The 13th Ohio and the School of the Soldier

     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 13th 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 to drill from 4-6 hours a day is not about the hardest work you’ve ever done, just try it for a month. There might be a lot said in regards to our drill and discipline that transformed us green farmer boys into a part of a great fighting machine of which each individual soldier became a member.”

          The regiment landed at Parkersburg, Virginia on July 3, 1861, and hearing some shots in the distance, “we began to think the war had begun. We had not received a round of ammunition yet, but it was not long until we were issued three rounds to the man so we began to feel like we would whip the whole Confederacy. To show how green we were and how little we knew about war, after we landed in Parkersburg and stood in line of battle, a fellow in a gray uniform came and made an inquiry for our commander. Our officers and this fellow went off a little ways and had a council of some sort. Someone started the story that the fellow in gray was a Rebel officer and they were planning where we would hold the battle. Some of the boys said, “Let’s shoot the son of a bitch!”

Private Andrew Young Neff, Co. C, 13th Ohio Volunteer Infantry dressed in his full field gear including his knapsack, haversack, cartridge box, and cap pouch. The line companies of the 13th Ohio (C-K) were initially issued smoothbore muskets when they first went out but these guns were replaced in the field in western Virginia with .69 caliber rifled muskets that had been converted by Miles Greenwood's firm of Cincinnati. The flank companies of the regiment (A and B) received Enfield rifles when they mustered in and retained those weapons for the balance of their service. 


The regiment soon went into camp and were introduced the army way of living in the field.

 In Parkersburg, we drew our first tents and a fully supply of cartridges. Our first tents were of the old Sibley style. To describe them is to describe the Indian wigwam with a spider of three legs to hold the center pole which was eight feet long and with the legs made the cone of the tent 10-12 feet high. It had an opening at the top for the smoke to go out, and our tent would accommodate 16-18 soldiers. When all in, each fellow had as much room as the average sardine when packed and ready for shipping. When the weather did not require a fire to stay warm, we used the center hole for our guns and accoutrements. My bunkie was a little Irish boy named Mike Walker who was about five feet tall while I was over six feet tall. It often became necessary for me to make a typical Z of myself to get all of myself under the tent at the same time while Mike could lay stretched out at his ease. Well, I did a lot of grumbling but as for Mike, God bless the memory of my damn little pard, I never heard him complain of anything. He was always ready to divide his last cracker with his fellow comrades.

          We were now due our knapsack, haversack, canteen, a change of drawers and shirts, and we exchanged our citizen’s clothes for blue pants, a blouse, and became the Yankee boy in blue. Besides this, we drew an old .69 caliber smoothbore musket and belt with a bayonet and scabbard, a cartridge box large enough to hold 40 rounds, and a cap box. In Parkersburg, we received a fully supply of cartridges, 40 rounds to the man, each 10 rounds done up in a package about 2-1/2 inches square by one inch thick. In each package wrapped separate were 10 percussion caps. Our cartridge boxes were made of very stiff leather about six inches square with a heavy leather flap that was fastened at the bottom. Our ammunition was well-protected from the rain. There was a tin box divided into four compartments to fit snug into our cartridge box for the cartridges.

"Our cartridge boxes were made of very stiff leather about six inches square with a heavy leather flap that was fastened at the bottom," Neff wrote. "There was a tin box divided into four compartments to fit snug into our cartridge box for the cartridges. Our ammunition was well-protected from the rain."


The cartridge was about two inches long done up in strong paper. The ball was about the size of an ordinary thimble. The paper that was around the cartridge was really a little sack just large enough to go around the bullet which was hollowed out and filled with stiff grease. The hollow was expected to expand at the discharge of the gun so the ball would fit tighter into the grooves of the rifled barrel. The groove was not straight down the barrel but cut in a circular fashion so when fired, the ball would leave the barrel in a boring sort of motion that gave it move velocity and penetrating force. The powder that was in the cartridge was about three thimbles full and when the ball and powder were in the sack, it filled it about two-thirds full. The remainder was calculated to act as a wad to be pressed down solid on the powder when pressed home in the gun barrel making it ready to fire.

One end of the cartridge was neatly folded and lapped over so when we were ordered to load, the first order was “handle cartridge,” which meant for us to reach to our box and take the cartridge between the thumb and finger. The next command was “tear cartridge” and that meant to put the neatly lapped end in our teeth and tear off the end. The next command was “charge cartridge” which meant to insert it into the gun barrel. Next was “ram cartridge.” All our motions were done in three commands which would be “load in three motions,” first handle, then tear, then charge the cartridge. Next was to ram in three motions, the first being to take hold of the ramrod and draw it halfway out, next full way, next turn ramrod and get ready to shove it home in three motions. Such was the old Scott drill mostly done in three motion order but in battle the order would be “fire at will” and that meant for every fellow to load and shoot as fast as he knew how regardless of discipline.

Two types of .69 caliber ammunition typically were used during the war; this diagram shows what a buck & ball cartridge would like, consisting of a .69 caliber ball and three smaller buckshot. The soldiers also fired .69 caliber "Minie" bullets as well.  


         

A few weeks later, Private Neff described his first night on picket duty.

A squad of a dozen under the command of a corporal was taken about a mile out in front of camp and stationed in line, across the road, and up the side of a mountain. It fell to my lot to be the last boy to be placed on the extreme right of the line and way up on the side of the mountain, in the center of a little cleared field stationed close to a fence and the adjoining woods and fortunately behind a big fallen tree. I was cautioned to keep a strict watch because there might be a bushwhacker who would try and slip through our lines, or creep up and stab me to death. Then the corporal left me alone and the next two hours were the longest that I ever spent. The time for a guard to stand is two hours on and hour off. A corporal’s guard consists of three men and the reliefs, as we called them, were divided into three: first relief, second relief, and third relief. It had been three days since we had been put through our arduous ordeal of marching and I was more asleep than awake for in my imagination I could see some moving object just over the rail fence and in the bush. It looked to me that men were creeping through, half bent. The mountains in the country at that time were full of so many wild animals, especially little black bears, and I believe it was the old mother bear and her family because it would be hard to convince me that I did not see anything. The night wore away and a glad boy was I, but we had been scarcely called in before the bugle sounded “assembly” and we fell in. Before the sun was scarcely up, we were again on the march over the mountains and through the valleys toward the east, but to where, we privates did not know.

          Once out on the march, Private Neff started to realize what it meant to be a private soldier. “As the regiment ahead was being assigned to their camp, it caused a halt to the ones in the rear and the command was given “in place, rest,” which meant to stand in a certain position. I was so tired that I stooped down to rest more comfortably. Our tyrannical captain, Benjamin Runkle, ordered the orderly sergeant to put me on extra duty. I there began to realize more fully what a soldier’s life might be under a brutal officer. Our bugler Fred Russell had only stepped to one side of the ranks and he, too, was put on for his offense. We were both put on the same post and if it hadn’t been for his assistance, I might have been shot for going to sleep while on guard.

A lonely night on picket duty


          While on picket that night, we discovered what are known as graybacks and a more disgusted and surprised set of boys would be hard to find. As the old adage goes, misery loves company, and it wasn’t long before we found out that we were not the only ones that had more company than we wanted and an enemy we hated worse than the other graybacks who carried a musket. We got through that night somehow but the impression it left upon us was everlasting.

          The news began to slowly leak out that there was an army of 25-30,000 Rebels in camp just a few miles ahead and we were going to have a battle. As for myself, I had been uneasy that the war would be over before I saw a battle and I think it was the feeling of the majority of the boys. But the idea of meeting 25,000 Rebels was not so pleasant to think of, but still we had our courage strung to the snapping point and did not have to wait long until we had a chance to let it out a turn or so.

 

Detail of a lockplate on a Greenwood-altered .69 caliber U.S. Model 1816-Type III musket; this particular musket was originally produced by Nathan Starr in Connecticut in 1834. This musket was altered to percussion by the Watervliet Arsenal prior to the war, when Greenwood rifled the barrel and added a rear sight to this particular example which is similar to what the 13th Ohio would have carried early in the war. (College Hill Arsenal) 


The 13th Ohio saw its first battle on September 10, 1861, at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry, Virginia while under the command of General William S. Rosecrans. It was, as Neff remembers it, a confusing introduction to the mysteries of battle.

          We could hear a shot now and then and as we advanced these shots became three, then four, then quite often, as we were crowding the enemy pickets backwards. Our army was now composed of about 8,000 men and when we got into line of battle with our two pieces of brass 12-pdrs, we thought we could lick the whole Confederacy. At about 3 p.m., we began to move forward in our battle line over the fields and gullies. Our advance was not very fast, but the musket shots became more frequent and occasionally an artillery shot would get the boys to yelling. A way off in the woods we got the answer of the Johnnies called the Rebel yell. We began to believe there was more in war than blow or wind.

Our lines were advancing cautiously through the timber until we came to an open patch of ground and then we had a good view of what was before us: a fort of considerable magnitude with breastworks on the outside as far as we could see and lined with men. Back on top of the hill was the fort and where they had their artillery planted. To a green boy not three months our of the cornfield, thoughts of home and elsewhere were uppermost in our minds. But, as we were commanded to lay down, it was difficult for the Johnnies to see or hit us as it was for us to hit them. In a short amount of time, the scare began to wear off with the din of thousands of muskets and the boom of cannons until night with its shades drawing on and darkness became a welcome visitor.

Our army began to make charges and a charge on these breastworks which made the Rebels fall back to their stronger fort. Night and darkness of the woods was against us, especially where our regiment was as we ran into another regiment, the 10th Indiana. They mistook us for the Rebels and fired on us, killing several of our boys before they knew who we were. We got things straightened out and were soon ready to make a general charge on their works in the morning.

We could build no fires to make coffee or roast our sowbelly and had to eat a cold supper of hardtack and soon lay down as best we could. About midnight it began to rain and there was no more sleep, but I lay there with thoughts of home and the girl I left behind. Already several of the boys had been killed and wounded which filled many of us with very sober thoughts and we all knew that to charge that fort meant certain death to many, and anyone might be among that number. We looked toward daylight with more anxiety than I can tell it, but before daylight came, the word was passed down the line that the Rebels had evacuated their fort. That was the best news we had heard for a long time and the shouting and noise we made was plenty. The Johnnies were as anxious to get as we were to have them go.

Source: 

Memoir of Private Andrew Neff Young, Co. C, 13th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Robert Van Dorn Collection

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