An act of practical Christianity

After losing both of his legs to amputation at Second Bull Run, Corporal James Tanner of the 87th New York recalled a striking instance of what he called “practical Christianity,” as he lay amongst the wounded and the dying.

The men had gone without food or water for several days and one mortally wounded man, whose name is lost to history, crawled in agony from the tent to a nearby apple tree. Stuffing a half dozen worm-eaten apples that had fallen to the ground into his coat pocket, he crawled back to the tent and gave them to his comrades. It was his final act. Within moments, the man was dead.

“I have often thought that in his last act he exhibited so much of what I consider the purely Christ-like attribute,” Tanner recalled. “What that man’s past life had been, I know not. It may have been wild and his speech may have been rough. I know that he was unkempt, unshaven, his clothes soiled with dirt and stained with blood. Not a picture that you would welcome at first sight into your parlor or to your dinner table.” But in his final moments, he gave a striking example of Christ’s injunction to “love your neighbor.”

Corporal Tanner would be discharged for his wounds October 15, 1862, at Fairfax Seminary but after being fitted with a pair of prostheses, went to work for the War Department as a clerk for Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The night President Lincoln was assassinated, Tanner was summoned to Lincoln's bedside by Stanton and took shorthand notes of what occurred, providing the most comprehensive record of the events of Lincoln's death. After the war, he entered the bar in his home state of New York and became deeply involved with the Grand Army of the Republic, serving as New York State commander from 1876-1878 and national commander in 1905. His account first appeared in Wilbur Hinman’s 1892 tome Camp and Field: Sketches of Army Life Written by Those Who Followed The Flag, ’61-’65.

Corporal James Tanner lost both his legs at Second Bull Run when struck by a piece of shell. His regiment, part of General John C. Robinson's brigade of Phil Kearny's division, went into action on the far right of the Union line that afternoon. 

I was in the 87th New York; we had passed through the campaign of the Peninsula and came from there to join Pope. We had several days of intermittent fighting around Manassas, Bristow, and Catlett’s Station until on the 30th of August we were on the field of Second Bull Run.

Along the afternoon of that day, I was struck with a piece of shell which necessitated the amputation of both of my lower limbs. The operation was performed under fire. My comrades, placing me upon a stretcher, started to carry me off the field. The fortunes of war were against us and it was impossible for them to get me away. They carried me into a house and filled my canteen with water, then bade me goodbye and barely escaped being taken prisoner.

With about 170 others, I lay in that house for 3 or 4 days. Some were lying in the yards. It was on the fourth day that I, with some others, were moved out into the rear and placed into a little tent. Six men lay in the tent and the six men had seven legs amputated. We were lying on a rough board floor with not a rag of clothing on; a thin rubber blanket lay between our bruised and bleeding bodies and the hard floor and a single blanket covered our nakedness. I was especially favored by reason of the fact that I had a piece of board about as long as your arm set up slanting as my pillow.

Corporal James Tanner
Co. C, 87th New York

We were prisoners of war. Our captors had next to nothing to eat themselves and we, if possible, had less than they. The Virginia sun poured down its intense heat. Hunger, thirst, flies, maggots, and all the horrible accompaniments were there. A very few men had been left behind to try and take some sort of care of us, but their numbers were sadly deficient. We lay there one day moaning for water and there was none to bring it to us.

Just at the entrance of our tent lay a poor fellow terribly wounded on the left side. He was a stranger to us and we to him, but it has always seemed to me since that the man was a descendant of the most gallant knights of old. He heard our moans. He could not bring us water but looking over the greensward and out beyond under the trees, he saw there were some worm-eaten apples that had dropped from the branches overhead.

Every movement must have been agony unendurable to that man, yet he clutched at the grass and dragged himself until at last he was in reach of the apples. Picking them from the ground, he placed them in the pocket of his blouse and then, rolling himself around to keep his sound side on the grass, dragged himself back until he lay again at the entrance of our tent. He reached out the apples one by one, and as I lay nearest the entrance, I took them from his hand and passed them along until each one of my unfortunate comrades had one.

This colorized stereograph depicts Federal wounded after the fighting at Savage's Station during the Peninsula Campaign; Corporal Tanner's description of where he lay after amputation closely matches the above scene. 

I had just set my teeth in the last one he had handed me; it tasted sweeter to me than the nectar of the gods. I heard an agonized moan on my right and turning quickly I saw this good Samaritan with his hands clutching, his eyes rolling. He was in the agonies of death. A moment more and it was all over for him on this side of the great river. That is all. I never even knew his name. In some home they may mourn him yet as missing. Perhaps his bones have been gathered up and in one of cemeteries they are interred under the designation “unknown.”

What that man’s past life had been, I know not. It may have been wild and his speech may have been rough. I know that he was unkempt, unshaven, his clothes soiled with dirt and stained with blood. Not a picture that you would welcome at first sight into your parlor or to your dinner table. But this I have often thought that in his last act he exhibited so much of what I consider the purely Christ-like attribute that in the day when you and I shall stand before the just judge, to be judged for what we have been and not for what we may have intended to be, I would much rather take my chances in the place of a man who had so large an idea of practical Christianity than in the place of many more pretentious persons I am acquainted with.

 

Source:

“Corporal Tanner’s Hard Luck: Tells How he Lost Both Feet at the Second Battle of Bull Run,” Corporal James Tanner, Co. C, 87th New York Volunteer Infantry, from Wilbur F. Hinman’s Camp and Field: Sketches of Army Life Written by Those Who Followed The Flag, ’61-’65. Cleveland: N.G. Hamilton Co., 1892, pgs. 316-318

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 t...
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 ...
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 h...
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 Ma...
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 se...
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

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...
Read more

I Want to See a Battle: A Hoosier at Shiloh

Image
W riting in his diary, Private Manius Buchanan of the 29 th Indiana recalled the eagerness with which his regiment marched towards Savannah, Tennessee with the sounds of the battle of Shiloh ringing in their ears.           “The forced march was kept up until 2 p.m. when we were halted until 4 p.m,” he noted. “The rest was really needed, but the continual question is ‘Why are we stopped here?’ The sound of battle increased in volume and anxiety to be up and doing grows more intense. As I am weak from a late sickness, I am urged to fall to the rear; but no, in common with all, I want to see a battle and fear this will be my only chance.” The regiment would go into action the following afternoon, and of the four neighborhood boys who had enlisted together in Co. B, only Buchanan escaped unscathed. One afternoon's exposure to the horrors of battle was all it took to satisfy this Hoosier's desire to see the elephant. “I wanted to see a battl...
Read more

An Interview with Forrest in May 1864

Image
  “The noise of battle is the only music that ravishes the senses of Forrest.” I t was May 1864. Back east, the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac were locked in the deadly dance of the Overland Campaign while in Georgia, General William Tecumseh Sherman's army squared off against General Joseph E. Johnston and the Army of the Tennessee in the campaign for Atlanta.       Based in relatively quiet northern Mississippi, General Nathan Bedford Forrest bided his time waiting for a Federal advance from Memphis. Earlier in the month, General Samuel Sturgis led a brief campaign into Mississippi but Forrest was sure Sturgis would venture out again. In the meantime, he tried to keep his reorganized command intact despite persistent demands from his superiors that he return the absentees and deserters who inflated his ranks (nearly 1,000 in number) to their original commands.      Around this same time,  an old acquaintance from Me...
Read more