USA > Ohio > History of the Seventeenth regiment, First brigade, Third division, Fourteenth corps, Army of the Cumberland, war of the rebellion, 1861-1865 > Part 15
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At Camp Dick Robinson we first came under the command of a professional soldier, George H. Thomas-Mcclellan, Rosencrans, Mitchell and other officers whom we knew. with military education, had been in civil life when the war broke out, but this our new and permanent commander, had known no other than barracks and frontier military life, and at sight he interested us: a large. substantial man, ruddy and strong, low voiced, quiet, shy. slow in speech and movement, plain in dress and manner, (he wore the eagle of his army rank, not the star on his shoulder). no show, no style. not a martinet; so practical looking, that his very appearance gave us a new and true idea of the hardworking, plod- ding, plain-living man the real soldier must be, and scattered sur romantic visions of plumed knights and pictorial men at arms, with music and banners, and dazzling apparel. charging over prostrate foemen, and encamping in tented splendor when not achieving fame on gory fields of glory.
Our new Captain, our Chief for all the years to come of service, was not losing sleep devising master strokes and stupendous plans, quick and sure for crushing the rebellion. He hadn't dreamed of an anaconda coil with which to strangle the Confederacy-nor of a mighty host of the best drilled, disciplined, appointed and equipped soldiers the world had yet seen, as the requisite force for the be- ginning of successful war. He was aware only of the certainties; the hard toil and common labor of marching, making roads, and the wearisome daily round of active military life, stirred up once in awhile, by disagreeable. unpleasant and dangerous fighting. very uncertain and unintelligible to the actors.
The three months service was credited now to our regiment; its Colonel had been in service more than four months, and on this account, Gen. Thomas at once ordered it on detached service, which gave us a few weeks of very pleas- ant campaigning. We were bothered and annoyed by no daily orders, no prag- matical staff officer. no brigade or division superiors. We were an independent command, reconnoitering towards an indefinite point. or a movable outpost to guard passes and check invaders; to occupy Big Hill and then succor Wild Cat; marching and camping in those delightful Indian Summer days, through Ken- tucky'srichest acres of wood. field, hillside and pasture. What an ovation at Rich- mond! With what open hearts and hands the people received us. Our two days pienie on the Fair grounds, the carriages and the wagonloads of baked meats, fowls, rich cake and pastry, and everything a Kentucky home kiteken conld prepare for welcome guests.
Never before or since were the soldiers of the 17th entertained and made so
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much of, and so happy, as there, and yet a few months after. in the places of our feasting and glad welcoming cheer, our comrades of other regiments were driven before a pursuing foe, shot down, captured or fugitives, on the roads and in the fields, where we had with music and banners and in gala array held high carnival.
We camped in peace at the foot of Big Hill guarding the Pass. (so soon after- wards taken by the rebels with bloody disaster to our arms). Yet I was con- stantly warned by grave and well informed men, that large forces were already organized and at any time might be expected to try to execute their plan to re- tako and hold Kentucky and make it again "the dark and bloody ground" of the war.
In confirmation of this was our movement to the relief of Colonel Garrard at Wild Cat, during which were many' anxious hours. If Zollicoffer took the Pass at Wild Cat and advanced to the Kentucky river, with 10,000 men. Thomas would then be unprepared for him. This must be prevented-Wild Cat must not be abandoned. The 17th started alone to its aid. Garrard was entrenched there with his new Kentucky regiment. Would he hold out till reinforced? I was not advised ofany immediate support if I joined Garrard. But I believed the two regiments could hold out till Gen. Thomas could send forward enough of the new regiments then reporting to him to make all safe. But word came that Garrard was leaving, had left or would leave Wild Cat. How to establish com- munication with him was the question. He did not know of our approach, or that he would be succored. Just then our Chaplain, Fullerton, a faithful. Christian knight, wise, brave and gentle, volunteered to find his way to Garrard and keep up communication. He went alone out in the darkness, and we marched the next day anxious and uncertain. On the way a man met me with a note from Col. Garrard, who had sent this messenger to deliver it to the first Union Com- mander he should meet. It was an alarming message. Zollicoffer with his whole force was at Pittman's Cross Roads, in front of the defenses at Wild Cat. Un- les reinforced that day Garrard would at night abandon the post, and fall back across the river. And now all depended on whether Fullerton found him that day. When we bivouacked that night the field officers sat up and waited for the return of our messenger. After midnight the noble fellow came-he had not stay- ed to sleep or eat-had ridden both nights. Had been to Wild Cat. Garrard was still there, but had sent his transportation across the river and at dark in- tended to evacuate, but if we could reach him the next day, he'd try to hold till we came, but he thought both regiments too small a force to hold the pass. But Garrard had not known that Thomas could not afford to let Zollicoffer through that pass, and that he was bending every effort to hold it, and that both of our regiments had better be risked than the position abandoned. In other words the holding of Wild Cat was to save Kentucky from rebel invasion and make unnecessary defensive battles and loss of inestimable time.
We reached Wild Cat in time. For forty-eight hours the two regiments held the pass, till snecor came. Said I not the 17th was a very useful and fortunate regiment? Many of the silent but equally heroic and more effective deeds of soldiers do not blazon the historic page, like the carnage, the flash and roar of of even useless battles-but they are the acts of accomplishment, which in the aggregate make war decisive and compel all sure results. Not the engagement, which military men call an "affair" rather than a battle, which afterwards oc- cured at Wild Cat and in which the 17th participated. prevented the rebel ad- vance, but heroic Fullerton's ride and the prompt succor given by the 17th. made it impossible or at least impracticable.
I have not time here to detail our weary days and fruitless and not even ten- tative movements, for weeks and even months afterwards. Our regiment was no longer independent, under the single direction and few advisory orders of our trusted leader Thomas. Why reawaken our disagreeable recollection of such an outpost as Fishing Creek, and the mad order which sent our regiment, not
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to reconnoiter in force, but alone and unsupported, a day's march out to the Cumberland to occupy and fortify its north bank at Mill Springs, with Critten- den's and Zollicoffer's army of 15,000 men in camp on the south bank of the fordable river at that spot, a pistol shot away. This incident is buried out of sight in the history of the Mill Springs Campaign. It may be well to fetch it in view again. Here again was illustrated the luck of the 17th. It was plain that some one had blundered, and the order seemed madness. Was all our informa- tion false? Was there really a place near the Ford at Mill Springs unoccupied by the enemy, that a single regiment might take and hold against the many regiments and the batteries of the enemy there? I sent a squad of Woodford's cavalry out to see; sent with them the fearless, clear-headed Ricketts, who re- turned with them dissatisfied with their timid and imperfect scout. They had not gone to the ford, or near it. Still in ignorance of the true position and num- bers of the enemy, I reluctantly and with apprehension obeyed the order, broke up camp and marched with transportation towards Mill Springs. I was too much oppressed by the peril into which this order was, by its execution, placing my regiment, to go on. I could not endure the feeling and was determined to have personal knowledge of the chances that might exist for its full execution, or whether as I believed, obedience to it was not marching my regiment into the enemy's camp to be surrendered. I resolved to halt my command and go to the river bank myself. I did so. I saw with amazement the long line of encamp- ment and the myriad men on the other bank. Zollicoffer's whole army was there, and my orders were to set down before them and fortify within 200 yards of their line. To get back to my regiment quickly and withdraw it was impera- tive; I would gladly have surrendered to the rebel cavalry squad, which had come in by my side to take me, and within a few feet of me had cut off my line of escape, but it was better to risk the flight and pursuit to save the regiment, than further imperil it by submitting to capture. I escaped through the unparal- lelled heroism of Capt. Ricketts. When my riderless horse dashed by him, he calmly halted, dismounted and waited under hot fire to give me his horse, and walked away in a shower of balls to the shelter of a neighboring wood. Ro- mance has no story of knightly deed so exquisite and full of more than human valor and unselfishness, as this of Ricketts' quiet heroism. Thus I escaped capture or death, and was enabled to reach the regiment, which I at once countermarch- ed, and that night it returned safely to the slightly fortified position at Fishing Creek, it had left with such apprehension in the morning. Soon after the enemy crossed the river and built their strong fortifications on the spot where the 17th had been ordered to encamp and fortify inside their lines. It was from these works they advanced to attack Thomas, and twelve miles away from them, they met defeat and disaster.
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This first substantial victory for our army, established the reputation of Thomas with the people as a first-class, practical soldier, who could and would fight to win,and who was thoroughly reliable. But his merits seemed unappreciated at Washington, and he was kept subordinate for years to inferior, and some even worthless superiors, many, the creatures of political or bureau influence at the Capital. If such Captains as Thomas had been chosen to lead early in the war-men who knew only the duty of constant and persistent warfare, with no special ambitions or visionary theories of the conduct of the war-but with en- tire, absolute confidence that war properly waged by the superior party, with such odds as favored the government so vastly in resources, population and the sacredness of its cause, it would not have needed a million of men and four years of struggle to conquer peace. The man who came nearest to Thomas in prac- tical and useful qualities among our Generals, much through adventitious aids, became the foremost of all and President. If Grant had been born with the weight, size and quality of brain and the noble moral nature of Thomas, he would have deserved the fame and honors gained by him-withont the dis- paraging reflection that luek mingled largely with merit in his advancement.
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Having no time for detail I can but briefly suggest some notieable facts and impressions of a few marked events of which our regiment was part, and in which there was special interest to ns.
Pittsburgh Landing was reached by the Seventeenth, after the battle. The regiment had been usefully employed in guarding and bringing up Buell's Army Train over desperate roads. The question of a surprise at Shiloh is still worry- ing some of the Generals. Of little use the discussion. But there was some real and more important cause for surprise than the suddenness of Johnston's attack at Shiloh. The soldiers of Buell's Army were surprised, amazed, that they should have been loafing in pleasant camps in Kentucky and Tennessee, con- suming rations and growing lazy, instead of moving forward to where the enemy was. Buell could have reached the Tennessee River before Grant. There was no reason why he did not join him many days before the battle and thus make Johnston's attack at Shiloh impracticable.
The soldiers under Buell had to get used to the surprises of dangerous loitering delays. But they were most surprised at the tremendous energy of Buell in his friendly contest of speed with Bragg, in the celebrated race on parallel roads, between the two armies. to Louisville in the Summer of 1862. During the war there was nothing so serio-comic as this race, nothing showing more skill than the efforts of each commander to prevent any conflict between the armies, and in seeing that the track of each was unobstructed and that water and forage were fairly divided.
By the courtesy of Bragg. under his escort, we reached Louisville in quiet.
What soldier under Buell will forget the horrible affair at Perryville, where 30,000 men stood idly by to see and hear the needless slaughter in MeCook's un- aided, neglected and even abandoned command, without firing a shot or mov- ing a step in its relief?
Thomas and Crittenden's commands awaiting orders all afternoon, and the com- mand to which we were attached at the battle field itself, within striking or sup- porting distance of every part of the battle line. Over us was some man, an ac- quaintance of Buell, holding a Lieutenant's, or maybe a Captain's commission in the Regular Army-we had never heard of him before, nor have we since. His name was Gilbert; was thought at first to be Buell's chiefwagon master, but it appears Buell got him, somewhere or somehow, a militia Major General's com- mission and assigned him to the command of our corps (the 3rd). He was rec- ognized as some kind of a de facto commander. The Seventeenth all of the af- ternoon of the battle, was in line on a hill at the point of which was a signal station. At its foot was Buell's peaceful tent, where we could occasionally see him barcheaded and in his shirt sleeves. comfortably at home. As it was a march of but some minutes from our position to McCook's right, where there was hard fighting. the men stood at arms in line, waiting orders to advance. After waiting by the hour, arms were stacked and the men stretched out on the ground on or near the line. The fight was raging fiercely. There was a feeling that we had Bragg's army in a sack and that he could not escape. Two o'clock camc. Buell's headquarters quiet. Many of us dozing. The signal officer receives a dispatch from MeCook which is quickly sent down the hill to Buell. Gen. Ward, then our Major, was at the signal station when this dispatch was received, and at once came and notified me that MeCook had just sent to Buell that he was hard pressed and must be reinforced without delay; that he could not hold his position without aid. And now about half-past two, our brigade is in line ready for the order to advance. And there we waited for more than two hours, and about 5 o'clock received orders and passed over onto the battle-field and halted in a meadow, on the higher ground of which, 400 yards in front of' ns a very sharp, doubtful engagement was pending. As we halted aimlessly, Steedman rapidly passed us with his brigade (I presume without orders), reached the bat- tle line in a moment, and had a fleeting chance to exchange shots with the enemy before darkness put an end to the fighting. We rested quietly that night on the
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battle-field, and kept on resting until Bragg had slipped away without moles- tation, with all his army. its transportation, supplies and Kentucky plunder.
The officers of Thomas' old division had enough of Buell. They were strong- headed, independent and apt to express themselves forcibly. They pulled to- gather well, and when they kicked at incompetency, uselessness or overbearing insolence in a commander, they did it effectually. They had some experience in the choking off of intolerable superiors. At Corinth, "Port Royal" Sherman, as he was called, a dyspeptic, bad-mannered, unpleasant "Regular", was placed in command of the division. He became unbearable. One morning the brigade and regimental commanders of the division met at Gen. Bob McCook's quarters in caucus, and resolved to go together to Gen. Halleck and demand that Sher- man be relieved. Gen. Speed S. Fry was appointed spokesman, MeCook and Steedman toadd a few words. It was an unusual and imposing cavalcade, all in full dress, wearing stars and eagles, thirteen in number. Gen. Halleck re- ceived us good humoredly, offered his cigars, and didn't wait for the addresses, heard only the object of our visit and promptly answered that he had anticipat- ed us, and that as soon as possible he would deprive us of the valuable services of Port Royal Sherman as our commander. On our way we were handsomely entertained by Gen. Nelson (killed at Louisville by Davis), who, however, noti- fied us that Buell would take pleasure in putting us all under arrest, as he should do.
And so it was. After Perryville, at Rolling Fork, some thirteen officers were detailed by Buell on a court martial. It met, with Gen. Steedman as President. In calling to order he announced that he believed that we had more important work than to sit as a police court, to try "drunks and disorderlies," and propos- ed that we investigate and act upon the military conduct of Buell as commander of our army. Agreed, nem, con. The court martial resolved that the thirteen officers would, as citizens, petition the President direct for the removal of Buell. A dispatch to that effect asking Buell's removal for the good of the service and the benefit of the country was written and signed by the thirteen officers Col. Este, of the 14th Ohio, carried it to Louisville, from whence it was sent to the President, and in 48 hours Buell was relieved of the command.
We had hoped that Thomas, who had before this been tendered the com- mand, would succeed him; though, next to Thomas, no commander could have been more welcome than that splendid soldier, Rosencrans, who soon became the idol of the army.
Let me here say of Buell, however, that he certainly was a very able man; intellectually and in professional knowledge and training, as well as ability to make and handle an army, vastly superior to nearly all the popular Generals of either army. Of all prominent in the service, of equal rank, in either army at that time. in the respect named, Buell, if not facile princeps was peer of the best. With all that, by reason of some great defect, his career as commander after Pittsburgh Landing was nearly useless and almost disastrous.
Buell was probably a victim to routine and immovable confidence in the ap- proved methods and theories of Old World military science, so often found im- practicable in the use of American volunteer soldiery and in the many novel condi- tions presented in the movements and battles of our civil war. As witness his delay of two weeks to bridge the inconsiderable Duck River on his march to Pittsburgh Landing. in contrast with Rosencrans' order to cross the broad Ten- nessee at Bridgeport, without boats or bridges, accomplished in twenty-four hours by his army, with such improvised means as the American soldiery quick- ly devised and successfully used.
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I must leave unnoticed the pleasant interval until the battle of Stone River.
Here again was shown the remarkable good fortune of the Seventeenth. Our brigade, then commanded by Col. Walker, of the 31st Ohio (who is with us to- day), was unpleasantly but nsefully employed, as usual, in bringing up part of the army train, but was hurried onto the field on the first day of the four days
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contest. Arriving at the center on the Murfreesborough pike about 3 o'clock p.m., when the firing on both sides had slackened, we moved quickly to the right, put out our skirmishers, and were soon in line, a suecoring, fresh brigade, in the right place at the right moment. On our right, the cavalry in our full view, made for that day their last resistless charge through the cotton fields, just after our arrival, and swept the rebel left across the Wilkinson pike into the woods. Evening closed the battle for that day.
With his right rectified, and in firm and sure position, Rosencrans' lines were in sure possession of the field and confident of ultimate success, which came on Friday, three days after, with the repulse of Breckenridge's heroic but desperate charge against the center on that day.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday our brigade was on the right front chang- ing in position, until at the time of the Breckenridge attack our battery (Church's 4th Michigan) was near the Murfreesborough pike, closing on the right center, where, supported by the 17th and 31st, it did rapid and destuctive work by its oblique fire on the attacking columns. When the battle ended Friday night our regiment had been in it and on the exposed front, with skirmishers out, three days and nights, and yet our casualties were barely mentionable.
I must pass by the uneventful Winter at Murfreesborough in camp, the Summer months at Triune, as pleasant to the soldier as mid-summer holidays in the woods to dwellers in cities. The Tullahoma movement, which brought the toils, movements, bivouacks and some of the blood-shed at Hoover's Gap, of active ser- vice. The Chattanooga campaign, in which we crossed the Tennessee River by swimming and on improvised rafts, boats, logs, boards, anything that would float; scaled the mountain ridges, crossed Lookout Mountain through Stevens' Gap, de- scending into McLemon's Cove, halting at Crawfish Springs, Gordon's Mills, and other well-remembered points, on or near the fatal field of Chickamauga.
Here for the first time the Seventeenth had a reverse of good fortune and met disaster. Eighteen years after, I, with vivid recollection, tell to my com- rades the story of that disaster, and of the little event which lost the field, and in a moment fatefully decided the battle against us. First let me sketch briefly our movements during the two days of the battle.
Saturday morning (19th of Sept.) at day-light, our brigade, then under my command, after moving all night, (and in fact for three nights there had been no rest or sleep), was on the Rossville road, near Reed's bridge, on Chickamauga Creek, where there was skirmishing going on. We had halted for a few mo- ments, that the men might try to make coffee. Before this could be done we had to move on to the left across the road and into the woods. Our division (Brannon's) by 8 o'clock was on the left of our army. By 10 o'clock the 2d and 3d Brigades and the 31st Ohio of our Brigade (the 1st) were heavily engaged. The other regiments of the Brigade were then thus disposed: The 82d Indiana supported the Brigade battery (Church's 4th Michigan) on the extreme left of the line. The 17th Ohio was in reserve and the 38th Ohio absent, having been detailed to guard the army train. It was not long before General Brannon call- ed for all of his reserves. The 17th and 9th Ohio went to the front on the right of Vandeveer's Brigade with such spirit and dash that the enemy's line gave back at that point. At the same time, a rebel brigade attempted to move around Vandeveer's left and was repulsed with great loss, by the rapid and most effective firing of Church's Battery and a section of the 4th regular artillery well supported by the 82d Indiana. Before 4 p. m. Brannon's Division had won and held its position, and had checked Bragg's movement to turn our left and get between Rosencrans and Chattanooga. It was then moved to the right, fol- lowing the battle as it passed in its wave towards the right of Thomas. Then knapsacks and blankets were piled up. (never to be seen again,) so as to give the men freer action. Just as the Brigade, moving to the right, passed into the road where our comrades of the 90th Ohio came out smoking from a hot fight, I met General Brannon just as General Thomas left the spot, and inquiring of
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him the ascertained results of the days fighting, he answered that Thomas had just said that it was all sixes and sevens, and that we were merely holding our ground on the left without any movement ordered, or any known future definite object or purpose, adding, "General Thomas knows no more of any plan or in- tention as to any further movements in the battle than we do, and has not known for sometime where the commanding General is, last hearing from him at Craw- fish Spring, and I think that all we will do this evening yet, will be to move for position for the opening in the morning." My interpretation was, that we were fighting in the thick woods, having no design ofour own and no knowledge of the position, strength or purpose of the enemy. We moved on to the right un- til dark when we bivouacked in a meadow, hoping for a little time for sleep; but about 9 o'clock the enemy attacked the Brigade just coming into position on the hill on our left, and there was a very stubborn and exciting engagement. lasting - nearly an hour and ending with the repulse of the enemy. So overcome with fatigue and want of sleep were our men. that most of them quietly slept in line. under their stacked arms. through all the thunderous roar and fierce conflict of this battle, going on within pistol shot of them. I did not disturb them, they were in line and the skirmishers in our front would give us sufficient notice when we might be needed. At midnight we had to fall in and move to the left, and from then till daylight with drowsy steps we changed position, at short dis- tances, always moving to the left.and at each halt long enough. some slept.and some threw up any kind of protection. at some points leaving tolerable breast-works for those who followed us in line.
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