USA > Ohio > The history of Fuller's Ohio brigade, 1861-1865; its great march, with roster, portraits, battle maps and biographies > Part 15
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When General Hood stood on the hill at Resaca, in May previous, and with bated breath, saw the Army of the Tennessee issue from the nar- row defile of Snake Creek Gap and roll in sweeping and beautiful lines over the hills and valleys, with the design of carrying that position, he was told by his Chief of Staff that the Army of the Tennessee was there to fight, it knew how to fight and was willing to fight.
It must be regretted by all and especially by the tried and true soldiers of the Fourth, Fourteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-third Corps, commanded by Generals Thomas, Schofield, Slocum, and Howard, respectively, that General Sherman's order was not enforced to strike the foe in their front, which on the 22nd of July was only a thin line, notwithstanding they were behind works. If these four corps had been allowed to attack, Hood's Army would have been crushed and captured at Atlanta.
173
MOVEMENTS TO THE RIGHT.
It is matter of history that only two Army commanders were killed in battle during the War of the Rebellion, both of whom were of the highest type of the American soldier. On the Confederate side, Albert Sydney Johnston, fell at Shiloh, April 6th, 1862. Surrounded by his friends. he fell at the hour of defeat. On the Union side, James B. McPherson on July 22nd, 1864. Alone with the exception of an orderly. He fell at the moment of victory. He was a gallant gentleman who blended the gentleness of the friend with the dignity of a soldier.
The engagement lasted about five hours. The Union troops in pos- session of the battle field picked up the wounded and buried the dead. Many soldiers of Fuller's Division were wounded more than once. Some sat down and picked bullets out of their belts, guns, cartridge boxes, and canteens. The dead were brought from the battle field back to a clump of pines where in the presence of the survivors, they were buried wrapped in their blankets. Under the pines, two miles southeast of Atlanta, near where they fell, rest the brave heroes of Fuller's Ohio Brigade, and of his Div- ision.
The battle of the 22nd of July in front of Atlanta is recognized among military men as one of the most obstinately fought, and the victory as most vital to the interests of the Union cause during the war of the rebellion.
During the battle. the attacks upon our lines were made seven times and seven times repulsed. The final stampede of the enemy was complete. They left the field without semblance of organization, and retired during the night, inside of Atlanta. The Union troops captured eighteen stand of colors and five thousand stand of arms. The prisoners included thirty-three commissioned officers of high rank. The Union troops were in fine spirits over the results of the battle.
MOVEMENT OF THE UNION ARMY TO THE RIGHT.
The Division remained on the battle field until the 25th, when an ad- vance of a mile was made to the front. While on picket, the writer. be- ing an officer of the guard, received orders from General Sherman at two o'clock in the morning of the 27th, to vacate the whole line quietly, to al- low no fires, and to have no talking above a whisper. This was done and the Division with the Army of the Tennessee, swung around the entire army in a flank movement to the extreme right, marching twenty-eight miles and taking position the same evening, in a dense woods, across Proctor's Creek. The Seventeenth Corps came up the next morning on our right and the Fifteenth with them on the extreme right.
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174
FULLER'S OHIO BRIGADE.
THE BATTLE OF THE 28TH OF JULY.
On the 28th of July the Division moved in line of battle, half a mile nearer to Atlanta and threw up breastworks. At ten o'clock in the morning two corps of the enemy, Lee's and Hardee's, massed against and attacked the lines of the Sixteenth and the Fifteenth Corps. They made six dis- tinct charges, but were repulsed with great slaughter. The Union forces captured five battle flags and two thousand muskets. Three regiments of the Fourth Division, (the Sixty-fourth Illinois, Thirty-fifth New Jersey and Sixty-third Ohio) were sent to re-enforce the Fifteenth Corps.
At the end of July our infantry line was strongly intrenched, but was drawn out from the Augusta Road on the left to the Sand Town Road on the right, a distance of ten miles. The enemy presented a bold font with fortified lines that defied direct assault. The weather had been hot in the extreme. There had been a month of conflict without intermission. Many of our men had been killed or wounded. Willis Fisher of the Forty- third Ohio was torn to pieces by a shell while preparing his morning coffee.
From July 1st to 31st, in all the Union corps, there were in killed, wounded and missing, nine thousand seven hundred and nineteen. This did not embrace the losses in the cavalry which was small. In the rebel army the losses including prisoners, from July 4th to 31st were ten thou- sand eight hundred and forty-one.
BATTLE NEAR ATLANTA. Ezra Church in Foreground. July 28th, 1864.
175
ASSIGNED TO THE SEVENTEENTH CORPS.
The bridge across the Chattahoochee River had been reconstructed and the rear of our army was so well guarded that the trains arrived from Nashville daily and all wants were well-supplied.
By August 4th, reports were received of the surrender of seven hun- dred of Stoneman's Cavalry, near Macon, Georgia. Stoneman stood and covered the escape of two small brigades while surrendering to Colonel Iverson. Colonels Brownlow, Adams, and Capron, with their detachments of cavalry, came in perfectly demoralized.
McCook's Cavalry expedition had crossed the Chattahoochee River, then marched rapidly across the Macon Railroad at Lovejoy station. They tore up two miles of track, burned two trains of cars, cut away telegraph wires, killed eight hundred mules, burned five hundred wagons. and cap- tured five hundred men. Turning back to Newman. McCook found him- self completely surrounded by infantry and cavalry. He had to drop his prisoners and fight his way out to Turner's Ferry, losing about six hun- dred men.
The weather continued hot and sultry, but the supplies of water and pro- visions were ample and our position before Atlanta, healthy. Our skir- mish line was held close up to the enemy and kept up a continuous clat-
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13028 ATTACH
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BATTLE LINES, EZRA CHURCH, Atlanta, July 28th, 1864.
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FULLER'S OHIO BRIGADE
ter of musketry. The main lines were held still further back, with mus- kets loaded and stacked ready for instant use.
On the 7th of August, the Fourteenth Corps, now under command of Jefferson C. Davis, and Schofield's Corps, got around and assaulted the enemy and drove him behind his main breastworks which covered the rail- road from Atlanta to East Point. On the same day, the Twenty-seventh and Forty-third Ohio with the Thirty-ninth Ohio, the Eighteenth Mis- souri, and the Sixty-fourth Illinois, acting as reserves, advanced the line three hundred yards. They crossed an open field, went into thick woods, and built rifle pits along the brow of a ridge, the enemy falling back. The soldiers worked hard that sultry day, and they were tired when the shades of night gathered around them in the gloom of the pine and oak forest. Those who were not on duty, relaxed the constant vigilance in watching for the enemy, care was laid aside, and one by one, with a firm hold on their guns, they dropped off to sleep. Firing ceased along the line. the wind gradually quieted down, and the moon came up and shone through the trees. There was stillness in the balmy air.
As was usual, the pickets were warned to listen for any signs of the enemy, and so a few men crawled out in front of the vidette, and stooping beneath the foliage of the trees and the underbrush, listened for sounds of moving troops, artillery or wagons. After lying there for some time, a slight breeze sprang up, carrying with it from the enemy's camp. the clear soft strains of music from a band, the noise of a vast camp, and confused sounds of voices continuing late into the night. There was no sign of attack.
On August 8th, the third brigade of the Division arrived from Decatur, Alabama. The Seventeenth New York, commanded by Colonel John W. Tillson, were uniformed as Zouaves, with bright red fez and trousers. To- gether with other troops, they relieved the Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninthi and Forty-third Ohio Regiments and in a few minutes, created a small bat- tle, losing nine killed and wounded. The troops they relieved, returned to the trenches and soon the firing quieted down. The Zouaves exchanged their showy dress for the regulation uniform, soon afterward, for it was found that the bright color was a better mark for the enemy, causing greater mortality in battle. The men of the Fourth Division wore clothing stained by constant use, to the color of the Georgia soil and were less visible to the enemy.
On the 10th, heavy parrot guns were received and placed in position and a sharp fire was kept up from all our batteries converging on Atlanta. Our infantry lines were advanced thereby shortening and strengthening our investment. The Twenty-seventh Ohio marched on August 10th, to Marietta, Georgia, and served under orders of the Provost Marshal. There
177
CAPTURE OF ATLANTA.
were eight thousand patients in the hospitals. Business blocks were used for army stores, and churches and hotels for the sick and wounded.
On August 13th. all non-veterans from the Fourth Division went home. On August 25th. strong reconnaissances forward from our flanks, on the right and left, were made by our cavalry, in the hope of decoying Hood out of Atlanta, and to make him fight us on something like equal terms. Mean- while the utmost activity was ordered along our whole front by the in- fantry.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
SHERMAN'S GREAT FLANK MOVEMENT.
Kilpatrick's Cavalry made a circle of Atlanta, destroying the railroad about Jonesborough. General G. M. Dodge, commanding the Sixteenth Corps, had been wounded and had gone to the rear, and his two divisions were distributed to the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps. The Fourth Division of the Sixteenth Corps was now assigned as the First Division of the Seventeenth Corps. The Fourth and Twentieth Corps, closed up with the Fourteenth Corps at Utoy Creek. At the same time Gerrard's Cavalry, leaving their horses out of sight, occupied the vacant trenches, so that the enemy did not detect the change.
SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS BADGE.
On the 26th the First Division with Seventeenth and Fifteenth Corps, drew out of their trenches, made a wide circuit, and came up on the extreme right of the Fourteenth Corps, along Utoy Creek facing south. On the 25th, the Twentieth drew back to the railroad bridge at the Chattahoochee River to protect our railroad communication to the rear.
On the following morning, some of the enemy came out of Atlanta and found our camps near the city, abandoned. There was great rejoic- ing in Atlanta that the "Yankees were gone." The fact was telegraphed all over the south. Several trains full of ladies came up from Macon to assist in the celebration of their supposed victory.
On the 28th, the First Division reached the West Point railroad, the army lines extending from East Point to Fairburn, where the railroad track was heaved up in sections, the length of a regiment and then separ- ated rail by rail. Bonfires were made of the ties on which the rails were heated, carried to trees, wrapped around and left to cool. Thus it will be seen that General Sherman was one of the masters in the science of war He had moved his army twenty-six miles to the rear, in the face of the Con- federate Army and had placed them across the railroad at Jonesborough.
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179
GENERAL SHERMAN'S REPORT.
On the 30th, the enemy made his first move at Mount Gilead, then to Morrow's Mills and intrenched at Jonesborugh. On September 1st. the Fourteenth Corps closed down on the north front of Jonesborough, con- necting with the Seventeenth Corps, his left reaching the Fourth Corps and then swept forward in full view, and went over the rebel parapets hand- somely. The First and Second Divisions of the Seventeenth Corps were sent around by his right rear to get below Jonesborough, to reach the rail- road and cut off the enemy's retreat, in that direction The Fourth Corp; was hurried forward so as to lap around Jonesborough on the east, hop- ing there to capture the whole of Hardee's Corps, but night came on and Hardee escaped. Atlanta was now untenable and at two o'clock on the morning of the 2nd of September, after blowing up their arsenals and machine shops and burning their army stores, the city was abandoned by the Confederates and they moved out in retreat. The Twentieth Corps moved forward and took possession. In all these movements during the great swing of the army, to the right and below Atlanta, the Twenty-seventh, Thirty-ninth, Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio Regiments were heavily engaged in battle, assisted in destroying railroads, and took part in all the movements of the Division and Army.
JOHNNIE McCLAY. Musician Co. H, 4Bd O. V. V. I.
Thirteen years old. The youngest boy in the Bri- gade if not in the Army. who, finding a Confed- erate picket post asleep at Jonesboro, Ga., dis- armed and captured the whole post, a corporal and three men.
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FULLER'S OHIO BRIGADE.
The news of the capture of Atlanta "the gate city of the south" was spread to the Army. The men were wild with cheers, shouts and rejoic- ing. Their three months of toil and hardship had ended. The tidings flew to all parts of the north and congratulations came pouring back. Des- patches were received with the thanks of the President from the White House. General Grant at City Point, Virginia, ordered a salute with shot- ted guns from every battery bearing upon the enemy. A Presidential election was agitating the North. Mr. Lincoln represented the National cause and the brilliant success at Atlanta made his election certain. Mc- Clellan had accepted the nomination of the so-called Democratic party, whose platform was that the war was a failure. The price of gold fell at all commercial centers. The greatest epoch of treason had been reached and the crisis of the war was now passed.
The Thirty-ninth, Forty-third and Sixty-third Ohio Regiments with the First Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee, went into camp at East Point, Georgia. The Twenty-seventh Ohio went into camp at Marietta and the Army of the Cumberland in and about Atlanta, and the Army of the Ohio at Decatur. Atlanta was made a military gar- rison, with no population to influence military measures. The question of supplying our army , so far in the interior, became a vital question for the military authorities to solve. We could not remain on the defensive simply holding Atlanta and fighting for the safety of its railroads. Many citizens of Georgia in private interviews, with our officers, proclaimed that further resistance on the part of the south was madness, and would advocate the withdrawal of the people from the rebellion. Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia, ordered the state militia to withdraw from Hood's command, but he only furloughed them.
The campaign just closed was the longest and the most continuously successful during the war of the rebellion. It covered a period of one hun- dred and twenty days, forcing the enemy a distance of nearly two hundred miles, through the mountains of northern Georgia. On each of these days the fighting rose to the proportions of a battle.
The Confederate Commander Hood came from Virginia bringing with him veteran troops and boasting that he would show the southwestern Con- federates how to fight. He lost four battles around Atlanta, and then the city itself. A few weeks later, he lost his entire army.
Hood was bold and rash. At last he made the mistake we had waited for so long ; he sent his cavalry to the rear, far beyond reach of recall. In- stantly our cavalry was on his only remaining road and we followed quickly with our army and Atlanta fell into our possession, the fruit of well con- certed measures backed by a brave and competent army.
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181
REPORT OF GENERAL SHERMAN.
All black slaves from the plantations that came into the Union lines were enlisted as soldiers or put to work with shovel and pick on the forti- fications, or as teamsters, or servants. The following order indicates the foregoing.
MARIETTA, GEORGIA, SEPTEMBER 6TH, 1864.
I have sent Lieutenant Charles H. Smith of the Twenty-seventh Ohio Infantry to Atlanta to procure negroes to work on the fortifications and in the department here. Any assistance that may be rendered him, will be ap- preciated. We need two hundred able bodied negroes.
SAMUEL Ross, Colonel Twentieth Connecticut V. I. Commanding Post.
General Logan who had been in command of the Army of the Tennes- see since the death of General McPherson, returned to the command of the Fifteenth Corps and was succeeded by General Howard who took com- mand of the Army of the Tennessee, on the 24th day of July, and on the 9th of September, issued a congratulatory order in which he said, "The country may never know with what patience labor and expense, you have tugged away at every natural and artificial obstacle that an enterprising and confident enemy could interpose. The terrific battles you have fought may never be realized nor accredited, still acclaim is already greeting you from the government and people, in view of the results you have helped to gain and I believe that a sense of the magnitude of the achievments of the last hundred days will not abate but increase with time and history. Our rejoicing is tempered as it must be, by the sorrow at the loss of con- panions in arms. On every hillside and in every valley, throughout your long and circuitous march, you have buried them. I never saw fiercer as- saults than the enemy made, and I never saw troops more steady and self- possessed in action than your divisions that were continually engaged. For cheerfulness and obedience, rapidity of movement and confidence in battle, the Army of the Tennessee can not be surpassed. And it will con- tinue its fair record while it moves forward until the old flag floats in every proud city of the rebellion."
General Hooker took offence because he was not given the command of the Army of the Tennessee in preference to General Howard and asked to be relieved from command of the Twentieth Corps. His request was immediately granted and he went home and reported that Sherman's Army had run up against a rock at Atlanta and the country should be prepared to hear of disaster in that quarter." "General Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield, had complained of General Hooker's disposition to "switch off" and to leave wide gaps in his line and other breaches of discipline and pro- prieties."
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FULLER'S OHIO BRIGADE
REPORT OF MAJOR-GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN, UNITED STATES
ARMY, COMMANDING THE MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSIS- .
SIPPI, IN PART.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, SEPTEMBER 15TH, 1864.
On March 14th, General Grant summoned me to Nashville, Tennessee, for a conference. * * We had a full and complete understanding of the policy and plans for the ensuing campaign, covering a vast area of country. my part of which extended from Chattanooga to Vicksburg.
On the 25th I began a tour of inspection. I had interviews with Gen- erals McPherson, commanding the Army of the Tennessee, at Huntsville, Thomas, at Chattanooga, Schofield at Knoxville. We fixed the first day of May as the time when all things should be ready. I found the depots at Nashville abundamiy supplied and the rainvaus in very fair order, but the impoverished condition of the inhabitants of East Tennessee had forced the commanding officers of the posts to issue food to the people. *
The prolific soil soon afforded early vegetables, and wagons hauled meat and bread from Kentucky. I received from Lieutenant-General Grant, a map with letter of instructions. Subsequently I received notice from him that he would move from his camp at Culpepper, Virginia, on the 5th of May, and that he wanted me to do the same from Chattanooga.
On the 27th of April, I put all the troops in motion toward Chattanooga. The Army of the Tennessee failed to receive certain divisions that were still kept on the Mississippi River. On the 1st of May the effective strength of the several armies was about as follows: Army of the Cum- berland, Major-General Thomas commanding, total sixty thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, guns one hundred and thirty; Army of the Tennessee, Major-General McPherson, commanding, total twenty four thousand four hundred and sixty-five, guns ninety-six; Army of the Ohio, Major-General Schofield commanding, total thirteen thousand five hun- dred and fifty-rine, guns twenty-eight ; grand aggregate of troops, ninety- eight thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, guns two hundred and fifty-four.
I repaired to Chattanooga in person on the 29th of April. By May 6th, General Thomas had grouped his army at and about Ringold, Gener- al Schofield at and near Cleveland, and General McPherson at and near Gordon's Mills on the Chickamauga. The enemy lay at Dalton, holding the Buzzard Roost pass, the line of Mill Creek to the north, and his line of railroad back to Atlanta, superior to me in cavalry, with three corps of infantry and artillery, viz: Hardee's. Hood's and Polk's, the whole com- manded by General Joe Johnston, of the Confederate Army. I estimated the cavalry under Wheeler about ten thousand and the infantry and artillery, fifty thousand.
May 6th all the armies moved forward, General Thomas on Tunnell Hill, a gravelly range of hills covering the mouth of the famous Buzzard Roost Pass, through Rocky Face Ridge, General Schofield east of that range, approaching Dalton from the north and General McPherson aiming
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GENERAL. SHERMAN'S REPORT.
ior Resaca, eighteen miles south of Dalton, through Snake Creek Gap and Sugar Valley.
To strike Dalton was impracticable. My purpose was that General McPherson should reach the railroad at Resaca and destroy it to John- ston's rear, and then take up a strong defensive position near the mouth of the Gap, and to operate on the flank of the enemy as he retreated. Gen- eral McPherson moved rapidiy with the Army ot the Tennessee, reached the Gap on the 8th and passing through, completely surprised a brigade of cavalry that was coming to watch and defend it. He found Resaca too strong to be carried by assault and accordingly fell back and took a strong position near the east end of the Gap. I left the Fourth Corps with cav- alry to watch the Buzzard Roost Road and moved the whole army to Re- saca. The enemy had full view of our movements and a better and shorter line to reach Resaca, to which place they retreated and occupied.
Sending a division to the Sixteenth Corps, Army of the Tennesson with a pontoon train to Lay's Ferry with orders to cross the Oostanaula and to attack the enemy's line at Calhoune, I gradually enveloped the enemy at Resaca and pressed him so hard that he evacuated in the night of May 15th and retreated. General McPherson got across Camp Creek near its mouth and made a lodgment close up to the enemy's works, on hills that com- manded the railroad and trestle bridge, the day previous. The enemy made a short stand at Adairsville and Cassville and then retreated south of the Etowah River by the Allatoona Pass.
On the 17th { had drawn General McPherson's Army from Woodland to Kingston, and delayed till the 23rd of May to fill wagons and replenish ammunition. General McPherson crossed the Connasene Creek near Kings- ton, and moved from his position to the south of Dallas, via Van Wert, on the 26th. On the 23rd. General Thomas was ordered to move on Dallas and General Schofield to keep on Thomas' left via Huntsville, Gerrard's Cavalry operating with McPherson. I knew the strength of Allatoona Pass. Ac- cordingly the army was moved past the range by other, more devious, diffi- cult, and natural roads that would admit of more equal terms with the enemy, should he attempt to meet us. The ground was very difficult, being densely wooded and composed of ridges and spurs of flinty ground, very barren of forage and difficult for roads.
On the 28th, General McPherson was on the point of closing to his left on General Thomas, in front of New Hope Church, when suddenly the enemy made a bold and daring assault on him at Dallas. Our men had erected good breastworks and gave the enemy terrible and bloody repulses.
I resolved to pass the enemy's right flank and place the whole army in front of Allatoona Pass. On June 1st. we accomplished our real purpose of turning the Allatoona Pass, and we had full possession with the railroad down as far as Kenesaw Mountain near Marietta, holding in some force, Dalton, Kingston, Rome and Resaca.
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