USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 20
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
sound of guns from the South as a signal to move up. He heard no guns throughout the day, and received no intelli- gence of the movements or position of his coadjutor.
Nevertheless, Rosecrans made his march and fought his battle. At three on the morning of the nineteenth he moved out in light marching order. Rain and swamp and tangled wood obstructed his way. At noon, skirmishers appeared and contested his advance with a warmth and weight which ominously increased. He made no endeavor to gain the Fulton road, a dereliction which, with the condition of his columns, was reported to General Price by a Rebel spy who had unfortunately been employed as a Union scout.
Shortly after four, as the head of Hamilton's division was halting on the brow of a densely wooded hill, which fell off abruptly to the right and left, skirmishers three hundred yards in advance discovered the enemy. He was in line of battle in a ravine, down which the road went through oaks and gums, beeches and thick-set sassafras. He instantly opened fire. Hamilton threw forward the battery, and the five regiments of Buford's brigade,-the Forty-Eighth Indi- ana, a little in advance, on the left of the road, and on the . summit of the hill, and the others in support of the battery, in the rear, and in echelon. Sullivan pushed up with his brigade, but finding no room in front, he stationed one regi- ment on the extreme left, in command of a ravine, approach- able by the Rebels, arranged the others in reserve, and setting spurs to his horse, reported to General Hamilton for duty at a more useful and dangerous post, which was assigned him on the right of the narrow front.
The Rebels poured a consuming fire upon our Forty- Eighth, and on the battery. Soon every artillery horse and officer, and half the men were disabled, and the guns were captured. Colonel Eddy withdrew his regiment from the front, but again advanced. "The veteran and heroic Sulli- van, young in years, but old in fight," rallied the right to the rescue. 'The battery was torn from the hands of the Confed- erates, and they were driven to eover. They rallied, returned and regained the guns. Once more they were beaten back. Once more they dashed up and seized the battery, now with
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THE FORTY-EIGHTII.
three of its guns spiked, its carriages cut and splintered. Swaying up and down, back and forth, the battle continued, until at dark the bugle sounded, "Cease firing!" Suddenly as it had risen, the tumultuous roar died out, and silence set- tled down on the forest, unbroken except by sighs and moans from the belt of ground between the lines.
Early in the morning, General Rosecrans cautiously pushed forward his line of pickets. Meeting no opposition, he ad- vanced his whole force one mile, two miles, into Iuka, where he found the six guns for which so many lives had been sac- rificed, found also Rebel wounded and Rebel stores, but not the Rebel army. It had fled unmolested over the Fulton road, and was pursuing a safe retreat.
Hamilton and Stanley followed about thirteen miles be- yond the town, and took about two hundred and fifty pris- oners, but they were too tired to go on, and they marched back.
The battle of Iuka was fought by Hamilton's two brigades, and one of Stanley's regiments. Consequently not more than two thousand eight hundred men were engaged against a force of eleven thousand. Rosecrans reported the Rebel loss at fourteen hundred and thirty-eight.
The Union loss was seven hundred and eighty-two. Gen- cral Rosecrans deemed it "an especial duty to signalize the Forty-Eighth Indiana" in his report of the battle. Well he might. Thirty-seven noble young men, the flower of the regiment, were killed, sixty-six were wounded, ten were cap- tured. Colonel Eddy was severely wounded in the arm and shoulder. His horse received several balls. Lieutenant Colonel Rugg's horse was killed. Captain Guthridge, Cap- tain Billows and Lieutenant Judkins were severely wounded. Lieutenant Packard was slightly wounded.
The wind carried the sound of the battle from General Ord, and he knew nothing of it until during the night reports through negroes reached him.
Hamilton returned to Jacinto, Stanley proceeded to Cor- inth. Ord, with Hurlbut and Ross, withdrew to Bolivar. Grant, keeping a sharp lookout for Van Dorn, went back to Jackson.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
Although Price's retreat was rapid, it was not conducted with the single aim of escaping pursuit, and being turned toward the west, became an unmolested march, and termi- nated in union with Van Dorn. The latter officer assumed command, moved north, and absorbing Lovell, reached Poca- hontas, on the Memphis railroad, about twenty miles west of Corinth, with a force of thirty-five or forty thousand men. Apparently he meant to pass by Corinth, making, perhaps, a feint upon it. Nevertheless, Rosecrans under the direction of General Grant, withdrew his outposts from Jacinto, Iuka, Burnsville, Rienzi, Danville and Chewalla, and concentra- ted nearly twenty thousand men.
The fortifications of Corinth were in three lines. The outer line, fifteen miles long, built by Beauregard, chiefly on the east and north, required so large a force as to be of little use. The second line, constructed by Halleck, was more defensible, but still was too extensive. The third line, the late work of Grant, was in the edge of the town, and con- sisted of a chain of redoubts, with the guns on the south and south-east, placed in such a manner that if they were reversed their fire could be united with that of the guns on the oppo- site sides of the town.
On the morning of Friday, October 3, Hamilton's division was on the right in Beauregard's intrenchments, Davies' division was in the centre, fronting the north-west, and Mc- Kean's was on the left. Stanley's division was in the town, in reserve. Skirmishing the preceding day had given warn- ing of the approach of the enemy along the Chewalla road from the north-west. A force moved out about five miles to meet him. He pressed up hard, and though the force in his front was gradually increased, he outflanked it, closely fol- lowed it, and opened a warm fire in front of the centre.
Sullivan's brigade, on Hamilton's left, changed front, and occupied a ridge, which gave it an opportunity to move for- ward and attack the enemy's flank, could Davies' division stand firm. But when Sullivan began to advance Davies began again to falter.
Haekleman's brigade fought well, but its right, which was made up of parts of several regiments, after having withstood
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VAN DORN MOVES UP.
repeated assaults, fell back, infecting with panic an approach- ing reinforcement. Hackleman strove to restore order, and to bring the reinforcement beside his steady centre and left. Oglesby, also in command of one of Davies' brigades, sec- onded his exertions. In vain were all their efforts. They but made themselves marks for the enemy. Both were shot. At three in the afternoon a ball passed through General Hackleman's neck from right to left. His chief of staff, Cap- tain Randall, took him from his horse, and carried him off the field.
Dismay fell upon the hearts of his brigade, and spread through the division. It was at this moment that Sullivan approached, struggling in a tangled swamp, which was divided in the centre by the dry bed of a creek, with banks six feet high, serving as Rebel breastworks. He took the enemy by surprise, and captured eighty-two prisoners. He halted for Buford's brigade, which had been promised in support of his right, but it had been delayed by the swamp and the distance, and was so far behind that when the enemy, rallying, opened on him a heavy fire of grape and canister, lic had no choice but to fall back.
When the day closed, and fighting ceased, Van Dorn was within Beauregard's intrenchments. Before he slept he sent a triumphant despatch to Richmond.
The night was beautiful, a full moon shining in a cloudless sky until nearly four o'clock. Fatigue parties worked at in- trenehments, ordnance officers distributed ammunition, men cleaned their guns, artillery hurried rapidly to newly assigned posts, cavalry deployed as skirmishers to prevent straggling, and infantry marched back or forward, concentrating on a new and short line, which was drawn almost entirely within the town. While these vigorous preparations for a bloody morrow were going on, death dealt with many a gallant soldier.
The faithful staff and comrades of General Hackleman, sorrowing that they should soon see his face no more, gave him their last service, as silent watchers. Doubtless their thoughts wandered away to the mountains and plains of Virginia, where march, and camp and bivouac with but
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
the shelter of the soldier's blanket, had been shared and cheered by the brave and kindly soul which was now reced- ing from earth. No doubt fancy carried them back to Indi- ana, when in days of peace their beloved leader was the centre of a happy home, and the powerful supporter of every thing good, and where he might have honorably remained far from the rude brunt of battle.
"I am dying-but I die for my country," came brokenly from his fading lips. A deep sadness settled on the noble face as he found that the cruel bullet had so torn the organs of speech that he could utter no further message.
It surely is as well. He need give no dying injunction to children or country who lays a true life on the altar of self- sacrifice.
General Sullivan had received a very severe contused wound, and he was forced to resign to another the disposi- tion of his regiments. He was, however, carly the next day, Saturday, at his post at the head of his brigade.
Hamilton continued to hold the right, a fort on either ex- tremity of his line. One of these forts flanked the Bolivar road, and the other was in direct range of the entrance into town of the same road. His second brigade was broken up, the regiments acting as supports to batteries, and almost independently of each other.
Davies withdrew a little from the front, joined the left of Hamilton, and extended from Fort Richardson to Fort Rob- inette, which was in the centre and covered the Chewalla road. Stanley stood next, supporting Fort Williams. Will- iams and Robinette were on the same ridge, the former com- manding the latter. MeKean had the extreme left and was protected by another fort.
Van Dorn occupied the centre of his line, between the Memphis and the Columbus railroads, with a battery in his front about two hundred yards from Fort Robinette. Price had the left wing, east of the Columbus road and north of the town. Lovell had the right wing, on and south of the Bolivar road. The Confederate line closed up within a thou- sand yards of the new Federal works.
The Rebels made their movements with caution and in
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VAN DORN ASSAULTS CORINTH.
silence, until, at three in the morning, Van Dorn opened an artillery fire. No reply was made till daylight. The early battery then was shortly silenced, and one of its guns captured.
Heavy skirmishing between the lines continued about two hours, when the Confederate right emerged from the woods. and bore down steadily and straight along the Bolivar road toward the Union centre. In the face of a stream of fire it came on,-a dark, unbroken, swollen sea,-dashed up against Davies' division, drove it back, went through and over Fort Richardson, killing the commander and seizing the guns, and rolled forward, further to the west, along the roads, over the fields, and up the cannon-crowned steep. "The Rebels ad- vanced not merely on batteries," says an eye witness of their swift onset, "but under enfilading and cross-fires which swept them away as hail beats down dead leaves." Hamilton's division poured an unceasing fire on their flank. On they came regardless. They were in the forts, in the town, round Rosecrans' headquarters, mingled with the Union troops. Now was the time, when their very success had broken their front, to seize them. There was a sudden and swift rally to the aid of Davies. A charge from two regiments on the enemy's front; two well directed volleys; a charge with a cheer from two regiments, led by Sullivan, on his flank, and he was sent reeling back, with the loss of his colors, his wounded, and three hundred captured soldiers.
During Price's assault, a force moving upon a position held by our Forty-Eighth, was checked by a storm of lead. Again and again it moved up, but so terrible was the fire which it met, that it retreated in confusion. Lieutenant-Colonel Rugg, commanding, received a painful wound in the foot early in the action, but he refused to leave the field until his horse was shot under him, and he had limped several times along the regiment, encouraging and cheering the men, who, on their part, never fired without a " Huzza!"
Twenty minutes after Price moved on Rosecrans' right centre, Van Dorn assaulted his left, his forces sweeping up in the same way, as if, like the inanimate forces of nature, they knew neither pain nor fear. The Rebel flag flaunted on
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
the parapet of Fort Robinette. But the Rebel officer in command was shot in the moment of his triumph; and two hundred men who had followed close on his heels, fell close under the wall. Fifty-six dead men were heaped up together.
Stanley's regiment swarmed over the works and drove Van Dorn back to the woods.
The battle ended. Rosecrans, however, was led by the desperate madness of the last assault to expect another, and he stood until three o'clock, when his skirmishers, pushing back the Rebel skirmishers, found the field occupied only by dead and wounded.
Van Dorn and Price were not favorites of fortune during their military career, but no other time and at no other place were they so utterly overthrown and cast down as on the fourth of October, before Corinth. They made haste to leave the field, and were far on their way when their retreat was discovered.
General Rosecrans rode along his line announcing the enemy's retreat, and directing his troops to "replenish their cartridge boxes, haversacks and stomachs," and to take an early sleep, in order to start at daylight on the pursuit. McPherson, who arrived with a fresh brigade, was ordered to take the advance.
Early Sunday morning the army set out, but by some mis- hap directing its course above the enemy, it marched eight miles out of the way before it reached the Tuscumbia, where the enemy had crossed.
Meantime, beyond the crossing of the Hatchie, which is about five miles west of the Tuscumbia, the head of the retreating army was firmly confronted.
As soon as General Grant was assured that Van Dorn's movements, as he advanced, were definitely bent toward the east, he directed a division at Bolivar to move to the assist- ance of Rosecrans, or to the interception of the enemy's re- treat. Saturday morning, before day had fairly dawned, General Hurlbut started. He moved rapidly, not halting for water, nor for rest until noon, and accomplishing nearly thirty iniles before he encamped. General Ord joined the division
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ON THE HATCHIE.
and took command the next day. The march was resumed early on Sunday and in great anxiety, occasioned by rumors of defeat at Corinth. The road was difficult, narrow and dangerous, leading through swamp and jungle, and over pre- cipitous ridges, across which it was necessary to drag artil- lery by hand. But tidings from Bolivar of the retreat of the enemy, received at an carly hour, lifted a weight from every heart, and smoothed the asperities of the march. Immedi- ately afterwards the firing of cavalry scouts announced the proximity of danger.
General Veatch's command, which, at the outset of the march, had been enlarged by the addition of a battery, a battalion of cavalry and two infantry regiments, and which to-day was in front, Lauman's brigade having moved first on the previous day, was thrown into line of battle. Colonel Morgan's skirmishers took possession of a house on the left of the road, from which Rebel pickets had been driven by Bolton's battery. Veatch pushed steadily and sturdily for- ward, with musketry and artillery firing. On the edge of large, open fields, which were, however, cut up by gullies, he widened his front, leaving the Twenty-Fifth Indiana, which was in advance at the start, still in the centre, and throwing the Fifty-Third, under Lieutenant Colonel Jones, out on the right flank, the Fifteenth Illinois on the left. Moving across the fields with augmented speed, he reached the commanding ridge on which stands a cluster of houses called Matamoras. His battery thundered up the acclivity. His regiments threw themselves down on its summit. Below, in the centre of the beautiful valley of the Hatchie, with the river a mile or somewhat less in the rear, stood the advance of Van Doru's army.
General Veatch formed his command in line, directed his cavalry to guard his right, and opened an effective artillery fire. Rebel artillery replied vigorously, but inaccurately, the balls striking the trunks of trees far above the height of a man. The fire slackened. Veatch pressed on. Lauman followed. A half mile from the river, firing re-commenced, both artillery and musketry. The action became hot, the Union troops fighting unsheltered, the Rebels availing them-
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
selves of trees, fences and houses. Little by little the Rebels fell back. At length having abandoned four guns, they reached the river, a deep stream, spanned by a wretched bridge. They crowded over, planted their guns upon the further bank, and turned upon their pursuers.
Already the Fifty-Third Indiana and the Fourteenth Illi- nois had crossed. The latter having turned to the left, was directly under the bank, quite beneath the range of the guns. The former, endeavoring to obey the order to fall into line on the right, was thrown into disorder by the impossibility of forming in the narrow and bushy space between the river and the bank, as well as by the unbroken sweep of the ene- my's guns. The Twenty-Fifth Indiana and the Third Iowa, rushing over the bridge through streams of shot and shell, also crowded over toward the right. After a few terrible minutes of confusion, General Hurlbut, General Ord having been wounded, corrected the blunder by throwing the whole force to the left, which offered, beside shelter, an opportunity to flank the enemy's position. The enemy made no further stand, and Veatch halted his line on the upper bank, to di- rect the advance and position of his batteries. He was struck by a grape-shot, and disabled. However, the fighting and the firing, except of artillery, was over.
Shut in between the Tuscumbia and the Hatchie, with Ord before and Rosecrans coming up behind, the Rebels had little stomach for fight. Their only hope was to hold the two crossings with small bodies, while the main army should move swiftly up the strip of country between the rivers, and six miles above effect the passage of the Hatchie at Crum's Hill. They succeeded, and burnt the bridge be- hind them, leaving their tents, camp equipage and broken wagons, strewed over the country.
General Grant stopped the pursuit at this point, to the chagrin of General Rosecrans, who hoped not only to cap- ture the Rebel army, but to go on to Vicksburg.
General Hurlbut's division, in the fight on the Hatchie, captured two batteries, many hundred small arms and sev- eral prisoners. It lost five hundred and fifty men in killed and wounded, a greater loss than the Confederates suffered,
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HONOR THE MEMORY OF THE FALLEN.
on account of greater exposure. The Fifty-Third Indiana lost one hundred and four. The Twenty-Fifth lost eighty. Major Rheinlander was severely wounded. Major McGrain was slightly wounded.
Officers bore unanimous testimony to the excellent be- havior of the men. General Grant's words are: "The troops advanced with unsurpassed gallantry, driving the enemy back across the Hatchie, over ground where it is almost in- credible that a superior force should be driven by an inferior."
General Veatch, in a congratulatory order, says: "On no field since the war began, has better fighting been done. The forces of the enemy, greatly superior in numbers, were posted in the very strongest positions, and commanded by those veteran Rebel Generals, Van Dorn and Price. You met them, you drove them, you defeated and routed them, capturing a battery and hundreds of prisoners. You com- pelled them to seek shelter on the east side of the Hatchie. Here the First brigade came to your support, and, with Ilurl- but's fighting Fourth division united, you drove them from their last stronghold, and forced them to a hasty retreat.
" While we rejoice in victory, we regret the loss of many brave men. Let us honor the memory of our fallen com- rades, and transmit to their friends the story of their noble deeds.
" The wounded who survive will carry their battle-scars, which will speak more eloquently than any words can do."
" It was the first fight for our regiment," says private Drum- mond Carse, of the Fifty-Third Indiana, "and we were too eager to get into the Rebels. We all yelled like madmen, and not thinking about danger, pitched straight forward. When we saw their infantry lying still waiting for us, we fixed bayonets and went at them. The way they ran was a caution. At our first charge we ran them about a mile and a half, and sent them across Hatchie river, some of them swimming, and lots of them drowning. The bridge was right in a bend of the river. The General straightened out the regiments, then we all gave three cheers, and started. Our regiment was the first over. But the Rebels had the advantage soon. They were on a hill, and poured grape
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
and canister on us like a hail storm. There was no room for us to form line of battle, for four regiments were piled on about a half acre of ground. But when we made the last charge we went clear to the top of the hill. The fight lasted about seven hours, but it did not appear to me more than a half hour."
Dr. Thomas, the surgeon of the Twenty-Fifth, writes in a private letter:
"The fight continued from eight in the morning until three in the afternoon. The sound of cannon and small arms was incessant. Out of all this, above the din and through the smoke of the conflict could be heard the cheers of our brave and victorious men. The sound of the human voice under such circumstances, so strong, cheering and triumphant, was strange beyond expression. It seemed to come out of the very 'jaws of death, out of the mouth of hell;' as though mortality had triumphed over the powers of darkness; and flesh and blood had taken violent possession of the man of sin."
Months after the battle of the Hatchie a soldier told the following story to a circle of friends in the North: "As I was running over the bridge, through the storm of fire, a ball took off both legs of our Sergeant Major, who was beside me. His name was Moore. He was but a boy, only eigh- teen. The crowd swept me on. I could not speak to him, nor could I give him more than a momentary glance. But that glance imprinted his face on my memory forever. It was radiant, rapturous." "Did he die?" asked one of the group of listeners. "He was dying then." "How do you account for that expression?" "I cannot account for it," replied the soldier, but added, after a pause, "Of course the shock deadened his nerves. He was unconscious of pain, but not of death. It may be that he felt what poets sing, the sweetness of dying for his country. I cannot tell. But I never can forget his glorified face."
Moore was a member of the Fifty-Third.
The battle on the Hatchie, though more sanguinary to the Federal troops, in proportion to the numbers engaged, being but supplementary to the battle of Corinth, was of less com-
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HAMILTON'S DIVISION.
parative importance. At Corinth the enemy lost fourteen flags, two guns, thirty-three hundred small arms, and nine thousand three hundred and sixty-three men, of whom one thousand four hundred and twenty-three were killed.
The loss of Rosecrans, including the pursuit, was two thousand three hundred and fifty-nine-three hundred and fifteen killed, eighteen hundred and twelve wounded, and two hundred and thirty-two missing. The Forty-Eighth Indiana lost nineteen. The Fifty-Ninth probably about the same.
Captain Harris, a member of General Sullivan's staff, while carrying orders on the field, received a wound on the hand. His clothes were torn by bullets. In a private letter he writes: "I am thankful to a merciful Providence for the almost mi- raculous escapes of the General and myself from the deliber- ate aim of both sharpshooters and eannon on the third and fourth instants. On the third we both were, in turn, targets for artillery practice; on the fourth for the enemy's sharp- shooters. I attribute our preservation to a special interposi- tion of our Heavenly Father, who has been, and I feel will be with us to the end.
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