USA > Illinois > History of the Thirty-fourth regiment of Illinois volunteer infantry. September 7 1861. July 12, 1965 > Part 7
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The army had passed out to the front south of Chatta- nooga, and our regiment was left far in the rear and out of reach of support, or of troops upon which we could withdraw in case of attack. Forrest's and Wheeler's cavalry were much given to dropping down on such isolated camps, but we were luckily exempt from such attentions, although absent from our brigade and Division until the 15th of November.
On September 17th, the regiment broke camp and crossed the pontoon bridge to the west shore, and the work of taking up the bridge began. The balks and chesses and top-loading was put on wagons, and crews assigned to each boat for their removal to Battle Creek, twelve miles up the river. Poles were procured from the brush on the river bank and fitted as masts, with yard arms; the "pup tents" were buttoned together, making a suffi- cient spread of sail, and so the flotilla started up stream before a fair breeze, bearing upon the bosom of the clear, beautiful Tennessee a lot of chaps who looked upon the whole proceeding as a "lark." Benjamin F. Taylor, correspondent for the Chicago Journal, rode out from Stevenson and was present at the scene of our preparations and departure. Several men of the regiment knew him personally, he having delivered lectures in various parts of Illinois before the "army broke out." After the war, he published a book entitled "In Camp and Field," in which he describes the event and says of the men of the regiment: "Busy about these boats were as hearty and dirty a set of boys as ever fingered a rifle, and in each boat was a stained rag of a dog- tent."
The bridge was laid across the river a few rods below the mouth of Battle creek, and the regiment crossed over to the south side, remaining there four days, then re-crossed and put up a line of rifle-pits around the end of the bridge, and made camp.
On the 19th and 20th of September, a good deal of anxiety was caused by heavy cannonading to the eastward. Our chief apprehension was that the enemy's cavalry was not far distant, and that we might receive a call.
Not until the 21st did we learn anything about the battle of
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Chickamauga. The slightly wounded from the first day's fight- ing began to pass our camp, which was located close to the road between Stevenson and Chattanooga, the latter place being 28 miles from our camp and the battlefield 12 miles farther. Every hour the number of wounded increased, and our surgeon was kept constantly busy dressing wounds, scarcely any of them hav- ing received even first dressing. The men of the regiment made coffee and fed as many as possible. Many prisoners also were escorted past camp, guarded by cavalrymen.
On the morning of the 22d, 1380 were taken by in one body. The wagon road passing our camp was fully occupied for a number of days after the battle. Detachments of cavalry were going to the rear, and siege guns and supply trains, loaded, to the front and empty- to the base of supplies at Stevenson.
On the 25th, our position was re-enforced by the Third Ohio infantry and a section of artillery from Bridgeport, a short distance down the river. About the first of October, Howard's and Slocum's Eleventh and Twelfth Corps from the Army of the Potomac, arrived at Bridgeport and remained there several weeks.
The army, after the battle of Chickamauga, fell back to Chattanooga, or, more correctly, the falling back to Chatta- nooga was a part of the battle, somewhat accelerated by the persistence of Gens. Bragg and Longstreet's forces. The base of supplies for our army was Stevenson, about thirty-five miles by the shortest possible wagon road. This route followed near- est of any to the Tennessee river, on the north side. About eight miles west of Chattanooga (See Map) is a narrow and rapid piece of river called the "suck," the wagon road running near the river bank for a mile or more; and rising abruptly from very near the river bank is a spur of mountain about 1, 000 feet in height, and a similar mountain on the opposite side. The course of the river at this point is nearly west by north.
In a two-story log-house on the south bank of the river was a garrison of thirty Confederate soldiers, who controlled the
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road on the north side. They had attacked everything that un- dertook to pass, and the route was abandoned. The next pos- sible route to Chattanooga, after passing Battle Creek, was to abandon the road at Jasper and take to the north through the Sequatchie valley to Anderson's Cross-Roads, then over Wal- den's Ridge, approaching Chattanooga from the north.
Gens. Rosencrans and McCook, who had been so unjustly relieved of their respective commands, passed our camp at Bat- tle Creek on their way North. Col. Van Tassell called the regi- ment into ranks and took position by the roadside, and gave our late commanders the poor honor of a salute. Much more was felt by every officer and man than could be expressed by acts or words. The colonel tried in few words to convey our regards and regrets, to which each of the generals made brief response. Amongst soldiers there is no name that so fully expresses senti- ments of the highest regard for each other as that of "Com- rade." After this brief greeting, more of us than ever before thought of our two Generals, perhaps more especially of Gen. McCook, as our "Comrade."
The following letter, written twenty-nine years after the above event, is evidence of the reciprocal regard he had for the regiment:
Headquarters Dep't of Arizona. Los Angeles, Cal., July 18, '91. E. C. WINTERS, Pres't 34th Ill. Vet. Ass'n, Rock Falls, Ill.
DEAR COMRADE :- I acknowledge the receipt of an invita- tion to meet with the survivors of the Thirty-Fourth Illinois at Sterling, September 7th and 8th of this year. I thank you for your remembrance of me.
How well I remember that gallant regiment, with Kirk at its head, the service it performed in camp, on the march and in battles! Assuring you that nothing could give me more pleas- ure than a grasp of the hand from those gallant men-we did the work, are enjoying its results in a restored Union and a prosperous country.
Keep these meetings up; keep the memory of our departed comrades green in our hearts. They have passed from our sight
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and gone to God, who gave them. We can yet be with them in spirit, and may their and our example, in patriotism and devo- tion to country, be honorably handed down to present and coming generations, is the prayer of your former commander and comrade.
My distant station, with the duties imposed upon me here, will prevent my being with you at the meeting. Give my affec- tionate regards to all present with you. My prayer is for your success, happiness and prosperity while on earth, and for the glory and peace in heaven so justly due to good, brave and patriotic men who have died and were willing to die in order that God's freedom, and religious liberty, should not perish from the earth.
God bless the old Thirty-Fourth Illinois.
Affectionately your comrade, A. McD. McCook, .
Brigadier General U. S. A.
The regiment remained at Battle Creek until October 12th, when five companies were sent east to the Sequatchie river to make and repair roads and bridges. On the 20th, the other five companies followed, and the regiment went northward along the west side of the Sequatchie to Anderson's Cross-Roads, in the Sequatchie valley, and remained there until the 11th of Nov- ember.
A detail of twenty men was made from the regiment, Sep- tember 23d, who, with the Third Ohio infantry, were placed under command of Capt. Patrick, to go to Chattanooga as guard for an ammunition train, returning to camp on the 28th. Sev- eral Confederate soldiers from detached cavalry squads were picked up on the trip, and one of them was put on duty as team- ster by Capt. Patrick. Whether intentionally or not, he allowed his wagon to be upset, and it fell down the mountain side, being demolished by the fall.
On the Ioth of October, the Twentieth and Twenty-First Army Corps were disorganized, and the Second Division became a thing of the past. The Second brigade was also broken up, and the regiments which had been associated for two years or
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more were separated and put into commands with other regi- ments entirely new to each other. The First and Third brigades were assigned intact to the Third Division of the Fourth Corps. Gen. Willich retained command of his First brigade, to which was added other regiments. The Third brigade was as- signed to the command of Gen. W. B. Hazen. The Second brigade was separated. The Twenty-Ninth Indiana was assigned to Gen. Cruft's brigade of Stanley's Division, Fourth Corps ; the Thirtieth Indiana and Seventy-Seventh Pennsylvania to the brigade of Col. William Grose, in the same Division and Corps; the Thirty-Fourth Illinois to the Second brigade, Second Div- ision, Fourteenth Corps. Gen. J. D. Morgan was temporarily in command of the brigade; Gen. Jeff C. Davis, Division com- mander, and Gen. John M. Palmer, Corps commander. The brigade consisted of the Thirty-Fourth and Seventy-Eighth Illi- nois, the Ninety-Eighth, One Hundred and Eighth, One Hun- dred and Thirteenth and One Hundred and Twenty-First Ohio regiments.
The regiment in order to get to the place assigned for camp in the Sequatchie valley, was obliged to wade the Sequatchie river, an exploit not suited to the weather, which was cold, gloomy and accompanied by rain for several days. On the 24th, camp was moved to the ground recently occupied by the Tenth Illinois infantry, which was in the brigade commanded by Gen. James D. Morgan, who was personally superintending the repair- ing of roads and in getting the supply trains up the mountain. The regiment was engaged in that work until November 11th, when it spent nearly the whole of that day in helping the wagons and battery (E, First Ohio) up the mountain, aided by the One Hundred and Eighth Ohio, which was the only other troops left in the locality, and then marched a mile or two and the next morning crossed over and down the east side of the mountain (Waldren's Ridge), and remained over night six or seven miles · north of Chattanooga.
The day's march was in one respect the most striking of any ever experienced by the regiment. While in the Sequatchie valley, after the first few days we had plenty of rations, of the
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three staple articles, hard-tack, salt pork and coffee, and when we left, there were three or four boxes of hard-tack for which there was no transportation, not even in haversacks. Many a wistful eye was turned towards them, as they were left solitary and alone in the deserted camp, knowing that we were soon to share the destitution prevailing in the army at Chattanooga. We marched along the road with the supply train. It was most pit- iable to see the poor, emaciated mules, reeling from side to side in their fecbleness, and yet, at the command of the drivers, put- ting forth their best efforts as if they realized the emergency of the men in Chattanooga, who, on one-fourth rations. were hold- ing the lines, and under the promise of Gen. George H. Thomas, would have held them until they starved.
From Stevenson to Chattanooga, over eighty miles of road- side, were strewn the dead bodies of thousands of mules. We looked upon the dead ones and then at the living, or half-alive ones, knowing that a limited period of like conditions would bring every wagon to a standstill, and that the battle of Chicka- mauga, the privations of the army in Chattanooga, and the loss of the entire supply trains, would be a sacrifice for naught, and that the army itself would be in deadly peril. With such reali- zation of the situation, and resulting forebodings, the day ended, and with that spirit of putting off the evil day engendered by countless experiences, the future with all that it might hold was dismissed with the stacking of arms.
The campfires twinkled and cast their cheerful light on the faces and forms of comrades who, through more than two years of soldier life, had been drawn to each other by ties that should never be broken.
The following morning ushered in a beautiful, hazy autumn day, and at 7 o'clock the line of march was taken up for Dallas, 16 miles up the river from Chattanooga, and arrived at 2 o'clock p. m. On the following day the men set to work to make as comfortable a camp as possible, at which considerable progress had been made when orders came to return to Chattanooga, and we started out at two o'clock p. m., made six miles and camped, and reached our destination about noon the next day, on Moc-
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casin Point, across the river west from Chattanooga, and across the bend of the river just north from Lookout mountain.
The regiment was reported to Brig. Gen. Beatty, command- ing Second brigade, Second Division, Fourteenth Corps, and we entered on duty in our new assignment, under our new com- mander, having been under orders of Gen. Morgan for about a month. We were so fortunate as to have left for our use a well constructed camp of log and pole cabins, recently vacated by other troops, which, after being repaired and put in good condi- tion, were the best quarters ever occupied by the regiment dur- ing its whole term of service. The camp was located on the west slope of the ridge called Moccasin Point. The top of the ridge was only a few rods from our quarters, from which could be seen the whole of that part of Lookout mountain occupied by the enemy, and nearly all of Missionary Ridge so occupied.
The camps of the greater portion of our army were in the open country between the village of Chattanooga and Mission- ary Ridge. A portion of Gen. Hooker's command was camped in Lookout valley, across the river from our camp and northwest from the northern end of Lookout mountain.
When the campfires of both armies were lit at night, the spectacle was grand beyond description. On old Lookout, from the half-way line to the summit, to the right and left gleamed in the clear starlight the hundred fires of the detachments which from their favored location could look down upon the whole of both armies, and especially their near neighbors, Gen. Hooker's camps. Off to the east and south, on the top of Missionary Ridge, glimmered the lights by which Gen. Bragg might be read- ing dispatches from Richmond, while strung out three miles or more away to the north from his headquarters, along and beyond the top of Missionary Ridge, glowed the brightness of the flame, and the reflection of thousands of fires, every one of which rep- resented thousands more of men, waiting for the word to attack or defend. To the west of the ridge, and in lines more or less parallel thereto, were the camps of the Union army, their fires burning as brightly as if ten miles from any foe, instead of being within easy artillery range. And so these giants, only half con-
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scious of the weird poetry of their environments, sat around their campfires, drawing therefrom the cheer and comfort of the warmth and comradeship, which is brought down to later days in the "campfires" commemorative of the days and nights "when war waged its wide desolation."
Gen. Grant, having been appointed to the command of all troops west of the Alleghanies and east of the Mississippi, came to Chattanooga, October 23d, 1863, and began preparations for battle. The duties of the regiment were light, consisting only in picketing about a mile of the river bank, on the southern end of Moccasin Point. As to rations, we were on short allowance, in common with the whole army. We received four months pay November 17th, but there was nothing to buy, and money was of no use except for purposes of gambling, which had be- come quite general, with its attendant demoralizing results.
There were occasional aggressive movements, in a small way, with some artillery firing from the top of Lookout and Missionary Ridge, to which replies were returned "postage pre- paid," and by "quick delivery." At three o'clock in the morn- ing of October 27th, sixty pontoon boats, in which 1, 800 armed men, under command of Gen. W. B. Hazen, were launched on the river above Chattanooga, and in the darkness of the night floated around between Moccasin Point and the point of Lookout mountain, between the opposing picket lines stationed on either bank. The boats were placed in position and the bridge laid at Brown's Ferry, about one mile down from Moccasin Point. Four thousand other troops, under Gen. W. F. Smith, crossed. over Moccasin Ridge, and crossing the river, uniting with Gen. Hazen's command, held the position which was the next day occupied by Gen. Hooker.
The Thirty-Fourth was on picket, and being notified of the intended passage of the boats, were able to distinguish some of them which passed near shore. Had they kept the middle of the stream, it is doubtful if any on either side of the river would have known of their presence, owing to the intensity of the dark- ness. Gen. Hooker occupied the position the next day, and until the enemy was driven from his front on Lookout mountain.
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The Eleventh and Twelfth Corps, under Gen. Hooker, remained at Bridgeport until October 26th, when, under orders from Gen. Grant, they crossed the Tennessee river and moved rapidly in the direction of Chattanooga, arriving in Lookout valley in the afternoon of the 28th. He left one of Geary's brigades of the Twelfth Corps at Wauhatchie, a station on the railroad about three miles from Brown's Ferry. In conjunction with this movement, Gen. John M. Palmer, with a Division of the Fourth Corps, was ordered to move from Chattanooga down the river on the north side to a point opposite Whiteside, then to cross over and protect the railroad in the rear of Hook- er's troops.
Just here, an extract from "Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant" will be interesting. (Vol. 2, page 40.)
"The enemy was surprised by the movements which secured to us a line of supplies. He appreciated its importance and hastened to try to recover the line from us. His strength on Lookout mountain was not equal to Hooker's command in the valley below. From Missionary Ridge he had to march twice the distance we had from Chattanooga, in order to reach Lookout valley; but on the night of the 28th and 29th, an attack was made on Geary at Wauhatchie by Longstreet's Corps."
"When the battle commenced, Hooker ordered Howard forward from Brown's Ferry. He had three miles to march to reach Geary. On his way he was fired on by rebel troops from a foot-hill to the left of the road, and from which the road was commanded. Howard turned to the left, charged up the hill, and captured it before the enemy had time to intrench, taking many prisoners."
"Leaving sufficient men to hold this height, he pushed on to re-enforce Geary. Before he got up, Geary had been en- gaged for about three hours against a vastly superior force. The night was so dark that the men could not distinguish one from another except by the light of the flashes of their muskets. In the darknessand uproar, Hooker's (Geary's) teamsters became fright- ened and deserted their teams. The mules also became frightened,
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and breaking loose from their fastenings, stampeded directly towards the enemy. The latter, no doubt, took this for a charge, and stampeded in turn. By four o'clock in the morn- ing, the battle had entirely ceased, and our "cracker line" was never afterward disturbed."
"In securing possession of Lookout valley, Smith lost one man killed and four or five wounded. The enemy lost most of his pickets at the ferry, captured. In the night engagement of the 28th-29th, Hooker (Geary) lost 416 killed and wounded. I never knew the loss of the enemy, but our troops buried over one hundred and fifty of his dead and captured more than a hun- dred."
On the 4th of November, Gen. Longstreet, with about fif- teen thousand of his own command and five thousand cavalry under Gen. Wheeler, left our front and started to Knoxville, Tenn., where Gen. Burnside was in command of the Union forces. This caused alarm, not only in Washington but in Chattanooga. If Burnside should be defeated, Longstreet could go in any direction he might choose. To defeat Gen. Bragg's army at Chattanooga as soon as possible was important. Gen. W. T. Sherman, in command of the Fifteenth Corps at Mem- phis, Tenn., left that place October rith and moved eastward, repairing the railroad in order to bring supplies forward as he advanced. His route would bring him to Eastport, on the Tenn- essee river, and supplies were ordered from St. Louis, by steam- boats, to Eastport.
On the first of November, under orders from Gen. Grant, he abandoned the railroad and pushed forward to Stevenson, Alabama, arriving there on the 14th, and on the 20th the head of his column was at Brown's Ferry. The dispositions of troops for the impending battle were begun upon Gen. Sherman's arrival. He proceeded up the river about four miles, keeping under cover of the hills, at a point near the west bank of the river. His pontoons were sent up to North Chickamauga creek on the 2 1st, and put into the stream out of sight of the enemy. The top covering was left a few hundred yards from the river bank, in a concealed place, where the bridge was to be thrown over.
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On the morning of the 23d, the Divisions of Gens. Sheridan and T. J. Wood were advanced out of their works and took position, with Wood's left resting on Citico creek, a mile north of Chattanooga; Sheridan to the right. At two o'clock in the afternoon the line swept forward, and the lines of intrenchments in front were cleared to the top of Missionary Ridge, and our lines were established a mile in front of the former location. The losses in the two Divisions were eleven hundred killed and wounded.
Gen. W. F. Smith, who, as chief engineer of the depart- ment, had supervision of floating the pontoons from Chattanooga around Lookout to Brown's Ferry, also gave direction to plac- ing the bridge for Sherman's troops to cross upon. There were one hundred and sixteen boats in North Chickamauga creek. At two o'clock on the morning of the 24th, the brigade of Gen. Giles A. Smith, of Sherman's command, placed thirty men in each boat and they dropped down into the river and on down about three miles, to a point a half mile below the mouth of South Chickamauga creek. A few boats landed above the mouth of the creek, and the picket guard of the enemy was captured, also the guard at the point of landing farther down was cap- tured, and the south bank of the river cleared of the enemy. The boats were used for ferrying other troops to the south side, but as fast as they could be used were put into the bridge.
By daylight, two Divisions had crossed and were fortified, and by the middle of the afternoon the whole of Gen. Sherman's command was over the river. With his left thrown across South Chickamauga creek, he pushed on out to the front and took some intervening foot-hills between the river and Missionary Ridge and fortified the position. Gen. Howard's Eleventh Corps had several days previously been moved from Lookout valley to a point on the south side of the river, just south of the mouth of Citico creek. He moved up the south bank of the river on the 24th, and formed a junction with Gen. Sherman's right.
Our own Second Division had been on the north side of the river, guarding the pontoon boats when lying in the North Chick-
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amauga. When the boats were removed, the Division came down to where the bridge was laid, and on the night of the 24th crossed over with Gen. Sherman's troops and occupied the ex- treme left, to the north end of Missionary Ridge.
This writer does and always has disbelieved his ability to properly portray the doings of his regiment, and to bring the deeds of another regiment into the story may seem presumptuous. There were certain achievements of other regiments, in which we were more or less interested, that may be entitled to special mention. In the reorganization of the army, October 10th, the Third brigade, Gen. William Grose; First Division, Gen. John M. Palmer, Fourth Corps, Gen. Gordon Granger; consisted of the Ninth, Thirtieth and Thirty-Sixth Indiana, Fifty-Ninth, Sev- enty-Fifth, Eightieth and Eighty-Fourth Illinois and Seventy- Seventh Pennsylvania. Our regiment had been brigaded with the Thirtieth Indiana and Seventy-Seventh Pennsylvania nearly two years, and the regiments were much attached to each other. The Seventy-Fifth Illinois and also the Thirteenth Illinois, in Osterhaus's Division of the Fifteenth Corps, were largely raised and organized from the same territory as our regiment, and there was a large acquaintanceship existing between all of them.
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