Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

    In the final hours of the Battle of Chickamauga, Corporal George L. Camp of Co. G of the 92nd Ohio witnessed General John B. Turchin's determination to lead his brigade to safety. "About 4 p.m. an officer came up to General Turchin and told him his brigade was surrounded and must cut its way out or surrender," Camp wrote. "His answer was 'I think is anybody's boys go, mine go.' We at once left our works which we had held for eight hours, went to the rear through the woods and passed around to the left of the Kelly House. We came to the edge of the woods where we halted and soon saw coming down across the farm from towards Snodgrass Hill eight columns of Johnnies. We lay low until they got close enough to be good marks, then General Turchin took his hat by the crown and waving it over his head gave the order 'My brigade, charge bayonet! Give 'em hell, God damn them!'     Turchin led his boys out, but it came at a high price: when Co. G stac...

    The 1st Ohio Volunteer Cavalry is generally known as a western unit, but for a good portion of its service (until January 1864), two companies (A and C) were assigned to the various Federal armies operating in Virginia, taking part in the battles of Kernstown, Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, and Gettysburg.       Bugler Henry G. Burr of Co. C of the 1st Ohio Volunteer Cavalry penned the following account a week after the First Battle of Kernstown, Virginia. This battle, fought March 22-23, 1862, represented Stonewall Jackson's only battlefield defeat, an achievement which the men of General James Shields' division proudly reminded folks about after the war. The 1st Ohio Cavalry arrived in Winchester literally as the opening guns were being fired, and was assigned to Colonel Erastus B. Tyler's wing during the ensuing fight. Burr's account was published in the April 5, 1862 of the Daily Toledo Blade .       Burr was discharged for dis...

      Caught among the chaos of the collapsing Right Wing at Stones River, one Michigan non-combatant likened his situation to being thrown from the frying pan into the fire. "The defeat of our right wing had enabled the enemy's horses to gain the rear of our entire army and hardly had we fairly emerged from the woods when we were greeted by a volley of shells from a flying battery. The road was literally packed with army vehicles of every description, all mingled together in inextricable confusion, and the panic produced by this salute can be more easily imagined than described," he wrote. "While the disorder was at its height, a sudden charge of the Confederate cavalry was made on the straggling masses and in probably a space of five minutes, a solid mile of wagons and ambulances was in the enemy's possession."       The following account describing scenes behind the lines of the right wing of the Army of the Cumberland on December 31, 1862 was writt...

In the immediate aftermath of the Federal victory at Stones River, 17-year-old Arthur MacArthur, Jr., later a recipient of the Medal of Honor and father of General Douglas MacArthur, composed a letter to his father back in Wisconsin attempting to put into words what he had seen and witnessed. He felt lucky to be alive. But the greatest danger came not from the Confederates, but from friendly artillery fire when his 24 th Wisconsin Infantry was advancing across a cornfield on December 30, 1862. “We advanced through the cornfield, the battery in our rear playing all the while. And here I came very near to an untimely end, as one of the shells was passing over our heads, the plug flew out and came very near hitting me the same way it did Bleyer. It struck six feet in the rear of my horse which made me feel very uncomfortable,” he related. Despite the danger and the heavy casualties his regiment suffered the next day, MacArthur reported that he “never felt better in his life.”  ...

    It's been said that the Civil War was fought in 10,000 places, and it stands to reason that thousands of those engagements had little effect on the ultimate outcome of the war. The Battle of Vaught's Hill, Tennessee numbers as one of those engagements remembered only by those who directly took part in the fight. The engagement pitted Colonel Albert S. Hall's Federal brigade of four regiments against 3,500 Confederate cavalry under General John H. Morgan. The engagement occurred on the outskirts of the little town of Milton, Tennessee about a dozen miles northeast of Murfreesboro on March 20, 1863. Hall's brigade had departed Murfreesboro a few days before to forage, and while out had a brush with Morgan's cavalry. Convinced he was outnumbered, Colonel Hall marched his men back towards Murfreesboro but near the town of Milton, Morgan pounced, his troopers flying around both flanks of the plodding infantrymen with the aim of surrounding the Federals and forcing th...

     Today's post features an account written by Theodore Wiseman, then serving as adjutant of the 10th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. During the time of the New Madrid operations, Wiseman was on detached service as the acting assistant adjutant general of the First Brigade, Fourth Division under the command of Colonel James D. Morgan, who was colonel of the 10th Illinois. Wiseman made a good fit in his new role; in April 1863, he was promoted to the rank of captain and transferred to the U.S. Army's Adjutant General's Department where he served for the remainder of the war.      One of the interesting features of Wiseman's account was that it was written to Captain James S. Jackson of Co. G of the 22nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry; Jackson was back home in Illinois recuperating his health while his regiment and Wiseman's were engaged at New Madrid. Wiseman had served in Co. A of the 22nd Illinois for about eight months at the beginning of the war as first lie...

    At the First Battle of Kernstown fought March 23, 1862, the 5th Ohio Volunteer Infantry gained its reputation as a fighting regiment by standing its ground while other regiments nearby quailed before the Rebel fire. But that came at a cost: the regiment lost five color bearers in succession and by the end of the battle, the national colors were perforated with 48 holes while the state colors had another 10 holes. "When the 84th Pennsylvania fell back in confusion, General Sullivan, commanding the brigade, exclaimed that the army was whipped, but on looking again, he observed the 5th Ohio still fighting and exclaimed, "No, thank God! The brave 5th Ohio is still standing its ground and holding the Rebels."     Among the participants of the Battle of Kernstown was Private Wesley Clark Hickman of Co. I who penned the following letter to his father, the Reverend Robert Frame Hickman, a week after the battle. Wesley had enlisted in Co. I of the 5th in April 1861 and ha...