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 42
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On the 29th of May the Sixty-fifth bade farewell to one of its most esteemed officers, Captain Lucien B. Eaton. At the or- ganization he was first lieutenant of Company I. In December, 1862, he was called by Colonel Harker to duty on the brigade staff as topographical engineer. He was soon afterward promoted to captain but was retained on the staff as brigade inspector, which position he continued to fill most acceptably for nearly a year,
537
PROMOTIONS THAT DID NOT PROMOTE.
1864.]
when, at his own request, he was relieved and returned to the regiment. Having passed, with high credit, an examination for a position in a colored regiment, he was, in March, 1864, commis- sioned lieutenant-colonel of the Sixty-ninth United States Colored Troops. He continued on duty with the Sixty-fifth until the day first above mentioned, when he said good-bye and left to enter upon his new field of usefulness. He supervised the recruitment of his regiment and subsequently became its colonel. He served as Inspector of Freedmen for the Department of Ar- kansas, and was honorably discharged May IŞth, 1866.
In June Lieutenant-colo- nel Robert C. Brown, of the Sixty-fourth, was com- missioned colonel, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Colonel McIlvaine. At the same time Major Sam- uel L. Coulter was commis- sioned lieutenant-colonel. Neither officer could, how- ever, be mustered in the advanced grade, the numer- "ical strength of the regi- ment not being sufficient to entitle it to the full com- plement of field officers.
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JACOB LONG,
The following incident of the campaign is related COMPANY I, SIXTY-FOURTH. by Adjutant Woodruff, of the Sixty-fourth : "One day, after we had got well into the interior of Georgia, when the column halted for a short noon rest, our regiment was near a farmhouse that showed some evidence of former prosperity. A little way in rear of the house, which stood near the road, was an old fashioned sweep, with a bucket suspended over a well. Collecting half a dozen canteens, I went to it, filled them, and returned by way of the interior of the house, which was a double log structure, with
538
THE ADJUTANT STOOD GUARD.
[June,
a porch in the center. Looking in one of the apartments I saw a very aged couple sitting side by side in a double chair, near the door. The old lady was weeping, but the old man maintained a composed and benignant look. The troops who had preceded us had stripped the premises of everything that was movable, even to the furniture of their residence. I said to them :
"'The boys are rather hard on you.
"He replied : 'W'ell, I expected it.' Then, with a ray of hope, he added, 'I wish you 1 would ask them not to take the corn in that barrel on the stoop, for it's every morsel of food they have left us.' 1
"A number of the boys had already taken some to parch. I volunteered to stand guard till the march was resumed. To each one who came up I explained the situation, and he cheer- fully retired in good order. When the bugle sounded, I resumed my place, but had not gone a mile before Chaplain Raymond, of the Fifty-first Illinois, rode past me with a sack of corn HORACE W. CURTISS, FIRST SERGEANT, COMPANY G, AND FIRST LIEUTENANT, SIXTY-FIFTH. on his horse. I had known him before the war, and often met him in the army, and admired him for his zeal and christian enterprise. I asked him where he met with such luck. With apparent glee he replied:
"'Why, back at that house I saw you leaving as I rode up. My eyes were sharper than yours. I found it in a barrel on the stoop.'
"Assuming an expression of utter astonishment, I said, 'If it comes to this, that a chaplain of our army has got to rob a poor
1864.]
CHAPLAIN RAYMOND'S REPENTANCE.
539
old couple of their last bit of food, I think our cause will never prosper.'
"He quickly demanded an explanation and I gave him the facts. He said the boys told him that no one lived there. Turn- ing his horse, he rode back and emptied the corn into the barrel from which he got it. That evening some of the boys conceived this a good point for some fun. They hunted up the chaplain and told him that after he had returned the corn the adjutant went back and took it himself. This raised his indignation to such a pitch that, although he avoided profanity, he pushed me to the verge of sheol. And then, to insure the explosion of the mine, the boys came and told me the scheme. Of course, the next time I met Chaplain Raymond I tried to placate him by pleading my inno- cence. Whether I suc- ceeded or not I never knew, but he always seemed cold enough to bury when I met him afterward."
MATTHEW S. FIELDS COMPANY B, SIXTY-FOURTH. Died at Bowling Green, Ky , June 17th, 1864.
One day First Sergeant Patrick R. Nohilly, of Company G, Sixty-fifth, was lying in his little tent, with his feet toward the enemy. A bullet, the force of which was well spent, came over the works with that peculiar droning z-2-2, and struck squarely the heel of one of his shoes. Pat sprang up as if he had been shocked by a galvanic battery. He found that no serious damage had been done except to tear away part of the shoe-heel; but he walked with a decided limp for a week.
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[June,
CHAPTER XLIX.
KENNESAW.
STILL FIGHTING AND INTRENCHING-LIEUTENANT BINGHAM KILLED- THE WASTE OF AMMUNITION-HUNDREDS OF BULLETS FIRED FOR EACH MAN STRUCK-THE LINES AT MARIETTA-THE ASSAULT UPON KENNESAW-HARKER'S BRIGADE LEADS-DESPERATE FIGHT- ING AND SEVERE LOSSES -DEATH OF GENERAL HARKER-COLONEL WHITBECK DANGEROUSLY WOUNDED-CAPTAIN WILLIAMS KILLED.
HE rain continued and the days and nights dragged slowly. along. They were one incessant round of lying in the trenches, marching, fortifying and skirmishing. It was not an uncommon thing to pitch and strike tents three or four times within twenty-four hours. Scarcely a day but one or more places in our ranks were made vacant by death, wounds or disease.
On June ISth the Sixty-fifth, being on the skirmish line at Muddy Creek, was ordered to advance and dislodge the enemy. Stubborn resistance was encountered, for that did not seem to be the day when the rebels were in a retreating mood. The regi- ment suffered a loss of three killed and ten wounded. One of
540
1864.]
A BLIZZARD OF BULLETS.
541
the slain was Lieutenant Ebben Bingham, commanding Com- pany C. He was a noble young man, greatly endeared to his brother officers and comrades.
During this encounter we observed a curious. stratagem that was resorted to by the rebels. It was a dark, misty day, the underbrush was thick, and men could only be seen at a short dis- tance. To aid in their concealment, the rebels carried green bushes stuck in their belts. These covered a good part of their bodies and rendered them almost indistinguishable. A number of prisoners were captured, who were decorated in this novel manner.
The regiment kept up an tinremitting fire during the whole day, expending twenty thousand rounds of ammunition. Here I pause a moment to remark upon the large quantity of lead and iron which was thrown, at all times during the war, for each man struck. Chickamauga will afford a good illustration. It is safe to estimate that during the two days of that battle every soldier on each side SAMUEL B. BARKER, SERGEANT MAJOR, SIXTY-FOURTH. fired one hundred rounds of cartridge. It is, therefore, evident that if each had hit one of his adversaries-or, in other words, if one bullet in a hundred had been effective-every man in both armies would have been killed or wounded. But the casualties, aside from prisoners taken, were about twenty-five per cent; so that four hundred bullets were fired for each man struck. This estimate does not take into ac- count the tons and tons of artillery ammunition expended.
No doubt, during the Atlanta campaign, with its countless
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542
GREAT EXPENDITURE OF AMMUNITION.
[June,
noisy but comparatively harmless demonstrations, the proportion of casualties to ammunition used was even much less than in the case I have cited. Probably five or six hundred bullets were fired for each death or wound inflicted. When one stops to think of this it seems surprising, but it is true. There was not a regi- ment in Sherman's army which did not, during those four months, fire cartridges enough to have killed or wounded two or three times over, every man on the other side. This singular feature of all fighting is due to several causes. Much of the firing was done at long range, and the missiles spent their force before reaching their object. Even in close fighting, the combatants were often entirely concealed from each other by smoke, and the soldiers fired wholly at random, without aim. In the intense excitement of combat, the universal tend- ency was to shoot high, and millions of bullets whizzed harmlessly over the heads of those whom they were intended to destroy. It was a knowledge of this WILLIAM H. H. SMITH, disposition that prompted FIRST LIEUTENANT, SIXTY-FIFTH. the officers to so often ex- "Give them a blizzard at their hort their men to "aini low." shins !" shouted "Old Rosey" at Stone River. Then, much of the fighting took place in thick woods and a large proportion of the bullets buried themselves in the trees. No doubt the trees between Chattanooga and Atlanta that were killed or wounded exceeded the entire number of men in both armies. Many of them were filled full of lead.
A well-directed fire of artillery was mighty unpleasant to those who were being aimed at. Often it was terrifying and de-
543
[June,
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WILLIAM TECUMSEHI SHERMAN, MAJOR-GENERAL, COMMANDING ARMY DURING ATLANTA CAMPAIGN.
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544
GENERAL POLK'S DEATH.
[June,
moralizing to the last degree. Few men were able to lie idly while shells were bursting over, around and among them, with- out feeling an almost uncontrollable desire to "hunt their holes." It was true of artillery, as it is of most dogs-its bark was worse than its bite. What I mean is that it was mostly "bark"; when it did "bite" it was bad enough. I trust my good friends of the Sixth Ohio battery will not "call me down" for this. No battery in the army did any more effective "barking," as well as "biting," than did the Sixth, but if it were possible to make up the ac- count, Bradley and Baldwin and Smetts and the rest would find that they fired about as many shots for each man they hit as we did, and a vastly greater weight of metal.
There were times when artillery was exceedingly effective, as at Franklin, where double charges of canister or grape from the guns of the Sixth Ohio and other batteries, at short range, made ghastly gaps in the charging Confederate mass. A shell, striking at the spot and bursting at the right instant, made ter- rible havoc. For every one that did this, a hundred flew wide of the mark or did not explode, or if they did the fragments fell harmlessly to the ground-but to scare they were great !
The position occupied by the rebels covering Marietta was the strongest between Chattanooga and Atlanta, except the one at Allatoona, out of which Sherman so easily maneuvered Johnston. To the north and west of the town is an irregular range of highi elevations, the most prominent of which are called Kennesaw, Little Kennesaw, Lost and Pine mountains. Geographers would not class these as mountains, but they are bold, rugged heights which, crowned with artillery and well defended, bade defiance to assault. We lay upon this line for about two weeks. One day, while riding behind the intrenchments of the Fourth.corps, Gen- eral Sherman observed what appeared to be a group of Confeder- ate officers reconnoitering on the summit of Pine mountain. He directed a battery to disperse the group, and three or four shots did it most effectually. One of them instantly killed Lieutenant- general Leonidas Polk, one of Johnston's corps commanders. Polk was a bishop of the Episcopal church before the war, and laid aside his priestly robes to buckle on the sword. He was a brother of James K. Polk, a former president of the United States, and was held in very high esteem by the people of the south.
· 1864.]
LIEUTENANT SONNANSTINE'S TROUBLE.
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The opposing lines were near each other at many points and an irregular fire was kept up almost continuously. Our "pup" tents were usually pitched directly in rear of the breast- works. One brigade of each division, by turn, was permitted to retire to the second line, out of range, several hundred yards back, twenty-four hours at a time, to rest, cook and wash. One day Lieutenant Joseph F. Sonnanstine, of the Sixty-fifth, was lying under his little shel- ter trying to get a nap. A stray bullet struck one of the sticks supporting his tent and broke it squarely off, the tent falling upon him.
"I wish those fellows would let me sleep!" he said, in his cool, inimitable way, as he crawled out from the wreck. He went a short distance into the woods and in a few min- utes came back with an- other forked stick, and in a "jiffy" his tent was up again.
"There," he exclaimed, as he lay down, "I don't believe they can hit that. THOMAS G. WATKINS, CORPORAL, SIXTH BATTERY. They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place, and I don't think bullets do, either ! "
After sleeping soundly for a couple of hours he rolled out with a broad smile on his genial face.
"Boys," said he, "I just dreamed I was at home. I thought I pitched and tossed about half the night, but couldn't sleep a wink. Then I hired a boy to shoot at ine and I was sound asleep in five minutes. I guess we will all have to do that when we get home-if we ever do!"
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546
[June,
A REBEL WOMAN'S IDEA OF STRATEGY.
One day we witnessed a novel spectacle. A brigade of Wood's division was ordered to carry and hold a ridge in its front. Before starting, each man shouldered a rail or a piece of timber. Then, advancing rapidly, they occupied the ridge and within two minutes were lying snugly behind a breastwork. the materials for which they had carried with theni.
It was a rare thing in those days to see a woman. There was one who lived in a hut half a mile in rear of our line, and she had stuck to it through thick and thin. Now and then, when matters were more quiet than usual, she would venture up to the front.
"You-all don't fight fa'r," she said one day. "When we-uns gets good works built, you won't let our men use 'em. You throws up works right in front and makes believe you's gwine to fight thar, and then Mister Sherman sends one of his comp'nies 'round to fight us on the eend."
On the 22nd, while su- perintending the work of GEORGE W. WILLIAMS, an intrenching party, Cap- COMPANY E, SIXTY-FOURTH. tain Samuel M. Wolff, of the Sixty-fourth, was severely injured by a falling tree. For a time it was feared that he was fatally hurt, but he was able in a few days to return to duty.
About noon on the 23rd Generals Thomas, Howard and Newton rode along our lines. They paused now and then to re- connoiter, and we instinctively knew that something was brew- ing. Soon we were ordered to support the skirmishers. These, along the whole front of Newton's division, were directed to be
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1864.]
547
THE ASSAULT AT KENNESAW.
ready to advance and occupy high ground some two hundred yards in front. At four o'clock a signal gun was fired, and at once forty Union cannon belched forth shot and shell. The boni- bardment was continued for an hour, when it ceased and the skir- mishers were ordered forward. The rebels made stout resistance, but they were forced to give way and the desired position was gained and held. Colonel Bartleson, of the One Hundredth Illi- nois, in our division, was killed. He had lost an arm in a pre- vious battle.
That evening the mail brought to the Sixty-fourth and Six- ty-fifth a large batch of commissions, lieutenants being promoted to captains, and sergeants to lieutenants. By those who received them they were interpreted to mean : "Well done, good and faithful servants!" For a few days a good many were hunting for a mustering officer.
Day after day General Sherman endeavored to find a weak spot where he might hope to pierce the enemy's line. He made several bloody experiments, the most costly of which was on the 27th of June. He selected Little Kennesaw as the point to be assaulted by two divisions, one from the Fourth corps and one from the Fourteenth, while a co-operating attack was to be made upon the Confederate right by portions of the Army of the Ten- nessee. In the Fourth corps the perilous duty was assigned to Newton's division, and in the Fourteenth to that of Davis. During the morning Harker's brigade, which had the advance of Newton's storming column, was massed at the point assigned, the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Ohio being thrown out as skirmishers. A furious artillery fire preceded the assault. At half past nine o'clock the cannonading ceased and "Forward!" was the command.
The brigade swept like an avalanche through a ravine and up a long, steep slope, the summit of which was crowned by the enemy's work. So sudden was the dash that the rebel pickets in our front were captured, almost to a man, and sent to the rear. As we came within short musket range, the rebels delivered from the shelter of their intrenchments a most deadly and destructive fire. We never found a hotter place during all our four years of army service. Men fell by scores and hundreds, but the surviv-
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548
ON THE CRIMSONED SLOPE.
[June,
ors pressed on, cheered by Harker, Coulter, Whitbeck, and many other gallant officers. They reached the works and looked into the very muzzles of the hostile muskets, but it was not possible for mortal men to pierce that strong and well defended line. The color-sergeant of the Twenty-seventh Illinois, of our brig- ade, planted his flag upon the parapet. At the same instant he received a bullet in the face and a bayonet thrust in the shoulder. The flag was lost. The colors of the Sixty fourth were shot down, a bullet shattering the staff, but they were quickly seized and borne off in safety. The color- bearer of the Third Ken- tucky was instantly killed.
The conflict was of brief duration. When it was seen that there was no hope of success, a retreat was ordered. As far as possible the wounded were borne from the field, but many were unavoidably left on that crimsoned slope, to fall into the hands of the enemy. At the rifle pits which had been occu- pied by the rebel pickets. there was a rally. Adju- DAVID SPINDLER, COMPANY A, SIXTY-FIFTH. Killed at Spring Hill, Tennessee, November 29, 1864. tant Brewer Smith, Lieu- tenants Bush and McCune, Sergeant-major Pope and others of the Sixty-fifth gathered about the colors, thirty or forty of that regiment. Officers of the Sixty-fourth and other regi- ments did the same, the purpose being to check the rebels, should they attempt a counter-charge. For some time this line was held and a vigorous fire was kept up, until they were or- dered to retire.
The assault cost, in the aggregate, twenty-five hundred men, killed or wounded, among them many valuable officers. Our
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THE BRIGADE IN MOURNING.
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brigade' bore its full share of losses, its casualties numbering nearly three hundred, including twenty-nine officers. It suffered a sore bereavement in the death of its knightly leader, General Charles G. Harker. While animating his men, far up the slope, he was stricken down by a ball which passed through his arm and into the breast. He was borne from the field, and through the day tender hands and loving hearts endeavored to assuage his suffering. The surgeons did all in their power to avert a fatal result, but when asked if there was hope they sadly shook their heads. Chaplain Robert G. Thompson, of the Six- ty-fourth, and Chaplain Thomas Powell, of the Sixty-fifth, were both at the side of the dying hero, offering such ministrations as lay in their power. Gen- eral Harker was a man of deep religious convictions, and his private life was " without spot and blame- less." Toward evening that brave, noble, chival- rous spirit passed from earth. "Harker is dead !" flew from lip to lip through the brigade. Every heart JOHN M'. SHELLABARGER, COMPANY C, SIXTY-FOURTH. was saddened; many an eye was moistened. Little need be added to what has already been said in these pages of our beloved Harker. No braver, truer soldier drew sword, in all that vast multitude who followed the star-spangled banner in the war for the Union. Earnest, sin- cere and patriotic, implicitly trusted by his superiors, and singu- larly endeared to those he commanded, he was truly a soldier and a man "without fear and without reproach." He had four horses killed under him-two at Chickamauga, one at Missionary Ridge,
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COLONEL WHITBECK'S WOUND.
[June,
and one at Resaca. He had a premonition of his end. In the morning he had carefully arranged his private papers, intrusting them .to a member of his staff, saying, "I shall not come out of the charge today alive." His body was sent north and buried at his home in New Jersey.
Colonel Luther P. Bradley, of the Fifty-first Illinois-soon afterward promoted to the rank of brigadier-general-succeeded to the command of the brigade. He was a brave and miost capa- ble officer and a thoroughily accomplished gentleman, possessing the confidence of liis superiors and the esteem of those under his command. In his official report of the campaign, he said :
I cannot close this report without paying a word of tribute to the memory of the gallant General Harker, who commanded the brigade dur- ing the first half of the campaign. No more gallant soldier has fallen in the war. Conspicuous for gentleness and generosity as well as courage, he won the confidence and respect of all who knew him, and was everywhere recognized as a true gentleman and soldier.
At about the same time that General Harker fell, Lieuten- ant-colonel Horatio N. Whitbeck, commanding the Sixty-fifthi, was grievously wounded, a bullet entering at the upper part of the chest and ranging downward into the body. He was carried to the rear, and all through that day and night we expected mo- mentarily to hear that he was dead, for the surgeons had said that his wound was probably mortal. He was soon sent to Chatta- nooga, accompanied by musician Melville C. Porter, of Com- pany E. He at length reached home, where, in course of time, he recovered in a good degree. To this day, however, the ball remains in his body. Colonel Whitbeck was never again able for active military duty. He was thrice wounded-at Stone River, Chickamauga and Kennesaw. He was an excellent officer, cool and brave in the most trying moments, and faithful to every trust. When the war broke out lie was behind the counter of a dry goods store in the village of Berea. He received from Senator Sherman a recruiting commission, and began to talk war. People said he was not the kind of stuff that soldiers were made of, but there is where they made a mistake. No truer mettle was ever shown than that so many times displayed by Colonel Whitbeck. He possessed, in the fullest measure, the confidence, respect and per- sonal regard of his officers and men.
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