We had to run but we saved the army: With the Ohio National Guardsmen at Monocacy

“It seldom falls to the lot of veterans to be more tried than was the Ohio National Guard at the stone bridge, and none ever carried our trying and hazardous orders betters or with a more determined spirit than did the 149th Ohio and the men associated with it.” ~ Brigadier General Erastus B. Tyler on the Battle of Monocacy

          Little was expected of the ten companies of recently federalized Ohio National Guardsmen when they went into action at the Battle of Monocacy on July 9, 1864. General Lew Wallace tasked the Buckeyes with holding the Jug Bridge east of Frederick. This bridge carried the National Road over the Monocacy River, constituting the army’s retreat route to Baltimore. Wallace expected his opponent, General Jubal Early, to push south of Frederick to head for the nation’s capital, which meant that the Buckeyes should have a quiet assignment, but it didn’t turn out that way.

While the main fighting would take place far to the south near Monocacy Junction, the 660 Buckeyes under the command of Colonel Allison L. Brown spent the morning and afternoon skirmishing with two brigades of Confederate troops. But by 4 o’clock that afternoon, Wallace’s two brigades of Sixth Corps veterans were scrambling off the field and Wallace tasked the Ohioans with covering the retreat of the army.

Recently, a hitherto untapped account of the fighting at Jug Bridge was discovered residing within the pages of the Clinton Republican newspaper from Wilmington, Ohio. Written by an unknown member of Co. G of the 149th Ohio, this letter provides some interesting details of the fight and the retreat at Monocacy.

 

This turn-of-the-century postcard view depicts the grounds over which the Ohio National Guardsmen fought during the Battle of Monocacy. The Jug Bridge in the foreground carries the National Road over Monocacy River while Reich's Ridge rises in the background. On the right of the road in the dim distance is Reich House where Co. G of the 149th deployed across the road and built a barricade of rails for defense while the balance of the 149th deployed to their right. The three companies of the 144th Ohio took position in the open fields to the left of the National Road. At the close of the fight, the Ohioans retreated over the bridge and many were captured along the National Road right where this image was made. The Jug Bridge collapsed into the Monocacy in March 1942 and today, only the crumbling abutments of the bridge still exist at the site, the span being replaced by a modern structure which carries US-40 over the river. The "jug" itself was also preserved, but has been moved out by the Frederick Municipal Airport. 

          We left Camp Parole [Annapolis, Maryland] on July 7th and arrived at Monocacy Junction July 7th at noon. We then marched to Frederick City and that night we passed through the city and on Friday morning to the north side we formed a line of battle about one-half mile from the city and remained there till about 2 o’clock. Our force consisted of seven companies of the 149th Ohio and three companies of the 144th Ohio. We then retreated to the south side of the city and took up a position on the Baltimore Pike on the south side of the Monocacy River with orders to hold the stone bridge across aid river.

          The balance of General Wallace’s forces marched to the Junction, three miles to our left rear early Saturday. Captain Joshua Hussey’s company was sent down to the bridge on guard and also advanced a squad of pickets upon the ridge between the ridge and the city. In about an hour the pickets were fired on by the Johnnies. Our company immediately advanced and deployed as skirmishers. The Johnnies also advanced. Colonel [Allison] Brown ordered up from companies to our support until our whole force was engaged.

Colonel Allison L. Brown, 149th Ohio Volunteer Infantry

Our company made breastworks of rails across the turnpike while the other companies deployed to our right and left. By this time, the action had become general at the Junction, our army contending against four times our numbers. The fight continued till 4 o’clock in the evening, when General Wallace retreated from the Junction, at the same time sending orders to our regiment to hold the bridge at all hazards.

 “We fought them and kept them back two hours after the main body of our men had retreated. They beat our men back at the Junction, came round, flanked us on the left, and tried to cut us off from the bridge. But we gained it by hard running. They poured a volley crossfire upon us as we went across the bridge. They did not hit many but I tell you the balls flew like hail around us.” ~ Private Henry C. Johnson, Co. K, 149th Ohio

 

“Company E covered the retreat. We had not got to the river when the Rebels had crossed the bridge and got on our flank and rear, firing on us from every direction. We held them for a few minutes until most of the regiment crossed the bridge and passed us. We started on the double quick, the Rebs still pouring it into us from every point. When the Rebel crew charged on us, we broke for a wheat field where I laid until dark when I started for Baltimore. The adjutant told us that if it hadn’t been for Co. E, the whole regiment would have been lost.” ~ Private John Earl, Co. E, 149th Ohio

We continued to fight the whole Rebel army for two hours longer until the whole of the army was safe, except our regiment. At 6 o’clock the Rebels had gotten in our rear and on both flanks, very heavy on our left but light on the right. We then retreated under a galling fire in front and on the left, and after we crossed the bridge, a severe fire opened for half a mile along the left of the pike. We ran the gauntlet with very little loss save our prisoners, our company only losing two men wounded. All day, the regiment lost only 7 killed and 10 wounded, but we lost about 100 prisoners, our company losing about 17 of them. So, we had to run, but we saved the army and all the regiment save what is named above.

 

For more about Monocacy, please check out the following posts:

“The 144th and 149th Ohio at the Battle of Monocacy”

“Buckeyes Along the Monocacy”

“Taking a Bullet and Finding a Wife at Monocacy”

 

Sources:

Letter from unknown member of Co. G, 149th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Clinton Republican (Ohio), August 12, 1864, pg. 2

Letter from Private John Earl, Co. E, 149th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Weekly Scioto Gazette (Ohio), July 19, 1864, pg. 2

Letter from Private Henry C. Johnson, Co. K, 149th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Johnson Family Papers, 1861-1864, VFM 4832, Ohio History Connection

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