Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

S herman Hendrick of Battery C, 1 st Ohio Light Artillery had fought as part of the Army of the Cumberland since its inception. But at Bentonville, North Carolina in March 1865, he saw something he had rarely seen on a battlefield: the 14 th Corps running away from a fight.           “Soon after our arrival, we heard a great uproar towards the front and saw pack mules, baggage wagons, and part of a battery coming back in great disorder,” he recalled. “Our advancing brigades had been flanked by an overwhelming force and came back in awful confusion. The command was given, “Right wheel into battery!” At 3:15 p.m., we were in good shape for callers. We were no sooner in position than the 14 th Corps brigade came running through our line, one captain crying out, “Lee’s whole army is after us! Run for your lives, boys, run!” The 14 th Corps boys were not in the habit of running away from a fight, so we knew that there must be something ahead...

G eneral Ulysses S. Grant recalled in his Memoirs how “when it was first proposed to run the blockade at Vicksburg with river steamers [in April 1863], there were but two captains or masters who were willing to accompany their vessels and but one crew. Volunteers were called for from the army who had had experience in any capacity navigating the western rivers. Captains, pilots, mates, engineers, and deck hands enough presented themselves to take five times the number of vessels we were moving through this dangerous ordeal. All but two of the steamers was commanded by volunteers and all but one so manned.” The only vessel with an all-civilian crew was the steamboat Forest Queen under the command of Captain Daniel Conway. As the fleet tried to drift past Vicksburg, alert Confederate gunners discovered them and after lighting a house on the opposite side of the river afire, pounded the fleet with shell after shell. Billy Blanker, clerk aboard the Forest Queen , proudly gave the follo...

R iding into Gettysburg on June 30, 1863, one trooper of the 3rd Indiana Cavalry of Colonel William Gamble's brigade of Buford's cavalry division remembered how the townspeople greeted his regiment with cheers and songs.       " As we passed through the city, we were gladly welcomed by the inhabitants who flocked in numbers to behold the advance of our troops," he wrote. " The farther we advanced the denser the throng became and when about half the length of the street was passed, a large number of young ladies had congregated and greeted us with the soul-inspiring air, “The Star Spangled Banner.” Another square further and the “Red, White, and Blue” rang merrily from a hundred fair singers. Just as the termination of the street was reached, when every nerve was strained in preparation for the charge, hundreds of voices blended sweetly in their earnest tones and “The Union Forever” inspired the men to the highest degree of patriotism."     The following day...

A s General John Pope’s Army of Virginia prepared to fight the Battle of Cedar Mountain, the men of the 7 th Indiana delighted in the exploits of one of their comrades.           Captured in the aftermath of the Battle of Port Republic, Sergeant Harry Fisk was imprisoned in a barn with dozens of other Federals that night when he saw something that didn’t belong: the captured colors of the 29 th Ohio. “During the night, the thought entered Harry’s head that they had no right to that flag, so suiting actions to his thoughts, he waited until all got quiet,” Captain Alexander Pattison recalled. “Then he tore the flag from the staff and sewed it up between the cloth and linen of his jacket and cut up the staff with his pocketknife. The next morning, great inquiry was made for the flag. The commander of the guard offered $30 for its recovery but no one knew anything about it. The next day, the prisoners were taken on to Lynchburg where they hav...

P ositioned on the far right of the Union assault on Missionary Ridge, Private William Van Horne of the 2nd Ohio described the elation of victory as the men of his brigade overwhelmed the Confederate line with but slight loss.     " I do not think that I ever heard as much noise in my life as there was that night," Van Horne wrote to his parents. "We cheered every general and everybody else. I do not believe I felt in better spirits that I ever did before and hallowed so much that my throat was sore and I believe everyone else’s was the same. Our regiment only lost one or two men wounded. I do not know how so many of us escaped for the bullets were flying so thick that you could almost see them. There was almost no end of shells flying all around us but striking very few."     During the Chattanooga campaign, the 2nd Ohio was Under General William P. Carlin's command of the First Brigade, First Division, 14th Army Corps. Following the losses at Chickamauga, the ...

W riting to his wife back home in Ohio, Lieutenant Frank Hardy of the 94th Ohio described the unofficial truce that had developed between the Confederate and Federal pickets outside of Chattanooga by mid-November 1863.     " At the point where we do picket duty, there is a creek between the two picket lines and they stand within speaking distance of each other and for the most part within plain sight of each other so as to make a first-rate mark to shoot at," he wrote. "But neither side manifests any disposition to molest the other. On the contrary, they seem to be generally disposed to be friendly towards each other, so much so that one can hardly realize that the two parties are at war with each other."      The following letter, written ten days before the Battle of Missionary Ridge, appears on the blog courtesy of Dale Niesen.

P osted at the edge of Walden’s Ridge at the beginning of September 1863, one soldier of the 97 th Ohio described how his brigade held Chattanooga under observation and stirred up the Confederates in town.           “Occasionally our brigade, encamped in the valley, is sent down near town, to stir up the monster and make him show his teeth,” he wrote. “When it becomes known that they are going to do so, the edge of the cliff is lined with spectators. The firing can be distinctly seen but too distant to observe the effects of the shots.”           The key objective of General George Wagner’s brigade was to demonstrate against Chattanooga, trying to convince Braxton Bragg that General Rosecrans’ army would try crossing the Tennessee River north of town. The distraction worked, allowing Rosecrans to cross most of his army downstream of town and setting in motion what would become the Battle of Ch...

A ssigned as the pioneer troops for General John Logan’s division of the 17 th Army Corps, Co. C of the 78 th Ohio found ample opportunity for employment during the siege of Vicksburg. Whether it was digging gun emplacements or rifle pits, the company proved to be a valuable addition to the division but as the siege dragged into June, its commander Lieutenant Alexander Scales received increasingly challenging assignments that taxed his company’s penchant for Yankee ingenuity.           Among the more extraordinary inventions that Scales and his men developed was a rolling sharpshooter’s wagon, armored with cotton bales that the men called a ‘land gunboat.’ A few weeks later, being pelted by hand thrown Confederate hand grenades, the redoubtable Scales decided to first develop levers to loft grenades in return. But that experiment failed which led Scales to decide to make wooden mortars.         ...

U pon arriving at Gettysburg on Friday, July 10, 1863 with a U.S. Christian Commission delegation from Philadelphia, Reverend W.D. Siegfried’s first task was to escort a mother to find her son’s grave on the battlefield. “We had some little idea of the locality of it given by a comrade of the fallen soldier,” he noted. “After traveling on foot over the battlefield some 6 miles, we came upon a cluster of graves of men from the 72 nd Pennsylvania regiment which suffered terribly. The undaunted mother stood weeping while I read the names of those buried there, marked on rough boards placed at the head of the grave. At last, the name of her son met my eye. I could scarcely pronounce it. But when she heard it- oh, what an expression of grief!” Reverend Siegfried would spend the rest of the day assisting at the 11 th Corps hospital and recorded his impressions of aftermath of Gettysburg in this extraordinary letter which first appeared in the July 18, 1863, edition of the Zanesville Da...

T he 78th Ohio, part of General Lew Wallace's division, was engaged throughout the second day of the Battle of Shiloh, but had the good fortune to lose only one man killed and nine men wounded. The death of the one man, however, haunted the survivors.     The soldier was Private James A. Morton of Co. C, and his death could be laid at the feet of curiosity overcoming good judgement. The regiment lay prone while under artillery fire but Morton, in battle for the first time, wanted to get a better view of the action. He would pay for that decision with his life.      " About noon, we found we were within 200 yards of a Rebel battery and the colonel told us to lie down and well he did so for of all the horrible firing of shell, grape, and canister, those hell hounds opened on us beat all," remembered Private James Bellinger. "Pretty soon I heard someone sing out 'Jim!  Jim Morton's hurt!'  I jumped up and called Darius who was just on my right as the ball...

L ying in battery on the north side of Corinth during the fight on October 4, 1862, Sergeant Charles Van Horn of Battery K, 1 st Missouri Light Artillery witnessed the grand Confederate assault that spread out before him “like a huge wedge in front of our battery and spread from right to left in a complete line of battle and advanced upon us on the double quick all the time. 24 pieces of artillery were pouring shot and shell into them which made great holes in their ranks but on they came, paying no attention to our artillery.”           “When they were within 50 yards of our battery, I was struck by a musket ball in the left breast, the same ball passing through my left arm and splintering it so badly that I had to have it amputated the same day, although I did not say so in my other letter,” he informed his parents. Sergeant Van Horn’s account of the Battle of Corinth first saw publication in the October 28, 1862, edition of the Zanesv...

F or one Ohio-born resident of New Orleans, the arrival of Admiral David Farragut’s fleet on April 25, 1862, marked a day of liberation. “Yesterday about half past 1 o’clock, the cry was raised that the Yankees were upon us,” wrote Louis M. Beyers in a letter to his mother. “I started toward the levee where the Federal vessels were said to be lying. Reaching the river, what a sight breaks upon my view. The steamboat William Morrison was one mass of flames. All the shipping was sending forth the most dense black smoke. The Mississippi , a ram which was nearly finished and which, if completed, would have demolished the whole fleet in one hour, floating slowly by with the smoke issuing from every opening and several other important like vessels in various parts of the river, all showing that the torch has been applied to them.” “Together with the thunder which came peal after peal gave a scene of the utmost grandeur. There proudly floating in the smoke and rain were the glorious old ...

U ntil the fall of 1863, only a total of three Pennsylvania infantry regiments were assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, the 77 th , 78 th , and 79 th . All three of these regiments arrived in the western theater in the fall of 1861 as part of Brigadier General James S. Negley’s brigade.       In the following article written for the Pittsburgh Dispatch newspaper, General Negley explained how he procured authority to raise the brigade, how it was formed, and how it came to be assigned to the western theater. Among the notables who make appearances in General Negley’s narrative include Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Curtin, Simon Cameron, Winfield Scott, William Tecumseh Sherman, and even President Abraham Lincoln.

W riting a short letter to his parents a week after the Battle of Chickamauga, Private Sherman Hendrick of Battery C, 1st Ohio Light Artillery reported that he had been wounded but assured them he could "kick around quite lively.  I am wounded in the right shoulder and carry the bullet there as a memento, but don’t let it keep you awake at night for it don’t hurt me much."     Long after the war, Hendrick assembled a much longer article for the National Tribune giving a history of his battery's service at Chickamauga which is reproduced below along with his wartime letter. The battery photos appear courtesy of Larry Stevens' Ohio in the War website , the images originally belonging to an album owned by Sergeant Theodore Stoughton who figures prominently in Sherman Hendrick's narrative.  Corporal Sherman Hendrick, Battery C, 1st Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery was just 20 years old when he joined the battery September 9, 1861. Wounded in the right shoulder at Chick...

O n the 5 th of May, 1862 at Williamsburg, Virginia the 5 th North Carolina met the 5 th Wisconsin upon the battlefield for the first time. At (you guessed it) 5 o'clock that evening, the Wisconsin troops, part of General Winfield Scott Hancock’s brigade, fought a stubborn delaying action against a daring counterattack staged by the 5 th North Carolina and 24 th Virginia under the command of General Jubal Early.  In the ensuing struggle in which Hancock said of his opponents, "they should have immortality inscribed on their banners,” the two Confederate regiments nearly broke the Federal line and suffered heavily; the 5 th North Carolina lost more than 300 men including its colors while the 24 th Virginia lost more than 180. General Early was also wounded in this assault. Today’s post features a pair of eyewitness accounts of this engagement- one from Private Thomas Wagener of Co. A of the 5 th Wisconsin and a second written primarily by Captain James MacRae of the...