You May Glory in Us Now: Powder-Stained Bayonets and the fight before Shiloh


Two days before the battle of Shiloh, two companies of the 72nd Ohio became involved in a fracas with 400 Alabama cavalry south of the drill field near Shiloh Church. The regiment was conducting battalion drill under the guidance of Major Leroy Crockett around 2 in the afternoon on Friday, April 4, 1862 when the sounds of musketry were heard to the south.

Fearing an attack upon the Federal picket line, Major Crockett, at Colonel Ralph Buckland’s order, led two companies (B and H) and deployed them in a skirmish line to find the Confederates. Crockett took command of Co. H on the right and led them into the thickets while Captain George Raymond took his company (B) off to the left. The two companies were soon out of sight of one another and a mile and a half south of the picket line, Co. B ran into a hornet’s nest of cavalry. The men conducted themselves well in their first engagement with the enemy.
Private Chester A. Buckland
Co. B, 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry
Died of wounds sustained at Shiloh 

          The following letter, penned by Private Chester A. Buckland of Co. B, describes in great detail this engagement of April 4, 1862 from the perspective of a green recruit in the ranks. It was written in the evening of Saturday, April 5, 1862, mere hours before the Confederates ran into the Federals at Fraley Field and opened the bloodiest battle in American history to that point in time. His final words to his mother are prophetic: “Good bye, dear Mother and remember if I die, it is for my country.” Buckland was mortally wounded the following morning and would die a few weeks later. His letter was published in the April 25, 1862 issue of the Fremont Journal.

Camp Shiloh, Tennessee
April 5, 1862

Dearest Mother:
          You may glory in us now. Yesterday, while drilling about a mile from here, our pickets were fired upon. In a very few moments, the 72nd Ohio was on its way to battle at a double-quick step, Company B in the rear. When we arrived at a convenient place, we were deployed as skirmishers and were to try and surround the Rebels. Henry and I were near the end of the company. The company was in groups of four and each group was 20 paces apart. An order was given to rally on the first group when the front commenced to fire but ceased before we could get up.
Captain George Raymond
Co. B, 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry

          We moved around for nearly an hour in a body making frequent halts. Every ear was listening and every eye watching eagerly for sound or sight of the enemy. Nearly an hour from the first fire we got sight of them again and nearly all got a chance to fire. We think one was killed or badly wounded. Here we found there were more of the enemy than we thought and so we retreated to a kind of pen built of rails and then to a big tree on the brow of a ravine. In a little time the Rebel cavalry rode up in sight and then the fight began. I could hear the balls go “whizip” through the air and strike the trees around us. There were a 150 Rebels against 44 of us!

Once in a while one would drop from his horse or a horse would fall dead or wounded. We would load, run up to where we could see, drop on one knee, take aim, and fire, and then run back to load. In this way we made them believe there were a good many more than there were of us.

In this part of the fight two men were wounded, Charles H. Bennett in the right leg and James Titsword through the left breast above the heart. When we had fought for about three-quarters of an hour, it commenced to rain and hail which made it difficult to load without wetting the powder. Then the Rebels retreated. In a very little time it rained so hard we could not see more than a couple of rods, which was just exactly the time for them to ride on to us and cut us to pieces. We threw out guards to wait for them. I never knew it to rain so hard.

When the rain ceased, we saw them forming on a sort of prairie beyond the reach of our Enfields. In a short time, they gave us a great shout and advanced on us. As soon as they were in good reach, we commenced to drop them again. They had been reinforced to about 400-500 beside what they may have been in reserve. We fought here about a quarter of an hour more during which three more were wounded and several had shot holes in the clothes- one having a thumb broke, two shots in his arm and one in his boot. Now was a desperate time.
Private John M. Lemmon
Co. B, 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry

The Rebels fired a volley, drew sabers, and began to advance. They were on three sides of us. Our hearts began to sink. We rallied round the old white oak, each one firmly grasping his gun with its powder-stained bayonet and determined to give as good as we got. How fierce we felt.

Our last chance seemed gone when a volley sounded in the rear of the Rebels. It was the 72nd! How loud the hurrahs sounded then! It was the sweetest music I ever heard! The Rebels turned and fled. We were saved! We fired as long as we could reach them, and then took Titsword in acre, after which we went over to where part of the Rebels had been. We found two of them mortally wounded. Our Enfields made wicked holes. The first was a boy about 18. He was afraid of us and wanted to know what we would do with him. We answered that we should take care of him as we would of our own men. Thus assured, his fears were allayed. The other man was about 25. We carried them as far as the pickets where we had to leave them for we could carry them no farther. Each one said there were 400-500 of them. They were from Alabama, were well-dressed and well-armed. These two men died last night.

The Rebels had carried all their wounded and dead away, but our cavalry say they saw about 20 dead Rebels in the woods and there must have been many wounded. I saw four dead horses. Company A passed over the ground where our heaviest fire was aimed and found a great many sabers, pistols, guns, blankets, and everything they couldn’t take away. They had a battery not far from where we were, and the cavalry followed them nearly into it. I have heard our men took two pieces of artillery but am not certain if it be true.
Color Sergeant Gustavus Gessner
Co. H, 72nd Ohio Infantry
Wounded and briefly captured April 4, 1862

None of our side were killed but Major Crockett, I fear, is a prisoner. The last seen of him he was riding like a flash through the woods followed by a dozen Rebel horsemen. He had no arms with him and couldn’t fight them. A sergeant and a corporal were taken prisoners from Co. H. Company H had four wounded, one the color sergeant Dr. Gessner’s son. He was taken prisoner and told to climb up behind one of the Rebels which he would not do. The Rebel drew a revolver and snapped it at him but is misfired. He ran while the Rebel was cocking it again and when the fellow shot, he hit him in the shoulder.

Our men took nine or ten prisoners who said they hadn’t thought we could shoot so well. We must have killed about as many as there were of us for every man took aim and there are some who don’t miss often. Orin England and Eugene Rawson were with our company and neither one of them had even a pistol. But as soon as Titsword was wounded, Orin took his gun and cartridge box and fought well, while Eugene stood up with the boys and talked and laughed and told them to keep cool and take good aim.  It was no light matter to stand up unarmed and a lot of Rebels shooting at you.

Private Samuel Shutts
Co. B, 72nd Ohio Infantry
Killed in action at Shiloh, April 6, 1862

Our fight will not probably appear in the papers, but we had a hard struggle and against most fearful odds. Ten to one is a great disadvantage. Two minutes more and Co. B, 72nd Ohio would have been no more. We would have all been killed for each one would have died fighting. It would have been a barren victory for there would have been a dead Rebel or two for every one of us. Our bayonets were fixed and they are sorry things to run upon. We weren’t willing to stop fighting.

How soon we will have another fight I don’t know but any minute the long roll may sound for battle. We may fight and die but Mother, your sons will never quail. It is getting too dark to write so I must close. Good bye, dear Mother and remember if I die, it is for my country.

Your son,
Chester A. Buckland


To read more about the 72nd Ohio at the Battle of Shiloh, check out my other blog posts on this subject:
General Buckland Explains the Battle of Shiloh
72nd Ohio Flag Captured at the Battle of Shiloh
John M. Lemmon and the Battle of Shiloh
Honoring Lieutenant Colonel Leroy Crockett, 72nd Ohio Infantry

 For a lengthier study of the service of the 72nd Ohio, please check my book "Sherman's Praetorian Guard: Civil War Letters of John McIntrye Lemmon, 72nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry" available through my bookstore.

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 their way to
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 warrior, for then comes the harvest of gain.
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 how Confederate jacke
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 Maryland, performing provost duty at Cumberlan
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 securing all the Enfi
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

Federal Arms in the Stones River Campaign

Image
  T he following list, constructed after many years of research, lists unit by unit which type of weapons were carried by the Army of the Cumberland during the Stones River campaign. A number of sources were consulted including state ordnance reports, Federal quarterly ordnance reports (thank you Research Arsenal ), Ken Baumann’s Arming the Suckers, regimental histories and memoirs, captured ordnance reports, and consultation with knowledgeable experts in the field of firearms. Some of this information has been shared on the blog before in “ Rosy’s Heavy Metal: Artillery of the Army of the Cumberland ” or “ Shoulder Arms: How Sheridan’s and Davis’s Divisions Were Armed at Stones River ” but this is the first time the army as a whole has been presented. The overall conclusion I drew from looking at this data is that the Army of the Cumberland in December 1862 was an organization in the midst of transformation as far as arms. Many of the regiments still retained their original issue
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 at the outset of the
Read more

Revisiting Snodgrass Hill: Memories of a 21st Ohio Officer

Image
Captain Isaac Cusac, Co. G, 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry proudly displaying his rank as captain in an image likely dating from early 1863. One of his shoulder straps was shot off in the final stages of the 21st Ohio's fight atop Snodgrass Hill on September 20, 1863. Cusac brought it back to Chickamauga 50 years later.  I n September 1913, 83-year-old Isaac Cusac, a retired Presbyterian minister from the little town of McComb, Ohio, returned to Chattanooga to attend the national G.A.R. encampment. The former captain of the 21 st Ohio returned to Snodgrass Hill on the old Chickamauga battlefield on the 50 th anniversary of the battle carrying with him a precious relic of his wartime experiences. “He carried with him there an epaulet that was shot from his shoulder at the battle,” it was reported. “The bullet clipped off the epaulet and then struck him on the left hand, injuring two fingers.”           The flood of memories as he walked the grounds must have been overwhelming. The f
Read more