Like a Reed Before the Whirlwind: With Baird's Division at Chickamauga

A week after Chickamauga, the shock of the defeat left officers like Captain Burr H. Polk of General Absalom Baird's staff in stunned disbelief. "Our little army, like the reed after the whirlwind, is still trembling from the tremendous shock it received in the late battle," he wrote. "Everyone moves and acts as though he was just recovering from a severe blow. It was so unusual for this army to be whipped that we can scarcely yet realize that we have met with disaster."

    Baird's division of the 14th Army Corps certainly took it on the chin in two days of hard fighting. "Our division alone lost in the entire engagement 2,350 men, nearly half its effective force," Polk continued. "Many of these are wounded and prisoners. When we were driven it was always with such rapidity that we could not carry off our dead and wounded. A battle is a very terrible thing. Perhaps no battle of the war has been as desperate as the one just fought. Generals who were at Corinth, Perryville, and Stones River say none of them will compare with the Battle of Chickamauga. The Rebel prisoners taken who were at Gettysburg say this exceeded that battle in its fury and destruction and that if the Potomac army fought as our did, Lee would have been crushed long ago."

    Polk's account of Chickamauga first saw publication in the October 10, 1863, edition of the Princeton Clarion-Ledger of Princeton, Indiana. 


Captain Burr Harrison Polk of Indiana served as assistant adjutant general on Brigadier General Absalom Baird's staff during the Chickamauga campaign after prior service in the 33rd Indiana Volunteer Infantry. General Baird had temporary command of the First Division of the 14th Army Corps while Major General Lovell H. Rousseau was on leave. In the general command shakeup after Chickamauga and Rosecrans' removal, Baird was reassigned to the Third Division of the 14th Corps replacing General John Brannan who became the Army of the Cumberland's chief of artillery. Polk would be promoted to the rank of major on April 20, 1864 then receive a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in 1865. This fine signed CDV of Polk is backmarked as being from Morse's Gallery of the Cumberland in Nashville, Tennessee.

Chattanooga, Tennessee

September 27, 1863

          Our little army, like the reed after the whirlwind, is still trembling from the tremendous shock it received in the late battle. Everyone moves and acts as though he was just recovering from a severe blow. It was so unusual for this army to be whipped that we can scarcely yet realize that we have met with disaster. But we become convinced when we look at our decimated ranks and call the rolls. Many brave and good officers and soldiers fell either killed or wounded. The wounded in our own hospitals will number perhaps 4,000 while a larger number perhaps fell into the hands of the enemy.

          There is every reason to believe that we fought a force double that of ours. They could attack our entire line at the same time bringing a force upon either flank and have a heavy reserve. We never drove far upon any part of the line before we reached their reserve column and were in turn driven, in many instances, with the loss of guns and caissons. In the fight on Saturday, the Regular battery belong to the brigade of Regulars [Battery H, 5th U.S.] in General Baird’s division, in going through the thick woods, got behind its brigade and was chased by a heavy column of the enemy. I rode to it and tried to have it pull in rear of another brigade. The brigade was ordered off and the battery took off in a sweeping gallop. They got up with the main line, unlimbered, and fired four rounds of canister when the Rebels walked over them like an avalanche, killing every officer but one and over half the men. The shots flew like a hailstorm. I have to thank my little horse for my own present safety. The troops drawn up on this line were in 15 minutes swept away.

Brigadier General Absalom Baird, First Division, 14th A.C.

          The principal action began on Saturday morning with General Brannan’s and Baird’s divisions of Thomas’s corps and throughout both days fight these two divisions sustained the brunt of the battle. On Saturday night our division was assaulted by a heavy column while from three batteries the enemy played upon us with shell and canister. The shells screamed and hissed through the air, tearing through the trees and bursting around and among the troops. It was terrible beyond description. In the night and in the woods, the very earth trembled under the shock. Not knowing where to go or how to move, nothing could have so terrified and bewildered the men. In this attack 60 horses of the 4th Indiana Battery were killed. But the line never wavered and slept or laid down under the very muzzles of the enemy guns.

          Our division alone lost in the entire engagement 2,350 men, nearly half its effective force. Many of these are wounded and prisoners. When we were driven it was always with such rapidity that we could not carry off our dead and wounded. A battle is a very terrible thing. No one desire to witness one or to be engaged in it. A man’s life hangs on a very slender thread and careless as he may become under the confusion and excitement, he trembles for days after it is over.

An indispensable part of any staff officer's equipment was a good pair of field glasses. The best binoculars were European made, French-made examples being particularly prized for the clear optics and solid construction that withstood hard use in the field. (Union Drummer Boy)

          Perhaps no battle of the war has been as desperate as the one just fought. Generals who were at Corinth, Perryville, and Stones River say none of them will compare with the Battle of Chickamauga. The Rebel prisoners taken who were at Gettysburg say this exceeded that battle in its fury and destruction and that if the Potomac army fought as our did, Lee would have been crushed long ago. We took prisoners men who had only been a day and a half from the Potomac army. I presume we fought nearly one half of the Rebel army.

          We are now strongly entrenched in this place. The enemy are in plain view while the pickets are in speaking distance. Every day we have more or less firing and very frequently away in the night. Our reveille and tattoo are the roar of the cannon. Of sleep we have but little and that very irregularly. It is hard to guess what is going to be done. General Lovell Rousseau has come back and assumed command of his old division, thus relieving General Baird. I do not know where he will go or where I will go; I have my eye on a place. But Uncle Sam orders and his boys obey. I await the order.

          We have heard a great deal about reinforcements- they may be coming, but so is Christmas and the end of the world. Much has been said about Burnside. We are about ready to believe no such man lives.

Source:

Letter from Captain Burr Harrison Polk, 33rd Indiana Infantry serving as assistant adjutant general to Brigadier General Absalom Baird, First Division, 14th Army Corps, Princeton Clarion (Indiana), October 10, 1863, pg. 2

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