With the 17th Ohio at Camp Wildcat

The Battle of Wild Cat, Kentucky was a small but important engagement fought October 21, 1861 between Confederate forces numbering roughly 5,400 men under General Felix Zollicoffer and 7,000 Union troops under General Albin Schoepf. The primary action was fought by four companies of the 33rd Indiana who held off repeated Confederate attacks from their position atop what is today known as Hoosier's Knob. Two Ohio regiments directly participated in the battle (the 14th and 17th Ohio) and Battery B, 1st Ohio Light Artillery also was engaged in silencing a Confederate battery.

 I recently had the chance to visit this battlefield and it was well worth the visit. It is located agreeably close to I-75 and up a backroad on Rockcastle Mountain about three miles. The trip up was bad but there are several sections of the road that are gravel only and with a few hairpin curves, you'll need to take your time getting up there. The site of the battle itself is along a ridge and the knob; the trail is well-marked with interpretative signs. The trail can be somewhat steep at times, but there are plenty of benches along the way for you to rest up as you make your way to the top of Hoosiers' Knob. The Camp Wildcat Preservation Foundation really deserves kudos for the job they have done not only with preserving but interpreting this site. 
Union artillery atop Hoosier's Knob at Camp Wildcat battlefield

The following account was written by Captain James W. Stinchcomb of Co. B, 17th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was published in the October 31, 1861 issue of Weekly Lancaster Gazette. 



Camp Wild Cat, Kentucky
October 22, 1861
Dear Lou*: On yesterday morning as I signed my name, the long roll of the drum beat “To Arms! To Arms!” I was in Capt. Ezra Ricketts’ [Co. F] quarters; dropped my letter unfolded and unsealed, met the postmaster about halfway to where my company was, hallowed to him to enclose my letter and address it to you.

I had not marched my company 100 yards before the sharp keen crack of infantry commenced about as far off as from our home to the canal bridge (about 600 yards) from where four companies of the 17th Ohio were, Company B (my company), Capt. Abraham Ogden [Co. I] , Capt. Charles H. Rippey [Co. D] , and Capt. Benjamin Getzendanner [Co. G] . We are on a hill on the extreme left with a deep ravine on our south and well-fortified behind breastworks thrown up on Sunday, Sunday night, and Monday morning.

The 33rd Indiana, Col. Coburn, with four companies, occupied the second point from us south and being the center. Here the attack was made by two regiments, the 15th Mississippi who called themselves “Hell Cats” to designate their bravery and a Tennessee regiment. They made a charge with three cheers and reached the top of the hill when the four companies opened fire and such a continual roar of musketry was enough to deafen anyone. The other six companies of our regiment had been held as a reserve when Captains Amos Whissen [Co. H], Joel Haines [Co. C], Daniel M. Rea [Co. K], and Bonham Fox [Co. E] were ordered to the relief of the Indiana boys. They reached the top of the hill just in time for Capt. Haines’ boys to get three rounds.
List of Union regiments that participated in the fight at Camp Wildcat

At this time, our cannon opened on their battery and in less than two minutes they were silenced. The Indiana boys fought like tigers- four companies against two regiments. The fight lasted about 20 minutes, ended at 10 o’clock a.m., and as the Rebels fell back leaving their dead and wounded on the field, you ought to have heard the shout that rent the air as hill after hill took up the glorious sound of victory. They retired but a short distance in a deep ravine and commenced reconnoitering to attack at some new point. We lay near our breastworks expecting to be attacked every moment. Lt. Aaron P. Ashbrook [Co. B], about a half mile in advance with the skirmishers, and having been there from Sunday about 12 o’clock in order to check their progress and formations of line. He is a noble officer whilst a large portion of our boys were actively engaged with axes, completing our breastworks.
The trenches dug by the 14th and 17th Ohio regiments remain atop Hoosier's Knob 159 years after they were dug, a rather remarkable fact. The men used bayonets, axes, and shovels to dig these works and then went to work cutting down trees to build breastworks stop them. One Kentuckian commented that the Ohioans went to work with a will and cut down more trees in an afternoon than the whole state would cut down in a month. 

About 2 o’clock they made a second attack on another hill on our extreme right and also at another point of the same hill, occupied by the Indiana boys and our four companies. This fight lasted about half an hour when the Rebels deployed around the gill in sight of our cannon. Three shells were thrown among them, each one taking effect, the last of which exploded in the midst of a large body, and from the way they scampered, evidently killed and wounded a large number. This silenced them. I forgot to tell you that in the first fight the Rebels commenced throwing shot and chains at our boys, but three shots from one of our pieces silenced their batteries and evidently dismounted their gun as it was not heard from afterwards.

The loss in both fights is six killed and 16 wounded, all Indianans and Kentuckians. We cannot yet tell what their loss is but it must be heavy. We have three of their wounded in our hospital and I saw two of their dead lying on the field, both of whom were shot in the head. They carried off during the night their dead, as there were least evening nine bodies lying near where the two lay this morning and 15 in another place, all of which are gone this morning. The enemy had 7,000 men besides 600 cavalry and six pieces of cannon. We had, when the fight commenced, our regiment, Col. Garrard’s Kentucky regiment, and Col. Coburn’s Indiana regiment. One third of Garrard’s men were in the hospital sick with measles, making for us about 2,500 men. Col. James Steadman with his regiment (14th Ohio) and battery (Capt. Garnett, Battery B, 1st OVLA) reached the field on the double quick in time to assist in winding up the fight before dinner. Since then, two Tennessee and one Kentucky regiments have arrived and another Ohio regiment and battery are now crossing the river.
Colonel John M. Connell
17th Ohio Infantry

We have now lain on our arms for three nights and but little time to eat. We have carried the victuals to the boys in the battle line since yesterday morning. Gen. Schoepf, a Hungarian, is in command, but says this kind of Indian fighting does not quite ring of scientific military fighting, and hence he left the principal part of managing to our gallant Col. John M. Connell, he having made himself somewhat acquainted with the ground before the fight commenced and the General only reaching the ground about that time. Our success is really due Col. Connell as I know he suggested to the General that the hill where the fight took place ought to be occupied when Col. Coburn was ordered to take possession at once and was not on the hill 15 minutes before the firing commenced and 15 minutes later would have given the enemy possession of the hill. Col. Connell galloped from one point to the other, and in the last fight was in rather an uncomfortable place for some time, as the bullets flew like hail around him, as I am told by some of the boys and they say John was as composed as if he were debating a question with Judge Whitman in the Courthouse.

Our Major [Durbin Ward] was in the last fight and showed himself to be a gallant officer as also Adjt. Andrew J. Davis. Col. Marshall Moore is one of the best workers on breastworks I have come across lately. He can endure as much as I can, and I know from personal observation that he is one of the most watchful officers in the army; it was through him that the reinforcements came up as soon as they did. Our boys are becoming delighted with all the field officers. We have been in strong hopes that the enemy would attack as today, as we are well fixed at every point and we can whip 20,000 of them; but we are now informed that Zollicoffer is in full retreat. I presume we will follow him up. His loss must have been very heavy. Our boys have found about 50 guns of the battleground.

No time to write more now. All well, but want sleep and rest, yet ready to follow Zollicoffer 20 miles tonight if we get the order. God bless you and the children.



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

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

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

The Cannons are Now Silent: The Field of Death of Tupelo

Image
       The smoke of battle had drifted away from the battlefield at Tupelo, Mississippi on the hot afternoon of July 14, 1864, but the carnage of war lay spread across the open fields. “Scattered at intervals over the field of a few yards are dull gray blotches half shaded by grass,” an officer from the 7 th Minnesota Infantry recorded. “These are the Rebel dead. They have fought their last battle and lie generally in attitudes of rest; some of them look as if they had welcomed death. On the faces of two is imprinted a smile. One is a boy of 16 with delicate features, almost girlish in their beauty. His last gaze seems to have been directed toward his hand on the forefinger of which was a ring. A circle of purer white indicates its place; the ring was carried off as a trophy of the field.” The following account of the Battles of Tupelo and Old Town Creek was written by an unknown officer of the 7 th Minnesota Infantry, his account appearing in the August 5 th 1864 edition of the
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

Straw Already Threshed: Sherman on Shiloh

Image
  W illiam Tecumseh Sherman was enjoying retired life in New York City when just before Christmas in 1889 he was presented with an article written by John Cockerill, a former drummer boy in the 24 th Ohio who was visiting his father Colonel Joseph Cockerill of the 70 th Ohio of Sherman’s division when the Battle of Shiloh began. Cockerill’s article, originally published in the New York Journalist and later featured in the January 1893 issue of Blue & Gray Magazine, Sherman later pronounced as “the best war story ever written” and the truest account of Shiloh.           On New Year’s Day 1890, General Sherman composed the following letter to his friend Marshall P. Wilder thanking him for sending along Cockerill’s article and giving his own explanation of Shiloh. “This to me is straw already threshed for we have fought this battle on paper several times, a much more agreeable task than to fight with bullets,” he concluded. “When in England some years ago I was gratified to liste
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

Escape of Captain Henry H. Alban of the 21st Ohio Infantry

Image
Captain Henry H. Alban was among the dozen officers of the 21 st Ohio Volunteer Infantry who were captured on September 20, 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga. The regiment had held its position atop Snodgrass Hill against repeated Confederate assaults and now battered and without ammunition, with the darkness of evening enveloping the hill, the remainder of that gallant band found themselves at the mercy of the 54 th Virginia. A total of 12 officers and 121 enlisted men surrendered; the regiment’s colors were taken, and the men marched off the field into captivity. Captain Henry Harvey Alban, Co. F, 21st O.V.I. Captain Alban along with the rest went through a series of Confederate prison camps before arriving at Columbia, South Carolina in October 1864. Determined to make an escape, he watched for his chance and one night made his leap for freedom, successfully eluding the local camp guard and setting out along the railroad to head for the mountains of eastern Tennessee and
Read more

Knapsack Compression: Wilbur Hinman recalls the first step of becoming a veteran

Image
L ooking back on his experiences during the war, Captain Wilbur Hinman of the 65 th Ohio (perhaps best known as the author of Si Klegg and His Pard ) recalled that the first road along which his regiment marched was strewn “with debris. A pair of six-mule wagonloads might have been gathered of notions that had been flung aside by a thousand suffering “tenderfeet.” “The average young patriot started for the war with a wheelbarrow load of clothing, a bed quilt or two, books, photograph albums, toilet articles, and gimcracks of every sort,” he wrote. “Neither he nor the good homefolks had the slightest conception of the capacity of a knapsack, nor did they for a moment imagine that before the close of his first day upon the road every pound he carried would seem a hundred.” To the true mark of a veteran soldier was one who “learned to dispense with every unnecessary ounce of weight, and just in the ratio that he did this he increased his efficiency as a soldier. It was of the highest
Read more

Federal Arms in the Chickamauga Campaign

Image
T he ordnance returns of the Army of the Cumberland at the end of September 1863 show the results of a transformational year in weaponry. Since taking command of the army at the end of October 1862, General William S. Rosecrans had repeatedly pestered the War Department to supply his regiments with better firearms both to improve the command’s efficiency as well as expand its striking power. The results speak for themselves: for the infantrymen at the end of September 1863, 90% of them now carried Class I long arms (36,058 out of 39,959), 8.3% carried Class II arms, and a mere 1.5% carried Class III weapons. Most of the foreign-made weapons (except Enfields) were gone, and by and large the army had settled on a single common .58 caliber ammunition, although a few .54 caliber and .69 caliber weapons remained within the ranks. The English-made Enfield rifle musket was by far the most common arm, carried by 56% of the men while the second-most common arm was the .58 caliber M1861 Spring
Read more