The morning of the sixth dawns beautifully, but upon a field
of death-a field of blood; but thanks be to God, it dawns with the old flag
triumphant. We will again walk among the dead and wounded. The loss of the
Seventh has been fearful. At Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Corinth our loss was
heavy, but our loss in this battle exceeds our whole loss in those three great
battles. The following list of the Seventh's casualties in this battle will
speak for itself; will alone tell how fierce was the storm of battle that raged
on these hills.
STAFF. Wounded:
Colonel R. Rowett, in the head, severely; Adjutant J. S. Robinson, severely.
COMPANY A.—Killed:
Corporal Henry C. Hasson. Wounded: Sergeant James O'Donnell.
COMPANY B.—Killed:
Privates Philip Saules, Jonathan Bishop; Wounded:
private John Hunter.
COMPANY C—Killed:
Privates Andrew Hellgoth, John McAlpine; Corporal John B. Hubreht.
COMPANY D.—Company D was left at Rome on guard duty,
therefore was not with the regiment at the Allatoona Pass.
COMPANY E.—Killed:
Privates James F. Burk, George W. Eversole, Michael F. Galbraith, Marion R.
Kampf, Francis Love, David Roberts, Lewis C. Stroud, Calvin A. Summers, John W.
Watt, W. H. Burwell, Lewis J. Allman, Levi Allen, Ezra M. Miller, Elias
Hainline, Leonidas Burkholder, Corporal William Smith. Wounded: Sergeant and Color Bearer Joseph Bordwell; Privates L. D.
Barnes, George G. Brooks, Lewis A. Burk, Abner W. Burwell, Samuel H. Ewing,
Angelo V. Faucett, Albert Gardner, Phillip J. Gossard, John F. Hainline, James
A. Hedges, George Sullivan, Edwin R. Jones, Thomas Gardner, A. N. Roelofson,
James M. Allman, John L. Forbes, Joseph Lancaster, Eli Mushrush, Samuel M.
Watt. Corporal Henry C. Montjoy; Taken Prisoner: N. A. Bovee, Samuel H. Jones,
William E. Verry, William H. Miller.
COMPANY F. —Killed:
Privates Philip Hale, John Phillips, Henry M. Robbins, Eldridge Walton, Nathan
D. Atchison. Wounded: Privates James
Kelley, Robert B. Kelley, George Brenton; Sergeant John McTurk.
COMPANY G.—No separate record given—consolidated with
Company I.
COMPAMY H.—Killed:
Corporal Samuel Walker; Privates Henry Bigler, John Etterlain, William T.
Taylor, John White, Timothy Hoblitt, James L. Parish. Wounded: Sergeant William P. Hackney, severely; Edward C. Nicholas,
severely; Privates Oscar J. Hackney, slightly; John E. J. Wood, severely;
Richard P. Graham, severely; James M. Halbert, slightly; Aaron Watkins,
slightly; Ferdinand Capps, severely. Taken
Prisoner: Thomas Caylor, William R. Skiver, George W. Ballard.
COMPANY I.—Killed:
First Lieutenant John E. Sullivan, Sergeant Charles Myres, Corporal William
Ecker, Privates John W. Johnson, Ira Carey. Wounded:
Privates Daniel O'Keefe, Alfred Scott, James Andrews, George Harris, William
Massey.
COMPANY K.—Killed:
Privates E. Thompson, Martin V. Kelton, Jesse C. Botkins. Wounded: Corporals John W. Bowman, Walter Smith; Privates Grundy
McClure, Thesbold Steinberg, Lewis P. Moore, Albert H. Duff, John P. Van Dyke,
Julius Wolf. Total killed, 42, total wounded, 53.
Though the Union loss is heavy, though Illinois, Iowa and
Minnesota, offered a fearful sacrifice; we behold in looking around us a great
many more of the traitors weltering in their gore. Six hundred rebels poured
out their life blood—poured it out upon these hills for naught-six hundred lie
still in death, and as many more are wounded. Ah! what an ill-fated field
Allatoona has been to them. "They came for bread; Corse gave them war and
lead." Their wounded tell us they never fought such men. Says a rebel
officer, "I believe those Illinois and Iowa boys who were in yonder fort
(pointing to the fort General Corse, Colonel Rowett and his Third Brigade
occupied,) would have all died before they would have surrendered." All
day the 6th we are engaged caring for the wounded and burying the dead. On the
hill the Seventh bury their fellow-heroes. The regiment is now small, the
survivors look sorrowful; now and then we see tears steal down the bronzed
cheeks to fall and perish upon the lonely graves. Praises for Colonel Rowett
are on every tongue. Allatoona tells us that no braver warrior ever drew a
sword in battle. In the thickest of the conflict he was ever found, cheering
his men when disaster threatened, leading amid dire confusion. In Allatoona's
great battle he stood by the flag, and around him and it his men rallied;
rallied to fall and die; rallied to see it victorious. But how sad were his men
when they saw him fall; when they saw him bleeding; when they saw him fainting
from loss of blood. But remembering his words of cheer; remembering his command
to die rather than let the flag be lowered; his men struggled on and proved
themselves true to their Colonel and their flag, and the sun went down with the
fifteen-hundred triumphant, and that evening the Union's proud banner looked
more beautiful than it had ever before looked—more beautiful because it stood
upon another victorious field.
Lieutenant John E. Sullivan, of Company I, fell fighting
like a Spartan. Heroically he braved the frightful tempest and went down
crowned all over with laurels of glory. He fell mortally wounded in the early
part of the day, and died .about ten o'clock the next morning. We were called
to his side as his last moments of life were drawing nigh. Says he, "Give
my sword to the gallant William Hackney of Company H," (which company he
commanded until he fell.) "Brave men, I will soon leave you,—will soon
pass the river of death." We stood by his side again, but his spirit had
departed, and the noble warrior was free from the angry strife of men.
Lieutenant John S. Robinson, A. A. A. G. on Colonel Rowett's
staff, was severely wounded during the last charge of the rebels, and no one
performed his part more gallantly in this great battle than did this officer.
Where the battle raged fiercest there he was ever found. He was standing by the
side of Colonel Rowett, struggling against the wild tide of battle as but few
men have ever struggled in this terrible war, until the scales began to show
signs favorable to the fifteen-hundred, when he was stricken down, (which was
but a short time before the battle closed.) He is dangerously wounded and we
fear his days will soon be numbered. Courageous soldier! we can only say of him
he was true; that he did his duty, and did it well.
Colonel Hanna, the dashing commander of the Fifteenth
Illinois, was among the most conspicuous in this battle. With his impetuous and
irresistible regiment he stood as firm as a gigantic rock, and against his
front of bristling steel French's hungry rebels hurled themselves, but in vain
did they attempt to crush the gallant "half-hundred," for when the
fearless Hanna threw himself into the most dangerous ordeal, making his clarion
voice heard above the loud din of battle, the eyes of his brave men grew
brighter and each heart was kindled with the fire that ever warms the patriot's
heart. We remember when the very air was red with flame, when the earth was
strewn with the mangled dead, when the sun seemed to be hid behind an awful
sheet of fire; how anxiously we watched Colonel Hanna moving with his regiment
from beyond the railroad to the support of Colonel Rowett. Oh! that was a
trying hour; the leaden hail flew thick and fast; it was a march of death, for
ere they reached Colonel Rowett's fort many of their number had fallen. But how
glad were the men of the Seventh Illinois when that grand old regiment rushed
into the fort and waved over the ramparts their shattered battle flag. It was a
glorious hour, glorious because we felt encouraged and strengthened. We will
never forget that period in the battle; will never forget Colonel Hanna and his
noble men who made that memorable charge across the railroad and cut their way
through to Colonel Rowett's fort, a work which for fierceness has, we believe,
never been surpassed in this war.
Captain Rattrey of the Fifty-seventh, aid to Col. Rowett,
excited the admiration of every one for his bravery, accompanied with so much
coolness and judgment. He was found constantly by Colonel Rowett's side,
executing his orders with a promptness that was indeed remarkable. When the
crushing tide of battle bore down Colonel Rowett, Captain Rattrey could not
find a field officer in the brigade to report to; every one down to his rank
having fallen as victims—either dead or wounded. The gallant defenders of the
Pass who had been struggling through long weary hours, were now making their
last desperate struggle, and signs were appearing that seemed to tell of a
turning point in the battle, seemed to tell that the boys in blue were about to
gain the mastery, were about to hurl back from the pass Hood's insane legions.
There was no time to lose, and Captain Rattrey fearing that the men who had
fought so long, and so well, who had seen so many of their comrades fall and
die, would soon become exhausted, leaped like a giant from where lay the
bleeding and seemingly lifeless Rowett, and with the robust courage of an angel
in his soul assumed command of the gallant old Third Brigade and conducted the
battle to its glorious consummation. There seemed to be no post of danger that
Captain Rattrey did not wish to occupy.
In looking around us we miss many noble men who are now sleeping
in death's cold embrace, Liberty in its great trial claimed them as sacrifices
on its altar; but not for naught, as history will declare when this generation
shall have long passed away. Private soldiers though they were, they performed
their part, and hence are as worthy the country's gratitude as those in higher
positions, who offered up their lives in this battle.
We cannot pass without alluding to the gallantry of Corporal
Samuel Walker of Company H. He was standing with Colonel Rowett, and while fighting
bravely in one of the desperate rebel charges the flag comes falling down over
his head, and ere it reaches the blood stained earth, Corporal Walker is seen
to grasp its shot-riven staff, and with its silken shreds falling around him,
he mounted the works and there in one of the wildest battle storms that ever
left blood in its wake, he waved it defiantly in the face of arch-treason,—waved
it until a minie went crashing through his brain,—waved it until he fell, and
there in blood under that grand old flag, the pride of his heart, the glory of
his manhood, he died—died for the flag, died for his country, died for liberty.
Glorious spirit! may his name ever shine bright in the book of perpetual
remembrance as one of the boldest who helped to defend this second Thermopylae!
But all were brave, and like the legions of Bruce and the
lovers of Sparta, they struggled against an adverse tide; for four fearful
hours they held it in check; at last they turned it, and above streams of
blood, the groans of the dying and the shouts of victors, light from the
Union's proud banner seemed to flash against the sky. How proud were the
Illinois and Iowa boys when the noble Corse, wounded and bleeding, said there
was not a coward in the great battle of the Allatoona Pass; and prouder still
were the men of the Seventh, when he said, "Colonel, your regiment
sustained the heaviest loss; I will give it the post of honor." Before
leaving the battle-field, Sergeant Major S. F. Flint writes:
Winds
that sweep the southern mountain,
And
the leafy river shore,
Bear
ye not a prouder burden
Than
ye ever learned before?
And
the hot blood fills
The
heart till it thrills,
At
the story of the terror and the glory of the battle
Of
the Allatoona hills.
Echo
from the purple mountains,
To
the dull surrounding shore;
'Tis
as sad and proud a burden,
As
ye ever learned before.
How
they fell like grass
When
the mowers pass,
And
the dying, when the foe was flying, swelled the cheering
Of
the heroes of the pass.
Sweep
it o'er the hills of Georgia
To
the mountains of the north;
Teach
the coward and the doubter,
What
the blood of man is worth.
Toss
the flag as you pass,
Let
their stained and tattered mass
Tell
the story of the terror and the glory of the battle
Of
the Allatoona Pass.
After burying the dead and caring for the wounded, which are
placed on the cars to be sent to Rome, we return to our old camp on the Etawah.
At no time during the war have we seen so much of sadness depicted upon the faces
of the men as we have seen since our return to Rome. The men stand around in
the camp lonely and silent, without a word to say to each other. There is
indeed sorrow in the Seventh; sorrow for their brave comrades whom they left
wrapped in death's pale sheet on the Allatoona hills. The Seventh felt sad when
they stood on Shiloh's field and gazed upon their dead and wounded companions;
their hearts were moved when they saw so many of their number who had perished
on Corinth's plain, but the blood that flowed from the heroes of the Allatoona
Pass has completely unnerved these strong men; and will our readers call it
weakness when we tell them that after that work of blood at the Pass, while
standing around the camp fires near the banks of the Etawah, we saw stalwart
soldiers weep; saw tears sparkle in their eyes for those brave boys who had
surrendered their lives in the great war for human liberty?
SOURCE: Daniel Leib Ambrose, History of the Seventh
Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 261-70
