Vanquished without disgrace: The 8th Ohio and the Charge Against Marye's Heights

     At the age of 16, Thomas F. Galwey was the youngest lieutenant in the 8th Ohio Infantry. Born to Irish parents in London on April 15, 1846, he migrated to the U.S. in 1851, the family settling in Cleveland, Ohio. At the outbreak of the war, Galwey lied about his age (he had just turned 15!) and joined the Hibernian Guards which became Co. B of the 8th Ohio. He followed the fortunes of the regiment throughout Virginia and earned a battlefield commission following Antietam for the heroism he demonstrated on that field. Now in December 1862, his 8th Ohio was poised to assault the Confederate line atop Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg. It was, Galwey wrote, "a hopeless struggle." 

    "The hills reverberated the thunder of cannon and Marye’s Heights were almost hid in smoke, which was pierced by the glare of Confederate cannon and of bursting Federal shells, and by the long flashes of infantry fire that marked the direction of the Confederate lines. The afternoon was well on when other columns issued from the city streets and deployed in line of battle, two stands of colors to each regiment, the one the beautiful stars and stripes, the other the banner of everlasting green. It was the Irish Brigade and every officer and man bore a sprig of green box in his cap. Were they successful? Only in leaving their dead closest to the Confederate lines," he wrote.  

    The following account is drawn from an article Galwey wrote that was published in the December 1889 issue of Catholic World Magazine, a publication of which Galwey was the editor.


The charge of the 114th Pennsylvania, Collis' Zouaves, at Fredericksburg as depicted by Carl Rochling. Colonel Charles Collis, shown atop a black horse at center with the colors of his regiment, commissioned this painting from Rochling after the war. Collis later was awarded the Medal of Honor for this action and the original painting now is property of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

    At daylight of Saturday the 13th, the streets re-echoed the bugle calls for reveille, a hasty breakfast was cooked on the sidewalks and gulped down, and by 6 o’clock the ranks were formed and the horses were hitched in the batteries. The weather was extremely mild; it was towards the end of that balmy season called the Indian Summer. The gray frost that had lain upon everything disappeared, and a thick fog filled the air. The lofty Marye’s Heights, fortified by Confederate field works and surrounding the city on the south at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile, was entirely invisible through the fog. Standing in front of the Presbyterian church, one could barely discern the base of its tall spire, which had been a chosen mark for some of the Union batteries during the bombardment two days before.

    What was the feeling of the Army of the Potomac while preparing for the memorable assault? The Army of the Potomac was a representative army, well disciplined, but fond of understanding what it was all about. It was a body of highly intelligent men; many of them always carried a pocket-map of Virginia and nearly all were accustomed to study their own movements and the reported movements of the other armies with an almost scientific interest. Among the privates of every company there was always at least one amateur strategist, who, on account of his searching analyses and criticisms of the military operations, was nicknamed “the General” or “The Engineer” or the like. For several weeks this army had been in winter quarters across the river not more than two or three miles from Fredericksburg, and twice or thrice a week during that time thousands of these men had taken their turns at picket along the riverbank where they had a close and unobstructed view of Fredericksburg and the surrounding country.

    From day to day they had observed Marye’s Heights and had carefully scanned its line of earthworks with the naked eye and with the field glass. By means of generally recognized military principles and of an experience gained in former campaigns they had been enabled to form a just opinion of the possibilities involved in the situation. Their universal opinion thus maturely and leisurely formed was that Marye’s Heights could not be carried by direct assault. Looking at the Confederate position, they reasoned thus: ‘Give us such a position and the whole Southern Confederacy could not take it from us by a direct assault. But the Confederates are excellent soldiers, as we know from a long acquaintance with them. Therefore, they cannot be driven from the position.’

    Someone may think that they prevalence of such an opinion would of itself have rendered success impossible. With new or inferior troops that is likely. But Fredericksburg, was precisely one of those battles which proved the magnificent character of the Army of the Potomac; for although knowing the futility of the assault, never did soldiers march into the face of defeat and death with greater steadiness and with firmer determination to go as far as men could go than was shown by the Army of the Potomac hour after hour that day, until night closed in and stopped the slaughter.

Lieutenant Thomas F. Galwey
Co. B, 8th Ohio Infantry

    Late in the forenoon the sunlight broke through the fog then the fog lifted and I there again lay open to the view the plain dotted with old-fashioned homesteads, off to the right front a white block of marble marking Martha Washington’s tomb, and, beyond, the heights where the Confederate army was quietly and grimly waiting for events. The battle opened two miles below, where Franklin with the left wing was advancing to carry out a part of the plan, and now we who formed the right wing under Sumner are to move. Kimball’s Brigade of French’s Division of the Second Corps was to open the attack of the right. It had been a chief brigade of Shields’ Division in the Shenandoah Valley, and in all its many campaigns had been particularly remarked for its dash, endurance, and intelligence on the skirmish line. Hence the choice of it for this serious work. 

    The four regiments, each in a column by itself, moved out along four parallel streets, under orders to deploy in one continuous skirmish line as soon as they should have got beyond the houses of the city. But before the deployment had begun, just as the heads of the parallel columns had reached the edge of the city, little puffs of smoke rose from the ground at the foot of the decline down which we were descending to the plain. It was Barksdale’s Mississippi brigade, which had held the town when the pontoon bridge was laid, and which on being driven from the streets had halted and remained just outside in a skirmish line. As their bullets sang through columns our bugles sounded the ‘forward’ and onward we went headlong down the hill at the double-quick, the brigade so promptly and skillfully obeying the next bugle call ‘deploy as skirmishers!’ that by that time we had passed all the city houses and their garden fences we extended in a single rank, with intervals between the men, across the two roads that led south from the city and far out on either hand, the colors of the four regiments pointed towards Marye’s Heights and waving in gallant style.

    Barksdale’s line gave way slowly, and now we scrambled on over fences and through ditches and as, with considerable difficulty and some tactical movements unnecessary to detail, we made our way across a canal and ascended a slight rise of ground, we could see through the embrasures of the Confederate earthworks on Marye’s Heights the cannoneers standing to their guns. The next second those works from one end to the other sent forth puffs of smoke and a line of shells was bursting above our heads. Again our bugles rang out ’Charge bayonets! Forward! Double-quick!’ Click, click, the bayonets were fixed and the skirmishers of French’s Division sent up a cheer that, as it was afterwards said, was heard a mile beyond Marye’s Heights.

Confederate infantry holding the Stone Wall at Fredericksburg

    Barkdale’s skirmishers fell back and we saw no more of them as far as we knew. Our dead and wounded were already considerable in number but our advance continued until we reached the point where the Telegraph Road forked, the right prong going to Orange Courthouse, the left to Richmond. Here was a cluster of houses; the triangular space between the two roads was occupied by a little brick grocery store; on the left of the forks was a stone blacksmith’s shop with open ground in that direction; one the right almost of village of frame dwelling houses. Across this fork our skirmish line halted and further than this no Union line passed that day but one and that one was the Irish Brigade. We looked back towards the city across the plain over which we advanced; there were no troops of ours in sight but from a knoll here and there at the edge of the city batteries were firing over our heads at the Confederate works  on the heights in front of us. Our brigade seemed for the moment to be without support. The grocery store was a triangular building with the sharp angle at our side cut off, and in that narrow face was a heavy door that was shut. A few blows from musket butts opened it, however, and our wounded were carried in and laid wherever there was room, on the floor between the boxes and barrels, and on the long counter. The groans of pain, the lamentations and the prayers to Heaven of the wounded and dying that came to the ears of us outside were pitiful. ‘Lord Jesus, have mercy! Oh mother, mother!’ the writer heard repeated over and over in plaintive wails, and amid all, more subdued murmurings of prayer and, sad truth, oaths and curses from the men whose anguish of pain was greater than their patience to bear.

    The atmosphere is now clear and the sky bright. We are firing from every angle and window and fence corner at the cannoneers up on the hill in front of us. Near the foot of the hill and scarcely a stone’s throw, as it seems to us, is a common stone wall and occasional puffs of smoke show that a Confederate line is behind it. All of a sudden, every gun of the Confederate battery opens once more, and the air above our heads is cut by the hissing flight of their shot and shell. From every street of Fredericksburg, a column of blue is descending to the plain and there is a beautiful line forming, the stars and stripes fluttering gayly at intervals above it. The 60 Confederate cannon salute it with accurate effect, but the blue line cheers and forward it comes with steady tread. From our advanced and isolated position we can, from time to time when the smoke clears away for a few moments, see the faces of both the Union line and the Confederate cannoneers from the moment the line emerges from the city until, essaying a charge, it moves gallantly on under the galling and deadly fire and reaches our ground, or ground an extension of ours, and then halts, incapable of doing more.

An early war stand of national colors belonging to the 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

    Many striking incidents we witnessed. One will illustrate the splendid spirit and discipline of the Army of the Potomac in battle. A New York regiment through some mistake or stupidity was brought up the Telegraph road in a column of fours and was halted in that formation between the grocery store and the frame dwelling houses. For this reason the Confederate bullets were raking it from front to rear through its whole length, yet every man of it who was not shot stood erect; nor did the head stoop unless hit when the Confederate battery just in front of us, seeing the advantage, send solid shot into the column. It seemed fully five minutes before someone having authority changed the formation and thus saved the regiment from being annihilated. A hen and her brood waddled and strutted across the Richmond road and as the bullets whizzed past the mother fowl snapped actively about the air, probably supposing that the flying missiles were insects worth catching for the little ones. A horse with an empty but blood-stained saddle, galloped down from the Confederate lines, and as he reached us, tumbled in the dust dead, alongside a dead Union soldier from whose waist belt hung a gaudy dress pattern of plaid silk, plundered in the town.

    Line after line moved out from Fredericksburg in fine array, and the plain was already thickly strewn with the Union wounded and dead in blue overcoats/ Hours had passed and still the right wing of the army was coming forward in successive lines to lay its useless offering upon that holocaust. Nearly one-half of the Second Corps who had so far become engaged were wounded or dead, and that continued to be about the average proportion to the end. A corporal of the writer’s company was the sole survivor of eleven who had crawled out past the grocery store to a fence corner beyond to sharp shoot the Confederate cannoneers. When we looked back we could see the smoke clouds of the artillery at the edge of the city, and still further back, that of the heavy guns which were ranged along Stafford Heights north of the river, all of whose projectiles were coursing through the air over our heads, while far above the Stafford heights was Professor Lowe’s captive balloon, Confederate shells bursting dangerously near it.

How was the 8th Ohio armed at Fredericksburg? This monthly statement from the end of November 1862 shows that the regiment had at least four types of weapons: .577 caliber Enfield rifles, U.S. M1842 .69 caliber Greenwood rifled muskets, M1855 or M1861 U.S. .58 caliber Springfields, and U.S. M1842 .69 caliber smoothbores. (Thanks Phil Spaugy!)

    The hills reverberated the thunder of cannon and Marye’s Heights were almost hid in smoke, which was pierced by the glare of Confederate cannon and of bursting Federal shells, and by the long flashes of infantry fire that marked the direction of the Confederate lines. The afternoon was well on when other columns issued from the city streets and deployed in line of battle, two stands of colors to each regiment, the one the beautiful stars and stripes, the other the banner of everlasting green. It was the Irish Brigade and every officer and man bore a sprig of green box in his cap.

    Were they successful? Only in leaving their dead closest to the Confederate lines. They passed the high-water mark which Kimball’s skirmishers had set at noon, and which no other brigade other than the Irish Brigade has passed or was to pass that day. Onward they swept, the four regiments in a single line of battle. By the time they had reached the level tract of ground just to the left of the clump of houses at the forks of the road from which we were observing them, they seemed to have attracted most of the fire of the Confederate batteries. But though the shells were bursting above their heads in almost as good an alignment as their own, and the canister was rattling into their ranks, no sign of wavering could be perceived in their splendid advance. Could it be possible, we though, that they would succeed? For a moment it seemed as if they could not be resisted. Certainly, of any men that bloody day gave hope that Burnside’s movement was not after all a very badly advised one, these men, with the flag of the Union supported by the symbolic green of ever-hopeful Erin, were foremost among them.

Another view of the Stone Wall, this image dating from the Second Battle of Fredericksburg which occurred in May 1863. Interestingly, A.C. Redwood based his image of the Confederates at the Stone Wall shown earlier in the post on this exact photograph as the dead Confederate at lower left is depicted along with the musket in the same portion of his work. 


    We had plenty, however, to occupy us in our own front. With every advance and by whatever command, we at the clump of houses had made efforts at support and cooperation; consequently, we came in at these times for a heavy fire of the Confederate infantry, intended to check any possible advance on our own part. Shortly afterwards, the writer looked off to the left and front, and there, within not more as it appeared, than 30 or 40 yards lay a line of men in blue overcoats. Was it the Irish Brigade? No, it was the Irish dead. Their brigade had been withdrawn by whatever officer was then in command of it. Dusk came on, and the right wing retired from the field into the city. The hopeless struggle was then continued by the center under Hooker until night put an end to the Battle of Fredericksburg, leaving the Confederate army victorious without serious loss and the Army of the Potomac vanquished without disgrace.

 

Source:

Account of Second Lieutenant Thomas F. Galwey, Co. B, 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Catholic World Magazine, December 1889, pgs. 367-373

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