USA > Illinois > History of the Thirty-fourth regiment of Illinois volunteer infantry. September 7 1861. July 12, 1965 > Part 10
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About four o'clock in the afternoon, the pluckiest incident ever witnessed by the regiment occurred in front of the left wing. A steady, regular fire was in progress all the time, but it had no terrors for the tall, athletic artilleryman who sprang over the rifle-pits with a Confederate flag in his hand and leis- urely trotted fifty or sixty yards to the front and drove hls flag-
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staff into the ground, lifted his hat in salute, and as deliberately turned and trotted back into their lines. He was greeted with a chorus of cheers from our whole line, and a volley of musketry also, but evidently he could have said, "Never touched me."
One of the pathetic incidents of war came to the notice of one in the regiment; and is related by him as follows: He found himself by the side of a man who appeared to be entirely dis- abled, lying on his face in the dry ditch. He belonged to the troops which had met a repulse early in the day, and had been left behind. He occasionally groaned as if in distress, and was asked if anything could be done for him, and he replied that he required nothing, that he was not suffering any bodily pain; that he was paralyzed by the windage of a shell. After an inter- val he groaned again, and was again asked what could be done for him. He replied, "Nothing; I was thinking of my little brother, who is lying dead a few rods out to the front."
Very severe fighting occurred on our left during the after- noon, about a mile distant and north from our position. The crash and roar of battle was plainly heard above our own musk- etry fire. We learned later that our old brigade associates, the Seventy-Seventh Pennsylvania and Thirtieth Indiana, were in the thickest of the fight, as well as the Seventy-Fifth Ilinois, all being in the same brigade, under Gen. Grose. Upon the approach of night, firing ceased, and we cautiously withdrew to a position a half mile in the rear.
The enemy gave us a few parting shots from the battery, one of which caused a magnificent display of fireworks. Just in front of the tenth company of the One Hundred and Eighth Ohio stood a large tree, with its many dead branches and trunk covered with "punk, " a very inflammable substance, composed of the decayed sap, or outer wood. A percussion shell, fired by the enemy, struck one of the limbs of the tree and exploded, igniting the punk, and almost. immediately the entire tree, body and branches, was a beautiful form of sparkling flame, which continued until the whole was consumed.
After we had withdrawn from the front and bivouacked for the night, reports of casualties were made out, showing S killed
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IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.
and mortally wounded, and 30 wounded. The fatality list is as follows: Capt. John A. Parrott and Theodore Griffin, Com- pany B; William R. Burdick, Albert Slater and Ira Wales, Company D; Timothy Geidner, Company G; Davis V. Mere- dith, Company H, and Thomas Forsythe, Company I.
The Division remained in reserve during the 15th and lis- tened to the skirmish firing all along the front lines, which was kept up nearly the whole day. On the 16th, the Division marched back to Snake Creek Gap, took knapsacks, and moved out on the road towards Rome, making about twenty miles.
The Thirty-Fourth took the advance on the morning of the 17th, followed by the brigade and the rest of the Division, which constituted the only force on this expedition, and we were separated many miles from the main army. At two o'clock, the cavalry videttes of the enemy were encountered, and two advance squads were put out from Company A. A few shots only were required to keep the few cavalrymen well in advance; until about three o'clock, when there were more of them in front, so the whole of Company A was deployed on the skirmish line, and got within range of them two or three times. Their retreat was hastened to such an extent that they dropped seven guns, one sabre, one revolver and four of their hats. The skir- mish line followed to within about 500 yards of their rifle-pits, where the line halted, and four other companies of the regiment were sent to the support of the skirmish line.
A moderate skirmish fire was kept up, in answer to a fire from our front with musketry and artillery. The position of the enemy was almost entirely concealed by underbrush. They had all advantage of being on higher ground and knowing the exact location of everything in their front, and gave us a warm recep- tion. They sent us shells and grape and cannister as if they had such commodities to spare. A force of 3,000 or 4,000 came outside of their rifle-pits on double quick, and caught the right of the skirmish line in the thick underbrush, causing a retreat in the greatest haste. The whole line fell back until met by the One Hundred and Twenty-First Ohio, of our brigade, advancing to attack. The enemy came on recklessly, charging up to a
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high rail fence parallel with the road upon which we were just previously advancing, not more than seventy-five yards from our advance line, which wheeled into position facing the enemy. Some of their men mounted the fence to fire their guns.
This part of the engagement was in quite open ground, and the contest was hot. It was an excellent opportunity to use artillery, but ours was not ordered up, and not a shot from any of our guns was fired during the whole melee.
The Third brigade took position about a fourth of a mile to the left of the road, and pushed well up to the front and en- gaged vigorously. The Twenty-Second Indiana lost thirteen men killed and mortally wounded in this attack. The First brigade was put into double column about 500 yards to the right of the road on which we advanced and about a half mile to the rear, and was not engaged. It might have been sent under cover of the woods near the road, and in the rear of the attack- ing Confederates, capturing a large portion of them. Of course, Gen. Davis did not know but what the enemy largely outnum- bered us, and caution is wisdom, but it was apparent to all that much more might have been accomplished by the use of artillery and the bringing up of the First brigade.
The enemy withdrew from our front early in the morning of the 18th, crossed the Oostanaula river and burned the bridge. In the afternoon they evacuated Rome, which lies on the east side of the river. Several siege guns, dismounted and spiked, with a considerable amount of ammunition and machinery for turning out munitions of war, fell into our hands in Rome. Possession was taken of suitable buildings for hospitals, and our wounded were moved into them. Several of the ladies of the town manifested the natural kindliness of the sex by visiting the wounded, and supplying such delicacies as they could provide.
The brigade camped on the battlefield until the morning of the 23d. Comrade W. H. Kennedy, of Company H, has kindly loaned his diary to the "historian," from which the following extract is made: "May 22, 1864. At Rome, Ga. Weather clear and warm. The first duty in the morning was policing camp in front of the colonel's headquarters. In the afternoon,
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at the usual hour, we had divine service, and our chaplain deliv- ered a splendid sermon. After service I went down to the river to fish, but could not catch any." The conrade fails to report whether the act was the result of a habit acquired at home, or whether it was due to the demoralizing influences of army life. If he had been successful, there would have been nothing repre- hensible in his acts, from the military standpoint, supplying the inner need being "the chief end of man."
All of the Division on the west side of the river moved across on the 23d, and camped for the night oneand a half iniles beyond.
The Division marched at six o'clock in the morning of the 24th towards Van Wert, and halted at Blue Springs, within four miles of Van Wert, making eighteen miles. It rained in the evening, such a steady downpour as became very frequent dur- ing the next thirty days, hindering transportation and making life in the wet, steaming woods and underbrush very uncomfort- able and exhausting. Marched at seven o'clock the following morning to within a mile of Van Wert, then out on another road towards Dallas, camping at five o'clock. Company H went on picket. There was heavy firing all the afternoon in front. On the 26th, a good deal of countermarching and maneuvering was done, but generally tending towards the location from which there came the sound of war nearly the whole day. We reached Dallas about the middle of the afternoon, and our regiment met the Fifty-Second and Twelfth Illinois infantry regiments, in the Sixteenth Corps, at the convergence of two roads near the outskirts of the town. Several of our men had acquaintances in these two regiments.
A large body of troops concentrated at Dallas; to use a common expression, "the woods was full of them;" but they sought positions in front of the enemy the following morning. Gen. McPherson went to the right and pressed the skirmish line of the enemy until the main line was developed. Gen. Hooker took position about three miles farther to the left. Our Division moved out of Dallas easterly three-fourths of a mile and bivou- acked, remaining in position until the first day of June.
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The events of the intervening days were full of interest to our regiment, and in order to give an intelligent understanding of the conditions and surroundings, nothing better can be pre- sented than an extended quotation from "Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman," vol. 2, page 43:
"On the 25th, all the columns were moving steadily on Dallas-McPherson and Davis off to the right, near VanWert; Thomas on the main road in the center, with Hooker's Twen- tieth Corps ahead, towards Dallas, and Schofield to the left rear. For convenience of march, Hooker had his three Divisions on separate roads, all leading towards Dallas, when, in the after- noon, as he approached a bridge across Pumpkin Vine creek, he found it held by a cavalry force, which was driven off, but the bridge was on fire. This fire was extinguished, and Hooker's leading Division (Geary's) followed the retreating cavalry on a road leading due east toward Marietta, instead of Dallas. This leading Division, about four miles out from the bridge, struck a heavy infantry force, and a sharp battle ensued. I came up in person soon after, and as my map showed that we were near an important cross-road called "New Hope,' from a Methodist meeting-house there of that name, I ordered Gen. Hooker to secure it if possible that night. He asked for a short delay till he could bring up his other two Divisions, viz., Butterfield and Ward; but before these Divisions had got up and were deployed, the enemy had also gained corresponding strength. The woods were so dense and the resistance so spirited, that Hooker could not carry the position, though the battle was noisy and pro- longed far into the night. This point New Hope' was the accidental intersection of the road leading from Allatoona to Dallas with that from Van Wert to Marietta, was four miles northeast of Dallas, and from the bloody fighting there for the next week was called by the soldiers .Hell Hole.' The night was pitch-dark, it rained hard, and the convergence of our col- umns toward Dallas produced much confusion. I am sure simi- lar confusion existed in the army opposed to us, for we were all mixed up."
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"I slept on the ground, without cover, alongside of a log; got little sleep; resolved at daylight to renew the battle and to make a lodgment on the Dallas and Allatoona road if possible, but the morning revealed a strong line of intrenchments facing us, with a heavy force of infantry and guns. The battle was renewed, and without success. McPherson reached Dallas that morning, viz., the 26th, and deployed his troops to the south- east and east of the town, placing Davis' Division of the Four- teenth Corps, which had joined him on the road from Rome, on his left; but this still left a gap of at least three miles between Davis and Hooker."
The general, on page 45, gives a description of the true character of the difficulties we had to contend with during the entire campaign, as follows:
"I visited personally all parts of our lines nearly every day, was constantly within musket range, and though the fire of musketry and cannon resounded day and night along the whole line, varying from six to ten miles, I rarely saw a dozen of the enemy at any one time, and these were always skirmishers, dodging from tree to tree, or behind logs on the ground, or who occasionally showed their heads above the hastily-constructed but remarkably strong rifle-trenches."
The Second Division occupied lines bearing from the right a little west of north. The position held by our regiment when with the Division was near the right of the Division, on an ele- vated piece of ground from which we could look over the tree- tops to the east and northeast, distances varying from two to six or seven miles. The enemy was visible at only one point in all the range of vision from our position. That point was the top of a high hill, two miles northeast of us, upon which there was a battery that fired occasional shots in a.northwesterly direc- tion, which would be toward a point nearly north from "New Hope" church. We could see a woman, dressed in white, who waved a flag and seemed to be much elated every time their guns were fired.
On the evening of the 37th, about sundown, the Thirty- Fourth was ordered out alone to form a skirmish line between
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Hooker's right and McPherson's left. This meant to find our way through the unknown woods in our front to Hooker's right, which was two miles to the left of our position and directly in front of the enemy's; and to start from Hooker's line, deploy our whole regiment through the woods and establish a picket line in front of the enemy, in order to fill up the gap of three miles spoken of in the foregoing quotation from Gen. Sherman's Memoirs. Hooker's lines ran east and west, and the lines of the enemy were parallel with Hooker's. We were nearly south from the western end, or right, of Hooker's lines. If we had gone in a direct line from our position to Hooker's right, we would have passed just by the left of the Confederate lines.
A young man whose home was in Dallas, but who had recently been in the railway mail service of the Confederacy, was sent to Col. VanTassell as a guide. He knew the roads through the woods, but did not know the position of the lines of either army except generally. We started out, under orders, in a nearly northeasterly direction. It was dark before we had gone a half mile, and when we had proceeded about a mile and a quarter our road was intersected by another, leading off in a northwesterly direction. The regiment was halted, and while the colonel was considering the situation, voices were heard directly in front of the course we had been pursuing. The colo- nel took a few men from the head of the regiment and went out, with the utmost caution, towards the place from which the sound of voices came. Having got as close as prudence would permit, Sam Miller, of Company A, called out, "What regiment is . that ?" and the answer came back with shocking promptness. .. Fifty-Seventh Alabama!" "All right," was the reply, but a
personal call was postponed.
The squad returned, and special
caution as to absolute silence was given. We took the road bearing off to the northwest, put flankers out towards the enemy's lines, and had the rare good fortune of missing contact with our neighbors in gray. One of the flankers looked into a cabin near the road, and was told by the colored occupants that the Con- federates were not more than 250 yards away from our road.
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We went to Hooker's hospital tents and remained until morning. The opposing lines were in close contact, and firing from both sides with musketry and artillery began early in the morning, and we started out to the music of crashing shot and shell and the singing of bullets. and commenced deploying as skirmishers from the left, by a course that brought us fully one mile in front of the lines held by the Division. The regiment covered more than two miles, and had no reserve nearer than one mile, leaving a mile from our right to McPherson's left which was not covered even by a skirmish line. Company B, on the left, did some skirmish firing during the day. We remained on the line until the morning of the 29th.
In front of the extreme right of the line, about eighty rods away, was a grist mill which was being operated by the Confed- erates. They also, in the evening, had a prayer meeting, con- ducted with zeal and fervor, and an officer, apparently, who called "Jim!" several times before getting a response, gave Jim a threshing with zeal and fervor, the blows and Jim's pleading, with zeal and fervor. being all plainly heard by the men on post.
Gen. McPherson, in the early morning of the 28th, under- took to withdraw his troops from the right to pass around to the left of the lines, but he was so fiercely attacked that the fighting amounted to the dignity of a battle. The attack was made on his right, under the command of Gen. John A. Logan, who repulsed the enemy with heavy loss. As a regiment, we felt especial interest in the result of this fight, as we were deployed as a skirmish line, and were much nearer to the enemy than to any line or troops of our army upon which we could either fall back or call on for support.
The 29th and 30th were spent behind rifle-pits, on line with the Division, taking a much-needed rest and sleep.
On the morning of the 31st, we were again called on to spread ourselves out over the same ground, without support, and engaged in some skirmish firing, but without casualties. We were relieved at three o'clock in the morning of June Ist, by the Twelfth Illinois infantry, and, joining the Division, moved to the left to relieve a portion of the Twenty-Third Corps.
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The casualties in Gen. Sherman's army for the month of May, as officially reported, were: Killed and missing, 1, 863; wounded, 7.436; total, 9,299. The losses in the Thirty-Fourth during the month were more than those of the rest of the brigade aside from our regiment.
On the'ed of June, we continued our movement to the left, passing beyond the point where we began to deploy our skirmish line on the 28th, and from thence in an easterly direction in front of the strongly intrenched lines of the enemy. Much rain fell on the Ist and 2d. During the afternoon of the 2d, while . the brigade was halted, a flood of rain fell, accompanied with excessive lightning and thunder. . A large dead tree, under which several men were standing, was struck by lightning, the limbs being hurled in all directions. No one was hurt, possibly owing to the fact that a long row of stacked arms near the tree dif- fused the electricity and rendered it harmless.
The Thirty-Fourth was deployed in line of battle during the halt, facing the lines of the enemy. After the rain ceased, the sharpshooters of the enemy began firing occasional shots at our regimental line. Jesse Berlin, of Company I, was killed, and one man in Company D was wounded. Berlin was a good tar- get. He wore a red shirt, and had laid his blouse off, making an easy mark.
About three o'clock on the morning of the 3d, Companies A and D went on skirmish line, and had an unusually uncom- fortable time of it until relieved by Company F in the evening. Skirmish firing was kept up nearly the whole day with the sharp- shooters in tree-tops, behind trees and concealed in the thick weeds and underbrush in front. Probably our picket line never before had so many "close calls" in the same length of time. The enemy's skirmishers showed a persistence and audacity quite unusual. On several occasions they crept up under cover of the undergrowth to within less than 100 feet, and, rising sud- denly, would fire and drop out of sight. Every man on the line congratulated himself at having escaped uninjured. Rain again fell in great quantities.
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On the 4th, the Division was relieved by the Fourth Corps, and moved to the left, passing by the "New Hope" church, and joined our Corps, from which we had been separated since May 14th. The following day we moved a short distance and occu- pied rifle-pits which had been made by troops in advance of us. The enemy withdrew from our front to-day. On the 6th, we marched to a point two miles from Ackworth, and remained until the morning of the ioth in order to get up supplies. The excessive rains had made the roads almost impassable, greatly reducing the transportation capacity of the supply trains.
Reveille turned us out at 2:30 in the morning of the 10th, and breakfast was taken and then we waited until 9 oclock before moving. The Fifteenth Corps moved in advance of us, and took position to the left of the railroad during the afternoon. We were visited with two hours of heavy rain in the middle of the day. A large portion of the army seemed to be in motion. The Fourth Corps was on our right, and the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Twentieth on our left. Our Division moved about five miles during the day, the advance meeting with some opposition, and artillery was brought into use. A large portion of the army passed near Big Shanty, a railroad station.
We were disturbed by reveille at three in the morning of the 11th, but did not move until to a. m., going to the left in an easterly direction to within four miles of Kenesaw mountain, where the enemy was well intrenched, and was occupying rifle- pits in front of the mountain. A good deal of firing on our right and left took place at intervals during the day. Three regi- ments in the brigade worked during the night, throwing up rifle- pits. The 12th brought the usual quantity of rain, and almost constant skirmishing on the front lines. The left of our Corps rested upon the railroad, opposite the right of the Sixteenth Corps, which extended from the railroad easterly, and was joined by the right of the Fifteenth Corps, extending down towards the east farther than the eastern end of Kenesaw moun- tain. A detail from the regiment went on picket, which was a service not voluntarily sought after. The rain was so constant, and the water-soaked condition of the ground, with the dripping
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from the trees and the chilliness of the nights, made a combina- tion to be avoided when possible .. The First brigade was in advance and ours in the rear all day.
The railroad was in working order up to our advance lines, and a locomotive was sent down the front to a water tank, within range of the enemy's guns on Kenesaw. The plucky engineer was cheered from far and near, but failed to draw fire from the batteries of the enemy.
June 13th-still raining. The Second brigade had the ad- vance and Company F, of our regiment, was on the skirmish line, the regiment being in reserve. Several prisoners were taken while the lines were being advanced. The day's action gained only one mile of territory for our Division. Lieut. W. C. Robinson, of Company A, returned to the regiment after eight months' absence as a prisoner, having been captured eight miles below. Chattanooga, Oct. 12th last.
A general advance was made on the 14th by the Fourteenth and Sixteenth Corps. The brigade was put into two lines, the Seventy-Eighth Illinois, One Hundred and Thirteenth and One Hundred and Twenty-First Ohio on the first line, and the other three regiments on the second. Our regiment furnished a large detail for picket duty, and at 10 o'clock a. m. the picket line was advanced as skirmishers. A good deal of musketry and artillery firing occurred on various parts of the lines generally, during the day. Our advance was well up in contact with the enemy, and we did not always agree as to when they should "move on." The brigade made two lines of rifle-pits for pro- tection from stray shots from the picket line.
During the forenoon of the 15th, the Fifteenth and Six- teenth Corps advanced their lines, meeting with a good deal of opposition. The movement was made over open ground, in plain view of and not more than a mile from our position. The advance was made in good order and without hesitation. The enemy occupied rifle-pits, and opened fire with artillery and musketry as soon as the movement began. The advancing lines fired as they moved, and the smoke of battle very soon became. so dense that both sides were hidden from our view. When the
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