USA > Ohio > Brief history of the 46th Ohio Volunteers > Part 5
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Not being able to get tools through the division com- mander, he obtained them at his own expense, but not until the evening before the battle. For these tools he has since been paid, on the approval of Gen. Grant.
He was the first officer who fortified his position on the march to Corinth, his example having been followed by the whole Union army. In June, 1862, on detached service with about three hundred men, at Lafayette, Tenn., and warned of an imminent attack by a fourfold force, he constructed the only closed field-work by the army up to July, 1862, and thereby prevented the attack and probable capture of his position. For the above and other special service he obtained no promotion. The payment of over $20,000, proven due by official authorities for the water supply of Camp Dennison, 1861, has been withheld, and he now requests such a position on the retired 'ist as may in some measure be a requital for his military service, and the bal- ance due him by the government, on official evidence.
And he requests, more especially in justice to the 46th Ohio volunteers, that the facts as to their prompt advance to Savannah, Tennessee, and their efficient operations on the extreme Union right at Shiloh, may have that official "recognition hitherto denied.
Respectfully submitted,
T. WORTHINGTON, Late Col. 46th Regt. O. V. I.
WASHINGTON, June 1, 1878.
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As a matter of interest, perhaps, to the 46th Ohio only, the following poetical articles, out of many published by their Colonel during the war, are appended to this very imperfect history of the regiment.
T. W.
AN ODE ON THE FALL OF FORT SUMPTER. BY GENERAL T. WORTHINGTON. An Old Friend and School-mate of Major Anderson.
Shame, shame to thee, land of the brave ! The long-boasted land of the free ; Thy glory is stained by a traitorions glaive, -- How wretched thy portion may be ! "Derision shall strike thee forlorn. And mockery that never shall die. The enrses of hate and the hisses of seorn Shall burden the winds of the sky."
If the freedom we vaunted of yore, The flag our fathers unfurled. Goes down by the hand of a traitor before The scorn of a wondering world .- Shall the Eagle of Liberty fall By a shaft which is plumed from his wing. Our freedom and glory and power and all, All perish by treachery's sting?
Where, where hath the exile a home When that flag is a refuge no more? Wide over the earth and the ocean to roam. Or a dungeon or death. as of yore. Shall then be his desolate doom. If that flag is not floated again From that earth and that ocean dispelling the gloom Created by tyranny's chain.
[ But gratitude, glory to him Who nobly thar flag has maintained ; False friends, traitor foemen. uniting to dim His honor forever unstained. While time shall record how undaunted he stood. Defending that flag amid death-shot and flame. All mem'ries that cherish the brave and the good Shall cluster round ANDERSON'S name.]
Lost, lost is the Freedom our forefathers won, And Arnold no traitor is now ! That treason of treasons but yesterday done Hath covered his treason with snow.
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AN ODE.
Weep, weep o'er the tenantless tomb! Where erst the young Andre has lain ! Weep, weep that his sacrifice shrouded the gloom Of Freedom's betrayal again !
"Oh, where is the spirit of yore,- The spirit that breathed in thy dead When Liberty's star was the beacon before And Honor the passion that led?" Haste, haste ye to Washington's tomb, And scatter its dust on the wave, Which beareth its waters, in sadness and gloom, Toward the land of the Traitor and Slave !
Low, low lies that Flag of the Free ! Which, never polluted before. No longer is sacred or worthy to be A Patriot's Flag. as of yore- Unless with that dust ye shall fly. Avenging the stain it has borne ! Determined to plant it again, or to die On the rampart from whence it was torn !
Ye sons of the Elbe and Oder and Rhine, Where, where is your asylum now, If the spirit of freedom no longer divine Shall die by a traitorous blow ? Up! up to the rescue, like Hermann of old, And scatter the legions afar, Which traitors, by patient endurance grown bold, Have gathered by rapine for war.
Shall the shores of the Danube grow pale, And sadder the stream of the Po. At the downfall of freedom. and Liberty's wail Be echoed by Switzerland's snow? Up! up with the spirit of Tell From the grave where so long he hath lain, That with it each patriot bosom shall swell And sweep away treachery's stain.
Go sons of green Erin. go; take Montgomery's ashes again To the Isle of the Shamrock and Shannon, or wake And breathe forth his spirit again O'er the land for whose freedom he fell ; No longer for freedom a home, If treason shall triumph and anarchy's spell Engulf us in tyranny's doom.
But no! all around us arise 'The shades of the glorious dead ! And Warren and Washington bend from the skies O'er the land where each patriot bled ; They call ns to whiten the stain Which o'er us a moment is thrown ; Then up with that flag upon Sumpter again, - It shall waive when each traitor is down ! APRIL 15TH, 1861.
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465$591
TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
THE FALLEN AT SHILOII.
Azaleas are blooming in valley and glade, Where the martyrs of Shiloh sleep under their shade, And their bright boughs are weeping o'er corses so pale, Their fast-falling blooms in each sigh of the gale.
At the dawn of that morning how bravely arose Those friends of the Union to battle its foes ! At the dusk of that evening how silent they lay On that red field of Shiloh-woe ! woe for the day !
Who, who shall restore them, these friends of the free, And who their relentless avengers shall be ? On, on their brave comrades, halt never again Till the waves of the Gulf hide the graves of the slain.
Who shall answer for Shiloh, one thousand for one, Unworthy of tombs in the light of the sun ; Those fell foes of freedom, oppressors, and slaves, Let them infamous lie in their honorless graves !
But for ye who are weeping, oh 'twas not in vain That the blood of your loved ones was shed like the rain ; Their tombs shall be hallowed, and from them arise The purest of incense that reaches the skies.
On Liberty's altar their best blood was given ; Shall its voice vainly cry from the ground unto Heaven? No ! for each shall a thousand such heroes be borne O'er the plains of the South to avenge, if to mourn !
T. WORTHINGTON. CAMP OF SHILOH, APRIL 8TH, 1862.
FIRST CALL FOR 100,000 MEN. INSCRIBED TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
"'Tis but one hundred thousand men."
"If we can't kill you in battle, - you, we can starve you to death." ( Chivalric Rebel.)
From Madawaska's icy shore To Rio Bravo's burning sands. From wild and wide Atlantic's roar To mild Pacific's golden strand, Up, up, ye friends of freedom all To drive the vipers from the den Where pine our friends in famined thrall ! 'T'is but one hundred thousand men !
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A BALLAD.
From where the Everglades spread wide To Minnesota's farthest wild ; From far Superior's iey tide To Pensacola's zephyrs mild, Grasp, freemen, grasp your brands of wrath And march-march fiercely forward then To snatch your braves from lingering death ! "Tis but one hundred thousand men !
O think ye, at your groaning boards When August crowns the bloom of May, And brown November heaps his hoards Of plenty for your winter's day- Think ye of those whose fetters bind Their famined frames in Treason's den, And can ye linger yet behind? "l'is but one hundred thousand men !
Unsatisfied where fields of blood Their crimson harvests daily bear, These traitor fiends of demon mood Deem not of honorable war,
" If ye are not in battle slain, By famine ye'll be murdered." Then, Forward ! they shall be free again, Though 'twere ten hundred thousand men.
Call ont the States of '87. The first five free from slavery 's stain ; To these the glorious boon be given To snatch our brave from Treason's chain. Ohio far Wisconsin greets ! Calls Illinois to Michigan ! And Indiana bravely meets The call with myriads of men. January 16, 1864. NORTHWEST.
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A BALLAD OF SHILOH.
Written for the Reunion of the 46th Ohio at Van Wert, September 9 and 10, 1879. BY A 46TH OHIO VOLUNTEER.
Azalea buds, young April's pride, Bloomed o'er glade, vale, and lea Where Shiloh's battle-field spread wide, Down by the Tennessee.
Our first brigade. deserted. lone. Pressed o'er it's dangerous way To save our center, backward thrown, In route and disarray.
Conducted by the General's aide, A blind guide at the best. To go as all had gone before, And run as ran the rest.
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A BALLAD.
The General certain on the march That we would be attacked, Valor's best part, discretion held, And bravely rearward tracked.
The 46th marched on the right, Not from the centre drawn. Till in disorder from the tight All on our left had flown ..
It there the post of danger hold, With foes all round and near. Driving our legions from the fieldl In panic to the rear.
Van Wert's bold boys, upon the right, Had brave Heath for commander, And next the left were led in fight By valiant Alexander.
From Fairfield, Wiseman's. Giesey's came, And Crow led Licking's brave, With Wilson, who immortal fame Found in a soldier's grave.
Sharpe's, Geary's, Lilley's, Pinney's men From Franklin, joined the war, Brave Geary fell in battle then, From home and friends afar.
He rests amidst his kindred now, Where an undying name Will, carved upon the marble, show A patriot's deathless fame.
On brigade guard that bloody day Were Lybrand's volunteers, But bravely mingled in the fray, As by their roll appears.
Fierce was the fight, and shot and shell Went crashing through the wood, Where slanghtered men and steeds that fell Told where our front had stood.
Two, three, four Generals rearward fled, And, marching all alone. The 46th towards danger sped, Its time and place unknown.
Emerging from a tangled wood And rough, uneven ground, At noon the gallant 46th Its field of battle found.
Our Captain beckoned to his chief. Who instantly drew near, "See the greys gathering fast, " he said, Close on our right and rear.
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A BALLAD.
Aye, there they were in easy range, While none but Captain Heath, His chief, and sergeant knew we were So near disgrace or death.
Aye. there they were in easy range, By thickets fortitied. While we to fight our front must change. Or fly, who-how-decide ?
Our guides were gone, no Generals near, All, all had fled away From where careered flight, death, and fear, And direst disarray.
" Front on the right and fire, File by the left and fly, File by the left to find disgrace, Front on the right to die."
" File by the left, -our right is turned, Onr wavering legions lost, Front on the right,-one chance is earned, One chance, whate'er the cost."
" Front on the right and fire, File by the left and fly, File by the left to find disgrace, Front on the right-to die."
Snch were the thoughts like lightning flew Over that soldier's sonl ;
"Front on the right." -- his sword he drew, "Death is the soldier's goal."
"Front on the right .- we'll fire," he said; "Right flank-right face "-a breath, And fleet and fiercely round we sped Over that road to death.
Onr front is changed, his charger slain, His sword waves in the air;
"Stoop low-be ready-aim-fire !" he said, Our foes at a ready were.
One instant and death's leaden showers "Iwixt ranks opposing sped, One instant more that ground was ours, Their ranks had fallen or fled.
That ground is theirs, which then was ours, Who, nobly fighting, fell Where the azeleas' April flowers Purpled lea, glade, and dell.
But deeper than their purple bloom Was the ground crimsoned where These martyred heroes met their doom, 'To sleep forever there.
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A BALLAD.
Geary, Burr, Wilson, thousands there Wou an immortal fame ; They held their ground while we-we were Forced back; not ours the shamne.
Thrice in an hour our front was changed To face surrounding foes,
While wild and wide our camps they ranged, With nothing to oppose.
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Our Captain fought o'er Georgia's fields, And with McPherson fell, Doing his duty as he did Ou Shilohi's field so well.
Walcut, Lieutenant-Colonel, then Received a grievons wound, As did Jack Neal, our Adjutant, But bravely held their ground.
Our Major Smith-a Van Wert boy, And Major Foster. sergeant then, Stood bravely up at each deploy. Where all were bravely fighting men.
Our Generals-best the least that's said, THREE, 'tis known, were not where The brunt was borne when myriads fled And thousands slaughtered were.
Our Colonel-needs not here to say -- Lives in their memories well, Whose lives and fame were saved that day Of storms of shot and sheil.
His desperate chance had not been lost. Hopeless and desperate then. Two ARMIES saved, though at the cost Of well-nigh half his men.
And when in some far future time War legends shall be told, In stirring prose or startling rhyme, To listeners, young and old,
Of all who stood on Shiloh's field, The bloodiest of the war, The 46th Ohio boys Shall foremost stand by far.
Houored be they who stood that day. And tenfold honored be The brave who, fighting, fell and lay Down by the Tennessee !
Whatever they were, and whatever they are or will be. every soldier of the 46th Ohio at the battle of Shiloh was worth to the Union not less than ten millions of dollars.
GRANT AROUND THE WORLD WITH YOUNG.
PART FIVE : SECTION THREE,
As will be seen, page 77 preceding, Grant, during his trip around the world with Young, under the interested and selfish auspices of the New York Herald, declares General W. T. Sherman to be "not only a very accurate man, not only a great soldier, but a great man, one of the very great men in our country's history"; that " there is not a false line in his character. There is not a man for whose character I have a higher respect; not only one of the best men living, but one of the greatest we have in our his- tory."
The above equally false and fulsome flatteries were doubtless suggested by the Shermans, to whom Grant is inseparably bound by complicity in equivalent criminality arising out of the conspiracy hereinbefore charged, for such selfish, base, and sinister purposes as the defeat of the Union armies at Shiloh, April 6 and 7, 1862, and second Bull Run, August 29 and 30 following.
To prove what Grant's flatteries or eulogies are worth, and the entire moral and martial depravity of W. T. Sher- man, nothing more is needed than a brief analysis of some one of his reports or statements during the war, repeated, as they are, in Sherman's " shameless memoirs."
Time and circumstances do not here admit of a full analysis of Sherman's Shiloh report, with its scores of false- hoods and absurdities, repeated in Bowman's history, and his evidence before Colonel Worthington's court-martial, &c. In place thereof is here given a partial analysis of his
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THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.
letter of January, 1865, to Professor Coppee, a West Point graduate, who has proved himself by words and pen the abject sycophant and lick-spittle of these false and entire impostors and, of necessity, mutual admirers.
More especially as this letter has been extensively quoted as a reliable and valuable acquisition to the histories of the battle of Shiloh, written by Badean, Mansfield, and others.
The letter will be found in the " Appendix" to Badeau's history of Grant, page 602. It is sagaciously omitted in Sherman's history by Bowman and Irwin, as also are the three horses on Grant's evidence (not) killed under Sher- man at Shiloh. The letter is, however, a fair commentary on Bowman's fulsome eulogy, page 479, when he says that "General Sherman's master qualities are of the military order." This letter to Coppee might have been quoted as proving him a master of a high order of mendacity.
Bowman states further that "Sherman's military esti- mate of men requires the most heroic proportions "-such as those of Grant, instanced at Shiloh by the desertion of his left when giving up the battle as lost, and refusing aid about noon and retiring to his boat, where Buell found him at 1 p. M., and deserting his right when driven back at 2 P. M. for the same boat.
But to the Coppee letter, in which the following falsehoods can be proven by Sherman's Shiloh report, by the evidence given before Colonel Worthington's court-martial, and by McClernand's and other reliable reports as to the battle of Shiloh.
The statement following was written for the Cincinnati Gazette in April, 1:75, and its publication declined as be- ing an attack on General Sherman. No journalist or his- torian has had the honesty or moral courage to contradict those falsehoods, which, in a review, of Sherman's Memoirs, the New York Herald stated, with other equivalent menda- cities, " would largely determine many controverted points of military history," as doubtless will Young's statements
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GRANT AROUND THE WORLD WITH YOUNG.
in his " Around the World with Grant" determine whether Grant or Albert Sidney Johnson was retreating in disorder when the Confederate commander fell at Shiloh.
1st. In this letter of January, 1865, by Sherman to Coppee, it is false that the disaster of Shiloh April 6, 1862, was NOT retrieved by the arrival of Buell's troops, and the falsehood is proven by Grant's official report, in general suppressed on account of this truth by his historians.
2d. It is false that Grant visited him while repelling the enemy with his division at 10 A. M., and so proven by the reports of Sherman and McClernand.
3d. It is false that at 10 A. M. he had command of a di- vision, and proven as above.
4th. It is false that he was on the right of the Union line at 10 A. M. April 6, 1862; proven by Lieutenant-Colonel Upton's certificate, &c.
5th. False that he was not driven back after 4 P. M., and proven false as above.
6th. False that he repelled a cavalry attack after 4 P. M., which he says in his report was repelled by McClernand's troops.
7th. False that he was not dislodged from any position after 4 P. M. April 6, 1862.
- 8th. False that he had all day been expecting General L. Wallace-not ordered up till noon.
9th. Utterly false that he saw General Grant at his posi- tion near Snake Creek bridge about 5 P. M., Grant being then at the river.
10th. Virtually false that the enemy had failed to reach the landing, which Grant reports they were about to cap- ture when Buell got up.
11th. False and absurd that at 3 or 5 P. M. any order was issued by Grant to resume the offensive on the 7th, and so proven by a subsequent statement by Sherman that there was no determination to attack before consultation with General Buell, after dark of the 6th.
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THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.
12th. False that at 5 P. M. of April 6 Buell's troops had not reached Pittsburgh Landing.
13th. Proven false by Grant's report that Buell's troops took no essential part in the battle of the 6th April, 1862.
14th. False that Grant's army at 4 P. M. had successfully withstood and repelled the first day's attack.
15th. False that the Confederates were superior in num- ber to the Union troops.
16th. Faise again and absurd that Sherman bad orders to assume the offensive before Buell's troops were west of the Tennessee.
17th. False that he saw Buell about the time Grant was leaving him, about 5 P. M.
18th. False that at daylight on the 7th he advanced to where the battle of the 6th had been most severe. (See General L. Wallace's report.)
19th. False that he waited till near noon of the 7th before Buell's troops got up with him, and most disgraceful if true.
20th. Repeatedly false that at 4 P. M. of the 6th the Army of the Tennessee had checked the enemy; soon after as Grant reports, about to capture the landing, &c.
21st. Absurdly false that at 4 p. M. the Army of the Tennessee were preparing to assume the offensive next day, or doing anything else but retreating before the enemy.
22d. Ridiculously false that at 5 P. M. Grant expressed the opinion that if attacked at 4 P. M. the enemy would have been beaten, and most discreditable to Grant's sagacity and veracity if true.
23d. Still more ridiculously false that at 5 p. M. Grant judged that with his " startled troops" he would be justified in assuming the offensive next morning, and this with an army which Grant reports would have been captured but for Buell's arrival at 5 P. M. of the 6th.
24th. Crazily and nonsensically false that he received
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GRANT AROUND THE WORLD WITH YOUNG.
orders to assume the offensive before he knew that Buell had reached the river.
25th. Basely false that the officers of Buell's army dwelt " too much" or "at all" on the stampede of the beaten Army of the Tennessee.
26th. Persistently, basely, and insanely false that for one whole day, "weakened by the absence of Buell's army," the Army of the Tennessee had beaten the enemy.
27th. Utterly false that Buell's army had been long or at all expected by that of the Tennessee.
28th. False beyond expression that the Army of the Tennessee had indulged in severe strictures, or at all, on Buell's slow approach, of which approach they knew noth- ing, much less that Sherman had tried to keep that army back till after the battle.
29th. Very meanly false that the Army of the Ohio ap- proached slowly, having marched fifteen or twenty miles a day, while notified not to come on till after the battle.
30th. Still more meanly false that Buell's army knew anything of the danger threatening the Army of the Ten- nessce, which danger, on the evidence of Grant and Sher- man the day before the battle, had no existence.
31st. False that this letter to Coppee corrects a popular error, that Buell's army prevented the capture of Grant's army, admitted by Grant himself to have been so prevented.
32d. False that any error has been committed as to Buell's rescue of the Army of the Tennessee.
33d. False that any responsible authority ever attributed the selection of Shiloh battle-field to Grant.
34th. False that it was selected by General C. F. Smith.
35th. Blunderingly false that the location of the army between two shallow creeks forced a front attack when the Union flanks were purposely exposed to attack and were turned accordingly at the moment of the attack.
36th. Still more blunderingly false that these shallow creeks at the time were any defense at all, but the reverse.
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THE BATTLE OF SIIILOH.
37th. False that all the divisions of the army were lo- cated by General C. F. Smith's orders.
. 38th. Equally false that any subordinate arrangements of the camps were made by him, unfit for duty as he was at the time.
39th. The culminating mendacity is that the false and absurd statements of this letter constitute certain truths which, passing out of memory, constitute what is denomi- nated " history."
Such as the above is doubtless as good ground as any, and there is no better, for Grant's estimate of Sherman as the greatest, and best, and most accurate of men, without a false line in his character. If such is his opinion of Sherman, what is his opinion worth on any subject ?
T. W.
PART FIVE: SECTION FOUR. GRANT'S FALSEHOODS AS TO SHILOHI.
The following false, deceptive, and contradictory state- ments by General Grant as to Shiloh, with many others, prove how worthless, as Sherman's, are his statements as to Sherman and the civil war:
1st. About March 30, he wrote Buell that he had 60,000 men at Savannah. Not less than 5,000 joined the army from that time up to the 6th of April, when he says he had but 33,000 men in line of battle, (besides Gen. L. Wallace with 5,000 at Crump's, four or five miles below,) making 38,000. (See Badeau, page 77.) Where were the other twenty-five or thirty thousand ?
2d. On the 17th March, 1862, (see Badeau, page 68.) he says there was imminent need of Buell's support. Yet on the 30th he directs Buell's subordinates not to reach Sa- vannah before the 7th of April, and on the 5th writes to Halleck "that there is not the least danger of an imme- diate attack," knowing that the Confederate line of battle
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GRANT AROUND THE WORLD WITH YOUNG.
was all that day within one and a half miles of his front, at Shiloh church, and its drum-beat heard at our front.
ยท 3d. On the 5th of April he states (Badeau, page 73) that he ordered Nelson to go into camp five miles below Pitts- burgh landing, and that the order was obeyed .. On the 6th, his letter to Nelson (see Badeau, page 77) proves that he was still at Savannah and had not marched as stated.
4th. About 3 p. M. of the 5th he told Nelson that there was no prospect of a battle much short of Corinth, know- ing, as above stated, that an attack had been for two days probable and the Confederates were within 13 miles of his front. Yet on the morning of the 6th, after the opening of the attack, he wrote Buell that he had expected the at- tack on the 7th or Sth April. (Badeau, page 75.)
5th. On the afternoon of the 5th April he also told Nel- son that though he would not be expected to march before Thursday, April 10, yet if wanted boats would be sent down for him. When the attack commenced, 7 A. M. April 6th, he ordered Nelson up by land over what he considered to be a road impassable on account of high water. (See Badeau, pages 67, 73, and 75.)
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