Editors Courier.
Sirs: I Furnish you with a few extracts from a letter received from Captain Hazlett, dated January 2nd and 3d, which I think will be interesting to those who have friends in the 2d Ohio Regiment.
IN BATTLFIELD BEFORE MURFREESBORO,
January 2.
I wrote you on the 24th that we were to leave camp on Christmas morning, for the ‘onward move.’ Half the tents were struck and everything packed up ready to go, when an order came postponing the march until the next day: too little time to unpack and write you again, or I should have done so – We spent our Christmas quietly in camp. – We left camp on Friday morning. After a horrible march reached Nolonsville, on Saturday night. The sound of cannonading all day showed us that our advance was shelling and feeling their way. On Sunday we crossed the Murfreesboro pike, and on Monday lay within a few miles of Stone River, listening to the fighting of the others in advance. Early Tuesday morning moved up and though not hotly in the fight, still were in some particularly warm places. Small loss on that day in our regiment, none in my company – On Wednesday, or division, ( Rosseau’s Bulley’s as he calls us) took the lead, and nobly did the old 2d sustain her reputation. We drove an entire brigade before us, saved the right wing of the army twice from being flanked, and bore off one of the enemy’s flags. I say the 2nd, for the [rest] of our brigade broke and reformed behind a hedge. We held our position and repulsed them. The loss of officers was heavy. Colonel Kell was killed. Lieutenant Chambers, commanding a company, has since died from his wounds. Lieut. Van Horne, commanding company F, was shot in the head badly, and I received a pretty painful shot through the right hip (but more of the wound after awhile.) Capt. Maxwell was shot right across the throat, just missing his windpipe and jugular vein. The wound is slight, I did not have an officer or man killed or wounded in my company. Since then and [this] is now the evening of January 3d or regiment has not been engaged, and all of mine are as above.
Our loss on the 31st I cannot exactly find out, but small, considering the fierceness of our fight. When I was first hit I thought it was a spent ball, that had only struck my hip and [stunned] the leg, and refused to leave the field, but finding that I was [rapidly] loosing all control of my leg, I [yielded] and was taken off by Sergeant [Abbott] to a hospital. As we crossed the field, I [illegible] into my boot. I [have] the ball [with] a small portion of bone attached. The wound was partially dressed and then, after a long while I was sent to our Brigade hospital. My revolver saved my life. The ball struck the handle shattering it and thereby changing its [course] sufficiently to pass out, just brazing the [bone] instead of going into the [bowels], or crushing the bone. I am [illegible]. The wound, though painful, is not dangerous. I hope to be in the field again in a few weeks. My boys fought splendidly. Not one of them faltered. We [illegible] in the fight [6] Captains [illegible] (four of whom were commanding companies). One company was commanded by a Sergeant who was badly wounded. [It is raining very hard. This is the sixth day of our fight] [illegible] we go in to-morrow. It is a [illegible] hotly contested fight.
– Published in the Zanesville Daily Courier, Zanesville, Ohio, Tuesday, January 13, 1863
Note: I am using a digital image of a microfilm copy which is consequently at times very hard to make out. Words and phrases in brackets are my best guess or where I could not make them out I used [illegible].
Sirs: I Furnish you with a few extracts from a letter received from Captain Hazlett, dated January 2nd and 3d, which I think will be interesting to those who have friends in the 2d Ohio Regiment.
IN BATTLFIELD BEFORE MURFREESBORO,
January 2.
I wrote you on the 24th that we were to leave camp on Christmas morning, for the ‘onward move.’ Half the tents were struck and everything packed up ready to go, when an order came postponing the march until the next day: too little time to unpack and write you again, or I should have done so – We spent our Christmas quietly in camp. – We left camp on Friday morning. After a horrible march reached Nolonsville, on Saturday night. The sound of cannonading all day showed us that our advance was shelling and feeling their way. On Sunday we crossed the Murfreesboro pike, and on Monday lay within a few miles of Stone River, listening to the fighting of the others in advance. Early Tuesday morning moved up and though not hotly in the fight, still were in some particularly warm places. Small loss on that day in our regiment, none in my company – On Wednesday, or division, ( Rosseau’s Bulley’s as he calls us) took the lead, and nobly did the old 2d sustain her reputation. We drove an entire brigade before us, saved the right wing of the army twice from being flanked, and bore off one of the enemy’s flags. I say the 2nd, for the [rest] of our brigade broke and reformed behind a hedge. We held our position and repulsed them. The loss of officers was heavy. Colonel Kell was killed. Lieutenant Chambers, commanding a company, has since died from his wounds. Lieut. Van Horne, commanding company F, was shot in the head badly, and I received a pretty painful shot through the right hip (but more of the wound after awhile.) Capt. Maxwell was shot right across the throat, just missing his windpipe and jugular vein. The wound is slight, I did not have an officer or man killed or wounded in my company. Since then and [this] is now the evening of January 3d or regiment has not been engaged, and all of mine are as above.
Our loss on the 31st I cannot exactly find out, but small, considering the fierceness of our fight. When I was first hit I thought it was a spent ball, that had only struck my hip and [stunned] the leg, and refused to leave the field, but finding that I was [rapidly] loosing all control of my leg, I [yielded] and was taken off by Sergeant [Abbott] to a hospital. As we crossed the field, I [illegible] into my boot. I [have] the ball [with] a small portion of bone attached. The wound was partially dressed and then, after a long while I was sent to our Brigade hospital. My revolver saved my life. The ball struck the handle shattering it and thereby changing its [course] sufficiently to pass out, just brazing the [bone] instead of going into the [bowels], or crushing the bone. I am [illegible]. The wound, though painful, is not dangerous. I hope to be in the field again in a few weeks. My boys fought splendidly. Not one of them faltered. We [illegible] in the fight [6] Captains [illegible] (four of whom were commanding companies). One company was commanded by a Sergeant who was badly wounded. [It is raining very hard. This is the sixth day of our fight] [illegible] we go in to-morrow. It is a [illegible] hotly contested fight.
– Published in the Zanesville Daily Courier, Zanesville, Ohio, Tuesday, January 13, 1863
Note: I am using a digital image of a microfilm copy which is consequently at times very hard to make out. Words and phrases in brackets are my best guess or where I could not make them out I used [illegible].
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