USA > Ohio > Four years in the saddle. History of the First Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865 > Part 16
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fired a volley, to see a half dozen running away, and the excited trooper would sink his spurs into the sides of his frightened horse in his frantic efforts to stick to his saddle, and this would only tend to increase the speed of the flying charger and the result usually was, that the trooper landed on the ground in the first heat.
There were many laughable incidents of this kind happen- ing every day during our drills at Nashville. On the third day of May the regiment took up the line of march for the front and joined the balance of the brigade under command of Colonel Long at Columbia, Tenn., on the fourth, and went into camp. The regiment remained in camp at Columbia, doing guard and picket duty, and drilling three or four times each day, until the twenty-second of May. The regiment and brigade were better mounted, better armed and equipped, and better drilled than ever before, and when the order was received to march to the front, it was greeted with a shout of joy as every good soldier was ready and anxious to take the field. The brigade left Co- lumbia on the Pulaski Pike on the morning of the twenty-second in high spirits, as it was a beautiful day, and all realized that we were again off for the front. The brigade marched through Pulaski and Athens, and arrived at Decatur, Ala., on the twenty-sixth, crossed the Tennessee River on a pontoon bridge, and joined the Seventeenth Army Corps, also on the march from Memphis, Tenn., to join Sherman's Army. The regiment reached Decatur about noon, and went into camp near the town, which had a garrison of two or three regiments, and the Ninth Ohio Cavalry was stationed here. About three o'clock P. M. there was an alarm at the outpost and the First was called to horse and ordered to make a reconnoissance to the west toward Courtland. Reaching the pickets of the Ninth Ohio Cavalry, it was learned that there had been some picket firing, and the regi- ment moved rapidly out on the Courtland road, and soon struck the enemy's cavalry, driving them pell-mell, capturing twenty prisoners, several wagons, twenty-five mules, and Corporal Samuel Darrah, of Company K., capturing the flag of the Seventh Alabama Cavalry of Roddy's brigade. After driving the enemy about three miles the regiment returned to camp at Decatur.
On the morning of the twenty-seventh the brigade moved out on the Courtland road, and struck Roddy's Cavalry four or five miles from Decatur. After a sharp skirmish the brigade routed them and drove them back slowly all day, reaching Court- land, twenty-five miles distant, about 9 P. M. Our recollections of Courtland were not very pleasant, as about twenty-five men of Companies E and K had been taken prisoners there July 25, 1862. An old planter by the name of Bynum had piloted the Confederate Cavalry under General Armstrong into the camp on that occasion, and the boys of Companies E and K deter-
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mined to even up on the old man, as he had made great pretense of being loyal when we were camped on his grounds in 1862. Company K marched up to his house the night we entered Court- land, and soon relieved him of many surplus hams with corn and other forage, and then bivouacked on the identical ground they were encamped on in 1862. The colored folks recognized the boys of the regiment, and were soon busy assisting the boys to the best the plantation afforded, and danced in great glee. The old planter was in a great rage and complained to General Long the next morning, and Lieutenant Curry, who had been prominent in the foraging expedition, as he had been taken prisoner here, was summoned before the General, and after an explanation of Bynum's treachery in assisting in the capture of the detachment of the regiment in 1862, Bynum was dismissed very curtly with an admonition to go and "sin no more." B. F. Lucas, of Company K, was killed here in 1862 and buried near the camp, and some of the boys made a search for his grave, but it could not be found as the hogs had rooted up the ground and the head-board that marked his lonely grave had been knocked down by the stock or carried away. On the morning of the twenty-eighth the brigade moved south on the Moulton road over the same route that about twenty-five of us unhappy pris- oners had been taken two years before, and the same brigade of cavalry, commanded by Roddy, was on our flanks and making an effort to obstruct our march. The regiment passed through Moulton and the Old Court House where we had been confined as prisoners of war had been converted into a hospital and a number of sick Confederate soldiers were sitting under the trees and about the doors. This scene brought back vividly to mem- ory the hot July days of 1862 when we were prisoners of war and the hard night march toward Tupola, Miss., and the threat of the Confederate officer in command, "that a prisoner who fell out of ranks under any pretense should be cut down." But the fortunes of war had changed the situation and we were now masters of the field. We took a grim and justified satisfaction in scowling at the citizens of this town who had greeted us with jeers and insults two years before. The brigade wheeled to the east at Moulton, and marched out about five miles on the Dan- ville Pike and bivouacked. Roddy's command made a few little dashes on the pickets in the evening, and the order was given to unsaddle, feed, water and groom the horses and then saddle again for the night, as General Long anticipated an attack early in the morning. About daybreak Sunday morning the twenty- ninth, Roddy's brigade attacked our pickets dismounted, on two sides of the camp, and the attack was so impetuous that our pickets were driven in before the brigade could be formed to resist the attack and the men were ordered to mount without gathering up their blankets or cooking utensils. The road ran
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east and west and the First was camped on the south side of the road in a piece of woods, and on the north side of the road was an open field in which the regiment formed, facing the west. The regiment had just swung into line, when it was fairly day- light, and looking across a narrow skirt of woods in our front, a rebel battery was in plain view coming into position on a piece of open ground about half a mile away. In about two minutes the battery opened up on our line with shells, and the gunners could be plainly seen in their shirt sleeves. A shell came screaming over our heads and could be distinctly seen be- fore it reached our line and tore through Company H, cutting down men and horses and the leg of Charley Welches horse, the regimental saddler, was torn off, and also took Charley's boot heel. The First was ordered to dismount and move to the front across the narrow strip of wood, which movement was executed on the double-quick, and the horses were sent to the rear. When the regiment had crossed the wood, and reached the fence along the line of some old fields, the rebel skirmishers were jumping from tree to tree in an old deadening and were banging away pretty lively. Our whole line laid down behind the fence and opened up with their carbines which soon checked the rebel ad- vance in our immediate front. The shells were flying, knocking up the dirt in front of our line and the rebels were pressing our left flank by a strong dismounted column from the woods south of the road, and our line was pushed back a short distance on the left and the indications were that our left would be turned. At this critical moment a shout was heard on our right and a regiment mounted which proved to be the Third Ohio Cavalry charging the battery. This movement relieved our line and the dismounted men of the brigade dashed forward with a yell, driv- ing the rebels rapidly, capturing a number of prisoners, and Roddy's whole command soon beat a hasty retreat.
As the regiment was lying behind the fence when the fight opened, a shell from the rebel battery struck the ground about a hundred feet in front of the line and made a recochet, bounced up against the fence, and a recruit in Company K by the name of Strickler or McCormick, reached through the fence and picked the shell up, exclaiming with much delight, "Here it is, boys." There was a lively stampede by the old veterans, as they expected the shell to explode, but fortunately the fuse had gone out and no harm was done. It is safe to say that this recruit never picked up another shell during the service after he fully realized the peril he was in. Another recruit was struck on the shoulder by a spent ball, which whirled him around, and he imagined the ball had gone clear through his shoulder, and it was some moments before he could be convinced that he was not seriously wounded. We had a large number of recruits and they stood up like veterans in this, their first hot fight.
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Having driven the enemy in a regular stampede, taking thirty-five prisoners, the brigade fell back to our camp, gathered up quite a number of the enemy's wounded, including two officers. Our loss was about twenty killed and wounded, in- cluding Hanibal George, of Company K, a recruit, killed, who had only been under fire once before, and John Click, of Com- pany F, killed. The loss of the enemy must have been much larger, as they made the assault and our troops were protected by woods and fences. The new recruits thought it was a pretty lively scrap before breakfast Sunday morning, and so it was. After getting breakfast we moved east again to join the Seven- teenth Army Corps, passing through a very rough, destitute country, and struck the rear of the wagon train of that corps at Summerville on the evening of the same day. We were so delayed by their train that we did not go into camp until two o'clock in the morning, the prisoners marching all that distance on foot. Among the prisoners was a Lieutenant-Colonel of an Alabama regiment, a very jovial, good-natured gentleman, and he related the following incident, much to the amusement of the guards: He said that Roddy called his regimental com- manders together before daybreak Sunday morning, and after laying before them his plan of attack, said he "now had the First Ohio just where he wanted them and that he proposed to capture the whole regiment." "But," said the Colonel, "instead of Roddy having the First Ohio just where he wants them, it rather strikes me that regiment has got me just where I do not want to be."
The brigade marched with the Seventeenth Corps over Raccoon Mountain through "Valley Pass" and through Warren- ton, then up Sand Mountain and down "Rhodes' Pass" near Van Buren.
On the second day of June we went into camp in "Will's Valley," unsaddling the first time for four days.
June third, crossed Lookout Mountain, and near the foot of the mountain was large iron works at a place called Blue Pond. A squadron of the First Ohio, I and K, had the ad- vance, and on making inquiry of some citizen, were informed that the rebel cavalry were going to "make a stand at Blue Pond." Thereupon the advance moved very carefully. We also found hand bills, printed on brown paper, tacked to the trees along the road, headed, "Attention, Raid Repelers," and then followed a high-sounding appeal to the citizens to assemble at Blue Pond "to repel the Yankee Vandals." As we approached Blue Pond-a city of magnificent distances-a cross-road with grocery and post-office, sure enough there were the "repelers" drawn up in line, and they gave us one volley from their shot- · guns and rifles, then wheeled, and away they went on mules and farm horses. The squadron dashed forward under the spur,
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and after a chase of about a mile we were gaining so rapidly on them that they began to take to the woods, some of them leaving horses and mules in the road, and taking across the fields, and the squadron captured sixteen prisoners, and the repelers were no more forever.
As we had expected a fight and the affair turned out so , ridiculous, it was a by-word during the Atlanta campaign, that the Johnnies would make a stand at Blue Pond.
The same day we passed through Cedar Bluff, where we captured some Confederate uniforms and other stores.
ATLANTA CAMPAIGN.
June, July and August, 1864.
The following troops composed the Second Cavalry Division on the Atlanta campaign:
SECOND DIVISION.
Brigadier-General Kenner Garrard.
First Brigade. Colonel Robert H. G. Minty.
Fourth Michigan .... Lieutenant-Colonel Josiah B. Park
Seventh Pennsylvania . . .. Colonel William B. Sipes
Fourth United States. . Captain James B. McIntyre
Second Brigade.
Colonel Eli Long.
First Ohio . Colonel Beroth B. Eggleston Third Ohio .... Lieutenant-Colonel Horace N. Howland Fourth Ohio. .Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver P. Robie
Third Brigade (Mounted Infantry).
Colonel John T. Wilder.
Ninety-eighth Illinois Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Kitchell
One Hundred and Twenty-third Illinois. Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Biggs Seventeenth Indiana .. Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Jordan Seventy-second Indiana ...... Colonel Abram O. Miller
Artillery.
Chicago Board of Trade Battery ..
Lieutenant George I. Robinson Total strength Second Division (K. Garrard), 10,293, April, 1864.
Total strength Cavalry Corps, 32,485, April, 1864.
We reached Rome, Ga., on the fourth of June, where we
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struck the right of Sherman's army. On the sixth we marched to Kingston, arrived at Alatoona on the eighth, and the brigade was assigned to picket and out-post duty at once in front of Johnston's army.
This was a poor and barren country and forage was very scarce; this soon began to tell very seriously on our mounts, and we were compelled to graze and feed sparingly of wheat, which was just ripening.
We held our camp near Alatoona until the fifteenth and had some skirmishing daily. On the afternoon of the fifteenth the brigade advanced on the extreme left of the army and made an attack, dismounted, on the enemy's lines at Noon Day Creek, driving them back more than a mile and into their works, and bere we had a severe engagement, losing about twenty men, killed and wounded. The enemy held the works, and after about one hour the brigade fell back and mounted in some old fields. Here a rebel battery got range on our lines and the shells came rattling down very uncomfortably, killing and wounding several men of the regiment, and we were soon ordered back into the woods and erected barricades of rails and logs. Among the killed was Jerry Griffith, Company K, and Jacob Hendershot, Company H, and among the wounded was Captain Pickering, Company F, John Shultz, Company K, Henry H. Myers, Com- pany G, killed, and Jarratt Johnson, Company H, leg torn off by a shell. Just as Johnson was wounded, the regiment was or- dered to fall back into the woods, and when he saw the movement of the regiment he was lying down against a high paling fence in rear of our line, he immediately grasped the fence and com- menced hopping and pulling his mangled limb along on the ground. He plead with his comrades not to leave him, but under the strict orders then in force, no officer or soldier in the ranks was allowed to fall out to care for a wounded soldier, as General Sherman had said, in issuing this order: "First whip the enemy, and then your wounded are safe." After we fell back into the woods a detail from Company HI went back and carried Johnson to the ambulance. His leg was amputated, and he now lives at New Market, Ohio.
We lay in line of battle all night, holding our horses, and on the afternoon of the sixteenth moved to the right, had some skirmishing dismounted, throwing up barricades again. We unsaddled, but as there was heavy cannonading still upon our right, we were ordered to saddle and stood to horse during most of the night.
We lay in our breast-works all day of the seventeenth, with some skirmishing in our front and a continuous artillery duel between a battery just at our right and a rebel battery in our front, at a range of about two miles, and the shells were drop- ping around uncomfortably near us all day.
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We lay in line all day of the eighteenth and had some skirm- ishing. Heavy fighting on the right and the rebel batteries on Kenesaw Mountain pounded away steadily all day and on into the night. It was a grand sight after night to see the shells exploding, the guns flashing and the signal rockets from both armios.
On the nineteenth our whole division moved to the front and attacked the enemy, driving them into their works across Noon Day Creek. We held our position and lay in line all night. In the morning again attacked the enemy and had a severe fight, and our loss on the twentieth and twenty-first in the division was sixty-five. Attacked the enemy again on the twenty-second and drove them back with considerable loss.
The First was on picket duty on the twenty-third, and in the afternoon the whole division moved up and our pickets were advanced by order of General Garrard, with orders to watch the movements of the enemy very closely, as their pickets were in plain view. In a short time there seemed to be an unusual commotion along the rebel line as mounted men were dashing back and forth, and the General was informed of the move- ment. In a few moments a dismounted column emerged from a piece of woods in our front on double-quick in column of fours, marching parallel to our line, until a regiment or two was in sight, then wheeled into line and with a yell charged down the hill toward a little creek about half way between the two lines. Our whole division was lying in line dismounted, and at the command they raised up, rushed forward with a yell, opened up with their carbines, and the volleys were deafening for a few minutes. By this time the rebel line had reached the creek and was well sheltered by timber, but volley after volley was poured into them. At this time the Seventeenth Army Corps was advancing on our right, but they had not yet struck the rebel line. General Frank Blair, commander of the Seventeenth Corps, was on the left of his line, and he ordered up a battery, and, under his direction, they opened up on the enemy. Company K, of the First, was on picket and were just falling back to the main line when the battery came up, and the company, being right in front of the battery, was ordered to lie down, and the battery fired over them for several minutes. It was a perilous position, as they were firing very rapidly and there was great danger of the shells exploding soon after leaving the guns. When the boys would look back over their shoulders and see the red flames belching forth from the mouths of the guns, they would then hug the ground a little closer. The rebel advance was soon checked, and we lay in line all night. The next day. the rebels asked for an armistice to allow them to bury their dead and care for the wounded. Loss in the division, forty killed and wounded.
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From the twenty-fourth of June until the evening of the sec- ond of July we lay on the extreme left of the army and were on picket or skirmishing continuously. During all of this time, day and night, the batteries from both armies were pounding away. The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought June 27th. and in fact the firing was so heavy that it seemed the whole earth was in a tremble all the time. About nine o'clock P. M. of the second, we moved to the right and had a tedious night march, winding around among the breastworks - long to be remembered by the regiment. At daybreak of the third we found ourselves direct west from Kennesaw, but instead of the white puffs of smoke rising up from near the lone tree on top of the mountain from the rebel battery as usual, we only saw the bare mountain, gleaming in the hot sunshine that quiet Sunday morning, for Johnson's army had evacuated and were crossing the Chattahoochie.
Headquarters Cavalry Division, July 5, 1864. Captain Dayton, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General:
Captain: I have to report for the information of the Major- General commanding that my command is camped on the Wil- leyo Creek near Roswell Factory. My advance is at the Fac- tory. I will destroy all buildings. The bridge at this point · over the river is burnt by the rebels. The ford is passable; so reported by citizens. I sent a regiment to the paper-mills, burnt the paper-mills, flouring-mills and machine-shops. The citizens report the banks of the river high at Powers' Ferry and bat- teries in position on south bank. They had a pontoon bridge K. GARRARD,
at Pace's Ferry, a few miles below, where a portion of their army crossed.
Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.
July 6, 1864.
There were some fine factories here, one woolen factory, capacity 30,000 yards a month, and has furnished up to within a few weeks 15,000 yards per month to the rebel Government, the Government furnishing men and material. Capacity of cot- ton-factory, 216 looms, 191,086 yards per month, and 51,666 pounds of thread, and 4,229 pounds of cotton rope. This was worked exclusively for the rebel Government. The other cotton- factory, one mile and a half from town, I have no data concern- ing. There was six months' supply of cotton hand, over the woolen factory the French flag was flying, but seeing no Federal flag above it, I had the building burned.
The machinery of the cotton-factory cost, before the war, $400,000. The superintendent estimates that it alone was worth, with its material, etc., when burnt, over a million of our money.
K. GARRARD.
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Chattahoocheely 7, 1864.
General Garrard, Roswell, Ga .:
General: Your report is received and is most acceptable. I had no idea that the factories at Roswell remained in opera- tion, but supposed the machinery had all been removed. Their utter destruction is right and meets my entire approval, and to make the matter complete you will arrest the owners and em- ployes and send them, under guard, charged with treason, to Marietta, and I will see to any man in America hoisting the French flag and then devoting his labor and capital in supplying armies in open hostility to our government, and claiming the benefit of his neutral flag. Should you, under the impulse of anger, natural at contemplating such perfidy, hang the wretch, I approve the act beforehand.
I do wish to inspire all cavalry with my conviction that caution and prudence should be but a very small element in their characters.
I am, with respect, yours truly, W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General Commanding.
We moved into Marietta on the fourth. On the fifth we marched to the left and burned a large paper mill, and on the sixth burned a large cotton factory at Roswell, employing eight hundred hands. The manager raised the French flag and claimed protection, but the game would not work and the torch was applied. The enemy burned the bridge across the Chatta- hoochie at this point and our army could not cross until the bridge was rebuilt.
The Army of the Tennesse moved up to Roswell and in a few days erected a bridge out of round poles and logs, and on the tenth some of the infantry commenced cross- ing the river. Their immense wagon trains were left on the north side of the river and as we were on the extreme left flank, their trains were in great peril and we were kept constantly on the alert watching the movements of the enemy to keep their cavalry at a safe distance from the trains.
From the sixth to the twenty-sixth of July we were en- camped in the vicinity of Roswell, scouting, foraging and guard- ing the fords along the river, and had a number of skirmishes with the enemy's cavalry. On the twenty-sixth the brigade moved down the river and crossed, and on the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth, thirtieth and thirty-first we were at Marietta, and on the first of August we marched to Buckhead, so named on account of five roads branching off from this point. There was no town here, but a miserable country, and about three and a half miles northeast from Atlanta.
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On the twenty-seventh two brigades of the Second Cavalry division made a raid toward Covington and Stone Mountain and had a severe engagement at Flat Rock, in which the regiment did not participate, as it was on the march from Roswell down the river.
The brigade was in camp at Buckhead from August 1st to the eighteenth, but made a number of scouts and were on out- post duty almost all the time, watching the movements of the enemy on the left flank; on the ninth advanced to Decatur and attacked the enemy, driving them about two miles, capturing a number of prisoners.
Again on the fifteenth the brigade made a reconnoissance and developed the enemy in strong force and had a severe en- gagement again, driving them from the field.
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Kilpatrick's Raid Around Atlanta.
On the evening of the seventeenth the Brigade was ordered to report to General Kilpatrick on the extreme right of our army at Sandtown by daylight the next morning. After draw- ing five days' rations, we were saddled and mounted by mid- night, marched down the Chattahoochie in rear of our army and reached Sandtown early in the morning of the eighteenth. We went into bivouac, watered, fed and groomed our horses and were ordered to take all the rest we could possibly get dur- ing the day. The weather was very hot, the flies and insects were swarming and the surroundings were anything but invit- ing for a good day's rest. The night march had been tedious and tiresome and from sheer exhaustion the men slept some, not- withstanding heat, dust and insects. About five o'clock P. M. we were ordered to feed and water our horses and get supper, and be ready to saddle in an hour. By sundown we were again in the saddle and our Brigade was formed in an open field. An order was read, stating that we had been "selected as the last hope of the commanding General to cut the enemy's communica- tion, and we must go forth with the determination to do or die."
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