Obituary: Walter E. Partridge, Pvt., Co. F, 36th Illinois Infantry

Walter E. Partridge was born in Berkshire, England, June 1, 1833, departed from this life March 16, 1910, at the age of 76 years 9 months and 16 days. He came to his country when but fifteen years of age, first locating in Maryland, later going to Pennsylvania and from thence to Illinois. He was married to Miss Harriet Cottew at Ottawa, Illinois, May 16, 1860. To this union was born ten children, 4 girls and 6 boys. There lives to mourn his loss, a wife, 9 children and twenty-four grandchildren, George, Charley, Hugh, Mrs. Lizzie Reese and Frank of Alta, Mrs. Martha Miller of Linn Grove, Ida Tutt of Marathon and Mrs. Katherine Sassman of Albert City and A. L. Partridge of Lake Wilson, Minnesota, also two sisters living in England. At the call for volunteers he was among the first to offer his [assistance] in behalf of his country, enlisting September 9, 1861, at Aurora, Illinois, as a member of Co. F. 36th Infantry, joining his regiment at St. Louis. Four long years he endured the hardships of army life, being twice wounded in battles. He faught at Pea Ridge, Perryville, Stone River, Chickamaugua, Misionary Ridge, Franklin, Nashville and was with Sherman in his march to Atlanta. He was mustered out at New Orleans and was honorably discharged at Springfield, Illinois a little later. He remained in Illinois untill 1882, when he came to Buena Vista County, where he remained till the time of his death. He was a member of the Stephen A. Hulbert Post. No. 82 in Alta, Iowa

Mrs. W. E. Partridge and family desire to express their heartfelt thanks to the kind friends, who in so many ways assisted them in their recent bereavement.

- Published in The Atla Advertiser, Alta, Iowa, March 25, 1910, p. 1 col. 3 & 4

Review: The Maps of Chickamauga

The Maps of Chickamauga
By David A Powell & David A. Friedrichs

My great great grandfather, Walter E. Partridge, received a wound on his forehead on September 20th, 1863. It was the second day of the Battle of Chickamauga and he was a private in Company F of the 36th Illinois Infantry, which was a part of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 20th Corps of the Army of the Cumberland. The 1st Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General William H. Lytle, was tramping up a hill which would later bare the name of its commander, when a limber from Battery C, 1st Illinois Artillery, while falling back, swung “round with almost lightning speed struck a dead tree, which caused the top to come off, coming down into Company F” of the 36th Illinois Infantry “and striking two men, one of whom was Oscar Hobbs, supposed to be killed, but was afterwards revived.” The other man, though unnamed is likely to be Walter E. Partridge.

I have referenced several books on the Battle of Chickamauga, trying to get a grasp on the situation my great great grandfather found himself in on that day. A true understanding of a battle can only be had by being able to visualize the battle, and most battle histories contain a sprinkling of maps to supplement the text and give the readers only a basic understanding of what happened on the field. There are never enough maps… until now, that is.

“The Maps of Chickamauga” by David A. Powell and David A. Friedrichs, is a blow by blow, nearly hourly account of the battle which took place on September 19 & 20, 1863, and the preceding Tullahoma Campaign. Their book, the 3rd in Savas Beatie’s Military Atlas Series, contains 126 full page, full color maps, drawn by Mr. Friedrichs, and each accompanied by Mr. Powell’s text on the facing page.

Since many of the maps are detailed down to the brigade and regimental level, the authors have made it possible to follow units on the battlefield throughout the entire course of the battle. Thus making it possible for me to literally walk in the footsteps of my great great grandfather on my next trip to Chickamauga National Battlefield, as well as many other family members who fought there.

My lone criticism, and it is an extremely small one, is the glossy pages made the text hard to read unless you held the book at just the right angle so the light did not reflect off the page. That being said Messrs. Powell and Friedrichs have done an outstanding job making the complicated troop movements during the ebb and flow of the Battle of Chickamauga understandable. Their book is a triumph and a must have for every student of the Civil War! I cannot wait for the next book in the Savas Beatie Military Atlas Series.

As for Walter Partridge, the list of casualties for Company F at Chickamauga in L. G. Bennett & William M. Haigh’s “History of the Thirty-Sixth Regiment Illinois Volunteers, During the War of the Rebellion” lists Oscar Hobbs and Walter E. Partridge, side by side, both with head wounds. I may not ever know if he was the second man hit by the tree, but I now can at least stand on the hill upon which he fought, and see the battle from his perspective.

ISBN 978-1932714722, Savas Beatie LLC, © 2009, Hardcover, 320 pages, Maps, Appendices, Endnotes, Bibliography & Index. $39.95

Walter E. Partridge, Pvt., Co. F, 36th Illinois Infantry

W. E. Partridge, now living retired in Alta, is numbered among the old settlers of Buena Vista county and is one of the few remaining veterans of the Civil War. He is a native of England, born in Berkshire, June 3, 1833, a son of James and Anne (Edwards) Partridge, who spent their entire lives in that country. The father was a mechanic, being a wheelwright by trade, and he also engaged in farming. His family numbered thirteen children, of whom twelve grew to years of maturity.

W. E. Partridge, whose name introduces this review, spent the years of his boyhood and youth in his native land and when fifteen years of age accompanied a brother to the United States. He first located in Maryland and secured work on the construction of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in that state, after which he spent two years working on the canal. He then took up his abode in Pennsylvania and from that state removed to Illinois, where he engaged in farming until 1882 when he came to Buena Vista county and purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land on section 34, Nokomis township. This was an uncultivated and unimproved tract when it came into his possession but he at once began to develop the land, erected a good house, barns and outbuildings, and now has a well improved and valuable farm property, whereon he made his home for twenty-seven years. He planted a good orchard, which is now in bearing, and beautiful shade trees add to the attractive appearance of the place. In addition to general farming he engaged in raising stock, keeping registered shorthorn cattle and good grades of hogs. In 1908 he removed to Alta and is now living retired.

Mr. Partridge’s private affairs were interrupted at the time of the Civil War when, loyal to the best interest of his country, he enlisted September 9, 1861 at Aurora, Illinois, as a member of Company F, Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry, joining the regiment at St. Louis. From that city they made their way to Rolla, Missouri, and Mr. Partridge participated in many of the important battles, including Pea Ridge, Perryville, Chickamauga, Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville, and was with Sherman on his march to Atlanta. He was also for four months on duty at New Orleans, his regiment acting as guard to General Sheridan. After a hard service lasting four years and two months he was mustered out at New Orleans and was honorably discharged at Springfield, Illinois.

When the country no longer needed his services, Mr. Partridge returned to Illinois and took up his abode in Kankakee county, where he purchased eighty acres of land, which he operated for sixteen years prior to taking up his abode in Iowa. It was prior to his enlistment for service in the war that Mr. Partridge was married, the lady of his choice being Miss Harriett Cottew, who was likewise born in England, coming to America when but two years of age. Their marriage was celebrated in Ottawa, Illinois, in 1860, and their union has been blessed with ten children: George, who follows farming in Nokomis township; Martha, the wife of William Miller, a farmer of Linn Grove, Iowa; Lizzie, the wife of Charles Reese, of Nokomis township; Charles who follows farming on the hold homstead in Nokomis township; Lincoln, who is engaged in farming in Minnesota; Ida, the wife of G. H. Tutt, a resident of Marathon, Iowa; Kate, the wife of John Sassman, who follows farming near Albert City, this state; Frank, who carries on farming near Marathon; Hugh; and William who died when eighteen months old.

Mr. Partridge gives his political support to the republican party and cast his first presidential ballot for Abraham Lincoln. He has held some township offices. He keeps in touch with his old army friends through his membership in the Grand Army of the Republic at Alta, of which he has served as vice commander. He has been identified with the Methodist Episcopal church at Alta for several years. His labors have contributed in substantial manner to the development and progress of Buena Vista county and not only as a worthy pioneer settler but also as a loyal defender of the Union cause he is well deserving of mention in this volume. His circle of friends is large and all esteem him for his genuine worth. In 1908 he had the pleasure of visiting his old home in England where he remained from July 12 until the 23rd of August.

SOURCE: Wegerslev, C.H. & Thomas Walpole, Past and Present of Buena Vista County, Iowa, S.J. Clark Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, © 1909, p. 279-280

Officers of the 36th Illinois Infantry

Photographs taken at Chattanooga, Tennessee

Edwart A. Nute

Company A, 36th Illinois Infantry

Battle Destroyed Giles Harding’s Dream of Grandeur

By MIKE WEST, Managing editor
Posted: Sunday, July 13, 2008 7:51 am

Giles Scales Harding had big dreams.

He wanted to build a bigger and better home than his first cousin, William Giles Harding, had constructed in 1853 outside of Nashville on a plantation developed by his father John Harding.

At the time, Giles and his wife, Mary Hollowell Blackman, lived in a large two-story log home near Wilkinson Pike. Her father was “Squire” Alfred Blackman, a member of the Rutherford County Court. Blackman community was named in his honor.

Giles’ dream was quite ambitious because few, if any mansions in Tennessee exceeded the Greek revival home built by his cousin William. His fancy, brick home was called “Belle Meade.”

In the late 19th century, Belle Meade encompassed 5,400 acres and was one of the largest private estates in Nashville. The farm was a thoroughbred stable famous for breeding and training championship race horses. Recent Kentucky derby winners like Funny Cide and Barbarro, even racing legends like Secretariat, can trace their bloodlines back to the breeding stock at Belle Meade.

Yet, Giles and Mary persevered.

They build a kiln for firing bricks formed from clay soil on site. The clay was mined, hand molded into bricks, which were sun dried, and then stacked into a kiln where they were burned until rock hard.

Making sufficient bricks for a huge mansion was time consuming since the walls were two to three feet thick requiring many courses of brick. Until the Hardings had accumulated enough bricks for their project, they were storing them at the kiln on the backside of their property on Harding Lane off of Wilkinson Pike.

Secession and the Civil War brought the Harding’s project to a halt and the Battle of Stones River brought it to an end.

Their plantation was between Union and Confederate lines when the armies lined up outside of Murfreesboro. By the ending of Dec. 29, 1862, Confederate pickets were lined up near the brick kiln.

On the morning of Dec. 30, 1862, the 19th Illinois moved onto the Harding place and drove the Confederate troops back. The 18th Ohio and the 21st Michigan were also moved into the area as the Union right wing formed its battle line that covered the triangle of roadways formed by Franklin Road, Gresham Lane and Wilkinson Pike.

The Harding’s bricks were quickly commandeered for use in building breastworks for Union troops.

As Union Brig. Gen. Philip Sheridan aligned his Third Division, Brig. Gen. Joshua Sill’s brigade was moved into Harding house area.

Sill and Sheridan were close friends who had been classmates at the U.S. Military Academy. Sill was third in the class of 1853; Sheridan was 34th in his class of 52 cadets.

Sill convinced Sheridan that the Confederates were massing for an attack early on the morning of Dec. 31.

“At 2 o'clock on the morning of the 31st General Sill came back to me to report that on his front a continuous movement of infantry and artillery had been going on all night within the Confederate lines, and that he was convinced that Bragg was massing on our right with the purpose of making an attack from that direction early in the morning,” Sheridan wrote.

While the rest of the Union right was unprepared, Sheridan’s division was ready for battle. That may have saved the day for Gen. William S. Rosecrans’ Army of the Cumberland.

“Long before dawn my division breakfasted, and was assembled under arms, the infantry in line, the cannoneers at their pieces, but while we were thus preparing, all the recent signs of activity in the enemy's camp were hushed, a death-like stillness prevailing in the cedars to our front. Shortly after daylight General Hardee opened the engagement, just as Sill had predicted, by a fierce attack on Johnson's division, the extreme right of the Union line,” Sheridan wrote.

While most of the Union right turned and ran toward the Gresham house, Sheridan’s division held but had to reposition, pivoting to the north to keep a line of retreat intact.

“In the meantime the enemy had also attacked me, advancing across an old cotton-field in Sill's front in heavy masses, which were furiously opened upon by Bush's battery from Sill's line, and by Hescock's and Houghtaling's batteries, which had an oblique fire on the field from a commanding position in rear of my centre,” Sheridan wrote.

“The effect of this fire on the advancing column was terrible, but it continued on till it reached the edge of the timber where Sill's right lay, when my infantry opened at a range of not over fifty yards. For a short time the Confederates withstood the fire, but then wavered, broke and fell back toward their original line,” he said.

Then came the fateful moment.

Sill ordered his brigade to charge at the retreating Confederates.

“In this charge the gallant Sill was killed; a rifle ball passing through his upper lip and penetrating the brain,” Sheridan said.

Sill’s men, falling back, attempted to retrieve their leader’s body from the battlefield, but had to abandon him. His body was found by Confederate troops who buried him near where he died at age 31.

The devastation at the Harding farm still wasn’t over.

Determined to dislodge the Federals, Confederate Capt. D.D. Waters’ Alabama battery was pulled into the line a few hundred yards east of the brick kiln and opened up in support of Col. A.M. Manigault’s charge.

The 88th Illinois commanded by Col. Francis T. Sherman and the 36th Illinois commanded by Col. Nicholas Greusel took the brunt of the attack at the Harding house.

Greusel, who took control of the brigade when Sill fell, was replaced in the field by Maj. Silas Miller.

On the 88th’s right, the 36th Illinois helped repulse Manigault’s charge, using up nearly all of their ammunition as result. Miller ordered the 36th to retire from the line and fall back toward the Wilkinson Pike in search of the ammunition train. As the regiment fell back, Miller was wounded, and command of the regiment fell on Captain Porter C. Olson. The regiment, Olson informed Sheridan, would be ready for action as soon as he found some .69-caliber ammunition.

Only 140 men of the 36th were ready for duty. The rest lay dead, dying or wounded among the limestone outcroppings east of Harding lane.

Sheridan was forced to withdraw both Greusel’s (Sill’s) brigade and that of Col. Frederick Schaefer.

The 88th Illinois and 21st Michigan pulled back to the outbuildings of the Harding farm. Schaefer finally pulled his command across the Wilkinson Pike and formed a new line of battle.

Bush’s 4th Indiana Battery fought a running battle as it pulled back, firing canister and engaging Water’s Alabama battery in an ongoing duel.Bush’s battery drove one section of Water’s guns from the field, wounding several Confederate gunners, wrecking a caisson and disemboweling some unfortunate artillery horses.

The Indiana artillery took up a position near the Harding. Meanwhile, Houghtaling took up position on the right of Wilkinson Pike, just at the edge of a cedar grove.

Meanwhile, Manigault reformed and was moving against Sheridan with Brig. Gen. George Maney’s Tennessee brigade in support.

Col. George Roberts, commanding Sheridan’s 3rd Brigade saw the Confederate buildup. He ordered his brigade to unfurl flags and charged with bayonets fixed.

“These regiments,” Col. Luther P. Bradley wrote, “went forward at the double-quick, and cleared the wood in front of our lines, the enemy giving way before we reached him.”

The gallant Roberts was shot and killed, but the charge gave Sheridan time to withdraw his troops to safety.

Even before the start of the battle Harding house was pressed into service by Union trips as a field hospital. A Union chaplain wrote:

“This building, or rather series of buildings, is what we called ‘Hospital Harding,’ and was our place of residence for over a week, where we had the care of upwards of 150 wounded. The house was a third rate frame building, with the log cook-house, &c., attached and surrounded by negro cabins, as is the custom here, while at a little distance was a barn, cotton gin and all the appliances of a cotton plantation.

“The owner was evidently a man of considerable wealth, owning about fifty negroes, and having an extensive plantation. There were evidences on the premises of considerable refinement, a well cultivated garden and good pianoforte being respectively the external and internal representatives of it. Mr. Harding was at home, and two or three negroes.

“At the time we took possession they had sought safety in the cellar. But the rest of the family, white and black, had been removed to the other side of Murfreesborough, the secesh commanders having informed him a few days before that the battle would be fought on his land. He looked with anything but complacency upon the Federal army, and indeed there was nothing peculiarly attractive in a body of men taking forcible possession of a man’s house, covering his floors, carpet, beds and bedding with bleeding men, and appropriating anything within reach that might be made servicable.”

Cannon fire struck the field hospital at one point, killing four of the wounded and breaking the legs of the Harding’s piano. The soldiers quickly dubbed it the “wounded piano.”

Union troops did make off with the Harding’s livestock, chickens and geese. All the horses were taken except for Mrs. Harding’s favorite one.

The family was forced to evacuate the home and didn’t return until the war was over. When they returned, one Union soldier remained because he was still too weak to leave.

Mrs. Harding made her daughter Ellen Amy tend to the recovering man by bringing him food and water. He rewarded her with a 2-½ dollar gold piece that was minted in 1851.

The house did survive the Civil War, but the Harding family continued to be beset by tragedy including the loss of two children. The log house burned in the 1870s during a fire caused by a cedar bucket full of hot ashes. It was replaced with a nice, but modest two-story frame home.

– Published HERE in The Murfreesboro Post, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, July 13, 2008