I Hope Bragg Will Break Us Up: Defeat and Discouragement in the 1st Louisiana

In the aftermath of the retreat from Murfreesboro, Sergeant Isaac Wark of the 1st Louisiana Regulars grew discouraged at the misfortunes of the Army of Tennessee. Despite an apparent battlefield victory at Stones River on December 31st, Braxton Bragg and his army evacuated Murfreesboro on the night of January 3rd and took up their line of march to new positions south of the Duck River, seemingly handing a victory over to General William S. Rosecrans and his Army of the Cumberland. The Louisianan lost roughly half of his 255 comrades who went into the fight at Stones River and Wark felt they had precious little to show for the losses sustained.

“I don’t know what they intend to do with us,” he commented to a friend a week later. “We are scarcely a hundred men strong and there don’t seem to be much of a prospect of filling the regiment up. I hope General Bragg will break us up and put us into some other regiment so that we might get clear of these officers. I never had a very good opinion of them at any time but since the fight they have become worse than they ever were. They are as cowardly a set of men as could be found. They were all drunk during the fight and with one or two exceptions could not be seen during any of the heavy fighting. I wish this war would end. I am commencing to get tired of it. I have went through more this last two weeks than I did in the whole of my life.”

This sense of frustration became a common theme in the Army of Tennessee in the days following Stones River. As many of the soldiers viewed it, the failure at Murfreesboro marked the second time in three months that the army seemed to have a won a victory on the field that was thrown away by Braxton Bragg. The men didn't understand why the army retreated and ultimately felt that their sacrifices were wasted. Recriminations between Bragg and his senior subordinates over the exact circumstances that led to Bragg's decision to retreat on January 3rd became increasingly vocal and embarrassingly public, further weakening the already shaky command cohesion in the Army of Tennessee. 

Sergeant Wark’s letter is part of the 1st Louisiana’s regimental files held by the Stones River National Battlefield Park.

 

Confederate infantrymen wore a variety of brass buttons on their jackets ranging from state militia buttons to I (infantry) buttons such as the one above. 

Tullahoma, Tennessee

January 10, 1863

Dear friend,

          This is the first opportunity I have had to write since the fight. Thank God I came out of it unhurt although I was in the hottest of it for five days. I carried the colors of the regiment during the four last days. We were kept very busy while in Murfreesboro, being on the provost marshal’s guard we were on guard every other day and when the Yanks advanced, we were sent to the front. We went into the fight with 24 officers and 231 men and had 87 men killed and wounded besides some 30 missing, supposed to have been taken prisoners. Lieutenants Cenas, Trist, Kent, and Barbarin were killed; Lieutenant Colonel F.H. Farrar was wounded in the side with a shell, supposed to be mortally. Lieutenant Reid, Captain Trezivant, and Lieutenant Perkins were also wounded.

          The Yanks came near finishing the regiment on the evening of the third day. They played us a Yankee trick. We were in a small strip of woods about halfway between our lines and the enemy was on picket duty. And the Yanks wishing to ascertain our positions sent over a flag of truce to recover the body of some officer that had been killed the day before. In the ambulance that accompanied the flag was an artillery officer taking items as we afterwards found to our sorrow. For as soon as they reached their lines, they commenced shelling us at a terrible rate.

One of the first shells struck Lieutenant Colonel Farrar; several of the men were also wounded. During the shelling, a heavy line of battle advanced on us some 6,000-7,000 men strong and was not discovered until within about 30 feet of us. Those that were able got up and dusted or, in military parlance, fell back to the regiments that were supporting us. When they saw us coming back, they immediately broke and ran back to the breastworks with the exception of the 19th Alabama which, along with what was left of ours, held the enemy in check until the 9th and 41st Mississippi advanced and supported us as we drove the Yanks back to their breastworks about midnight.

Louisiana state militia belt buckle

We commenced the work of evacuation and marched the balance of that night and all next day until we reached Shelbyville, a distance of 30 miles. I can tell you we have suffered a great deal during the last two weeks. At present we are acting as provost guard in this place. I don’t know what they intend to do with us. We are scarcely a hundred men strong and there don’t seem to be much of a prospect of filling the regiment up. I hope General Bragg will break us up and put us into some other regiment so that we might get clear of these officers. I never had a very good opinion of them at anytime but since the fight they have become worse than they ever were. They are as cowardly a set of men as could be found. They were all drunk during the fight and with one or two exceptions could not be seen during any of the heavy fighting. I wish this war would end. I am commencing to get tired of it. I have went through more this last two weeks than I did in the whole of my life.

I heard from home sometime before I received your letter. I received a short note from Mr. C.A. Janvier, Mr. McDowell’s partner dated Holly Springs, October 18, 1862 in which he stated that my father and all of the family were well. I was very glad to hear from home and will always be thankful to you for any information which you may send me respecting the family. I was sorry to hear that Ned Wilson met with an accident. Let me know whether he lost his leg or not. He may be better off than if he had been with the regiment as he might have been killed in the fight. Give him my best respects. I am glad to hear that your family is well and hope they remain so while you are away from them. I hope this may find you enjoying good health as it leaves me.

Give my love to father, mother, brothers and sisters, Mrs. Molony and family. Write soon.

 

I remain your friend,

Isaac F. Wark

 

Source:

Letter from Color Sergeant Isaac F. Wark, Co. E, 1st Louisiana Regular Infantry, Stones River National Battlefield Park


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