USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 38
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" What do you think of men lying in the same field, a few hundred yards apart, shooting at each other whenever a head appears above the weeds or from behind a tree? Does it seem possible that they should get so used to it as to enjoy the sport? I can not write more as it is four o'clock, and if the enemy try us to-day, it will be very soon. When they eome they will come with a shout, and in great masses. Poor fellows! We have sheets of flame, clouds of smoke, and showers of lead prepared for them. In our attack last Sunday morning we drove them with great slaughter, and marched over their dead and wounded for nearly a mile, but we were too weak and had to give baek before their increas- ing numbers."
"September 28.
" DEAR HOME :- I write again only to let you know I am still on top of the ground, although dwelling among the dead. Our camp or place, is in a large cemetery. Our intrench- ments are just outside. I can not give you anything reliable in regard to the status of the two armies, only that we are behind good breastworks and occupy the Rebel forts, while the enemy is just outside, doing us no visible damage at present. His camp fires light up the hill-sides opposite to us every night, only about a mile distant. The pickets in front of General Thomas have a fight nearly every night, but our corps is not often disturbed. I think it is probable that some of the immense force which handled us so roughly in Georgia, has been withdrawn and that they are afraid to attack us here. Our whole train and half the baggage has been kept across the river until to-day. We are now al-
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
lowed our tents and baggage but no wagons. Our left rests upon the river. If we can maintain our position here and hold the line of the Tennessee, I shall be well satisfied and claim a victory for the cause, although we suffered so much in the battle just fought. We need more men than ever to withstand the desperate efforts of the enemy to break through the lines that are closing round them. What a pity that we could not be reinforced so that we might have defeated their combined efforts against us!
" The loss in the Eighty-Sixth is very light. I lost some good friends in other regiments. Lieutenant Wood, of Col- onel Dick's staff, a splendid man, lies in his grave near my tent. Captain Murdock, of Van Cleve's staff, was mortally wounded. It is a wonder that more of us are not as they are. Howard High was mortally wounded and left on the field."
"Our ambulances are all engaged under the flag of truee, in bringing in the wounded, our poor fellows having been lying upon the field all this time, with but little or no atten- tion.
"It is raining to-night for the first time for more than a month. The enemy's camp fires shine brightly through the darkness.
"DARWIN THOMAS."
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A PROUD SORROW.
CHAPTER XXIII. NATHAN PALMER DUNN.
I would not exchange my dead son for any living son in Christendom. -Duke of Ormond.
There is a character almost of repining in our grief for the youthful dead, all covered with smiling buds of promise as they were. This thread-bare and work-a-day world seems cruelly robbed of the noble and needed deeds they would have done. They, too, seem defrauded of earth's rich, even though sorrowful experience, and of their measure of fame. Yet while we almost repine, we almost rejoice that they entered the Celestial City directly through the gate Beautiful, after no weary wanderings in obscure ways. And if they have already done a heroic thing, with our grief, and repining, and rejoicing, mingles a mournful exultation. We "bless the turf that wraps their clay."
Captain Dunn ended his life in the third year of his mili- tary service, and not quite a month after the birth-day which made him twenty-two years old. Only his home and his comrades knew him. Therefore his fitting record is his mother's letter, though written with no thought of publica- tion, and only in reply to a friend's inquiries :
"September 9, 1867.
" DEAR K :- I have made several attempts to write to you, but have each time been obliged to give it up. The effort has called up so vividly my great loss that it has seemed out of my power.
"Our son, N. Palmer Dunn, was a graduate of Miami University, and was just ready to leave the Institution, when the first eall was made for troops in April, 1861. He, with almost the entire class, enlisted at onee in the Twentieth
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
Ohio volunteers, and served three months in Western Vir- ginia. You remember that, for some reason, the troops from Ohio were not cared for as ours were in Virginia, and when he came home he was completely in rags. It was laughable, and yet I could not keep from crying to see my son in such a condition. However, he was hearty and happy, and so far from being disgusted with the service that, when he found more troops were wanted, he determined to reenter the army. Governor Morton gave him a commission as Lieutenant, and General Buell appointed him on his staff. Finding, however, that his position was informal, not being assigned to any company, he abandoned his commission, and went down to the army at Murfreesboro, where he enlisted as a private soldier in Company E, Twenty-Ninth Indiana.
" He was in the hard-fought battle of Shiloh, in the siege of Corinth, in the engagements at Lavergne, Triune and Lib- erty Gap, and in the battle of Stone river. At Shiloh he was slightly wounded, and at Stone river he was severely wounded in the foot, and taken prisoner. His wound was of such a nature that the surgeon stated that he could not be removed with the other prisoners without great danger, so he was paroled, and came home. As soon as he was able to return to the regiment, and his exchange was effected, he did so.
"You can judge of his standing in his company from the fact that very soon after he enlisted, a vacancy occurring, he was unanimously chosen Second Lieutenant, not long after- wards was promoted to First Lieutenant, and after the battle of Stone river was made Captain. He continued to fill that place until he fell in that bloody struggle where so many of our brave men perished. It was at Chickamauga, in a charge of Johnson's division on the enemy's lines, on the nineteenth of September, 1863. The color sergeant had been shot down beside him, and the flag, which he loved so much, had twice fallen, when he caught it. He held the flag in one hand and his sword in the other, and was urging and cheering on his men, when he was struck by a ball that prostrated him. While he was being carried from the spot another ball pierced his side, and his eyes closed forever.
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"THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN."
" Preparations were being made to send his dear remains home, when our army was driven back. They were left, with his name written on a paper, and pinned on his breast. We did not know for several months that he was buried, but Dr. Landis, an Ohio surgeon, who was taken prisoner, obtained leave to bury him and several others. As soon as Dr. Lan- dis was released he gave notice through the Cincinnati Gazette, but before that time his uncle, Colonel D. M. Dunn, of Logansport, had recovered the body and brought it home.
"He now rests in the cemetery near the home of his boy- hood. A handsome monument, erected by his company, marks the spot.
"Thousands of valuable lives were sacrificed in putting down the rebellion, yet we can but feel that ours is no com- mon loss. Fitted by nature and education to act his part, our dear son had a heart that prompted him to every good work. We saw in him the promise of a life of usefulness.
"I should like to add one thing, though I am afraid you will think I exaggerate, as mothers often do. But I am sure this is correct, that so far as his father and I can recollect he never uttered a falsehood, or in any way swerved from the truth, not in his earliest boyhood, when children are so easily tempted or frightened into untruth.
" This letter, very imperfectly written, and with many tears, is but to assure you that I have not been unmindful of your request."
To the modest and tender testimony of his mother may be added the just tributes of others. His commanding officer writes of Captain Dunn:
"Free from all those vices too common in a soldier's life, and ambitious to succeed in his undertaking, his ability, en- ergy and bravery soon gave him an enviable reputation in his regiment, and among his fellow officers. Fully assured in his own mind that the cause in which he was engaged was just, he threw all the vigor of his young and ardent life into the work before him with a conscientiousness and devotion unsurpassed in the army. He bore his part like a true sol- dier on all the bloody battle fields in which his regiment was engaged."
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
His pastor, Rev. Mr. Irwin, says: "From his very child- hood he was never known to disobey those in authority over him. He was proverbial for his truthfulness, conscientious- ness and sincerity. Mild and gentle in his demeanor, and generous in all his instincts, he was one to attach to himself not only the respect but the affection of his comrades and friends. Singleness of purpose, clearness of perception, an earnest and honest perseverance and fidelity, together with a certain ardor and enthusiasm in his pursuits, were other ele- ments in his character which laid the foundation for a noble, useful and heroic life.
" In his literary career he fought as one not beating the air. His reports were uniformly of the highest grade. In Miami University he maintained his character and standing.
"His last experience of carth was the dash of armies, the confusion and roar of battle, and the garments dipped in blood. How great the contrast as a moment afterward, if our hope be true, he lifted up his eyes to the infinite calm, the perpetual joy, the intense blessedness of the cloudless, sinless, sorrowless land. He is known to have thought much, as such a nature must, upon the great themes of religion and salvation. He was a child of the covenant. Early dedicated to God by parental piety, he lived such a life of purity and goodness that one could scarcely think otherwise than that he was led by the Spirit of God, perhaps insensibly to him- self, into the paths of everlasting peace.
"His character was singularly faultless, and his life, short as it was, must be accounted a royal success."
Immediately after the battle of Shiloh young Dunn wrote to his home: "A kind Providence watched over me. I thought often of you all during the battle, still I never felt afraid. If I had fallen it would have been in a good cause, and I hope I should have died in the faith of my fathers."
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POSITION OF THE ARMIES.
CHAPTER XXIV.
CHATTANOOGA.
"Many loved Truth, and lavished life's best oil Amid the dust of books to find her,
Content at last for guerdon of their toil,
With the cast mantle she has left behind her; Many in sad faith sought for her, Many with crossed hands sighed for her, But these, our brothers, fought for her,
At life's dear peril wrought for her,
So loved her that they died for her,
Tasting the raptured fleetnes Of her divine completeness ; Their higher instinct knew
Those love her best who to themselves are true,
And what they dare to dream of, dare to do; They followed her and found her Where all may hope to find, Not in the ashes of the burnt out mind,
But beautiful, with danger's sweetness round her ; Where faith made whole with deed
Breathes its awakening breath Into the lifeless creed, They saw her plumed and mailed, With sweet, stern face unvailed, And all repaying eyes look proud on them in death." -Harvard Commemoration Ode. LOWELL.
In the position which the antagonists assumed on the Ten- nessee, the Southern army lay on Missionary Ridge, across Chattanooga Valley, and on Lookout Mountain, its picket line stretching along the river many miles above, turning out near Citico creek, running in front of Orchard Knob, a soli- tary hill east of Chattanooga, and returning to the river at the foot of Lookout to extend to Bridgeport, twenty-eight miles further; while the Northern army was within the en- closed area, its right flank at the mouth of Chattanooga
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
creek at the foot of the one mountain, its left near Citico creek not far from the upper knob of the other. The moun- tains commanded an unobstructed view of the plain, and an observer on the plain had but to cast his eye upward to note the character and extent of the Rebel front. The hostile pickets were within talking distance, the neutral ground be- ing little more than two hundred yards in breadth. A Rebel brigade in Lookout Valley and on Raccoon Mountain, with sharpshooters strengthening the picket line, held the railroad on the south and west bank of the river, the bridge over which was destroyed. With every approach cut off from the south, east and west; with his line of communication and supply but the single track of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad to Bridgeport, and from that point the circuitous and precarious route of sixty miles over Walden's Ridge and through Sequatchie Valley, General Rosecrans could do no more for weeks, and perhaps months to come, than to hold his ground and feed his troops. On the other hand, the same circumstances gave to General Bragg the expectation amounting almost to certainty, of accomplishing by starva- tion what he had failed to do by strategy and force of arms. That he understood his advantages and meant to turn them to account, may be seen from the following paragraph of his official report:
"These dispositions, faithfully sustained, insured the ene- my's speedy evacuation of Chattanooga, for want of food and forage. Possessed of the shortest route to his depot, and the one by which reinforcements must reach him, we held him at our mercy, and his destruction was only a question of time."
. The Southern public entertained the same, which was in- deed not an unreasonable, view of the situation, but had no mind to abide the issue of time. It could not afford to wait, nor limit its ambition to the destruction of Rosecrans. The Chattanooga Rebel, a newspaper which had retreated from its original location to Atlanta, stated both its wants and as- pirations in an issue of the ninth of October, 1863.
"Food and raiment are our needs. Kentucky and middle Tennessee alone can supply them. Better give up the sea-
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REBEL RAID IN THE REAR.
coast. Better give up the South-West, aye better give up Richmond without a struggle than lose the golden fields whose grain and wool are our sole hope. We must gain one signal Stonewall Jackson campaign; run Rosecrans to the Ohio river; retake the valley of the Mississippi; secure the election of a peace Democrat to the Presidency, and ar- range the terms of treaty and independence."
To accomplish his object neither of the commanders spared his strength. The one threw up works on hills which in themselves were bulwarks, and kept his numerous and well- mounted cavalry on predatory excursions. The other built fortifications of the strongest character, kept out heavy picket lines, and sent numerous bodies of troops as foragers, as es- corts to trains, and in pursuit of Rebel raiders. The foragers were compelled to take grain from friend and foe alike, leav- ing many families with very inadequate stores for the will- ter. But the mountaineers were generally loyal, and gave assurances that they would rather contribute all they had than be left again in the hands of the Rebels.
The last day of September, General Crook, with Wilder's mounted brigade, from Friar's Island, and Colonel Ed. McCook, with three cavalry regiments from the vicinity of Bridgeport, left their encampment and hurried to the reseue of the wagon-line, which was in immediate and imminent danger from Wharton and Wheeler. M'Cook came upon the raiding forees October 2, in Sequatchie valley, after they had captured and while they were burning nearly a thousand wa- gons, laden with supplies. In a sharp fight he gained the advantage, but during the following night, the Rebels, whose objeet was not fighting, but the destruction of stores, escaped.
General Crook, who crossed the Tennessee about sixty miles above the crossing of MeCook, worked his way through the mountains with immense toil, hoisting Lilly's battery fifty men to a gun, up cliffs which it was barely practicable to pass. At dusk of the fourth day Colonel Crew's Rebel brigade was discovered close at hand in Thompson's cove. Wilder's brigade moved to an immediate attack. The Ser- enteenth Indiana, in advance, wound cautiously and silently 29
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along the narrow and broken mountain road, and halted at the entrance of the cove. "Who are you?" demanded the enemy. "Who are you?" returned Major Jones, in com- mand of the Seventeenth. "We're Rebels, come over," was the response. Jones addressed his men: "Forward! Double- quick! Charge!" They sprang forward. Their rifles lighted up the gorge. The residue of the brigade moved up. So sudden was the onset that the Rebels scarcely offered resist- ance. They fled, leaving a few wounded and killed, a great number of arms, and the battle flag of the Second Kentucky cavalry.
Hastening on to MeMinnville, Crook found Wheeler in possession of the place, and of the garrison of six hundred men, who had surrendered without a struggle. The com- placent victor was burning heaps of supplies, and trains of wagons and cars, but after a sharp fight he was forced to fly. As they passed through Mc Minnville the pursuers picked up crackers which the Rebels had scattered, and ate them hun- grily, having started in the morning without breakfast, and having had nothing during the chase but what they could gather up.
Crook followed to Murfreesboro, back to Shelbyville, and on to Farmington. There Wheeler turned like a bear at bay, and fought furiously, but he was well beaten, losing four guns and hundreds of prisoners, beside a large number of killed and wounded. His troops were nearly all comfortably arrayed in the clothing which had been sent from the North to our shivering army at Chattanooga.
The fight at Farmington took place on the evening of October 7. Crook resumed the pursuit at daylight. He was unable again to overtake the main force, but he cap- tured the rear-guard of seventy men, on the Tennessee, at the mouth of the Elk.
The Seventeenth Indiana lost fifty-five, in killed and wounded, in the various encounters of this chase.
The Seventy-Second suffered in the same proportion.
The troops and teamsters taken with the train on Walden ridge were marched forty-eight hours without rest, food or water, and at MeMinnville, while so exhausted they could
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IN THE SEQUATCHIE VALLEY.
scarcely stand, were compelled to carry the Government stores from the Court House to the fires in the street. Five miles beyond McMinnville they were released, having been robbed of money, overcoats, hats and boots.
Wilder's brigade lost eighty, killed and wounded. A por- tion of the foree now rested, but another portion, which in- cluded the Seventeenth, continued many weeks longer in search or in pursuit of Roddy, Forrest, Wharton, Wheeler and others, who were always meddling with the line of com- munication. From the eleventh to the seventeenth of Oeto- ber the Seventeenth Indiana marched one hundred and sev- enty miles.
For the sake of obtaining forage, as well as to guard the valley, several regiments encamped on the Sequatchie. Im- mediately after Wheeler's raid the Thirty-Ninth, which had been reorganized as the Eighth cavalry, with the addition of two companies, pitched its tents on the east bank of the lit- tle mountain river. The following notes are from the diary of Leroy Fallis :
" Wednesday, October 14. It has been raining several days, and the camp is very wet. The boys keep up a continual strain of singing and joking, so as to make everything appear as lively as possible.
"Fifteenth. Raining still. Received orders to saddle at one o'clock last night, and move to higher ground, but it was so dark we could not see to get out of the woods, and we did not move till daylight. We had almost to swim our horses. The water pours in torrents down the roads. The valley is completely overflowed. We went about two miles on the mountain, and went into camp about dark. At the foot of the mountain the charred ruins of wagons lie in heaps.
"Sixteenth. Pleasant. Dug over a potato patch, and ob- tained any amount of nice Irish potatoes, which answer for bread.
"Seventeenth. No forage to be found for man or beast. Citizens are in bad condition. The boys run upon some honey, which they went for, orders having been given to take whatever we could find.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
"Eighteenth. Rained all day. Last night received orders to move to Poe's cross-roads. We went down the mountain at Wild Cat pass, a steep, rugged pass.
"Nineteenth. At ten last night ordered to saddle up, and move to Harrison's Landing. Arrived near Dallas at three this morning. Roads very bad. At noon went on picket.
"Twenty-second. The Potomac boys have been here about three weeks. They wonder why they don't go into winter quarters, why they have no straw, and have to live on sow- belly and hard-taek. They had cheese and such like before they came here."
The fall rains rendered the mountain roads, at times, abso- lutely impassable, and the vigilance of Rebel cavalry made it always difficult to secure the passage of supply trains. In consequence it became necessary to reduce the whole com- mand to half rations within a few days of the withdrawal from Chickamauga. Horses and mules bore the brunt of hardship. The miserable creatures were unable to draw half a load, yet as long as they could stand were compelled to go. Ten thousand, it is computed, died in and around Chattanooga of starvation and overwork. In November a member of the Eighty-First regiment declares: "We might have constructed a pontoon bridge of their carcasses from Chattanooga to Bridgeport, and had a surplus of several hundred."
After living several weeks on half rations, the troops were, for a time, reduced to quarter rations. For eleven days offi- cers and soldiers received one cracker a day, accompanied by a small allowance of meat. "I saw many men of the gallant Carlin's brigade," says Major Callaway, "subsisting for days on less than a sufficiency for a single meal. I often saw them, with patient and industrious care, pick from the dirt and break the little bits of half-sound bread from the corners of spoiled crackers, thrown away by the commissary. When I would say, 'Boys, this is a hard fate,' they would answer, ' Yes it is a hard fate, but we will climb the mountains from Bridgeport to Chattanooga, with boxes of crackers on our backs, before the Rebels shall have Chattanooga, if Rosy says stay.'",
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HARD TIMES IN CAMP.
Hunger is not dainty, and men picked up and ate not only crumbs of crackers from the mud, but grains of corn where horses had been fed days or even weeks before. Three thou- sand wounded soldiers in the hospitals suffered, and a vast number died for want of proper nutriment.
The season was cold and wet. During six weeks rain was almost constant, yet clothing was scanty, as the troops had started on the campaign with no overcoats, and but one blanket a piece, which, in the fight on Chickamauga, or in the retreat, they had thrown away. There was a propor- tional deficiency in tents. Many were thin and leaky. Some regiments had none at all. Our Eighty-Fourth was without both tents and blankets until the middle of November, and nine days and nights of the time held a picket line two miles down the river, skirmishing with the enemy at intervals. Firewood was also far from abundant. It was necessary to dig up roots of trees and shrubs, and even with these camp- fires burnt low. Every day men went to the front and cut wood, and hauled it off in full view of the Rebel piekets.
A member of the Fifty-Seventh tells the following story: "One day when our regiment was on the line, some boys from the camp came out to procure wood, and one of them cut a tree that stood near the line. Unfortunately it fell with the body and top outside. Stepping over the line and mount- ing the log, he commenced chopping, when a Rebel picket, who was watching him through the bushes, ordered him to stop and reeross the line. Reluctantly the Yankce shoul- dered his axe and obeyed the order."
The army was reorganized in October. It was consoli- dated into two corps, the Fourth, under General Granger, and the Fourteenth, after a few changes, under General Pal- mer. Crittenden, MeCook and Reynolds were relieved from command, the first two to submit to trial for their behavior at Chickamauga, the last who received universal conimenda- tion for his conduct in the battle, to be placed chief on the staff of General Rosecrans. Several divisions were abolished. Six remained-Stanley's Sheridan's and Wood's, in Gran- ger's corps; and Jolinson's, Davis' and Baird's, in the Four- teenth. Brigades were enlarged, and many Colonels who
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