USA > Illinois > Ninety-Second Illinois Volunteers > Part 9
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 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
9í
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
but has been detached, by special order of General Rosecrans, making a special selection of the Ninety-Second, without any solicitation or knowledge on our part. Nothing but the good reputation we bear could have secured to us this high and hon- ored position. The Spencer Repeating Rifle is the arm we are to use. With the Spencer Rifle one hundred men are as effect- ive as five hundred with the Enfield. Our saddles are here. Four hundred and forty horses will be here by noon; and four companies are now over Duck River, under charge of that excel- lent and efficient officer and gentleman, Captain Horace J. Smith, of Oregon. Six companies are here waiting for the equipments which Lieutenant Colonel Sheets, now at Nashville, is pushing forward as rapidly as possible. You may expect to hear of sharp work from us soon, as our position (mounted infantry) will keep us to the front of the invincible and advancing Army of the Cumberland." On the nineteenth, the Ninety-Second, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Sheets, made its first march on horseback, seven miles to Duck River, and joined Wilder's brigade. Colonel Atkins was ordered, by telegraphic dispatch from General Gordon Granger, to remain in command of the brigade of infantry, which he had commanded more than six months. He took the position that none but a department com- mander could issue such an order, and as the department com- mander had detached his Regiment from the reserve corp., he was also detached from that corps, and on the twenty-first, dis- regarding Granger's order, he turned over the command of the brigade to Colonel T. E. Champion, of the 96th Illinois, and himself joined the Ninety-Second, and assumed command of the Regiment. On the twenty-second. a' detail of two hundred mounted men was ordered from the Ninety-Second to report to Colonel John J. Funkhouser, of the 9Sth Illinois mounted in- fantry, to scout along Duck River, and pick up animals and able- bodied contrabands. Colonel .Atkins took command of the detail, and reported to Colonel Funkhouser the entire detail under Colonel Funkhouser, amounting to six hundred. On the twenty- fifth, three hundred and eighty horses arrived from Nashville for the Ninety-Second. On the twenty-sixth, at two P. M., the Regiment marched, with Wilder's brigade, fifteen miles, to Tullahoma. On the twenty-seventh, marched to Dechard, with brigade, and joined division of Major General J. J. Reynolds, 4th division, 14th army corps, Major General George H. Thomas commanding. On the twenty-eighth, Colonel Atkins returned
1
92
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
with captured animals. The detail had a gala time of it; the column marched west, on the north side of Duck River, through Shelbyville, and as far west as Hickman county, capturing all the horses and mules and able-bodied contrabands in the country. Scouting parties were sent by Colonel Funkhouser along the south side of the river, capturing all they could, but moving rapidly, and spreading the report that they were the advance of a column marching west on the south of the river. The citizens would gather up their stock and contrabands, and make for the north side of Duck River, to escape capture, and run into the very column they were attempting to escape. The results of the expedition were the capture of fifty Rebel soldiers, found home on furlough; between sixteen and seventeen hundred horses and mules, the horses to mount our men upon, the mules for the wagon trains; and eight hundred able-bodied,negroes, for muster into a colored regiment. On the thirtieth, the camp was moved to better grounds, the camp regularly laid out, policed and adorned with evergreens. The strictest discipline was enforced. A soldier, in his diary, under date of July thirty-first, 1863, writes: " Not much of anything to do, but water, feed, groom and graze our horses. In the evening we had dress parade, by Regiment, when something less than a thousand orders were read to us, concerning roll-call, drills, feeding and watering our horses, and a great many other things too numerous to mention. They were so arranged as to keep a soldier busy every hour in the day, from half past four in the morning until nine o'clock at night. This we find to be the effect of lying in camp, where the officers have nothing to do but inanufacture orders." The Regiment was all mounted, and on the first of August, all the Spencers not in use in the other regiments of Wilder's brigade were turned over to the Ninety-Second, enough to arm three companies, and the lucky companies getting them were D, E and F. In the forenoon of the second, there was inspection; in the afternoon, regimental drill; in the evening, dress parade. The soldiers did not fancy the drill and discipline, especially as the other regiments of mounted infantry paid no attention to drill, discipline or cleanli- ness of camp, and a soldier, in his diary, writes: " This is what makes the thing military." The blacksmiths were busy shoeing and branding the captured animals. On the fourth of August, the Regiment held its first inspection on horseback. The sixth was observed as a day of thanksgiving, agreeably to the procla- mation of the President, and the thanksgiving dinners were
93
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
composed of green corn, "sow-belly " and " Uncle Abe's plat- form," as the boys called the "hard-tack." The Regiment was , addressed by the Chaplain and Colonel. The weather contiuned intensely hot; on the ninth, a soldier was sun-struck while on duty : on the thirteenth, a soldier writes in his diary: "I was again detailed on head-quarter's guard, and to-day had to stay around to salute officers. It is certainly very disgusting to have to walk backwards and forwards on a beat when the sun pours down as hot as it does in this climate, and at this time of the year, and see the red tape, the military pomp, the West Pointism that is put on at our regimental head-quarters. In the after- noon, it rained, making it a great deal more agreeable and pleasant, as it was not so hot, and there were not so many officers strutting around." Rations and forage were scarce, as " Rosy " was using all the cars to get up hard-tack and ammunition for a move. The men went foraging for their animals and themselves, but the country was soon stripped ; no matter, the army was pre- paring to leave it.
1
94
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHATTANOOGA-OVER THE CUMBER- LAND MOUNTAINS-ARTILLERY PRACTICE AT HARRISON'S LANDING-FIRST SCOUT ON LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN-LEADING THE ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND INTO CHATTANOOGA-CA- TAWBA WINE-FIGHTING FORREST AT RINGGOLD, GEORGIA -REBEL SPIES PRETENDING TO BE DESERTERS-GORDON'S MILL-MARCHING DOWN LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN IN THE STORM AND DARKNESS-SCOUTING ALONG THE CHICAMAUGA BE- FORE THE BATTLE-THE BATTLE OF CHICAMAUGA-HOW MCCOOK'S CORPS WAS SURPRISED AND ROUTED-BACK TO HARRISON'S LANDING-A DYING WOMAN-BACK AGAIN OVER THE CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS-CAPERTON'S FERRY- OFF FOR HUNTSVILLE-JUDGE HAMMOND'S PLANTATION- THE COLD NEW YEAR'S NIGHT, IS64-PULASKI, TENN .- BACK TO HUNTSVILLE-SKIRMISH AT BAINBRIDGE FERRY- FIGHT AT SWEETWATER-TRIANNA-SCOUTING ALONG THE TENNESSEE-DETACHED FROM WILDER'S BRIGADE.
Sunday morning, August sixteenth, 1863, General Rosecrans' army, that, since the advance on Tullahoma and Shelbyville, had been scattered in camps about Dechard and Winchester, north of the Cumberland Mountains, pushed out after Bragg, whose head- quarters were then at Chattanooga, south of the Tennessee River. The main ariny marched to Stevenson, and crossed the Tennessee at Bridgeport and Caperton's Ferry, and swung off through the mountain gorges, to the south and west of the Rebel strong. hold. Wilder's brigade of mounted infantry, Minty's brigade of cavalry, and Wagner's brigade of infantry, crossed the Cumberland range into the Tennessee valley north of Chattanooga, with orders to demonstrate strongly, as if contemplating a crossing, at every ford and ferry on the Tennessee. At eleven A. M., the Regiment marched, with Wilder's brigade, toward the mountain that loomed up in the distance, and, in a heavy thunder- shower, climbed up its side over a rocky road, down which the water rushed and roared,
456-1-99
T
95
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
and, after marching twelve miles, camped at University Place, on the mountain-top. The town is celebrated for its mineral springs, and as being the seat of the college over which Bishop Polk, of Tennessee, at that time a Confederate Major General in Bragg's army, had presided. There were many beautiful residences in the place; among thein Bishop Polk's, and the mountain village had been quite a resort in summer for Southern people. A sol- dier, on the seventeenth, writes in his diary: "This morning I took my horse to graze on a spot high enough to overlook the valley below. Beneath where I stood, over the valley hung a heavy cloud, and where it hung, no portion of the valley could be seen; and, looking from above on the clouds beneath me, I com- pared the scene to a storm-tossed ocean. One cloud would be higher than another, and all in constant motion, like the changing billows of the sea, and all moving slowly down the valley. Such a beautiful sight of the marvelous works of nature I never be- fore looked upon. By and by, as the sun approached the zenith, the clouds lifted higher and higher, until I could see the long winding valley, as it stretched far off in the distance. It looked to me like the prettiest land in the world, and as if the happiest people on earth might reside there. But, alas! when I marched through the valley, how different the scene! Deserted log cab- ins, a few only occupied by negroes that lived as best they could. War had laid its destructive hand upon the valley. Hu- man habitations were deserted, and even the birds refused to sing, and nothing was heard but the neighing of horses, braying of mules, the rumble of cannon wheels and wagon trains." On the seventeenth, the Regiment marched about twenty miles, and camped, still on the mountain. On the eighteenth, marched early, passed Tracy City, a coal-mining town, and again camped on the mountain. Marched at seven o'clock, on the morning ot the nineteenth, and, a little after noon, descended into the Se- quatchie Valley. On going down the mountain, the advance had a brisk little skirmish with the enemy, and camped carly. Com- pany A was on picket on the Jasper road, and was fired upon by the enemy, when Colonel Wilder sent out four companies of the 17th Indiana, who killed one, and wounded one, of the enemy and captured eight prisoners. AAnother party, sent out by Colonel Wilder on another road, surprised a party of Rebel conscript officers in a church, killed two, wounded four, and captured twenty ; among them eight Union men, three of whom had been sentenced to be shot the next day, but whose lives were saved by
3
96
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
the whole party being captured by the Yankees. These moun - tainous regions were full of Union men, and the vilest scum of the Rebel army was sent to conscript them into the Rebel ser. vice. The atrocities committed by the conscripting parties surpassed belief. They were too cowardly to fight in battle, but ferociously brutal toward the defenseless Union inen who fell into their power. The Union men in the mountain regions of Tennessee carried their lives in their hands. On the twen- tieth, two companies of the Ninety-Second were sent back to Tracy City to guard the supply trains. The mountain is about twenty-five hundred feet high, and it is two miles up the steep and winding road from the valley to the mountain top. On the twenty-first, the brigade crossed Walden's Ridge, a continuation of Lookout Mountain on the north side of the river, and camped at Poe's Tavern, in the valley of the Tennessee. The scenery, from the top of Walden's Ridge above Poe's Tavern, is very beautiful. Below lies the valley of the Tennessee, some ten miles broad, through which the river winds like a thread ot silver; off to the south lies the city of Chattanooga, twelve miles distant. As the Regiment commenced descending, a party of officers dismounted, and standing on a jutting rock that appar- ently was overhanging the valley, they could, with a field glass. plainly see the streets of Chattanooga, swarming with the army wagons of Bragg's army. On the river, ten miles above the city, was seen a little steamer, flying the Confederate flag. slowly moving northward. The day was beautiful, and the officers lingered until shouts in the valley called them to join the Regiment. On the twenty-second, Colonel Wilder marched down the valley toward Chattanooga, leaving the Ninety-Second and two pieces of rifled artillery to scout the country, and demonstrate at the fords and ferries above and be- low Dallas, on the Tennessee. The Regiment marched to Har- rison's Landing. . \ Rebel picket was found on the top of the hill where the road commences to descend to the Tennessee River. but rapidly fell back, and crossed in a flat-boat to the other side The enemy had a fort on the hill, back some distance from the water-front, in which were mounted three pieces of artillery ; and close to the bank of the river were rifle pits, along the top of which the gray coated soldiers were leisurely pacing. . \ large frame house stood on the bank of the river, on the side occupied by the Ninety-Second, in the yard of which the Colonel stood. examining the Rebel works across the river with his glass, when
97
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
the Rebel officer of the day, with his sash across his shoulder, rode down the hill from the fort, rapidly dismounted and kneeled under a tree, on the opposite side of the river, and the Colonel was endeavoring to discover what he was doing, when a puff of white smoke informed him that the Rebel officer was firing a rifle, and soon after the leaden messenger passed over the Colonel, through the side of the house, and through the arm of William C. Patterson, a member of Company D, the first soldier in the Ninety-Second to be hit by the enemy. The men of the Ninety- Second took position along the river's edge, and, concealed by the undergrowth, opened a fire on the sentries leisurely pacing on top of the Rebel rifle-pits, who quit marching their beats. The Enfields would not carry across the river without a double charge of powder, but the Spencers, with which three companies were armed, carried over very accurately. The men of the Ninety-Second had the advantage; they were concealed from the view of the enemy by the undergrowth along the river's edge, and their position could only be guessed by the puff of white smoke from their rifles; while, if the enemy put their heads above the bare earth-work they were behind, they made fair marks for our men. After practicing at long range across the Tennessee for an hour, the Regiment withdrew and returned to the vicinity of Poe's Tavern. A scouting party up the river found a small Rebel steamer concealed in a creek, and burned it. On Sunday, August twenty-third, the Ninety-Second lay in camp, listening to the guns of Wilder, Minty, and Wagner, shel- ling Chattanooga from the north side of the river. On the next day, the Ninety-Second returned to Harrison's Landing, and planted two pieces of artillery on the hill; the three cannon of the enemy in their fort were plainly discernable, the Rebel gun- ners sitting on the parapet, smoking and whittling, out of the range of musketry. The enemy had cut hazel brush and willows, and thickly covered the top of their rifle-pits at the water-front with them. We could not see their heads when they fired as we could before, when the earth-work was bare. The Lieutenant of the artillery was a long time in getting ready, and when the Colonel urged him to hurry up, and give them a few shots, the Lieutenant said he was waiting to get the range; he wanted a man to stand up on the parapet of the Rebel fort, and let him look at him through a little brass instrument the Lieu- tenant held in his hand, by which he could tell the distance within a few feet. An accommodating Rebei soon stood up for a
12
98
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
moment, and the Lieutenant sighted him with his instrument, took out a paper and figured a while with a pencil, carefully cut two shells, and loaded his pieces, sighted them, apparently at the sky, and let them both off at once. The smoke cleared away, and not a gun or Rebel could be seen again about that fort. The Colonel tried his hand at sighting artillery. The first shell he fired went into the Tennessee River ; the second bursted in the air far beyond the Rebel fort. He gave it up, and the Lieuten- ant of artillery kept up the firing leisurely. for an hour or more, the enemy not replying. It was not known then what injury our artillery had done, but a copy of the Daily Chattanooga Rebel, printed the next day, contained a statement that the first two shots, fired with so much care by the Lieutenant of artillery, had dismounted one of the Rebel guns, and killed four Rebel soldiers. The Regiment moved up to Dallas, and let fly a few shots from the artillery at a Rebel picket post on the opposite side of the ferry, and scattered it into the woods out of range, when the command returned to the Chattanooga road, a few miles south of Poe's Tavern, and encamped, and lay there, scouting to the various ferries along the Tennessee River, until the fourth of September. Men and animals subsisted entirely upon the country, and the only food procurable was green corn, unripe sweet potatoes, and green peaches, and as the men were generally in bad health when leaving Dechard, there was fear that their diet would soon put the entire Regiment into the hospi- tal; but directly the reverse was true; their vegetable diet agreed with them, and by the fourth of September the men of the Regi- ment were in robust health. The enemy at Harrison's Landing would sometimes send over the ferry boat after daylight, and. occasionally, a squad of Rebel horsemen, who would come out to our pickets, fire a shot or two, and hasten back. One morning. at one o'clock, a detail went to Harrison's with instructions to dismount, and approach through the woods, dividing in two parties, one some distance from the Landing, and one near it, and to keep concealed in the thickets. Soon after sunrise the con- cealed men heard the Rebels hallooing across, and they were soon answered by the women in the house, at the Landing, waving a handkerchief, the signal, that no Yanks were about. Six horse. men, and a few dismounted men, soon entered the flat-boat and paddled slowly across the river. The Rebel horsemen mounted and rode up to the house, conversed with the women, and can- tiously kept on up the road, when the party below them stepped
81
99
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
into the road behind them, and another party in front of them. They saw they were trapped, and did not attempt to fight, but quietly surrendered. The men then charged tor the ferry boat, but the Rebels in it shoved it from shore, laid down, and paddled with one hand over the side of the flat-boat; it floated off down the river, slowly making for the other shore. The house on the river bank caught fire and burned down. On the third of Sep- tember, 1863, company K was on picket duty on the north bank of the Tennessee River, opposite Harrison's Landing ; the enemy, in their rifle-pits, on the other side of the river, kept up a pro- miscuous firing. Company K replied with spirit, wounding, as the company believed, many of the gray-coats. In the firing, James Mullarky, a brave and faithfull soldier of Company K, was wounded, being the second man in the Ninety-Second to be hit with Rebel lead, and he still carries the Rebel musket-ball in his arm. On the fourth of September, the Ninety-Second reported to Colonel Wilder, near Chattanooga, and found that it had been ordered to report to General Thomas, for scouting duty, he hav- ing no mounted men with him, all being with Wilder and Minty on the left of the army, or with McCook on the right. The Regi- ment, with two brass guns, moved immediately to Thurman, where Major Bohn, with Companies I and H, with wagon train, joined the Regiment. Moved early the next morning, marched twenty-two miles down the Sequatchie valley. The valley is usually not more than three or four miles wide, and walled in by very high and exceedingly abrupt mountain ranges, the bare rocky walls, in places, rising twenty-five hundred feet above the valley: the river is a beautiful mountain stream, and the bottom lands very fertile. It seems to be the natural home of the weeping willow, and the most beautiful specimens of that grace- ful tree were seen, some of them of enormous growth, their long pendant branches nearly sweeping the earth. Camped at Jasper. Marched at daylight next morning, crossed the Tennessee on the pontoon bridge at Bridgeport, and marching ten miles on the south side of the river, went into camp at Cave Spring, where the Rebels had extensive saltpeter works, leaching the earth gathered from the floors of the huge cave in the mountain. Some of the men and officers went far into the cave; and the band played, expecting the cave to give back wonderful echoes, but it didn't. Marched on the seventh, at daylight, climbed and crossed Raccoon Mountain, and down into Trenton valley. Marched again at daylight, and reported to General Thomas at about ten
.
-
11
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
o'clock in the morning, in Trenton valley, and was, by him, directed to report to Major General Reynolds, who directed the Colonel to put his Regiment into camp, and shoe his horses. The animals were in bad condition. At one o'clock, a detail of fifty men, on picked horses, under Captain Van Buskirk, of Company E, was sent on a scout to the top of Lookout Mountain. They climbed the west side of the rugged mountain by an unused bridle-path, the first blue-coated soldiers ever on Lookout, pushed the Rebel pickets to Summertown, in plain sight of Chattanooga, and returned about ten o'clock at night, with authentic information of the evacuation of Chattanooga by Bragg's army. The Colonel was ordered to report to General Rosecrans, who gave him written orders to take the advance into Chattanooga, marching at four o'clock, on the morning of the ninth, with orders to all infantry commanders to give the Ninety- Second the road; and the Colonel was directed to go into the town of Chattanooga, and send General Rosecrans prompt information ; and then to return with his Regiment and report to General Rosecrans; and as they parted General Rosecrans said : "The flag of the Ninety-Second will wave first in Chattanooga."
The Regiment marched promptly, and passed long lines of infantry that gave the road, until the Colonel came up to the di- vision of General Wood. The Colonel rode forward and showed his orders to General Wood, who criticised them and hesitated, but finally halted his command. and the Ninety-Second passed through it. The enemy's pickets were struck at the foot of Lookout, and pushed along up the mountain. Company F way dismounted, and on foot, from behind the rocks and trees, gave back shot for shot to the gray-coats sullenly falling back in front of them, until the mountain top was reached, when Wilder's artillery, from Moccasan Point, on the north side of the river, sent its screaming shells into our ranks. The skirmish line halted, and two volunteers, from the Ninety-Second, good · swimmers, were directed to swim the Tennessee, and inform our brigade battery that its shells were bursting among the men of its own brigade ; but a soldier who had served in the signal corps was along, and, tieing his white handkerchief by the corners to a couple of straight hazel-sticks, he soon acquainted the troops over the river with the situation, and the battery ceased firing, and the Ninety-Second's skirmish line pushed on. Just at this juncture, a staff officer of General Wood rode up to the Colonel and said: "General Wood directs that you report to him." The
101
NINETY-SECOND ILLINOIS.
Colonel ordered the skirmish line and Regiment to push along, and then rode back to the head of Wood's division of infantry, and said to General Wood: " Did you send for me?" Wood re- plied : " Yes, Colonel; I wanted to say to you, that if you have any difficulty I will reinforce you." The Colonel replied : " Oh, is that all?" and again returned to the head of the Ninety. Second, and found it just commencing the descent into the Chattanooga valley. The Regimental colors were sent forward to the advance, and it was ordered to go at a gallop from the foot of the mountain into Chattanooga. Soon afterward, General Wood rode up to the head of the column, accompanied by one of his Brigade Commanders, with his brigade colors, but without any troops, who dashed ahead; but the colors of the Ninety- Second with Company F were already flying through the valley, two miles ahead of Wood's Brigade Commander. General Wood told the Colonel that he must go to Rossville with the Ninety-Second, and not send any of his troops into the town ; but was pointed to the column of dust in the valley creeping rapidly toward Chattanooga, and told that the advance of the Ninety. Second would be in the town within five minutes. At ten o'clock A. M. of September 9th, 1863, the flag of the Ninety-Second was waving over the Crutchfield House, the first Union flag to wave in Chattanooga, as General Rosecrans had predicted, not- withstanding Wood's efforts to detain the Regiment. The remainder of the Regiment broke into a gallop at the foot of the mountain, and was soon in Chattanooga. Scouts were sent out on all the roads. Two companies went as far as Rossville, skir. mishing with the Rebels falling back. Negroes and citizens were brought to the Colonel, and the completest information gathered regarding the evacuation, and an account of a rumor among negroes and whites that Bragg was to be reinforced from the Rebel army in front of Richmond, and give Rosecrans battle shortly, sent, by special courier, to General Rosecrans. At twelve o'clock, General Crittenden arrived in Chattanooga. At one o'clock, having rested horses and men in the railroad depot at Chattanooga, the Ninety-Second was preparing, as ordered to do, to return and report to General Rosecrans in Trenton valley, when General Crittenden sent for the Colonel, and commanded him to proceed with his Regiment to the mouth of the Chica- mauga, north-east of Chattanooga, and drive away the enemy, so that Colonel Wilder, with the balance of the brigade, could cross the Tennessee there. The Regiment moved at once, under the
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.