USA > Illinois > History of the Thirty-fourth regiment of Illinois volunteer infantry. September 7 1861. July 12, 1965 > Part 4
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sent to the left to gain position on the flank of the opposing bat- tery, with the purpose of capturing it, but the skirmishers of the enemy gave warning and the battery was turned on the two regiments sent out by Col. Kirk, and, for a few minutes, busi- ness was accelerated by everything within reach that could burn powder. The Confederates soon fell back on their reserves and Col. Kirk, having found where the Johnnies "were at, " returned to camp. None in the brigade were killed and only twelve wounded. Three prisoners belonging to Gen. Joseph Wheeler's brigade were captured. They said he was personally in com- mand and was wounded in the thigh. The following courteous letter is self-explanatory:
"34 Beaver Street, New York, December 10, 1900. MR. E. W. PAYNE, Morrison, Illinois.
MY DEAR SIR :- I recollect very well the circumstances to which you refer. On the 27th November, 1862, two brigades, as I recollect, under Gen. Kirk and Gen. Sill, advanced upon my command at LaVergne: I recall that my horse was shot and two of my staff were mortally wounded and I was wounded in the leg.
Respectfully your friend, JOSEPH WHEELER."
That a forward movement upon the position of the enemy should be made at the proper time was to be expected. Christ- mas day in the year 1862 was an anniversary of that day, so joyfully- commemorated in all Christian lands, on which for the last time many eyes should see and many ears should hear the cheerful greetings, so long since the custom in those countries where the story is told of the shepherds who watched their flocks by night. On that evening it was announced in the camps at Nashville that the forward movement would begin the following morning. At an hour before daylight, December 26, 1862. reveille rang out upon the dark and misty air from scores of bugles all over the camp, and at six o'clock the great "taran- tula," called an army, with its many feet, spreading out over various turnpikes and by-roads, took up that concert of move- ment which to the man in the ranks may seem to be a haphazard,
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straggling aggregation of animate but disconnected machinery, but which in the mind of the Commander is a harmonious whole, each part acting in concert with the other.
The Second Division followed Davis' Division on the Ed- mondson turnpike through Nolensville, and at night camped on the hills beyond that place. Rain had fallen during the entire day, which closed with increased cold and discomfort, but the men had been following a skirmish line which was in contact with skirmishers of the enemy nearly the whole day. The fact that the enemy is making a fight, and still falling back, is one of the encouraging things to the force which is advancing, because it has the appearance of gaining an advantage over the "other feller," even though it may result in being drawn into a trap where matters will be more than evened up.
The advancing army closed the day with self-congratula - tion and an assurance of belief that, if Gen. Bragg did not keep his men out of the way, somebody would surely get hurt at the next opportunity to get within reaching distance. At daylight, on the morning of the 27th, the Corps was put in motion, Stanley's cavalry in the advance, followed by the Second Div- ision, the Second brigade, Gen. Kirk, in advance. A dense fog covered the country, chilling the men "to the marrow." Very soon after the advance began, the cavalry of the enemy, supported by artillery, was encountered and a stubborn resistance was met. The country was a succession of ridges and valleys, the ridges being covered with cedar thickets. The enemy. having advantage of choosing position, suddenly opened on the advance with artillery. Gen. Kirk ordered the Twenty-Ninth Indiana and Thirty-Fourth I linois to move on the left of the road toward the enemy, four companies from each regiment being thrown out as skirmishers. After advancing a short distance the skirmish line, closely followed by the reserves of the . two regiments, found themselves confronted across a narrow ravine by a battery supported by cavalry. The other regiments of the brigade, viz. : the Seventy-Seventh Pennsylvania, Seventy. Ninth Illinois and Thirtieth Indiana, with Edgarton's battery, were ordered into position on the left of the road, and the battery
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went into action with every gun and in a short time drove the enemy out of range The smoke from the guns, combined with the dense fog, made it unsafe to move, as it was impossible to discern anything at even a limited distance, and a brief halt was made on that account. Skirmishing with the rear guard of Har- dee's Corps was almost incessant until about four o'clock, when, from the top of a hill, the village of Triune was visible to the advance troops and the enemy was seen drawn up in line of battle, with his center resting in the village, with artillery in position.
During the advance, Gen. Johnson had ordered the Third brigade to the front and it was deployed on the right of the road, with Simonson's battery, and now the two batteries unlim- bered and went into action, doing good execution, one of Edgar- ton's guns disabling a gun of the enemy. The Twenty-Ninth Indiana and Thirty-Fourth Illinois were thrown forward with the purpose of charging the battery which was operating from the lines of the enemy in front, but they limbered up and moved out. Further pursuit was abandoned for an hour on account of the excessive rain, which fell in torrents. The pursuit was con- tinued, the troops passing through and about a mile beyond Triune and bivouacked for the night, and remained in the same position during the day and night of the 28th, awaiting develop- ments in other parts of the general advance.
Gen. Willich made a reconnoissance in force to Riggs Cross-Roads, seven miles to the front, in the direction of Shel- byville, ascertaining that the enemy retreated down the Eagles- ville road, thence by a dirt road to the Salem turnpike, which leads into Murfreesboro. Forty-one prisoners were taken by Gen. Willich during the day ..
On the morning of the 29th of December, the right wing was again in motion on the Bulle Jack road, the Second Division being the rear of the corps. The Third brigade, Col. P. P. Baldwin commanding, was ordered to remain at Triune as a corps of observation, taking up a strong position on the north of Wilson's creck. The object was to protect the right flank of the army. One company of Maj. Klein's battation of cavalry
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and one section of Simonson's battery were left with this brigade. That night, which was extremely disagreeable from a cold, drenching rain, the remainder of the Division (Kirk's and Willich's brigades) bivouacked near the Salem road, about five miles distant from Murphysboro. The men lay on their arms in rear of Gen. Davis' Division.
On the 30th of December, Gen. McCook advanced his corps in line of battle, Sheridan's Division covering the Wilkin- son turnpike and Davis' Division in line on the right of Sheridan. The Second Division, in reserve, marched in column on the turnpike. The advance Divisions were engaged during the day, meeting with some casualties, but steadily forcing the enemy.
About one o'clock in the afternoon the Second Division obliqued to the right, covering Davis' right as he moved into position, being threatened by the enemy's cavalry, among which Edgarton's battery dropped a few shells, and they withdrew. Soon after, two Confederate batteries opened fire on the front of the Second Division. Gen. Kirk placed his artillery in posi- tion on his right and directed Capt. Edgarton to open fire with all his guns upon the battery nearest his position, which was done effectively, killing and wounding several men and horses and disabling one of the pieces and two or three of the carriages, which were abandoned, the battery withdrawing from the field. Capt. Edgarton then turned his guns upon the other battery, which soon abandoned its position and retired.
No further engagements took place along the front lines during the day, but during the afternoon the cavalry protecting the right flank was hard pressed, and Gen. McCook ordered Col. Baldwin's brigade to the support of the cavalry and it moved out about two miles to a point on the. Salem pike, but the Ninety-Third Ohio was the only regiment which came in contact with the enemy. No casualties resulted.
The brigade, after dark, rejoined the Division. and biv- ouacked near Gen. Johnson's headquarters as a reserve to Kirk's and Willich's brigades. The line of battle was established with the left of the army resting on Stone river, at a point about
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IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.
three miles northwest from the public square in the town of Murfreesboro and extending from thence southerly, with a slight general bearing towards the west, about three miles, to a point on the Franklin turnpike, running west from the town, about eighty rods east from a small creek running in a northerly direc- tion and emptying into Overalls creek. The left of the right wing (Fourteenth Corps), Gen. McCook, rested on Wilkinson's pike and extended thence to the right in the following order: First, Gen. Phil Sheridan's Division; second. Gen. Jeff C. Davis' Division; third, Gen. R. W. Johnson's Division, the latter being Second Division Fourteenth Army Corps.
Johnson's Division was disposed as follows: Kirk's brigade, joining onto the right of Post's brigade, of Davis' Division, which latter brigade was composed of the following regiments in posi- tion thus: The Twenty-Second Indiana on the right, with the Fifty-Ninth Illinois in rear as support; to the left of the Twenty- Second was the Seventy-Fifth Illinois, which was joined on the left by the Seventy-Fourth Illinois.
Kirk's brigade was formed in the following order from the left: The Thirtieth Indiana and Seventy-Seventh Pennsylvania in front, deployed in line; the Twenty-Ninth Indiana in double column in reserve; the Thirty-Fourth Illinois on the extreme right, supporting Edgarton's battery, in position to the rear and left of the battery, The Seventy-Ninth Illinois was detached for the night as division train guard.
At night Gen. Davis closed up his line to the left, leaving a gap of about two hundred yards on Gen. Kirk's left, which was filled by bringing the Twenty-Ninth Indiana into the front line. Gen. Willich's brigade was formed on the right of Kirk's, facing due south and at a right angle to Kirk's lines, which faced the east. To the right of .Edgarton's battery, along a rail fence and near the Franklin pike, in line of battle, were the reserve companies of the Thirty-Second and Thirty-Ninth Indiana, por- tions of both regiments being on picket about six hundred yards in front of the reserve lines. To the rear, and not many yards from the reserves of the two regiments last mentioned, was the Forty-Ninth Ohio in line of battle, its left resting near the road
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in rear of Kirk's lines, its right extending nearly to an enclosed field on the west. In its rear the Eighty-Ninth Illinois was formed in double column, closed in mass. To the rear of the right of the Forty-Ninth was the Fifteenth Ohio, in line of bat- tle, facing westward.
The pickets from Gen. Kirk's brigade were chosen from each regiment (Companies A and B from the Thirty-Fourth Illinois), and joining the left of Gen. Willich's picket line, covered the brigade front, alert and ready for what the night or the morrow might bring forth. The troops, weary with the day's marching and maneuvering, notwithstanding the freezing tem- perature of the night, were obliged to get such rest and comfort as they might without camp-fires, which were strictly prohibited.
Gen. McCook, becoming aware that the enemy was mass- ing his forces in front and greatly overlapping the lines of the right wing, tried the effect of lighting large numbers of camp- fires to the right and rear of his command, to convey the im- pression that large bodies of troops were being massed at that point.
The attempt to describe the location and disposition of the Second Division and Col. Post's brigade of Davis' Division, is not without a definite purpose. The fierce and determined attack of the enemy in overwhelming numbers upon this por- tion of the line, and especially the troops mentioned, on the morning of December 31st, 1862, is a matter of history. In the first days after the disaster to this overwhelmed, broken, slaughtered and defeated right wing of Gen. Rosencrans' army. on that fateful morning, there were not wanting criticisms, and worse, for all concerned, but more especially for Gen. R. W. Johnson, division commander. He was charged with incompe- tency and neglect of duty, and, so on down to the smallest man in the ranks, there were insinuations, if not of cowardice, of a lack of staying qualities, which were supposed to exist in other troops, which it was believed would have more effectually resist- ed the cyclonic, tidal-wave attack of the enemy.
The lines of the enemy which attacked the right wing were established in nearly a north and south direction and extended
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ยท a mile south of the Franklin pike, and when swung around to the right in attacking, overlapped the right wing of Gen. Rosen- crans' army by a good half mile. Gen. Johnson's Division was thus not only overlapped, but the' attacking force was in three lines of battle, well closed up and with a strong cavalry force on the flank. The troops which confronted Gen. McCook's com- mand, beginning on the left, were Wharton's cavalry. Gen. Mc- Cown's Division, Gen. Cleburne's Division, and Gen. Cheat- ham's Division, the right of the latter resting on the Wilkinson pike, opposite the left of Gen. Sheridan's Division. Continuing towards the right of the Confederate lines was Gen. Wither's Division, with his left on the Wilkinson pike and his right on Stone river. On the east side of Stone river was the Division of Gen. Breckenridge, with Gen. Wheeler's cavalry on the flank. And thus for a few hours, on that night of December 30th, 1862, these mighty giants waited.
This writer has already stated that he was left in hospital at Tuscumbia in June, 1862. Subsequently, about July 18th, with about three hundred others, was sent to Nashville and remained in hospital No. 7 until August 17th, when a detail of two officers and nine sergeants from the regiment arrived, and he was officially added to the detail, and the party started for the north as a recruiting squad. It was in the first days of February, 1863, before the party returned to the regiment, prac- tically empty-handed as to recruits.
There may be conditions under which one may write elab- orately about things of which he has no personal knowledge, but in the matter of attempting to write a history of events, to which there are so many living witnesses, it would be folly to try to be original as to the events narrated. For several years past, while being nominally Regimental Historian, efforts to secure material from the comrades, covering the time above indicated, have. with very trifling exception, been unavailing.
Large drafts have already been made upon the letters of A. C. John, of Company A, which were published about 1890-1. and upon the "History of the Second Division," and from this
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latter source will be transcribed, almost verbatim, the account of the battle of Stone River, omitting such details as do not in some manner relate to the part taken by the Thirty-Fourth Illi- nois in that carnival of destruction and bloodshed.
CHAPTER III.
By three o'clock in the morning of the 3ist of December. the commanders were astir and vigilant. Capt. E. P. Edsall and Lieut. A. T. Baldwin, of Gen. Kirk's staff, visited the line of outposts and found everything quiet in front. At the same hour, Gen. Willich ordered Lient. Col. Jones, of the Thirty- Ninth Indiana, to patrol the woods six hundred yards in front of his pickets. Company B executed this perilous night inission, but no indications of the presence of purposes of the for were discovered.
At five o'clock in the morning the Division was quietly called to arms, and thus awaited daylight. Just as day dawned, there being no indications of the enemy advancing, the order was issued to prepare breakfast. The meal was frugal and soon ended. Meantime a portion of the artillery horses (about one- third of the whole number) were taken to water, which was near by, the remainder standing ready to hitch to the pieces on the first indication of danger.
At precisely twenty-two minutes past six in the morning. and not ten minutes after the dawn of day, a brisk firing was heard upon the extreme right of Gen. Kirk's line. It was evident the enemy had commenced the movement against our right.
The enemy could be seen advancing over the open coun- try in our front, about a fourth of a mile distant. They moved in four columns, battalion front, four battalions deep, with a strong reserve held in mass. The advance column moved directly on the pickets of the Thirty-Fourth Illinois. It was an overwhelming force. Gen. Kirk ordered the Thirty-Fourth to advance to the support of its skirmishers and pickets, with the hope of checking the enemy and relieving the battery. The Thirty-Fourth advanced steadily out into the open field and
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commenced firing, defending the front with admirable gallantry, but its position was an especial mark for drawing the fire of the enemy, and they poured into it a murderous volley. Still the regiment nobly stood its ground, firing with great effectiveness, but suffering terribly.
Meantime Edgarton's battery opened. At first the enemy could not be distinguished in the dimness of the morning. In a moment, however, they came in sight of and near the battery, when it opened with cannister. The Confederate line replied, and at the first fire killed and wounded seventy-five horses, making it impossible to move a gun. The fight had not been raging five minutes, yet it was terrific. The Thirty-Fourth poured volley after volley into the advancing hosts." The skirmishers of the Twenty-Ninth and Thirtieth Indiana and the Seventy-Seventh Pennsylvania also directed an oblique fire on the advancing col- umn, but it moved on like an automaton, and scores of our men were killed and wounded.
When within some thirty yards of Kirk's line the enemy partly changed front and moved at a left oblique, on the right of our line, and in double quick. Their yells were deafening. They now moved so as to completely flank Kirk's-line and ren- der the position entirely untenable. On they came, like a huge tidal wave, and terribly in earnest. The Thirty-Fourth soon became engaged in an almost hand-to-hand conflict. Already twelve men had been killed and sixty wounded, but the regi- ment heroically sought to maintain its line. The strife over its colors was terrible and bloody. Five color-bearers fell in quick succession, but as fast as they fell the flag was raised aloft and Haunted in the face of the foe! The entire color-guard being killed or wounded, the colors over which so much precious blood had been spilled were trailed in the mud and borne off the field by the hands of the enemy. At this time the regiment became separated and a portion of it joined the Seventy-Seventh Penn- sylvania, and remained with it during the battle.
The Confederate column now rushed upon Edgarton's guns. He, in a manly voice that rang above the din of battle. told his men to save themselves, while he grimly stood by one
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of his pieces, and, assisted by Lieut. Burwick, loaded and dis- charged it into the column as it closed upon him, mowing a huge roadway through it and, in an instant after, he was wounded and fell across the trail of the piece. Many of his men refused to leave him and fought the foe with their swabs, and were killed or captured. While in this position he received a bayonet thrust in the breast and was left for dead.
Gen. Kirk had now lost his guns and his heart was grieved. Hastily he withdrew his regiments to another position, directly in front of the advancing column, and there renewed the contest. He then dashed to Willich's brigade, which was already suffer- ing from the enemy's fire, and appealed for aid. A portion of the reserve of the Thirty-Ninth Indiana heroically aided in the new defence, but the other regiments awaited the orders of Gen. Willich and in the meantime were driven back.
This attack, renewed so suddenly, for a moment staggered the Confederate line, but although scores fell, it closed up solid as before, and moved on as if bullets were but pebblestones thrown by an infant. Their fire, kept up briskly and directed with precision, soon threw the ranks into disorder, despite the strenuous exertions of Gen. Kirk and his subordinates to induce steadiness. Here Kirk had his horse shot under him, but mount- ing another he again directed his men. The Confederate line was now within twenty paces, and to stand longer was death or capture. The column pressing them outnumbered as five to one. Here Lieut. Riley (Company C, Thirty-Fourth) fell mortally wounded, and more than one hundred gallant men (of different regiments) crimsoned the earth with their blood. This attests the stubborness of the resistance.
Again the brigade fell back to a fence which ran diagonally through an open field, and under cover of which Kirk hoped to hold the enemy in check until he could receive reinforcements, but the foe pressed closely and the resistance was feeble. Kirk here had a second horse killed, and was himself severely wound- ed in the thigh. Still he thought to retain the command, and Wagner (Capt. D. C. Wagner, Company K, Thirty-Fourth),
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his chief of staff, together with other staff officers, displayed great heroism in rallying the men.
It was near this point that Gen. Willich, while galloping to the front to form his brigade in Kirk's support, was pounced upon, his horse shot and himself captured by another column of the enemy, which at first moved upon the Twenty-Ninth Indi- ana, and then obliquing a little to the right, attacked the right of Davis' Division.
A cornfield now lay in the rear, which at first rapidly descended into a hollow, then graduallyascended until it forined into a slight plateau. Skirting this was a piece of timber, and for this the men, hotly pressed, hastened-not in fright, but in considerable confusion. Kirk followed for a short distance, cheering the men, but soon his strength failed him from loss of blood and his patriotic energy succumbed to the intensity of pain, and he was borne bleeding to the rear. Col. Dodge, of the Thirtieth Indiana, was then notified that he was in com- mand.
The cornfield was a plain of death. It was crossed under a withering fire, which swept the dry grass and stalks like a prairie fire. Language can not describe the fearful carnage of that open field; but it was strewn with the Confederate as well as Union dead, for the soldiers loaded as they ran, turned, fired into the compact column, and then renewed their flight.
This retreat, although a "military necessity, " was disas- trous to a further unity of action during this fearful ordeal of battle. A portion of the Thirty-Fourth Illinois in its retreat became mingled with the soldiers of Willich's brigade and was borne too far to the right, and many men were captured in the cavalry charge which the enemy made upon that flank. It was then Capt. W. S. Wood, of Company D, and Lieut. Weld, of Company E, with a few of their men, were captured.
Major Dysart (for some time previously in command of the regiment) succeeded in rallying about fifty of his men behind a fence skirting a wooded height, and some three-fourths of a mile in rear of his former position, and opened a destructive fire upon a regiment of cavalry which was charging upon them; but find-
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IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL, WAR.
ing it impossible to hold the position, he retreated to the Nash- ville turnpike, and there aided in the defence of our supply trains, which were threatened by a strong column of the enemy's cavalry.
The Thirtieth Indiana fell rapidly back to the right and rear, halted for a moment at the fence in the cornfield, and then fell back to a position nearly skirting the timber. Here it was joined by the remnant of the four companies which were on picket in the morning, having lost their major, Fitzsimmons, who was captured. Taking position behind a fence and com- manding the ground over which the enemy must pass, it awaited the opportunity to attack. A portion of the Thirty-Fourth Illi- nois accompanied it.
Meantime Maj. Buckner, of the Seventy-Ninth Illinois (just relieved from train guard duty), dashed up and reported to Col. Dodge that his regiment was ready to do anything it could. Dodge ordered it forward across the open field to his right and rear. It was a new regiment, never yet in battle, but it ad- vanced with the steadiness of veterans, amid a terribly destruc- tive fire from the enemy. Scores fell while the regiment was crossing the field. On the "double-quick" it came, and form- ing upon the right of the Thirtieth Indiana, at once engaged the enemy.
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