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Combat and Feral Hogs: A Georgian Remembers the Horrors of Stones River

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F or Corporal Walter B. Smith of the 3 rd Georgia Infantry Battalion, the ending of the fighting at Stones River replaced the horrors of combat with a perhaps unexpected menace: a band of roving hogs. His brigade had gone into bivouac in the cedar forest and as “the fighting now ceased for the day on the part of our division we soon found that we had a far different enemy to contend with- a drove of wild hogs had commenced to devour the dead and wounded,” Smith recalled in 1902. “They seemed perfectly crazed by the taste of human flesh. The writer saw several fighting over the arms and entrails of the dead. The wounded and dead were soon gathered up and it was necessary to put guards around them with fixed bayonets in order to keep off the hogs.” Confederate burial details started work that night, in part to get the bodies underground before the hogs could get at them as Smith observed. Corporal Smith’s gritty memoir of Stones River first saw publication in the June 15, 1902, edit...
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The Perfect Trap at Yorktown: A Vermont Survivor’s Tale

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S ergeant Frank Rew of the 3 rd Vermont served with the Army of the Potomac from its beginnings through Appomattox, but his first harsh introduction to combat didn’t arrive in a large battle but in a fierce skirmish that took place on the siege lines of Yorktown in April 1862.           Four companies of the 3 rd Vermont were tasked with crossing the Warwick River at Dam No. 1 and seizing the Confederate rifle pits beyond which their commanders thought had been abandoned. They were quickly disabused of the notion. “The creek is about six rods wide and into it the brave fellows dashed, some sinking to the waist and others to the arm pits which of course wet much of our ammunition," Sergeant Rew recalled. "When about midway, the Rebels poured in a blinding volley upon them, mowing them down like grass, but on rushed the rest in the face of 3,000 enemy riflemen and dashing up the bank drove a whole regiment from their first rifle pit. The od...
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Cleaned Out at Sabine Crossroads

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A fter waiting all afternoon to go into action at Sabine Crossroads, Dan Dickinson and the 2nd Massachusetts Light Artillery were quickly overwhelmed once the action began.      " At every discharge, terrible gateways were made in their ranks and the shells we plunged into their midst scattered death and destruction far and wide," he wrote. " Their bullets swept the hill upon which we were posted in perfect showers but happily they aimed too low and none on our piece were killed, though two men were mortally wounded and eight of ten cannoneers were wounded. I am one of the lucky two who were not wounded though how I escaped is a miracle and a great wonder to me. One ball went through my pants at the knee, another struck my belt but did not penetrate. We brought our limber forward when there was no longer any hope of support or succor coming to aid us, limbering our gun when the Rebels were only 75 feet or so from our cannon. Five of the six horses attached to the limber ...
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Taking Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay

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N early three weeks after the Battle of Mobile Bay, Lieutenant Edward N. Kellogg of the U.S. Navy stood outside Fort Morgan as part of the contingent of Federal officers chosen to accept the surrender of Fort Morgan. It proved an impressive ceremony. "At 2 o’clock that afternoon most of the naval and army officers landed at the fort to witness the raising of the old flag over the stronghold that has kept us so long at bay,” he wrote. “The Rebel troops, 560 in number, were marched out and stacked arms, and equal number of our own marched down in front of the line, the band playing “Hail Columbia,” the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and “Yankee Doodle” among other patriotic airs till they were abreast when they halted and faced the graybacks at a distance of ten feet. The American colors were now run up on the flagstaff and the Rebel flag hauled down. The band again struck up, the whole fleet fired a salute, the vessels in succession according to rank and a battery of two field pieces on...
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Bones in the Brackets: A Graphic Account of the Battle of Mobile Bay

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D isabled by a shot that blew her starboard boiler, the U.S. steamer Oneida drifted helplessly in Mobile Bay as the Rebel ironclad Tennessee slowly steamed around her stern then let loose with a devastating broadside. “Three men were killed in my division and six wounded, but I escaped unscathed although covered with a shower of splinters and the brains of my unfortunate Marine bespattered my face,” Lieutenant Edward N, Kellogg wrote to his father. “Three of our men had their heads shot off and the pieces of skull bones flying around actually wounded seven or eight men. The shell that took off the captain’s arm took off the head of a Marine at my 11-inch gun and wounded both captains of the gun as well as the first loader, besides slightly wounded several others by scattering around fragments of bones which are now buried so deep in the brackets as makes it impossible to get them out but by cutting the wood.” Lieutenant Kellogg’s letter, written two days after the Battle of Mobil...
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Best Soldier in Bragg’s Army: Alfred Jackson Worsham of the 41st Mississippi

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C omparisons of who was the best soldier in either army during the Civil War have long served as conversational fodder for many an armchair historian, but Captain James Kincannon of the 41 st Mississippi staked such a claim for one of his soldiers, Alfred J. Worsham. Worsham as he was called was hardly an imposing physical specimen: “He was box-ankled, knock-kneed, angular, and disjointed all over. He could not stand up straight and was never in line in the company’s formation during the entire term of his service. His energy was wonderful, his will indomitable, his courage superb, and his powers of endurance supernatural. He was never on the sick list, was always at roll call, never shirked any duty, and did more extra service than all the rest of the brigade put together. He was never idle, slept but little, and was always ready to volunteer for any hazardous work that was wanted. He was truly a wonderful man and seemed to have been made purposely for the place which he filled in ...
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Draw Your Sabers and Weigh In: Stopping the Rout at Corinth

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O ne of the most important roles played by cavalry during a battle was to serve as provost guards, providing security behind the lines by stemming the flow of men from the battle line. Sergeant Willard Burnap of the 2 nd Iowa Cavalry told how his company prevented a rout at the Battle of Corinth in October 1862. “We received orders to station ourselves in the rear of the line of battle and stop all soldiers and officers from going to the rear unless they were wounded or belonged to the medical staff,” he wrote. “This is one of the most important positions that can be assigned to a company on the battlefield. We were scarcely in line when the 80 th Ohio regiment, broken, demoralized, and panic-stricken, came rushing back like frightened sheep. Other regiments, missing their support and knowing the danger when their line was broken, seemed ready to follow. That regiment must be stopped or the day is lost! I was nearest to them and putting the spurs to my horse was soon among them. In...
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