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Posted on 10/12/2004 10:43:15 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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'My God, We Thought You Had a Division Here!' The 21st Ohio Infantry's unique repeating weaponry was its salvation - and nearly its undoing - at Chickamauga.  The 21st Ohio was heading at the double quick toward Snodgrass Hill as midmorning of a warm September Sunday in 1863. They were sure something was going terribly wrong with this battle on the banks of the Chickamauga, but then, many things had been going wrong with this Union army lately. The Army of the Cumberland had been given to understand that they were chasing Confederate General Braxton Brag's army which was fleeing before them into Georgia. But the triumphant "chase" had begun to have ominous overtones, and yesterday a big battle had flared in the dark woods. The fighting had raged all day. But even worse, some bewildering thing was happening off to the Union right among the tangled ravines and forests drained by Chickamauga Creek. One thing was certain. In the 21st's front, the Rebels were running in only one direction-straight at the left wing of the Army of the Cumberland. The 21st Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, hailed from the northwestern part of their state, a region that was still frontier in 1863. They came from the Black Swamp, a huge morass that for generations had turned back the tide of settlement. During the early part of their enlistment, an old man in Kentucky had found it impossible to believe these men lived in the dreaded Black Swamp. He had marched through it with General Harrison in 1814 and still remembered with horror its dark and brooding vastness.  Despite the legend that no white man (and few Indians) could live there, these men were taming the swamp when they were interrupted by Lincoln's call for troops. They formed a very tough outfit, short on discipline but long on endurance. Perhaps for this reason, or for no reason, in May of 1863 they had been chosen to receive some rather special arms. They had turned in the usual motley collection of muskets carried by Western regiments and had been given in exchange brand new weapons. Two companies got English-made, muzzle-loading Enfields, but the remaining six companies were issued Colt's Revolving Rifles. Few of the men had seen any kind of repeating breechloader and this five-shot Colt was received with wonder. It was a .56-caliber percussion rifle with the distinctive Colt revolving breech mechanism. It had a solid frame and a Root patent side-hammer. The guns used a .56-caliber paper or linen cartridge, and with a little practice the Yanks found they could load five shots into the Colts in less time than it had taken to load one minié ball in their muskets.  Major General George Henry Thomas They mastered their weapons so well they were given the dangerous honor of being brigade skirmishers and sharpshooters. As they marched and fought their way south, they neither knew nor cared that the Colts were "unsuccessful experiments" in the family tree of gun design. If the Ohioans were appalled at the blast of gas from the cylinder, they failed to record it. If there were accidents from flying bits of the percussion caps, if occasionally all five cartridges exploded together, if they suffered powder burns on their jaws, the riflemen of the 21st made no loud or lasting complaints. Like most practical men used to bending a hostile environment with their own hands, they did not expect perfection. They weighed the fast-shooting, quick-loading accuracy of the Colts against the pitiful, junked European muskets carried by other outfits, and counted themselves supremely lucky. They adopted an unorthodox grip on the gun that lessened the danger to their hands and gloated happily over the fact that they could fire and reload the Colts while lying down behind a nice, thick tree trunk. As dawn that 20th of September the 21st Ohio, as part of the 3d Brigade, 2d Division, XIV Corps (Thomas's), had been drawn up in line behind some sturdy breastworks they had lost sleep to build during the night. Though part of Thomas's corps, they had recently been under McCook's command. The men were sure the battle would resume, and skirmishing had begun on their front when orders came for the entire division to move out.  General James Longstreet Like all soldiers, they were used to receiving orders for unknown reasons. That this particular one would initiate a chain of disaster for the Army of the Cumberland, they had no way of knowing. Its reasons, on the high command level, was a simple one. In the morning Major General George H. Thomas, commanding the Union left, had decided (correctly) that the main Rebel assault of the battle's second day was aimed at his wing of the army. He called for reinforcements. Major General William S. Rosecrans, army commander, was sending him the 2d Division and Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood's division was ordered to relieve them. A little later Rosecrans received a message that there was a gap in the line to the right of Reynolds's division. Assuming that this accounted for Thomas's call for more reinforcing, he ordered Wood to close up with Reynolds. Unfortunately, Brigadier General John M. Brannan's division was nicely closed up with Reynolds and directly behind Wood and Reynolds; there was no gap in the line. As Wood obeyed Rosecrans's order in the only way he could, by pulling out of the line and marching behind Brannan, the Confederates, under Lieutenant General James Longstreet, smashed through the now genuine gap left by Wood, and chaos engulfed two-thirds of the Army of the Cumberland.  But in the freshness of the morning, as the 2d Division was moving out, the leathery veterans of the 21st Ohio knew nothing of the high-level commands given or high-level mistakes about to bear fruit. They only knew they had a march of a mile and a half to make, leaving their hard-won breastworks for one of Wood's regiments to use. As they marched behind the Union front on the way to their unknown destination, without warning disaster exploded around them. Suddenly the division was gone, the brigade was gone, and all that was left was a swirling mass of men, horses, wagons, cannons, screaming shells, and utter disorganization.  Ohio Volunteers at Chickamauga by James Allen Davis of Harper's Weekly In the midst of the roaring thunder of guns, running troops, smoke, dust, and careening wagons, the regiment paused. To the 21st's commander, Lieutenant Colonel D.M. Stoughton, only one thing was clear in the bewildering storm of a thousand unclear things. He would hold the regiment together and continue to the position he thought the 3d Brigade was aiming for. To carry out his decision, the regiment had to push through fleeing remnants of the center of the army and find the right of Brannan's division. As the moment, Brannan's division, or what was left of it, was trying to curl itself around some high ground to check the Confederate waves advancing through the broken line. Stoughton and the 21st didn't know that the whole right and center of the Union army had come apart and was streaming in a disorganized retreat back to Chattanooga. They didn't know that Thomas had determined to hold his single corps steady and anchor its flank on a small rise called Snodgrass Hill to try to prevent annihilation of the Army of the Cumberland. They knew only that they had been given orders to reinforce Thomas, and if they could find him, they would carry out those orders.
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I've been to Camp Chase. It was about 2 miles from where I lived back in the 80's. It's small but well preserved.
Thanks so much for the reminder SAHM.
Forrest on Bragg not following up on the Confederate victory at Chickamauga:
"I have written to him. I have sent to him. I have given him information on the condition of the Federal Army. What does he fight battles for?"
Chickamauga also has more confederate monuments than any other battlefield I have seen and I live in Richmond.
Good morning, snippy.
Again, a very interesting article that has increased my stock of knowledge about our country's history. The FReeper Foxhole is an ongoing treasure trove of riches in this regard!
The next vacation we go on I think I'm going to talk to my wife about touring Shiloh, Missionary Ridge, and Chickamauga. I know our kids would get a heck of a lot more out of it than a trip to Disney World--even if they don't appreciate it at the time. :-)
Sam and Snippy, I have a few letters from my Great Grandfather to his uncle. Here is one he wrote from Vicksburg while camped in the rear. Later he was decorated for bravery along with several others of his outfit when they broke a troublesome spot in the Confederate defenses by tossing flaming pitch pots over the breastworks which enabled other troops to invest an outer line of trenches. They were offered a chance to attend Westpoint but since none of them had much more than a fifth grade education they couldn't take advantage of the offer and were given citations and medals instead. Here is his letter of June 26th 1863. (I write it as he wrote it so you can get a gist of what they sounded like. Most folks spelled phonetically in those days and didn't use punctuation.) He was just barely 18 at the time.
Dear Uncle
I again seat myself to let you know that I am well at present and hope that thes few lines mite find you enjoying the same I have not received no letter from you but I thot meby thet you did not get it and I thot thet I would try it a gain we have seen pretty hard times for a whole they do not look any better yet but I still look for better times a bout the time that we get into Vicburg our men bload up one of there forts on our left they bload it up then they let in with our artilery and musketry our men occupys the fort now so they tell me and have cannons plented on the top I tell you now thet it made a beeg fog wne it went up the dirt flew a bout tree top high and I do not know how high the men flew but I expect there was some flew pretty high they still keep a voley of musketry on our left but kin not tell you this time I will try and tell you more a bout it the next time for a fellow don't dare to stick his head up above the brest works I tell you now it is a kind of uneasy life for a fellow don't know whenhe will get shot we are now digging a ditch that runs straight up to there brest works they had me out las night a deeging a fellow can deeg with pretty good heart for I had rather do that then to make any more charges over these hills they throad a good many of our men in them too charges that we did make but I think if we have to make any more that we will have support nearly all the way we can in our ditches
Well I must close my scribbling for this time but write soon
Thomas Foreman to Joseph Foreman
I will send in this letter our colonel address after he got home well you must excuse me for not paying the postage for they have played out
Cool thread Sam.
Humana humana!!
Hi miss Feather
Hiya Sam
Howdy ma'am
:-(
Thanks StayAt HomeMother.
I'll post these in the announcement section.
If I had the time, I'd crank up the DVD and watch it again too.
Thanks for the Longstreet Bio.
A lot of controversy surronding him because of Getttysburg and his criticism of Lee.
Morning society-by-contract.
I managed a short visit to Chickamauga back in the 80's. Which I could have spent more time there.
Old habits and theories seem to die hard in the Military.
Shiloh is well worth the visit.
Thanks for sharing your great grantfather's letter with us. Looks like some things in war never change.
They have bicycles in 2324?
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