USA > Ohio > History One hundred and eleventh regiment O. V. I > Part 4
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Since the flood, those woods never had echoed to such an orchestra, each musician holding a corner on the double drag. A moment later a sheet of flame sprang out from the rifles of one side, answered instantly by the other. Then came the basso profundo of Napoleon's, Rodman's Parrot's, Howitzer's and all. The air was all ablaze with burning fuzes as the shells flew back and forth from line to line, weaving into the warp of that web of night, strands of gold from shuttels, that flew faster than bad tidings. Volley after volley chased each other across the belt of darkness ; front rank and rear rauk, alternating as fast as cartridges could be bitten and balls rammed home. Lost Mountain caught the crash and roar of this
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HISTORY 111TH REGIMENT
fifteen miles of battle, and Kenesaw resentfully threw back its echoes. . It was the old comedy of "much ado about nothing," though Shakespeare never dreamed of such an interpretation of it. For scenic grandeur the old play never approached the new.
Our right wing had a severe engagement at New Hope Church. McPherson moved on to Dallas, and in the act of closing up on Thomas at his left, was struck a stinging blow. Howard was also repulsed in an attempt to advance his lines.
The 23rd Army Corps was then given the duty of turning Johnston's right wing. Stoneman's cavalry were covering our lett. We proceeded to feel our way through the woods toward the rail- road, making a few miles nearly every day, fighting our way from woods to fields and fields to woods again, the rebel shells cutting off branches of trees above us, and exploding, sent the humming frag- ments through our ranks.
We forced Johnston to abandon Altoona and fall back on Ack- worth. From Aekworth on the 4th of June, he again fell back and our army occupied the railroad at that point. We then moved on to Big Shantee. The rebels had taken up a new line with their right on Kenesaw, their left on Lost Mountain, holding Pine Moun- tain farther to the front. This gave them a position with their right so far retired, that it was impossible to reach it without uncovering the roads by which we had approached from the Etowa. Then again commenced the business of hunting for the intermediate lines of the enemy's new position, in which all of the army participated. There was always an advance line to drive in, and a main line to be careful in the business of assaulting. The enemy and his works were usually so hidden in dense underbrush, as not to be seen until within pistol shot.
The rebels held Pine Mountain until they drew the fire of our artillery, when a shell from Knapp's battery killed General Polk. Then they abandoned the position and readjusted their line farther to the south in the center, but with the two wings remaining on Lost Mountain and Kenesaw.
We had been drawn from the left of our line to the extreme right and moved up confronting Lost Mountain.
Heavy rains had now set in and we were in the mud without opportunity or conveniences for washing. We had found it necess- ary to make details who were sent to the rear to do the cooking,
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and when we found time between engagements the cooks would bring food to the front. Our skirmishers under command of Major Norris, pushed the rebel skirmish line back to the base of Lost Mountain, where, finding themselves enveloped in a semi-circle of rifle pits, they were obliged to disregard Colonel Bond's orders to advance farther.
The contract before them was a heavy one for a double line of battle. They intrenched themselves so near the rebel line that they could only be supplied with food and water after dark.
About the 19th of June, we charged up Lost Mountain and took the intrenched line on the summit. The rebel General Jones' cavalry brigade having started to a place of greater safety, just before we reached the crest.
The boys of our regiment and the 13th Kentucky had been baffled so long by the stubborn resistance at this point, that they determined to do a little campaigning on their own hook, while the enemy had their feet above ground. Our skirmish line under com- mand of Major --- , of the 13th, who in his shirt sleeves with a club his only weapon, and riding his mule, plunged into the woods at a double quick upon the southern slope of the mountain. The regiments of the brigade in line of battle followed "pell mell." The rattle of the rifles of the skirmishers led us, and though it was im- possible to keep our lines, we went all the faster. In a few minutes we had the rebels in the valley below, where a belt of cleared plan- tations exposed them to our fire. The fences and plowed fields retarded their flight; the gallant line with the Major in advance, were planting their bullets where they would do the most good, and rapidly closing the gap between them. The enemy had been press- ed so hard, that many of them had not found time to mount, and were running afoot with their horses in the lead.
Their mule battery was floundering along in the plowed fields ; the Major was yelling at them to halt, and so far forgot that he was commanding anyone, that he rode down upon a trooper who was leading two horses, and tapping him on the head as a reminder of his mortality, snatched the halter straps, turned the horses about and brought them back to our advancing line.
This is believed to be the only instance on record where cavalry on a retreat, have ever been overtaken by infantrymen.
The skirmishers were now planting their fire upon the rebel
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HISTORY 111TH REGIMENT
battery so rapidly, that the rebels commenced cutting loose to leave it. Then two staff officers came thundering into the main line shouting "halt! halt !" giving us per-emptory orders to about-face and march back. We had to leave the battery already as good as captured, and return to the top of the mountain. General Hascall had become fearful that he would lose his brigade, and that there would be. one brigadier general out of business.
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CHAPTER V.
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NEW HOPE CHURCH .- DALLAS .- ACKWORTH .- BIG SHANTEE .- PINE MOUNTAIN .- LOST MOUNTAIN.
'In the last chapter I have anticipated some events, which after reviewing the description, there given, reminds me that very few of us knew where we were, half of the time, during that part of the campaign, but the rebels knew where we were, and we knew where they were, because we were hearing from each other every few minutes. The tidings were not entirely to our liking, but we kept up the correspondence all the same. I mention this, as offering a precedent for the way in which I got dates and places out of position in the later part of the last chapter.
Taking up our movements from the crossing of the Etowa on the 24th day of May, we marched on the 25th to the vicinity of Burnt Hickory.
At 5 p. m. of that day, the 20th Corps met the enemy again at Pumpkinvine Creek, where they did some hard fighting, without being able to move them from their works. You remember the Colonel of an Illinois regiment who sat in the drenching rain, reclining against a pine tree. A connon ball had amputated both his legs, leaving hardly enough for stumps. Poor fellow, he turned his eyes wearily toward us as we passed, but the shock had deprived him of power to cheer us forward. Streams of wounded men flowed past us as we moved to the front, but still the dogs of war snapped their teeth and growled. The rear of a line of battle is a very uncanny place for one to go seeking enjoyment. Most men who have been there, would rather take their chances at the front.
Our Chaplain Hollington did grand, good service in the hospital during this campaign. Theoretically he should have been giving us
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HISTORY 111TH REGIMENT
sermons on Sunday. The trouble was, that Sunday never got so far south. The statute against performing common labor on Sunday was broken every seventh day. The parson could not get a congre- gation except among the boys in the rear, who, from sickness or wounds, could not get away from him.
During all that night, except for about two hours, from mid- night to 2 a. m., in the darkness and drenching rain, we moved on to the left of our front seeking Johnston's right flank.
On the morning of the 26th of June we went into position under a hot skirmish fire, on top of a ridge, with the Confederates upon a corresponding ridge, upon the other side of the valley, and, as usual, we covered our front with a light entrenchment.
By our movement we uncovered the road from Altoona to Dal- las, and thus were enabled to reach the railroad at a point south of the pass, and thus advance our base of supplies.
Here Woods' division of Howard's corps, supported by McLean's brigade of our corps, moved up and formed on our left flank, and with a right wheel endeavored to get into position upon the Confed- erate right flank. What appeared to be the Confederate flank, how- ever, was found to be only a sharp angle in his line, from which the entrenchment bore toward the east.
At a point on the Confederate line near Pickett's Mills, about a mile to the eastward of our position, Wood, supported by Johnston's division, pushed vigorously forward, supposing that his columns of attack were beyond the Confederate right, but was repulsed with severe loss. The mistake made in this and other flanking move- ments was, that the force employed was altogether insufficient for the purpose. A flanking force with only a half mile front, even if it strikes the flank of a line, can be so retarded by a heavy skirmish line, or, even by dismounted cavalry, which are habitually found on the flank of an army, that the enemy can readily throw a few brigades upon the threatened flank, from troops in lines adjacent, or in reserve, and thus break the force of the movement.
An advancing army needs a superior cavalry force, which should be required to sweep the flanks of the opposing forces clear of cavalry, so that a flank movement can be made without notice to the enemy. The troops designed for such attack should be strong enough to overwhelm a light force, or detached entrenchments which may be expected to be found upon sharply refused flanks. The
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flanking force ought to be placed in position in the night time, and required to move promptly in the morning as soon as it is light enough to clearly see it surroundings.
Stonewall Jackson's successes, were in large part, due to the overwhelming numbers, which he threw with vigor upon an exposed flank. His corps was used in these movements, as an independent army, strong and large enough to hold its position, in case of repulse, for a day's fighting if necessary, giving ample time to retrieve its mistakes, by reinforcements when advisable, or a night retreat when the object of the expedition proved hopeless.
Johnston's policy of holding on to a position as long as it was tenable, and then making a night retreat, could only be met by a very heavy demonstration on his flank, so early in the day that he would have been compelled to swing back from his entrenchments, at the place of contact, and fight in an open field, in order to hold his whole army from being driven in detail from their works.
On the 28th of May, General McPherson was under orders to swing away from our right flank, and passing to our rear make a flank attack upon the Confederate right, beyond where Woods' unsuccessful movement had been made.
While McPherson was preparing to execute this order, the Confederate commander, evidently believing that such a movement was in progress, ordered Bates' division of Hardee's Corps, to attack our extreme right. The attack, happily for us, was made before McPherson's troops left their entrenchments, and was handsomely repulsed, with about the same loss to the Confederates, as we had suffered on the other flank on the day before. During the 29th both armies were taking ground to our left. Upon our side, the purpose was to make a flank movement, and upon the rebel side, to antici - pate such a demonstration. .
During the day the Confederate charge upon our brigade, and our counter charge, as described in the last chapter, occured. Ou the night of the 29th the long range night engagement described in the last chapter took place.
During the 30th and 31st of May the situation remained practi- cally unchanged. June 1st, General Stoneman, commanding our cavalry, took position at Altoona Pass, through which the railroad runs, and the Engineer Corps proceeded to repair the railroad to
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HISTORY 111TH REGIMENT
that point, and thus enabled our Quartermaster and Commissary Departments to establish a depot of supplies near the line of active operations. The same day our corps moved further eastward, and at Altoona Creek, struck an entrenched rebel position. .
: We forded the creek and advanced as near to the rebel works as possible without committing ourselves to a general attack, and during the night entrenched.
"On the day following our left was extended by Hooker's men, further northeastward, and during the following night the Confed- erate flank in our front, pivoting on Pickett's Mills, made a left backward wheel, placing themselves in position with their right flank refused about thirty degrees, from their former line.
:4 While we occupied this line the balance of the army moved behind us taking position further and further to the east, until finally our corps became the right wing of the army instead of the left, without having changed our position.
On the 7th of June this extension of our line to the eastward reached the railroad at Ackworth, and a few days later we heard the whistle of locomotives bringing supplies to the front. : ' In the mean- time the Confederates had formed a new line near Kenesaw. On the 10th of June the whole army moved forward for the purpose of developing Johnston's new position.
A . Our left found the Confederate right at Brush Mountain, covered by the ravine through which runs Noonday Creek. The center under General Thomas, with the three corps of Palmer, Howard and Hooker, moved toward Kenesaw along the branches of Procter's Creek. Our corps also moved in a southerly direction, from near Mt. Olive Church to Gilgal, or Hard Shell Church, along Altoona Creek, which heads to the westward of Lost Mountain, and running northward becomes a branch of Pumpkinvine Creek.
: Our 1st Division followed the Sand Town Road, while our Division moved from Kemp's Mills upon the road next east of the former. General Stoneman's cavalry covered our right flank. About a mile in front of Hard Shell Church we ran against the Confederate entrenchments again, occupied by Hardee's corps. During this period drenching rains fell nearly every day and the small streams were rendered more difficult by the floods.
.It was on the 14th of June that Thomas opened an artillery . .
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fire upon a group of Confederates upon the top of Pine Mountain, and a cannon ball from his guns killed the rebel Lieutenant General Polk. Gen. Polk was a brother of James K. Polk, former president of the United States, whose plantation we afterwards visited in Middle Tennessee, while on our Columbia campaign. Polk's Corps was known during our subsequent campaigns as S. D. Lee's Corps, it being the habit of the Confederates to name their corps after the commander, instead of numbering them as we did.
On the 15th, Hooker had a sharp engagement with the enemy near Pine Mountain, carrying their advanced works, but, was repulsed by the second line. In our front we moved forward driving the enemy from their advance line, whereupon they fell back to their main line at Gilgal Church. Stoneman in the mean time, had pushed the Confederate cavalry back to Lost Mountain, where they held fast in strong entrenchments.
In this advance we captured some prisoners without much loss to ourselves.
On the 16th our Division passing to the extreme right of our line, moved up to the base of Lost Mountain, Major Norris com- manding our skirmishers in the advance. Early on the following morning we moved up the mountain and came upon the rebel entrenehments, just in time for breakfast. The charge and subse- quent run down the mountain side we described in the last chapter.
For many weeks before this time, we had been moving at such a cautious pace, that the run down Lost Mountain after those "ehival- rous sons of the South" had quickened our eirculation and our wits as well. The ludicrous positions and experiences of friend and foe were dwelt upon ; joke followed joke, up and down the line. The crack of muskets, and the boom of eannon had ceased; the long sustained tension of constant watchfulness and depressing appre- hension, was released. The "happy-go-lucky" characteristic of the veteran soldier popped up to the surface again. The rebel camp was ransacked for late papers, and the huge quarters of beef broiling over the beds of live coals, tasted all the better for having been pre- pared by the gentlemen in gray.
On the following day Pine Mountain was abandoned by the rebels and occupied by our troops. We had pressed forward steadily, developing their new line, which followed the range of wooded hills betw.en Lost Mountain and Kenesaw and weres prepared forra
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HISTORY 111TH REGIMENT.
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general attack, when the rebel left, suddenly let go of the Lost Mountain end of their line, as stated in our last chapter, and made a right backward wheel, with the left wing of the army, using the ·center of their line as a pivot, until, in their new position they faced northwest instead of north, covered by Mud Creek, running south, and Noonday Creek running northeast, both heading upon the southeast flank of Pine Mountain, the rebel center, like a kite string, hanging over the crest of Kenesaw. Their right extended across the Marietta road and their left skirting the ravine of Nose Creek, upon the easterly side, presented no real salient.
By this movement Johnston had contracted his lines and thus made his position so much the more difficult to carry than it was before. The whole country had become a network of intrench- ments. Johnston must have had fifty miles of trenches with abatis and embrasured works for batteries, ready at all times for occupa- tion, when the emergency might arise requiring him to move. We crowded them night and day, pushed them from tree to tree, from ridge to ridge, from earthwork to earthwork, across creeks and rivers, up mountains and down mountains, sometimes upon the run, but frequently returning blow for blow. The Confederates at all times, and under all circumstances, preserved their original advan- tage in position, and protection from our fire.
Our skirmishing resembled a perpetual Fourth of July, blazing night and day along the twelve miles of confronting lines. Kenesaw was Johnston's everlasting lookout, where every movement could be observed. His batteries thundered away, but did little execution, as the missles usually flew over our heads.
For three weeks we lay confronting Kenesaw. The rain fell without ceasing ; the sunken roads through the woods were mud gullies, and the cavalry and trains found it almost impossible to move the necessary supplies.
Every day the lines were advanced, first on one flank, then on the, other, the skirmishers taking advantage of the darkness to entrench themselves nearer the rebel position.
The country was full of wood-ticks, with red-bugs acting as flankers, while the main army of gray-backs were countless for their multitude.
. . 11
. In the former movement, our corps had operated upon the left of the line of advance, now we were upon the extreme right of the
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line of battle General McPherson was on our extreme left con- fronting Little Kenesaw Mountain, looking southward. General Thomas occupied the center, skirting the north and western base of Kenesaw, and lapping to the southward, while our corps, lying next to Hooker's, extended southward facing east, with Nose's Creek behind us. Slowly but steadily, we pushed our way southward and eastward, along and in advance of the Sandtown road.
From Lost Mountain to our new position, was a distance of about fifteen miles, over a succession of hills and valleys ; the valleys were cleared plantations, and the hills covered with so thick an undergrowth that lines of battle could not be maintained, though the danger of attack was constant, and the skirmishing almost incessant. From the 4th of June to the 21st the rain fall had been so continuous, that the clothing of the soldiers rarely became dry. The hands, faces and uniforms of officers and soldiers alike, could hardly be distinguished in color from the soil in which we turned our fifteen miles of furrows nearly every day, and it was an exceedingly nice problem to determine the line dividing the real estate from the personalty. Geologically, we were conglomerates, and we were fighting among the giant conglomerates of the western continent.
From Lost and Pine Mountains, southeastward for forty miles, we were confronted by boulders, not such alone as vex the plow- boy, by turning bis share aside, but large enough to have turned the glacial, plows which furrowed ont our inland rivers. At the southern limit of this field stands Stone Mountain, solitary and alone. In the center of a comparatively level plain of many miles extent, it rises, a black, unseamed, unstratified boulder. As you look up from its eastern base, the ravens soaring around its crest, look like swallows, and the trees upon the summit like garden shrubbery.
Standing far advanced, as though posted as a vidette to the mountains, it forins the grand eastern pillar of that gateway to the South-Atlanta ! 1,
2
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HISTORY 111TH REGIMENT
CHAPTER VI.
KENESAW .- CHATAHOOCHEE RIVER -PEACH TREE CREEK, AND THE OPENING BATTLE OF ATLANTA.
i : On the 22d of June we were looking and moving toward Stone Mountain aeross thirty miles of intervening forest, hills and rivers, when suddenly, upon our Division of the 23d Corps, and upon the right wing of the 20th Corps, near the Kulp House, three miles west of Marietta, Hood's Corps of the rebel army made an attack. The rapid firing of our skirmishers and the shell of the enemy, brought us to a halt ; whereupon, the men executed the very unmilitary manoeuvre of stacking arms by driving their bayonets far enough into the ground to support the guns in an upright position ; then breaking ranks, the adjacent woods were cleared of logs and brush- wood, which piled in line, formed a foundation for a breast-work, which seemed fairly to spring out of the ground. Before we had completed it, however, the burried retreat of our skirmishers upon the main line, brought every soldier to his place, and instinctively, every rifle was brought to ready. In emergencies like that, every soldier knew what was best to be done, and did it in "one time and two motions." Now every eye is searching the underbrush in front for a target. One could see how the line, by a common impulse, bends slightly forward, as a sportsman does to meet the recoil of his overloaded gun.
Quick ears have heard the rattle of leaves in front, and reeog- nized the tread of many feet falling in measured cadences. The double click of rifle locks as five hundred thumbs bring to full cock five hundred hammers, rang out the warning that the clock of death was ready for the striking. Company officers quietly drop behind the line at company intervals.
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Colonel Sherwood, on the right, calmly, and quietly gives a word . of encouragement. "There they come, boys, steady. now, steady," comes the caution from the company officers, down the line. The sun, half way down the western slope, looks under the horizon- tal branches of the beeches, and lights up the faces of the advancing foe. To many of them, let us hope, it was the touch of glory from the open portals of the Infinite, as it was nature's last absolution and benediction.
The next moment their slouched hats were pulled down over their faces and with trailed arms, they advanced at double-quick to the charge. Then a double sheet of flame leaped from the muzzles of your rifles, burning through and through Hood's lines of veterans. The survivors sought such shelter as the ground afforded, and struck back resentfully, just long enough to prevent a counter-charge, and then retired. General Johnson, in'his account ot the engagement, complains of Generel Hood, because he made this attack without `orders, and was severely punished, without inflicting upon us any corresponding injury.
During the 24th and 25th of June we extended our lines southerly, further to the rear of Kenesaw, but still Johnston clung tenaciously to the mountain, contesting with us every acre of ground. Long before this time we had become accustomed to eat and sleep under fire.
For the last two weeks Kenesaw had been a volcano. From morning until night the battle smoke lay thick and dark in the depressions and ravines, or driven by the western winds floated away toward the upper reaches of the Chatahoochee, as though to join the storm raging in the wilderness where Grant's hammers were striking fire upon Virginia's anvils. At night from base to summit it glared and glowed like a great furnace, with its myriad doors wide open. It looked as though Vulcan had been transplanted from mythology to Georgia, and proposed to use all of the surround- ing country in which to stow his forgings.
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