USA > Ohio > The story of the Sherman brigade. The camp, the march, the bivouac, the battle; and how "the boys" lived and died during four years of active field service > Part 35
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Toward evening, when the soldiers were wearied with two days of fighting, General Wood rode along the line of his two brigades and ordered the men to cheer-and they did, with great gusto. It revived their own spirits and may have had a depress- ing effect upon the enemy; for this was one of the ruses some- times employed to convey the impression that re-inforcements had arrived, or that good news had been received. In this case the shouts were vigorous and prolonged, General Wood, himself, swinging his hat and leading the chorus.
An incident will illustrate the spirit which animated the sol- diers. After the first volley, Robert C. Ford, of Company C, Six-
1863.]
THE SIXTH BATTERY ON SUNDAY.
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,ty-fourth, took position behind a sycamore tree, a few yards in front of the line. Here he remained, loading and firing with de- liberate aim, until his cartridge-box was empty. The tree was struck repeatedly but Ford was not touched.
It was in front of Snodgrass hill, at a tall pine tree which still stands to mark the spot, that General Jolin B. Hood, then in com- mand of Longstreet's corps, received, soon after three o'clock, a musket-ball in the leg which necessitated amputation at the thigh. It is more than likely that the bullet which struck this shining mark sped from one of the muskets of Harker's brigade. Gen- eral Hood recovered from his wound, and we formed an intimate acquaintance with him during the latter half of the year 1864.
Thomas was hard pressed, for the strength of the enemy was twice his own. The arrival of General Steedman, with two fresh brigades of General Granger's Reserve corps, was most timely. The exceedingly gallant fighting of Steedman and his troops was the deciding factor in the struggle. Beaten, baffled and bleeding, the Confederates gradually drew off, their ardor abated. As the last rays of the descending sun, struggling through the clouds of smoke, tinted the hills and valleys thickly strewn with the dead and dying, the long and desperate contest ceased. General Thomas richly earned the soubriquet which was bestowed upon him, the "Rock of Chickamauga,"-as that great Confederate leader, General Thomas J. Jackson, for his unyielding firmness at Bull Run, was given the name of "Stonewall," by which he will ever be known in history. All through that afternoon Thomas remained the only officer upon the field above the rank of division commander, both McCook and Crittenden having followed Rose- crans to Chattanooga.
It will be remembered that the Sixth battery, on the evening of Saturday, the 19th, was in bivouac near the Widow Glenn house. Two hours after midnight, while the readjustment of the lines was in progress, the battery was aroused and ordered to pass a considerable distance to the left. This movement was only ac- complished by cutting a passage through the woods. Striking a cross-road, the battery filed to the right upon it and about seven o'clock halted near the main road. Here the horses were watered and fed, and the men drew rations and made coffee. The officers'
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BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.
[September,
rations were placed upon the rack of the battery-wagon-and from that moment to the present, the officers never again saw those rations.
The battery was now separated from the infantry of Harker's brigade. About nine o'clock it once more pulled out, moved to the main road, and thence some distance toward Chattanooga. Leaving the road, it passed to the right about a quarter of a mile, where it halted, near the division of General Negley. It was ordered to go into position on a hill, which was reached by a strong pull up the acclivity, passing through a peach orchard. At the top of this rise was the Union line, just in the edge of the woods. The guns were ordered "in battery" and everything was . put in readiness for action. Here it was rejoined by Wood's two brigades- Harker's and Colonel George P. Buell's.
There being no place to station the caissons near the battery, First Sergeant George W. James, who had them in charge, was directed by Captain Bradley to park them in rear of a thick growth of underbrush, some distance away, which he did.
Meanwhile "the battle was on once more," and a rebel bat- tery, nearly opposite the Sixth, opened with great spirit, from a point near the Brotherton house, becoming at once exceedingly noisy and troublesome. Captain Bradley was directed to see if he could not quiet the obnoxious battery. At the word the men sprang to their pieces and some forty rounds were fired with the utmost possible rapidity. The ammunition bearers galloped to and from the limbers, and the gunners wielded their rammers with desperate energy. The pace was too hot for the rebel artillerists, and their guns were completely silenced.
Not long afterward the battery was ordered to limber up and move still farther to the left, with Harker's brigade. It was at this time that the unfortunate gap was left in the Union line and the disaster to the right occurred. It has heretofore been told how the Confederates rushed through the gap, enveloped Wood's flank and swept around into his rear. The battery followed the quick movement of Harker's brigade to the left for some distance, when its progress was arrested by dense underbrush through which it was not possible to pass. The position of the battery was made still more perilous by a mad rush of Union troops which
1863.]
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JOHN FERGUSON COLONEL, SIXTY-FOURTH.
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BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.
[September,
had abandoned their line and were seeking the rear. The exultant Confederates were fast closing around the battery, with shouts and yells, and the moment was critical in the extreme.
The only possible avenue of escape was by a detour over the hills to the westward, in the hope of reaching the Crawfish spring road. There was not an instant to be lost, for, indeed, escape seemed to be impossible. The order was given, and through a chaotic mass of wagons and half-crazed men and animals, the drivers lashed their horses, dragging the guns along. The stam- pede was similar to that confused mass through which Harker's brigade had threaded its way, when moving from the left to the right, on the first day at Stone River. Estep's Eighth Indiana battery, of Buell's brigade, was captured entire-guns, caissons and all. These guns were immediately turned and used by the Confederates upon their fleeing adversaries. It was only by the courage and address of Captain Bradley, and the steadiness and persistence of his officers and men, that the Sixth Ohio battery did not share the fate of the other. After almost superhuman effort all the guns, with their horses, reached the road. Moving rapidly some distance toward Rossville, they were soon out of immediate danger. The caissons had become detached, and the separation from the infantry of Harker's brigade was hopeless. But Captain Bradley had plenty of fight in him yet, and, with only his guns and limbers, he reported to General Negley, whose shattered di- vision had fallen back to that point. Several times during the afternoon the guns went into position and were fired with excel- lent effect. The gradual movement was with Negley's division to Rossville.
We left the caissons of the battery behind a copse, in charge of First Sergeant James. When the break came, James, being without orders, was compelled to act upon his own judgment, and to act quickly. He started the caissons to the rear at a gallop. They dashed down the steep hill-the greatest skill being neces- sary to avoid the trees-and emerged into a field. Two of the caissons and the battery wagon fouled against trees and became immovable. Their abandonment was inevitable. There was barely time to unhook the horses and get away, before the rebels were upon them. Upon reaching the road, this was found to be
435
AFTER MUCH TRIBULATION.
1863.]
so blocked with a mass of ammunition wagons that a passage was impossible. Major Mendenhall, General Crittenden's chief of artillery, who happened to be there, had watched the descent of the caissons, and informed Sergeant James that the only way of escape was to climb a high hill on the opposite side of the road. The attempt was at once made and was successful. James and his men, with four caissons, at length reached the Rossville road, moved to near that place, and went into park.
Of the fate of the guns James knew nothing. He had great reason to fear that they had fallen into the hands of the Philistines. He rode back in the hope of getting some tidings of the rest of the battery, but for a time his quest was wholly fruitless. About six o'clock he had the good fortune to meet Captain Bradley, and the greeting on both sides was most hearty. Bradley told James . that two orderlies had been sent, at the time of the break, with orders relative to the caissons, but neither of them got through. Dur- ing the evening the six ARTHUR L. SOMERS, FIRST SERGEANT, SIXTH BATTERY. guns and four caissons were reunited at Rossville. The battery was a little disfigured, but still ready for any duty which it might be called upon to perform.
General Garfield, after a perilous ride, reached General Thomas and acquainted him with the condition of affairs. He remained at Thomas's side during the rest of the day, giving all the assist- ance in his power. He sent a dispatch to Rosecrans at Chatta- nooga, informing him that the day was not lost. "Thank God !" fervently exclaimed Rosecrans, leaping from his chair as though
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BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.
[September,
he had received a galvanic shock. "Gentlemen," he said to Crit- tenden and McCook, who were with him, "this is no place for you ; go at once to your commands!" Rosecrans immediately ordered abundant supplies of ammunition and rations to be sent by wagons to Rossville, to which place he directed Thomas to re- tire the army.
The sun was near the horizon when the rebels made a last desperate effort to dislodge Thomas. It failed, and they fell back, after awful slaughter, and the battle of Chickamauga was ended. During the night General Thomas, with consummate adroitness, withdrew the army to Rossville, where, at the gap, it was placed in an almost impregnable position. The rebels fol- lowed in the morning but refrained from making an attack. For the time their appetite for fighting had been fully appeased. At points favorable for the ruse, the Union troops were marched again and again around hills, in view of the enemy, to convey to the latter a fictitious idea of the strength of Thomas. The rebels were content to remain quiet, and there was little except artillery firing during the day. The Sixth battery rejoined Harker's brigade on Missionary Ridge, the morning of the 21st. In the afternoon it was engaged with the enemy, firing about one hun- dred and thirty rounds. The night which followed was occupied in the withdrawal of the army to Chattanooga, pursuant to the orders of General Rosecrans, without the loss of a man. The troops were at once assigned their positions along the line chosen for defense.
In a certain sense the Confederates won a victory at Chicka- mauga. They captured nearly sixty pieces of artillery and five thousand prisoners, and forced Rosecrans to give up the field. But Chattanooga was the prize of the summer's canipaign, and this was held by the Union army with a grasp that could not be broken. From the day that Wood's division entered it, no Con- federate flag again floated over it. The total Union loss in the battle was above sixteen thousand; that of the Confederates was more than twenty thousand.
Harker's brigade suffered its full share of casualties. In the Sixty-fourth, Captain John W. Zeigler was killed and two officers were wounded; sixteen enlisted men were killed or died of
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TRIBUTE TO MAJOR BROWN.
1863.]
wounds and forty-seven were wounded-total, sixty-six. In the Sixty-fifth three officers were killed and five wounded ; enlisted men, eighteen killed or died of wounds, fifty-nine wounded and twenty-four missing-total one hundred and nine. In the bat- tery Lieutenant Smetts was severely wounded, and of the enlisted men one was killed, six were wounded, and three captured.
It has been mentioned that Major Samuel C. Brown, of the Sixty-fifth, was mortally wounded in the afternoon of Sunday. He died at Chattanooga the following day. He was a noble soldier and a most lovable man-brave as the bravest, but with a heart as tender and gentle as the heart of womanl. No member of the Sixty- fifth who gave his life for his country was ever more deeply and sincerely mourned by his comrades.
In no spirit of dis- crimination-for all faced death nobly on that event- ful day-especial mention should be made of brave, stalwart Sergeant George W. Harlau. of Company B, who bore the colors of the Sixty-fifth through the WILLIAM FIES, SERGEANT, COMPANY B, SIXTY-FOURTH. fighting of Saturday and part of Sunday. On the latter day, when the battle was at its fiercest, Harlan was severely wounded in the arm but clung to the flag, which was soon stained with his blood. He even seized a musket and continued to use it upon the enemy until ordered by Captain Powell, commanding the regiment, to go to the rear and have his wound cared for.
I am sure that I will be pardoned for pausing a moment to lay a sprig of laurel upon the grave of Corporal Wilbur F.
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EXTRACTS FROM OFFICIAL REPORTS.
[September,
Hulet, Company E, Sixty-fifth, who fell on Sunday. During the year that I carried gun and knapsack he was my "pard." We slept under the same blanket and drank from the same canteen. He was a brave, true man, whom I loved as a brother.
In the morning of the first day of the battle, fourteen officers of the Sixty-fifth gathered under a tree at Lee and Gordon's mill and ate their hardtack and drank their coffee together. We were a family, without jar or discord. None of the survivors of that company will ever forget the occasion. Before two days had passed, two of the group were dead and five were wounded: and our major was at the point of death. Eighteen years later I stood again under the same tree, and the scene of that September morning in 1863 was as vivid before my eyes as though it were then being enacted. Such impressions time cannot efface.
The following is extracted from General Wood's official re- port :
But our inferiority of strength did not appall my men. Their courage and steadfast resolution rose with the occasion. I do not believe that his- tory affords an instance of more splendid resistance than that made by Harker's brigade and part of Buell's brigade from one o'clock P. M. until nightfall of September 20th. * * In the late campaign Colonel Charles G. Harker has peculiarly distinguished himself. He made two most daring and brilliant reconnoisances, almost without parallel in the an- nals of warfare; and his personal gallantry on the battlefield, the skillful manner in which he handled his brigade, holding it so well together when so many other troops broke, and his general conduct, are worthy of all praise. I earnestly recommend his immediate promotion to the rank of brigadier-general.
Colonel Harker, in his official report of the operations of his brigade at Chickamauga, said of the Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Ohio that he expected much of them, remembering their gallant conduct at Stone River, but they "exceeded even my most san- guine expectations." Of the Sixth Ohio battery he said: "Cap- tain Bradley maneuvered his battery with matchless skill, saving his guns when almost any other officer would have lost the en- tire battery."
Honorable Charles A. Dana, then assistant secretary of war, was present at the battle of Chickamauga. In his official dis- patches relative to the magnificent fighting of Sunday afternoon, he said :
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1863.]
COMPLIMENTS FOR HARKER'S BRIGADE.
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Our troops were as immovable as the rocks. The enemy hurled against them repeatedly the dense columns which had routed Davis and Sheridan in the morning, but every onset was repulsed with dreadful slaughter. *
* * Every division general bore himself gloriously, and among brigade commanders Harker, Turchin and Hazen especially dis- tinguished themselves. * * * Harker, who had two horses shot under him on the 19th, forming his men in four lines, made them lie down until the enemy was close upon them, when they suddenly rose and delivered their fire with such effect that the assaulting columns fell back in confusion leaving the ground covered with the fallen.
General Henry M. Cist, in his volume, "The Army of the Cumberland," says:
There was no more splen- did fighting done on that field of terrible conflict on the 20th than was done by Thomas J. Wood and his division.
The invaluable services of Harker's brigade at Chickamauga have been universally recognized. Four or five years ago, when I was doing newspa- per scribbling in Washing- ton, D. C., I went to the wai department one day to see if I could get for my- self a setof the Chicka- mauga maps, which had a short time before been is- LEONARD C. CONN, SERGEANT, COMPANY F, SIXTY-FOURTH. sued by the government. Accosting the "regular" colo- nel in charge of the office I made known my errand. In answer to his question as to whether I had served in the army, I told him that I was a member of Harker's brigade. His eye brightened as he immediately handed me what I wanted, with the remark:
"Any man who was in Harker's brigade at Chickamauga de- serves a set of those maps !"
Here I will digress from the narative of the brigade as a
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SCENES AT THE FIELD HOSPITAL.
[September,
"whole, and in a few paragraphs follow the fortunes of some who were wounded at Chickamauga. I only speak of myself to ex- plain why I was at the hospital. While commanding Company I, during the fighting of Saturday afternoon, a bullet plowed a furrow across the front of my body and then went like a streak of lightning through my right elbow. The wound bled profuse- ly, and Corporal "Jack" Sims thoughtfully pulled out the tail of his shirt, tore off a strip, and tied it tightly around my arm. Then he seized his musket and went to blazing away again while I started to find a doctor. Brave Corporal Sims was killed a few minutes later. I fell in with a number of members of the Sixty- fourth and Sixty-fifth who also found it necessary to repair dan- ages. After a long search we reached the field hospital of Wood's division. Already some two hundred wounded were there and more were constantly arriving.
"Hello, Lieutenant, they've 'winged' you too, have they? I'll attend to you in a few minutes."
This was Doctor Todd's cheery greeting as his eye fell upon me. After he had finished binding up the stump of an arm which he had just amputated, he examined my wound and dressed it in fine style. Lieutenant-colonel Whitbeck, and Lieutenants Gardner and Shipley of the Sixty-fifth and Lieutenant Smetts of the battery, were there, all suffering from grievous wounds. Corporal Mckelvey, of Company B, Sixty-fifth, a true, brave soldier, was brought in, mortally hurt and died soon afterward. There lay "Pete" Raudebaugh, of Company K, Sixty-fifth, a mere boy, with a desperate wound directly through the body, from front to rear. Next day he fell into the hands of the enemy. In making up the list of casualties in the regiment he was re- ported killed, for no one imagined that he could live longer than a few hours. Two weeks later an exchange of wounded was made and "Pete" was brought to Chattanooga. To his comrades his appearance was like a resurrection. He recovered, served till the end of the war and, so far as I know, is living today. Doctor Todd said that not one man in a hundred would survive such a wound.
A field hospital just after a battle is the most grewsome and harrowing picture presented by the changing panorama of war.
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À PAINFUL PILGRIMAGE.
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Words seem to have no meaning when one attempts to portray the awful scenes of suffering and death. All through the hours of that long night, by the light of blazing fires, the surgeons and their assistants moved about among the hundreds that lay upon cots or upon the ground around the tents, stanching the wounds and administering food and cordials and water to the sufferers. Often a pulseless, motionless form was borne away and laid in the fast lengthening row of those to whom death had come. I cannot dwell upon the painful subject. It was more than thirty years ago, but even while I write my eyes moisten as the picture of unutterable woe rises before me in all its vividness.
The next morning it was rumored about the hospital that a body of rebel cavalry was near at hand. A number of wagons and ambulances were filled with such of the wounded as were able to be moved and these were started for Chattanooga. All who, like myself, were able to walk, set off on foot. Within half an hour the rebels had taken the hospital and all of its occupants were prisoners. I was one of a squad of some twenty members of the Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth who made their way to Chattanooga that day. It was an excessively painful and fa- tiguing journey. The lieat was almost overpowering and the air was thick with dust. Water was only found at long intervals. All were more or less weakened by loss of blood, and some were only able to keep along by the constant assistance of their com- rades. But we pressed on, fourteen long, weary miles, and toward evening we reached the town, in a condition of utter exhaustion.
At the time of our arrival the belief was general that the Union army had been routed, and officers were working with desperate energy to collect and organize the stragglers and make preparations to prevent, if possible, the complete wreck and de- struction of the army. The town was in a panic. All day the wounded had been arriving from the battlefield and it seemed that every house was a hospital. It was only after a long search that we found shelter and a place to lie upon the floor and rest. Unable to find a surgeon, we dressed one another's wounds, di- vided around the few crackers in our haversacks, without coffee, and then stretched ourselves upon the hard floor to sleep. Froni three o'clock Saturday morning until Sunday night we had scarcely closed our eyes.
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CORPORAL FLAISIG COULD TALK.
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We were a sorry looking company the next morning, and I am sure our looks did not belie our feelings. But we heartily shared the universal rejoicing over the fact that our army, though defeated, was not whipped. A semblance of order was soon re- stored in the town and the wounded were fed and comfortably cared for. On Tuesday we were removed to a great field hospi- tal across the Tennessee river, three miles from Chattanooga. On the following Friday a long train of wagons and ambulances filled with wounded left for Bridgeport. It was a two days' trip, over a villainous road, hilly, rough and stony. By this time our wounds had just got fairly sore, and the rude jolting of the wag- ons caused to many excruciating pain. One of the wagons cap- sized and its ten or twelve passengers were dumped in a heap. Fortunately none received more serious injury than a bad shaking up. Those whose locomotive machinery was unimpaired walked much of the way from choice. From Bridgeport we went by rail to Nashville, and a few days later the officers and some of the men were granted furloughs and went home. It was worth be- ing wounded to spend six weeks in Ohio.
One member of this forlorn squad, whose adventures I have narrated, was Corporal "Nate" Flaisig, of Company K, Sixty- fifth, who had a bullet hole through his arm. In a talking match there was probably 110 man in the Sherman Brigade who would have been "in it" with Flaisig. His tongue was set on a swivel and was always in motion, with the rapidity of a sewing-machine. He could "blow" louder and more continuously, and tell more improbable "grapevines," than any other man I ever knew. We used to wonder how he contrived to eat or sleep. If he could have had a fair chance to talk the rebels to death the war would have ended long before it did. It is a wonder that so many of the Six- ty-fifth survived.
On the rack of the battery wagon, lost on Sunday, the officers carried an improvised mess-chest, made of a six-pound ammuni- tion box. This was filled with canned fruit, turkey, goose, etc., about three days' rations, all of which the enemy enjoyed, while those who suffered the loss were compelled to put up with corn iu the ear.
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CHAPTER XLI.
TWO MONTHS "BOTTLED UP."
BESIEGED IN CHATTANOOGA-DIGGING AND PICKETING-PINCHED FOR FOOD-RATIONS REDUCED TO ONE QUARTER-THE SIXTH BATTERY IN FORT WOOD-"PHIL" SHERIDAN COMMANDS OUR DIVISION-"JOE" HOOKER ARRIVES-THE CRACKER-LINE REOPENED-OHIO SOL- DIERS VOTE FOR BROUGH-EXECUTION OF TWO DESERTERS -GRANT TAKES COMMAND-PREPARING TO BURST THE FETTERS.
T HE two months immediately following the battle of Chick- amauga were full of toil, hunger, fatigue, anxiety, sleep- less nights and general discomfort for the soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland. They were in a tight place- "bottled up." Chattanooga was under siege.
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