A Riverfront View of Shiloh

     If anyone truly had a ringside seat to history, it was James Fitzpatrick aboard the U.S.S. Lexington. On Sunday morning, April 6, 1862, the 448-ton timberclad gunboat was resting quietly at anchor off Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee alongside its fellow timberclad the U.S.S. Tyler. A thunderous noise to the southwest aroused the gunboat crews to the opening of battle and by the early afternoon, Fitzpatrick saw the panicked Federal troops swarming along the banks of the Tennessee River. “Up to 4 p.m. the fighting was brisk on both sides, but it was plain to see that we were having the worst of it," he wrote. "Our men came in by the hundred without arms, having thrown them away, and nothing could induce them to rally again. The day seemed to be entirely lost. The enemy’s shot and shell were falling all around us, but we could not fire for fear of killing our own men.”

          Just before 6 o’clock, General Grant signaled the gunboats to open fire, and nearly every participant of the battle noted the incessant cacophony of noise generated by the heavy guns booming throughout the night. “Colonel Jesse Appler of the 53rd Ohio says the sweetest music he ever heard in his life was the whistling of the gunboat shells through the trees,” noted Fitzpatrick.

          Master Fitzpatrick who eventually rise to command of the Lexington, this blog having recently featured his account of the Third Battle of Fort Donelson. Fitzpatrick’s account of Shiloh was among the first published by the Portsmouth Times in the aftermath of the battle.

 

The Lexington and Tyler in action at Shiloh, busily shelling Beauregard's last assault on the evening of Sunday, April 6, 1862.  The two gunboats continued to drop shells into the Confederate camps all through the rainy night; the Tyler until about 1 a.m. then the Lexington until dawn. Union control of the Tennessee River proved the salvation of Grant's army as it permitted the arrival of thousands of reinforcements from General Don Carlos Buell's army, including my great-great-great uncle who was serving as a sergeant in the 39th Indiana. 

United States Gunboat Lexington, off Pittsburg, Tennessee

April 12, 1862

          The enemy, 80,000 strong under the command of Generals Beauregard and Johnston attacked our forces at this place on Sunday morning the 6th at 4 o’clock and drove Generals Sherman and Prentiss from their positions with the loss of their batteries and a great many killed and wounded. General Prentiss was taken prisoner. A great many Ohio troops behaved badly, and one regiment of Indiana troops threw down their arms and surrendered at the first fire. Up to 4 p.m. the fighting was brisk on both sides, but it was plain to see that we were having the worst of it. Our men came in by the hundred without arms, having thrown them away, and nothing could induce them to rally again. The day seemed to be entirely lost. The enemy’s shot and shell were falling all around us, but we could not fire for fear of killing our own men. If we could keep them back until morning, all would be well as General Nelson was then in sight.

          At 5:45, the enemy planted a battery on our left and only 300-400 yards from the main body of our men and commenced firing. Our battery returned the fire but very feebly and everything seemed to be lost. At 5:55, General Grant signaled for us to fire and the Tyler and this boat opened fire immediately. We were in close range and sent every shell home to them with a will. At 6:15, they were in full retreat on our left, having left some of their guns, two of them having been dismounted by our shells. At 7 p.m., the firing on shore ceased for the night, but the Tyler kept up a fire of shells until 1 o’clock. At that time, they drew off and we took their place until daylight, firing an 8-inch shell every 15 minutes. We got the direction of the enemy’s camp by their fires. It commenced raining at midnight and was very dark, and we could trace every shell by the two boats.

The U.S.S. Tyler with its crew mustered on the bow in this image from the Liljenquist Collection of the Library of Congress. The Tyler and Lexington look similar in appearance as both were sidewheel steamers of approximately 180 feet in length, but the Tyler was about nine feet wider in beam and a hundred tons heavier in displacement. Both vessels carried 8-inch guns and could cruise along at 7-8 knots. The Confederacy at this time had nothing on the Tennessee River to confront these black-painted behemoths. A Confederate observer described the gunboats as "black, ugly things, wrapped as they are in the habiliments of death and mourning, well representing the principles upon which this unholy war is waged."

I have visited the ground which was shelled by the two boats. The trees look as though a hurricane had passed through them, and at every step you can see dead men and horses. In one place I was shown eleven men killed by one of the gunboat shells and at another place nine, and another six or men and five dead horses. Colonel Jesse Appler of the 53rd Ohio says the sweetest music he ever heard in his life was the whistling of the gunboat shells through the trees.

The "sweet music" of the gunboat shells might have been music to the ears of Colonel Jesse Appler, but the widespread denunciation of his 53rd Ohio regiment after Shiloh (coupled with his own lackluster performance) soon led to his dismissal from the army. Master Fitzpatrick hesitated in his first letter to name the Ohio regiments who "behaved badly" at Shiloh, but a subsequent letter named both the 53rd and 77th Ohio regiments among several others, both of which had companies from his hometown of Portsmouth. 

At 4 in the morning on Monday, General Nelson commenced the fight with a cheer, having crossed the river in the night and slept under a tree with his men ready for action in the morning. He held his ground with 9,000 men for five hours against 30,000 of the enemy. At 10 a.m., reinforcements came to his assistance and the enemy commenced retreating. At 3 p.m., they were in full retreat all along the line with our men in close pursuit. It rained all Monday night, and the roads are almost impassable for artillery. On Tuesday, our men took some of the enemy prisoners and took all of our men back who were taken by the enemy on Sunday. Tuesday it rained all night again. All kinds of reports were coming in, one saying that Beauregard is badly wounded, General Johnston and General Ruggles of Tennessee are killed.

Our loss is very heavy. We have already buried over 2,500 bodies, and the wounded are dying by the hundred. The enemy’s loss is still greater than ours. I could give the names of several Ohio regiments which ran the moment the enemy opened fire on them. Our captain tried to get some of them to form and go back but love of country nor threats of punishment were of any avail. They kept on running for dear life. I suppose General Grant will get the praise for the victory, but General Nelson is the man entitled to it. He did the fighting and ought to get the praise. General Halleck arrived here this morning; we fired a salute in honor of him.

 

Brigadier General William "Bull" Nelson, the true hero of Shiloh? Master Fitzpatrick thought so. "General Grant will get praise for the victory, but General Nelson is the man entitled to it. He did the fighting and ought to get the praise," Fitzpatrick wrote. Fitzpatrick's sentiments may be clouded by his affinity to stick up for a fellow member of the Navy- Bull was a U.S. Navy lieutenant before donning the uniform of brigadier general. 

Source:

Letter from Third Master James Fitzpatrick, U.S.S. Lexington, Portsmouth Times (Ohio), April 26, 1862, pg. 2

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