Getting Bitten by the Bait: The 21st Illinois at Stones River

It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, December 30, 1862. The location was just northwest of Murfreesboro, Tennessee where the advance elements of General Alexander M. McCook’s corps were pushing the outer line of the Confederate Army of Tennessee such as to take position for the night. Confederate resistance stiffened the further south and east McCook’s men pushed and by late afternoon, with the short winter day quickly turning to darkness, the scene was set for the sharp opening clash of the Battle of Stones River.

Colonel John Washington Shields Alexander, 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry

In the vanguard of McCook’s thrust were two regiments of Colonel William P. Carlin’s brigade of General Jefferson C. Davis’ division, the 21st Illinois and the 15th Wisconsin. As Carlin’s brigade continued to push forward, it was soon far out in front of the two other brigades of Davis’ division, and despite pleas from Colonel Carlin to the other two brigade commanders to come forward and close the gap, Carlin’s brigade soon stuck out like a thumb in the eye of the awaiting Confederates. Advancing under the covering fire of the 2nd Minnesota Battery, the leading edge of that thumb was the brigade skirmish line led by Lieutenant Colonel Warren McMackin of the 21st Illinois who was out in front with Co. G of his regiment and a company of the 15th Wisconsin. Among the officers of Co. G was First Lieutenant Abraham Songer whose account of the resulting fight appears on the blog courtesy of David T. Dixon.

“In the afternoon, my company was ordered forward as skirmishers with a company of the 15th Wisconsin. After advancing a short distance, perhaps 300 yards, we were saluted by a volley from the Rebel skirmishers but soon had them on the run, my company losing its first man (Frank Walker) in battle. In moving forward, we came to a high cedar rail fence in a diagonal line to ours which divided the company. The captain crossed the fence with the right of the company, and I followed with the left or advanced with the left along the fence until we reached a level timber land. The brigade followed in two lines with the 21st Illinois and 15th Wisconsin in front followed by the 38th Illinois and 101st Ohio. The direction I had taken brought me in front of the 15th Wisconsin,” Songer wrote.

“But a line of Rebel infantry with a 12-pdr Parrott gun battery [Captain Felix Robertson’s battery] was waiting for us behind a fence hid by small brush. When the 21st Illinois and 15th Wisconsin got right up near the skirmish line, the Rebels opened fire with a terrible fury. The 21st Illinois charged up near enough to silence the artillery, but the infantry fire was more than they could stand, so both regiments fell back a short distance and held their line until dark, suffering heavily. My company was first in the Battle of Stones River in inaugurating the battle. After dark, we moved back some distance where we rested for the night,” he concluded.

Map depicting the position held by General Jefferson Davis' division at nightfall of December 30, 1862. The 15th Wisconsin and 21st Illinois had lost 175 men in their attempt to take Felix Robertson's battery at the Widow Smith House that afternoon. 

Private John Russell of Co. G was among the men who Songer led at Stones River and offered his own perspective of this action in a letter he wrote to his sister on January 14, 1863. “We were ordered to drive the Rebel skirmishers out of the woods which we advanced to do and soon were engaged with them. We drew their fire and then advanced on a run. Soon we drove them from their hiding places and fired at them as they ran behind trees to load. As soon as loaded, we again advanced on the run in a zig-zag course so as to prevent the Rebels from taking aim. They fired at us and ran again, we firing at them as they ran. We kept it up till they were driven back to their lines,” he wrote.

“The 15th Wisconsin and the 21st were then ordered to charge the Rebel lines which they did. I with several of our boys were in front of the 15th Wisconsin as they came up and we fell into their lines. The Rebel lines were broken, and we were moving on in the full tide of victory when we were opened upon by a masked battery on the right. We were ordered to fall back which we did about 150 yards. Our company, as the line fell back, took up the line of skirmishers and held the ground till night. A group of our boys were within 30 yards of the Rebel lines which position we held until we had shot all of our 60 rounds of cartridges away. I told the boys we had better fall back on the 15th Wisconsin for them to hold the ground, so I went back to get some relief. I went back to the 15th and told the Major that we were out of ammunition and wanted him to send some men to relieve us. He called for some to volunteer to go and soon they were ready. I deployed them and ordered them to advance on a run and keep under cover of the trees as much as possible. The balls flew by me on both sides and between my legs apparently by the double handful yet by the mercy of God, none were permitted to harm me,” Russell commented.

Lt. Col. Warren E. McMackin
21st Illinois Infantry

Sergeant William Wallace Hensley of Co. C of the 21st Illinois, a member of the color guard, contended that the Rebel battery “proved to be bait thrown out for us. It quickly went back and about 600 yards back the Rebel line lay and had a masked battery. It was in a grove of large oak trees and it was a dark cloudy day and just in front of them was a lane and two high rail fences which they threw down to out of the way of the artillery. It was so dark that we could not see where they were. We were in an open pasture on a small ridge and their artillery opened on us with grape and canister. Their second shot sent a ball about the size of a hen egg through the chest of the man to my left. Then we were ordered to lay down and fire. When one of their cannons would fire, the red blaze would show them in the dark and I would tuck my head to the ground till the balls would scatter all around us. About 50 feet in front of me was a pile of rails and I thought that if I would get there, the rails would offer some protection. I quickly crawled to them and was firing and loading as fat as I could but once when I went to load my gun, I found I had no ramrod. In my haste, I had shot it away.” Hensley turned around thinking he could pick up a ramrod from a fallen comrade but was stunned to find himself alone. “I was there fighting the whole Rebel army by myself. At dusk I went to see how the color guard was getting along. There were only five boys with the flag that day and all of them were wounded, all slight wounds except the flag bearer John Hunter who had a bad wound through the shoulder.”

The late afternoon charge on the Confederate battle line near the Widow Smith House by the 21st Illinois was a bloody debacle, and a charge made on Colonel John W.S. Alexander’s own initiative. As remembered by Colonel Carlin, the 21st Illinois came under a crossfire of artillery not only from the battery they were directly charging but from another battery located 250 yards further east. “His command was moving with a shout at the double quick step within 80 yards of the battery, already abandoned by its cannoneers, when a very heavy fire was opened on it by infantry which lay concealed behind fences and outhouses on the right and left of the battery. This fire killed and wounded a large number of the 21st Illinois and threw the left companies into some disorder,” Carlin noted. The regiment, numbering nearly 700 men when it undertook the charge, lost nearly 150 men in less than an hour, and limped back to Carlin’s line sadder if wiser.

Colonel John W.S. Alexander explained what happened in his official report of Stones River. “After advancing slowly and steadily for a time in passing  over a rocky piece of ground with occasional large trees and many small cedars shutting off the view to some extent of the surface immediately to me front, my attention was attracted by the discharge of a Rebel battery hitherto unknown before my right wing and directly in line of my march. It was apparently within the same enclosure and 50-80 yards distant; it was followed instantly by a very heavy volley of musketry from infantry concealed behind rail fences and log buildings near a farmhouse. A destructive fire weas returned by my men upon the instant which caused the enemy to recoil and the battery to start in retreat. I ordered me men to move forward and fix bayonets with a view to charge the battery and was upon the point of giving the necessary command when, the smoke lifting from the heavy volleys of musketry, I observed that the battery was further to the front than I had supposed and that the space was obstructed by two heavy rail fences, the position flanked by extensive cover to our left and fully occupied by infantry. While my attention was directed to the right of my line, the extreme left, under a misapprehension as to an order given and under a furious fire of musketry at short range, was thrown into temporary confusion. Under the circumstances, my line was retired 50-80 yards and ordered to lie down in front and to the right of Captain Hotchkiss’ battery [2nd Minnesota] while it replied to the Rebel battery. My men in the meantime occupied every available cover and hotly contested the ground with a strong force of Rebel sharpshooters after the Rebel battery was driven from its last position and until it was too dark to distinguish between friend and foe,” he wrote.


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