USA > Illinois > Military history and reminiscences of the Thirteenth regiment of Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war in the United States,1861-65, pt 2 > Part 1
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Gc 973.74 IlSieb pt.2 1792597
M. L
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00824 1660
598
MILITARY HISTORY AND REMINISCENCES
OF THE 13 THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
OF
Pt.2
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY
IN THE
CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES
1861-1865
.
PREPARED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE REGIMENT, 1891
PUBLICATION COMMITTEE: H. T. NOBLE. S. C. PLUMMER. H. D. DEMENT. C. E. BOLLES. HISTORIANS: A. B. MUNN. A. H. MILLER. W. O. NEWTON.
CHICAGO WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 1892
1792597
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY. 353
move at 3 a. m. A mile out we struck the rebel pickets ; pushed them back with steady skirmishing for about six miles. At daylight we found their main body supported by artillery. A fire was kept up while a flank movement was made upon them. Two of our men were wounded. At 9 a. m. our flanking forces compelled them to abandon their position. At II a. m. they again made a stand at a small creek, but this was not intended as a real position.
At 3 p. m. we came upon them in a strong position, two miles west of Tuscumbia. They had been reinforced and had a couple of long-range guns that reached us as soon as we came out of the woods across the valley opposite to them. I suppose our commander thought they would soon abandon their position, as they had before, so that we were not thrown into line, but merely sheltered ourselves somewhat by moving out of the road among the scattered trees. Another regiment of the brigade came up beside us. The shells came unpleas- antly near our heads. Finally one struck the regiment that had just come up and the men and rails flew in every direction as it burst. Several men were badly wounded. One man set up an unearthly yell that was very trying to our nerves. It was found out that the man who made the noise was not hurt at all, only covered with blood from the man next to him who had a leg torn off. Our regiment was then thrown into line of battle on the south side of the railroad and held this position till morning. In this position a shell struck the regi- ment just to the rear of us, killing one man and badly wound- ing two others.
After it was over some one asked Norman Sterling, of Company A, if he got down when those shells were tearing through amongst us. "Get down ? " said he, "why I spread all over like a pancake, and wished I could get thinner."
October 27th .- We laid in line of battle all last night. This morning one brigade of the second division moved to the right to flank the enemy's position. A full battery of twenty- pound Parrott guns were brought up and opened on the rebel battery. Their firing was so rapid and close, that without
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HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
firing another shot they limbered up and fled at full gallop. We started to follow them by brigades in column. They offered no opposition, and before I o'clock we were in pos- session of Tuscumbia. This proved to be a fine village with a beautiful country surrounding it. At the time of writing this, it is a town of some fifteen hundred inhabitants.
We found some one hundred of the rebels wounded in the town and vicinity, among them Colonel Forrest, mortally wounded. He was a brother of the famous General Forrest. They had some thirty killed. The enemy had spent all the night previous in destroying the railroad.
The plan of advance was evidently changed, for the next day found us on the back track, destroying what we had repaired on the railroad.
On the 29th .- The rebels followed us closely, evidently determined to find out what our movement meant; the skir- mish was kept up all day. We had one man killed and twelve wounded ; the enemy had five killed and nineteen wounded and three taken prisoners.
On the night of the 31st three companies of our regiment were on guard. They were fired upon, and one man of Com- pany C and one negro were wounded.
By November Ist .- It was apparent that we were to cross the Tennessee river and move east on the north side.
On the 3d of November .- Our regiment crossed the river at 3:30 a. m., moved out to the town of Waterloo, break- fasted, and then moved on some ten miles further and camped at Gravel Springs. Being now north of the river we seem to have no forces opposing us but some small bodies of cavalry. At this date General Blair's escort was pounced upon by one of these bands. They took two wagons and killed one man and eight horses. We are in a most delightful valley and plenty of good water.
As we left the river for our long march, all men who were not able to march, were ordered to the hospitals or invalid . camp in the rear. It was a grand country to pass through
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ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
and many men who were ailing when they started, were stronger and fatter when the march was over.
GOING TO THE FRONT UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
Let me here introduce an item of individual history given by Comrade D. B. Brink now of Melvern, Kansas, that will illustrate a trait of character found among men. Some. men were disposed to drift to the rear while others could hardly be kept from the front. In time of fighting, when the pickets or artillery begin firing some men suddenly become lame or sick while others as soon forget all lameness or sickness. This account of Comrade Brink's tells of men beating their way to the front under disadvantages :
"I will now give you some of the trials and privations that a private soldier will sometimes undergo, to beat his way back to his command after being sent to the hospital. About the 5th of November, in the year 1863, the Thirteenthi Regi- ment with the balance of their command, left the Tuscumbia Mountains to march overland to Chattanooga, Tennessee. I was at that time sick with bilious fever. I, together with George Drake of Company G, was ordered to the hospital at Memphis, Tennessee. We started about 10 o'clock in the morning in an army ambulance, rode ten miles and there had to wait for a freight train to take us on to Memphis. While there, I was taken with hemorrhage of the lungs and bled very freely. Comrade Drake thought I was going to die and so did I. As we had no medicine of any kind, Drake thought he would look around and see if he could find any one that could give him anything that would stop the bleeding, as he was very badly used up himself from a wound of some kind. He had great difficulty in getting very far from me. He finally found some sappers and miners working on the railroad and from them procured some coffee, from which he made me a very strong cup, and gave it to me almost boiling. I thought sure it would burn my insides out, but the hot coffee had the desired effect ;- it stopped the bleeding and I felt some
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HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
better. About 4 o'clock p. m. the freight train came along and with the assistance of some of the train men, I was placed on the top of a box car and started for Memphis. After that I lost track of friend Drake. Having arrived at the hospital I found my old comrade, and a part of the time, bunk-mate, Chas. M. Mack of Company B. I will say right here, he was as good a boy and soldier as there was in the army.
"After being in the hospital for a few days I felt very much better, and about the 15th of November, 1863, I learned that our forces were about going to make an attack on Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga, and as I had never missed a bat- tle that my regiment had been in, I was anxious to be with them in this one. So I told Comrade Mack that I was going to my command. He said that if I went he would go too ; but I finally prevailed upon him to stay at the hospital, as he was still quite lame from a wound he received at Chickasaw Bayou, December 29th, 1862. I went to the surgeon in com- mand of the hospital and asked him for a pass to go to my command. He said that I would not be able to go for two weeks yet, and would not give me a pass. So I packed my knapsack and went up the river about half a mile where the boats all stopped to wood up. I did not wait more than an hour before a boat came, and while they were taking on wood, I boarded her and went to Cairo, Illinois. I was taken in charge by the guards and taken to the Soldiers' Home and stayed there all night. I crossed the river early in the morn- ing, went to Louisville, Kentucky, was taken by the guards and put in the barracks. I here found another one of our boys, Frank Willard, who had been home on a furlough, and had been held there some time awaiting transportation to his regiment. There were twenty-two other men belonging to different regiments who had been waiting for transportation to their regiments. We were all guarded by some new recruits ; this we did not like very much. After remaining in the bar- racks a few days we boarded a freight train and started for Bridgeport, Alabama. Just before reaching Stevenson, a small town on the railroad, the engine and two forward cars jumped
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ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
the track. The coupling between the second and third car (the one we were on) broke and down the embankment they went, leaving the balance of the train on the track. I was asleep on top of the car with the rest of our men when the first crash came. Willard jerked my knapsack from under my head, and with his own started to jump from the top of the car, giving me a kick in the ribs to waken me up. I says, 'Frank, what are you going to do?' 'Jump,' he says. 'Don't you see we are going off the track.' I took in the situation at a glance, caught Frank by the leg and told him he should not jump, as our car was standing still ; and he would be more apt to get hurt if he jumped than if he re- mained on the car ; and so it proved, for out of the twenty-two that jumped off from the car, there were only ten or twelve that were able to walk on to Stevenson only a few miles dis- tant. We finally arrived in Bridgeport all right : but there we could get no rations, as we had no passes ; so we went down near the river, gathered up some logs, built up a fire and tried to pass the night as best we could. The rain came down in torrents and we were drenched to the skin, but the most of us bore it patiently until almost morning, when we heard a boat coming up the river, loaded with supplies for the army at Chattanooga. So Willard and I boarded her and finally got to Chattanooga just as the battle of Ringgold was finished. This was the only time I was away from the regi- ment during any of its engagements from the time I enlisted, May 24th, 1861, until I was discharged the 18th of June, 1864."
On November 5th we marched fourteen miles and camped on Cypress Creek where the large Wharton Cotton Mills had been located but had been burned some months before by our cavalry. It rained all day. Our regiment was detailed as guard over some two hundred wagons. There were squads of the enemy on our flanks but no attacks were made. The next morning our route lead through Florence, a fine town on the Tennessee river. This town had suffered much less from the effect of war than most places on the lines where armies had moved.
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HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
As most of the bridges had been destroyed over the streams, from this point our course was to the north and east. This took us through Lexington, Pulaski and Fayetteville. Through here many of the people were disposed to be loyal. We met many of the men in their homes, in fact more than we had yet seen in any section of the South. At Fayetteville we passed over a fine stone bridge ; that was a new thing to find in the South. The South had been very backward in the matter of permanent improvements.
DISPATCHES FROM GENERAL SHERMAN.
Before going farther on our journey, I will introduce to your reading some dispatches and letters from General Sher- man that will give official sanction to the statements made concerning the march from Corinth, and at the same time throw light on things that were of necessity dark to the subordinates.
IUKA, MISSISSIPPI, October 25th, 1863.
Special Orders No. I.
Major-General F. P. Blair, Jr., will assume command of the Fif- teenth Army Corps.
Colonel S. G. Hicks. Fortieth Illinois, will proceed with dispatch to Paducah, Kentucky, and assume command of that post.
The entire Fourth Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps will be prepared to start to-morrow to Eastport, to cross the river and proceed to Florence, with ten days' rations.
IUKA, October 25th.
To General HURLBUT, Memphis.
DEAR GENERAL : I rose before daylight to write you some points. It is now manifest that the "powers that be " want the mass of avail- able troops over toward Huntsville, and the only question is how to get them there. I won't waste very much more labor on Bear Creek bridge. I will push up to the station on the hill at Cherokee and use that for a picket station for a time, but I will take immediate steps to cross the body of the troops to Florence and Huntsville, and I want you to so dis- pose things as to draw everything to this. Order every officer and man to his regiment. It will take some time to make changes, but I want you to help me. I like Memphis and the old Mississippi. It is my
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hobby, but we must needs leave it for a time. We only point east now instead of south, neglecting for a time the river and exaggerating the valley of the Tennessee from Huntsville up.
Yours, SHERMAN.
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IUKA, October 26, IS63. i
General HURLBUT.
It will exactly suit us if Joe Johnston will assemble a force at Oko- lona. Don't disturb them now, but keep a spy there to report their object. I expect the Tennessee river will supply me in the future, and I will look to the railroad only as an auxiliary. I will gradually draw this way all the troops but a small command at Memphis and from Tuscumbia, Iuka or Corinth we could strike any force the enemy may assemble on the railroad about Okolona or Columbus.
We want the enemy to divide and not pile on too heavy at Chat- tanooga, where it is so hard to feed and supply our troops.
W. T. SHERMAN.
IUKA, October 27th, 1863.
General HURLBUT.
After I cut loose, if our railroad proves to be an element of weak- ness, we will drop it for a time. With our present force we can not attempt to re-open the Northern road. It will be time for us to replace our road when the new levies come to us in the Spring. This present pressure is a crisis and we must strip for it.
W. T. SHERMAN.
There were some things printed in the Memphis papers con- cerning the fight at Colliersville that General Sherman did not like about it, we have two communications, one to the Mem- phis Bulletin and the other to Colonel Anthony, of the Sixty- sixth Indiana, commanding at the time of the fight. General Sherman was annoyed by the reports in the Memphis papers.
IUKA, October, 27th, IS63.
Editor of MEMPHIS BULLETIN :
I don't think you can conceive the mortification a soldier feels at the nauseating accounts given to the public as history. That affair at Colliersville should have been described in these words : "Chaliners tried to take Colliersville and did not," but ridiculous, nonsensical descriptions have followed each other so fast that you ought to be ashamed to print Colliersville. Now that I am again in authority over you, you must heed my advice. You must print nothing that prej-
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HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
udices Government or excites envy, hatred and malice in a community. Persons in office or out of office must not be flattered or abused. Don't publish an account of any skirmish, battle or movement of any army unless the name of the writer is given in full and printed. I wish you success, but my first duty is to maintain "order and harmony." Yours, W. T. SHERMAN.
IUKA, October 27th, IS63.
Colonel D. C. ANTHONY, Colliersville.
DEAR COLONEL : Captain Fitch lias just shown me you rletter. The accounts published in the newspapers of the affair at Colliersville are generally ridiculous and nonsensical, and I shall stop all such trash hereafter front originating in Memphis.
Your command, of course, did all any person could expect, and is entitled to credit equally with the regulars. You will remember on leav- ing you I told you to make the official report and I hope you have done so. It was your fight, not mine. I happened to drop in accidentally, but the moment Chalmers drew off, I came along on my journey. I assure you of my personal respect, and you may convey to your officers and men my personal thanks for defending their posts so manfully.
Yours truly,
W. T. SHERMAN.
IUKA, October 28th, IS63.
General DODGE, Corinth.
A messenger just arrived from Chattanooga with dates of 24th, makes it necessary for me to drop everything, and with my old corps (Fifteenth) push for Stevenson, Alabama. Push your preparations to follow with all possible speed working night and day. Cross at East- port and follow via Florence, Athens, Huntsville to Stevenson.
W. T. SHERMAN.
Gen. F. P. Blair who was in command of the Fifteenth Army Corps reports concerning our advance on Tuscumbia to General Sherman as follows :
TUSCUMBIA, ALABAMA, October 27, IS63.
GENERAL : We left camp at Cherokee yesterday at daybreak and found the enemy wide awake. They first resisted us at Little Cane and finally at Little Bear Creek, where they had a strong position, and as it had grown late, I thought it best to encamp. This morning the Second Division made a detour to the right and crossed a mile above the rail- road, after a pretty sharp skirmish. At the same moment De Gress'
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battery went into position and opened the twenty-pound Parrotts on them, and they left in a very great hurry, after which we entered Tus- cumbia without any further opposition. The enemy, I understand, have fallen back beyond Town Creek, fourteen miles from here, where Wheeler is with some forces. His forces did not exceed three thousand with six pieces of artillery.
Our losses are not large, say three killed and ten wounded. Lights burn in flanking them this morning, saw four of their dead. I have heard from several sources of many of them being killed and wounded, and find in this town, Colonel Forrest, a captain, and six privates severely wounded.
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We shall return to-morrow and probably reach our camp to-morrow night. I forgot to say we lost some doctors and a medicine wagon at Little Cane, in consequence of a positive diso- bedience of orders. They were too anxious to be in the rear. The wagon, I understand, was burned and I don't care if the doctors were in it. The country is pretty well cleaned out of everything, and these peo- ple, I believe, are losing faith in the rebel leaders, who have promised to clean us out at every step on the way.
Very respectfully
FRANK P. BLAIR, JR.
I will extract a few sentences from a report of General Sherman that will, in some measure, explain why we took the route we did, that seemed to take us out of our course.
He says, "In person I crossed the Tennessee river, and passed to head of column at Florence on the Ist of November, leaving the rear division to be conducted by General Blair and marched to Rogersville and the Elk river. This was found impassable. To ferry would consume too much time and to build a bridge much more time, so there was no alternative but to turn up Elk river, by the way of Gilbertsborough, Elkton, etc., to the stone bridge at Fayetteville. There we crossed Elk and proceeded to Winchester and Dercherd. -
"At Fayetteville, I received orders from General Grant to come to Bridgeport with the Fifteenth Army Corps, and leave General Dodge in command at Pulaski and along the railroad from Columbus to Decatur.
'I instructed General Blair to follow with the second and first divisions by the way of New Market, Larkinsville and
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HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
Bellefonte, while I conducted the other two by the way of Dercherd ; the Fourth Division crossing the mountains to Stephenson and the third by University Place and Sweden's Cove and Battle Creek ; I reaching Bridgeport at night of November 13th."
We will now resume the current incidents of our onward march. After crossing Elk river at Fayetteville our general course for a time was to the south until we crossed into Alabama and there again to the east. Some of the road was rugged, then again swampy and then smooth and delightful marching. On the 13th we passed through New Market a small town in Alabama ; yet the name was no guide to the appearance of the place, for there seemed nothing new about it. As we were about to cross the State line the boys were ready to make all the inquiries possible, as to where it was. An old lady said the line was "on top of the hill yonder." After we had gotten over the hill we inet two women sitting by the road-side. We inquired about the location of the line to them. The younger of the two who was plagued with sore eyes, and was in no way a beauty, said it was "on the top of the hill."
The old lady said she "did not know right plump where it was, but that she thought it was a leetle rise of the top of the hill." Our course led us to within fourteen miles of Huntsville, and then we bore to the east.
November 14th .- We moved fifteen miles, passed through Maysville where a division of cavalry and mounted infantry were stationed, we went into camp along the Memphis and Charleston railroad. There had been saltpeter works at this place, but they are now abandoned. The mountains are all around us. What grand things they are. They are full of in- spiration, telling a story of stability and strength. Loyal or disloyal armies may pass round them or over them ; they stand the same, performing their mission faithfully, unmoved by all the changes of men. Years ago they looked down on savage men and savage beasts ; and now they are ready to smile on men who strive in war, or who rejoice in peace.
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Just now war is going on all around them. So the weeks and months go on, along this very road and under the shadow of these mountains will go train-loads of groaning, bleeding, dying men.
Sunday, November 15th .- Brought us on our way some twenty miles and landed us at Larkinsville. The Government rations had run low, and here a train from Stevenson brought us two days' supply of welcome coffee and hard bread. On the 26th of September our cavalry had quite a skirmish at this place. A company of native Alabamians were in posses- sion, but did not do us or themselves much credit. This was just after the great battle of Chickamauga. We are hurrying on to the relief of the noble band of men held in Chattanooga. On the 16th we moved over the ridge and struck what is called the State Road. This brought us to Bellefonte, a small but pleasant village. I recall an incident of this night's camping which shows how forces are disabled and not by the necessi- ties of war. A man in our brigade with loaded gun was after some persimmons. To get them down he used the butt of his gun against the tree. The gun went off and shot the man himself through the leg and wounded another man standing by. He got the persimmons and more too.
"The longest pole takes the persimmons," 'tis said. He had better have used the long pole. A word about the per- simmons. What soldier had not had his mouth well puckered by them. The encyclopedia says "The astringency renders the fruit somewhat unpalatable, but, after it has been subjected to the frost, or has become partially rotten, its flavor is im- proved. In some of the Southern States the fruit is said to be kneaded with bran, made into cakes and baked, while from the cakes a fermented liquor is made." I have often wondered what persimmons were for, except to demonstrate how much puckering power could be condensed in a small space. I shall now conclude that almost anything can be turned into a drink that will make men feel better so that they can feel worse, and then want more to feel better again.
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November 17th .- We came through a rough mountain country. Guarding trains came through Stevenson, which is at the junction of the Nashville and Charleston and Mem- phis railroads. One of the boys in his diary describes the town as "a small, shabby, stinking place at the foot of a mountain."
He may have been mistaken in some of his impressions, but he must have been correct in the case of its size, for the latest census gives its population at but three hundred.
Our next move brought us to Bridgeport on the Tennes- see river where the whole corps was crossing as fast as possible to get to Chattanooga and the coming great battle. Here we washed up and fixed ourselves, rested for a day and were then off again, crossing the river on the 20th. From this place, a sergeant from each company and one commissioned officer was detailed to go home on recruiting service.
Any one could see at a glance that we were now in the midst of intense activities ; large forces of men were repairing the railroad bridge and preparing for the extension of the road. There was the ceaseless clatter, day and night, building steamboats on the shore near by. Trains of wagons were constantly moving as fast as the jaded, half-starved beasts could draw them. It was declared that there were enough of dead mules lying along the road between Stevenson and Bridgeport to have made a road of them all the way. It certainly was terrible. The troops were crossing day and night over the pontoon-bridge.
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