USA > Illinois > Military history and reminiscences of the Thirteenth regiment of Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war in the United States,1861-65, pt 1 > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
In the middle of the roof was a hurricane ( or supplemental) roof raised about three feet, under the eaves of which were side-lights which could be opened for ventilation ; and just inside these hurricane windows was a deep moulded cornice, and when the windows were open, some of the quartermaster's chickens, which were kept in coops on the roof, would walk in onto this inside cornice, and frequently make the entire circuit of the saloon, picking their rations of flies from the windows.
General Gorman always seemed to think it a waste of dig- nity to laugh, or even chat, while at table; and no member of his staff was ever heard to laugh while at table by the clerks whose desks were in the same room, only a few feet away.
At dinner, one day, which was generally eaten with silences instead of sauces, the General looked up and saw one of the chickens making the "grand rounds " on the inside cornice, drawing its rations of flies as it went along. "Well ! " the General exclaimed, " I am damned if this
.
T
23I
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
isn't the first time I ever took dinner in a hen-roost." Not a man at the table cracked a simile or made any remark in reply.
Various expeditions, for various purposes, were sent out in various directions, and with more or less, or no, success that was visible to the rank and file,-but then, the rank and file were not always competent to judge correctly, as it was very seldom that the rank and file was called in to confer with the General commanding.
Comrade Josselyn says: "Scouting parties went off in various directions. September roth Companies A and F went out to St. Francis river, and during October, the regiment furnished details for picket duty across the river, and for work on the fort. November 15th we started on the White river expedition, on board the Imperial. The Fourth Iowa was aboard this steamer with us. Also a battery and some cav- alry. At the mouth of White river we were transferred to the Decatur, a lighter draft boat. After proceeding up the river four miles, we ran on a sand-bar and stuck fast. Dis- embarking, we marched back to the Mississippi, and again boarded the Imperial, and went up to Montgomery's Point, and then back to Helena, arriving November 22d.
"The object of this expedition was said to be the capture of Arkansas post, but the river was found too low for boats to ascend.
"November 27th .- We again started under orders, got aboard the Nebraska, went down the river ten miles and landed at Delta, on the Mississippi side, and commenced the Coldwater and Tallahatchee expedition. We arrived at the junction of the Coldwater and Tallahatchee rivers, Novem- ber 29th, and on November 30th and December Ist made a double-quick march for eight miles toward Granada, when there was heavy firing heard. 'About-faced,' and returned to camp without firing a shot.
"We remained at camp on the bank of the Tallahatchee river until December 5th, when we returned to Delta, and to our camp at Helena, arriving December 7th,
.
232
HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
having marched on this trip one hundred miles. General Charles E. Hovey was in command of the expedition."
As one after another of the autumn months dropped out of the calendar and went to the rear, the specific gravity of the military atmosphere grew denser and thicker with im- pending fate. We felt, rather than knew, that a crisis was at hand.
The flight of birds and drift of sea-weed, was a written page to Columbus, promising him that success was near. The signs of the times pointing us towards Vicksburg, were :
On November 21st the returning White river expedition was met by the Gladiator, with orders to return to Helena immediately.
December 9th .- Generals Gorman, Thayer and Hovey, came down.
December 15th .- A Vicksburg expedition. with the Thir- teenth left out, talked about.
About this time, General Frank P. Blair, stalked in to report to General Gorman.
Gorman expostulated with by our officers, and we go.
Staff officer Lieutenant Gorman reviewed the troops, De- cember 18th.
December 19th .- Company F drew new cartridge-boxes, turning over old ones, and all extra guns.
We were watching and waiting for a forward movement. When it should come, we knew it would mean Vicksburg. We desired nothing more, and would be satisfied with nothing less. It almost seemed as if Vicksburg was approaching. Our psychological impressions were as strong evidence to us as was the massing of troops and unusual accumulation of the munitions of war.
The river Mississippi must be held sacred, and any attempt of the enemy to make a lodgment anywhere on its banks, must be prevented by any and all means. Also its peaceful navigation must be assured ; any firing on boats or molestation of them, when engaged in a legitimate and licensed traffic, should be punished with terrible severity.
SHERMAN.
WW
V
233
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
HEADQUARTERS, RIGHT WING, THIRTEENTH ARMY CORPS. HELENA, ARKANSAS, December 21st, IS62.
Captain JOHN A. RAWLINS.
CAPTAIN : I arrived here last evening and immediately saw Gen- erals Gorman, Steele and Blair. Their share of transports had previously been sent and were here loaded, to receive their troops.
Already, 9 a. m., two of my Memphis Divisions (Morgan L. Smith and General Morgan) have passed down to the first rendezvous, Friar's Point, and I expect A. J. Smith every hour. Steele's Division will be afloat to-day and drop down to Friar's Point, so that by to-morrow morn- ing, my whole command will be embarked and under way. I will reach Gaines' Landing to-morrow, the 22d, and Milliken's Bend 23d, and be at the mouth of the Yazoo Christmas. I sent a full and complete return of the first three Divisions from Memphis ; and now send you an abstract of the Fourth (Steele's) of which I can not get a detailed report till we get away from Helena.
I am Captain, respectfully,
W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General Commanding, Mississippi River Expedition.
General Gorman and Colonel Wyman did not agree very well ; both were a little cranky, and their conferences were not always conducted in whispers; and there is but little doubt that our Colonel, when calling on General Gorman, was in the habit of calling things by their right names, and it is just possible that he may have volunteered some advice ; at any rate, General Gorman was in the habit of calling Colonel Wyman, "Old Know-it-all."
December 20th, 1862 .- Our marching orders came, and about noon on the 21st, we embarked on board the "John Warner."
1
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE EXPEDITION .- LANDING AT CHICASAW BLUFFS. - DEATH OF WYMAN .- DEADLY ORDEAL OF BATTLE ON NEXT DAY .- SLAUGHTER AND RETREAT. .
T O PICTURE vividly the absorption of the Thirteenth regiment by Sherman's great naval army, we will quote Comrade Chapel, who says, on December 21st, 1862: "All last night, General Sherman's fleet was coming down from Memphis, and the continued ringing of bells and blowing of whistles kept us awake a good share of the night. As soon as daylight, I went down to the levee to see the fleet.
"The wharf was lined with boats and crowded with troops ; mostly from Ohio, Indiana and Missouri.
"At II o'clock a. m. we received orders to start, and in a very short time broke camp, and the Twenty-eighth Iowa took possession of it.
"Embarked on the steamer John Warner, a medium- sized, and very good boat, and our regiment occupied it alone and we had to work by detail all night to coal her up for the trip.
"Night, starlight and warm, but too much noise. for sleep."
Our brigade, up to this time, commanded by Colonel Wyman, but now transferred to General Thayer, was given the steamers Ella, the headquarters boat of General Thayer, Tecumseh, Satan, Decatur, and John Warner; the latter, as has already been stated, was assigned to our regiment,
234
235
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
We ran down to Friar's Point, Mississippi, twenty miles from Helena, and tied up for the night alongside of the Divis- ions of General Morgan L. Smith and General George W. Morgan, who had passed Helena, and, at what General Sher- man calls "the first rendezvous," were waiting for Steele's (ours) Division, and that of General A. J. Smith, which was expected now, every hour.
SHERMAN'S GREAT RIVER EXPEDITION
to Vicksburg, was one of the grandest movements of the war.
In spectacular effect, it could scarcely have been approached by anything of its kind before; even "The Invincible Armada," with its one hundred and thirty-two vessels could not then have been maneuvered so as to have made so grand a spectacle as did Sherman's one hundred and twenty-seven, with steam to propel and control them. In pure romance, it may have been exceeded by the same great General's "march to the sea."
In originality of conception, and perfection of organization and execution, both were worthy of the mind of the most brilliant military leader that our war developed.
The organization was completed at Helena, with the rent- dezvous at Friar's Point, twenty miles below, when, on the morning of December 23d, 1862, the signal cannon boomed the advance, our one hundred and twenty-seven steamers, con- voyed by the requisite number of gun-boats, swung out into the stream and leisurely headed downward- pointing towards Vicksburg.
So perfectly executed was the arrangement, that corps, division and brigade organizations, remained intact, and moved with as much precision as an army on land would do ; and when the column of steamers entered the long, straight reaches of the river, the entire fleet could be seen at one time, and the sight was magnificent.
When it was time to tie up for the night, which was always done, a gun would be fired from the Flag-ship, when
£
236
HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
the leading boat would swing in to the left bank, head up stream, and tie up; the second would round to at a proper distance below the first, and so on until the rear boat in the day's march came in below all the others.
A strong picket-line was immediately thrown out, covering the entire river front occupied by the fleet.
At the firing of the signal gun in the morning, the upper- most boat in the camp, would swing gracefully out into the stream, heading down, and followed by all the others until the lowermost boat fell in and brought up the rear.
This splendid organization was preserved throughout the entire expedition.
A FAMILY CARRIAGE
had been accumulated by some of our boys during one of the nights when our fleet had been tied up to the Mississippi river bank, and had been smuggled on to the lower deck of one of the steamers, and partly concealed. This could never have been done unless both the picket and camp-guard had connived at it; and had it never been called for, would have been put ashore at the next landing. This, of course, the boys cared nothing about, merely wishing to annoy the reb as much as possible.
The owner of this carriage, however, promptly put in an appearance the next morning to recover his coach. No sooner had he arrived in camp, than the boys took off one of the hind wheels and quietly dropped it overboard, on the river- side of the boat. The carriage was soon discovered, but not a man could be found who knew the least thing about it. The guards of both lines were examined, but all declared that nothing had passed through them during the night. The officers made a great bluster, of course, but were secretly glad of it. The missing wheel was not recovered, and a tedious time of it the owner had in rigging some kind of a purchase by which to get the vehicle home.
The boys told me afterwards, that they hauled that con- founded carriage, with four dozen of chickens, who wanted to
T
237
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
enlist in our army, and five hams which happened to be traveling our way, three miles, "and it wanted greasing too."
The day we left Friar's Point, the weather was cloudy, cold and uncomfortable. There is no scenery on the lower Mississippi.
On a cast of the eye over any five miles of its country, there can be nothing worse in the way of scenery, unless it is the next five miles, -that is faintly possible, but not strongly probable.
We reached Gaines' Landing on the 24th, and the mouth of the Yazoo on the 25th (Christmas ).
On the day after Christmas, December 26th, 1862, having passed the night on board the steamer, she moved out into the stream and turned into the Yazoo, and up stream about twelve miles to the Johnson plantation on the bank towards Vicksburg, where afternoon we debarked, formed in line, and stacked arms.
Sherman's army here consisted of four splendid divisions, the first, commanded by Brigadier-General Andrew J. Smith ; second division by Brigadier-General Morgan L. Smith ; third division by Brigadier-General George W. Morgan ; fourth division by Brigadier-General Frederick Steele. The first brigade of the latter was commanded by Brigadier-General Frank P. Blair, and its first regiment was the Thirteenth Illinois. Being the first, our regiment had the right, and took the lead.
Confederate General Pemberton describes the ground over which our army had to approach the Chickasaw Bluffs, which was our objective, as "swamps, lakes and bayous, running parallel with the river, intervene between the bank and the hill, and leave but four practicable approaches to the high ground from Snyder's Mills to the Mississippi river, but all outside the fortifications of Vicksburg."
Of these four " practicable approaches," the first division took the lower, or most southerly one, the second division, the one next north, while Blair's brigade, took the one, reaching inland from the Johnson plantation, and which leads
--------
£
UL
238
HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMEMT
past the south side of Mrs. Lake's plantation, and thence by a corduroyed causeway and bridge, across the bayou, and up over the future battle-ground, to a junction with the country- road, which helped to form the third line of the enemy's defenses.
General Morgan, with his third division also reached Mrs. Lake's plantation by a road from the mouth of, and to the south of, Chickasaw Bayou, where he took command of our brigade, which General Sherman had ordered to report to him for duty; which it did, and for two days was fighting under his command.
To General Steele was assigned the duty of reaching the Bluffs by a road north of Chickasaw Bayou ; but this project was abandoned and he was ordered to take position in rear of Morgan, as a support to the third division. General Steele reached the new position assigned him, over the same road used by Blair's brigade.
As we have said, the Thirteenth debarked from the John Warner, at Johnson's plantation, on Friday afternoon, De- cember 26th, 1862, formed in line and stacked arms.
We were soon again on the move and, from our regiment, which was in the lead, advanced skirmishers were thrown out, and very soon drove in the enemy's pickets and captured two horses and the supper that the reb pickets had prepared for ' themselves. A little further on, captured one man who re- ported that we were within one mile and a half of the forti- fications.
The orders to the General were, at the distance of about two miles, to go into camp, which was done.
On the morning of the 27th, march was early resumed, and soon the boys of the Thirteenth drove in the rebel pickets .in considerable numbers, and soon after, running on to a squad of nearly fifty rebels, we formed and made a most diffi- cult advance in line of battle, owing to the underbrush among the trees. This lasted but a little while, however, when we emerged to the skirts of an open field on Mrs. Lake's planta- tion, from the opposite side of which, near the "White
-
239
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
-
-
House," our skirmishers were fired on by a battery of two guns ; but a section of Hoffman's battery was quickly in posi- tion and soon silenced them, and they lost no time in retiring inside their intrenchments, from which they never ventured again during the time they were confronted by our forces. They had discreetly chosen their position on the causeway which was bridged across the bayou, and the only road by which they could gain their intrenchments, or by which we could follow them.
The engagement between the two hostile batteries, with the attendant fire of skirmishers and sharp-shooters, may said to have opened the ball of the serious fighting which, much intensified, was continued through the two following days.
Our brigade bivouacked for the night of the 27th, on the ground occupied by Hoffman's battery during the artillery duel in the morning.
The most conspicuously and sadly fateful day, perhaps, that the Thirteenth regiment was to count in its history, was Sunday, the 28th of December, 1862. If the veil could partly have been lifted, how many of us would have mentally uttered most fervently Shakespeare's apostrophe :
" Oh you leaden messengers that ride upon the violent speed of fire, fly with false aim."
General Blair says of this day, "The orders of the day placed my brigade in reserve." But the severely wounding early in the day of General Morgan L. Smith, of the second division, seemed to make necessary a modification of the above arrangements so far as to call our regiment to the front, where we were placed directly to the left of the second divis- ion, at about II o'clock a. m., where our brigade was soon warmly engaged with the enemy, whose sharp-shooters were soon silenced. At not far from noon, Colonel Wyman received his death wound, -shot through the breast, from left to right, by a rifle-ball which was found lodged in the underclothing on the right side of his body. After being stricken down, but
.
240
HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
while still living, he was placed on a stretcher and taken back to the operating table of Dr. Plummer, who saw that the Col- onel had but a short time to live, and he directed a member of the ambulance corps to remain by the Colonel's side, and at once sent to the front for Corporal Osgood Wyman, the Col- onel's son, who arrived in season to be recognized by his father and to exchange with him the last farewell in life.
In another place, fitting tributes to his memory have been written by those who knew his worth and many noble traits of character ; and that it was not commissioned officers alone who loved and admired him, is strongly evidenced by the fact that the enlisted men of the Thirteenth regiment, politely, but firmly, declining the proffered aid of the officers, raised money sufficient, and erected over his remains, one of the grandest military monuments to be found in " Rose-Hill Cemetery," a few miles to the north of Chicago.
The warrior was sleeping while the carnage went on ; and the roar of artillery and bursting of great shells among the giant trees that towered above his bier, were a fitting requiem.
Colonel Wyman must have been shot sometime between noon and I p. m. From its position as reserve, General Blair received orders at about 10 or 11 a. m. to take position with his brigade on the immediate left of the second division, which was then engaging the enemy, with the bayou between. It probably took our brigade about an hour to reach the posi- tion indicated, for General Blair says in his report :-
" I ordered Captain Hoffman, under instructions from Gen- eral Sherman, to cross his battery over the pontoon-bridge then being put up by the advance of General Morgan." This pontoon bridge did not lead to the triangular battle-ground of the next day, but was only a convenient cross-cut to reach the position to which we had been ordered on the left of the second division. General Blair continues : "I pushed on as fast as the nature of the ground would permit, to the left of Gen- eral M. L. Smith, and engaged the enemy, with my entire bri- gade, in his rifle-pits and intrenchments in my front beyond
1
£
-
241
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
the bayou, and a sharp and brisk encounter silenced his sharp- shooters. "
This " encounter" must have been going on between noon and I p. m., and Colonel Wyman fell early in the "encoun- ter." This, together with the memory of survivors, enables us to closely approximate the hour when the Colonel fell.
Memory vividly calls up the scene in the deep forest that day, where Dr. Plummer's operating-table was surrounded by many wounded and dying soldiers, besides the dying Wyman. This was sad proof of the severity of the day's struggle, by which our regiment lost two killed, and eight wounded ; the particulars of which will be found in the company histories.
During the afternoon, our brigade was withdrawn from the left of the second division, and was ordered by General Sherman, to report to General Morgan, who was hotly engaged with the enemy in front of the " White House," and the Thirteenth Illinois was led by General Blair to a position on the right of General Morgan's center, where it was soon found that we were exposed to the fire of our own batteries, besides those of the rebels. By order of General Morgan, we were now withdrawn from this position with orders to take position on the left, across the bayou below the junction of its two arms, which placed us to the north, and beyond the enemy's right.
Comrade Josselyn says of the crossing of this bayou, by our brigade :
"General Blair rode along as we were about crossing a muddy bayou, and said : 'I'll see if you can stand mud and water as well as you can stand fire. '"
Having crossed the bayou at the place indicated by the orders, we formed line of battle in the heavy timber in rear of where the assault was to be made, but if an assault had been contemplated for that day, as the formation of the line clearly indicated, near-approaching night countermanded the orders, and we moved to the rear and took position with the bayou on our right, and Thompson's lake to our left, where we lay on our arms through the night of the 28th.
242
HISTORY OF THE THIRTEENTH REGIMENT
To aggravate the memory of the condition of things on those two days of the 28th and 29th of December, 1862, in which we lost Colonel Wyman, and many another brave man, only to be repulsed at last, it is only necessary to be told, twenty four years and eight months later, by Confederate General Stephen D. Lee, through General Morgan, that "on the 28th and 29th, the city was occupied and defended solely by the Twenty-seventh Louisiana regiment under Colonel Marks, and by the batteries commanding the Mississippi ; and on tlie 29th, there was but a single regiment under Gen- eral Vaughn, between the city and 'Mound,' 'Sand-Bar,' or ' Bluff,' as it was differently called, four miles in rear of Vicksburg," and that "had Sherman attacked at any point between the bayou and Vicksburg, he could have gone into the city."
Before moving to his position across the bayou on the afternoon of the 28th, among other things, General Blair was instructed to reconnoiter the position of the enemy on this side and prepare to assist in storming his works. It was, however, too near night when we had got into position, and General Blair could not make a thorough reconnoissance, and without any perfect knowledge of his position, the best he could do was to double his pickets, and allow no fires lighted, while the soldiers slept on their arms ; but our veterans of thirty years do not propose to sleep at all without knowing what they have got to do to-morrow ; and so, during the night, gathered enough to report being told by General Mor- gan that : "The ground on which the battle was fought was a triangle, the apex of which was at the point of divergence of the two branches of the bayou, the high and rugged bluff in front being the base. Standing at the apex and facing the base of the triangle, its left side was formed by the left branch of the bayou (over which our brigade passed in the assault) which flowed obliquely to (and I believe through ) a break in the bluffs ; while the right was formed by a broken line of rifle-pits that ran obliquely from the base toward the apex, and by the other branch of the bayou (crossed by DeCourcy and
243
ILLINOIS VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
Thayer) which first runs obliquely to the right, then parallel to the bluffs and forms McNutt's lake."
"Our troops had not only to advance from the narrow apex of a triangle, whose short base of about four hundred yards and sharp sides bristled with the enemy's artillery and small arms, but had to wade the bayou (only Blair's brigade did that) and tug through the mucky and tangled swamp, under a withering fire of grape, canister, shells, and minnie balls, before reaching dry ground."
Confederate General Stephen D. Lee, who commanded the enemy's defenses at that point, said that: "Had Sherman moved a little faster after landing, or made his attack at the 'Mound,' or 'Sand-Bar' (in front of General. A. J. Smith's First Division), or at any point between the bayou and Vicks- burg, he could have gone into the city ; as it was, he virtually attacked at the apex of a triangle while I held the base and parts of the two sides."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.