USA > Illinois > The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865 > Part 23
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
afternoon they began to roll grenades down over the crest of the parapet. These were stopped by holding up a rail upon bayonets at the edge of the crest. Only one of these shells dangerously hurt any of those in the ditch, but that one, bursting under Richard Haney as he lay against the slope, instantly killed him. He was buried where he died, by the Confederates, two or three days after. After dark the party fell back a few at a time, carrying with them the wounded, and Trogden climbed to the parapet and brought away the flag.
Of the one hundred and fifty, nineteen were killed and thirty-four wounded, including the two senior officers. Ser- geant Larrabee narrates that as he lay upon the slope near the top a hand grenade came over near him, and in attempt; ing to avoid it he raised his head sufficiently to get a glimpse of the inside of the bastion. It seemed to him "a solid mass of men." Just then a rebel shot him through the neck, the muzzle of the gun being so near that powder from it was blown into his face, the marks of which he carries to this day. Donahue and Smith were victims of the first volley, the former being instantly killed, the latter mortally wounded.
CASUALTIES OF FIFTY-FIFTH ILL. VOL. INFTY., BEFORE VICKSBURG, MAY 22, 1863.
KILLED. COMPANY. REMARKS.
JOHN BURNS, sergeant.
A. Side crushed by cannon ball.
RICHARD HANEY. sergeant.
F. Killed instantly by grenade.
DAVID A. SULLIVAN.
F. Shot through breast.
MARTIN BELLWOOD.
K. Musket ball through head.
JAMES DONAHUE. WOUNDED.
HENRY LENHART, corporal.
A. Slightly, in arm.
BARTHOLY HOLDEN.
A. Slightly, in hand.
JOHN H. FISHER, corporal.
B. Slightly, in right hip.
JOHN WARDEN, corpora !.
E. Musket ball through legs.
MARTIN POPP.
E. Feet shot away by cannon ball.
JOHN SMITH.
E. Mortally, bullet in thigh.
AMOS SANFORD, corporal.
F. Face burnt by grenade.
G. Arm broken; died June 25.
H. Bullet through shoulder.
I. Cannon ball wound in shoulder.
1. Slightly, in head.
WILLIAM J. KENNEDY.
HORACE T. HEALEY, lieutenant. CHARLES DHELO.
PETER EBERSOLD.
K. Shot in body.
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A BRIEF TRUCE.
WOUNDED. COMPANY. REMARKS.
JAMES W. LARRABEE, sergeant. I. Bullet through neck.
ALEXANDER LITTLEFIELD.
I. Slightly, in face.
JOHN SHIELDS.
I. Musket ball in leg.
Sullivan was acting as orderly for the colonel, and having been sent by him to the commissary department with a can- teen, fell dead, shot through the heart, as he was returning over the ridge. He was a bright, brave youth. Kennedy was on duty in the ordnance department, but for some reason went out to the front and was there struck by a bullet which broke his arm. The wound might not have proved danger- ous but for the upsetting of the ambulance on its way to the hospital, by which accident he received additional injuries, causing his death.
May 24th our brigade received a new commander in the person of Brigadier-General J. A. J. Lightburn. He was from the Eastern army, a total stranger to our division, and the reason for his unwelcome assignment over us was a riddle about which we often worried, but which we never solved, The next day a cessation of hostilities was declared on the motion of General Pemberton, "in the name of humanity," continuing from six until half-past eight o'clock in the after- noon, to give opportunity for the burial of the slain, many of whom yet remained near or in the trenches, where they had fallen on the nineteenth and twenty-second of the month. A few bodies, being in too advanced a stage of decomposi- tion for removal, were buried by the Confederates where they lay; but most of the dead were brought back to an estab- lished line by stretcher bearers detailed for that purpose by the rebel officers, and were there received by comrades and carried to graves prepared for them. Towards the end of this distressful scene an affecting incident was witnessed by many. A Confederate sentinel on the line, looking at a group of Union soldiers approaching, suddenly exclaimed, "Good God! John, is that you?" and springing forward the two men, one in blue and one in grey, were clasped in each others arms. They were brothers.
On the twenty-sixth after dark the regiment was marched about six miles north along the Walnut Hills, going into
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
bivouac at midnight. In the carly morning advancing to Snyder's Bluff, we found ourselves assigned to a select divis- ion sent out on a reconnoissance under command of General Blair, in search of a rebel force supposed to be prowling about the Yazoo valley, and instructed to destroy all stores which could be of use to the rebel army. On the night of May 27th we camped at Mill Springs, twelve miles from Haines's Bluff, and on the two following days made leisurely marches of ten or twelve miles. We passed through Me- chanicsburg on the thirtieth, which was the limit of our advance, although the van reached a point within twelve miles of Yazoo City, having unimportant skirmishes with cav- alry. May 31st the division encamped at Haines's Bluff. It had subsisted upon the country, destroyed granaries, cotton, , and the bridges over all streams between the Big Black and the Yazoo, and brought back from the fertile bottom lands a long wagon train loaded down with grain and forage, and an immense herd of mules, horses, sheep and cattle. Here the Fifty-fifth rested three days, and again took its place in the second line behind Vicksburg. It had marched during the month two hundred and forty miles.
Regular siege operations by this date were well under way. The pick, spade and sap-roller had replaced the bayonet, and skillfully intrenched batteries were beginning their vociferous arguments. There seemed at first some doubt where to usc the regiment, for on the fourth of June, receiving marching orders, it had proceeded a mile or two on a road towards the left wing, when a countermanding order came and it was marched back to the familiar ravine. Details of men were called for night and day to work in the trenches. The par- allels and approaches, laid out and constructed under direc- tion of engineer officers of the regular army, were more elaborate than any we had yet seen. Heavy bags of sand were aligned on the ordinary carth parapet with just space enough between each two for the musket barrel of the sharp- shooter, and on these heavy head-logs were raised; while at points where there was risk of an enfilading fire, the whole way was covered with logs and earth so that those passing to and fro could walk without fear ;-- in fact more safely than
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SIEGE OPERATIONS.
in the ravines at the rear where glancing bullets and bursting shells found many a victim. The pioneers had in every ravine the greatest abundance of vines, cane and saplings for the fabrication of gabions and fascines, and the yellow-clay formation of the hills is peculiarly favorable for mining operations.
On the eighth of June we relieved a brigade in the front line, facing the redan on the Graveyard Road, named by us Fort Pemberton, which had been the objective point of our two assaults. We occupied and improved the neat cane- woven huts our predecessors had built among the oaks. A battery of thirty-pounder Parrott rifles crowned the crest just above us at the left, which every morning nearly deafencd us with its din. In this location the Fifty-fifth remained until the end of the siege, well sheltered by the foliage from the blazing sun and by the brow of the hill from hostile missiles; save that sometimes one of the thousands of minie balls that daily went hissing over our heads would glance down, or a shell would tear off the limb of a tree to drop among us. Even a paymaster, Major Judd, was induced to make us an official visit in this camp, June 26th. We had far more dis- tinguished visitors. The commanding general established his headquarters at a short distance directly in our rear, and almost every day General Grant came to our front, very often accompanied by General Sherman. The one taciturn, smok- ing slowly, his impassive face telling no tales of any work- ings of the mind within,-the other nervously chewing a cigar and voluble, his restless eyes noting everything within the field of vision,-they would shelter themselves from the deadly marksmen of the fort behind convenient tree-trunks, thoroughly and coolly view the situation and retire discuss- ing it.
Over two hundred guns were at last strongly intrenched, threatening every point in the seven miles of defensive fortifications about the hundred hilled city, and a general bombardment was ordered June 20th. During the whole forenoon the roar was incessant and terrible, and the tornado of shot and shell tore the ramparts at some points into almost shapeless mounds. But the work of a night and a
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
few cotton bales would repair all the damages donc. The Confederate artillery seldom replied because, as he afterwards stated in his report, General Pemberton felt it advisable to economize his stock of ammunition although large, in expectation of numerous assaults and a protracted siege. Our artillery, however, was numerically so much the superior that when a rebel battery opened upon us it was quickly silenced by the fire concentrated upon it, and the guns had to be removed to new positions to save them from destruc- tion. The Union batteries were busiest during the morning and evening hours, resting in the middle of the day when the heat was generally intense. The popping of the sharp- shooters' rifles was continuous, and the lines soon coming very close to each other everywhere, it became extremely hazardous to show a figure above the parapet. Thus during the hours of daylight the tumult, like that of a great battle, rarely paused; but the daily casualties were not very numer- ous, although generally serious or fatal, many being shot in the head. Hair-breadth escapes were so common occurrences in our experience that they called forth no more remark among us than would a needle's prick in a sewing circle.
By night strong covering parties were picketed to protect those working in the saps, and the enemy, wherever the ground permitted, also stationed pickets in advance of their intrenchments to guard against a surprise. Captain Brownc, who had been detailed on staff duty at brigade headquarters, as he was posting the sentinels one night, was suddenly halted by a sharp summons: "Surrender, Yank! Throw up your hands or we'll fire." The captain had mistaken either distance or direction in the darkness, or the Confeder- ates had crept beyond their usual position, and he with his two companions were in close proximity to a hostile picket post. Notwithstanding the tantalizing remembrance of pressing engagements elsewhere, there seemed nothing to do but yield as gracefully as possible to the invitation so urgently proffered. The horrible shadow of a Confederate prison hung over them oppressively near. The rebel officer, who had risen from behind a huge stump, ordered his men
251
THE MORTAR SHELLS.
to take the captain to the rear. Now or never! One desperate leap for liberty, a headlong rush and tumble, and the grey-headed, but still agile, captain was out of sight in the gloom, his comrades following close, unhurt by the bullets hurriedly sent in pursuit of them.
After a time it became the custom for the men on outpost duty, by mutual agreement, to abstain from firing upon each other; a contract extremely favorable to our labor details. Private interchange of Union hard-tack and coffee for Con- federate tobacco was not uncommon. A Mississippian onc night inquired for the whereabouts of the Fifty-fourth Ohio, and being told that the Fifty-fourth men were our particular friends and near neighbors, asked that Sergeant --- of that regiment, if alive, might be notified to come to the picket line at a certain hour the next night, where he would recover something of great value to him. The sergeant was found, and appearing as requested, received from the Southerner a letter enclosing the likeness of his sweetheart, which he had somehow lost during the battle of Shiloh.
In our immediate front the saps were soon carried so near the bastion that hand grenades came into use, and even field-artillery shells were tossed to and fro, very rarely doing much execution-upon our side, at least.
The navy completed the ring of fire about the doomed city. We could daily hear the roar of the ten-inch and one hundred-pounder rifled guns, both below and above the town, pounding away at the water batteries. From our camp, although not far distant from the river, the water could not be seen because of intervening forest; but by night, usually at intervals of fifteen minutes or less, a flash as of lightning below the horizon glowed above the woods, and a dull red star would come up out of the flash, curving towards the city. Higher and higher it rose, until at an immense apparent alti- tude it became for an instant a fixed star in some reigning constellation, and then faster and faster in downward haste it rushed along its parabolic course, gradually brightening and leaving a faint phosphorescent trail, at last to break into a blaze of red and blue flame, followed by darkness. The roar of the mortar as its twenty-five pound charge of powder
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FIFTY FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
hurled forth the huge projectile thirteen inches in diameter, would just reach us when the missile attained its highest point; and the sound of the exploding shell, nearer us by a mile or more, came about fifteen seconds after the dazzling flame; while quick succeeding, if the night were very still, could be heard the crash of breaking trees or pierced roof, as the ragged iron fragments tore through the oaks or plunged into the buildings.
Mines were pushed under the chief salients by the pion- cers, which the countermining of the defenders rarely inter- sected. The redan confronting the brigade of General M. D. Leggett, a mile to our left, had been very effectually undermined, and the hour of three in the afternoon of June 25th was assigned for exploding a ton of powder that had been sealed up beneath it. This important salient, commonly styled Fort Hill, was prominently in view from either flank, and the moment assigned for firing the train was generally known. The eyes of thousands drawn up in battle line as for assault were intently fixed upon the position as the time drew near. The Fifty-fifth took a very personal interest in the scene, from the fact that but a few hundred feet before its own camp a similar mine was then excavated and nearly ready to receive its charge of powder. A few days more and we were expecting to be called upon to become promi- nent actors in a similar enterprise. About half-past three the parapet was seen to heave, and instantly up rose a huge dark column of carth, mingled with timber, tools and bodies of men, in the centre of which for a second gleamed a lurid flame wreathed in white smoke. From the platform of the battery where we stood we could see, as the dust settled back and the smoke drifted away, that the face of the redan had sunk into a shapeless hillock, over which a storming party, with the stars and stripes in their van, were struggling to the charge, while on the other hand the Confederate reserves, expectant of a general assault, were everywhere hastening towards the threatened points. A heavy musketry fire across the crater lasted until dark, while our artillery and sharp- shooters from every quarter sent their missiles of many calibres hissing, whistling and shrieking into and over the
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253
BLOWING UP A REDAN.
trenches. Half the fort was finally won and held with great sacrifice of life, but the enemy, fully aware of the existence of a mine though they failed to reach it with their counter- mines, had constructed another work in the rear as strong as that destroyed.
While a group of men were watching the assault from be- hind the battery above our camp, supposing themselves completely sheltered from hostile bullets, a minie ball from a sharp-shooter's rifle half a mile away struck Corporal Mur- phy in the forehead, killing him instantly. He was a young man of attractive presence and character, who had left his studies, impelled by patriotism, to enlist, and was loved and respected by all who knew him.
In the afternoon of July ist we were again assembled to see the second redan in the same locality, with its unfortu- nate occupants, blown into the air, but no attempt was this time made to storm the crater.
Now and then willingly-captured pickets were brought in by our men at night. They all told the same tale of being worn out with sleeplessness and fatigue; of hospitals crowded with sick and wounded; of women and children slain in the city by fragments of shells. They sometimes had with them copies of a newspaper, the Daily Citizen, published in Vicks- burg at fifty cents a copy, printed on the blank side of half a yard of wall paper. They reported that the whole popula- tion had little caves dug in the clay hills, into which they retreated like woodchucks into their burrows whenever the rain of shot and shell fell fiercest. They bitterly complained that their daily ration of meat was but a mouthful of bacon, and half spoiled at that; that beef and flour and even corn meal had long been exhausted, and that they had neither cof- fee nor any substitute therefor; that raw pork and musty pea-meal bread formed a monotonous diet, and that whiskey cost one hundred dollars per gallon in Confederate money.
In short, these deserters confirmed in us the belief that the end could not be far away. At night from our camp we could hear "Yank" and "Johnny" bandying jibes with cach other across the brief interval that separated them, and chat- ting of this and that; and Yank was wont to close with:
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
"Well, Johnny, Old Unconditional has promised us that we shall dine in Vicksburg on Independence-day, and he will keep his word, you bet!" This threat was even printed in the city paper. Indeed the soldiers themselves, from the forwardness of preparations at various points, believed that another assault was to be made on the fourth of July, and they meant it should succeed this time. The tired garrison read the belief behind the jest and were despondent in proportion to our confidence. This disheartenment in the Confederate ranks doubtless hastened the surrender, for the officers feared the assault and had lost all trust in Johnston's ability or will to make any effective attempt at their relief. That prudent general, we well knew, was preparing to dash with a large force across the Big Black for a desperate effort to help the imprisoned enemy. But we also knew that Sherman was in our rear watching him, and desiring nothing better than to see that horde, half made up of ill disciplined recruits and conscripts, attack his strong lines manned as they were by seasoned veterans.
Friday, July 3d, the forty-sixth day of the siege opened, the sun sending down its fiercest rays from a brazen sky. Even the customary morning salutation of our batteries to the foe seemed languid, and at a very early hour nearly all firing ceased, save from the river; consequently the navy . seemed more noisily busy than usual. Before noon a rumor ran from man to man and camp to camp with telegraphic speed, quickening cach heart with an electric thrill of joyous expectation, that a flag of truce had come out from General Pemberton asking for terms of capitulation. Soon the lines of men in grey and the lines of men in blue, lean over or climb their respective parapets and gossip flippantly to conceal their anxiety. In the course of the afternoon the mortars cease their fire, and silence becomes almost oppress- ive. The camps at night are as quiet as though there had been neither war nor rumor of war in the land. At the dawn the hush of painful suspense was relieved, for all along the dread ramparts which we had been girding ourselves to storm, gleamed the white signals of surrender. Yet there was little that was boisterous in the glad acclamation; but
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255
THE SURRENDER.
universally joy-illumined countenances, hand shakes of mutual congratulation, moist eyes and silent prayers of thankfulness, attested the depth of feeling. Every regiment was held within its lines until at ten o'clock the traitorous but brave grey brigades filed out, each upon its own front, stacked arms, hung upon the stacks the various accoutre- ments, placed the colors at the centre of each regimental line-all at words of command given in so low a tone that we could not hear them -- and returned as they came, marching towards the city. On our part there was no cheering, but we silently gazed upon the spectacle presented by this sad procession of our humbled foe with the respect- ful demeanor of those who stand where a funeral pageant passes. Soon after the starry banner was raised upon the court-house and the navy with all its bunting displayed steered for the landing, blowing steam whistles and firing the national salute, now doubly appropriate to the day consecrated to Liberty.
CASUALTIES OF FIFTY-FIFTH ILL. VOL. INFTY., DURING THE SIEGE.
NAMES.
COMPANY. REMARKS.
THOMAS J. ELRODD,
A. Shot through thigh, mortally, June 17, when going to spring.
JAMES B. MURPHY, corporal.
PETER GALLIGAN.
G. Killed by bullet in forehead. June 25. G. Slightly wounded in shoulder by shell, July 2.
WILLIAM WALKER.
K. Shot through arm, flesh wound, July 2.
Already the Fifty-fifth had marching orders :- "Be ready to move with ten days' rations at short notice"-and no opportunity was given to explore the captured city. A brief visit over the lines in our front disclosed along their rear slopes a confused jumble of disabled cannon, damaged wheels, wrecks of caissons, dead mules, empty ammunition boxes, cotton bales, useless muskets, worn out clothing and discarded equipments. The works though amply strong were inferior to our own in extent and neatness of construc- tion. The inner trench was bestrewn with grenades and shell ready for use in the expected assault, and abundant
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
evidence appeared that the garrison had no dearth of sup- plies save percussion-caps and provisions. Fragments of the huge shells of the navy and the shot and shell of the land batteries belittered the fields and roads, and every tree was maimed. But what most engaged the soldiers' attention was the multitude of little holes excavated in the hill slopes, covered in such a manner as to be almost shell proof. So numerous were they that each man must have had one, into which when off duty he could dive like a gopher to escape the all-searching bullets. An examination of the arms and equipments surrendered showed them to be of superior class. The guns were chiefly Enfield rifles which had been brought into the Confederacy by the blockade runners. General Pemberton's army was the best appointed we had yet met.
We knew that Port Hudson only waited the news from Vicksburg before yielding to General Banks. The Confed- eracy was at last cut in twain, and the Father of Waters, again free of blockade from source to sea, thenceforward was to lend all his mighty forces to the protection of the Union.
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CHAPTER VI.
THE JACKSON CAMPAIGN .- CAMP SHERMAN.
2
A T five o'clock on the morning of July 5th the regiment moved out from its little camp beneath the oaks and marched towards the Big Black. The enemy having been driven from the opposite shore of that stream by artillery, and a bridge constructed, we crossed at Messenger's Ford the next day. Thence we advanced, pursuing the direct road for Jackson, constantly retarded by skirmishing in front. Towards night of the seventh a terrific thunder storm burst over the weary battalions, and amid the awe-compelling cle- mental war before which the red bale-fires of battle "pale uneffectual," we went into bivouac near Bolton. We reached the vicinity of Clinton on the eighth, and came within sight of Mississippi's capital on the night of the ninth. The weather was of the hottest; the dust rose in suffocating clouds about the sweltering columns, and the men suffered wofully. Several were seriously affected with sunstroke, and others were constantly seen dropping out of the ranks and lagging behind from exhaustion. The little water-courses were now mostly dry gravel beds, and the few natural or arti- ficial reservoirs of water remaining had been maliciously polluted by throwing into them the carcasses of slain animals. About mid-forenoon of the tenth we moved within gunshot of Johnston's intrenchments surrounding Jackson, his artillery greeting our advance with a few harmless shells. Our posi- tion was near the centre of the lines of investment.
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
During the tenth and eleventh hostilities were chiefly con- fined to the artillery, and our guns were served but slowly for the ammunition trains had not reached us. On the twelfth a furious but brief cannonade, accompanied with volleys of musketry, was heard upon the right, caused by a general ad- vance of that wing of the army, and more especially by an unfortunate charge of a brigade of General Lauman's divis- ion which ended in a repulse and needless bloodshed. That day we began intrenching as for regular siege. The ground compared with that we had lately fought over, was quite level. The forest had been felled for a width of several hundred feet wherever it approached the defensive works, which were built of cotton bales covered with earth, and at suitable points were enlarged into bastions, turfed and , constructed with embrasures for several guns, which had an enfilading fire upon the wide open spaces on either flank. General Sherman had evidently no intention of ordering any hasty or unnecessary assaults upon such defences, manned as we knew them to be by an army as large as that which had held us at bay seven weeks before Vicksburg. We lay quiet by day and worked diligently upon the trenches in the shades of night.
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