Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

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.