The 90th Ohio Sees the Elephant at Stones River

The thoughts of Corporal Charles J.E. Reck of the 90th Ohio Volunteer Infantry turned to God and his family in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Stones River. “With shudderings I have looked over the scenes which have transpired here,” he wrote his parents from Murfreesboro, Tennessee on January 5, 1863. “Thank God I have escaped unscathed, but oh, what scenes of blood and woes!”

 

Stones River was the first time the 90th Ohio had seen serious combat, and it was their lot to hold an important part of the Federal center to the right of the Round Forest on December 31, 1862. In their immediate front was the burnt remains of the Cowan House. The regiment went into the fight with 338 men and lost 137, more than a third of the command, in the vicious combat that took place between 10 a.m. and noon on that sector of the field. “General Charles Cruft said the 90th did nobly, said we could not have done better,” reported Reck. “General [John] Palmer also complimented us."

 

Officers of the 90th Ohio Volunteer Infantry posing outside their quarters in Huntsville, Alabama at the end of the war. (Ohio History Connection)


“I will commence at the beginning,” he wrote. “Tuesday before Christmas while still in camp near Nashville, I received the famous barrel safe and sound, and just in the nick of time. I thought I could not do otherwise than cordially thank you for your kindness in going to so much trouble and expense in sending me so many good things! They were appreciated I so assure you. Christmas night we were started by the sudden though no unexpected order to get ready the next morning to march and that without tents- nothing except our blankets and five days’ rations. We were ordered to send our sick and unable to march with our wagons and tents back to Nashville.

 

We started the next morning bound for Lavergne. We met no resistance until about eight miles from camp near Lavergne where the rebels had posted themselves in a commanding position with a battery on the pike with cannon, cavalry, several regiments, and a brigade of infantry. Our regiment was on the left wing and therefore was in the fight. I saw enough of what a fight would be, and there I did my first dodging. The shells flew thickly over our heads and by our sides. A Rebel battery was posted on the straight pike in splendid range and as our troops came up they let loose upon us. That night we bivouacked in the woods and the next morning drove the Rebels out of Lavergne.

 

Colonel Charles Cruft

From there it was one continued fight until Tuesday the 30th of December. On that afternoon, we had every severe fighting on our right, but our brigade was not engaged until Wednesday. That day dawned on us bright and clear- every one of our companies was drawn up in line and General Rosecrans’ proclamation was read, received with rousing cheers by our patriotic boys some of whom were now shortly to be hushed in death. Our brigade had camped in a strip of woods not more than a thousand yards from the Rebels in our front and right. We advanced our line to the edge of the woods and took our position. While we lay there, we were suddenly startled by a fire from the enemy’s guns on our extreme right about a mile from our position. It continued to grow louder and louder and getting nearer to us. General McCook’s corps was on our right and I knew by the firing that the Rebels were driving McCook to our side. Then our boys grasped their guns more firmly, ready for any movement. Musketry roll after roll coming to our ears, with the heavy booming of cannon which sounded the death knell to many a poor fellow’s ears.

 

The position of our brigade was becoming rather precarious as the Rebels were driving McCook to our rear. Then suddenly the ball opened in our front to our right. Now we were ordered to support them [the 2nd Kentucky Infantry lay behind a slight breastwork out in the field in front of the 90th Ohio] and we double quicked across an open space to a fence in our front under an awful fire of grape and canister from the Rebels.

 

The fence gained, we poured volley after volley from our trusty rifles into the fore. But still they advanced and brigade after brigade spread out like the wings of an eagle bearing down upon us with a full swoop. Now our brave boys hewed gaps in their lines that still advanced, but these were closed up as if nothing had happened. When they were about 100 yards from us, their lines broke off from the center and filed to our right and left. We were flanked! The brigade on our left had fallen back. We had no support on our right or in our rear. We were under a crossfire and the order given to fall back. But our brave boys did not hear the order. They still held their places under the most murderous and withering fire, while their commanders were mowed down by scores.


 

Captain Augustus Keller
90th Ohio Infantry

Our colonel [Isaac N. Ross], seeing the situation, ordered us back. We fell back scatteringly. The staff officers of our regiment had pitched their lines in the rear of the regiment and when the right fell back in disorder, I ran back to save the horses of the staff. One of the horses was very fractious, scared by the shot and shell falling and bursting around is in every direction.  The other two were stubborn brutes and did not mind the shot a bit. It was as much as I could do to lead them out for it was impossible for me to ride them. But after all, I led them out safe and sound. When I got out of the woods into the open field where our batteries were posted, I found Colonel Ross with the flag and three men. Our forces soon collected, and we drove the Rebels almost as quick as lightning. The noise was awful! It seemed as if the demons of hell were loose and all the artillery of the lower regions was pouring their knell of woe into the ears of all. Our artillery saved the day and drove the Rebels back.

 

We lay all night in the rear of our battery as support. The sun that night went down in blood over a gory field. We did think we were driving off the dying year. Yes, our prayers were that with it the Rebel Confederacy might be driven away and receive its death blow. That night we took a review of our regiment- we had four staff officers, nine companies, and 69 men present. We went into the fight with 338 brave men and alas what is left! We shifted our position next day to the left. The day passed with frequent skirmishing but nothing decisive resulted. We then threw up breastworks on the top of a bull that commanded the approach in every direction. Our brigade was put there to defend it. We held our position there till the 2nd of January when our breastworks were strengthened.

 

Now we saw some suspicious movements were on hand. Our left was strengthened by several divisions of troops. We spent all that day behind our breastworks till about 4 p.m. when the Rebels made their last grand attack on the left wing of their army. They advanced from the woods in solid columns pouring out their masses as thick as bees from a hive. The woods and cornfields in our front were completely filled with them. General Hardee said he was going to drive that wing of ours into hell. What he did and where he went, I leave for you to judge.

 

Their advancing columns were met by such storms of shot, shell, grape, and canister from our batteries that were perfectly withering. We had six batteries and 48 cannon concentrated on their advance. You have no idea the destruction they caused. Two of our batteries, totaling 14 cannon, were posted on the right and two more behind us on a little elevation of ground and two over on our left. Those behind us poured their shot and shell into the Rebels directly over their heads. We had to lay low I assure you. One of the cannon ranged directly over my head and the infernal hisses of the shells still ring in my ears. The cannonading was awfully terrific. I have heard men here say who were in all the severest engagements of the west that such cannonading was never whole in the whole of the west. You can form no conception of it. It was one incessant thunder rolling over our heads dealing out death and destruction in the Rebel ranks. They were mowed down by scores, but still their undaunted masses advanced.

 

The crisis came when a line of our troops and brigade after brigade spread out like a fan, advancing from the woods in a line of double file nearly half a mile long. They all advanced with an easy, machine-like tread, unheeding the death-dealing missiles flying thick around them, and the Rebels charged on the double quick with their glittering bayonets. The Rebels then broke and ran like sheep. The order was given to the 31st Indiana on our left to charge the Rebels. When the 90th Ohio in their zeal thought the order applied to them, fixed bayonets and charged down on the double quick and never stopped until we drove the Rebels into the woods where we poured volley after volley into them.

 



Stones River

We did go into a dangerous position. It had just got dark and we found we had run into a masked battery. We shielded ourselves as best we could by falling prostrate on our bodies to be unharmed from the storm of shell they threw among us. When it was quite dark, we fell back to our breastworks with but three wounded. Our regiment was relieved next day and bivouacked in the woods. Saturday night we attacked them so severely that they evacuated their position during the night. The Rebels then were pursued by our cavalry, but General Palmer’s division remained behind.

 

When our regiment went into the fight, they threw away their blankets, overcoats, knapsacks, etc., and consequently we had to sleep four nights on the cold, damp ground without anything to cover us. Colonel Ross has taken a severe relapse of his old disease; so much so that it is feared he will never be with us again. Tomorrow morning, he starts for Ohio to recruit his health and I think goes straight to Circleville. The boys since the fight think more of him than ever. [Ross would resign his commission in April due to his broken health.]

 

~Weekly Lancaster Gazette, January 22, 1863, pg. 2

 

 

 

 

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