USA > Illinois > The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865 > Part 12
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Upon the first alarm Quartermaster Janes and his assist- ants, Fisher and Capron, with the detailed men under them,
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
proceeded with great diligence to load the stores and bag- gage of the regiment upon the numerous wagons at hand. The train, after being made up, followed the brigade toward the crossing of Locust Creek, but fortunately, just before battle was joined in that quarter, countermarched and reached the landing in safety, though at some peril. A few minutes' delay would have involved them between the lines in a very severe conflict near the camp of the Seventy-first Ohio. It is to the wise forethought and industry of the above named that the officers of the Fifty-fifth are mainly indebted for the safety of their baggage.
C. C. Davis of Company G, who was acting as postmaster, thus describes his somewhat peculiar adventures:
I had franked about two hundred and fifty letters, and asked the officer of the day whether I should destroy my mail if there was any danger of my being captured. He declined to give any advice, and taking matches to burn the letters if necessary, I started for the landing and succeeded in reaching it in safety. I then assisted a wounded man on board, and started to go to my regiment. I met several demoralized soldiers running away, one of whom said to me, " No use, the day is lost!" He seated himself on a log and offered me a gun, which I accepted, with his cartridge box which he buckled around me, saying that he "had fired ten rounds and had thirty left." Looking at his cap I found he was a sergeant of Company G, Sixteenth Wisconsin. Walking rapidly I arrived at the peach orchard, where none of our regiment were to be found; waiting a few moments I saw a rebel regiment march on to our camp-ground from the woods, who, when they found it deserted, gave three lusty cheers, the color-sergeant raising his rebel flag high in air at each one. I aimed at him and fired, when immediately numerous rebels who were scattered among the scrub oaks near commenced firing at me. I retreated to get out of their range, until I came upon what proved to be the Ninth Illinois Infantry, where I remained firing until wounded by a sharp-shooter off to my left. I was shot a trifle below the knee by a musket ball which passed through,-was carried off by two of the Ninth Illinois musicians and placed in the camp of the Fifth Ohio Cavalry, where I remained till near sunset, when I was placed in a wagon and carried to the landing.
The above affords a glimpse of the Fifty-fifth camp- ground after that regiment left it, and furnishes also an · instance of personal heroism. The matters described indub- itably prove not only the truthfulness, but the accuracy of Davis. The wound left him a hopeless cripple for life.
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SERGEANT BAGLEY'S DEATH.
The following has before been printed, and is here quoted for the purpose of paying a tribute to a gallant soldier who lost his life in helping another :
All at once in front of me, by a big elm tree, stood Parker B. Bagley, orderly-sergeant of Company B, of our regiment. He exclaimed, "Crooker, are you hurt, too?" and I fell down by the tree, and faintly asked for water. He had a full canteen, and placed it to my lips. It seemed as though new life was given. He then told me he had been to the rear to help his nephew, and was on his way back to the regiment. I told him it was gone, and to go further that way meant capture. Mean- while the bullets from distant firing were singing through the air high overhead, and the steady crackling of musketry, deepened by the boom of innumerable cannon, made the diapason of battle complete. Presently a bullet hit the tree just overhead, indicating the necessity of moving. Getting upon hands and knees, I tried to stand up, but could not. With wounds stiffened and limbs swollen, I subsided with a groan at the foot of the tree. Bagley came to my side and put his arms around me, and 1 clambered up at his right side, clinging to his strong manly form for sup- port. Thus slowly and painfully we dragged our way for a few rods. He reached his left hand in front of his body to take me by the arm, and the movement pulled up his blouse sleeve and disclosed a bandage around that arm. I exclaimed, "Good God ! Bagley, are you hit? Then leave me." His reply is remembered well; they were the last words of a hero; they were uttered with the last breath of a man who lost his life helping me save mine; they are burned into my memory by the one great tragedy of a life-time. These words were : "That does not amount to anything; lean on me just as heavily as you have a mind to; I feel just as well as I ever did." Instantly rang out clear and distinct from the edge of the ravine, a rifle shot. A burning sensation passed along my back, and we fell together -- two quivering, bleeding human beings. The bullet of the assassin fired at me, a wounded man, hit me crosswise under the shoulder, and passed on, killing poor Bagley. He fell, and, lying beneath him, I could feel his hot blood run down my side, and hearing his dying groan knew that the life of a hero was ended. A brave, stalwart human being as was ever made in the image of his Maker, lay dead beside me.
That excellent soldier, Robert Oliver, is again quoted. After describing the death of Lieutenant Hodges, as before given, he continues as follows:
Ainsbury was badly wounded through the thigh. I had got him some ways when Sergeant O. H. Partch caught up to me, with a terrible wound in the right arm. He said, "Oliver, I will take Ainsbury; I have one sound arın, but I can't shoot, and you can." As I was going back, and reached the spur of the ridge in the rear of our position, I met one of either Com- pany Cor Company I, but cannot remember who. He was badly wounded;
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
and I took him a short distance, and left him with some one. I wanted to get back to the front, but when I got to the ridge in rear of where we fought, I could see nothing but rebels over there. My first impression was that the Fifty-fifth had all been taken prisoners. I then started to run, when some one called out, "For God's sake! Robert, don't leave me." I looked back and saw James D. Goodwin of my company. He had every thing off but his pants and shirt, and was as red as if he had been dipped in a barrel of blood. I said, "Never! put your arm around my neck, and I will do the best I can for you." The rebels were very close all around us, but I felt strong enough to pull up all the young sap- lings that grew on the battle-field. While I was taking him back he was hit either once or twice. When I got him to the river, a short distance from where the gunboats were firing, I found a surgeon, and upon cutting the shirt off Goodwin, to my horror there were seven bullet-holes in that boy, not yet seventeen years old. I never could tell this experience un- less there would something come up in my throat to cut off my speech for a time. From the minute I took hold of him until I got to the river, he never murmured nor broke down. Whenever he was hit he gave a sudden start, and then braced up again; I never saw such nerve. He died on May 8th, the noblest boy I ever saw.
Sergeant C. P. Lacey of Company B, whose careful work has been of the greatest assistance to all the authors, and who helped bury the dead after Shiloh, is quoted in the fol- lowing incident :
Down in the ravine sat our Company B bugler, George G. Farwell, leaning against a tree and holding in his extended hand an open letter, which he was apparently reading. His form was rigid in death, and his last moment came while reading the last letter received from his wife. He had been mortally wounded, and had sought that position before dying. His bugle had been cut from his person, leaving the cord around his neck.
It will require no great effort of memory for all to recall Joe Edwards, the pugnacious little drummer of Company I. Like most of the musicians, he had fled from the command of "Waukegan" to the ranks, bound to take an active part in the conflict. From that dire intent he was compelled to desist by the chaplain, who took charge of the musicians and organized them into a hospital corps. In that band "little Joe" worked like a hero all day, and among other adventures had the good fortune to assist his uncle, Colonel Hicks of the Fortieth Illinois, who was grievously wounded.
125
THE SKIRMISHERS.
Darkness came and found the boy doing his best at the hos- pital near the landing. Exhausted by the excitement and severe labor of the day, he finally lay down upon the ground outside the little log building, and went to sleep. As wounded soldiers died one by one, during the night, they were taken out and laid upon the ground in rows, to make more room for the living. Some hospital attendants, bearing their bloody burden, saw Joe asleep, and supposing him dead, lay the corpse down beside him. This was followed by others, and when morning dawned and the tired drummer awakened, he found himself at the head of a ghastly array, of which he alone was living, and from which he quickly fled.
During the conflict on Sunday a musket ball ploughed through the scalp of James Garner of Company C, which stunned and prostrated him. About half an hour afterward he recovered sufficiently to rise to his fect, but consciousness of the situation dawned slowly. Just as the regiment com- menced to retreat, one of his comrades called out to him, "Come, Jim, we are going back;" to which Jim replied, "Ain't I killed?" His commanding officer, Lieutenant Shaw, adds that Garner, "on being assured that he was not killed, joined in the retreat, and ever after, as before, proved himself a live soldier in every respect."
Every effort has been made to trace the course of the skirmishers of the Fifty-fifth, who operated for some time in front of the line, and before the main part of the regiment became engaged. Very little that is authentic can be gath- ered at this late day. Companies A and B were early deployed under the command respectively of Captains Augustine and Thurston-two very excellent companies, under good though inexperienced officers. They suffered severe loss while so engaged, the extent of which cannot be stated with certainty. It was here that the excellent soldier, and afterwards valuable officer, J. B. Ridenour of Company A, was severely wounded. The skirmishers of the Fifty- fourth Ohio were on the left of those of the Fifty-fifth, reaching entirely to the river bottom: but Captain Yeomans, who commanded them, says that acting under express orders they did not fire a shot. To the right Company K of the
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
Seventy-first Ohio was engaged, and in and around the log buildings at the left of the Fifty-fifth camp did splendid fighting. It is certain that the main skirmish line never went beyond the banks of Locust Creek, though individuals were sent much farther in advance. This occurred while the enemy were engaged with Prentiss, and before Chalmers and Jackson were detached to meet the imaginary flank movement of Stuart, and at a time when there were no Confederates directly toward the south. Why there were no skirmishers directed southwest, toward the firing and in the only direc- tion from which an attack could come, is as much a mystery as the other numerous eccentricities of that day. William H. Lowe of Company A was one of the videttes referred to, and has told his experience with such evident truthfulness and point, that his words are followed as the best relation attainable of a phase of the conflict occurring out of sight of the regiment :
After the regiment had taken its first position Company A was thrown forward to the creek, which was the outpost for the pickets. Then a part of the company was moved forward on the Hamburgh road, leaving a man about every thirty rods as a connecting link with those in the rear. I was selected by Lieutenant Schleich for the outpost. I think I was a considerable distance from the reserve, was to fire on the approach of the enemy, and was stationed within fifty yards of a house. I desired to go forward to it but Lieutenant S. said not, as all I had to do was to give the aların. I felt at the time that this was a grave mistake, for if I was in the house with orders to hold it, I would do so against the combined rebel army. By this time the battle was terrific on the right and rear. I could tell plainly that our men were drawing them on. I thought at first that the rebels were being drawn into a trap, and that the troops on the right would take them all prisoners and we would be left out of the fight again, as we were at Fort Donelson. I wondered why our officers could not see it, and thought they wanted us for fatigue duty. We enlisted to fight; why not let us at them. My meditations were broken by a man emerging from the brush on the right of the road and going into the house. His hat was down over his eyes and he did not see me, but I was pointed out to him by a woman at the door. He came over to where I was. The tears were coursing down his cheeks. He had been over in the rear of the Confederate army and said they were killing men by thousands. He had been over to get their general to move his family back out of the reach of the battle. I told him that he and his wife had better carry their children back to the rear of our regiment; they would be perfectly safe there. He thanked me and said he had no preference
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BATTLE INCIDENTS.
for either side, and did not know what the war was about. He wanted me to go to his house and get any thing I desired. He insisted on bring- ing me a chunk of pone and some milk, which I declined. I questioned him closely as to how many troops Johnston had, but could get nothing out of him except that there were a "powerful sight." The battle had worked far to the rear, and I began to feel by this time that if our army could draw them into a trap and take them prisoners without me, I would not care much. I had just begun to reconcile myself to this thought, when I was signaled by the man in my rear to rally on the reserve; when about half way back I saw a company of cavalry on the west side of the field to our right. I reached the reserve in safety. We lay down behind a knoll on the north side of the creek. We had not long to wait. The cavalry soon appeared, riding by fours. They came down and formed in line within a short distance of us. At last our bugler could stand it no longer and fired one shot from a revolving rifle, when they broke back and soon were out of sight. Very soon we saw infantry approaching in line of battle. When they were close to the creek they halted, and a second line also appeared in their rear. Captain Augustine gave orders to fire by platoon, which we did, and the battle commenced.
This curiously confirms other information to the effect that the first shot ever fired in battle by the Fifty-fifth was from the celebrated "Methodist-five-shooter" in Company A, in the hands of Vaughan, their bugler. William Reiman, Company B, killed on the skirmish line, was beyond doubt the first man of the Fifty-fifth who lost his life in battle.
Certain incidents then occurring come bubbling up through memory after a lapse of a quarter of a century. The writer had known Lieutenant Shaw in civil life, and regarded him as an excellent citizen, but one not at all demonstrative. There was no reason to doubt his bravery, but he had none of the high-stepping qualities then regarded as evidences of soldierly gifts. He commanded in this battle the color- company and his duties frequently brought him in view. The transformation was wonderful. He was raging like a lion, swinging his sabre and leading men by the collar, on occasion, up to the line. Under his quiet exterior there were hidden qualities of the most inspiring character, as was often afterward tested.
The adjutant was equipped in a dingy, ill-fitting uniform, and had buckled tight around him the full equipments of a slain soldier. Upon his bushy, curly head was one of those Absurd little zouave caps, and in his hand a rifle. During the
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
various formations he performed his official functions on foot, and when done subsided into a rather common-looking private soldier, loading and firing with great deliberation. He was heard vainly beseeching the colonel for the privilege of shooting at the rebel color-bearer before the firing was allowed to commence, and offered to stake his reputation that he could hit him the first time. The emergency of battle had brought certain murderous qualities to the surface that he did not ordinarily seem to possess.
Captain Tim Slattery is remembered as perfectly cool, collected and clear-headed. At one time, exasperated by the conduct of a member of Company G, who persisted in firing from the rear of the line, he rushed down hill, caught him by the collar and thrashed the life half out of him with the flat of his sword.
The dead of the Fifty-fifth were buried on Tuesday and Wednesday by details, mostly voluntary, who went from the bivouacs near Shiloh church for that purpose. The tents in the little peach orchard were found occupied by the Fifty- third Illinois, who had come from Savannah on Monday night. They had by the aid of lanterns gathered up most of the wounded of Stuart's brigade, on the night of arrival, and had done all possible for the sufferers. The headquarters and the log buildings at the left of the camp were crowded with Federal and Confederate wounded, and were for a long time used as hospitals. Most of the dead were found upon the south edge of, or in the ravine so often spoken of, and which without doubt marks the scene of as severe a conflict as ever took place on this continent. The mode of burial was by digging trenches wide enough to lay a man in cross- wise, which was done a few feet south of the line of battle, and in these the dead were carefully placed, side by side, in company groups, and uncoffined and unshrouded these young heroes were covered. Here and there some poor wounded sufferer had wandered until life gave out. Such were buried in isolated graves where they were found. Frail headboards of the best material at hand were erected, and upon these and upon trees the names were marked, most of which sub- sequently disappeared under the mutations of time.
129
SHILOH VISITED.
It is fair to presume that many will be interested in the present appearance of the battle-field of Shiloh. Actuated by a passion common to all soldiers to visit scenes of former conflict, and influenced by a consuming desire to rescue the deeds of the Fifty-fifth from the obscurity surrounding the left flank in that battle, the writer has twice visited the locality. The first occasion was with an excursion, and the course of the Tennessee was followed, using two steamboats as means of transportation. The sixth and seventh of April, 1884, were spent upon the ground. Of the Fifty-fifth, John G. Brown and Dorsey C. Andress were also present. Five of the Fifty-fourth Ohio were with the excursion, of whom T. J. Lindsay of Washington Court House, Ohio, a very intelligent gentleman, is best remembered. The entire expe- dition embraced about two hundred people, nearly all of whom had been engaged in the battle, and many of them had been wounded in it. Sunday morning, the twenty- second anniversary, dawned as bright and sunny as had the day this expedition was intended to commemorate. The two fine steamers, each having upon it a band play- ing the Star Spangled Banner, and each thronged with expectant passengers, rounded the bend of the river below Pittsburgh Landing, and came suddenly in sight of the fine national cemetery fronting the river at that point. Immedi- ately upon landing ranks were formed, and the deeply im- pressed procession marched up the road to the cemetery. The people and the Sunday school scholars of the neighbor- hood, under good father Cotton, an evangelist, were assembled in considerable numbers to welcome the veterans. Short and very affecting ceremonies were then held in the cemetery, when the impatient throng dispersed to seek out the portion of the battle-field most interesting. The two succeeding day's were spent in explorations, and the excursion returned down the river.
The second visit was made alone, in December, ISS5, when ten days were spent upon the ground, and was more ' satisfactory, inasmuch as sufficient uninterrupted time was taken to examine the records of the cemetery and explore minutely the battle-field. All distances mentioned in this
9
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
work in relation to the conflict were carefully measured, and much useful information obtained.
The cemetery at Pittsburgh Landing occupies the hill sloping toward the river, at the right of the road running from the water's edge. It embraces the ground formerly cultivated, upon which was the log house used as a hospital at the time of the battle. A neat brick residence furnished by the government is located near the southwest corner, and all is in charge of L. S. Doolittle, a wounded soldier of the Ninety-third Illinois. The arrangement and ornamentation of the grounds are beautiful and appropriate, and are kept in the best of order by the gentlemanly superintendent above named. Upon this hallowed spot three thousand five hun- dred and ninety soldiers are buried, the graves of about two- thirds of them being marked "Unknown." They lie there sleeping, dead; no, not dead-
" There is no Death ! what seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life elysian, Whose portal we call Death.
Of the noble array of youth the Fifty-fifth laid in this hecatomb, the names of five only are found upon headstones. The others -- the first of our precious sacrifice to the war-god of the rebellion-are gathered with the great harvest of the "unknown ;" nor could they wish -
" Couch more magnificent.
* * * The hills,
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun; the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between; The venerable woods; rivers that move In majesty, and the complaining brooks That make the meadows green;
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven, Are shining on the sad abodes of death, Through the still lapse of ages. *
Those whose names are preserved are as follows: John M. Banks, Company A; John Ashmore, Company B; Oliver Lindsay, Company B; Daniel Greathouse, Company D; William Bayless, Company D.
131
THE OLD GRAVES.
Passing along the Corinth road toward the front, the ap- pearance of the battle-ground has not greatly changed. Some fields have been abandoned under the thriftless culture of the region, and have grown up to underbrush. Some new ones, small and irregular, have been cleared more recently. The inhabitants are hospitable and kind, and the leading citizen is W. C. Meeks, a former soldier of the rebellion, and now the proprietor of a large store at the landing. The old camp- ground of the Fifty-fifth-the little peach orchard which bloomed at the time of the battle- was abandoned a few years ago, and dogwood, sassafras and hazel begin to obstruct it. The house occupied by Colonel Stuart as his headquarters was burned during the war. The group of log cabins which stood at the left of the camp has disappeared, though the foundation logs are still visible. About one-half mile west, and upon the former camping-ground of the Seventy-first Ohio, resides Noah Cantrill, who owns that portion of the battle-field-a kindly and intelligent man, whose hospitality was cheerfully rendered.
The ravine upon which the Fifty-fifth fought so long and so well, passes close in rear of the field across the road. Tracing along its precipitous edge eastward toward its mouth for about five hundred yards, hid away in the dense thickets upon its southerly edge, are numerous yawning cellar-like pit4. These were the first burial places of the first dead of the Fifty-fifth. They lay there in the sylvan beauty of the wwwis, quietly sleeping, until 1866 and 1867, when the remains were taken to the cemetery. The field notes of those who performed that duty describe the location as: "Five hundred yards east of Larkin Bell's place, on a point of ridge. Large '55' cut on tree in line. Buried in two lines and one trench running east and west." Larkin Bell's field was the enclosure across the road from the Fifty-fifth camp- ing-ground, at the west end of which was the building used by Colonel Stuart. At the time the dead were removed, but little of the head-boards remained. Beside the names already owen, there was found one head-board in the same location marked "Shulenberger." This was unquestionably William Shulenberger of Company D. Three bodies were found in
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
one trench, at which was a head-board marked with the initials "D. K., G. W. P., and L. P. D., 55th Ill." Beyond doubt this was the grave of David Kreider, George W. Pen- nell and Lloyd P. Davis of Company F.
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