USA > Illinois > The story of the Fifty-fifth regiment Illinois volunteer infantry in the civil war, 1861-1865 > Part 33
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While this committee have in mind the stern requirements of disci- pline, they have no less in mind the stern requirements of justice, and
359
CAPTAIN SHAW VINDICATED.
do not look with favor upon the summary dismissal of a gallant officer without his 'day in court.'
The exigencies of the service may have denied to this officer the right of trial by court-martial, but they did not deny to him the justice of a hearing, or to the general commanding the wisdom of considering both sides of a case."
Not reaching a vote in the Forty-eighth, the bill was again introduced in the Forty-ninth Congress, and passed the House of Representatives without a dissenting voice. February 7th, 1887, it was passed by the Senate, and the President approved it on the twenty-first of the month.
It is fitting that there should be put upon record here acknowledgment of the great obligation felt by the sur- vivors of the Fifty-fifth to the Hon. R. R. Hitt, and to the Hon. Shelby M. Cullom of Illinois, champion of their cause in the United States Senate.
For two or three days after the regiment was relieved from the advanced position it had won, it was stationed in the main line of rifle-pits, constantly under fire of both artillery and musketry, and daily sending large details for picket duty. The Fourteenth and Twenty-third Corps were gradually working into line on our right flank, making noise enough daily for a bloody battle. On the morning of August 8th, long before dawn, we were ordered to the front to reverse the earth-works from which the rebel pickets had been at last flanked. After twenty-four hours of outpost duty, we were relieved by another regiment. In the night of August 9th we again went to the front and completed the works we had begun, and the division moved forward to occupy them. Here we remained several days. The rebel artillery persistently shelled the line and casualties occurred almost daily. On the tenth, George W. Curfman was wounded by a bullet which came under the head-log. On the twelfth, Daniel S. Burke, an excellent young soldier, was shot through the heart, and Sergeant Derrick Fryer was wounded. On the thirteenth, George W. Sitler was killed, and the next day John Jackson and Thomas Wilson were wounded. The pickets began to make friendly agreements with each other, and finally bargained to abstain from firing.
360
FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
When the rebel officers did not interfere to prevent, they would meet and interchange commodities or talk over the situation.
.August 17th the division received a new commander, in the person of Brigadier-General William B. Hazen, from the Army of the Cumberland, a West Point officer. General Lightburn returned to his brigade, but on the eighteenth was found by a stray bullet, slightly wounded in the head, and went North within a week thereafter. General Hazen in "A Narrative of Military Service," speaks of his new command thus :
"I was assigned to the Second, Sherman's old division, which fought under him at Shiloh, and had since been under McPherson, Blair, and other able and favorite officers. But recently it had been unfortunate. Under General Morgan L. Smith, on the day of McPherson's death, it was badly broken, and considerably damaged. Lightburn afterward commanded it, and at an affair of pickets a few days before my assign- ment to it, there was great complaint of misconduct, and one of the brigade commanders-Colonel Martin of the One-hundred-eleventh Illinois, a most worthy man -was seriously blamed, and unjustly so, as I afterwards learned. The condition of the division at this time was deplorable."
Judicious orders needed to raise the division to its normal standard of discipline and administration were at once pub- lished. Something may be judged of the unwholesome nature of previous management by the fact that the first effect of these orders was to increase within a week's time the effective men with muskets from seventeen hundred to over twenty-one hundred. The general writes :
From the first, there was the most hearty desire upon the part of all officers to aid these reforms, and they were successfully carried out. *
the men and officers were both admirable. *
August 18th and 19th noisy and ostentatious demonstra- tions were made all along the line; colors were displayed, the artillery began a furious fire, the regiments cheering jumped upon the works, and the skirmishers moved forward, as though to assault. The rebel pickets at some points were deceived by the feint and ran back. In this way our picket line made some slight advance, but nothing else of impor-
361
LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR.
tance was effected, save the unmasking of three batteries in our division front. During the night of the twenty-second the regiment moved a short distance in advance to construct field-works, and we were busily cutting down trees and con- veying the logs to the new line, when a battery opposite hurled five shells in quick succession so skilfully directed and timed that they all burst over or in the midst of the working party. There was a sudden dropping of logs and tools, and a general seeking of shelter. But when the con- fusion was over it was found that, singularly enough, only one man had been injured. Gillis Woolner, a German re- cruit, one of a dozen who were carrying a tree trunk towards the barricade, was struck in the face by a mass of iron that scattered brains and fragments of skull all around. The guns had doubtless been trained upon the spot before dark, for the work went on that night without further interruption.
At this place there came from the Governor of Illinois, in reply to the application for commissions given under date of July Sth, the unexpected information that Major Heffernan had sought for promotion in the regiment, ignoring the agreement made with the re-enlisted veterans. As he had been absent from the command six months, although in per- fect health, and was known to hold an agreeable and respon- sible command in Illinois, this news awakened acrimonious feelings, in the full heat of which the following document was signed and forwarded :
HEADQUARTERS 55TH REGT. ILL. INFTY., CAMP BEFORE ATLANTA, GA., August 20, 1864. )
To His Excellency, RICHARD YATES,
Governor of Illinois.
SIR: Having forwarded to you in good faith and with the approval of our commanding general, the names of sundry officers and non-com- missioned officers for promotion in several companies in our regiment, and having recommended Captain Francis H. Shaw for promotion to the lieutenant-colonelcy, in accordance with the principles upon which the 55th Regt. Ill. Infty. re-enlisted, and with the approval aforesaid; being without a regimental commander and having less than one commissioned officer to each company, midst the most perilous struggles of the war, we have waited under circumstances of great trial for your response to our wishes. At length it has come through Adjutant-General Fuller, in his communication dated July 27th, 1864. Passing in silence our recommen-
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362
FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
dations for company promotions, you urge as the reason for delay in commissioning our chosen regimental conunander, "that as Major James J. Heffernan does not appear to have agreed to submit his claims for pro- motion to an election, he is not bound by it, and therefore action on said recommendation is suspended until you are again heard from on the subject."
In accordance with your request, we, the undersigned commissioned officers of the 55th Illinois Infty. Vols., would set before you the following statement of facts :
Ist. The men of this command utterly refused to enlist as a veteran organization under their former field officers, Major James J. Heffernan being one of them.
2d. In a written order of Brig .- Gen. Giles A. Smith it was expressly declared that any arrangement which would be satisfactory to the officers of the 55th Illinois should be guaranteed to the men, by authority of Maj .- Gen. John A. Logan.
3d. Brig .- Gen. Morgan L. Smith -- then our division commander -in person promised in presence of the whole regiment, if the men would re- enlist that they should have any officers they might choose, either in or out of the regiment, stating that General Sherman had that day given him authority to make these pledges in order to secure the services of so valuable a regiment.
4th. Colonel Oscar Malmborg, in a written order, pledged the men, if they would re-enlist, that they should have a fair election, and the offi- cers of their choice, and those only, should serve them.
5th. The commissioned officers of the regiment, except Lieut .- Colonel T. C. Chandler and Major James J. Heffernan, signed a written agreement on honor that they would not accept a command after the expiration of the present term, except by the express will of the majority of the veter- ans re-enlisted. To Major James J. Heffernan the paper was not pre- sented, he being in Illinois, and also -- as many responsible witnesses can testify under oath -- he having assured the men with his own lips that they should have commanders of their own choosing. Hoping that Major James J. Heffernan had some sense of honor left, and fearing to delay re-enlistments for his signature, the men were assured that he would not stand in their way, and on this basis were re-enlisted.
We would add that we are placed under circumstances where it be- comes necessary to say that the conduct of Major James J. Heffernan has rendered him wholly unworthy the confidence of the officers and men of the 55th Illinois Infantry, as evinced in the fact that he was the only field officer in the regiment who did not receive a single vote for any office whatever.
Pursuant to the orders above referred to and the pledges given, Chap- lain Milton L. Haney was elected colonel, Capt. Jacob M. Augustine lieu- tenant-colonel, and Francis H. Shaw, major. Capt. Augustine having been killed at Kenesaw Mountain, and Chaplain Haney preferring not to accept the command, we made application by his request for the commis-
363
LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR.
sioning of Capt. F. H. Shaw as lieutenant-colonel. Since said applica- tion, Capt. Shaw, for declining to execute an order on the field, has been dismissed from service, subject to the approval of the President. Under the circumstances, Chaplain Haney has signified his willingness to ac- cept the command, if commissioned. Chaplain Haney has been identified with the 55th Ill. Vols. from its earliest history, and recruited more men for its ranks than any other, save one. He was commissioned captain of Company F, and served in that capacity until March, 1862, when pro- moted to chaplain. He is therefore the senior officer present with the regiment. As a company commander he was successful, distinguishing himself for energetic application to military duties and studious attention to drill. In the post of chaplain no more faithful officer exists than Mil- ton L. Ilancy. Not thinking his duties ended with the Sabbath exhorta- tions, he has always and in every way labored to better the condition, moral, mental and physical of the men of his charge, and essentially aided the field and line officers in their efforts to make the 55th Ill. Vols. one of the best disciplined and most efficient regiments in the service. In recent battles he has taken his place in the ranks, fighting musket in hand. One evidence of his ability to command can be found in the fact that he has so gained the confidence of the intelligent body of men com- prising the veterans of this regiment, as in a formal election for com- manding officer, to receive nearly nine-tenths of their votes.
We hereby earnestly request that he be immediately commissioned as lieutenant-colonel of the 55th Ill. Vols., and that our application for com- pany promotions be granted without delay. Relying upon your sense of moral justice and. being impelled by stern necessity, added to the solici- tude of our men, we confidently lay before you this our last appeal.
All of which is respectfully submitted,
CYRUS M. BROWNE, Capt. Commanding 55th Regt. Ill. Vol. Infty. JOHN T. SMITH, Asst .- Surgeon.
HENRY S. NOURSE, Captain, 55th Regt. Ill. Vol. Infty., Co. HI. CHARLES A. ANDRESS, Captain,
T.
ALBERT A. WHIPPLE, Ist Lieutenant,
G.
PETER ROBERTS, 2d Lieutenant,
G.
ROBERT OLIVER, Ist Lieutenant, . C.
GILES F. HAND, Ist Lieutenant,
F. JACOB FINK, Ist Lieutenant,
FREDERICK EBERSOLD, Ist Lieutenant, "
HORACE T. HEALEY, Ist Lieutenant,
F. A. SCOTT, 2d Lieutenant, "
FRANCIS P. FISHER, Ist Lieut. and Adjt., =
HENRY AUGUSTINE, Ist Lieutenant, "
A.
I hereby certify that the above list of signatures comprises the names of all commissioned officers present with the regiment this zoth day of August, 1864.
F. P. FISHER, Adjt.
C. M. BROWNE, Capt. Comdg. Regiment.
1).
I.
H. H.
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
Despite this indignant protest in behalf of the veterans, Major Heffernan --- at this date commandant at Camp Butler, Illinois-was promptly commissioned lieutenant-colonel. He was, however, never mustered into that grade; but re- tained his command at the rear until November 19th, 1864, when he was mustered out of service as major, not having been present with the regiment a day for ten months. Dur- ing the Fenian raid into Canada of May, 1866, he figured briefly with the title of "Brigadier-General in the service of the Irish Republic." He in after years resided successively in New York, California, Utah, and Colorado, making occa- sional visits to Honduras and Mexico, being engaged "in mining and prospecting." He was ambitious, quick-witted, versatile, tireless both in mental and bodily activity, and influ- ential because of his attractive social qualities. He often held local office, and was always and everywhere an ardent politician. He died at St. Louis in 1885.
CASUALTIES OF FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS VET. VOLS. BEFORE ATLANTA, IN AUGUST, 1864.
COMPANY. REMARKS. KILLED.
OLIVER ERICKSON, first-lieutenant. E. Aug. 3, in charge.
WILLIAM J. ECKLEY, sergeant.
G. Aug. 3, in charge.
MICHAEL HUMPHREY.
G. Aug. 3, in charge, shot in head.
WILLIAM MOUNT.
K. Aug. 4, shot through head.
DANIEL S. BURKE.
D. Aug. 12, shot through heart.
GEORGE W. SITLER.
B. Aug. 13.
GILLIS WOOLNER.
I. Aug. 22, head torn off by shell.
WOUNDED.
WILLIAM H. BARKLEY, corporal.
B. Aug. 3, in face, during charge.
THOMAS WILSON.
B. Aug. 14, in head.
JOHN JACKSON.
B. Aug. 14, in facc.
THOMAS GOAKEY.
C. Aug. 4, in neck.
MOSES WARDEN.
E. Aug. 3, during charge, in thigh.
GEORGE W. CUREMAN.
1). Aug. Io, in head.
DERRICK F. FRYER, sergeant.
H. Aug. 12, in back.
GEORGE A. ANDREWS.
I. Aug. 26, in right foot.
Lieutenant Erickson, a Swede by birth, was a gallant officer and a worthy man, who had won his commission from the ranks, having entered the service as a corporal in Company A. He was struck by three or more bullets and instantly killed, at the head of his company. Sergeant Eckley was a
365
GRAND FLANK MOVEMENT.
young man of more than average intelligence and character, and greatly esteemed by all his comrades. Humphrey, a jocose little Irishman, was always frolicsome in camp, and never a shirk in the fight. Mount was killed behind the works by a chance ball. He was an exceptionally fine soldier, in the flower of youth, and a lovable comrade.
The battle of Ezra Church evidently awakened at last in General Hood a wholesome respect for his predecessor's pru- dent defensive policy. We thereafter met no more furious flank assaults, but everywhere found ourselves facing elabor- ate field-works fully manned, and strong skirmish lines of veteran troops in rifle-pits, posted some distance in front of the main intrenchments. The Confederate army had been re-enforced by large bodies of militia, to whom was entrusted the defence of the inner line of fortifications, and battalions of slaves constructed miles of field-works in anticipation of every gain in position or prolongation of lines made by the Union army. It was time for another grand flank movement.
On the twenty-sixth of August, at eight o'clock in the evening, the Army of the Tennessee abandoned its works, and moving to the rear marched in a pouring rain all night and until noon the next day, a distance of about sixteen miles, in a southwesterly direction, along the Lickskillet and Sandtown roads. Our pickets having held their posts five or six hours after the division had retired, were then quietly withdrawn and followed as rear guard. Lieutenant Roberts, commanding the guard detail of the Fifty-fifth that night, relates that, although the removal of the troops was con- ducted with the utmost possible precaution against noise, enough mysterious sounds reached the ears of the rebel pick- ets to make them suspicious: After a time the hostile bat- teries began to shell our lines, and when our pickets retired they were closely followed. Halted on the ridges along Wolf Creek, we threw up a line of defences, working like beavers until dark. The prepared-for assault did not come, however, for General Hood, knowing that the Twentieth Corps had fallen back to the railroad bridge over the Chatta- hoochee, and blinded by various other circumstances, believed
-
-
366
FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
that Sherman was retreating to Sandtown for the purpose of crossing the river.
At light on the twenty-eighth we resumed the march, and reached the West Point railroad, two or three miles east of Fairburn, early in the afternoon. Here we went into bivouac in battle line, passing the night behind fortifications hastily built at right angles with the railway. The next day we worked diligently destroying the road. It was systematically ruined and obstructed for miles, each rail bent into the shape of a hair-pin, the ties burned, and the cuts filled with earth, trees and rubbish, and an occasional artillery shell arranged to serve as a torpedo. August 30th we advanced twelve miles, arriving within a mile of Jonesborough on the Macon railroad at night, where battle line was formed, and we at once began intrenching. The day's march had been con- stantly delayed by Wheeler's cavalry, two or three brigades of which now and then offered a sturdy opposition, some- times from behind barricades, and assisted by light artillery. At Flint River, late in the afternoon, a more determined stand was made by infantry and cavalry, intrenched, but they were soon outflanked and fled, abandoning to our use the bridge half burned. At Jonesborough there was evidently a larger force intrenched. Guided by the sound of our labor upon the rifle-pits we at once set about constructing, a con- stant fire was kept up in the darkness, which proved very annoying.
At dawn of August 31st we speedily discovered that our position had serious faults not discernible the night before. The enemy's sharp-shooters commanded the ground in our immediate rear, so as to make it hazardous to move out of the shelter of our works. The First brigade was at once ordered to move forward and take possession of a prominent hill about half a mile to the front. The enemy's skirmishers stoutly resisted our advance, but by nine o'clock we occupied the crest, and while half the brigade pushed back the enemy and held them in check, the rest piled rails and logs, of which there was luckily a considerable supply within a short dis- tance, into a rude low breastwork. Lying behind this, with bayonets and tin plates -- anything that could serve as a tool
.
367
THE BATTLE OF JONESBOROUGH.
- the men dug into the hard gravel to increase their protec- tion. The position commanded both the Confederate and our own lines. It was an amazing oversight on the part of the enemy that they had not occupied and fortified it before our arrival. The railroad and village of Jonesborough, the former about five hundred yards distant only, lay below us in plain view. Battle-lines twice the length of our brigade came out of the woodland by the railway, and a strong in- benched line, fully manned with infantry and artillery, stretched from our front southward into the town beyond our field of sight.
Luckily a few picks and shovels soon reached us, and for two or three hours every man put all his energy into the work of protection. By noon we were sheltered behind a contin- nous line of field-works, but far inferior in height and solidity to those we had become accustomed to construct in the ad- vance upon Atlanta. In our immediate front low brush and small trees masked the situation somewhat from the hostile batteries. Behind us the hill sloped gently down to a little brook and a road. The dusky lines of men in the valley were constantly lengthening by the coming of loaded trains from the city. Two Confederate corps -- Hardee's and S. D. Lee's-were confronting the Federal Fifteenth, and our weak brigade, detached by a wide interval from any support on the right flank, and utterly without support on the left, formed an attenuated line in this important salient, awaiting an as- sault for which we could see the preparations going on below. The odds were too enormous, and the division general evi- dently recognized the fact; for at the last moment of grace Eve little regiments were hurried forward from the distant Seventeenth Corps, three of which were posted in a pine grove a short distance from our left, and the other two upon our right flank at an interval of a few rods. Both the forces were refused nearly at right angles with the general direc- tion of our intrenched line.
At two o'clock, heralded by the roar of the Confederate batteries, General S. D. Lee's corps, in double line of assault, pushed up the slope, every man yelling like a demon incar- nate. Our skirmishers came in upon the run. Close behind,
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FIFTY-FIFTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.
the first rebel line rushed into sight out of the skirts of the brush that fringed the slope, and when within a hundred paces our first volley met them full in the face. A few of the more desperate reached the rifle-pits, but the main body was swept back to the shelter of the copse, leaving the hill crest covered with a bloody burden. The second line ad- vanced with less spirit, halted for the most part about sixty yards from the works, and lying down kept up a desultory fire upon us. The officers again formed the lines and drove their men up the hill, again to be decimated and driven. Over one hundred dead men were visible in our front, and three battle-flags had fallen before the brigade. Many wounded and about one hundred unhurt, who had got too near to retreat, surrendered, and were sent to the rear. Among these a jaunty young colonel, with a broken arr!, mounted the works and gazed up and down the line. Recog- nizing the flimsy character of the barricade and the scant number of defenders, a look of ineffable rage and disgust distorted his fine features as he strode back towards our field hospital. We buried one hundred and two dead within our brigade lines, while before the picket posts were many more. The attack had been made along the front of the Fifteenth Corps, but the only forceful blow was struck at the Second division and broke upon the First brigade. Lieutenant-Gen- eral Lee, in his report of the battle, acknowledged a loss of thirteen hundred killed and wounded, and stated that he did not persevere in his assaults because he had apparently made no impression by his attack upon our left, where he supposed us weakest. The Fifty-fifth, with an effective force of one hundred and eighty, lost during the day two killed and ten wounded, four of the latter being mortally hurt.
The morning of September Ist opened with an unclouded sky. The Fourteenth, Twenty-third and Fourth Corps had struck the Macon railway late on the previous evening, being at the nearest point four miles north of us, engaged in leis- urely destruction of the track. The position in the valley below, as to outward appearances, was unchanged. Hardee's corps in its intrenchments annoyed us with artillery, and the sharp-shooters forced us to keep close to our cover. Al-
369
THE BATTLE OF JONESBOROUGH.
though we did not then know the fact, Lee's corps had marched for Atlanta during the night.
It was not until afternoon that General Sherman appeared upon the scene. Coming to our rear, after viewing the posi- tion of affairs, he sent his staff galloping with orders in every direction. The Seventeenth Corps now joined us on the left, and the Fourteenth came sweeping down the railroad. We could overlook from our little eminence the approach of the columns, the deployment and gallant advance, and the final assault upon the right flank of Hardee's army, where Cle- burne's division met the attack. The Confederate works were strong, running across the railroad and therefore at right angles with the main intrenchments, with salients con- taining batteries that were served with great rapidity, raining grape and shell upon the blue lines as they came into range. It was nearly four o'clock before the successful charge was made. General Sherman stood watching the formation, vis- ibly impatient. Soon the skirmishers were seen running forward, and behind them the two battle lines rolled onward. The rebel pickets rushed back pell-mell before them, the smoke leaped from the cannons' mouths towards them, and the musketry volleys tore visible gaps through them. Now and then portions of the line would falter, and with hearts in our mouths we dreaded lest the next minute should see them to routed back. But the hesitation was never general and always brief; the brigades swept on with emulative determi- mation, rushed up the slope and over the batteries. Sherman, rubbing his hands one over the other, said to the officer next to him, "They're rolling them up like a sheet of paper," and moved away to give orders for pressing the advantage gained.
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