take up arms against the Southern Con- federacy. They were released on parole, sent to Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, and from there to Kansas City, where they were mus- tered out of the service of the United States by order of General Halleck.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE GREAT WINTER MARCH TO ST. LOUIS. ADVANCE UPON NEW MADRID
AND ISLAND TEN.
Special Order Number 18.
Headquarters, District of Central Missouri,
Otterville, January 29th, 1862.
The following movements of troops will be made. First, the Iowa Fifth, the Illinois Forty-seventh, five companies of the Ohio Thirty-ninth and the Eleventh Ohio Battery will march from Syracuse and LaMine to Boonville, Missouri, where Colonel W. H. Worthington will take command and make immediate arrangements to cross the Missouri River with his whole force. Second, the Nebraska First, the Ohio Twenty-seventh, and three companies of Fourth Regular Cavalry, the companies of regular Infantry, and one of the Batteries of the Missouri Light Artillery, at Sedalia, to be designated by Colonel Steel, and Eighth Iowa Volunteers, will take up the line of march immediately for Jefferson City. Third, the nine companies of Merrill's Horse will immediately proceed to Brownsville,
By order of General John Pope, Commanding.
On February 3rd, 1862, the order to move was brought to the regi- ment by the Sergeant-Major, and the great march to St. Louis began. Then far and near was heard throughout the camps the sound of drums and bugle calls to assemble. And so with light hearts and heavy knap- sacks, with filled canteens and haversacks, with guns slung over shoulders, with forty rounds of ammunition in the cartridge boxes, our boys trudged away at a good gate, over the snow and rough and frozen roads. Stakes could not be driven to tie the ropes which held up the tents, so that no tents could be used. With the change in the weather, the snow turned to slush, and the roads were so deep with mud that they were almost impassable. The black mud stuck like tar to the shoes of the marching men. Small lakes were formed in the road by the melting snow, and squads of men would scatter and tramp through the fields, or walk on the ties of the rail- road. At night, the men built great fires and dried their wet clothing. Some cut corn stalks and put them by the fire to dry and on this bed lay down to sleep, wrapped in blankets, some on tents spread on the ground or on beds made of brush, while others remained in groups shivering around the fire. One cold night, in an open corn field, two boy soldiers routed an old sow and 'a litter of pigs from a hole she had made in the ground for protection against the inclemency of the weather. They crept into the hole for warmth and she returned many times during the night, squealing and grunting as if appealing to their humanity.
Winter March to St. Louis. 45
The last day of the march was over a plank road, a distance of twenty- live miles into St. Louis, which was covered in ten hours. It was the only dry shod marching that was experienced in the whole trip, and was accom- panied by comparatively little fatigue. Many times on the trip, the soldiers exclaim, "From mud we came, to mud we return."
Part of the army crossed the Missouri river at Boonville, and part at Jefferson City, and followed the route by way of Otterville, Columbia, Dan- ville and St. Charles, much of the way over a hilly country.
This march was a severe one and will never be forgotten by the par- ticipants. The men were compelled frequently to pull the ordinance and supply wagons over the hills by hand. The march consumed seventeen days' time and covered a distance of two hundred and thirty miles. At St. Louis, the glad news was received of the victory at Fort Donaldson. The detached companies joined the command here.
The regiments expected after the hardships of the march, to remain in more comfortable quarters at Camp Benton barracks to rest, but to their dismay, they were ordered aboard steamers upon which they were conveyed down the Mississippi to Commerce, Missouri, arriving there on the 23rd. The river was at a flood, the land was overflowed, the United States bar- racks at Fort Holt, Kentucky, and Birds Point, Missouri, were afloat and at Cairo, Illinois, the inhabitants were moving from their dwellings through the streets in boats. The strong, muddy current of the river carried away every movable thing, houses, trees, fences, and wreckage of all kinds, and swept them rapidly down stream.
The steamers which conveyed the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio regiments down the Mississippi River, were crowded and carried a cargo of munitions of war that fully tested their capacities. But the three days' rest afforded the men by this trip of one hundred miles on the river, compensated in a measure for their close quarters and poor accommo- dations.
At the debarkation of the regiments at Commerce, Missouri, forty miles above Cairo, all ambulances, army wagons and artillery were taken off the boat in pieces and were regeared, put together and the wagons reloaded with supplies. The regiments moved back from the river two miles and pitched their tents in the woods. The army of the North-west was here merged with part of the Army of the Mississippi.
On February 25th, 1862, at Commerce, Missouri, the Forty-third Ohio and the Sixty-third Ohio Regiments were joined with the Twenty- seventh and Thirty-ninth. The four regiments composed Fuller's Ohio Brigade (First). On the 22nd, the Brigade was assigned to General Schuy-
46
Fuller's Ohio Brigade
ler Hamilton's First Division, in General John Pope's Armv of the Missis- sippi. For four years following, these regiments supported each other with heroic devotion, on many bloody battle fields.
OIL. WAGER SWAYNE. 43d 0. V. V. I. MAT. W. It. THRALL. Surgeon 27th 0. V. V. I.
COL. JOHN W. PULLER. 27th 0. V. I. COL. EDW. P. NOYES. 39th 0. V. V. I.
CHAPTER IX.
THE CAPTURE OF NEW MADRID AND ISLAND TEN.
On February 28th, the Brigade commenced a march of fifty miles, through low swampy lands, where the cottonwood and cypress trees and the mistletoe grew in great profusion, and into the gloom of the "sunk country" to New Madrid. New Madrid was effected by the earthquakes of 1811 and 1812. At that time the earth rolled in waves, opened with loud explosions, formed lakes and crevasses, and drained the Mississippi River, submerging the land. The boasts of the rebel Generals Polk, Pillow,
43d AND 63d 0. V. I. STARTING FOR NEW MADRID, MO. March. 1862. From Si Clegg.
27th AND 39th 0. V. I. "FOLLOWING.' In Need of Supplies.
48
Fuller's Ohio Brigade
and Thompson, that they would capture Cairo and St. Louis, were frus- trated by the occupancy of this territory. At the crossing of the Bird's Point Railroad, there was a skirmish with Jeff Thompson's Cavalry, a small force of the enemy's command was captured by our advance, together with three one pounder guns, breach loaders, each drawn by a mule. This was termed by our young soldiers the "jackass battery," and Lieutenant Zenn said : "The mule seems as glad to See the Yankees as the colored people are."
In the movement upon New Madrid, the Forty-third and Sixty-third led in the advance of the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio on the first day. The sandy roads and heavy knapsacks, made the men feel keenly their first lessons in real soldiering, and many knapsacks were unloaded.
CHARGE THROUGH CORNFIELD. New Madrid, Mo., March 6th, 1862.
Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten. 49
On reaching the enemy's outpost, on the afternoon of March 3rd, with the Twenty-seventh in advance, muskets were loaded, and the regiments which were deployed as skirmishers advanced. Hogs were feeding on the corn- fields, shells were bursting overhead and in the rear, filling the air with sizzling missiles, then striking the ground with a thud, One of the soldiers picked up an unexploded shell and carried it to a fire. The shell exploded and tore him to pieces.
On March 3rd, the Ohio Brigade in advance, arrived at New Madrid, halting in a corn field, half a mile from town. The Confederates fired from their gun boats on the Mississippi River and also from their fort on the river bank at Madrid Landing. Toward night, the Brigade fell back a short distance, to a camp in the woods. Temporarily, the First (Demi) Brigade with the Twenty-seventh under command of Colonel John W. Fuller and the Thirty-ninth under command of Major Edward F. Noys was commanded by Colonel John Groesbeck. The Second Brigade with the Forty-third under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Wager Swayne, and the Sixty-third under command of John W. Sprague, was commanded by Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith. March 4th, General D. S. Stanley assumed command of the First Division.
Keeping a strong picket in front, preparations were now made to cap- ture the fort. At two o'clock on the morning of March 13th, the men supplied with rations and blankets, were formed for the purpose of sup- porting a large siege gun which had been planted within five hundred yards of the enemy's position, and also for the purpose of relieving a regiment then lying in rifle pits. The enemy observed this movement, and instantly began firing volleys, while the heavy guns from the fort opened with a tre- mendous fire of shell and solid shot. One cannon ball, bounding along, cut off the legs of three boys, members of the Twenty-seventh Ohio Regi- ment, who were in one file, marching forward with military precision.
Considering the awful fire they were under for four days, in exposed positions, it is a matter of great astonishment that there were no more casualties and that half the men engaged were not either killed or wounded. The air was full of shot and shell, striking the trees, scattering the limbs around, and plowing up the earth in different places. There were many narrow escapes in the four regiments. In one case, a piece of shell struck a soldier's gun, twisting it out of shape, and whirling the soldier around and around, so that he was badly hurt. These great shells flying through the air with a singing sound, the soldiers called by such names as "camp ket- tles" or "humming birds."
Our men lay flat upon the ground during most of the firing, until it ceased at about eight o'clock in the evening. During that time the Union Batteries were in action and succeeded in dismantling some of the enemy's
50 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
guns, and injuring their gunboats. One of our large siege guns named "Uncle Sam" made the earth tremble at every discharge. A violent thunder storm came up and continued during the night, soaking the men's clothing, and making things generally uncomfortable. At daylight, while the troops were standing, waiting in mud and water, it was discovered that the enemy had evacuated their fort on the river bank, leaving twenty-five heavy guns and a large quantity of army stores.
At New Madrid, the supply of drinking water was obtained by digging in the black sand. In these shallow wells, the water was so bad and so rily that after standing a short time in a camp kettle an inch or two of slime and sand could be found. Charles I. Adkins, of Company K, of the twenty-seventh Ohio said that it was safe to believe that during our six weeks' stay in New Madrid, each man swallowed enough dirt to give his stomach a concrete lining.
An incident occurred at New Madrid which shows the feeling and conduct of some of the regular army officers toward the volunteer sol- dier. One day the Orderly Sergeant of Company K, Twenty-seventh Ohio, ordered Privates C. I. Adkins and Thomas Chambers, to go with Antone, the Mexican teamster, and get a load of rails. As they were returning perched on top of the load, General Pope drove up to them in his ambu- lance and asked them with an oath what command they belonged to. Without giving them time to answer, he ordered them to get into the ambu- lance with him, and told the teamster to take the rails back and put them on the fence again. Then with a blast of words to his driver, ordered him to go to the Forty-third Ohio Regiment, and without any explanation, told
Colonel Swayne to put "these " in the guard house until they could
be court-martialed and shot as an example to the rest of the"
Volunteer ." And to make an impression, he repeated this several
times. It is indeed singular, with the soldiers' war experience, that officers of such acknowledged ability as General Pope and others, did not compre- hend the Volunteer's patriotism nor his comfort. Taking rails was not a crime, but protecting the enemy's property of that kind, was a crime. Every old soldier knows that during the last two years of the war, the taking of rails to build fires to cook over, or the using of rails to sleep upon, or to make corduroy roads, was especially commended by those in authority.
The evacutaion of New Madrid was forced by General Pope's troops blockading the western side of the Mississippi River, twelve miles below, at Point Pleasant. The Confederates still held Island Ten, and the eastern shores with no way to retreat except by river or through almost im- passable swamps. Perceiving his defect in the enemy's position, Pope pro- ceeded with promptness and ability to take advantage of the situation, but
Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten.
51
he could not cross the river below Island Ten without the aid of gunboats to silence the enemy's batteries opposite Point Pleasant.
On the night of April 4th, the gunboat "Carondelet" ran past the rebel batteries at Island Ten, starting at ten o'clock, after the moon had gone down and the sky, the earth and the river were alike hidden in the black shadows of a thunder storm. Arriving at New Madrid at midnight, the crew was most heartily received by the army.
On Sunday the 6th of April, General Gordon Granger, Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith, with other officers on board, made a reconnaissance to Tip- tonville, and returning, captured and spiked the guns of a rebel battery op- posite Point Pleasant.
On April 7th, several transports passed the slough or bayou, which had been cleared of trees and stumps for a distance of twelve miles. On the same day, the gunboat "Pittsburg" ran the gauntlet safely. The Brigade marched on board the steamers "Trio" and "Gilmore," lying at the upper Madrid Fort and were conveyed down the Mississippi six miles to Watson's Landing, Kentucky. There the troops disembarked after the
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Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten. 53
gunboats had driven the enemy from the rifle pits, and had knocked the siege guns over into the ditch. They then marched on the Tiptonville Road, bivouacking long after dark and lying on their arms till daylight.
The next day, pursuit of the enemy was continued, past deserted camps containing tents still standing and cooked rations left upon the ground. Army blankets and stores were found strewn along the road, left by the enemy. After marching fourteen miles, the Brigade arrived at Tiptonville, Tennessee, and witnessed the surrender of seven thousand well-dressed and uniformed Confederate soldiers, including three Generals and ten Colonels. The captures included seven thousand small arms and accoutrements. The prisoners were sent up the river.
After these encouraging successes, the Brigade marched up the River Road to a point opposite Island Ten. They stacked arms, and rested in an extensive camp, recently abandoned by the enemy, which had been a depot of supplies. The captures were five million rations, great quantities of ammunition, bread, bacon, sugar, one gunboat, three transports, one iron- clad ram, and one hundred and twenty-three pieces of heavy artillery and thirty-five pieces of field artillery of modern pattern. On the same day, the Brigade marched to the landing, embarked on steamers and returned to New Madrid and to their camp where they remained until the 12th.
RICE B. BOSTICK, 4th Tenn., C. S. A., who fired the first musket shot
at the 43rd Ohio, New Madrid, Mo., March 6th, 1862.
He afterwards served in the Union Army.
54 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
Report of General John Pope. Headquarters, Department of the Mississippi,
New Madrid, March 14, 1862.
I have the honor to submit for the information of the general com- manding the department the following report of the operations which re- sulted in the capture of this place.
I arrived before the town with the forces under my command on Monday the 3rd instant. I found the place occupied by five regiments of infantry and several companies of artillery. One bastioned earthwork, mounting fourteen guns, about a half mile below the town, and another irregular work at the upper end of the town, mounting seven pieces of heavy artillery, together with lines of intrenchments between them, con- stituted the defensive works. Six gunboats carrying from four to eight heavy guns each, were anchored along the shore between the upper and lower redoubts. The country is perfectly level for miles around the place, and the river was so high that the guns of the gunboats looked directly over the banks. The approaches to the town for several miles were com- manded by direct and cross fire by at least sixty guns of heavy caliber. It would not have been difficult to carry the intrenchments, but it would have been attended with heavy loss and we should not have been able to hold the place for half an hour exposed to the destructive fire of the gunboats. It seemed necessary to bring down a few heavy guns by land to operate against those of the enemy. They were sent for and meanwhile forced reconnaissances were pushed over the whole ground and into several parts of the town. * * * The enemy invariably retreated precipitately. I de- termined to occupy some point on the river below and establish our small guns, if possible in such a position as to blockade the river and to cut off supplies and re-enforcements for the enemy from below. Point Pleasant, twelve miles below was selected, it being the terminus of a plank road from the interior. I accordingly threw forward Colonel Plummer, Eleventh Mis- souri, to that point with three regiments of infantry, three companies of cavalry, and a field battery of ten-pound Parrot and rifle guns, with orders to make a lodgment on the river bank, to line the rifle pits with one thou- sand men, and to establish his artillery in sunk batteries of single pieces between rifle pits. The arrangement was made to present as small a mark as possible to the shells of the gunboat, and to render futile the use of round shot from their heavy guns. Colonel Plummer marched with all speed. After some cannonading from gunboats, he succeeded in making a lodgment, constructed and occupied the works. * * * * The river was blockaded during the rest of our operations. The enemy continued to re-in force New Madrid from Island Ten until March 12th. They had
Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten. 55
nine thousand infantry, considerable artillery and nine gunboats. On the 12th, our siege guns reached here and were placed in battery within eight hundred yards of the enemy's works and opened fire at daylight on the 13th. A detail was made to work in the trenches, supported by Stanley's Division, consisting of the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Ohio under Colonel Groesbeck, and the Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio under Colonel Smith. Captain Mower, First United States Infantry with Companies A and H was placed in command of the siege guns. The enemy fired several volleys of musketry, but was driven in. * * * Our guns were served with vigor and skill and in a few hours disabled several of the gunboats and dis- mounted several of the heavy guns in the enemy's main works. One of our twenty- four pound guns was struck -in the muzzle by a round shot from the enemy's batteries and was disabled. The cannonading was continued furiously all day by the gunboats and land batteries of the enemy without producing any impression upon us. Meantime our trenches were being ex- tended and advanced. *****
A furious thunder storm began to rage about eleven o'clock that night and continued without intermission until morning. Just be fore ^ daylight, General Stanley was relieved in the trenches with his Division by Gen- eral Hamilton. A few minutes after daylight a flag of truce approached our batteries with information that the enemy had evacuated his works. Companies A and H, First United States Infantry were sent forward to plant the United States flag over their abandoned works. The flight of the enemy had been hasty and precipitate. Their dead were found unburied, their suppers untouched, candles were burning in the tents, and there was every other evidence of a disgraceful panic. All their artillery, siege guns, field batteries, magazines filled with fixed ammunition, tents for an army of ten thousand men, horses, mules, intrenching tools are among the spoils left in our hands. The enemy's guns were immediately turned upon the river which they completely command. The flight of the enemy was so hasty that they abandoned their pickets and gave no intimation to their forces at Island Ten, consequently one gunboat and ten large steamers which were there, are cut off from below, and must either be destroyed or fall into our hands.
Island Ten must also be evacuated as it can neither be re-inforced nor supplied from below. During the operations here, the whole of the forces were at different times brought under the fire of the enemy and behaved themselves with great coolness and gallantry. It seems proper however, that I should make special mention of those more directly concerned in the final operations against the place. The division of General Stanley, consisting of the Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-third and Sixty- third Ohio Regiments, supported the battery from two o'clock in the morn-
56
Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
ing of the 13th to daylight of the 14th, exposed to the full fury of the cannonade, without being able to return a shot, during the severe storm of that night, and displayed coolness, courage and fortitude worthy of all praise. In fact the conduct of all the troops in this command so far ex- ceeded my expectations that I was astonished and delighted and feel very safe in predicting for them a brilliant career in arms.
Our whole loss during the operations was fifty-one killed and wounded.
John Pope, Brigadier-General, Commanding.
THE BRIGADE AT NEW MADRID AND ISLAND No. 10.
Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten. 57
Report of General John Pope.
Headquarters, Army of the Mississippi. Camp five miles from Corinth, Miss., May 2nd, 1862. General:
I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations which resulted in the capture of Island Ten and the batteries on the main shore, together with the whole of the land forces of the enemy in that vicinity. A brief sketch of the topography of the immediate neighborhood, seems es- sential to the full understanding of the army.
Island Ten lies at the bottom of a great bend of the Mississippi River, immediately North of it being a long, narrow promontory on the Mississippi shore. The River from Island Ten flows northwest to New Madrid, where it again makes a great bend to the south, as far as Tiptonville, otherwise called Merriwether's Landing, so that opposite New Madrid also, is a long narrow promontory. From Island Eight across the land to New Madrid is six miles, while by river it is fifteen ; so likewise the distance from Island Ten to Tiptonville is five miles, while by water it is twenty-seven.
Commencing at Hickman, a great swamp, which afterward becomes Reelfoot Lake, extends along the left bank of the Mississippi and discharges is waters into the River, forty miles below Tiptonville, leaving the whole penninsula opposite New Madrid between it and the river. This peninsula therefore, is itself an island, having the Mississippi River on three sides, and Reelfoot Lake and the great swamps which border it on the other. A good road leads from Island Ten along the west bank of Reelfoot Lake to Tiptonville. The only means of supply therefore, for the forces at and around Island Ten in this peninsula, was by the river. When the river was blockaded at New Madrid, supplies and re-inforcements were landed at Tiptonville and conveyed across the neck of the peninsula by land. There was no communication with the interior except by small flat boats plied across Reelfoot Lake, a distance of two miles, and that through an open- ing cut through cypress swamps for the purpose. Supplies and re-inforce- ments or escape to any considerable extent were therefore impracticable on the land side. One mile below Tiptonville began the great swamps along the Mississippi on both sides, and no dry ground is to be found except in occasional spots, for at least sixty miles below. By intercepting the navi- gation of the river below Tiptonville and commanding by heavy artillery the lowest point of dry ground near the place, the enemy would be at once cut off from his resources and prevented from escaping. The roads along the river in the direction of Point Pleasant followed a narrow strip of dry land between the swamps and the river, and were very miry and difficult.
58 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
With much labor the heavy guns captured at New Madrid from the enemy were dragged by hand and established in battery at several points, and ex- tending my lines seventeen miles along the river, the lower battery being placed immediately opposite the lowest point of dry ground below Tipton- ville. The enemy attempted in every way to prevent their construction and were therefore in every case established at night. * * * * Five gun- boats, therefore, at once advanced against the battery, which consisted of twenty four-pound siege guns and two ten-pound Parrots. * * * * Their gunboats were repulsed with a loss of one gunboat sunk and many men shot down by our sharp shooters from the rifle pits. From this time all communication from below with the forces near Island Ten was cut 0g * * * * Qn March 1Q; t received your dispatch directing me if possible, to cut a road through the swamps to a point on the Missouri shore opposite Island Ten and transfer a portion of my force sufficient to erect batteries at that point, and to assist in the artillery practice on the enemy's batteries. * * * * I directed Colonel Bissell's engineer regiment to build a road through the swamps and overflow of the river, to dig a canal across the peninsula from some point above Island Ten to New Madrid in order that steam transports might be brought to me which would enable me to cross the river and assail the enemy's batteries near Island Ten in the rear. The work was beyond measure difficult. The canal is twelve miles long, six miles of which is through heavy timber. An avenue fifty feet wide was made through it by sawing off trees of large size, four and one- half feet under water. * * * * It was completed on the 4th of April, after privations and exposures very unusual even in the history of warfare. * * * The enemy anticipating our movements, had erected batteries along the east shore from Island Ten entirely around to Tiptonville, at every point where troops could be landed. The difficulty of crossing the river in force had therefore greatly increased. * * * * The passage of a great river lined with batteries and in the face of the enemy, is one of the most hazardous and difficult operations of war and cannot be justified except in case of urgent necessity. * * * * Though full of peril, the movement was throroughly understood by my whole command ; there was not an officer nor man who was not anxious to be placed in the advance. * * * * Floating batteries were made by lashing three coal barges together and bolted with iron carrying three heavy guns and eighty sharp shooters. * * * * Qn f-i:e 5th 0f April, the steamers and barges were brought near to the mouth of the bayou which discharges into the Mississippi at New Madrid. * * * * On the night of the 4th of April, the gunboat "Carondelet" ran the batteries at Island Ten. * * * * On the morning of the 6th, I sent Captain Marshall of my staff, * * and other officers, to make a reconnaissance of the river below, and requested Captain Wilke to
Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten. 59
take them on board the "Carondelet," and run down the river to ascertain precisely the character of the bank and the position and number of the en- emy's batteries. * * * * The "Carondelet" steamed down the river in the midst of a heavy fire from the enemy's batteries along the shore. On her return up the river, Captain Wilke silenced the enemy's guns opposite Point Pleasant, and a small force of infantry landed and spiked their guns. On the night of the 6th, at my urgent request, Commodore Foot ordered the "Pittsburg" also to run down to New Madrid. She arrived at daylight and like the "Carondelet" came through untouched.
* * * * I directed that two gunboats proceed down the river on the 7th and if possible silence the batteries near Watson's Landing, the point which had been selected to land the troops, and at the same time, I brought three steamers into the river and embarked Paine's Division. The land batteries were ordered to open their fire upon the enemy's batteries opposite. The two gunboats ran down the river' and joined in the action. * * * * Our troops moved out from the landing and began crossing the river, preceded by the gunboats. * * * * The whole force designed to cross had been drawn up along the river bank and saluted the passing steamers with cheers of exultation. * * * * The enemy commenced to evacuate his position along the banks and the batteries along the Tennessee shore opposite Island Ten, toward Tiptonville. It was my purpose to capture the whole army of the enemy. * * * The Division pushed forward to Tiptonville as fast as they were landed.
* * * * -pne enemy retreating from Island Ten, met at Tiptonville during the night, in great confusion, and were driven back into the swamps by the advance of our forces, until four o'clock in the morning of the 8th, when finding themselves completely cut off, and being apparently unable to resist, they laid down their^ arms and surrendered at discretion. * * * * As soon as day dawned, our forces proceded by marches to the enemy's abandoned works opposite Island Ten on the Tennessee Shore. * * * * There fell into our hands, three Generals, two hundred and seventy-three field and company officers, sixty-seven hundred privates, one hundred and twenty-three pieces of heavy artillery, thirty-five pieces of field artillery (all of the best character and latest patterns) seven thousand stand of small arms, tents for twelve thousand men and several wharf boats, loads of ammunition, an immense quantity of provisions of all kinds, many hundred horses and mules, with wagons and harness. * * * We have crossed this great river, we have pursued and captured the whole force of the enemy and all his supplies, and have again recrossed and re-occupied the camps at New Madrid without losing a man or meeting with an acci- dent. Such results bespeak efficiency, good conduct, high discipline, and soldierly deportment of the best character, far more conclusive than can be
60 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
exhibited in pitched battle or the storming of fortified places. Patience, willing labor, endurance of hardship, and privation, * * * * are the qualities which these operations have developed in the forces under my
command.
John Pope, Major-General Commanding.
To Major-General H. M. Halleck, Commanding the Department of the Mississippi, St. Louis, Missouri.
Official Report of
Brigadier-General Schuyler Hamilton on the Battles at New Madrid,
Missouri.
Headquarters of the Second Division, Army of the Mississippi.
Pittsburg Landing, April 22nd, 1862. On February 22nd, 1862, at Commerce, Missouri, in compliance with your orders, I organized the First Division of this army. First Brigade under Colonel Groesbeck, Thirty-ninth O'hio, Major Noyes commanding; Forty-third, Colonel Smith commanding ; Twenty-seventh, Colonel Fuller, commanding; Second Brigade, Colonel J. B. Plumber, commanding, com- posed of the Sixty-third Ohio, Colonel Sprague, Twenty-sixth Illinois, Colonel Loomis, Eleventh Missouri, Colonel Panabaker, Seventh Illinois Cavalry, detachment First Missouri Infantry, two companies of Engineer Troops and Eleventh Ohio Battery.
The Division marched from Commerce, Missouri, on February 28th, and reached Hunter's Farm at midnight. On March 2nd, the Forty-third Ohio and Seventh Illinois Cavalry made a daring reconnaissance penetrat- ing into the town of New Madrid. On the 3rd the First Division reached the town, advancing within three quarters of a mile of the enemy's entrench- ments, Kellog's Cavalry covering the flanks. Colonel Fuller's Twenty- seventh Ohio deployed as skirmishers supported by a section of Sand's Eleventh Ohio Battery, followed by the whole Division. The enemy's pickets were gallantly driven in by the Twenty-seventh Ohio Infantry. The Thirty-ninth was advanced as skirmishers on the right flank and were pushed forward on a line with the Twenty-seventh to within one and a quarter miles of the enemy's principal works. The Forty-third Ohio in line of battle supported the Twenty-seventh Ohio and protected the left flank of the Division. The enemy withdrew to his entrenchments but kept up unremitting fire of shot and shell from five gunboats and from his works,
Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten. 61
twenty-four pounder shot, shell from thirty-two pounders and sixty-four pounders, besides missiles from guns of smaller caliber. The troops unable to reply, evinced a calmness and steadiness worthy of veterans.
Brigadier-General Stanley arrived in camp on the evening of the 3rd. On the 4th, a re-organization of the Division was made. General Stanley, being from Ohio, the Ohio Regiments passed from under my command. Having had evidence of their gallantry and coolness under fire and feeling grateful for the cheerfulness with which both officers and men had re- sponded to my efforts to enforce discipline and excite their ardor, I parted from them with regret. On the night of the 4th, the Forty-third Ohio, Worthington's Battery of four guns, five companies of the Fifth Iowa, two companies of the Fifty-ninth Indiana, drove the enemy's pickets and opened fire on his position. On the 6th, Point Pleasant was occupied by our forces. On the 7th, 9th and 13th demonstrations were made by Stanley's Division. On the 14th, at two o'clock in the morning, in pouring rain, the troops knee deep in mud, prepared for assaulting the enemy's works, moving steadily forward. At six o'clock in the morning, the enemy had evacuated his fort.
Schuyler Hamilton, Brigadier-General United States Army, Commanding the Second Division.
Report of Brigadier-G eneral D. S. Stanley.
In reporting the part taken by the First Division of this Army, in compelling the surrender of Island Ten, I have the honor to state that I was assigned to the command of the Division of the 4th of March, 1862. On the same night a detachment of five hundred men commanded by Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith of the Forty-third Ohio Volunteers made a re- connaissance in force and after cannonading the town and forts for half an hour, retired to their camp without loss. On the 6th of the same month, my entire Division consisting of the First Brigade with Colonel Groesbeck commanding, and the Second Brigade with Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith com- manding, by order of the Major-General commanding, pushed our way into the town of New Madrid to within seven hundred yards of the upper fort, driving the enemy's infantry. But at this point, finding ourselves under a cross fire of seven gunboats and the guns of both their forts, I deemed it proper to withdraw my troops. We were for half an hour under a fierce cannonade, and strange to say, I suffered only three wounded. On the 7th of April, my Division accompanied by Dee's Michigan Battery, crossed the
62 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
Mississippi from the upper fort immediately after the crossing of General Paine's Division. Waiting for the head of General Hamilton's Division, we took up the march before his arrival, and moved by the river route to- ward Tiptonville, twelve miles away. Deserted camps and abandoned artil- lery indicated a flying enemy. Night was coming on very dark and the guide being uncertain of the route, the command was bivouacked until morning, when the enemy surrendered. Subsequently on the same day, we crossed Madrid Bend to Island Ten, covering the road seven miles perpendicular to the main road with skirmishers. We picked up forty prisoners. All the houses were full of the enemy's sick, and cannon, ammunition, tents, and various materials of war were found scattered through the bend. These we had no means to move.
General D. S. Stanley, Brigadier-General, U. S. A., Commanding First Division, Army of the Mississippi.
Report of Colonel John Groesbeck, Commanding First Brigade.
Headquarters of the First Brigade, First Division, District of the Mississippi.
New Madrid, March 15th, 1862.
I have the honor to report to the General commanding the First Divis- ion, the part taken in the late action before New Madrid, by the Brigade under my command, consisting of the Twenty-seventh, and the Thirty-ninth Ohio Regiments. On the afternoon of the 12th inst, I detailed companies A and F of the Twenty-seventh and I and H of the Thirty-ninth to drive in the pickets of the enemy, hold an advance position and cover the parties detailed to plant our heavy artillery. They drove in the pickets and took the position assigned them, within eight hundred yards of the enemy's gun- boats and principal fort. At three o'clock on the morning of the 13th, I moved forward with my Brigade and took position on the right of the bat- tery. The enemy's skirmishers immediately began firing upon us, but with- out injury. A few moments afterwards our artillery opened the engage- ment. The brigade was ordered back two hundred yards, which it did in good order under a heavy fire of shot and shell from the guns of the fort. While lying there, five companies of the Twenty-seventh Ohio were ordered three hundred yards to the left on a road leading past the enemy's fort and took position supporting the battery, where the sloping bank of a bayou
Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten. 63
afforded considerable protection to the men who remained thus placed and guarded against any flank movement during the rest of the day. At day- light, we were relieved. The firing ceased about sunset. Having thrown out an additional company of pickets. Considering the closeness and rapidity of the firing, the casualities were remarkably few, viz., one killed, three severely wounded in the Twenty-seventh, and one very slightly wounded in the Thirty-ninth Ohio.
On the morning of the 7th of April, the Brigade under my command, consisting of the Twenty-seventh, and Thirty-ninth Ohio Regiments and Infantry, embarked on the transports, "T-rio" and "Fanny Gilmore." After crossing the Mississippi, we marched six miles toward Tiptonville and biv- ouacked. Next morning we marched eight miles to Tiptonville and on ar- riving there found that the whole rebel force had surrendered to Brigadier- General Paine. After mid-day, I detailed four companies of the Twenty- seventh and three of the Thirty-ninth Regiments under Major Noyes to deploy as skirmishers and scour the country between Tiptonville and Island Ten. This was done and a number of prisoners were taken. The night of the 8th, we bivouaced at Island Ten. The next morning we took the transport "Graham" for camp at New Madrid.
John Groesbeck, Colonel Commanding, First Brigade, First Division, District of the Mississippi.
Report of Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith.
Forty-third Ohio Infantry.
April 17th, 1862.
I have the honor to submit the following report of the movements of this Brigade at the capture of the rebel position at and near Island Ten.
The Forty-third Ohio Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Wager Swayne and the Sixty-third Ohio Infantry, Colonel J. W. Sprague, crossed the river on the morning of the 7th instant, embarking at the upper fort at New Madrid and landing at the site of the three gun rebel battery just captured by our gunboats, and took a position in a wood near an abandoned encamp- ment of two regiments, apparently recently evacuated. Twenty men were placed as a guard over the property here and a few prisoners, who, being sick or intoxicated, had failed to escape with the enemy. A company was
64 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
sent back to the landing to render assistance and support to the rifled bat- tery of Captain Dee's which had crossed with us. We had remained in this position about an hour, until joined by the other brigade of the division, the First, Colonel Groesbeck, and then moved in the direction of Tiptonville, to the support of General Paine. The Brigade bivouacked about an hour after dark at a point near the river, and about eight miles below where the land- ing had been made.
The march to Tiptonville was resumed in the morning and the Brigade reached there about noon ; the enemy had already surrendered without fight- ing, to our army, and the Brigade was placed in position as a part of the guard of the prisoners. Two hours later the Brigade was put in march for the late position of the enemy, opposite Island number Ten. On the march thither the country between the road and the river was thoroughly beaten by a strong line of skirmishers under Lieutenant-Colonel Swayne, and sev- eral prisoners were taken. The Brigade bivouacked opposite Island number Ten, about five o'clock in the afternoon. On the morning of the 9th instant, the Brigade was moved, with the rest of the Division, by transports, to New Madrid, and resumed its former encampment.
J. L. Kirby Smith, Colonel Commanding Brigade.
Report of Colonel John W. Sprague, Sixty-third Ohio Infantry.
Headquarters of the Sixty-third O. V. I.
Camp near New Madrid, Missouri, March 14th, 1862.
I have the honor to report that the Sixty-third Regiment, O. V. I., under my command, in obedience to your orders, left camp about three o'clock, Thursday morning, the 13th instant and marched about three miles to a point, say, southwest of the town of New Madrid, and distant about one mile, and was there deployed in line of battle, along the road, by your order, as part of the support of a battery, planted by our troops, say, one hundred rods in advance of our line. Almost immediately after taking this position, the guns of our battery opened fire upon the fort and gunboats of the enemy, to which they replied with shot and shell. As soon as the enemy's gunboats obtained their chosen position, it was found that the posi- tion of the regiment under my command was exposed to the cross fire of ai least one gunboat and the lower and the principal fort of the enemy. By
Capture of New Madrid and Island Ten. 65
your order, I moved my regiment forward about twenty-five rods in line of battle and halted along the base of a very slight elevation. While this new position did not remove my command from exposure to the cross-fire men- tioned, the elevation afforded a partial protection. The fire of the enemy continued during the entire day with occasional intermission. At night the fire of the enemy ceased, but about midnight, we were visited by a terrific storm of rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning. Our little trench immediately filled with water and all were soaked by the falling rain. At daylight next morning we were relieved, having occupied the position over twenty-four hours exposed to a galling fire and the inclemency of the weather.
I have no casualities to report except that of one man, Private Thomas King of Company H, commanded by Captain Jackson.
In conclusion I beg to say that every officer and man under my com- mand behaved with coolness and courage, not a single word of complaint was made of hardship or fatigue. Every order given by me was promptly obeyed and executed, nothwithstanding the harrassing fire of the enemy.
I am very respectfully, your obedient servant,
John W. Sprague, Colonel, Sixty-third Ohio, 0. V I.
To Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith, commanding the Second Brigade, First Div. Army of the Mississippi:
The Union Forces at New Madrid consisted of the Army of the Miss- issippi, General Pope commanding.
First Division: General D. S. Stanley: Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio, Battery F, 2d United States Regulars.
Second Division : Brigadier-General Schuyler Hamilton : Fifty-ninth Indi- ana, Fifth and Tenth Iowa, Twenty-sixth Missouri, Eleventh Ohio Battery.
Third Division: John M. Palmer: Thirty- fourth, Forty-seventh, Forty- third and Forty-sixth Indiana, Seventh Illinois Cavalry, Company G, First Missouri Artillery.
Fourth Division : Brigadier-General E. S. Paine : Tenth, Sixteenth, Twenty-second and Fifty-first Illinois Infantry, two Companies of the First Illionis Cavalry, Sixty- fourth Illinois (Yates' Sharpshooters),
66 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
Eighth Wisconsin Infantry, Twenty-sixth Illinois, Eleventh Missouri, Company M of the First Missouri Artillery.
Cavalry Division : Brigadier-General Gordon Granger : Second and Third Michigan.
Artillery Division: Major W. L Lathrop : Second Iowa, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Wisconsin, C and H of the First Michigan, C of the First Illinois.
Bissell's Engineer Regiment : Twenty-second Missouri, Second Iowa Cav- alry (four Companies), Fourth United States Cavalry (three Com- panies), First United States Infantry (six Companies).
Flotilla Brigade : Twenty-seventh, Forty-second Illionis, Fifteenth Wis- consin, G of the First Illinois Artillery, G of the Second Illinois Artil- lery.
Naval Forces at Island Ten : Flag Officer A. H. Foot, Flag Ship "Benton," the "St. Louis," the "Cincinnati," the "Pittsburg," the "Mound City," the "Carondelet" and eleven mortar boats.
CONFEDERATE FORCES AT ISLAND TEN AND NEW MADRID.
The Forces were commanded by Major-General John P. McGowan, Brigadier-General W. W. McCall, Stewart, Walker, Garrett and Trudeau.
Infantry : First Tennessee, First Mississippi, Fourth, Fifth, Eleventh and Twelfth Louisana, First, Fourth, Fifth, Thirty-first, Fortieth, Forty- sixth and Fifty-fifth Tennessee.
Cavalry : Hudson's Wheeler's and Neely's.
Artillery : Shand's, Bankhead's, Jackson's, Hume's, Hoadley's, Caruther's, Jones', Dismuke's, Rucker's, Fisher's, Johnson's and Upton's.
Engineers : Gray's, Harris', Winter's.
Naval Forces : Flag Officer George N. Hollins : Flag Ship "McRay," "Livingstone," "Polk," "Pontchartrain," "Maurepaus," "Jackson."
Floating Battery : "New Orleans." Total, seventeen guns.
CHAPTER X.
REMINISCENCES FORT PILLOW EXPEDITION TRANSFER OF THE ARMY TO
HAMBURG LANDING, TENNESSEE.
The soldiers of the army were now priding themselves upon their efficiency and accomplishments. There was a noticeable rivalry among the different organizations as to their superiority in drill, marching, and fight- ing. No true soldier need apologize for the honest pride with which he believes that his own company, regiment, brigade, division, or corps is the flower of the army and is peerless in discipline and courage. During the war, that faith is so important a condition of success that he would be an unwise commander who would discourage it. All felt its influence for there was none who did not feel a deeper thrill of pride and pleasure when be saw his own flag moving in the front, than when another flag floated over the advancing host. So it was in the Ohio Brigade as in other commands.
A soldier of the Forty-third Ohio often tells this story at the Brigade reunions :
"I had been left behind, when our regiment left camp in Ohio and started to join my regiment at New Madrid. Arriving near there after marching on foot all the way from Commerce, I sat down by the road side, exhausted. I was soon joined by a very ragged soldier of the Twenty- seventh Ohio who sympathized with me. After having told him that I was never so tired in my life and that it seemed that I could not carry my knap- sack any further, he said to me : 'You will never be able to carry that big knapsack on the long marches which we are soon to have. We started out that way in Missouri, but we found out that the better way was to carry a light knapsack and throw away everything but our blankets.' It was a powerful argument just then, but I had carried it so far, and I was now so near the regiment, that I felt loath to part with any treasure. I opened my knapsack, took out a pair of army trousers and laid them near my new friend. In an instant, he had cast off his old ones and put on mine. The more than twenty-five yards, and directed Major Weber, in case the Sixty- same thing took place with my extra pair of stockings, blouse, shirt and shoes. We two then walked into camp. I noticed that his comrades would grin when they saw him, and would ask him where he got his new clothes. He answered them by saying, 'For giving a recruit sound advice !' I will never forget how quickly that soldier got into my new clothes."
At New Madrid, the Forty- third Ohio gained for itself the name and fame of the "Martin Box" Regiment, because of the fact that some of the men nailed cracker boxes on the cotton-wood trees, where the birds flocked, took refuge and nested. Ever afterward, the word "Martin Box" from any soldier of the Brigade was a pass-port for a cordial greeting.
68 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
The victories at Island Ten and New Madrid, General Halleck pro- nounced splendid achievements, that would be memorable in military his- tory, exceeding as they did in boldness and brilliancy all other operations of the war up to this time.
On the 13th of April, the Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio Regiments with General Pope's Army, embarked on thirty steamboats at a point one mile below New Madrid, at Fort Thomp- son, and in co-operation with the gunboat fleet, consisting of twelve mor- tar boats and seven gunboats, moved down the Mississippi River, one hun- dred and twenty miles, in an expedition against Fort Pillow, disembarking at Oseola, Arkansas, a low swampy place. Here the soldiers had an op- portunity to wash themselves and their clothing and to fight to a finish, for the time being at least, the great army plague, an insect known as the gray- back, a fiend which infected clothing. These insects became so numerous, vicious, ravenous that they almost ate the shirts from the soldiers' backs. Millions were destroyed by boiling the clothing in the camp kettles, the same utensils that were used for cooking. The crowded condition of the transports which gave no opportunities for the soldiers to change their clothing, was the direct cause of this infection. On land came the scourge of swamp mosquitoes, locally known as "galnippers." They bit the soldiers and even killed horses and mules.
TO FORT PILLOW.
Part of the steamboat fleet which conveyed Pope's army down the Mississippi River from New Madrid, Missouri, April, 1862, was com- posed of the following named boats :
"Emma," Forty-third Indiana Infantry Regiment on board ; "Emma," Twenty-seventh Ohio Infantry Regiment ; "Admiral," Thirty-ninth Ohio Infantry Regiment; ''Uncle Sam," Forty- third Ohio Infantry Regiment. "Silver Wave," Sixty-third Ohio Infantry Regiment. "Emeline," Eleventh Ohio Battery Artillery. "N. YV. Thomas," Sixteenth Illinois Infantry Regiment; "Meteor," Twenty-second Illinois Infantry Regiment ; "T. McGill," Twenty-seventh Illinois Infantry Regiment ; "Memphis," Forty-second Illinois Infantry Regiment; "Daniel G. Taylor," Fifty-first Illinois Infantry and Battery ; "G. W. Graham," Forty-sixth Indiana Infantry Regiment ; "Chantua," Fifty-ninth Indiana Infantry Regiment ;
"Hannibal City," Eleventh Missouri, Second Iowa Cavalry, Dodge's Bat- tery ; "City of Alton," Twenty-sixth Missouri and Tenth Iowa Infantry; Perry Flag Boat, Regular Cavalry.
Army Transferred To Middle Tennessee. 69
On April 17th, the army re-embarked on transports and were ordered up the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers a distance of three hundred and fifty miles. They disembarked at Hamburg Landing on the 22nd of April, just above the battle field of Pittsburg Landing, where were seen the long rows of newly made graves of the heroes who fell at Shiloh.
The Union Army under General Halleck advanced upon Corinth with greatest caution, building and fighting behind parallel lines of earthworks, each succeeding line in advance of the other, gaining ground step by step, from one stump, tree or position forward to another, accompanied by de- tails of men and the pioneer corps with intrenching tools, while the contest raged along the lines every day, between the two contesting armies.
The Confederate Army under General Beauregard gradually fell back, and he concentrated his army at Corinth, a position strongly fortified, and prepared for a determined defence. All the available troops of the south- west were sent to his aid, including the armies of Van Dorn and Price, from Missouri and Arkansas, as well as the militia of the states of Ala- bama, Mississippi, and Louisana. By his official report made on the 22nd of April, 1862, he had four corps, Bragg's, Polk's, Breckenridge's and Hardee's, besides cavalry. According to his official report made May 26th, just before the evacuation of Corinth, he had a total of one hundred and twelve thousand and seventeen men of all arms. Beauregard endeavored, on this ground of his own choosing to incite his troops with obstinacy and desperation, to their utmost fighting capacity for his fading prestige of in- vincibility. "Soldiers of Shiloh and Elkhorn," he said to them, "we are about to meet once more in the shock of battle, the invaders of our soil, the despoilers of our homes, the disturbers of our family ties, face to face, hand to hand. * * * * With your banners mingled for the first time during the war, we meet the foe in strength that should give us victory. Soldiers, can the result be doubtful? Shall we not drive them back into the Tennessee, the presumptuous mercenaries, collected for our subjection? One more manly effort, and, trusting in God and the justice of our cause, we shall recover more than we have lately lost."
Bragg said to them, "You will encounter them in your chosen position, strong by nature, and improved by art, away from their main support and reliance, gunboats and heavy batteries, and for the first time in the war, with nearly equal numbers."
CHAPTER XI.
SIEGE OF CORINTH.
Fuller's Ohio Brigade now the first in Stanley's Second Division, with Pope's Army of the Mississippi, formed the left wing of General Halleck's Army of over one hundred thousand men, to operate for the capture of Corinth.
Until April 27th, the Brigade performed fatigue duty, unloading amu- nitions of war from the transports on the Tennessee River, and in making roads. On the 27th, they marched five miles to the front and went into bivouac in the heavy wood, at the forks of the road leading to Monterey, on the Corinth Road.
On the 29th, they formed in line and marched seven miles toward the enemy for a reconnaissance. They drove in the enemy's pickets at Mon- terey, found one hundred tents still standing, took a number of prisoners and burned their camp, capturing a large amount of rations, consisting of bread, meat, coffee, and sugar, which supplied the Union men for several days. On the 1st of May, the Brigade crossed into Mississippi.
Report of General D. S. Stanley, concerning the Engagement at Monterey.
May 3rd, 1863. My forces consisted of the First Brigade of my Division under Colonel John Groesbeck, the Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-third and Sixty- third Ohio Regiments of Infantry, sixteen companies of Cavalry, Colonel Elliott, commanding, with Dee's Third Michigan and Spoor's Missouri Batteries. We took twenty prisoners and followed the retreating enemy. I am happy to bear testimony to the gallantry of these troops and their readiness for service.
D. S. Stanley, Commanding the Second Division,
Left Wing, Army of the Mississippi.
On May 4th, advance was made five miles to Farmington, where a severe skirmish took place in fields of wheat, corn and cotton and over plowed ground, then forward into a swamp of heavy timber, wading creeks and forming lines of battle at every appearance of danger. The Brigade rested at Seven Mile Creek on the Farmington Road, within a short dis-
Siege of Corinth.
71
tance of the enemy's earthworks, from which shot and shell were fired, passing over the heads of the men in ranks. A Demi Brigade, commanded by J. L. Kirby Smith, Forty-third Ohio, occupied Nichol's Ford, The Thirty- ninth Ohio Infantry supported Dee's Michigan Battery.
Rifle pits were advanced along the whole army front. Each day re- connaissances were made with heavy skirmishing and musket firing from four o'clock in the morning until night.
On May 8th, the Brigade marched in line of battle to Farmington through a swamp and over a corduroy road, passing the graves of rebels slain in the recent skirmish, who had been buried by the Union troops. Three thousand cavalry, thirty pieces of artillery and thirteen regiments of in- fantry were drawn up in line near the village of Farmington and then moved forward. The Brigade position was on the left wing, supporting the Eleventh Ohio Battery. The movement was through plowed fields of cotton, corn and wheat, through swamps and creeks, and through thick timber and underbrush.
Within six hundred yards of the enemy's batteries, the Union Artil- lery opened fire which drew the fire of the Confederate batteries, their shots passing over. During this time, the Brigade skirmishers lay in sight of the
THE OHIO BRIGADE WITH GEN. HALLECK'S ARMY MARCHING ON CORINTH, MAY, 1862.
72 Fuller's Ohio Brigade
enemy's main line of works which comprised the defences of Corinth. Two of the Thirty-ninth were wounded on this day, also six men of the Twenty- seventh and two of the Sixty-third Ohio.
While Fuller's Ohio Brigade, then in command of General Tyler, lay in this advance position, a regiment of Confederate Cavalry scouts, not knowing of the presence of the Union troops, got in their rear by mistake, and took twenty-five prisoners, including Surgeon William R. Thrall of the Twenty-seventh Ohio, who was taken to Memphis and from there was sent to the Union lines.
The Union troops had now advanced and occupied the third parallel earthworks which presented a front about twelve miles in length, the build- ing and defense of which entailed physical dangers and difficulties. The soldiers showed signs of being greatly fatigued by their hard labor. They also showed a change of deportment, their bearing being more like true soldiers. General Halleck complimented the Brigade upon its splendid service and ordered that "Lexington," "Springfield," "New Madrid," "Isl- and Ten" be inscrilbed upon its regimental banners.
May 9th, heavy firing occured at Farmington, where the enemy at- tacked our grand guard. General Pope's entire army moved out in line. The Ohio Brigade was in ranks all day and was skirmishing part of the time. On May 10th, the Brigade took possession of the hill at Farmington, from which Union troops had fallen back on the day previous.
During part of the siege, it was the practice in reserve companies to have roll call at one o'clock in the morning and to have it repeated every hour until daylight. Then came inspection of arms which was instituted to keep the men well in hand, allowing no one to sleep while on duty, or when in close proximilty to the enemy, and keeping always on the alert for sudden attack. Many times before daylight, simultaneous discharges of thousands of muskets was heard in attempts to drive in the picket lines.
On the 24th, the enemy's firing on our pickets became exceedingly an- noying. With five companies of the Eleventh Missouri, five companies of the Thirty-ninth Ohio, the enemy was charged and scattered. Dee's Michi- gan Battery with its Parrot guns threw shells into Corinth.
On the 28th, an attempt was made to force the enemy back with artil- lery and musket fire. The Thirty-ninth Ohio advanced a distance of five hundred vards. It gave a quietus to the picket firing in front. Nothing more was heard from the rebels except a few shots from a battery pro- tected by earthworks on high ground.
The fortified camp of the Union Army was made more impregnable each day, and additional forces were arriving. During this siege of twenty- eight days, the men always slept with their clothing and accoutrements on.
Capture of Corinth. 73
their muskets by their sides, and with eighty rounds of cartridges on their persons, From the top of a high pole, a sentinel could see operations in Corinth.
On May 28th, Brigaider-General Rosecrans assumed command of Stanley's and Paine's Divisions. Notwithstanding the enemy's fire the work of intrenching was carried on constantly.
On the 29th, the Ohio Brigade moved out and took position, Stanley's Division being in advance at a salient point investing Corinth. The skirm- ishers dug and occupied rifle pits and their fire drove the enemy back under urotecton of their batteries. Shot and shell flew over the ranks of men and were imbedded in the trees, cutting and tearing the limbs. Many lives were lost and there were many narrow escapes from death. During the night the shrill whistle of trie locomotive, the rumbling of the trains and cheering by the enemy's troops were heard and it was thought they were being rein- forced, but on the contrary, they were evacuating, as was disclosed to the Union Army on the morning of the 30th, when sounds of exploding maga- zines and ammunition trains were heard.
The Union troops immediately occupied the town and the Thirty-ninth Ohio had the honor of first hoisting the United States flag over the Court House.
Report of General John Pope.
Corinth, Mississippi, May 30, 1862. Major-General Halleck: 8:40 a. m.
My advance (the Thirty-ninth Ohio and the Forty-second Illinois) entered the town of Corinth and planted the United States flag on the Court House at 6 :40 this morning. They were the first troops in the place. I am throwing my artillery and cavalry in pursuit. The enemy retreated by the Mobile Road.
John Pope, Major-General, Commanding.
The enemy abandoned and destroyed most of his supplies and left his heavy artillery. Thus ended the siege and capture of Corinth.
Corinth had been strongly fortified by slave labor with solid earth- works, built high with rifle pits in front. Large trees had been felled, mak- ing it difficult of approach by hostile forces. On the 30th, a march was made to Tuscumbia Creek.
74 Fuller's Ohio Brigade
May 31st, having received tents and army supplies that had been left in the rear, a march of twenty-five miles was made in pursuit of the enemy through Danville, Rienza, and Boonville. In many of the places on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad were found quantities of muskets twisted and broken, and cars of cotton still burning.
The weather was extremely hot, the marching rapid. Many soldiers were sunstruck. The water obtained in the swamps for drinking was very bad and made the men sick. Whole platoons of men fell out of ranks ex- hausted. The artillery and ammunition wagons were given the middle of the road, while the troops marched along each side.
June 11th, the Brigade returned from the pursuit by a circuitous route and went into camp at Clear Creek, Tishomingo County, five miles south of Corinth. It was a beautiful location on rolling lands partially timbered and near large springs of pure water which gushed from the ground in such quantity that a large creek was formed.
June 6th, the Union gunboats destroyed the enemy's fleet at Memphis. The same day two regiments of the Army of the Mississippi left by Pope with the fleet, entered the city. The Mississippi River was now open to Vicksburg and the objects which had been proposed in the spring campaign were accomplished. The labor of camp and road making, the marches through heat and dust, the privations, short rations, bad clothing, bare feet, were all borne by the men with patience and cheerfulness.
Our shady camp was made enjoyable by cutting the brush away, trim- ming the trees up and policing the place. Tents and garrison equipage were brought up and a military camp was put in perfect order. Yet during the months of July and August, much sickness prevailed among the men. The principal disease was dysentery, caused by the absence of fruit and vegetables from the soldiers' rations. At the same time there were some deaths caused by homesickness.
General Grant says in his memoirs, "The most anxious period of the war to me, was during the time that the Army of the Tennessee was guard- ing the territory acquired by the fall of Corinth and Memphis and before I was sufficiently re-enforced to take the offensive. The enemy's Cavalry was constantly operating upon our lines of supplies, back to Columbus, and other points, making it necessary to guard all territory in our rear."
CHAPTER XII.
THE REORGANIZATION OF THE COMMANDS — THE CAMPAIGN AND BATTLES OF
IUKA AND CORINTH — FORCES ENGAGED — REPORTS OF BATTLES
RETREAT OF THE ENEMY.
Iii June, 1862, President Lincoln issued "order number three" which relieved McClellan from command of other armies except the Army of the Potomac. General Pope was called to command the Army of Northern Virginia, and General Halleck to command all the Union armies with head- quarters at Washington. General U. S. Grant assumed command of the Department of West Tennessee. General Rosecrans was left in command of four divisions, Stanley's, Hamilton's, Davies', and McKean's, District of Corinth, Department of the Tennessee. Fuller's Ohio Brigade was desig- nated the first in General Stanley's Second Division. General Buell was sent with his Army via Huntsville to Chattanooga.
On June 20th, the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-ninth Regiments of Fuller's Ohio Brigade exchanged their old, altered, flintlock, Springfield rifle muskets for the new Whitney rifles with sabers or sword bayonets, which were excellent arms. They also received new clothing and accoutre- ments.
The forces at Corinth built earthworks with high parapets, ditches ten feet in width and barracks for permanent accommodation of troops, who were to remain in this land of "balmy breezes and beautiful skies." Corinth was full of sutlers and merchants who sold their goods at very high prices to soldiers and native inhabitants. Butter was $1.60 a pound and a quart can of peaches $1.50. The Brigade was drilled almost constantly and the discipline was quite severe under the close supervision of General Stanley and General Fuller.
The position at Corinth was important and naturally strong. It stood on a long low ridge in the forks of two streams which ran parallel to each other near their junction. It was protected on the front and both sides by swampy valleys, traversed by streams and obstructed by dense thickets. Both armies recognized its great strategic importance, being the key to all West Tennessee, North Alabama, and Mississippi, the junction command- ing all the railroads, from Memphis to Charleston and from Louisville to Mobile, and in a measure controlling the commerce of the Mississippi to New Orleans. Therefore the Confederates made strenuous efforts to repossess it. Fuller's Ohio Brigade was ordered to move on. the 17th, but
7G Fuller's Ohio Brigade
it was not until the 20th of August that the campaign commenced which ended in the battles of Iuka and Corinth. At three o'clock on the morning of that day, the bugle sounded the reveille and the Brigade was aroused. The troops partook of their breakfast of bacon, hard bread ("hard tack") and coffee, the tents were struck, the debris of camp was set on fire, and the army lines swung out on a ridge road which was followed all day. The country over which they marched was hilly with deep valleys covered with a thick growth of heavy timber. Late in the evening, the Brigade went into bivouac and night came on clear and bright.
On the 21st, march was continued twenty-five miles to Iuka, situated on the "Memphis and Charleston Railroad. The Thirty-ninth Ohio Regi- ment was divided. Four companies went to Iuka, two to East Port and four were distributed along the railroad. The Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio Regiments continued on to Bear Creek. A good camp was made on a hill at Iuka, near the sulphur springs, by the rest of the Brigade, and with the assistance of two hundred slaves from the Cherokee and Russel valleys, they immediately fortified their position.
Rumors were spread thick and fast among the troops in regard to the movements of the United Confederate Army, commanded by Price and Van Dorn, which numbered forty thousand.
On September 7th, the army posts along the railroad were called in. Troops that had been called up at midnight to unload cars containing com- missary stores, were drawn in.
On September 12th, at three o'clock in the morning, the troops of Ful- ler's Brigade struck tents and vacated their comfortable camp at Iuka, and the Army marched by way of Jacinto, a distance of twenty-five miles on roads leading near to Corinth. Preparations were made for a great contest of arms, no wagons were unloaded, and every thing was kept in readiness to start at a moment's notice. All baggage was reduced, and five days' rations were kept on hand. During this time the troops slept on the ground without blankets, so that when the reveille sounded, on September 18th, at two o'clock in the morning, they were ready ind sprang to their feet and to arms. After a march of twenty-three miles, they arrived near Jacinto and bivouacecl. On the 16th of September, General Rosecrans directed Colonel Gilbert to move the Thirty-ninth Ohio from Jacinto to a place two miles south of Burnsville and to cut off the enemy.
On Mie 19th, advance was continued. During the day the troops were halted, and by order of General Rosecrans a dispatch was read at' the head of every regiment as follows: "General Lee of the Confederate Army is killed ! Longstreet is taken prisoner. Both commands are captured and destroyed." This information represented the result of the battle of Antie-
Battle of Iuka. 77
tam, Maryland, and although it afterward proved to be inconect, it caused at the time much excitement and aroused patriotic emotions among the men, The condition of affairs in the Union Army was not very good, at this time. Lee had advanced with the rebel army into Maryland. The Union General Buell had marched his army in retreat to Louisville, Kentucky ; and Van Dorn had united with other rebel forces under Price, Villepague, and Moore, and were south of the Hatchie River to overwhelm the smaller forces of Union troops under Rosecrans. Van Dorn concluded first to occupy Iuka, which place the Union troops had just vacated and were now advancing to recapture.
BATTLE OF IUKA.
Rosecrans' forces after marching twenty-two miles on the Jacinto Road, had arrived sbout two hours before sundown within one mile of Iuka. Hamilton's Division was forming near Barnett Station, and Stanley's Division was ordered into action. The men in the Brigade had loaded and were just placing caps on their rifles, when a most terrific fire of musketry was opened and the enemy engaged two of Hamilton's Brigades. A charge of the rebels upon the Eleventh Ohio and Eighth Wisconsin Batteries fol- lowed and with loud cheers the Ohio Brigade rushed forward into action.
The Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio Regiments were moved to the left and lay under fire of the enemy. The fight then became an infantry duel and there never was a hotter nor more destructive engagement .while it lasted. Finally a lull came in the fighting, and when the heavy cloud of smoke lifted, long lines of rebel troops could easily be distinguished. As it grew darker and flashes of musketry fire became brighter, a rebel regiment in the darkness rushed toward a Union regiment and asked who they were. On answering them, both forces com- menced firing upon each other at close range. The Eleventh Ohio Battery, after losing half its men, was captured and then retaken. Its loss in men within two hours was greater in killed and wounded, than in any other battery in battle during the war.
Our troops lay in line of battle upon their arms during the night, and at daybreak, marched across the battle field in hot pursuit of the fast-re- treating rebel army, who, defeated and routed, left its dead upon the battle field. They were found lying in almost every position. One was lying prone upon the ground, his eyes wide open, his gun resting on a log, in the act of firing. A number had guns clutched in their hands in the act of loading, their rammers half drawn. One in dying had grasped a small tree with his teeth, others died while kneeling and taking aim. The rebels left the houses filled with dead and wounded.
Fuller's Ohio Brigade. -79
In the early evening, before the firing had fully subsided, a temporary hospital with operating tables was established close to the lines of Fuller's Ohio Brigade. There in the open field, the writer saw for a few moments, something of the terrible havoc of war. The surgeons were at work with only candles for light. Their facilities were crude. The tables were cov- ered with pools of blood, the ground was strewn with amputated arms, hands and legs. Many of the men shrieked with pain when lifted to the operating table.
During the battle, General Grant with Ord's forces was at Burnsville, six miles distant ready to attack. He waited for the sound of Rosecrans' guns, but owing to the direction of the wind, and the wooded country which intervened, no notice of the conflict was given, and opportunity of captur- ing the enemys' forces was lost.
Rosecrans had forwarded a dispatch to Grant that the shorter road on which Stanley's Division should advance had been obstructed by the enemy and he would be obliged to take an indirect route. General Grant assumed from his dispatch, that Stanley could not get up in time for an attack that afternoon, and ordered General Ord to wait until the next morn- ing. But Stanley's Division had moved with its accustomed rapidity and was up to the front in time to engage in the battle. The enemy's plan to invade Tennessee at this time was a failure.
UNION FORCES AT IUKA.
The Union Forces at Iuka were as follows :
The Army of the Mississippi, commanded by General Rosecrans ; Sec- ond Division, commanded by David S. Stanley. First Brigade four Ohio Regiments of Infantry, commanded by Brigadier-General John W. Fuller,
viz. : —
Twenty-seventh, Major Z. S. Spaulding; Thirty-ninth, Colonel Alfred W. Gilbert; Forty-third, Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith ; Sixty-third, Colonel John W. Sprague. M, First Missouri Artillery, Captain Powell, one section of the Eighth
Wisconsin Battery, Lieutenant McLain. F, Second United States Artillery, Captain Thomas B. Maurice. Second Brigade, Colonel Joseph A. Mower.
Twenty-sixth and Forty-seventh Illinois, Eleventh Missouri, Eighth Wis- consin, Spoor's Second Iowa Battery, Dee's Third Michigan Battery. Third Division, Brigadier-General C. S. Hamilton, Fifth Missouri Cavalry
Escort. First Brigade, Colonel Sanburn, Forty-eighth Indiana, Fifth and Sixteenth
Iowa. Fourth Minnesota, Twenty-sixth Missouri, Eleventh Ohio Battery.
80 Fuller's Ohio Brigade
Second Brigade, Tenth and Seventeenth Iowa, Tenth and Twenty-fourth Missouri, Eightieth Ohio, Twelfth Wisconsin Battery.
Cavalry, Second Iowa, B and E of the Seventh Kansas, Third Michigan, one company of Jenkins' Illinois Cavalry.
Total forces were nine thousand, one-half of which was in action.
The Divisions under Ord at Burnsville, were those of Davies, Ross and Mc- Arthur.
The Union loss at Iuka was six hundred and thirteen.
Then Confederate Forces at Iuka were as follows : —
Army of the West under Van Dorn and Price.
First Division, commanded by Henry Little, consisting of the First, Second and Third Missouri Infantry, Second Missouri Battery; Hebert's Fourteenth, Seventeenth Arkansas, Third Louisiana, Seventh, Thirty- sixth, Thirty-seventh, Fortieth, and Forty-third Mississippi, First and Third Texas and Thirty-seventh Alabama.
Cavalry, Armstong's Second Arkansas, Second Missouri, First Mississippi.
Total, fourteen thousand in action.
Confederate loss, five hundred and thirty-five.
General Stanley's Report of the Battle of Iuka.
Camp near Jacinto, Mississippi, Sept. 24, 1862. The Second Division under my command, consisting of the First Bri- gade, Colonel Fuller commanding; and Second Brigade, Colonel Mower commanding, left our camp on Clear Creek, on the 18th instant, with three days' cooked rations and one hundred rounds of ammunition to each man, and marched the same day by way of Patrick's on the Burnsville Road, when we turned and marched to within one mile of Jacinto. * * * * The Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-third, Sixty-third Ohio, and the Eighth Wisconsin, held in reserve, afterwards moved forward and posted close to the enemy on the right hand road. * * * *
Colonel John W. Fuller's Report of the Battle of Iuka.
Headquarters of the First Brigade, Second Division, Army of the Mississippi. Major: — September 23rd, 1862.
In obedience to orders, I have the honor to report that my command joined the rear of the column during the march upon Iuka, Mississippi, on the 19th instant, moving in the following order : The Thirty-ninth Ohio Infantry, Colonel Gilbert ; Light Company F, Second United States Artil- lery, Captain Maurice; Twenty-seventh Ohio Infantry, Major Spaulding; Sixty-third Ohio Infantry, Colonel Sprague; Battery M, First Missouri, Light Artillery, Captain Powell ; Section of Battery Eight of Wisconsin, Lieutenant McClellan ; and the Forty-third Ohio Infantry, Colonel Smith.
Fuller's Official Report. 81
Within about three miles of Iuka, we were halted in the road and the Batteries were moved to the right of the road near the edge of the woods and on the hill which overlooked the open field, directly south of the scene of action. At sunset, I received orders to advance immediately to the front. As soon as the order "double quick" was given, the infantry ran forward, swinging their hats and cheering lustily, but darkness brought a cessation of the firing. Soon after dawn it was reported that the enemy had left the field of battle and taken position nearer the town. My command took the advance, and after passing the field, four regiments formed in line of battle (the Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, and Forty-third of my Brigade and the Forty-seventh Illinois, Colonel Mower's Brigade) and moved forward upon the town. During the deployment, Captain Powell's Battery was brought forward and threw a few shots at a body of the enemy which appeared near the Fulton Road. As we neared the town, a flag of truce came out, borne by a citizen, who said that the citizens desired the surrender of the town, and the soldiers (enemy) were all in the ditch dug by the Federal Army. We then moved forward into the town and found that the enemy had evacuated the place, leaving by the Fulton Road. My command went forward in pursuit, till we reached Cripple Deer Creek. The statements of several prisoners confirmed by a reconnaissance, made by Captain Saw- yer of the Seventh Kansas (two companies) proved that the enemy was several miles in advance and rapidly retreating but in the exhausted con- dition of our men and the total absence of subsistence, it was deemed im- practicable to continue the pursuit farther. We rested near Cripple Deer Creek for the night and commenced our return toward Jacinto about eight o'clock on the morning of the 21st. Six casualities occured in the Thirty- ninth and two in the Sixty-third Ohio Regiments.
John W. Fuller, Colonel of the Twenty-seventh Ohio, Commanding.
THE PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY-
Having passed the battle field on the morning of September 20th, pur- suit was continued a distance of seven miles with many stops, camping at Cripple Deer in a corn and sweet potato field. On the 21st, a march of thirty-five miles was made, the troops going into bivouac late at night. Orders were passed that no one should speak louder than a whisper, on account of the close proximity of the enemy. On the 22nd, a march of eight miles was made to Jacinto, where the men camped on the banks of a creek. They bathed and refreshed themselves and later, an inspection of arms took place.
On the night of the 22nd, the Thirty-ninth and Sixty-third Ohio Regi- ments made a reconnaissance. On the 29th the Brigade marched to the rebel sand bag breast works, through Rienza on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. At ten o'clock the same night, under command of Major Z. S. Spaulding, the Twenty-seventh and Forty-third Ohio with one section of the Eighth
82 Fuller's Ohio Brigade
Wisconsin Battery marched southwest on a reconnaissance, eight miles to- ward the Hatchie River, and Ripley where the rebel army was encamped. Major Spaulding reported to General Rosecrans that he had captured three "prisoners of Breckenridge's command and from them the information had been received that Villepague and Rust had brought fifteen hundred men up to Pocohontas. The enemy's whole force numbered forty thousand men.
For thirteen days, the Brigade marched on an inner circle by way of Jacinto and Rienza, toward Corinth in order to watch the rebel army. On the 1st of October a march of thirteen miles was made as far as Pocohontas and Kossuth, to cover the Hatchie River Crossing. This was a region of few settlements, poor log cabins, rolling oak ridges and sluggish streams, that dried up during the summer. The troops suffered terribly from thirst, the roads were dusty, the sun shone down very hot, and it was ninety-four degrees in the shade.
At noon the soldiers halted, hurriedly cooked their rations of bacon on the ends of sticks and their coffee in their tin cups, then falling into line, they continued the march toward Corinth, a total distance of thirty-seven miles without camping. This march was through a country almost desti- tute of water. The men rested at the Tuscumbia Creek. On October 3rd, they marched to the breast works, southwest of Corinth, after having skirm- ished all day through heavy timber and thick underbrush, to support and strengthen different parts of the army. At nightfall, with colors flying and bands playing, the men, covered with dust, their faces bronzed by exposure and long service under the rays of the sun, moved in columns of companies, right in front, through the streets and joined the lines at Corinth. General Rosecrans and his staff sat on their horses by the Kossuth Road, waiting to welcome them. The soldiers of Hamilton's, Davies' and McKean's Divis- ions gathered in platoons, cheering and shouting for the "Buckeye Boys.'' The Ohio boys called back, "We are distressed for want of water."
The position first assigned was north of the Tishomingo Plouse, and the junction of the two railroads, to support Davies' Division. It was here that we saw the Eighth Wisconsin Regiment with their live eagle carried on a standard. Finally the Brigade was moved to the left and was assigned to a position facing the Chawalla Road, the key to the position at Battery Robinett. Battery Robinett was a little three gun redan, an earthwork with a ditch in front, five feet deep, .commanded by Lieutenants Robinett and Cullen, and manned by Company C, First United States Infantry. It was now late at night and the men were almost famished for water.
To provide against the possibility of capture by the enemy, the com- missary department caused all barrels of whiskey to be opened. Into this the surgeons put a quantity of quinine and the troops were allowed to fill
Positions Occupied by the Army. 83
their canteens with the mixture. This was the first and only time that • liquor was given to Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
It was about ten o'clock at night before the Brigade filed into position at Battery Robinett. The soldiers dropped upon the ground and slept be- side their muskets completely exhausted from the continued hardships of the last forty-four days, and from marching in hot sultry weather. The lessons taught and the experience which they had had in throwing up earth- works for protection, during the month of May previous, were of no avail in their tired condition. It was physically impossible for them to do more and' so no earthworks were built.
General Rosecrans' four divisions faced north and west. Mizner's Cav- alry watched and guarded the flanks and rear from the enemy. Xext joining the cavalry on the right was Hamilton's division and Battery Pow- ell. Xext came Davies' Division with Dee's and Richardson's Batteries. To the left was the Twenty-seventh Ohio Regiment, joining the Sixty- third Ohio whose left joined Battery Robinett. Next, with their right on Battery Robinett, the Forty-third Ohio was stationed. The Thirty-ninth Ohio and the Eleventh Missouri (the latter detached from the Second Bri- gade) were in the rear as reserves. In the rear of this line of battle was Battery Williams, to the west and rear, Battery Phillips, further to the left and rear was Stanley's Second Brigade and McKean's Division. Still fur- ther to the rear on College Hill were Batteries Tannrath and Lathrop, mounted with siege guns.
As early as September, 1862, the rebel General Van Dorn in his report said :
"The conclusion forced itself upon my mind that the taking of Corinth \«as a condition precedent to the accomplishment of anything of importance in West Tennessee and it was clear to my mind that if a successful attack could be made upon Corinth from the west and northwest, the forces there would be driven back, on the Tennessee River and cut off and Bolivar and Jackson would easily fall. I determined to attempt Corinth. I had reason- able hopes of success. Field returns as Ripley showed my strength to be about twenty-two thousand men. Rosecrans at Corinth had about fifteen thousand with about eight thousand additional men at outposts, from twelve to fifteen miles distant. I might surprise him and carry the place before these troops could be brought in. It was necessary that this blow should be sudden and decisive."
"The troops were in fine spirits, and the whole army of West Tennessee seemed eager to emulate the Confederate armies of the Potomac and Ken- tucky. No army every marched to battle with prouder step, more hopeful countenances or with more courage, than marched the Army of the West Tennessee out of Ripley on the morning of September 29th, 186?, on iti way to Corinth."
CHAPTER XIII.
THE BATTLE OF CORINTH.
On October 3rd, about daybreak, the enemy consisting of General Price's and General Van Dorn's united forces, had formed in lines facing south, in front of the old outer line of intrenchments, built in May, about three miles from Corinth. Lovell's Division of troops was on the right, Maury's in the center, Hebert's on the left. The Union troops of Davies' and McKean's Divisions, in front of this line on the 3rd, were only in- tended for developments, and about ten o'clock' in the morning, were driven into the old intrenchments.
In the afternoon after a hot battle, these two divisions fell back. Gen- eral Hackelman had been killed, General Oglesby wounded, and Hamil- ton's Division was watching on the right for an attack from the north. At three o'clock in the afternoon, Stanley's Second Brigade was sent to the assistance of McKean and Davies. On the 4th of October at four o'clock in the morning, the enemy shelled the town from a battery which under cover of the darkness, they had with great enterprise, placed on a ridge near the Chewalla Road, which led directly to Battery Robinett. Fuller's O'hio Brigade lay flat on the ground, listening to the roar of flying missels, which passed over them, but the regulars in the Second United States Bat- tery, replying with their guns, soon silenced the enemy. The Brigade picket force from the Sixty-third Ohio, rushed out and brought in part of the enemy's battery with horses attached. One of the enemy's shells struck Corporal Creighton Orr, Company B of the Forty-third Ohio, nearly sever- ing his head from his body. It was supposed that M. M. Smith who stood near to Orr was wounded by being hit by a piece of Orr's skull. Orr's blood was scattered over several men.
The Union Troops, although without blankets, had not been allowed fires during the night, which was a cold one, and they had no breakfast the next morning, for not a man was allowed to leave the ranks to get rations because of the nearness of the enemy. The day opened clear and hot. It must have been ninety-five degrees. A heavy line of skirmishers from the Brigade under Major McDowell of the Thirty-ninth Ohio, was out all night, fighting a strong battle with the enemy. Companies B and G of the Twenty-seventh fired two hundred rounds of cartridges which were brought out to them by details of men under Sergeant Morgan. Many of the enemy's sharpshooters were located high up in the branches of trees, from which place of vantage they shot our skirmishers. They also had a perfect
Fighting for Positions.
85
range on the Forty-third Regiment. Their fire became so destructive that Colonel Smith ordered one of the guns of Battery Robinett to be fired upon them. The second shot brought them down. This was one of the most trying positions our Brigade was placed in during the war.
When the redoubts were built, the timber was cut down four hundred yards in front. Beyond this the forest was so dense that it covered all the movements of the enemy's troops. About ten o'clock' in the morning,- the Union skirmishers were driven back. The storm broke. Five brigades, four lines deep, with regimental fronts, burst out of the woods, directly north of the railroad station, and covering Davis' Division, penetrated it and rushed at the town. They captured Battery Powell and turned the guns upon Fuller's Brigade. At this time, the left of Hamilton's Division and the right companies of the Twenty-seventh Ohio Fuller's Ohio Brigade were in position intact. They immediately attacked the great column of the enemy as they were spreading past.
Two regiments of Davies' Division in reserve, rose from behind the railroad embankment and poured in a volley of musketry. The Con- federates stood but a moment and then broke into great disorder, in their retreat leaving many prisoners, and the ground covered with their dead
CONFEDERATE SHARPSHOOTER AT CORINTH.
86 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
and wounded. At that moment, another and larger force of Arkansas, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi troops, estimated at twenty thousand strong, their columns five lines deep, emerged from the woods in full view and rushed forward with desperate charge upon Fuller's Ohio Brigade. Their columns moved in almost unbroken lines, their battle flags flaunting in the clear sunlight. No sight like this had ever before greeted the eyes of the soldiers.
When the enemy had reached a distance of a few yards from the posi- tion occupied by Fuller's Ohio Brigade, the Twenty-seventh, Forty-third and Sixty-third Regiments rose en masse and simultaneously delivered a tremendous volley of musketry fire and went at them. The guns in
the hands of our trained soldiers told with terrible effect upon the ad- vancing foe.
In the meantime the assailants tumbled behind the shelter of stumps and fallen trees and fired point blank into the Union lines, exchanging shot with the brigade at twenty paces. Thus the two contending forces continued murdering each other until the enemy gathering in their number and strength, rushed their columns up to the Union lines. Reaching the muz- zles of the guns in Battery Robinett, the defenders and assailants began clubbing each other with their muskets. Colonel Rogers of the Second Texas rode up to the muzzle of a twenty-four pounder, and in the next instant he and his horse were shot and both fell dead.
After the long practice in the use or arms, the men of the Brigade could load and fire in the shortest possible time, but after each discharge the time necessary to ram the charge down and fire again seemed unusually long. This was especially so when the gun-barrels became so hot after repeated firing that they could hardly be held and the muzzles became so contracted that the paper had to be torn entirely off the cartridge and ball. Yet looking down the line of hostile gun-barrels, right into their muzzles stimulated the work of the defenders.
The Union Batteries were obliged to cease firing because of the close proximity of the contending forces. The fighting was thus desperate and matters looked precarious. The Forty-third Ohio had suffered severely, losing nearly one-fourth of its men. Their Colonel, J. L. Kirby Smith, a young officer of great promise, fell from his horse, mortally wounded. Ad- jutant Charles Heyl and Captain Spangler were dead. Captains H. S. Prophet and Timmons and Lieutenant Howe and others were wounded.
The command of the regiment fell to Lieutenant-Colonel Swayne who changed front under a withering fire that would have tried the metal of any regiment that ever saw a battle field and every rebel who showed his head above the parapet of Battery Robinett or attempted to enter the em- brasure was either killed or wounded.
Scenes During the Assault. 87
The Sixty-third Ohio which occupied an exposed position, had suf- fered a loss of forty-eight per cent of all those engaged, all of their officers except three were killed or wounded while the remnant stood to their work with greatest determination. Captain Oscar L. Jackson was severely wounded in this engagement.
The right companies of the Twenty-seventh Ohio were firing in- cessantly. Being screened and protected by fallen trees, they did fearful execution upon the flanks of the enemy. The left of that regiment, not sp fortunately protected, was fully exposed, with a road in front upon which the enemy came en masse. Companies B, G, and K had lost half of their number, killed or wounded, including all of the commissioned officers of (Company G. The Company was therefore left in command of Charles H. Smith, the Orderly Sergeant. Lieutenant Webb was shot and died while shouting to his men to stand firm. At this period of the conflict, the twenty-seventh which had moved and closed toward the Sixty-third, now sprang forward in a counter charge upon the enemy. In the melee and hand-to-hand encounter which ensued, Company G of the Twenty-seventh rushed upon the color company of the Ninth Texas Infantry. Corporal Cheek wounded the Confederate colorbearer, who fell upon his flag, stain- ing its folds with his blood. Private Orin B. Gould seized the colors. A Confederate officer shot Gould and shouted to his men to save their colors, then dashed toward Gould to shoot him again but he was met by Orderly- Sergeant Charles H. Smith who rushed forward with his rifle, took the ijebel prisoner, marched him to the rear and turned him over to Lieutenant Simpson of Company C. Private Gould took the captured flag to Major Z. S.. Spaulding of the Twenty-seventh Ohio who put it into the hands of Colonel Fuller. Meanwhile Gould went to the hospital to be treated.
' Among the relics of the Rebellion and other wars. in the Relic Room of the Capitol Building in Columbus, Ohio, can be seen this large flag, which has the greatest history of any in the room. The dark spots on it are the blood stains, which gave it the name of the "blood stained flag.'' It is known as the Ninth Texas battle flag. It has a red ground with blue cross bars and twelve stars. The letter sent with the flag to Governor Todd by Colonel Fuller of the Twenty-seventh Ohio Regiment, gives a history of the circumstances attending the, 'Capture of the flag.
The entire color guard of the Ninth Texas Regiment threw down their arms and surrendered. On this spot within a circle of a few feet, there fell in this fight around the flag, Gould, Radway, Statten, Thomas, Burnett, Fullerton, Harpel, Jenkins, Wilson, and Bruner wounded and Turner killed. This tragedy is now a part of the history of the war.
BATTLE OF CORINTH, MISS., Oct. 4th, 1862. 27th O. V. V. I. Capturing the Flag of the 9th Texas.
Rosecrans Compliments the Brigade.
89
General Rosecrans says in describing the battle, "The deadly fire of the Ohio Brigade broke them again. I saw* the enemy come upon the ridge, while Battery Robinett was belching its fire at them, after their charge had failed. I saw the Twenty-seventh Ohio and the Eleventh Missouri spring up, rush forward and chase them with bayonets into the woods."
A soldier of Hamilton's Division says, "About nine o'clock on the morning of October 4th, there was suddenly heard something like a distant whirlwind. My regiment rose to its feet and was amazed to see a great column of the enemy like a mighty storm-cloud moving out of the woods and attacking the troops on our left. It was the storming of Battery Robinett defended by Fuller's Ohio Brigade. Twenty thousand rebel troops in the greatest assault made by them during the war, covered the ridge opposite, and commenced to pour a destructive fire upon the Twenty-seventh, Forty-third, and Sixty-third Ohio Regiments, and then advanced in three columns, climbing over fallen trees, bending their heads against the awful storm of grape and musketry. I saw the Ohio Brigade rise en masse and pour in a perfect blaze of musket fire, mowing them down like grass. I never expect to see a grander sight than this battle field presented. The re- nown of this victory is the common heritage of the American Soldier."
After the battle a wounded rebel Lieutenant, while being given some water to drink, said, "You licked us good today, but we gave you the best we had in the ranch."
The Thirty-ninth Ohio, a fine body of men, splendidly disciplined, was obliged to remain in reserve position during the battle, to be shot at without opportunity to return their fire. But their cheers for us and their close proximity nerved us on to fight with great determination.
This counter-charge nearly ended the battle. The enemy became de- moralized. Many screened themselves behind the fallen timber, waved their hands or handkerchieves in token of surrender, for to rise meant certain death. The great mass of the enemy retreated in the untmost confusion, and in their route and panic, canteens, muskets, blankets, and other articles, were thrown away. Private Philip R. Harpel, though wounded, brought in eight prisoners who were found hiding behind the fallen timber.
After the battle was over, General Rosecrans rode up to the position occupied by Fuller's Ohio Brigade and warmly addressing the men, said, "I know now .that I stand in the presence of brave men and I take off my hat to you. I know this from what I have heard and from what I have seen at a distance, and also from these piles of dead along your front, and I thank you in our country's name for your great valor."
About five o'clock in the afternoon, a company from each regiment of the Brigade, forming a strong skirmish line under command of Major
90 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
McDowell, of the Thirty-ninth Ohio and Sergeant Smith of the Twenty- seventh Ohio moved forward five miles over the battle field of the first day, to reconnoiter. They passed the outer line of breastwork where lay on the ground just as they had fallen, a number of Union dead, having been ex- posed to the rays of the sun for two days. Their bodies were bloated, dis- torted and blackened, they had been stripped of their clothing by the rebels, and presented a hideous sight. The Confederates had moved their dead. A few squads of the enemy who had been hiding in the woods were cap- tured. After this demonstration, which lasted till after dark, the skirmish- ers returned and found a supper waiting for them. It had been furnished them by the sutler in consideration of the hardships and loss of food by the men and also because his stores had been saved.
Great camp fires lighted up the horizon and the tired soldiers lay down and slept on the battle field amid the dead and dying.
The Union loss was three hundred and fifty-five killed, and one thou- sand, eight hundred and forty-nine wounded. Many others were wounded but not reported in the official records, because having their wounds dressed on the field, they immediately returned to their commands, so their names do not appear on the hospital rolls. Thirty-three hundred stand of small arms and fourteen stand of colors were captured.
Rosecrans in his report states that there were one thousand four hundred and twenty-three Confederates buried, five thousand six hundred and ninety-two wounded and two thousand, two hundred and sixty-eight prisoners taken.
This battle was a terrible blow to the Confederacy, from which they never recovered. They advanced to battle with thirty-eight thousand men who fought for two days a Union force of eighteen thousand. They picked from their number twenty thousand of their bravest men and with fierce determination, charged the Ohio Brigade. They were brave men but they met trained and equally gallant soldiers. The battle of Corinth, Mississippi, on October 4th, 1862, will be classed as one of the decisive battles of the war for the Union. The result was a complete overthrow of a gigantic plan, laid out by the Confederates, which if it had been successful, might have placed the Union armies back on the Ohio River.
Major-General W . S. Rosecrans' Report.
Headquarters, Army of the Mississippi. District of West Tennessee.
Corinth, Mississippi, October 25th, 1862. The rumors which followed the battle of Iuka were that Price had moved to the vicinity of Ripley and was being joined by Van Dorn with all
The Battle Bloody and Decisive. 91
the available rebel forces in North Mississippi, for the purpose of capturing Corinth, or breaking up our line of communication and forcing us to retreat toward Columbus. On October 3rd, Colonel Oliver took a strong position with his three regiments and a section of artillery. By nine o'clock, the enemy began to press them sharply and to outflank them. Between Mc- Arthur'sand Davies' left there was an interval. The enemy developed his forces along that line. McArthur retired from his position which gave the rebels an opportunity to advance behind Davies' left and forced it after an obstinate resistance to fall back one thousand yards losing two heavy guns. Our troops fought with determined courage, firing very low. The enemy was in full strength and meant mischief. Orders were given for McArthur to fall back to the next ridge to touch on Davies' left, for Stanley (Second Brigade) to move northward and eastward to stand in close with McKean's Division, but nearer town. General Hamilton was to face toward Chewalla.
The Dispositions for the Battle October 4th. We had now before us as much of the army as the rebels had been able to muster in Northern Mississippi. They were in the angle of the Columbus and Memphis Roads. The plan was to rest our left on the batteries extend- ing from Battery Robinett, our center on the slight ridge and our right on the high ground covering both the Pittsburg and Purdy Roads. McKean had the extreme left. Stanley with his well-tried Division, Batteries Wil- liam and Robinett, was placed on the Memphis Railroad and the Chewalla Road, extending near to the Columbus Road. Davies' tried Division was placed in the right center. Hamilton's staunch fighting Division was on the right.
The Battle.
This early opening gave promise of a hot day's work. About nine o'clock, our skirmishers in our front by their hot firing proclaimed the presence of their forces preparing for the assault. Soon the heads of col- umns were seen emerging to attack ouf center on Davies' first, Stanley's next, and Hamilton's last. The drawing shows these positions and is re- ferred to for the sake of brevity. I shall leave to pens dipped in poetic ink to describe the gorgeous protean of the battle and paint in words of fire the heroes of this fight. I can only say that when Price's left bore down on our center in gallant style, their force was so overpowering that our wearied and jaded troops yielded and fell back. I had the personal mortification of witnessing this ontoward and untimely stampede. Riddled and scattered, the ragged forces of Pierce's right storming columns penetrated near to the north side of the square. When it was greeted by a storm of grape from a section of Immel's Battery, soon re-enforced by the Tenth Ohio which sent them whirling back, pursued by the Fifth Minnesota. Davies' rischt rallied and retook Battery Powell. Hamilton having played upon the rebels on his right, over the open field advanced upon them and they fled. The bat- tle was over on the right. During this time, the skirmishers on the left were twenty minutes after the attack on our right, the enemy advanced in four columns on Battery Robinett, and were treated to grape and cannister until within fifty yards, when the Ohio Brigade arose and gave them a murderous fire of musketry before which they reeled and fell back to the woods. They, however, gallantly reformed and advanced again to the charge led by Colo-
92 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
nel Rogers of the Second Texas. This time they reached the edge of the ditch but the deadly musketry fire of the Ohio Brigade again broke them, and at the word "Charge," the Eleventh Missouri and Twenty-seventh Ohio, sprang up and forward at them, chasing their broken fragments into, the woods. * * * Thus at noon, ended the battle of October 4th. Our skirm- ishers began to advance and found that their skirmishers had gone from the field. * * * I rode over our lines announcing the result in person, and notified our victorious troops that after two days of fighting, two almost sleepless nights of preparation, and march, I wished them to replenish their cartridge boxes, haversacks, and stomachs, take an early sleep and start in pursuit by daylight. * * *
The results of this bloody battle are : We fought the combined rebel forces of Mississippi, commanded by Van Dorn and Price, Lovell, Ville- pague, Rust and the remnants of Breckenridge's Corps numbering according to their own authorities, thirty-eight thousand men. We signally defeated them with a little more than half their number, and they fled leaving their dead and wounded on the field. The enemy's loss in killed was fourteen hundred and twenty-three and in wounded was five thousand six hundred and ninety-two. We took two thousand, two hundred and sixty-eight prisoners, representing sixty nine regiments, seven Battalions and Thirteen Batteries. Besides separate companies, we took fourteen stands of colors, two pieces of artillery, three thousand, three hundred stand of small arms, forty-five thousand rounds of ammunition and a large lot of accoutrements. The enemy blew up several ammunition wagons and carriages, between Corinth and Chewalla, and the ground was strewn with tents, officers' mess chests, and small arms. We pursued them forty miles in force and sixty miles with calvary. Our loss was only three hundred and fifteen killed, one thousand, eight hundred and twelve wounded and two hundred and thirty- two prisoners. The officers and men who in this battle deserve special men- tion, most conspicuous, number one hundred and sixty-nine.
W. S. Rosecrans, Major-General.
Major John A. Rawlins, Assistant Adjutant General.
Report of Colonel John W. Fuller, Tiventy-sevcnth Ohio Infantry, Commanding First Brigade.
Headquarters, First Brigade, Second Division. Army of the Mississippi.
Corinth, Mississippi, October 13th, 1862. Lieutenant W. H. Sinclair, Acting Assistant Adjutant General, Second Division, Army of the Mississippi.
I have the honor to submit for the information of the General com- manding the Second Division, the following report of the part taken by my command in the recent battle of Corinth.
At daylight on the morning of the 3rd instant, we moved from the Tuscumbia Creek, where it is crossed by the southerly road leading from
94 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
Corinth to Kossuth, and marched to Whitefield's house, formerly the head- quarters of Major-General Grant. While halting here the Forty-third Ohio Infantry, Colonel Smith, and a section of the Third Michigan Battery, which had been sent to Kussuth the day before, rejoined the Brigade. About noon we marched to the outer line of defences on the westerly side of the town, resting our right near Battery D, the artillery placed in position to command the road leading from the west. An hour afterward we moved by our right flank until we covered Battery E, and planted the artillery so as to command the approaches to that work. About four o'clock in the afternoon, orders came to retire to a position near the Seminary, upon reaching which I gave orders at once to deploy into line. Before this was fully executed, we were again ordered to move to a point near to Battery Williams, and again to proceed to the space between the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and the earthwork next easterly from that road. Forming line upon the crest with our right resting near the work referred to, we stacked arms, expecting to defend that position. After the troops were here supplied with water and rations (a precaution on the part of the commanding Gen- eral, of inestimable importance) we were again in motion, and crossing the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, were soon occupying a position in front of Bat- tery Willliams, from which General Davies' command was then being with- drawn. The General commanding the Division placed the Forty-third Ohio (Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith) in position near the crest of the ridge fronting the west, the right of the regiment resting near Battery Robinett, while I in accordance with his instructions, found the line fronting to the ^iorth as follows: The Sixty-third Ohio (Colonel J. W. Sprague) with the left rest- ing near the road which passes Battery Robinett, distant about thirty yards from the battery; the Twenty-seventh Ohio (Major Z. S. Spaulding) next on the right of the Sixty-third, and the Thirty-ninth Ohio (Colonel A. W. Gilbert) holding the right of our line. The General having directed me to look well to the guard, as soon as the line was formed I went to the out- post, when I learned that the guard of General Davies' Division had been withdrawn ; also that immediately the enemy's pickets advanced to the edge of the woods, and had already fired with fatal effect upon the small squad of dismounted cavalry which occupied the road leading thence to our position. 1 immediately sent two companies of the Sixty-third Ohio to occupy this road, with orders to press as far toward the woods as possible. The night prevented my seeing with what force the enemy held the woods, and think- ing it hazardous to move a small force along this road into the woods to be there deployed, I ordered Major Spaulding, Twenty-seventh Ohio, to deploy a line of skirmishers immediately in front of our lines, with instructions to creep out cautiously through the fallen timber, and if possible, to gain and hold the edges of the woods. The skirmishers were not strong enough to gain the woods, but they held a position from which they replied effectively to the enemy's sharpshooters during the morning, firing no less than seventy rounds to the man. The guard in the night succeeded in making a prisoner of Captain Tobin (and his bugler) who had planted his battery within two hundred yards of our position, and who when captured, was making a re- connaissance along the road leading from the woods. After daylight a por- tion of this guard, under Captain Brown of the Sixty-third Ohio, crept up to the edge of the forest and captured and brought into our lines a cais-
96
Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
son, with four horses attached, and soon after the James gun to which it belonged was brought in by a squad of the First United States Infantry from Battery Robinett.
Between three and four o'clock in the morning, the enemy's guns in front of our position sounded the reveille, which instantly aroused the en- tire command. Shot, shell, grape and canister were poured over the en- tire field with great rapidity, but owing to the protection afforded by the ground occupied, we suffered comparatively little loss. Captain Williams' guns suddenly responded and the moment the light enabled him to aim with precision, the enemy precipitately withdrew his batteries.
About nine or ten o'clock in the morning, three companies were detailed under command of Major H. T. McDowell of the Thirty-ninth Ohio, with orders to deploy as skirmishers and, co-operating with those already ad- vanced, to push forward into the woods and ascertain whether the enemy was there in strength. This deployment was made under the personal direc-
I.IXKS OF BATTLE OCT. 3d AND 4th, lSKU, AT CORINTH, MISS. Rebellion Record, Vol. 17.
The Assault by the Enemy. 97
tion of the General commanding the Division, and the skirmishers, soon after reaching the woods, were driven back by the enemy, who was already forming his column for the assault. As the indications increased that the enemy would soon attack us, I moved the whole line, which faced north, a little to the left, so as to bring the Sixty-third Ohio close to the ditch sur- rounding the battery, the two companies of the Sixty-third on the left, crossing and occupying the road.
At about eleven o'clock, while in Battery Robinett, I saw the enemy approaching through the woods in four close columns, one moving down the road, one to the west of it and moving nearly parallel with it, and two others on the easterly side of the road. I afterward learned that the column in the road was the Sixth Texas, their left column the Ninth Texas, and the others Arkansas Regiments, whose numbers I failed to get, the four regiments being the Brigade of General Phifer. Immediately in their rear and supporting General Phifer, was the Brigade of Colonel Moore. As soon as I saw the movement, I ordered Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith to change his front forward, to better protect the battery. Thinking the enemy's column, if resolute, would be sure to break the line of the Sixty-third Ohio where it was so greatly exposed, I ordered the Eleventh Missouri (Major Weber) to a position directly in the rear of the Sixty-third and distant not more than twenty-five yards, and directed Major Weber, in case the Sixty- third gave way, to rise up and charge the enemy at a double-quick, and to be particular not to fire a shot until he saw the backs of the enemy.
Directly after running along the line of the Sixty-third and Twenty- seventh Regiments, I cautioned the men to hold their fire until the enemy was close upon them. When the column in the road (which moved more rapidly than the others) had approached within one hundred yards of our line, the Sixty-third and some of the left companies of the Twenty-seventh opened fire upon it. The head of the column almost instantly disappeared and the rear recoiled rapidly to the edge of the woods. It was immedi- ately reformed, and strengthened by another regiment, again advanced to the assault with great gallantry. The Sixty-third Ohio, which had already suffered greatly from a cloud of sharpshooters, seemed the principal tar- get for the enemy, and almost immediately its ranks were so riddled and broken I could see the enemy's column as well as if their line had never in- tervened. Nine out of thirteen line officers had fallen, and with half their number killed or wounded, the regiment fell back to the rear to reform.
At this moment the men of the Eleventh Missouri sprang to their feet and received a volley which for the instant, staggered them. The next moment they pressed forward with heroic gallantry, and the Twenty-seventh Ohio, whose left had fallen back slightly, joining in the movement and unit- ing their flanks, the two regiments rushed in splendid style upon the enemy, instantly routing him and driving him in utter confusion from the field, which was thickly strewn with the dead and wounded. A large number were immediately made prisoners while the others, secreting themselves in fallen timber and unable to escape, were brought in squads to our lines, where all were sent to the guard near Battery Williams. From the best in- formation I can obtain after diligent inquiry, I estimated the number at about two hundred.
98 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
During the movement just described on the right of Battery Robinett, the Forty-third Ohio engaged the enemy on the left of that work. Thrown into momentary disorder by the fall of their Colonel, and rallied by the efforts of Lieutenant-Colonel Swayne and the General commanding the Division, they successfully repulsed that column which marched west of the road and shot every rebel who showed his head above the parapet of the fort or attempted to enter through the embrasures.
I must not omit to mention the hand to hand fight which occurred be- tween the Ninth Texas and the Twenty-seventh Ohio. As the Ninth Texas approached our lines, and when distant not more than six or eight yards, Orrin B. Gould, a private in Company G, Twenty-seventh Ohio, shot the Texas color bearer, who was marching at the head of the column. Seeing the colors fall, young Gould with others sprang forward to secure them, when a rebel officer sang out to his men, "Save the colors," and at the same time put a bullet into the breast of Gould. The young hero was not to be intimidated, however, and bore away the rebel flag in triumph.
About one o'clock in the afternoon, the rebels again showed them- selves in force in front of our position, a little to the left of the ground from which their column moved upon us, whereupon I ordered Captain Maurice, commanding Light Battery F United States Artillery, to plant two twelve- pounder howitzers near and to the west of Battery Robinett. Two com- panies of the Eleventh Missouri were placed in the ditch surrounding the fort and the Thirty-ninth Ohio (Lieutenant-Colonel Noyes) moving by their left flank, was formed in rear of the battery, the right wing facing to the north and the left to the west. It was a source of regret to me and a dis- appointment to the officers and men that this splendid regiment had na opportunity to show the rebels their power.
Inasmuch as the batteries belonging to this Brigade were ordered away, and I remained unadvised of the position assigned them, I was unable to speak of the part taken by them in action. Fortunately I learned the whereabouts of Captain Maurice when his howitzers were needed, and I hear the conduct of the battery spoken of in such flattering terms by the officers upon whom I rely that I feel proud to know that it is a part of this command. I doubt not the chief of artillery will do full justice to that and to the other battery in this brigade.
In the disposition of troops as well as in other matters herein referred to, I followed carefully and minutely the instructions I had received from the General commanding the Division, excepting when the suddenness of the enemy's movements gave me no opportunity to refer to him ; in these instances I did not hesitate to give such orders as I deemed necessary.
To the officers commanding regiments no small share of praise is due for the brilliant victory which was won. Colonel J. L. K. Smith, the most accomplished officer in the brigade, fell at the head of his regiment while giving his commands as if at parade, and Lieutenant-Colonel Swayne as- suming command under the most trying circumstances, soon restored order in his regiment, and fought it with the utmost gallantry. Colonel J. W. Sprague, whose regiment had the most exposed position, stood at his post cheering his men on when two-thirds of his officers and half his command had fallen, and in an incredibly short space of time reformed his men and
Statement of Casualties. 99
brought them again into line. Colonel Gilbert, thrown from his horse before the assault was made, left his regiment in command of Lieutenant-Colonel Noyes, an officer who is efficient and faithful as he is brave and determined. Major Z. S. Spaulding, the only field officer with the Twenty-seventh, com- manded with marked ability, checking the enthusiasm of the men until the proper moment, and pressing them forward when the enemy was in a situ- ation to be crushed.
Major Weber, commanding the Eleventh Missouri, though not attached to this brigade, fought under my command during the action and displayed much of the true soldier, and handled his regiment with skill that I should do injustice to my own feelings did I not speak of him in this connection. He is doubtless one of the best officers in this division and deserves great praise for his conduct during the battle.
I should not close my report without acknowledging my obligations to Captain W. H. Lathrop, of my staff, whose coolness and good judgment ren- dered him of very good assistance to me ; nor to Captain C. W. Dustin, my Assistant Adjutant-General, whose promptness in the execution of orders and whose gallant bearing meet my hearty approval. The mounted Order- lies (detailed from the Thirty-sixth Illinois) two of whom were wounded and two of whose horses were shot down during the action, also deserve especial thanks for their soldierly conduct.
The following statement of casualties will show that though the action was short, the victory was not gained without a desperate struggle.
Command Killed Wounded Missing Total
Twenty-seventh Ohio 9 69 6 78
Thirty-ninth Ohio 2 13 15
Forty-third Ohio 16 74 90
Sixty-third Ohio 24 105 3 132
Second U. S., Artillery, Light Co. F. . 3 3
Third Michigan Battery 6 2 8
Wisconsin Light Artillery,
Eighth Battery Section 3 3
Illinois Cavalry, Jenk's Company 2 2
Total 51 275 331
Our rejoicings over the result are mingled with bitter grief as we think of the brave hearts that have ceased to beat. The Forty-third Ohio has been signally afflicted. Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith, who died this after- noon (October 13) enjoyed not only the confidence and the esteem of every officer of this command, but was respected and loved by the whole army. The loss of Captain Spangler is one which his regiment will long and deeply feel, and in First Lieutenant Heyl, Adjutant of the regiment, has passed away one of the most genial, faithful, and useful officers of this brigade. The Sixty-third Ohio recounts the loss of Captain McFadden who died a patriotic death, fearlessly discharging his duty. The Twenty-seventh Ohio in First Lieutenant W. S. Webb, lost one of the most able and valuable officers on its rolls. Enduring physical powers, an iron will, a clear head, and a cultivated intellect rendered him peculiarly useful to the service, and gave promise of prominence and great influence in the future. Nor shall
100 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
we forget the brave men in the ranks who fought and fell on October 4th. Their comrades will cherish their memory, and when gathered around the camp fires will often repeat the story of their heroism, and our country will remember with pride their glorious achievements. I have the honor to be
Very respectfully yours, John W. Fuller, Colonel, Twenty-seventh Ohio,
Commanding the First Brigade.
CHAPTER XIV.
A HERO AT CORINTH.
A TALE OF VALOR TOLD BY COLONEL FULLER OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH OHIO IN A LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR OF OHIO.
"The rebels in four close columns were pressing with gallantry amount- ing to recklessness, upon the Ohio Brigade, with the evident intention of breaking our lines, when the terrible and incessant fire of our men drove them back in the utmost confusion.
"The Ninth Texas bore down upon the left center of the Twenty- seventh Ohio with this flag at the head of their column, and advanced to within six or eight yards of our lines, when Orrin B. Gould, a private of Company G, shot down the color bearer and rushed forward for the rebel flag.
"A rebel officer shouted to his men to 'save the colors' and at the same moment put a bullet into the breast of Gould. But the young hero was not to be intimidated. With the flagstaff in his hand, and the bullet in his breast, he returned to his regiment waving the former defiantly in the faces of the enemy.
"After the battle when visiting the hospital, I found young Gould stretched upon the cot, evidently in great pain. Upon seeing me, his pale face was instantly radiant with smiles and pointing to his wound, he said, 'Col- onel, I don't care for this, since I got their flag.' "
correspondence accompanying the message.
The State of Ohio, Executive Department.
Columbus, October 16th, 1862.
John IV. Fuller, Colonel of the Twenty-seventh Regiment, 0. V. I., Ripley,
Miss. Dear Colonel: —
I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your letter on the 9th instant, accompanying the bloody flag of the Ninth Texas Regiment, captured by the gallant Orrin B. Gould, a Private of Company G, in your regiment, in the great battle fought on the 4th instant near Corinth. The brave and daring act of Gould, when made known to the loyal people of our State, will fill their hearts with joy and gratitude. I am pained to learn that the wound received by this hero proved fatal, and that he is no longer in the land of the living, to enjoy the rich reward due to his gallantry. But, although dead, I have determined to give his relatives and brother soldiers evidence of my appreciation of his noble conduct ; and therefore herewith enclose you a commission for him as Captain in your Regiment, of the date of your great Battle October 4th, 1862.
102 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
The bloody flag sent me I have given a prominent position in the room in the State House appropriate to the keeping of the many trophies taken on the field of battle by the brave and loyal hearts from Ohio, and, as the most fitting account of our possession of this trophy, I attach your elegant and manly letter to the Flag.
In this connection, allow me to assure you and the brave men under your command, that the noble bearing and gallantry of your regiment, on that bloody field, is fully appreciated by the people of Ohio. Make this known to the heroes of your regiment, and assure them that when this war is over, and our glorious old flag can again float over every inch of the territory possessed by the United States, and they, thus permitted to return to their homes they love so much, will receive the hearty greetings of all who appreciate our glorious institutions.
Very truly yours, David Tod, Governor.
Report of Major Zeph S. Spaulding.
Twenty-seventh Ohio Infantry. In the Field near Ripley, October 9th, 1862.
This regiment left camp on the Tuscumbia River on the morning of Friday the 3rd instant, and marched with the brigade to a point about one and one-half mile from Corinth, and inside the outer line of defences. From here we marched to what was formerly known as Battery D, where we took our position as support to Maurice's Battery. Soon after, we re- tired into the town and formed our lines on the north side of the place. During the night, we changed our position to one in front and on the right of the northwest defences of Corinth, and I was ordered to form my line, on the right of what is known as Battery Robinett.
At one o'clock on the 4th instant, I sent Company B, under command of First Lieutenant Bryan, as skirmishers into the woods, about four hun- dred yards to the front, where they remained, doing good execution, until driven back by a heavy force of the enemy, about eleven o'clock. At nine o'clock in the morning, I sent out Company A, First Lieutenant Sawyer commanding, as skirmishers, who were driven back at the same time. At daylight a rebel battery in the woods in front of us opened a heavy fire, most of their shots going over us, but from which we had one man killed and three wounded. At eleven o'clock, a heavy force of the enemy ap- peared in our front. They advanced upon us in four columns, by the flank, one of which, headed by the Ninth Texas, came forward in the direction of the left wing of this regiment. I ordered the men to hold their fire until the enemy came within short range and screen themselves as much as pos- sible by means of the brush in front of them. As the enemy came up the hill, the Twenty-seventh poured into them a galling fire, advancing as they did so until it became almost a hand to hand conflict.
At this time the Sixty-third Ohio, upon our left, was forced back and I found my left and rear was being endangered. I therefore ordered my left to form a line with the Eleventh Missouri, just brought up to take the place of the Sixty-third Ohio, and together we charged over the hill, driv-
Major Z. S. Spaulding's Report.. 103
ing the enemy in great confusion and with great loss, and the engagement so far as we were concerned, was practically ended. Our loss amounted to nine killed including one commissioned officer (First Lieutenant Webb of Company G), forty-seven wounded, including two commissioned officers (Captain Lynch and Lieutenant Young of Company G) and six missing, who I have since learned were wounded, and reported a few hours later. A number of others received wounds but were not reported.
Saturday night, my men slept upon their arms upon the field, and on Sunday morning, marched with the brigade in pursuit of the enemy. Tues- ■ day night, we bivouaced about five miles from Ripley. Wednesday morn- ing, I was ordered out on reconnaissance under Lieutenant-Colonel Swayne, and proceeded to a point on the road from Rienzi to Ripley. Five com- panies of this regiment were used as skirmishers upon this occasion. We found no trace of the enemy save a few stragglers from the rebel army. The same evening we returned to our former bivouac.
During the entire engagement and march my officers and men behaved with great credit and to my entire satisfaction.
(Signed) Z. S. Spaulding, Major Commanding.
Report of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward F Noyes.
Thirty-ninth Ohio. Camp near Ripley, Mississippi, October 9, 1862.
On the 3rd instant, this regiment marched under orders, from place of bivouac, near Kossuth, to Corinth, arriving about five o'clock in the after- noon. Our men having marched without water during the day, it was deemed expedient to draw in wagons enough to satisfy immediate neces- sities. Before all were supplied the evening was far advanced.
During the night, the Thirty-ninth Ohio was posted on the right of the First Brigade. General Stanley's Division on the Purdy Road west of Corinth. At daybreak on the morning of the 4th, * * * * the enemy commenced shelling our position, but were driven from their guns by our fire.
About nine o'clock in the morning, two companies of this regiment, A and K., were sent to the front, north of the Purdy Road, and deployed as skirmishers under Major McDowell, * * * * who had been detailed to .command the skirmishers of the brigade. They advanced into the woods, discovered the enemy in force, and were immediately fired upon along the whole line. Soon the Confederate columns were observed moving in a southeasterly direction from the woods toward the town and two brigades advanced to charge the battery, which the Ohio Brigade was posted to support. The Thirty-ninth Ohio was ordered to look well to the right, and to be prepared for an attempt by the enemy, then near the town, to turn our right flank, but the other regiments of the brigade being hard pressed by the greatly superior force attacking them, this regiment was ordered to move by the flank to the left, to support the Twenty-seventh, Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio Regiments. We accordingly took position with our right wing fronting to the north and our left wing at right angles to it, fronting to the west, and we so remained during the day.
104 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
The line of our skirmishers, when the engagement became general, being covered by the cross fire of the battery in our rear, which was working against the columns of the enemy, approaching the town, Major McDowell withdrew them and ordered them to rejoin the regiment. The skirmishers did good service, keeping a rapid and well directed fire upon the columns of the enemy, massed within easy range of the lines. The enemy being re- pulsed with terrible loss on all sides, fell back. During the night, Com- panies D and G of this regiment, with others of the brigade, under Major McDowell were sent out to discover the position of the enemy, who were found to have made a precipitate retreat, leaving his dead and wounded upon the field. * * * *
Early on the morning of the 5th, we commenced the pursuit. We bivouaced that night on the state line road near Chewalla.
On the 6th we marched to Crums Mills on the Hatchie River, and on the 7th, to a point northeast of Ripley, where we lay upon our arms during the night, the enemy being reported near. On the 8th, with the 27th and 43rd, made a reconnaissance four miles east of Ripley. * * * *
Edward F. Noyes, Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding.
Report of Lieutenant-Colonel Wager Swayne. Forty-third Ohio Infantry.
Near Ripley, Mississippi, October 9th, 1862.
I submit the following report of the part taken by this command in the recent battle of Corinth :
The regiment in command of Colonel J. L. Kirby Smith, moved from Kossuth on the morning of the 3rd instant, and, rejoining the brigade at the crossing of the Tuscumbia, reach Corinth at sundown. The same even- ing, we took position in line, facing northwest, along the crest of a ridge, connecting a large battery half a mile north of Corinth, and known as Battery Williams, with a small one, distant about the length of our line, and known to us as Battery Robinett.
We remained in line during the night and throughout the action of the next day. At four o'clock in the morning, a field battery of the enemy took position a few hundred yards to our right and slightly in our rear, and opened fire, which was chiefly directed at the two earthworks between which we lay. During this fire we lost two men killed, and ten wounded.
Between daylight and ten o'clock in the morning our wounded were increased to eighteen by the fire of the enemy's sharpshooters, posted in trees. At the time of the general attack, toward noon, the enemy advanced a great force, nearly in the direction of our lines, upon the lesser earth- work on our right. Our front was immediately changed forward on first company, so as to afford us more direct range. At this moment our regi- ment suffered the most severely. Colonel Smith fell, dangerously shot through the head ; Adjutant Heyl was mortally wounded in the bowels, and Captain J. M. Spangler, of Company A, was instantly killed by a ball through the head.
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106 Fuller's Ohio Brigade
Fire was kept up upon the enemy during and after the execution of the movement, until the head of his column had gained the parapet, and opened fire on our rear from the opposite side of the earthwork on our right. The regiment was then moved slightly to the left and the right thrown back, so as to fire into the battery and meet the enemy in the new direction. This movement was attended with confusion, which was prompt- ly checked on the appearance and by the efforts of General Stanley. The enemy was driven from the parapet, the right advanced into the battery, and the advance of the enemy, on the right of the battery, being meanwhile repulsed, our left was again thrown forward and assisted in driving the enemy into the woods. He made no further demonstration againt that part of our lines.
The behavior of the regiment was under your own inspection. I am proud to state that not one of the officers thus suddenly left to my com- mand, failed to do his duty with alacrity. I should do injustice if I failed to mention the valuable services of Major Herrick, after the irreparable loss of our commanding officer.
Colonel Smith was wounded while displaying the utmost gallantry. Captain Spangler and Lieutenant Heyl fell in the courageous discharge of their duty. Captain S. F. Timmons and Lieutenants S. McClaren, H. S. Prophet and A. L. Howe being wounded, bore up without a murmur.
Our loss was sixteen killed and seventy-four wounded, embracing many of our best and bravest. Our grief for the fallen is tempered by their honorable death, and our sympathy for the wounded is heightened by the knowledge that their hearts are in the cause. * * * *
Wager Swayne, Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding. Captain W. H. Lathrop. A. A. A. Genl.
Report of Colonel John W. Sprague, Sixty-third Ohio, Infantry, First Brigade, Second Division, Army of the Mississippi.
Near Ripley, Mississippi, October 9th, 1862. Nine companies of my command (Company D, Captain Fouts, being on detached duty) consisting of two hundred and seventy-five men, left camp near Tuscumbia River, about three o'clock in the morning of the 3rd instant and marched to Corinth, distant about six miles, during the morn- ing. Our position was changed several times. In the evening we rested near the fort, north of Major-General Rosecrans' headquarters. About ten o'clock at night, I was ordered to take position immediately on the right of the field redoubt (armed with three twenty-pounder parrot guns) in front and to the left of Captain Williams' fort and headquarters. On the left of the first named work was the Forty-third Ohio and on my right was the Twenty-seventh Ohio. * * * * Soon after taking this position, Companies B and G commanded by Captain C. E. Brown and Lieutenant Browning, were sent out on the Chewalla Road to the north and west from Corinth. During the night, Captain Brown captured Captain Toben of Toben's (Ten- nessee) Battery and his Bugler and brought them in. They were sent for- ward to the headquarters of General D. S. Stanley.
Colonel John W. Sprague's Report. 107
Captain Brown heard the enemy near his position planting a battery and at about four o'clock in the morning, fired several volleys — it was be- lieved with good effect. Almost immediately after the enemy opened fire from their battery planted in our front,- distant less than three hundred yards. During the morning several of our men were wounded by the fire from this battery and by the enemy's sharpshooters. About ten o'clock in the morning, the enemy's columns were seen emerging from the woods into the partly open ground in our front. My men were kept lying down until the enemy had advanced within fifty yards of our position. Our fire was then delivered with such effect as to check their advance, but they were again pushed on and again checked and forced to retire, leaving the ground literally covered with dead and wounded.
They again advanced after a short interval and opened a furious fire upon us. At the same time a column of the enemy charged the redoubt im- mediately on my left and advanced in strong force in front. The fire to which my regiment was exposed at this time was terrific and deadly. Soon the enemy on my left had advanced so far as to pour an infilading fire along nearly the whole line of my regiment. My left was thrown back slightly to meet this assault and our fire was delivered with such effect upon the enemy who had reached the ditch of the redoubt mentioned as to nearly fill the ditch with their dead and wounded. Every officer and man of my command seemed to put forth superhuman exertions to hold our position, but no troops could long stand against such unequal odds pouring a fire upon front and flank.
Out of thirteen line officers, nine were killed or wounded, and forty- five per cent of my whole force shared the same fate to say nothing of the number necessarily detailed to carry off the wounded. As an evidence of the deadly fire to which my left was exposed, I may say that fifty-three per cent was either killed or wounded, and not an officer left except Captain Brown. My left wing and center fell back at my order and were gallantly replaced by the Eleventh Missouri Volunteers. In less than ten minutes, one hundred and thirty-five of my regiment were formed in the front line in good order and there remained during the rest of the day and through the following night, but the battle was over and a most brilliant victory won.
I need not attempt to describe the fierce assault and murderous fire to which my command was exposed, either to General Stanley, commanding the Division, or to Colonel Fuller, commanding the Brigade, for the fight- ing of my regiment was in their immediate presence and many of my men fell fighting bravely within an arm's length of them.
I cannot speak too highly of the conduct of the officers and men under my command. Captain Frank T. Gillmore, Company A, was never, I be- lieve, excelled by any young officer for efficiency and daring. When the enemy commenced the principal infantry attack, he was in front with his skirmishers. The fierceness of the assault forced him to retire around the Thirty-ninth Ohio Regiment and thus regain his position in line, which he did at double-quick arriving in time to open fire with the rest of the regi- ment. Captain Brown, Company B, on the extreme left, went out with" twelve men and brought in one of the enemy's caissons, under a sharp fire. Captain Christopher E. Smith, Company C, was severely wounded in the leg but refused to go to the rear until the fight was over and the victory
108 Fuller's Ohio Brigade.
won. He displayed rare gallantry and ability. Captain George W. Fitz- simmons and Lieutenant William H. Cherry, Company E, were both wound- ed but fought bravely to the end. First Lieutenant Nesbit Conley, com- manding Company F, was stunned by a blow on the head, but joined again in the fight almost immediately. Lieutenant John W. Browning command- ing Company G, was wounded three times before leaving the field. Captain Oscar L. Jackson, Company H, a young officer of great promise, was se- verely and it is feared mortally wounded. He held his company in perfect order until two-thirds of his men were killed or wounded. First Lieutenant William Cornell, commanding Company I, exhibited the finest qualities of an officer during the entire day. Second Lieutenant James A. Gillmon of the same company received a painful wound, but insisted that the more severely wounded should be cared for first. His conduct during the fight was most gallant. First Lieutenant W. W. Mason, Company C, behaved with coolness and bravery during the fight. Captain James McFadden, Com- pany K, just promoted, an earnest and intelligent officer, fell mortally wounded, dying the death of a patriot. Lieutenant S. W. Cunningham be- haved bravely, and was severely wounded in the face. Captain Otis W. Pollock, Acting Adjutant, rendered efficient and gallant service during the day. Assistant Surgeon A. B. Monahan was knocked from his horse in the morning by a piece of shell striking him near the eye, but when I visited the hospital in the evening, I found of the ninety of my wounded, that had been brought in, every one had been dressed and tenderly cared for by him. Acting Assistant Surgeons Marsh and Arnold were ordered to re- port on the field. First Lieutenant Holly Skinner, Regimental Quarter- master, rendered most effective service. Chaplain Benjamin St. James was zealous in his efforts to provide comforts and in caring for the wounded.
Early on the morning of the 5th instant, I joined with my command in the pursuit of Van Dorn's and Price's Armies. On the 7th, we reached a point near Ripley. * * * * The list of killed, wounded and missing shows a loss of twenty-four killed, one hundred and five wounded (eight mor- tally) and three missing, or forty-eight per cent of the entire number taken into action. * * * * *
J. W. Sprague, Colonel Commanding.
Report of Captain Edward H. Cummings, C. S. A., Acting Inspector-
Ceneral, on the Battle of Corinth, including the Engagement at the
Hatchie River and Holly Springs, Mississippi.
October 11th, 1862. Dear General:
On the morning of October 3rd, with about fifteen thousand men or sixteen thousand (effective), we attacked Corinth on the