A Perfect Hailstorm of Lead: The 33rd Massachusetts and Resaca

I was tempted to title this post "A Massachusetts Yankee in Uncle Billy's Army" as one rarely associates Massachusetts troops with the western theater. Most troops from the state of Massachusetts served in the eastern theater, although a few saw action in Louisiana in 1862 and quite a few more took part in General Nathaniel Banks' campaign against Port Hudson in the spring and summer of 1863. But Massachusetts men with Uncle Billy Sherman's army? 

    Well, there were two Massachusetts regiments along for the Atlanta campaign, both serving in Joseph Hooker's 20th Army Corps. The storied 2nd Massachusetts, veterans of fighting in the Shenandoah Valley, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, once had a captain within its ranks named Robert Gould Shaw who went on to immortality leading the 54th Massachusetts against Battery Wagner in Charleston Harbor. 

    The other regiment, the subject of today's post, was the 33rd Massachusetts. They, too, had fought at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg but as members of the 11th Army Corps which was considerably roughed up in both engagements. The 33rd, however, escaped heavy loss but took a major part in the fighting at Wauhatchie, Tennessee in late October 1863 where it lost 35 killed, 58 wounded, and 1 missing in that rare nighttime battle. The following spring, the 33rd marched out of Chattanooga as part of General Daniel Butterfield's Third Division of the 20th Corps and on May 15, 1864 took part in their first engagement of the Atlanta campaign during the Battle of Resaca. 

    Private John Dineen, a 19-year-old Irish-born apprentice from Lawrence, Massachusetts then serving in Co. G, later penned this short reminiscence of what proved to be one of the toughest engagements of the campaign for the 33rd Massachusetts. The article first appeared in the June 10, 1909 edition of the National Tribune. 



 On the morning of May 15, 1864, the Third Division of the 20th Army Corps commanded by General Dan Butterfield took the line of march down what I believe was the Dalton Road. There was a very high ridge to our right which ran parallel with the road. Then we came to a road which intercepted the road on which we were marching and here we turned and halted in columns by regiments, that is, our brigade did.

    We rested about 40 minutes when the head of the column began to move right and left or otherwise deploying. Of course, the ball was opened in a few minutes. As our boys began to descend the ridge, the Johnnies opened on them but up we went, charging and driving the Rebels before us and as General Alpheus Williams said, it was a race between our division and Williams’ division. Up we went over the first ridge, down and up the other ridge, where we drove the Rebels into their main line of breastworks.

But we never got over their main works as the Johnnies were too much for us. I never saw men fall so fast. There was a perfect hailstorm of lead and what’s more, bullets came in every direction. I was left alone. The last man that was shot near me was our orderly sergeant. One incident struck my attention and I could not help smiling. Comrade Hapgood was on my left. I saw him fall and, looking at me, he yelled out, “Jack, they’ve got one of my legs” and in another moment he added “Yes, I’ll be damned if they haven’t got the other one.”

Private Erastus Bartlett
Co. A, 33rd Massachusetts

When Orderly Sergeant Paine fell, I looked around and saw the regiment a few rods to my left firing for all they were worth, so I fell back to the line. One of the boys told me my bunkmate was wounded and calling for me. This made me feel mighty bad as we were like brothers and enlisted together. When the firing ceased, I ran back to the rear to find my comrade and help him out, but coming across another line in our rear, I came to the conclusion that the wounded had been picked up and perhaps my comrade was all right. I then went back to the regiment where the boys were holding their own. The line in our rear was part of Geary’s White Star division.

The firing had now ceased altogether with only an occasional shot, Colonel Wood passing down the word to cease firing. On or about 3 o’clock we heard a yell in our rear when up came a regiment of the Second Division on a charge, trying to do something we could not do- take the Rebel breastworks and capture the whole outfit. One brave fellow yelled, “Come on boys, let’s show them what the White Stars can do!” Poor fellow, those were the last words he uttered for the Rebels poured volley after volley into them and the White Stars ended their charge by falling over us.

This uncalled-for dash caused our regiment to lose a great many more than we would have if it had not occurred. Comrades Charley Austin and Robinson were standing with me when the White Stars came up. I don’t remember the regiment but think it was one from New York. Their major or colonel (I took him for a major as he was on the left of the line) when he saw how first his men were falling said, “This is no place for men,” and turning to us who were near him he said, “Fall back, boys.” Charley told him we did not belong to his command and that we took the ground and were going to try and hold it.

Now this is where General Geary says that Butterfield’s division was relieved and went on the reserve, and no doubt Geary thought so. I believe that the line that came up to us was sent there to relieve us but misunderstood the order. Anyway, they fell back and the three brigades of Butterfield’s division held the ground until dusk between 6 and 7 p.m. If we did not go over the Rebel breastworks, we gained our point for the Rebels retreated that night and next morning we went over their works on a chase after them. Our loss in the regiment was 56 killed and wounded.

Source:

“The Battle of Resaca: A Hot Time for Butterfield’s Division,” Private John Dineen, Co. G, 33rd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, National Tribune, June 10, 1909, pg. 7

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