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Last Minute Reprieve at Murfreesboro

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A t the end of chapter 3 of Hell by the Acre , I tell the story of the military executions that took place at Murfreesboro on December 26, 1862. Three soldiers and one civilian were slated for execution that day, most famously, that of Private Asa Lewis of the 6 th Kentucky whose execution became a cause celebre within the Orphan Brigade. The story of the second soldier, Edward P. Norman of the 28 th Alabama, was also described in the book “while the final deserter from the 24 th Tennessee received a reprieve from Bragg just as he was about to be executed.” It was not until recently that I learned the story of how this Tennessean was saved at the last possible moment by the intrepid efforts of a Confederate enrolling officer. A total of three executions took place in Murfreesboro on December 26, 1862. The first was a civilian spy named Gray who was hung near the railroad depot. The military executions took place in an open field south of town where just a few weeks before Presiden...
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It Made the Air Hideous: At Chickamauga with the 51st Illinois

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B y the time the 51st Illinois arrived on the field of Chickamauga on the afternoon of September 19, 1863, the battle had already been raging for hours and, at least in the part of the field the regiment arrived upon, the battle seemed to be going against the Army of the Cumberland. As a matter of fact, the Confederates had just overrun the 8th Indiana Battery.  "We were surprised to see the enemy in such force, but as we were ordered to advance and take back the battery, there was no time lost in thinking the matter over," stated Orderly Sergeant Charles Strickland of Co. G. "The 22 nd  and 42 nd  Illinois regiments were ordered to advance and as the brave veterans moved steadily forward, we could see the enemy unfurl their battle flags and cheer after cheer filled the air with repeated echoes which was followed by their shells which came screaming through the air. The distance was not half a mile and as they advanced, the enemy fired with great rapidity."   ...
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They Rode Into Our Works: With Casement’s Brigade at Franklin

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P ositioned in the left center of the Federal line at the Battle of Franklin, Colonel John Casement's brigade bore some of the heaviest attacks of the engagement. Captain James S. Putnam, serving on Colonel Casement's staff as acting assistant adjutant general, wrote three letters home to his wife in Illinois describing his experiences.  "The enemy formed under cover of a wood and advanced in columns driving in our front line without firing," he wrote. "As soon as they had all got inside our works and when the enemy was within 200 yards, we opened a murderous fire of musketry, grape, and canister that from the batteries plowed at various points along the lines.  Still, they continued to advance till in many places they actually reached our works. At the 23 rd   Indiana Battery, they came right into the embrasures and were knocked down by the men with the spikes of the guns. The 104 th   Ohio, a regiment of the First Brigade placed on our right, gave way at one ti...
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Combat and Feral Hogs: A Georgian Remembers the Horrors of Stones River

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F or Corporal Walter B. Smith of the 3 rd Georgia Infantry Battalion, the ending of the fighting at Stones River replaced the horrors of combat with a perhaps unexpected menace: a band of roving hogs. His brigade had gone into bivouac in the cedar forest and as “the fighting now ceased for the day on the part of our division we soon found that we had a far different enemy to contend with- a drove of wild hogs had commenced to devour the dead and wounded,” Smith recalled in 1902. “They seemed perfectly crazed by the taste of human flesh. The writer saw several fighting over the arms and entrails of the dead. The wounded and dead were soon gathered up and it was necessary to put guards around them with fixed bayonets in order to keep off the hogs.” Confederate burial details started work that night, in part to get the bodies underground before the hogs could get at them as Smith observed. Corporal Smith’s gritty memoir of Stones River first saw publication in the June 15, 1902, edit...
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The Perfect Trap at Yorktown: A Vermont Survivor’s Tale

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S ergeant Frank Rew of the 3 rd Vermont served with the Army of the Potomac from its beginnings through Appomattox, but his first harsh introduction to combat didn’t arrive in a large battle but in a fierce skirmish that took place on the siege lines of Yorktown in April 1862.           Four companies of the 3 rd Vermont were tasked with crossing the Warwick River at Dam No. 1 and seizing the Confederate rifle pits beyond which their commanders thought had been abandoned. They were quickly disabused of the notion. “The creek is about six rods wide and into it the brave fellows dashed, some sinking to the waist and others to the arm pits which of course wet much of our ammunition," Sergeant Rew recalled. "When about midway, the Rebels poured in a blinding volley upon them, mowing them down like grass, but on rushed the rest in the face of 3,000 enemy riflemen and dashing up the bank drove a whole regiment from their first rifle pit. The od...
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Cleaned Out at Sabine Crossroads

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A fter waiting all afternoon to go into action at Sabine Crossroads, Dan Dickinson and the 2nd Massachusetts Light Artillery were quickly overwhelmed once the action began.      " At every discharge, terrible gateways were made in their ranks and the shells we plunged into their midst scattered death and destruction far and wide," he wrote. " Their bullets swept the hill upon which we were posted in perfect showers but happily they aimed too low and none on our piece were killed, though two men were mortally wounded and eight of ten cannoneers were wounded. I am one of the lucky two who were not wounded though how I escaped is a miracle and a great wonder to me. One ball went through my pants at the knee, another struck my belt but did not penetrate. We brought our limber forward when there was no longer any hope of support or succor coming to aid us, limbering our gun when the Rebels were only 75 feet or so from our cannon. Five of the six horses attached to the limber ...
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Taking Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay

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N early three weeks after the Battle of Mobile Bay, Lieutenant Edward N. Kellogg of the U.S. Navy stood outside Fort Morgan as part of the contingent of Federal officers chosen to accept the surrender of Fort Morgan. It proved an impressive ceremony. "At 2 o’clock that afternoon most of the naval and army officers landed at the fort to witness the raising of the old flag over the stronghold that has kept us so long at bay,” he wrote. “The Rebel troops, 560 in number, were marched out and stacked arms, and equal number of our own marched down in front of the line, the band playing “Hail Columbia,” the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and “Yankee Doodle” among other patriotic airs till they were abreast when they halted and faced the graybacks at a distance of ten feet. The American colors were now run up on the flagstaff and the Rebel flag hauled down. The band again struck up, the whole fleet fired a salute, the vessels in succession according to rank and a battery of two field pieces on...
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