They Shoot Wickedly, However: With Cotter’s Battery at Scarey Creek

In 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, 1861, edition of the St. Joseph Traveler, a newspaper published in St. Joseph, Michigan.

 

Cotter's battery was one of several militia battery that went into service from Ohio in the early days of the Civil War. Following his 90-day service, Cotter would return to Ohio and recruit what became Battery A of the 1st Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery which saw much service in the western theater. Pictured above is an unknown artilleryman standing beside a 12-lb Napoleon with the sponge bucket to his left. 

 Blue Mountain, head of Kanawha River, Virginia

August 5, 1861

          We have had a number of battles during our sojourn in this state and have lost but one from the No. 1 piece of which I am first gunner. His name was John Haven and he was engaged in handing ammunition from the caissons when he was shot. 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.

          We fought two hours and I never did harder work in my life. We hushed the Rebel batteries at last, however, and commenced firing at their infantry and cavalry. We fired 80 rounds then were ordered to desist. Captain Charles S. Cotter [see "Mr. Cotter Gets Gobbled at Perryville"] rode to the brow of the hill and found the enemy advancing towards us. He ordered us forward on a double quick with our pieces; we had scarcely reached there when they opened a terrible fire upon us which we answered as soon as possible. We fired 18-20 rounds when the captain and lieutenant, discovered our reserves of cavalry and infantry retreating, commanded us to retire.

          We limbered up our pieces and drove at a double-quick half a mile to the rear and came to a halt. Then one of the cannoneers observed that we left Johnny Haven behind. Six of our boys and myself returned in search of him but we had not gone far before we met one of our men carrying him. We placed him in the caisson wagons which were filled with dead and dying.

This modern map of the Scarey Creek battlefield shows the general location where Cotter's battery went into action and where Johnny Haven of Shalersville, Ohio had his legs shot out from under him. Haven died on July 24, 1861, the first man from Portage County to lose his life in the Civil War. 


          We returned to camp where we found 2,000 of our troops marching to our relief. The colonel, however, thought it best to attack them that night as it was nearly sunset. We returned to the battlefield under a flag of truce and buried our dead. There were 14 of our troops killed, 55 wounded, and 7 taken prisoner; the Rebel loss was 72 killed and over 100 wounded.

          We have six rifled cannons and seven smoothbores for shooting grape, canister, and round balls. We have shot two-and-a-half miles and set steamboats on fire belonging to the Rebels on the Kanawha River. We have destroyed two boats for the Rebels, also a large amount of arms, ammunition, and provisions.

          We will be in eastern Tennessee in about a week if nothing happens. We start tomorrow if we do not receive orders to march on Richmond. We have advanced guards over 30 miles from camp. They have not shown us fair fight but once. The cowards dare not face us openly. They shoot wickedly, however.

          But I must close. Write me very soon.

Respectfully, your brother,

P.D. Green

 

To learn more about the fight at Scarey Creek, please check out these other posts:

 A Scary Affair at Scary Creek (Williams' Independent Battery)

Going Zouave on the Rebs at Scarey Creek with the 12th Ohio


Source:

Letter from Private Philip D. Green, Cotter’s Independent Battery, Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery, St. Joseph Traveler (Michigan), August 21, 1861, pg. 3

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