USA > Michigan > Record of service of Michigan volunteers in the Civil War, 1861-1865, v. 22 > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21
Fort Whittaker. Opposite Lookout Mountain, Near Chattanooga, Oct. 12, 1863.
Sir: Having had the honor of commanding the Twenty-second Michi- gan, Colonel Le Favour, in my brigade, in the battle of Chickamauga, and being personally observant of their undaunted heroism. let me urge you for the good of the service, and as a reward to a chivalrous officer, to use your influence for the promotion of Colonel Le Favour.
Respectfully yours, etc .. W. C. WHITAKER, Brigadier General Fourth Army Corps. The following is from General Whitaker's report:
"The Twenty-second Michigan, after fighting for nearly three hours, having exhausted their ammunition, boldly charged into the midst of over- whelming numbers with the bayonet, driving them until overcome by superior numbers."
But for a heavy detail of the regiment acting as a train guard, under command of First Lieutenant Woodman, and Company B under command of First Lieutenant Bassett, acting as guard to. General Gordon Granger's headquarters, which were not in the battle, there would have been but iew left to go into camp at Rossville on the night of September 20th. The next morning, what was left of the regiment marched back to Chattanooga, crossed the Tennessee River and went into camp on Moccasin Point. On September 23rd, at his own request, Major Henry S, Dean was relieved from duty as Inspector General on the staff of General R. S. Granger, at Nash- ville, also as a member of a commission detailed for the trial of cotton speculators, and reported to General Thomas at Chattanooga, who ordered him to take command of the regiment, which he did September 26. 1863. On September 27th, there were 187 officers and men present for duty: within a few days, this number was increased to 300 by General Thomas' order. directing all detailed men to be returned to the regiment. From September 25th to October 8th, the regiment was engaged in building fortifications on Moccasin Point. On the latter date the enemy opened a heavy fire upon the regiment's position from his batteries at the base of Lookout Mountain, which the Tenth Indiana Battery returned with such vigor that during the night he moved his batteries higher up on the mountains. The next morn- ing. the enemies' artillery practice commenced from Point Lookout upon the camp of the Twenty-second, and the battery it was supporting. For six weeks there was hardly an hour of the day or the night that the enemies' shells did not screetch over or into the camp. There were many narrow escapes, some dodging of heads, and sudden reclinings at full length. but what seemed almost miraculous, no one was hurt; this condition continued until the charge of the Union lines up Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge drove the enemy from his guns. From September 27th to November 25th the regiment knew what it was to be hungry - three-fourths of one day's
II
TWENTY-SECOND INFANTRY
rations of hard-tack, bacon and coffee, was issued to each man, and nothing more to eat could be had for four days .. The army was literally starving - when the men went ont on picket duty, the Confederate pickets would call out, "Well. Yank, how do you like Vixburgh?" The regiment was hungry, ragged and bare-footed, but its Michigan grit failed not. On one occasion, but one-half of the usual short ration was issued. Late in the evening of the second day thereafter, an order was received from Brigade Headquarters announcing that there would be no more rations issued for two days. In the darkness of night, the regiment was formed in line to have this order announced to it. After the order had been read, the commanding officer said to the men: "On the march, on the battlefield and in fatigue duty, you have proven yourselves true soldiers; two days from now it will be known whether you are good soldiers when hungry and without rations. With such a state of facts staring them in the face, Michigan will be proud of men who could send up a cheer, as did those men on that dark and dreary night. On the night of October 27th, the regiment was ordered to sleep upon its arms; at I o'clock a. m. the roar of artillery and rattle of musketry gave notice that the enemy had discovered the Union forces, crossing the Tennessee River at Brown's Ferry. At 4 o'clock a. m. the regiment, with the brigade to which it was attached, moved to the assistance of General Hooker, who was fighting to open the 'Hard Yack" line, as the men named it. At daylight, the regiment crossed the pontoon bridge which had been successfully laid at Brown's Ferry. As the column moved down the valley, the enemy opened fire on it from his batteries planted on the base of Look- out Mountain, wounding several men, killing two horses and smashing one wheel of a battery moving next in front of the regiment. The brigade of which the Twenty-second formed the right of the line, was ordered to relieve some troops just over from the Potomac who had exhausted their ammunition, and were lying down in line of battle. The brigade was ordered to charge the enemy, who were posted on a ridge behind rifle pits. As the line marched over, the troops it was ordered to relieve made remarks more pointed than complimentary about the clothing of the Twenty-second Michigan. One of the Michigan men cried out. "You may wear better clothes than we do, but you can't do any better fighting, and we will prove it in five minutes." The line charged up the hill, but before it reached the crest, the enemy got out of their rifle pits and ran down the other side of the hill, an action that created a suspicion that it was a trick. Word was passed hastily along the Union line, that as soon as it reached the erest it was to halt and lie down, which it did, and none too soon. The enemy had run down into a deep ravine and laid down, and then opened with grape and canister from four guns posted on a ridge about twenty-five or thirty rods beyond, firing over their own troops; they kept this up for eight or ten minutes, when they ceased firing, and their infantry charged our line, evidently thinking that their artillery fire had cut the Union line all to pieces, but they discovered their mistake as they went back in great con- fusion, and while the rattle of grape and canister was terrific, it all struck in the bank in front or went over the regiment lying down just back of the crest of the hill, and no one was hurt. Not so, however, with the troops in the rear which had been relieved. The enemy's shot that went over the hill plunged into their ranks, killing and wounding quite a number. After their repulse the enemy began to reform in a piece of timber to the right and front of the Twenty-second. Just at that time, General Whitaker came onto the line. and seeing what the enemy were doing, hurried forward a bat-
12
MICHIGAN VOLUNTEERS, 1861-1865
tery to the right of the Twenty-second which opened a vigorous fire upon the enemy, forcing him to retreat. This battle and the possession of Brown's Ferry gave to the Union forces in Chattanooga the short line of communication to Bridgeport, Ala. The next morning the Twenty-second marched back to its camp on Moccasin Point. On its return, it marched through a corn field which had not been disturbed by the ravages of war, where it halted until every man could shell corn enough to fill his haversack. which was the first time they had had full haversacks for more than a month. October 29th the regiment was assigned to the Engineer Brigade, commanded by General William F. Smith, Chief Engineer of the Army of the Cumberland. From this date until November 21st, it was engaged in building roads from Brown's Ferry to Chattanooga. On the 21st of Novem- ber it was assigned to the duty of moving a pontoon train of 125 wagons from Chattanooga to a point four miles above that place, to where General Sherman was to cross the Tennessee River to take part in the battie of Mission Ridge. The route over which this train was to be moved was in plain sight of the enemy on Lookout Mountain. Major Dean, who was in command of the regiment, was told by General Thomas that the enemy must not get an inkling of this movement, that if he failed to conceal it, one important part of the contemplated movement would fail, and directed Major Dean, accompanied by Captain West, General Smith's Adjutant General, to make himself perfectly familiar with the entire country over which the train and troops were to move to reach the position selected. The night of November 21st, 1863, was dark and stormy. At 9 o'clock p. in. a train of 125 heavy pontoon wagons and boats were sent across the river from under the shadows of Cameron, where they had been kept out of sight of the enemy, to the north side of the Tennessee River, and delivered to the Twenty-second Michigan. The most profound secrecy was enjoined; the mules that were to move this train were so reduced by starvation that some of them could scarcely stand alone. The roads were mud, axletree deep. Before starting, the regiment was told that upon its exertions for the next forty hours depended in a great measure the success of the movement about to be made against the enemy: that if weak mules could not move the wagons, men must; if wheels were broken they must be replaced at once. The missing wheels from General Palmer's ammunition train which was parked in the brush near the road on which the pontoon train was moving gave proof that the order to repair breakage was promptly obeyed. When wagons were capsized they were quickly righted by the strong arms of brave men; when mules and wagons were mired, men knee deep in mud pushed or pulled them out. The task was not completed when day began to break on the morning of November 22nd. Wagons and boats were quickly concealed in thickets, behind hills or by piling brush over them. The men, tired, wel. hungry and without rations, laid down in the underbrush to await the dark- ness of another night. The next night, Nov. 23rd, the same experience was repeated, and the pontoon train placed in its position. Some idea of the skill and secrecy with which the movements preceding the battle of Mission Ridge were conducted may be had from the fact that the men of the Twenty-second had not the least knowledge that General Sherman, with 15.000 troops, lay concealed just over the hill, forty rods to their left; nor did the enemy get an inkling of what was going on, until one of General Sher- man's Captains with a squad of Union soldiers made the grand rounds of his picket line, on the south side of the river.
At 1 o'clock a. m., November 25th, the regiment was under arms, every
13
TWENTY-SECOND INFANTRY
-
man carrying forty rounds in his cartridge box and as many more tucked into his blouse, ready to take part in meeting any resistance the enemy might make to laying the bridge. But the movement had been conducted with such secrecy that the enemy's pickets did not discover the first landing party until they did so as prisoners. As soon as the crossing of General Sherman was effected, the regiment was ordered to take the pontoon train back to Chattanooga and assist in throwing a bridge across the Tennessee River at that point. As the last boat in this bridge was placed in position, that magnificent line of battle, five miles in length, charged up Mission Ridge, sending back a goodly number of Bragg's army to cross that bridge as prisoners of war. November 28th the regiment left its camp on Moccasin Point, crossed to the south side of the river, and went into camp one mile below Chattanooga, at the junction of Chattanooga Creek and the Tennes- see River. From this date until December 16th, by special order from Gen- eral George H. Thomas, the regiment was engaged in repairing railroad bridges. January 16, 1864. cars began to run from Bridgeport to Chatta- nooga, and the long season of short rations ended.
Through the efforts of a recruiting party sent home to Michigan under the command of Captain Atkinson and Lieutenant Breidenbach, the regi- ment was filled to something near its full quota during the months of March and April, 1864. From December 17, 1863, to May 1, 1864, the regiment was engaged in building railroad bridges, storehouses, magazines, saw-mills, and furnishing guards for steamboats. It was a common saying " that if any- thing was to be built, from a watch to a saw-mill, a Michigan regiment - could build it." and the Twenty-second Michigan was not an exception to the rule - it never was idle, and none accomplished more when they worked than did the men of the Twenty-second Michigan. On May 1. 1864, the regiment was ordered onto Lookout Mountain. where it remained until May 26th, when it received orders "to report to Major General George H. Thomas in the field." It proceeded from Chattanooga to Kingston, Ga., by rail; from there it marched out three and one-half miles on the Cassville road, and camped at sunset May 28th. Just as it had rolled itself in its blankets, a dispatch was received from the Post Commander at Kingston that the regiment was on the wrong road and in imminent danger of being attacked, and advising an immediate return to Kingston. After a brief con- sultation among the officers, it was decided to post a strong picket, and sleep or fight in that place: there was some good sleeping, but no fight. May 20th it marched, changing its direction, crossing the Etowa River nine miles from Kingston, passing through the beautiful town of Euharlie, and at 5 p. m. camped on Altoona Creek. May 30th it crossed the Altoona Moun- tains and camped that night on a creek four miles from Dallas. Ga. May 3Ist it marched two miles to the right ot Dallas and reported to General Thomas. He ordered the regiment to report to General Howard. who directed it to go into line and support a battery on its right. The enemy made three attempts to break the Union lines, but were repulsed with great slaughter, and a considerable number of them captured in a counter charge Here the recruits of the regiment heard the whistle of bullets for the first time. On June 1, 1864. the regiment was assigned to the Reserve Brigade, Department of the Cumberland. to report direct to Major General George H. Thomas. Colonel Heber Le Favour having been exchanged and just re- turned to the regiment, was assigned to the command of the brigade. The regiment remained in this brigade from the date of its organization until the close of the Atlanta campaign. During that time there was almost con-
14
MICHIGAN VOLUNTEERS, 1861-1865
tinuous battle: the days on which there was no fighting were the exception. The Twenty-second Michigan participated in the following movements and battles in the Atlanta campaign :
Kenesaw Mountain, June 9th; Big Shanty, June roth: Golgotha Church, June 15th; Pine Moumain. June 16th: Culp's House, June 22nd: Kenesaw Mountain, June 27th; Nickajack Creek, July 2nd to 4th: Vining's Station, July 5th; Chattahoochie River, July 6th to 10th.
July 17th, as the regiment was about to cross the Chattahoochie River on a pontoon bridge, with the rest of the column, Lieutenant Colonel Dean received an order from General Thomas directing him to halt his regiment and build a double-track bridge of sufficient strength for the passage of heavy artillery, stating that material for the bridge would be found growing on the banks of the river, and that necessary tools would be sent to him. The regiment built this bridge, 280 feet long, at an elevation of ten feet above the water in sixty hours. When its completion was reported to Gen- eral Thomas he ordered the regiment to remain at the bridge until the rear of the army had crossed, and then to cut connections and let the bridge go down stream. The regiment participated in the battles of Peach Tree Creek July 20th and Atlanta July 22nd. In the latter it was under a heavy artillery fire from the enemy's works in front of Atlanta, from under which General Thomas ordered it to fall back. It remained in front of Atlanta, participating in the siege until 4 o'clock a. m., August 25th, when with the rest of the army it made the flank movement to the south of that place. The men carried four days' rations in haversacks and ten more by wagon. On the morning of Angust 29th, it reached Red Oak, a small station, on the Montgomery Railroad, and at once proceeded to destroy the road. In a few hours it tore up miles of the track, piling the rails on burning heaps of ties and fence rails, thus.heating them red hot in the center and then taking them by each end and bending them around trees and telegraph poles. thus ren- dering them useless and breaking another line of the enemy's communica- tion with Atlanta. August 3Ist the regiment camped at Renfros, near Jones- boro ;. September Ist it was moved into fine and stood under arms all day. At the opening of the fight it was under fire and there it stood all day, as reserves, in readiness to move at a moment's notice to take part in the battle of Jonesborough, which was won that day by the Union forces. There is nothing more trying to a soldier than this anxious waiting for orders dur- ing the progress of a great battle, not knowing at what moment the order may come to go in, and knowing to, as do reserves, that it will not come unless their comrades meet with a repulse.
September 3rd the regiment began retracing its steps to Atlanta. On the morning of September 8. 1864. the brigade of which the regiment was a part, marched into the city of Atlanta with light hearts, colors flying and bands playing. The prize fought for inch by inch, for four months, won at last. On October 14th, while the teamsters were outside the picket line at Atlanta, grazing the regimental animals a squad of Confederate cavalry dashed down upon them, capturing six men, five horses and twenty-nine mules. One of the men who made his escape reported that " all the mules are captured but me." A detachment was immediately sent in pursuit but the enemy made good his escape with prisoners and plunder. October 31st the regiment left Atlanta for Chattanooga as part of the escort and guard to the Books and Papers of the Department of the Cumberland, arriving at Chatanooga November 6th, having made the march of 140 miles in six and one-half days. over road, which were horrible and through a rain storm.
15
TWENTY-SECOND INFANTRY
November 8th was election day and the Twenty-second cast its vote for President. The regiment remained on duty as provost guards at Chatta- nooga from November 6. 1864. until June 21. 1865. During November and December the regiments, by permission of General Thomas, ent, rafted and sawed the luunber to erect twenty-five buildings of sufficient capacity to quarter 1,000 men and officers, for their own use. On April 1, 1865, the regiment was assigned to the Third Brigade. Separate Division, District of the Etowah. Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Heber Le Favour. With the exception of the Twenty- second Michigan, the brigade was stationed at Cleveland, Tenn. While the regiment was at Chattanooga, two warehouses, each forty feet wide and one hundred feet long, filled with fixed ammmition, shells, etc., caught fire from a spark from an engine. These storehouses stood about thirty feet from a brick building with a shingle roof, in which was stored five tons of gunpowder. The Twenty-second was ordered to form line as a bucket- brigade down to the river. between the burning storehouses and the brick building and not to let the powder house take fire. The air was full of bursting shells, and the noise equal to a good-sized battle. Fortunately no one was killed and none seriously wounded, but the coolness of the men under these trying circumstances was so conspicuous that General James B. Steedman, commanding the District of the Etowah, issued a special order, which was read to all the troops, calling attention to the coolness and (fficiency of the service rendered by the regiment. On June 21, 1865, the regiment received orders to proceed to Nashville, Tenn., for the muster out of all its men whose term of service would expire on or before October 1. 1865. At the time this order was received. the Twenty-second Michigan Infantry bore upon its rolls the names of 1,000 men, and was carrying twenty unassigned recruits. The regiment left Chattanooga by rail for Nashville, Tenn .. where it arrived on the evening of June 22nd. The men whose terms of service did not expire on or before October 1, 1865, were transferred to the Twenty-ninth Michigan Infantry. The muster out rolls of the regiment being completed, on the 26th of June, 1865, it was mustered out of the United States service and ordered to Detroit for final payment and discharge. Tuesday morning, June 27th, it left Nashville by rail, loaded in cattle cars. homeward bound. On its arrival at Indianapolis, Ind., it was detained twenty-four hours for lack of cars, as the cattle cars would not be permitted to go any further. A telegraphic message was sent to Superintendent Rice of the M. C. R. R. Co., at Detroit, asking him to send coaches to Indian- apolis to take the regiment from there to Detroit. In twenty minutes the answer came: "Coaches have left for Indianapolis." Hearty cheers went up from the regiment as the train of coaches, on which was inscribed the familiar letters " M. C. R. R .. " ran down to the Soldiers' Home in Indian- apolis, where it was quartered. It quickly got on board and was soon speeding away for Michigan, comfortably seated in passenger coaches for the first time in three years. At Marshall, Mich., the good citizens insisted that the regiment should stop and eat the good things they had spread out for it on its arrival: at Jackson, too, dinner was awaiting the regiment, but when it was known that it was to be paid off in Detroit the then Mayor of that city said that " unless the regiment was paid off in Jackson, it could not cat the dinner." The men had two days' rations of bacon and hard tack in their haversacks and thought they could live on that until they reached Detroit. It went on board the train without tasting the dinner, in justice be it said, much to the regret and mortification of the citizens of Jackson. The
16
MICHIGAN VOLUNTEERS, 1861-1865
regiment arrived in Detroit at 8:15 p. m., was marched to the supper room in the M. C. R. R. depot, where so many of the returning regiments were the recipients of the hospitality of the City of the Straits. Welcoming speeches were made. the cowbell that had seen three years' service was rung, the log chain which Joseph Le Bot found in Georgia, and carried through all his marches, because he thonght "it would be handy on his farm," was exhibited and the Twenty-second Michigan Infantry sat down to the last supper it ever ate as a regiment. It slept that night on the M. C. R. R. Co.'s wharf, and the next day went into camp on Clinton street. July 10, 1865. it was paid off and discharged and the Twenty-second Michigan Infantry Volunteers no longer had an existence. During its term of service the regiment was commanded by the following officers: Colonel Moses Wis- ner, from August 8, 1862 until January 4, 1863; By Colonel Heber Le Favour from January 5. 1863 until March 20, 1863; by Lieutenant Colonel William Sanborn, from March 21, 1863, until May 2, 1863; by Colonel Heber Le Favour from May 3, 1863, until September 4, 1863; by Lieutenant Colonel William Sanborn, from September 5, 1863, until September 20. 1863: by Captain A. M. Keeler, from September 20, 1863, until September 25, 1863; by Major Henry S. Dean, from September 26, 1863, until June 6, 1864, as Major, and from June 7, 1864. until June 21, 1865, as Lieutenant Colonel; and by Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Heber Le Favour from June 22, 1865, until July 10, 1865.
On September 4, 1862, just before the Twenty-second left Pontiac, the young ladies of that city presented the regiment with a beautifully em- broidered silk flag. J. S. Dewey, Esq., made the presentation in behalf of the ladies. Miss Emma Adams and Miss Julia Comstock delivered it to Colonel Wisner, who accepted it on behalf of the regiment. This flag and the State colors, in defense of which so many brave men gave up their lives. were captured at Chickamauga. For more than thirty years the survivors of the regiment made diligent but fruitless search for these colors. While in Washington, James Greeson of Company I. Twenty-second Michigan. in looking over a book in the War Department, containing an inventory of the property captured by the Union Army at the final surrender of Richmond. Va., found the record of a box containing "two flags of the 22nd Michi- gan Infantry." . He immediately communicated his discovery to a committee which had been appointed to search for the flags by the Regimental Associa- tion. Congress had passed an act forbidding the return of any flags except by an Act of Congress authorizing it. The committee appointed by the Regimental Association, asked Senator James McMillan to introduce a bill authorizing the return of the flags to the Regimental Association, which he did. The bill was reported favorably by the Senate Military Committee. When put upon its passage, it was amended, providing that the return should be to the State of Michigan. In this form the bill passed both Houses of Congress and was signed by the President. In 1895 the flags were returned to Governor John T. Rich, as representative of the State, who appointed Lieutenant Colonel Henry S. Dean as trustee to hold them for the State. On September 4, 1895, just thirty-two years after their presentation, the sur- vivors of the Twenty-second Michigan Infantry held a reunion in the city of Pontiac, when the flags were restored to the regiment, several of the ladies who presented them being present on that occasion.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.