A Librarian's First Battle: At Mill Springs with the 2nd Minnesota

     Samuel Pearce Jennison was working as the state librarian of Minnesota in the spring of 1861 when the Civil War began. At the call to arms, he joined the 2nd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry and was commissioned as regimental adjutant reporting to Colonel Horatio P. Van Cleve. The regiment joined the Army of the Ohio in Kentucky in October 1861 and first smelled powder on January 19, 1862 at the Battle of Mill Springs.

    After hurriedly being called into line that morning, the 2nd Minnesota marched to the front. "We got down about three quarters of a mile and formed in line of battle," the former librarian wrote. "While standing in that position, three cannon shots were fired over the line and struck a few rods from us. That showed the fellows were in earnest, previous to which I supposed it was only a feint to alarm us." The Minnesotans approached the line being held by the 10th Indiana and 4th Kentucky intended to relieve them, but when those two regiments fell back, they passed through the ranks of the 2nd Minnesota throwing the regiment into confusion. "Our men, many of them, got mixed up with them, and the line was thrown into momentary confusion. However, in half a minute at most, the danger was all over. Colonel Van Cleve, Colonel George, and myself all were behind that wing and assisted to stop the disaster. Then the men went at their regular work and after about 25 minutes of very hot firing the enemy had enough and retreated."

    Adjutant Jennison's account of Mill Springs first saw publication in the February 7, 1862 edition of the Southbridge Journal in Massachusetts. 

 


Camp Cumberland, near Somerset, Kentucky

January 21, 1862

 

          A little after reveille on Sunday morning, I was dressing in my old company tent when the first sergeant came in saying “Captain, they are going to beat the long roll.” I was just putting on my blouse, so I buckled on my sword, stuffed my revolver into my belt, and was ready. The long roll was now beating and in about five minutes the regiment was in line. The colonel mounted and commanded, “Left face, forward, march!” As soon as my horse could be saddled, I followed, mounting for the first time to go into battle.

          We got down about three quarters of a mile and formed in line of battle. While standing in that position, three cannon shots were fired over the line and struck a few rods from us. That showed the fellows were in earnest, previous to which I supposed it was only a feint to alarm us. Our artillery replied and after a while we were ordered forward to support the 10th Indiana and 4th Kentucky. These regiments had been encamped nearer the enemy than we. They were nearly out of cartridges and just as we approached them, they were ordered to retreat or retire. At the very moment when our right wing received the first fire, some officer of the other regiment (either the 4th Kentucky or 10th Indiana) called out to the men to retreat. Our men, many of them, got mixed up with them, and the line was thrown into momentary confusion. However, in half a minute at most, the danger was all over. Colonel Van Cleve, Colonel George, and myself all were behind that wing and assisted to stop the disaster. Then the men went at their regular work and after about 25 minutes of very hot firing the enemy had enough and retreated.

Adjutant Samuel Pearce Jennison was born May 9, 1830 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and entertained notions of making a living as a professional singer before taking up teaching then the practice of law. He attended Harvard for two years then moved west to Minnesota where he became the state librarian in 1860. He joined the 2nd Minnesota as adjutant in the summer of 1861 and served with the regiment for roughly a year, seeing action at Mill Springs. Jennison would later be promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the 10th Minnesota and would command that regiment for most of the war, sustaining a severe head wound at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864. After the war, he remained active in politics and at one time served as secretary of state and edited the Red Wing Republican newspaper. He retired in 1894 then bought an orange grove in California and moved there in 1898. He operated the citrus orchard until his death in Covina, California on November 30, 1909. 


          We then put ourselves in motion to pursue and followed them in line of battle for the General was bound not to fall into an ambuscade. So we went through woods, over fallen trees, low wet grounds, fences, fields, gardens, dooryards, up and down hills and ravines for six or seven miles when it came on dark. I lay on three rails without anything over the rails or over me and slept not a wink. In the morning, the artillery tried to burn the steamboat lying at the landing on the opposite side of the river, but the Rebels were all over and so burned it themselves. We were then formed and marched into their entrenchments. They had had no time to secure the most necessary articles, nor those light thing which one would be likely to leave last such as miniatures, watches, knives, pistols, letters, etc. I saw fires still smoldering in the fireplaces and took a corncake yet warm from the pan. There was everything which you could find in any camp. There I wrote you the former letter and there I took the commission which I now send you. I lost my revolver and got not a cent worth; T. got a sword and a nice trunk.

          You will see the official report of the battle which I think will show you that the 2nd Minnesota was in a good place, and it will appear that I did my duty. I certainly tried, shunning no unnecessary exposure, and courting no needless danger. I telegraphed you two days ago that I was entirely unhurt which was the case. We have no orders yet to move from here and we may stay a number of days.

 

To learn more about the Battle of Mill Springs, check out the following links:

Nip and Tuck with the 2nd Minnesota at Mill Springs

A Tale of Two Colonels: A Blue & Gray View of Mill Springs

Trembling in Our Very Boots: a Hoosier Describes Mill Springs

The Odyssey of Zollicoffer’s Body

 

Source:

Letter from Adjutant Samuel Pearce Jennison, 2nd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, Southbridge Journal (Massachusetts), February 7, 1862, 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

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