Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

B y the spring of 1863, the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation in changing Union war aims proved a stark dividing line among Northerners. Peace Democrats, increasingly displeased with the heavy losses on the battlefield, grew particularly vocal in opposition to the war. Those sentiments even drove a wedge between comrades in arms as is shown by the following correspondence.           Arthur Truman served as a private for about a year in Co. B of the 74 th Ohio Volunteer Infantry before he received a discharge on a surgeon’s certificate of disability in December 1862. He returned home to Spring Valley, Ohio and soon put his anti-war sentiments on paper in a letter written to a comrade in Co. B, William Zellers. Truman’s letter, expressing his opposition to emancipation and to blacks in general, raised quite a ruckus amongst his comrades in arms, two of whom wrote letters back to Truman sharing their astonishment.    ...

W hile Admiral David Farragut steamed into legend in Mobile Bay, Surgeon Thomas S. Yard of the humble steamer U.S.S. John P. Jackson recorded his vessel’s contribution to reducing nearby Fort Powell which guarded the Mississippi Sound entrance to Mobile Bay. “The Jackson , Conemaugh , Estella , Stockdale , and the tug Narcissus have all day been shelling Fort Powell,” he said. “They replied very briskly. We cannot get near enough to drive them from their guns but no doubt the admiral will send one of the monitors from inside to knock Fort Powell into pie and thus the communication between New Orleans and Mobile will be established without going by Fort Morgan. The monitor with double turrets came down to Fort Powell and, going very close to the fort, opened on it with their 11-inch guns. The fort returned the fire but only occasionally as their guns are all outside of the bombproof where they run for protection and it is only when they can catch the monitor turning around that they ...

P inned down by Stonewall Jackson's determined infantrymen at Second Bull Run, Lieutenant Theodore Young of the 5th New Jersey Infantry recalled how the fight denigrated into a slugging contest at short range.      " We commenced firing ourselves but at first could not see anything for the smoke of the Rebel guns," he commented in a letter written nearly two weeks later. "By and by, however, we could see the heads of the Rebels sticking up behind the railroad embankment while others were standing behind trees and stumps. As our line of battle and line of skirmishers was oblique to the railroad, our left came in sight of the enemy sooner than the right. Company K had the extreme left and a good many of the boys assured me that they were not over 40 yards from the Rebels. We had stood there about half an hour when our line of battle advanced and tried to make a charge. The Rebels, however, opened such a tremendous fire on us that we broke ranks and retreated, leaving i...

A common complaint from infantrymen during the Civil War was “who ever saw a dead cavalryman?” That epithet certainly couldn’t be used in reference to the 8 th Pennsylvania Cavalry whose charge to escape capture at Chancellorsville left the ground carpeted with 97 dead horses and 51 men killed, wounded, or captured. In describing the charge, one veteran stated “the enemy opened their ranks to the front and rear and allowed us to pass amid a shower of bullets and bayonet thrusts. Many of them were cut down with the saber and some were trampled to death by our horses. A good number of our own men and horses had fallen in the road and it was with difficulty we reached the road at all. Our hearts almost sank within us as there was yet another line of the enemy to pass through and in their front our forces were hurrying forward to reach the new line of battle that had been partly formed. We must cut our way through or surrender; so, we dashed forward with renewed energy, scattering the ...

W riting to his brother William H. Freeman in Freehold, New Jersey “with a broken smeller,” James Freeman of the 48 th New York described how he had been shot through the nose while storming Fort Wagner just a few days prior. “As we gained the ramparts, I got a ball square through my nose and one on the shoulder, the latter did not enter but raised a considerable lump and is somewhat sore,” he stated. “I am in no way seriously hurt and there is no necessity for my being in the hospital but it is orders and I had to come. I would leave the hospital today if I could get permission to get away from the awful smell which is just like that of a slaughterhouse. Many of the men are horribly mangled and in this hot climate, where there are so many patients, it is impossible to keep the hospital from smelling disagreeably. The cries and groans of the suffering are not very pleasing music to sleep by until you get used to it.” Freeman’s brief letter describing the fight at Fort Wagner first...

L ocated just north of the Mason-Dixon line, one resident of Greencastle, Pennsylvania had a ringside seat to the beginning and end of Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863. He took especial note of the Confederate generals who accompanied the columns.           “General Lee and staff passed immediately in the rear of General Hill’s corps,” he noted. “His bodyguards were well mounted, well dressed, and well equipped. They numbered about 50 fine looking men. General Lee appears old and had a troubled, careworn countenance. He wore a blue mantle over his gray suit with an ordinary slouch hat and was mounted on a fine black horse. He did not converse with anyone but appeared to be in deep meditation. General Ewell was reserved in conversation and dignified in appearance. General A.P. Hill was more communicative and agreeable but had a very poor opinion of the generals in the Union army- in fact, a general denunciation of the Uni...

W riting to his father while aboard the steam sloop-of-war U.S.S. Brooklyn , Assistant Second Engineer James Atkins desired to correct some of the misinformation that he saw in the newspapers regarding his ship's fight at Forts Jackson and St. Philip in April 1862.      " At about 3 o’clock in the morning, as soon as we came round the point in range of their guns, they opened upon us and for an hour and a half the shots were flying around us like hail," he recalled. "In the height of the noise and confusion, the horrible shrieking of shots as they passed over the ship, the groans of the wounded, and the necessary noise attendant upon working and firing the guns, the long-dreaded ram the veritable  Manassas  struck us just amidships. With a heavy crash, the ship reeled over to port and the ram passed under our stern over towards the shore. Before she could come round again to renew the attack, the old  Mississippi , playing the ram, ran into her and with tre...

Indiana at Chickamauga  I n part two of the 84 th Indiana at Chickamauga series, Thomas Addington provides his experiences on Sunday, September 20, 1863, when his regiment was ordered to support General Thomas's line atop Horseshoe Ridge.         " Up until 11 o’clock Sunday morning, we remained idly in camp enjoying ourselves in such pastimes as are known to all soldiers while Thomas was breasting the storm hurled upon him with relentless fury," Addington recalled. "Then the sharp, quick notes of the bugle called us into line. Chickens were abandoned half dressed, fresh pork partly cooked was thrust hastily into haversacks, sweet potatoes were left roasting in the fire, guns and cartridge boxes were looked over to see if all was in order and away we went on the double quick. Up hill and down, across fields and through the woods, for three miles we hurried on, the roar of battle growing more terrific all the time till at last, panting for breath and drippi...

Indiana at Chickamauga I n part one of the 84 th Indiana at Chickamauga series, Thomas Addington, then serving as a private in Co. A, describes his regiment’s efforts to hold their position on the Union far left defending the army’s road connection to Chattanooga on Saturday, September 19, 1863. In a fight that developed that morning near Peavine Creek, Addington said “just after crossing the creek, we began to hear scattering shots from our skirmishers, replied to vigorously by the enemy, while spent balls began to drop in our midst. Hurrying forward, we took up a position behind the fence where we had laid the night before. Here we waited for our skirmishers to fall back into line; we did not have long to wait. They soon came straggling through the weeds and briars with which the fields were overgrown. A bluecoat would be seen to pop up, fire at the approaching foe, then drop down among the weeds and continue his retreat. Arriving at the fence, a final shot would be fired and then o...

T he initial moments entering combat at Cedar Mountain were anything but encouraging to the men of the 14th Georgia. The regiment had scarcely entered the field when the colonel suffered a wound in his hand, forcing him to turn over command to the lieutenant colonel Once the men got into line, the sight before them dripped with peril as remembered by one veteran.       "Emerging from the woods near the road by which the brigade had approached the field, it was met by General Taliaferro’s brigade, Jackson’s division, falling back before the advancing enemy," he wrote. "The 14 th  was cut off from the brigade by Taliaferro’s retreating men. Some of the men of the 14 th  faltered for a moment. The danger of a panic was imminent. The enemy, encouraged by the retreat of Taliaferro’s brigade and confident of victory, were advancing and about reaching a point at which their line would have prolonged our battleline and were within a stone’s throw of and on the flan...

B y any measure, the 27th Illinois had already performed a full day's work during their fighting south of the Wilkinson Pike on the morning of December 31, 1862 at Stones River. The regiment had helped repulse multiple Confederate attacks on their position and retreated by General Phil Sheridan's command around 11 a.m.       Moving north along the Nashville Pike in search of ammunition a few hours later, Major William Schmitt now commanding the regiment found himself in the presence of General Rosecrans. The commanding general of the Army of the Cumberland was in a tight spot and needed the 27th Illinois to help hold the line along the Nashville Pike. Schmitt replied that he was nearly out of ammunition but would use the bayonet. Rosecrans agreed and told him to go at the Rebels "quick, quick."      "After retreating over a mile, we struck the road running directly from Nashville to Murfreesboro where we halted and seeing the enemy coming to meet us, w...

F or future Congressman William H. Calkins, the sight at dawn on February 16, 1862, repaid manyfold the privations and sufferings he experienced during the days in front of Fort Donelson.     " The first gray streak of daylight displayed a white flag streaming from off the tops of the surrounding breastworks," he noted in a letter to the editors of the Lafayette Journal & Courier. "If you can imagine the feelings of our troops when they saw the rattlesnake flag fall and the glorious stars and stripes waving in triumph over the Rebel fort. It paid us tenfold for our suffering. To pay us for our gallant bravery, we had the honor to march in front of the long line of troops into the fort.  General Floyd escaped as did General Pillow, but Generals Buckner, Johnson, and West were captured. There were from 10,000-12,000 prisoners taken and a rough-looking set I tell you."     A member of the 14th Iowa Infantry, Lieutenant Calkins' description of the victory at Fo...

O n Thursday, November 5, 1863, Captain Warren Parker Edgarton of Battery E of the 1 st Ohio Light Artillery married the widower Julia Daly Olwine in Nashville, Tennessee. It was apparently a quiet wedding- outside of being recorded in the record of Davidson County, Tennessee marriages, no mention was made of the nuptials in any period newspapers. Wartime marriages were hardly uncommon during the Civil War, but the circumstances of how a Massachusetts-born artillery officer from Ohio met one of the most beloved actresses of the American stage is history (quoting the History Guy) that deserves to be remembered. To start, let’s introduce the couple. Captain Edgarton is a familiar soldier to readers of the blog; the story of how his battery was captured during the opening moments of the Battle of Stones River has been recounted in several previous posts. (See Comanche Versus the Professor ,  Receipt in Full in Red Ink , An Intimate View of Battery E's Demise , and  Captured En...

T he last week of August 1862 may have been the busiest in the history of the 21st Georgia Infantry's history during the Civil War. The Georgians fought in five separate engagements over the course of a little more than a week: Freeman's Ford on August 22nd, Manassas Station in the early morning hours of August 27th, Groveton on the evening of the 28th, Second Bull Run throughout August 29th and 30th, then Chantilly on September 1st.       The engagement at Groveton on the evening of August 28th against a portion of the Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac was a particularly hard fight for the regiment. " We carried 240 men into the engagement and advancing with our brigade, some became hotly engaged," one veteran recalled. "Onward we went to a fence, the enemy falling back before us. Whilst fighting here under a heavy crossfire, our regiment and the 21 st  North Carolina suffered unusually. Owing to some mistake, the 15 th  Alabama and 12 th  Georg...

O n Saturday morning July 26, 1862, the editors of the Atlanta Southern Confederacy heard a ruckus in the streets and looking outdoors saw that a large and visibly angry crowd had gathered in front of Hunnicutt & Taylor’s store. Hanging above the window was a “very large and handsome Lincoln flag,” the editors later remembered. “In full view from our window, spread to the breeze waving to and fro was the beautiful flag of the once powerful and honored, but now broken and disgraced, United States.”           The stars and stripes had not flown in Atlanta since January 1861 when Georgia became the fifth state to secede from the Union. And now this hated emblem floating in the center of Atlanta? Lieutenant Robert Graham, serving in Co. H of the 2 nd Georgia Cavalry, soon provided an explanation- the flag was the regimental flag of the 9 th Michigan Infantry, captured during the recent engagement at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The “rising wr...

O n the morning of July 13, 1862, a cavalry command under Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked and compelled the surrender of the Federal garrison at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Among those taking part in the assault was Private John C. Ellington of the 2 nd Georgia Cavalry who in this brief letter to his father back home in Jonesboro described how his company, the Clayton Dragoons, took the Rutherford County Courthouse.           “The enemy kept up a continual crossfire from the windows,” Ellington stated. “We were ordered to charge on foot. At the first effort, they poured a volley of balls into our ranks, killing R.S. Henderson and F.M. Farris while severely wounding D.P. Morris and Robert Payne, all men from the Clayton Dragoons. We got an axe and charged from another corner and succeeded in reaching the courthouse and broke down the door. About this time, all of them went to the upper story so we went in and built a fire. This they co...

C haplain Lark S. Livermore of the 16th Wisconsin had already endured a Sabbath unlike any he'd ever experienced before when on the afternoon of April 6, 1862, he witnessed the frightening breakdown in morale amongst his comrades in the Federal army.  He was starting to dress the wounded arm of his colonel when "a few shells from the enemy dropped amid the promiscuous crowd of thousands on the bank and got up a regular stampede. The whole side hill seemed in motion, making a break for the boats which began just then (as all had steam up) to back off from shore amid the deafening cry, ‘the Rebels are upon us!’ The backing off of the boats heightened the alarm.  I handed the Dr. Torry the bowl I was using to catch the blood from the arm of Colonel Allen, fearing for the safety of Charlie with the horses on shore in such an alarming stampede. The gangplank was literally hemmed full and men crowded off into the river in a rush to get on board the boats and away from the advancing ...

" Lively and interesting times."      Private Thomas J. Maxwell of the 42nd Illinois appeared to be channeling the English penchant for understatement when writing about his regiment's experiences in the Battle of Stones River. The 42nd Illinois, part of Colonel George W. Roberts' brigade, took part in some the most ferocious fighting of the battle and Maxwell understandably took pride in how his regiment conducted itself.       " Do not think that we did not do our part," he wrote his uncle in Ohio. "I know that we fought five to one and could that number in front, but when they gave way on both flanks, it is rather more than we profess to be able to stand. The 42 nd  routed a brigade in the morning and could have driven them into the Gulf if others had done their part. We made three charges through the day and drove them every time."     Private Maxwell's letter first appeared in the February 6, 1863, edition of the Delaware Gazette p...

R olling into combat for the first time on the afternoon of August 9, 1862, at Cedar Mountain, First Lieutenant Lucius Haynes of the 4 th Maine Battery noted how the wounding of one of the men inspired the men of the battery in the fight.           “We had not fired but three shots before Abel Davis of New Portland fell, wounded in the leg,” he wrote. “But this did not intimidate, it rather incited our boys to renewed valor. Now the firing of the enemy becomes indeed terrific; a perfect storm of shell and solid shot pours in upon us from the front and right, coming apparently from six different Rebel batteries. We replied with spirit and undoubted effect. Every man stood bravely at his post- the officers working hand-to-hand with the men, taking the places of those who had so nobly fallen at the posts. We had never been under fire before, but I think it can be said of our Maine artillery not the first time under fire, that it did honor to ...

I n September 1862, the new recruits of the 20 th Maine endured their first wartime march during the Maryland Campaign and “a hard one it was” remembered Sergeant Edward Simonton. “We marched our march last Friday and hard one it was, at the rate of 20 miles a day, under a scorching sun, loaded down with gun, ammunition, rations and blankets- leaving our knapsacks behind,” he wrote. “Hard bread and coffee was our only food-blankets our only shelter at night. The old regiments said it was the hardest march they ever had. I felt ready to drop once or twice, but the idea that we were in pursuit of old Stonewall nerved me up to new effort and urged me onward.”           The 20 th Maine, mustered into service on August 29, 1862, at Camp Mason, near Portland, Maine, had sailed from Boston to Alexandria, Virginia aboard the steamer Merrimack along with the 36 th Massachusetts. Upon arrival on September 6, the regiment camped at the Washingto...

A s the thundering sounds of the battles of South Mountain and Antietam echoed in the dim distance, Lieutenant Henry Ayres of the 5 th Wisconsin Infantry, lying sick at a convalescent camp in Baltimore, called it “slow torture. We felt like the leviathan of old that smelt the battle afar off and wished to be in it.”           " Convalescent I am informed means a wreck- the leavings of a body that fever, diarrhea, wounds, and army surgeons have seen fit to let remain," he continued. "Some 800 non-commissioned officers and privates with about 40 commissioned officers make up this camp. The men are from all parts of the army and of every branch of the service; cavalry, artillery, and infantry all mixed up together. The convalescents went under the name and style of the “Cripple Brigade.”           Lieutenant Ayres’ description of life at the Fort Henry convalescent camp first appeared in the October 2, 1862, edition...

A fter losing a third of his command in the short span of 15 minutes on the first day of Chickamauga, Major Charles M. Hammond of the 100th Illinois was eager that the homefolks got the story right.      " I noticed in your issue of September 23 rd  a slight account of the fight of Saturday afternoon the 19 th  and in relation to Davis’s division rescuing the 8 th  Indiana Battery and discovered a slight mistake," he commented to the editors of the Wilmington Independent . After describing how the brigade arrived on the field, he wrote "   At that moment, troops from Davis’s division came rushing through our lines and a battery from the same division, I think (though have not been able to ascertain positively) ran over us, killing one man and wounding several others. In the meantime, the Rebels were pouring in upon us a raking fire which was returned with interest. At this moment, General [Thomas J.] Wood rode up and ordered the 100 th  to charge,...

F ollowing the Federal victory at Mill Springs, Private William Ruby of the 10 th Indiana observed the mad scramble for souvenirs amongst his peers. He proudly reported securing one of the best prizes: a Confederate flag that belonged to a company in the 16 th Alabama. “We gave them such an ungodly scare in the fight that they left their wagons, tents, trunks, horses, saddles, clothes, guns, pistols, ammunition of all kinds, cannons and in fact everything imaginable,” he wrote to his father. “A person could not form the least idea of the scene which followed. There is hardly anyone but what had a relic or trophy to keep in remembrance of the ever-to-be remembered 19 th of January. I captured a splendid banner belonging to the Marion County, Alabama Guards. I will present it to old Tippecanoe County, together with another one captured by Johnny Mackessey of our company. I also got a flute worth about $30, a silver watch, a splendid pistol and case worth about $30. I have several ni...

A t the Battle of Stones River, Lieutenant Noah Webster Yoder could lay sole claim to being the premier bullet magnet of the Army of the Cumberland. The Ohioan no doubt must have felt snake bit at the battle as the 25-year-old former country doctor sustained no less than eight wounds in a manner of minutes when his 51 st Ohio vainly tried to stop Breckinridge’s attack on the afternoon of January 2, 1863.           Lieutenant Yoder’s story, copied from a family history of the Hostetler family, is given as follows: He educated himself, taught school, studied medicine and practiced till the war of 1861, when he entered the army as Lieutenant of Co. G, 51 st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He engaged in many battles and skirmishes in Kentucky and Tennessee. At the battle of Stones River through some mistaken order of his superior officers his regiment was ordered to advance over the brow of the hill and hold the position at all hazards. The Rebel...

A fter gathering the bodies of his slain comrades, murdered at the hands of Bloody Bill Anderson and his band of guerillas outside the town of Centralia, Missouri in September 1864, one Iowa captain resolved to seek revenge for the deaths of his men.           “I arrived on the ground the morning after the massacre and received a detailed account of it from an eyewitness,” he wrote to a friend in Illinois. “I had a small detail to look after the murdered men of our own regiment, as it was known that seven of them had been on the train. I was not long in finding them, but in an awfully mangled condition. The butchers had thrown some of them across the track and compelled the engineer to run a construction train over them. There were two men from my own company among the slain and I found one of them with nine bullet holes in him and his throat cut. The other one had three bullets and his throat cut. Now talk of peace with such a race, will y...

O n Sunday night, April 13, 1862, Lieutenant Benjamin H. Ober of the 77 th Pennsylvania witnessed one of the saddest sights of his short military career: the arrival of the steamboat Minnehaha at Louisville, Kentucky carrying a boatload of wounded soldiers from the Shiloh battlefield. He climbed aboard eagerly seeking news of his comrades.           “I walked through the cabins and looked into every suffering face, fearing at every step to meet the gaze of a wounded comrade with whom I had been so long associated and with whom I enjoyed so many pleasures and endured so many hardships,” he wrote. “But there were no familiar faces there. It is impossible to describe the sufferings of many of the poor fellows. Some of them were writhing and twisting, rolling over on their hard couches and uttering piteous groans that made the heart ache. Others less severely wounded seemed cheerful and happy and very ready to communicate all they knew about ...

S urveying the carnage wrought by his battery during the reduction of Fort Hindman, Arkansas in January 1863, Private Everett Hudson of the Chicago Mercantile Battery came away with a harsh education in the horrors of war.           “Such a sight as met my eyes when I first gained the top of the pits I can never forget,” he wrote a week later. “Here and there lay dead and wounded Rebels in all conceivable forms. Some lay with a head off, some a leg, others an arm, and some mangled all to pieces. Inside the casements, our shells had burst and hit the gunners on the head and spattered the brains all over the walls. Pieces of shells weighing 15-20 lbs. were found imbedded in the solid walls inside, showing that our shells were terribly destructive.”           The carnage was not one-sided. Hudson witnessed a Confederate shell that detonated among a nearby group of Federal soldiers. “The ball cut m...

W ounded during the fighting in the Round Forest at Stones River, Private Almon Stuart of the 9th Indiana recalled the desperate plight of the Federal army on the first day of the battle, and the part his regiment played in turning the tide.       "For a time Wednesday, it seemed as if our defeat was inevitable," recalled Private Almon Stuart of the 9th Indiana Infantry.  "But the left wing, that portion of the army in which the old 9 th   Indiana is, held its own; nay more, they drove back a portion of the Rebel force and saved our army from destruction changing what seemed for a time certain defeat into a great and glorious victory . It should be called the Battle of Cottonfields for it was fought over not only woods, meadows, and cornfields, but also over three cotton fields, in all of which the cotton was ungathered."      Private Stuart's vivid description of the Battle of Stones River first appeared in the February 5, 1863, edition of t...

L et’s take a moment to review 2024 on Dan Masters’ Civil War Chronicles.        2024 marked another very busy year with 157 new blog posts, up from 114 last year. The year also saw the publication of two new books, Echoes of Battle Volume 2 and my new campaign study Hell by the Acre: A Narrative History of the Stones River Campaign .        The blog is currently at 955 posts and is fast approaching 1,000 post mark; will probably reach that sometime this spring. Blog traffic continues at a very impressive pace for which I am very grateful.        The blog’s focus remains centered on telling the story of the common soldier in the Civil War, North and South. Over the past year, I devoted more page space to telling some of the stories of our Civil War veterans who received the Medal of Honor but the western theater remains my prime focus. I’m excited to share new discoveries with you. The process of research and study remai...