USA > Maryland > The Maryland line in the Confederate Army, 1861-1865 > Part 27
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The artillery limbered up again, and set off at a gallop, not stopping till they had crossed Black Bayou, a distance of six miles. The enemy followed, but at length retired to Greenville, burning the town and neighboring residences, in revenge for their losses in the fight.
The next day Major Bridges learned that the enemy held Haynes' Landing and Snyder's Bluff, and were likely to attempt his capture by sending troops up the Yazoo River in his rear. The same evening orders were received from General Ferguson to leave the Mississippi at once and proceed to Greenwood, on the Yazoo River by the way of Deer Creek, Bogue Phaliah and Moon Lake. At midnight the camp at Fish Lake was broken up, and the command proceeded on its way, and reached the Yazoo on the 24th, after marching a distance of seventy miles. Obstruction in the river prevented the enemy from ascending to the point where Major Bridges crossed. From Greenwood the battery was Ordered to Yazoo City, where it arrived on the Ist of June. After one more engagement with the enemy's vessels on the Yazoo, the Maryland section proceeded, on the 12th, to Vernon, Mississippi, where it was attached to General McNair's Brigade of Walker's Division. Six days after it was transferred to Ector's Brigade of the same division. . A section of Captain McNally's Arkansas battery, under Lieutenant Moore, was also attached to this brigade, and, as he was the senior officer, he took command of both sections. Walker's Division constituted part of the army which General Joseph E. Johnston was assembling for the relief of Vicksburg.
On the ist of July the movement toward Vicksburg began. While waiting for the pontoons on which the Big Black River was to be crossed to come up the news was received at headquarters that Vicksburg had capitulated. How great a calamity to the Confederacy this event was, is well known. It was especially painful to the detached section of the Third Maryland, as much the larger part of their battery was lost with the city. As before stated, three officers, seventy men and five guns of the Third Maryland were surrendered. They were paroled on the 12th of July, and on the 26th at Enterprise were furloughed for thirty days, with orders to report at Decatur, Georgia.
Johnston's army reached Jackson on the night of the 7th, and before daylight
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the next morning was ordered into the trenches west of the town. On the 10th the enemy appeared in front, drove in the Confederate pickets and began to fortify.
The sections of Moore and Ritter were placed in an angle of the line, on the Vicksburg road. The enemy constructed their works in a semi-circle about this point in order to dismount a siege-piece which was situated between Moore's and Ritter's sections. In their works the enemy planted about thirty-six twenty- pounder Parrotts and Napoleons. The Confederates had in the threatened angle the siege-piece, two twenty-pounder Parrotts, two three-inch rifle pieces and three twelve-pound howitzers. For two days the enemy were occupied in perfecting their works, and did not often fire a shot.
Sunday morning, July 12, the sun rose in a cloudless sky, and there was nothing to disturb the unusual stillness, appropriate to the day, except an occasional picket shot echoing among the hills.
The men sat idly here and there along the parapet, when suddenly a terrific fire from all the enemy's batteries was opened upon the exposed angle - a fire that seemed to shake the very earth. To add to the unpleasantness of the situation, the cotton bales, which formed part of the parapet, were knocked off and inflamed by the enemy's shell, and had to be rolled to the rear to save the ammunition from danger. In the midst of the storm of lead and iron, the men were called to action, and returned the enemy's fire with vigor. Lieutenant Whitney was presently wounded and Lieutenant Moore was so seriously injured by a falling bale that he had to be taken to the rear, thus leaving Lieutenant Ritter in command.
The enemy's artillery fire continued with unabated fury for two hours, after which it slackened for the rest of the day.
Thursday night, the 16th, the Confederate works were evacuated and the army fell back to Morton, Mississippi.
The losses of the Third Maryland at Jackson during the seven days it was under fire were as follows :
KILLED-Corporal L. McCurry, Private Henry Gordon.
WOUNDED-Lieutenant Ritter, Sergeant Daniel Toomey, Privates Brown, Emmett Wells and J. P. Wills.
On the 5th of September the section was ordered to Demopolis, Alabama, for repairs. On the 19th of October, 1863, by order of General Joseph E. Johnston, the Third Maryland section was transferred to Decatur, Georgia, where it rejoined the battery under Captain Rowan.
The number of men in the battery had been niuteh reduced by its fosses in Louisiana and Mississippi, so that Captain Rowan applied to the Secretary of War for seventy-five conscripts. While at Decatur the guns, horses and equip- ments of a four-gun battery were received, and Doctor Thomas J. Rogers was assigned to the battery as surgeon.
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On October 29 the battery was ordered to Sweet Water, East Tennessee, and on the 5th of November to Bragg's army at Missionary Ridge.
On the morning of the 23d of November, 1863, the enemy, under cover of a heavy fog, moved up and attacked the left wing of General Bragg's army, at the foot of Lookout Mountain, and drove it back rapidly, the line at that point being weak and the attack unexpected. The evacuation of Lookout Mountain followed, and Bragg withdrew to Missionary Ridge. The next day he was defeated, and the army fell back to Dalton. The Third Maryland was held in reserve.
General Bragg was here superseded in the command of the army by Joseph E. Johnston. The Third Maryland went into winter quarters in Sugar Valley, below Dalton, Georgia.
On the 20th of January, 1864, the whole battalion, for easier access to long forage, was ordered to Kingston, where it again built winter quarters.
On the 7th of May the battery was ordered to the front of the line in Crow's Valley, and when, on the 8th, the enemy moved up as if to attack the Confederate works, they were received with so vigorous a fire that they rapidly withdrew. But two men of the Third Maryland were wounded. Again, on the 9th, the enemy charged our works, but were repulsed, with no loss to the battery.
On the night of the 12th the corps fell back to Resaca. Two days later the battery took position on the front, two miles north of Resaca, to the left of the Dalton road, and about a hundred yards to the right of an obtuse angle in the line, at this time occupied by Dent's Alabama battery. The latter held the summit of a ridge, the prolongation of which, in front, it was expected to command, while Captain Rowan was directed to construct his works at right angles with the ridge, so as to command the Dalton road. He saw that in case the enemy seized and held the ridge in front of the angle his battery would be enfiladed, and, therefore, began to construct a traverse for the protection of his men. Before it was completed our skirmish line was driven off the ridge to the shelter of the earth- works, and the battery had to begin firing. Dent's battery was soon withdrawn, as the men were shot down as fast as they took their positions beside their guns. Rowan's battery now became exposed to a raking fire from the left.
The first section, under command of Lieutenant .Ritter, was on this occasion on the left, instead of its proper place on the right, of the battery, for a special reason, which it is not necessary to mention ; and it was now consequently the most severely handled. His two guns were speedily silenced, and not long after the other two, under Lieutenant Giles. At the right gun of Ritter's section eight men were killed and wounded within a few minutes, leaving but three at the gun. The moment the gun was silenced, Sergeant Wynn, in charge of the second, was directed to throw his trail to the right and fire over the first. It happened that Lieutenant Ritter was lying just in front of the parapet of the second gun, so that
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the cannister fired from it passed over and very near his head, covering him with dirt knocked off the parapet by fragments of the missiles fired at the enemy. It was a dangerous position, and the Lieutenant called with no little vigor to the Sergeant to " cease firing." The roaring of the guns and the din of the musketry, of course, drowned his voice, so that he had to lie still where he was ; the enemy in front, his own men behind him, the gun over him scattering its cannister fear- fully, while it deafened him with its noise, and suffocated him with its sulphurous smoke. Around him lay the dead and wounded of the first detachments. The peril of his own situation did not prevent him from thinking what would be the fate of these poor men if the enemy charged the works. It was with great delight that he heard Captain Rowan give the order to cease firing.
At dusk the infirmary corps came up to remove the wounded, and, later, during the night, the dead were buried. Captain Rowan left Lieutenant Ritter in command, with orders to remodel the works during the night, while he himself went to look after some horses for the battery. Nine horses had been killed, including Ritter's saddle horse. By daylight the works were completed. In the afternoon the enemy charged our right, passing within three hundred yards of Rowan's battery, giving the latter a fine opportunity to revenge its losses of the day before. Right well did it take advantage of it, opening with terrible effect, strewing the field with dead, and giving occupation to numerous litter-bearers, who presently appeared on the scene to carry off the wounded. The firing continued during the evening at intervals. About 3 P. M. Lieutenant Ritter was wounded by a minnie ball in the right arm above the elbow. The ball passed through the fleshy part of the arm, and lodged in the sleeve.
At night the army fell back, marching across Oostenaula River to Adairsville, which was reached on the 16th. The casualties of the Third Maryland at Resaca were three killed and fifteen wounded, as follows :
KILLED-Corporal Sanchez, Private H. Steward, and a third, whose name is lost.
WOUNDED Lieutenant William L. Ritter, Sergeant L. W. Frazier, Corporals A. J. Davis and B. Bradford, Privates J. Bushong, W. E. Davis, J. G. Cannon, J. Faulk, B. Garst, J. Isham, J. S. Scales, J. A. Turner, M. P. Talton, W. Pickle and A. P. Wade.
The spokes of the second piece were so shattered by the enemy's minnie balls that false spokes had to be put in before the gun could be removed.
The army continued to fall back until it reached New Hope Church, near Dallas, on the 25th, when a general engagement took place. The enemy moved up and charged the greater part of our line, but were repulsed with heavy loss at every point. The Third Maryland was not engaged till late in the evening, when it did terrible execution in the enemy's ranks, itself having but two men slightly
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wounded. Again, on the 27th, the enemy charged our right wing, and the Third was ordered to open up on them, which it did with telling effect.
On the 31st, Corporal Jones was killed by a random picket shot, and Private Lee was wounded by the same ball.
When, on the 4th of June, the New Hope line was abandoned for the Lost Mountain line, and that afterwards for the Noonday Valley, the Third Maryland took part in every movement. On the 22nd, at Marietta, the battery was ordered out on the field to join in General Stevenson's famous charge upon the enemy's right wing, but was held in reserve. Stevenson was repulsed with the loss of a thousand men.
The Maryland battery lost none, though under a severe artillery fire the whole time. On the night of the 4th of July the battery was ordered to the Chattahoochee River, thence to Mill Creek road, where, on the 20th an attack was made by the enemy and repulsed. General Johnston was superseded by General Hood on the 14th of July.
The next day the battery was ordered to Atlanta, and on the morning of the 22d was assigned to a position in Peach Tree Street redoubt, at that time an unfinished work. When completed it was circular in form, having a parapet right, left and rear, with five embrasures. In the afternoon the battery began to reply to the enemy, who had moved up within reach, and toward sunset, General Loring coming up, ordered the firing to be made as rapidly as possible, so as to attract the enemy's attention and create a diversion of their forces from the left, upon which the Confederates were making a charge. This movement was a success. About three thousand prisoners, twenty-eight pieces of artillery, and a considerable quantity of ordnance stores were captured.
Our batteries kept up a continuous firing night and day for several days to prevent the enemy from advancing their line. Two thirty-two-pound siege-pieces were now brought up, one of which was planted in Peach Tree Street redoubt, and the other two hundred yards in the rear. Captain Corput (now temporarily in command of the battalion ) placed Lieutenant Ritter in charge of these guns, detailing men to work them from Rowan's and Corput's batteries. Several attempts made by the enemy to plant batteries in our front were frustrated by aid of these guns.
On the 20th of August Captain Corput was wounded and Captain Rowan took command of the battalion, which left Lieutenant Ritter in command of the Third Maryland.
On September I Atlanta was evacuated, and the army fell back to Lovejoy Station. The enemy followed, and on the 4th we fought them two miles north of that place, to such good purpose that on the 5th they returned to Atlanta.
The movement of Hood's army to Sherman's rear began on the 29th of
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September, 1864. The Chattahoochee River was crossed on the 30th, and part of the army proceeded to Lost Mountain for Ackworth and Big Shanty and captured the garrisons at those places. At Cedartown the wagon train, the sick, and the shoeless, and all the artillery except one battery of each battalion were left behind, while the remainder of the army proceeded to Resaca and Dalton. Stevenson's Division started on the 9th of October at noon, and the Third Maryland was the - battery chosen to accompany it.
It was the intention of General Stephen D. Lee, who commanded the corps, to capture the garrison at Resaca, and he made forced marches in order to take it by surprise. On the 12th it was surrounded by approaches made from the north and its unconditional surrender demanded. The Major in command of the post refused to yield, however, and General Lee did not think it worth while to compel liim, and proceeded on his way.
On the 23d all started for Tennessee, marching across Sand Mountain to Decatur, Alabama, and thence to Florence, on the south bank of the Tennessee River. By the 20th of November all the troops had crossed the Tennessee River. and through rain and snow the advance upon Nashville was renewed. The weather was intensely cold, and the march was rendered the more cheerless by the barren- ness and poverty of the country through which it led during the first few days. Rations and forage were very scarce, though the more needed by reason of the bitter weather.
When within a mile and a half of Columbia on the 26th the whole army was put in order of battle, and so advanced till within three-fourths of a mile of the enemy's works. The town was evacuated on the night of the 27th, and the Third Maryland was the first Confederate force to enter the next morning. A section of the battery under Lieutenant Ritter was sent three miles below the town to prevent the destruction by the enemy of the railroad bridge over Duck River, but on its arrival found the bridge in flames.
When, on the 29th, the right section rejoined the left, it was found on the south bank of the river, in the cemetery at Columbus, engaged with the enemy. The Yankees on the other side of the river had massed their artillery upon a hill commanding the town, and were opposing the crossing of the Confederates : the latter had six batteries replying to them, two of them planted above and four within the town. Meanwhile Pettus' Brigade of Stevenson's Division was thrown across the river, preparatory to'a charge upon the enemy's works, and while it was forming under the river bank the Confederate artillery increased the intensity of Its fire till it became terrific, and effectually prevented any active movement on the part of the enemy. Pettus charged their works as soon as his formation was completed, and drove the Federals out with but slight loss. Three men of the Third Maryland were wounded in the artillery duel, two of them dangerously.
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Colonel Beckham was mortally wounded, and was succeeded in command of the artillery regiment by Major Johnston.
Early on the morning of the 30th the advance in the direction of Franklin was renewed, and when the battery was within six miles of the town, an order was received from General Hood to move up at a trot, as it was only needed to " press the enemy at this point, and the campaign would be over !" The scene of action was reached about 4 P. M., when the battalion was placed in reserve, and did not take part in the attack that followed. It was one of the most remarkable, and certainly one of the bloodiest, battles of the war. Cheatham's and Stewart's Corps charged over an open plain of six hundred yards in width, under a severe fire from the enemy's artillery and infantry, the latter occupying a double line of defenses on the brow of an elevation of some fifteen feet. The charge was a brilliant one and was partially successful, as part of the enemy's line was captured, but it was at a fearful loss on our side.
The loss of the Confederates in officers was unprecedentedly heavy. Eleven general officers were killed and wounded. Among the killed were Cleburne, Gran- berry, Carter and Lewis. All the field officers remained mounted during the charge.
At daylight on the morning after the fight, Lieutenant Ritter rode over the field, and in the part of the line where Cockrell's Missourians charged the enemy's defenses he found the dead lying thick, piled one upon another, till the earth was hidden by the woeful spectacle. Near this point to the right General Lewis' horse was found lying upon the top of the works, and fifty yards within the enemy's main line of fortifications a single Confederate soldier was found, face down, his head toward the enemy, having penetrated thus far alone before he was shot.
Early on the morning of December I the enemy evacuated their works, and crossed Harpeth River, under fire from our batteries.
The Confederate Army followed and arrived before Nashville on the 2d, and immediately commenced to fortify. The Third Maryland occupied a hill on the right of and parallel with the Franklin Pike.
On the morning of the 15th the enemy charged the Confederate right wing, but were repulsed with heavy loss. They next moved a heavy column against the left, with better success, causing the whole army to fall back rapidly for the distance of one mile.
On the morning of the eventful 16th of December the Third Maryland was ordered to a hill in an open field a quarter of a mile to the left of the Franklin pike. Defensive works for the battery were at once commenced, and rails to be used in fortifying were brought from a fence some two hundreds yards in front. The enemy discovering the working party, opened on them with six guns. The horses were without cover and suffered severely till removed to a position behind the hill. On returning to the battery, Lieutenant Ritter, being more experienced
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in such matters, was sent back to the caissons to relieve Lieutenant Doncaster, and take charge of the men engaged in supplying ammunition to the guns, and instruct them as to the distances for which the fuses should be cut. About this time the enemy planted two more batteries, one on the right and the other on the left, making a total of eighteen, whose fire was concentrated on the Maryland battery. Their fire now became fearfully hot, and Captain Rowan, wishing to return it with the greatest vigor, called on the drivers to assist the " fives " and " sevens " in bringing up ammunition. The nature of the ground was such that the horses could not be effectually sheltered from the enemy's battery on the right, and they were falling rapidly. The drivers were being wounded, and the trees cut down, while the air was resonant with the howl of passing shells, and the lighter whistle of the more searching minnies. Ritter, who for the reason given above, had charge of the drivers, horses and ammunition. asked leave to take the horses to a safer place, but it was not thought expedient to separate them as far from the guns as would be necessary to secure their safety. A Parrott shell passed through the head of a wheel horse near him and exploded, cutting the Lieutenant's sword in two and killing his saddle horse. The men engaged in furnishing ammunition also suffered severely. Major Johnston, now coming up, ordered the horses to be removed, and those that remained were thus saved.
At half past twelve Captain Rowan was struck by a piece of shell, and instantly killed.
At about 3 P. M. the Confederate line of battle gave way, and so rapidly did the troops retreat, and so promptly did the enemy follow, that Lieutenant Ritter saw at once that there would be no chance to bring off his guns. He determined to remain with them and work them to the last.
After driving the Confederates from their works, the enemy poured in on Stevenson's left, and forming a line perpendicular to his, swept along within the defenses toward the Third Maryland. At the same time another line was moving up in front, and both seemed to be aiming to form a junction at the battery to overwhelm it. The men stood to their guns and continued to pour a heavy fire of cannister into the heavy masses approaching in front, till they mounted the works. They mounted first upon the left, planting the United States flag on the left gun and capturing sixteen men.
As they showed their heads above the works, Lieutenants Ritter, Doncaster and Sergeant Pendley - who were upon the right - started and ran down the line fifty yards, and then left it and struck diagonally across the field for the pike. The Federals cried "Halt !" "Halt !" to no purpose, and pursued them for three-quarters of a mile, firing at them all the while.
They escaped unhurt, however, and continuing some four miles to the rear, overtook the few horses that were left of the battery.
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Captain Rowan was a native of Maryland, and at the beginning of the war resided at Elkton, Cecil County, where he had devoted himself with success to the practice of his profession of the law. Though still young, he had already attained considerable prominence as a public man. His manners were winning ; in speech he was easy and graceful; in action generous and manly; and every circumstance of his life promised the success which his character deserved. When the war broke out, true to his noble instincts, he devoted himself to the cause of the South, leaving his profession, home, wife and children - all that he held most clear - to take up arms in defense of the right. Through the many trying phases of military life he passed unscathed. Cool in the hour of danger, serene amid defeat and disaster, kind alike to liis fellow-officers and to his men ; he was cut off in the flower of his age, before he had seen his thirtieth year. Brave, noble, high-principled, his death in any cause would have hallowed it. Had the lost Confederacy no other title to our love, the remembrance that for it such choice spirits as John B. Rowan fought and died, would be enough to keep it forever warm in our hearts.
The losses of the Third Maryland at Nashville were four killed, eight wounded and sixteen captured, exclusive of Lieutenant Giles and Private Cotter, captured two days before the battle.
KILLED-Captain John B. Rowan, Privates S. Atiltman, E. R. Roach and A. Wills.
WOUNDED-A. Dollar, D. Beasley, N. Beverly, W. J. Brown, Tom Early, A. J. Davis, E. M. Herndon and J. Nichols.
The retreat continued through pelting rains, and snows, and high water, flooding the country through which the army had to pass. Many of the men were without shoes, and were but poorly clad, though the weather was so intensely cold as to benumb those who were better provided.
On the 10th of January, 1865, Johnston's battalion went into camp at Columbus, Mississippi. Here, on the 20th, Lieutenant Ritter was promoted to the Captaincy by the following special order :
HEADQUARTERS, COLUMBUS, MISSISSIPPI, January 20. 1865.
Special Order No. 10.
The following promotions are announced, the officers named being deemed competent for promotion :
First Lientenant William L. Ritter, of Stephens' Light Artillery, Third Maryland, to le Captain, from December 16, 1864. to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Captain John B. Rowan, killed December 16, 1864. before Nashville, Tennessee.
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