USA > Illinois > The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865 > Part 22
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By two o'clock of Monday, May 18th, we had advanced twelve or thirteen miles from the night's bivouac, and our skirmishers drove the enemy's pickets into the formidable earth-works encircling Vicksburg. We were upon the Grave- yard Road, so called. Generals Grant and Sherman rode near the head of the column, their imperturbable countenances showing little of the terrible load of anxiety they were yet bearing. To our right were the very hills with their deserted works which we had so desperately assailed five months be- fore. Below, concealed by the forest, lay Chickasaw Bayou, and beyond, the base of supplies from which the army had been separated nearly a fortnight without thereby experienc- ing bodily discomfort or disappointment of regular appetite, but rather to the improvement of their diet. From this statement our own division must be excepted, however, inas- much as it had found but scanty gleaning during its march at the rear, and was now suffering for food. Bread had been for some time exhausted throughout the army, and there was
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FIRST ASSAULT AT VICKSBURG.
general and noisy rejoicing when the reopening of the "cracker-line" was announced.
The regiment lay under arms in a corn-field within musket range of the fortifications that night, and occasionally a bul- let came hissing among us. One of these struck A. A. Williams in the lower jaw, causing a painful wound. Another seriously wounded Corporal Hugo Arndt in the arm. Com- pany F, under Captain Crooker, was sent forward to cover the front and kept up a brisk skirmish with the enemy, pre- venting them from using artillery. About noon of the nine- teenth, Company F was relieved by Companies A and B, who continued the duel. Some artillery had been got into position and opened fire. The men of Company G, who had been educated in artillery practice at Paducah, were detailed to aid Chicago Battery A, upon our left.
At two o'clock, in accordance with a general order for assault along the whole line, the skirmishers upon the signal of three volleys from the artillery, sprang forward, and the waiting battle-line rushed cheering to the charge-a human wave that seemed irresistible when it began surging onward towards the rebel lines. But as it dashed over stumps and tangled limbs of fallen trees, struggled through deep gullies bristling with brush and canc, and climbed the stecp slopes opposite in the face of a roaring, whistling storm of Icad and iron rain, men dropped by tens, stopped behind some sheltering log or bank, slackened speed for sheer want of breath, until all the momentum of the start had worn itself out; and a thin line of panting, staggering humanity pressed on and on until a few of the pluckiest and strongest perhaps straggled nerveless into the ditch, attempted to climb the abrupt scarp, and were there either slain, desperately wounded or captured, or only escaped by miraculous fortune when the shades of night kindly covered them from sight. The bri- gades on either flank of ours were driven back to cover of the ravine with heavy loss; but we reached the crest of the hill as a definite brigade line of battle within fifty paces of the cast curtain of the bastion at the Graveyard Road, and there remained, slightly sheltered by the ground so long as we lay prostrate, and kept up such a persistent fire that no
236
FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
rebel dared show his head above the parapet. Our colors waved for hours within pistol shot of the line of defence, and were riddled with bullets. Without support it was foolhardy to advance; it was equally dangerous to attempt retreat. As darkness came upon the landscape, the Confederate soldiers lighted fires that they might see any movement we made, but this proved more dangerous to them than to us, and finally by tacit consent firing ceased. About midnight we were or- dered back, and gradually withdrew to our position of the morning.
Upon counting our losses we found with surprise that only twenty-four of the regiment had been killed or wounded during the day. The effective force of the command had been reported as three hundred and eighty-three a few days 2 before; but under the deceptive rule in vogue in the armies of the Union-although in no others --- special and extra duty men were always included among the "present for duty," so that those in the ranks during an action were frequently not over four-fifths of the reported effectives. Owing to the large number detached temporarily with the artillery, per- haps not more than two hundred and fifty stood in the charg- ing battle line. In an assault which to those in the flame of it gave promise of extermination, we were not quite deci- mated.
CASUALTIES OF FIFTY-FIFTH ILL. VOL. INFTY., BEFORE VICKSBURG, MAY 19, 1863.
KILLED. COMPANY. REMARKS.
LEVI HILL, second-lieutenant.
A. Shot in thigh and groin.
JOHN C. GLASS, orderly-sergt.
A. Shot in head.
PATRICK TOBIN.
A. Shot in head.
MICHAEL AINSBURY, corporal.
C. Shot in head.
ORIN BABCOCK.
C. Shot in head.
ROBERT A. HAMER.
C. Shot in head.
JAMES A. CURRY, corporal.
D. Shot in breast.
OLIVER J. HOYT. WOUNDED.
F. Shot in breast.
OSCAR MALMBORG, colonel.
Contusion over cye.
JOSEPH C. BARKLEY.
A. Slightly, in head.
JOSEPH A. DEEMS, corporal.
MATTHEW MITCHELL.
A. Seriously, in thigh.
A. Seriously, in thigh.
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BATTLE CASUALTIES.
WOUNDED.
COMPANY. REMARKS.
RIENZI L. CLEVELAND.
C. Slightly, in arm.
ORION P. HOWE, drummer.
C. Slightly, in thigh.
ROSWELL J. RILEY, corporal.
C. Slightly, in arm.
HUGO ARNDT, corporal.
E. Seriously, in arm.
FRANKLIN PEACAR, sergeant.
E. Slightly, in hand.
LUCIEN B. CROOKER. captain.
F. Arm broken by bullet.
LEWIS T. WINGET.
F. Slightly, in hand.
ANDREW A. WILLIAMS.
G. Bullet in lower jaw.
JAMES W. GAY, color-corporal.
G. Bullet in shoulder.
WILLIAM C. TEITGE.
H. Seriously, in shoulder and side.
JOSEPH EDWARDS.
I. Seriously, in shoulder.
ROBERT MCVAY, sergeant.
K. Bullet through lungs.
Lieutenant Levi Hill was a daring young officer of great promise. He is said to have gone into the battle depressed by a premonition of his fate. Orderly-sergeant John C. Glass was slain while advancing too imprudently ahead of the skir- mishers-an irreparable loss to his company. The three killed of Company C, all fine soldiers, fell one after the other in the same spot, victims to the deadly aim of some expert rifleman. Corporal Curry was a man of ability, had been a teacher and was a thorough soldier. Captain L. B. Crooker's wound, added to severe injuries previously received at Shiloh, permanently disabled him for further military service, and he never rejoined his command. ITis confirmed habit of making himself too conspicuous a target for rebel bullets lost us a sagacious and resolute officer; but he has been spared for a life of great usefulness to state and nation.
A story that has been twice told by General Sherman and more than once sung by patriotic poet, must not be omitted here, for it is a romantic incident in the history of the day and of the Fifty-fifth. Among the several boy musicians of the regiment the youngest were two sons of Principal-Musi- cian Howe, one but twelve and the other fourteen years of age when enrolled. They were both small of their years. Our "infant drummers" attracted much attention on dress parade in the great camps of instruction, at Camp Douglas even rivalling our original "giant color-guard." The little Howes drummed well, proved hardy, never seemed homesick, were treated as regimental pets, and passed through battle
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
after battle, and march after march, untouched by disease, unscathed by bullet and shell. In the charge of May 19th the youngest Howe, like the other musicians, with a white handkerchief tied about the left arm to designate him as a non-combatant, followed in the rear of the line to assist the wounded. At the advanced position finally held by the regi- ment, it was essential to our safety not to allow any cessation in the firing, and the cartridge-boxes became rapidly depleted. Ammunition, from the difficulties of the ground, could only be brought to us by special messengers and in such quantity as they were able to carry about the person. Sergeant-Major Hartsook was instructed to go back to the regimental ord- nance wagon, take command of the musicians and such other men as he might find detailed near our camp, and send them to the front one by one, with cartridges. This dangerous duty was promptly and well performed.
The little drummer, by his own statement, was not at this time with the other musicians, but in the ravine just in rear of the regiment, having been ordered back from the front to be out of danger, by the colonel. About him were several dead and wounded men. Collecting the ammunition from their cartridge-boxes, and using his blouse for a sack, he car- ried this up to the command. Flattered with some praise then received, he started for the ordnance wagon and returned in safety, with his small but valuable contribution. Again he sped down across the ravine and up the steep opposite slope. We could see him nearly the whole way as he ran through what seemed like a hailstorm of canister and musket-balls, so thickly did these fall about him, each throwing up its little puff of dust where it struck the dry hillside. Suddenly he dropped, and hearts sank thinking his brief carcer ended; but he had only tripped over some obstacle. Often he stum- bled, sometimes he fell prostrate, but was quickly up again, and finally disappeared from us, limping, over the summit, and the Fifty-fifth saw him no more for several months. As the boy sped away the last time the colonel shouted to him, as he alleges, "Bring calibre fifty-four." General Sherman's letter to the War Department will best tell the rest of the story :
239
THE DRUMMER BOY OF VICKSBURG.
HEADQUARTERS FIFTEENTH ARMY CORPS, CAMP OX BIG BLACK, Aug. 8, 1863.
Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
SIR : I take the liberty of asking through you that something be done for a young lad named Orion P. Howe of Waukegan, Illinois, who belongs to the 55th Illinois, but is at present absent at his home, wounded. I think he is too young for West Point, but would be the very thing for a midshipman.
When the assault on Vicksburg was at its height, on the 19th of May, and I was in front near the road which formed my line of attack, this young lad came up to me wounded and bleeding, with a good healthy boy's cry: "General Sherman, send some cartridges to Colonel Malinborg; the men are all out." "What is the matter, my boy?" "They shot me in the leg, sir; but I can go to the hospital. Send the cartridges right away!" Even where we stood the shot fell thick, and I told him to go to the rear at once, I would attend to the cartridges; and off he limped. Just before he disappeared on the hill, he turned and called as loud as he could, "Calibre 54!"
I have not seen the boy since, and his colonel, Malmborg, on inquiring, gave me his address as above, and says he is a bright, intelligent boy, with a fair preliminary education. What arrested my attention there was, and what renews my memory of the fact now is, that one so young, carrying a musket-ball wound through his leg, should have found his way to me on that fatal spot, and delivered his message, not forgetting the very important part even of the calibre of the musket, 54, which you know is an unusual one.
I'll warrant the boy has in him the elements of a man, and I commend him to the Government as one worthy the fostering care of some one of its National Institutions.
I am, with respect, your obedient servant, W. T. SHERMAN. Maj .- Gen. Commanding.
In the Atlantic Monthly for September, 1864, the follow- ing poem by George H. Boker was published :
BEFORE VICKSBURG. MAY 19, 1863. While Sherman stood beneath the hottest fire That from the lines of Vicksburg gleam'd, And bomb-shells tumbled in their smoky gyre, And grape shot hiss'd, and case shot scream'd, Back from the front there came, Weeping, and sorely lame,
The merest child, the youngest face, Man ever saw in such a fearful place.
240
FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
Stifling his tears, he limp'd his chief to meet;
But, when he paused and tottering stood, Around the circle of his little feet
There spread a pool of bright, young blood. Shocked at his doleful case, Sherman cried, " Halt ! front face ! Who are you ? speak, my gallant boy !"
"A drummer, sir, -- Fifty-fifth Illinois." 1 "Are you not hit?" "That's nothing. Only send Some cartridges. Our men are out,
And the foe press us." "But, my little friend -----_ " "Don't mind me! Did you hear that shout? What if our men be driven? Oh, for the love of Heaven,
Send to my colonel, general dear-
"But you?" -- "Oh, I shall easily find the rear." 2
"I'll see to that," cried Sherman ; and a drop, Angels might envy, dimm'd his eye, As the boy, tolling towards the hill's hard top, Turn'd round, and, with his shrill child's cry Shouted, "Oh, don't forget ! We'll win the battle yet ! But let our soldiers have some more, More cartridges, sir, calibre fifty-four !"
A slangy plagiarism upon this, styled "Calibre 54," was printed with a full-page illustration, in Harper's Weekly for August 22d, 1885.
There remains one singular fact unchronicled. The senti- mentality that has been expended upon the solicitous recol- lection by the wounded boy of "calibre fifty-four," is wholly based upon somebody's blunder. The rifles of the regiment were all calibre fifty-eight, and if cartridges of number fifty- four had been sent, they would have been of small practical use for us; even buck-shot would have been better, fighting as we were at close quarters. It is, moreover, extremely doubtful if there was any calibre fifty-four ammunition near that battle-ground. Calibre fifty-seven cartridges were fur- nished to the regiment, were used, and when the guns became foul and heated in action were highly convenient. This size was the one desired at the time. Unlike most battle-field blunders this had no doleful sequence, made no widow or
-
241
CAUSE OF THE FAILURE.
orphan, is responsible for no bloodshed; but simply lives em- balmed in rhythmic romance, like many another error.
Young Howe was again wounded May 28th, 1864, at Dallas, being then an orderly at the headquarters of General Giles A. Smith. He received an appointment to the Naval Academy from President Lincoln, ordering him to report for examination June 25th, 1864; but was finally allowed a year for study, and entered the academy July 28th, 1865. He was unable to meet the requirements of the course, and left at the end of his second year. He then entered the merchant service, and was one of the crew of the ship Thornton, wrecked on the Irish coast in November, 1867, losing every- thing but life. Having had enough of the salt water, but not yet sated with adventure, he tried the roving life of a cowboy in Texas, participated in some Indian fights on the plains, and went in a civil capacity with the noted Powder River expedition; but has at last found a quiet home in Illinois again.
Though signally failing of its direct object, the attack of May 19th gained important advance of position at every point, and valuable knowledge of the natural and artificial obstacles to be overcome. It sufficiently demonstrated that General Pemberton's army had recovered in great measure from the demoralization it had shown at the Big Black. But the assault had been far from a general one. Neither the corps of General McPherson nor that of General McCler- nand had approached sufficiently near the enemy's lines to attempt a coup de main. In fact the assault made by the division of General Blair was the only one really deserving the name, and that was made upon a portion of the defences which chanced to be manned by steady veterans who had not experienced disheartening defeat in the field. The Fif- teenth Army Corps was confronted by the divisions of Gen- erals Martin L. Smith and J. II. Forney, and the salient upon which our charge had spent itself, was defended by a brigade of General Forney's division which had garrisoned Haines's Bluff, composed chiefly of Mississippi regiments commanded by Brigadier-General Louis Hebert. They were fighting upon their native soil, and behind works where one cool- 16
242
FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
headed man ought to be equal to four or five uncovered assailants.
The army at this time garrisoning Vicksburg was under- estimated by our generals, who supposed it not to much exceed eighteen thousand men; but after the losses of the siege over thirty-one thousand were surrendered. An army reported to be of nearly equal size to our own was threaten- ing our rear, and daily receiving additions. Under the able leadership of General Johnston it was not likely to neglect any opportunity that presented to attempt the relief of the beleaguered city. To cope successfully with the two forces combined, heavy columns of troops must be summoned front points hundreds of miles away. The hot season was at hand, and the few springs hidden among the hills were fast drying up. A consultation of the corps commanders warranting General Grant in ordering preparations for the second assault along the whole line, the twenty-second of May was selected for the murderous experiment. Those of us who had been favored with a very near view of the exterior slope of the bastions and connecting rifle-pits, knowing these works to be thoroughly manned by veteran soldiers of similar blood to our own, felt little hope of a successful issue. But when a call was made for fifty men from the brigade to constitute a storming party, equipped to cross the ditch and climb the parapet in advance of the main columns of attack, the Fifty- fifth at once offered more than double its due proportion. One commissioned officer and twelve men only were accepted.
Precisely at ten o'clock the bugles sounded a charge. The field batteries all along the Union line, and the gunboats and mortars in the river below, had opened a fast and furious fire an hour before. The army, by divisions in column with fixed bayonets, rushed forward, preceded each by its forlorn hope of one hundred and fifty men. Again the rebel para- pet blazed from its entire length. The greater the daring displayed by the assailants, the more numerous the victims, and after an hour or two of desperate struggle the assault had failed at every point. Nowhere had our troops suc- ceeded in crossing the bulwarks, although the storming parties had generally succeeded in reaching the ditch and
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.
2.13
THE SECOND ASSAULT.
planting their flags on the embankments of the bastions, whence the Confederates tried in vain to pluck them away. The three brigades of General Blair's division, commanded by Brigadier-General Hugh Ewing and Colonels Giles A. and Thomas K. Smith, marching by the flank and successively plunging into the terrible fire that swept the Graveyard Road, were unable to withstand it, and deployed to the left along the steep sides of a ravine, where they gained partial protec- tion and could prevent the rebel gunners from firing.
Three or four hours later the two brigades just at our left, under Colonel Giles A. Smith and Brigadier-General T. E. G. Ransom, attempted to storm the rifle-pits in their front. The Eighth Missouri of the first named brigade, our faithful allies in many a bloody fight, we heard had volunteered to make one more charge, if the Fifty-fifth would support them. Suddenly we saw the tall form of Colonel Smith rise from the ground at the right of his men. A prominent target for hundreds of bullets, he waved his sword and shouted, "Boys, they'll give us one volley; before they can reload, we'll be inside their works. Forward, double-quick, march! and hurrah like ---! " The charging line nearly reached the trenches, only to be driven back by the withering fire poured into their faces by the serried ranks of men in grey that rose behind the parapet. A renewed order to assault at three o'clock, when General Mower's brigade was sent to our sup- port on the right, resulted only in further useless slaughter.
The Fifty-fifth, as before, attained a position very near the line of Confederate works, where the brow of the hill afforded protection in front, and there remained in line and in compar- ative safety, if the foc could be kept down by constant fire. As before our opponents were the men of Hebert's brigade, re-enforced by the Tennesseeans of Brigadier-General Vaugh- an's command. We were fully in sight from a redan on our left, half a mile distant, known to us as Fort Hill, and during the afternoon a riffed cannon was there trained upon us, much to our annoyance and loss. The adjutant was much rallied then, and has been often congratulated since, for the aston- ishing prescience and agility he displayed, when once, after the flame and smoke leaped from the muzzle of this gun, he
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
jumped out of the path of the ball which tore out the foot- prints his feet had barely left and ricochetted on its fearful errand along the hillside. The prescience was the more re- markable in this, that it could not have been derived from sight, the officer's back being nearly turned towards the gun. It was an inborn cognizance of coming evil, as positive and peremptory in its warning to move as a comrade's push would have been. The ball terribly wounded three or four men in the regiment. Sergeant Burns, a noble soldier and exem- plary Christian, died of his wounds the same day. Charles Dhelo survives, although his arm was shattered and the flesh torn from his shoulder, baring the blade bone for a space cight inches in diameter ;- one of the most ghastly wounds ever seen that did not take life. Martin Popp lost both feet,, torn off by the same shot. We held our position all night, and were recalled the following day to a deep ravine a short distance in the rear, where we were allowed to rest for two days.
The volunteers who represented the regiment in the storming party were the following :
WILLIAM C. PORTER, second-lieutenant. Company E.
JOHN H. FISHER, corporal. Slightly wounded. B.
JOHN SMITH. Mortally wounded. E.
JOHN WARDEN, corporal. Wounded. E.
RICHARD HANEY, sergeant. Killed. F.
AMOS SANFORD, corporal. Wounded.
F.
JACOB SANFORD. F ..
JAMES W. LARRABEE, sergeant. Wounded. =
MILTON BELLWOOD. Killed. . K.
ROBERT M. Cox, corporal.
K.
JAMES DONAHUE. Killed. K.
ROBERT A. LOWER. K.
WILLIAM WALKER.
K.
Fortunately, we are not left entirely dependent upon fad- ing recollections for our knowledge of the doings and experi- ences of these valiant patriots on that day of desperate endeavor. Joseph Hartsook at the time took down from the lips of Lieutenant Porter his account of the forlorn hope, and from that many of the facts to be given are drawn. Robert M. Cox, John H. Fisher, James W. Larrabee and John
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THE STORMING PARTY.
Warden, four survivors of the party, have furnished their reminiscences, which have been used to fill the brief record.
The company of one hundred and fifty volunteers was commanded by Captain J. H. Groce of the Thirtieth Ohio, aided by three other officers -- one each from the One-hun- dred-twenty-seventh Illinois, the Sixth Missouri and the Fifty-fifth Illinois. The ensign, borne by a mere boy of the Eighth Missouri, Trogden by name, was the headquarters flag of General Ewing's brigade. Beside their guns the men carried axes, boards, and rude scaling ladders. Before the order for the charge the heroic men, drawn up in line, were briefly addressed in the presence of General Sherman, by General Smith. They were promised sixty days' furlough if they captured the fort. When the company sallied out upon the Graveyard Road from the ravine that concealed them, but few shots were fired, and it was not until the leaders were within one hundred feet of the ditch that they were met by a volley. If a surprise was to be hoped for, the main column should have charged unheralded by the storming party or artillery fire. Pressing on at double-quick past the "lone oak" and turning to the right, those not hit by the first volley threw themselves into the ditch, and Trogden, with a few others, climbed the slope and planted the flag. Digging places for protection with their bayonets, they clung there until one or more of their number were hit, apparently by our own men, when all fell back to the foot of the slope. It was now past noon; the charge of the main column had been repulsed, and there seemed no hope of relief. The ditch in which they were huddled was four or five feet in depth, about double that in width, and the crest of the parapet was nine or ten feet above the bottom of the ditch. The sharp- shooters in the rifle-pits on either flank of the fort commanded portions of the ditch, and killed and wounded several. Bell- wood was one of those thus killed. After a time the occu- pants of the fort began to shout to those in the trench, " Sur- render, Yanks!" and the response was, "Come and get us." Once or twice a sally was attempted, but failed. Then a few hand grenades were thrown over, most of which, having re- ceived too great impetus, fell beyond the ditch. During the
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