Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

             Sand.           Reading this letter written by Private Ashbel G. Beer of the 26 th Ohio reminds one of a quality that Civil War soldiers prized greatly in their fellow soldiers, the quality of having “sand” or grit. A firmness of purpose, and the pluck to withstand any challenge sent your way. Bear’s letter displays that quality in spades. The Ashland County, Ohio native was struck in the left leg at the Battle of Stones River after firing just one round at the enemy. “I had raised myself partially up for the purpose of getting on my back so that I could load when the ball passed through my right pant and boot leg and struck my left leg some distance above the ankle, shattering the bone all to atoms,” he wrote. “Next day, Dr. Stimmel took off my leg below the knee. That was the unkindest cut of all not because it hurt me, for I did not feel the operation in the least, but then, you see, it makes it so devilish unhandy getting about. People here tell me it is glorious

       In the spring of 1861, 18-year-old Andrew Neff of Champaign County, Ohio signed his name to the rolls of Co. C of the 13 th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The next several months would educate the Ohioan on the ways of life in the army and the value of comradeship. “My comrades became as dear to me as my own beloved brother,” he wrote years after the war. “The story the old soldier now tells seems to the young as being manufactured for the occasion, but there is enough unwritten history that would easily fill volumes concerning the private soldier’s life.”           He arrived at Camp Dennison in May of 1861 and his first impression was “it sure looks like war.” The men, still dressed in their civilian clothes, soon were spending much of their day on the drill field. “Military life and discipline now began in earnest,” he noted. “Company, battalion, and regimental drill began. At first it was sport, but we were not long in learning that it was not at all fun, because if you think t

       In part 3 of this series, Lieutenant John Calvin Gorman of the 2 nd North Carolina describes his participation in the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862. General George B. Anderson’s all-North Carolina brigade consisting of the 2 nd , 4 th , 14 th , and 30 th regiments took a position along the Sunken Road that morning and fought for hours against repeated Federal assaults. The casualties were horrific, as Gorman’s regiment lost two-thirds of the 300 men that marched into battle that day, and Gorman himself was wounded twice, once in the head and a second time in the foot. The combat in this sector of the field was incredibly violent and intense. “The air is full of lead, and many are shot as they are aiming at the enemy, and the groans of the wounded are heard amid the roar of musketry,” Gorman remembered. “Colonel Charles Tew was killed about 11 o’clock, a Minie ball penetrating his brain. It is certain death to leave the road wounded as the balls fly so thick over u

       In part 2 of this series, Lieutenant John Calvin Gorman of the 2 nd North Carolina Infantry describes the South Mountain phase of the Maryland campaign with a particular focus on the role his brigade under the command of General George B. Anderson played in defending South Mountain on September 14, 1862. In a see-saw fight that cost Daniel H. Hill’s division a quarter of its men, the Confederates were eventually driven from the gap and set on the road to Sharpsburg, Maryland. The 2 nd North Carolina was in the thick of the fighting.           “Soon we are reinforced by Ripley’s brigade who are put on the left and making a left wheel of the whole line up the sides of the mountain, we drive the enemy step by step to the top of the ridge and with a yell we dashed to the open plateau of a few acres that are cultivated. But as we emerged from the cover of the woods, like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky, comes the booming of cannon and the whole earth in front of us seems torn

First Lieutenant John Calvin Gorman of Co. B of the 2 nd North Carolina Infantry had seen much of the world in his 27 years when he sat down to write the three letters making up this remarkable account of the Maryland Campaign. As a young man during the 1850s, he had traveled to Kansas territory where he plied his trade as a journalist and printer, returning home to North Carolina when the region became “Bleeding Kansas” as Northern and Southern pioneers fought over the concept of popular sovereignty. In 1861, he joined Co. B of the 2 nd North Carolina State Troops under the command of Colonel Charles C. Tew and would later see much hard service in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. By the time of the Maryland campaign, Lieutenant Gorman was commanding his company and sent home several highly descriptive letters to his wife and mother back home in North Carolina. Gorman’s journalistic sense shines through as he lays out the story of “Lee’s Miserables” marching into Maryla

       A few weeks ago, at the Mansfield Civil War Show, I picked up a cache of Civil War-era .58 caliber bullets from a nearby dealer. Finding bullets at Civil War shows is a common occurrence; few dealers trade only in bullets, most using them as space fillers or a way to make a few bucks from those seeking a cheap souvenir of the show. For many of us, bullets are the entryway into the fascinating realm of collecting Civil war relics. The container I saw was a space filler and was labeled “.58 caliber 3-ring Minies, Battle of Chickamauga.” Intrigued, I started to dig through the container and at first glance they all looked about the same: your standard 3-ring lead Minie bullet. No Williams cleaners, carbine slugs, round balls, or pistol bullets in the lot. The cavities all looked the same, all cones with no triangles, stars, or letters. All drops or fired bullets that hadn’t hit anything, all of them well encrusted with dirt and dried red clay. But were they really all the same? O

  “It was necessary for a sacrifice to be made to save the army and we made it.”      Captain Henry Haymond, Second Battalion, 18 th U.S. Infantry         The Regular Brigade as part of General Lovell H. Rousseau's division went into action about mid-morning on December 31, 1862, going into line in the cedar forest north of the Wilkinson Pike in an attempt to hold this portion of the line. Caught in a blizzard of bullets, the Regulars stumbled out of the forest towards the Nashville Pike where they reformed, and went back in again. The combat here was at short-range and brutal; the Regulars lost a third of their numbers but as Captain Haymond states above, "It was necessary for a sacrifice to be made to save the army and we made it."       In the aftermath of the Battle of Stones River, Major Frederick Townsend commanding the Second Battalion of the 18 th U.S. Infantry composed his after-action report and took pains to call out for special attention the gallantry of

       For the 26 th Ohio, the two days of battle at Chickamauga subjected the regiment to more of the misfortunes of war that they had seen in nearly two years of service. As part of Colonel George P. Buell’s brigade, the regiment arrived on the Union right flank around 3:30 the afternoon of September 19 th and stumbled into a supremely confusing situation. Union troops were surging back and forth over the Viniard Farm and the 26 th Ohio soon was caught up the maelstrom as attack followed counterattack in this sector of the field. At the end of the day, the Groundhog Regiment had been badly mauled, some companies losing three-quarters of their numbers in the see-saw action that evening.           The following day, the 26 th Ohio again found itself thrust into the furnace when the regiment was caught marching north as part of General Thomas J. Wood’s movement at just the moment that General James Longstreet launched his devastating assault on the Union center. The regiment was c

       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

     The surrender of the Confederate garrison at Arkansas Post on January 11, 1863, is one of those Civil War events that remains shrouded in a bit of mystery. It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon when General Thomas J. Churchill, commanding the garrison, heard yelling from the lines and rode out to investigate the cause. “The General was much surprised to find the Federal flag floating in every direction along our lines,” remembered his chief surgeon C.H. Smith. “Upon inquiry, it was ascertained that some traitor in the 24 th Texas regiment had raised the white flag and passed the word down the line that General Churchill had ordered a surrender, whereupon all the troops except Colonel Deshler’s brigade immediately surrendered.” Churchill was appalled, but by the time he found out, the Federals were already clambering over the ramparts. This jig was up. Private Thomas F. Bates of Co. D of the 6th Texas Infantry poses with a D-guard Bowie knife, a Walch pocket revolver, and a chec

       On the morning of December 29, 1862, the 6 th Missouri drew the task of spearheading a Union attack across a narrow neck of land along Chickasaw Bayou. The ridge beyond was lined with Confederate artillery batteries and rifle pits which made the perilous assignment something that made even veteran troops hesitate before attempting. “There was some hesitancy as to which company would cross first and finally Co. F volunteered and were duly accepted by the colonel,” one soldier noted. “They crossed the bayou followed by a portion of Co. K who had been detailed to make a road up the opposite bank which was very steep and right upon the top of which were Rebel sharpshooters in their rifle pits. After the completion of the road, the balance of the regiment was to cross. But this idea was finally abandoned and in about an hour and a half the whole regiment had reached the opposite side. A portion of Co. K who had crossed with spades and shovels commenced digging, but it was found to

  At the Battle of Missionary Ridge, Sergeant James H. Seaman received three musket balls through his woolen blanket, one through his hat, one through his right arm, and 27 through his flag as he reached the top of the Confederate breastworks.   The 40th Indiana Volunteer Infantry served its entire three year term with the Army of the Cumberland or its predecessor, the Army of Ohio. After Shiloh and through Franklin, Sergeant James H. Seaman of Co. C carried the regimental colors through more than 30 engagements and lived to tell the tale.            At 65 years of age, James H. Seaman of Martinsville, Indiana sat down with a local reporter to discuss his three years’ service during the Civil War. “He never shirked a duty that came to him and is proud of the record made by his boys in blue from ’61 to ’65,” the reporter explained. “Mr. Seaman was the color bearer of the 40 th Indiana regiment of volunteers and carried the stars and stripes through 30 battles and was wounded only o

  “It was an awful slaughter and I believe God will punish those who were responsible for it.” ~ Unknown soldier, 1 st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry   This hat emblem worn by a soldier in Co. C of the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry features the trefoil design of the Second Army Corps. During the Fredericksburg campaign, the 1st Minnesota was part of General Alfred Sully's First Brigade of General Oliver O. Howard's Second Division along with the 19th Maine, 15th Massachusetts, two companies of Minnesota sharpshooters, and the 34th and 82nd New York regiments. The regiment would nearly be annihilated six months later at Gettysburg. (Minnesota Historical Society)  The soldiers of the 1 st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, the only Minnesota regiment in the Army of the Potomac, drew the honor of being among the first Federal units to cross the Rappahannock into Fredericksburg in December 1862. One soldier readily admitted that the “boys then commenced to plunder, and no attempt

      By the summer of 1864, Lieutenant John Purvis of the 51 st Ohio had been keeping the readers of the Tuscarawas Advocate apprised of the doings of his regiment for more than two years.  But t he nature of the fighting on the Atlanta campaign was unlike anything the Ohioan had experienced before. It was fighting marked by the constant digging of entrenchments and the persistent singing of Minie balls flying through the air. “We are slowly winning our way- each day gaining some point of importance which we always hold,” he wrote. “Our men are in excellent spirits and the general health is surprisingly good considering the exposure, anxiety, and loss of sleep during the last six weeks. But we sadly need a change of clothing- for a more ragged, dirt-begrimed lot of mortals was never seen than we are at the present time. We care little for this, however. We are confident of success and will, with God’s help, finish the rebellion this year.” Lieutenant Purvis’ account of his regim

     Nearly 30 years after his death at the Battle of Franklin, the veterans of General Patrick Cleburne’s old division enjoyed sharing stories about their beloved commander. “General Cleburne was a gallant soldier, a hard fighter, always kind and courteous to his men, who almost worshipped him, and who believed "old Pat" could whip all creation,” remembered Private T.O. Moore of the 7th Texas Infantry who served under Cleburne’s command for the better part of a year. “Had he lived and the war continued, he was bound to have risen to great distinction as an officer. He and General Granbury were killed near the breastworks at the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, and the Confederacy lost two of her best officers.” Private Moore’s reminiscences of General Cleburne first saw publication in the July 2, 1893 edition of the New Orleans Picayune . 

       The fighting performed by the 21 st Ohio atop Snodgrass Hill on September 20, 1863 at the Battle of Chickamauga has been rightly noted as its best fighting of the war. While few have questioned the fighting abilities of the regiment’s men, much of the credit for the regiment’s ability to withstand multiple Confederate charges that afternoon has been given to the impact of the regiment being armed with five-shot Model 1855 .56 caliber Colt’s Revolving Rifles. It is an interesting story of how the regiment came to be armed with these rifles. This fine example of a .56 caliber Model 1855 Colt Revolving Rifle which included a socket bayonet and scabbard recently sold for $11,500 through Rock Island Auctions. This particular example featured a 31" barrel while the guns used by the 21st Ohio had 37-1/2" barrels. ( Rock Island Auctions )           The 21 st Ohio was one of state’s last 90-day regiments, mustering into service on April 27, 1861 at Camp Taylor in Cleveland