Buckeye Zouaves: The “Damned Red Tops” and the Fight for Princeton Court House

     The opening of the 1862 spring campaign season found the 34th Ohio split up into two detachments in the mountains of west Virginia with four companies at Princeton and six at Frenchville. The Federal soldiers of the District of Kanawha under General Jacob Cox were poised to move south and threaten Confederate control of the East Tennessee & Virginia railroad, a vital supply link between Virginia and the western Confederacy. As Stonewall Jackson moved into the Shenandoah Valley and defeated Robert Milroy’s troops at McDowell on May 8th, Confederate forces under Humphrey Marshall also moved north into western Virginia. On May 15th, they ran into the Federal detachment at Princeton and pushed back that small force. Federal reinforcements surged into the area and on May 17th they took a crack at driving off Marshall’s force, but suffered about 100 casualties and soon retreated towards Flat Top Mountain.  

          The 34th Ohio, also known as Piatt’s Zouaves, were the first Ohio Zouave regiment to enter service in the Civil War and their unique attire made them a distinctive element of the Kanawha Division in west Virginia. The regiment typically wore tricorn hats or fezzes, but in May 1862 one of its soldiers thanked a young woman in Batavia for sending his company another distinctive bit of headwear, havelocks. Havelocks, employed in the British army during the late 1850s in sunny India, were cotton cap covers with a long piece of cloth that covered a soldier’s neck and prevented sunburn. Unfortunately, the havelocks also restricted the free flow of air around the neck and head which made the men feel hotter, so the havelocks didn’t see long service. Most were discarded quickly or used for other purposes.  

Morton Hawkins of the 34th Ohio reported on the fight for Princeton Court House in a lengthy letter written to the Clermont Courier of Batavia, Ohio, and proudly publicized the 34th Ohio’s new nickname, the “damned red tops.”

 

An unidentified member of Co. F of the 34th Ohio sports his red fez which led to their nickname as the "damned red tops." Corporal Hawkins could have told us who this man was. 

Second Brigade, Camp Flat Top Mountain, western Virginia

May 25, 1862

          On Friday morning the 16th of May, the Federal forces between Great Flat Top Mountain and Pearisburg or Giles Courthouse were stationed as follows: the 12th, 23rd, and 30th Ohio along with Captain Gillmore’s company of Pennsylvania Dragoons, McMullen’s 1st Ohio Battery, and the 2nd Virginia Cavalry occupied a post five miles advanced towards the enemy in sight of the enemy’s pickets five miles from Frenchville and twelve miles from Giles C.H. The 23rd Ohio had recently advanced on and held Giles C.H. but were driven back by an overwhelming Rebel force. Four companies of the 28th Ohio (German) and five companies of the 37th Ohio (German) occupied a post on East River eight miles from Frenchville and in sight of a Rebel force of 2,000 at the crossroads on the Princeton and Wytheville Pike. Frenchville was held by six companies of the 28th, six companies of the 34th, four companies of the 37th, and Simmons’ battery. General Cox’s staff, four companies of the 34th, and one company of the 37th occupied Princeton.

          It is proper here to state that about 2 o’clock on May 16th the command at Princeton numbering about 400 men under the command of Major Franklin of the 34th were attacked by an estimated force of 3,000 Rebels under the notorious Humphrey Marshall and after fighting with the desperation of madmen for about five hours, they were forced to retreat with comparatively little loss. Lieutenant Peck of Co. S and Lieutenant Peters of Co. B were severely wounded and Captain O.P. Evans of the latter company was taken prisoner.

          The Federal force on East River under Lieutenant Colonel von Blessingh of the 37th, having made a reconnaissance and reported, were reinforced by Co. F of the 34th and Co. F of the 37th and advanced to attack the enemy on the morning of the 17th.  The reinforcements to von Blessingh’s command were picketed on the evening of the 16th within hearing distance of the enemy at the crossroads. Co. F of the Zouaves was in excellent spirits at the prospects of an attack on the enemy, more particularly so as Co. A of the same regiment had the previous day made a rapid and successful descent upon 100 of the celebrated Jenkins’ Cavalry four miles from Frenchville, killing five Rebels, wounding several others, and capturing six prisoners among whom was a captain and an adjutant, a large quantity of arms, accoutrements, camp equipment, and provisions besides acquiring from the Rebels the beautiful appellation of the “damned red tops.”

34th Ohio Zouaves sutler's token 

          At midnight, Lieutenant Colonel von Blessingh received a dispatch from the headquarters of the provisional brigade relative to the fight at Princeton stating that the small force there had been attacked by General Humphrey Marshall and had, after a desperate conflict had been driven towards Frenchville; Marshall’s force took possession of the town and all Federal forces were to concentrate on Princeton on the morning of the 17th. It ordered von Blessingh to avoid meeting with the Rebel force at the crossroads and by taking mountain paths to approach and attack Princeton from the Wytheville road. During the night, the Rebels evacuated the town and fortified a hill towards the road to Wytheville and by 3 o’clock Saturday morning, all the Federal force between Flat Top Mountain and Giles C.H. except von Blessingh’s command were on the Raleigh road before Princeton. The 12th, 23rd, and 30th were followed on their retreat by 7,000 Rebels formerly of General Floyd’s command.

Another unidentified member of the 34th Ohio sports an Edmond hat and the red fringed shell jacket with red striped sky blue trousers. 

          Von Blessingh with his force moved towards Princeton from East River at 2 a.m. Saturday and after passing innumerable mountain difficulties to avoid the crossroad force, struck the Wytheville road near Princeton, captured a Rebel train after a sharp skirmish, and appeared before the town at 10 a.m. There had previously been heard heavy cannonading, apparently from the Raleigh road, and von Blessingh rushed his men through towards the Rebel fortifications in solid column with but few skirmishers and made a desperate attack on the Rebel fort. After terrible volleys of  musketry had been exchanged, the Rebels firing with tremendous force, energy, and precision, von Blessingh ordered a bayonet charge on the fortification which consisted of a long line of stone fence. Although the order was executed with desperate energy, it was repulsed by the Rebels with fearful loss on our side. We were compelled to beat a rapid retreat which was done in beautiful order.

          After forming on a hill slightly to the rear overlooking the Rebel camp, we were conducted by a circuitous route (so as not to be discovered) to the old station on East River intending to retire to Frenchville and there await orders. Scouts having been sent to reconnoiter, a tremendous force was discovered occupying the place and von Blessingh having not more than 400 men in his little band (and that entirely surrounded), secured several guides and giving the Zouaves the lead, pushed through by secret mountain passes crossed the Princeton and Frenchville road near Princeton. There we learned that our forces were retreating towards Raleigh conducted his forces through the mountains to the right of Princeton towards the Logan road. We marched all night hungry, dispirited, and exhausted by the previous day’s hard marching, crossing the Raleigh and Princeton at Blue Stone River and found the station occupied by the whole Federal force from Princeton.

Recruiting advertisement for the 34th Ohio in August 1861

          The wagon that contained the trunks and valuable articles of our company officers, the boys knapsacks, and two days’ rations with the driver of the team were captured by the enemy. The driver has since come in after an absence of six or seven days. It seems that he was not taken but escaped to the woods where he laid a long while and was finally rescued by a young woman. She took him to her house, fed him, and furnished an escort of two men who conducted him safely to camp. There was a great rejoicing among us on his appearance as we regarded him as entirely lost. Two more men of our company that we supposed were prisoners of war, came into camp yesterday with 21 Union militia who are now going to serve Uncle Sam.

          The estimated loss of our brigade under acting brigadier general Augustus Moor is about 250 killed, wounded, and missing. Von Blessingh lost 60 enlisted men and three commissioned officers. My company under Captain West had two killed and two wounded. By a dispatch read on dress parade this evening I learn that General George Crook of the Third Brigade attacked yesterday morning about two miles from Lewisburg a Rebel force of 3,000 utterly routing them, capturing 100 prisoners, 200 stand of arms, and four pieces of cannon.

          Permit me among others to return my sincere thanks to Miss Rebecca West for those havelocks that she so generously donated to the members of Company F. Such acts of benevolent kindness are highly appreciated and will be long remembered by M.L. Hawkins of the Piatt Zouaves.

         

Source:

Corporal Morton L. Hawkins, Co. F, 34th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Clermont Courier (Ohio), June 18, 1862, pg. 1

34th Ohio national colors with notation as "1st Zouaves."


 

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