Fighting on Both Sides of the Works: The 20th Ohio and the Battle of Atlanta

          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. 

    At 8 o’clock on the morning of the 22nd, it was reported that the Rebs had evacuated. Our picket officer Lieutenant Abram C. Urquhart [68th Ohio] asked me to go out with him and take a look at the city. So, we went out, passed the Rebel works, and sat gazing at the great city. We could still see some Rebels about town and the young ladies at the seminary were waving white handkerchiefs and had a large sheet hoisted over the building by way of a flag of truce. We looked long and carefully with my fine glass and saw enough to decide us that the town was not evacuated and Urquhart was confident that there was a trap for us somewhere.

          I left my glass with him and returned to report my reconnaissance and was considerably afraid that the trap would not be seen by General Frank Blair [commanding 17th Army Corps]. Had he moved forward as was his first intention, I would have been eating cornbread at Macon now with poor Urquhart instead of being before Atlanta.

Adjutant Henry O. Dwight, 20th O.V.V.I.


          By noon, we had decided that all was right and had discussed as improbable the flank movement which several had thought the Rebs were executing. As we sat at dinner, someone remarked that we had been lucky so far in not losing so many men in this campaign. Just then a shot was fired exactly in our rear, then another, then a volley, and as we sprang to our arms, we heard amid the din of battle the well-known yells which answer the purpose of cheers in the Southern army. Confident that our rear was covered, we formed in our rifle pits facing Atlanta expecting an attack from the front. Soon it became evident that our flank was to be crushed as the yells of the enemy grew nearer and the musket balls and shells began to pass among us. I saw which way the thing was going and led my horse outside the works where I hitched him. Returning, I found the Fourth Division broken and coming back like a flock of sheep followed by the Rebels.

          Colonel Fry and several others of our officers tried to rally the panic-stricken crowd, but not to much avail for at that instant the Rebels came in sight in the woods and commenced a brisk fire upon our brigade as it stood with its back toward the enemy. Our boys were accustomed to wait for orders and so they stood until the order was given to leap the parapet and fire from the outside.

          On came the Rebels at the charge with triumphant shouts waving their insignificant little battle flags on high. A dead silence prevailed along our line. Nearer they came and a long line of gun barrels glistens in the sunlight and at last comes the shout ‘fire!’ and a blinding flash, a vindictive rattle, and the magnificent line of the enemy is gone. Upon the struggling remnants, a constant fire is kept up and we think to ourselves “Bravo” when another volley of bullets comes from behind our backs as a line comes out of the woods from Atlanta.

 

“We had good works and if the Rebs had been compelled to fight us from the front, they would have fought us until doomsday without gaining any advantage.” ~ Captain William W. Updegraff, Co. F, 20th Ohio

 

          Quick as thought, the word is given to leap the parapet again and as they come up on the charge, they are met with a good dose of lead which drives them back once more. Again, we have to jump to the outside of the works to repel another charge from the inside and here Colonel Fry is wounded. The Rebels now come up on our flank at a point where they could rake the left of our regiment as it laid outside the curve of our works, so the left was swung around.

The Ohio History Connection has this set of 20th O.V.V.I. national colors which includes the battle honors for three engagements near Atlanta on July 21st (Bald Hill), July 22nd (Atlanta), and Ezra Church (July 28th). Following the successful conclusion of the Atlanta campaign, the 20th Ohio would march with Sherman through Georgia and the Carolinas before mustering out of service on July 15, 1865. It was one of the longest serving regiments from the state of Ohio. 


          Now thing began to look interesting. They were shooting at us from three sides; our ammunition was nearly out and when I went back to see where I could get some more cartridges, behold the Rebs had possession of the works between us and headquarters so that we were cut off. Of course, all of us went to work gathering cartridges from the bodies of the dead and wounded. A pile of half a dozen boxes of ammunition stood by a big tree midway between us and the Rebels and three of our boys made a charge on the tree. The first one seized two heavy boxes of a thousand rounds each and shouldering them came back in triumph. The second man did likewise but just as the third was bringing in his prize, a Rebel seized him by the nape of the neck and lugged him off into bondage. A Rebel becoming obstreperous and coming too near our works, a little fellow of Co. H reached over and took him by the hair of the head and drew him in out of the wet.

 

“Matt Elliott of Co. F was killed and his brother Robert stood over his body fighting until he had fired every cartridge and he then clubbed his musket and fought until he was literally shot to pieces. The 20th and 78th Ohio were fighting sides by side and their color bearer was shot down. Charley Stevenson of Co. F saw their colors were down, he ran forward, got them, and sticking them in the parapet, called out ‘There 78th, there are your colors, now protect them!’ Several times nothing but the breastworks separated the men; the color bearers of the 20th and some Rebel regiment beat each other over the head with their flag staffs.” ~ Captain William W. Updegraff, Co. F, 20th Ohio

 

          At one time we made a charge and for a few moments we were mixed up pretty thoroughly with a regiment of Rebels who had been bothering us with their impertinent language. Three Rebels were cut down by officers’ sabers. I was in the thick of it, but everybody that I saw wanted to surrender and I found nobody to fight. One big fellow in Co. A knocked down a Rebel with his fist. A Rebel made a grab at our tattered old flag and one of the color guard ran his bayonet through him and threw him over the work. One of our boys took the Rebel flag and tore it in pieces before they could prevent him. Thing continued growing interesting until about 4 p.m. when we had to leap the works a couple of times more and by this time the boys began to beg for cartridges worse than any famished people begged for bread.

Captain William W. Updegraff of Co. F resigned his commission in 1863 but accompanied the 20th Ohio during the engagements at Atlanta with his close friend Lieutenant Colonel John C. Fry.  Updegraff and Fry started a mercantile business in Vicksburg after the siege ended in July and eventually both of their wives joined them in Vicksburg to help run the establishment. It proved to be an ill-fated enterprise, however.  Colonel Fry's 22-year-old wife Mattie J. (Harrison) Fry became ill and died at Vicksburg on November 2, 1863. Captain Updegraff had married Colonel Fry's younger sister Sallie; she, too, had joined her husband at Vicksburg but became ill and passed away  August 9, 1864 in Sidney, Ohio while her husband was away at the front. Both Updegraff and Fry, although young men in their 20s, did not remarry but didn't live terribly long after the war either. Colonel Fry died on December 21, 1872 in Sidney at the age of 33 while Updegraff died of consumption just three months later on March 14, 1873 in Cincinnati at the age of 32. Both men and their wives are buried near one another at Graceland Cemetery in Sidney, Ohio. 


          Things looked dark. Cut off from the rest of the army, we had been fighting for four hours and no help coming yet. Then the Rebs began to pour in canister and shrapnel from the Atlanta side and at last they ran up two pieces of artillery to two of the embrasures on the inside of our breastworks and began to give us canister as we lay on the outside. Just then information came that a gap had been opened for us to retreat through and the order was given to fall back. Falling back about 300 yards brought us to the rest of the division and we formed line again, repulsed three more assaults, and wearied out, slept on our arms all night.

 

“I was captured near dark in the small fort outside the large one which the regiment held all night. They tried to kill me there but did not quite accomplish it. I was hit on the head with the butt of a musket after which I surrendered my sword and scabbard. The sword I threw back into the big fort. I bled quite profusely yet was not hurt much, but had a scandalous black eye for a week or ten days and was sore all over for more than a month.” ~Captain Reuben M. Colby, Co. K, 20th Ohio

 

          Such was the most awful battle I have ever been in and I most heartily pray that I may never see another like it. I never saw such awful slaughter as took place among the Rebels. They literally laid in piles as I went over the ground the next morning. How the Rebel army can withstand such wholesale butchery I cannot see. A Georgia colonel taken prisoner was looking sadly around the field of battle and someone asked him how many men Hood had left. “Oh, about enough for two more such killings,” he replied.

According to Quartermaster John W. Skillen, the 20th Ohio suffered the loss of 33 killed, 46 wounded, and 59 missing during the Battle of Atlanta.

Sources:

Letter from Adjutant Henry O. Dwight, 20th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, New York Times (New York), August 12, 1864, pg. 1

Letter from Captain William W. Updegraff, Co. F, 20th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, Sidney Weekly Journal (Ohio), August 5, 1864, pg. 2

Letter from Captain Reuben M. Colby, Co. K, 20th Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, Sidney Weekly Journal (Ohio), October 28, 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

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

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