“My God! Leave me here, George, and save the battery!"


"Turning to me with the revolver cocked, he demanded my firearms. We looked at each other. I told him that I had none, that I was a cannoneer.  He then said, “I’ll not take your young life, but take off your overcoat and hand it up here,” and with it went the mittens that warm and noble-hearted Charley Barnes had loaned me early in the morning..."

A Wisconsin Cannoneer Remembers the Battle of Stones River


The following account was written by Private Charles Cunningham of the 5th Wisconsin Battery and published in the September 27, 1888 issue of the National Tribune until the title of "A Cannoneer's Story: The Third Gun, 5th Wisconsin Battery." This is one of my favorite Stones River accounts as it emphasizes the personal nature of combat and the bonds formed by men under fire together. Private Cunningham writes of the men that operated gun No. 3- his job was to bring up ammunition from the caissons. The men of Pinney's battery risked being overrun by the Confederates and commenced a helter-skelter retreat in which Cunningham was captured by a trooper from the 8th Texas Cavalry before General Jefferson C. Davis and his staff arrived on the scene and gave Cunningham the chance to escape back to Union lines. 
        



        Many of the boys have asked me to write something about my experience at the battle of Stone River, Tenn.  I will therefore leave the position of the army and battlelines, etc. to history, and confine myself principally to those with me on the third gun thinking “Why should kind words ne’er be said of our messmates-till they are dead.”
 
Colonel Philip Sidney Post
          The 5th Wisconsin battery, commanded by Capt. Oscar F. Pinney and attached to Col. P. Sidney Post’s Brigade, Brig. Gen. Jeff. C. Davis’s Division, and Maj. Gen. McCook’s right wing of the army, at the above named battle, left Nashville the latter part of December 1862, and reconnoitered and skirmished as it advanced.

On Christmas Day, the battery and brigade was sent out on a reconnaissance and foraging expedition. I was detailed as one among the number to remain in camp and cook rations for the men in our detachment when they returned, which consisted of a camp kettle full of beans and a kettle of coffee. Our mess had some robins also that the boys had caught in the canebrake near our camp the night before. While watching the dinner cooking and writing a letter home, a slave belonging to the plantation where we were encamped came to me and asked me, “Would young massa jes’ as life go and hab some dinner wid him and his old Chloe in his cabin.” I thanked him and said I would. I could not tarry long at the slave’s quarters, bur returned to duty after enjoying a good meal. I thought of the last Christmas at home in 1860.

On the following morning, December 26, we broke camp and marched towards Nolensville through a very heavy rain storm. The wheels of the artillery were one mass of mud. The battery was engaged in the skirmish at Nolensville and did effective work; then proceeded toward Murfreesboro or Stone River. The army looked grand when marching in line of battle to take up their respective positions with the silken folds of the flags and banners of blue unfurled from regiment after regiment, while strains of music from the bands filled the air with melody and aroused my whole soul to a sentiment I cannot describe.

On the night of the 30th, the command bivouacked in a cedar thicket near the enemy’s lines. No fire were allowed, so we ate our hardtack and raw bacon with the accustomed coffee. All the cannoneers were ordered to sleep at their posts, with accouterments on; the horses remained harnessed and hitched up all night. Dave Welty and I were sitting on our caisson until late in the evening. He was talking to me about his home and mother and sisters, and of the songs they used to sing. I asked him to hum one to me and in a low, sweet tone he hummed ‘Belle Brandon.’ We then lay down by our gun to get a little rest.

Early next morning the 31st, we left the cedar thicket and moved until we were rushed into action, taking a position in a cornfield. We commenced firing briskly shot and shell, until the enemy were advancing too close, then used canister.  Clark Baker was No. 1 and his post was at the cannon’s mouth. He stood there cool, brave, and grand. He was in the nobility of his manhood. His coolness inspired me, the youngest boy on our gun; and on that battlefield, with the glistening bayonets of advancing rebel battalions. I learned that my friendship for my messmate Clark Baker was born amid shot and shell and rebel bullets.

“And while the battle was raging most fiercely,
And death seemed to press ‘round us all,
He stood so brave and undaunted,
I trembled for fear he would fall;
And I thought when the contest is over,
Should we live to lie down by our gun,
I would press the brave hand then in action,
And tell him what the morning had done;
What I learned in that terrible battle,
On that field, ‘mid the shells and balls;
How I thought I would not leave him,
If he should be one who should fall.

Opposite Clark stood Dave Welty, fearless and strong, in the prime of his young days, with the expression on his fair face that each charge he inserted would do its duty. Billy Ball was serving vent, with every movement and every feature bent on strict duty to his country and flag. As I passed with the shot, shell, or canister opposite to him to meet John Worick, our eyes would sometimes meet, and told his thoughts more than words, “Which of these boys will fall?” Charley Barnes with his warm heart and nature and unflinching firmness said to me, “We cannot all survive these rebel bullets.” I think Will Preston handled the lanyard. It was done with dexterity. He was an active boy, true blue, loyal, and brave.  Milt South was gunner and put in many well directed shots, the canister being very effective. Brad W. Stout was the Sergeant of the gun. He was a fine looking and fearless soldier; his bearing either in the saddle or on foot was everything that could be desired. His nature was warm and friendship sincere; he would do anything in his power for his comrades. He knew he had a splendid detachment of men that he could depend upon; and everybody liked Brad.


The volleys of musketry and booming of artillery, screeching and bursting shells with the movement of troops and the thundering of both armies, made us all know that the battle raged fiercely and that the approaching columns of rebels were pressing us when we saw our infantry support falling back. Many of the horses of the battery were wounded, some dying, some killed; the riders were busy extricating such from the limbers and caissons. Amid this ordeal, the battery remained, firing canister at the advancing rebel ranks.  Dave was wounded, but helped load the last charge, when we were ordered to fall back. While the last gun was being limbered up, I helped Dave mount the lead team, the rider (Charley Taft) giving up his place to him. The blood was flowing freely from his wound, and left crimson stains upon my overcoat. I only had time to say, knowing he would be placed in an ambulance as soon as possible, “Good bye, Dave. I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I feel and how I will miss you; you must hurry up and get well and come back to us.” He replied,” So will I miss you Charley and all the boys, but I’ll not forget you no matter where I go.”

At the outset of the battle on December 31, 1862, the 5th Wisconsin Battery was in line with the rest of Post's brigade in a line south of the Wilkinson Pike. After the initial Confederate assault drove back Willich's and Kirk's brigades to the south, Post pulled his brigade back to a line facing south and to the east of Gresham Lane in the center of this map. The line didn't hold long and roving Confederate cavalry from General John Wharton's brigade scooped up Federal prisoners by the bushel; Cunningham was briefly one of those prisoners. 

Brave Captain Pinney and many others of the command were seriously wounded. Clark found Mort Campbell of another gun wounded badly. He wanted to lie down. Clark said, “No! The rebels are right after us!” He halted one of the caissons and put him on it and held him there while passing through the woods, sending one of the boys ahead to hold an ambulance, as he saw everything was moving back rapidly. After placing him in the ambulance, the caisson went on.

When that grand and noble rider “Curly” Woprick came along with a Parrott gun (the horses were all killed except his wheel team), he was urging his horses on until he reached the opening where there was a hill; the horses drew it half way up and were completely tuckered out. The glorious old 59th Illinois boys were near and falling back with the other staunch grand regiments of our brigade. Clark asked some of the boys of the 59th if they would help him run the gun a few rods up the hill so Curly could get it off. They answered, “Yes, that the damn rebels shouldn’t have the gun anyway.” Some of the boys took hold with a will and helped run the gun to the top of the hill. If any of these boys are now living, it would be pleasant to know the fact and hear from them.

Captain Pinney was being taken off the field by brave young Lieut. George Q. Gardner and Private Joe Hoffman when said to them seeing the enemy pressing onward: “My God! Leave me here, George, and save the battery!” At his request, they reluctantly laid him down on the battlefield with his sword by him, and in a short time he was captured, a wounded prisoner with many others.

When I left the field, I had two cases of canister in the gunner’s bag. Charley Barnes had taken them out of the limber chest and laid them on the ground. Thinking we would take another position immediately, I carried them through the woods but abandoned one case by dropping it in a hollow stump, as they were very heavy. When the rebel cavalry charged, the right wing of the army was routed by the concentration of rebel forces to crush it. History shows the cause of the disaster to that wing of the army that advanced so proudly a day or two before.
The 1st Ohio Cavalry was one of the Federal cavalry regiments that attacked Confederate cavalry near the Wilkinson Pike in an attempt to recapture of the corps ammunition train. These slashing cavalry attacks caused enough confusion that many of the Federal troops captured by Wharton's Confederate troopers slipped away. 

Seeing I would be taken prisoner, and that the battery was captured, I threw away the gunner’s bag so that it would not fall into rebel hands, as it would make them a fine haversack. I saw smoke rising from the wagon train of supplies, which had been fired by the Texas Rangers. It proved to be our division train of rations. I feared the ammunition train would be fired also and expected every moment to hear the explosion. I tried to reach the center where General Thomas was engaged, but was overtaken and captured by a Ranger who rode up on a gallop with revolver in hand. Nearest me was an infantryman who had fired his last cartridge and whom the Ranger shot down as he advanced. Turning to me with the revolver cocked, he demanded my firearms. We looked at each other. I told him that I had none, that I was a cannoneer.  He then said, “I’ll not take your young life, but take off your overcoat and hand it up here,” and with it went the mittens that warm and noble-hearted Charley Barnes had loaned me early in the morning, and which had been sent to him by a young lady friend at home.

The Ranger threw my coat upon the pommel of his saddle along with others and a silk flag torn from its staff.  I wanted to tear it from his saddle before he galloped off. The prisoners were being marched toward the rebel lines. I found Corporal Aaron Eley and O.D. Snow among the number. I was in no hurry to march up for in the distance I saw our cavalry forming, and hoped they would charge quickly. Soon General Davis and staff appeared on the scene. A Texan nearest me fired twice at the General whom I heard say “Kill the damn rebel!” By this time our cavalry were charging and driving the Rangers and soon we were recaptured.  I cannot express how glad I felt and started to find our gun. The riders had left the cannoneers in all directions, trying to save the guns. They were all brave boys.
Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis
His timely arrival with his staff escort gave Cunningham
a chance to escape. 

I found part of the battery, commanded by Lieut. George Q. Gardner, whose courage and bravery were always conspicuous, and enhanced by being our youngest officer. We were placed in position and the worked the guns with diminished numbers. The evening roll call was a very sad one, and as the names were being called and someone would answer “Killed” “Wounded” “Captured” and “Unknown.” It made a feeling of sorrow pass over the soul. I know it was with a tremulous voice that I answered for Dave. We lay down that night by our posts, ready for action at a moment’s notice. I thought of the night before and of my messmate Dave as I lay beside Clark, by the gun, whose cheeks were streaked with the powder and smoke of the morning’s battle; and his hand that had handled the sponge and rammer so bravely and fearlessly, and that had helped the wounded man and saved his life; that had helped to get the gun off the field, and at his post at the cannon’s mouth as soon as our gun was in position again-that hand was resting; it had nobly done its duty.

New Year’s day we changed position and in the afternoon crossed Stone River to reinforce the left wing. The water came rushing down madly over the ford, and almost came up to the ammunition chests. We were placed behind hastily constructed works. The sharpshooters kept up a continual firing at us. Our rations were short, as our commissary supplies had been burned by the rebels the day before. Brad had a partly cured pickled ham given him by an infantry soldier, he having foraged two from a house on the picket line. Some of us ate it raw, while others roasted slices on a stick over the coals. During a lull in the contest, Clark went to a house on the picket line in the face of the sharpshooters to get some of the meat for us. None of us would risk our lives, even if we were hungry; but the bold attempt was unrewarded for the barrel had been emptied of its contents by other pickets.

Every soldier present will remember the terrible grandeur of the battle with the center; the roar and the booming of artillery, the thrilling volley after volley of musketry, and the incessant crash from both armies. It was a dreadful and indescribable tempest. Only a soldier knows what it was.

When the enemy evacuated Murfreesboro, we recrossed the river and camped by the Nashville pike. I found a chunk of salt pork in the road in the mud which did good service. I obtained permission from Lieutenant Charley Humphrey to go and see Captain Pinney with other of the boys. We found him in a planter’s mansion, which the rebels used as a hospital. I went upstairs with my heart filled with sorrow. When I entered the room, he reached out his hand to take mine and in his pain he said: "I am glad you came to see me. Charley, you must think something of your captain. Am glad you escaped unharmed. You must take care of yourself, my boy, I won’t be with you.”

When we went into camp in the timber near the Shelbyville pike, the strongest and bravest hearts more forcibly felt the bond that bound us together as companions in arms. Dave’s blanket was not unfolded as it had been a few nights before when we lay down together by the old third gun. But Clark, and Brad, and Charley, and Bill, and the others members of the detachment were there. I felt proud of each one. I thought more of the boys on the other guns and those who commanded us. Of the riders on the third gun, the beauty of each one’s character in battle shines with the same brilliancy as the cannoneers. And no doubt in the army, life ‘round the other guns, and on picket lines, and in battle, in camp or on the march, many of the boys in blue have had an experience similar to my own with some comrades with whom they have messed and bunked in the army days.


Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on t...
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true ...
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of h...
Read more

The Wizard of Oz and the Civil War

Image
T he 1939 film The Wizard of Oz has delighted viewers for 85 years and ranks as a personal favorite, especially during the Halloween season. While watching it with the family the other night, I wondered if there were any connections between the film and the Civil War. Not surprisingly, the answer is yes and those connections touch both the blue and the gray.           Interestingly both “witches” in the film not only had Civil War ancestors but had connections with Civil War soldiers from Ohio. Margaret Hamilton, the “Wicked Witch of the West,” was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 9, 1902, to attorney Walter Jones Hamilton and his wife Mary Jane Adams; Margaret’s grandfather was Judge Edwin Timothy Hamilton. Judge Hamilton had served as a private in Co. D of the 84 th Ohio Infantry during the summer of 1862. The 84 th Ohio, a three months’ regiment, served nearly the whole of its service attached to the Railroad District in western Ma...
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on se...
Read more

In front of Atlanta with the 68th Ohio

Image
  The arrow corps badge of the 17th Army Corps was worn by many members of the 68th Ohio in the latter days of the war.       Private Edward A. Bigelow of Co. F of the 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry wrote this brief account of the Battle of Atlanta just two days afterwards to his father back home in Henry County, Ohio. The regiment formed a part of Colonel Robert K. Scott's three regiment all-Ohio brigade consisting of the 20th, 68th, and 78th regiments, being designated the Second Brigade of the Third Division of Frank Blair's 17th Army Corps. Bigelow's letter originally appeared in the Napoleon Press newspaper and was copied in the Toledo Daily Commercial which was providential as no known copies exist today of the wartime Napoleon Press.  
Read more

Charging Battery Robinett: An Alabama Soldier Recalls the Vicious Fighting at Corinth

Image
W riting 30 years after the Battle of Corinth, James A. McKinstry of the 42 nd Alabama recalled his experiences storming Battery Robinett with Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2 nd Texas and expressed guilt that it was perhaps his action that brought about the colonel’s demise. “On seeing a line of Federals approaching, and before giving the situation a thought, I immediately raised my gun and fired full into the breast of a Federal sergeant, who was in front of the column, and only a short distance from us.  'Twas then that Captain George Foster shouted, "Cease firing, men! cease firing!" and waved his handkerchief, then I realized the true situation. 'Twas too late! That fatal volley had been turned on our little band from the muzzles of 1,500 muskets. I was still standing just as I was when I fired my last shot, and within a few feet of Colonel Rogers, when a Minie ball went crashing through my left hip and turned me half round; another went tearing through my ...
Read more

Cook & Brother of New Orleans

Image
    The lockplate of a New Orleans-made Cook & Brother Enfield rifle produced in 1862 shows the fine craftsmanship that became the hallmark of the maker throughout the Civil War. Note the stars and bars flag at left, an emblem used on C&B's production throughout the war and the Cook & Brother, N.O. 1862 markings. Earlier production weapons at New Orleans had the flag located just above the maker's name while later weapons produced in Athens, Georgia would have a modified flag and Athens on the plate followed by the serial number.        In the spring of 1861, two English-born businessmen, Ferdinand and Francis Cook of New Orleans, perceived the need for the South to have its own domestic production of firearms and  set out to prove "that rifles could made here as well as in Yankee land or in Europe." The brothers  elected to produce copies of the British Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield rifle as this was considered the benchmark longarm...
Read more

I Want to See a Battle: A Hoosier at Shiloh

Image
W riting in his diary, Private Manius Buchanan of the 29 th Indiana recalled the eagerness with which his regiment marched towards Savannah, Tennessee with the sounds of the battle of Shiloh ringing in their ears.           “The forced march was kept up until 2 p.m. when we were halted until 4 p.m,” he noted. “The rest was really needed, but the continual question is ‘Why are we stopped here?’ The sound of battle increased in volume and anxiety to be up and doing grows more intense. As I am weak from a late sickness, I am urged to fall to the rear; but no, in common with all, I want to see a battle and fear this will be my only chance.” The regiment would go into action the following afternoon, and of the four neighborhood boys who had enlisted together in Co. B, only Buchanan escaped unscathed. One afternoon's exposure to the horrors of battle was all it took to satisfy this Hoosier's desire to see the elephant. “I wanted to see a battl...
Read more

An Interview with Forrest in May 1864

Image
  “The noise of battle is the only music that ravishes the senses of Forrest.” I t was May 1864. Back east, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac were locked in the deadly dance of the Overland Campaign while in Georgia, General William Tecumseh Sherman's army squared off against General Joseph E. Johnston and the Army of the Tennessee in the campaign for Atlanta.       Based in relatively quiet northern Mississippi, General Nathan Bedford Forrest bided his time waiting for a Federal advance from Memphis. Earlier in the month, General Samuel Sturgis led a brief campaign into Mississippi but Forrest was sure Sturgis would venture out again. In the meantime, he tried to keep his reorganized command intact despite persistent demands from his superiors that he return the absentees and deserters who inflated his ranks (nearly 1,000 in number) to their original commands.      Around this same time,  an old acquaintance from Me...
Read more