Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

T he discouragement and war-weariness that gripped the North following the defeat at Fredericksburg permeates the pages of one Pennsylvania soldier's letter home written just a few days after the battle.       " The two great armies are resting, as it were, from their excessive labors of the past few days," he began. "Resting, did I say? No, rather renewing their energies with even more determined vigor for a still more desperate struggle. Hostilities have ceased for the present at least for a few days, in order not to “change base” exactly but the manner of attack. After sacrificing a few thousand lives, the “powers that be” have deemed it advisable to sacrifice a few thousand more by changing the mode of attack. Perhaps if this mode does not succeed, they will “change base” with a change also in commanders."     The letter, written by Corporal William Blain of the 62nd Pennsylvania, first saw publication in the December 23, 1862, edition of the Altoona Tr...

A fter months of captivity at Lynchburg and Belle Isle, Sergeant Samuel Wooldridge of the 29th Ohio wrote the following letter to his parents back home in Ohio. It had been four months since he had last been able to write them. The English-born sergeant was captured in the aftermath of the Battle of Port Republic on June 9, 1862, and endured three months as a prisoner of war.       " We were kept on a hill with no grass on it," was how he described Lynchburg. "We had no tents, two-thirds of us no blankets, only food enough to make us one meal a day and not very good at that.  After about a week, we were taken into the fairgrounds. There we had flour, beef, bacon, beans, rice, sugar, salt, and vinegar, about half a ration of each. But being closely confined, we did not get exercise enough to make us very hungry." Life at Belle Isle wasn't any better. " There we lived on half a loaf of bread and every third day a small piece of beef, half boiled and unsalted....

T he week after the Battle of Antietam, two Pennsylvanians, Ephraim B. McCrum and Henry C. Dern, both editors and proprietors of the Altoona Tribune , journeyed south into Maryland. Their intentions were to visit the camps of their local regiments, touch base with the boys, and to report back on their findings. “We were told by those who had preceded us that we obtained a sight of the tail end only,” they stated. “If that be so, we have no desire to see the whole animal.”           The pair first went to Hagerstown, and on Tuesday morning September 23, 1862, they secured a wagon and set out for Sharpsburg. “Nothing worthy of special attention attracted our attention until we ascended a hill about two miles this side of the battlefield,” they wrote. “Here our olfactory organs informed us very perceptibly that we were in the region of decaying animal matter. On every rise of ground thereafter we were greeted with the same stench, yet we could...

I n the days following the defeat at Chancellorsville, the soldiers of the Third Division of the 11 th Corps were horrified to see their good names besmirched in the newspapers. “Every newspaper that fell into our hands told the world a frightful story of the unexampled misconduct of the 11 th Corps,” remembered Major General Carl Schurz, commanding the division. “How the ‘cowardly Dutchmen’ of that corps had thrown down their arms and fled at the first fire of the enemy, had led in the disgraceful flight without firing a shot, and how these cowardly ‘Dutch’ had overrun the whole battlefield and came near stampeding other brigades or divisions. I was thunderstruck.”           Another soldier who was “thunderstruck” was one of Schurz’s brigade commanders, Brigadier General Alexander Schimmelfennig. In this extraordinary letter to General Schurz, Schimmelfennig insisted that the truth be heard and justice obtained for his men. “The office...

I n the bitter fighting near the Peach Orchard and Wheatfield at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863,  John Garden of the 62nd Pennsylvania recalled that at times the combat became hand to hand.       " Again that “yell” which was heard so often at Chancellorsville commenced and made us grasp our pieces with firmer grips.," Garden commented. “Attention,” and “forward” passed along the line and we advanced across the wheat field and formed behind a stone wall. We were hardly posted behind the wall before the word was passed that we were flanked on the right of our brigade which we soon found to be too true for the bullets commenced flying in among us from the right. We remained in our position until the order came “about face” when we walked out in good order, contending with the enemy both in front and rear, they having nearly surrounded us.  For a time, it was a hand-to-hand engagement, muskets were clubbed, and pistols and sabers were used in the scuffle. Our regi...

I t’s easy to think that our ancestors during the Civil War rarely enjoyed an opportunity for fun, but Private Jonathan Kinsel’s description of how his regiment enjoyed their New Year’s holiday in coastal South Carolina shows otherwise. “Taking everything into consideration, we enjoyed quite a pleasant time,” he wrote. “The performance was entertaining and the ale, cider, cakes, and apples which our ever-thoughtful colonel purchased for the occasion were refreshing. The wheelbarrow race also caused great merriment. The competitors were blindfolded and placed directly in line with a certain point, the one coming nearest the goal being the victor. The fun consisted in their deviation at every imaginable angle from a straight line, trotting soberly along, each under the pleasing impression that he was making a straight line for the mark. Of course, the one farthest out of the way was greeted with peals of derisive laughter and encouraged to renewed diligence by assurances of success.” ...

A s Captain Frederick Garternicht’s company of the 84 th Illinois arrived on the outskirts of Murfreesboro on the evening of December 29, 1862, he witnessed the destruction of a brick home along the Nashville Pike near the Two-Mile Marker. Confederate engineers intended to destroy some outbuildings to clear lanes of fire for Confederate artillery, but the flames spread to the main residence which was soon engulfed. “In front of us were some buildings burning,” Garternicht recalled. “It began to get dark and we advanced towards them but were ordered to halt 200 paces distant. A fine brick building took fire just as we halted [the Cowan House] and it was a grand sight, but we all felt bad when a few buckets of water would have extinguished the flames. To stand within 200 paces of a nice, big building and see it burn down- see the flames progress from window to window until their fiery tongues enveloped the entire edifice in one common conflagration.” The resulting wreckage became an i...

F or one Confederate soldier, the sheer intensity and violence of combat during the Battle of Iuka changed his opinion on the war.           “There was one continuous roar of small arms while grape and canister howled in fearful concert above our heads and through our ranks,” he commented in a letter to the Jackson Mississippian newspaper. “The troops against which we were contending were Western men, the battery manned by Ohio troops who fought bravely and well. I know this: that the events of that evening have considerably increased my appetite for peace and if the Yankees will not shoot us anymore, I shall be perfectly satisfied to let them alone.”           This letter, written by an unknown soldier serving in the 40th Mississippi, provides a frank and candid Confederate eyewitness view of Iuka and was included in Volume 5 of the Rebellion Record .

J ames Walker’s account of charging Missionary Ridge with the 31 st Ohio speaks volumes to the intensity of the hand-to-hand combat that took place as Turchin’s brigade crested over the Confederate works on November 25, 1863. “We climbed to the top of the works and looked down upon the Confederates formed in two lines, one kneeling in the trench with fixed bayonets and the other lying down behind them,” Walker stated. “With a yell, we jumped down into the trench on top of them and a hand-to-hand fight followed, with muskets, bayonets, and even fists. We had broken the Confederate line and as our men came up to support us, we faced right and left and kept widening the gap.  One of the Confederates who had thrown down his musket and held up his hands in token of surrender fired at us after we had passed and hit one of our boys on the knee. I turned on him with the butt of my gun but before I could strike, Sam Wright pushed me to one side and said, “Let me fix him.” Placing his mus...

S ergeant Otis D. Smith of the 6 th Alabama, marching in the vanguard of the Army of Northern Virginia, observed the warm welcome the army received from Maryland residents when they entered the state in early September 1862.           “Everyone in high spirits at the thought of crossing the Potomac and freeing Maryland,” he commented. “The citizens began to flock in to see us. They could hardly realize our arrival but welcomed us most enthusiastically and assured us of a warm reception and any quantity of aid and comfort. During the day, people from a distance of 16 miles away visited us. All assured us Maryland was ripe for action.”           Private Smith, a Vermont native who moved south in the 1850s to teach with his namesake uncle, was working near Columbus, Georgia when the war began. “Always quiet in manner, unobstructive, and self-forgetful in the services of others,” his obituary read...

T oday, we’re sitting down with Dave Powell, noted Civil War historian and author of the soon to be released The Atlanta Campaign Volume I: Dalton to Cassville, May 1-19, 1864, via Savas Beatie, the first in a five-part series covering this seminal campaign of the Civil War.       This new book, scheduled for release on July 6, 2024, is available for pre-order directly from Savas Beatie or through Amazon at the links below: Savas Beatie direct: The Atlanta Campaign Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville   (Preferred) Amazon: The Atlanta Campaign Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville (if you must support the Empire, please be sure to leave a review)  See more details here and add it to your wishlist: https://www.savasbeatie.com/the-atlanta-campaign-volume-1-dalton-to-cassville-may-1-19-1864/ Dave Powell's latest work The Atlanta Campaign Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville tips the scales at 624 pages and offers the most in-depth study to date of this crucial western theater ca...

G eneral Paul Semmes’ brigade was among the last to charge the Federal position at Malvern Hill on the night of July 1, 1862. One officer of the 10 th Georgia observed how as Semmes line swept forward, their ranks were increased by men from other brigades that had previously tried to charge the same position. “Scattered portions of other brigades which had been previously repulsed before the same guns in the same field saw our unbroken ranks and volunteered to join the fresh charge and asked a place in line,” he remarked. “We were joined by North Carolinians, Mississippians, and a company of Georgia Regulars commanded by young Benning. As these brave men swelled the charging column, their leaders inquired “what general is in command” and I forgot for once I was walking the path of death as I shouted the name of General Paul J. Semmes. I pointed to him as Semmes literally led his men, calling them to follow.” General Paul Semmes’ brigade, part of General Lafayette McLaws’ division ...