Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

S ent out on picket on the night of December 31, 1862, Private Ulysses Greene of the 64 th Ohio recorded the scenes that greeted him upon the moon-swept battlefield of Stones River. “By the pale light of the moon, we could see that every ditch and gulley was filled with mangled corpses of men who had that morning entered the fight in the pride of their strength and in the enjoyment of health. The field was covered with the debris of the fight- guns, swords, broken down gun carriages, and dismounted cannons, all in one promiscuous wreck and ruin. I could dwell longer on this dreadful scene but you are doubtless tired already of so long an epistle,” he wrote.           Private Greene’s missive first saw publication in the February 6, 1863, edition of the Bucyrus Journal . During the Stones River, the 64 th Ohio was part of Colonel Charles G. Harker’s brigade along with the 51 st Indiana, 73 rd Indiana, 13 th Michigan, 65 th Ohio, and ...

N ighttime attacks were rare during the Civil War but on the night of Monday, December 29, 1862, Colonel Charles G. Harker’s brigade of the Army of the Cumberland received just such a directive and the consequences proved a near disaster.           Colonel Michael Shoemaker of the 13 th Michigan was part of Harker’s attack and recalled the night as one of a missed opportunity. “I have always been of the opinion that if our advance had not been stopped by order of our own superior officers, we would have surprised the enemy before they could have formed their ranks and would have driven them from their position,” he wrote in 1878. “This would have left Murfreesboro open to us without further fighting or opposition. The Confederates would have retreated to the Tennessee River without giving us battle.”           Colonel Shoemaker’s description of the events of December 29, 1862, is derived from ...

F or First Lieutenant Edwin Nicar, serving as aide-de-camp on the brigade staff of General George D. Wagner, General Rosecrans surprise appearance at brigade headquarters in Chattanooga on the afternoon of September 20, 1863, was indelibly etched in his memory. “The fugitives streamed back towards and into Chattanooga and by 4 p.m. on the 20 th we knew, or rather believed, that our army was beaten,” he wrote. “Rosecrans himself with a single staff officer arrived at our headquarters about the hour mentioned looking as white as a sheet and had to be helped from his horse. His staff officer, Captain Drouillard, gave us to understand that all was lost but cautioned secrecy.” The following passages about the Chickamauga campaign come from Captain Nicar’s memoir of the war published just as the U.S. was about to enter World War I and published in the pages of the South Bend Tribune . His story picks up in late August 1863 as Wagner’s brigade is marching towards Chattanooga:

I n the winter of 1883, Bryon Dunn, editor of the Maryville Republican newspaper and formerly a private in the 9 th Indiana Infantry during the Civil War, decided to publish a series of articles containing his reminiscences of the Atlanta campaign. Eventually, that series would grow to 33 articles in length, drawing heavily from a diary that he kept while in the service. Among the more interesting articles recalls his experiences during the Battle of Pickett’s Mill which was fought May 27, 1864. Private Dunn had developed a fever a few days prior to the   Pickett’s Mill fight and was essentially knocked out of action. “We were on the battlefield of May 25 th where the dead lay thick scattered through the woods,” he noted. “We were ordered to build works but I grew so sick that I had to go to the rear and lie down. All I know is that I lay there all day, deathly sick. The roar of battle had no impression on me and I didn’t know or care what was going on around me Dr. Gillmore vi...

T he 12 th Ohio had been on the march since well before dawn and by 1 o’clock on September 10, 1861, at Carnifex Ferry, they were ready to call it a day. But scouts reported General Floyd’s force just ahead and the decision was made to push ahead and “feel” the enemy. That “feeling” turned into a full-bore fight.           “At the same time, we commenced with our rifles and muskets and they did the same,” Private John Minturn of Co. G noted in a letter to his father. “About that time, we had pretty hard work going on. We kept this up for about 2 hours when we were ordered to take a new position on their left flank with our right resting on the river. We were to charge right onto them at the double quick as soon as the Second Brigade could get in on their right and front to draw their fire. But before they got to their position it was so dark that the general ordered us to fall back out of the reach of their muskets and wait till daylight t...

C harging against Stonewall Jackson’s Virginians on Henry House Hill on July 21, 1861, Private Solomon Holben of the 1 st Michigan recalled the back-and-forth charges aimed at seizing that vital piece of ground. “We charged on the run, shouting “Remember Fort Sumter!” When we got to the top of the hill, we halted and fired. The Rebels were mowed down like grass and in a few minutes not one of them was left in sight. Their masked batteries poured in a perfect shower of cannon balls among us. An order was given by one of our captains (acting as major) to retreat; about one-third of the men left the battlefield when the captain was pulled from his horse and another took his place,” he wrote. “We then charged over the hill a second time but there was no order this time as every man fought for himself, every Rebel was driven in, but the masked batteries kept up a continual fire. We fell back a second time, charged again, but this time our other color bearer was shot down. We fell back ...