A Scene Awful and Sublime: An Illinois Gunner at Hatchie Bridge

Illinois gunner Thaddeus Hulaniski, writing his mother after the Battle of Hatchie Bridge, described the intense moment when he nearly lost his life.

"The enemy knew the position of the bridge which we had to cross and kept up a perfect shower of shot, shell, and canister, together with the musketry and thunder of artillery- a scene awful and sublime,” he said. “All our forces were engaged here except two batteries. Here our gun axle was cracked, disabling the gun and a shot sent into our limber chest which contains ammunition. I was standing by the side of it, that being my position. The shot broke two shells inside but luckily did not explode otherwise I would not be here to write this letter.”

Private Hulaniski’s description of the fight at Hatchie River/Davis Bridge first saw publication in the October 27, 1862, edition of the Daily Gate City published in Keokuk, Iowa.

 

Battery L of the 2nd Illinois Light Artillery was a four-gun battery equipped with 6-pdr James rifles similar to the one pictured above. In the course of the day long engagement at Hatchie Bridge, one of these guns were disabled. 

Bolivar, Tennessee

October 8, 1862

Dear mother,

          I wrote you that we were to leave Bolivar and the papers probably tell you by this time that we left and had a battle. To begin with, I am safe and all right.

          We left here the next morning after I wrote and early, marched fast all day towards Corinth and encamped late at night. The next morning we moved on with our battery in the advance. Our gun shelled a house, putting in four shells out of five shots. We then came upon a high hill and saw the Rebels with artillery in the lane below about 900 yards off. We opened on them and the fight became general, they sending shot and shell at us thick and fast. We finally silenced their battery of four 12-pdrs.

          Our infantry charged and took the battery, the Rebels retreating across the Big Hatchie River and taking position on a high hill where they were prepared to rake us as we advanced. We followed up and had to take position on the level ground, on the banks of the river, next to the enemy. Here the fight was the hardest and most desperate on both sides.

          The enemy knew the position of the bridge which we had to cross and kept up a perfect shower of shot, shell, and canister, together with the musketry and thunder of artillery- a scene awful and sublime. All our forces were engaged here except two batteries. Here our gun axle was cracked, disabling the gun and a shot sent into our limber chest which contains ammunition. I was standing by the side of it, that being my position. The shot broke two shells inside but luckily did not explode otherwise I would not be here to write this letter. Our gun was then taken back over the creek but I did not go with it, remaining with another gun until the fight was over.

The river crossing at Hatchie River. 

          We finally drove them and occupied their position on a high hill. The retreated back and opened on us again from heights about a quarter or half a mile distant. Here began an artillery fight, all the batteries on both sides being engaged, the infantry closing down behind us. Here a brigade of Rebel infantry made a charge on an Ohio battery [7th Ohio Battery] to our left coming up the hill. The Ohio battery could not see them but they came in range of our cross fire. We gave them two rounds and they skedaddled, leaving colors, arms, etc., and retreating in great confusion. We were highly complimented by the chief of artillery and by the general for this cross fire.

          The enemy finally ceased firing and we did the same. For reasons best known to the general, he did not follow up and so the battle was ended, lasting from about 8 o’clock in the morning until about 4 in the afternoon. Our battery opened the fight and kept in advance all day. The general’s adjutant told us we had done nobly and won honor for ourselves and cause. The general awards us the colors taken from the enemy; they will be sent to Chicago.

          The Rebels were under General Price and were about 18,000 strong. They played three batteries of 12-pdrs and one battery of Parrott guns on us. We had about 8,000 men and four batteries and we whipped them. They got badly whipped at Corinth and we took them by surprise. Our brigade general Veatch was wounded but is around now. We had five men wounded; one has since died, two of them were only bruised, and the other two will recover. Five of our men showed the white feather and left us after the first attack but came back after it was all over. I would at this moment rather by lying back cold and stiff on that battlefield than to live with the stigma attached to them and I know you feel the same.

General Stephen Hurlbut of Illinois directed the Federal forces at Hatchie Bridge, taking command after General E.O.C. Ord was severely wounded early in the engagement. 


          A large number of prisoners and arms were taken. We will probably have two of the secesh guns and become a six gun battery. The generals wants us to take four guns but that is too many. He thinks Bolton’s Battery is about the right thing and we want no better general to command us. I have spoken with soldiers who were at Shiloh and in the Mexican War and they say they never saw shot fly so thick as it did when we were at the creek. I came out all right but for a time would have sold out my position mighty cheap.

          The Rebels fight like fiends but are no match for the steady valor of western troops. Some of the prisoners taken said if we had been eastern troops, they would have conquered, but they knew we must be from Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana. I went over the field the next day and saw them burying the dead. The loss is quite small as the enemy’s batteries fired too high.

All our officers behaved well. Sergeant Nichols took a number on the gun in the thickest of the fight. In the forepart of the battle, General Ord from Jackson commanded but he was slightly wounded; then our General Hurlbut took command. Our infantry behaved like heroes when called for by Captain Fox, our brigade adjutant, a young man who led the 46th Illinois in a gallant charge but it was mostly an artillery fight.



          The enemy retreated in great confusion, burning baggage wagons, tents, etc. General Rosecrans is closely pursuing and I guess old Price is caught at last. His men worship him and he is called the “flying angel.” The battle was fought on the same ground we passed over on our way from Corinth to Lagrange. We did not think we would have to fight our way back.

          I picked up a rubber blanket and a number of other things after the fight. I have got a piece of the shell that went into the limber chest. We had several horses wounded but none killed outright. One shell from our gun killed three of the Rebel battery horses. The trees and fences are all torn up in places by the shot while the ground is strewn with grape, shells, etc.

Private Hulaniski would end the war as captain of his battery being all of 19 years of age. A native New Yorker, his father (Polish nobility) had fought in the November Uprising in Poland in 1830 and after the crushing of that rebellion, was exiled to the United States in 1834, working as a civil engineer in New York, Illinois, and Iowa. Thaddeus was working as a box maker in Chicago when he decided to enlist as a private in Battery L, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery. He served for more than three years in the Civil War, rising from private to lieutenant to captain before being mustered out in 1865. After the war, he accepted the post as United States Assessor at Vicksburg, Mississippi and died of cholera in July 1867, just a few months after being married.  

To learn more about the Battle of Davis/Hatchie Bridge, please check out the following posts:

The Indignant Old Eagle: Bearing the Colors at Hatchie Bridge (68th Ohio)

A Soldierly Submission: Amputating a Leg After Hatchie Bridge

Boys, Remember Iowa! The 3rd Iowa at Hatchie Bridge

Source:

Letter from Private Thaddeus Charles Hulaniski, Battery L, 2nd Illinois Light Artillery, Daily Gate City (Keokuk, Iowa), October 27, 1862, pg. 2

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