USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron brigade, known as the Detroit and Wayne county regiment > Part 1
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COLONEL HENRY A. MORROW. (BREVET BRIGADIER AND BREVET MAJOR GENERAL.)
HISTORY
OF THE
TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN
OF THE
IRON BRIGADE,
KNOWN AS THE
DETROIT AND WAYNE COUNTY REGIMENT.
ILLUSTRATED.
Laix BY O. B.Y CURTIS, A. M.,
OF THE REGIMENT. 1
DETROIT, MICH. WINN & HAMMOND. 1891. JSR.
-
To OUR HEROIC DEAD WHO PERISHED FOR THEIR COUNTRY, IN HOSPITAL, PRISON PEN AND ON THE BATTLEFIELD THIS VOL- UME IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. - THE AUTHOR.
E 514 5
COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY O. B. CURTIS.
1ST DIVISION-1ST ARMY CORPS.
3RD DIVISION-5TH ARMY CORPS.
INTRODUCTION.
By request of his comrades the author has written this volume. For centuries, the story of the Anabasis and Retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks, and the incursions of Hannibal into Italy have been perused with interest by classical readers; while the great campaigns of Bonaparte against the Allied Powers have been the wonder of modern times. But our own nation has a martial record as eventful as any in previous time.
A full history of its Great War can never be written. Each soldier's experience is a volume in itself, portions of which are related in country stores in winter, at noonings in harvest and around veteran camp-fires. Such recitals must soon cease. To preserve the deeds of the Regiment which sustained the heaviest loss in the greatest battle of that war, and incidently those of the Iron Brigade which suffered the greatest per cent of loss during the war, of all the Brigades of the Union Armies, this history is written.
It has required many months of research through war time letters, diaries and official records, by one who was an actor in a portion of that strife. In this laborious task, the author acknowledges valuable assistance from the late Sergeant S. D. GREEN (N. C. S.), from Chaplain WILLIAM C. WAY, and Major E. B. WIGHT ; also from Colonel A. M. EDWARDS, Captain WILLIAM R. DODSLEY and Sergeant ROBERT GIBBONS of the Publication Committee. Should this volume interest its readers, the compiler will be repaid for his gratuitous labors.
Detroit, Michigan, l 1891. $
O. B. CURTIS.
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE.
I. TIIE SLAVEHOLDERS' REBELLION, 9
II. RAISING THE REGIMENT, 2.4
III. FIRST MONTHS OF ARMY LIFE, 52
IV. MARCH TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK, 71
V. BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG, 86
VI. WINTERQUARTERS AT BELLE PLAIN,
105
VII. CHANCELLORSVILLE CAMPAIGN, .
I2I
VIII. FROM CHANCELLORSVILLE TO GETTYSBURG,
137
IX. BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG,
I55
X. AFTER GETTYSBURG-1863, 193
XI. WINTERQUARTERS NEAR CULPEPPER,
214
XII. GRANT'S CAMPAIGN-1864, 229
XIII. SIEGE OF PETERSBURG -1864, 266
XIV. CLOSING MONTHS OF THE WAR, 287
XV. THE ARMIES DISBANDED, . 307
XVI. ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE REGIMENT, 321
XVII. RECRUITS, 346
XVIII. ROSTER OF OFFICERS, 357
XIX.
THE DEAD OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN, 371
XX. RECORDS OF THE SURVIVORS, 382
XXI. MICHIGAN DAY AT GETTYSBURG, 403
XXII. CONFEDERATE PRISONS, 428
XXIII. IRON BRIGADE AND BATTERY B, 452
XXIV. OUR LAST MARCH, 474
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ILLUSTRATIONS.
NUMBER. PAGE. NUMBER PAGE.
I. Col. Henry A. Morrow, Frontispiece
2. First Corps Badge, Frontispiece
3. Fifth Corps Badge, Frontispiece
4. Slaves Planting Cotton, 9
5. The Cotton Gin, 10
6. Hon. Charles Sumner, I4
52. Captured Oxen, 140
7. John Brown, . 15
8. Fort Sumter, 1861, 19
54. Executing Deserter, I45
55. Route to the Potomac, . 148
56. March to Gettysburg, 151
II. Capt. E. B. Ward,
27
57. General Meade, 153
27 58. Bealeton Station, Va., 154
32 59. General Reynolds, 156
14. Wayne County Map, 36 60. Gettysburg, Frst Day, 158
15. Departure from Home,
16. Route to the Front, . 50 62. Defending the Colors, 164
17. Scene in Pennsylvania, 51 63. Field of Gettysburg, 174
64. Seminary, Gettysburg, ISI
19. Pope's Campaign-Map, 56 65. John Burns, IS3
20. On Cars through Maryland, . 59 66. Place of Reynold's death, 192
61
67. Pursuit of Lee, 195
22. At Middletown, Md., 63 68. Bivouac and Camp Fire, 197
23. Route to Berlin, 1862, 64 69. Route to Rappahannock, 199
24. Burnside Bridge, 67 70. Brandy Station, Va., 202
25. American Eagle,
70
71. Campaign of Maneuvers. 206
72
72. Thoroughfare Gap, Va., 208
73. Mine Run Campaign, 2II
28. Warrenton, Va., 76 74. Field of Mine Run, 212
29. General Mcclellan, 78
30. Route to Fredericksburg, S2
31. Persimmon Tree,
32. General Burnside, 87
33. Franklin's Crossing, 89
34. Barnard Mansion,
90
81. Old Flag of the 24th Michigan, . 228
229
84. Iron Brigade at Wilderness, 232
85. Wilderness Battlefield, . 233
86. Fighting in Wilderness, 234
87. General Wadsworth, 236
42. Wearied Soldier Boy, II3
43. General Hooker, II7
44. 24th Michigan in Bivouac, I20
45. Port Royal Expedition, 122
46. Port Royal Crossing, 123
47. Fitzhugh Crossing, I26
48. Drummer Boy, . I29
49. Field of Chancellorsville, I32
50. United States Flag, 136
51. "Chuch-or-Luck," 138
53. Westmoreland Expedition, I42
9. The Peninsula, Va., 22
IO. Campus Martius, Detroit, 25
12. Hon. Duncan Stewart, .
13. Hon. Lewis Cass,
47 61. Iron Brigade at Gettysburg, 16I
21. Route to Join the Army,
26. Berlin Crossing,
27. Raiding Strawstacks, 73
75. General Rufus King, 215
76. Penal Drill, 217
85 77. Rail Fence Guard, 218
78. Gen. John Newton, 220
79. Gen. U. S. Grant, 222
So. Gov. Austin Blair, . 223
35. Field of Fredericksburg, . 92
36. Fredericksburg, Va., 94
37. Battle of Fredericksburg, 98
38. General Doubleday, . IOI
39. Soldier's House - Tent, . 104
40. Camp Isabella, 106
41. "Mud March,' III
88. Todd's Tavern, 239
89. Iron Brigade at Laurel Ilill, . 240
90. At the Salient, 243
91. Tree cut down by bullets, . 244
92. Field of Spottsylvania, . 245
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S2. Route to Rapidan, · 83. Germanna Crossing,
230
18. Route to Camp Shearer, 53
6
ILLUSTRATIONS.
NUMBER. PAGE. NUMBER.
PRICE.
93. Route to North Anna, 2.49
124. Sergt. S. D. Green, 414
94. Route to Cold Harbor, . 254
125. Sergt. Robert Gibbons, 414
95. Route to Petersburg, , 259
126. Capt. W. G. Vinton, . 418
96. Iron Brigade at Petersburg, 261
97. Wounded Burning up, 265
128. Chaplain Wm C. Way, . 418
98. Siege of Petersburg, . 268
I29. Lieut. C. C. Yemans, . 418
99. Position on Weldon Road, 272
130. Camp Scene, 427
100. Burying the Dead, 273
131. Union Prison, Elmira, N. Y., 429
IOI. General Crawford, . 277
132. Rebel Prison, Millen, Ga., 431
102. Map of Hatcher's Run, . 278
133. Salisbury Prison, N. C., 435
103. Destroying Railroad, . 283
134. Libby Prison, Richmond, 438
104. General Warren, 299
135. Prison Dead Wagon, 439
105. Abraham Lincoln, 304
136. Scene in Andersonville, 443
106. Lincoln's Home, 306
137. Andersonville Prison, 447
449
108. Lieut .- Col. W. W. Wight, 316
139.
109. Lieut .- Col. A. M. Edwards, . 316
I40.
141. War Scene, . 451
III. Amputating Table, 319
142. Turner's Pass, South Mountain, 453
112. Jericho Mills,
345
143. Gen. Lucius Fairchild, 456
113. Washington's Tomb,
400
144. Gen. John Gibbon, 462
II4. Gen. Byron R. Pierce, 402
145. Gen. Sol. Meredith, 462
115. Col. Samuel E. Pittman, 402
146. Gen. Lysander Cutler, 462
116. Gen. Luther S. Trowbridge, 402 147. Gen. E. S. Bragg, . 462
117. Rev. James H. Potts, . 402
148. Gen. W. W. Robinson, . 468
118. 24th Michigan Monument, 406 149. Gen. Henry A. Morrow, 468
IIg. Capt. Wm. R. Dodsley, 410
150. Gen. J. A. Kellog, 468
I20. Lieut. E. B. Welton, 410
151. Gen. Rufus Dawes, 468
I2I. Lieut. C. H. Chope, 410
152. Battery B. in action, 470
122. O. B. Curtis, 414
153. Major James Stewart, 472
123. Sergt. Robert E. Bolger, . 414
154. Doc C. B. Aubrey, 473
449
IIO. Major Hutchinson, 316
138. Starved Union Prisoner, .. 449
107. Lieut .- Col. Mark Flanigan, . 316
127. Major Edwin B. Wight. 418
ERRATA.
Page 71, line II: "Lieutenant Flanigan" should read "Lieutenant- Colonel Flanigan."
Page 91, line 25 : " formed " should read " moved."
Page 163, line 14: all after "field " should not appear.
Page 163: line 15 should not appear.
Page 163, line 16: after "flag" should appear "from a wounded soldier."
Page 339: " Abraham Hoffman " should be " Abram Hoffman."
Page 340: after Edward Wilson, "Germany, 26," should be " Detroit, 20."
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-
CHAPTER I.
THE SLAVEHOLDERS' REBELLION.
SLAVERY ITS CAUSE.
T HE Civil War of 1861 to 1865, in America, was a rebellion of slaveholders against the government of the United States. It formed an extraordinary epoch in the world's history. It cost over half a million of lives and a mountain of debt. It brought devastation to many parts of the land. It caused untold sorrow throughout the nation. The cause of this terrible and unjustifiable war was an unsuccessful effort to extend and perpetuate slavery of the African race in the United States. Every reason for the rebellion can be traced to this root.
ITS INTRODUCTION, GROWTH AND INFLUENCE IN THE COLONIES.
In August, 1619, a Dutch war vessel arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, with twenty negroes who were sold to the planters for slaves. In 1790, the slaves in the colo- nies had increased to 697,897, of which 40,373 were in six of the Northern, and the rest in the six Southern States, Massachusetts hav- ing none.
During the strug- gle for American Independence, slav- ery was an anoma- lous feature of the free republic. The SLAVES PLANTING COTTON SEED. colonists were seeking sympathy from the civilized world in their efforts for liberty, and yet, were holding in slavery their own fellow
2
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IO
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
human beings! It was a marvelous sight to General Lafayette, who had brought upon himself the reprehension of his own government and braved the perils of the sea and his capture in behalf of the struggling people of the New World, to behold the "black domestiques " held in bondage by those for whose own liberty he was about to hazard his immense fortune and his life.
Slavery's influence had become so great that, after the Revolution, it was a great embarrassment in the formation of the new government. The best statesmen, South and North, believed it in the course of ultimate extinction. That all the colonies might be induced to enter the Union, compromises were incorporated in the Constitution whereby, (1) It was made a reserved right of the several States to retain or abolish slavery; (2) States retaining the system were allowed a three-fifths representation in congress and the electoral college for their slaves; (3) The foreign slave trade was permitted to continue for twenty years; (4) The rendition to their masters of slaves escaping to another State. The "institution," as it came to be called, gradually receded from the Northern States, and Washington, as an example, manumitted his own slaves at his death.
INFLUENCE OF THE COTTON GIN.
About this period slavery received a great stimulus in the South the invention of the cotton gin a few years before by from
...
SLAVES AND THE COTTON GIN.
Eli Whitney, a school-master from Connecticut teaching in the South. It was a machine so simple that the rudest African could operate it and separate the cot- ton seeds from the fibre. The great demand for cotton and its preparation for the market made thus easy, its production : was
II
THE SLAVEHOLDERS' REBELLION.
enhanced, and slavery became profitable in the cotton growing States. These States, upon the termination of the foreign slave trade, relied upon the border, or slave States adjacent to the free States, for their supply of human chattels, and thus the system became a source of profit to the entire South. For this it was fostered, and its extension and protection became the chief effort and study of Southern statesmen.
COMPROMISES FOR SLAVERY-ITS BARBARISM.
Slavery became a power in the Nation. Scarcely a question arose in State or Church, but had slavery as a factor in its determination. Its demands were usually made with the alternative of a dissolution of the Union. Under such threats, in 1820, a new compromise was granted the South, by which, in lieu of the admission of Missouri as a slave State, all territory of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36° 30' should ever after be free. This became known as the Missouri Compromise. In 1845, it demanded the annexation of Texas and the Mexican War, all for the acquisition of territory from which to carve new slave States. In 1850, it again threatened the Union without new guaranties. Its behests were granted with the odious Fugitive Slave Law, which not only returned the escaped slave to his master, but gave the latter power to carry off any colored person, bond or free, without jury trial, or permission of such colored person to testify in his own behalf, and consign him to life-long bondage. Its enforcement permitted the tearing away of parents and husbands from wives and children, and making Northern people parties to the inhumanity, or suffer fine and imprisonment for refusal to act the part of slave hounds at the bidding of the master.
The South had always practiced the inter-state slave trade, which was not a reserved right of the States. Children were taken from mothers and husbands from wives, like animals, and sold from each other forever! The decks of boats going down the Chesapeake, or Ohio and Mississippi, frequently contained chained gangs of human beings of both sexes and all ages-guilty of no crime-destined for the slave marts of the far South. The people of the North had a right to protest against this internal (and infernal) slave traffic, as a matter of inter-state commerce; but legislation thereon had never been attempted, under threats that the South would dissolve the Union.
12
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
ABOLITIONISM -AGITATION -" UNCLE TOM'S CABIN."
While Southern statesmen and divines were arguing the christianizing effects of slavery upon the African race, and complaining against its agitation, they seemed to forget that their own conduct of their system was largely the cause of such agitation by a few scattered "Abolitionists" in the North. The barbarism of slavery begot abolitionism. While a portion of the South was fostering the foreign slave trade which had been outlawed as piracy, the few abolitionists in the North, believing that slavery was not divine, but the "sum of all villainies," kept the "underground railroad" in operation, by which slaves were spirited away and on towards the free soil of Canada .* The abolitionists were a despised set, North and South, much like the anarchists of the present time. They believed that slavery should be abolished, but just exactly how this could be brought about they knew not, but ever wound up their arguments with the averment that the Almighty would in time devise some plan to such end. In 1852, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote " Uncle Tom's Cabin," which aroused the deep conscience of the North by mildly disclosing the enormities of slavery. Doubtless, no book, except the bible, was ever translated into so many languages about the globe, and having been dramatized is at this day the most popular play on the stage, in any land. It was a most powerful generator of anti-slavery sentiment, and began to make abolitionism respectable in the North. Yet, notwithstanding the growth of this feeling, the two great political parties of the country- Whig and Democratic-insisted as late as 1852, in their national platforms, that the constitutional provisions relating to slavery must be kept in honor. For two years slavery agitation seemed to cool off. Abolitionism and free-soilism seemed to have lost much of the force which "Uncle Tom's Cabin" gave them. Had the South rested its case where the compromises of 1850 had left it, and as endorsed by the great political parties of the land, the troublous times which followed would have been postponed, without doubt, for some indefinite time, if not generations.
* The Detroit was the "Jordan River" for these escaping slaves. For many years, the last station on this "underground railroad" was located about Pullen's Corners, Romulus Township, Wayne County. By night the fugitives were driven to the Detroit river and rowed across to their " Canaan shore."
13
THE SLAVEHOLDERS' REBELLION.
GRASPING POWER OF SLAVERY - REPEAL OF MISSOURI
COMPROMISE.
But slavery would not be satisfied. Every census showed a rapid advance in population in the North and West. Not so in the South, to which immigration, which usually follows isothermal lines, could not be diverted. Its political power was waning. It must have more territory out of which to form new slave States. So, in 1854, it demanded and secured the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, thereby opening up to slavery all the remaining territory of the Louisiana Purchase, including Kansas, Nebraska, North}: Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Idaho. The North became aroused at the grasping behest of the slave power, and a firm stand was made against any extension of slavery beyond the limits of the States in which it then existed. The Republican party came into existence at this time and embodied the principle of non-extension of slavery as its central idea. The Whig party went out of existence. The free-soilers and abolitionists generally voted with the new Republican party as being nearest to their views. The largest portion of the Democratic party in the South and North, with many old line Whigs, adhered to the Democratic party, whose central idea, as opposed to the Republicans, was, that the question of slavery, with other local issues, in the territories, should be left to a vote of the people therein. This doctrine was popularly called by its friends in those days, "squatter sovereignty." And thus the now two great parties of the country - Democratic and Republican,-so divided on the question of slavery, went into the presidential election of 1856.'
AGITATION-CANING OF SUMNER-JOHN BROWN RAID.
And thus were the floodgates of slavery agitation re-opened. The years from 1854 to 1860 were almost wholly, in congress and the public press, devoted to acrimonious disputes over questions involving slavery. In country stores, on the streets, at church, and everywhere, when two men met of opposite political faith, a raspish debate with hot words was sure to follow on the subject of slavery. Its adherents and opponents met in Kansas Territory and in fighting out the question of its being a free or a slave State, on the "squatter sovereignty " line, bloodshed resulted between the contestants from the North and South who met there. The presidential election of 1856 was the bitterest and most exciting that ever occurred in this country. James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, received the
I4
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
vote of all but the entire solid South, defeating John C. Fremont, the Republican candidate, who received the electoral vote of the solid North except four States. And thus party lines became distinctly sectional upon the slavery question, and the agitation went on
CHARLES SUMNER.
-- the South making new demands under threats of dissolving the Union in the event of the election of a Republican president, and the North passing personal liberty bills, under the reserved rights of the States, rendering difficult the execution of the odious fugitive slave law.
Within the space of three years, during this period, occurred two events which did more than all else to fire the hearts of the two sections,-yet, vulgarly speaking, they were mere side shows, but attracted more attention than the entire menagerie. One was an aggression against the North, and created more recruits for the Republican party than all other issues. The other was an aggression against the South, which did more than all else to advance the secession sentiment of the South.
(1). In 1856, Senator Butler, of South Carolina, delivered in the United States Senate a harsh speech against Senator Sumner, of Massachusetts. Soon after, the latter made an able but sarcastic
15
THE SLAVEHOLDERS' REBELLION.
speech in reply, quite as harshly arraigning his opponent in debate, which enraged the slave-state senators. A day or two later, while Senator Sumner was sitting alone at his desk writing letters, after the adjournment of the senate, Preston S. Brooks, a representative of South Carolina and a relative of Senator Butler, stealthily approached Mr. Sumner's seat with a heavy bludgeon, and without warning, caned him nearly to death, breaking this gutta-percha weapon over his head in his cowardly and murderous assault. Several Southern senators witnessed the affair from the cloak rooms, ready to come to Brooks' assistance if needed. This brutal act was applauded in the South, and caused great anti-slavery agitation in the North as a slavery blow at free speech in the senate. After several years' absence from his seat by reason of this outrage, Mr. Sumner returned to his seat in the senate, but eventually died of the effects of the caning. Both Brooks and Butler went to their graves within a year after the brutal assault.
-
JOHN BROWN.
(2). In 1859, the South became greatly inflamed over the insane act of a monomaniac. John Brown was a graduate of the pro-slavery troubles in Kansas. He had been driven from his home there, and
16
HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
two of his sons killed by pro-slavery mobs. On March 12, 1859, he arrived in Detroit with fourteen slaves from Missouri. That same night, Frederick Douglass, the colored orator, lectured in Detroit, after which, John Brown, Douglass, and several well-known colored people of Detroit met at 185 Congress street east, which seemed to be a preliminary meeting to plan the Harper's Ferry insurrection. The plans were perfected at Chatham, Canada, some time after. With twenty-one followers, John Brown attempted to put them in operation in September following, at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Seventeen of them, including their leader, were killed on the spot or hanged. This invasion by these few misguided men greatly inflamed the Southern heart, as indicating the attitude of the North towards them. John Brown's act was generally condemned in the North, and was not more insane than that of the South eighteen months later, when it fired upon the flag the shot that freed four million slaves.
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860.
The summer of 1860 disclosed the opening acts of secession in the Democratic National Convention at Charleston, South Carolina. The conspirators demanded advanced ground in behalf of slavery. Senator Pugh, of Ohio, evidently speaking for Stephen A. Douglas, the great Democratic leader of the North, plainly told them that the party had stood by the South until it was in the minority in nearly every Northern State, and it would never take advanced ground for slavery in defiance of the will of the people. Such language the South had never before heard in a national convention. The eyes of the Southern delegates snapped as if lightning had struck the building. They withdrew and nominated a slaveholders' ticket, thereby securing the success of the man whose election they declared would be a sufficient cause for dissolving the Union.
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