USA > Ohio > Historical sketch of the 56th Ohio volunteer infantry during the great Civil War from 1861 to 1866 > Part 4
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The Fifty-sixth Ohio was formed with the right on the road. On our left was the Twenty-eighth Iowa, on our right the Twenty- fourth Iowa, and to their right the Forty-seventh Indiana. The little while we lay in that open field, facing the dark woods, with the whistling bullets coming thick and fast from an unseen foe, was a trying time to all of us. Captain John Cook of Company K now came up to the line. He had been too ill to march with his company, and, as he appeared rather weak to take part in the expected conflict, Captain Williams urged him to retire to the rear, but, with determination, he replied: "I am going in with my boys if it is the last thing I ever do." He went in with his
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company, and soon received a mortal wound, of which he died six days later. He was a brave and gallant man, and his death was a great loss to the regiment.
Our skirmishers were soon deployed and moved forward. How intently we watched them as they entered the timber and dis- appeared from our view, many of them forever. It was but an instant until there came the crash of thousands of muskets. The . bullets fell thick and fast all about us. In a few moments, "For- ward!" was the order; and the regiment entered the dark woods in the footsteps of our skirmishers. We found they had not advanced far, as the enemy was there in force, and their fire was heavy and hot from the start. Under this fire two brothers, William Bass, Company A, and Byron Bass of Company H, were killed within a moment of each other. The crash of musketry and the boom of artillery were deafening and continual. The memory of those four dreadful hours in that terrible orchestra of death is indelibly fixed in the memory of every comrade who was pres- ent, and often in these later years we go back in memory to the din and horrid uproar that seemed to rend and split the air, and neither time nor distance can efface from memory that thrilling battle scene.
We met a stubborn resistance from the very start, and I give the gray clad veterans of the Confederacy due credit for the dauntless spirit that inspired them on this field of death. Every foot of ground forward we had to fight for. We drove them, step by step, in our front to a long cornfield on top of the hill, which was surrounded with timber on all sides.
From here they fell back rapidly to the west side of the field, to where the road from Raymond entered the road we were on. Here from behind a strong rail fence they poured into us a deadly fire. After entering the field a short distance the first of Com- pany C, Henry Richards, fell in death, shot through the brain, and all along the line men were being shot; some killed outright, others wounded more or less seriously. But there was no halt.
"Forward!" was the command. When we were about two- thirds of the way across the field, as we halted to give them a
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CORPORAL DAVID EVANS See page 138
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volley, my brother, John H. Williams, was shot through the heart. He was raising his musket to take aim, and as he fell in death he pitched his musket toward the enemy. It fell with the bayonet stuck in the ground, the stock standing up. Captain Williams sprang forward, grasped the musket, and gave the enemy its con- tents. I saw my brother fall, there being but one man between us in the front rank of the company. I stopped for a moment at his side, hoping he was not seriously hurt, but he never moved. The fatal bullet, like a flash of lightning, had blotted out his life.
There was no stop. One comrade had his arm shot off, and others in the company and many more in the regiment were being hit. But there was no halt; and, closing up our ranks, we pressed on, giving careful attention to every shot fired. We drove them in our front to and beyond the road from Raymond, and it was a sight to see the rebels falling back and casting away their blankets and other impediments as far as we could see on our left.
Our brigade captured the Virginia Battery at the junction of the roads. The enemy fought their guns until most of them were killed or disabled. For a short time there was a lull in the firing in our immediate front, and, by permission of Captain Williams, I returned to my brother's body, as I thought it would be my only chance. I secured his watch and the other trinkets he had, straightened him out and spread his rubber blanket over him. The blanket was folded across his shoulder, and was perforated through the several folds by the ball that took his life.
The enemy's fire began to increase on our left front, and, on my return to the company, Colonel Raynor asked me to go to the commanding officer of the Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry, and re- quest him to bring his regiment up in line with the Fifty-sixth Ohio. The Twenty-eighth halted in a ravine near the cen- ter of the field, but they did not comply with the request. The bullets came thick and fast, and I moved at a double-quick gait in the performance of this duty. On returning to the line, from our position we could see the enemy forming to attack us. The woods in our front were open with a gradual slope toward them, and with their skirmishers well in advance and their forces in two
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lines of battle, they charged our force at the fence. As soon as they were in range, those of the regiment who were on their feet opened fire on them. Most of the regiment at this time were lying down behind the fence, and they called from along the line to stop firing, that we were shooting at our own men. But we paid no attention to them, as we knew better. Captain Williams, who was near, said: "Boys, you would better stop, they may be our men." Corporal David Evans said: "Captain, take a look at them." One glance was enough. "Up, boys, and give them hades!" was the command. In a moment the whole regiment was giving them a close and hot fire. Their line overlapped ours as far as could be seen on our left. The open timber in our front gave us a good view of them as they came on. From tree to tree, or any other shelter, sprang their skirmishers until some of them were just across the road from us, and one had dropped behind a rail cut that `I could reach with my musket. Their first line under the withering fire we were giving them from our strong position at the fence bore off to our right and left.
On our right the Twenty-fourth Iowa, being in open timber, was driven back after the most desperate fighting. Our right being unprotected, and having no support on our left, our regi- ment was forced to leave the fence, for which the enemy made a rush. In a moment we were under a most scorching fire from two or three sides, from which our men fell thick and fast.
I witnessed the instant death of two of our gallant young officers, Lieutenant Geo. W. Mauring of Company A and Lieuten- ant Augustus S. Chute of Company D. In their death the regi- ment lost two of its most promising officers. Loading and firing, we fell back unwillingly, but at no time did we turn our backs to the foe. At every favorable place we would halt and give them a few rounds. At one point, while we were shooting from the same stump, Richard Davis of Company C fell dead across my feet, shot through the heart. He had just urged me to be more careful, or they would shoot me. One glance satisfied me that he was beyond any earthly help. Before I left this point, a general officer of the enemy and his staff rode up in the road in our front, urging
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his men on. I took deliberate aim at him with my Enfield, which never snapped twice on the same load. This, in all probability, was the rebel General Tilghman and staff. The General was killed at this spot.
As we neared the fence on our retreat, the fire was terrific. As I turned to fire, my musket being about at prime, a bullet from the enemy struck the barrel of my musket, the ball exploding. Four small pieces were buried in the back of my hand, and several more in the stock of my Enfield. My musket proved to be in the right place to save me from the fate of my fallen comrades. At this time the screeching shells and the sound of crashing musketry, and the shouts of the contestants, was a sound to hear once in a lifetime, and remember to eternity. One of our boys had his can- teen and haversack straps cut off by bullets. Comrade Wm. D. Davis had the top of his cap shot off of his head, and another had the side of his trousers cut off below the knee by pieces of shells that were bursting in our midst. They made a charge for our flag, but Captain Yochem saw the danger and led a counter charge, and they were repulsed. The troops on our right were being forced slowly back, and the enemy was getting in our rear at the fence on the east side.
Near this fence I stopped to help Corporal Thomas S. Jones, who was shot through the leg, to the shelter of some brush. While doing this their advance made a rush for me, halted me, called me hard names, and were nearly close enough to lay hold of me, but. I hoped to see them later on, and under better conditions for myself. The comrades who were there can never forget the des- perate and deadly work from that on. How we contested for those little ridges; how we clung to every tree, stump and log. If there were any stragglers they were gone to the rear, and it could be seen in the determined face of every com- rade the resolve, that if mortal man could hold that battle line, they were the ones to do so. Shells were bursting in our midst, with falling branches from the trees, and flying brush that was being cut down. It was strange that any of us escaped. A piece of shell knocked Captain Williams down. I assisted to take him
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to the road nearby. There I saw Generals Grant and McPherson, also Fred Grant, up near the battle line.
Our ammunition was getting low, and we were supplied by staff officers and others bringing it up to the line. A shell struck Corporal David Evans of Company C, and tore a terrible gash in his breast. He was a man of fine physical frame, but from the effects of this wound he died July 14, 1863. He was the comrade that captured the flag at Port Gibson on May 1, 1863.
From this point the enemy failed to drive us, and soon a bri- gade of General Crocker's division came to our support. As this reinforcement came up to the decimated remnant of our brigade holding that line, the commanding officer requested an officer near me to have those stragglers fall in on the left of his brigade. The officer addressed, with uplifted voice replied: "These are the men who have fought this battle. There are no stragglers here." The gallant officer, as he looked at our powder blackened faces, took off his hat and said: "I beg your pardon. True enough, there are no stragglers on this line."
In a short time we began to drive them back over the same ground, the third time for us to go over it. The enemy toward the last fell back rapidly, fresher troops following them.
General Grant, in his Memoirs, Vol. 1, page 520, says: "Hovey remained on the field where his troops had fought so bravely and bled so freely." He also says: "Hovey captured 300 prisoners under fire, and about 700 in all, exclusive of 500 sick and wounded, whom he paroled." Also, on page 519, he says: "Hovey alone lost more than one-third of his division," and, on the same page, he says: "Hovey was bearing the brunt of the battle." And on page 518 he says: "The battle of Champion's Hill lasted about four hours of hard fighting, preceded by two or three hours of skirm- ishing, some of which almost rose to the dignity of battle. Every man of Hovey's division and of McPherson's two divisions were engaged during the battle. No other part of my command was engaged at all."
The regiment lost a total of 138 killed, wounded and missing.
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JOHN H. WILLIAMS, CO. C See page 138
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It is proper here to give the names of our comrades who, as a part of the young manhood of the United States, fought and died as soldiers never did before, and vindicated the right of liberty to continue to the end of time. That they were the choice spirits of the regiment, all will admit. The killed were: Lieutenant Geo. W. Manring, William Bass, W. R. Allen, John Hoffman, Edward Hollenback, Michael Rifflemacher, Henry Richards, John H. Wil- liams, Richard Davis, Lieutenant Augustus S. Chute, Luke Clifford, Thomas B. Dodds, Turner Eaton, George Rife, Clement D. Hub- bard, Martin Downey, M. Freeland, Henry H. McGowan, Wm. F. Porter, Samuel B. Quartz, Byron Bass, Wm. J. Marshall.
The mortally wounded were: A. M. Martindale, David Evans, Wm. Crabtree, Henry H. Lewis, David A. Loveland, John E. Veach, Henry Martin, Archibald George, Wm. Jones, John D. Markell, Geo. W. Rockwell, James Fields, Charles W. Hill, Duncan Mc- Kenzie, James D. Boren, Merit Campbell, George Irvine, James Martin and Captain John Cook.
Also the following were wounded more or less severely: Col- onel W. H. Raynor, Captain Geor. Wilhelm, wounded and cap- tured, turned on his guard and brought him into our line; Captain W. B. Williams, Lieutenant Martin Owens, Lieutenant J. A. Ale- shire, T. Harkison, Martin G. Allen, Chas. Blosser, L. C. Chappell, Jarvis Coply, Elias Johnson, Wm. D. Jones, Wm. T. Saxton, Fred Held, Geo. Emling, Geo. Meisner, Henry Meyer, L. D. Davis, Thos. D. Davis, Thos. S. Jones, Wm. Edwards, S. Dalrymple, E. E. Ed- wards, Henry Nolte, David Edwards, Joshua Lewis, Thos. J. Wil- liams, Edward Goudy, Daniel Thomas, James Anderson, John Barr, James Odle, Reason Furgeson, Rees Griffith, Daniel Wil- liams, James M. Pease, George W. Cox, Jasper Font, Joel Burnett. F. M. Seth, Wesley Murphy, John Shaw, Jos. Davidson, Lawrence Hahn, James W. Pauley, Martin Powers, Adam Siemon and Joseph Vanfleet, and a number more were captured and missing out of a few over three hundred in ranks.
We went into camp at the right of the Vicksburg road on the enemy's side of the battlefield, powder stained, tired and hungry. That was one day at least that the important matter of dinner was
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forgotten, and our supper was a light one. Shortly after dark Lieutenant Roberts, Evan Edwards, A. S. Drennan and Wm. D. Davis of Company C went back with me to give the boys of our company some sort of a burial. . We made a torch, and by its light saw some of the awful sights of that desperate battlefield. One, always remembered, was a very large and tall rebel, stiff in death, sitting with his back against a tree; with deadly pallor he seemed to gaze at the horrors before him, and so many lying dead as they fell, friend and foe alike. We soon found our dead com- rades. We were without tools of any kind, but a kind hearted comrade, one of the pioneer corps, who was passing, learned our needs and gave us his shovel. With this we soon prepared a grave, and side by side laid our comrades of Company C, their shrouds being their old rubber blankets. The same work was being done by comrades of the other companies; and the remains of comrades who fell there now moulder in the unknown graves of the largest National cemetery in the United States, at Vicksburg.
The dreadful sights on that bloody ground can never be for- gotten. Where our brigade charged the enemy's battery at the junction of the roads the dead men and horses were in piles, as they were before our first brigade.
In 1895, in Jackson, Ohio, a stranger, in appearance a grizzled veteran, inquired of me if I had written a sketch of this battle, which he had read in the Standard-Journal, our county paper. I informed him that I had. "Well," said he, "you gave a fair description of the conflict, as I was there, but not on your side, but a member of the battery at the junction of the road that your men charged." For our work in this battle history gives us high honor, so we need not be silent. Hovey's Twelfth Division, Thirteenth Army Corps, out of 4,180 men, lost: Killed 211, wounded 872 and missing 119; total 1,202.
General Grant says he had about 15,000 men engaged. Gen- eral Pemberton, commanding the enemy, admits he had 18,000 men. Abrams, a Confederate authority, gave him from 23,000 to 25,000 men. "Ohio in the War," says: "The battle of Champion's Hill sealed the doom of Vicksburg." The Count of Paris, in his
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History of the Civil War in America, styles Champion's Hill "the hill of death," adding that it (the battle) was the most complete defeat the Confederates had sustained since the commencemen c of the war.
Harper's History of the Great Rebellion has this to say of Champion's Hill: "When the order came, ordering forward, the left and center, the right under Hovey, had been contending for nearly two hours against superior numbers. Hovey's division of two brigades, nine small regiments, bore the brunt of the whole conflict. Directly in his front was the Confederate General Stev- enson's division, composed of four brigades, posted in a strong position on Champion's Hill. He (Hovey) had been repulsed, leaving behind 11 guns captured from the enemy; but his men, un- daunted and under cover of a heavy artillery fire, again advanced and carried the closely contested field."
General Hovey in his report speaks in these words: "I can not think of this bloody hill without sadness and pride. Sadness for the great loss of my true and gallant men; pride for the heroic bravery they displayed. It was, after the conflict, literally the hill of death; men, horses, cannon and the debris of an army lay scattered in wild confusion; hundreds of the gallant Twelfth Divi- sion were cold in death or writhing in pain, and, with a large number of Crocker's gallant boys, lay dead, dying or wounded, intermingled with our fallen foe. I never saw fighting like this. The loss of my division on this field was nearly one-third of my forces engaged."
General Hovey mentions the troops in these words: "Of the Twenty-ninth Wisconsin, Twenty-fourth and Twenty-eighth Iowa, in what words of praise shall I speak? Not more than six months in the service, their record will compare with the oldest and best tried regiments in the field. All honor is due to their gallant officers and men, and Colonels Gill, Bryan and Connell have my thanks for the skill with which they handled their respective com- mands and for the fortitude, endurance and bravery displayed by their gallent men. It is useless to speak in praise of the Eleventh, Twenty-fourth, Thirty-fourth, Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh Indi-
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ana and Fifty-sixth Ohio. They have won laurels on many fields, and not only their country will praise, but posterity will be proud to claim kinship with the privates in the ranks. They have a his- tory that Colonel Macauley, Colonel Spicely, Colonel Cameron, Colonel Bringhurst, Lieutenant Colonel Mclaughlin and Colonel Raynor and their children will be proud to read.", No battle of the Civil War can show a finer display of the valor and staying qualities of the Union volunteer than did Champion's Hill. An hour on that awful field was equal to years of ordinary time. But eight other Ohio regiments lost a larger number of men in any one engagement than did the Fifty-sixth Ohio at Champion's Hill. No battle fought for the preservation of the Union was more im- portant and successful than Champion's Hill. At that time the country, discouraged under the disasters of the previous fall and winter, felt that the very existence of the great republic was in peril. The previous year had been one of mistakes and disasters in the department of war and in the field. The winter had been hard, and extremely so, to the troops in the southwest. At Helena and Milliken's Bend hundreds had died of fevers and other diseases so common in that swampy region. The drums beating the dead march, and the volleys of musketry over the graves of our comrades were too often heard, and in the homes of the North fell with crush- ing effect upon the hearts of the people. But from this memorable day there seemed no more doubt as to the final success of the Union cause, though the time was long thereafter and the conflicts many and terrible before the end was reached.
The Twelfth Division of the Thirteenth Corps leading, on that eventful May 16, with Logan's and Crocker's divisions of the Ser- enteenth Corps, met and crushed the Confederate army, one of the most complete and disastrous defeats of the war for the Union; and from this time, until the enemy lay down their arms at Appo- mattox, the safety of the Union seemed assured.
To understand the importance of this battle, it is necessary to remember that it is a matter of record that the rebel General Pendleton had under his command and ready to support him about 82,000 men at the time our forces crossed the Mississippi river at
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Bruinsburg; 60,000 of them were at Grand Gulf, Vicksburg and Jackson, and the rest of his forces at nearby points, all within easy supporting distance; and it is also a fact that General Grant had up to and including Champion's Hill only about 40,000 men.
The records show that General Pemberton had with him in the battle of Champion's Hill eighty regiments of infantry and ten batteries, in all fully 25,000 men. The enemy on their own chosen field were most disastrously defeated .by an inferior force. And as a result of that defeat they left behind thirty pieces of artillery, 10,000 stands of small arms, and other war material, over 3,100 dead and wounded and over 3,000 prisoners.
General Grant himself asserts that, leaving out the divisions on the left, that virtually took no part in the battle, we had less than 15,000 actually engaged.
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CHAPTER VII.
THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG AND JACKSON-ON TO NATCHEZ AND NEW ORLEANS.
On May 17 our division moved up to Edward's Depot. The only stand made by General Pemberton's demoralized army was at the crossing of the Big Black river. Here it was found by Osterhaus' and Carr's divisions of the Thirteenth Corps on the 17th strongly posted on both sides of the river. At this point, on the west bank-the main position of the enemy-bluffs extended to the water's edge. On the east bank there is an open bottom a mile wide, surrounded by a stagnant bayou two or three feet in depth and from ten to twenty in width. Behind this bayou the enemy had thrown up rifle-pits. A charge was made by our troops. Not a shot was fired by the gallant assailants until they had crossed the bayou. They then poured in a volley, and, without reloading, swept on with fixed bayonets, and the position was hastily aban- doned by the Confederates, leaving in their works eighteen guns, 1,751 prisoners, and large quantities of small arms and stores.
We moved up and reached Black river on the 19th. On the 20th we were sent to Bridgeport, and returned the next day. May 22 we marched up to the line of investment around Vicksburg. We were quartered a short distance in the rear of our trenches, and in close range of musket balls. Shells and round shot were too frequent callers. On May 23 the regiment was in the trenches and had an exceedingly hot time of it. The regiment was on duty every day, on guard in the rifle-pits or digging in the trenches. There was hardly a man who did not have many narrow and won- derful escapes. It was a common thing to have a ball shot through one's hat or clothing. In the rifle-pits we fired from fifty to sev- enty rounds a day, and death lurked on every hand, whether on or
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off duty. Comrade Noah Starcher of Company E was mortally wounded by a musket ball while lying sick on a hospital cot in the regimental hospital, which was quite a distance in the rear of where the regiment was quartered for forty-two days and nights.
This same duty in kind continued until July 3, 1863. On that day Company C was at the head of the trench about thirty feet from one of their forts. A rebel sharpshooter grazed my ear, and about the last cannon they fired, on that part of the line at least, was at our company. We could see they were up to something more than usual, and we watched their port-holes so closely that it was unsafe for them to fire a gun. But they did take the risk and fired a load of grape and canister into the head of our trench, knocking over the gabions we had at the head of the trench and covering several of us with dirt and rubbish. Some of the boys thought we were killed, but none of us was seriously injured. July 4, 1863, dawned bright and gloriously, a day of sacred mem- ories to all who love liberty and freedom, and increasingly so to the Union army before Vicksburg, for, after a most heroic defense, the Confederate General Pemberton surrendered to General Grant his army of 31,600 men, together with 172 cannons, about 60,000 muskets and a large amount of ammunition, it being the largest army ever captured or surrendered on the western hemisphere, or in any part of the world in modern times.
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