History of the 53 Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry
A true story and History of the 53 Regiment
Illinois Volunteer Infantry
It's campaigns and Marches
Incidents that occurred on the marches and in camp.
What happened to some of it's members and what Became of others.
Short stories of marches and how the Army lived.
by
H.E. Ranstead
a member of Company D, Fifty-third Regiment
Illinois Veteran Volunteer Infantry
1910
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This book is dedicated to the brave men who
went out from 1861 to 1865 to perpetuate the Union of States,
Free Speech and Liberty and to their relatives.
The Author
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A TRUE STORY AND HISTORY
Chapter 1
The Fifty-third Illinois Infantry was organized at Ottawa,
Ill., during the fall and winter of 1861 by Colonel Cushman and
was mustered into United States service November 11, 1861. The
Regiment consisted of ten companies, one company of cavalry and
one battery of six guns. The Infantry, cavalry and the battery
of artillery mustered a little over 1200 men. Regiment left
Ottawa February 27, 1862, and arrived in Chicago the same day
where it guarded prisoners in company with the twenty-third
Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry. In camp Douglas. Remained
till March 23, 1862, when it left for St. Louis Mo., where it
arrives March 24, and left March 25 for the south, arriving in
Savannah, Tenn., March 28, 1862 and there is where it got its
first sound of battle. Everything was still on Sunday morning of
April 6, when all at once there was a boom, boom, of cannon and
a continuous roar of small arms. I tell you it made the hair
stand to hear it and to think every volley meant the death and
wounding of hundreds of good men. The regiment had to stay at
Savannah, about twenty miles from the battle of Pittsburg
Landing, and did not get there till the next day, Monday
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April 7, 1862, arriving too late to take a hand, as the boys had
them on the run. We marched out to the front, where our men were
attacked on the morning of the 7th of April. It looked awful to
us as we had never seen any such slaughter as there was along
the line of march of five or six miles that afternoon. Men and
horses all piled together all over a space of eight or ten
miles. One could not go anywhere without seeing dead or wounded
who laid there two or three days, many of the wounded died on
the field for the want of care. We were over a week getting all
the dead buried. General Johnson was in front at Corinth and
General Hallock settled down for a regular siege and the
regiment had regular work to do. They took part in the burial of
the dead and in the siege at Corinth, and here while in camp we
had a good deal of sickness, as it was very wet weather at that
time. Quite a number of the Regiment died, and Company D lost
their orderly sergeant John Carter, a fine man and a good
soldier. We thought it was awful at that time , but I tell you
we got used to that, and found a man's life was held pretty
cheap in those days at the front. On May 30, 1862, General
Johnson evacuated Corinth, Miss., and the Union army took
possession. We left Corinth for Grand Junction, Tenn., where we
arrived June 15, 1862, and left June 25 for La Grange, Tenn.,
arriving on the 25th and left on the 30th and arrived at Holly
Springs, Miss., July 4, 1862, where we celebrated our first
fourth of July in the confederacy.
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And left July 5 for LaGrange, Tenn., where we arrived on the 7th
and guarded the rail road till the 17th and then left for
Moscow, Tenn.. all this marching and counter marching was not
was not by the Regiment alone, but by a division and sometimes
by the whole army. We always had more or less fighting and
skirmishing to do on these trips, and generally had pretty hard
living. On this trip we ran out of rations and had nothing but
parched corn for two days. That was tough we thought then, but
learned better.
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Chapter II
Arriving at Moscow, Tenn., July 17, 1862, left the 18th for
LaFayette Tenn., arrived on the same day and left on the 19th
for Germantown, Tenn., arrived the same evening and left on the
20th for Memphis, where we arrived on July 21, 1862, and left
September 6, for Bolivar, Tenn., arriving on September 13. Here
we guarded the railroad till September 20, and then left for
Grand Junction, arriving on the 20th , and left on the 21st for
Bolivar, where we arrived on the same afternoon and left October
4 , going as far as Hatchie River, where the regiment took an
active part in the battle of Hatchie River, Tenn., on October 5,
which was a hard contested fight on both sides. Company D, of
the Fifty-third regiment, had a curious thing happen to two of
it's men. They both said in the morning of the battle that they
would be killed, and they both disposed of their things and told
where to send them. Captain Hudson told them if they felt that
way they had better not go in, but they would not hear to that
and went into battle and both were killed, almost the first
thing. This is something that happened to a good many in the
service. We left the Hatchie River October 7, arrived at Bolivar
October 8, and left for La Grange November 3, and arrived
November 4. Left November 6, for LeMar, Miss., then went to La
Grange and back to LaMar on the 8th. Went to LaGrange again on
the 9th,
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And guarded the railroad there till 23rd of November, when we
left for Sonerville, Tenn., and came back to Grange the same day
and left on the 29th for Hollysprings, Miss., where we arrived
on the 29th, and left on the 30th, for Waterford, Miss., where
we remained until December 11, and left for Oxford, Miss.,
arrived on December 12, and left the same day for Oxford, Miss.,
arriving December 12, and left the same day for Springdale,
Miss., arriving in the evening and left the next morning for
Oxford, where we stayed two days and left December 24 for
Tallehatchie Fort, Miss., and on Christmas day left for Holly
Springs where we arrived January 5, 1863 and left for Moscow,
Tenn., on the 4th. Left Moscow March 9 for LaFayette, passing
through Colliersville and arriving Germantown, Tenn., March 10.
Left the same day for Bridwater, Tenn., and arrived at Memphis
March 11, where we stayed and got ready to go down the river to
Vicksburg. We left Memphis May 16, 1863, for Young's Point, on
Mississippi transports, where we arrived May 19, and left for
Haines Bluff on the 20th, and left May 21, 1863.
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Chapter III
Between Memphis and Vicksburg, the transports, of which there
were five or six, all in line one behind the other, all was
going nicely, and one would think it was the quietest place on
earth, but we were destined for some fun, and so we did. All at
once there was a puff of smoke from the shore. The boat the
fifty-third was on was in the rear. All looked ahead and saw the
boats were trying to see which could get the farthest from that
side of the river and how quick it could be done, but that did
not last long, as the signal was given to the rear boats to land
a couple of regiments in the rear of the confederates. The
fifty-third regiment was one of them. We marched through the
woods and swamps all the afternoon, but they were too swift for
us, as we did not catch any of them. We left destruction on our
rear, as there was 50,000 bushels of corn burned that afternoon,
and some cotton, and about night we were back at the river, to
where our boats were waiting for us. There was a little town of
Greenville and it was not long before it was all on fire. I
don't think it was ordered to be set fire, but such things
happened. Nobody knew how it was done. The boats went up the
Yazoo river where the troops were unloaded and started to our
destination in the rear of Vicksburg, where we arrived May 25,
1863. From the bluff where the troops landed we could see men of
the General Grant's army, and the confederates fighting.
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They looked from where we were as if the woods, hills, and
valleys were full of men. It was a sublime sight, but awful
wicked. We looked and wondered how soon we would be engaged in
the awful work with the rest out there at the front. We had not
long to wait as all available men were needed in the front. We
were started for the front of Vicksburg May 24, where we arrived
on the 25th, when the regiment took an active part in the siege
of Vicksburg until the surrender of the city on the Fourth of
July, 1863.
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Chapter IV
We had a great many experiences here. Our work was night and
day, and no intermission during the time. It was not the policy
of General Grant to sleep when the enemy was in front of him.
Around Vicksburg it is very hilly country. The hills are a good
deal like taking a lot of eggs and setting them up on a table.
It is all hills and valleys. We camped in the valleys and built
forts and breastworks on the hills. We generally had to build
the works in the night, with the rebs shooting at the noise we
made. They did not always hit the noise, but more often they hit
a man. In one of these works where Ed Avery, of company D,
fifty-third regiment, received his death wound. He was in one of
the works with a Company B man of the fifty-third regiment and
one of them had shot at a rebel through a port hole in the fort,
and then the company B man was looking to see what he had hit,
and, Ed Avery was looking over his shoulder at the same time.
The Rebel let drive back at him and hit the porthole all right
and also hit the company B man in the temple, just back of the
eyes. The bullet went clear through his head, drove both eyes
out, and hit Ed. Avery in the left breast, just over the heart.
The curious part of this little incident was when he found the
company B man was killed, he stuck his fore finger in the bullet
hole in his breast and walked to the company in that shape,
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and said he was wounded. He had put his finger in the hole so he
would not bleed. The boy lived till he knew Vicksburg had
surrendered and he said he was ready to die then. He passed
peacefully away the same day. This is only one such incident
that might be told. If I told them all, there would be no end to
this story and the history of those times. About the same things
happened each day, until the 2nd day of July, 1863, when the
first flag of truce went up, while General grant and Pemberton
were meeting to negotiate for the surrender of Vicksburg. When
the white flags would go up, the rebs would shout, " Yanks,
don't shoot now and we won't." then the men from both sides
would climb up on the works and have a great visit.
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Chapter V
The Union works and the Confederate works were pretty close
together at the last of the siege. In some places they were as
close as three or four rods. Looking out over the works we could
see the lines of both sides for two miles each way, running over
the hills. It was a nice sight at night to look out over the
armies and over the city and see the flashes of the small arms
and the flash of the gun and mortar boats throwing shell and
mortar shot into the city. We could see the flash of the mortar
and then see the ball rise up in the air and make a circle
through the heavens and then, when near the ground, another
flash and boom and it would be all still, and so they would be
at it all night. The Rebs had to dig caves in the sides of the
hills to be in safety from the shell and shot. The negotiations
were going on slowly. During the 2nd and 3rd of July we would
get up on the works three or four time a day when the white
flags were up and visit. Pretty soon, way up the line the flags
would go down. Then you would hear everyone shout, " Look out,
we are going to shoot," and it would not be a minute till all
along the line they were shooting as hard as ever, and so it
went till the fourth of July, 1863, when the city and the
confederate army were surrendered to the union forces, and on
that day, after the Johnnies had stacked their arms, they were
allowed to
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mingle freely with the men and you would not suppose that we
were a lot of men that had been trying to kill one another for
the last two months. We gave the Johnnies as good a dinner as we
could, and had a general good time to celebrate the Fourth. But
the War was not over yet, as General Johnson was in our rear on
the east side of Black river, so the Johnnies we had taken
prisoners were paroled and turned loose to go where they pleased
and General Grants army took no rest, but started east on the
5th of July to catch General Johnson. We got to Clinton Miss.,
on the 9th and left July 10 for Jackson, arriving the same day.
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Chapter VI
Jackson is where the fifty-third Illinois Regiment, the Third
Iowa and the Twenty eight Illinois Regiment and the Forty-first
Illinois Regiment got into more trouble and it proved to be
pretty serious trouble, too. These four regiments made up the
First Brigade, Fourth Division, and had been in the rear guard
on the 11th of July, as all the army was in the line around
Jackson on the night of the 11th of July, the first brigade went
into camp for the night. On the morning of the 12th it was to
take it's position on the right of the army, and through some
mistake in the orders we got into a fearful charge. The brigade
was marched up on the right of the army on a raised piece of
ground and ordered to lie down. We could look across on an open
space about 200 rods I should judge, where we could see the
rebel works. All was still over there, and to wake them up we
placed a battery in the rear of the brigade and opened fire on
the rebel works, over our heads, but got no response from them.
Then we were ordered in line of battle, skirmishers were started
forward, and the line of battle ordered ahead. We had gone about
forty rods and had run against the rebel skirmishers and the
skirmishers on both sides commenced to fire. The order was given
to fix bayonets and charge double quick. It was a hard place to
charge over, as all trees had been felled towards us and all the
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limbs sharpened and sharp stakes driven in the ground, leaning
towards us, and wire put on them, but we got through under heavy
fire of small arms and artillery. The cannons were loaded with
grape shot and canister shot and some shells. We charged within
a few feet of the rebel works there, all that were alive laid
down in a little plowed furrow. Some had retreated and the rest
of the brigade were killed or wounded. Those who got close to
the works were all taken prisoners, the rebels were in the rear
of us and ordered us to surrender. They got 104 prisoners out of
the brigade who all went to the Old Libby prison in Richmond
Va., and from there to Belle Isle. The island is situated in the
James river, northwest of Richmond. It was a vile place at that
time. The brigade mustered 800 men for duty when they went in
the charge. They lost something over 300 killed, wounded and
missing. The fifty-third regiment lost the Colonel, Seth C.
Earl. Company D lost in killed outright L.B. McClaskey; wounded
Capt. James E. Hudson, shot in the arm, afterwards died, from
wound; Joseph K. McLaughlin shot in the head; got well; Lot C
Larkin , shot in the hand, got well; Knute Madison, wounded got
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well. The prisoners from Company D Fifty-third Regiment were
Abner Beale, Lot C. Larkin, H.E. Ranstead, Hamilton White, Geo.
Crain, Ed. Thomas, John Cary. Abner Beale, after he got out of
prison, came home and died here. No one knows what became of
Geo. Crain, as no one ever saw him after he was taken prisoner
as he was separated from the others.
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Chapter VII
After General Johnson retreated from Jackson, the army marched
back to Vicksburg. The fifty-third left Jackson July 21, 1863,
arrived at Vicksburg July 23, 1863, where they laid in camp till
Aug 18, when they left for Natchez, where they arrived August
19. Here they did a good deal of scouting and marching till the
30th of November, when they went back to Vicksburg, arriving
December 1. Left for Milldale, Miss., December 2 and arrived on
the 3rd. While we lay here at Milldale, the order came from
Washington that all regiments that had enlisted for three years
and had served two of the three, and would enlist again for
three years, or during the war, would be given the year off of
the first three years they had enlisted, and could enlist as
veterans and would be given a thirty day furlough and $402. The
regiment did the right thing, talked for a day or two and looked
around and wondered how many would enlist under that law, but
waited for some one to go ahead, and the writer of this book was
the first in the regiment to put his name down. After the ice
was broken it did not take long for the rest to enlist, and on
January 18, 1864 the Fifty-third Illinois was reported as
veteran regiment.
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Chapter VIII
We left Milldale January 21, 1864, for a big raid through
Mississippi. Arrived Big Black river January 22, left February
3, arrived at Clinton February 4, left on the 5th, got to
Jackson February 6 and left on the 7th, got to Brandon the same
day and left on the 8th and got to Morton on the 9th. Left
Morton on the 10th and went to Hillsboro and on to Decatur,
where we arrived on the 12th. Left Decatur on the 13th and
arrived Meridian on the 15th. We had been marching through the
country in Mississippi for a couple of weeks in search of
Johnnies, and had made it pretty lively when we met, and that
was every day, but we could not catch many of them at a time. We
then turned back towards Vicksburg. It had come time now for the
regiment to have it's veteran furlough, so they made ready to
leave the south for Ottawa, where it had organized and gone
forth to the south two years before. And I tell you it was not
the regiment that left Ottawa.
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The company of Calvary was not with it, nor the battery of
artillery, and the ranks of infantry were thinned out very much.
The regiment looked about the size one of the companies did when
it went out in 1861. Well, we arrived at Ottawa March 23, 1864
and there we were disbanded and each company went to its home
where it was enlisted, to have a good a time as possible. I tell
you the regiment was well received on their way home. We were
fed at almost every place we stopped, and had a big supper at
LaSalle, and such a dinner we had at Ottawa cannot be described.
The people could not do enough for a soldier at that time, and
company D came to Earlville and everybody tried to see who
should do the most for the boys.
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Chapter IX
We stayed here till the 28th of April, 1864 and then went to
Ottawa, had a big supper and dance and the regiment left on
April 29, arrived in Peoria that evening and left on April 30
for Havana, and left for St. Louis, went on to Cairo and Paducah
Ky., where we arrived May 11, and left May 11 for Clinton,Tenn.,
arriving May 14; left for Waynesboro, Tenn., arriving on the
16th, passing through Lawerenceburg, and arrived at Pulaski May
16. Left for Elkwood, Tenn., and arrived May 21, left for
Huntsville, Ala., and arrived May 23, left foe Decatur, Ala.,
and arrived May 26, left for Somerville, Ala., and arrived May
28, left for Warrentown, Ala., for Van Buren June 2, left for
Cedar Bluffs and arrived June 3, left for Missionary Station and
arrived arrived June 4, left for Rome, GA., arrived June 5, left
for Kingston, Ga., arrived June 6, left for Carterville, GA.,
arrived June 7. We had now joined General Sherman's army again.
We were kept here at Altoona Pass to fortify and guard the
railroad at this point, as this railroad was our only source of
supplies. This road had to be open all the way back to the Ohio
river, about 500 or 600 miles. We had to fight for it every day,
somewhere along the line. The rebels were making dashes every
day or two, trying to tear up the tracks and capture the trains,
and very often succeeded. About this time General Hood thought
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he would try General Sherman's tactics. He withdrew part of his
forces and started for Sherman's rear, to try and cut his
communications and to force Sherman's army to retreat, but
General Sherman did not think that way. We started back and kept
between Hood and the railroad and just watched him. There was no
damage done, as they did not strike the railroad. After we got
back from this raid, the Seventeenth Corps was started for the
east of Atlanta, Ga., we struck Decatur, Ga., July 19, and moved
from there towards Atlanta, and found the enemy strongly
entrenched. On the afternoon of July 20, we were ordered into
line of battle. The fifty-third regiment's position was just on
the edge of an open field, about a mile from the rebel works,
here is where we had to make the charge. Across this field there
was a small stream, in front of the rebel works. They were on a
low bluff on the west side. The Union forces brought up
artillery and we had a lively artillery battle, but that did not
do much good, and now came the infantry charge
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Chapter X
We were ordered to load and fix bayonets and charge double
quick, and away we went with a Yankee yell, and loaded and fired
as fast as we could when on the run, and the rebels were giving
the best they had, of artillery, and small arms, and our
artillery was firing over our heads. At every discharge you
would see men pitch forward all along the line, either killed or
wounded. The regiment lost quite a number in this charge.
Company D had two wounded badly and several others slightly
hurt. The two wounded Joseph K. McLaughlin and Simon Plank. We
could not get to the rebel works. We got as far as the creek and
had to stop, but we held our position and stayed and camped
close to the enemy's works. The next day, July 21, 1864, the
Seventeenth Corps charged the works and had their position in
line. The 22d of July was when the Fifty-third regiment got in
bad shape. The left of General Sherman's army rested east of
Atlanta, and reached clear around to the northwest of the city.
The Fifteenth Corps was the extreme left of the army, and was
facing west towards the city. The Sixteenth Corps was a mile or
two to the east, in line of battle. There was an open place of
about a mile, from the left of the Fifteenth Corps to the right
of the Sixteenth Corps. The regiment was on
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this line. There was a small guard left with the camp. The guard
was eating breakfast when we heard something uncommon out in
front of camp to the south and we started to investigate, but
did not have to look far, the Rebels were coming in line of
battle. General Hood had taken a notion to come a flank movement
on General Sherman. Hood had moved his main forces east from the
city and then came down in our rear. When we saw what was
coming, we fellows in camp had to work quick to keep from being
taken prisoner and I, the writer of this book did not want any
more of that, for it was not a long time since I had gotten out
of prison.
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Chapter XI
The only chance I saw was to make a run for the Fifteenth corps,
about a mile from us, they being the nearest of any of our men.
So we started each man for him self. Myself and two more of my
company started together, but had not gone far when we lost one,
the man left with me was Ezra Drew. He stayed with me for a ways
and then said he had to stop. I tried to get him to come on but
he did not, and the last I saw of him he had stood his gun
against a big tree and was resting. I was not tired just then,
for I could see Andersonville just behind and freedom in front
and I guess my legs saved me that time. Drew and the other man
went to Andersonville and Drew died there. The other man got out
alive. Other members of the regiment were taken but I never
learned how many. I got to the Fifteenth corps, which was
General Logan's old corps. They were armed with what we called
in those days "Sixteen Shooters." That is, sixteen shots at one
loading and they did some awful fighting that day. I was with
them all day and the rebels charged them. First they got it in
the front and the next time they would try them in the rear. One
of the charges the Rebs made was the worst I ever saw. They came
in, six lines deep and every man yelling his best, and they
charged clear to the Union breastworks and climbed over in the
fire of those "sixteen shooters," and pushed the
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line back from the works about three rods, but the fire was too
much for them. They had to fall back and the ground was strewn
with dead, wounded and the dying. It was a sight never to be
forgotten. But the Yankees were too much for the Johnnies, and
they withdrew and went back defeated in their flank movement.
The next day after the battle the Fifty-third began to look
around to see what had become of it's members. They began to get
together and in couple of days the regiment was organized again
and got so it could take it's place once more in line ready for
duty, but when the roll was called there were seventy-three
missing. The regiment had lost seventy-three killed, wounded and
missing in the three days engagement. On July 27, 1864 the
Seventeenth corps with the Fifteenth corps and the Eighteenth
corps, withdrew from the east of Atlanta and moved to the
extreme right of the lines, at Atlanta, and on July 28, 1864,
the battle was fought. Then things were quiet for a short time,
and then, on August 26, 1864, General Sherman withdrew form
before Atlanta and began his flank movement to Jonesboro, Ga. On
August 31, the battle of Jonesboro was fought and on Sept 2,
1864, Atlanta was evacuated by General Hood and the Union forces
took possession.
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Chapter XII
After General Hood had evacuated Atlanta, General Sherman made
ready for his famous march to the sea. The army consisted of
four corps , one corps on a road by itself. From the corps on
the right to the corps on the left was about fifty miles so we
took a big scope of country. The Seventeenth corps had the
center of the main line of railroad between Atlanta and
Savannah. The Fifty-third regiment was in the Seventeenth corps,
and the corps had the job of tearing up the railroad and
destroying the rolling stock. It is quiet an art to tear up
railroad track. The way we did it was this: We would march on
the track till a whole regiment or division was strung along and
then stack arms beside the road and string along the track, one
man to a tie, and then the order was given to tip it over, and
it went over quicker than it was built. Then we knocked the ties
off the rails and piled the ties in bunches about six feet high
and laid the iron on top of the pile and then set the pile of
ties on fire, and it would soon have the rails red hot in the
middle, and then five or six men would take hold of each end and
start for a tree, and one set of men on one end of the rail go
one way and the other set the other way, and the rail wound
around the tree and there they stayed. All that was left of the
railroad was the grading. I think it was not as hard work to
dress these trees
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with the iron rails as it was to get them off. While some were
tearing up railroad the rest would be fighting ahead for more
road to tear up, as the Johnnies contested every rod of the
country and they made the Yanks fight for it. They were in our
front all the time. Where the wagon road went through the big
timber the Rebs would cut the timber from both sides and fell it
to the road, so if we got through it at all we had to cut the
timber out. The way a march of that kind is conducted is all the
teams and the artillery and all kinds of vehicles are marched in
the road and the men march at the side of the road.
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Chapter XIII
We had rivers to cross, and here is where the Johnnies gave a
good deal of trouble. They burned all the bridges after they
crossed a stream and then we had to lay pontoon bridges, most
generally under fire, and it is not a very pleasant job under
those circumstances. Another thing that was a big nuisance was
the negroes. They would follow the army by the thousands, with
all kinds of vehicles, from a wheelbarrows to a fine family
coach, and they were drawn by all kinds of horses and mules, and
they would be loaded with everything imaginable and some of the
men and negroe women, too, would carry enough on their heads to
furnish a house. They would carry a load that would make a mule
blush. They would keep falling in all along the road and got so
numerous that the army teams could not get along. The way they
got rid of them was when we came to a river where we had to lay
pontoon bridges, they would station a strong guard at the bridge
and halt every- thing and send them to the side of the road, and
after the army was all across would take up the pontoon bridge
and leave the darkies all on the other , and all the negroes had
to do was go back home. The days were employed on this march to
the sea by tearing up railroad, foraging and getting the road
cleared of trees that the Rebs had fallen in the road, and
fighting the Johnnies out of the road
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head. There was fighting in front all the time. This was the
work every day, and all these places had to be bridged with
corduroy bridges. They are made by cutting the trees at the side
of the road in lengths of almost eight feet and laid down side
by side. Sometimes just before coming to one of these swampy
places, if there was a fence handy, each soldier as he passed
would pick up a rail and by the time the last man came by there
would be perhaps 2,000 or 3,000 soldiers with rails their backs
and as the soldiers in the lead came to the swamp each would lay
his rail down and so on till there was a good rail made road
across the swamp, and it went day after day.
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Chapter XIV
The regiment with the rest of the army left Atlanta on September
3, on the way to Savannah, and on December 9, 1864, we were
camped within about ten miles of the city, with the Fifty-third
regiment in the advance, and we went into camp by the side of
the road. General Sherman had his head quarters on the other
side of the road from the Fifty-third regiment. Everything was
quiet on the night of the 9th, but on the morning of the 10th we
found something else. We had breakfast and had fallen in line
ready to march forward. The band was at the head and the Colonel
of the regiment with his staff officers at the head of all.
There was no firing that morning and I guess they thought there
were no Johnnies in the woods. The country around there was very
level and nice. The road ahead of us was a straight and sandy
one, with heavy undergrowth of brush and timber on both sides.
The order was given by the Colonel to " forward march!" and as
we moved forward the band commenced to play and the men moved
said they guessed we would be in the city that forenoon. We had
gone a few rods when we heard another kind of music. It was
boom! Boom! of a annon in the road in front of us. The Rebels
had a masked battery in the road. The first shot was a shell. It
came through between the colonel and the officers of the staff,
passed over the heads of the band and
Page 31
at the head man in Company I on top of the head, the next man in
the breast and the next man in the bowels, and then it exploded,
killing the first four and badly wounding six others, putting
ten men off duty at on shot, and that was the only shot fired
that morning. It did not take the regiment long to get into line
of battle and put out skirmishers and throw up breastworks, and
they did get into the city for several days.
Page 32
Chapter XV
then General Sherman in vested the city, and went to work to
open up communications with the fleet that lay out on the coast.
It was necessary for him to hurry so the army could get rations,
as we had none for man or beast to amount to anything, and the
country was pretty poor around Savannah in the best of times. It
was several days before we got in communications with our fleet
and we got pretty short before we got supplies. For four days we
had nothing but rice with hulls on. We had to pound it to get
the hulls off and then blow the hulls out. We had a one horse
rice mill to hull rice with, but it would not hull enough in a
month to give the army one meal, as there was over 100,000 men
to feed and Uncle Billie Sherman was in a big hurry to get
supplies to us. There was a fort on the river to be taken before
the boats could get up to the army and the country round there
is all low land awful swampy, so it was impossible to get over
with teams, this fort had to be taken at any cost, so there was
a division put out to take it. The division had to make a long
march to get in the rear of the fort and take the garrison by
surprise, and they did it nicely. The fort could be seen from
where the Fifty-third regiment was, as the country was open
between us and the fort, and we could see General Sherman
watching from an old house way across the rice fields toward the
fort.
Page 33
We had to watch a long time before we could see anything of our
men. At last they came out in the rear of the fort and as soon
as they were in sight of the rebels there was something doing.
Our men made for the fort on the run and they were soon in a
hand to hand fight, and from where we were it looked as though
there was a cyclone at work there. The awful carnage was soon
over and we could see that our men had taken the fort and our
communications were open to the grub pile, but at a heavy loss
of good soldiers. But such was war!
Page 34
Chapter XVI
Now that communication was open with our fleet, Sherman turned
his attention to taking the city of Savannah. All lines were
advanced close by to the rebel works, when everything was ready
to do something, we woke up on the morning of the 21st day of
December, 1864, and looked for the Johnnies, lo and behold they
had skeddadled, and the Union forces took peaceful possession of
the city, and General Sherman's famous march to the sea had
terminated successfully . Some of the troops were sent after
General Hardee and the rest got ready to make the march across
and through the Carolinas and Virginia to Richmond. The
Fifty-third regiment and the Forty-first regiment Illinois had
now lost so many men that the Forty-first regiment was
consolidated with the Fifty-third and formed companies G and K
of the Fifty-third Illinois. This was done on January 4, 1865.
We left Savannah on boats January 6, 1865, for Beaufort, SC.,
and left there on January 13 on the raid through South and North
Carolina, and on to Richmond. On January 14, 1865 the
Seventeenth corps drove the Johnnies into their works at
Patotiligo, S.C. During the night they evacuated the place. On
January 29 we started on the grand raid through the Carolinas.
February 3 the First and Fourth divisions of the Seventeenth
corps forded
Page 35
the Carribee river at River Bridge, S.C. after considerable
fighting. February 9 considerable skirmishing on the Little
Edisto river at Orangeburg , S.C. February 16 and 17,
considerable skirmishing across the Kangaroo , Salada and Broad
rivers, opposite Columbus. The Seventeenth Corp was on the west
side of the river opposite Columbus. We could see the city
plainly from our position. The bridges were all burned by the
rebels when we got here. There were some big cotton mills here,
with about 500 or 600 employees, mostly girls and women, and
they were nearly destitute of anything to eat. They said the
Johnnies took everything to eat with them and we could not help
them very much as we were living off the country ourselves. When
we crossed the river here we left all the negroes that had
followed us up to that place and they had nothing to eat, so
they must have had a hard time before they got provisions. In
the night of February 17, 1865, the Johnnies evacuated Columbus,
S.C. and a boat load from the Thirteenth Iowa regiment, Third
brigade Fourth Division, Seventeenth corps, crossed the river
and raised the flag of the regiment over the capitol, and what
was left of the city was in possession of the Union forces. The
city was a mass of smoking ruins when we got in there.
Page 36
Chapter XVII
But we didn't stop there. We were after Johnnies and they didn't
stop in one place long and so they kept us on the jump to catch
them. On March 3, 1865, considerable fighting at Sharon, S.C.
The Johnnies evacuated the town and crossed Fear river. The way
the Johnnies were dislodged from in front of us was by a flank
movement on them. The way that was done was to send a detachment
of troops away round to their left, or to the right of them, and
when they found the Yanks almost in their rear they up and
skedaddled for another good place to make a stand, and gave us
the trouble of going around them again, and so we kept moving
forward in that way. 0n March 19, 1865, heavy fighting on the
left. General Johnson attacked the Fourteenth and Twentieth
corps near Bentonville, N.C. on March 20 and 21, the army closed
up on General Johnson's army at Bentonville. Here was the last
battle General Sherman's army had. The heaviest fighting was on
the afternoon of March 21. The firing commenced about 1 o'clock
and was continuos till dark, in the open timber, with nothing to
protect a man but a tall slim tree, and some had two or three
men trying to stand behind them, and it did not always work, for
as soon as a Johnny
Page 37
saw a piece of a Yank, it was a sure mark for a reb bullet and
often a Yank got one for keeps. To help this along, the rebs
were in breastworks, and the Yanks in the open, and to make
things worse, it rained from dawn all the afternoon, and the
writer of these pages was so lame and stiff the next morning he
could hardly get up. Some were worse off than that, for they
could not get up at all, and I don't think they have yet. The
Fifty-third regiment lost in this battle 1 killed and six
wounded.
Page 38
Chapter XVIII
On March 23, 1865, Johnnies evacuated Bentonville, N.C. at night
and crossed the river. We now lay in camp till April 7, when a
dispatch was received that General Grant had taken Richmond, and
everybody was sure the war would be done now, and we lay and
waited and watched for the end till April 12, when another
dispatch was received stating the General Lee had surrendered to
General Grant. Now things began to come our way pretty fast, as
on April 15, 1865 General Johnson asked for terms of surrender,
but something happened then that was like stirring up a hornets
nest. On April 17,1865, a dispatch was received stating that
President Lincoln and Secretary Seward had been assassinated.
This certainly made things look as if we would not have peace at
all. But the 18th of April Sherman and Johnson agreed on terms
of surrender subject to the approval of the war Department. On
April 24 the Seventeenth Corps was reviewed in town by Generals
Grant, Sherman and Mead and Secretary Stanton. The terms of
surrender agreed by Generals Sherman and Johnson were not
approved by the war department, and we were ordered to advance
on General Johnson. This again did not look very much like
peace, but we did not get a chance to give Johnson battle, as
April 26, 1865, Johnson surrendered, there was no more armies to
fight, and so we had to quit, and everybody was glad to do so
and have
Page 39
a chance to go home to a peaceful life. We were sick of war. We
had a long and hard march in front of us. The army was at
Raleigh, N.C. and had to march from there to Richmond, and on to
Washington for the big and last review of all the armies of the
rebellion. The army left there April 29, 1865, on the long march
to Washington, where we arrived on the 24th of May 1865, and
went into camp at Fort Henry, D.C. where we stayed until after
the big review. Our march to Washington was considerably
different than we had been used to. We had no enemy in front to
be driven out before we could go ahead. Lee's and Johnson's
armies had been paroled and had disbanded and on their way home.
We met them all along the road and they felt happy. They would
laugh and say, "Well the war is over; glory to God." The country
we were passing through looked like war. Around Petersburg and
Richmond the earth was all turned into big forts and
breastworks, and the timber nearly all cut down from south of
Petersburg nearly to Washington. General Mead's army of the
Potomac lay all along our line of march between Richmond and
Washington and the two armies had lots of jokes for one another.
They called us `Sherman's bummers" and we called them "band box
soldiers" because they always were in camp and could keep clean
and get new clothes when they needed them. But Sherman's bummers
had been on the march and had been fighting almost constantly
for nearly eight months and had no time for many white collars.
It was all taken in good part for now we were for peace.
Page 40
Chapter XIX
On May 23, 1865 General Mead's army was reviewed in Washington
and on May 24 General Sherman's army was reviewed. After the big
review the armies were sent to various places where they were to
be disbanded and discharged. June 7 it was our turn to go toward
home, so on that dates the Fourth division of the Seventeenth
army corps marched to Baltimore depot and took transportation on
the cars, for Louisville , Ky., where we arrived June 12. We
layed in camp till the 19th of July and were mustered out of the
service, and the fifty-third regiment was then sent to Chicago,
where they drew their last pay and were given their final
discharge from the service, and then the regiment scattered to
the four corners as they had come together nearly four years
before, and I hope they made as good citizens as they did
soldiers.
Page 41
Chapter XX
The Fifty-third regiment in it's various marches had been all
over Kentucky, had marched all over Tennessee, and across and up
and down the state of Mississippi, all over Alabama and Georgia,
and marched through South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia,
and a piece of Maryland, and the District of Columbia, and rode
from Washington home. It has been said that the Fifty-third
regiment had marched 5,000 miles and rode as many more. This I
cannot vouch for, but I think it is not enough.
(The next 5 pages are listings of their marches. They are listed
in the following manner: "Name of Place Distance Date of arrival
Departure". If you are interested, you may get this information
from the micro fiche at the Chicago Public Library.)
Page 47
DATE OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN WHICH THE FIFTY-THIRD TOOK AN
ACTIVE PART
November 11 1861 First Regiment Muster
April 6 and 7 Battle of Pittsburg Landing , Tenn.
May 30 1862 Evacuation of Corinth, Miss.
October 5 Battle Hatchie River, Tenn.
July 4 1863 Surrender of Vicksburg
July 12 The Fifty-third Illinois, with the Third Iowa,
Twenty-eight and Forty-first Illinois regiments charged the
enemies works at Jackson, Miss.
January 18 1864 The Fifty-third Illinois Reported as a veteran
regiment.
July 20 Closed up on the enemies works at Atlanta
July 21 The Seventeenth corps charged the enemy works at Atlanta
July 22 Battle of the 22d of July at Atlanta. The Fifty-third
lost seventy-three in the three days engagement.
July 27 The Seventeenth corps, with the Fifteenth and Eighteenth
corps went to the extreme right of the line at Atlanta.
August 26 Sherman withdrew from before Atlanta
Page 48
And commenced his flank movement to Jonesboro, GA.
August 31 Battle at Jonesboro.
September 2 Atlanta evacuated by Hood and taken possession of by
the Union forces.
December 10 Closed up on the enemy's works at Savannah. A shell
burst in Company I, Fifty-third regiment, killing four and
wounding six others.
December 21 Savannah evacuated by Hardee and taken of by the
Union forces.
January 4 1865 The Forty-first Illinois Regiment is consolidated
with and forms Companies G and K of the Fifty-third Illinois
regiment
January 14 The Seventeenth corps drove the Johnnies into their
works at Pocotaligo, S.C. During the night they evacuated the
place.
January 29 Started on the Grand raid through the Carolinas
January 30 The First and Forth divisions of the Seventeenth
corps forded the Combabee river at River Bridge, S.C.
Considerable fighting.
February 9 Considerable skirmish on the Edisto river
February 11 Considerable skirmish on the Little Edisto river of
Orangeburg, S.C.
Page 49
February 17 Columbus evacuated. A boat load from the Thirteenth
Iowa regiment, Third Brigade, Fourth division, Seventeenth
corps, crossed the River and raised the flag of the regiment
over the capital.
March 3 Considerable fighting at Chrean, S.C. The Johnnies
evacuated the town and crossed the Pedee river.
March 14 Considerable fighting at Fayetteville, N.C. The
Johnnies evacuated the town and crossed the Fear river
March 19 Heavy fighting on the left. General Johnson attacked
the Fourteenth and Twentieth corps near Bentonville , N.C.
March 20 and 21 The army closes up on Johnson at Bentonville.
Heavy fighting all along the lines. The Fifty-third regiment
Illinois lost one killed and six wounded in this battle.
March 22 Johnson evacuated Bentonville at night and crossed the
Neuce river.
April 7 A dispatch confirming the news that General grant had
taken Richmond.
April 15 General Johnson asks for terms of surrender.
April 17 A dispatch received stating that President Lincoln and
Secretary Seward had been assassinated.
April 18 Sherman and Johnson agree on terms of surrender subject
to the Approval of the war department
April 24 The Seventeenth corps in town by Generals Grant,
Sherman and Mead
and Secretary Stanton.
Terms of surrender agreed upon by Sherman and Johnson are not
approved by the war department
And we are ordered to advance on Johnson.
April 26 Johnson surrenders.
May 23 General Mead's army is reviewed in Washington.
May 24 General Sherman's army is reviewed in Washington.
June 7 The fourth division of the Seventeenth corps marched to
Baltimore depot and took the cars to Louisville, Ky.
Page 51
ON THE MARCH- A MARCH AND HOW CONDUCTED IN THE FIRST YEARS OF
THE WAR
The order of march was this: The advance regiment was started
out in the morning with it's regimental wagons in the rear, and
the next regiment behind them, and thus all the regiments of one
brigade. It took four regiments for one brigade, three brigades
for a division and three divisions for an army Corp, and each
regiment, brigade, division and Corp had it's own wagons in the
rear. The regiment that is in the lead one day takes the rear
the next day, and so each regiment, brigade, division and each
corps takes it's turn in being in the lead, and so they keep
doubling over from the rear to the front. It is a great deal
easier to march in the front than it is in the rear, and if
there was anything good to eat the front ones gobbled it up and
left the rear ones in the soup. In the first year of the war
there was a guard put at all the houses that claimed to be union
people and for everything taken a voucher was given to pay in
the future. So in the first stage of the game the people fared
all right. There was even a guard placed over the wells and in
order to get water one man would take the canteens of several of
his comrades and stop at a well to fill them. It was a hard job
to do it, there were so many after the same thing at the same
well. The way they had to draw the water was with an
Page 52
old tin can of any kind with a bail in it and a string to it.
The men would get around the well so thick you could not get
near it till your turn came, sometimes it never came at the
well. All the wells then were dug wells and from forty to eighty
feet deep, and we generally suffer for water, as it was
generally hot an dusty. This whole thing was changed the second
year of the war. If it had not been we might be at it yet. Our
mode of march was changed. All kinds of transportation was given
the wagon road and the men took to the side of the road, and
took a straight shoot for any place we wanted to go, and there
were no more guards placed over property. Every regiment would
send a man or two from company every day under an officer to
forage and get supplies for the regiment. It was not so hard on
the men as it was under the old way, but this was not all fun.
Imagine hundreds and thousands of men hungry, tired, dirty and
foot-sore. If not marching all day in the dust and heat it would
be raining and they were wet, and the rear men would get into
camp all times of the night, tired and hungry, but maybe no
supper but detailed to go out a mile or two on picket, cold and
wet. They were allowed no fire on the picket line, and had to
eat hard tack and sow belly that night without coffee to wash it
down. This is a meager description of what a soldier had to
undergo on a march. It cannot be put on paper. But then some
funny things happened to put
Page 53
life in the men. One time on a march the men were told as they
passed a picket fence to take a rail on his shoulders and carry
it along, as there was a swamp ahead that had to be bridged with
rails or trees, and as every man took a rail, there was a line
of men as far as you could see each way with a rail and his gun
on his back and it made a funny sight. A lot of negroes were
standing beside the road. They never had seen Yankees before and
one darkey did not know what to say, but at last he found his
tongue and looked up and down the line of men and rails and made
this remark that was used afterwards as a by word by the men who
heard it. The darkey opened his mouth and eyes and raised his
hands and said, "De Lord, look at de rails," and it struck the
men quite comically, and such little things were a great
stimulant. Another little incident happened that was comical. We
ran across the Johnnies where they were strongly fortified and
we had to stop and show them how the Yanks drove Johnnies out of
our front when we took a notion to march through the country.
After we formed in line of battle the line moved forward. In the
movement we came across a plantation residence. There were three
or four women folks there, and of course the men did not stop
for fences nor anything else in front. There were good picket
fences and a lot of bee hives, a lye leach and other truck
around and of course the Yanks never got through there without
upsetting everything they came across. Bee hives lye leach and
fences all were kicked out of the way, and when
Page 54
the supporting column came up the old lady of the house was
mourning over the destruction of the bees, fence and leach, the
spilling of all her good ashes ( it was too bad anyhow ) and she
was telling how Captain Sherman had formed a string of fighters
and went through her yard and spilled her bees and broke her
fence and spilled her lye leach and now she could not have any
soap, and she wanted to know who was going to pay for it. The
soldiers thought Captain Sherman might come back some day and
settle up and so such things happened every day.
Page 55
HOW THE ARMY GOES INTO CAMP
When an army is on a march and not engaged with the enemy, the
advanced guard will go into camp early in the afternoon, and as
the balance come up they are marches to the front and so keep on
till all are in camp, and generally they will be nearly all
night getting in. when it is late at night, about all you will
hear is, " How far is the camp," and few ever found out. I never
did, but there is an end to everything. We would find camp after
awhile and were always tired, thirsty and hungry. The first
thing to look after was some water and fire to make coffee. Some
would go and hunt for water and others would hunt for wood and
the other fellows would build the fire, and after a while we
would have something to eat. As a general thing the men would
divide up messes of from two or three to six, and that way could
help one another. Each one was always looking out for his
special mess. I don't know what a soldier would have done
without his coffee, for it was seldom that he could get any
water fit to drink. Most of the water there was saved in holes
in ravines. The people built dams across and when it rained it
would make a pond of water, and these were the only places at
which the army get water, and rebs would throw dead horses and
dead hogs in these ponds and at night when we got into camp late
in the dark we would get water
Page 56 and make coffee and in the morning when we saw where the
water came from it would make us sick to look at it and see what
we had drank out of, but it was that or nothing in some places .
These water holes were generally covered green scum in hot
weather, but generally we got pretty good grub on the march.
When we could catch live hogs we would have fresh pork, and if
we had flour we would have pancakes.
Page 57
THE FIFTY-THIRD REGIMENT GUARDING RAILROAD
In the winter of 1862, the Fifty-third regiment guarded railroad
in Tennessee. We had to guard it to get supplies through to the
army. The road at that time was our source of supplies between
Corinth and Memphis. We were in camp at Bolivar, Tenn., north
and of the railroad and north of the town. We had some little
skirmishing to do here but no hard fighting, but had a pretty
cold job, as there was snow on the ground most of the time. We
had Sibley tents. They are round and run to a peak in the middle
like an indian wigwam, with a hole in the top for the smoke to
go out. In the center of the tent, we had around sheet iron
stove and the bunks were around the stove. The beds were straw
and hay thrown on the ground, and when we went to bed we would
two go together and lay down a blanket and one of two blankets
for covering, and then crawl in with our feet towards the stove,
and would fill the tent full clear around the stove, and we
slept a good deal like a lot of pigs. What got us was to get out
of these warm nests in the morning at 3 o'clock and stand out in
line of battle in the snow and cold until daylight. It was worse
than picking corn. This was done because it was the Johnnies
custom to make a dash in the early hours of the morning on the
posts guarding the railroad, but we got a little fun out of life
and had
Page 58
a laugh. One morning the Captain of Company K got out suddenly.
The company officers had square tents and they had fireplaces
built up in one end of the tent, with a stick and mud chimneys.
The Captain of Company K was a little old Irishman. He had been
an officer of the war of 1812. His company in the fifty-third
was all Irish, and a good lot of men they were too. Old Captain
got blowed out that time. He came out one way and the chimney
went out the other. Some of the boys to have a little fun threw
a lot of powder down the chimney in the fire and it exploded,
and so did the fire place, and the Captain exploded after he got
his breath. That was all the good it did, as no one knew who did
it. We had another interesting thing here. We had a big crowd of
negroes and small pox got among them, and we had to keep them
corralled so the soldiers would, not get it. Once in a while one
took it, and so the time was spent here for almost a month, and
very pleasant.
Page 59
GENERAL SHERMAN'S ARMY ON A RAID
In the winter of 1864 General Sherman started on a raid through
Mississippi. He started for the purpose of finding Johnnies and
to destroy the enemy's property and grab his grub pile. That is
what a big raid is for, and on this raid there was a good deal
of stuff captured and lots destroyed. Not much was done on this
march until we got to Meridian, and here we went into camp and
then scouting parties were sent out all over the country. The
division to which the fifty-third regiment belonged was camped
by the town of Meridian. General Crocker, the commander of the
Fourth division, had his headquarters at the south end of town
in one of the buildings. The town at that time was one long
street, running north and south, and one day when the wind was
blowing pretty hard, the town took fire at the north end. The
wind swept from the north and took the fire down the street
towards General Crocker's headquarters. He held his post as long
as he could, till he saw he was going to be burned out, and then
got his horse and his headquarters moved, and the comical part
of this was what the general said about being burned out. He was
an awful man to swear, and when he was burned out he looked
around at the destruction and he said it was a "H--- of a way to
burn out as good a Union man as he was." We had a good living on
this raid-had plenty
Page 60
of flour, fresh pork and molasses. There was so much sand and
wind around Meridian that when we made pancakes and put molasses
on them, the wind would start the sand to flying and our
pancakes and molasses would be full of sand, and maybe there was
not some bad words said, but that did not pick the sand out of
the molasses. The first day we started was cold and raining. I
had my musket over my shoulder with my hand over the breech of
the gun and jammed the back of my hand against a post and tore a
chunk of skin off my knuckle, and the weather being cold and
wet, I caught cold in the sore and my hand and arm swelled clear
to the shoulder, and I carried my hand in a sling for four
weeks, and carried my gun and did duty all the time we were out,
and that was a little over forty days, and never had my clothes
off during the march. Such was the duty of a soldier. After the
burning of Meridian we started on the back track towards
Vicksburg, where we arrived safe after a successful raid of
about five weeks.
Page 61
IN CAMP DOING NOTHING
When an army is in camp doing nothing the routine consists of
getting up at 5 O'clock and then fall in line and have roll
call, and if a man is not here to answer to his name there is
something doing until he is found, and if he has no good excuse
there is something more doing. After roll call comes breakfast
and then detail for picket, and details for other duties of the
day. The quarters of each company have to be cleaned up, and
then those left in camp have to fall in and drill till dinner
time. Then we have dinner and maybe we can rest an hour or two,
and if nothing better to get at, will go out and drill again
until nearly supper time. After supper the men have a rest and
time to write letters and sew on buttons and do a little
mending, till 9 o'clock sharp, when retreat is sounded and
lights must be out. The officer of the day or the officer of the
guard will go all through the camp, and if he finds a light
burning in a man's tent, the man had better say his prayers, for
there is no argument. Orders have been disobeyed and that always
means trouble for the culprit. So it goes, day after day, one
thing after another. This is what a soldier calls doing nothing
in camp.
Page 62
THE DUTIES OF LINE OFFICERS AND PRIVATES IN A REGIMENT OF
INFRANTRY
The officers of a regiment are the headquarters officers, and
the line officers are the commissioned officers of a company.
The headquarters officers consist of a colonel, lieutenant
colonel, major, adjutant and commissary officer. These are
commissioned officers of a regiment. The commissioned officers
of a company are the captain, first lieutenant, and second
lieutenant. The other officers are an orderly sergeant , five
sergeants of the line and eight corporals, and the rest of a
company are just privates, but they are the fellows who have the
most of the work to do. The duties of the company officers are
most numerous. The have charge of the company and are
responsible to the headquarters officers and have charge of all
details, such as guards and pickets and foraging details, and in
fact it would take a big book to tell all their duties in time
of active service, but the sergeants and the privates and the
corporals have all the work to do that is done with the gun,
such as fighting, doing guard duty, going on picket, most of all
the camp work and if there is any tough job to do the private
soldier has it to do. On a march he is the fellow who is put in
front to drive the enemy out, and in a battle the private is the
one who is ahead on the danger line. In fact, the private is the
main spoke in the wheel, and they have to obey all orders if it
Page 63
kills them the same minute. The private soldier likes a good
officer and will fight for one any day, but he is a funny
fellow, for he has some rights all officers respect. When off
duty he takes the world pretty easy till something is to be
done, then he is pretty lively. He generally lets the officers
do the worrying, for it is the officers duty to hunt up work and
the duty of the private to do it, especially if it is going
after the enemy.
Page 64
THE FIFTY-THIRD REGIMENT ON A DAYS SCOUT
After the surrender of Atlanta, the fifty-third regiment was
sent out on a scout, to a little town about twenty -five miles
away. We started early one morning and did not find much to make
it interesting till we got within about a mile of the town, and
then our advance guard ran out some Johnnies and we had no way
to find out how many there were of them, only to go ahead and
see, and if there were too many for us we would have to run for
it, and if we were too much for them, then they would have to
run from us. So into line of battle we went with skirmishers to
the front and all moved forward. The skirmishers began firing
and as we advanced the Johnnies kept falling back and we were
soon in sight of the town. It was more open here and we could
see the Rebs and citizens-some on foot some on horseback and
they all seemed to try who could get out of town the quickest.
They had no great force of soldiers, only a line of skirmishers,
and they were in as big a hurry as the rest in town, but they
were not very good shots, as they hit none of the yanks. They
shot wild. I guess they did not take sight, but they left fast
and we had the town and all in it. There we took twenty-five
prisoners. They said they were citizens, as we could not tell
what they were, we kept them under guard and looked the town
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over to see if we could find anything contraband. We found the
post office and as there was nothing better we took the mail and
our prisoners, and as it was late in the afternoon we started
back for Atlanta. When the prisoners saw we were going to take
them with us they said they were not soldiers, and I guess they
were not. They wanted us to let them stay at home, but we told
them they were prisoners of war and we had to take them, so they
marched with us about ten or fifteen miles and then we paroled
them and told them to go home, as they could get there by next
morning, and to stay there, and they were most tickled to death.
Thus we parted. We got to camp about midnight, all alive and
ready for a little sleep.
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SHERMAN'S ARMY GOING INTO WINTER QUARTERS IN MISSISSIPPI
It seemed to be the aim of the commanding General to keep the
army at work at something, and they always succeeded pretty
well. In the winter of 1863-64 the general orders were to build
huts and fix it all in nice shape for the winter. This called
for going into winter quarters. Nice camp grounds were selected
and laid out in military order. The fifty-third regiment was
camped in grove of beech trees and the ground was covered with
beech nuts. We had a nice camp and were well pleased with our
location, as we expected to stay three or four months. We went
to work to fix up in good shape. We cut logs and hauled them to
the camp, we built log houses, and each company built their own
houses, and so we worked for over a month, and we had a fine
camp, and everything now being done, we were hugging ourselves
thinking what a good time we would have till spring. But we were
not destined to enjoy it long, for a rumor came that we were to
move camp and the rumor soon proved true, as we got orders to
get ready to move and no one knew where nor what for. We thought
possibly we would go out on a scout and then come back, but
after we left there, I don't think any one in that squad ever
saw that camp again.
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BATTLE OF PITTSBERG LANDING
I will endeavor to give a description of the battle of Pittsberg
Landing, as it looked to me at that time. I saw the most of it,
except the first day. The attack in the morning of the 6th of
April 1862, was a complete surprise on the Yanks. For the night
of the 7th, I slept in one of the tents where seven of our men
lay in their bunks where they had gone to bed on the night on
the night of the 5th of April. They lay just as they were shot
on the morning of the 6th. They were not dressed so they must
have been killed quickly. Our men called and got to work pretty
quickly. After the first firing was heard on the morning of the
6th of April, it was one continuous roar of artillery and small
arms. There was not a continuous line of battle, as armies of
the size of that one there at that time ought to have been, but
we were fighting by divisions and brigades, detached from each
other, and therefore the Rebels flanking our men and as soon as
they did that, they certainly had to fall back or be captured,
as all of the fifty-third Indiana were captured the first day of
the battle. Our men fought desperately that day. There were
charges and counter charges, but they drove our men back to the
river and the only thing that saved the day to the Union forces
was our gunboats and the coming of night. Many men were driven
to the waters edge and some swam out to the islands in the water
rather than be taken prisoners.
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But there was help close at hand, for the next morning, the 7th
of April, General Buell's army was on the march for the Landing.
They passed the Fifty-thirds camp the evening of the 6th and
were taken across the river before the morning of the 7th and
that put new life into the Union forces for the day's fighting,
and the ball opened early and desperate. The sound of the firing
and yelling was awful to hear, and to realize what it was for,
but now with a nights rest and organized in better shape, The
Johnnies found a different foe to handle. The Union forces soon
gained all the ground they had lost the day before, but the
night of the 7th of April the Rebs were in full retreat and the
Union forces had made a brilliant success out of an almost total
defeat and surprise. But at what a terrible slaughter of men. It
was a battle field of almost twelve miles long and six or seven
wide, and there were dead, dying and wounded all over the field.
There were places where you could step from one body to another.
There were patches of brush that looked as though it had been
mowed with a scythe, and trees of good size cut off with shot
from cannon. There were some desperate things done. One man who
was in all the fight told me of a battery that the Rebs charged
and took and then turned it on the Yanks. The Yanks formed again
and charged the Rebs and captured the guns, and then turned them
on the Rebs again, and so they had it back and forth for two
days without any cessation. During the two days engagement the
two armies fought with desperation, for if the
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Union forces lost there, it meant a prolongation of the war and
a big chance for the total failure of the struggle for the
Union. It was the hardest and most desperate two days battle
during the rebellion, except for the battle of Gettysburg.
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A LITTLE DISCRIPTION OF THE REBEL PRISONS WHERE SOME OF THE
FIFTY-THIRD REGIMENT WERE CONFINED
In the Andersonville prison Company D Fifty-third Illinois, had
two men. One gave up his life and is buried there. The other got
out alive. The regiment had some others from other companies
there. The stockade was on a piece of ground situated in a
swamp, or low wet place. It got the name of the stockade because
it had a fence around it made of logs sharpened and driven in
the ground close together. There were about forty acres in the
stockade and the guards were placed at intervals along the top
of the fence. I will not try to tell all that was done to the
men in this hell hole called a prison. Men cannot give a
description of the suffering men underwent in this place till
death relieved them. I saw a few who escaped from there when
General Sherman was making his march through Georgia. They
looked more like crazy men than rational beings. They were just
skin and bones, and I don't wonder from what they told of the
treatment of the men there.
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THE LIBBY AND BELLE ISLE PRISONS The old Libby prison consisted
of old tobacco warehouses owned by a man by the name of Libby
and used for the storage of tobacco there were two buildings,
one used to keep officers and the other to keep private
soldiers. They were situated on the bank of the James river. The
buildings were very filthy and full of vermin, old rotten
tobacco and other filth. The place was not fit for a man to stay
in over night unless he wanted to breed disease. Belle Isle was
a twin sister of Libby Prison. It was situated opposite the city
of Richmond, Va., in the James river. It is quite a large
island. The south end is low and flat. That is where the
prisoners were kept. In the center of the island is a hill, and
here is where the Rebel guards were stationed with a battery of
six guns trained on the prison camp. The camp had about five
acres in it with a breastworks built around it, of dirt about
three or four feet high. The guard stood just outside of this
breastworks and the dead line was just inside of the works, and
woe to the man who stepped over it, for it was sure death if the
guard could shoot straight enough, and they could for I saw one
man shot while I was there. The men confined here got about as
hard usage as a man could devise to reduce men down to sickness
or death. The prisoners were furnished just enough to eat so
they were on slow
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starvation rations, as starvation was what they mostly died of
there. The Fifty-third regiment Illinois had twenty or thirty
men who were prisoners on the isle at one time. Company D had
six: Abner Beale, now dead; Ed Thomas, alive; Lot C Larkin, now
dead; John Corry, now dead; Hamilton White, dead; Herbert E.
Ranstead, alive. I would give the names of all the Fifty-third
prisoners, I have forgotten them all except one Captain Hatfield
of Company H, Fifty-third regiment.
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THE STORY OF A PRIVATE SOLDIER AND WHAT HE HAD TO DO IN TIME OF
WAR IN ACTIVE SERVICE
In this story of a private it is not intended to tell the story
of one man, but a sort of history and description of all
privates. Who carried a musket in the front. This was written
for the privates who carried a musket in the front and the ones
who did the fighting, and not the headquarters privates who did
the talking and are still at it. He carried a musket three years
and nine months in the front and after leaving the north never
lost a days duty by sickness or any other cause. He was always
on hand for roll call and something to eat, if there was
anything on the bill of fare. Sometimes he went pretty short,
but felt just as well and grumbled just as much. It was his
right to grumble. On a bright morning in the early part of the
fall of 1861, a young man of eighteen summers was enlisted in
the service of the United States at Earlville, Ill., and went
from there to Ottawa, where he was assigned to company D,
Fifty-third Illinois Volunteers, and was mustered into the
Fifty-third regiment for three years or during the war if not
sooner discharged. His duty now was to serve his country with
his life, if duty required it. The
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time now was put in at this camp at Ottawa , drilling twice a
day and standing guard day and night, and doing other duties too
numerous to mention in this short story. But don't think a
private was not kept at work, for the commanding officer always
had a job of some kind for him. A soldier is supposed always to
be lazy. Being organized and all ready for the field, the
regiment was ordered to Chicago for duty. Here the private
soldier was routed out at 5 o'clock in the morning to answer
roll call. He then had his breakfast was then detailed for guard
duty or any other duty required for the day. If it so happened
that he was not detailed for duty that day, he might get a
pretty easy time if they did not have company drill. But with
every other ill , there was a good deal of sickness in this
camp, and quite a few died. The private soldier of this story
came pretty near leaving his bones there. He had pneumonia and
was in the hospital for ten days, and off duty for three weeks,
but it was not his time yet. Now as the regiment was well
drilled and all equipped for duty in the field, they were
ordered to the front forthwith and took the cars for LaSalle ,
on the Illinois river, where they took a boat for the
Mississippi river, and down that river for the south, where a
goodly number of private soldiers left their bodies for all
time. We had an uneventful trip down the Mississippi river, to
Cairo, and then up the Ohio river to the mouth of the Tennessee
river, and then unloaded and went into camp. Here the time was
filled up at
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the regular duties of a soldier, such as guard duty, eating,
drilling and anything else that might turn up, but we were
destined to have big excitement soon, for we had not been there
long until Sunday morning there was a boom of cannon and small
arms and the battle of Pittsburg Landing was in full blast, and
the private of this story was some what excited and anxious, as
all the rest of the boys were, to get out in front and help the
boys in battle. They were fighting for the Union, but a soldier
has nothing to say where he shall go, nor when, and the head
officers did not seem in a hurry to get us there. The second day
of battle we were loaded on boats and were in time to see the
windup. We had now gotten to where there was plenty to do. The
private soldiers had a pretty hard time of it here, as the
weather was very bad. It rained most of the time and the private
soldiers had no tents, but lived out in the woods like cattle.
To sleep at night we would lay down brush and then lay on them a
blanket, and two men would lay down together and put another
blanket over them and knapsacks for a pillow, and if it did not
rain too hard, would sleep pretty well. But when it rained our
roof leaked and the water ran under us, and by morning it would
be a pretty wet bed. Such were most of the nights, and the days
were put in burying the dead of the Rebel army and the union
army. As the union army had the battlefield in their possession,
we had to bury the dead. This service lasted about ten days and
lots of the privates paid for this service
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with their lives, from the exposure. It was a busy time as the
siege of Corinth was on. The private soldier had to do all the
work, such as building forts, breastworks, doing guard duty,
handling supplies of all kinds and doing the fighting and
skirmishing, and in fact the private soldier is the bone and
sinew of the whole army. The officers just see that he is kept
at work, and if he is shot or killed he is only a private
soldier- plenty more where he came from. This job id not last
long, as the Rebs left our front and without permission, and we
had to take to marching to try and catch the Rebs. They were
like the Irishman's flea-when he thought he had him under his
thumb, he was gone. It was so with them. When we thought we had
them, they would be some other place. So we did lots of marching
over the country, but found them once in a while and had quite a
little battle. When not on the march we were in camp and some
were guarding the railroads and doing scouting duty in small
detachments, but never any rest, night or day, as a soldier in
the time of active war don't hardly know night from day, nor
Sunday from any other day. It is all the same in Dutch. The
enemy by this time had mostly left this part of the country and
gone towards Vicksburg. Thus the army here had to change base,
so was marched to Memphis, Tenn., on the Mississippi, and loaded
on boats for down the river to take a hand in the siege of
Vicksburg. Going down the river would have been uneventful but
the Rebs fired on the boats and some of us landed and chased
them all one afternoon, but we did
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did not catch any of them. We burned a lot of cotton and corn
and one little town Greenville. Nothing more of any moment
happened until we got to the Haines' Bluff, on the Yazoo river.
Here we were unloaded, and here the private soldier saw
something besides play. It was work and serious work too, and
there was no time lost, for we were put to work right away and
it was one continuous job of building forts and breastworks and
fighting to advance the lines till we were pretty near in the
Rebel lines ourselves., and this work all has to be done by the
private soldier who carries the musket. This work was
continuous, night and day, until the surrender of Vicksburg. The
privates thought after the surrender they would get a little
rest, but it was not to be. There were other worlds to conquer,
so we were started out on a grand raid after more rebs. We found
some more entrenched at Jackson, Miss., but here is where one or
two officers thought they could do something big and get another
star or eagle on their shoulder straps. It made no difference if
they did get a few privates killed so they got their promotion,
and so they tried to fight the whole of the Rebel army there
with a little brigade of about 800 privates. They had undertaken
more than they could do and the privates had to suffer most, as
they were badly cut up in this charge, about 300 being killed or
wounded and 104 taken prisoner, of which ninety-nine out of a
hundred were privates. So the privates always got the worst of a
bargain. In order not to break the line of this story we
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shall have to follow those taken prisoners especially one of
them. They had a trip of nine days through the Confederacy, from
one place to another, till at last they were landed at the old
Libby prison, in the city of Richmond, Va., and after a couple
of days were taken across the James river and went into camp on
the very pleasant place called Bell Isle, where there were about
7000 other privates. There were no officers on the island, so
the privates got the bad end all the time. The trip on this
squad of privates is described in another part of this book, and
also the treatment they received and a description of the two
places. I shall digress here to say it is almost impossible to
give in detail all a private soldier is supposed to do and the
hardships he has to undergo. A soldier on a march in time of war
never knows when he can sleep or eat. Sometimes there will be a
halt and the men think they can make a little coffee, will start
a good fire and get the coffee cooking, and just get a good
start to have something to eat, and then the order is given to
fall in and forward march and they are obliged to pick up the
half cooked coffee and wait until another time to finish it, and
don't get anything to eat as they march along and what they
generally had to eat at such times was nothing but fat raw pork
or "sow belly," as the soldiers called it, and hard tack, and
march in the dust if it was dry, and if it was not dry and hot,
it would sure be raining, and then get into camp in the small
hours after midnight, tired and hungry, and then be detailed to
go on guard duty the balance
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of the night, and if near the enemy cannot have any fire to warm
by or cook coffee. This is a little of what the private soldier
had to undergo for the preservation of the Union, and the
generations of today are reaping the fruits and benefits of the
hardships of the private soldiers in the War from 1861 to 1865,
for they are the sinew of the army. To resume the story, there
was one private of that squad got out of prison after a sojourn
of nine weeks in the very pleasant company of the confederates,
and after the high entertainment at their first class hotel -
the Hotel Libby and the summer resort of Belle Isle, he joined
the regiment in the western department and was ready for duty
again, after his vacation from the duties of a private in the
regiment. The time was being put in now at scouting and getting
ready to make changes in armies and base of operations. During
this time there were a few regiments, which had re-inlisted as
veteran regiments and were allowed thirty days furlough to go
home, and the Fifty-third Illinois regiment was one of the
number, and was given a thirty day leave and came home and had a
high old time while in the north to pay for the two years of
hard service in the front. They thought they would have as good
a time as they could for there was no knowing how many would
ever have the chance again, for there was lots of hard fighting
to be done when they got back south, and it was well they did
improve the time, for there were lots of them never saw home
again. After the visit home we went by railroad to
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Cairo, and from there up the Ohio river by boat and landed at
Paducah, Ky., and started for Atlanta, Ga. There was no more
riding it was all walking now for the privates. We had Kentucky,
Tennessee and Alabama to march through before we got to Atlanta.
There were many who never got there, but their bones are close
there yet. Such is the fortunes of war, and the fortunes of war
gave us lots of hard work here such as marching, building forts
and line after line of breastworks, and fighting. That was an
every day occurrence and so we were kept pretty well at work.
But the fortunes of war soon changed this as the Yanks woke up
one morning and found Rebs in our front, so that meant some more
hard marching, with out any rest. We now had a long hard siege
of marching before us, and no one knew where this would end or
whether it would end with any of us alive, as now we were to cut
loose from all communications with the outside world and march
into the enemy country, where if we were not successful, it
meant the destroying of a whole army, and in that case might be
the loss of all we had fought for, for the last three years. But
we were to be successful in the undertaking, after a long hard
march, with plenty of fighting in between, and lots of hard
work, such as tearing up railroad and building roads to get the
teams and wagons and artillery along, so with it all in all, we
had a hard tramp before we got in communication with our fleet,
which was waiting for us on the coast. But
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after a few days of anxious waiting and fighting and marching,
we got pretty hungry, too, as we were on short rations, but at
last communications were opened up with the outside world once
more, and we got a square meal and mail from home. That was
better than sow belly and hard tack. We thought we would have a
big lot of fighting to do here, as we found a large army of Rebs
entrenched with big forts and strong rifle pits, and the country
is swampy and makes it hard to operate a large army of men, but
after a few days struggle we found ourselves in full possession
of the country and of the city of Savannah, Ga., and here we lay
in camp for a few days and took a badly needed rest, and got
ready for another march. As the Rebs would not stay in one place
long enough to put up a big fight any more, we had to keep after
them. The Yankee soldiers found it a long a long and stern
chase, as they had to march a good many thousand miles to find
where the Rebs had gone. Sometimes they would give a good fight
and when we thought we had them, lo and behold, they had
skedaddled, and that meant more hard marching for the Yanks.
That was what we were there for. It was to corner them and give
them a good licking or get one ourselves, and so we started out
after them again and chased them out of Georgia, through South
Carolina and nearly through North Carolina, and they halted and
put up a nice little fight of half a day's duration, which
proved to be the last battle of the war for the preservation
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and continuation of the Union of the States, which we were now
sure we had succeeded in doing, but at a fearful sacrifice of
life and treasury. The private soldier felt that they had
sacrificed their lives and health in a grand duty to the whole
country, and for the good and benefit of the future generations,
and I thank God that I have lived to see our hopes and what we
fought for, worked and marched and gave thousands of young lives
for a grand success at this late day of 1910. We felt now that
our work was done and could see home and for the whole country,
north and south one and inseparable. We had along march yet
before we could get home. From Raleigh we marched to Richmond
and from there up to Washington, where we were in the big review
of all the armies, and then from there to_ _ _ville Ky., by cars
from there to Chicago, where all were discharged and sent home
to enjoy the fruits of our labor of four years for the nation
and the benefit of people of all nations. So be it!
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THE BATTLE OF JACKSON, MISS.
The battle of Jackson, Miss., was fought by the First Brigade,
Fourth Division, Seventeenth Army Corps. The Brigade mustered
eight or nine hundred men and officers, and the loss of the
Brigade was something over three hundred killed, wounded and
missing, and one hundred and four taken prisoners. The battle
was fought on a nice Sunday morning. The Army had left Vicksburg
after the surrender and started out to find General Johnson. He
had been in the rear of the Union Army for a long time and
General grant sent General Sherman out to give him battle if he
would stay in one place long enough. The little brigade got all
the fight there was in it, and they were not the first there
either. In the marching, the brigade had got in the rear of the
whole army as rear guard and the night of the 11th of July 1863,
they went into camp on the right of the army. Now don't think
those armies were like the ones we have now days, of four or
five thousand, for the union forces that were after General
Johnson at that time were probably seventy five thousand or
more. General Johnson was supposed to have about fifty or sixty
thousand. On the morning of the 12th of July 1863, everything
was as quiet as a Sunday morning could be, with so many men as
deadly enemies in a small scope of country, each watching the
other to get the advantage
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and kill as many as they could. Such was war in the sixties. The
brigade was brought up in line of battle on a raise of ground,
and there laid down to wait for something else. We could look
across about a mile and see the Rebel breastworks, but could not
se a living thing there, but found something later. Everything
was as quiet as death, so a battery of six pieces was brought to
the rear of the brigade and opened fire over our heads, and got
no response from the enemy. Then the brigade was ordered to put
out skirmishers and to advance in line of battle. This was an
awful place to charge across. It was a level piece of ground
with a small stream running through it, and the timber had all
been cut and felled down towards us and the limbs all sharpened
and wire stretched across, and then there were lines of stakes
set close together with the ends sharpened and wire on them, and
take it all together it was not a very desirable place to take
in a Sunday morning ramble under a heavy fire of small arms and
artillery. We moved forward for quite a distance and all at once
the skirmishers came together, and then it was pop, pop, here
and there, and the balls commenced to zip, zip, and then the
order was given to fix bayonets and charge double quick. The
Rebs opened fire with their cannon loaded with grape and
canister shot and then it seemed to come as thick as hail. But
we kept right on. Men were falling all along as we went forward
and we could not go very fast with all the impediments in our
front to overcome as we went forward. But a few got there, for
the first thing they
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knew they were surrounded and taken in out of the wet. We had
charged almost to the Rebs works, getting so close we could not
stand in the fire and hail of bullets, so we laid down in a
shallow furrow made by a plow. This had been a corn field. I
don't know what they thought we would do here, as there were no
orders to retreat, and the first thing we knew the Rebs were
swarming all around us and we were their prisoners. We had
charged in a half circle, as this was the shape of the rebel
works, and they told us when we got in they had six thousand
infantry massed here and fourteen pieces of artillery. This
outfit was firing on this handful of men for over an hour. When
we came to count the number of this squad, we found it to be 104
and whether we were all that was left of the brigade that had
made the charge, we did not find out for some time after. That
afternoon we were loaded on cars and started for a Rebel prison.
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A TRIP THROUGH THE CONFERERACY
When we found we were prisoners, there was a good deal of
guessing as to where we would be taken. We supposed to
Andersonville. Late in the afternoon an officer came in and said
that all who had any monies or valuables had better give them to
him to take care of, as we might be robbed when we were turned
over to another guard further along on our journey. After he
went out some of thought we could take care of our own money and
went to work to devise ways to hide it about our clothes. The
others turned their things over to the officer for safe keeping
and it proved to be safe for they never saw their money again.
We got along very well at the time, as they did not search us as
thoroughly as they did afterwards. Then the officer came back
and put all the valuables in a haversack and hung it around his
neck and said it would be safe. Then he marched us out and put
us on board the cars, all but George Crain of Company D,
Fifty-third regiment. He was left there and no one ever saw or
heard of him again to this day. There was a good deal of
speculation as to what was done with him, but no one knows. Some
of the men said they knew the officer in charge of us and that
he had lived in Paw Paw. We were taken on the cars as far as the
Tombigbee river, and then by boat to Selma, Ala., and there
unloaded and marched out in a grove of nice trees and told to
take it easy.
Page 87
In a short time another officer came and said he would be in
charge of us. He had the haversack of valuables and said he
would give them back to the owners as we were now out of danger
of getting robbed. So he poured the things out on a table and
told the owners to come and get their things as their names were
called. The first man who got his pocketbook, opened it to find
his money, but it had taken wings and flown, alas, no one knew
where. It was comical to see the fellows as they took their
empty pocketbooks. We who had kept, ours felt sorry for them but
we could not help them any. But there was something else that
was worse than the loss of the money. We were getting hungry, as
we had had nothing to eat since we became guests of the
Confederacy. We were told that there were no rations there, but
there would be some at the next stopping place, but we could not
find out where that would be. Later this proved to be Atlanta,
Ga. There we were marched out to a stockade and a big barrel of
hams and some hard tack was brought in. Water would not make the
hard tack soft, and the hams were packed in ashes and maggots
were crawling all through the meat. It had turned blue and had a
very nice smell, if you like that kind of roses, but never the
less it was eat that or nothing, so we took the meat away from
the maggots and did the best we could, for a man is not very
particular when he has eaten nothing for three or four days and
no prospects of getting anything better soon. We were then told
we were on our way to Andersonville. That looked bad to us. We
were started
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that way, but found for some reason were turned off and sent
toward Richmond, where we arrived July 30,1863. The later part
of our journey was very slow, as we had the worst railroad I
ever saw to run over. The road was graded and the square timbers
or ties laid about eight feet apart and then long planks or
square timbers were laid along for the iron rails to rest on.
The rails were wrought iron, two and a half inches wide and an
inch thick, and the rolling stock was in keeping with the track,
so you will believe me if I tell you we went slow enough, so we
could jump off and pick berries along the track - - jump off and
on as the boys jump bobsleds in the wintertime, only they didn't
pick berries as those boys did. This is merely to show what
progress had been made in South and North Carolina. At one place
where we stopped in North Carolina, some Confederate soldiers
came alongside the cars asked if there was anyone who had
guarded prisoners at Camp Douglas, in Chicago, in 1861. We told
them some of us were at Camp Douglas and guarded prisoners at
that time. They said they hoped we would receive as good
treatment as they received at our hands at that time. We hoped
they would, for we had not seen much good treatment so far.
Nothing more happened until we arrived in Richmond. There we
were marched to the Old Libby prison and locked up. The officers
were put in one building and the men in another, so we saw no
more of the officers. One of the men was taken from the rest and
whatever became of him not one of us ever found out
Page 89
OUR TREATMENT IN LIBBT AND ON BELLE ISLE.
We now found ourselves in the old Libby prison. The prison was a
large three story brick building and had been used as a tobacco
warehouse before the war. It was a filthy place and the floors
were covered with spoiled tobacco and other dirt and filth. This
building was taken down and brought to Chicago for exhibition
and was visited by thousands of interested sightseers, many of
whom had been confined within it's dingy old walls many years
before. After we were settled in our new quarters, we thought we
would get something to eat, as we had received no rations since
we left Atlanta. We were disappointed, however, for atleast
twenty-four hours, when we got a lunch of hard tack and were
left alone till the next day. Then we were passed between two
guards and an officer searched each man as he passed through,
and all the money found on them was taken from them. We were
searched pretty thoroughly here. They felt in our pockets and
felt our clothing all over, but they did not get everybody's
money, but took all they found. We were then taken back and told
that we would be taken to Belle Isle the next day. The next
morning two guards were placed at the head of the stairs and we
were searched again by two officers for money. All who had good
shoes or good coats
Page 90
were required to give them up and old ones were given instead.
All our blankets were taken except one for every two men. One
tin cup and a knife and fork and spoon were allowed us, so we
thought maybe we would get something to eat some time in the
future, as up to that time the question of rations had worried
us a good deal. We were then marched out and taken over to Belle
Isle. Belle Isle is situated near Richmond, in the James river,
northwest of the city. The south end of the island is level, and
that is where the prisoners camp was located. The camp consisted
of four or five acres with a dirt breastwork thrown up around
it. The guards stood about three or four rods apart just outside
of this breastworks. Just one rod inside the earthworks was the
dead line. If a man stepped over that line the guard had orders
to shoot him down. I saw one man shot for getting over the line
while I was there. Just north of the camp was a high hill. And
here were six pieces of cannon trained on the camp so they could
quell any uprising or any demonstration the prisoners might
undertake. Besides this battery a regiment of infantry was
camped close at hand, so we had to keep pretty quiet. We thought
surely after we got to the island we would get something to eat.
We did, but it was mighty little to satisfy a lot of half
starved men, and it was a long time between meals. Our daily
rations were two ounces of light bread and a little piece of
boiled meat - not over two ounces of meat in a ration. In the
afternoon we got a pint cup of soup and a couple of ounces of
light bread.
Page 91
This was our daily rations, never increased but often
diminished, as they let us go two and three and sometimes as
long as five days without anything to eat. I suppose this was
done to get us in light marching order. Our rations were good
but just enough for slow starvation. It was a hard sight to see
men lie there and die of slow starvation and disease and for
want of medical attendance, of which there was absolutely none.
Our drinking water we got in the camp by digging about three or
four feet in the sand, and it was warm and dirty. The men would
almost choke before they could drink it. The days were hot and
the nights were cold, so it was no wonder the men were dying all
the time, the deaths being one or two and sometimes more a day.
There were between 5,000 and 7,000 prisoners in the camp at that
time. We had a few old tents but most of the men had to lie on
the ground with the heavens for a covering as we were not
allowed enough blankets for all, so some had none. There were
some graybacks there, too, to keep the unemployed from getting
homesick. We never got any washing done, so we had to give the
graybacks full sway. We did not wash our hands and faces very
often, as we had no towels, as the washing had not been brought
home. Well, I think we will be searched for money again, as they
give us nothing to eat for three or four days before searching
us, and it has been three days since we had anything to eat. The
orders are now to fall in for something. We were all taken
outside the camp and through a tent one at a time and searched
Page 92
for money and then marched into camp again. I suppose you think
it curious we were searched for money so many times. Just about
that time the army had just been paid off and all were supposed
to have their money on them, and so they had and the Rebs knew
it, and there fore tried to get it, and they always made good
wages when they searched us for it. They tried all manner of
schemes to find it. One day the officer in charge of the camp
came in with about a peck of silver quarters and half dollars
and wanted to trade them for paper money. He said it would be
handier to play chuck-a-luck and to bet with. The playing of
this game was the failing of some of the boys to pass the time
away. But he failed to get many trades that way, as the men
could not hide the silver. I don't remember how many of our
squad saved their money. Ed Thomas took $40 through and I had
$29 and some little change and some postage stamps. The way I
hid mine was this: When first captured at Jackson I had two $10
bills and hid them in the double seams in the front of my pants.
It stayed there till we got on Belle Isle. Then one time when
searched I split a plug of tobacco and put the money inside. It
did not look like a $20 plug of tobacco. Next time we were
searched I carried it in my mouth under my tongue. Others did
the same way. But next time we disposed of it for good. Ed
Thomas and myself took the brass buttons off our blouses and
took the buttons apart and made each bill into a little square
chunk and pounded it into the hallow
Page 93
of the button and then put the two pieces together again, and
there she was safe so long as we did not lose the blouse, and I
tell you that $20 came handy to me when we got out of prison, as
I think I would have died if I had been out of money, as I was a
pretty hard looking kid. Nothing much happened now, only to lie
around and wonder what would come next and talk about what we
would have to eat if we ever got where we could get it, tell of
the good things we had when we were in God's country. Another
thing we there that was interesting to a soldier was the little
grayback, of which we had plenty there on the isle. The way we
used to get rid of them, as we could not wash our clothes
because we were not aloud to have any fire in the camp, was in
the middle of the day when the sun shone out warm, we would take
our clothes off and lay them on the sunny side of a tent and the
little vermin would crawl off the shirt and get in little
bunches on the tent. Then we would take the shirt up and there
we had them at our mercy and we would kill every one of the
vermin we could find. That got rid of some and we had a little
satisfaction on them for keeping a fellow awake nights
scratching. One night after we had been on the island about six
weeks, I came pretty near getting done up. I was walking along
just inside the dead line alone after midnight. Everything was
quiet and it was pretty dark, as I passed near the guard who was
just opposite of me outside the breastworks, and he said to me
very low, "Say, Yank, are you the one that
Page 94
wanted to get some biscuit." Of course I answered , "Yes" "Well
he says you throw twenty five cents over to me and I will throw
the biscuit over to you". I had some small script, so I tied two
ten-cent shinplasters and three two cent stamps to a stone and
threw them over, and he passed the biscuit over to me. I had
twenty four little buns about as large as a lemon, and I sat
right down there and ate all I could hold and I was not hungry
when I finished, nor did I have any buns left. But I had
something else before morning. It was terrible pain. I had eaten
too much at once in my starved condition, and you can guess what
I suffered. I was satisfied with small rations after that for a
while. We had been on the island about six or seven weeks now
and the order came that there was to be an exchange of 500
prisoners off war. The ones to be taken were to be those who
were the sickest. When the order came to pick out those who were
to be exchanged there was a good deal of speculation as to who
would be the lucky ones to pass out and get a chance to go to
God's country, as we called the north at that time. They had
taken nearly all the order called for and none of our squad had
gone except Ed Thomas. We were talking the matter over and came
to the conclusion that the rest of us had to stay where we were.
Then one of the boys said "Ranstead, why don't you try and get
out." I waited a while and finally said, " I am going to try for
it," and so I got up
Page 95
and started for the place where they went outside I went up as
though I was nearly dead and the guard and officer that examined
them looked at me and never said a word, and of course I didn't
, and passed out and went down to the tent and they took my name
and I had passed muster. I tell you I felt pretty good over it.,
but I hated to leave the other boys in the pen, but they all got
out afterwards alive., but not very fat. All returned to duty
afterwards except Abner Beale. He came home from the prison pen
sick and died shortly afterward on account of his prison
experience. After the number they wanted were out, we were taken
across the river and put in Libby prison again for the night.
Next day we were searched for money again and then taken to the
cars and loaded on flat cars and started for Petersburg, Va. On
the road we passed the others coming to Richmond with the Rebs
who had been exchanged for us. When we met the two trains
stopped close together and we said to the Johnnies, " Why, you
are looking fine." " Oh Yes ." they said , "We had good living."
" So did we, But had it to get yet." They were looking fine as
though they had good keep and well fed and were all dressed
mostly with Yankee clothes, and the contrast between us was
great. We were poor, thin and ragged, and they were looking fat
and healthy. From Petersburg we went to City Point, Va., where
our flag of truce boat was. We got there just at dark and when
we saw our flag, you can guess we did so lusty yelling. We were
glad to see freedom before us and a chance to
Page 96
get a square meal once more, and that is what we got as soon as
were marched on the boat. They handed each man a big chunk of
light bread and a slice of boiled ham cut clear across a big
ham, and a tin cup of fine coffee, the first we had tasted since
we were captured. Everybody was happy because they said they had
a square meal once more. But I was careful not to eat too
hearty, as I had some experience one night on the island with a
square meal. We left that night for Annapolis, Md., where we
arrived the next day and were taken to the barracks to recruit
up, as we needed some good living to be fit for service. When I
got to a pair of scales I was surprised at my weight, as I
weighed just eighty pounds. I had weighed before I was captured
about 140 to 145 pounds. There is one incident that happened to
me at that time. I was supposed to been killed at Jackson,
Miss., and was so reported in the regiment and the news sent
home to the folks, and they had set time to have my funeral
sermon preached here in the Earlville Methodist church. When I
got to Annapolis, I wrote home and the folks got the letter on
Saturday and the service was to be held Sunday. So in place of
the funeral service they wrote my record in the family bible
with the rest, and it is on the record yet. Well to make a long
story short, I stayed in Maryland a week and then went to St.
Louis, and stayed till I got well and then went down the river
and joined the regiment at Vicksburg and drew a new gun,
canteen, and haversack and reported for active duty.
Page 97
The following are the government figures of the ages of the men
enlisted for service in the Civil War.
Ten years old and younger................ 25
Eleven years old and younger................ 38
Twelve years old and younger................ 238
Thirteen years old and younger................ 390
Fourteen years old and younger................ 1,523
Fifteen years old and younger................ 104,087
Sixteen years old and younger................ 231,051
Seventeen years old and younger................ 844,591
Eighteen years old and younger................ 1,151,428
Twenty years old and younger................ 2,159,738
Twenty two years old and younger................ 618,511
Twenty four years old and younger................ 40,626
Twenty five years old and younger................ 16,011
Page 98
A FORAGE DETAIL
On General Sherman's famous march to the sea, the army had to
live off the country they marched through, and so there was a
detail of men and teams sent out to get rations for the men and
forage for the mules and horses. There would be a detail of two
or three men from each company of the regiment and teams to go
with them. These details would be under an officer and would
start out on their hunt for grub, and as a general thing they
would come back at night pretty well loaded, if they got through
the day without meeting any of the Rebs, who kept a pretty shape
look out for these foragers, and they often had to run and fight
their way back to camp. They would sometimes get ten or fifteen
miles from the main body of troops, and that was a pretty
dangerous distance in those times, for the enemy had squads of
Calvary all over the country watching for those chances to
capture Yankees, and the citizens and the women folk kept them
informed of the movements of the Yanks all the time, and they
would pounce on them when least expected. But if they were not
disturbed it would be a sight to see the outfit come into camp
at night. There would be a whole line of all kinds of vehicles
from a government wagon to a fine surrey, and they would be
loaded with corn fodder, fresh pork, chickens, geese, hams and
bacon, flour, but nothing except
Page 99
something to eat, as it was strictly against orders to take
anything else, and that was one thing most all the soldiers of
the Union were opposed to taking or destroying anything that was
not in the eating line. But they would take anything that was
good to eat if they could get their fingers on it, for they were
always hungry.
Page 100
WAR TIME PRICES
The following articles given here were taken from the market
reports in the Tri-Weekly Mercury, which was printed in
Charleston, S.C., in the year 1865, on the 31st day of January.
The paper is now in my possession, having brought it home
myself.
Schedule of Prices
Apples, dried, per bushel of 28 lbs. ............ $ 5.00
Axes, with handle, each ............... 8.00
Bacon sides each .............2.00
Bacon hip per lb. ............ 1.30
Beef on foot, including hide, per lb. .............. .75
(There are two pages of prices that do not relate for our
time, so I leave them out.)
Page 101
From the Richmond Dispatch, January 21, 1865: The decline of
gold has been very rapid within
Page 102
the past few days. On Thursday the brokers refused to buy at
fifty, and a number of holders of specie were upon the street
anxious to sell. Yesterday gold was very dull at forty-seven and
eight. In the afternoon several small sums were sold at the
later price.
(Here again are some prices for hiring teams or men. I leave
them out. They do not relate.)
Taken from the Weekly Mercury:
The United States sloop of war San Jacinto was lost off the
Bahamas banks on the night of the 1st in a terribly gale. The
United States gunboat Narcisse was blown up by a torpedo near
Mobile a few days since. Week before last the gunboat Rattler
drifted from her moorings, between Vicksburg and Natchez. She
was boarded by a party of Confederate Calvary and burned to the
waters edge. On Sunday evening last a Yankee monitor was blown
up by torpedoes at Charleston. We are glad to see that old Abe's
money is being rapidly reduced. Sherman's column's in Motion.
Whatever else the peace may have affected, they
Page 103
certainly have not availed to halt the columns of Sherman. At
last accounts his main force was moving in two columns along the
west bank of the Savannah river in the direction of Augusta, Ga.
Two Yankee gunboats lay anchored at Sister's Perry. Another
force, fully provided with wagons, etc., was camped near Ennis
cross roads on the road leading to Grahamville, and on the road
leading to Sister's Perry a reconnoitering party was reported
within four miles of Robertsville. A small force of the enemy
landed on little Britain on Saturday night but were soon driven
off. The fleet at Geogetown is said to have been considerably
increased. Nothing further worthy of mention has occurred in the
harbor since our last report. The New Peace Movement For two
days past the political atmosphere has been thick with rumors of
approaching peace. The basis for these rumors appears in the
dispatch we published today, announcing the appointment of three
well known Confederate gentlemen as commissioners to confer with
the Lincoln government on the subject of Peace. We should have
been better pleased had the first formal, as well as actual
overtures for peace, come from Washington to Richmond instead of
from Richmond to Washington, but in case where the honor, the
treasuries and the blood of our people are at stake, we would
not stand on trifles, and if there be really a prospect of
acquiring our independence and an honorable
Page 104
peace by negotiations, then we bid our commissioners God speed.
But has there been anything in the course of the Yankee
government to press our people to indicate the least disposition
to yield the sine qua non of an honorable settlement -
Confederate Independence? We trow not. Every utterance of public
official or unofficial that has reached from beyond the Potomac
forbids the hope of such a concession at this time. Indeed, so
great a change has come over the spirit of the Yankee's dream
that they are ready to consent to the separation we have been
fighting so long to maintain. It would, perhaps be well worth
while for our government to delay for a season until we can
fully learn causes which could have produced so sudden and
singular an effect. Meantime it behooves our people to be elated
by no elusive hopes and our soldiers to stand to their arms. Let
the spirit of eternal resistance to re-union with the fiends who
have wrought such desolation to the southern homes everywhere be
freshly awakened throughout the land. Let the atrocities and the
faithlessness or our foe be ever kept in view, and let the sea
of blood shed by the hosts of martyrs to our cause forever roll
between us and the hated states of the north. Let the
commissioners at Washington parley and wrangle over the terms of
peace to the hearts content. Sherman and his insolent army are
the commissioners with whom just now we have to deal.
THE END
Contributed Apr 2000 by Ray Brucks
Source: Found at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago,
Civil War Room, U.S. Military History Collection
Adjutant General's Report
The FIFTY-THIRD INFANTRY ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS was organized at Ottawa, Illinois, in the winter of 1861-62, by Colonel W. H. W. Cushman. On the 27th of February 1862, was ordered to complete its organization, and to assist in guarding the Confederate prisoners captured at Donelson and confined there.
Ordered to St. Louis, March 23d, and from St. Louis to Savannah, Tenn. April 6th, was ordered to Shiloh, but for want of transportation did not move until afternoon of the 7th.
Were assigned to First Brigade, Fourth Division, Brigadier General J. G. Lauman commanding Brigade, Brigadier General S. A. Hurlbut commanding Division, in which Brigade and Division the Regiment served until the close of the war.
The Regiment was engaged in the siege of Corinth, and for meritorious conduct on the skirmish line were furnished with new Springfield rifles. Marched to Grand Junction, LaGrange, Holly Springs, Miss., and Memphis, Tenn., arriving there July 21, 1862. The weather having been very hot, the troops had suffered very much from heat and scarcity of water on the march.
September 3, Colonel Cushman took leave of the Regiment, having resigned, leaving the regiment in command of Captain McClanahan, who had been acting as a field officer since the evacuation of Corinth.
September 6, moved toward Bolivar, Tenn., arriving there on the 13th. October 1, moved toward LaGrange, but meeting a large rebel force, moved back to Bolivar. Acting Adjutant C. R. May was taken prisoner by the rebel cavalry.
October 4, moved toward Hatchie River, and on the 5th engaged four times their number of the enemy, who were retreating from Corinth.
While crossing Davis's Bridge, on the Hatchie, a regiment from another state was forced back through our lines, but the Fifty-third moved steadily forward, holding the bridge and road for over two hours, until other troops could be crossed and placed in position. Loss in this battle, sixteen killed and forty-nine wounded. The Regiment here assisted in running a section of artillery, a Missouri Battery, up the bluff by hand, placing it within fifty yards of the enemy's line, and supported it while it did splendid work. The Regiment was complimented by General Hurlbut for its work here.
Returned to Bolivar, October 8th. October 15th, Lieutenant Colonel Earl took command of the Regiment.
Moved to LaGrange, November 4th, 1862. On the 28th of November, moved south with General Grant's army to Cold Water, Holly Springs, Waterford, Abbeyville, and Oxford, Mississippi; arrived at Yocona Creek December 13th, and on the 22d commenced the northward march toward Tallahatchie River.
January 1, 1863, the Division was made a part of the Seventeenth Army Corps, General J. B. McPherson, commanding Corps; J. G. Lauman the Division, and Colonel I. C. Pugh, of the Forty-first Illinois, commanding Brigade, now First Brigade, Fourth Division, Seventeenth Army Corps.
January 11th, arrived at Moscow, Tenn. The Division was transferred to the Sixteenth Army Corps, General S. A. Hurlbut command Corps, and was placed on duty guarding the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.
March 11, moved to Memphis.
May 17, embarked for Young's Point. On 20th, moved to Haines Bluff, on the 25th swung into line with the main army around Vicksburg, being on the left of the Thirteenth Army Corps, Major General E. O. C. Ord command, to which our division was temporarily assigned.
On July 5, moved with General Sherman's army against Jackson, Miss., and on the 12th, while closing the lines around that place, the Brigade was ordered to charge the rebel works. The 53rd participated in this gallant but disastrous charge, going in the fight with 250 men and officers, and coming out with but 66. Colonel Earl fell near the rebel breast-works, pierced with four canister shot. Lieutenant Colonel McClanahan was severely wounded. Captain Michael Leahey and Lieutenant George W. Hemstreet was killed. Captain J. E. Hudson, mortally wounded. Captains Potter and King were wounded.
Lieutenant J. B. Smith lost an arm and was taken prisoner. Captain George R. Lodge, Lieutenants Mark M. Bassett and John D. Hatfield, and a number of the enlisted men, were taken prisoners. The color guard and bearers were all either killed or wounded. The colors were captured, saturated with the life-blood of Sergeant George Poundstone, the color bearer.
A few days after this fight, the Regiment returned to Vicksburg. The Division was assigned to the Seventeenth Army Corps, Brigadier General M. M. Crocker commanding Division. Moved to Natchez August 18th. Returned to Vicksburg November 30th, and camped at Milldale.
On the 1st of February 1864, the Regiment, having re-enlisted, was mustered as a veteran organization, and on the 3d started on the Meridian campaign. Returning, arrived at Hebron, Miss., February 29th.
Left Vicksburg, March 13th; reached Ottawa, Illinois, 22d, where the men were furloughed for 30 days. Companies I and E having been consolidated, a new company was organized and assigned to the Regiment as Company I, Captain Samuel I. Haynie commanding.
The Regiment rejoined the Division at Cairo, Major General F. P. Blair having been assigned to the Corps. Moved up the Tennessee River to Clifton. Marched via Huntsville and Decatur, joining General Sherman's army at Kingston, Ga.
June 8th, the Fifty-third was ordered at Allatoona Pass, and instructed to build earthworks on each side of the Pass. They worked hard at that until July 13th, when they rejoined the Division at Marietta. Colonel B. F. Potts commanding Brigade, General W. Q. Gresham commanding Division.
On the 17th, joined the main army at the front. Was engaged in the siege of Atlanta, and in the engagements of July 19th, 20th, 21st and 22d, lost 101 men killed and wounded, Captain Samuel I. Haynie and Sergeant Major Oran M. Bull being killed.
Was engaged as skirmishers at Jonesboro, and went with the army as far south as Lovejoy Station; returned to East Point. After a few days rest at East Point, the Seventeenth Army Corps, under Major General T. E. G. Ranson, moved October 1st, on a reconnoissance toward Sandtown.
Returned to East Point; October 4th, moved north in pursuit of General Hood's army. Followed Hood's army to Gaylesville, Alabama, where the army halted and rested a week or so.
October 27th, the army received orders to move to the vicinity of Atlanta. Major General Ranson being very sick, and not able to ride in an ambulance, the Fifty-third was detailed, at his request, to carry him on a litter and escort him to Rome, Georgia; carried him to within six miles of Rome, where he became too weak to go farther. At the farm house of James Berryhill, near Rome, the brave and gallant General T. E. G. Ranson died at 2:30 o'clock P.M., October 29th, 1864. The Regiment escorted the remains to Rome, and the next day acted as an escort for a large number of officers, who were returning to their commands in the main army.
Went into camp near Marietta, Georgia, November 6. November 13th, moved to West Point, and on the 15th commenced the March to the Sea, Brigadier General Giles A. Smith commanding Division. Arrived in front of the fortifications of Savannah December 10th; a very foggy morning. The first shell from the enemy exploded in the ranks of company I, killing five and wounding six men. On the 21st marched into the city, and went into camp near Bona Venture Cemetery.
January 4, 1865, the Forty-first Illinois, of 222 men and officers, Major Robert H. McFadden commanding, was consolidated with the Fifty-third Illinois.
On the 6th, embarked for Beaufort, South Carolina, and soon after for Pocotaligo.
On January 29th, commenced the Carolina campaign. Moved by the way of Orangeburg, Columbia, Fayetteville and Cheraw, participating in the battle Bentonville, March 20th and 21st, losing one man killed and three wounded, among whom was Lieutenant Palmer, who had his right leg amputated just below the knee.
Marched to Goldsborough, Raleigh and Jones Station; and after Johnson's surrender marched with the army to Washington. Was in the grand review of May 24, 1865.
June 6th, left Washington for Louisville, Kentucky, where, on the 22d of July, the Regiment was mustered out of service by Lieutenant Robert M. Wood, A.C.M., and moved to Chicago. July 28th, received final pay and discharge.
The Regiment was commanded from its organization until the latter part of August, 1862 by Colonel Cushman, when he tendered his resignation, and left for his home in Illinois.
By Captain McClanahan from September 1, 1862 to October 15, 1862.
By Colonel Earl from October 15, 1862 to Jul 12, 1863.
By Colonel McClanahan from July 12, 1863 to June 21, 1865.
By Colonel McFadden from June 21, 1865 to July 28, 1865.
Lieutenants Mark M. Bassett and John D. Hatfield made their escape from Libby Prison on the night of February 9, 1864, through the famous tunnel, Hatfield coming into the Union lines at or near Washington. Bassett was recaptured the fourth night out, but subsequently effected his escape from Columbia, South Carolina.
The following officers from the Forty-first Illinois were assigned
positions in the Fifty-third,
upon the consolidation of the two Regiments:
Major Robert H. McFadden, promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.
Surgeon George M. Warmoth.
Captain David H. McFadden, Captain K Company.
Lieutenant John M. Robinson, Second Lieutenant K Company.
Lieutenant William H. Palmer, First Lieutenant B Company.
Lieutenant John Churchill, Second Lieutenant B Company.
The Regiment marched 2,855 miles. Transported by boat and cars 4,168 miles. Over 1,800 officers and men belonged to the Regiment during its term of service.
Contributed Jun 2000 by Ray Brucks
