USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. II > Part 61
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"We have been here six days. The Eighty-Sixth has been in front all the time, but has been very fortunate, having lost only thirty-five wounded, none killed, during the cam- paign.
D. T."
The assault on Hooker, to which allusion is made, oc- curred on the twenty-second. The enemy suddenly advanced over comparatively open ground, and furiously attacked Hooker and Schofield, directing his heaviest blows against Williams' division and one of Hascall's brigades. A single regiment met him and held him a few moments, then falling back, left the way open for the advance. The hastily pre- pared line stood up stoutly to the shock, repulsed repeated assaults, and in the end hurled the assailants, bloody and broken, back to their defences. The Rebel dead and wounded were left on the field. The next day, Howard's corps, after
719
ASSAULT ON KENESAW.
severe fighting, made an advance, but faltered as the enemy skillfully directed his fire and a charge into a gap between the divisions of Newton and Wood. Wagner, who was on Newton's left, immediately threw the Fifty-Seventh into the gap. The regiment gallantly, but with much loss, checked the charge. The Thirtieth, Thirty-Sixth and Ninth gained the works in their front, and held them against column after column of the enemy.
June 27, Newton's and Davis' divisions, and a brigade from each of Logan's divisions, made an assault at two points south of Kenesaw. Logan's troops scattered the Rebel skirm- ishers on Little Kenesaw, gained the first line of intrench- ments, and captured some of the retreating Rebels as they endeavored to gain the gorge between the two peaks, but were stopped by shot and stones from a perpendicular cliff thirty feet high, and after a short and severe struggle, were compelled to hasten back. Newton and Davis charged up the mountain in the face of a powerful battery, struggling through entanglements almost to the breastworks. Kimball's brigade even gained the parapets, Kimball, with that cheer- ful courage which never deserted him, leading it to almost certain death, over troops already defeated and discouraged. All were cast back with terrible destruction. Sherman had hoped to force a way to the railroad below Marietta, and thus cut off the Rebel retreat. But the only result of the assault was the slaughter of a thousand brave men and the wounding of two thousand. Our Fortieth, which, under Colonel Blake, was at the head of Wagner's brigade, lost in thirty minutes, one hundred and six out of three hundred men. The loss of officers in Kimball's command was in remarka- ble disproportion to that of enlisted men, being one to six. The dead were buried, the wounded were cared for, and no more assaults were made from our side.
"IN THE MIDST OF BATTLE, June 27.
"A terrible fight is raging all along the line, but as it is made our duty to hold the centre and prevent the enemy from breaking through, I can lie under the breastworks and beneath the flying balls and pencil a few lines to you. We
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
have rumors of our repulse on the left, but no dependence can be placed on reports here, as every soldier has his mouth and ears full of them.
" My experience is that about one-fifth of the Rebels fight as well as our best troops, making up in bitterness and des- peration what they lack in manliness, but on an average our soldiers are much superior to theirs. In numberless cases we have carried their works, but I have yet to learn of one at- tack upon us in which they have been successful.
"It would be wise, however, to write little on this sub- ject as we are in a position before which the enemy is sup- posed to be massing his forces, and we may not be able to hold our ground. It is hard to write, the battery we are sup- porting keeps up such an uproar, almost lifting one's scalp at each discharge. When the war ends I am going to retire to the wilderness every 'Fourth of July' to prevent myself from hearing the hideous noise made by exploding gunpowder.
"Just at this point I had occasion to call out: 'Put on your shirt and accoutrements, sir! This is no time to be look- ing for vermin.' One of the horrors of this kind of life is that the men's bodies and clothes are alive and nothing can be done to relieve them, as they have no change of clothing and seldom have any opportunity to bathe. The officer can escape the affliction, but the poor private drags his tormented carcass in utter hopelessness to the end of the campaign.
"Every man from Colonel to private is broken ont horri- bly, and cannot enjoy a moment's rest for the intolerable itching. Such things may appear only disgusting to you, but I consider them as constituting the chief hardship of the soldier, and the man who endures them for his country is worthy of the highest respeet. S. M."
The ignoble but pertinacions enemy to which the writer alludes, is generally understood to be beneath notice; but as it formed the pest of army life, the climax of the soldier's woes, the narration of our soldiers' doings and sufferings is not complete without a recognition of its existence. An officer in the Fortieth writes: "Shall I ever forget the shock I felt when, last fall, after wearing and sleeping in my clothes (often on the ground where their fellow graybacks
721
CHARACTER OF NIGHT ATTACKS.
the Rebels had lain) without change for three weeks, and wondering at the strange and incessant irritation of my skin, I, when our baggage came up and I stripped for a change, discovered myself, yes, I, covered, alive with the most devilish and disgusting monsters? I stormed, and blessed the war and the Rebels left-handedly, and then ordering a pot of wa- ter put on the fire, I felt a sweet satisfaction as the clothes, every stitch I had on, gradually warmed with the water, in reflecting that they were enjoying the same slow torture they had inflicted upon me. I have had none since. Pardon me for introducing so low a subject; but, from one sort of gray- back to another is rather an easy transition,-both of a color, one preying upon the body corporate, the other upon the body politic."
"CAMP OF EIGHTY-SIXTH, July 1.
" There is a fine duel, between their guns and ours nearly every evening, which affords us considerable amusement, cs- pecially when our guns get the best of the contest, which they have been doing in the last few days. Our shells scem to tear the top of the mountain terribly. We are two miles away, but we can see the clouds of smoke and dust. The most exciting features of this extraordinary campaign are the night attacks of the enemy upon our works. They burst forth in the stillness of these summer nights with a noise and fury that would terrrify any but a soldier. The first thing you see on waking is the lightning-like flash of their artillery, as it opens along the line through the dense forest, and sends shell crashing and bursting through the tree tops. The great rattle of musketry, and the wild shouts of the enemy join to make it a fearful time. But our boys all know their duty, and quickly take their places in the rifle- ยท pits, with their guns in hand, and a little pile of cartridges ' on the ground in front of them, ready for the word to fire! In all their night attacks the enemy has gained nothing yet, and has lost many men.
" I regret always to write with a pencil, but can't get ink in this wooden country. Sometimes we don't see daylight
46
722
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
for weeks. If the cars did not whistle once in a while, we should think ourselves lost entirely."
" CENTRE OF SHERMAN'S ARMY, July 1.
"I had to laugh at Jane's prescription for my health, in which she tells me to have Jerry toast me a slice of bread, to take so much butter, and such a quantity of tea, and a little cinnamon, and, if approved, a pinch of ground cloves, mixed in a bowl. Bless her kind, suggestive heart! Doesn't she know that from bread to bowl we are laeking, and that she might as well prescribe ice cream, to be eaten from a golden goblet, three times daily? As for the pudding that we are to bake in a skillet, tell her that our only cooking utensils are a fruit-can for coffee, and a tin-bucket in which Jerry fries the meat. The bucket Jerry stole. He 'wasn't gwine to liab everything stold from him, and not have nothin' to cook in.' "S. M."
While threatening the enemy's centre still, and demonstra- ting against his right, Sherman threw McPherson's army toward the Chattahoochie, on the left. It was enough. At dawn of July 3 his pickets were on the summit of Kenesaw.
Now began a race for the Chattahoochie. The Rebels had the road clean and clear before them, and intrenchments, previously prepared, at the bridge head, on the northern bank of the river, ready to receive them, while streams on each side of the road, and parallel to it, protected their line of march. Thomas, at their heels, took two thousand prisoners in Marietta. About three miles beyond Marietta his advance had a sharp fight. Captain Kirk, with a small body of skirm- ishers, stormed an outwork, losing eleven men out of eight- cen. Kirk was wounded. McPherson and Schofield, urging troops who needed little urging, over the rough country east and west of the direct road, gained the river and connected with Thomas, to find two corps of the Rebel army streaming across on three bridges, and one powerful corps, Hardee's, turned at bay, with too dangerous a front, so few hours after Kenesaw, for assault.
723
CROSSING THE CHATTAHOOCHIE.
"NEAR THE CHATTAHOOCHIE, July 6.
" The pickets of our division fire across the river at the enemy's piekets. We are nine miles from Marietta, and the same distance from Atlanta. Our division had the advance yesterday, and overtook the Rebels just as they were getting their last wagons over their pontoon bridge. A skirmish took place, and our artillery, on a high point a mile back of us, warmed up the tail end of their train as it switched about among the hills on the other side. From the hill on which the artillery is posted the Rebels are in full view, with all their fortifications and their large wagon-trains parked in the rear; and Atlanta, with its fortifications standing out in bold relief. We took a good many prisoners and deserters yesterday and the day before. The deserters hide in the brush until our skirmishers pass by them. One of these poor fellows, or at least one who had been accused of being a deserter at some time, had been retaken before we came along, and now hangs from a limb of a tree upon the top of the hill I spoke of. Johnston maintains a discipline that was never equaled in any army in our country, and hangs and shoots many of his men. At Dalton I saw seventeen stakes, to which that number of men had been tied and shot. To see a gallows in their camp is a common occurrence. Noth- ing less than such discipline would keep his army together. The pieket line is so hot that it can be relieved only at night. Our boys make it just as hot for the Rebels. D. T."
A flanking movement, involving, as it must, the passage of the broad, deep and rapid Chattahoochie in the vicinity of. the enemy, was scarcely less formidable than a direct attack. But Sherman was not now, nor indeed was he ever, to be deterred by formidable appearances. While his strong skir- mish line carried the outer rifle-pits, and made demonstra- tions far to the enemy's left, south-west of the railroad bridge, his reserve, Schofield, moved rapidly eastward, crossed the river, his foremost troops, the Sixty-Third and Sixty-Fifth in- cluded, wading, though the water was neck deep.
Schofield effected a lodgment on high ground, on the southern bank, eight miles above the railroad, and made a
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
good, strong bridge. Garrard's cavalry then occupied Ross- well, a town seven miles farther up the river, destroyed woolen and cotton mills, which had supplied the Rebel armies, and protected bridge builders at that point. Howard threw a bridge across at Powell's ferry, but four miles above the railroad.
4
Meantime the demonstrations in front were hot. A fort was built and occupied by the Eighteenth battery. The Rebels erected two forts on higher ground, and within six hundred yards. Cannonading was incessant; July 17, while Hardee was withdrawing, it was furious; more than a hun- dred shells burst inside the fort. With Schofield and How- ard south of the river, and the rest of the Northern army pre- paring to follow, Johnston could do no less than withdraw.
'CAMP OF THE FORTIETH, "NEAR ATLANTA, GEORGIA, July 16, 186.
" We are on the south bank of the Chattahoochie, our - camp about six or seven miles from Atlanta; other parts of our army somewhat nearer. We crossed on the thirteenth, and have been in camp quietly resting for three whole days, and with the charming prospect of at least another day of rest. I never felt so keenly the need of it before, for both body and mind are completely wearied out with the constant strain brought upon them during a campaign of over sixty- six days, sixty of which were spent under fire more or less intense. We were always, during the sixty days, not only within reach of Rebel artillery, but also within range of Minie balls, and could hear them at almost any moment whistling, sometimes singly, sometimes in groups, all the notes of the scale, from highest to lowest, according to veloc- ity or the more or less perfect smoothness of the missile. If a ball hits a tree, and glancing, is battered by the impact, it comes squalling along so much like a cat, that the boys con- stantly say, 'There, they are throwing another cat over here by the tail.' These glancing balls perform strange feats in the way of penetrating into apparently impossible places. For instance the Chaplain of the Ninety-Seventh Ohio was struck in the back by one, with his face toward the spot from
.
725
VAGARIES OF STRAGGLING BALLS.
which it came. I saw a man have a hole put through his hat, and it knocked off, he sitting at the time with his back to a breastwork three feet higher than his head, and actu- ally leaning against it. The ball had been shot from a lower point than the wall, and, striking a limb overhead at a proper angle, was deflected in such a manner as to quite equal the Irishman's shot round the hay-stack with a bent gun. There is no certainly safe place, and no possibility of providing against the vagaries of 'straggling balls.' On the eighteenth of June, a man standing talking with me, and at the same time cleaning his gun, and whose head was at least six feet lower than the top of the ridge between him and the Rebels, and they also thirty feet lower than that, and four hundred yards off over an open field, was shot through the head and fell as you have seen a bullock fall, an involuntary quivering of the muscles lasting for a few minutes, alone showing that there remained even a remnant of the vitality which had ani- mated him a moment before. On the twenty-seventh of June, in the assault upon the enemy's lines, in which our regi- ment was so badly cut up, three men were wounded, (have since died,) all within less than a minute, and so near that two of them were in actual contaet with me at the time, and the other not two feet off. I did not get a scratch. A small tree, about eight inches across, behind which I stood for half an hour nearly, after the attack had evidently failed, and the greater part if not all the regiment had got back to the works, I saw afterward, when the Rebels had retreated,-there may have been balls put in it before, or some after the twenty-sev- enth assault,-but it was, when I looked at it, actually torn into splinters by both canister and rifle balls. There was hardly a partiele of bark left on it, from the ground up, on the side of the enemy, yet, as I said, I was untouched, while in a line of that same fire there were not less than one hun- dred men hurt, many of them killed outright. I fear you may think there is a touch of egotism about this. My inten- tion was simply to give you an idea, if possible, of the strange freaks and unpleasant partiality these bullets display for en- tering the bodies of some men, while they avoid those of others. Happily, so far, they have avoided me. I continue
-
726
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
to hope they may 'keep on doing it.' But about the war, what shall I say? I cannot tell you anything of our move- ments, for that would, under present circumstances, be con- traband news, and mere speculations are of but small account in the face of the events which follow each other with suffi- cient rapidity to satisfy any one not born in the country where everything is 'expected to be done in about twenty minutes.' We have come one hundred and thirty miles over mountains and rivers, gaining every inch by hard fighting with an army who have made 'spades trumps,' and held a handfull of them, too. The positions from which Johnston has been driven by force or strategy are each miracles of strength, both natural and artificial, and having accomplished the huge undertaking in spite of all that could be done to prevent it, we are now arrived at the plain country, and have left the mountains and their spurs and outlying ridges behind us. The Chattahoochie is crossed, and we can count the church steeples, and see the dwellings of the people of Atlanta.
"You will find when this campaign in all its parts has been carried to a conclusion, that there will only be a few of the out- side corners of the rebellion to polish off. We are fighting it now in a way to either annihilate the men of the South, or compel tne remnant to submission to the laws. It is a ' Kil- kenny cat fight'-and we have a 'cat with the longest tail;' and the more desperate the fighting, the more terrible the loss, the quicker will peace return and the blessings that belong to it. In spite of our losses in this army, they have been at least made up by reinforcements. You may rely upon this statement. We are most likely stronger than when we started. The South are fighting their last men-without re- sources. We can lose man for man with them, annihilate them, and have a handsome balance to our credit to com- mence the business of building up a nation anew out of the reliques of the old.
HARRY LEAMING."
After crossing the Chattahoochie, Sherman rested until he heard the locomotive whistle, a sound which always enheart- ened the troops and set them huzzaing. When again in
727
BATTLE OF PEACH TREE CREEK.
motion, the army gradually assumed the form of an arc of a circle on the northeast of Atlanta.
July 19, McPherson's left was south of the Augusta rail- road, while his entire force, as was also Schofield's, was west of Decatur, within the strong defensive lines of Nancy's and Peach tree creeks. Beatty's brigade in the morning of this day, made an admirable reconnoissance in Thomas' front, driving the enemy's out-post two miles. In the afternoon, the brigade, under the friendly shelter and concealment of a ravine, tall corn, weeds and willows, crossed Peach Tree creek on a hastily constructed bridge; and one hundred picked men of the Seventy-Ninth, "one hundred as good men as ever walked on ground," surprised and captured a point in the Rebel works, though Lieutenant Colonel Parker, in com- mand, was wounded at the outset. The brigade and corps following closely, a foothold was gained on the south side of the stream. Before night, Thomas' army was south of Peach Tree creek. The Rebels were on strong ground, and strongly fortified. It would be hard to assault them and not casy to outflank them. Unexpectedly their policy underwent a change, Johnson being deposed, and Hood, who succeeded him, assuming the offensive. At noon of the twentieth, as Newton was following Stanley and Wood toward Schofield's line on the left, as Hooker, and Johnson on Hooker's right, were moving in the same dirction, each body disconnected and unsupported, nearly the whole Rebel army advanced without skirmishers, from woods which had concealed it, and threw itself furiously on Newton's division, which at the mo- ment was halting on a prominent ridge, with stacked arms and no other defence than hastily constructed earthworks, such as the troops made whenever they halted, and on Hook- er's corps, which had not the slightest protection. Newton's troops sprang to arms, and met the assault with deliberate and deadly musketry in their front, and artillery on both flanks. Kimball, commanding two brigades and a part of a third, held the right unmoved. Geary swerved, but Will- iamson, on his right, stood with perfect steadiness, and Ward's division (formerly Butterfield's) on his left and rear, rushed to the front and beyond in a counter charge, relieving
728
THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
both Kimball and Geary. Coburn's brigade was the first to come in contact with the charging forces of the enemy. The Eighty-Fifth was not more than fifty feet from their front when it opened fire. The Rebels pressed forward again, and repeatedly, suffering one bloody repulse after another with a terrible fortitude, and only seeking their intrenchments after a four hours' battle and to escape utter destruction.
" BATTLEFIELD NEAR ATLANTA, SEVENTIETHI INDIANA, July 21, 1864.
"We had a glorious fight yesterday. I don't know the re- sults of the whole fight, but our division repulsed the Rebels and threw up works on the battlefield where they lay killed and wounded two to our one, that I know.
"At midnight we were ordered to get ready, and at day- light we pushed forward. Halted at noon in a cornfield and ate a cracker for dinner-the sun so terribly hot! Then we formed in line of battle. Our division was so fortunate this time as to have an open field. The Fourth corps, on our left, and the other divisions of our corps had woods to fight in. We were soon in line of battle, and waited for orders in the hot sun. The battle began at four o'clock and lasted until after dark. It began on the Fourth corps; they were a little in advance of the line and had all their non-combatants with them. Of all the skedaddling, running and confusion! I never saw the beat! It amused us at first, but when the firing be- gan on our line amusement sobered into alarm. Then the hot work began on the left. Both right and left sent to Hooker for reinforcements-all the answer they got was ' For- ward!' 'Fighting Joe' had his body guard (so I hear from Colonel Harrison) draw their sabres and push forward the skulking parties of those who asked for reinforcements. At this moment we advanced. On we moved in steady line- we couldn't see the Rebs yet-' Colonel Merrill will take that cedar knoll.' When we reached the top our lines wern't in so good a shape, the lines of our division I mean. But no won- der-some regiments had a steep hill to climb, to pass through a cornfield, through thickets, blackberry bushes, to cross a creek and a deep gutter, all of which our regiment did be-
729
BATTLE OF PEACH TREE CRECK.
fore we at last reached the top of the cedar knoll. And there were the Johnny Rebs on a ridge just opposite us advancing on us. The thickets, blackberry bushes and small but decp ravines, offered a good place for skulkers-one little cus stop- ped and commenced picking blackberries. A regiment on our right had nice ground to advance on and was ahead; the Lieutenant Colonel and a Rebel Colonel were in a hand to hand fight for a Rebel flag,-but strange to say, the Rebel Colonel got away,-limping. At this point our lines wavered. Some of our regiment, tired or excited, stopped on the cedar hill and commenced firing. Others were in the ravine in front and starting up the slope to meet the Rebels. Now! who would win? The Rebels advancing, our men faltering. We had nothing to fall back on but a muddy creek we had taken several hours in crossing on one small bridge. Had we broken how terrible would have been the slaughter-our men killing their comrades and themselves in trying to cross the creek! There was a desperate attack on our batteries on the right and left. Colonel Harrison's Adjutant came flying along the lines and shouting, 'Forward! they are driving us on our right and left!'
"But our artillery helps us. Canister shot is fired into them from the woods on our right, and we give them a vol- ley. They halt, waver, lie down. Hurrah! They break and run. Our boys take steadier aim now, and advance with enthusiasm. They don't retreat without giving us sev- eral volleys. We gain their hill, passing over their killed and wounded, and lie down behind some fence rails the skirmish- ers have thrown up, and fire into them retreating. They made several attempts to rally and recross the open field, but without success. I got a gun from a wounded man, pock- eted some cartridges and caps, and had several shots. We were at work nearly all night throwing up carthworks. We didn't suffer as much as we did at Resaca-other regiments, though, a great deal more. Our loss was five killed and twenty-seven wounded. Captain Matlock and Lieutenant Reed were wounded. Englehart was wounded and Spaulding killed. Lieutenant Lowe was killed. He was sick, and ought to have been in a hospital, but he wouldn't stay be-
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