USA > Wisconsin > History of the First Wisconsin Battery Light Artillery > Part 11
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"Morgan was to move to his left, to reach Chickasaw Bayou and to follow toward the bluff, about four miles above A. J. Smith. Steele was on Morgan's left, across Chickasaw Bayou, and M. L. Smith on his right."
Of what occurred thereafter we will relate as it was then told in a private letter written by Lieutenant Dan Webster:
"While disembarking our pickets were disturbed by a force of the enemy, whereupon a brigade was sent out to investigate, and drove them back to the timber. Our forces then returned to the landing to prepare for an advance in the morning. When morning came Morgan's division was put in motion, the 16th Ohio Regiment taking the advance, the 1st Wisconsin Bat- tery next, supported by the 42d Ohio with the 22d Kentucky as a reserve, followed closely by the balance of the division. Steele's division went to our left and M. L. Smith's to our right. After advancing nearly a mile our advance skirmishers
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came in contact with the enemy and pressed them so hard that they returned to the timber from whence they came. Our forces now rested a few hours to reconnoiter, and to ascertain if the enemy purposed making an attack upon us. About 4 o'clock we were ordered to advance across a large plantation to the edge of the woods, where the enemy was supposed to be in force, and to engage them. The plantation was on bottom land, and, as in all bottom lands in this country, was full of ditches and small bayous. They were simply deep ravines fre- quently containing water of considerable depth. But whether dry or containing water the banks are too steep to cross with artillery. But on we went as fast as we could construct roads, until we struck a levee leading directly to the place we wished to reach, which was the plantation headquarters. We were now ordered forward and into battery ready for action. This drew the fire of the enemy's sharpshooters. Our infantry re- turned the fire, but as they could see no one we could not tell with what effect. One of these deep bayous was close upon our left hand and extended to our front, while another one passed from our right directly across our front. Upon the opposite side of the bayou on our left was a thick, dense wood, with bushes running close to the water. The woods on our front were not so thick, but the open space between them and our lines was covered with a luxurious growth of weeds which stood as high as a man's waist when on horseback. At our right and for some distance to rear the field was clear and smooth. We shelled the woods to our front and left, but could see nothing. yet the rebel bullets kept whistling by us. Thev paid but little attention to the infantry, but tried to pick off the artillerists.
"I confess that it made my hair stand somewhat before I got my section in working order, for they were undoubtedly pick- ing out officers. but luckily for me my horse would not stand still, but kept jumping around, so it was difficult to get a good shot at me. Our men all stood to their posts nobly; not one upon whom the last responsibility rested flinched or faltered a particle. Captain Foster was in the thickest of the fight. Lieutenant Hackett paid no attention to the bullets that flew around him, and Lieutenant Nutting was as cool as an ice- house. while I -- well, I did as well as I could, and guess I did not flinch much, but I did dodge whenever a bullet came too near. One of our men, William Mattison, of Caledonia, Minn., was shot through the side as he was thumbing the vent during the operation of loading his gun, but he stood at his post until it was loaded, when he stepped back and fell, never to get up again, dying 36 hours afterwards. The gunner of the same piece. William McKeith, of Galesville, was struck in the shoulder by a spent bullet and felled to the ground. As he
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fell he said, 'Boys, I'm shot; don't mind me; point her a little to the left and give it to them.' But, immediately finding that he was not seriously hurt, he jumped to his feet saying, 'No, I ain't, either; get away, there; let me have that handspike until I point her.' One horse was killed and two wounded. .
"During the hottest of the fight I was ordered to take a posi- tion with my section to the left and rear. I rode around to find a suitable place to station the guns, and while doing so, one of the rebels deliberately fired at me three or four times. But when we got the guns in position we soon silenced him. Several men were killed from the 22d Kentucky Regiment, which was standing at order arms just at our left, not having been ordered to take any part in the fight. Not liking to be a target for the rebels without resisting the assault, they began to show signs of breaking to the rear. Colonel DeCourcey, com- manding the brigade, observing the situation and taking it in at a glance, rode to the front of the regiment, still under fire of the enemy, and called out in a clear staccato voice, 'Atten- tion, 22d Kentucky!' Upon the command every man was in his place in an instant, and DeCourcey put them through a short drill in the manual of arms, then turning to the Lieuten- ant-Colonel in command gave directions as to where to go to work, and they went at it with a will. While Colonel DeCour- cey was thus engaged he was a target for the rebel sharp- shooters, and notwithstanding the fact that he received several shots through his clothing he was as cool and as unconcerned as if it had been snow balls instead of minie balls the enemy was throwing at him. The only complaint he was ever heard to make was that they had spoilt a new overcoat for him which had cost him $SO in Cincinnati. It is a wonder that half of the Battery were not killed or disabled. I am confident that if I had not dismounted just as I did I should have been shot, for as I threw my body forward that I might pass my foot over the cantle of the saddle a bullet passed less than a foot over my back. I don't know what it was, but, somehow, I could not resist the inclination to get down off that horse; and as I saw the other officers were on their feet, I got down too. I will here say that events afterwards assured me that I was right in my diagnosis of the danger there was in remaining longer on that horse.
"Some seven years after that battle, while I was living in Fayetteville. Ark., I met a man who had been in the rebel ser- vice, and who was originally from Tennessee. We, of course, at once proceeded to compare notes, and I learned that he was not only 'ferninst' us at Tazewell, Tenn., but that he was at Chickasaw Bayou. Without telling him where I was on that first evening, he said that he was in a rifle-pit with the rebel sharpshooters and shot three times at an officer
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who rode a black horse near those two guns that were sta- tioned near the house, and, said he. 'I think I hit him, too; for he got off his horse right quick.' When I told him that I was the man he shot at he said he was real glad he did not hit me. I assured him that he was not more pleased over the 'miss' than I was. As I was the only officer of any grade that rode a black horse in that part of the field, and as I was sensible of being shot at at that time, I am satisfied that it was 'both of us.' The firing was continued until dark, when the Battery withdrew to the open field to the left and rear, out of range of the sharpshooters, and bivouacked for the night. The next morning we were up and had our coffee. and were ready for duty by 4 o'clock. During the night, at the request of Captain Foster, a breastwork had been thrown up on the ground occu- pied by the Battery the evening before, to protect the cannon- eers from rebel sharpshooters. Into this we were ordered be- fore daybreak.
"Day dawned beautifully. It was Sunday morning, and a calin, quiet one, too. No one would have supposed there was an enemy within a day's march, but just as the sun's rays tinged the eastern sky the head of our assaulting column, with bristling bayonets, passed by with flying colors. It was but a short time until the ball was opened in earnest. The Michigan Battery (Lamphere's) was put forward this time, while we were held in reserve. The enemy were in the timber behind trees and logs. and in hollow places, for protection, while our men were in the open. The firing was brisk, the roar of musketry awful and the cannonading dreadful.
"About noon the rebels broke and ran and our army ad- vanced. Our Battery was now ordered forward, and as we entered the timber an orderly came from the front with in- structions for us to advance and relieve Lamphere's Battery, which was out of ammunition. The enemy had fallen back to the Chickasaw Hills and opened upon us with their artillery, of which they had an abundance. We were now in the woods and they were in their intrenchments, with two deep bayous and an open slashing between us. A short distance to our left and front, across the deep bayou in our immediate front, was a rebel battlelflag floating over an angle in a rifle-pit. Its posi- tion was such that we could not reach it with our guns as they were located, so Lieutenant Hackett and myself rode in that direction to select a place to set a gun to 'bring it down.' We looked the ground over leisurely, and as no shots were fired from that direction we were disposed to think there was no one there. However, as the guns were crowded where they were, we decided to bring one of them around and give that flag a round or two. The gun was brought and put in battery and the men were in the act of taking implements when there
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came a volley of musketrv from the vicinity of that flag that had the effect of causing us to revise and reverse the opinion recently formed concerning that part of the field not being inhabited.
"The men, though not hurt, fell to the ground and hugged it pretty closely, while Lieutenant Hackett and myself dodged behind some convenient bushes. But the rebels had captured our gun. The boys, however, concluded that if they could not recapture it that they could steal it, which they did by crawl- ing on the ground until they were out of reach of the rebel bullets, then getting several prolonges (long ropes) and tying them together, then one of the men crawling to the trail of the gun and attaching the rope to it, when all hands took hold and drew it back over a little rise and behind some bushes, from which position it soon caused the rebels to leave and abandon the rifle-pit. My Arkansas acquaintance was also one of the rebels who captured that gun.
"About this time, in response to a call from DeCourcey, the right of the right moved up and unlimbered to cut down a bright silken flag bearing the legend '28th La. Inft.' Behind the low epaulement whereon the flag waved. 75 yards distant, was the regiment, and the balls from their rifles sounded like hot lead dropping into water. The 22d Kentucky came up in column of fours and lay down to our left. A small tree obstructed our aim, and Gabe Armstrong called for an ax. Frank Greene, a caisson driver, responded with an ax from our caisson, ran to the front and attacked the tree from the other side. His bunkie, in an agony of fear, called 'Face the other way.' He didn't want Greene shot in the back. Frank whipped around, faced the other way, and felled the tree. No man ever took greater chances and came out unhurt.
"The second or third shell did the business, and we limbered to the rear and got out of there.
"Sergeant Stewart was standing near a tree. when a shell struck it and a splinter from the tree struck him on the head and felled him to the ground, but he was not seriously injured. A shell buried itself in the ground under Lieutenant Nutting and exploded, throwing him in the air and reversing his posi- tion. but doing him no injury.
"When we ceased firing at night, which was when it had become so dark that we could not sight the guns, we held the ground occupied by the enemy in the morning. The whole line extended some three miles, but the heaviest fighting was in our front. the center. The next morning. as soon as it was light, firing was resumed. but was confined to the artillery on both sides. We succeeded in blowing up several of their am- munition chests and otherwise worrying them. About 10 o'clock in the morning General Morgan was ordered to charge
EDWD. N. TROBRIDGE.
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the enemy's position. Our Battery and two others were to en- gage the enemy's artillery while the infantry should carry the riffe-pits and assail the batteries. Pontoons had been thrown across the bayou in several places, on which the troops crossed. About noon the charging column entered the open slashing in our front and formed for the charge. The moment they did so the rebel artillery fire was directed to them alone, they paying no more attention to our artillery fire than if we had been a thousand miles away instead of being on the ground and occa- sionally silencing a piece for them. But onward went the charging column, through fallen timber and muddy sloughs, exposed to a cross-fire from the enemy's guns, until they reached the foot of the bluff on the opposite side, where they encountered a deep bayou which it was impossible to cross except at one point, and that so guarded and defended by in- fantry and artillery that it was almost sure destruction to attempt it. A portion of the 16th Ohio Regiment did make the effort, and were at once captured by the rebels. Meanwhile the rebel batteries were pouring a constant fire of grape and canister into the rapidly thinning ranks of our boys. There were several guns behind a point of the bluff which we could not reach with our guns, and which had not before disclosed their position, that poured an enfilading fire into the ranks of the infantry. Yet resolutely our men pressed forward through it all until they came to the bayou within a few hundred feet of the rebel works, where they were obliged to retreat, seek shelter or surrender.
"Thus ended one of the most desperately hopeless charges of the war up to the present time. The most of the 16th Ohio and 22d Kentucky Regiments were killed or captured. Colonel DeCourcey went into the charge with as fine a brigade as ever shouldered arms, and came back with only about half of it. But three commissioned officers were left in the 16th Ohio Regiment and only one of those was a Captain. It was a ter- ribly grand sight. I was situated so that I could overlook the field with my glass. The charge was a failure, and those sol- diers who had not entered the rebel lines or surrendered were forced to lie on the ground behind logs. in the brush or behind any other object that would screen them until the darkness should enable them to retreat within our lines. Before dark it began raining and rained as it can only rain in this country. all night. As it was feared the rebels might come out to attack us the next day. it was decided to throw up some breastworks in the edge of the timber to protect our guns, and behind which our men might find protection from any assault. I was ap- pointed by General Morgan to take charge of the work and direct the men in its construction. Trees were ent down and the trunks carried to the works and laid down as a lining for
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the inner side of the same. Although the rain was falling fast the work progressed fairly well until dark, when it was difficult to keep the detail together. The men assigned to this work were from a new regiment lately from Iowa, and although a fine body of men, they complained bitterly of being put to that kind of work in such a storm. As the night wore away their numbers grew less until there was less than half of their num- ber to be found. Each party that went after timber returned with fewer numbers than it started out with. Seeing that it was next to impossible to keep the men together much longer, I dismissed the whole lot. and about 2 o'clock in the morning, thoroughly wet through, I found a place in one corner of my tent that was out of water, where I curled down on my saddle and a few other traps and was soon fast asleep, to be awakened soon after daybreak by hearing General Morgan inquiring for me. I feared censure for suspending the work as I did, and was naturally averse to meeting him, but there was no alterna- tive. Judge of my surprise, then, when he greeted me very kindly and commended me for my humanity in sending the men to their quarters such a night as that was. On Tuesday but little work was done; the rain had ceased, but the weather had turned colder, and our condition was very disagreeable. One of our batteries had run out of ammunition and was with- drawn to the boats and re-embarked. Our battery shelled the rebels all day, but as our ammunition was getting low we worked slowly. The rebels did not show themselves, and no engagement occurred that day. Our dead and wounded were yet on the field, and on Wednesday morning a flag of truce was sent to the enemy for permission to care for the wounded and to bury the dead. During the truce the pickets of both armies laid down their arms and met on neutral ground as friends. We learned that there were some of the same troops here that we had met at Tazewell, Tenn. They asked if Foster's Battery was not down there in the woods, and upon being told that it was they said they thought so, for it was the only 'ironclad battery' they had ever met. They had tried to shoot its men in Tennessee and here in Mississippi, and, though they had good aim and range, they could not hit any of them.
"Thursday evening we were ordered to withdraw as quietly as possible to the boats and re-embark. The whole army was on the move soon after dark, or rather sundown, for it was a beautiful moonlight night. As we were 'crawfishing' through the woods and the mud of the Chickasaw bottoms the rebel band on the Walnut Hills played for our benefit that very ap- propriate air 'Getting Out of the Wilderness,' although they did not know at the time that we were 'getting' as fast as we knew how. By sunrise Friday morning we were all on the boats ready to leave that country. The Battery is now on the
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steamboat Empress, which is General Morgan's headquarters. Our division remained until the last, and as our boat was ready to cast its lines off the rebels appeared, following us up, but a few shells from the gunboats drove them back."
General Morgan's report of his operations during the above six days' engagement closes as follows:
"Nor can I close my report without speaking in terms of highest praise of the meritorious and gallant services of Cap- tains Foster and Lamphere. Their batteries silenced several of the enemy's works, and throughout the operations rendered good service."
General Sherman was disposed to censure General Morgan for the failure, and in his Memoirs says:
"This attack failed ; and I have always felt that it was due to the failure of General Morgan to obey his orders, or to fulfill his promise made in person. Had he used with skill and bold- ness one of his brigades, in addition to that of Blair's, he would have made a lodgment on the bluff, which would have opened the door for our whole force to follow."
The promise referred to above was the one which General Sherman says was thus made:
"I pointed out to General Morgan the place where he could pass the bayou, and he answered, 'General, in ten minutes after you give the signal I'll be on those hills.' Of course he would have 'made a lodgment on the bluffs' if he had kept the prom- ise. But promises in war are one thing and the performing is another."
There must always be a "scape-goat" somewhere, and in this instance General Morgan was made use of for that purpose. General Sherman says further on, that owing to Grant's failure to keep his promise and to the reinforcements received by Pem- berton in Vicksburg "had we succeeded we might have found ourselves in a worse trap when General Pemberton was at liberty to turn his full force upon us." General Grant had promised to co-operate in the attack on Vicksburg, but had not done so. If he had "kept that promise" we might have cap- tured the city at that time, but he had found it impossible to do so. as had General Morgan to keep his promise. Morgan had failed, as had General Grant. Then why blame the one and not the other?
The morning of our retreat, after we had everything loaded on the boat, some of us wandering along the bank of the river a few steps from the boat came to three graves in one, or three in one grave, the center headboard bearing the name of Wil- liam Mattison. Someone, Jabez Spaulding, I think, took his pencil from his pocket and wrote under his name "1st Wiscon- sin Battery." With sad hearts we returned to our boat, reach-
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ing there just in time to take passage for Arkansas. Billy was the first man killed in the company.
General George W. Morgan, in an article contributed to "Battle Leaders of the Civil War," published by the Century Company, in reference to this charge, says:
"The withdrawal of Steele from Sherman's left enabled the enemy to concentrate his right on the threatened point at Chickasaw. As soon as he discovered that a brigade was being thrown over McNutt Lake, Barton occupied the woods bor- dering the woods on the bluff side. Patterson had succeeded in placing and flooring his pontoons, when the enemy opened a fire of artillery and small-arms on the pontoniers and drove them from their work. Two of the boats were damaged and a number of the men killed and wounded.
"A short time previous to this, while standing by Foster's Battery, I saw approaching from the enemy's right, about a mile away, a caisson, with gunners on the ammunition boxes, and a few horsemen in front. I asked Foster if he could blow up that caisson ? He replied, 'I can try, sir.' He waited until the caisson came within fair range and fired. The report of the gun and the explosion of the caisson seemed to be instanta- neous; caisson and gunners were blown in the air; every man and horse was killed, and a shout went up from around Foster and his battery. On the next day, when our flag of truce to the enemy had returned. I learned that one of the victims of the explosion was Captain Paul Hamilton, Assistant Adjutant- General on the staff of General S. D. Lee. He was but 21 years of age, was distinguished for his gallantry, and had gone through several battles without a scar."
Relative to DeCourcey's charge he says:
"I sent orders to Blair and DeCourcey to form their bri- gades and a request to Steele to send me another brigade for the assault. Just then Colonel DeCourcev, who was an officer of skill and experience, approached and said: "General, do I understand that you are about to order an assault?' To which I replied, 'Yes, from your brigade" With an air of respectful protest he said: "My poor brigade! Your order will be obeyed. General.'
"The brigade of DeCourcey was massed from the abatis, across the road or causeway and fronting the corduroy bridge, and I ordered Thayer to support DeCourcey, and indicated the point to assault. Thayer's brigade was now composed of five regiments and a battery of artillery, which did good service, though it did not cross the bayou. It was my intention to make the assault with the brigades of Blair, Thayer and De- Courcey. By some misunderstanding-a fortunate one, I think, as it turned out-four of Thayer's regiments diverged
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to the right, leaving only one regiment, the 4th Iowa, with him in the assault.
"The signal volley was fired and with a wild shout the troops of DeCourcey, Thayer and Blair advanced to the as- sault. As soon as the corduroy bridge was reached by DeCour- cey and Thayer, and the bayou to the left by Blair, the as- saulting forces came under a withering and destructive fire. A passage was forced over the abatis and through the murky bayou and tangled marsh and dry ground. All formations were broken; the assaulting forces were jammed together, and with a yell of desperate determination they rushed to the assault and were mowed down by a storm of shell, grape, can- ister and minie balls, which swept our front like a hurricane of fire. Never did troops bear themselves with greater intrep- idity. They were terribly repulsed but not beaten."
DeCourcey's brigade brought back its colors, or what re- mained of them. The flag of the 16th Ohio was torn into shreds by the explosion of a shell in its very center.
The losses in this charge were: DeCourcey, 48 killed, 321 wounded and 355 missing; Blair, 99 killed, 331 wounded and 173 missing; Thayer (in the 4th Iowa) 7 killed and 105 wounded.
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CHAPTER X.
ARKANSAS POST.
"Charge! Charge! With a yell, Like the shriek of a shell- O'er the abatis, on through the curtain of flame."
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