It is the Fate of War: The 26th Ohio at Chickamauga

     For the 26th 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 19th and stumbled into a supremely confusing situation. Union troops were surging back and forth over the Viniard Farm and the 26th 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 26th 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 caught in marching column with their right flank totally exposed; the 26th Ohio gamely turned from column into battle line and in a few minutes of furious fighting tried to stem the tide before being driven from the field.

          Th impact on the regiment was devastating. “They took into the fight 335 guns and at this time can muster but 128,” Professor J.A. Porter noted a few days after the battle. “They lost twelve officers and 195 men. Co. H went in the fight with 24 guns and you will observe by referring to the list of casualties that but two came our unhurt. What are left of the men of the regiment are in excellent spirits notwithstanding the terrible ordeal through which they have passed.”

          Today’s post dives into the 26th Ohio’s experiences at Chickamauga through the words of three of its soldiers. Corporal James A. Trehearne of Co. K of the 26th Ohio had left the regiment at 8 o’clock on the morning of the 20th and did not know of the disaster that overtook the regiment a mere three hours later. Upon arriving in Chattanooga, Trehearne wrote the following letter to Major William H. Squires who was home in Ohio on recruiting duty at the time of Chickamauga and as such, missed out on the battle. Treahearne only knew of the fighting on the 19th, but that was tale enough to tell. His letter was originally published in the October 8, 1863 edition of the Madison County Democrat from London, Ohio.

Further details of the September 19th battle are shared in the second section which discusses the death of Captain William H. Ross of Co. C with quotes from Lieutenant Colonel William H. Young who commanded the 26th Ohio during the battle.

          The final letter featured was written by Captain William Baldwin of Co. G who, like Corporal Trehearne, wrote this letter to his commanding officer Colonel Edward P. Fyffe who was home in Urbana, Ohio and missed Chickamauga. Baldwin’s letter provides a fine description of the chaos that enveloped the regiment on September 20, 1863. Baldwin’s letter first saw publication in the October 14, 1863 edition of the Urbana Union.

 

The tattered fragment of the 26th Ohio's flag in an image dating from about 1880 attests to the ferocity of numerous battles in which the men of the Groundhog Regiment fought during the war. The two days at Chickamauga, however, were the worst of the regiment's lengthy service. 

Corporal James A. Trehearne, Co. K

Chattanooga, Tennessee

September 20, 1863

          Knowing that you are deeply interested in the old 26th and anxious to hear how they conducted themselves in the battle of yesterday, I will try and give you the particulars so far as I have learned them. I was out to the front this morning until 8 o’clock and was much hurried consequently and could not learn all of the particulars. General Wood’s division was engaged about an hour during the afternoon [of September 19th] and our regiment lost 185 men.

          The fighting was terrible. The Rebels captured our battery but the 26th retook it after a severe hand to hand fight. The boys clubbed their guns of the Rebels and fought like mad men. Once our brigade was confused. General Wood in endeavoring to rally them had a horse shot beneath him. He sprang from his saddle and with hat in one hand and sword in the other called on them to follow. With a loud huzza, they obeyed and such was their impetuosity that the enemy have way. The fight at Stones River was light in comparison to yesterday.

The recipient of Trehearne's letter: Major William H. Squires, 26th Ohio

          Longstreet’s corps was engaged. They did their best to win, but our boys held their ground this morning when I left. They were cheerful and seemed confident of success. They said if we whip them here, the war is soon over; if they whip us, it lasts twelve months longer. The company mustered eleven men last evening, but I suppose that several of the absent ones are only lost. There was scarcely any straggling yesterday. The boys fought in squads independently when they could not find their commands.

          Captain James R. Warner has just returned from the front and reports we are losing ground; hope it is untrue. The wagons are crossing the river and every precaution is being taken for the worst if it should come, but I still think we will be victorious.

 

The death of Captain William H. Ross of Company C struck at the hearts of many within the regiment. “One of the very best officers in the command and one of those firm, reliable men always ready for any duty,” Captain Ross had the previous fall received the news of the death of his son while the 26th Ohio was on the march from Alabama to Louisville, Kentucky during Bragg’s Kentucky campaign. The regiment was at a halt on the road and mail being distributed when Captain Ross received a letter which gave details of the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia which had been fought on August 9, 1862. The letter included he casualty lists for the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in which his son Joseph Ross was a lieutenant. “The writer well remembers the iron composure with which he received the news of the death of his son,” a comrade remembered. “The first name on the list was his son. His only words were, “It is the fate of war; the fate of war,” often repeated. He little thought, perhaps, that the same fate would soon be his.”

26th Ohio reunion in 1875

Captain Ross was shot through the lungs on September 19th and died on the afternoon of the 20th.  Lieutenant Colonel William H. Young shared with Captain Ross’ widow the circumstances of his end.

“For many long hours, the battle raged with varying success over the sanguinary field. Captain Ross’ company, the color company, had lost 27 out of 38 men, but the fortunes of the day were desperate and one more charge must be made. My own and two or three badly shattered regiments were called upon for the perilous undertaking. We were to charge across an open field upon the Rebels lines posted under the complete cover of heavy timber. The charge was gallantly made, though under a murderous fire. Captain Ross was by my side, conspicuous among the host, cheering on his men and contributing not a little to the enthusiasm of the moment. As the Rebel line wavered, they gave a parting volley and fled. Your husband’s sword was high up and his voice joining the cheer of victory when the messenger of death reached him and his life’s blood made scared another spot of Southern soil.”

 

Captain William Baldwin, Co. G

Headquarters First Brigade, First Division, 21st Army Corps

September 27, 1863

          All that I can tell you about the late battle of Chickamauga is that our brigade was engaged at about 3 o’clock on Saturday afternoon the 19th instant and fighting in an open field, we held our ground the balance of the day and all night, sustaining two desperate bayonet charges and one night attack during that time. Our position on Saturday afternoon was on the right.

From the time we first went into action until the fighting ceased in the night, the roll was musketry was incessant, the enemy killing and wounding fully one of our officers and men. If we may rely on the reports of the prisoners we captured, the effect of our firing was still more deadly to the enemy. They were partially covered by timber so that we could not estimate accurately the number of their killed and wounded. Once during the afternoon, we were compelled by a heavy charge on our front and by a terrible enfilading fire from the right where we had no support whatsoever to fall back in some confusion. In doing so, three of Estep’s guns were captured but this state of affairs did not last long for our boys rallied promptly and retook the ground and the guns.

The recipient of Captain Baldwin's letter: Colonel Edward P. Fyffe, 26th Ohio


About 3 o’clock in the morning, we were ordered to move to the left which we did for about two miles and occupied a position near the center of the line. When the battle opened at about 9 o’clock Sunday morning, our front lines were about 300 yards from those of the enemy. While our brigade was making a movement by the left flank in order to make room on our right for a division of McCook’s corps and before that division could move up to the ground we were leaving, the enemy charged on our line.

Our troops fired on them with tremendous effect, but their numbers were so superior to ours that they were not checked, but came on yelling like so many devils, filling up the space we had just vacated. Of course, we were compelled to fall back to prevent our flank from being turned. There was no time to make new dispositions of the troops, and the enemy having so skillfully and rapidly massed his men so as to have at least double our number on our front, the retreat became general. It was, however, executed in good order so far as the First Brigade was concerned. We fell back to Missionary Ridge five miles from the battleground and held the enemy at bay until Monday night when we silently fell back to our present position in front of Chattanooga.

 

Sources:

Letter from Corporal James Albert Trehearne, Co. K, 26th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Madison County Democrat (Ohio), October 8, 1863, pg. 2

Letter from Lieutenant Colonel William H. Young, 26th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Mahoning Register (Ohio), October 22, 1863, pg. 3

Letter from Captain William Baldwin, Co. G, 26th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Urbana Union (Ohio), October 14, 1863, pg. 2

Letter from Professor J.A. Porter, Urbana Union (Ohio), October 7, 1863, pg. 3

“The Twenty-Sixth Ohio,” Urbana Union (Ohio), September 30, 1863, pg. 2

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