Among the Buzzing, Screaming, Little Demons: Professor Dunn at Corinth

Shortly after graduating from Hillsdale College in 1862, Francis Wayland Dunn enlisted with his older brother Newell in Co. A of the 64th Illinois Infantry, also known as Yates' Sharpshooters. Scarcely a month after he enlisted, Francis recorded his impressions of the regiment's fight during the Second Battle of Corinth on October 4, 1862.

    "Our battalion was under fire only a short time, but of the 230 that went into the fight, 74 were either killed, wounded, or missing," he said in a letter to the editors of the Hillsdale Standard. "It is a horrible scene, a bloody battlefield covered with dead and wounded men. It seems like an exaggeration to talk of men being piled together in heaps, and quite often it is, yet the explosion of a shell or a charge of grape will make it literally true. Around a little earthwork five or six rods long raised for the protection of a little battery of three guns were 37 dead Rebels. The firing lasted but a short time and the carnage extended over only a small piece of ground."

    "On Friday, they drove in the troops from the old Rebel breastworks which was what Rosecrans expected," he continued. "On Saturday, they took part of two batteries, obliging the artillerymen to run with what guns they could. This I am inclined to think was rather more than Rosey expected. But the Rebels were under such a heavy fire from four batteries, besides a large force of infantry, that they soon gave back, and afterwards the battle became a pursuit which was kept up until Grant ordered Rosecrans to return."

    Private Dunn's account his first engagement and the aftermath in Corinth first saw publication in the November 11, 1862, edition of the Hillsdale Standard. The 64th Illinois during the battle was not attached to any specific brigade or division. 


Francis Wayland Dunn graduated from Hillsdale College with the class of 1862 and within months enlisted in Co. A of the 64th Illinois Infantry with his older brother Newell Ransom Dunn. The brothers time together in the army proved short as Newell died of typhoid fever in April 1863; Francis escorted his brother's body home to Hillsdale. Francis became Professor Dunn but his health, shattered by the exposures of war, led to his death from tuberculosis in December 1874 at age 31. The cavalry saber Francis holds in this CDV was likely a photographer's prop.
(Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com) 


Corinth, Mississippi

November 3, 1862

To the editor of the Hillsdale Standard,

          When a man leaves home, he always keeps up some connection with it by letters or messages sent by friends, and perhaps an occasional present; a watch, book, or something of the kind. Hillsdale is my adopted home and my thoughts turn to it as often as they would if it were literally so. The Standard tells me more of the old place than anything else can, and I want a copy of it. In return, I will tell you something of Corinth and the army here.

          If a place was great in proportion as it was notorious, this little railroad crossing ought to be a great city. In fact, it is a little huddle of houses able to hold perhaps 200, certainly not more. There were in times past several stores and a furniture shop. Now, alas, no more! By reference to the big letters painted on one of their trading establishments, I found that tea, coffee, and sugar were accustomed to be sold as late as 1861.

          Corinth derives its importance as a military point solely from the fact of the two railroads, the Mobile & Ohio and the Memphis & Charleston, cross each other at this point. On the first, transportation is uninterrupted to Columbus, Kentucky; on the second, east from Corinth 20 miles to Iuka, which is now neutral ground, and west towards Memphis sometimes the whole length of the route, and sometimes not over 15-20 miles according to the position of the Rebel forces.

          The new recruits for the battalion to which I belong were just in time to take part in the fight of October 4th. It is a horrible scene, a bloody battlefield covered with dead and wounded men. It seems like an exaggeration to talk of men being piled together in heaps, and quite often it is, yet the explosion of a shell or a charge of grape will make it literally true. Around a little earthwork five or six rods long raised for the protection of a little battery of three guns were 37 dead Rebels.

The firing lasted but a short time and the carnage extended over only a small piece of ground. The particulars of the fight you are already acquainted with. On Friday, they drove in the troops from the old Rebel breastworks which was what Rosecrans expected. On Saturday, they took part of two batteries, obliging the artillerymen to run with what guns they could. This I am inclined to think was rather more than Rosey expected. But the Rebels were under such a heavy fire from four batteries, besides a large force of infantry, that they soon gave back, and afterwards the battle became a pursuit which was kept up until Grant ordered Rosecrans to return.

The Confederate dead in front of Battery Robinett with Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2nd Texas in the foreground; his horse lies further away beyond the tree trunk lying upon the ground. Later images show that Colonel Rogers was propped up against a tree stump along with other Confederate dead before burial. These are some of the grisliest images of the Civil War. 

Our battalion was under fire only a short time, but of the 230 that went into the fight, 74 were either killed, wounded, or missing. Old Rosey as they call him is almost worshipped by his troops, as they have the utmost confidence in his ability as a general. He exposed himself beyond what was prudent in rallying the troops on the 4th, several times riding among the soldiers where the firing was the hottest, but cool and collected, his mind so occupied with the plan and result of the battle that he was oblivious of personal danger.

I had heard a great deal of the insanity of the battlefield but felt nothing of it. All the time I was exposed to the Rebel fire, I was perfectly conscious that any one of the buzzing, screaming little demons that whistled past me might have ended completely my worldly prospects, as well as to have settled into the log I was lying behind or turn up the dirt and leaves around my feet. At present, most of the troops are out of Corinth either at Bolivar or in that direction.

This CDV of General William S. Rosecrans ranks as the favorite of my collection, primarily for the fact that it is inscribed as having been taken on October 5, 1862, the day after his victory at Corinth with a George W. Armstead backmark. It was upon the strength of Rosecrans' victory that the Lincoln Administration selected the Ohioan to replace Don Carlos Buell as commander of the Army of Ohio, soon to be renamed the Army of the Cumberland. 

There was a rumor of a fight there yesterday and last night, but how much truth there is in the rumor it is impossible to tell. It is certain, however, that Price has moved north either with the intention of taking Bolivar then Jackson [Tennessee] and so cutting off our communication with the north, or of again attempting the capture of Corinth, a prize they are most anxious to obtain. It is worth far more to them than it is to us, but I hardly think they will succeed in taking it. The Corinth of November 1st is not at all like the Corinth of October 1st. The Rebels would not know it and would be completely at a loss how to proceed.

The plan of fortifications designed by Grant has been nearly completed under the supervision of Rosecrans near enough to be effective through their whole length and for the most part entirely finished. The place, so much of it as has not been torn down, is situated on a strip of elevated ground about three-fourths of a mile wide running North and South. On the east, there is quite a ravine and on the west a piece of ground something like the flat between the village and college, and from this rises a hill of about the same elevation as College Hill.

There used to be a female seminary here, but the students have gone to making cartridges or watching Negroes, and the institution has stopped running. Just in front of the College building and along the top of the ridge are our strongest works. They are so situated as not only to command the country and the rest of the town itself connected with the regular line of entrenchments so as to form a part of them are two entrenched fields forming regular forts. If we are obliged to, we can retreat to these and hold them against a superior force. There is a heavy line of works on the north and one of the east, commanding the ravine before mentioned; also on the south, the intervals occurring where it is next to impossible for troops to advance.

Professor Francis W. Dunn
Hillsdale College

The works are so planned that if the enemy got into a fort in front, somewhere in the rear there is a battery of two or three guns, arranged so as to sweep the place and oblige them to decamp. If there were so lucky or unlucky as to make a lodgment within the works about the town, every gun on the hill to the west could be turned on them in five minutes and they would not be able to hold their position a quarter of an hour. These guns are not 6-lb field pieces, but 24-lb and 64-lb howitzers and siege guns.

All the soldiers are anxious for a battle, not because they like to fight, but they know it must come sooner or later and they want to have the thing finished, so that they can return home. They are not traitors, neither are they cowardly, but almost without exception they are homesick. The prospect for winter is anything but inviting. In a few weeks, the rainy season will commence and when away from the central depots, the only protection we shall have will be the shelter tent, just large enough to cover two men. During the night, the ground will freeze so as to make a respectable crust for us to break through and at noon the heat will drive us into the shade.

Then look out for agues, colds, and fevers. The soldiers are all of them in favor of any measure that will hasten the termination of the war, and 99 out of 100 believe that emancipation is the best way that could be devised to cripple the South. Yet most of them oppose Negro citizenship, which they believe to be a certain consequence if his residence is in the Northern states. They are emancipationists with the understanding that they are colonizationalists, and in every discussion of politics and policy they are very careful to inform you that they “did not come down here to fight for the Negro.”

Whatever we may think of the justice of bringing them here against their wishes and then obliging them to leave willing or unwilling, colonization is the only solution of the question. If the black race is ever free, it will be under some other flag than the stars and stripes. I should like to tell you something of the condition of the colored people, as I have seen them in the camp and at work on the fortifications, but the letter is already longer than you will care to read.

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

Charging Battery Robinett: An Alabama Soldier Recalls the Vicious Fighting at Corinth

Source:

Letter from Private Francis W. Dunn, Co. A, 64th Illinois Volunteer Infantry [Yates’ Sharpshooters], Hillsdale Standard (Michigan), November 11, 1862, pg. 2

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