USA > Ohio > History One hundred and eleventh regiment O. V. I > Part 6
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From that day forward we were much more fairly treated, until, when our two divisions joined hands to "crack the whip" at Franklin, the 3d Division acquitted itself so nobly, that the sneer
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died out from among our soldier phrases, and "bully boys" crept into the vacancy.
The very next day, indeed, Riley's brigade of that division, sacrificed 300 of its men in an ineffectual attempt to carry a very strongly fortified position in their front, while we were moving by the flank farther to their right. Those of you who were there that day will very clearly remember how Hardee's men discovered our line of blue, pushing around to the southward of that smoking hot side hill, when they opened upon us with shrapnel and round shot making such a noise in the dry leaves around us, that instinctively the whole line took such cover as the ground, trees and logs afforded.
If any man here, will produce a certificate that he did not then act as though he was extremely dissatisfied with the situation, it will require further evidence upon his part, to convince the court that he was there. Most of you remember that big atheletic soldier of the 23d Michigan, who was ambitious to be known as the best boxer of the brigade, and, whose muscular power frequently over- matched Jack Hall's science with the gloves. -
At the first fire he took refuge behind a black jack tree not half large enough to cover his broad shoulders. Soon a cannon ball sheared off his right arm, and his comrades carried him to the rear. Next day I saw him bolstered up in one of the neat narrow beds at the field hospital. The surgeons had not found enough arm left to make a stub of, but had made a clean cut from his neck to the arm pit. To my inquiry, as to how he felt ? he said, "Oh ! I'm all right Adjutant, but I can't beat Jack Hall boxing any more." When the rebel fire had filled the bushes with smoke, we took advantage of the situation, moved on, and at the creek encountered the rebel cavalry, and as usual we chased them out of range; and took a position from which our fire would enfilade the rebel works. Dur- ing the following night the enemy abandoned these intrenchments and fell back to the Sandtown road, extending their detenses to the vicinity of East Point.
We then pushed on still further to the south, and east, and in conjunction with forces on our flanks fixed ourselves in heavy in- trenchments close to the enemy's works.
Here for several days and nights our heavy siege guns, near the northwestern sweep of our lines, with ungloved fists punched great holes into Atlanta's walls of brick and mortar, while in the intervals between, the small guns cuffed the caps from Hardee's earthworks.
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So far as casualities were concerned that style of fighting promised a venerable old age to the youngest of us. On the 15th of August, our 3rd Division was advanced further to the right and front of our line, covering the crossing of the Campbelltown and East Point roads. On the 18th it was still further advanced to Camp Creek. On the same day General Kilpatrick, with the cavalry moved out from the rear of our position, striking the West Point railroad at Fairburn, and then moving southeasterly swept clear around Atlanta, making temporary breaks in the railroad tracks crossed on the way. On the 19th, 20th and 21st we had pushed as far forward as Camp Creek Church, finding resistance at every step, but no general engagement. Here we were ordered to provide ourselves with ten days' full rations to be issued as 3d rations, lasting fifteen days.
On the 25th of August commenced the last general movement which was to bring on a general engagement or compel the evacua- tion of Atlanta. Our corps occupied the extreme right flank or southern part of our line, facing a little north of east confronting Bates' division of Hardee's corps, occupying the intrenchments near East Point. First, the 4th corps abandoned our line of intrench- ment on the north of Atlanta, and Garrard's cavalry dismounted and took their places, while they moved to the rear of the 20th Corps, and massed their troops near Utoy Creek in the rear of the 14th Corps. Then the 20th Corps left their works in possession of their skirmish line, faced to the rear and marched back to the Chattahoochee River, and, there occupied intrenchments where a store of supplies and ammunition had been accumulated.
At the same time the 14th Corps left its line to its skirmishers and massed in the woods near Stanley. The Army of the Tennessee massed its forces still further to the west, facing south, so that on the evening of the 27th of August our 23d Corps alone faced the enemy, while behind us, facing to the south, lay in succession, the 14th and 4th Corps and still farther to the westward, the Army. of the Tennessee.
You remember the dummy guns, which we manufactured of logs, and thrust through our embrasures threateningly ? The ragged uniforms of army blue, which we stuffed with straw, and bound upon the backs of innocent army mules, who had outlived any other form of usefulness, so that our entrenchments should appear perilous to to the enemy, when we were far away ?
That order to expand ten days' rations into fifteen, had sufficient
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significance to us ; we did not need to be drawn up in line, and have field orders read to us. Every soldier knew that a movement was. contemplated, which would temporarily separate us from our line of communications, but we did not care for any line of communica- tions. We had abundant confidence, that we could live in. any country that anybody could live in, and give the other people odds.
When all preparations were completed, our ponderous northern gate, pivoting upon our division, with a ten mile sweep, began to swing to the southward. It grinds the rails from the cross ties and the cross ties from their earth-beds upon the West Point Railroad. Still the rugged pivot holds firm, and still the gate swings on toward. the southward, until with clang and clatter, with rattle and roar, the great bolts shoot into their places, along the eastern-most rail of the Macon Railroad, and Hood's last line of communication is in our hands. General Hardee had been sent by Hood to resist our move- ment, upon this last railway connection, between Atlanta and the south. Intrenching himself at Jonesboro, he stood in position to. attack our right flank, while most of our forces were as busy and black, as men at a logging bee, tearing up the road. , We had left our line of communications and were literally "in the air." !
It would not do now to temporize with the enemy, and Edie's and Este's brigades moved upon the intrenchments, and distinguish- ed themselves, by making one of the most brilliant and successful charges of the war. Had the day not been so far spent, Hardee would have been crushed, but before his line of retreat could be cut off, darkness intervened, and during the night he slipped away to Lovejoy Station, further to the southward. About eleven o'clock that night we saw a sudden great flash of light, illuminating the sky in the direction of Atlanta, and soon after a great explosion shook the ground under us. We readily guessed the cause. We had cut the last artery of commerce which could sustain Atlanta's life, and the rebel general, who had been called to "drive the invaders from the sacred soil," was then engaged in the very. humiliating business of destroying his ordinance stores, preparatory to evacuating the city. I
On the following day we pushed on down to Lovejoy, and found that during the night Hood had concentrated his army among the very sharp crested, ugly looking hills at that place, and seemed disposed to contest our further advance. We skirmished into position, under a heavy artillery fire, and there the announcement
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was made that General Slocum's 20th Corps, was in possession of Atlanta, and that Sherman's army would go back and celebrate the harvest home.
With shout and hurrah, bands playing, and hats soaring in the air like a flock of very ragged, dirty kites, we faced again to the northward, and with shells from Hood's guns, bursting at our backs for the first time during the campaign, turned contemptuously away from the demoralized confederates.
Down along the Macon Road the cross ties were still burning. When our troops first came upon the road, regiments dressed along the western rail, the front rank stooped, took hold of the rail between the ties and lifted the whole structure on edge and tumbled it into the farther ditch. Truly many hands make light work. The ties were then wrenched loose from the rails and thrown into piles, across which groups of rails were laid. Then the ties were set on fire and the intense flame, heated the rails red-hot in the center, when in this condition, men took hold of each end and carrying the rail to an adjacent tree, by pressing against it, wound the rail around the tree. For miles the adjacent forest had been furnished with a grotesque and varied assortment of neckties. We marched back to Decatur and went into camp, gathering about us very rapidly, many conveniences which for months we had been deprived of. Probably few of you have ever been happier than then. The tension of impending danger, the watchfulness of days, the sleep- lessness of nights, had continued almost one-third of a year.
That part of the gospel, that "Cleanliness is next to Godliness," had neither been preached or practiced by the Chaplain himself, hence what could have been expected of us? To the rebels we had become as terrible as "an army with banners," but banners were not a circumstance to what we had with us. Our personal following was greater than that of the most favored ward politician. In numbers we could have given the sands of the sea odds, and still held "our own." When hostilities commenced, it was a common boast that one Southerner could whip five Yankees any time, but in view of all the facts, I venture, that the most rabid among them would not have charged us then with being deficient in the matter of sand.
You had opportunities to wash, to visit Atlanta and inspeet the fields which were under fire. What a fine place it was in which to start a junck shop. The numerous bomb-proof dugouts attested
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with what care the boastful Southerner, was bound to preserve him- self for a sensational death in the "last ditch." During that cam- paign they had dug ditches enough, but, what worried us was, we never could find the last one.
Capital is proverbially timid, shrinking from the appearance of danger. The paymaster was our capitalist, and he soon appeared with supplies. The odor of burning blouses was in the wind, the new. supply of clothes, smiled around the open mouths of the pup tents. We were fed and clothed and most of us, were in our right minds.
Even soldiers can improve their minds and circumstances. Within 24 hours, without waiting the tardy operation of an act of the legislature, we had a circulating library. Unoccupied houses cannot read. People who are under contract to drive back the "ruthless vandals of the North," or die in the last ditch, are called upon to select their respective ditches, no time remained to fool around with books, on the part of people who had taken that sort of a contract. This was the process of reasoning adopted by the soldier, and the logical sequence of it ali was, that the books belonged to the soldier. The rule of law is, that personal property is presumed to follow the person. The rule was exemplified in this case, but in the trifling matter of selection, stumbled upon the wrong person. In war times rules are apt to get into the habit of stumbling.
Several years before, when the Israelites went into the promised land, they gathered up the princes of the people, and cut off their thumbs and great toes. This country was to us a promised land. We had promised to drive the rebels out of it, and with true business honesty, were bent upon performing our contract.
Notwithstanding the force of the Israelitish example, we held ourselves in check, and only took from these people what they did not seem to need. We have never, been properly commended for our moderation.
Orders had been issued by General Sherman directing the army to take what was needed for army use, from the enemy's coun- try. The idea embodied in that order, was not original with Gen- eral Sherman. As is said in the patent office, there was no novelty about it; Joshua had followed the rule long before, and so had Pete Furney, of Company H. Joshua was a little ahead of Pete, but that was on account of Joshua being the oldest. You remember how Joshua went around beleagued Jericho with rams horns. If Pete had been there, he would have marched around with the whole sheep on his back,
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CHAPTER VII.
REVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN .- AND THE OPENING OF THE TENNESSEE CAMPAIGN.
At the close of a campaign which stands next in importance to the Richmond campaign of the Army of the Potomac, we will cele- brate our military harvest home by a review of the work accom- plished, the territory recovered, and the cost to our regiment of its achievements. For this purpose, I follow so far as it is useful, the medical history of our corps, giving for the benefit of surviving members and of the families of deceased members the casualties we suffered, with date and place so far as possible.
From the commencement of this campaign our hospital depart- ment was compelled to adopt the best means which the country afforded for the accommodation of the sick and wounded.
The Chief Surgeon's report shows that there was very little sickness during this campaign. Before the campaign was over, however, a scorbutic taint began to manifest itself, affecting about one-half of the officers and men.
When we reached Cassville on the 20th of May, Major H. S. Hewett, Chief Surgeon of the 23d Corps, ordered all our sick and disabled men to the rear, and made requisitions for field hospital tents, in addition to those already provided. The medical depart- ment was reorganized, and greater preparations were made to bring the hospital service to a state of greater efficiency.
The field hospitals were established in rear of each division, by constructing booths of the branches of trees, with beds of pine boughs. When the casualties of battle had filled the field hospitals to overflowing, such inmates as would bear removal, were placed in
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wagons and ambulances on beds of pine boughs, and removed to Kingston, and, from there, were sent further to the rear, as oppor- tunity and the condition of men permitted. When our division moved from one flank of the army to another, the hospitals so estab- lished, were abandoned, and new hospitals established from time to time as near to the division as circumstances would permit. From the 24th of May until the 4th of June, our field hospital was at Kingston. By the 3rd of June our division had got into position on the left flank of the army, when our field hospital was moved to the rear of the new line.
When our movements compelled Johnston to evacuate Altoona, our hospital was again removed to that place. From that time until we captured Marietta our field hospitais gathered the wounded in the vicinity of the troops to which they respectively belonged, and forwarded them to Altoona. After Johnston retreated from Kenesaw Mountain, the general field hospital was removed from Altoona to Marietta, where it remained during the remainder of the campaign. Our division left Mossy Creek, Tennessee, for this campaign with 3,971 men present for duty equipped.
At Rocky Face the division lost 1 man killed and 28 wounded ; at Resaca, 93 killed and 577 wounded, or nearly 18 per cent. of the men engaged. During the balance of the campaign, our losses were probably one-third more, or about 1,000 men. At Rocky Face our regiment lost David B. Reynolds, Co. C, wounded ; Ezra Gibbs and Jacob Kroutz, Co. D, wounded and disabled. At Resaca we lost Edwin E. Austin, Co. A; John D. Evans, Co. A; William Shoup, Co. D; Lieutenant Leander R. Hutchinson, Co. E; and Henry Con- rad and Andrew Olds, of Co. K, killed, or died of wounds ; Joseph Swartz, Abner M. Clarke, Lucien B. J. Ewing and Edward Myers, of Co. A; David B. Reynolds, Co. C; Henry E. Thomas, Co. D; William J. Bailey, Isidore Bishop, Peter W. Rose and Frederick Swartz, of Co. K, disabled by wounds from further service; and Chester Mott, of Co. C, who returned to duty after recovery.
At the battles upon the Dallas line, Corporal Henry C. Landon, of Co. C; Ephriam W. Dull, of Co. D; Sergeant Oscar Works, Co. F; Corporal George Fields, Co. F ; Daniel Dickerhoff and Jarvis F. Reed, of Co. F, were killed, or died of wounds ; John Scanlan, of Co. A ; William Lyons, of Co. C, and William M. Haller, of Co. F wero wounded and disabled; and John Farver, of Co. A, was wounded, but recovered and returned to duty.
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At the battles of Kenesaw Mountain, John H. Nusbaum and Henry Rogan, of Co. I were killed ; Corporal Abel Hineline, of Co. G, and John Sheets, of Co. I, were fatally wounded ; Oliver Good- man, Robert Tiplady, John Wilman, of Co. I, and Sergeants George W. Russ and George W.Greisinger, of Co. K, were wounded and dis- abled ; David K. Mounts, of Co. C; John Gearhart, of Co. G, were wounded, but recovered and afterward returned to duty.
At Lost Mountain, Major Thomas C. Norris received a painful blow upon the leg from a ball, the velocity of which was not sut- ficient to penetrate the muscles.
At the battle of Peach Tree Creek, Lieutenant John M. Wood- ruff and Sergeant Constantine Beal, of Co. B, and John H. Lee, of Co. C, were wounded.
At the battle of Atlanta, Michael Stauts, of Co. C. Absalom Mowry, of Co. G, and Eli Manor of Co. H, were wounded and dis- abled ; John Gearhart and John Shepler, of Co. G, were wounded, but afterward returned to duty.
At the engagement at Lovejoy Station, Sergeant Josiah M. Kepler, of Co. E, was killed.
This casualty list numbers 52, of whom 40 were either killed or wounded so severely as to prevent their further service during the war.
In addition to those mentioned, there were a large number slightly wounded, whose injuries were not severe enough to require treatment in the hospital, and hence have no hospital records.
During all of this campaign the health of the troops engaged was good, and the loss from our effectives by death from disease, or discharge because of physical disability, was small.
As to the comparative losses of the two armies, the statistics on the national side approach the real losses as nearly as statisties ever do, while the reports from Confederate sources of their own losses are utterly valueless. Hood's "Advance and Retreat" shows that from his army there were over 130,000 absent, most of them without leave. The reported losses by casualties of battle, taken from the reports of the Confederate commanders, is not equal to the number captured by our army during the campaign. Hence it appears that the Confederate commanders kept this list of absent without leave as a sort of military dumping ground, into which they tumbled every man of their commands who did not report at the next subsequent roll call, whether he was killed, wounded or captured,
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unless the company or regimental commander could account for him otherwise.
The manifest absurdity of this system of book-keeping is appar- ent, tested by the disparity of Johnston and Hood's reports of total losses, and the reports of men during the campaign captured by us.
With the conscription bureau of the Confederacy, in active service all over the territory held by them, and in view of the intensely hostile sentiment existing in the South toward deserters and shirkers, it is past belief that over 130.000 enrolled soldiers were in hiding in the Cotton States, from the army of northern Georgia alone. Applying the same proportions, of absent without leave, to the other Confederate armies,and we would have over one third of a million of men under military enrollment, who were skulking around the rear.
The mischief about returns of this sort is, that if the returns are true, the South is branded as being composed, in large part, of men who were too timid to fight, and this in face of their constant boast that their soldiers were the bravest on carth.
If, on the other hand, these reports are not true, as the great weight of testimony goes to show, the leaders of the Confederacy were only practicing in an art, which Ananias is supposed to be, the miracle touched exponent of.
The two horns of the dilemma, are here fairly presented. 'Every old soldier of any one of our principal campaigns, knows that the southern soldier was not deficient in courage. These reports, therefore, do not state the facts.
The truth of the matter, probably is that every Confederate soldier buried by us on the battle field, or captured and remaining in our hands, or separated from his command, and not returning and standing in line for the next roll-call, went into this report of "absent without leave."
Historians place the losses of the opposing armies during this campaign at about the same number. Taking into account the fact · that the rebels, up to the point when we crossed the Chattahoochee, always stood upon the defensive, like the hunter waiting on the runaway for the deer to come within range, and, nearly always had the benefit of striking the first blow of an engagement, the account stands more largely in our favor than we could have expected.
While Johnston commanded the Confederates, our losses com - pared to his, were much the largest. When Hood took the initiativo
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at Peachtree Creek and continued it on the 22d of July on our left, and in August on our right, we rapidly balanced the account.
The experience of officers and soldiers alike, extending from the 5th of May to the 2d day of September, or 120 days under fire, had accomplished more in the way of educating soldiers in the art of war, than all the previous campaigns had done. At the close of the campaign few of the commandants of regiments or companies were deficient in the knowledge of practical warfare. Even the rank and file could choose the strongest position to hold, and point out the weakest part of the enemy's line. While few were educated in the art of military engineering as taught in schools, many had learned the penetrative power of shot and shells, and minnie balls, or, in plain terms, knew from their experiences how heavy to make defensive works, and with reference to the surroundings where the works should be built to be tenable. The soldier who occupied a riffe pit so close to the enemy that he could not fire his gun without danger of getting a bullet in his head, called at some neighboring plantation house and borrowed a looking-glass, which being broken into small squares furnished a dozen rifle pits with mirrors, which being fixed upon the grip of the rifle stock enabled him to sit below his gun and keeping his head under cover, sight and fire without exposing any part of his person except his hands.
The device of yelling in concert as upon a charge, frequently caused the enemy to empty their guns, whi'e the yelling line were safely sitting down in their rifle pits out of harm's way. Head-logs were useful, but on the Dallas line, where a minnie ball glancing upon the curved surface of a round head-log, wounded two sergeants of Company K, while sitting in the bottom of the ditch eating their dinner, taught the men to avoid head-logs of that form when they could.
The successes of our army after crossing the Chattahoochee left us at the close of the campaign in high spirits. We felt such confi- dence in ourselves, such certainty that no force which the rebels could collect, could drive us out of our way; that "the marching through Georgia," was looked forward to as a logical conclusion to the campaign. The men who ventured timidly into the woods of northern Georgia, were now expressing a hope, that "Unele Billy" would take them through to the sea.
For several weeks we lay at Decatur, awaiting orders and
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performing the usual routine duties of camp life in an enemy's country.
During September we were ordered to accompany our brigade wagon train upon a foraging expedition to the vicinity of Stone Mountain. The train, in charge of Captain George H. Van Blarcum, proceeded through the village of Stone Mountain, to the northeast- ward of the mountain, where the wagons were filled with corn. Just before sunset, we started the train upon the return march. Passing through the village of Stone Mountain, we left Captain Van Blareum with the Division Surgeon and a few other mounted officers, awaiting their supper at a private house.
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