USA > Illinois > Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers > Part 13
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CHAPTER V.
FROM HUNTSVILLE TO RINGGOLD-BEAUTIFUL CAMP AT RING- GOLD-THE MASSACRE AT NICKOJACK-RECONNOISSANCES UNDER KILPATRICK-NICKOJACK AVENGED-LIEUTENANT COLONEL SHEETS AND MAJOR BOHN COMPLIMENTED IN RESOLUTIONS-GENERAL MOVEMENT OF SHERMAN'S ARMY AGAINST JO JOHNSTON-KILPATRICK WOUNDED-RESECA- GUARDING THE RAILROAD-KILPATRICK RETURNS-OUT- POST DUTY ON THE CHATTAHOOCHEE-DAVE BOYLE'S CAP. TURE AND ESCAPE-BAND HORSES GOBBLED-LAYING PON- TOONS AT SANDTOWN -- CUTTING RAILROADS AT WEST POINT-RMDING AROUND THE REBEL ARMY AT ATLANTA- NIGHT FIGHTING AT JONESBORO -- KILPATRICK, SURROUNDED, CUTS HIS WAY OUT-SWIMMING COTTON RIVER-SAVING THE BRIDGE ACROSS FLINT RIVER-BRILLIANT DIVERSION ON THE RIGHT OF THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE-GLASS'S BRIDGE-FALL OF ATLANTA-THE SUMMER'S CAMPAIGN ENDED.
On the morning of April fourth, 1864, the Ninety-Second took up its line of march from Huntsville eastward, in a driving rain storm, which continued all day. The Regiment marched thirty. three miles. Marched at daylight, and camped at Bellefonte. Marched at daylight, and, owing to high water, had to seek the sources of the streams, and, after marching thirty iniles, camped ten miles from Bellefonte. Reached Bridgeport on the seventh, at noon, and camped on old ground, awaiting wagon-trains, and shoeing animals. The Regiment left Bridgeport at daylight, on April tenth, crossing the Tennessee on pontoons for the eleventh and last time: and marched over the winding, rough, mountain road, traveled by the army trains until it was almost impassable, some points being literally corduroyed with the carcasses of dead animals. It is said that, in the climate of South America, the atmosphere is so dry and pure that beef will cure perfectly in the open air without salt, and that the roads are there mended with
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sides of fresh beef. The steamboat landing, at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, was paved with sides of bacon ; but the only road, probably, ever seen in North America corduroyed with the carcasses of mules and horses, was passed over in this day's march. Passed Shellmound and Nickojack Cave, where General Andrew Jackson fought a battle with the Cherokee Indians. Marched at daylight-roads horrible-wound around over the rocky brow of Lookout Mountain for the last time, and camped at Rossville, Georgia. The Colonel reported in person to the Chief of Cavalry, Army of the Cumberland, Brigadier General Elliott, in Chattanooga; and, on the Colonel's representing that many men in the Regiment were without horses, he was in- formed, by General Elliott, that mounted infantry regiments must not expect to get horses until after all the cavalry were mounted; and that all the cavalry never would be mounted. The Colonel protested against such treatment of his Regiment, and, in a stormy interview, insisted that, as long as his Regiment was serving, by proper orders, with the cavalry, it should receive the same treatment as the cavalry. Elliott, like all the Regular Army officers, had a dislike for mounted infantry. They all insisted on the European idea of cavalry, armed with short-range carbines, pistols and sabres ; until that notion was taken out of them, the cavalry in the Western Army was always a nuisance. They had to meet Forrest and Wheeler, in a rough, wooded, mountain- ous country, with no chance for cavalry charges, except in column of fours, on roads always barricaded at frequent intervals, and the enemy fighting, dismounted, from behind barricades, fences, ditches, in the thick woods, and armed with long-range Missis- sippi rifles. It is an old saying that you must fight fire with fire: and it is true that, if you fight an enemy successfully, you must fight as he fights, and . with weapons such as he uses. If his men are dismounted, and armed with long-range rifles, and take advantage of stumps, ditches, trees, woods, barricades and houses, you must fight him dismounted, with long range weapons, and take like advantage of stumps, ditches, tree-, woods, barricades, and houses. You might as well charge a scattered band of Comanche Indians with a squadron of heavy European cavalry, as to have attempted to fight Forrest or Wheeler after the manner of European cavalry movements. The cavalry was always getting into a tight place, and calling on the Ninety-Second, with their long-range Spencer Repeating Rifles, and fighting on foot, to help them out: and the Ninety-
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Second always did it; and here was the Chief of Cavalry, of the Department of the Cumberland, insulting the Regiment openly by declaring that the men might go on foot until all the cavalry were mounted, and that the cavalry never would be mounted. The Colonel resented, with ho! words, the insult put upon hi- men, and won the enmity of the West Pointer.
At Rossville, a large number of recruits joined the Regiment, all dismounted, and armed with old Burnside carbines-no better for actual service with the Ninety-Second than potato pop-guns. Marched early on April twelfth, cighteen miles, to Ringgold, Georgia, and went into camp. The Colonel reported to General Thomas, and protested hotly against the treatment his Regiment was receiving from General Elliott, and insisted that his rights in the cavalry were precisely on a par with the cavalry regiments. On the thirteenth, the Regiment camped on ground that had been long occupied by a mule train, the muddiest, filthiest spot to be tound, but also the highest, being on the brow of a hill. All hands went to work cleaning up camp, grading and leveling, and laving it out in regular order. The pickets of the Ninety-Second were attacked, but the attack was repulsed without loss on our side, and with a loss of one Rebel killed, and two captured. The fourteenth was spent in planting evergreens throughout the camp, and by two days' labor, the filthies spot the Regiment ever camped upon was converted into the cleanest and handsomest camp the Regiment ever occupied. Lieutenant Colonel B. F. Sheets tendered his resignation, on account of business reasons, and Major John H. Bohn tendered his resignation, on Surgeon's certificate of disability. On the fifteenth, Colonel R. G. Minty relieved the Colonel of the Ninety-Second of the command of the brigade. On April sixteenth, was held the first dress-parade since leaving Trianna. On the seventeenth, Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick assumed command of the Cavalry Divison. The Colonel had an interview with General Kilpatrick, and de- tailed the conversation of General Elliott, at Chattanooga, and insisted that it was simply right and just that the Ninety-Second should not be made the tail end of the cavalry, but should be placed upon a par with the cavalry in drawing horses, and in all other particulars. General Kilpatrick promised that the Regi- ment should be supplied with horses, and be treated in the future just the same, in regard to all things, as cavalry regiments of his division. It is but just to say that General Kilpatrick kept his promise, and never afterward did the Ninety-Second make com-
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plaint of not receiving horses, clothing, and rations, in precisely the same quantities that the cavalry received them. There was only one point of difference between General Kilpatrick and the Colonel in this interview : the General insisted that the Colonel should turn over his long-range Spencer Rifles, and draw carbine- and sabres, the General saying that he always fought at short range, and wanted every man to have a sabre. But the Colonel explained the manner in which Forrest and Wheeler fought the rough and wooded nature of the country, and begged the General to wait until he had at least one skirmish with the eneiny, and saw the Ninety-Second in action, before he took from them their long-range Spencer Repeating Ritles. To that General Kilpatrick consented ; and he never afterward desired to take away from the Ninety-Second their Spencer Rifles.
It was thought necessary to keep a picket post eight miles away from camp at Nickojack. It was a dangerous place. Its danger was represented by the Colonel to the commanding officers, in a written communication sent to the Department head- quarters through regular channels ; but no attention was paid to it. The brigade was made up of three regiments of Kentucky cavalry and the Ninety-Second: and the influence of the Colonel of the Ninety-Second never amounted to anything in that brigade. They were all Kentuckians; and while many Ken- tuckians disliked traitors, it was only a feeble feeling in compari- son to the bitter hatred with which nearly all Kentuckians looked upon an Abolitionist.
On the twenty-second of April, the Regiment was received and inspected by Brigadier General Elliott, in company with Major General Thomas, and General Elliott was pleased to boast considerably to General. Thomas, in the presence of the members of the Regiment, claiming that the Ninety-Second had the cleanest and handsomest camp of any regiment, infantry or cavalry, in the Army of the Cumberland; and General Thomas admitted that no regiment ir. his Department had a cleaner or handsomer camp. The men of the Regiment appreciated the compliment. During the whole service, the Ninety-Second always stood among the first for cleanliness of camps, care of equipments, and soldierly discipline. Sometimes the men com- plained of the drills, dress-parades, and strict discipline, but they were always proud of the compliments earned from command- ing officers and Inspector General.
April twenty-third, 1864, was a sorrowful morning in the
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Ninety-Second; the picket post, eight miles from camp, at Nicko- jack Trace, was surrounded, and attacked in overwhelming force, just at daylight. There were sixty-two men at that post, under command of Lieutenant Horace C. Scoville, of Company K. divided into squads, picketing several roads. A regiment of dis- mounted Rebels crossed Taylor's Ridge during the night, and placed themselves upon the road in rear of the pickets, and, at day- light, a regiment of mounted Rebels charged simultaneously every post, driving the men back onto the reserve, and the reserve back onto the regiment of dismounted Rebels, who had barricaded the road. Thirty-three, out of the sixty-two, were killed, wounded, or captured. Lieutenant Scoville, a gallant and faithful officer, was among the captured. But the horrible part of the transaction was the brutal treatment our men received, after their capture, at the hands of the cowardly fiends! Our wounded men were picked up by us, and lived long enough to tell the story of their cowardly murder by Lieutenant Pointer, of Wheeler's staff, and his cut- throat crew. It was demonstrated to a mathematical certainty that many of our men were cruelly, brutally, inhumanly, unsol- dierly and cowardly murdered, after they were disarmed and wholly powerless to defend themselves. Lieutenant Pointer him- self shot William Catnach, of Company B, after he was disarmed and a prisoner ; and, Catnach not falling at the first fire, and while Catnach was pleading for his life, the cowardly villain shot him again, the last shot passing through his lungs, and being a mortal wound. Catnach was brought back to the hospital, and told his story under oath, and lived until the seventh of May, when he died of his two wounds. William A. Hills, of Company K, famil- iarly known in the Regiment a., Willie Hills, met the same fate. A soldier writes in his diary under this date: " When overpow - ered, Willie delivered up his gun, as ordered. \ Rebel then stepped up to him, after he was disarmed, cursed him, and then placed his gun to Willie's breast and fired. Willie fell dead. This statement is made by a woman living near, and who saw it." Ten dead bodies of our men were gathered up, and the wounded ten- derly borne back to camp. Little squads of officer- and men throughout the Regiment discussed the butchery of the morning, and it was that day very generally believed in the Regiment that the Ninety-Second would never take another prisoner. There was no dismay, but a very general and firm resolve that the butch- ery should be avenged! On the twenty-fourth, three of the wounded men died. In the afternoon, the Regiment held a solemn
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funeral, and placed in one grave seven of the ten men killed at Nickojack ; three were sent home for burial. Lieutenant Colonel B. F. Sheets and Major John H. Bohn, their resignations having been accepted, bade good-bye to the Regiment, and started for "God's country." They were excellent officers, and the Regi- ment parted with them with much regret. On the twenty-ninth of April, the Regiment moved at two A. M., with the Division, through Ringgold Gap, to the south side of Taylor's Ridge, on a reconnoissance. The cavalry, leading, came to a stand, at the first Rebel picket post; and the Ninety-Second. with their Spen- cers, was called upon to clear the road of the enemy, and did so. The Rebel papers reported twenty of the enemy killed. The Ninety-Second lost three ; one killed, and two mortally wounded. On the thirtieth, the Regiment was mustered for pay, and re- ceived a special order from General Kilpatrick, complimenting the Regiment for its gallant conduct on the day before.
On the second of May, the Regiment again marched through Ringgold Gap, on a reconnoissance, to Tunnel Hill, with the Division, the Ninety-Second leading, General Baird's division of infantry moving out through the Gap, in support of the cavalry. Kilpatrick wanted to dash onto the first picket post, and follow them right into their camps on a run, a nice thing to have done : but it was utterly impossible where the roads passed through mountain gorges, and were barricaded every twenty rods. Just before daylight, the first shot was fired by the enemy at the Ninety-Second advance: and, with a yell, the men put spurs to their horses, and dashed forward. The enemy fled; but the Ninety-Second was soon halted by an impassable barricade that required some time to remove. The Ninety-Second kept on, and drove the enemy from three separate barricades, charging each one in front. The enemy made the next stand at a log house, with a long stretch of open field and road in front. The Colonel halted the advance, and sent a squad, dismounted, through the woods, to flank the house and come up in the rear of it. It required a little time; and Kilpatrick, impatient, and as reckless of the lives of his men as he was of his own, came up to the advance, and found the Colonel seated on the ground, quietly smoking his meer. schaum pipe. He demanded the reason why the advance was halted, and the reason was explained to him. He waited a minute or two, and then said: " Well, we can't wait, fooling around here: forward the advance." The Colonel replied: " All right; forward it is, then." But the Spencer Rifles of the flanking party
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opened at that instant; and, with the advance, the General dashed up to the log house, without receiving a shot from the enemy, whom the flanking party had routed; and five of the enemy were left dead to tell the effectiveness of our Spencers. Then the cavalry took the advance, and, a mile farther on, found the enemy occupying a wooded hill, with an open field in their front; and, of course, the Ninety-Second was sent for ; and the order was to dis- mount, and come forward on the double-quick. The Regiment was dismounted, and went forward. The Colonel was directed, by General Kilpatrick, to take the hill; he rode forward, and reconnoitered the position, and saw that, by moving through the woods a short distance, he could flank it, and avoid the approach over the open field under the enemy's fire, and therefore turned the head of the Regiment into the woods. The enemy saw the Regiment filing into the woods, and sent a straggling fire of musketry, at random, where the Regiment was marching: and Captain Preston, of Company D, as brave an officer as there was in the Regiment, but not the coolest, ordered the Regiment to charge, and away it went over the open field. The Colonel knew that the men could not double-quick over that field, and then charge up the steep, wooded hill occupied by the enemy : and, with Adjutant Lawver, Captain Hawk, and perhaps other mounted officers, rode out in front of the Regiment, and ordered the men to go at a walk, and dress their line on the colors, so that they would have breath and strength to make the final charge up the hill; but, before the Regiment was at the foot of the hill, the enemy retreated. The mounted officers dashed to the top, and put in a few pistol shots at the retreating foe. We had now nearly reached the camps of the enemy; their long wagon train was winding over Tunnel Hill; their cavalry drawn up in line of battle, five or eight thousand of them in plain sight. A battery of artillery tossed shell at them ; and, to make the enemy think that Sherman's whole army was after them, the Ninety-Second marched round and round in a circle, passing, every few minutes. over the bold brow of the hill, and back through the woods out of sight of the enemy, so that it must have appeared to the enemy like regiment after regiment of infantry, filing into the woods, as the stream of men over the brow of the hill was continuou -. and the regimental colors repeatedly passing, always in the same direction. Having demonstrated that the enemy had no infantry north of Tunnel Hill, the object of the reconnaissance was accom- plishd, and the command returned to camp, the Ninety. Second
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holding the rear. When within a mile or two of Ringgold Gap, the enemy grew very bold, and attacked the rear with considera- ble force, and with great energy. The entire Regiment faced about in line of battle, mounted, in an orchard, with an open field in front. The enemy had a line of battle, on a hill beyond the field, and a squad of the enemy occupied a wooded hill, on our left flank, and annoyed us with their sharp shooting. General Kilpatrick led a charge of cavalry against the enemy in front, but the cavalry he was leading didn't charge as fast as the General, and, Kilpatrick having his horse shot, the cavalry retreated. General Kilpatrick inquired if the Ninety-Second could charge on horseback and take that hill, and was told that it could try, and it did try ; and it took the hill, and held it. A considerable force of the enemy had passed into a corn field, through a gap in the line of hills; it looked like a column of two or three hundred, and two companies of the Ninety-Second were sent to cut them off from returning. After a while, there was considerable music made by the Spencers in that corn-field, but the Ninety-Second took no prisoners that day. Few of the enemy that went into that corn-field ever came out of it again. "Boys, remember Nickojack," was the battle-cry, but it never was afterward. The massacre at Nickojack was terribly avenged! The Regiment was satisfied, and never afterward was Nickojack revengefully mentioned in the Ninety-Second, but always sadly and sorrow- fully. The hill was held until General Kilpatrick ordered the Regiment to withdraw, and it passed on through Ringgold Gap, and into camp, without another shot being fired by the enemy. The camps about Ringgold were rapidly filling up; and, from the top of Taylor's Ridge, it looked at night, when the camp-fires were lighted, like a great city, the bright lights gleaming for iniles and miles. On the fifth, heavy columns of troops moved through Ringgold Gap. On this day, a meeting of the officers of the Regiment was held, which is explained in the following :
" RINGGOLD, GA., May 5th, 1864.
" At a meeting of the officers of the Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, held on the fourth instant, Captain J. M. Schermerhorn, of Company G, being called to the Chair, and Adjutant I. C. Lawver elected Secretary, on motion of Captain Van Buskirk, a committee, consisting of Captains E. T. E. Becker, of Company I, H. J. Smith, of Company B, and Lieutenant G. R. Skinner, of Company D, was appointed to draft resolutions
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expressive of the universal regret experienced at parting with our late Lieutenant Colonel and Major, and of the high esteem in which their memory is cherished by the Regiment. The fol- lowing are the resolutions as reported and unanimously adopted :
" WHEREAS, Circumstances over which they had no control have made it necessary for our much esteemed Lieutenant Colo- nel, B. F. Sheets, and Major, John H. Bohn, to sever their con- nection with our Regiment; and
" WHEREAS, It seems to us not improper to express our regret in this public manner; therefore
" Resolved, That in taking final leave of us, they carry with them the best wishes of all, both officers and men, who have, for over twenty months, served under their gallant leadership.
" Resolved, That by uniform kindness, wholesome discipline, and soldierly bearing, they have endeared themselves to every officer and man in their command, and bound us together with ties of friendship which cannot be broken while memory shall last.
" Resolved. That the Secretary be instructed to request the papers of Carroll, Ogle, and Stephenson Counties, Illinois, to publish the above resolutions.
" J. M. SCHERMERHORN, President.
" J. C. LAWYER, Secretary."
On the sixth of May, orders came to be ready to march in a movement of the whole army, on the morning of the seventh of May, IS64. The movement on the morrow was to be a move- ment of all of Sherman's troops in that immediate vicinity; that is, a general advance, and in exact harmony with the whole forces of the United States; Banks.moving, at the same time, in the Department of the Gulf, and Grant on Richmond. Sher. man had the Army of the Cumberland, Major General Thomas : Intantry, 54, 568; artillery, 2,377: cavalry, including the Ninety- Second, of course, 3,S2S-total, 60,773: guns, 130. Army of the Tennessee, Major General McPherson : Infantry, 22,437 ; artillery, 1.404: cavalry, 624-total, 24,465; guns, 96. Army of the Ohio, Major General J. M. Schofield, of Freeport, Illinois: Infantry, 11, IS3: cavalry, 1,697; artillery, 679: guns, 2S-total, 13.559. Grand total: Infantry, SS, ISS; cavalry, 6,149; artillery, 4,460; guns, 254: men of all arms, 98,779. Marched, at three A. M., with the Division, and crossed Taylor's Ridge, at Nickojack. Skir- mished with the enemy all day, after crossing Taylor's Ridge.
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Companies K and C drove the enemy, after a brisk little fight, across a creek, on the left of Hooker's corps. Camped at Gordon's Gap.
Sunday, May eighth, marched to Vilanow, and drove in a Rebel picket. McPherson's corps passed Vilanow for Snake Creek Gap and Reseca, General Dodge's division leading ; and if that division, on'striking Reseca, had have pushed into the town instead of Dodging back to the mouth of Snake Creek Gap and fortifying, Jo Johnston's Rebel army would have been bagged. May tenth, marched at noon to Snake Creek Gap, five miles, and camped behind the infantry. There were heavy earth works thrown up by Dodge's troops across the Gap, facing toward Res- eca. It rained terribly during the night. On the eleventh, the Ninety-Second lay in camp, sending detachments to scout to Lay's Ferry and Calhoun Ferry over the Oostanaula. On the twelfth, a portion of the Division, under command of General Kilpatrick, the Ninety-Second leading, made a reconnoissance toward Dal. ton, and, with some fighting, drove the enemy about three miles, and held them until McPherson's corps had advanced two miles and thrown up breastworks. On the thirteenth, the Division marched at daylight, with orders to take and hold the cross-roads west of Reseca, to enable the infantry to deploy on the roads. The Tenth Ohio Cavalry charged the picket of the enemy at the cross-roads, and drove them back. In this charge the brave and dashing commander of the Division, General Judson Kilpatrick, was wounded, and the command of the Division fell to Colonel Eli II. Murray, a brave soldier, and the command of the Brigade devolved upon the Colonel of the Ninety-Second. The Ninety- Second was dismounted and formed in line, and pushed consider- ably beyond the cross-roads, taking position behind a fence, with a field in their front; the enemy, dismounted, attempted to charge over the field and drive the Regiment back, but they were scarcely out of the woods and in the open field, when the fire of the Ninety - Second Spencers drove them back. Rebel soldiers, tied in tree-, were sharpshooting, and one, immediately in front of the Ninety- Second, was discovered and killed by a Spencer ball, and his gun dropped out of his hand, and his body fell to the ground. Many of the enemy, at Reseca, were so securely fastened in the trees that their dead bodies remained there for days after the bat- tle was over, and until cut down and buried by our troops. The Regiment lay in the position described, holding the road to Res- eca, a mile and a half distant. until the infantry deployed; and the
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