Showing posts with label 5th OH CAV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5th OH CAV. Show all posts

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Brigadier-General William T. Sherman to Captain John A. Rawlins, April 5, 1862

HEADQUARTERS FIFTH DIVISION,
Camp Shiloh, Tenn., April 5, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to report that yesterday about 3 p.m. it was reported to me that the lieutenant commanding and 7 men of the advance pickets had imprudently advanced from their posts and were captured. I ordered Major Ricker, of the Fifth Ohio Cavalry, to proceed rapidly to the picket station, ascertain the truth, and act according to circumstances. He reached the station, found the pickets had been captured as reported, and that a company of infantry sent by the brigade commander had gone forward in pursuit of some cavalry. He rapidly advanced some 2 miles and found them engaged; charged the enemy, and drove them along the ridge road until he met and received three discharges of artillery, when he very properly wheeled under cover and returned till he met me. As soon as I heard artillery I advanced with two regiments of infantry and took position and remained until the scattered companies of infantry and cavalry returned. This was after night.

I infer that the enemy is in some considerable force at Pea Ridge; that yesterday morning they crossed a brigade of two regiments of infantry, one regiment of cavalry, and one battery of field artillery to the ridge on which the Corinth road lays. They halted the infantry and artillery at a point about 5 miles in my front, and sent a detachment to the lane of General Meeks, on the north of Owl Creek, and the cavalry down towards our camp. This cavalry captured a part of our advance pickets and afterwards engaged the two companies of Colonel Buckland's regiment, as described by him in his report, herewith inclosed. Our cavalry drove them back upon their artillery and infantry, killing many and bringing off 10 prisoners (all of the First Alabama Cavalry), whom I send to you.

We lost of the picket: 1 first lieutenant and 7 men of the Seventieth Ohio Infantry, taken prisoners; 1 major, 1 lieutenant, and 1 private of the Seventy-second Ohio taken prisoners, and 8 privates wounded. Names of all embraced in report of Colonel Buckland, inclosed herewith. We took 10 prisoners, and left 2 wounded and many killed on the field.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,
 W. T. SHERMAN,
 Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.
 Capt. JOHN A. RAWLINS,
 A. A. G., District of West Tennessee.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 10, Part 1 (Serial No. 10), p. 89-90

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

McLaughlin's Independent Cavalry Squadron

Organized at Mansfield, Ohio, October and November, 1861. Left State for Kentucky November 29, 1861. Attached to 18th Brigade, Army Ohio, to March, 1862. District of Eastern Kentucky, Dept. Ohio, to July, 1862. 3rd Brigade, Kanawha Division, West Virginia, to November, 1862. District of Eastern Kentucky, Dept. Ohio, to June. 1863. 1st Brigade, 4th Division, 23rd Army Corps, Dept. Ohio, to September, 1863. Headquarters 23rd Army Corps, Dept. Ohio, to April, 1864. 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, District of Kentucky, 5th Division, 23rd Army Corps, to June, 1864. 3rd Brigade, Cavalry Division, 23rd Army Corps, to August, 1864. Mounted Brigade, Cavalry Division, 23rd Army Corps, to September, 1864. 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, 23rd Army Corps, to October, 1864. 2nd Brigade, Kilpatrick's 3rd Division, Cavalry Corps, Military Division Mississippi, to July, 1865.

SERVICE. – Garfield's Campaign in Eastern Kentucky against Humphrey Marshall December 23, 1861, to January 30, 1862. Garfield's Expedition to the Big Sandy September 23-30, 1861. Advance on Paintsville December 31, 1861, to January 8, 1862. Action at Jennies January 7, 1862. Occupation of Paintsville January 8. Abbott's Hill January 9. Middle Creek January 10. Prestonburg January 11. Expedition to the Little Sandy January 24-30. Expedition to Pound Gap, Cumberland Mountains, March 14-17. Action at Pound Gap March 16. Duty at Piketown till June. Moved to Prestonburg, thence to Louisa, Ky., July 15. Duty at Louisa till December. Operations in District of Eastern Kentucky, Dept. of the Ohio, to August, 1863. Skirmishes near Louisa March 25-26, 1863. Expedition from Beaver Creek into Southwest Virginia July 3-11. Capture of Abingdon, Va., July 5. Action at Gladesville, Va., July 7. Burnside's Campaign in East Tennessee August 16-October 17. Escort and picket duty at Knoxville till January 10, 1864. Near Loudoun November 14. Siege of Knoxville, Tenn., November 17-December 5. Moved to Nicholasville, Ky. Duty there and in Kentucky till June. Moved to Join Stoneman June 13-19. Join Sherman's Army near Big Shanty, Ga., June 26. Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign June 26-September 8. Assault on Kenesaw June 27. On line of the Chattahoochie River July 5-17. Stoneman's Raid to Macon July 27-August 6. Macon and Clinton July 30. Hillsborough July 30-31. Sunshine Church August 3. Jug Tavern and Mulberry Creek August 3. Siege of Atlanta August 11-September 3. March to the sea November 15-December 10. Bear Creek Station November 16. Walnut Creek and East Macon November 20. Waynesboro November 27-28. Buckhead Creek, or Reynolds' Plantation, November 28. Rocky Creek Church December 2. Waynesboro December 4. Ebenezer Creek December 8. Siege of Savannah December 10-21. Campaign of the Carolinas January to April, 1865. Aiken and Blackville, S.C., February 11. North Edisto River February 12-13. Phillips Cross Roads, N. C., March 4. Taylor's Hole Creek, Averysboro. March 16. Bentonville March 19-21. Raleigh April 12-13. Morrisville April 13. Bennett's House April 26. Surrender of Johnston and his army. Duty at Concord, N. C., till July. Moved to Raleigh and consolidated with 5th Ohio Cavalry July 28, 1865.

Squadron lost during service 1 Enlisted man killed and 49 Enlisted men by disease. Total 50.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1480

Thursday, August 21, 2014

5th Ohio Cavalry

Regiment originally organized at Camp Dick Corwin, near Cincinnati, Ohio, October 23-November 14, 1861, as 2nd Ohio Cavalry. Designation changed by Gov. Dennison November, 1861. Duty at Camp Dick Corwin till November 5, 1861, and at Camp Dennison, Ohio, till March, 1862. Ordered to Paducah, Ky. 2nd Battalion left Cincinnati, Ohio, February 28, and 1st and 3rd Battalions on March 1, 1862. Attached to District of Paducah, Ky., March, 1862. Sherman's 5th Division, Army of the Tennessee, to April, 1862. 1st and 2nd Battalions attached to 4th Division, Army of the Tennessee, to July, 1862. District of Memphis, Tenn., to September, 1862. District of Jackson, Tenn., to November, 1862. Lee's 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, 13th Army Corps (Old), Dept. of the Tennessee, to December, 1862. Lee's 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, 16th Army Corps, to March, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, 16th Army Corps, to April, 1863. 4th Brigade, 5th Division, District of Memphis, Tenn., 16th Army Corps, to August, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, 16th Army Corps, to October, 1863. 3rd Battalion (Cos. "E," "H," "I" and "K") attached to 3rd Division, Army Tennessee, April, 1862. 2nd Division, Army Tennessee, to July, 1862, 2nd Division, District of Corinth, Miss., to November, 1862. Unattached Cavalry, District of Corinth, Miss., 13th Army Corps (Old), Dept. Tennessee, to December, 1862. District of Corinth, Miss., 16th Army Corps, to March, 1863. Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Division, District of Corinth, 16th Army Corps, to May, 1863. 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, 16th Army Corps, to August, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, 16th Army Corps, to October, 1863. Regiment attached to Headquarters 15th Army Corps October, 1863, to April, 1864. Cavalry, 3rd Division, 15th Army Corps, to October, 1864. 2nd Brigade, Kilpatrick's 3rd Division, Cavalry Corps, Military Division Mississippi, to January, 1865. 3rd Brigade, 3rd Cavalry Division, to June, 1865. Dept. of North Carolina to October, 1865.

SERVICE. – March from Danville to Savannah, Tenn., March 10-11, 1862. Expedition to Mobile & Ohio Railroad to destroy bridges March 14-15. Beach Creek Bridge, Tenn., March 13. Near Eastport, Miss., March 14. Burnsville March 14-15. Reach Pittsburg Landing March 15. Skirmish Pittsburg Landing March 16. Reconnoissance toward Corinth March 16. Black Jack Forest March 16 (Detachment). Near Shiloh Church March 24 (1st and 2nd Battalions). Purdy Road near Adamsville March 31 (Co. "I"). Expedition to Chickasaw, Ala., and Eastport, Miss., April 1. Near Monterey, Tenn., April 3. Crump's Landing April 4 (Detachment). Battle of Shiloh April 6-7. Corinth Road April 8. Beech Creek Bridge April 13 (3rd Battalion). Affair with Cavalry April 14. Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30. Pursuit to Tuscumbia River June 1-6. March to Memphis, Tenn., via LaGrange and Grand Junction June 10-July 27 (1st and 2nd Battalions), and duty there till September. Horn Lake Creek August 16 (Cos. "A," "C"). 3rd Battalion at Corinth, Miss., till August, 1863. 1st and 2nd Battalion moved from Memphis to Jackson, Tenn., September 6-12, 1862. Battle of Corinth, Miss., October 3-4 (3rd Battalion). Pursuit to Ripley October 5-12 (3rd Battalion). Battle of the Hatchie, Metamora, October 5, 1862 (1st and 2nd Battalions). Chewalla October 5 (3rd Battalion). Ruckersville and near Ripley October 7 (3rd Battalion). Guard Mobile & Ohio Railroad at Glendale October 15 to November 8, 1862 (3rd Battalion). Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign November, 1862, to January, 1863. About Oxford, Miss., December 1-3, 1862. Free Bridge December 3. Water Valley Station December 4. Coffeeville December 5. Raid from Corinth to Tupelo December 13-19 (3rd Battalion). Operations against Forest December 18, 1862, to January 3, 1863 (1st and 2nd Battalions). Lexington December 18, 1862. Salem Cemetery near Jackson December 19. Davis Mills, Wolf River, December 21 (Cos. "B," "M"). Guard Memphis & Charleston Railroad till March, 1863 (1st and 2nd Battalions), and duty at and about Memphis, Tenn., till August, 1863 (1st and 2nd Battalions). Expedition from Memphis, Tenn., to Coldwater, Miss., April 18-24, 1863. Tuscumbia, Ala., February 22 (3rd Battalion). Hernando April 18. Perry's Ferry, Coldwater River, April 19. Expedition from Memphis toward Hernando, Miss., May 23-24 (Detachment). Scouts from Memphis toward Hernando, Miss., May 26 and 28 (Detachments). Operations in Northeast Mississippi June 13-22 (3rd Battalion). Operations in Northeastern Mississippi June 15-25 (1st and 2nd Battalions). New Albany and Coldwater June 19 (3rd Battalion). Hernando June 20 (3rd Battalion). Adkin's Plantation, Mud Creek Bottom, Rocky Crossing, Tallahatchie River and Hernando, June 20 (3rd Battalion). Near Memphis July 16 and 18. At Camp Davies till October. Wartrace September 6. Joined Gen. Sherman at Chickasaw, Ala., and march to Chattanooga, Tenn., leading advance. Operations on Memphis & Charleston Railroad in Alabama October 10-30. Cane Creek and Barton's Station October 20. Dickson's Station October 20. Cherokee Station October 21. Cane Creek and Barton's Station October 26. Bear Creek, Tuscumbia, October 27. Cherokee Station October 29. Barton's Station October 31. Guarding trains, escort and courier duty during battles of Chattanooga, Tenn., November 23-25. Pursuit to Ringgold, Ga., November 26-27. March to relief of Knoxville, Tenn., November 28-December 8. Near Loudon December 2. (3rd Battalion Joined Long's Brigade in Knoxville.) Expedition to Tellico Plains after Longstreet's trains December 6-11. Report to Gen. Howard at Athens, Tenn. Picket Hiawassee River and courier duty between Grant and Burnside. Regiment veteranize at Larkinsville, Ala., January, 1864. Near Kelly's Plantation, Sulphur Springs, April 11 (Detachment). Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign May 1 to September 8. Advance guard of 3rd Division, 15th Army Corps, to near Rome, Ga. Operations on line of Pumpkin Vine Creek and battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills May 25-June 5. Old Church June 13. March to Kingston June 22. Duty there and at Cartersville guarding railroad till November 7. Cartersville July 24. Canton August 22. Shadow Church and Westbrooks near Fairburn October 2 (Detachment). Marietta October 4. March to the sea November 15-December 10. Bear Creek Station November 16. East Macon, Walnut Creek, November 20. Waynesboro November 27-28. Buckhead Creek or Reynolds' Plantation November 28. Rocky Creek Church December 2. Ebenezer Creek December 8. Siege of Savannah. December 10-21. Altamaha Bridge December 17. Campaign of the Carolinas January to April, 1865. Williston, S.C., February 8. North Edisto February 12-13. Monroe's Cross Roads March 16. Taylor's Hole Creek, Averysboro, N. C., March 16. Battle of Bentonville March 19-21. Goldsboro March 23. Advance on Raleigh April 10-13. Raleigh April 13. Morrisville April 14. Bennett's House April 26. Surrender of Johnston and his army. Picket near Raleigh till April 30. Duty in Sub-District of Morgantown, District of Western North Carolina, Dept. of North Carolina, to October, 1865. Mustered out October 30, 1865.

Regiment lost during service 1 Officer and 26 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 3 Officers and 140 Enlisted men by disease. Total 170.

SOURCE: Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Part 3, p. 1475-6

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Helen Smith, September 15, 1862, 2 a.m.


CAMP ON HERNANDO ROAD, NEAR MEMPHIS,
2 O'CLOCK A.M., Sept. 15, 1862.
MY DEAR SISTER:

At eleven o'clock last night as I was about to “turn in” an orderly came dashing up through the rain with despatches advising me that the Brigadier-General commanding had reliable information that our pickets were to be attacked this night or morning, rather, by the enemy's cavalry, and ordering me to double my picket guard. Being some distance from our main army and my outside pickets being three miles distant from me, and having a six-gun battery under my command attached to my regiment, after giving my orders and disposing of my forces, I feel indisposed for sleep and know not how I can better put in the residue of the night than by writing to my dear sister Helen, whose affectionate letter of the 8th inst. with inclosure is now before me, being this day received.

I send you a picture of General Sherman and staff, numbered thus —

1. Lieutenant Taylor, 5th Ohio Cavalry, Aide-de-Camp.
2. Major J. H. Hammond, Assistant Adjutant-General.
3. Captain Dayton, 6th Ohio Infantry, Aide-de-Camp.
4. Major Taylor, of Taylor's Battery, Chief of Artillery.
5. Capt. J. Condict Smith, Division Quartermaster.
6. General Sherman.
7. Col. Thos. Kilby Smith, of 54th Ohio Inf. Zouaves.
8. Captain Shirk, U.S.N., Commander of gunboat Lexington, which threw the shells at Shiloh.
9. Major Hartshorne, Division Surgeon.
10. Col. W. H. H. Taylor, 5th Ohio Cavalry.
11. Capt. James McCoy, 54th Ohio Inf. Zouaves, Aidede-Camp.
12. Major Sanger, 55th Illinois Inf., Aide-de-Camp.

These, with two exceptions, were together and did service at the battle of Shiloh; the names of some of them will adorn the pages of history. The Quartermaster looms up among them like Saul among the prophets, a head and shoulder above the rest. He stands six feet four and a half inches high in his stocking feet, and I have a private in the ranks in my regiment who is three inches taller than he.

Tell mother she need not be alarmed about Sherman's sanity; his mind is sound, his intellect vigorous. He is a man for the times. His enemies are seeking to destroy him. The whole article she sends is replete with falsehood. No city in the Union has a better police, is more accurately governed than Memphis. It is sufficient for me to say to mother that the whole article is false from beginning to end. Tell dear mother I will write her shortly; that meanwhile, to be of good cheer. The game of war is fluctuating — their turn now, ours perhaps to-morrow.

And all night long I have waited and watched; the gray dawn is now streaking the eastern sky. No warning shot from the picket guard, all is still, all quiet, as though smiling peace still blessed the land. I have written and paced the sentry's beat at intervals; now sounds the reveille\ The stirring fife and prompt sharp sound of the drum break upon the morning air. The camp is all aroused. My labor for the night is done. Its result a copy of verses and not very interesting letter. It will bring proof, however, that I have thought of you, that for the whole night at least you have been in my thoughts till dawn.

I don't think that Cincinnati is in immediate danger from Smith; he will probably retire. His mission was to watch Morgan at the Cumberland Gap. It was so easy a thing to do, that he made his advance farther than was intended. Bragg is the general to watch. He and Buell will, I think, it is likely, have a big battle. If he is victorious, good-by, Cincinnati. Anyhow I must think she is a doomed city.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 242-4

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, July 11, 1862

HEADQUARTERS 54TH REGT. O.V. INF.,
CAMP “JUPITER AMMON,” July 11, 1862.
MY DEAR WIFE:

I am here at an important point on the State line of Mississippi and Tennessee at what is called “Ammon's Bridge.” I have a separate command of infantry, artillery, and cavalry under my sole control, so that for the present I feel pretty independent. I conduct my camp as I please and scout and patrol the country to suit myself. I came down for an engagement with a detachment of cavalry, known as “Jackson's Cavalry,” but they would not stay for me. It has been my constant ill fortune always to fail in getting an engagement when I have been alone in command. I have been in plenty of skirmishes, but never in one on my own hook.

The first opportunity I ever had for distinction, was when I made the march through the swamp to “Gauss” just two days before the battle of Shiloh and of which I gave you description. I went down alone with my regiment to trap a body of cavalry, passing at night six miles beyond our own lines and within one half mile of the enemies' camp. We lay in sight of their camp fires all night and could hear them talking. I was balked in my manoeuvre, however, by delay on the part of the 5th Ohio Cavalry, who had been detailed to act in concert with me, but who failed in keeping time, and my quarry made its escape by another ford. I feel anxious to fight one battle of my own. All this is uninteresting to you, of course. I am encamped now at a very pretty place. The woods right on the banks of Wolf River that abounds with fish; and it is a swift-running stream with sandy bottom. I have also a remarkably fine cold spring, giving abundance of delicious water, and here I expect to stay for some days. I hope to recuperate, for I have been much troubled with diarrhoea, which I fear has become chronic. I have never been relieved even for a day since the affair at Shiloh; save this trouble, my health is fair. The weather is becoming very warm, we can only make marches early in the morning or late in the evening. Our horses wilt down — nothing but negroes and slaves can stand labor in this climate. On my last march to Holly Springs, I was encamped for four days just on the edge of a large cotton field. In that vicinity cotton has been the great crop, but this year there as elsewhere the cotton fields have mostly been planted with corn. The corn here is very large, tasseled out, roasting ears, almost ripe. Blue grass, herd grass, clover, or timothy won't grow here. Oats and wheat hardly worth gathering, but potatoes, corn, cotton, sweet potatoes and fruits of all kinds, particularly peaches and apples, thrive wonderfully. I never saw such blackberries as I have seen here, growing on vines twenty feet or more high, so high that the topmost branches could not be reached by a man on horseback, and the berry almost fabulous in size, an inch and a half long, perfectly sweet and without core. A man could easily pick half a bushel in an hour, and I suppose we had twenty bushels a day brought into camp while near the patch. Almost all our Northern fruits, I doubt not, would grow with equal profusion if properly cultivated here. Most of the people I meet here are well bred, but not always well educated. They are invariably and persistently secession in their politics, but generally opposed to the war. It is absurd to think of conquering an union, and I believe that an attempt to subjugate these people will be equally futile. There is a bitterness, a rancor of hostility, particularly on the part of their women and children, of which you can have no conception. I have never for one moment changed my views in this regard, so often expressed to you, and in your hearing, before the breaking out of hostilities. The war will teach them to respect the courage of the North, but it has made two peoples, and millions of lives must be sacrificed before its termination. Governor Tod has appealed to the people of Ohio for five thousand. He had better go to drafting. Ohio must contribute fifty thousand, and those right speedily. The resources of this country have always been underrated; this is another absurdity. Their people live far better than we in Ohio out of the cities. I know this to be a fact, for I am daily an eye-witness. A man here with twelve or fifteen hundred acres is a prince. His slaves fare better than our working farmers. His soil is more kindly, his climate better, and better than all, he understands the science of living. He enjoys life more than we do, and so do his wife and children; and they all know this. They are determined to be independent, and they will be. There is no house I go to but where I find the spinning wheel and loom at work. Their hills are covered with sheep and cattle, their valleys literally seas of corn. As long as the Northerner's foot is on the soil just so long there will be some one to dispute its possession, inch by inch, and meanwhile they will find resources for themselves in food and raiment. It is a magnificent country, such timber I never saw. The white oaks would gladden the eyes of the Coleraine coopers. I have noticed many a one eight, perhaps nine feet in diameter at the base, straight, rifted, and running up without catface or flaw, sixty, seventy, eighty feet to the first limb; beeches, hickory, holly, chestnut, all in the same proportions; and that most gorgeous and beautiful tree, the magnolia, in all its pride of blossom, each bloom perfect in beauty, velvety in leaf and blossom and fragrant as the spicy gales from Araby, or a pond lily or attar of roses, or a fresh pineapple, any or all combined, the tree graceful and majestic, proud in bearing so lovely a bloom. The flora of the country is truly beautiful. I am not enough of a botanist to know, nor have I the memory to bear in mind the name of the plants I do know, that are made to bloom in our greenhouses, and here grow wild; but through the woods and along the roadside many and many a one I see growing in wild and splendid luxuriance, wasting their blushes and “fragrance on the desert air,” that a prince might envy and covet for his garden. I do not remember whether I made mention to you of the azalias that were just bursting into bloom on the 6th and 7th of April, and that while sore pressed in the heat of battle, I was absurd enough to gather a handful of them; but so it was. The whole woods at a certain part of the battlefield were bedecked with them and the whole air laden with their perfume. Col. Tom Worthington got off a very pretty poem about the subject.

Kiss all my dear little ones and read them my letters, that is, if you can manage to decipher the pencil. Some day, perhaps, if God spares our lives, I shall be able to entertain them with stories of my campaign in the sunny South, tell them of the beautiful singing birds, the wonderful butterflies and gorgeous beetles, of the planter's life and of the flocks of little niggers all quite naked, that run to the fences and gaze on us as we march by, and of the wenches in the cotton field that throw down the shovel and the hoe and begin to dance like Tam O' Shanter witches, if our band strikes up; and of the beautiful broad piazzas and cool wide-spreading lawns of the rich planters' houses. Some day we'll have a heap to talk about.

I have no very late news from Richmond, but what we have got has had a tendency to depress our spirits a good deal. We feel McClellan will be outgeneralled after all. If he does not succeed in taking Richmond, we are in for a ten years' war at least. Some of those poor people in the South are heartily sick of it, while we shall plant their soil thick with graves of our own dead.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 221-4

Friday, June 21, 2013

4th Division, Army of the Tennessee Historic Plaque: Cloud Field, Shiloh National Military Park


U. S.

FOURTH DIVISION, ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE,
BRIG. GEN. STEPHEN A. HURLBUT.
__________

1st Brigade,
Col. Nelson G. Williams, 3d Iowa, (W’d.)
Col. Isaac C. Pugh, 41st Illinois.
2d Brigade,
Col. James C. Veatch 25th Indiana.
3d Brigade,
Brig. Gen. Jacob G. Lauman.
Mann’s Battery, (“C” 1st Mo. Lt. Arty.,) Lieut. Edward Brotzmann.
2nd Battery, Mich. Lt. Arty., Lieut. Cuthbert W. Laing.
13th Battery, Ohio Lt. Arty., Capt. John S. Myers.
1st and 2d Battalions, 5th Ohio Cavalry, Col. W. H. H. Taylor.
__________

This Division encamped here March 18th 1862; the 1st Brigade in front of Division headquarters; the 2d half a mile north; the 3d east along the Brown’s Ferry Road.

Sunday morning, April 6th, 1862, the 2d Brigade reinforced Gen. McClernand, near his headquarters, and served with him until 5 o’clock when it rejoined it’s division.  The 1st and 3d Brigades formed line of battle in the Peach Orchard and were engaged in that vicinity until 4 p.m. when they retired to the right of the siege guns.

On Monday the Division was engaged on the left of the Army of the Tennessee until about noon when its 2d Brigade moved to the left of Gen. McCook’s Division and was engaged in Review Field.

The Division had present for duty, of all arms, officers and men, 7825.

It lost 317 killed; 1441 wounded; 111 missing; total 1869.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Brigadier General William T. Sherman To Senator John Sherman, April 22, 1862


HEADQUARTERS, CAMP SHILOH,
April 22, 1862.

Dear Brother:  My hand is still very sore but I am able to write some. The newspapers came back to us with accounts of our battle of the 6th and 7th inst. as usual made by people who ran away and had to excuse their cowardice by charging bad management on the part of leaders. I see that we were surprised, that our men were bayoneted in their tents, that officers had not had breakfast, &c. This is all simply false. The attack did not begin until 7 3-4 A.M. All but the worthless cowards had had breakfast. Not a man was bayoneted in or near his tent. Indeed our brigade surgeon, Hartshorn, has not yet seen a single bayonet wound on a living or dead subject. The regiments that profess to have been surprised lost no officers at all, and of the two that first broke in my division 53 and 57 Ohio, the 53 lost no officers and only 7 men, the 57 two officers and 7 men. Some of my Ohio regiments that did fight well lost as many as 49 and 34, but not a bayonet, sword or knife wound, all cannon and musket ball. Those of my brigade held our original position from 7 3-4 A.M. when the attack began, until 10 h. 10 m. when the enemy had passed my left and got artillery to enfilade my line when I ordered them to fall back. We held our second position until 4 P.M. and then fell back without opposition to the third and last position, more than a mile from the river.

As to surprise, we had constant skirmishes with the enemies’ cavalry all the week before, and I had strong guards out in front of each brigade, which guards were driven in on the morning of the battle, but before the enemy came within cannon range of my position every regiment was under arms at the post I had previously assigned to them. The cavalry was saddled and artillery harnessed up, unlimbered, and commenced firing as soon as we could see anything to fire at.

On Saturday I had no cavalry pickets out because I had no cavalry in my division. General Grant had made a new assignment of cavalry and artillery on Friday. The Ohio Fifth which had been with me was ordered to Hurlburt, and eight companies of the fourth, III., Colonel Dickey, assigned to me did not get into camp till near Saturday night and I ordered them into the saddle at midnight.

I occupied the right front, McClernand was to my rear, and on his left in echelon with me was Prentiss. I watched the Rondy road and main Corinth, Prentiss the Ridge Corinth road. . . .

The enemy did not carry either of my roads until he had driven Prentiss and got in on my left. . . .

Whether we should have been on this or that side of the Tennessee river is not my business. I did not apprehend an attack from Beauregard because I thought then and think now he would have done better if he could have chosen ground as far back from our stores as possible. We are bound to attack him, and had we run out of cartridges or stores or got stampeded twenty miles back from the Tennessee the result would have been different from now. But we knew the enemy was in our front, but in what form could not tell, and I was always ready for an attack. I am out of all patience that our people should prefer to believe the horrid stories of butchery, ridiculous in themselves, gotten up by cowards to cover their shame, than the plain natural reports of the officers who are responsible and who saw what they describe. My report with all the subordinate reports of Brigadiers and Colonels with lists of killed and wounded and missing went to General Grant on the 11th.

The enemy is still in our front, we can get a fight the hour and minute we want it. Halleck, Buell, Grant all in authority are now here and responsibility cannot be shifted. The common soldiers and subordinates ran away and now want to blame the commanders. . . .

Your affectionate brother,
W. T. SHERMAN

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 143-5

Friday, September 9, 2011

From Tennessee

CAIRO, March 21.

Direct and positive information has arrived from Gen. Grant, at Savannah, 210 miles up the Tennessee river, and 60 miles from Florence, Ala.  The troops are in fine health and spirits, with plenty of provisions and water.

Beauregard commands at Corinth, 15,000 troops from Pensacola.  Cheatham and Bragg have their divisions near.  Heavy forces are gathering on both sides.

There is a strong Union feeling at Savannah.  About 600 volunteers have been enlisted there recently in the Union army.

On the night of the 13th, a division of the Ohio 5th cavalry, under Wallace, but Cheatham’s forces to flight, and burned a railroad bridge across a slough.

The Federal army in the vicinity is divided into five divisions under command of Gen.s Sherman, Hurlbut, McClernand, Wallace and Lauman.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, March 22, 1862, p. 1