USA > Ohio > Brief history of the 46th Ohio Volunteers > Part 1
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.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
Gc 973.74 0h3wor 1652591
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
1
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01084 3040
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012
http://archive.org/details/briefhistoryof4600wort
Brief History of the 46th Ohio Volunteers.
By Col. T. WORTHINGTON, in his 74th Year.
HORSE REARS AT A SHOT THROUGH THE WITHERS,
Col. Tom Worthington receiving the first fire at Shiloh, at noon.
1655591
PREFACE.
Col. Worthington's regimental report not having been included in Ex. Doc. No. 66, June, 1862, being entitled "Reports of officers in relation to recent battles at Pittsburg Landing," he requested its publication among the war papers now in course of publication by the Government, and in June, 1877, received the letter as follows:
WAR DEPARTMENT. WASHINGTON CITY, June 4th, 1877.
Col. T. WORTHINGTON,
Morrow. Warren Co .. Ohio.
DEAR SIR: The Secretary of War directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th ultimo, transmitting your report of the operations of the 46th Ohio Volunteers, Ist Brigade, 5th Division. at Shiloh, April 6th. 1862, &c., and in reply thereto I have the honor to inform you that the report will be included among the papers to be published, not, however, as reports made during the war, but as one furnished subsequently to supply deficiency in data.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant. TH : J. SAUNDERS. Compiler of the Rebellion Records.
The following winter he filed the report with Col. Scott, having charge of the publication of the war documents, a copy of which, with immaterial alteration, is below pub- lished for the especial benefit of the 46th Ohio Volunteers.
Whenever means will permit, another edition will be pub- lished, with proper maps and illustrations, and the names of all the members of the 40th present at the first fire about noon, April 6th, 1862.
With extreme regret that he is compelled by poverty to submit this irregular and imperfect history to the regiment, and hoping to see most of them at some future time, he remains, their grateful old commander at Shiloh April 6th and 7th, 1862,
T. WORTHINGTON.
17/19 XC
HISTORY IN BRIEF
OF THE
46th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry,
WHILE UNDER COLONEL WORTHINGTON'S COMMAND.
WRITTEN FOR THE SURVIVORS OF THAT REGIMENT AND THE FRIENDS OF THE DEAD.
CHAPTER I.
The 46th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry was organ- ized at Worthington, Franklin county, Ohio, by T. Worth- ington, a West Point graduate of 1827, and elected Gen- eral 2d brigade, 7th division, Ohio militia in June, 1839. This regiment was recruited under an order of General Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, dated July 29, 1867, mainly from the counties of Franklin, Van Wert, Fairfield, and Licking.
The organization was completed in January, 1862, as follows :
Field and Staff.
T. Worthington, colonel, Warren county. Ohio.
C. C. Walcut, lieutenant-colonel, Franklin county, Ohio. Wm. Smith, major, Van Wert county, Ohio. Jack Neil, adjutant, Franklin county, Ohio.
E. Giesy, quartermaster, Fairfield county, Ohio.
J. B. Foster, sergeant-major, Franklin county, Ohio, Parsons, quartermaster sergeant.
TOTALT
4
HISTORY OF THE 46TH OHIO
On the 17th February, 1862, the regiment started from Columbus under orders to report to General W. T. Sher- man at Paducah, Kentucky, and Colonel Worthington, reaching that place after night February 20, reported to General Sherman accordingly.
In consideration of the important part taken by this regiment in the Tennessee campaign of 1862, it should here be recorded that Colonel Worthington, surprised to hear that Florence, at the foot of the muscle shoals, where the railroad from Memphis to Charleston strikes the Ten- nessee River, had not been occupied immediately after the capture of Fort Henry, requested to be dispatched thither with a sufficient force to hold the place and prevent the anticipated junction of General A. S. Johnson, about that time driven from Nashville, with the troops of General Polk, soon after driven from Columbus, and others collect- ing at Corinth from Mobile and New Orleans under Gen- erals Bragg and Beauregard.
To this request Sherman replied that such, as he under- stood, was not immediately intended by General Halleck, in command of the district, but that he could send the 46th Ohio, if requested, to the army of the Mississippi, under General Pope. This Colonel W. of course declined, as the Upper Tennessee plainly was to be, as eventuated, the main battle-ground in the Southwest.
Colonel W. then, under a previous arrangement with General O. M. Mitchell, an old West Point school-mate, proposed that he should be attached to Mitchell's division, on the Cumberland. This General Sherman also declined doing, but intimated that Colonel W. might, if he chose, be left in command of Fort Anderson, at Paducah. This, as it would keep the 46th out of the coming campaign, Colo- nel W. also declined.
Had he accepted either proposition so as to have been absent from Shiloh, the loss of thousands of millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of men, besides the utter
1
1
5
WHILE UNDER COL. WORTHINGTON'S COMMAND.
desolation of the South, would have been the result conse- quent upon the capture or dispersion of two great Union armies at Shiloh, so nearly accomplished (as will once be proven) by the efforts of two or more Union commanders, whose treachery, escaping punishment by the unfortunate agency of the 46th Ohio, has placed them in the highest civil and military positions under the Government of the Republic, which it will some time hence be proven they in- tended to destroy.
CHAPTER IL.
INTO THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY.
March 6, 1862, Colonel W. received the order as fol- lows :
[SPECIAL ORDER No. 74.] "HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF CAIRO. "PADUCAH. March 6, 1362.
"The following regiments will embark to-day for Savannah. Ten- nessee River, and there report to Major-General Smith.
"The commanding officers will see that their regiments have eighty rounds of ammunition and all the means of transportation on hand. Baggage must be reduced to the minimum, and the quartermaster, Captain Pearse, will obtain a house in which to deposit all baggage left behind.
"Ohio 46th. Colonel Worthington; Ohio 48th, Colonel Sullivan; Illinois 40th, Colonel Hicks; Ohio 53d, Colonel Appler; Ohio 72d, Colonel Buckland.
"The quartermaster will at once provide the transportation neces- sary.
"By order of Brigadier General W. T. Sherman. "F. H. HAMMOND, A. A. G."
It will be observed that the order makes no provision for the sick men, of whom there were many hundreds, nor for stores of any kind, except ammunition, not to be had. That there were no proper hospital stores, and neither hay, oats, nor straw even, for the draft animals, might be ac- counted for by the exhaustion of this material of war for the consumption of the three divisions of MeClernand, C.
1
6
HISTORY OF THE 46TH OHIO
F. Smith, and L. Wallace, then at or near Fort Henry, which divisions, however, reached Savannah in about the same state of destitution; and General Sherman, a month later, admits that some of the regiments reached Camp Shiloh even without ammunition. But hospitals and quar- ters for the sick were plenty at Paducah. There was no possible excuse for the extravagance, impolicy, and inhu- manity of hauling sick men to crowded boats, where to properly care for them was impossible; and to carry them with the army, as was done, to die, was simply barbarous.
The surgeons, of their own motion, found empty houses, and did the best they could for the dangerously sick, though all weak and ailing men should, as a matter of expediency if not humanity, have been left behind.
Of the above-named regimental commanders ordered up the Tennessee, Colonel Worthington, 46th Ohio, was the only educated military officer. He was sufficiently provi- dent to take on board ten days' additional stores of army rations for his men and provender (nothing but shelled corn) for his mules and horses. Of the eighty rounds of ammunition ordered, but thirty could be had, and that at 11 P. M., or after.
His stores were all on board, and he embarked ( just one mor th before the battles of the 6th and 7th of April fol- lowing) at 3 A. M. of the 7th of March, 1862. The boat (Adams) neared Fort Henry about noon that day, and about all the boats which had left Paducah the day before were still there, besides many others intended for the trans- portation of the three divisions from Fort Donelson to the future field of Shiloh.
Drawing up on the west side to make inquiries, the 46th Ohio found itself next the boat of the 5th Ohio cavalry, Col- onel Taylor. On inquiry it was found that this regiment had been there near a week, waiting orders, and that there was one gunboat and perhaps a single transport gone up the river. During our two weeks' delay at Paducah, there
7
WHILE UNDER COL. WORTHINGTON'S COMMAND.
had been rumors of ill treatment of Union men at Savan- nah, who had expected we would have immediately taken possession of Florence, Alabama, as urged by General Buell, immediately after the capture of Fort Henry. On this reliance many had expressed their sentiments too freely, and thereby suffered in various ways. A general draft of all men fit to bear arms had been contemplated, and as it is one of the first rules of an intended invasion to move to the objective point as rapidly as possible, it was concluded, nem. con., to proceed, as there was no signal for the boat from Fort Henry. Beyond this there was some chance of forage for the teams before the advance of the army, momentarily expected, and the regiment accordingly steamed on up. The colonel of the 46th would have con- tinued all night, and urged the master of the boat to do so, but he was apprehensive, he said, of masked batteries upon either shore, and nothing was left but reluctant acquies- cence. The colonel's diary of the 8th is as follows:
" Saturday, March Sth, 1862 .- A fair frosty morning. Started about sunrise, and about 8.30 A. M. stopped at Britt's landing, and took aboard 98 bushels and 426 sheaves of oats. Stopped at Clifton and other landings, but heard nothing satisfactory. Got to Savannah about simset. Found there one-half of the 40th Illinois, Lieutenant- Colonel Booth. Took command, and threw out 120 men as pickets -- also a patrol, which took up 40 or 50 stragglers of the 40th, who were invading the houses, and, as the people thought, threatening mischief, there being a ber on board the boat. Saw a Union man. Mr. W. H. Cherry, and got him to send a servant to Waynesboro, 30 miles northeast, for information. Heard that the rebel authorities. in anticipation of our arrival, were hauling stores from the river below, around by Florence to Juka, all of which would have been stopped but for the delay in sending troops to Florence a month be- fore. This half of the 40th Illinois had passed Fort Heury in the night of the 6th, and, taking little note of circumstance or time, had reached Savannah abont an hour by sun. It might have been in dan- ger but for the arrival of the 40th. which last it was afterwards ru- mored, at home, had been captured by ignorantly going ahead of the fleet, &c. But the arrival was most timely. From Mr. Cherry was derived information that the rebel authorities were active in the vicin- ity-that there had been a draft en masse of the able-bodied male.pop- ulation the previous Thursday, and the drafted men were ordered to muster at Savannah on Monday, the 10th of March following."
Deeming it his duty to get as full a report as possible of
8
HISTORY OF THE 46TH OHIO
the state of affairs in the vicinity for the information of General C. F. Smith on his arrival, he, as stated in the above diary extract, employed and dispatched a scout in the direction ot. Waynesboro. During the night many refugees came to the boat from the west side of the river. Many came into the town from the eastward on hearing of the arrival of Union troops, and perhaps more than a thou- sand drafted men from all quarters crowded the little village next day.
On Sunday, the 9th, the 46th had a dress parade, and, in connection with the incoming refugees from the rebel draft, this Sunday was pronounced the liveliest day the little town of less than one thousand inhabitants had ever witnessed. At about 2 P. M. several officers of the 46th went up in the gunboat Lexington, by invitation of Captain Gwin, to Pittsburgh landing, eight miles above, and threw, perhaps, a dozen shell into the interior, to which there was no reply.
Savannah is the county-seat of Hardin county, and is joined on the west by McNairy county. From the drafted refugees mainly of these two counties the 46th received during the day forty or fifty recruits. Night came on with no news of the fleet below, much to the surprise of the 46tl. Ohio, which, being the last regiment to embark at Paducah, had had little thought of being the first full regi- ment to reach its destination in advance of the Army of the Tennessee, so famous afterwards in the war.
On Monday, the 10th, daylight came on with rain. Lieutenant-Colonel Booth, of the 40th Illinois, found him- self out of stores, and the colonel of the 46th, declining his request to forage upon the people of the town, gave him two days' rations, and an order to proceed down the river and look up the army fleet. This was deemed an affront which Colonel Hicks, of the 40th Illinois, and commander of the brigade, was disposed to resent, and did afterwards resent, as an insult to himself and his regiment.
9
WHILE UNDER COL. WORTHINGTON'S COMMAND.
A river boat, crowded with troops, being the last place suitable for sick men, they were got out to-day, and put into a vacant house near the river, which had been emptied by its owner, who was an officer in the Confederate army. He had, however, with usual southern hospitality, author- ized Mr. Cherry to allow its occupation by our sick or wounded, should our troops appear in his absence; doubt- less, also, aware of the good policy of making a virtue of necessity.
Arrangements were also made for the fitting-up of a new frame church, with the consent of the village author- ities, for a government hospital ; it having been understood that here was to be a large army depot for weeks or months, whence the troops would march to break up railroads, or rebel camps at Corinth, Jackson, and Humboldt (humbug). During Sunday and Monday the pickets of the 46th had captured half a dozen or more of rebel scouts and horse- men, with their horses and mules, and learned that there was a large force of Confederate troops gathering or ex- pected about Florence, Tuscumbia, Eastport, and Iuka, then expecting our attack on the first-named place, as it had been expected a full month before.
Tuesday, the 11th, was a fair, cool morning. The troops were brought ashore to clean up the boat, and most of the sick were made more comfortable in the improvised hos- pitals, the villagers doing all service in their power; for which they had and still have the grateful recollections of the troops and their commander-Mr. William H. Cherry being among the foremost in this friendly and, indeed, charitable ministration, for which no provision had been made by our commander.
Several Confederates were captured to-day, and among them one of the regular rebel cavalry, who had been sent in to see what was going on among the Yankee invaders of the "sacred soil."
The steamer Golden Gate came up about noon, and an-
-
10
HISTORY OF THE 46TH OHIO
nounced the Union fleet of boats at hand. The 46th Ohio was paraded on the hill above the landing on open ground, where a fair view could be had of the approaching Army of the Tennessee.
The first boats came in sight about 2 P. M., some two miles down the river, and it was a sight fraught with splendor for the 46th Ohio-a spectacle beheld by no other regiment in the army. The weather was soft and fine, and one or more flags floated over every boat. Nearly every regiment had a band of music, and in this till then sequestered region occurred a scene of martial activity and festivity never before witnessed in the Union. Unexpected, grand, and indeed terrible it was to the inhabitants along the forest-girded banks of the Tennessee.
It was soon, however, discovered, that however beneficial to the people of the vicinity and to the interests of the Union had been the arrival of the 46th Ohio in advance of the army, it was anything but agreeable to General C. F. Smith and the general officers of the Army of the Tennessee. General Smith, irritable from ill-health and ill-habits, was furious at what he denominated the presumption and in- subordination of a colonel of volunteers in preceding such an expedition in command of a regular officer of the army of the United States and major-general of Union volunteers. He refused to receive the colonel's report, and rebuked him for disregard of military etiquette in not passing his report through his commander of brigade and division, with whom his orders had nothing to do; and to do this would have been impossible without disobeying the order of the 6th, (No. 74,) which was peremptory to proceed to Savan- nah and there report to Major-General C. F. Smith, who was on the leading boat of the fleet, where the colonel of the 46th found and offered him his report.
It also soon appeared that the division commander was equally irate at the too prompt arrival of the 46th, whose colonel he had snubbed at midnight for being slack in his
11
WHILE UNDER COL. WORTHINGTON'S COMMAND.
departure, while he was getting on stores and hunting up ammunition, which the general of division not only failed to supply, but he refused to give an order for ammunition at Paducah, intended for a regiment without arms. But Colonel Worthington got it.
By his prompt arrival the colonel of the 46th had pre- vented the pressure into the rebel service of perhaps a thousand Union men, and had added hundreds to fill up the deficient Union regiments. Instead of approbation for the result of his prompt obedience to a peremptory order, his reward was the enmity of those above him, who had failed in their duty, and an attempt at his degradation for performing his own. (See notes at the end of the chapter.)
Colonel Hicks, the brigade commander, was an old Illi- nois militia officer, a benevolent and brave man, but proud and obstinate, as he was ignorant of and opposed to strict military discipline. Without much education of any kind, he was boastful that in the Mexican war he had acquired, and professed, great contempt for regular officers and army regulations. This contempt for all military law he had car- ried out to the fullest extent at Paducah, refusing to sub- ject his troops (good men as they were and of excellent material for soldiers) to any discipline whatever.
He had in consequence been held in arrest by General Smith for weeks or even months at Paducah, and his men, instead of being sent to the field, had been retained in quarters, as utterly unskilled, in consequence of their col- onel's practices and principles, and therefore unfitted for campaign duty.
Under this officer, at war as he professed to be with all regular officers and with strict discipline, was the colonel of the 46th Ohio brigaded by the general of division, with a purpose of his own, and anything but friendly to the older graduate. When visiting his pickets at Paducah, near those of Colonel Hicks, he had found it the practice of these vig-
-
12
HISTORY OF THE 46TH OHIO
ilant watchers of the Illinois, to gather in squads, of two or three or more, around a fire, on or off the picket line, then and there to stack arms, by driving their bayonets into the " bloodless sheath " of the muddy soil, and pass the time at seven-up, poker, or some such absorbing game of cards, and all with their colonel's entire approbation-sometimes perhaps a looker-on himself.
On reporting this in a quiet way to the brigade com- mander, he told his subordinate a long story of his expe- rience with the stiff and stately regulars, tyrannizing over the innocent recreations of their men, of whom they should have been like him, eren as it were a father to his troops, as he was. As to amending the habits of the sentinels, "it . was hard to teach an old dog new tricks." On representing the case to General Sherman he agreed with Colonel Hicks, and concluded to let matters proceed in the regularly irreg- ular militia routine, or no routine at all.
So the West Point man had to give it up, &c., &c., forbidding his own men on pain of imminent death or dis- grace, if ever in danger, from indulging on picket duty in such agreeable but dangerous and most unmilitary prac- tices; and it was by such practices that many regiments were surprised, posts lost, and thousands of men killed and captured in the early period of the war. But to return to the brigade commander at Savannah. He had on arrival landed on the west side of the river, thus dividing his brig- ade. On the morning of the 12th, the adjutant of the 46th reported this fact, and stated that, the yawl of the Adams being gone, he could not get his morning report over the river. He was told to send a copy of the report to the A. A. G. of the division, and get the report over as soon as he could get a boat. There was no forage to be had in the country for the teams, and the colonel of 46th having purchased a lot of corn in the husk, was bus- ily getting it on board, supposing, of course, the expedition would not stop short of Florence, where feed for teams
13
WHILE UNDER COL. WORTHINGTON'S COMMAND.
would be still more difficult of supply, and therefore he left the care of his report to the adjutant.
At 1 p. M. Colonel Hicks had the colonel of the 46th arrested for failing to send over his report. Stating the case to Sherman, he got a release at 5 P. M., with a letter from Hicks, in which he was assured the arrest had been fully approved by Sherman, who knew that no one but General C. F. Smith could legally make an arrest. This, however, exposed his animus toward Colonel Worthington of the 46th, who was reported at home as degraded for misconduct and neglect of duty, in preceding the army without orders. The object of brigading him under such an enemy of regular officers as Colonel Hicks had been attained, and soon after Hicks was displaced for the ap- pointment of another brigade commander, also with a personal object on the part of Sherman, as will appear in the course of this treatise; which, let it here be remem- bered, will not be cumbered with any more such personal- ities, if possible to be avoided.
We have now the Army of the Tennessee at Savannah, instead of at Florence; the reason of stopping short of which place will be developed hereafter, so far as present information can lead to such development.
The division commander thus vented his rage at the early arrival of the 46th Ohio at Savannah, on those of its sick men his negligence or inhumanity had failed to pro- vide for at Paducah, and this after having snubbed its commander for being late at that place, necessary to repair his negleet in not giving orders to his colonels to take on additional stores for such an expedition and leave their sick behind.
[Extract from the Diary of an Officer of the Army of the Tennessee.j "SAVANNAH, TENNESSEE, TUESDAY, March 12, 1872.
"A lot of sick men were lodged for the day in a house near the river bank, owned by a Confederate officer named Martin, with leave of his brother to use it and his own leave, through Mr. Cherry. Martin's wife I had seen in the morning, who made no objection to the use of
14
HISTORY OF THE 46TH OHIO
the house, which was destitute of any furniture, and did not tell me there was anything to be injured. as I understood there was not. Be- ing in a room above stairs abont sunset, I heard that she was com- plaining that mischief had been done. I went down and toll the sick men to go to the boat. Going out, I found Mrs. Martin complaining to General Sherman, who asked me angrily what the men were doing in the house. I said they were sick men, put in the house by permis- sion of its owner, while the boat was being cleaned out. He answered that it was an outrage to put men in a house where there were a par- cel of women, and ordered some soldiers of a Missouri regiment to turn the men ont. The sick were going as fast as their strength would permit. I clutched his arm and requested him to be quiet, as I had ordered the men ont, and he saw that they were going ont. He re- peated his order to clear them out very violently. and in the most silly and brutal manner; but no one seemed disposed to obey an order to cominit violence upon sick men. thus barbarously brought up from Paducah. instead of being sent home, both as a matter of humanity and economy."
On the 13th March, 1862, an order having been received by the 5th Division to proceed up the river next day, the following testimonial of good conduct was presented to the colonel of the 46th Ohio by Mr. Cherry :
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.