In front of Atlanta with the 68th Ohio

 

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. 

Lieutenant Henry Welty of Co. A of the 68th Ohio later was appointed regimental adjutant and kept a superb album of images of his comrades of the 68th Ohio which his great-great granddaughter Pam Welty shared with me some time ago. The album contained 28 identified images of veterans of the regiment, four of which are shared in this post. 


Before Atlanta, Georgia

July 24, 1864

Dear Father,

          I take this opportunity of giving you a short history of one of the hardest fought battles of the war to which I was an eyewitness. Our old soldiers that were at Donelson and Shiloh say this equals them both. Our corps [17th] occupied a position on the extreme left and weakest point of the whole line. About noon the day before yesterday, the Rebels skirmishers opened a brisk fire on our boys which was returned with equal vigor. It did not take General Sherman long to find out that the dirty graybacks (for such they may be called) were trying to flank us. “But they didn’t quite see it.”

Lieutenant Colonel George E. Welles led the 17 officers and 242 enlisted men of the northwestern Ohio-raised 68th Ohio during the Battle of Atlanta where he sustained a slight wound in his arm and had four bullet holes shot through his clothes. The regiment had companies that originated from Defiance, Fulton, Henry, Paulding, Williams, and Wood Counties, Co. H having a substantial contingent from my home of Perrysburg. The 68th Ohio sustained a loss of 78 killed, wounded and missing in this single engagement.

          First came the brought around into position on the double quick; next came the infantry into position which was formed into lines by General Sherman himself, for I was within speaking distance of him while doing so. It was no sooner done than the Rebels came out of the woods three lines deep and made a charge upon a masked battery on a hill under a galling fire of grape, canister, and of musketry which mowed them down like wheat. I tell you the Rebels done some good shooting and killed a great many of our brave soldiers and officers.

          The fight commenced about half past 12 and lasted until dark, but you can judge things were done in a hurry for at 12 o’clock they had not a single piece of artillery nor a single regiment on the field of battle. Our brigade was charged three different times but held their position under a murderous fire from the Rebels who were about two-thirds drunk, in fact some of them were perfectly crazy from the effects of gunpowder and whiskey of which each man had a good supply.

 

“We lost our noble, brave, and gentlemanly department commander Major General J.B. McPherson. A more noble, kind, consistent general never was known. He for a long time commanded our 17th Corps and we have had every opportunity to become acquainted with him and at all times he took every care to preserve the lives and health of his men. In him the country has sustained an irreparable loss, and the soldiers of the 17th Corps the kindest friend.” ~Private William R. Snook, Co. C, 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

 

Private John Shupe of Co. K of the 68th Ohio sustained a severe head wound during the battle of July 22nd and died the following day. 

          We lost pretty heavily in our brigade which consists of but three regiments: the 68th Ohio lost 65 men, the 78th Ohio lost 102, and the 20th Ohio lost 141 men. We also lost some good officers. I tell you it was the grandest sight I ever witnessed and seemed to me that men could not have been mowed down faster than they fell there. Our boys would fight first on one side of the entrenchments and then in the other. It was a regular hand-to-hand fight. The boys would knock the Rebels off the breastworks with the butts of their muskets. In front of where our regiment was stationed during the fight, the ground is or was literally covered with dead and wounded Rebels, and it was almost impossible to walk about without stepping on them. A flag of truce was out yesterday for over an hour, exchanging the wounded and dead and while doing so we exchanged six Rebels for one Yankee during the time they were permitted to remain.

First Sergeant George W. Scott of Bigelow's Co. F of the 68th Ohio proudly wears his 17th Army Corps badge on his jacket in this image taken in 1865. The 22-year-old native of Henry County, Ohio enlisted as a private in Co. F in November 1861 and was successively promoted up the ranks, becoming orderly sergeant in January 1865. He was later commissioned a lieutenant but never mustered at that grade. 


I am sorry to inform you of the loss of our brave and noble officer Major General James B. McPherson; also of Brigadier General Manning F. Force wounded in the face. There are some hopes of recovery, however. Among the killed, wounded, and missing of the brigade are the following officers: Colonel Robert K. Scott commanding the Second Brigade, missing and probably a prisoner. Lieutenant Colonel Welles commanding the 68th Ohio wounded slightly; Captain Wilson Skeels, killed, Captain Harmon, wounded slightly, Captain James H. Long, wounded slightly, arm broken; Lieutenant Abram C. Urquhart, killed or a prisoner. The loss in the brigade is about 300 killed, wounded, and missing. Colonel Scott is supposed to have been captured shortly after the battle commenced while trying to force the lines. His horse was found dead on the field. Colonel Greenberry Wiles of the 78th Ohio commands the brigade.

 From your affectionate son,

Edward A. Bigelow

Source:

Letter from Private Edward A. Bigelow, Co. F, 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Toledo Daily Commercial (Ohio), August 8, 1864, 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

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

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

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 Maryland, performing provost duty at Cumberlan
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

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

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

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 at the outset of the
Read more

Revisiting Snodgrass Hill: Memories of a 21st Ohio Officer

Image
Captain Isaac Cusac, Co. G, 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry proudly displaying his rank as captain in an image likely dating from early 1863. One of his shoulder straps was shot off in the final stages of the 21st Ohio's fight atop Snodgrass Hill on September 20, 1863. Cusac brought it back to Chickamauga 50 years later.  I n September 1913, 83-year-old Isaac Cusac, a retired Presbyterian minister from the little town of McComb, Ohio, returned to Chattanooga to attend the national G.A.R. encampment. The former captain of the 21 st Ohio returned to Snodgrass Hill on the old Chickamauga battlefield on the 50 th anniversary of the battle carrying with him a precious relic of his wartime experiences. “He carried with him there an epaulet that was shot from his shoulder at the battle,” it was reported. “The bullet clipped off the epaulet and then struck him on the left hand, injuring two fingers.”           The flood of memories as he walked the grounds must have been overwhelming. The f
Read more