History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 20

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Michigan > Clinton County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 20
USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 20

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When spring had fairly opened, it began to be rumored that the troops occupying Bowling Green would soon be moved from there and enter active service. The men of the Twenty third Michigan did not regret this probability of a change, for although their experience there had been in some respects as pleasant as any which soldiers in time of war have a right to expect, yet they had been terribly reduced in numbers by sickness while there, and it was be- lieved that this evil would be aggravated by the coming of warm weather. Besides, they had grown tired of the mo- notonous duty which they were called on to perform here, and were, as soldiers almost always are, inclined to wish for a change. About the 20th of May orders were received to make all preparations for a movement, and to hold the com- wands in readiness for the march ; and on the 29th of the same month the regiment broke camp, and moved with its brigade on the road to Glasgow, Ky., which point was reached on the 30th, and here the Twenty-third remained until the 13th of June, when it was ordered in pursuit of a

HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

force of guerrillas, said to be at Randolph, about twelve miles distant. Almost as a matter of course nothing resulted from this expedition, and the regiment returned to Glasgow on the 16th, after a most severe and exhausting march. On the 22d it again moved, with Manson's brigade, to Scottsville; thence, on the 26th, to Tompkinsville; and, July 4th, back to Glasgow. Ilere, however, it made little stay, but marched ont (now in full pursuit of John Mor- gan) to Munfordsville, reaching there July 7th, then to Elizabethtown and Louisville by rail, reaching the latter city on the 11th. Morgan was now reported across the Ohio River, in Indiana. The Twenty-third, as part of the command of Gen. Judah, crossed to New Albany, Ind., but, making little stop there, proceeded to Jeffersonville, and thence up the river by steamer, passing. Madison, Ind., on the 12th, and reaching Cincinnati in the evening of the 13th ; its brigade being the first to reach that city. From Cincinnati the fleet (on which was the Twenty-third, with the other regiments under command of Gen. Judah) passed up the river to Maysville, Concord, and Portsmouth, Ohio, at which latter place they remained until July 20th, when they returned to Cincinnati, and disembarked the troops. From there the Twenty-third Regiment, under command of Lieut .- Col. Spaulding,-and unaccompanied by any other troops,-was transported by railroad to Chillicothe, and thence to Ilamden Junction, where it encamped for a few days. Within the camp-ground of the regiment at this place there remained a rude rostrum, from which, on a previous occasion, the notorious Vallandigham bad set forth his peculiar views to the population of Southern Ohio. But now the same rostrum was occupied by the chaplain of the Twenty-third, the Rev. J. S. Smart, who most eloquently " consecrated it to the cause of freedom, while the regiment made the welkin ring with shouts for liberty and the Union."

The pursuit of Morgan had now ceased, for the forces of that daring leader had already been driven from Ohio, ex- cept such as had been destroyed or captured. The regi- ment soon after this returned to Cincinnati, and after a short delay moved (under orders delivered by Gen. Burn- side in person to Col. Spaulding) across the Ohio to Cov- ington, and thence by rail to Paris, Ky., where Licut .- Col. Young, with two companies of the One Hundred and Eighteenth Ohio, was threatened by a superior force of Confederate cavalry, commanded by the rebel general Pegram. The Twenty-third reached Paris on the 29th of July, just at the close of a brisk fight, which had been brought on by an attempt on the part of Pegram to destroy an important railway-bridge at that point. The opportune arrival of the Twenty third prevented any further attempt by the enemy to burn the bridge, and doubtless also saved the force of Lieut .- Col. Young from a second attack and not improbable capture. The conduct of the regiment in this affair was most creditable to its commander, Lieut .- Col. Spaulding, and to all the officers and men under him.

The regiment remained at Paris until the 4th of August, when it moved, by way of Lexington and Louisville, to Lebanon, Ky., and theuce to New Market, where it arrived on the 8th of August, and was incorporated with the Second Brigade, Second Division, of the Twenty-third

Army Corps, then organizing at that point. In this or- ganization Col. Chapin commanded the brigade (composed of the Twenty-third Michigan, the One Hundred and Elev- enth Ohio, the One Hundred and Seventh Illinois, and the Thirteenth Kentucky), and the Twenty-third remained under command of Lient .- Col. Spaulding.

Marching orders were received on the 16th of August, and at two P.M. on the following day the regiment, with its division, moved out and took up the long and wearisome march for East Tennessee. The camp of that night was only seven miles out from New Market, on Owl Creek, where the command rested during all of the following day and night, but moved forward again at daybreak in the morning of the 19th, and camped that night on Green River. The march was resumed on the following morning, and two days later (August 221) the regiment forded the Cumberland River and began to ascend the foot-hills of the Cumberland Mountains. In the evening of the 25th it made its camp at Jamestown, the county-seat of Fentress Co., Tenn.

On the 30th the command reached Montgomery, Tenn., where were Gens. Burnside and Hartsuff, with the main body of the army, commanded by the former officer. In passing through this little settlement " an enthusiastic old lady harangued the corps upon the glory of its mission, alternately weeping and shouting, invoking the blessings of heaven upon the troops, and pouring out volleys of anathemas upon the enemies of the country."

On the Ist of September the men of the Twenty-third, having passed the gorges of the mountains, descended their southeastern slope to the valley of the Tennessee, and camped late at night on the right bank of the Clinch River, a trib- utary of the larger stream. Fording the Clinch in the forenoon of the 2d of September, the corps marched for- ward and passed through Kingston, a considerable town of East Tennessee, near which the waters of the Clinch join those of the Holston and form the Tennessee River. The camp of the Twenty-third was pitched for the night about two miles beyond Kingston. At five o'clock in the morning of the 3d the troops were in line ready for the march, and then, for eight long weary hours, the Twenty-third Michi- gan and its companion regiments of the brigade waited for the order to move. At nine o'clock in the forenoon the brigade was formed in square four lines deep, and while standing in that formation was addressed by its commander, Gen. White, who read a dispatch just received from Gen. Burnside, announcing the capture of Knoxville by the Union forces. Gen. White then congratulated his command, and called on Col. Chapin of the Twenty-third for a speech. The colonel responded in an address, which being brief and comprehensive is given here entire. Ile said, " Boys, the general calls on me to make a speech. You know that I am not much of a speaker, and all I have to say is, that you've done d-d well ! Keep on doing so !"

Long and loud acclamations greeted this vigorous ha- rangue ; then the brigade resumed its previous formation, and, after another tedious delay, moved out on the road to Loudon, which was reached carly in the afternoon of Fri- day, September 4th. The enemy had hastily evacuated all the strong works which they had built at this place, but

TWENTY-THIRD INFANTRY.

had succeeded in destroying the great and important rail- road-bridge across the river. Here the brigade remained for about ten days.

During the latter part of the march across the mountains supplies had become so much reduced that rations of corn, in the ear, were issued to some of the troops, and after their arrival at Loudon this situation of affairs was but little in- proved until Tuesday, the Sth of September, when the first railroad-train reached the town from Knoxville, and was hailed with wild delight by the weary and hungry soldiers. Before this, however, their necessities had been partially relieved by repairing and putting in running order a grist- mill which the enemy had dismantled before his evacnation. The advance of the wagon-trains also came up at about the same time that the railroad was opened for use.

At two o'clock in the morning of September 15th the men of the Twenty-third were roused from their slumbers to prepare for a march, and one hour later they were moving on the road to Knoxville, twenty-eight miles distant. This march was performed with all possible speed, and late in the afternoon the regiment bivouacked within a short distance of the capital of East Tennessee. The next morning it entered the city, but soon after proceeded by rail to Morristown, a distance of about forty miles. Only a short stay was made here, and on the 19th it returned to Knoxville, and went into camp at the railroad depot. The next day was the Sab- bath, and here, for the first time in months, the ears of the men were greeted by the sound of church-bells, and they passed the day in rest and quiet, little dreaming of the furi- ous battle that was then raging away to the southward, upon the field of Chickamauga, or of the rout and disaster to the Union arms which that day's sunset was to witness.

At four o'clock Monday morning the brigade took the road towards Loudon, and arrived there the same night. Here the regiment occupied a pleasant and elevated camp in a chestnut grove, and remained stationed at Loudon for about five weeks, engaged in picket duty and scouting, and during the latter part of the time frequently ordered into line of battle, and continually harassed by reports of the near approach of the enemy under Longstreet, who had been detached from the army of Bragg in Georgia, and was pressing northward with a heavy force towards Knoxville.

This advance of Longstreet decided Gen. Burnside to retire his forces from Loudon, and on the 28th of October the place was evacuated ; the Twenty-third Michigan being the last regiment to cross the pontoon-bridge, which was then immediately swung to the shore, and the boats loaded upon cars and sent to Knoxville. All this being aecom- plished, the army moved to Lenoir, Tenn., and camped be- yond the town, the line of encampment extending many miles. The same night the camp-fires of the enemy blazed upon the hills of Loudon, which the Union forces had just evacuated.

At the new camp on the Lenoir road the regiment re- mained until the 12th of November, when it moved with the army back to Huff's Ferry, where a heavy engagement ensucd, in which Col. Chapin's brigade (the Second of the Second Division, Twenty-third Army Corps) moved to the attack on the double-quick, and, after a severe fight against

overwhelming odds, drove the rebels back for more than three miles. The enemy's force (consisting of three of Longstreet's veteran regiments) took up an apparently im- pregnable position on a hill; but the Second Brigade (Chapin's) charged the works promptly, and with such effect that in less than fifteen minutes the hill was cleared and the enemy in disorderly retreat.

The next day after the battle the army retreated to Lenoir, the Second Brigade holding the most exposed po- sition in the column, that of rear-guard, to cover the re- treat. At Lenoir the camp equipage and transportation was destroyed, the teams turned over to the several bat- teries, and in the following morning the army continued its rapid march towards Knoxville. On the 16th the retreat- ing column was overtaken by the pursuing forces of Long- street at Campbell's Station, where a severe battle was fought, resulting in the repulse of the enemy and the re- tirement of the Union force in good order, but with a loss to the Twenty-third Regiment of thirty-one killed and wounded. The part which this regiment and its brigade took in the engagement was mentioned in the Journal of Louisville, Ky., by a correspondent writing from the field, as follows :

" One brigade of the Ninth Corps was in advance, the Sec- ond Brigade of the Twenty-third Corps in the centre, and one brigade of the Ninth Corps as rear-guard. The skirmish- ing was begun by the Ninth Corps forming in the rear of Gen. White's command, which formed in line to protect the stock, etc., as it passed to the rear, and to cover the retreat of the Ninth Corps, which was the rear-guard, and was to file past it. Again was the Second Brigade in posi- tion where it must receive the shock of battle, and must sustain more or less the honors already won. The arrange- ments for battle had hardly been completed before the cavalry came in from the front, followed by the infantry of the Ninth Corps, and two heavy lines of the enemy emerged from the woods three quarters of a mile in front. Each line consisted of a division, and the men were dressed al- most wholly in the United States uniform, which at first deceived us. Their first line advanced to within eight hundred yards of Gen. White's front before that officer gave the order to fire. Ilenshaw's and the Twenty-fourth Indiana Batteries then opened on them with shell, but they moved steadily forward, closing up as their lines would be broken by this terrible fire, until within three hundred and fifty yards of our main line, when the batteries men- tioned opened on them with canister, and four batteries in the rear and right and left of Gen. White opened on their rear line with shell. This was more than they could stand. Their front line broke and ran back some distance, where they reformed and deployed right and left, and engaged the Thirteenth Kentucky and Twenty-third Michigan on the right, and the One Hundred and Eleventh Ohio and the One Hundred and Seventh Illinois on the left, which were supported by Gen. Ferrero's command of the Ninth Corps. This unequal contest went on for an hour and a half. The only advantage over them so far was in artillery, they not having any in position yet. It seemed to be their object to erush the inferior force opposing them with their heavy force of infantry. The men were too stubborn ; they would

HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

not yield an inch, but frequently drove the rebels from their position and held their ground. Finding they could not move them with the force already employed, the rebels moved forward another line of infantry as heavy as either of the first two, and placed in position three batteries. Their guus were heavier and of longer range than those of the Second Brigade, and were posted so as to command Gen. White's position, while his guns could not answer their fire. They got the range of these guns at once, and killed and wounded several gunners and disabled several horses, when Gen. White ordered them back to the position occupied by those in the rear, the infantry holding the position covered by the artillery on the hill. An artillery fight then began, which continued nearly two hours till it was growing dark, and the order was given for our troops to fall back to re- sume the march to Knoxville."

The Twenty-third with its brigade arrived at Knoxville a little before daylight in the morning of the 17th, after a march of twenty-eight miles without rest or food, and having fought for five hours, losing thirty-one killed and wounded, and eight missing. Then followed the memor- able siege of the city, which continued until the 5th of December, when the enemy retreated. In the operations of this siege the regiment took active and creditable part, and on the withdrawal of the forces of Longstreet it joined in the pursuit, though no important results were secured. The enemy having passed beyond reach, the regiment camped at Blain's Cross-Roads, December 13th, and re- mained until the 25th, when it was moved to Strawberry Plains. From the commencement of the retreat to Knox- ville until its arrival at the Plains the situation and con- dition of the regiment had been deplorable, for many of its men had been without blankets, shoes, or overcoats, and in this condition (being almost entirely without tents) they had been compelled to sleep in unsheltered bivouac in the storms and cold of the inclement season, and at the same time to subsist on quarter rations of meal, eked out by suech meagre supplies as could be foraged from the country. The command remained at Strawberry Plains about four weeks, engaged upon the construction of fortifications, and on the 21st of January, 1864, marched to the vicinity of Knoxville, where it was employed in picket and outpost duty until the middle of February, having during that time three quite sharp affairs with the enemy's cavalry (January 14th, 22d, and 27th), in the last of which seven men were taken prisoners and one mortally wounded. From this time until the opening of the spring campaign it was chiefly engaged in scouting, picket, and outpost duty, iu which it was moved to several different points, among which were Strawberry Plains, New Market, Morristown, and Mossy Creek, at which last-named place it lay encamped on the 25th of April, 1864.

At this time orders were received for the troops in East Tennessee to move at once, to join the forces of Gen. Sherman in the forward movement which afterwards be- came known as the campaign of Atlanta. Under these orders the Twenty-third with its companion regiments left Mossy Creek on the 26th of April and marched to Charles- ton, Tenn., from which place it moved out on the 2d of May and took the road to Georgia. In this campaign the

regiment, under command of Col. Spaulding, was still a part of the Second Brigade (then under Gen. Hascall) of the Second (Judah's) Division of the Twenty-third Army Corps. Passing down the valley of the Tennessee, and thence up Chickamauga Creek, it reached the vicinity of Tunnel Hill on the 7th, and confronted the enemy at Rocky-Face Ridge, Ga., on the 8th of May, opening the fight on that day by advancing in skirmish-line, and taking possession of a commanding crest in front of the hostile works. In the advance from Rocky-Face the regiment with its brigade passed through Snake Creek Gap, arrived in front of Resaca on the 13th, and on the following day took a gallant part in the assault on the enemy's strong works at that place. The result of this attack was a repulse of the attacking column and severe loss to the Twenty-third Michigan. The commanding officer of the regiment (Col. Spaulding), in his report of this engage- ment, said : " The assaulting column was formed in three lines ; this regiment being in the second line, advancing over an open field, within easy rifle-shot of the enemy's position, under a terrible fire of musketry and artillery. The regiment in advance of the Twenty-third broke and was driven back, and the one in the rear followed then. We moved forward until we reached a deep creek which it was impossible to cross, and held our position until ordered back. In this advance the regiment lost sixty-two killed or wounded. Lieut. William C. Stewart was among the killed." All this severe loss (out of a total of not more than two hundred and fifty muskets which the regi- ment took into the fight) was sustained during only a few minutes of most desperate fighting.

Resaca was one of the most memorable among the many bloody battles in which the Twenty-third showed conspicu- ous gallantry. Gen. John Robertson, Adjutant-General of Michigan, says of it, " Although this reliable and model regiment acquitted itself with much celebrity in every en- counter with the enemy in which it was engaged, Campbell's Station, Resaca, Franklin, and Nashville will always be ree- ognized as prominent among its many hard-fought battles ; and the memories of those fields, on which so much patri- otism and daring courage were evinced, will last while a soldier of that noble regiment lives."

The enemy, though successful in repelling the assault on his works at Resaca, evacuated his position there and moved to the Etowah River, where his rear-guard was overtaken and slightly engaged by the Union pursuing force, of which the Twenty-third Michigan formed a part. From this point the regiment moved on to Dallas and took a position in front of the rebel works at that place, where it remained from the 27th of May until the 1st of June, and during this time was almost constantly engaged day and night in skirmish- ing with the advanced lines of the enemy. Again the rebel forces evacuated their strong position and moved south towards Atlanta, the Union troops pressing ou in close and constant pursuit, in which service the Twenty-third Regi- ment participated, and took part in the engagements at Lost Mountain, Ga., and Kenesaw Mountain, and at the crossing of the Chattahoochee River at Isham's Ford, on the 8th of July. It had been given out by the enemy that a most determined stand would be made on the line of this river,

TWENTY-THIRD INFANTRY.

and it was expected that the crossing at this place must be a bloody one. Gen. Schofield had decided to attempt the passage of the river at about four o'clock in the afternoon of the 8th, and his plan was carried out successfully, and, contrary to expectation, without loss. From an account of this erossing, found in Moore's " Rebellion Record," and written by an officer who was present, the following extraet is made :

" On the morning of the 8th the Twenty-third Corps broke camp at an early hour, and directed its march eastward, aiming to strike the river at Isham's Ford, eight miles above the railroad-bridge. Headquarters moved out in ad- vanee, and riding at a rapid pace with an old man, a resi- dent of the country, as a guide, we emerged suddenly from the thick forest out upon the brink of the river bluffs. . . . Moving a little farther down the bluff, a close reconnois- sance with the glasses discovered on top of the opposite hill, just in the edge of a newly-harvested wheat-field, a single twelve-pound brass howitzer with a few gunners walking about it, and close down to the river's edge half a dozen rebel sharpshooters squatted under a large tree, just opposite the ford. The river here is about four hundred feet wide, and from erest to erest of the hills on either side of the river, between which the cannon must play, was about a third of a mile. .. . Meantime, and until late in the afternoon, the troops were slowly getting into shape, and the lumbering pontoon-trains were coming up and park- ing on the hill, ready to go down into the valley when needed. A little before four, Gen. Schofield sent orders to Gen. Cox to have his skirmish line in readiness, and at that hour pass it rapidly across a few rods of eorn-field which lay between the hill and the river, and if they drew the rebel fire, to open with his cannon and silence it.

" As the hour approached, a small party of spectators posted themselves half-way down the hillside, a mile below the ford, and with glasses thrust out from behind convenient trees and fences, eagerly awaited the spectacle. The cap- tain of the rebel gun could be clearly seen on the distant hill, seeking comfort as best he could (it was the hottest day of the year), and reading a January number of the Chattanooga Rebel. The gun had been drawn baek to conceal it a little, and a sentinel sat on the brink of the hill to observe our movements and give notice to the gun- ners to bring forward the piece. The sharpshooters also could be seen, glaring intently out of their eover upon the opposite opening in the willows where the ford was ap- proached.

" Our skirmish line was composed of about two hundred men from several regiments ; and a volunteer detachment of two hundred men from the Twenty-third and Twenty- fifth Michigan, One Hundred and Eleventh Ohio, and other regiments, which had in their ranks many old Lake Erie sailors, were assigned to the use of the oars in the pontoons which were to carry over the first companies.

" At half-past four o'clock the little squad of skirmishers issued out of the woods which had concealed them perfectly, rushed rapidly across the corn-field, and when they came close in the rear of the willows they began pouring a sharp fire upon the rebel gun on the hill, and kept it up without cessation. The sentinel was seen to leap up hastily and 11

run to the rear, the gunners trundled out their gun in plain sight, and the sergeant stoops to sight it. But it is in vain, the bullets whistle so thick about his ears that, after dodg- ing a few moments from one side to the other, he gives up in despair, the lanyard is pulled, the shot plunges harmless in the middle of the river, and the rebel gunners all incon- tinently take to their heels and disappear in the woods. . . . Suddenly a pontoon-boat filled with blue-coats is seen near- ing the opposite shore, then another, and another. As the first boat touches land, Captain Daniels, whose eye is riveted to his glass, shouts, ' They hold up their hands ! they drop their guns ! they run down the bank !' The shells have cut off their retreat ; there is no other resource, and they come running down to the boats with uplifted hands in token of surrender.

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History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 20

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co.
Number of Pages: 716