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Showing posts from February, 2020

Butchered at Bull Run: Milroy's Blundering Costs the 82nd Ohio Its Commander

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Robert Milroy comes down from history as one of the more colorful generals from the Civil War: b old, rash, and thoroughly devoted to the cause of the Union . Milroy had a poor combat record in Virginia: he was defeated at McDowell, led his brigade into slaughter on the first day of Second Bull Run, and had his garrison by and large captured at Second Winchester in 1863. Soldiering under Bob Milroy was anything but pleasant for the thousands of Ohioans who served under his command during the war. In the case of the 82 nd Ohio, it meant a lengthy casualty list at Second Bull Run that also cost the regiment its commanding officer Colonel James Cantwell . Milroy's nickname was "The Gray Eagle" for his gray hair and piercing eyes Major General Carl Schurz described Milroy as “an Indianan of gaunt appearance and was strikingly Western in character and manners. When he met an enemy, he would gallop up and down his front, fiercely shaking his fist at the ‘Rebel scou

Bummers and Paper Collar Boys

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     In the fall of 1863, the military situation around Chattanooga, Tennessee had reached a crisis point. The Army of the Cumberland under General William S. Rosecrans lay entrenched outside the city, licking its wounds and slowly starving following its defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga in September. The Lincoln administration determined to reinforce Rosecrans' forces and dispatched two major elements from distant armies to converge on Chattanooga to both relieve the siege of the city, and set the stage for offensive operations. Portions of four corps were dispatched: the 11 th and 12 th Corps from the Army of the Potomac and the 15 th Corps and 17 th Corps from the Army of the Tennessee. General Joseph Hooker assumed command of the two eastern corps while William T. Sherman was placed in charge of the western contingent. One of Sherman's "bummers" albeit a well-dressed one. (Library of Congress)      The war experience of each group was widely diff

In the Shadow of Burnside's Bridge: Philo Pearce at the Battle of Antietam

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Philo Stevens Pearce was a 19-year-old farmer from New Fairfield, Connecticut when he enlisted in Co. A of the 11 th Connecticut Volunteers in the fall of 1861. The 11 th Connecticut was sent to North Carolina initially where it formed part of Ambrose Burnside’s expeditionary force. In July 1862, it sailed north and was stationed at Fredericksburg, Virginia. The regiment was soon tasked with helping to counter Lee’s invasion of the North which is where Pearce’s account begins. Private Philo Stevens Pearce, Co. A, 11th Connecticut Volunteers Pearce’s account of the Battles of South Mountain and Antietam provide a grueling look at Civil War combat as viewed by one in the ranks.           The last of August the regiment left the city (Fredericksburg, Virginia) and moved north to Washington, D.C. to join McClellan for the Maryland campaign and we were assigned to Harland’s Brigade, 9 th Corps. The brigade was in advance towards Frederick on the 12 th of September. Our g

Stopping Pickett's Charge: the 126th New York at Gettysburg

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A djutant Ira Smith Brown of the 126th New York has been featured on this blog previously with an account of the fighting on the Peninsula while he was serving as adjutant of Berdan's Sharpshooters. He transferred to the 126th New York in September 1862 and suffered the onus of being surrendered at Harper's Ferry just a few weeks later. The regiment was lambasted in the press for its performance at Harper's Ferry and labeled cowards. Smith points out that at Gettysburg, the regiment "panted" to remove this stain from their honor, and his account points out, they certainly did so.      His account of the Battle of Gettysburg was published on the first page of the July 30, 1863 issue of the   Yates County Chronicle. In November 1863, Smith was promoted to the rank of major and following the death of William H. Baird, he was again promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.  Adjutant Ira Smith Brown 126th New York Volunteers “The Third Brigade at Getty

The Purloined Letter: A Georgian Officer on the Gettysburg Campaign

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The following letter, written by Captain William E. Simmons of the 3rd Georgia Sharpshooters in the immediate aftermath of the Gettysburg campaign, was discovered at Raccoon Ford in the Shenandoah Valley at the residence of a Dr. Stringfellow by Second Lieutenant Joseph Balsley of Co. D, 27 th Indiana Infantry who gave it to a citizen of Dayton, Ohio, who then allowed Dayton Daily Journal editor William Bickham to publish it in the October 15, 1863 edition of his newspaper. Simmons' letter was addressed to a cousin and some interesting observations of how Northern civilians reacted to the Confederate invasion of the north in the summer of 1863.  Major William E. Simmons A short biography of Major Simmons as provided by SCV Camp No. 96 of Lawrenceville, Georgia: “William Eleazar Simmons was born August 26, 1839 in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He graduated from Emory College at Oxford, Georgia in 1858. In March of 1861, he volunteered for the first company of infantry that was

Captured Entire: The Loss of Battery E, 1st Ohio Light Artillery at Stones River

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All six guns of Edgarton's Ohio battery (Battery E, 1st Ohio Light Artillery) were captured in the opening moments of the Battle of Stones River on December 31, 1862. While nestled in between the veteran troops of General Edward N. Kirk's and General August Willich's brigades, the battery was not in a good defensive position with only two guns stationed along the Franklin Pike facing south, while the four remaining guns were in park along Gresham Lane to the north.  Private Francis Perkins Captured at Stones River It was a commonly held belief among the soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland (at least right after the battle) that the loss of this battery was due to the negligence of the battery commander (Captain Warren Parker Edgarton) because he sent off his battery horses to water at a nearby stream just before the Confederate attack. Divisional commander Richard Johnson also came in for a torrent of criticism and based on what veterans from Battery E report be

First Shots at McDowell with the 73rd Ohio

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A number of years ago, I indexed the Civil War letters residing in the Perrysburg Journal and the Wood County Independent , and stumbled across this account of the Battle of McDowell. The letter was just signed "Tom," but after doing some more digging I was able to identify the author as Captain Thomas W. Higgins of Co. B, 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Why a letter written from a captain in charge of a company raised in Pike County way off in southern Ohio was published in a Democratic newspaper in northwest Ohio is rather simple: Captain Higgins' brother Ethan Allen Higgins was the editor of the Wood County Independent .  The 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry was raised primarily in the environs of Ross County, Ohio in the waning days of 1861, and served for the first half of the war in Virginia. The 73rd Ohio was part of General Robert Milroy's forces in western Virginia, then joined Pope's army where it was engaged at Cedar Mountain. As part of the 12th Corps,