With the Chicago Mercantile Battery at Arkansas Post
Surveying 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 men in two, just below the
heart. I was standing only a few yards distant at the time and only a few
moments before was standing with the same group,” he recalled.
Hudson, a
grocery clerk working in Chicago at the time of his enlistment, joined the
Chicago Mercantile Battery under the command of Captain Charles G. Cooley on
August 20, 1862. The battery was organized under the auspices of the Mercantile
Association, consisting of the most prominent merchants in the city of Chicago.
The battery was initially equipped with four 6-lb smoothbores and two 3-inch wrought-iron
ordnance rifles and Private Hudson found himself assigned to one of the
smoothbore pieces.
He would serve through the rest
of the war with the battery, mustering out July 10, 1865, at Chicago. In those
three years, the battery would see extensive action in the western theater,
fighting mostly as part of the 13th Army Corps in the Army of the
Tennessee. The engagements at Chickasaw Bayou, Port Gibson, Champion’s Hill, Vicksburg,
and Sabine Crossroads thundered with the sound of the Mercantile battery’s six
guns.
Hudson would survive the war. A
native of Ohio, he had moved to Illinois with his parents in 1846 and had his
first clerkship in a general store in Wilmington, Illinois, which explains why
his letter appeared in the local newspaper. Not long after his discharge,
Hudson journeyed west to Dakota Territory and settled in what later became
Yankton, South Dakota. His mercantile training served him well, as Hudson became
involved in banking, real estate, insurance, and brokerage firms during his
lengthy business career. In 1874, he married Clara E. Warren with whom he
enjoyed 22 years of marriage until her death in 1896. Hudson never remarried, devoting
his time to Yankton College, the local school board, and his associations with
the Grand Army of the Republic until his death at age 85 on October 28, 1924,
in Windom, Minnesota.
Private Hudson’s account of Arkansas Post appeared on the first page of the February 18, 1863, edition of the Wilmington Independent published in Wilmington, Illinois.
On board steamer Warsaw
January 18, 1863
The last time
I wrote you, I was on board the steamer Adriatic bound up the Mississippi River
and destination not positively known. You have undoubtedly heard ere this where
we went and what we have been about and now anxiously await a letter from me.
The
particulars of the capture of Fort Hindman (named after the illustrious senator
from Arkansas when the Secesh seceded from the halls of Congress) are about as
follows. We arrived before the fort about dusk on Saturday the 10th
instant, and the artillery, cavalry, and infantry were immediately ordered to
debark and form in line of battle around the entire fort and rifle pits, this
line being about two miles long. The enclosure formed by the rifle pits
contained, I should judge, about 200 acres. The fort was on the extreme left
and lower corner of the area. The works were built on a bend of the river, the
bend being convex from the land; the rifle pits extended from the river at the
fort out into the woods and around to the river above. Distance was half a mile
from the starting point by water and as I said before, two miles around by the
pits.
The fort was
so arranged that if we gained possession of the ground inside the pits that we
still had the fort to take as there was an embankment thrown up between the
fort and area of the main ground. Upon this embankment were heavy guns
commanding any point of the compass. On the side of the fort commanding the
river were two blockhouses built of heavy green oak timber hewn a foot square
and laid up double, making it old solid mass of timber two feet thick and the
roof being built in the same manner as the walls excepting the roof is cased
over with iron half an inch thick. The roof being a one-sided roof with
quarter-pitch slanting from the river.
Inside the
casements were one 84-lb and one 120-lb Parrott guns. Mark me, one gun throwing
a ball 84 lbs. and the other 120 lbs., each capable of throwing accurately two
miles. In other parts of the fort were guns and howitzers throwing balls from
6-32 lbs., being flying artillery in all parts of the field. There were inside
the enclosure about 60 baggage wagons, 400 mules and horses, and quite a large
supply of commissary stores in sufficient quantities to last the garrison of
8,000 men about three months. Everything in and about the fort was done as
though they thought it impregnable and therefore intended to make it a
permanent post. Inside the fort was a well about 120 feet deep with an abundant
supply of water. In this well hung a fireman’s hose with one end attached to
the engine and the other end in the water; this was designed to put out fire in
case we threw hot shot.
Well, to go
back to the time we arrived. The order was executed in quick time and the first
intimation of our presence the Rebs had was when they were completely
surrounded by 10,000 men. All was now ready, a rocket was sent up as a signal
to the gunboats when they (three in number) opened the ball with a terrific
bombardment against the fort while we, the artillery and infantry, lay low in
the bushes watching the effect of our balls. This was after dark, but the fire
from the gunboats and the fires about the fort afforded us light enough to see
pretty well.
The gunboats steamed up so close
to the fort that the Rebels’ guns could not hit ours. The fort was on a high
hill and the heavy guns were so fixed that they could not shoot low enough
inside of a half mile to hit us. I suppose the Rebs did not think the Yankees
were so audacious as to steam up as close as we did. The only chance they had
of hitting the gunboats was from the time they were two miles distant until
they were within half a mile; after that, we were under their range.
Their guns, weighing several
tons, could not be moved without some great mechanical force that could not be
got in readiness while so hotly engaged as they were. The bombardment was
continued without intermission for an hour and 20 minutes. All this time, the
ground jarred worse than any thunder I ever heard. There was a constant quiver like
lightning in the air high over the flat from the cannon’s mouth. How to account
for this singular phenomenon was the query of all observers. I suppose though
it was caused by the hot and cold air coming into contact, similar to the case
of lightning. After the bombardment had ceased, all was still and calm as a
graveyard until the first rays of light on the morning of the 11th
when we ordered the Rebels to surrender, which they politely declined. The Rebs
were under the command of that unmerciful old Churchill, who you will recollect
had command of the Indians at the Battle of Pea Ridge and who ordered them, or
let them, bayonet our wounded upon the field.
Union gunboats firing upon Fort Hindman on January 11, 1863. |
After the preliminaries were
passed through, the ball again opened at half past 12- musketry, artillery, and
gunboats combined. For 300 yards from the rifle pits all the way round stood
trees from the size of a man’s body up to two and even three feet in diameter.
These had been fell by the Rebs in order to have an open field in which to
fight when they were assailed. But here fortune favored us, for they had either
delayed or had not time to remove them before our appearance, probably the
latter as the trees looked fresh cut. These trees afforded us great shelter.
The infantry entered this
underbrush and poured volley after volley into the Rebel ranks every time they
raised their heads above the pits to fire. The artillery would aim about 6 inches
below the top of the pit and then could be seen sand, sticks, and splinters
flying high into the air. The gunboats, in the meantime, were throwing grape
and shell over the fort to the opposite side of the field, doing terrible execution.
Their shells would strike trees as large as my body and cut them straight in
two. There was one large tree in the center of the enclosure, a perfect old
monarch, with many branches as large as a good-sized tree; these branches were
all riddled by our shell and solid shot.
The battle went on in this way
for just four hours when they hoisted the white flag and surrendered
unconditionally 8,000 men, 10,00 stand of arms, a large quantity of ammunition,
and other ordnance stores besides about half the horses and miles. The other
half lay dead or wounded upon the field. When they capitulated, we marched up
to their works and took immediate possession of everything.
But such a sight as met my eyes
when I first gained the top of the pits I can never forget! 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 very gun I was working upon was sighted upon a 20-lb howitzer
with solid shot and fired and was seen to break right into the center or about
the trunnions. There were about a dozen guns served in like manner.
The fallen trees were so great a
protection that our loss was comparatively small in proportion to the Rebels.
Our battery came out without any killed and only three wounded, two of them
slightly. Our loss would have been severe if the Rebs had not been so hotly
engaged by the infantry from the center. It could not have been otherwise as we
were only 300 yards from the Rebel sharpshooters. Some of our horses were shot.
I must here relate some little
incidents during the fight. First, in the beginning of the fight, we saw some
men nearly a mile distant erecting a battery to open upon us so we turned our
guns upon them. We had to get sight at quite an elevation in order to reach
them as our guns were smoothbores and do not shoot as far as rifled guns. The
first shot fired was at too great an elevation and went over the Rebs and hit a
hospital about a mile beyond which we did not see and cut the surgeon general’s
head completely off. This is known to be true as no other guns except ours were
fired in that direction.
Another shot was fired and struck a caisson, which of course exploded and carried everything with it for yards arounds. The first shot which was fired on the 11th from the forts was fired into a small group of men seated about a mile below, observing the moving of our army. The ball cut men in two, just below the heart. I was standing only a few yards distant at the time and only a few moments before was standing with the same group. In the logs and stumps which our men were behind were found from one to half a dozen bullets; almost every bush was either cut off or scarred with these death-dealing slugs. The boys were perfectly contented with the sound of the shells, for they could dodge them; but when the bullets came thick and fast with their zip, zip, zip, they began to think of some big trees.
To learn more about the Chicago Mercantile Battery, check out Richard B. Williams' 2005 book Chicago's Battery Boys: The Chicago Mercantile Battery in the Civil War's Western Theater available through Savas Beatie.
To learn more about the fighting at Arkansas Post, please check out these other articles:
Amongst the Ambulance Drivers at Arkansas Post (57th Ohio)
Taking Fort Hindman with the 76th Ohio
Breaking the Clouds of Gloom: The 83rd Ohio at Arkansas Post
Storming the Ramparts at Arkansas Post with the 120th Ohio
Among the Phone Brave at Arkansas Post (1st Wisconsin Battery)
The Surrender of Arkansas Post
Source:
Letter from Private Everett Eugene Hudson, Chicago Mercantile
Battery, Wilmington Independent (Illinois), February 18, 1863, pg. 1
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