Hobbled on Barlow's Knoll

    In commemoration of the 158th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, I will be presenting on the blog three relatively obscure accounts of the battle, each highlighting a different portion of the field on each of the three days of the fight. For the first installment, First Sergeant Mark A. Knowlden from Co. K of the 75th Ohio Infantry wrote his brother and sister about two weeks after the fighting ended, giving us very personal account of his experiences at Barlow's Knoll on the first day of Gettysburg. 

    The 11th Army Corps went into action mid-afternoon on July 1st and soon found itself locked in the jaws of a surging Confederate assault. It was Chancellorsville all over again as Jackson's old corps, now under Richard "Baldy" Ewell, gave the 11th Corps another frightful chewing and sent them sprawling in retreat. The Buckeye sergeant lost his shoe and had his foot badly injured by a shell while retreating towards Gettysburg and was "gobbled" by the pursuing Confederates. 


Corps badge of the First Division, 11th Army Corps. General Francis Channing Barlow commanded this two brigade division until he was severely wounded atop the knoll that today bears his name. The 75th Ohio was part of the Second Brigade commanded by General Adelbert Ames along with their longtime comrades the 25th Ohio, the predominantly German 107th Ohio, and the 17th Connecticut. As Sergeant Knowlden reports, the 75th Ohio mustered less than 100 rifles after their severe losses on the first day of the battle, but still performed important service in holding the line on East Cemetery Hill for the rest of the battle. 

Hospital, 11th Corps, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

July 17, 1863

 Dear sister and brother,

          I am still alive and have lost no part of myself- I had my left shoe torn off my foot by a shell; I did not like it much for the shoes were new. I bought them from a sutler and paid $3.50 for them, ahem! The Rebels did not care for anything, they did not care whether they killed or not, but I did. I tried to kill every time I shot. A man in my company had had a cannon ball pass through him; we were marching by the left flank, the ball passed in front of me and struck him under his knapsack in the small of the back, nearly cutting him in two. There were two men killed the first day; there were only seven men (eight including myself) in the company as eleven were away on a scout. Of us eight, two were killed and four were wounded. I know I sent one grayback to his long home; he turned two or three somersaults down a hill, but they made some of us turn over I tell you.

Detail from the Elliott map of the Battle of Gettysburg showing the approximate location of the 11th Army Corps on the north side of town. The dark crossed lines between the Newville and Harrisburg pikes denote the burial site of Union soldiers, many of them Barlow's men. 

          They drove some of our division back across the field and our regiment was ordered to charge. We fixed the bayonets, cleared the field, and charged into the woods on the other side and there I was knocked down by a ball, it burned my forehead it came so close, but a miss is as good as a mile. I soon got to my feet as the regiment had fallen back across the field. I picked up a gun that lay alongside me; it had a load in it. I jumped to a tree and there were four Rebels within 30 feet of me and I dropped one of them. I tell you the rest sent bullets close to me, but I got out of the woods.

          Then I was between the fire of our own men and the Rebels. I got about halfway across the field when I heard a man say “Sergeant!” I turned and looked, and it was a man in my company shot through the thigh. I helped him to a fence corner and then left him; he laughed and as I started away, he laid on his back and said, “Goodbye sergeant, we may never meet again.”

Colonel Andrew L. Harris, 75th Ohio Volunteer Infantry took command of the Second Brigade (or what was left of it) after General Ames bumped up to division command in the wake of Barlow's wounding. Harris would later serve a term as governor of Ohio.

          I got to the regiment or to a squad of our men with our flag and colonel. The flag staff was cut in two, the flag in ribbons, but it waved from one side to the other. Men of different regiments were scattered around; I tried to get them to rally around our flag and was then struck in my foot with a piece of shell. It tore my shoe all to pieces; my left arm was numbed; I did not know what did it, but it soon became alright.

          We had to fall back again through the town of Gettysburg, but I could not get away fast enough. I got into a wheat field and tried to crawl out, but I had about a half dozen Rebels on top of me in a few minutes. “Halt you damned Yankee, halt!” I could not run so I had to stop- they took me back to the rear. I had no haversack or canteen; the latter I had given to a wounded man and my haversack had been cut off of me. I could not have lost it any other way, so I had nothing to eat that night. It was rather cool, and I only had my rubber blanket, I froze part of the night and slept the rest. The next morning, they marched us back, so I got some rags and tied up my foot. I got an old stick for my cane and did the best I could.

Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow. The youthful Barlow didn't like the men of his division and they didn't much like him either, but regardless of the personal animosity, his men put up a good fight trying to hold "his" knoll. 

          The Rebs marched me about one mile with 30 men from my regiment as prisoners. The Rebels had about 2,000 of us, over 100 officers among them. They wanted us to take the parole, but we would not take it; a parole on the battlefield is not legal. One of the Rebel officers came to me and said, “What are you doing here? Are you not wounded in the foot?” I answered that I was. “You ought to have been left at the hospital.” I told him they made me march along and we will soon be retaken said I. “Do you think so?” I told him I did. “Why we drove you yesterday!” And we will drive you today, I said. “We are going to Washington and Baltimore.” I wish you’d let me know when you start, I said.

A late war national flag of the 75th Ohio presented by the citizens of Preble County, Ohio. The 75th Ohio flag used at Gettysburg was "shot to ribbons" according to Knowlden. The regiment was so gutted by their losses at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg that it was sent to the Deep South for the rest of the war, first to Charleston and then Florida.

“You must have a great deal of confidence in your army here.” I told him I had, and that the Rebels would get the damndest licking they ever got and would leave Pennsylvania a damned sight faster than they came. He started away and I stopped him and told him we did not starve them when they were prisoners; they had killed a cattle about 100 yards from where I was and told him I wished he would give me a hoof or a horn. He left and I did not see him again until they commenced to retreat.  He saw me hobbling over the stones with two of my men helping me. I could not go any farther as my foot became so sore that I could not move it. We were then at Monterey Springs, Pennsylvania after marching for two days. He ordered me to be left at a house there and paroled. I was left but he told me I stuck it out well. “I think you are going a devilish roundabout way to Washington and Baltimore,” I said. He looked at me and laughed, then turned and left.

I tell you on that march we were nearly starved. I had no shoe on my sore foot and the stones would cut the rags off; sometimes I would step on a sharp stone and the fire would fly edgeways out of my eyes. I had to stop and take the parole, so you see I am a paroled prisoner. I do not like it, but I cannot help it. I tried to get away but could not. My foot is about well. I wish I could get to my regiment which is in front. The last report I heard from them it mustered 72 men. The 75th is about “played out.” I think we will have to go home and recruit.

Your absent brother,

Mark


Source:

Letter from First Sergeant Mark A. Knowlden, Co. K, 75th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Xenia Sentinel (Ohio), September 1, 1863, pg. 4



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