With the 1st Ohio at Missionary Ridge

"The reverse at Chickamauga is retrieved with interest compounded."

 Harry Comer of Lancaster, Ohio made no bones of being an exceptional soldier; reading his correspondence one gets the sense that Comer was just "one of the guys." When describing heroic actions on the battlefield, Comer took pains to notice the deeds of other men and never called for himself any special claim to fame. Indeed, Comer was wont to loaf on duty and in the summer of 1863 took French Leave (he returned home to visit with his dying father) and then spent several weeks in a Tullahoma guardhouse for his infraction.
Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, November 25, 1863

 One particular talent that Comer possessed was his ability to write, and we are fortunate that his nimble pen survived the carnage of the storming of Missionary Ridge such that we have his account of that charge. During the course of the war, Comer wrote a lengthy series of letters to the editor of the Lancaster Gazette describing the service of his beloved 1st Ohio Infantry; Comer was working as a typographer in the office of the Gazette when he enlisted in Co. A of the 1st Ohio Volunteer Infantry in April 1861 and served with the regiment through the summer of 1864. I published his wartime letters several years ago as Bull Run to Atlanta which is available here.  

 Today's post features Comer's account of the storming of Missionary Ridge and was published in the December 10, 1863 issue of the Lancaster Gazette. The capture of Missionary Ridge was an instance of sweet revenge for the soldiers of the Army of the Cumberland. Chastened after defeat at Chickamauga in September and penned up in Chattanooga since that time, Comer savored the victory but lamented the cost. "God grant we may have no more Missionary Ridges to capture but many more as brilliant victories," he wrote. 


Missionary Ridge, around Chattanooga, Tennessee
November 27, 1863
          Since last I wrote you very important movements have taken place in this department. This opening of the railroad and river communication to Chattanooga from Bridgeport, the junction effected with Hooker, the arrival of Sherman, the passage of the pontoon fleet past the rebel batteries studded the grim and rugged sides of Lookout Mountain, the flank movement which compelled the evacuation of the northern slope, the many skirmishes on the Wauhatchie, and the thousand other little items of note, the minutiae which in themselves comparatively insignificant nevertheless were component parts of one grand whole, brilliant in conception, admirable in execution, and gloriously successful beyond the hopes of the most sanguine- the taking of Lookout Mountain and the storming of the heights of Mission Ridge.
          When the history of this war shall be written, when the account of deeds done is rendered up to the God of War, when the balance has been stricken and impartial judgment announced, the storming of Missionary Ridge will stand forth as the grandest, greatest, and most desperate achievement of the present war and one to which other climes and other wars can produce no parallel.

Missionary Ridge

          Housed up in the great prison house of Chattanooga, dangerous almost to poke our noses over the breastworks, with our communications constantly threatened, a bold move was necessary and that move has been made. On Monday morning the 21st, we were ordered out with 100 rounds of cartridges per man and two days’ rations. The left center became engaged almost immediately, our picket line being in our then front a distance of not more than a half mile. Then came in plain view the rebel picket line, the picket reserve, a line of rifle pits, scattering woods tolerably thick with underbrush then an open space of a short quarter strewn with branches of trees to impede our progress; right beyond a long line of bouldered embankments with rifle pits and all these obstructions only brings us to the foot of Missionary Ridge. The left and center gained the ground on the 21st after many and very severe encounters up to the open space spoken of with but few casualties in the 1st Ohio, we being the second line- the 5th Kentucky, 41st Ohio, and 93rd Ohio being the principal losers in our brigade.

General William B. Hazen led the Second Brigade of the Third Division
of the 4th Army Corps at Missionary Ridge. The 1st Ohio was part
of his brigade.

          On the 22nd, a comparative calm ensued and but a few sanguinary skirmishes added their mite of blood to the wide and deep pool already curdling at the ridge’s base. The 23rd was the day of military strategy displayed in the capture of Lookout Mountain by the forces on our right by an attack in front and flank, the flankers marching around, the attacking party up. Loud and long boomed the mountain cannon, fiercely screamed the shell from Moccasin Point, incessantly rattled the musketry, even in the damp, dark night, but by the bright light of the morning’s sun, not a solitary rebel stood; not a soldier stood near the key to Chattanooga’s position which according to Braxton Bragg’s official dispatches to Richmond was ‘impregnable to any assault, flank or front.’ On the 24th, Sherman’s forces were massed on our left and a struggle commenced for a foothold on Missionary Ridge. Slow but sure progress was made by the heroes of Vicksburg and the series of brilliant engagements that preceded its siege and downfall, the rest of the mammoth line dressing up with the left’s advance.
Temporary breastworks had been thrown up all along the line and on the 25th, as the golden orb of day shone forth in all its magnificent splendor, two long blue lines stretching from the river on the left around Chattanooga to Lookout Mountain and the river and railroad on our right presented a magnificent spectacle, and their glittering bayonets as they danced in the sunlight looked more as a gorgeous panoramic than an armed hose preparing for the work of death and carnage. At twenty minutes past 1 o’clock, a battery volley was fired, the shrill notes of the brigade bugles sounded forward, we dashed over the ramparts and steadily at quick step wounded our way through the tangled mass of brush and stumps, over the clearing, and up to the bouldered embankments at the base of the ridge. 

Map showing the Union assault at Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863. Hazen's brigade was right in the center of the Union line which placed Comer right in the center of the action.
(Map by Hal Jespersen)

Here we breathed; here we took a hasty glance towards heaven, breathed the silent prayer, and then riveted our eyes on the summit of the ridge. It was all well so far. We had driven in the pickets, passed over two lines of works, routed the enemy from his fortifications, drive him out of his rifle pits and up the hill where he joined, we knew not how many thousands more of those bent on desperate resistance to our advance-bent on dealing death and destruction to the devoted band below who were now too far advanced to retreat and who neither had the thought of doing so or the inclination. At least twenty pieces of artillery had played upon our one brigade whilst coming over the open space, but the massed dogs of war let loose their wrath, their reserved wrath. The moment or second we attempted the ascent, showers of shell, grape, and canister, solid iron and shrapnel, leaden hail from thousands of small arms sent their death dealing missiles thick and fast into our ranks, but on and up through fire and smoke, on through the iron sleet, up to the summit of the ridge of death, the goal of victory.

Lieutenant Colonel Elisha Bassett Langdon had served on General Alexander McCook's staff for more than a year before the removal of McCook after Chickamauga put Langdon back in command of the 1st Ohio. During the charge up Missionary Ridge, Langdon received a ghastly wound in the face and neck, the complications of which cost him his life in 1867. 

Within twenty feet of the rebel fortifications on the top, there was a pause, a slight rest taken, right over these fortifications, rebel bullets whistled, Rebels’ rifles gleamed. Their batteries were powerless now, they were too near the range of their own men. Their men behind the works dared not show their heads or else a Federal bullet went crashing through their brain. Forward again, over the works, down in the ditches. Away flew the Rebels; after them the Yankees and each one, elated beyond measure at their brilliant success, took his own road after confused Secessia, slaying and maiming, taking prisoners and capturing cannon far after nightfall. Wilder’s mounted men started in pursuit on the morning of the 26th and the dull echoes of cannon in the distance shows that he is close on the track of the flying chivalry and Hooker and Sherman who have taken the advance in order to be in at the death, send ever and anon, a leaden pill along the flight towards Atlanta.

A Union sentinel stands guard over the captured Confederate guns lined 
up hub to hub after the battle. Its entirely possible that among these guns were pieces
captured from the Army of the Cumberland at Stones River and Chickamauga. 

The reverse at Chickamauga is retrieved with interest compounded. Sixteen pieces of cannon with an indefinite quantity of small arms are the trophies of our (Hazen’s) brigade; also 1,300 prisoners (about 250 of them wounded), three stand of colors, and seven baggage wagons. The 1st was in Hazen’s (2nd) Brigade of Wood’s (3rd) Division of Granger’s (4th) Corps and as usual maintained its old renown and acquired a bright fame. Our wounded is large, but not so large either when we take into consideration the hazardousness of the enterprise without the aid of either cavalry or artillery. The loss in the 1st Ohio is as follows; many of the wounded will die.
Killed-commissioned officers: 1
Wounded- commissioned officers: 4
Killed- enlisted men: 11
Wounded- enlisted men: 57
Total: 73
Missing-none
(List omitted)

Fairfield County can claim her full share in the recent engagements. Gen. Sherman, Col. Moore, Majors Stafford, Butterfield, and Giesy, six companies of the 17th Ohio, two of the 46th Ohio, one of the 52nd Ohio, and one of the 1st Ohio. Color Corporal Ewing of Co. I was shot down with the colors; Private McLaughlin of Co. I picked them up and was in a short time killed; Corporal Tommy Bowles of Co. A then took the colors and was wounded twice; Captain Trapp seized them and bore them until he too was wounded and they then passed from another’s hands to that of Major Joab Stafford’s who, with a squad of about a dozen, charged successfully four times their numbers many times during the evening.

Major Joab A Stafford, 1st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After four color bearers were shot down, Major Stafford grabbed the colors and carried them over the crest of Missionary Ridge. 


Official reports will give you all the needful particulars to enable you to award honor where honor is due, and I shall close for the present as we have just received marching orders for some place- destination unknown. But three days before the storming of the ridge, Freeman Wolfe had been promoted to sergeant, Thomas Bowles, Mathias Dilger, and Milton Hunter to corporals- their good conduct shone none the less conspicuously in battle, a fact fully attested on many a sanguinary field of blood. Henry Bowers is one or was one of the best soldiers in the army and the loss of either the one or the others would be deeply felt in the company [all men mentioned here had been wounded]. God grant we may have no more Missionary Ridges to capture but many more as brilliant victories.

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