Murdered by General Buell: A Wisconsin Soldier on Perryville

Suffering from a pair of wounds sustained during the Battle of Perryville, Private David J. Ryan of the 21st Wisconsin held one man responsible for his calamity: his commanding officer General Don Carlos Buell. 

    "General Buell is responsible before God and man for the slaughter of our troops in the late battle," Ryan charged. "He was in full hearing of the cannonading of the fight all day long and never sent a man to reinforce us. Everyone of the 500 dead of Perryville should have marked on his headboard, “Murdered by General Buell!” 

    The 21 year old soldier, the youngest of five brothers, recounted his experiences of the battle to his parents back home in Appleton, Wisconsin. Ryan's father, Colonel Samuel Ryan, shared the letters with his son Francis A. Ryan, editor of the Appleton Motor newspaper who published them in his columns. 

 

This detailed view of Alfred E. Mathews' color lithograph published by Middleton, Strobridge, and Co. in Cincinnati depicts the men of  the 21st Wisconsin in their engagement in the cornfield behind Bald Knob at Perryville on October 8, 1862. "It was a very ticklish position," recalled Private David Ryan. "If we arose, we would be in danger of being shot from behind and the cursed Rebels were shooting at us in front like a parcel of devils." The Wisconsin soldier would be wounded twice in the fighting, first through the arm and finally through the hip, a wound that "settled me for that day's battle." Visitors today can walk this very ground at the Perryville State Battlefield, the cornfield being just a short walk from the visitor's center. 
(The Huntington Library)

Perryville, Kentucky

October 20, 1862

Dear parents,

          On the day of the battle, we were marched to the edge of a cornfield at the foot of a hill with a battery (Stone’s I believe) right behind us. We were then placed in line and ordered to lie flat on our faces while the battery poured shell and canister over us into the Rebels who were advancing on us. It was a very ticklish position; if we arose, we would be in danger of being shot from behind, and the cursed Rebels were shooting at us in front like a parcel of devils, sending a perfect hailstorm of bullets of shell into poor us, thinning our ranks considerably.

          The battery dosed them with iron pills until they were about 40 yards from us, when we were ordered to rise and fire, which we did, sending many Rebels home. By order, we fell back to a fence and fired again. The regiment retired in good order. I remained behind to get a good shot at the enemy who seemed to be not over 20 yards from me. I fired and received a flesh wound in the left arm at the same time. I did not mind that, but loaded, fell back a few paces where the 1st Wisconsin was stationed and fired once more. I was struck in the hip by a ball just after I had fired and that settled me for that day’s battle.

          Appleton Motor proudly reported that “when the 21st was ordered to fall back and give place to the 1st Wisconsin, the brave boy [Ryan] at once placed himself in the thinned ranks of the latter regiment, determined not to retreat. This unconquerable valor won him his glorious wounds!”

 

          I managed to crawl back a short distance but the balls fell around me nearly as thick as they did on the battlefield. A couple of men happened to come along just then while another helped me to a building which was converted into a hospital. By the time I got there, the building was full of wounded and the yard was nearly full also. I had to lie outside all that cold night with nothing over me except a thin shirt and pants, having lost my coat and blanket on the battlefield.

          I was moved the next day in an ambulance over an awful rough road to a church about two miles off. That was full also, and I had to lie outside again. A young man in our regiment gathered what wounded he could find and placed us in a shady spot. He also washed our wounds there being no doctor near us. I was out that night with no more protection than the first night.

          The next day, an old man (himself unwell) from our regiment cared for us and continued to do so until we came here. He is still with us- his son was wounded in both legs, not bones broken, however. We lived in the open air, suffering a good deal of pain until the 15th when we were moved by ambulance to this place. The road was horrible and the trip nearly killed us. Captain Nelson has been to see me every day since I arrived; he is very kind, offering to do anything for me I desired. I expect to be furloughed and come home in about two weeks to recuperate my strength for another campaign.

 


          Two weeks later, David Bryan remained in the hospital at Perryville. His local newspaper the Appleton Motor reported in their November 13, 1862, issue that “he is getting on well with wounds less painful, eats as much as he ever did when well, and has the best of treatment. One of the best surgeons in Kentucky is in charge of the hospital [No. 10] and he thinks he will not be able to come home for at least a month. He will not attempt it until he is satisfied that he can stand the fatigue. Drs. Fuller and Wolcott of Milwaukee and Lieutenant Colonel Harrison Hobart has been in to see the men. Dr. Fuller visited them daily and was the only surgeon they had seen since the battle. Too many army surgeons care for little besides drawing their pay and experimenting on the sick and wounded, including the needless cutting off of limbs.”

The villain of Perryville?
Ryan thought so...

          “Mr. Secesh didn’t get me this time!” Bryan noted. “David says he only wants a chance to pay back that last wound, the first one having been cancelled by the dropping of a Secesh color bearer. The Rebels suffered terribly and lay four deep in some places. If Buell had come up with his division as he ought to, they would have captured the whole Rebel army. There is an intense feeling of bitterness against Buell throughout the whole army and David has never heard anyone speak a good word of him.”

          “The Secesh stripped the people throughout the region of about everything they had and what they could not carry off, they destroyed,” the newspaper continued. “After the battle, they stripped the dead of their clothes and money. They treated our wounded well, however, giving them water and blankets. General Buell is responsible before God and man for the slaughter of our troops in the late battle. He was in full hearing of the cannonading of the fight all day long and never sent a man to reinforce us. Everyone of the 500 dead of Perryville should have marked on his headboard, “Murdered by General Buell!”

          Private Ryan would eventually be discharged for his wounds on March 21, 1863, and returned home to Appleton, Wisconsin. He later enlisted as a corporal in Co. D of the 41st Wisconsin in September 1864 and served with that regiment through the rest of the war.  Returning home in 1865, he worked for many years as bookkeeper for Sym & Co., barrel stave manufacturers at Menasha and Appleton, retiring from the business in the fall of 1916. Never married, Ryan was active in the Knights Templar, Odd Fellows, and was a member of the George Eggleston Post G.A.R. In January 1917, he moved into the state veterans’ home at Waupaca and only resided there three weeks before succumbing to heart failure on January 28, 1917, aged 76. He is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Appleton, Wisconsin.

        To read more about the Battle of Perryville, please check out these posts:

"Come, my dear husband, this is no place for us!"

"The Solemn Realities of War: A Hoosier Greenhorn Sees the Elephant at Perryville"

"With the 1st Wisconsin at Chaplin Hills"

"A Mississippi Gunner at Perryville"

"Losing Colonel Webster: The 98th Ohio at Perryville" 

Sources:

Letters from Private David Johnston Ryan, Co. I, 21st Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, Volume 6, Quiner Scrapbooks, Wisconsin Historical Society (the letter was originally published in the November 6, 1862, edition of the Appleton Motor, also called the Appleton Post)

“David J. Ryan, Co. I, 21st,” Appleton Motor (Wisconsin), October 30, 1862, pg. 2

“Sudden Death of David J. Ryan,” Appleton Evening Crescent (Wisconsin), January 29, 1917, pg. 1

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