USA > Indiana > The Eighty-sixth regiment, Indiana volunteer infantry : a narrative of its services in the civil war of 1861-1865 > Part 48
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GEORGE FREDERICK DICK.
The man and officer, who, by his mihtary skill, by his firmness and courage made of the Eighty-Sixth an organiza- tion of which they who still live, are so justly proud, came to the regiment near the close of the Kentucky campaign in the early winter of 1862-1863. This officer was Lieutenant Colonel George Frederick Dick, destined soon thereafter to be the Colonel. He joined the regiment at Rural Hill, Ten- nessee, on the night of November 17, 1862. This was the officer who was in all of the subsequent history of the regi- ment, whether in camp or on the field, in the trenches, or in the storming of the enemy's works, who was to be the cen- tral figure. He it was who was to make, by strict discipline and thorough drill, a body of soldiers out of the raw material then organized into what was called a regiment.
Colonel Dick, for such soon became his title, came to the regiment unheralded. He came as an utter stranger to all but a very few, and the regiment as such, had never even heard his name. There had been rumors that a Lieutenant Colonel had been commissioned, but who he was, or when he was to report for duty, was unknown. The few who had known him, prior to the war, had known him only as a quiet
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citizen, and as a man earnestly devoted to the care of his mercantile pursuits. All soon knew him thoroughly as an officer, and quickly respected and admired him for his genu- ine soldierly qualities. Never in the habit of talking of him- self, nor of exploiting his deeds, Colonel Dick was, and is, known to the members of the Eighty-sixth only in his identi- fication with the history of the regiment subsequent to the time of joining it.
He was not a man who had many intimate associates. His nature was too quiet and modest to attract the crowd, but those who thoroughly knew him, and back of his quiet demeanor learned the sterling qualities of his heart and head, were linked to him as with hooks of steel. In form and physique, he impressed the men at once as one on whom they could rely, and more and more, under the shock of bat- tle, on the march and in camp or bivouac, did this impres- sion of his worth as a soldier, and his ability as an officer, grow upon officers and men. After he assumed command of the regiment it was not long until officers and men alike learned that a master hand held the sword.
To portray the exact condition of the regiment at the time Colonel Dick came to it, both as to its condition from a sanitary point, and as to discipline and knowledge of the duties of soldiers, but little need be said. It is a sufficient to say that from the moment that he took command on the battle-field of Stone's River there was a change for the bet- ter. New life was infused, new hopes were inspired, and an ambition took complete hold of all to do something, to be something, to make a record as soldiers, that had not before existed with the great mass of the officers and men. Some, too, there were of the officers who found that they were not fitted to be soldiers in the highest and best sense of the word, and these retired. As the fact has been recorded that Colonel Dick came into the actual command of the regiment at Stone's River on the morning that the battle opened, let the reader now go backward in his career, and learn of his early life.
George Frederick Dick was born at Tiffin, Seneca county,
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Ohio, February 22, 1829. He was of German parentage, but from his childhood and into his manhood was, as he will remain to the close of his life, intensely American in all his thoughts and actions. When but two years old his parents moved from Tiffin to Cincinnati. Here he grew into man- hood. The education he received was such as was to be gained from the public schools in Cincinnati during his early boyhood. Although not what is termed an educated man, he has ever been a reader of the best authors when the time could be taken from business hours, has always been a close observer of men, and has at all times kept himself thoroughly informed as to current events. In his boyhood he was an enthusiast on military matters, taking a deep interest in the military organizations then existing in the city of Cincinnati. With his boy associates he was regarded as a leader, and his opinions on military affairs were law to them.
When he was in his sixteenth year, a juvenile military company was organized, known as the Cincinnati Cadets, and Fred Dick, as he was then called, was chosen as the Captain. He at once accepted the position and assumed the responsi- bilities. Faithfully he discharged the duties of Captain, and he was fully as willing to perform his appointed share of the hard work incident thereto, as he was to bear the honors of the position. Those who have known Colonel Diek in his maturer years, after he had put aside the mimic soldier, and had had the responsibilities of the actual soldier and officer. can easily imagine the firmness and thoroughness with which he handled the Cincinnati Cadets. Those who have seen him in the actual charge and shock of battle, and have seen the firmness with which his teeth were shut upon each other, and have heard his clear, sharp and commanding voice ring out in the supreme moment, can well imagine the young Cap- tain as he appeared at the front of his miniature soldiers. and can well understand why the Cadets made so fine a record as "play soldiers, " why many of them made in later years such magnificent records during the four years of war. where balls as well as powder were used, and actually fought and died on the field. In all that pertained to his early mili-
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tary company, and kindred organizations he took the deep- est interest, little dreaming, save as a boy may dream, that he was taking the primary lessons that were in after years to make him a thorough military man, and to give him as excellent a record as was won by any officer during the war occupying a similar position. As he himself has said, "This little experience proved very useful to me in after years when I assumed the active duties of a soldier, in actual and not mimic warfare."
In whatever position he found himself among organized bodies of men, he was chosen by his associates as the chief or commander. The fire companies at the time he was resid- ing in Cincinnati, after he had grown out of boyhood and into his young and vigorous manhood, were independent, or volunteer companies. These were composed of a class of young men who hesitated at nothing when duty pointed the way. They were ready to fight the fire fiend either singly, or to brave the greatest dangers in company with their asso- ciates, whenever life or property was to be saved from death or destruction. In one of these fire companies George F. Dick, as soon as he was of sufficient age, found himself as a member .. Never reckless, always discreet, yet never under the most trying circumstances hesitating or faltering, he was soon chosen as the Captain. Here again, as when Captain of the Cadets, he enforced the most stringent discipline, and through his management Dick's Fire Company was one of the best of its day in Cincinnati. Not only was the drill of the Cadets, and the fire company of use to him in future years, but it was in these organizations that he first began to study human nature. After all, this knowledge of men, read- ing their characters individually and when brought together in large bodies, when combined with military skill, is one of the very chiefest things tending to success in a military com- mander. Colonel Dick had this knowledge of men to a remarkable degree in his career as an army officer. He seemed to be able to read every officer and man of his regi- ment as one would read an open book. There was not an officer or private who came under his command who did not
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instinctively feel that Colonel Dick knew exactly his make- up. This was especially true at the storming of Mission- ary Ridge, where every man from right to left of the regi- ment felt more than words can tell it, that Colonel Dick was watching his every movement in that, the most brilliant charge ever made by soldiers of any land or in any war.
After arriving at that age which required that he should turn his attention to the practical affairs of life, he entered business in Cincinnati as a tobacconist. and remained in that city in the tobacco trade until 1855, when he removed to Attica, Indiana, and there again went into the same business, and so continued until the breaking out of the war in 1861.
At the first call for troops by President Lincoln in April, 1861, roused by his patriotic impulses, he at once closed up his business affairs to answer the call. While he was "put- ting his house in order" for the great conflict, he was at the same time, in company with others. engaged in the forma- tion of a company for the first three months' service. The company was speedily raised and George F. Dick was unani- mously chosen as Captain. As rapidly as this first company of Captain Dick had been organized. the rush to arms had been so great and so rapid that upon tendering their services to Governor Morton, there was no place for them. and their offer was rejected. However much the disappointment at being unable to be among the first 75,000 Union troops, the organization held together, waiting for the first opportunity that might be presented, to be mustered.
These enthusiastic and patriotic citizens did not have to wait very long, for on May 3, 1861, the President issued his second call and assigned the quota to each State. In filling the quota for Indiana a camp was opened at Lafayette, and here were gathered the companies that were to contribute a regiment, and were in July mustered into the service as the Twentieth Indiana Volunteers, for three years' service. Captain George F. Dick's company was mustered in as Com- pany D, and he was commissioned and mustered as its first Captain July 22, 1861. The Twentieth Indiana was almost immediately ordered to the front and left Indianapolis on
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August 2, 1861, going to Maryland, near Baltimore, where it was placed on duty guarding the Northern Central railroad, a branch of the Pennsylvania road, which was such an important factor to the Army of the Potomac during the war. The duty of guarding a railroad was of very short duration, however, for in September, 1861, the regiment was moved to Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, and soon after land- ing was sent to the north end of Hatteras Bank, forty miles away from the fortifications, and from supports of any kind. At this place began the active military work of Captain Dick. Here the regiment was attacked by a much larger force, and had a severe fight, and although greatly outnumbered it maintained its position until it received orders to fall back. when it returned to the fortifications. The regiment was then sent to Newport News where it participated in the engagement between the Merrimac, Cumberland and Con- gress, March 8, 1862. On the 10th of May this regiment participated in the capture of Norfolk, Virginia, after which it was ordered to join the Army of the Potomac, on the Pe- ninsula. On June 8, 1862, the Twentieth Indiana was assigned to Jamieson's brigade, Kearney's division, Heintzleman's corps, and took an active part in the battle of Fair Oaks. On the 25th of June, 1862, it was engaged at the battle of the Orchards, sustaining a loss of 144 officers and men in killed, wounded and missing. The regiment covered the retreat of the Third army corps in the celebrated Seven Days' Fight, participating in all the battles of that campaign. its loss being heavy.
The Twentieth regiment formed a portion of the flank of the Army of the Potomac during its march across the Peninsula to Yorktown. It was moved to Alexandria, and was engaged in the fights along the Rappahannock, and in the battle of Manassas Plains, where its loss was great, the Colonel, William L. Brown. being among the killed. On September 1, 1862, the regiment was severely engaged in the battle of Chantilly.
This much of the service of the Twentieth Indiana has been given for the reason that its history until October, 1862,
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was in part made by the subject of this sketch, Captain George F. Dick, and his company being constantly on duty with the regiment. He was not, however the captain of the company during all of the time. On August 30, 1862. he was commissioned as Major and was present and served in that capacity until October 23, 1862, at which time he was com- missioned as Lieutenant Colonel of the Eighty-sixth Indiana.
It has been shown by the action of the Twentieth Indi- ana, that Colonel George F. Dick came to this regiment with a record of which any soldier might well feel proud. Indi- ana had many gallant regiments. All, as the opportunity offered, proved themselves worthy the State and worthy the Nation, but neither Indiana nor any other State had a better fighting regiment than was the Twentieth Indiana from its first entry on the battle-field until it was finally mustered out at the expiration of the war. The Eighty- sixth has felt especially proud of the Twentieth and its grand record because it gave to it an officer who led it into a record that for service, hard work, brilliant fighting and magniti- cent victories will compare with any regiment that served during the war. It is to this officer that the credit is due.
*October 21, 1862, George F. Dick was commissioned as Lieutenant Colonel of the Eighty-sixth regiment, was mus- tered on November 1 following. and joined his command soon after. He, an officer thoroughly conversant with the duties of a soldier, must have felt heartsick when he found a regiment without drill, without discipline, without any- thing that could be called military, save and except the fact that it had been mustered into the service of the United States. If, however, he felt wholly disappointed and dis- couraged, the officers and men were most thoroughly pleased at his coming. True, he was then only the second officer. but it was a great relief and assurance to have one man at the head of the regiment, who was an officer, competent to command.
No State secrets are being divulged. when the fact is stated that no one knew so fully as Colonel Dick the immense responsibility he assumed and the great burden that was
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placed upon his shoulders, when he surrendered his commis- sion as Major of the Twentieth, to accept the commission as Lieutenant Colonel of the Eighty-sixth. To those most con- versant with the facts it is well known by subsequent events that had he remained with the Twentieth the honors that would have come to him would have been as great, if not greater than those attained with the Eighty-sixth and the Army of the Cumberland. It was good fortune to this regi- ment that he did just as he did.
On January 14, 1863, George F. Dick was commissioned by Governor Morton as Colonel of the regiment, and was mustered as such February 9, 1863. His conduct at the bat- tle of Stone's River has been fully detailed in the chapter devoted to that battle and it is not necessary to repeat it here. Up to the time of entering Murfreesboro, after the battle, the regiment had had no instructions that amounted to anything like a thorough regimental drill, for two reasons: The first was that there had been no officer in command com- petent, and the second was that from the date of its organi- zation until it entered Murfreesboro and settled down in camp, it had been so continuously on the move, that such training was impossible. Yet the regiment had been in proximity to the battle of Perryville, and there had been no day after Perryville until the last of December, 1862, when it was not expected that it would be brought into an engage- ment. Then came the terrible battle of Stone's River, where the regiment, although undrilled, and undisciplined in every way, was taken through that engagement and won the enco- miums of the brigade and division commanders for its gallant conduct. That this is true, is due to the courage and mili- tary skill of the commander of the regiment through that fearful "baptism of fire." True it was, as heretofore stated, that the loss at the battle of Stone's River by this regiment was appalling, but it is due to Colonel Dick to say that no one could have handled a regiment of raw troops better, and few could have done so well.
It is not stating the condition of affairs too strongly when it is said that a great portion of the Army of the Cum-
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berland was simply armed men. They were not soldiers. They had had no opportunity for drill, nothing approaching careful instructions had been given, and no discipline had been enforced. Well it was for the Army of the Cumber- land that the time had arrived when all of these things could be imparted. What were then termed the "old regiments," the regiments that were, organized in 1861. were but very little better in point of drill, discipline and camp and picket duty than were the regiments that came into the service under the same call with the Eighty-sixth, and were through the bat- tle of Stone's River getting their first experience on a bloody field. Of the drill and discipline which came so opportunely at Murfreesboro mention has been made in relating the ex- periences of the regiment during the six months' camping in and about that town. This is said here in connection with what has been written of Colonel Dick. no regiment in the camps of the Army of the Cumberland had a more efficient drill-master than was he. For more than a year he had been in an army that had had for its commander one of the best organizers and tacticians ever produced by the American army. Drill and discipline were especial essentials with the Army of the Potomac, with which Colonel Dick had seen service. It was the drill and discipline of that army under McClellan that made it so effective under others who were commanders and fighters. Colonel Dick was a tactician, and a drill-master who could impart the knowledge he had acquired to others, and when the time came under him for the regiment to go into active campaigns, no other regiment was better prepared for the conflict.
Before moving from Murfreesboro, July 5, 1563. Colonel Dick had been assigned to the command of the Second brig- ade. Third Division. Twenty-first army corps, and retained command thereof until after the organization of the Army of the Cumberland while at Chattanooga, after the battle of Chickamauga.
Colonel Dick was a good regimental commander, and he was equally "at home" in the position of brigade comman. der: Every detail necessary to the management and effec-
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tiveness of the brigade was scrupulously observed. At the battle of Chickamauga he and his brigade were the very first infantry ordered out when the Confederate forces made their first appearance on September 18. 1863, in front of General Thomas J. Wood, near Lee & Gordon's Mills. On the night of that day it was the wise and soldierly work of Colonel Dick with his brigade, that in the night fight on the east side of the Viniard farm, that prevented the Confederates from passing around the right of General Wilder's brigade, and defeated the plans by which the rebel General, Bragg, ex- pected to gain possession of the LaFayette road, cut Rose- crans' army in two, shut him out from Chattanooga, and destroy the Army of the Cumberland by detail before that army could be reunited. General Wilder says of the situation that night, that had it not been for timely assistance ren- dered by Colonel Dick on that night, the plans of General Bragg might have succeeded and all would have been lost. Through the battle that raged again on the 19th and 20th at Chickamauga. Colonel Dick with his brigade bore a conspic- uous part. General VanCleve, who commanded the division to which Colonel Dick's brigade was attached. in his report on the battle of Chickamauga, especially commends him to special notice for good conduct during this battle.
After the battle of Chickamauga, the Eighty-sixth with the Army of the Cumberland, was besieged in Chattanooga. During all of this siege Colonel Dick was with the regiment sharing the hardships and dangers of that siege. His larder was as illy supplied as that of any private, but each day he was through the camp cheering and encouraging all to endure their hardships like good soldiers. On the picket line he bore his part when duty called, never shrinking from any service that was demanded. When the time came to move out of the works and attack the enemy there was not a regi- ment that received that order that formed more quickly than did the Eighty-sixth.
On the memorable 25th day of November, 1863, when the Army of the Cumberland showed such an example of bravery and soldierly bearing as never had been surpassed in the
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world's annals, Colonel Dick was found passing up and down his lines after they had been formed for that wonder- ful charge. encouraging his men. Those who saw him that day as the troops waited for the signal of six guns from Orchard Knob will never forget the quiet manner of the Colonel, nor will it be forgotten how firm and clear came the words of his commands when the signal was given. It was a "supreme moment" for the regiment as it stood in line that afternoon to the left of Orchard Knob, It was a terrible ordeal through which officers and men were passing.
The morning of November 25, 1863, had opened with the guns of Sherman over on the left where he had made a cross- ing of the river, and was then charging the enemy with all the terrible rattle and roar of battle in the attempt to turn Bragg's right and force him back off Missionary Ridge. Hooker on the right had forced the enemy off Lookout mnoun- tain, and the din of his guns told the Army of the Cumber- land as plainly as words that he was being forced back by the right of the Union army across the valley towards Ross- ville Gap, and that the crescent at the opening of the battle on the 23d and 24th was giving place to a straight line. Now along the entire front. from Hooker on the right down through the valley until Sherman at the river was reached. came the rattle and din of the skirmish lines of both armies, until. at times, it seemed almost like volleys from compact lines of battle. So the storm raged. from dawn until the lines of battle of the Army of the Cumberland had been changed from behind their works to the front of them pre- paratory to the charge that was to be made over the line of rifle pits thick set on the narrow plain, and on, and on to where?
This was the question that every officer and man asked himself as he stood in that new line of battle: and as the question found its place in his mind he looked and listened. and as he listened the din of the skirmishers ceased, and there settled down on friend and foe that awful, that fearful silence that precedes the terrible storm and tornado. . 15 the men realized the stillness and looked. they almost prayed
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for the noise once more that they might not be able to look -for looking-in the deathly stillness, what did they of the long lines of blue see? They saw in their immediate front the most formidable line of skirmish pits, that they had ever seen, and each pit was filled with armed men. Looking beyond a little further at the foot of the ridge was a line of earth works, thick set with men, men who it was well known were fully alive to the importance of holding their position. The eye then mounting upward saw at the summit of the Ridge, eight hundred feet higher, the final line of battle, thick set with artillery. It took but an instant, the rapid glance of the eye, to take in all this scene and to realize the fearful task to be performed in obeying the orders that had been received. Both armies were for a moment dazed by the spectacle that met their vision. As far as the eye could reach, up and down that valley. could be seen two great armies standing face to face in battle array. As the men of both sides caught the view each seemed for the instant to be paralyzed. The eyes of the men of the Union army had, in a swift glance, swept the plain and hill side, resting but an instant upon the battle lines bristling with armed men and cannon at the crest, then a glance toward Orchard Knob from which was to come the signal of six guns for the charge. the head dropped forward, and the stillness of death reigned over that portion of the field. Each man fully conscious of the fact, that when that signal should be given and the instant the charge should begin hundreds upon hundreds would fall. to fill the soldiers' grave.
In this supreme moment and as the men stood with heads bowed. and faces blanched in the presence of the gathering storm of death, Colonel Dick passed along the line of his regiment as fully alive to the terrible situation that then existed as any officer or man in that front line of battle, nay more fully aware of this than any of them, and although his face was pale through the tan of hard service, his voice never faltered, and the tones came as clear and distinct as though upon dress parade, as he gave the final instructions or spoke a word of cheer, and urged a faithful
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