Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

I t is Monday morning, June 2, 1862. The day after having his right arm amputated at the Battle of Fair Oaks, General Oliver O. Howard met a fellow amputee at Fair Oaks Station, General Phil Kearny. “They dismounted and stood near us while Kearny and I grasped hands,” General Howard remembered. “He had lost his left arm in Mexico. To console me, he said in a gentle voice, “General, I am sorry for you, but you must not mind it. The ladies will not think the less of you!” I laughed as I glanced at our two hands of the same size and replied, “There is one thing we can do, general. We can buy our gloves together!” He answered with a smile, “Sure enough!” But we did not, for I never met him again. He was killed at Chantilly on September 1, 1862.” General Howard’s reminiscences of the fighting at Fair Oaks and its aftermath are drawn from his autobiography published in 1907.

I n November 1900, R.A. Miller, formerly a Confederate line officer, wrote a short note to the local newspaper editor advertising for the return of a sword he had captured during the Civil War. “I have a sword captured in the battle of Murfreesboro on the 31 st of December 1862,” he wrote. “The name on the scabbard is I. Abernathy, lieutenant, 37 th Indiana Volunteers. I was wounded severely a few minutes after. I was a lieutenant in command of Co. B, 24 th Mississippi Volunteers. The sword will be returned on application of parties interested.”           To start off, who was Lieutenant R.A. Miller of the 24 th Mississippi, and how did he come to be wounded on the battlefield of Stones River? And who was I. Abernathy of the 37 th Indiana and what was his fate? Let’s explore those questions a bit.

A s he watched the remnants of the Army of the Potomac fall back after being defeated at the Battle of Gaines Mill on June 27, 1862, the confidence of Hospital Steward William L. Berry of the 16 th Michigan in the generalship of George McClellan suffered its first blow. “The thought came to my mind: what did all this mean? Was McClellan surprised and was the vast army that the government had been so carefully nursing for the past year suddenly to be put to rout and driven back? Was all the admirable plans to be defeated and was the enemy to still hold their sway? I pondered over it all night and could come to no reasonable conclusion why we should be so defeated and driven from the ground that we had held for so long a time. I’ll confess that for the first time, my confidence in McClellan was shaken but felt satisfied that all would turn out for the best,” the Canadian wrote home. Hospital Steward Berry’s account of Gaines Mill first saw publication in the July 25, 1862, edition o...

T he 2 nd Minnesota fought on four separate occasions during the two days of the Battle of Chickamauga. One soldier recalled that the hottest fighting occurred on the morning of September 20 th when the regiment was trying to hold the left of the Union line. “Here the Rebels came up on our left flank,” he noted. “We changed front to meet them with the 9 th Ohio in advance and were immediately ordered to lie down. Here was the hottest place for bullets I ever saw. It seemed as though we could have held up our hats and caught a hatful. The 9 th Ohio broke, but rallied in our rear and for a few minutes, the fighting was terrific, the Rebels hurling mass after mass to the front but in vain. Our Minies could go through four ranks at short range but they could not stand the slaughter and fled."      "The 9 th Ohio and 87 th Indiana charged across the field in front, the 35 th Ohio passed on and we, according to orders, caught up the rear. At the edge of the woods in fr...

S tationed in Fort Wood in Chattanooga as officer of the day, Lieutenant Alfred Pirtle of the 10th Ohio enjoyed a grandstand seat of the Army of the Cumberland's daring and successful charge upon Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863.     " At 3 o’clock or later, orders were issued from Orchard Knob, General Thomas’s headquarters, for the line in front of Missionary Ridge to advance. It is beyond my powers of description to give any idea of the excitement we all felt at Fort Wood, from our heart of hearts, as we heard the first shots that told the hot work that was coming.   The firing broke forth at all points almost at the same moment. Fort Wood joined in, with the heaviest guns on the batteries at Bragg’s headquarters, more than two miles away on the summit of the ridge. The enemy’s batteries threw shells at our men, who were charging across the open at the entrenchments, while we could see the Rebels rushing from behind the crest of the ridge to line the breastwo...

T he Chattanooga Campaign might not have been the hardest fought one the 84th Illinois ever participated in, but the scenery proved awe-inspiring as recalled by Lieutenant Lewis N. Mitchell of Co. A.       " The morning of November 25 th  dawned clear and beautiful but cold. We were at such an elevation that the surrounding country lay fair to view. Chattanooga, the Tennessee River in its devious course, and our camps; oh, how beautiful the sight! But what do we see to our left? The Rebel works and camps are in plain view and there are long lines of bluecoats advancing across the plain towards Missionary Ridge. Now we see their colors and now the boom of artillery and the rattle of musketry and they are hidden from view.  The old flag waves from Lookout Point and cheer after cheer rolls off across the valley below," he wrote.           Lieutenant Mitchell’s diary of the Chattanooga campaign, featuring insights ...