USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron brigade, known as the Detroit and Wayne county regiment > Part 37
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No loitering now. The ordinary march step is quickened and then this is doubled, till the "black-hatted fellows" are seen and heard from as they envelop and complacently invite to the rear a goodly portion of Archer's Brigade. This is the first success of the day. The few, swift minutes of fighting resulted however, not only in considerable Regimental loss, but they had been sufficient to deprive us of our Chief. Yet even then the messenger of death was merciful, for the bullet instantly did its fatal work. Verily, the "architect of the battle had fallen dead across its portal."
It is useless to speculate as to what would or would not have been done, July Ist, had Reynolds' life been spared. The odds against us were too great to have made it possible to do more than offer stubborn resistance to the enemy's attacks. No officer in the army would have fought the few troops then in hand with more tactical skill and judgment than Reynolds would have done and with less hazard and consequent loss.
He believed in his soldiers and they as thoroughly believed in him ; he knew that they could be depended on to fight and to fight well wherever he would lead them ; he considered Gettysburg a fitting battle ground and there he fought and there he fell. The First Corps owes much of its success to his forming hand and to his wise, keen brain and every member of it, reverences his memory with undying affection.
After Reynolds' death, there comes a brief lull in the combat. Thus far, the First Division of the First Corps and Buford's Cavalry have been the only Union troops engaged and the two remaining Divisions of the Corps did not arrive upon the field till II A. M. An half hour later, General Howard makes his presence known and assumes command. His Eleventh Corps does not appear till about I P. M. And now the conflict is renewed, with even more vigor and deadliness than before.
But who can depict all the happenings of this day? Who can venture to say that his description will prove satisfying to his comrades or even to himself? For
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after all, how small a portion of a battle-field, its topography or its incidents come within the actual knowledge of a line officer and shape themselves into tangible form before his eyes.
Recall, if you can, any engagement of the war and positively state, of your own knowledge, that you passed through some particular field (a wheat field, for instance) when you were ordered forward to charge the enemy's position. You did pass through the open ; so much you remember, but the nature of the field you never once considered. You took possession of a strip of woodland, as a bit of shelter from the skurrying shot, but the character of the fruit or forest trees did not impress itself upon your memory. Some hill or ridge was near; you occupied it as a natural vantage-ground for present or later conflict-but how it sloped or what were its surroundings, you had no time to note. You charged the enemy or were charged by them ; but just how you advanced or how you met the onset, you were too busy then to enter in your mental memorandum book.
Subsequently, some military or civilian report mentioned a wheat field, a peach orchard, an Oak Hill or a Seminary Ridge and thenceforth you adopted the names in your attempted description of the battle. But while the battle raged, your horizon range was limited. The lines of your Regiment or possibly of your Brigade covered all the field that your vision seemed able to compass and accurately note. And even then, in the excitement of the struggle, many little incidents occured in your immediate vicinity of which you were not cognizant.
Volumes have been written, with The Battle of Gettysburg as sole and only topic, but the whole story has not been told. Much of the planning and more of the doing has been omitted. The living may have given their version of what they did and of what they witnessed there-but, oh-if the dead lips could be unsealed, what truer and larger testimony might be spread upon the pages of history.
Then we should learn, in fullest measure, how the brave 9,000 First Corps men fought on open plain and on unfortified ridge and hillside, "with no other protection than the flannel blouses that covered their stout hearts ;" holding their own, for two long hours, against nearly twice their number and then were slowly and steadily forced back, contesting however every inch of backward move so bloodily that welcome night cried "Halt," before the victorious larger force concluded that they might have accomplished even more, had they but resolutely pressed on.
The great loss inflicted upon our opponents and the fear that still greater loss might ensue, if farther advance was made, begot a caution that proved the salvation of the few remaining Union heroes on that eventful afternoon.
Defeated, but not disheartened, the shadowy remnant of the Old First Corps gather on Cemetery Hill and darkness draws its sheltering curtain about them and grants them needed rest. Rest came indeed to weary limbs, but hearts were overborne with sorrow and sadness banished sleep. For, of the 9,000 that went into action that day, two-thirds were among the killed, wounded and missing and, of the missing, a very large proportion were either killed or wounded. And three-fourths of those who answered to the Twenty-fourth's Regimental roll-call in the morning at Marsh Creek were not present at nightfall.
Listen to the inscription cut so enduringly on yonder shaft :- " Went into action with 496 officers and men. Killed and mortally wounded 89. Otherwise wounded 218. Captured 56. Total casualties 363. Five color bearers killed and all the color guard killed or wounded." What a record of heroism. What a record of loss.
Colonel Fox, in his compilation of Regimental Losses in the Civil War, page 390 says-"The largest number of casualties in any regiment at Gettysburg occurred
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MICHIGAN DAY AT GETTYSBURG.
in the Twenty fourth Michigan. It was then in the Iron Brigade, Wadsworth's (Ist) Division, First Corps and fought in the battle of the first day, while in position in McPherson's Woods near Willoughby Run. It was obliged to fall back from this line, but did not yield the ground until three-fourths of its number had been struck down."
I would add that Colonel Fox insists that the number of killed and mortally wounded at Gettysburg was 94 and not 89, as given on the monumental tablet ; and he claims to have verified all his figures by a personal and thorough examination of State as well as Government Records. Whichever should eventually prove to be the correct number, this fact will always remain that the casulties that day were simply frightful ; the total of killed and mortally wounded being nineteen per cent, while that of killed, wounded and missing reached the staggering figures of eighty per cent. of the whole number engaged.
We do stand to-day upon ground which we helped to make historic. Within the scope of our vision occurred the greatest battle of the war. Greatest, not in the number of troops upon the battle-field, for, in the Seven Days' battle, Lee's Army of Virginia was about 100,000 strong, while at the Wilderness, General Grant had about 125,000 men. But greatest, in that here the loss of life exceeded that of any other field of combat and that here the Confederate Cause found its Waterloo and henceforward it became more and more a " Lost Cause."
We would not depreciate the valor of the Southern Soldiery, for that would make of but little worth the courage we ascribe to our own. They were "foemen, in every way, worthy of our steel;" boasting the same lineage and proud to be called Americans. When we fought them, we styled them traitors and we fought them to the death. To-day, we heap no harsh epithets upon them ; for the war is over and we know but One Country and all the inhabitants thereof are countrymen. And we claim that we shall be none the less loyal to the cause for which we fought, if now we show to all our former foes that we cherish "malice towards none" and only the largest "charity for all."
To friend and foe alike, this whole field is sacred. The baptism of fire and of blood is upon it. It was dedicated in smoke of cannon and rifle which rose like incense during three long Summer days and it needs no word nor stroke of pen to reiterate the consecration then given to it.
Yet, since that date, eloquent lips have inspiringly told the story of the mighty struggle that these hills and valleys witnessed. State after State has commemorated with shaft and column the deeds of their noble citizen soldiers and thus have marked for all time one of the localities where these brave men so grandly exhibited their loyalty.
As a Regiment and then, as individuals, we would tender to "Michigan, My Michigan " our grateful acknowledgments for the graceful and appropriate monument that crowns this knoll and we would heartily thank all who, by vote or voice, helped to place it here.
With the countless other ones that range along these slopes and ridges, this shall prove a marker that shall worthily show where the strong tide of battle ebbed and flowed. Thousands will visit this spot and, recalling the names of some who fought and of some who fell upon this field, will rejoice that the Peninsula State has here so handsomely remembered her gallant soldiers. These State days and these Regimental days that specially dedicate these Memorial Shafts in honor of the Union Soldier seem but a fitting sequel to that earlier service of consecration in November 1863, when our great War President uttered in yonder Cemetery the words that thrill us even now with their strange pathos :
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new Nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.
We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that Nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here ; but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us : that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom ; and that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth.
A quarter of a century ago these words were spoken and the task that weighed upon this noble heart had not been finished. With "these honored dead," of whom he so touchingly speaks, he dedicated and devoted his life to this unfinished work. His words come to us to-day with peculiar meaning and they commend themselves to our most earnest thought.
For perhaps we increasingly need to learn what patriotism really signifies and what a wealth of meaning is infolded in that lofty, loyal spirit which places love of country and devotion to that country's best interests far above and beyond all petty sectional feeling and party success. Gleaning then an object lesson on this patriotic field, our presence here shall be productive of unquestioned good.
It may be that I should apologize because I have made no personal mention of any member of the regiment and have avoided all allusions to any incidental happenings on the march or in the field. If, in this omission, I have disappointed any-I can now only express my sincere regret and humbly beg to be forgiven.
At Gettysburg, every one did full soldierly duty and filled the niche he was called upon to occupy. Officer and man, rank and file, all were in the places assigned them and all were equally brave and deserving of the highest praise.
We grasp the hand of the living and try to show them how glad we are that an over-ruling Providence protected them and spared their lives, not only through the terrible storm of shot and shell that fell about them on that first July day, but for so many years thereafter and has brought them safely onward to this present and has granted them the possession of so many earthly enjoyments.
We would pay fitting homage to the silent ones who peacefully sleep on yonder hill or in the quiet God's Acres in our own State and would garland their resting place with amaranthine flowers. Their memory we shall ever cherish as a priceless treasure. Many of the heads I see before me are tinged with gray ; the upright forms of long ago are bending over towards Mother Earth; the old time lope has given way to the slow and measured pace and the eyes are losing much of their pristine brightness.
These facts touch us solemnly as we reflect that this may be, for some of us, our last Reunion. Since we have met and have traversed these hills and valleys together, there has come to us a sense of sadness and disappointment. For we find not here all that we sought or hoped to see.
How changed is all the landscape. And, as with all the goodly things around us, so with us time has wrought most startling changes. Nature here has covered
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with her mantle of green or has hidden with great growths of shrub or forest the spots which we thought that we could easily recognize. And as we gaze about us, we stand amazed at the outlook; for the scars of conflict are all concealed, if not wholly blotted out.
Is it not, my friends, one of God's loving ways of teaching us that he is constantly seeking to overlay our heart-sorrows with greater and more lasting heart-joys ?
The battle here, with all the woe and pain and death it brought to many an individual soldier, resulted in a glorious fruitage. For the laurel of Victory was the precursor of the olive branch of Peace. An entire Nation, united and prosperous, now rejoices in the blessings that were made possible, in God's good time, by the bloody field of Gettysburg.
CHAPTER XXII.
CONFEDERATE PRISONS.
G LADLY would we forego the recital of the revolting details of this chapter. To do so would be an untruthful abridgement of history. Thirty-nine soldiers of the Twenty-fourth Michigan died of starvation, and disease resulting therefrom, in Confederate prisons, and nine more of the Regiment died while coming home, after their release from those prison pens, not to mention the untimely graves and shattered healths of 85 others of this one regiment who were confined in them. Confederate prisons form the darkest chapter in the blood-stained annals of this nation, and conclusively prove that a people of a section guilty of such barbarities to those within their power were totally unworthy of, and unfit for, separate nationality.
Savages of the forest and cannibals of the sea isles never exhibited greater cruelties to captives than the Confederates did to their prisoners of war. From public records on both sides, from personal narratives of our regimental comrades still living in this city, and from a visit of the author to Andersonville in 1869, has he been able to collate the awful facts of this chapter. We offer no apology for this narration. The pen must convey thoughts which the tongue will hesitate to utter. By-gones may be by-gones with sentimentalists whose feelings go out to the authors, but never to the victims of crime. But we can never forget and will never forgive those in the South guilty of the barbarisms practiced upon our unfortunate comrades whom the chances of war placed under their control. As martyr fires emblazon the deeds of fanaticism and bigotry, and burnings at the stake lighten up the forest darkness among savages, so the records of Southern prison pens disclose the enormities of slavery's influence, which read like pages from the history of hell!
The captive insurgents were well fed, comfortably housed, and as generously treated as if they had been hospital patients of the Union army. Not one of them ever died of starvation ; not one ever suffered
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CONFEDERATE PRISONS.
UNION PRISON FOR CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS, AT ELMIRA, N. Y. - FROM A_WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPH.
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
for want of food, clothing or medical attention. Whatever mortality prevailed among them was from natural causes, greatly from small-pox, the result of their own failure to vaccinate. Not so in the South with the Union captives, where they had, for the most part, no shelter from storms, cold or sun heat other than dug-outs in the ground, with but inadequate and the foulest food and water; and this, too, in sight of standing forests, the purest water, and an abundance of food, which were denied them.
The scope of our work forbids a full treatment of this subject and descriptions of those infernal prisons. Libby prison was a large warehouse in Richmond, owned by Mr. Libby, a Unionist, whose property was seized for prison uses. It was three stories high, besides a basement. It contained six rooms, 40 by 100 feet each, in which were confined 1,500 Union officers and men, with no conveniences to cook, eat, wash their clothes, and bath, or even sleep except upon the bare floor. There was no fire, and the windows being broken, the cold wind blew through the building. Under penalty of being shot by the guard, no one was allowed to go within three feet of the windows. The brutal guards were given a furlough for each Union prisoner thus killed.
Yet the prisoners in Libby fared better than those on Belle Isle, as they were under a roof. Those on the island were without shelter for the most part. This island consisted of about eight acres in the James River, in front of Richmond. A portion of it was a beautiful, grassy bluff, shaded with trees. About five acres were low, treeless, and sand-barren, where the prisoners were confined and never allowed to seek the shelter of the grove a few rods off. Here 11,000 Union prisoners were held, with shelter for a few only.
When the Union captives were taken they were searched and stripped of all valuables, blankets, overcoats and often even their shoes. In winter the prisoners had to bundle together like hogs to keep warm. In sleeping on the ground they took turns who should be the outside men, and in the severe wintry mornings this row was marked by stiffened forms, frozen to death, within sight of the Confederate capitol and the residence of Jefferson Davis !
The Union prisoners were slowly starved by a diminution of food, and thus cold and hunger were like two vultures gnawing at their vitals. While women of the North were permitted to visit the Confederate captives and alleviate their sick and wounded in prison and in hospital, we have yet to learn that a single Southern woman ever visited a Confederate prison where Union soldiers were confined,
CONFEDERATE PRISONS.
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CONFEDERATE PRISON FOR UNION SOLDIERS, AT MILLEN, GEORGIA .- FROM A WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPH.
-
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HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MICHIGAN.
except once, when the wife of the Confederate Secretary of War visited Libby and declared if she could have her way she would hang them all ! This she-devil feeling, we are glad to note, was not shared by all the women of the South. For, in its later periods, as the Union prisoners were taken from place to place to evade recapture, some of the Southern people were horrified at their awful appearance, and moved to commiseration. The Confederate authorities refused to allow alleviation to be extended to the Union prisoners.
The cruelties practiced in Libby and at Belle Isle were not so revolting as those in more southern pens. As the war was prolonged and Union prisoners accumulated, and the chances of recapture about Richmond became greater, more Southern dens were constructed, and the accumulations in Libby and Belle Isle were forwarded thence. The number of Union prisoners about Richmond became greater when, late in 1862, the exchange of prisoners was stopped by Jefferson Davis, who refused to recognize the captured colored soldiers as prisoners of war. Our Government could do no less than protect these allies of the Northern white soldiery, and so the exchange ceased. It was revived later, but the South would only send forward for exchange the emaciated forms of dying captives and such as were unfit for field duty again, purposely starved that they might be thus useless, while the Southern soldiers exchanged left the Northern prisons in full health, and at once re-entered the Southern army.
Below is the diary of Henry H. Ladd, of the Twenty-fourth Michigan, still living in Detroit, who was captured on the Weldon Road. It is a sample of such wonderful records that have survived those awful prison months.
DIARY OF HENRY H. LADD.
Friday, Aug. 19, 1864 .- I am a prisoner ; marched to Petersburg, and lodged in gaol. 20th .- Start for Richmond. Escorted to a tobacco warehouse near Libby Prison.
Sunday, Aug. 21 .- Feel rather rough after sleeping on the hard floor with wet clothes on. Move into Libby Prison. All are searched for the third time. March to Belle Isle. 22d .- Slept on the ground without a rag under or over me. No tents on the island. Had one meal to-day, half a cup of bean soup and corn bread. Rained all the afternoon and night. No tents nor blankets. 23d .- A cool morning. Spend my time reading my testament. Had two meals. Lay on ground. 24th .- A hot day. Don't feel well. 25th .- Up and ready for my corn-dodger. Wish I was home to have a good meal. There are 4,500 prisoners on about two and one-half acres here. Bought a loaf of bread for $1.50. 26th,-Lay on the wet ground. Paid twelve shillings for a piece of bread for breakfast. Got no rations till night. Shall attend
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CONFEDERATE PRISONS.
prayer-meeting to-night. 27th .- Rained last night. No breakfast. One of our boys was shot last night by the guard. Bought two loaves of bread for two dollars.
Sunday, Aug. 28 .- Dreamed of home last night. How I wish it was so. I would attend church in old Dearborn. Had a cup of bean soup and a one-quarter pound corn-dodger to-day. 29th .- Rained last night. Cool this morning. Have all been counted. Two thousand more prisoners arrived to-day. 30th .- Had a cup of coffee made from grounds. Buy three small biscuits for a dollar. Wish I could hear from home. 31st .- Cold last night. Bought three loaves of bread for two dollars. Sept. Ist .- Our Government refuses to parole us. The men think it hard. 3d .- Did not sleep half an hour all night.
Sunday, Sept. 4 .- Rained last night. All were counted to day. No grub. Paid fifty-cents for some bread. Have spent my last shilling. Sold my wallet for three loves of bread. Had prayer meeting to-night. 5th .- Heard good news by the rebel papers that Atlanta is ours. Have a loaf left for breakfast. Rained in the night. 6th .- All counted again. Sold my canteen for two loaves of bread. Rained again at night. 7th .- No grub. If I was on the Island of Juan Fernandez, I could have something to eat, but alas, Belle Isle is barren. 8th .- Nearly froze last night. Am hungry but nothing to eat. 9th .- Sold my knife for six loaves of bread. 10th .- The day closes with a row and calls for tents.
Sunday, Sept. II .- Got half a loaf for this day's ration. Have an old bag for a bed. 12th .- Did not sleep any last night on account of cold. Nothing to eat. Not well enough to go to prayer meeting. 13th .- Sold my haversack for two loaves and ate them for breakfast. Had a good prayer meeting with a large attendance. 14th .- Dreamed of home. Hear heavy cannonading. All called out. 15th .- Sick with fever. Sold my ring for a loaf of bread. 16th .- Fever all night. Wrote home. 17th .- Ration of bread for breakfast.
Sunday, Sept. 18 .- Headache and fever all night. 22d .- Rained through the night. Have a bad cold. 23d-A wet day. 24th .- Have a tip-top appetite but nothing to eat.
Sunday, Sept. 25 .- How hard to be a prisoner. Wish I was home to dinner. 26th .- Slept cold last night. Out to be counted to-day. 27th .- Nothing to eat till noon. Hear of Early's defeat in the Valley. 29th .- Two of our boys retaken who attempted to escape. Did not get any grub till 3 o'clock ; nearly famished. 30th .- Over 650 prisoners came from Libby. Oct. Ist .- Nothing to eat till noon. Very hungry and cold. Rained all day.
Sunday, Oct. 2 .- Slept hard last night ; head aches. Am getting thin and poor. Another man shot by the guard last night. 3d .- Some tents came to-day. 4th .- This is a hard life to live and starve, but hope for better days. 1,000 men went south to North Carolina to-day from Belle Island. 5th .- About 950 men left for Southern prisons to-day. 6th .- Left Belle Island to-day and reached Danville at 5 P. M. Sixty men in one cattle car. Such a crowd and such a time! Sell my ink bottle for bread. Good-bye Belle Isle, may I never see it again. Have ate all my bread. Still hungry. 7th. - No rations. Sell my eye-glass for two apples. 8th .- Slept in the open field. Arrived at Salisbury, North Carolina. No rations. Staid all night out in an open field. Have not slept for four nights.
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