USA > Illinois > The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865 > Part 30
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Our brigade, as it debouched from the thicket into the open at double-quick step and struck the ledges, all over which a natural growth of stunted, scraggy oaks had been i Hed, was no longer column or line, but a swarm of desper- ate men clambering up between boulders and over tree trunks. aid struggling through a tangled abatis of gnarled limbs. The place was almost inaccessible to one unincumbered and unopposed. Nothing we had surmounted at Vicksburg equalled it in natural difficulties. The troops upon our left, dismayed, fell back without any attempt to cross the open ground at the foot of the slope, and those on the right soon gave way, enabling the enemy to concentrate their fire upon us. There could be no concert of action and little leadership; each had to climb or shelter himself and fight as he best could.
Captain Augustine was conspicuous, always pressing for- ward and prominent among the foremost. The impulse of
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the first rush was quickly lost in the mingled fatigue of climb- ing and the death of hope at sight of the fearful obstacles ahead. All faltered and advance seemed at an end. Seeing this, and at the same minute hearing and probably misunder- standing the bugle signal for retreat sounded in our rear, Captain Augustine, sword in hand, climbing in advance a pace or two, and shouting, "Forward, men!" stood erect, for one moment the grandest figure in the terrible scene; the next instant he lay prostrate, pierced through the left breast by a fatal bullet. His fall visibly disheartened the regiment, though a few men got closer under the rebel parapet, and attempt at further forward movement ceased. Captain Shaw, the second in command, calmly assumed the duty devolving upon him. Many wounded were dropping back to the rear, the charge could not win, and longer exposure to that cross- fire from covered marksmen meant only useless murder. General Smith again gave the order by bugle call to fall back, and most of the men swept down into the shelter of ยท the forest across the brook, and re-forming as a skirmish line along a little ridge, kept the enemy from making a counter- charge or using their artillery, and protected the few living who had failed to retreat, so that one by one nearly all crept down and escaped by a desperate run across the open space to the ridge.
To this point tools were brought and rifle-pits begun, under a fierce artillery fire from the hill batteries; but at night the brigade was withdrawn to the rear, other troops being aligned in the parallel we had captured from the pickets in the morn- ing advance. The bands struck up patriotic airs as darkness closed down, and in their tree-canopied bivouac the torn and sadly diminished battalions forgot sorrow and fatigue in sleep. Of the two hundred and fifty sent into action by the Fifty-fifth, twelve of the bravest lay stark and cold among the rocks of the hill or by the brook-side; three had received burial at the hands of comrades in the woodland, and thirty- two had been borne or found their own way to the hospital for surgeon's attention.
Captain Augustine was brought down to the base of the hill by John Sheneman and Joseph Putnam. He was entirely
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THE HEROIC DEAD.
conscious and gave orders to some men near to seck shelter behind trees and try to keep down the enemy's marksmen until those yet upon the hill could escape. Soon Lieutenant Henry Augustine, his brother, was summoned to his side. Hle died within an hour in his brother's arms, bidding his friends not to mourn for him; he gave his life a willing sacri- fice in a just cause. In the same hour, a few paces away by the little stream, another pathetic scene was witnessed. Joseph Putnam, having helped bring the dying captain to the sheltered spot where he lay, ran to find a stretcher to bear him to the rear; but before he had gone many steps a bullet pierced his thigh, breaking the bone and severing an artery. A sweet singer, jolliest of messmates, loved for his invincible good nature, respected by all for his manliness, courage, and cheerful attendance upou duty, his heroic death was in har- monious keeping with his life. The rosy-checked, curly- headed boy knew that his wound was mortal, and told a comrade, George W. Curfman, who attempted to aid him, that he had but a brief time to live. Then he began singing: "We're going home to die no more." As his life's blood pulsed away his voice grew fainter and fainter, but murmured the refrain until forever stilled on earth.
The generous-hearted and dauntless captain of Company E, William C. Porter, leader of a forlorn hope at Vicksburg, was shot through the left thigh, borne from the hill by two of his men, and died from loss of blood about four o'clock the same afternoon. The day was intensely hot, and the fatigue of the charge and toilsome climb so accelerated the pulsa- tions of the heart and heated the blood, that several whose wounds might not otherwise have proved fatal, perished of depletion before the surgeons could tie their torn arteries, or of exhaustion afterwards. Captain Porter had married while on veteran furlough, and spent his last moments in sending consoling messages to his young wife. The men who placed his body in its mother earth, their sad office done, had not got out of sight of the grave when a shell from the rebel batteries struck fairly into the little mound, and bursting almost uncovered the dead soldier again, as though begrudg- ing him his six feet of Southern soil. One of the men who
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went to the captain's assistance when he fell, Adam Gleisner, was shot through the head and died beside him on the hill. He had fought in every battle the regiment was ever engaged in, and bore an enviable reputation for his soldierly behavior.
Captain N. S. Aagesen, while leading his company and well up the slope, had his right arm shattered near the shoul- der. He was helped to the rear by his men, and finally reached the hospital, where his arm was amputated, leaving him in a pitiable plight, for he had practically lost all use of his left arm from the effects of a wound received at Shiloh. Recovering after a long convalescence, he was detailed upon a court of inquiry at Springfield, Illinois, and never rejoined the regiment until mustered out with it at Louisville, in 1865. He was a Dane by birth, and had been in America but two years when the war broke out, going north from Mobile after the fall of Sumpter to enlist in the Union cause.
Lieutenant Hartsook led Company K in the charge and was wounded upon the mountain among the foremost. Lieu- tenant Lomax and Sergeant Kays of the same company were struck by a bullet while one of them was giving the other a drink from his canteen, after the regiment had fallen back, the ball passing through the left thigh of the sergeant into the right hip of the lieutenant. Bartley Holden, a jovial and plucky Irishman of Company A, was shot down just in ad- vance of his captain. James Clark, another faithful soldier of that company, was mortally wounded and died at Alla- toona hospital a fortnight after the battle. George W. Crow- ell of Company C, was instantly killed as he stood upon the trunk of a fallen tree, while swinging his hat and shouting to his comrades to "come on," he being then as near the rebel line as any man in the regiment. His brother had found a grave on the battle-field of Shiloh. Henry C. Curtiss of the same company fell dead just as the charging line reached the base of the hill. Company E had six men killed including its captain-nearly half the lives lost in the engagement by the Fifty-fifth. Patrick Moran, whose home name was said to be Flemming, and James Quigley, were among the first to fall. Richard Shanning, a brave veteran, when some of his comrades offered to try to get him to the rear after he was
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THE HEROIC DEAD.
mortally wounded, insisted upon their leaving him and caring for themselves, as he could live but a short time. He died before they left him. Charles Merrill, who was noted for coolness in danger, was one of the last to come down from the hill, and was shot through the heart facing the enemy, as he turned to look back from the foot of the slope.
There were probably in every regiment a few men who, however brave at heart, had legs that could with difficulty be induced to stay anywhere near the front in the hour of battle. These men were sometimes in all other respects worthy sol- diers; cleanly, dutiful, useful everywhere but in fight. If they had not too openly disgraced themselves, they were usually permitted to drift into some menial position, or were detailed where their trades or special capacities made them of service to the army. No company in the Fifty-fifth could be more impatient of the existence of a constitutional cow- ard among them than the always stanch and true Company I. Yet such a man was in their ranks, who, after escaping from two or three battles, obtained an order placing him on de- tached service, out of danger. But when Sherman's sweep- ing order at the opening of the Atlanta campaign sent to their regiments thousands of men who had been long retained in comfortable berths at hospitals or supply depots, this sol- dier came reluctantly among his old messmates. After the battle he was found at the foot of a tree some distance to the rear of the creck, shot through the head by a chance ball.
The wounded who could bear moving were after a few days taken from the field hospital and sent to Allatoona by night in a freight train. It was a terribly painful trip for these mangled men, riding over the rough roadway upon mattresses spread on the floors of the cars; and when taken out at sunrise most of them were completely exhausted with fatigue and lack of nourishment. But they at once found themselves in the hands of the agents of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, under the leadership of Mother Porter, who with smiling faces and cheerful words of encour- agement administered needed stimulants and food, and soon had them comfortably located in hospital tents.
The assaults made at other points in the lines, though
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
nowhere encountering such insuperable natural obstacles as existed at Little Kenesaw, failed as decidedly to pierce the Confederate defences. The trial had been gallantly made, and, as generally happens where human flesh is hurled against earth and stone defended with military skill by brave veter- ans, nothing had been gained at all commensurate with the frightful loss of valuable lives. Again resort was had to the strategy of flank movements. For several days we remained in reserve at the rear of the lines we had captured. Attempts were made by comrades to reach our dead upon Kenesaw by night, but the enemy's pickets were stationed at the foot of the hill and forbade approach. It was nearly a week before a burial party could visit the scene, when the bodies were found unburied, though robbed of certain articles of apparel.
CASUALTIES OF FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS VET. VOLS., AT LITTLE KENESAW, JUNE 27, 1864.
KILLED. COMPANY. REMARKS.
JACOB M. AUGUSTINE, captain.
A. Shot in left breast.
BARTLEY HOLDEN. A.
WILLIAM STEVENSON. B.
GEORGE W. CROWELL. C.
HENRY C. CURTISS. C.
CHARLES SAMUELSON. C.
ADAM GLEISNER.
E. Shot through head.
CHARLES MERRILL.
E. Shot in breast.
PATRICK MORAN. E.
WILLIAM C. PORTER, captain.
E. Shot in thigh.
JAMES QUIGLEY. E.
RICHARD SHANNING.
E.
JOSEPH PUTNAM.
F. Thigh broken.
ADAM HENLIEN.
I. Shot through head.
DAVID MARSHALL.
I. Shot through head.
WOUNDED.
JAMES CLARK.
A. In right shoulder, mortally.
CHARLES F. HAMILTON.
A. Slightly, in left leg.
DANIEL K. MAXWELL.
A. Severely, in left arm and leg.
A. Severely, in right hand and wrist.
HARVEY SHAW.
A. Slightly, in left hand.
JAMES M. WHITE.
A. Right leg amputated.
JOHN A. HILLBORG.
C. In left hand.
ALEC. W. PETERSEN.
THEODORE SHULTZ, sergeant.
C. In leg.
C. In the foot.
EDGAR J. PORTER.
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CASUALTIES OF BATTLE.
WOUNDED.
COMPANY. REMARKS.
NICHOLAS S. AAGESEN, captain.
D. Right arm amputated.
ALBERT F. PADEN.
D. In left hand.
JOSEPH CORBY, color-corporal.
E. In left heel.
HENRY JOHNSON.
E. In left shoulder.
PATRICK QUIGLEY. JAMES N. FUGATE.
F. Bullet through both thighs.
DAVID N. HOLMES, corporal.
F. In left hip.
DAVID J. MATHENY.
F. In right arm.
EDMUND T. TOTTMAN.
F. In right elbow.
JAMES W. GAY, color-sergeant.
G. Across small of back.
JOHN MELLON.
G. Right leg amputated.
ANDREW MURRAY.
G. In neck.
FRANKLIN SMITH.
G. In right shoulder, severely.
WILLIAM WILSON.
G. In hand.
GEORGE E. WITTER.
G. In head.
JOHN D. FRAZIER, corporal.
H. Right arm amputated.
JOSEPH EDWARDS.
I. In right leg. severely.
STEPHEN R. MALCOMB.
I. In arm.
JOHN W. MATLOCK.
I. In right arm.
ROBERT M. Cox, corporal.
K. In left arm.
JOSEPH HARTSOOK, first-lieutenant.K. In left shoulder.
JAMES W. KAYS, sergeant. K. In left thigh.
WILLIAM D. LOMAX, second-lieut. K. In right hip.
E. In left arm.
The roads which had been in an almost impassable condi- tion on account of heavy rains, now under the hot summer's sun fast dried, and army stores were rapidly brought to the front. July 2d, at four o'clock in the morning, General M. L. Smith's division moved to the right and halted at noon in rear of the Twenty-third Corps, near Nickajack Creek. That night Kenesaw was evacuated. As usual, General Johnston had fallen back into elaborate works constructed under the direction of skilful military engineers by an army of negroes. The works from which he had retired were held by a strong line of skirmishers as long as possible. July 3d the Fifty- fifth and One-hundred-twenty-seventh Illinois, in a reconnois- sance on the Turner's Ferry road, encountered the rebel pickets and drove them from their lines. The advance of the Seventeenth Corps in the afternoon took possession of the road. July 4th we moved eastward three miles, the Six- teenth Corps fighting in our front, and by a charge finally gaining possession of a line of rifle-pits, despite strenuous
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
opposition. Recognizing the fact that another advance by the right flank would bring Sherman's army upon the Chatta- hoochee near Sandtown, threatening his communications with Atlanta, Johnston fell back from his new position that night to another "last ditch" close to the bridges and fords of the river.
Some of the works abandoned were marvels for perfection of engineering cunning. In one location commanding a wide, level, open tract, a tall stockade of tree trunks planted side by side and fastened by transverse timber, with the usual abatis in front, took the place of the ordinary rifle-pit. On the fifth we moved three miles towards the river and remained in bivouac two days at Mill's Grove, sweltering in the hot sun. From the bringing forward of pontoon trains it became evident that there was some thought of an attempt to dash across the Chattahoochee, but the enemy were found fortified in too great force opposite. The whistling of locomotives in the direction of Marietta told that supplies were reaching the army in the field by railway again. On July 8th we moved two miles to the left, and from one point could see the much coveted city of Atlanta in the distance. From our camp at this place the following document was forwarded to the capital of Illinois:
HEADQUARTERS 55TH REGT. ILL. INFY. VOLS.,
CAMP NEAR CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER, GA., July 8, 18644. 5 HON. A. C. FULLER, Adjutant-General,
Springfield, Il.
SIR :-- At a meeting of the commissioned officers of the Fifty-fifth Regiment Illinois Veteran Volunteers, serving with the regiment in the field, Captain Francis H. Shaw of Company C, was unanimously chosen to be lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, vice T. C. Chandler, resigned.
At the election of commissioned officers for the veteran organization, in April last, Captain F. H. Shaw was chosen major, and Captain Jacob M. Augustine, lately killed in action, lieutenant-colonel; and as all the field-officers belonging to the regiment are on detached service, it is respectfully urged that the efficiency of the command requires that Captain Francis H. Shaw be commissioned at the earliest practicable date. All of which is respectfully submitted.
Very truly, your obt. servt., C. M. BROWNE,
F. P. FISHER, Capt. Co. G, actg. major 55th Regt. Ills. Vols.
Ist Lieut. and Adjutant.
-
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ON THE CHATTAHOOCHEE.
[Endorsed.]
HEADQUARTERS IST BRIGADE, 2ND DIVISION, 15TH A. C., { IN THE FIELD, GA., July 9th, 1864.
Approved. Captain Shaw is now commanding the regiment and is a good officer. He is next in rank to Major Heffernan, whose continued absence from the regiment forfeits all claims to promotion.
GILES A. SMITH, Brig .- Genl. Vols.
On the ninth of July we were moved about half a mile to the cast, and began fortifying; but during that night the enemy disappeared from our front. Johnston had crossed the Chattahoochee with all his forces, and the smoke of the burning bridges proclaimed the fact to the whole Union army at dawn. The Twenty-third Corps had already by surprise effected a crossing cight miles above the railway bridge at Soap Creek, and our cavalry had waded the river at Roswell. Both were strongly intrenched, expecting immediate assault. The other divisions of the army made demonstrations at the ferries for miles up and down the Chattahoochee, which was somewhat swollen with recent rains, about six hundred feet broad, and nowhere passable for troops without bridging. Atlanta was but ten miles distant by railroad. By the maps, it seemed obvious that the more advantageous as well as shorter line of attack upon that great intrenched camp and railway centre was from Sandtown, aiming at the East Point junction of the West Point and Macon railways to cut off the southern line of retreat. Important strategic considerations, the topography of the region to be traversed, and the great desirability of cutting the railway communications with the East, deter- mined General Sherman to adopt a line of approach double the length of that to the south.
On the eleventh, we moved by the left flank a hot and dusty march of five miles, and in the afternoon of the next day entered, after a tramp of twelve miles, the charmingly located valley city, Marietta. The huge hotel, three-story military academy, elegant residences, steam-mills and numer- ous stores and shops, marked the place as having been a social and commercial centre of large importance; while the park-like groves of oak and hickory and the dominating
.
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
neighborhood of Kenesaw gave it a picturesque beauty rare in that land. Long before light on the thirteenth, we were aroused from our slumbers to hasten forward towards Ros- well, ten miles east, where a trestle bridge had been thrown across the river, over which we marched the following day. Brick ruins enclosing great beds of grey ashes marked the site of extensive mills here, which had been burned by the cavalry, who had no cautious respect for the French flag displayed above them as a claim for protection. These mills had been manufacturing canvas and tents for the Confed -. eracy. We had seen some of the three or four hundred female operatives captured here, while on their way to the cars; factory girls and tent makers having been pronounced by General Sherman "contraband of war," and ordered to be transported north of the Ohio River. The division advanced two miles beyond the Chattahoochee, took up a strong position and fortified it. We were about twenty miles from Atlanta.
At this point, broiling under the July sun, we remained until Sunday, the seventeenth, when, advancing eight miles, we re-formed in battle line along Nancy's Creek. On Mon- day, marching southward, about noon we broke out of the woodland and found ourselves upon the Atlanta and Charles- ton railroad, between Stone Mountain and Decatur. The division was at once set at work tearing up and destroying the track. Thus far the only opposition encountered had been that of Wheeler's cavalry, which our mounted troops and a skirmish line of infantry kept so rapidly in motion that there was little hindrance to the steady progress of the line of battle. On the nineteenth, we moved along the railroad nine miles through the old-fashioned tree-embowered town of Decatur, opposed vigorously but only by cavalry and light-artillery. The twentieth saw a continuation of the same slow progress towards the east of Atlanta, the resist- ance becoming much more stubborn, however, and apparently supported by infantry, so that but about three miles were gained. Each night we slept behind hurriedly constructed rifle-pits, and even the pickets in our front had their little defences of rails or logs.
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INVESTING ATLANTA.
We this day learned that the Fabian policy of General Johnston, which had for some time been receiving sharp criticism from the short-sighted, at last had afforded Jefferson Davis the desired excuse for superseding him and putting in his place a more pugnacious and adventurous commander. This struck the self-confident Union veterans as rather good news than otherwise, for Johnston's prudent genius was far more dreaded by the intelligent than Hood's headlong dash. Having had enough of assaulting, we quite welcomed the prospect of seeing the rebels try the role of assailants, and were willing to waive formal notice of their intentions. We had not to wait long for the new policy to develop itself. In fact, that very afternoon the continuous roar of artillery upon our right signaled the bloody repulse of the new commander's first aggressive blow. He had caught the right wing of Sherman's army while advancing, unisuspicious but not unready, to the south side of Peachtree Creek, 'just where he wanted it,' and just where his prede- cessor, competent to teach him strategy, had planned to attack; yet Victory had shown no inclination to perch upon his banners.
The next day it was fearfully hot, but the men worked enthusiastically to complete our line of earthworks, while the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Corps were swinging around to our left with a heavy skirmish line fully occupied in their front. There was no attempt made to push forward the Fifteenth Corps, for neither the Twenty-third on the right nor the Seventeenth on the left had come into alignment with our advanced position, and the Sixteenth was at the rear. Everything seemed quiet from our picket line. Indeed, the opinion prevailed that we were only held back by so obstinate resistance to permit the safe removal of stores from Atlanta preparatory to its evacuation. This idea seemed confirmed on the morning of July 22d, when the skirmishers reported another strong line of rifle-pits abandoned in our front. Company F, of the Fifty-fifth, was sent forward to re-inforce Companies D and E of the same regiment, then on picket duty, and it was confidently expected that they would be in the city, but two miles
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
distant, before night. The picket line, however, after advancing to the suburbs of the town encountered the enemy and began skirmishing. Here Sergeant David M. Crumbaugh was brought to the rear with a wound that proved fatal some months later.
The Fifteenth Corps was moved forward at once to occupy the deserted works, and instinctively, without delay and with- out orders, the men began to improve and reconstruct them to suit the altered ownership. At this critical time our much beloved brigade leader, General Giles A. Smith, was taken from us, promoted to the command of the Fourth division of the Seventeenth Army Corps vice General Gresham, wounded. He was succeeded by Colonel James S. Martin of the One- hundred-eleventh Illinois. The morning had dawned bright and beautiful, after a rainy night. The Second division, un- der General M. L. Smith, forming the centre of the Fifteenth Corps, was aligned at nearly right angles to the Charleston railway, which ran through the works in a deep cut. On the north bank of this cut was Illinois Battery H, with four twenty-pounder Parrott rifles, commanded by Captain De Gress, and on his right General Lightburn's brigade. On the south bank was stationed Chicago Battery A, with four brass field-pieces; at their left was the Fifty-seventh Ohio, and next the Fifty-fifth Illinois. Three other regiments of the brigade were in reserve. Over half a mile distant in our front were the pickets, and a few rods in their rear was a use- lessly strong support, consisting of two guns of Chicago Battery A, and two regiments-one from each brigade -- the Fifty-third Ohio and One-hundred-eleventh Illinois. General Morgan L. Smith, infatuated with the belief that Hood was evacuating Atlanta - a belief also entertained by his superiors -ordered these troops to push up as near as possible to the fortifications surrounding the city, expecting them to be first in the race for entrance. They were posted in a favorable position and hastily protected themselves with light earth- works. This presumption that the Confederates were on the point of abandoning Atlanta led to tactical looseness in locat- ing the Federal troops, which before the day closed had to be compensated for by extraordinary fighting.
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