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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY L
3 1833 02610 1870
Gc 973.74 IL5cLaa Clark, Charles M., 1834- Yates phalanx
1
Yates Phalanx
The History of the Thirty-Ninth Regiment,
Illinois Volunteer Veteran Infantry,
in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865,
By Charles M. Clark, M.D. (Late Surgeon)
Edited by Frederick Charles Decker
Heritage Books, Inc.
YATES PHALANX
THE HISTORY
OF THE
THIRTY-NINTH REGIMENT ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER VETERAN INFANTRY
IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION
1861 - 1865 BY CHARLES M. CLARK, M. D. (LATE SURGEON)
ILLUSTRATED
"QUID NON PRO PATRIA."
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE VETERAN ASSOCIATION OF THE REGIMENT
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 1889
EDITED BY
FREDERICK C. DECKER
Copyright 1994 By Frederick Charles Decker
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
Published 1994 By
HERITAGE BOOKS, INC. 1540E Pointer Ridge Place, Bowie, Md. 20716 (301) 390-7709
ISBN 0-7884-0152-1
A Complete Catalog Listing Hundreds of Titles On History, Genealogy, and Americana Available Free Upon Request
í
Courtesy of Mr. & Mrs. Fred A. Decker
Private Hugh Rippy Snee 1838-1927 Company E, 39th Illinois Volunteer Veteran Infantry
iii
YATES PHALANX
iv
YATES PHALANX
DEDICATION
TO THE CHILDREN, THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE VETERAN SOLDIERS OF THE THIRTY-NINTH REGIMENT ILLINOIS VETERAN VOLUNTEERS, WHO SO NOBLY RESPONDED TO THE CALL OF THEIR IMPERILED COUNTRY IN THE TIME OF HER NEED; AND WHO SUFFERED UNTOLD PRIVATIONS, DANGERS, AND THE SHEDDING OF THEIR BLOOD, THAT "GOD'S BEST COUNTRY" MIGHT BE PRESERVED AND HANDED DOWN IN ITS INTEGRITY TO THE DEAR ONES, FOR THEIR INHERITANCE.
V
YATES PHALANX
vi
This book is dedicated to my Civil War relatives:
Private Hugh Rippy Snee Company E, 39th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry who survived the war and the horrors of Andersonville,
and
Private Moses F. Shreffler Company E, 39th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry who survived the war but died shortly thereafter as a result of his wounds,
and
Private Nathan W. Snee Company I, 76th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry and the 4th Division, 17th Artillery Corps who survived the war,
and
Private Noah A. Decker Company G, 5th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry who survived the war.
vii
YATES PHALANX
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
TITLE
PAGE
1. "Into United States Service" 1
2.
"Off for St. Louis. 5
3. Making Encampment 13
4.
"The Rebel Force" 29
5.
"Fight under any circumstances" 43
6.
"The scene of the battlefield is awful" 55
"Death was busy reaping a rich harvest" 67
9.
"At half past two the Ball opened" 77
10.
"But at what a cost!" 91
11.
"Veterans". 111
117
12.
Return to the army
13. 121
14.
"Rally on the rifle-pits!" 127
15.
"We will drive those rebels to hell!" 143
16.
"Charge those works!" 157
17.
"Where are the rest?" 169
18.
·Reorganization. 185
"There was some terrible hot work going on" 193
19
"End of this wicked rebellion" 201
20
"On to Richmond!" 209
217
22.
"School is out!"
221
The Wilmington Monument.
Testimonial to Dr. Clark. 223
ix
21.
"In the Army of the James.
8.
"The hour has not yet come" 21
7.
YATES PHALANX
APPENDIX I.
Hugh R. Snee Letter to his grandchildren.
225
APPENDIX II. Trial Testimony of Hugh R. Snee . 233
APPENDIX III. Federal Forces - May 16, 1864 237
APPENDIX IV.
Confederate Forces - May 16, 1864
APPENDIX V.
Company Histories & Summary of Casualties .
243
-
APPENDIX VI. Regimental Band. 267
249
APPENDIX VII. Roster.
271
INDEX
ERRATUM
413
x
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
NA - National Archives
TITLE
PAGE
1. Private Hugh Rippy Snee iii
2. Flag No. 1 - The Agricultural Flag (unrestored) (Camp Lincoln). xxii
3. Flag No. 1 - The Agricultural Flag (restored) xxiii
4. Flag No. 2 - Governor Yates Flag (unrestored) (Camp Lincoln). xxiv
5. Flag No. 2 - Governor Yates Flag (restored) XXV
6. Flag No. 3 - Blue Silk Regimental Flag (unrestored) (Camp Lincoln) xxvi
7. Flag No. 3 - Blue Silk Regimental Flag (restored) xxvii 4
8. Off to the Front
9. The Sutlers
6
10. Supper at Pittsburgh
9
11. The Camp Kitchen
14
12. Thomas O. Osborn (NA)
17
13. Muhlenburg's Guns on Warm Spring Ridge
30
14. The Retreat from Alpine Station 40
15. Bivouacking at Cedar Creek 54
59
17. On the March
63
18. Review by President Lincoln at Falmouth 64
68
20. On Picket
71
21. Band boys foraging
74 76
22. Counting the scars
23. Scene of operations in South Carolina 82
24. Fort Sumter after bombardment 83
93
26. Beacon House
94
27. Fort Wagner - point of first assault
95
28. Fort Wagner - sea front
96
29. Bomb-proof
99
30. Fort Sumter in ruins
100
31. Requa Battery manned by Thirty-Ninth Illinois (Curran) 101
32. Section of Requa Battery
102
33. Swamp Angel . 106
34. Long Bridge - examining a pass 119
xi
16. Fresh Pork for Supper
19. Gunboats on James River
25. 300-pounder battery on Morris Island
YATES PHALANX
TITLE
PAGE
35. Line of defense - Bermuda Hundred
122
36. Map of Richmond and Petersburg area
128
37. Pierre G. T. Beauregard (NA) 130
38. Benjamin F. Butler (NA) 131
39. Quincy A. Gillmore (NA)
132
40. The Hospital Steamer
137
41. The Field Hospital 149
151
43 Pontoon Bridge guarded by the Thirty-Ninth Illinois (NA) 163
165
45. The assault 174
46. Collecting the wounded
176
47. Winter quarters at Chaffin's Farm 182
48. Officers quarters at Chaffin's Farm
182
49. The assault of Fort Gregg, April 2, 1865
195
50. McLean's house 206
51. Regimental Band (Curran) 270
xii
42. Dutch Gap Canal
44. Scene of assault, August 16, 1864
PREFACE
As a boy, my parents often told me about my maternal great-great-grandfather, Hugh Rippy Snee, and his experiences during the American Civil War. I was told he served in the Thirty-Ninth Illinois Volunteers. I was also informed he was wounded during a battle in Virginia and of his capture and imprisonment in the Confederate Military Prison at Andersonville, Georgia and of his ultimate escape from that place of horror. However, information regarding where the battle was, or when the battle occurred, was lacking.
Occasionally I attempted to research Grandfather Snee's story, but without success. It was not until many years later that I could piece together the puzzle that these statements had created for me: I was given his hand written account of his capture and subsequent escape from Andersonville Prison. With this document, I began a personal quest to learn about his participation in the Civil War. This led to a fascination with the history of Hugh Snee's regiment, "Yates Phalanx." The Thirty-Ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The "battle in Virginia" became the attack on Fort Darling at Drewry's Bluff. The date of the battle was May 16, 1864, and 128 years later this date commemorates the date of my first grandchild's birth. This effort is in memory of Hugh Rippy Snee and for his great-great-great-great-grandson, Alexander Taylor Burden.
My mother subsequently gave me Grandfather Snee's copy of The History of the Thirty-Ninth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Veteran Infantry, by Charles M. Clark, M.D. As I read, I began to realize that the firing on Fort Sumter had caused more than shell holes and shrapnel. It set into motion a gigantic plan for organizing the vast armies needed to preserve the Union. From the United States Congress and the legislatures of the Northern States came the call to arms. The handbills designed to inspire the creation of companies and regiments manned by able-bodied patriots are now yellow and faded, but in September 1861, when a Lieutenant of the Thirty-Ninth Illinois came to Rockville to recruit, the bold black print was timely, vivid, and enticing. Enticing and patriotic enough that Mr. Hugh Rippy Snee became Private Hugh Rippy Snee, Company E, Thirty-Ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. If he died in battle, so much for that, you only live once, and besides, it would be a clean wound of fatal but heroic significance. The cause was just. Private Snee and the other 50-plus men of Company E would join in battle and preserve the Union. Certainly a cause worth giving one's life. Yet, if he survived! He would surely have something to tell his grandchil- dren. The only losers would be the Confederate States. In the Spring of 1861 the sound of drum and bugle was louder than musket and cannon. Spirits were high and the Union would truly be saved!
The genesis of the Thirty-Ninth Illinois began shortly after the attack on Fort Sumter. Key individuals gathered to discuss the forming of companies. One such group of men, including Thomas Osborn & Charles Clark, met in Osborn's law office in Chicago before the smoke had cleared from that battered old fort in Charleston Harbor. These individuals decided to organize an infantry regiment to support the Union cause. Money was raised and men were sent into the cities, towns and villages to recruit able-bodied volunteers. Within six weeks over 1,300 men responded to the call to arms. However, they were not yet to be a regiment. When they sent the register of names to the Adjutant-General of Illinois, the organizers were notified that the State had already filled its quota and the recruits could not be accepted as a regimental organization at that time. Disappointed, most
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YATES PHALANX
of the volunteers went to other states to apply for service. This left the Chicago group enough men to form one company.
On May 3, 1861, President Lincoln authorized a second call for troops; this time 500,000 additional men were needed. When this occurred, Governor Yates of Illinois forwarded the muster-roll of this uncommitted company of roughly fifty men to the Adjutant-General of Illinois. The Thirty-Ninth Illinois Infantry Regiment, under the temporary command of Lieutenant-Colonel Osborn, was organizing in Chicago and the company was offered a place.
In the latter part of July, shortly after the first battle of Bull Run, Governor Yates received notice that the Thirty-Ninth was to be accepted, and additional recruiting began immediately. On August 10, 1861, this company was mustered into the service of the United States as Company A, Thirty- Ninth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. The remainder of the companies, B through I and K, followed in short order. The Regiment had decided to bear the name of the Governor of the State and became known as "Yates Phalanx."
The original complement of 806 men was formed and sworn into the service of the United States on October 11, 1861. After the swearing in, they boarded a train and were on their way to the Camp of Instruction at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri.
After several days of instruction, the men began to realize that life in the army was different from prior experience. Yet, some rural boys thought they had never had it so good. Young men straight off the farm believed the uniform was the best suit of clothes they ever had. Others said they had never seen so much food, although, it was not very good.
For many, however, the confusion of thousands of men, in close quarters, strange surroundings, and the drastic change in their diets created havoc. They learned that badly cooked salt pork, rancid pickled beef, beans and hardtack were the staff of life for the soldier. This change in their dietary habits would develop into chronic diarrhea that would continue through their army service. Moreover, some tainted water contained the germs that created amoebic dysentery. For Hugh Snee and many of his compatriots, this disease would affect their entire lives.
On October 26, 1861 the Regiment was ordered to Hagerstown, Maryland for further instruction, drilling, and a continuing acclimation to military life. On November 7, the Regiment continued to Williamsport, Maryland where they finally received their weapons, the legendary Springfield rifle.
With their training over, the Regiment broke camp and departed for Hancock, Maryland, arriving the next day on December 16. They crossed the Potomac River to Alpine Station, in what is now West Virginia, where they were ordered to guard the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad depot. This lonely and seemingly insignificant spot in the road was-where their war was to begin.
In early January, Generals William W. "Old Blizzard" Loring and Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson led a Rebel force of approximately 15,000 men with forty pieces of artillery down the Shenandoah Valley. Their orders were to cross the Potomac at Alpine Station and raid through the borders of Maryland and Pennsylvania.
The Thirty-Ninth Illinois "saw the elephant" in a furious action with Jackson's troops near Alpine Station at Warm Spring Ridge on January 3, 1862. They repulsed a brigade of the enemy holding them in check for several hours and made good their retreat under cover of darkness.
xiv
Preface
For the next few months, the Thirty-Ninth slugged it out with the Rebels up and down the Shenandoah Valley. They participated in the victory over Stonewall's army at Winchester on March 23, 1862. In early May orders were received to march to Fredericksburg and report to General McDowell who had 40,000 troops under his command and was actively preparing for a move on Richmond.
About May 25, the Thirty-Ninth was ordered to return to the Shenandoah to support General Banks. Before they were half way there they were notified of Bank's defeat. They were then ordered to Alexandria, Virginia, which they reached on July 12, 1862 to be given a recuperative rest from a march of over 360 miles. However, this respite turned out to be short lived for McClellan's army was soon engaged with Lee's in what has been recorded as the "Seven Days Battle." Therefore, according to Dr. Clark, " .. . like the Wandering Jew, the Regiment moved on" toward their destiny at Fort Wagner, Drewry's Bluff, Ware Bottom Church, Darbytown Cross-Roads, Deep Bottom Run, Fort Gregg and Appomattox Court-house.
On June 26 they were ordered to Harrison's Landing on the James River and arrived in time to take a small part in the battle of Malvern Hill that took place on July 1, 1862. Then for the next few weeks all companies of the Thirty-Ninth were detailed to outpost duty at the front.
New orders were issued on August 13. The Thirty-Ninth were to be the rear guard of the Union army that a month before had been mobilized to take Richmond. Now, the Union force was retreating to Yorktown, its trailing wagons protected by the Thirty-Ninth Illinois. The Regiment marched for five days. The pulverized clay of the road was suffocating. They had little water and nothing to eat except dry hardtack. When they reached Yorktown, they gratefully camped on the same ground made historic by the battles of their Revolutionary forefathers.
After a few days rest the Regiment proceeded to Suffolk where it participated in three different engagements on the Blackwater River, and in a reconnaissance to the Dismal Swamp.
On April 1, 1863, the Regiment was called upon to take part in General Hunter's expedition to Confederate held Folly Island. They took the fortification with little opposition and settled in.
Over the next three months the constant picket and fatigue duty had worn out the men of the Thirty-Ninth. Finally, on July 7, they were ordered to Cole's Island for a rest. However, on the following day orders were received to attack the enemy fortifications on Morris Island, South Carolina. The principal target was Fort Wagner. The assaults began on July 11, and continued until July 18, when a charge led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts (Colored) Infantry was thrown back with terrible losses. History has recorded the courage, heroism and "Glory" displayed at Fort Wagner that evening. The Thirty-Ninth Illinois had taken part in these assaults and listed fifty-three members of its units as killed or wounded.
Supporting these assaults was a group of soldiers assigned to special duty. These men were responsible for the handling of a device known as "The Billinghurst-Requa battery." Among those detailed was Private Snee. The Requa Battery description will be found in the text of the book.
During the next thirty days, the Thirty-Ninth was given the assignment of building and repairing the sand forts and batteries on Morris Island. They were continuously under fire from the Rebel forts Sumter, Wagner, Gregg and the batteries on Sullivan's Island. During this period, on August 16,
XV
YATES PHALANX
1863, while standing guard duty in front of Beacon House, a building near the end of the island, Hugh Snee's best friend and future brother-in-law, Moses Sheffler, was seriously wounded in the head by a Rebel musket ball. The wound caused multiple skull fractures and depressed a large piece of bone that partially paralyzed him. Sheffler was transported to the military hospital near Petersburg for surgery.
The Regiment formed the advance of their Brigade and occupied the trenches on the night it was discovered Fort Wagner was being evacuated. When this was known, the Thirty-Ninth entered the fort, captured the enemy's rearguard, cut several fuses designed to blow up the structure on the approach of the Union troops, and planted the Regimental colors on the parapet some two hours before the time appointed for the general charge.
After helping in strengthening and remodeling the defenses on Morris Island, (including the building and naming of the "Swamp Angel"), the Thirty-Ninth returned to Folly Island, and soon embarked for Hilton Head, South Carolina where the regiment remained for several weeks. During this period the Thirty-Ninth became the first organization in the Department to accept Veteran honors. It left Hilton Head on Veteran furlough for Chicago, on January 1, 1864 with only 350 men left, the minimum required to be a veteran regiment.
After the regiment had been recruited to full strength, it left Chicago in early March 1864 for Washington, DC, and from there sailed to Georgetown, where it was assigned to the First Brigade, First Division, Tenth Army Corps, Army of the James. It then embarked on May 5, 1864 with General Butler's expedition to the James River, Richmond, and Petersburg. Upon reaching Bermuda Hundred Virginia, the Regiment took the advance on the march into the interior. After several miles the Armies of the James 40,000 troops were halted and fortifications were built. Remaining a day or two, the entire column moved forward to Drewry's Bluff, Virginia.
The battle for Drewry's Bluff was a small, apparently meaningless engagement when compared with a large scale conflict such as Antietam where in one day 6,000 men died, and another 17,000 were wounded. [More than twice as many Americans lost their lives in that one day than fell in combat in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American War combined. The casualties at Antietam numbered four times the total suffered by American soldiers on the Normandy beaches during the D-day invasion, June 6, 1944. There were also Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and Cold Harbor, Virginia where Union forces lost 7,000 men in twenty minutes.] Yet, no battle of the Civil War was truly insignificant. Every man, every musket, every horse or cannon the South lost was irreplaceable. The Southern agrarian-based society could not hope to compete with the more populous, industrialized North. Moreover, this undertaking at Drewry's Bluff was important for additional reasons: it was the first large scale battle for the Thirty-Ninth Illinois, and extremely important in the life of my great-great-grandfather, Hugh Rippy Snee.
The violent battle lasted over thirteen hours. In many respects it was a remarkable engagement, considering the early morning hour in which it began, the dense fog, the drizzling, sometimes heavy rain that obscured the combatants, and the large number of defenders unexpected by the Union command. There were many hand-to-hand encounters, bayonet charges, and acts of heroism than cannot be fully recounted here. There was also the first extensive, defensive use of heavy telegraph
xvi
Preface
wire which was strung from timber to fence post to tree-stump [all a foot off the ground] much like today's barbed wire entanglements.
Early in the evening of May 15, 1864, the Army of the James began moving into position. General Butler ordered General Gillmore to align the regiments of the Tenth Army Corps (approximately 12,000 men) from left of the Richmond and Petersburg railroad tracks to the edge of the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike, a distance of approximately 2,000 yards. Gillmore formed the 550 men of the Thirty-Ninth Illinois on the extreme left of his line and the other twenty-three regiments of infantry were spread across the remaining distance to the turnpike. Across the turnpike was Smith's Eighteenth Army Corps and its thirty regiments of infantry, cavalry and various batteries of artillery. (See Appendix IV)
Opposite the Thirty-Ninth were battle hardened veterans, the Third North Carolina Cavalry and General Montgomery Corse's Brigade of the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-Ninth and Thirtieth Virginia Infantries.
The occasional rain on the night of May 15, 1864 had turned the earth to thick, clinging mud. The night fog surrounding Drewry's Bluff, Virginia thickened in the early morning hours. The Union soldiers lay in a shallow trench behind the small ridge they had quickly pushed up with their hands. They had been awakened at 3:30 in the morning when the Rebels began their shelling. They now waited for an enemy they could not see. Private Hugh Snee of Company E and the balance of the Thirty-Ninth Illinois Volunteer Veteran Infantry were prepared for the inevitable. They knew that in front of them a sizable Confederate force was preparing to charge. This was the first large scale battle for the Thirty-Ninth and they were ordered to defend their position until ordered otherwise.
General Butler had planned to attack the Confederate positions on the morning of the 16th, but Beauregard had anticipated him. Under cover of darkness and the thick obscuring mist, Beauregard's troops made a violent assault on Butler's right flank. The heavy fog had provided a curtain through which the graybacks came yelling and shooting. Beauregard's attack had been successful, the opaque mist contributing largely to his efforts. However, the heavy loss of men left him in no position to follow the Federals in their retreat. By ten o'clock in the morning the fighting for the day was over on the right flank.
Meanwhile, as the fog began to thin, the Thirty-Ninth Illinois observed two columns of the Fifteenth Virginia with their red battle flags spread to the morning breeze, slowly making their way from their rifle-pits near the railroad and attempting to advance to the Thirty-Ninth's position on the ridge. Another enemy column, the Eighteenth Virginia, was also approaching the left of the Thirty- Ninth along the fence.
The center of the Union line was undergoing a series of five charges by the Rebel troops and was finally forced to fall back toward Bermuda Hundred. The orders, however, never reached the officers of the Thirty-Ninth. Left to hold the position alone when the other regiments had been ordered to the right, the 550 soldiers from Illinois had been overlooked in the confusion of the general retreat.
The Fifteenth Virginia, who were advancing along the railroad tracks and protected by high banks, came abreast of the Union troops and opened fire "which made the position of the Thirty- Ninth regiment untenable." Overpowered, those who remained alive took to the woods through
xvii
YATES PHALANX
heavy fire. Finding shelter in the timber, and being under the impression that the balance of the line was still secure, the Thirty-Ninth was ordered to "Charge on the trenches!" and a simultaneous charge was made by all companies of the Regiment. The Rebels were forced back and out of the Union lines. Meanwhile, the enemy had closed on the Thirty-Ninth from the front and left. The Rebel column on the tracks moved into the woods to the Thirty-Ninth's rear to prevent their retreat. An order was shouted, "Rally on the Rifle-Pits!", and again, under appalling fire, the Thirty-Ninth had to cross the open field between their trenches and the woods. Every man for himself, firing as he could, ran for the apparent safety of the timber, but many traveled only a short distance before they were cut down by enemy bullets and left on the field where they fell. [It was discovered later that the order to "Rally on the Rifle Pits!" had been shouted by a rebel officer commanding his own troops.]
One of those to fall was Private Hugh Snee. Early in the battle he had received a head wound cause by a Rebel saber, and now he was wounded in the cheek by a musket ball. Later, after Snee regained consciousness and was considered a "walking wounded" by the Union doctors, he was sent back with some of his companions to pick up the more seriously injured from his Company. As they carried the wounded back to the railroad cars they were suddenly charged by the Third North Carolina Cavalry from the woods on their right. When the cavalry cut them off, this group of Union men ran up the tracks towards Petersburg, however, they were quickly surrounded and forced to surrender. Private Snee and forty-five men of the Thirty-Ninth were taken prisoner that day. Their destination was to be Andersonville Prison in Georgia. Butler's badly crippled force returned to their camp at Bermuda Hundred.
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