Kept Step to the Music of the Cannons: Captain Merrill leads his Hoosiers into Fort Donelson

Captain George W. Merrill, leading Co. F of the 44th Indiana, described his regiment’s role in the capture of Fort Donelson, Tennessee in February 1862.

“Our regiment with the 11th Indiana and 8th Missouri were the last in the fight and the first into the fort after it surrendered,” he wrote. “My company had the honor of going into the fort at the head of the column, but you may believe it was rather ticklish for a regiment alone to march down where there were 10,000-12,000 Rebels yet under arms, guns loaded, and expect them to stack arms to us, but they did it like men and we rather appreciated their kindness for it looked as though it was possible that we had run into a hornet’s nest. Secesh got a severe blow here and they feel it the more coming so soon after the capture of Fort Henry.”

Captain Merrill, a Toledo, Ohio native but resident of Waterloo, Indiana at the outbreak of the war, was commissioned captain of Co. F of the 44th Indiana on September 20, 1861, and mustered into service November 22, 1861, at Fort Wayne. He only remained with the regiment for about 9 months, resigning his commission on June 24, 1862, before returning to Toledo to work in the express office for the local railroad.  By 1870, Captain Merrill was working as the city clerk and living with his wife Sophie and three children. He filed for a pension April 11, 1893, from Toledo and passed away July 24, 1897, with burial at Forest Cemetery.

Captain Merrill’s two wartime letters reproduced below come from the pages of the Toledo Blade.

 

Captain George W. Merrill, Co. F, 44th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Kenneth Warstler recently shared this image on the Indiana Civil War Scrapbook page and kindly gave permission for its reproduction here. The original CDV has a Toledo, Ohio backmark. 

Henderson, Kentucky

December 26, 1861

Editors of the Blade,

          Although I have been deprived of the festivities and enjoyments of the holidays with the good people of Toledo with whom I have passed so many happy occasions of the kind, you will please allow me through the medium of your columns to wish that you and your readers may have passed them pleasantly and that the New Year may prove a happy and profitable one to all.

          We left Fort Wayne on the 22nd day of November and after stopping at Indianapolis long enough to shake hands with Governor Morton, we proceeded on our way to Evansville where we tarried a little over two weeks, then took up our line of march for this place where we have pitched our tents on this fine piece of ground about a mile from town.

          Kentucky, from Evansville, presents a very barren and uninviting prospect, but the country around Henderson is decidedly the handsomest I ever saw, yet the attraction and romance of the country is marred by the knowledge that the owners are mostly Secesh. If Congress will only authorize me to capture a plantation and the appurtenances thereto, I am of the opinion that Kentucky will have one Union man within her borders at least. There are some good Union men here, but they say their scalps won’t be their own after we leave which I fear to be the case.

          As usual, Madam Rumor has her busy tongue going and we have been ordered to South Carolina, Cairo, Paducah, Louisville, St. Louis, Bowling Green and last (but not least) the report was prevalent that the government was going to muster us out in consequence of Indiana having “too many troops in the field.” But that did not trouble us as we know that if Indiana did not need us, some of the Eastern states would like to hire us and probably pay better wages, so we considered the matter rather in our favor.

          Our regiment is being afflicted now a good deal with measles, a disease which seems to be a great detriment to troops all over. We are sorry to hear winter quarters talked of as we are all anxious to finish the fight and go into winter quarters at home with our friends and families.

          You are probably better posted as to the general dispositions and movements of troops than I am as I can hardly get a paper to read once a week, and a Toledo paper once in a while would be a choice morsel to me you may rest assured.

          I was in hopes to get in the van with the 14th Ohio but the powers decreed it otherwise and how long we are to remain here only time can tell. I have two or three of Colonel [James B.] Steedman’s three-months’ boys [14th O.V.M.] in my company and a couple of Colonel [Jesse] Norton’s three months’ men [21st O.V.M.] and they are all proud of their old regiments, but of course, they are now greatly attached to the valiant 44th Indiana.

          Should anything of importance transpire, I shall be happy to jot it down for you if such should be your desire, but with the present lethargy lasts, it is pretty hard to make up an interesting communication to you from a ‘foreign’ regiment. If we have to whip Johnny Bull before we come home, our stay will be prolonged a few days longer than we expected when we left. In the meantime, I remain, G.W.M.

 

An unknown company of the 44th Indiana posed for this image at Chattanooga, Tennessee in early 1864, two years after the events recorded in Merrill's early war letters. By then, the 'Iron 44th" had seen action in numerous battles including Shiloh, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. The regiment would remain in Chattanooga for the duration of the war, serving as provost guards. 

Fort Donelson

February 1862

          After halting a little while at Paducah, our fleet, consisting of five steamers with one regiment on each pushed up the Tennessee River, arriving at Fort Henry about 8 p.m. We lay there for about two hours when we started on the backtrack for Paducah, arriving there in the morning. We lay there all day until about 4 p.m. on the 12th when our fleet, which had increased to 13 steamers and 5 gunboats, cut loose, and started up the Cumberland. It was a grand sight and a fine ride.

          We arrived at our landing six miles below Fort Donelson on the morning of the 14th. Here we learned there had been some heavy fighting done the day before. As soon as our force could be landed, we started for the fort to reinforce our troops that had crossed over from Fort Henry 12 miles distant.

          About noon, our gunboats opened on the fort but as we were to make the entire circuit of the fort to surround it, we yet had some five or six miles to travel and for the balance of the distance we kept step to the music of the cannons instead of the sheep skin. We arrived at our destination on the right of our lines shortly after dark and bivouacked on the ground for the night within half a mile of the fortifications.

          On the morning of the 15th, the ball opened before daylight. About 8 a.m., our brigade was called into the field and from that time until dark, the rattle of musketry, roaring of cannon, whistling of bullets, and bursting of bombshells were the principal features of the day.

Our regiment with the 11th Indiana and 8th Missouri were the last in the fight and the first into the fort after it surrendered. My company had the honor of going into the fort at the head of the column, but you may believe it was rather ticklish for a regiment alone to march down where there were 10,000-12,000 Rebels yet under arms, guns loaded, and expect them to stack arms to us, but they did it like men and we rather appreciated their kindness for it looked as though it was possible that we had run into a hornet’s nest. Secesh got a severe blow here and they feel it the more coming so soon after the capture of Fort Henry.

Source:

Letters from Captain George W. Merrill, Co. F, 44th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Toledo Blade (Ohio), January 2, 1862, pg. 2; March 5, 1862, pg. 2

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