An Artillery Drill in Kentucky


In October 1861, Union forces moved south from Louisville to occupy points along the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and set up a series of camps where the newly raised Union troops gathered and embarked on learning the school of the soldier. One of those early camps was Camp Nevin located in Hardin Co., Kentucky near present day Glendale. Eventually roughly 15,000 soldiers were based at this sprawling camp. Edwin Smith of the 49th Ohio described Camp Nevin as “a high, rolling plantation belonging to a good Union man. [David Nevin was an avowed and rabid secessionist.] There is a church in close proximity on our right which has been converted into a hospital, and a dwelling house in our front now used as a restaurant for the officers. To the south and in front of our encampment winds a long beautiful stream called the Nolin. This together with several large springs along its banks supplies the brigade with plenty of pure wholesome water. As far as the eye can reach, you can see the white tents and glittering arms of the different regiments,” Smith wrote.[1]
 
Camp Nevin, Kentucky in the fall of 1861 as depicted in Harper's Weekly. 

Among the troops at Camp Nevin was Captain Charles C. Cotter’s Battery A of the 1st Ohio Light Artillery. The battery, predominately raised in Cleveland, mustered into service September 25, 1861 and was the first artillery battery to report at Louisville. Cotter’s battery marched to Camp Nevin on October 22, 1861 and was assigned to Brigadier General Alexander M. McCook’s brigade which consisted of the 15th Ohio, 49th Ohio, 32nd Indiana, and 39th Indiana regiments, and now Cotter’s battery. These four regiments would serve together through much of the war and the battery remained assigned to the brigade until the army-wide reorganization of artillery after the battle of Stones River.
 
These were all green troops: some of the men had served in the 90-day service, a few were veterans of the Mexican War, and some like Colonel August Willich of the 32nd Indiana, were veterans of wars in Europe. While the infantry focused on the manual of arms, company drill, and battalion drill, the artillery also had their own learning curve to tackle. Today’s post features a letter from a gunner in Battery A of the 1st Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery regarding the first time they battery had target practice in November 1861.[2]
          
Unidentified Union artilleryman in shell jacket and kepi
Library of Congress


          A week ago yesterday we fired our first shot. The chief of artillery took us out to fire at a target. The experiments were not very satisfactory as the powder we used was not as good as it should have been. The next day we went again and took better powder. Three of our guns fired 20 shots, solid and shell, four of which hit the target. The distance was about three-quarters of a mile and the size of the target was about 12 feet square. General McCook was present and seemed highly pleased with the result of the experiments. He said if we would do as well as that in an engagements, he would take care of the rest of the battle.


           The projectiles used are the James and Hotchkiss shot and shell. It is said they will do good execution at a three-mile range. The shells are arranged with a percussion cylinder inside of them so that when they come in contact with anything to check their motion suddenly, the cylinder is thrown forward against a screw in the forward end of the shell with force enough to explode the percussion which communicates with powder inside the shell.
Hotchkiss Shell courtesy of the Horse Soldier




On Friday last a review was had of all the artillery in camp. There are two six-gun batteries in camp besides ours. General Rousseau has in his brigade two 12-pdr mountain howitzers, two rifled Parrott guns, and two smooth 6-pdr brass pieces. General Negley’s Pennsylvania brigade has a battery of smooth pieces. All these guns and their caissons (with the exception of the howitzers) were on drill at once. The guns and caissons were drawn by six horses each making an aggregate of 192 for the 32 carriages. When in single column, allowing for 14 yards to a carriage, we have a train one-quarter of a mile in length. Mounted men for each battery are as follows: captain, four lieutenants, orderly, quartermaster sergeant, and six sergeants. There are 15 men to each pieces including the six drivers.
 
James Shell

The routine of a gunner is to keep his gun clean and in action to range and sight it. I think with a little practice that I can do some good shooting as the sights used are on the same principle as globe sights on any rifle. You know that I used to be a tolerable good shot with a rifle and if the guns we have always shoot as well as they did the other day, I will be satisfied. It is a grand sight to see the balls go bowling through the air. At an elevation of three degrees, I should think that they attain the height of 200 feet above the line of sight upon the object fired at. You can see them perfectly plain; one shot that we fired passed through three trees and then went hopping along some ways on the ground. One of the boys found it and brought it back to camp.

It is getting quite sickly here. There is scarcely a day but one or more funeral processions pass our quarters. The sickness is said to be caused in a great degree by using water from a spring. The surgeon of the 49th Ohio obtained from three pails full of water one pint of oil, enough if administered in doses, to kill half the regiment.



Camp Nevin became a breeding ground for disease and the sad funeral processions continued to be a common experience. Another Ohioan described a military funeral from this time period in this letter to the Western Reserve Chronicle.

          “Yesterday we buried one of the member of the 1st Kentucky Regiment with military honors. A funeral in camp is very solemn. The deceased was a private, and therefore was only entitled to a corporal’s guard to do the honors. Members of the companies wishing to partake in the ceremony fell in immediately after this guard, then followed the non-commissioned officers according to rank, then commissioned officers, then staff officers. We marched in solemn silence to appropriate music, gradually ascending a hill covered with beautiful trees until we arrived at the summit. Here the grave had been made in one of nature’s loveliest spots. The place commands a view of the Elk and Kanawha Rivers as well as the village of Charleston.”
Unidentified Union artilleryman (Library of Congress)



“On arriving at the grave, we listened to the Episcopal burial service after which the coffin was lowered and three volleys (24 guns) fired. The procession was again formed, this time with the officers in front, and we marched back to camp in quick time. Our march to and from the place of burial presented a striking contrast. In the first, due solemnity was observed- in the latter, the laugh and jest went through the ranks. Everyone, at the instant the coffin was lowered, seemed to forget the nature of the occasion. The deceased had no kin present to take part in this last ceremony. No mother, brother, or sister to soothe and comfort him in his last trying hour; rough hands wiped the death damp from his brow. Amongst the crowd of soldiers at the grave, I noticed a female. She was on horseback and it seemed to me from the smiles visible on her countenance that she came more from curiosity than from charity. To me it looked like a cold mockery of death.”[3]




[1] Letter from Private Edwin S. Smith, Co. D, 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Wyandot Pioneer, October 25, 1861, pg. 3
[2]  "Army Correspondence," Unknown soldier of Battery A, 1st Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery, Cleveland Morning Leader, November 21, 1861, pg. 3
[3] Letter from First Lieutenant George L. Wood, 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Western Reserve Chronicle, September 18, 1861


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