Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

F irst impressions often make lasting impressions, and for Sergeant Charles Evans of the 12th Connecticut, the first impression made by the citizens of New Orleans boils down to one word: surly. One example of this was when his regiment disembarked on the afternoon of May 2, 1862, the 12th Connecticut being among the first Union troops to occupy the city.  “Late in the afternoon of May 2 nd , we were ordered to land in the midst of thousands of secessionist soldiers and citizens,” he wrote his brother back home in Connecticut. “As each company descended from the ship to the dock, they were brought to a front and ordered to load which gave the Rebels to understand what they had to deal with in case of a street fight. And we confidently expected it. The bitterness exhibited by the vast gathering boded nothing else. The women were more insulting than the men owing, I suppose, to the worldwide reputation of gallantry on the part of Yankee soldiers. The taunts were intolerable and onl...

C aptured along with 72 other Federal officers at the Battle of Thompson's Station, Tennessee on March 5, 1863, Lieutenant Colonel James M. Henderson of the 33rd Indiana described the officers' long journey to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia.       " At Tullahoma, we were treated by Bragg the worst of any prisoners taken since the beginning of the war," Henderson complained. "Wet and cold, we were stripped of overcoats, oil blankets, canteens, and leggings, and the whole 73 officers were crowded into a small room with no fire, no room to lay down, and we had to nest in like hogs to keep from freezing. Next morning, we were thrown into a train of cattle cars and sent to Chattanooga, nearly freezing along the way. At Chattanooga, we got better treatment. From there we came on day by day till we got to Richmond, making 15 days in all. At some of our stopping places we got good treatment, at others, bad." Lieutenant Colonel Henderson’s letter, written to hi...

W riting five months after the events of Thompson's Station, First Lieutenant Henry M. Brown of the 19th Michigan recalled bitterly the impact that botched engagement had on his regiment. To be sure, nearly the entire regiment was captured in this forgotten battle that took place March 5, 1863 south of Franklin, Tennessee.      " We have lost in all ways as a result of the affair about 200 men, every one of whom was sound and healthy when we left our camp at Franklin," he stated. " Our regiment, out of 488 officers and men, lost 34 killed (including three who were mortally wounded and died soon after the battle) and 79 wounded, making a total loss of killed and wounded of 113 men."       He blamed the cowardice of the 18th Ohio Battery for his regiment's ill fortunes. After falling back from their initial position, Brown observed  " our artillery got ready to march and very soon moved off at a rapid rate towards Franklin and we saw no more of them...

W riting to his sister in Michigan, Sergeant William F. Hall of the 1st Colorado spoke of the thrill and terror he experienced when charging the Confederate guns at Apache Canyon in New Mexico Territory on March 26, 1862, one of the preliminary engagements of the larger Battle of Glorieta Pass.         " I have been where rifle balls fell like hail, where man met man in deadly strife, and where all the evil passions of a man’s nature were aroused and some of the nobler ones, also," he began. " Captain Cook took the lead and gave the command to charge. I was at the left of my section- you should have seen us as we flew up that canyon like a whirlwind and fell on to their forces like a thunderbolt. But many a fellow fell to rise no more before we had passed half through the raking fire. We had passed through or over two-thirds of the distance and I still remained unharmed although the bullets flew like hail about me. Some passed through my overcoat which was held ...

I n his battery’s first action of the war at Scarey Creek, in western Virginia, gunner Philip D. Green of Cotter’s Independent Battery of Ohio Light Artillery witnessed the gruesome sight of one of his comrades losing both legs shot off by a cannon ball.           “He was engaged in handing ammunition from the caissons when he was shot,” Green related in a letter written to his brother Oliver Green of Pipestone, Michigan. “The force of the ball that struck him was so great that it threw me violently upon the ground but did not hurt me much. As he fell, he said, “Oh boys, I am gone!” He lived for seven days, enduring terrible agony. His lower limbs were taken from his body as evenly as with a knife; the right leg near the thigh and the left at the knee.”           Green’s letter, the first I’ve yet seen from a soldier in Cotter’s battery at Scarey Creek, first saw publication in the August 21, 1...

F or nearly four years, the mantra of the Army of the Potomac was “On to Richmond!” In early April 1865, that long cherished goal was finally accomplished and First Lieutenant James Morris of the 4 th New Jersey Battery was on hand to witness the historic occasion.           “At early daybreak a dense cloud of smoke was observed hanging over the city and when we came in sight of the city, the scene was terribly grand,” he recorded. “I thought at first that Lee was trying to play Moscow on us. Great clouds of fire and smoke were rolling up from a score of buildings in the heart of the city. The arsenal was on fire and the immense quantity of shells stored therein were bursting continually, scattering destruction and death among the terrified women and children whose homes were in flames.”           “One of our bands struck up “Yankee Doodle” and when a young lady was asked by an office how she ...

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...