Bullets were Flying Rather Fast: The 78th Pennsylvania and Pickett’s Mill

Pinned down by a torrent of Confederate fire at Pickett’s Mill, the 78th Pennsylvania split into two wings and fought independently, one portion staying on the field after the rest of the brigade retreated. The combat was close, fierce, and deadly.

“We reserved our fire until they came within 15 yards of our line and we again opened a deadly fire on their advancing columns and cut them down like grass,” one soldier recalled. “Some of them had as many as five bullets through them. We repulsed them and drove them back, the left wing of our regiment following them up, leaving the right of our regiment in its old position. We advanced about 30 yards to an old fence but there we had to stop and could advance no further, nor could we fall back so we had to lay under cover of the fence. We were under the fire of 500 muskets and they would have cut us to pieces if we had tried to fall back.”

This account of Pickett’s Mill, penned by a soldier of the 78th Pennsylvania who signed his name simply as M, first saw publication in the July 13, 1864, edition of the American Citizen published in Butler, Pennsylvania. The 78th Pennsylvania was part of Colonel Benjamin Scribner's Third Brigade of General Richard Johnson's First Division of the 14th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland during this engagement. 

 

Four soldiers from the 78th Pennsylvania pose atop Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga in early 1864. The western Pennsylvanians had served with the Army of the Cumberland and its predecessors from the beginning of their service in 1861, winning a high reputation for their actions at Stones River. The regiment missed serious action at both Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge but took their full measure of combat at Pickett's Mill. 

Chattanooga, Tennessee

July 1, 1864

          On the 27th of May, our division had orders to march with General Howard’s corps (IV) as a support; we took up our line of march early in the morning and kept on marching to the left. We marched all day till 5 p.m. when we got orders to form a line of battle at the double quick. Our division formed on the left of the 4th Corps, our brigade on the left of our division, and our regiment on the left center of our brigade.

We got our line formed in time to receive the advancing columns of the enemy who made their first onslaught on the right wing. They succeeded in driving it and flanking us; some say we were ordered to fall back, but we had our minds made up to hold our position or die in the attempt. On came the advancing columns of the Southern foes driving our skirmishers, they then came for our lines three lines deep.

We reserved our fire until they came within 15 yards of our line and we again opened a deadly fire on their advancing columns and cut them down like grass. Some of them had as many as five bullets through them. We repulsed them and drove them back, the left wing of our regiment following them up, leaving the right of our regiment in its old position.

We advanced about 30 yards to an old fence but there we had to stop and could advance no further, nor could we fall back so we had to lay under cover of the fence. We were under the fire of 500 muskets and they would have cut us to pieces if we had tried to fall back.

Private Dallas Thompson
Co. H, 78th Pennsylvania

In the meantime, the brigade got orders to fall back without giving us any notice of it. I presume they could get no orders to us as the bullets were flying rather fast. The entire line fell back one mile, leaving us on the field without any support. Four companies of our regiment remained on the field: Cos E, B, K, and G. The right of the regiment fell back with the brigade as they were ordered.

We lay on the field of blood and slaughter in a very peculiar position. Some of the boys say we had no officers with us; they might have been there someplace but I could not see them. All of our line officers did well, I will say that for them, but all the orders we received we got direct from our gallant Colonel Billy Sirwell. On the 27th of May he nobly gained a star which I hope to see him wear ere long.

After dark, Colonel Sirwell formed us into order and had us throw up some rails as breastworks and we awaited orders. The colonel told us we lay there without any support and we had to do the best we could. We held the field until 1 o’clock that night then crept slyly away and joined our brigade after daylight. The 78th Pennsylvania covered themselves with glory on that day; they’ve done honor to the state, likewise to their country.

Source:

Letter from M., 78th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, American Citizen (Butler, Pennsylvania), July 13, 1864, 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 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

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

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

Globules of Adipose Pomposity: Top 11 Worst Buckeye Colonels of the Civil War

Image
Ohio Colonels in the Civil War "They weren't all heroes."      It stands to reason that somewhere in the over 200 regimental-sized organizations that Ohio fielded during the war, a bad apple or two would end up in command. Today's article tackles this admittedly sensitive subject with a top 11 list of Buckeye colonels  who exited the service under less than honorable circumstances during the Civil War. It's a list of cowards, drunks, incompetents, and outright scoundrels whose record adds color (or rather off color) to Ohio's history in the Civil War and is "history that deserves to be remembered."       They are presented in the rough chronological order of their exit from the service. 
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 at the outset of the
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