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A Scene of Public Grief: Bringing the Boys Home After Stones River

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A few weeks after the Battle of Stones River, a trio of gentlemen from Salem, Ohio traveled to the battlefield to retrieve the bodies of some of their townsmen who died during the battle. In an extraordinary account from the editor of the Salem Republican , he described the sad scene that marked the arrival of the bodies at the town hall.   “The rough boxes containing the dead were placed side by side on the platform of the hall and were opened as speedily as possible,” he stated. “The first box opened contained the body of Captain Bean; the next was Hale’s, and so on until all were opened. Among the few men present was an aged father whose son lay in a rude coffin before him. How eagerly he gazed at his boy and said, “That’s my son!” and left the room.” “Few of us present on this occasion ever saw such a sight as was here presented. There lay the bodies of four young men in the pride and glory of manhood, three of whom has been buried on the battlefield just as they fell and ...
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A Ticket to Texas: Colonel Rutishauser's Travails at Camp Ford

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C aptured in the aftermath of the City Belle disaster in May 1864, Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Rutishauser of the 58th Illinois described the elation of his Confederate captors in the aftermath of their successes against General Nathaniel Banks' army.     " They took us to their camp, which was more like a bandit camp, such as I had seen in Italy in previous years, than a military camp," he relayed. "Here I was immediately surrounded by several Rebel officers, all of whom expressed their joy at their victory, which they had just achieved over Banks's mistakes. They mocked this general, called him their commissary, and claimed to have cut off and surrounded the Union army in Alexandria and could now starve them out." And so began the colonel's lengthy imprisonment; eventually he would be delivered to Camp Ford, Texas, and remained there for nearly six months. Lieutenant Colonel Rutishauser’s account first saw publication in the November 16, 1864, edition o...
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The 157th New York and Dingle's Mill: A Final Fight in South Carolina

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O n one of the last days of the Civil War, Captain William Saxton of the 157th New York recorded his impressions of the April 9, 1865, fight at Dingle's Mill, South Carolina. His regiment, formerly part of the 11th Corps, had been pummeled at both Chancellorsville and Gettysburg before being sent to South Carolina in the summer of 1863. They were a veteran unit and when they deployed through the swamp at Dingle's Mill, Captain Saxton spied a pair of Confederate artillery pieces in his front and resolved to take them.      " I immediately formed my company in line, a few of the 56 th  New York boys falling in line with me, and marched them hurriedly to the edge of the woods, showed them the guns, then said, “Boys, let’s take them. Now, every man for himself as fast as you can go. Forward march!” And away we went. How rapidly a man’s thoughts will come to him under certain circumstances. I remember I thought as we were running forward that the muzzles of those guns wer...
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Nothing to Bind Us But Honor: In the Three-Months’ Service with the 87th Ohio

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T here isn't much written about the wartime services of the 87th Ohio Volunteers. Mustered into service in the summer of 1862 for just a brief 90-days, the regiment first guarded prisoners at Camp Chase before being sent to Baltimore, Maryland where it took part in the 4th of July celebration. A few days later, it was sent to Harper's Ferry where it became part of the garrison.       We are fortunate in that Private William A. Bosworth of Co. A, a student of Marietta College, provided the following lengthy description of the travails of the 87th to the  August 22, 1862, edition of the Pomeroy Weekly Telegraph . About 5 weeks after he wrote his letter, the 87 th Ohio would be surrendered as part of the garrison of Harper’s Ferry.
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With the Pointe Coupee Battery at Nashville

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S crambling back to the Pointe Coupee Battery’s position after spying the advancing Federals closing in on them, Rene A. de Russy recalled the thrilling final moments before the battery was overrun on December 16, 1864, during the Battle of Nashville. “The battery suffered severely, men and horses going down in the turmoil, a caisson being blown to atoms and Edgar Gueson being cut in by a shell. Still, the battery held fast, even when the men to the left had broken and when the Union men came around the hill on the flank. Gun after gun was served until human endurance could go no further.  Then with a parting shot into the very faces of Thomas’s men, Corporal Joseph H. Vienne and his fellows started back under orders from Captain Alcide Bouanchaud. Corporal Vautier trained his gun upon Vienne’s captured piece but without avail and the order came to withdraw, several of the pieces first being spiked. The members of the battery then made for the Granny White Pike, leaving over 20 d...
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Picket Shots of Chickamauga with the Army of Tennessee

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  I n "Picket Shots of Chickamauga" I'll share some of the shorter stories provided by veterans of the Chickamauga campaign that might not be long enough to constitute a blog post on their own, but make for insightful reading.       In commemoration of the 162nd anniversary of the second day of the battle, three accounts below give some perspectives from soldiers in the Army of Tennessee, including William Knight of the 36th Alabama who shares his memories of September 20th, George Jones war diary of Stanford's Mississippi Battery, and Captain John H. Martin of the 17th Georgia who 50 years later returns a corporal's commission he captured on the battlefield.  The detail of the lace on a uniform once worn by Lieutenant Braxton Bragg, commanding the Army of Tennessee at Chickamauga. The battle marked Bragg's one clear-cut victory over the Federals and it would be his last. His Army of Tennessee took enormous casualties defeating Rosey's bluecoats at Chickam...
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Picket Shots of Chickamauga from the Army of the Cumberland

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I n "Picket Shots of Chickamauga" I'll share some of the shorter stories provided by veterans of the Chickamauga campaign that might not be long enough to constitute a blog post on their own, but make for insightful reading.       In commemoration of the 162nd anniversary of the opening day of the battle, three accounts below give some perspectives from soldiers in the Army of the Cumberland, including Henry Dietrich of the 19th Illinois, Allen Fahnestock of the 86th Illinois, and Edward Molloy of the 87th Indiana. Tomorrow's post will feature three stories from their opponents in the Army of Tennessee. 
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