USA > Indiana > History of the Seventy-third Indiana Volunteers in the War of 1861-65 > Part 9
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progress over muddy and mountainous roads. Our division reached Manchester on the 30th and went into camp, only to break it again on the Ist of July and con- tinue our march toward Hillsboro. Corporal Brum- field and W. E. Gorsuch, Company C, and Alexander Smith, Company I, were left sick at Manchester. Smith, we afterwards learned, never recovered, but soon was quietly sleeping the soldier's sleep that knows no waking. Heard that Tullahoma was evacuated by the rebel army. 2d-Marched to within a mile of Pelham, wading streams, and walked in mud during the whole day. Here we performed a series of countermarches between Pelham and Hillsboro, a continued re-wading of the numerous swollen streams on the road, the object of which movements I have never been able to learn. On the 4th went into camp near Pelham. It was another rainy day and our company celebrated the glorious anniversary by going out as guard to a forage train. 6th-Still raining. Rations scarce and getting scarcer, one ration being issued for three days.
Early on the morning of the 8th we were called out for undress parade to hear a dispatch from General Crittenden, telling us that Vicksburg had fallen, General Pemberton surrendering the whole of his command to General Grant on the 4th. Loud cheers going up from every camp in the division rent the air, accompanied by the sound of booming guns, proclaiming the glad tidings in echoes and re-echoes among the mountains miles around. The same day we marched back to Hillsboro and encamped, leaving General Wagner's
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brigade at Pelham. The next day moved the camp to a very pleasant piece of wood near the famous Big Spring and fixed up summer quarters. Here we ob- tained blackberries, apples, potatoes and other vege- tables in abundance, and a reasonable amount of meats, though it was mostly fresh beef. Policing, drilling and guarding, with foraging for a variation, at once became our daily duty. Everything passed on tamely, no events of importance crowding themselves upon us. On the 20th we received news of John Morgan's cap- ture in Ohio, and it created a general good feeling through the camp. 29th-The Sixty-fifth were paid off, all but the Seventy-third Company, the Pavmaster saying that he could not pay our detachment. We stood in the background, in sight, but not in possession, of the "Almighty greenback." The Sixty-fifth boys were kind and obliging, however, some of them offer- ing to loan us money and wait for it until we might be paid. About this time we saw a paragraph in the Cincinnati Commercial stating that General Rose- crans had issued an order for those detachments of the Fifty-first and Seventy-third Indiana on duty with the department to report to their regiments at Indianapolis. This was good news for us, but the order didn't come, and we consoled ourselves with the reflection that we were not prisoners of war, as our esteemed officers were. However hard the duty, under whatever cir- cumstances, though they be unpleasant, yet we were out beneath Heaven's canopy of cloud, and free to breathe earth's purest air, and our situation was a happy one compared to languishing imprisonment.
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Early on the morning of the 16th of August we broke our pleasant camp at Hillsboro and set out amid a shower of rain for Pelham. Lieutenant Eaton being sick, Lieutenant Smith, of Company G, Sixty-fifth, was assigned to our command during the march. Camped near Pelham and resumed the march again at five o'clock the next morning. Made the ascent of the mountains by night with wagons taking only half their loads. The assistance of men with ropes was necessary to bring the wagons and artillery up the steep places. The task was an arduous one, and I remember seeing Colonel Harker, small as he was, with coat off and sleeves rolled up, pulling at the ropes like a grenadier, while our brigade teams were ascending. 18th-Train up with the second load and all repacked ready to pro- ceed by noon. An issue of whiskey was the so-called reward for our hard labor as the teams were coming up the steep mountains all night long, and some were obliged to keep fires burning on each side of the road so that the rope hands might work effectively. Marched on toward Tracy City, the Sixty-fifth bringing up the rear. We reached Tracy early the next morning, made coffee there, and then proceeded on our way. Saw several fearful looking specimens of the large mountain rattlesnake during this day's march. On the 20th made the descent of the mountains to Thurman in the beauti- ful Sequatchie Valley, East Tennessee. Here we found an excellent spring of water, vegetables in abundance, the best potatoes, peaches and apples it has ever been my good fortune to obtain in any part of the South. General Wood issued a congratulatory order
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to the troops, highly complimenting them for the heroic and soldierly manner in which they had performed the difficult march from Hillsboro. A rest of two days and we began drilling again, having brigade drill every afternoon. Our brigade consisted of four regiments, the Sixty-fourth, Sixty-fifth, and One hundred and twenty-fifth O. V. I., and the Third Kentucky V. I., with the Sixth O. V. Battery.
General Wood was anxious to get the Fifty-first and the Seventy-third Indiana back in his division, and on that account, we believed, wished to keep our detach- ments with him, thinking they might assist in bringing about that result. We were fully satisfied that he al- ready had the order from General Crittenden to return us to Nashville to join our regiment. At last the ex- pected order came late in the afternoon of the 30th. Captain Haley, of the Fifty-first, had received the order from Rosecrans, unknown to General Wood, and he was therefore obliged to let us return. We were to report to Captain Haley early the next morning and go with the supply train to Tracy City. That night we closed up our relationship with the Sixty-fifth, dis- posed of what camp and garrison equipage we could, turned over a few guns to the regiment, drew three days' rations, and were all ready to leave the camp at daylight of the 31st. Upon going to Colonel Whitebeck, after receiving marching orders to get his order for rations, he was very kind and complimentary indeed. He said he was glad we were to return to our own regi- ment, but sorry to see us go. That we had been good soldiers while with him, kept up the good name of our
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regiment in the brigade, and he would send us away with full haversacks, giving us three days' full rations, when he was only issuing half rations to the regiment. Early the next morning we bid a final adieu to the Sixty-fifth, with a much better opinion of it than when we entered it at Murfreesboro. We left some friends with whom we regretted to part, among them Major Brown, than whom a kinder man, in camp or on the march, never wore golden leaves. There are some other minor incidents connected with our stay with the Sixty- fifth which might be remembered with interest by the detachment, but which I shall not here narrate. How certain petitions were circulated while at Hillsboro, what we thought when leaving the camp with Lieu- tenant Eaton sick, and how two rear guards that day failed to make camp at night. How on the mountain we laid in the woods all one damp, chilly night, and how noisy the regiment was with the continual cry of "All over," and other similar phrases.
We reported to Captain Haley at the foot of the mountain, and after a full day's ride in the "hari trotting" government wagons we reached Tracy City. After eating our suppers we spread down our blankets on the green sod and enjoyed a good night's repose. There was but an engine and one car at the station, and next morning, huddled together on this limited train, we came down the mountains to Cowan, on the Nash- ville and Chattanooga railroad. The ride reminded one of sliding downhill on a handsled in dim distant days of boyhood. It was so steep, so winding, so novel and picturesque. This road was built expressly for bring-
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ing coal from the mines at Tracy City, and none but peculiar engines and cars were serviceable on it. Changing cars at Cowan, we continued our ride until night found us in Nashville, putting up at the Maxwell barracks.
September 2-Up to this time we made sure of being sent to Indianapolis, and, once there, sure of furloughs home ; but General Granger, commanding post, had use for us in Nashville, so our railroad riding stopped for a while. We relieved detachments of the Third Ohio and Eightieth Illinois stationed at the siege guns about the city and at Fort Johnson, and entered immediately upon our new duties. We found the drill upon the heavy guns to be simple, and after getting fixed up comfortably we thought the heavy artillery after all was the "right arm" of the service. Not in the sense of being the most destructive to the enemy, for I have serious doubts about our projectiles going to the in- tended place, if Nashville had been attacked at this time. We never had permission to fire at a target, and our knowledge, therefore, was all theoretical. On the Ioth recived news of the occupation of Chattanooga and Cumberland Gap by our troops, which good tidings were celebrated at night by an enthusiastic meeting at the statehouse.
On the 21st came the rumors of severe fighting, which proved to be the battle of Chickamagua. Fearful slaughter and almost a defeat, a tolerable price for the stronghold of Chattanooga. About this time our friend and comrade, Sergeant Thomas W. Loving, of Com- pany A, was sent to the hospital, where he died after an
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illness of a few days. He was buried in the city ceme- tery, and a headboard there tells his name and the num- ber of his grave, 5,266.
October 3-Visited the officers' hospital and saw Colonel Whitebeck, Lieutenant Hinman, Lieutenant Gardner, and other officers of the Sixty-fifth Ohio who were wounded at Chickamagua. Heard with sorrow that Major Brown had fallen on that sanguinary field, an'd many more of the regiment found a final resting place beneath the soil for which they died stubbornly contesting.
On the 25th the Seventy-third came to Nashville, ar- riving about nine o'clock at night, put up at the Max- well barracks, and went into camp by the pike, near the penitentiary the next day. The Fifty-first en- camped with them, and both regiments went on miscel- laneous duty as post troops. November 6-Captain Haley, commanding heavy artillery, was relieved and ordered to his regiment which anticipated marching orders soon for Chattanooga. On the 10th Lieutenant Eaton was also relieved and returned to his regiment. On the 12th, Captain Williamson, commanding the Seventy-third, was ordered to report to Captain White, Post Chief of Artillery, with his command, for duty on artillery, and on the 13th, nearly five months from the day of its organization, our detachment was broken up, the members all returning to their respective com- panies. Thus melted away the Seventy-third Company into the Seventy-third Regiment again, in the aggre- gate present of which it has ever since figured. Event- less and tame as this sketch may be, I trust it will not
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be entirely void of interest to those conversant with the subject, and that it may form subject matter for a par- enthetical chapter in the history of our regiment.
Following is the complete roll of the Seventy-third Company, familiarly known in the Sixty-fifth Ohio as Company "Q."
Company A-Henry W. Gilbert, Horace F. Gor- donier, Peter Johann, Lloyd Lamphier, Philip Litter, Sergeant Thomas W. Loving, George Metz, John Tanner.
Company B-Oriss Bentley, Ephraim C. Cornelius, Lorenzo P. Fields, Minor S. Marble, Christian Phillipi, George W. Shippy, Benjamin S. White, Fred Whit- brook.
Company C-Joseph Bivins, Corporal Stanton J. Brumfield, Egbert Finney, Wilber E. Gorsuch.
Company D-James E. Clem, Thomas Gilson.
Company E-Lewis Brown, Richard Gibbons, John Maudlin, Ethan A. Murray, John M. Murray, Charles Shutts.
Company F-Leander W. Crumb, Andrew Jacobs, William H. Lloyd, Jacob Maxey, John W. Patterson, Corporal George T. Poulson.
Company G-William H. Downs, William C. Sea- right, William H. H. Smith.
Company H-Sergeant George B. Custer, Henry H. Glidden, Daniel Haworth, James Hensley, James Kearns, John Murphy.
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Company I-Lieutenant William C. Eaton, Robert Flewellyn, Eli J. Gordon, Corporal Uriah D. Jaqua, Alexander Smith, Delarma Webb.
Company K-Ist Sergeant Job Barnard, Robert Behan, Michael McAuliffe, Hiram W. Miller.
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RETURN OF REGIMENT TO TENNESSEE.
After the return of the regiment to Nashville, on the 25th of October, 1863, some of the men continued on duty in charge of the seige guns, and others returned to the regiment for such general duty as was given it, until the 12th of November, when the regiment, then in command of Captain Williamson, of Company I, was ordered to report to Captain White, Chief of Artillery, when for a time the whole regiment was doing duty in the artillery service.
On the 12th of January, 1864, in obedience to an order received on the 9th, a detail of one man from each company started home on recruiting service for the regiment. This detail was as follows :
Company A, Henry W. Gilbert; Company B, Ser- geant L. T. Penwell; Company C, Ist Sergeant G. L. Pearson; Company D, Corporal William H. H. Simons; Company E, Ist Sergeant Charles W. Wheeler ; Company F, Leander W. Crumb; Company G. Ist Sergeant Alexander Wilson; Company H, Private Henry H. Glidden, Company I, Lieutenant William C. Eaton; Company K, Ist Sergeant Job Barnard.
Major Wade was exchanged, and reached Nashville on March 27th, 1864, finding Captain Williamson still in command of the regiment, with headquarters on the corner of Broad and Vine Streets, but the regiment was
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scattered around in various places in the vicinity of Nashville ; some of the men at Fort Negley, some on the Northwestern Railroad, some at Cheatham's Mills, twenty-two miles from the city, getting out timber for stockades, bridges, etc., and some still engaged in charge of the seige guns about the city, and the re- cruiting party just mentioned still in Indiana. The regiment was then attached to the Twelfth Army Corps, Third Division, First Brigade, Army of the Tennessee.
Major Wade began at once to get the scattered frag- ments of the regiment together, and by April 3d moved the camp down one mile in rear of Fort Gillem, and on April 9th had sufficient of the men together to have the first dress parade, and on the next day had bat- talion drill.
The first general order of the regiment seems to have been issued on April 10th, as follows :
"The following shall be the order in camp: Reveille at daybreak, breakfast call 6 a. m., sick call 7.30, guard- mount 8.30; officer's recitation 9 o'clock, company drill IO o'clock, recall II o'clock, dinner 12 m., police I p. m., battalion drill 3 p. m., dress parade 5 o'clock, retreat call 6, supper 6.30, tattoo 8.30, taps 9 p. m. By order of A. B. Wade, Major commanding."
A number of men were still on detached duty, but on April 14 some from Fort Negley returned to the regi- ment, and permission was given by General Rosecrans to move camp to Lavergne.
On April 19, Major Wade, accompanied by Captain Boyd, of Company F, made an inspection tour of Posts
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Nos. 5, 6, and 7, occupied by portions of our regiment, the ride being about 25 miles.
On April 28th, while still in camp at Lavergne, Major Wade, with seven mounted men, and a Union citizen as guide, made a scout through Rutherford, Davidson, and Williamson counties, for Green Hall, Bob Battle, and Everett Patterson, noted guerillas of that neighborhood. The party had a skirmish or two with the enemy, but they made their escape.
On April 30th Lieutenant Hagenbuck, of Company D, was detailed by Major Wade as Provost Marshal, and Lieutenant Hubbard, of Company H, was detailed as Post Commissary.
On May 19th Company K arrived at Lavergne from Cheatham's Mills, and Company D from Fort Negley, and the usual drilling and camp duties, with an oc- casional scouting party, continued until June 6th, when Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, having been exchanged and released from prison, returned to the regiment and took command.
On June 8th Major Wade went to Nashville and brought down two trains, on which Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, with seven of the companies, embarked for the south, leaving Major Wade with the other three companies to follow as soon as transportation could be procured.
On the 9th the rest of the regiment left Lavergne and went to Stevenson, Ala., where they transferred to the Memphis and Charleston railroad and went to Decatur Junction, Ala. There Lieutenant-Colonel Walker joined the companies under Major Wade, and
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the whole regiment being together once more, marched to Mooresville, a distance of four miles, where we re- mained until the 14th, when Colonel Walker, with com- panies D, E, F, H, I and K marched on to Triana, on the Tennessee River, relieving the Sixty-third Illinois In- fantry at that place, and Major Wade, with companies A, B, C, and G went to the mouth of Limestone Creek. The duties of the regiment now were to guard the fer- ries and possible crossings of the river.
Major Wade, at Limestone, at once set to work mak- ing temporary fortifications. Substantial blockhouses were commenced and pushed to completion, small blockhouses were built at given points along the river, and the command distributed to occupy the same. The "Johnnies" sometimes showed themselves on the op- posite side of the river, and some communication was held with them under flag of truce.
June 18 Captain Eaton took Companies I and E and went down to Decatur Junction to guard the railroad, leaving only four companies at Triana. Lieutenant Williams returned to the regiment from Libby Prison, after escaping with Colonel Streight, and others, through the tunnel, on April 2, and for a time took command of his company, but later was assigned to command Company H. After we reached Triana he was detailed to command the patrol line along the river, having several mounted men and a squad of pioneers engaged in building stockades under his direction.
June 24 Lieutenant Reynolds returned to the regi- ment with convalescents from Lavergne, and as-
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sumed command of Company K for a short time. He resigned because of ill health and imprisonment, and from wounds received at Stone River, and left for home July 30.
That portion of the regiment on duty at Triana arranged to celebrate the 4th of July, and did so by raising a liberty pole on the regimental parade ground, and marched to the grove in the afternoon, where the Declaration of Independence was read and an oration delivered by C. F. Kimball, our Commissary Sergeant. Several patriotic toasts and responses were given, after which the meeting was dismissed by benediction from the Chaplain, and we all marched back to quarters, the regimental band playing "Yankee Doodle."
On July 10th Lieutenant-Colonel Walker re- ceived notice of the acceptance of his resigna- tion, because of ill health, and greatly to the regret of the soldiers he left us for home on July IIth, when Major Wade came to Triana, and assumed command of the regiment. The officers signed resolutions, couched in strong and fitting words, ex- pressive of their feelings at the loss of Colonel Walker, and on the 12th and 13th the non-commissioned officers and privates of the regiment passed resolutions of regret at the Lieutenant-Colonel's resignation and of deep loss felt by them in the death of Colonel Hatha- way.
Companies G and C from Limestone came back to headquarters at Triana on the 13th.
July 22d guerillas captured and burned a train filled with cotton near Huntsville, the smoke of which could be plainly seen from Triana.
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On July 29th, Major Wade, with detachments from C, D, H, and G, numbering fifty men, crossed the river in rowboats at Watkin's Ferry and made a bold and rapid march to Summerville, a distance of nine miles. They captured ten horses and mules and a few rifles and shotguns found at private residences, and came back to camp about 5 p. m. The heat was severe.
On August 2d, Captain Boyd, of Company F, and Lieutenant Grimes, of Company D, having resigned, took final leave of the regiment.
August 6th a six-pound gun with caisson, for which requisition had been made, was received and put in a commanding position at the ferry, and eight men were detailed from the regiment as gunners.
On August 15th a detail composed of about 100 crossed the river on a flat boat and a pontoon, making several trips across, and marched to Valhermosa Springs, some twelve miles from the river, where salt- petre works operated by the enemy were found, and the kettles destroyed and buildings burned. We took several horses and mules, saw three or four rebels, some of whom were captured, and we returned to camp in the afternoon almost exhausted from the severe heat and long march.
On August 31st the troops at Triana left for Decatur Junction, where the companies then engaged in guard- ing the road east of that point joined the regiment. The men from Triana did not arrive at the Junction until about 12 o'clock midnight.
On the morning of September Ist we left the Junc- tion on a train of flat cars for Elk River Bridge, Nash-
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ville and Decatur Railroad. We learned that the pur- pose of our sudden march and expedition was to repel General Wheeler and his men, who were threatening the railroad in that vicinity.
On September 2d we remained all day in the hot sun on the the side hill, where General Starkweather and his staff called to see us.
At night, after we had got comfortably fixed for sleeping, we were ordered to Prospect Hill to repair the fort, and we lay in the fort in the hot sun on the 3d, 4th and 5th, many of the men being sick with chills and fever. A number were sent to the hospital at Pulaski and some sent back to Decatur.
On the 15th of September the regiment returned to Decatur Junction and thence to Mooresville, while Company K returned to the Piney Creeks, where it had been previously located, it and Company F having gone to the railroad from Triana under special orders of August 23d, to relieve Companies A, E, and I, Com- pany F being located at Limestone Creek Bridge and Little Limestone Bridge, and Company K at Big Piney Creek and Little Piney Creek.
At this time Major Wade received his commission as Lieutenant-Colonel, and on the 19th of September, in company with other officers who had also been pro- moted, went to Nashville to be mustered in.
They returned to the regiment on the 21st, and during their absence Company B was ordered back to Triana to garrison that place.
On September 24 heavy cannonading was heard in the direction of Athens, and at noon orders were re-
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ceived for the Seventy-third to march immediately for Decatur. The march began at 2 o'clock p. m., over bad roads full of mud, and we went into camp about 5 o'clock at Decatur. Colonel Given, of the One hundred and second Ohio, was in command of the post. Part of his regiment and part of the Eighteenth Michigan and some United States colored troops were captured at Athens, and an attack on Decatur was anticipated.
On September 26th Colonel Doolittle, of the Eighteenth Michigan, took command.
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BATTLE WITH BUFORD AT ATHENS.
On the evening of the 28th of September, 1864, Lieutenant-Colonel Wade was ordered to proceed with his regiment to Athens and to retake that place, which had been captured by Forrest. Only five companies of the regiment were present at Decatur, the other com- panies remaining on detached duty on the line of the M. and C. Railroad and on the river, so that the force under command of Colonel Wade consisted of a portion of the Seventy-third, and 200 of the Tenth Indiana Cavalry. They crossed the river at Decatur on a pontoon bridge, and boarded flat cars and started for Athens, fifteen miles distant, reaching the vicinity of the town about one o'clock at night, where they dis- embarked and went into camp, finding the track torn up at that point.
At daylight on the 29th the command moved forward cautiously and marched to the fort on the hill west from the station. They found the barracks inside the fort all burned, the chimneys only remaining. The fort was surrounded by a wide, deep ditch, the dirt from which had been thrown on the inside, forming a solid raised embankment. Abatis was placed around the outside of the ditch, rendering access more difficult, but there was no bomb-proof or shelter inside the fort to protect the garrison. It was feared that Forrest would return by way of Athens, that being the most
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