Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

S truck early on the morning of May 16, 1864 by a Confederate attack that broke the Federal line near Drewry's Bluff, Virginia, Private Charles Burdick of the 39th Illinois shared his experiences in a letter he wrote home the next day to his mother.      "Our company was out on picket on the left of the regiment," Burdick noted. "We knew they were trying to drive us back. They attacked us and drove us, wounding four of our company. Then we rallied and drove them but we soon had to fall back and it became a regular retreat for a short distance. Then we halted, faced about, and drove them back in the field. We could hear heavy musketry and cheering on our right but could not tell which army it was. We soon found the Rebels had charged on our boys of the 39 th  Illinois and drove them out of their pits and the order was given to retreat, but our company did not hear it. We were attacked by two regiments and we skedaddled as fast as our legs could carry us. The bullets f...

D uring the Battle of Stones River, both the Army of Tennessee and Army of the Cumberland featured regiments led by “boy” colonels. 20-year-old Colonel James Brown Forman led the 15 th Kentucky Infantry, part of Colonel John Beatty’s brigade of Lovell Rousseau’s division, and the story of his demise has been previously shared on this blog [see " Swallowed by the Cedars: A Day with the 15th Kentucky "].       It wasn’t until recently, however, that I came across a couple of letters from the other “boy” colonel which fleshes out the story of this extraordinary soldier.  Lieutenant Colonel John Edward Murray led the 5 th Arkansas Infantry with much acclaim throughout the Battle of Stones River. As part of General St. John R. Liddell’s all-Arkansas brigade, Murray’s regiment fought throughout December 31, crossing swords with Colonel Philemon Baldwin’s brigade in the fighting near the Jenkins woodlot in the morning and later against elements of Van Cleve’s divisio...

I n writing about the March 1862 Battle of Pea Ridge, Captain Eugene Payne of the 37th Illinois took special care to note how the men of his company fought the battle. Operating contrary to their training, the men didn't stand side by side in serried ranks; they took cover and fought while lying prone upon the ground.       " For half an hour did our brave lads pour the deadly contents of their Belgian rifles into the enemy," he observed. "Lying upon the ground our boys would load, then turn over, get upon one knee, pick out a secesh, and blaze away. Our guns did fearful execution as the rows and heaps of dead and dying secesh testified afterwards in front of where our regiment lay. At this first stand of our regiment was where we lost most of our boys. Our right wing suffered the most, it being nearer the enemy than the left."           Captain Payne’s description of Pea Ridge first saw publication in the March 29, 1862...

A round dawn on December 30, 1862, General Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry brigade fell upon a Federal wagon train along the Jefferson Pike not far from LaVergne, Tennessee. Private William C. Dodson of Co. G, 51st Alabama Partisan Rangers recalled the chaos of the scene as Wheeler’s men put the wagons to the torch. “Prisoners running this way and that, hunting somebody to surrender to, army wagons blazing, guns opposing, mules braying, etc. Some of the wagons were loaded with ammunition and some were set fire to while the teams of 4-6 mules were yet hitched to them, and as the fire commenced to scorch the wheelers and the ammunition to explode, you can imagine about as wild a stampede as you can conceive of. When I first rode into the circus, I noticed a pair of miles that had broken loose from a wagon. They were still hitched to the double-tree; one had got entangled with the harness and was down with the other dragging him. As I rode out, I encountered the same pair of miles, one having ...

B y the time the gunboat U.S.S. Mound City made it down the Red River in May 1864, the ironclad had to dump much of its armor and 13 guns to get through the low waters. Reading the following letters from Engineer John Harnett, his determination and simple faith in success come through strongly, as well as a sense of the surreal.       A prime example is his description of how the Mound City got over the falls of the river at Bailey's Dam. "The fall was eight feet; the break just large enough for the boats to pass through," he said. "As ours was the first boat over the falls, we were the first ordered over the dam. We went out into the stream and got a good start and headed all right, put 150 lbs of steam to her, and down she went, burying herself completely and striking the rocky bottom with such great violence that she immediately stopped. Our rudder unshipped and the water roared over us in a perfect torrent. Had we not taken the precaution to close and batten al...

W orking in the darkened engine room of the gunboat U.S.S. Mound City , Engineer John M. Hartnett recalled the experience as his gunboat ran the batteries at Vicksburg on the night of April 16-17, 1863. “For about 30 minutes there was a constant stream of shot whizzing and shells screeching over and around us, mostly over,” he noted. “No person that has never been under fire of batteries can have any idea of the charming sensation produced by these shells. My position, of course, was in the engine room as it was of all the other engineers so that in case should be killed or disabled, another could take his place. We were obliged to handle the engine in the dark as no lights were allowed on the ship, which made it very disagreeable for us as we could not see anything that was going on outside but could hear distinctly the shots as they passed and those that struck us.”           Engineer Hartnett’s account of running the batteries at Vicks...