USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 41
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The "Byron Guard" reported at the rendezvous eighty-six strong, November 5, 1861, being the second company in camp; the first was the "Saginaw Rangers," who arrived November I. The first commissioned offi- cers of the "Guard" were Henry S. Burnett, captain; Robert F. Gulick, first lieutenant ; Bradford Cook, second lieutenant.
The "Orion Union Guard" reported at Camp Thomas, November II, with the minimum number of men. The nucleus of this company was formed at Orion, Oakland county, by B. B. Redfield; it was afterwards moved to Goodrich, Genesee county, and consolidated with a company being raised at the latter place by Myron Bunnell, the consolidated company retaining the
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name which had been adopted by the Orion recruits. The company was mustered under the following commissioned officers: Myron Bunnell, cap- tain; Benjamin B. Redfield, first lieutenant; Alvah A. Collins, second lieu- tenant.
The "Genesee Rangers" joined the regiment at Camp Thomson, Novem- ber 30, only thirty-one strong, under Captain Barker, who had previously resigned his captaincy of a company which had been raised for the Seventh Infantry and afterwards transferred to the Eighth under Colonel Fenton. A part of a company which had been raised in Lapeer county by P. S. Titus and which had reported at the camp of the regiment November 20 was consolidated with the "Rangers"; the company received the designating letter I, under the following officers: Russell M. Barker, captain; Platt S. Titus, first lieutenant ; John Algoe, second lieutenant.
On Wednesday, February 5, 1862, the regiment was reviewed by Gover- nor Blair, at Camp Thomson; on that and the following day it was mustered into the United States service by Colonel Wright, U. S. A. The Tenth was now an organized regiment in the service of the government, under the following field-officers: Colonel, Charles M. Lum; lieutenant-colonel, Christopher J. Dickerson ; major, James J. Scarritt.
The ceremony of presentation of a national flag to the regiment was performed on Friday, the IIth of April. The event is mentioned in General Robertson's "Flags of Michigan" as follows: "The Hon. E. H. Thomson, in one of his eminent patriotic speeches, presented, on behalf of the citizens of Flint, a very elegant flag, made of the. best roll silk, on which was inscribed the name of the regiment, and the word 'Tuebor;' on a silver band on the staff the words, 'Presented to the Tenth Regiment, Michigan Infantry, by the Citizens of Flint.' A response in good spirit and taste by Col. C. M. Lum, commanding the regiment, with a prayer by the Rev. J. S. Boyden. Judge Avery, of Flint, and Professor Siddons followed with brief and appro- priate speeches. After the speeches Colonel Lum delivered the colors into the hands of the color-sergeants, who was said to be six feet seven inches in stature. On this occasion the men of the Tenth paraded in their new regu- lation uniforms, and were armed with 'Austrian rifles, just received,' which in their inexperience they then believed to be a reliable and effective weapon. While they stood in hollow square, Mrs. Fenton and other ladies of Flint distributed to each member of the regiment a copy of the New Testament."
The regiment, nine hundred and ninety-seven strong, took its departure from Camp Thomson on Tuesday, the 22nd of April, its first destination being St. Louis, Missouri. There was then no railroad from Flint to the
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line of the Detroit & Milwaukee road. The men were moved to Holly Sta- tion on wagons and other vehicles furnished by patriotic citizens of Genesee and Oakland counties. This first stage of their long journey was accom- plished in a snow-storm. This gave additional sadness to partings, many of which proved to be final. At Holly, after abundant feasting, the com- mand took the train for Detroit, and, marching through the city to the Michi- gan Central depot escorted by the "Lyon Guard" and Detroit "Light Guard," embarked on a train consisting of twenty-three passenger and five freight cars drawn by two locomotives; at a little before midnight they left for the West. Michigan City was reached at two o'clock p. m. on Wednesday, and at six p. m. on Thursday the regiment was at East St. Louis. On the following day it embarked on the steamer "Gladiator" and at four p. m. on Friday moved down the Mississippi. Cairo was reached, and during the short stop which was made there the most sensational rumors were circulated that desperate fighting was then in progress at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee, the known destination of the regiment; that the river at Paducah was filled with dead floating down from the battle-field above and many other stories of similar import. But the "Gladiator" moved on up the Ohio on Saturday afternoon, passed Fort Henry on Sunday, and on Monday night reached Pittsburg Landing. She was ordered to proceed four miles farther up the Tennessee to Hamburg, which was reached on Tuesday the 27th, just one week after the departure from Camp Thomson. Here the regiment was disembarked on the 28th, and on the 29th was assigned to duty in Col. James D. Morgan's brigade, Payne's division, left wing Army of Mississippi. On its first advent among the veterans of Shiloh the regiment received the usual attentions which old soldiers pay to fresh troops, such as allusions to the cleanness of uniforms and the size of knapsacks, with frequent applications of the epithets "paper-collar soldiers," "band-box regiment," and many similar compliments; but all this was given and received in good-humor. for all knew that a few days of marching would lighten the knapsacks and remedy the objectionable brightness of uniforms, and that after the first action all would be old soldiers together.
The first march of the regiment in the enemy's country was made on the 29th when it moved up about five miles and bivouacked for the night in the woods. On the Ist of May it again advanced towards Farmington, Mississippi, and remained in the vicinity of that village until the enemy's evacuation of Corinth May 30. During this time it was several times slightly engaged in skirmishing, but sustained no loss, except on the 26th
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when the adjutant, Lieut. Sylvester D. Cowles, was instantly killed by the bullet of a sharpshooter while on picket.
The entire summer of 1862 was passed by the regiment in marching. camping, picketing, and similar duties in the north part of the states of Mississippi and Alabama, but without any notable event, more than occa- sional skirmish, occurring in its experience. On the Ist of June it was at Rienzi, Mississippi, and from the 2nd to the IIth at Booneville and vicinity. About June 15 it encamped at Big Springs, six miles from Corinth, and remained there five weeks. At this place a Fourth of July celebration was held. The stay at this camp was regarded by all as among the most agree- able of all the regiment's sojourning during the war. On the 27th of July the headquarters of the regiment were at Camp Leighton, Tuscumbia, Ala- bama, but the several companies were posted at different places for a dis- tance of twenty miles along the Memphis and Charleston railroad engaged in guarding that line. Lieutenant-Colonel Dickerson, who was at Town Creek, Alabama, with a part of the regiment, evacuated that place in haste in the night of the 31st on account of the reported advance of a heavy force of the enemy. The camp was reoccupied the next day, as the enemy, if there had been any in the vicinity, had moved in another direction.
About the last of August it was announced that the command was to move to Nashville, Tennessee. On the Ist of September the several detach- ments of the regiment concentrated at the military ferry on the Tennessee river, and awaited orders to move; the orders were received on the fol- lowing day, and the command moved northward. The march occupied nine days, during which the regiment passed through Rogersville, Athens, Elkton, Pulaski, Lynnville, Columbia, Spring Hill, and Franklin, and in the evening of the IIth bivouacked two miles from Nashville. Here it remained on picket till the 15th, when it moved through the city and encamped in the southern suburbs.
The labor demanded of the regiment during its stay at Nashville was severe. It consisted of work on the extensive fortifications which had been laid out by General Negley, the commandant of the post, besides constant picketing and guarding of forage-parties which were continually sent out into the surrounding country ; this was the only means of subsisting the forces in Nashville, as all communication with the city by rail or river was destroyed. This state of affairs continued for about two months. Nashville was held by the divisions of Negley and Palmer, but out of communication with the outside world and surrounded on every side by troops of the enemy, princi- pally cavalry. The Army of the Cumberland, however, had defeated the
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army of Bragg at Perryville, Kentucky. It was marching southward from Bowling Green under General Rosecrans to the relief of the beleaguered force, and on the 6th of November his advance guard reached the river at Edgefield opposite Nashville. Railroad communication was now open to Mitchell, thirty-five miles north of Nashville. Soon after, it was opened to the city; this gave relief in the matter of rations to the troops who had been so long imprisoned there and lightened the forage and picket duty, but the labor on the defensive works of the town was still continued and a great amount of work was to be done in repairing roads and bridges for the advance of the army southward.
The Tenth did not move forward with the Army of the Cumberland on the 26th of December in the advance on Murfreesboro, but remained nearly seven months after that time at Nashville engaged in provost, grand guard and fatigue duty and in protecting communication between Nash- ville and Murfreesboro and other points. Upon one occasion (April 10, 1863) a detail of men from H and E companies, forty-four in number, under command of Lieut. Francis W. Vanderberg, were sent to guard a railway train to and from Murfreesboro, and on their return were attacked by a body of the enemy's cavalry in ambush at Antioch Station, three miles north of Lavergne, the train having been stopped for some cause when the attack was made. Lieutenant Vanderberg fell mortally wounded at the first or second fire and five of his men were killed, ten wounded and three taken prisoners, making a total loss of nineteen, or two-fifths of the force engaged. With the exception of the loss of its adjutant killed on picket in Mississippi, this was the first loss inflicted on the regiment in action by the enemy.
The men and officers of the Tenth had begun to regard Nashville as their permanent camping-place, and some of them had formed such strong attachments there that when, on the 19th of July, orders were received to move southward they were welcomed with very little of the enthusiasm which similar orders would have produced a few months earlier. But the regi- ment moved in the morning of the 20th, and reached Murfreesboro at noon of the 21st; here it remained on picket and guard duty till August 19th, when it again marched southward.
The history of the regiment during the four months next succeeding its departure from Murfreesboro is that of an almost continuous march through the states of Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. It passed south through Fosterville, Shelbyville, Farmington, Tennessee, and Lewisburg, to Columbia; remained there on provost duty from the 23rd to the 26th of
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August; moved on through there from August 29 to September 1 ; thence passed through Huntsville, Brownsville, on Flint river, Alabama, Larkinville, Scottsboro', and Bellefonte to Stevenson, Alabama, remaining at the last- named place on provost duty from the 7th to the 21st of September ; moved to Bridgeport, Alabama; remained there till October 1; moved at midnight, through dense darkness and fathomless mud on the road to Jasper, Tennes- see; passed that place and moved to Anderson's Cross-Roads; remained there picketing from the 3rd to the 18th of October; moved to Dallas, Tennessee, thirteen miles above Chattanooga, on the north side of the Ten- nessee river ; remained there three days within hearing of the cannonading between the hostile armies at Chattanooga; moved again October 24th, passed through Washington, Tennessee, and arrived on the 26th at Smith's Ferry over the Tennessee, fifty-five miles above Chattanooga. There the regiment remained for nearly four weeks, during which time the men had constructed comfortable quarters with fireplaces and other conveniences, believing this would be their camping place for the winter, which was then approaching. But on the 20th of November marching orders came, and on Saturday the 2Ist, the Tenth Michigan was again on the march. In the evening of the 22nd it was once more within hearing of the cannonade from the batteries on Lookout Mountain, and on the 23rd it reached Camp Caldwell on the right bank of the Tennessee, four miles above Chattanooga.
Crossing to the south side of the river on the 24th, the Tenth stood in line during the progress of the great conflict at Lookout and Missionary Ridge, but was not engaged in either of those battles. Soon after midnight, in the morning of the 26th, it moved up to Tennessee, crossed Chickamauga creek on a pontoon-bridge and marched up the right bank of that stream, where a part of the brigade met a small force of the retreating enemy and a skirmish ensued in which one man of the regiment was slightly wounded by a spent ball. The enemy's evacuated works at Chickamauga Station were occupied on the same day ; the Tenth was the first to enter the works. On the 27th the regiment entered Georgia for the first time, passing through Gray- ville and camping near Ringgold. On the 28th orders were received to march in pursuit of Longstreet, who was known to be in the vicinity of Knoxville. Under these orders the regiment marched with its brigade on the 29th and continued to move rapidly up the valley of the Tennessee until December 6th, when it had reached a point some fifteen miles above Loudon, where the intelligence was received that Longstreet had withdrawn from Knoxville and retreated into Virginia. Then the column was ordered to return to Chattanooga. The Tenth passed through Madisonville to Colum-
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bia, Tennessee, remaining at the latter place from the 9th to the 15th of December, during which time the bridge across the Hiawassee river was constructed by Company I, on the 18th it reached its old camp four miles above Chattanooga. Here it remained till the 26th, when it moved to near Rossville, Georgia, and prepared to go into winter-quarters after a marching campaign of more than four months' duration. The men had come in from the East Tennessee march worn out, famished and tattered, many of them having no shoes; they had been compelled to cut up their ragged blankets into wrappings for their feet. Certainly no men ever stood more in need of rest and recuperation.
At the Rossville camp the men built tight and comfortable log cabins, each containing a fireplace, and in these, when not out on picket duty, they spent the two remaining months of winter in a very agreeable manner. The Georgia climate was found to be quite different from that of Michigan; the month of February was quite as warm and pleasant as the northern April. On the 28th and 29th of January, the Tenth was out on a reconnoissance to Ringgold and the march proved quite oppressive on account of the heat.
Preparations were now made for mustering as veterans. Nearly all the companies had the requisite three-fourths of their number re-enlisted when, in the evening of February 3, the regiment was ordered out on picket to Chickamauga Station, eight miles away. It remained out till the 14th, when it was marched back to camp and the veteran muster was completed on the 16th, three hundred and eighty men signing the veteran enlistment for three years dating from February 6. The number of veterans was afterwards increased to over four hundred. When re-enlistment and muster was per- fected, the men waited impatiently for the veteran furlough (which some of them were destined never to receive). In the morning of February 23rd the regiment had orders to march immediately, with three days' rations and sixty rounds of ammunition. The men could hardly believe that they were again to march to the front before making the long-anticipated visit to their homes, but they fell in without much audible complaint and marched away on the road which was to lead them to their first battle-field. The regiment moved to within a mile of Ringgold and camped for the night. In the morning of the 24th it moved to a point between that town and Tunnel Hill, where the brigade joined the forces which had moved out from Chatta- nooga to make a reconnoissance in force of the enemy's position in the direc- tion of Dalton and Lafayette, Georgia. The enemy were flanked out of their works at Tunnel Hill, and retired towards Dalton. The Tenth, with
(25)
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other commands, followed in pursuit, and at about five o'clock p. m. arrived at Buzzard Roost-a rocky stronghold of the rebels, situated in a pass of the mountains known as Kenyon's Gap-three miles from Dayton. The works were in the rear of Rocky-Face Ridge and fully commanded the Gap. Some skirmishing was done in the afternoon and evening of the 24th and the regiment took position for the night between two spurs of Rocky-Face Ridge.
On the 25th the early part of the day was consumed in skirmishing; but about two o'clock p. m. the Tenth, with the Sixtieth Illinois, were ordered forward in line over the ridges to attack the enemy and carry his position. They moved forward gallantly into a very hot artillery and musketry fire from greatly superior numbers of the enemy; remaining under this terri- ble enfilading fire for about forty minutes, they did what men could do to carry the position, but were at last forced back by superior numbers. At the end of one hour and ten minutes the regiment reoccupied the position from which it had advanced to the charge. In this brief time it had lost forty-nine killed and wounded and seventeen missing, among the latter being Lieutenant-Colonel Dickerson, who was wounded and made prisoner by the enemy.
A characteristic account of the battle given by a rebel paper-the Atlanta Register of February 29, 1864-was as follows: "On Thursday, the 25th, the enemy commenced, about nine a. m., to skirmish with our pickets and sharpshooters. At one p. m. the Federal general, Morgan, advanced on our right centre to force the Gap. They were gallantly met by Reynolds' bri- gade, of Stevenson's division, Clayton's brigade, of Walker's division, and Stavall's brigade, of Stewart's division, when a lively fight took place. The enemy made three desperate assaults to take the Gap, and were repulsed each time with great slaughter, being enfiladed at the same time by our artillery. We captured some twenty prisoners, among them Lieutenant- Colonel C. J. Dickerson, of the Tenth Michigan, which regiment alone lost two hundred and fifty killed and wounded. That night the enemy fell back behind their intrenchments-some three or four miles from our front line- and a portion of their forces moved over to our left and succeeded in taking a gap leading to the Lafayette road, through Sugar Valley, three miles south of Dayton."
It will be noticed that while this account makes the loss of the Tenth more than five times what it really was in killed and wounded, it admits that the two regiments which formed the Union attacking column encountered a rebel force of three brigades in a strongly-fortified position. In fact, neither the Tenth nor the Sixtieth Illinois had all its strength present in
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the fight; only eight companies of each, making a total of about nine hun- dred men, were engaged.
On the 26th the regiment with its brigade was relieved. It marched to Ringgold, from which place it returned to camp at Rossville on the 27th, and about the 5th of March moved to Chattanooga en route for Michigan. It arrived at Detroit on the IIth. There the men received the veteran fur- lough, with orders to reassemble at its expiration at the rendezvous-the city of Flint. Upon reassembling they remained in Flint for some days. It was a visit which was long remembered by both soldiers and citizens. The veterans and recruits left Flint on the 20th of April and moved by way of Fentonville to Detroit, thence by way of Kalamazoo and Lafayette to Jeffer- sonville, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, and Nashville, arriving at the latter city April 24th. They left Nashville on the 27th, and marched to Chatta- nooga, where they arrived on the 11th of May, and on the 12th marched to their old winter-quarters at Rossville, which were found undisturbed and in good condition. On the 13th they marched in search of the brigade which had moved forward with the army May 2, and overtook it in the morning of the 16th, marching nineteen miles farther the same day with Gen. Jeff C. Davis's division, which was moving towards Rome. On the 17th the regiment took part in the fight at Oostanaula river, and in the cap- ture of Rome on the following day, both without loss. Then followed a series of marches and maneuvers by which the Tenth moved to Dallas, to Ackworth, Georgia, and to near Lost Mountain, and reached the base of Kenesaw Mountain on the 19th of June. On the 27th it formed part of the reserve of the charging column at Kenesaw. Its losses during June were fourteen killed and wounded.
The enemy having evacuated his works at Kenesaw, the Tenth took part in the pursuit, marching on the 3rd of July, and reaching the Chatta- hoochee river on the 17th. On the 19th it advanced to Durant's Mill, on Peachtree creek, and took part in the actions of that and the following day, losing twenty-three killed and wounded. Through the remainder of July and nearly all of August it lay in the lines of investment before Atlanta. August 30th it moved with a reconnoitering column to Jonesboro, and took part in the battle at that place on the Ist of September, charging across an open field on the enemy's works, and losing thirty killed and forty-seven wounded : among the former was the commanding officer of the regiment, Major Burnett. It was claimed for the Tenth that in this action it took more prisoners than the number of men which it carried into the fight. For
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its conduct on this occasion it was complimented by Generals Thomas, Davis and Morgan, the corps, division and brigade commanders.
On the 28th of September the Tenth left Atlanta and moved by rail to Chattanooga, Stevenson, Huntsville, Athens and Florence, Ala., tearing up the Memphis & Charleston railroad. For several days it was in pursuit of Wheeler's and Forrest's cavalry, but did not overtake them. On the 13th of October the regiment moved by rail back to Chattanooga, where it remained five days; on the 18th again took the road, moving to Lee and Gordon's Mills; Georgia, to Lafayette, to Summerville, up Duck creek, through Broomtown Valley, and Alpine, Georgia, across the mountains into Alabama, to Gaylesville (October 22nd), and then back to Rome, Georgia, where it was in camp November I. On the 9th it was at Etowah, Georgia, and on the 13th at Cartersville, where, at six o'clock a. m. on that day, it "bade good-by to the cracker line, and to all communications, and plunged into the Confederacy with four days' rations, marching south and tearing up the railroad as we moved." On the 13th it made fifteen miles, on the 14th twenty-five miles, and on the 15th fifteen miles, burning the bridge over the Chattahoochee, and reaching Atlanta at two o'clock in the afternoon of that day.
"As we approached Atlanta," wrote an officer of the Tenth, "a huge column of black smoke was seen, and soon we found the railroad depots and buildings with the foundries and manufactories, a burning mass." When night closed in the whole heavens were illuminated by the glare of the conflagration, and the innumerable camp-fires of the Union hosts which lay encircling the conquered city, busy with their final preparations for the storied "march to the sea."
The force composing the great army which Sherman had concentrated here for the mysterious expedition, whose destination was then only a matter of conjecture, were composed of four corps-the Seventeenth (a consolida- tion of the old Sixteenth and Seventeenth) and the Fifteenth forming his right wing, and the Fourteenth and Twentieth forming the left wing of his grand army of invasion. In that army the position of the Tenth Michigan was with the First Brigade, Second Division of the Fourteenth Corps. The other regiments of the brigade were the Fourteenth Michigan, the Sixteenth and Sixtieth Illinois, and the Seventeenth New York, all under Col. Robert F. Smith as brigade commander.
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