Sustaining the Honor of Old Wisconsin: The Badger Bull Dogs Bark Bragg out of Kentucky

In the aftermath of the Battle of Perryville, a portion of General Don Carlos Buell's army pursued Braxton Bragg's retreating columns towards southeastern Kentucky and in the course of that pursuit had a series of minor engagements, among them a rolling fight near Stanford, Kentucky on October 15, 1862, described by Quartermaster Sergeant John D. Galloway of the 3rd Wisconsin Battery. 

    "The Secesh made a stand against us on eleven different hilltops," Galloway recalled. "They had four pieces of artillery but the road was so narrow that they could only use two at a time. They had the advantage in position because they could choose their place, knowing exactly where the head of our column would have to appear and sending their other two pieces on to choose another position. The performances of the day were wound up by dismounting one of their guns at a mile and a half distance by Arza Noble’s Parrott, aimed by gunner Woodbury. The result of the day’s work may be summed up thus: five of our men wounded, three of them from the 79th Indiana and two from the 59th Ohio, one of them mortally. The Secesh lost by their own acknowledgement 27 killed, among them a major and a lieutenant and we have every reason to believe their number of wounded was very great." 

    Sergeant Galloway's account of the closing events of the Kentucky campaign, written under the nom-de-plume of "Badger," first saw publication in the November 13, 1862, edition of the Berlin City Courant published in Berlin, Wisconsin. 



Detail of the markings on a 10-pdr Parrott rifle similar to those employed by the 3rd Wisconsin Battery during the Kentucky campaign. The cast iron Parrott rifles, produced by the West Point Foundry in New York, were one of the most common types of cannon used by Buell's Army of Ohio. They proved to be capable guns and could fire a 9.5-pound shell more than a mile but a history of barrel bursts made them unpopular with some gunners. 
(Photo courtesy of Phil Spaugy)

Camp near Mount Vernon, Kentucky

October 23, 1862

          We left Louisville on the 1st of October and I could not write you from there of our terrible march of 375 miles from Battle Creek, Tennessee as my duties as quartermaster of the battery demanded every moment of my time. Indeed, Captain Drury and the three lieutenants now with us (Hubbard, Currier, and Colburn) were busy all the time refitting the battery in horses and equipment to make it efficient in pursuit of Bragg and his 70,000-man-strong plundering horde. I attended to the clothing and provision department.

          The first sight we got of the Rebels was at Floyd’s Ford and there for the first time in the history of the Badger Battery they made their ‘bull dogs’ growl at the Butternuts. Two miles from Floyd’s Ford is the town of Mount Washington where the Rebels undertook to make another stand, but bless your soul, you ought to have seen the 11th Brigade under the command of Colonel Sam Beatty and the Badgers whack ‘em out of that town. The Rebel force consisted of about 2,000 cavalry, two pieces of artillery, and about 1,000 infantry.

          The Second Corps d’ Armee, under the command of Major General Thomas L. Crittenden, consists of Wood’s division with 3 batteries, Smith’s division with 3 batteries, and Crittenden’s old division (now commanded by General Horatio Van Cleve) with 3 batteries. We belong to Van Cleve’s division (the 5th) and it is comprised of the 11th Brigade under Colonel Sam Beatty with the 19th Ohio, 59th Ohio, 9th Kentucky, 18th Kentucky, and 79th Indiana. Colonel Hawkins leads the 14th Brigade with the 11th Kentucky, 26th Kentucky, 13th Ohio, and two other regiments. Colonel Stanley Mathews leads the 23rd Brigade with the 51st Ohio, 99th Ohio, 35th Indiana, 21st Kentucky, and one other regiment. Captain Lu H. Drury is chief of artillery and has under his command the 3rd Wisconsin Battery, the 26th Pennsylvania Battery, and the 7th Indiana battery.

          Each division of this corps takes it turn in the advance and each brigade of the division takes it turn in the advance and a battery accompanies each brigade. Our battery accompanies the 11th Brigade and it luckily happens when our division is ahead, the 11th Brigade and our battery is in advance. So much for our “posish;” now to tell how we profited by it.

Colonel Samuel Beatty, 19th Ohio
Commanding brigade

          We were in line of battle on the right of Generals Rousseau and Terrill’s brigade which suffered so severely at Perryville, but by some unaccountable mismanagement, we were not sent in to help our suffering Wisconsin brothers of the 1st, 10th, and 21st regiments along with the 5th Battery. How anxious we all were, only two miles from the battlefield and commanded to hold our position against a force which was afterwards ascertained to be only a few hundred Secesh cavalry which the Badgers alone could have swept off the face of the earth in ten minutes.

          On the night of the 14th of October, we overtook the Rebels again near Stanford, Kentucky and on the morning of the 15th we had the advance again. October 15th was an eventful day for our battery. The Secesh made a stand against us on eleven different hilltops. They had four pieces of artillery but the road was so narrow that they could only use two at a time. They had the advantage in position because they could choose their place, knowing exactly where the head of our column would have to appear and sending their other two pieces on to choose another position. We were splendidly supported by the 19th Ohio and 59th Ohio.

Captain Lu Drury, 3rd Wisconsin Battery

          On that day, the boys first faced the music of shells and canister, and right nobly did they sustain the honor of old Wisconsin. Not a man shrank from his place or failed to do his duty manfully. The captain [Lu Drury] was just as unconcerned and as jovial as he ever was when getting up copy for the Green Lake Democrat or making up forms for state work in the Argus office in Madison. He was most ably and bravely seconded by Lieutenant Hiram Hubbard of Madison who commands the left section, Lieutenant Henry Currier of Green Lake who commands the right section, and Lieutenant Webster Colburn who commands the center section.

          The sergeants and gunners also did their duty- the Green Lake howitzer with Sergeant Hollenbeck and gunner Marshall pitched its case shot and shell just where they were wanted. The Parrotts (Sergeants Decker, Ralph, Noble, and Chapin with their several gunners Corporals Davis, Worden, Woodbury, and Fields) were as well, as coolly, and as accurately served as though they were being fired at a target. Charley Clough, sergeant of the Berlin howitzer, remembered as he hurled one of his iron messengers of destruction among some skedaddling cavalry that he would like to take home some of their horses as thought they could scoop out Sy Whitcomb with anything he could bring against them.

          The performances of the day were wound up by dismounting one of their guns at a mile and a half distance by Arza Noble’s Parrott, aimed by gunner Woodbury. The result of the day’s work may be summed up thus: five of our men wounded, three of them from the 79th Indiana and two from the 59th Ohio, one of them mortally. The Secesh lost by their own acknowledgement 27 killed, among them a major and a lieutenant and we have every reason to believe their number of wounded was very great.

They passed through Crab Orchard with four pieces of artillery and crossed Rockcastle River 28 miles from there with only two pieces, one of them being dismounted by one of our guns. Whether the other was accidentally broken or dismounted we do not know. It is reported they were sunk in a fathomless mud hole near Mount Vernon. We fought them eleven times and drove them 21 miles in one day and if we had two more hours of daylight we would have captured their whole rearguard and 125 wagons.

Smith’s division of our corps is still in pursuit of them and is daily sending in lots of prisoners. We shall probably go back to Crab Orchard and take the Lebanon road to Nashville. A few words about the battery: there is not a man in it at present but what is able to do duty, all are well and in good spirits. The new lieutenants Currier and Colburn are prompt and energetic and very much like by the men. Hubbard was always a favorite with the boys and there is no man in the division more popular than Captain Lu Drury, or the “Subscriber” as everybody calls him. Everybody knows him, and what is most astonishing, he knows everybody, officers, and privates, by name.

Source:

Letter from Quartermaster Sergeant John Dewey Galloway, “Badger,” 3rd Wisconsin Battery, Berlin City Courant (Wisconsin), November 13, 1862, pg. 2

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