Blowing Away the Chaff: Clearing the Incompetents from the 17th Indiana
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 these officers when they found the board was coming," he wrote with scarcely disguised glee. "Anxiety was soon depicted upon their countenances. Some suddenly became unwell and were compelled to resign on account of ill health. Others learned their business was now deranged at home that they were compelled to resign on account of their private affairs. No one resigned on account of being incompetent, yet in a few days 11 out of 30 commissioned officers left us so that the Board was saved the trouble of ousting them. The regiment has shed its dead limbs so they found none to lop off. The Indian daily cut a piece of his dog’s tail off until it was sufficiently curtailed to suit him, so our regiment was gradually freed of its honorary (some pronounced it ornery) officers."
Napoleon Risinger was a regular correspondent with the Princeton Clarion in the early years of the war until he was discharged for disability in April 1863; his regular missives are spicy, chatty, and superb reading. This particular letter, one of his earliest published, was featured in the March 8, 1862 edition of the Clarion.
Camp Glenbrook, Kentucky
February 15, 1862
In looking over the columns of that able sheet the Sullivan Democrat published at the residence of Captain Maston and Lieutenants Coulson and Silvers, I find an item so new, so novel and racy, that I wish to give it further publicity. It will be borne in mind that the Jeffersonian (joke of Jefferson) emanates from Captain Allison’s residence and was lately edited by the captain. The fox that got his tail bit off by a steel trap, as the fable goes, persuaded his companion foxes that long tails were inconvenient and short ones more beautiful. So, to excuse their action in resigning, these ex-captains and lieutenants have rushed into print. The clause above alluded to which we now give evidence emanates from one of them:
“A Regiment Busted Up: A correspondent of the Franklin Jeffersonian says that Lieutenants [Uriah] Coulson, [Thomas B.] Silvers, [Hiram J.] Daniels, [William S.] Berry, and [Greenberry F.] Shields, Captains [Robert C.] Reid, [John] Mastin, Kloene, [Peter A.] Huffman, and Allison, and Surgeon [John Y.] Hitt of the 17th, Colonel Hascall’s regiment, have resigned. These resignations we understand to be chiefly owing to the estimation in which Lieutenant Colonel John Wilder is held by the regiment. That officer is presumed to have cousins enough to officer the whole regiment in case those remaining resign.” ~ Sullivan Democrat, February 7, 1862
This item of
history in some of the backwoods districts of Indiana may excuse these ex-officers,
but among the reading community at home and here in the regiment it only
provokes a smile. The 17th, like all of the first Indiana regiments,
was organized ex necessitate, on the spur of the moment, and little care was taken
in selecting officers. Many good men were chosen who have given their whole
attention to their commands and are now among the best officers in the service.
Others came with the army for the pay on account of the novelty and excitement
or came because others came. This latter class came not for the good of the
service and have proved to be only a curse to it.
They continue
to drag their slow length along, at times on duty, and again playing sick. Now
loafing about headquarters where their room was more desired than their
society, and now stopping around the sutlers where whiskey is generally as
plenty for officers as water. Such was their condition until General Buell a
few weeks ago sent an Army Board to the different regiments of his command to
sift out incompetent officers.
General Don Carlos Buell |
A swarm of bees appear not
busier when a stick is thrust into their hive than did these officers when they
found the board was coming. Anxiety was soon depicted upon their countenances.
Some suddenly became unwell and were compelled to resign on account of ill
health. Others learned their business was now deranged at home that they were
compelled to resign on account of their private affairs. No one resigned on
account of being incompetent, yet in a few days 12 out of 30 commissioned
officers left us so that the Board was saved the trouble of ousting them. The
regiment has shed its dead limbs so they found none to lop off. The Indian
daily cut a piece of his dog’s tail off until it was sufficiently curtailed to
suit him, so our regiment was gradually freed of its honorary (some pronounced
it ornery) officers.
Two or three
of the officers alluded to were compelled to resign as they knew they had to
quit the regiment and preferred resigning to be cashiered and mustered out of
service, as by so doing they could save the mortification and disgrace of such
a procedure. The philosopher who said that an army of jackasses with a lion for
a leader was more effective than an army of lions with a jackass in command
expressed a military truism that General Buell appreciated. He well knew that
our intelligent citizen soldiery now in the field are truly an army of lions
and he determined that lions shall lead them and that jackass officers should
no longer be a curse to the service.
As the wicked
flee when no man pursues, so these incompetent officers were out of the service
before the Board visited the regiment. These fellows may be brave enough but
perhaps they think that he who fights and runs away, will live to fight another
day. But he who is in battle slain, will never live to fight again.
The vacancies
made by the exit of these fellows have generally been filled by a much superior
class of men. Every company has a captain who is able to transact the business
of his company as well as to drill it correctly. Before the changes, the
officers were continually being arrested for ignorance or neglect of duty and
those who were efficient suffered from the misdoings of the incompetents. Since
the changes, the commanding general has been well pleased with the regiment and
has complimented it frequently. Instead of the regiment being busted up, it is
now in the most flourishing condition and can muster as many men for duty and
has few sick nor has lost a man to death since November.
Colonel John T. Wilder, 17th Indiana |
To know the
estimation in which Lieutenant Colonel Wilder is held by the regiment, you have
only to ask any officer or soldier belonging to the regiment and you will learn
that a kinder and better officer is not in the service. When he finds a vacancy
in the regiment, he spares no pains to have it filled by the best man that can
be procured. He has a father’s care over the men and every soldier knows that if
he is wronged, he has only to let Wilder know it and it will be righted.
The effort of these ex-officers in creating such impressions as that the 17th Indiana is “busted up” will only recoil on their own silly heads. We have been now eight months in the service and have the same colonel, lieutenant colonel, major, and adjutant we started with yet with us. Our regiment has seen hard service- went through the hardships of the campaign in western Virginia and when winter came, instead of going into winter quarters, we were transported to Kentucky. The regiment is still in the tented field and while I write it is doing duty at camp and has pickets as much as four miles from camp on duty day and night without fire, although the weather is extremely cold and the ground covered with snow three inches deep. It is cold comfort for soldiers and officers in such times as these amid such hardships to receive a paper from home announcing our regiment as “busted up.”
The "Dirty" Dozen
Captain Robert C. Reid, Co. G December 23, 1861
First Lt. Robert S. Kane, Co. D December 27, 1861
Second Lt. Hiram J. Daniels, Co. G January 1, 1862
Captain John Mastin, Co. I January
3, 1862
Captain Julius C. Kloenne, Co. K January 5, 1862*
Captain George W. Allison, Co. D January 9, 1862
Second Lt. William S. Berry, Co. H January 14, 1862
First Lt. Uriah Coulson, Co. I January 14, 1862
Second Lt. Thomas B. Silvers, Co. I January 14, 1862
First Lt. Greenberry F. Shields, Co. K January 14, 1862
Surgeon John Y. Hitt January
17, 1862
Captain Peter A. Huffman, Co. B January 17, 1862
*Cashiered
Source:
Letter from Private Napoleon B. Risinger, Co. H, 17th
Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Princeton Clarion (Indiana), March 8, 1862,
pg. 1
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