Cary Lockhart Nelson of the 81st Ohio at Shiloh

Cary Lockhart Nelson enlisted in Company C, 81^st Ohio Volunteer Infantry while a third year student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, enlisting with his older brother Joseph K. Nelson (referred to in the letter as ‘Jo’). Cary was given a medical discharge later in 1862 due to illness.

The 81st Ohio formed of a part of Brigadier General John McArthur's Second Brigade of Brigadier General William H.L. Wallace's Second Division. The 81st Ohio suffered relatively light casualties (4 killed and 17 wounded) compared with the rest of the brigade.

The letter and journal pages below were published in the May 8, 1862 issue of the Highland Weekly News from Hillsborough, Ohio.

Pittsburgh Landing, Tennessee April 13, 1862

81st Ohio Volunteer Infantry National Colors
Ohio Historical Society

We are quietly sojourning in our encampment near this place. The weather during the past week has been very disagreeable except last Sabbath April 6^th.

Sabbath has come again. A beautiful day it is, and very quiet for a Sabbath in camp. There is less loud talking and swearing than usual, but 10,000 birds are singing as cheerfully through this forest, as if beneath the trees, among whose boughs they are flitting, did not lie on the cold ground, thousands of men slain in this fraternal strife! Oh, how long will the sons of men continue thus to slaughter one another? Would that I could hold up the horrors of the battlefield before the eyes of the world, till all would seek to avoid war and try to live together in harmony and love!

I send my journal, containing an account of the part the 81^st Regiment took part in the great battles of the 6^th and 7^th. I am in favor of doing with our might what we have to do without necessary delay. That, with God’s blessing upon our endeavors, will soon quell this rebellion, and those of us who are spared may return to our friends and peace to our beloved land.

Yours affectionately,

Cary L. Nelson

April 6- This morning between 7 and 8 o’clock, we heard the booming of cannon on the left of our army, some 5 or 6 miles from us- we being on the extreme right. In about an hour came the order for our company to ‘fall in.’ We were soon in line and marched to guard abridge across a creek about a mile further to the right. I had been quite unwell ever since we came here but was determined to be with the company if there was any fighting to be done. After we had been at the bridge half an hour, the rest of the 81^st came and drew up in line of battle near the bridge. After staying there an hour, the 81^st was ordered to come back and occupy a position near our camp where our right flank and Company I sharpshooters had a skirmish with some rebels and drove them away.

Brigadier General William H.L. Wallace
The Urbana, Ohio native led the Second Division
at Shiloh where he was mortally wounded on April 6th,
dying in his wife's arms on April 10, 1862.

About 3 o’clock, the 81^st was ordered to the left wing about two miles off. There we went as skirmishers in front of our of troops, who were drawn up in line of battle. We were soon greeted with a tremendous volley of musketry, grapeshot, and shells. The moment we heard the report of the guns we dropped on our faces and the missiles passed harmlessly over all of us except Capt. Armstrong who was struck in the head by a grapeshot and instantly killed. His orderly carried him from the field. The regiment returned fire and continued firing until ordered to desist. I did not fire because I saw some of our sharpshooters in front of us but could not see the enemy until we were ordered to cease firing and fall in ranks, which was not two minutes after we fell. We formed and filed to the left, marching parallel with our lines between them and the enemy. Then boom went the revel guns, down went the 81^st, and the grape whizzed, the balls whistled, and the shells flew over our heads.

We were ordered to lie close and not fire. After a few minutes, we were ordered to fall back to our main lines. This we did in a perfect rush, as we had to pass up a hill in clear range of the rebel battery. When we got back to our troops, who were drawn up in line of battle, Gen. Grant said to us, “Boys, you have done a good thing.” (finding out where the rebel battery was) Our battery then opened upon it. The 81^st was then ordered back to our old position near our tents. When we were crossing an open field about a half mile from our tents, a rebel battery sent some big shells ‘a howlin’ tro de wilderness’ on our left at us, over the heads of some of our troops who were lying down in line of battle along the edge of the field. They flew over our heads. We then marched a short distance toward the battery, which was throwing shells at us, and took our places, Co. C (our company) on the right, and the rest of the regiment behind those who were lying in line of battle. While we were doing this, a battery on our left opened upon the rebel battery and silenced it in a few minutes. This was, I believe, the last fighting that was done on the 6^th.

The fighting in the latter portion of April 6th showed Wallace's division holding back a concerted push by Bragg's troops to overrun the Union salient near the Hornet's Nest. Map courtesy of Hal Jespersen's www.cwmaps.com website.

All day from early morning till it began to grow dark, the rebels had been gradually gaining ground. Our men had been surprised, and some regiments had been scattered so in their retreat that they could not be got together again during the day, and hundreds of cowards from other regiments (a few from the 81^st) had run to the river to get away from the danger. Most of the regiments had fought with great determination, but were overpowered and compelled to fall back. The cheers of the rebels as they gained point after point sank heavily upon our hearts. As we lay in line of battle as above mentioned, and the shells were flying over us, I thought of what Wellington said on the field of Waterloo, “Oh, that Blucher or night would come!” We prayed that Buell or night would come. Night did soon come and the firing ceased, except that at intervals of about 10 minutes the gunboats would send a great shell howling among the rebels.

Shortly after dark, Co. C deployed as skirmishers and advanced between the lines of the two armies- so close to the rebels that we could hear them giving commands in a low tone, and Charley Wright who was on the extreme left as we wheeled right, took a prisoner who was armed with a splendid Enfield rifle. We then returned to the regiment and all lay in line of battle during the night. I went to an unoccupied tent near by and borrowed an overcoat apiece for Jo and me, which kept us comfortable as we lay together upon a brush pile. We both slept sound, notwithstanding the rain and the firing from the gunboat.

Brigadier General John McArthur of Illinois
led the Second Brigade, Second Division
on April 6th before he was wounded. Colonel
Thomas Morton of the 81st Ohio assumed brigade
command for the remainder of the battle.

April 7- At the dawn of day, we rose from our beds of mud and brush, put fresh caps on our rifles, and were ready to meet the foe. We were not called into action immediately, but stood ready while Buell’s and Wallace’s forces, who had come to our assistance, advanced against the enemy, feeling for him in the woods, for there are only a few small cleared fields in the whole battlefield which comprises thousands of acres. After the firing had commenced, the 81^st and another regiment advanced on the extreme right, followed by a battery, which threw over our heads into the woods as we advanced past where the desperate fighting was going on in the center. Then our battery, having taken position on a ridge in the edge of a cornfield, began firing and was answered by a rebel battery not directly in front of us, but more to the left. We lay flat on the ground to the left of our battery and for at least half an hour the batteries kept up a most terrific firing at each other. The shot and shell whistled and howled over our heads, and struck the ground behind us.

Our battery at last silenced the enemy’s guns. Co. C had a comparatively safe position, being farthest from our battery and in a small ravine during the artillery fight. But at one time a rebel battery father to the left began to send grapeshot whistling directly along the line of our regiment, but it was soon compelled to pay its respects to a Union battery in the center which just then addressed it in thunder tones.

When our battery ceased firing, we gathered ourselves up out of the mud and again advanced, wheeling somewhat to the left. When we had crossed the corner of the open field and were advancing into the woods, a tremendous fire of musketry was poured upon us by an unseen foe. We fired in the direction whence the bullets came, but as the enemy could not be seen, we were ordered to cease firing and lie down. I with several others lay behind a small log. I could hear the balls strike the log and see the bark fly from the top of it. Then a battery opened upon us with grape. They whistled awfully near us. The Colonel (who was acting Brigadier General) seeing all this ordered us to ‘fall back.’ We ‘got up and skedaddled’ amid a hurricane of grapeshot and musket balls and it seems to me almost a miracle that none of us were killed. Lt. Chamberlin said to me as we retreated, ‘Dear! Dear! This is bad. The right wing of our army is broken!’ We did not retreat far, however, nor did the rebels follow us. We got into a ravine and again formed into a line of battle, marched a short distance to the left, faced toward the enemy, and advanced in as good a line as was possible for a poorly-drilled regiment, among trees and stick hickory and oak bushes. The 3^rd Iowa advanced in line with us. Suddenly the enemy appeared before us, fired and fell. We too obeyed the order to fall- some behind trees and logs, others unsheltered. Among the latter were Jo and I. We lay down where we were standing, side by side. The ground between us and the enemy was level, so we fired along near the ground- the rebels ditto. Our orderly William Johnson was hit on the side of the head and severely wounded. Another of Co. C was wounded similarly but more dangerously.

When we had fired from 10 to 20 rounds, the rebels began to run. We got up and took after them pell mell, helter skelter. Co. C, led by Capt. Robert N. Adams and cheered on by Lt. William H. Chamberlin, was ahead of all the rest. We advanced to where the rebels had been when fighting us, drove them across a small open field into a thick woods and took possession of a battery from which we had driven them. When they got to the woods, they rallied and began to fire upon us again. We sheltered ourselves as much as possible behind the trees, a pile of sacks of corn, the cannon, etc. As I am near sighted, I got behind a tree nearest the rebels. Charley Wright was behind the same tree and Jo was behind the cannon, among the dead horses and rebels.

We fought there but a few minutes when a battery on our left opened upon us with grape, the Rebel cavalry began to move across the open field to get around us on the right, and the columns of infantry grew more dense in front. We saw we could not hold the position and fell back, or rather retreated as we had advanced- every fellow for himself. In this fight, Lt. Post of Co. C was mortally wounded and Col. Morton’s horse who shot from under him, and in falling mashed the colonel against a tree, bruising him considerably. As we fell back, we met column after column of fresh troops coming up.

The 81^st being utterly worried out with nearly two days of skirmishing and fighting, its colonel being disabled, two of its commissioned officers shot, 21 of its men wounded and two killed, and many of the men being separated from the regiment, retired from the conflict. The troops we met as we retreated were soon engaged in a fierce fight, which proved the last of the battle. The firing ceased about the time we reached our tents, and the prolonged cheers which rang through the forest were this time on the right side thank God! Arriving at our tents, we found our knapsacks and blankets where we had left them the day before, but the invalids and cooks (Amos Swarts included) had retreated to the river as directed by the quartermaster and surgeon. Amos soon returned with the rest and made a kettle of coffee for mess no. 3, to which we did justice. I immediately after arriving, sat down and wrote to Kate, to let our friends know that Jo and I were safe. We then lay down in our dry, comfortable tents and slept soundly all night, while tens of thousands of our fellow soldiers were lying in the rain and mud between us and the enemy.

April 8- We were ordered out with two days’ rations in our haversacks, marched three or four miles through mud and water toward Corinth, stood in the mud among dead men and horses till dark, and then marched back to camp again. We were in hopes we would get to go on, but did not.

In the 1890s, there was  considerable controversy regarding whether or not the 81st Ohio actually captured Cobb's Kentucky battery, the controversy playing a role in where the regimental monument would be placed. Nick Kurtz' superb blog goes into this controversy in great detail and can be visited here: http://shilohnick.blogspot.com/2008/06/81st-ohio.html.

Based on Private Nelson's account, he adds some evidence to support the claim that the 81st Ohio did in fact overrun this battery.

Back in 2008, I wrote an article about the court martial of Captain Peter A. Tyler of Company D, 81st Ohio in March 1863 that stemmed in part from the charge of cowardice on the field of Shiloh that touches in part upon the controversial capture of Cobb's battery. Quoting from the article:

In a trial taking seven days, the prosecution argued that during the battle of Shiloh while the regiment was preparing to charge a Rebel battery, Tyler shied away from the line and dodged from tree to tree until he disappeared over a hill in the rear of the regiment. Second Sergeant Elijah W. Longabaugh testified that he saw the Captain behind a tree and encouraged him to join in the charge; “Hurrah Cap, we are giving them hell today!” Tyler refused to budge, and consequently Second Lieutenant Joseph M. Post led the company in the charge and was mortally wounded in so doing. Colonel Thomas Morton, who commanded a scratch brigade that day, in controversial testimony that was repeatedly objected to by Captain Tyler stated that he also saw Tyler running for the rear but assumed that he was wounded. Interestingly, he failed to press charges because he did not become aware of the facts and circumstances of the situation for sometime afterwards.

Reminding the court that following Tyler’s abandonment of the line, Lieutenant Joseph M. Post took command of the company and was mortally wounded in the charge upon the Rebel battery, Hawes pleaded with the court, “at this very moment, the bleaching bones of that young man call upon this court to do what lies in its power to punish the man whose cowardice rendered it necessary for him to sacrifice his life." Captain Tyler was dishonorably dismissed in April 1863.

Biographical information for Private Cary Lockhart Nelson:

February 26, 1840 Hillsboro, Ohio-February 19, 1900 Albia, Monroe Co., Iowa

Carey Lockhart Nelson became a resident of Albia in March of 1867, coming here from a farm five miles beyond Eddyville, in Mahaska county. He is a native of Ohio, born on a farm four miles from Hillsboro, Highland county February 26, 1840. His paternal ancestors were of the Scotch Irish Presbyterian stock, which settled in Augusta county, Virginia, before the War of the Revolution. He worked on the farm and attended the common district school when a boy, and later the more advanced schools in Hillsboro, riding on horseback from home. The breaking out of the War of the Rebellion found Cary in his third year as a student in Miami University at Oxford Ohio; reciting to Prof. David Swing. In September, 1861, he and his youngest brother, Joseph K. Nelson now of Butler county, Kansas, who had gone at Abraham Lincoln's first call and served through "the three month's service" enlisted under a couple of the students of the senior class in an "in independent Rifle Regiment." Which afterwards was numbered the 81st. Ohio Volunteer Infantry. With his regiment he served during the first fall and winter in Missouri, April 6th, 1862, found the regiment not far from Shiloh Church, Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, under Gen. W.H.L.Wallace, who was killed early in the fight. The Nelson brothers were complimented by the officers on their work during the two days of the great battle. After taking part in the tedious siege of Corinth, Cary took down sick with some kind of slow fever which did not yield to treatment and he was discharged and sent home.

After he had recuperated on his father's farm for a few weeks, he received a commission to help recruit the 8th Ohio cavalry; but the medical department declined to admit him to the service again. He than came to Iowa and located on the farm mentioned.Gov. Kirkwood commissioned him captain of the militia of Harrison township when the "guerillas" were expected to invade Iowa, and he drilled his command in Phillips grove. February 21st, 1865 he lead to the matrimonial altar Miss Rebecca C. Loughbridge, of Oskaloosa, Iowa. He took her to the farm. There, fourteen months later, their only child, now Mrs. W.B. Pickens, of Keokuk, was born.

During 1866, finding himself still unable to work on the farm to do any good, he studied law under the direction of Hon. Wm. Loughridge. Being further embarrassed by collapse of the sheep business at the close of the war, he sold out, came to Albia as stated and went to work at the insurance business. Continuing his law studies he was admitted to the bar the next fall. Upon the resignation of A.C. Barnes he was appointed assistant assessor for the U.S. government in and for Monroe county. In 1872 he took the editorial chair on "The Weekly Albia Union," which he had occupied temporarily once before. In 1877 he was the nominee of the Republican party for auditor of Monroe county. Though he carried Troy township by a majority of 202 he went under with the rest of the ticket (except treasurer). While editing the "Union" he served Albia at different times as justice of the peace, city clerk and city solicitor. In 1882 he wrote and published a pamphlet history of Monroe County, entitled, "Homes in the Heart of the Continent." At about this time his health became so poor thet he was compelled to quit the newspaper business; but continued literary work for a few months, writing histories of Mahaska and Marion counties. Before he got through with this work he lost his home and what money he had by the failure of the Monroe County Bank.

After this he resumed the insurance business, and finding his health improved he continued in the work up to the day of his last sickness. In 1887 misfortune again overtook him and in September of that year the wife of his youth was laid beneath the sod. In February, 1888, his daughter married. The next year she moved to Keokuk leaving him entirely alone. March 19th, 1891, he married Miss Nancy S. Hanks of Troy Township. He was a honored member of the A.F. and A.M.I.O.O.F., A.O.U.W., and G.A.R. fraternities. He became a member of the Presbyterian Church early in life and remained a faithful member until his death.

He took sick with what proved to be his last illness on Tuesday, February 13th, 1900, and grew worse rapidly and died on the 10th at his home on Washington Street, from acute uramla. He was a kind and affectionate husband and father, a true brother and friend, honest and upright in all his relations in life. He was loved by his relation and intimate acquaintances, having many warm personal friends and but few enemies. A wife and daughter survive him. A noble man has gone from among us. The funeral services were held at First Presbyterian Church. Members of the various organizations to which he belonged, with the G.A.R. bearing the flag front, conveyed the remains from the house to the church. the pall bearers were Wm. Peppers, R.O. Cramer, George Cramer, W.S. Fall, George Hobson, Ed Noble, all members of the Masonic Lodge. Rev. Linn read Scripture lesson from 90th Psalm, and the 15th Chapter of Corinthians, and used as a test for his discourse the 9th verse of the 90th Psalm, "For all our days are passed away in thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told." He read a brief history of the life of the deceased and paid a warm tribute of praise to his grand character and noble citizenship. The church choir sang appropriate selections. Rev. W. Porter invoked the Divine favor on the widow and daughter and all the other relatives and friends. The audience was permitted to take a last look at the remains, when the cortege was formed and proceeded to Oak View. At the grave the impressive Masonic organization was used. Rev. Linn pronounced the benediction and Carl Varner, for the G.A.R. Post, sounded taps, and the old soldier and honored citizen had the last honors of life paid him. Albia, Iowa Union Republic.