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. 

 
First Lieutenant Greenberry Shields of Co. K was among the dozen officers who departed the 17th Indiana regiment over a three week period in December 1861-January 1862. Cos. D, G, and K lost two officers each while all three officers of Co. I resigned. Shields ended up returning to the 17th Indiana later in the year serving as Colonel John Wilder's adjutant but none of the other officers sought service with the regiment again. 


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

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