Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

T he Battle of Franklin, fought on Wednesday, November 30, 1864, is widely regarded as one of the hardest fought battles of the Western Theater during the Civil War. The Army of Tennessee under General John Bell Hood clashed with a retreating Federal force commanded by General John M. Schofield as the sun set over the small Harpeth River town of Franklin, Tennessee, and in the ensuing hours of ferocious combat inflicted more than 8,500 casualties upon each other.   The personal accounts from eight men who fought at Franklin give us some sense of the ferocity of this struggle, and the sense of loss felt on both sides of the battle. Reading these accounts,  you'll experience the audacity of the Confederate charge as viewed from both sides of the line, ride alongside Generals Hiram Granbury and Pat Cleburne in their final moments, read an incredible story of heroism as one Tennessean recalls how he captured a Federal flag, rush forward with an Illinois veteran in Opdycke's char...

           In the aftermath of the Battle of Atlanta, Adjutant Henry O. Dwight wrote the following account of the battle for publication in the New York Times which appeared on the front page of the August 12, 1864 edition. 

I n May of 1862, the 34 th Ohio, also known as the Piatt Zouaves, took part in General Jacob D. Cox’s demonstration against the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad. This railway ran more than 200 miles through the valley of Virginia between Bristol and Lynchburg and proved to be a vital means of supporting the Confederate war effort in eastern Virginia, providing a direct rail connection between the eastern and western halves of the Confederacy. Besides moving troops, the railroad also moved mined copper from Cleveland, Tennessee, lead from the mines near Bristol and at Wytheville, and salt from Saltville.           The expedition didn’t go as planned as one Zouave recalled in a letter home. Confederate general Humphrey Marshall moved to confront Cox’s division and, in the process, Cox divided his force attempting to strike at Marshall. An engagement was fought at Princeton where the two divided halves of Cox’s troops attacked Marshall’s pos...

T he ultimate triumph of Grant’s Vicksburg campaign in July 1863 in a way masks the hard fighting that it took for the Federals to take the Confederate bastion. The price for Vicksburg included not just the siege itself, but tough engagements at Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hill, and Big Black River that allowed the Federal army to approach Vicksburg from behind and encircle the town.   For Captain Francis Redburn of the 24 th Indiana the toll in casualties and personal loss proved staggering. At just the Battle of Champion Hill alone, his regiment lost 201 men killed and wounded while Redburn’s own company lost 21 men of that total. “I crossed the Mississippi River on the 30 th of April with 54 men and since that time I have lost 25 men killed and wounded,” he wrote. “While we rejoice on account of our great victories, let us not forget to remember that we are called on to mourn the loss of the gallant dead. Those comrades were all dear to me. We have been associated together an...

  G il Stormont of the 58 th Indiana numbered himself amongst those “lucky” enough to have a front row seat at the most dramatic moment of the Battle of Chickamauga: Longstreet’s assault upon the Federal center on September 20, 1863.            It all happened by accident. His company had been sent out as skirmishers that morning and when Longstreet’s attack began, Stormont ran back across Brotherton Field to rejoin the regiment only to find that they were gone. He fell in with the ranks of the nearby 13 th Michigan. “The Rebels came on us in columns eight or ten deep and there being only two regiments to contend against them, we poured volley after volley into them, but still they came,” Stormont informed his sister. “They came within 20 yards of us and there they stood loading and firing as impudent as you please; they, however, did not have much effect on us as we were protected somewhat, but we could see them fall in piles from o...

       I n one of the opening operations of General U.S. Grant’s Vicksburg campaign, the gunboat U.S.S. Tuscumbia along with several other gunboats under the command of Admiral David D. Porter attacked the Confederate riverside fortifications at Grand Gulf on April 29, 1863. The chief engineer, working in the 108-degree heat of the engine room, recalled that the vessel was struck 82 times during the engagement. “It is impossible to count the shells that exploded in her,” Engineer John W. Hartupee wrote. “Her upper work is a complete wreck. No man could have lived on her deck for a minute. It is believed here that we were under the heaviest fire ever known to naval warfare. The Rebels concentrated all their fire upon us for at least two hours. More than half the time during the fight we were not more than 50 yards from the muzzles of 30 guns and some of these guns were 100-lb Parrott guns which throw projectiles with greater force than any gun now in use. But all w...

     One of the challenges that every regiment of the Civil War ran into was getting the appropriate personnel into the right positions in the organization. Early organizations went into the field under men who had no business in charge of a company or regiment, and the weeding out process started in earnest once the men started to encounter hard service.      In the case of the 17th Indiana Infantry (later of Wilder's Lightning Brigade notoriety), their "coming to Jesus" moment arrived at the end of 1861 when the new departmental commander Major General Don Carlos Buell let it be known that he was sending out his Examining Board to render judgment on the fitness of officers to retain their positions. As related by Private Napoleon Risinger, news of the forthcoming Board led to a mass exodus of officers in the regiment. Risinger delighted in their departure.     " A swarm of bees appear not busier when a stick is thrust into their hive than did th...

     J ust a few days before sailing to attack the Confederate bastion at Port Hudson, Louisiana, Second Lieutenant T. Scott DeWolfe of the 161 st New York described the electric effect of his regiment getting paid for the first time in months.       " Just imagine 500-600 starving pigs turned loose in a nice big potato patch and you may form some idea of it," he wrote. "A very notable feature of the transaction was the settlement of all the "old scores" among the officers and men. After receiving our pay, we began and paid every man we met during the next half day sums varying from $5 to $20, and at the close of business hours, called the transaction ended and ourselves square with each other and the rest of the world. The allotment checks did not come to hand, and indeed, have not yet, but the boys did remarkably well in sending money home, most of them retaining but very little for their own use. The allotment system may do well enough for regiment...

     F or the men of the 75th Ohio, the Second Battle of Bull Run was prefaced by a confusing week of marches and countermarches and on the first day of battle, they weren't engaged at all, enjoying the rare opportunity of watching a battle. Corporal Joseph Harris of Co. C described the experience as " the wicked hissing of 50 shells belched forth from as many cannon on each side, bursting here and there, carried death and destruction in their wake. Volley after volley of musketry continued without intermission nearly all day while the dense clouds of smoke placed before our eyes the stern reality of the raging battle.  The 75 th , although not actually engaged, was where the shells fell fast and thick but fortunately only one man was wounded that day.  "      But the following day, August 30th, the 75th Ohio would be tasked with holding a critical piece of ground at Chinn Ridge and Harris would get a belly full of fighting. " To our dismay t...

      W hen our ancestors went off to participate in the Civil War as volunteers, nearly all of them went off to war as part of a specific company and in many ways, the company became the soldier’s new family away from home. Men signed their names to an enlistment roll under the authority of a captain or lieutenant and became part of that officer’s company serving alongside their family members and neighbors.  Companies usually were raised in a defined geographical region, whether it be a city, town, or county and as such the men took a great deal of pride in belonging to Captain Stafford’s company or Captain McMahon’s company. The company took a soldier’s first claim to loyalty, quickly to be followed by membership in a regiment.  Once a company was attached to a regiment, the regimental commander would designate a letter for each company, therefore assigning the company its place in the regimental line. Standard army practice called for the companies to...

      O n May 15, 1864, the final day of the Battle of Resaca, six brigades of General Joseph Hooker’s 20 th Army Corps staged a diversionary attack against the far right of the Confederate line with the intention of drawing General Joseph Johnston’s attention away from Johnston’s left where General James McPherson was moving his troops across Lay’s Ferry aiming to cut the Army of Tennessee’s railroad connection with Atlanta. Hooker’s advance ran into fierce resistance from the Confederates of General Carter Stevenson’s division and as Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Hurst of the 73 rd Ohio describes it, the fight devolved into a murderous close range slugging match riddled with terrain difficulties, command confusion, and even friendly fire. “We moved to the right under the crest of the hill and after slipping through the woods until we came to a fence, I ordered “Forward in line! Double quick! March!” and out and down we went like an avalanche but under a most murder...

     T he Confederate army at Shiloh had just finished taking the Hornet’s Nest position in the early evening of April 6 th 1862 when General Benjamin Cheatham ordered the 1 st Mississippi Cavalry north along the Hamburg-Savannah road to pursue any Federals that might have escaped. Near Dill Branch ravine, the Mississippians spied a Federal battery limbered up trying to retreat to the Tennessee River, the 2nd Michigan Battery. Once the Federals saw the pursuing cavalry, they started to deploy.            “The question for us was what shall we do?” Captain Henry W. Foote of the 1st Mississippi remembered. “Charge the battery or retire? Colonel Lindsay was at the time engaged giving orders to another regiment or battalion of cavalry which had been placed under his command. Lieutenant Colonel John H. Miller was at the head of our column, the Noxubee Cavalry having the right and occupying the front. Not a moment was to be ...

      O n the afternoon of May 31, 1862, Co. F of the 11 th Mississippi, the Noxubee Rifles, went into action at the Battle of Seven Pines. As part of General William H.C. Whiting’s division, the Mississippians under the command of Colonel Philip F. Liddell slammed into General John Abercrombie’s brigade of Couch’s division and soon found themselves locked into a hard fight in attempting to charge a Federal battery that raked their lines.           “We were then thrown into line and ordered to charge,” remembered Corporal James D. Feemster. “The battery was half a mile distant and between us and them was a dense wood and a pond of water nearly waist deep covered with bushes and briars so that it was almost impossible to get through it at all.” The Mississippians attack quickly bogged down in the thick brush and briars of the swamp and casualties quickly mounted, Feemster numbering among the wounded. “I was struck just b...

      L ooking back at the situation of the 75th Ohio on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, state historian Whitelaw Reid described it as "very embarrassing." The regiment as part of the 11th Corps had gone into action on Barlow's Knoll the afternoon of July 1st when "the head of Ewell's corps arrived from York and made an effort to get in the rear of Howard. This caused Howard to fall hastily back to the town of Gettysburg, rendering the situation of the 75th very embarrassing as all connection with the brigade was severed and no chance left to receive orders. As a last resort, the regiment fell back though not without adding greatly to its list of killed and wounded."       The 75th Ohio was gutted during the battle with most of the casualties occurring on the first day of the battle. Out of 16 officers, three were killed, six were severely or dangerously wounded, and four more were taken prisoners, in all, 13 out of 16. The enlisted men...

  “We were in the rear of their grand army, or in other words, we had caught McClellan a-napping, got into his stronghold, and were robbing the old man of his goods.”   T he Federal army under General George B. McClellan was closing in on Richmond, Virginia when newly appointed General Robert E. Lee pulled aside his daring cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart and asked him to reconnoiter the Federal right to see if it was vulnerable to attack. Gathering up his command, the Virginian set out at daybreak on June 12, 1862, to fulfill the assignment and in the process performed a feat which made Stuart and his command the talk of the South. One Mississippian who rode with Stuart labeled his famous ride around McClellan’s army as more resembling “Old Jarvy’s ride from the devil than anything I can think of.”           Riding within Stuart’s cavalry column was a battalion of cavalrymen from the Deep South known as the Jeff Davis Legion u...

A bout a week after the battle of Chickamauga, Captain William H. Cunningham of the 24 th Mississippi wrote a letter to his father back home to describe what he experienced in northern Georgia. “We have gained the most decided victory of the war though it was the most obstinate battlefield ever gained,” he wrote. The Mississippian had mistakenly believed that being assigned to General William H.T. “Shot Pouch” Walker’s Reserve Corps would prove a soft snap; quite the opposite proved to be true as the 24 th Mississippi saw action on multiple occasions from September 18 th at Alexander’s Bridge to the closing engagements along the Lafayette Road at the McDonald Farm on the afternoon of September 20 th . “You see we were under fire six times during the engagement, all of which were very heavy,” he wrote. “You will see that we fought by reliefs, but ours being the reserve, we had to open the fight, fight when our time came to relieve, assist the weak points, and close the fight. I sin...