Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

L ewis F. Stratton was born on February 6, 1841, to Timothy and Mary Stratton on the Stratton family farm in Jefferson Twp., Jay Co., Indiana. He was the fifth of eight children and came of age with all the trials and tribulations of life in the Indiana frontier, being educated in the local public schools. He became a farmer and helped run the family farm until the Civil War broke out in April 1861.       His older brother Isaac N. Stratton immediately answered the call for volunteers and joined Co. C, 39 th Indiana Infantry in August 1861 and went on to a distinguished career as a soldier, mustering out as Captain of Co. I, 8 th Indiana Veteran Cavalry. The following August, Lewis’ oldest brother Stephen  joined the 89 th Indiana Infantry as a Corporal but died at Fort Pickering in Memphis, Tennessee from disease in the summer of 1863. At the time he enlisted in October 1864, Lewis was living in Deer Creek Twp., Cass Co., Indiana working as a farm laborer....

T here's an old sailor's adage that goes "red skies at night, sailor's delight. Red skies in the morning, sailor's take warning."  Captain Robert Eden of the 37th Wisconsin may have thought that same warning applied to soldiers as the sun rose "glowing red and angry" on the morning of July 30, 1864 in the trenches near Petersburg, Virginia.     " On that morning, just as the sun rose above the eastern horizon, glowing red and angry through the morning mists like a ball of molten metal, we were aroused by the sound of three heavy guns fired in rapid succession from a battery on the left," the captain recounted. "This was quickly followed by a dull, heavy roar, a perceptible concussion of the air, and a trembling of the solid ground on which we lay. This was succeeded by the opening of every battery along our whole line, said to number 400 pieces of artillery of every size from the light 12-pounder field piece up to 100-pounder Parrott a...

F or the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry, McCook's cavalry raid at the end of July 1864 proved a disaster, costing the lives of two of its leading officers: Major Nathan Paine and Lieutenant Colonel William H. Torrey.      " General Sherman officially pronounces McCook’s raid “an important success.” A plain statement of facts shows how much the lieutenant colonel and major of the 1 st  Wisconsin Cavalry contributed to that success. While we of the regiment mourn them as officers who sacrificed themselves but saved their commands, we look with pride upon the deeds which have made the names of Paine and Torrey an honor to the state," offered Colonel Oscar H. LaGrange.       Colonel LaGrange's letter first appeared in the September 8, 1864, edition of the Saturday Evening Press of Menasha, Wisconsin.

"A critical moment had arrived."      The Federal armies under General William Tecumseh Sherman had advanced to the gates of Atlanta, and as the Army of the Cumberland approached the western approaches to the city, General John Bell Hood directed his first attack as newly appointed commander of the Army of Tennessee. The two armies would clash at Peach Tree Creek on the afternoon of July 20, 1864, and the 22nd Wisconsin found themselves in the front skirmish line when Hood's attack struck.    " The 22 nd   Wisconsin was ordered on skirmish and advanced across an open field which was divided by a deep ravine forming two parts or hills with the ground sloping toward the ravine gradually," one veteran noted. "The Rebels gave signs of uneasiness and soon advanced to the edge of the wood that bordered the field half a mile distant. Our line of battle was yet behind the high ground where it had first formed when word came that the Rebels were advancing. The 22 nd...

T he Battle of Stones River entered into its third day and the 99 th Ohio, assigned to Colonel Samuel Price’s brigade of Van Cleve’s division, had thus far escaped any serious combat. Tasked with guarding McFadden’s Ford during the fighting of December 31 st , the regiment crossed Stones River the following day and took up supporting positions behind the front line of Price’s brigade. That afternoon, Breckinridge’s assault threw the 99 th Ohio into some of the hardest fighting of the battle.           “We were laying flat down on the muddy ground and when the fire opened, the bullets sung around is like bees and the bombshells bursting sounded like reports of heavy thunder all around us,” remembered Private Jacob Early of the 99 th Ohio. “The first line stood them a good while but they came up six columns deep. Then we all had orders to retreat back to our reinforcements. We had to retreat across a 15-acre field right in plain view of th...

W hen the Fort Meigs Rifles left Perrysburg, Ohio in April 1861 to take part in the Civil War, the ladies of Perrysburg sent them a silk national flag with symbols stretching back to the birth of the nation. Not only was the company named the Fort Meigs Rifles in honor of nearby Fort Meigs, an important battle site during the War of 1812, but the flag bore Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s motto from the Battle of Put-In-Bay. Intriguingly, the flagstaff carried two tassels with connections to the Battle of Bunker Hill, one of the earliest engagements of the Revolutionary War. “The flag is a beautiful one, bearing the motto of Commodore Perry “Don’t Give Up the Ship’ in gold letters,” the Perrysburg Journal reported. [ The town of Perrysburg was named for Commodore Perry .] “On the flag there are two tassels, which were on a flag borne at the Battle of Bunker Hill. These tassels were given to the ladies who presented the flag by Mrs. Roach, whose grandfather carried the flag at the Bat...

I n this spicy letter which first saw publication in the May 12, 1864, edition of the Saturday Evening Press from Menasha, Wisconsin, a soldier correspondent of the 29 th Wisconsin with the nom-de-plume Scribus denounced the folly of how Generals Nathaniel Banks and William Franklin conducted the Red River campaign by sharing the experience of his regiment at the Battle of Mansfield. As part of General Robert Cameron’s Third Division of the 13 th Army Corps, a five-company detachment of the 29 th Wisconsin along with the 46 th Indiana (all that was present of the First Brigade) were brought into line to salvage the collapsing Federal position at Mansfield. It wasn’t long before Scribus and his comrades in the 29 th found themselves in great peril.           “We who could see what was transpiring were well aware of the danger, yet we remained until the enemy was so near that we were completely hemmed in upon the right. Then an overwh...

W riting to his mother ten days after the disaster that had befallen his regiment at Second Winchester, Private George W. Cross of the 18 th Connecticut counted himself lucky to have escaped unharmed. It was early in the morning of June 15, 1863, when the regiment, trying to escape from Winchester to Harper’s Ferry, found itself trapped near Stephenson’s Depot. Ordered to charge by General Robert Milroy, the 18 th Connecticut turned off the road, formed into line, and went into the fight. It wasn’t long before the line unraveled and was ordered to disperse. “Just as we had orders to scatter and save our lives, a horse came running out of the woods between me and the Rebels,” Cross recalled. “I put for him and caught him. About the time I go on his back, the bullets flew around my head like hail and plowed the ground all around me. The Rebels sung out to me, “Halt, you damned Yankee, your retreat is cut off!” I put the butt of my gun around the horse’s legs and off I went as fast ...

T he Battle of Kinston, North Carolina, was fought December 14, 1862, between Federal forces under General John G. Foster and a small force of Confederates led by General Nathan Evans. Foster marched out from New Bern with roughly 10,000 men aiming to break the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad. In this letter written home to his parents in Connecticut, Private Eugene W. Chaffee of Co. E, 10 th Connecticut Infantry describes his experiences in this all-but -forgotten engagement that cost his regiment 104 casualties. His letter first appeared in the January 23, 1863, edition of the Willimantic Journal published in Willimantic, Connecticut.

I n the Second Battle of Corinth fought October 3-4, 1862, the Federal Army of Mississippi under General William S. Rosecrans a total of 2,520 casualties, including  324 men missing or captured. Among those captured was Corporal Francis E. Engle of the 14th Wisconsin Infantry. In the following letter written home to his family from Benton Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, Engle describes his time in captivity, his fare consisting largely of cornbread and fresh beef. The corporal was promptly exchanged, returning to Federal hands about two weeks after first being captured on the battlefield at Corinth.            Corporal Engle’s description of his time in captivity first saw publication in the November 13, 1862, edition of the Manitowoc Herald published in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.