USA > Ohio > History of the Sixteenth battery of Ohio volunteer light artillery, U. S. A., from enlistment, August 20, 1861, to muster out, August 2, 1865 > Part 3
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The march was resumed on the 6th. but on account of the heat and dust we had to make frequent halts. Two of our horses were overcome with heat and lack of water, and one of them died. In the afternoon we camped beside a sluggish little bayou ; beyond it was a canebrake where some horses had been hidden. Lt. Murdock and some of the boys waded the waist deep stream and captured the horses, which were in the care of a couple of boys. One of these horses, a very large. tall sorrel, was claimed by Murdock for his own use, and he nearly required a mounting block to get into the saddle.
On July 7th we reached
COTTON PLANT.
where our advance, the ist Indiana Cavalry, the rith Wiscon- sin and 33rd Illinois, had a fight with the rebels who lost 140
SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY. 21
killed and wounded, while our loss was only 7 killed and 30 wounded. The rebels left their dead and badly wounded on the field, while the Ist Indiana Cavalry pursued them several miles. The next day the wagon-train was put in the centre of the columin for greater security against sudden attack from a considerable rebel force known to be near ..
On July 9th we had the severest marching we ever did. We started at four o'clock, a. in., being warned to take all the water we could and use it carefuly. The heat was fearful. In the afternoon we came to a cabin with a well; eagerly the bucket was let down, but only a little mud was brought up. Afterwards we came to a swamp, fed and watered the horses and rested for two hours. then at six o'clock, D. m., continued the march. It was a beautiful, moonlight night, and the cool- ing air and slight dew made marching less torturing than in the glare and dust of the day. But men and horses were suf- fering fearfully from fatigue and lack of water, but we dared not stop short of a supply of water, though men and horses were dropping by the roadside. At length, at two 'clock, a. m., we reached
CLARENDON
and the White River full of good water. We had marched 22 hours and made 35 miles.
A fleet of transports with a gunboat for escort. with supplies from Memphis down the Mississippi and up White River was to have met us at Clarendon. Not finding us they went up as far as Des Are. They could hear nothing of us, as we were Ient to the outside world; we had not yet reached there, and so the fleet turned back. Therefore we struck cut for the Missis- sippi River. some 50 miles distant. The first day out from Clarendon was as bad as any we had had, but after that roads and supplies became better. The start was not made till near
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SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY.
noon and kept up till eleven o'clock, p. m. Our wagons with all the camp equipage were with another Division, and we bivouacked in a field by the roadside. Men and horses suffered for lack of bread and corn, though we found meat plenty. We passed over long stretches of corduroy road .. The next dav the Quartermaster of the tth. Wis. gave us one box of hard tack from his scanty supply. The horses were fed on "roasting ears."
On Sunday, July 13th. we reached
HELENA.
At first we were camped above town under the big cottonwoods in the bottom. A boat with supplies from Memphis reached there the same day: The fleet and gunboat Lexington, that had failed to reach us at Clarendon, arrived on the 16th. Be- sides supplies. the boats carried the 24th. the 3 4th, the 43rd, and the 40th Ind. regiments, with which we became closely asso- ciated during the Vicksburg campaign, for on December 22nd, 1862, we were put in General A. P. Hovey's Division with them (except the 43rd Indiana). Our camp under the cottonwoods proved very unhealthy. In fact Helena proved the climax of all the unhealthy, malarial country we had been in for some months. Malarial fevers, dysentery, chronic diarrhea and kindred diseases broke out: few escaped entirely. On July 26th, we moved to ,
OLD TOWN LANDING
twenty miles below Helena. This was even worse than Helena. The weather was very hot, water bad, fighting mosquitoes the principal employment. A ration of whiskey and quinine was served daily to the men: the company was drawn up and an officer with a bucket full of the medicine ( ?) and a little tin cup
SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY. 23
gave each man his dose. Most of them took it willingly but some absolutely refused to take it in spite of strict orders, and experience proved they were fully as well as the rest.
On August 13th. the battery returned to
HELENA.
camping below the town, but the condition became constantly worse. Some died, many were sent to hospitals at Memphis and elsewhere, and some were furloughed or discharged. Bat it became very difficult to get a furlough. many were left to die who would have recovered if they had been sent home. As an instance of this. the father of James L. Mckinney came down with a lot of Sanitary Commission stores for the com- pany. He found his son very sick, and tried hard to get a fur- lough for him to take him home, but was refused. The father saw the boy would die there, and determined. if possible. to get him home even if he could not get a furlough. The chief sur- geon gave him a pass and he succeeded in getting him on a Hospital Boat. and home. where with careful nursing he recor- vred. was discharged. and afterwards re-enlisted. becoming captain of an infantry company. The condition became so bad that hardly enough men remained to take care of the horses, and details had to be made from the infantry regiments to help out. The hospital boats were kept busy plying between Helena and Memphis and Northern towns carrying away the sick. On September 30th, 32 men of the battery were sent away on the Adriatic, but the boat was so crowded that the Surgeon. Burke, ordered off many who were still able to walk. to wait for another boat. Another lot of men was sent away on Octo- ber 7th, on the D. A. January. At one time only 20 men were is for duty.
While at Helena. in November and December, the battery accompanied two expeditions up White River. the first of
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which was a failure on account of low water. On the second. we went to
DUVALL'S BLUFF
which we reached and captured on the 16th of December, and the next day to
DES ARC
both of which places the rebels thought it judicious to leave without much fighting. On this expedition two of the corpo- rals made a most remarkable capture of scores of "rebs" with- out any assistance; but they were "greybacks," which had taken refuge in an old comfort which the said corporals seized as a great prize : in the end the "greybacks" came near captur- ing them.
After our return to Helena from our first White River expe- dition, waiting for the return of healh, and the opening of the Spring Campaign, we again built ourselves cabins from the slen- der cottonwood trees. When later on we came back from our second expedition up White River. we found that the river bank on which we had built, had eaved in. cabins and all. and a new camp was selected back of the town on the foot hills
At this time the rebels still managed to get large quantities of supplies across the river to their Eastern armies. They still had some boats up the smaller rivers. Our gunboats were too few to patrol the whole river from Vicksburg to Memphis. So a fast, light, stern-wheel
STEAMBOAT. THE WM. HENDERSON,
Capt. Lamont, was put to patroling the river. The two guns of the left section, Lt. Murdock in command, were put on the
SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY. 25
bow of the boat; the gunners were Belmer and White, with Cory as sergeant. These guns were put on the Henderson on the return from Duvall's Bluff up White River. The men with these guns were in part from the center section. They lived fine on the boat, and escaped the hardships of the men in camp : they slept on the cabin floor carpet, and the boat's cook pre- pared their meals. There was also on board a company of the 43rd Indiana.
All this while Grant was working at the problem of how to get below and in rear of Vicksburg. The attack on the Yazoo River side, at Haines Bluff, the previous December under Sherman, had been a complete failure with great loss. Some other way must be found. A couple of miles below and across from Helena and on the east side of the river is Moon Lake and the
YAZOU PASS.
This Pass, about 100 feet wide, had formerly connected with the Yazoo River, and had been navigated. but a strong levee had been built across the mouth of the Pass. This levee was ent at high water, letting the river into the Lake and Pass. When the last thin remnant of the levee was blown out on February 3. 1863. the waters rushed through with tremendous force. On the 8th the little steamer W'm. Henderson, with General Washburn and Chief Engineer Wilson on board, and our two guns on the bow of the boat, steered for the opening in the levee and shot through like an arrow, by the combined force of steam and Blood. first passing through Moon Lake. and then entering the Pass, which is 12 to 14 miles long before entering the Coldwater River. The steamer went down the Pass five or six miles, finding some obstructions, but not enough to stop the passage of boats, but learned that heavier obstructions had been made further down. The boat returned
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SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY.
to Helena, and a force of 1500 men was sent down to clear the Pass. Our two guns were transferred from the Im. Henderson to the J. C. Raymond, which was sent with this working force as a guard and also to carry provisions. The whole country was overflowed from the cut in the levee, and it took two weeks to clear the Pass, the men assisted by all the steam power of the boats finding it tremendously hard work. Often a three or four-inch hawser would snap like a thread when trying to pull out a big tree three or four feet in diameter : then six-inch hawsers were used. All the light woodwork of the upper decks was brushed off by the over- hanging timber. Lient. Murdock was very active and helpful in this work of clearing the Pass. The chief engineer in charge, Lieut. Col. J. H. Wilson, in his report of this work to General Grant says this of our energetic officer: "I take the liberty of commending the zeal and intelligence of Lieut. George Murdock, of the Sixteenth Ohio Battery, for render- ing valuable assistance in directing and prosecuting the work." The work of clearing the Pass was completed Feb. 22 and as we entered the Coldwater River we fired a salute in honor of Washington's birthday by shelling the woods and canebrake, and then returned to the Pass, but the next day went down the Coldwater River some fifteen miles as far as thought pru- dent without support and returned to the Pass to await the expedition which Grant in the meantime had assembled at Helena with a view of getting to the rear of Haine's Bluff and Vicksburg via the Pass. Coldwater, Tallehatchie and Yazoo Rivers. General Ross with 4,500 men on boats left Helena February 25 with the gun boats for the Pass but did not reach the junction of the Tallehatchie and Yallabusha which unite at Greenwood. Miss and make the Yazoo until March the 11th. Where the rebels when they heard of theexpedition had built a formidable work called
SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY. 27
FORT PEMBERTON.
mounting some heavy guns ; and as all the country was over- flowed so that no infantry or land forces could get near enough to attack, and the gunboats alone could accomplish nothing. the whole expedition started back for Helena. But in the Pass. Quinby was coming with reinforcements, and be- ing senior to Ross assumed command and started back to see for himself if nothing more could be done. But as he found all the land within half a mile of the fort under water so that no landing of troops could be made. the whole expedition re- turned to Helena. April 8th, an inglorious failure.
An incident occurred on the John C. Raymond to which we had been transferred with a company of the Forty-third Infantry soon after the Pass was opened that will be vividly remembered by all who were on board One evening. at dark. the boat tied up to a tree in the midst of the waters and sub- merged canebrake. . As no enemy could get to us for the waters, little guard was set. At midnight the boat's watch- man raised a crv. "The boat's sinking!" In a minute every- body was bustling. The deck which had been four to five feet above water was nearly down to it. Everybody began hurl- ing things overboard to lighten the vessel. and to pump and bail out water. Coal. barrels of meat and hams, hard tack. everything handy was hurled overboard. Some one thought that our two guns and ammunition chests were heavy and must go too, but we said "That's the last thing to go, and we go with them." and Joe Ross was watching to knock down the first man who should touch the guns. In an hour we f und we were gaining on the leak, and by daylight the leak had been found and stopped. We now fished out of the water the barrel of hams we could reach. Before, they had been commissary stores, but now they were our own, as we had saved them. We had also burned a lot of our old side meat
28 SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGUT ARTILLERY.
under the boiler to get up steam quick when sinking, and we now took hams in exchange for that. At daybreak we found Bene Kinert's knapsack tied up in the top of the small tree to which the boat had been tied; he thought if she went down he'd save himself and belongings by climbing up into this tree top. The cause of the leak was probably that the boat had struck a snag just before tying up. and after dark the slow sinking was not noticed till the hold was nearly full. In less than half an hour more the water would have reached the large opening in which the tiller beam plays and she would have gone down suddenly. Probably the hurricane deck would have remained out of water, so that most of us would have been saved as well as Bene Kinert.
The real
VICKSBURG CAMPAIGN
was now to begin. The Yazoo Pass, Steel's Bavou, Lake Providence and Tensas Bayou and the canal opposite Vicks- burg were all schemes of little promise and proved utter fail- ures in accomplishing the desired result, namely, getting into an advantageous Position in rear of Vicksburg: for the strength of the riverside and water batteries was already known, and the place could never be taken from the riverside. But these failures only brushed out of the way in Grant's mind all objections that might be made to his final plan. When that plan was proposed and begun everybody saw that it was the only other thing to be done-though Sherman himself doubted its success. No mind less than Grant's would have dared to undertake what he did; to run common steamboats past the tremendous batteries of the place the Confederacy fondly thought never could be taken; to use these boats as ferries below the city; move the troops by land past Vicks- bury on the west side of the river, cross over, and get on firm, high ground east of the iver, whereas for weeks on the
SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY. 29
other side we had been threatened with drowning by the extraordinary high floods of the Mississippi River; this no mind but Grant's had dared to plan and undertake.
While at Helena there was a reorganizing of the army. Curtis' Army of the Southwest disappears, and
THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE
absorbs its component parts. We now became part of the First Brigade, Twelfth Division, Thirteenth Army Corps. This Corps was organized Oct. 24 1862 and had been com- manded by Grant in person as the Army of the Tennessee. John A. McClernand now commanded the Corps, A. P. Hovey the Division, Geo. F. McGinnis the Brigade, composed as fol- lows:
First Brigade ( McGinnis).
Eleventh Indiana. Thirty-fourth Indiana. Forty -sixth Indiana.
Twenty-fourth Indiana.
Twenty-ninth Wisconsin.
Peoria or Battery A, Second
Sixteenth Ohio Battery. Illinois.
Second Brigade ( Slack).
Forty-seventh Indiana. Twenty-fourth Iowa.
Twenty-eighth lowa. Fifty-sixth Ohio.
Second Ohio Battery. First Missouri Battery. First Indiana Cavalry.
We had at this time IHI men, 15 of whom were detailed from the Forty-sixth Indiana Regiment.
The Thirteenth Corps was composed of five divisions, the oth Division under Osterhaus; the roth. A. J. Smith : the 12th A. P. Hovey: the 13th, L. F. Ross; the 14th. E. A. Carr. It il be seen from this that the numbering is irregular and chemalous. In the earlier period of the war the Corps organ- ization was not used; divisions of an army or department were
1
30 SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY.
numbered from s up. The whole Army of the Tennessee was first called the 13th Corps, under Grant, and numbered about 90,000 men. But on December 18, 1862 an order from the War Department divided this one very large Corps into four corps. the 13th, - 15th, 16th. and 17th, each bearing besides its number the designation, Army of the Tennessee. It was almost wholly a western army. Our Corps retained the number, 13th, of the original large Corps, and the divisions of this new 13th Corps retained the numbers they had in the old Corps. If regularly numbered, we would have been the 3rd division, 13th Corps.
The Battery left Helena April 12th, 1863, reaching
MILLIKEN'S BEND
on the 15th. There scemed hardly dry ground enough for an army of 40,coo to camp on. The river was very high from incesssant rains; from the deck of a steamboat the waters seemed to be five or ten miles wide, and at one time it looked as if the whole army would be drowned out. The levees were in many places the only land out of water, and these had many breaks. In all our marches from Milliken's Bend we had to pick our way over the highest grounds we could find, sometimes only a foot or so above the flood. At one place we knocked down a picket fence and went through a garden. the only ground out of water. The distance from Milliken's Bend to where we crossed the river at Bruinsburg is 40 miles, and could have been made in two days of good roads, but it took us nearly two weeks to make our round- about way with bridge building and ferrying over bayous, and getting gunboats and transports past the Vicksburg batteries.
All baggage and camp equipage was ordered to be left be- hind, and the only horses allowed were for the artillery. The officers of the infantry and even the generals had to walk.
SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY. 31
We never saw our baggage again: it was either sunk or so mixed in with the rest all piled in withow' order that it could never be identified. We used our tarpaulins and spare poles for shelter, but our Generals slept under the trees and looked up at the stars at night.,
Before the army that was to take Vicksburg left Milliken's Bend there was a general and thorough inspection, to see that everything was in the best condition possible. This inspection was made by General Grant who was in command of this whole army, together with the Corps Commanders MeClern- and. McPherson and Sherman. and leading officers. These high officers pronounced ours to be the best ordered and best equipped volunteer battery in the service-no small com- pliment from such soldiers. This is no mere idle boast drawn from the imagination at this distant date. but was the praise given to our officers at the time. All through this great campaign the officers and men composin- our brigade seemed to take a pride in our battery, and the official reports clearly indicate this. We always ranked well with our superior offi- cers from Grant. McClernand. Hovey, and McGinnis down to Colonels and other lower officers in the brigade. The credit of our fine condition and readiness for service at so momen- tous a time as the start from Millikens Bend belongs mainly to Captain Mitchell, who took the utmost pride and delight in the well-being and well-doing of his men, and left nothing undone that he could do or have done to see them well and fully equipped, clothed and provided for at all times ar ! under all conditions. Neither men, horses or battery supplies were Deglected, short or out of repair while he commanded and could possibly prevent it.
The march from Milliken's Bend through the overflowed country intersected by many bayous was begun April 16th, the 24th Indiana leading the column, our before ne then the 40th Indiana, followed by the rest of the division. We reached
,
32 SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY.
RICHMOND
about ten miles southwest from the Bend before dark. next day Dawson's Plantation, on Roundabout Bayou. The weather became hot, overcoats, etc., were thrown away by the in- fantry. During the night terrific firing was heard and a great light seen in the eastern sky. The Sunboats and transports were running the Vicksburg batteries.
This was one of the most daring exploits of the war. It might be expected that ironclad gunboats could run the four- teen miles of batteries with fair success, out that common steamboats could survive the storin of shot and shell was a more doubtful experiment. But it was successfulh done. The boilers were protected with hay and cotton bales and sacks of grain. The crews of all the boats except one, and all the officers except two Captains refused to run such a risk. Vol- unteers were called for; enough responded to fill every posi- tion many times over. captains, pilots, engineers. deckhands. most of them from Logan's division, rivermen from Illinois and Missouri. Grant says that the Yankee soldier was equal to anything required, that in the ranks and among the offi- cers volunteers could be found to meet every call for aid. mechanical and professional. The gunboats that ran the bat- teries were the Benton, Lafayette. Louisville, Mound City. Pittsburg, Carondelet, and Tuscumbia; the transports Forest Queen, Silver Ware and Henry Clay, six gunboats leading and the Tuscumbia bringing up the rear.
We were about fifteen miles due west of Vicksburg that night at Rielimond. but at the time it seemed only six or seven miles. the shots and bursting of the shells could be so plainly heard. and we could see the flashes in the sky like sheet lightning. All the boats passed successfully except the Henry Clay, which was disabled and deserted. a shell bursting in the cotton protecting the boilers set fire to it and she burned to the water's edge.
SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY. 33
General Grant witnessed from the deck of a transport in the river as near as it was prudent to go this daring under- taking, on which so much depended; and he says the spec- tacle was magnificent but terrible. Most of us even at our distance lay awake nearly all night listening to the terrible cannonading, and only went to sleep when all had passed and quiet reigned.
We were now in the midst of a network of bayous. In four days our division, with the aid of Capt. Patterson's pioneers, built four bridges over about 1.coo feet of water, and cut two miles of roads through the woods, thus making a military road for the whole army to come after us. We were heading for New Carthage on the river. Before reaching it. the levee to Bayou Vidal was broken in several places. over-flowing the road for two miles. Boats were collected and made on the spot to ferry the troops across this over- flowed interval. But a new route was found from Smith's plantation, where the break was. around by Perkin's planta- tion, about ten miles below New Carthage, where we reached the river, April 27th.
Toward evening of April 28th, the infantry of our division with one section of the Second Ohio Battery were loaded on transports and coal barges, there being no room for the rest of the artillery. The purpose was to drop down the river and capture
. GR.IND GULF.
This place. a conical hill with a plane at its base, was strongly fortified. with heavy guns. The gunboats were to silence the batteries, then the infantry was to land and se- cutre a footing and try to take the fort. Governor Yates. of Illinois, was along to see the great achievement. In the night the troops dropped down the river, reaching
34 SIXTEENTH BATTERY OHIO VOLUNTEER LIGHT ARTILLERY.
HARD TIMES LANDING
at 6 o'clock a. m., where the boats tied up. The river here flows due east. nearly striking the base of the hill on which Grand Gulf is situated. then turning sharply southwest. By 8 o'clock all was ready. Porter was on his flagship, the Benton, Grant on a little tug in the middle of the river, Mc- Clernand on the Price, a captured boat. On a signal from the Benton the fleet weighed anchor and went up stream a mile, then turned and came down in line of battle. From the deck of the transports every movement could be plainly seen. For five hours and a half the eight gunboats hammered away at the fort without silencing a single oun. All this time 10.000 nien of the 13th Corps were huddled on the transports in the stream waiting to do their part. At half past one the gun- boats gave it up as a failure and withdrew. At dusk the 13th Corps was landed and in the night marched past the fort across the tongue of land made by the bend of the river, and the gunboats and transports successfully ran past the bat- teries in the night. By daylight the enemy saw our gun- boats and transports three miles below their great fort. mov- ing down the River, loaded with. troops that had again em- birked. At De Shroon's plantation, still on the west side they debarked on the evening of the 20th, expecting to cross next day at Rodney. ten or fifteen miles below. but that night a colored man told Grant there was a good landing at Bruins- burg, and from there a good road to Port Gibson. The divisions of Carr and Osterhaus were in the lead and crossed on the morning of April 30th. Next came Hovey's Division. It was dusk before our battery crossed over, on the trans- port Silver Ware: everything went with a rush. Two days' rations were received to last five days. We crossed just below Bruinsburg. About to o'clock. p. m., the bugle called to "boots and saddles," to wake the boys who had gone to
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