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History of the 85th Illinois Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry by Henry J. Aten |  |
CHAPTER XIX
page 231-242
September, October & November, 1864
During the stay in Atlanta the Eighty-fifth camped on the left of the
White Hall road, just beyond the city limits. The camp was well
located, fuel and water convenient, little duty was required, the
men were allowed the freedom of the city, and all who cared to do so
made the circuit of the works erected for its defense. These earthworks
had required the labor of thousands of slaves for months, and were
models of strength and solidity, and while General Sherman was
preparing plans for a new aggressive campaign, the men discussed the
probable direction of their next march. In the meantime, General
Hood was preparing to assume the offensive, and startle the country by
a campaign bold in its conception, but destined to end in signal
failure.
The rest at Atlanta continued for nearly a month,
the health of the regiment was greatly improved, and its numbers were
increased by the return of many of those who had fallen out because of
sickness or wounds during the campaign. In the exchange of prisoners,
which took place at this time, some of our comrades were fortunate
enough to be included, and returned to duty. A strong inner line of
earthworks was constructed so that a small force might hold the city
against assault, and nearly all non-combatants were sent north or
soutfi, whichever way they chose to go. Upon a hint from army
headquarters that a limited number would be fur-loughed, a few officers
and men applied for twenty-five-days' furloughs. But the approval of
these applications was destined to meet the command far to the north.
On Thursday; the 29th, the Second division
received orders to be ready to march at a moment's notice, and there
were rumors of a raid in the rear. By eight o'clock three days' rations
had been issued, and all were in readiness, but the day passed
without further orders. Meanwhile the men waited and ate, and ate
and waited, until, as is usual under such circumstances, many of them
had eaten their three days' allowance in a single day. Soon after dark
the command moved to the railroad and boarded a train of empty freight
cars, which reached Chattanooga the following evening. From there the
division proceeded on the same train to Huntsville, Ala., where it
arrived at noon of Sunday, October 1st. The brigade went into camp
south of the town, and soon the tired men were fast asleep. But this
much-needed rest only lasted two hours, when the bugles sounded the
assembly, and the command hurried back to the station to take the
train so lately abandoned for Athens. A few miles out from Huntsville
the railroad track was found torn up and the command left the train and
marched to Athens, arriving on the afternoon of the 3rd.
When the Eighty-fifth, with the other troops
comprising the Second division, hurried aboard the train at
Atlanta, and officers and men were packed in dirty freight cars like
sardines in a box, it was understood that the movement was of great
urgency, but nothing was known of our destination. Now it was learned
that the rebel general, Forrest, with a large force of cavalry had
crossed the Tennessee river and attacked the garrison at Huntsville.
But the advance of the Second division compelled him to abandon the
fight, and retire in the direction of Athens. Damage to the
railroad was Forrest's main object, but General Morgan's advance was so
rapid that little was accomplished in that line by the raiders,
and they soon sought safety in flight.
From Athens the enemy moved in the direction
ot Florence, on the Tennessee river, and on the morning of the 4th the
Second division moved in pursuit. In the afternoon the command forded
Elk river, the water reaching to the arm-pits of the men, and camped
for the night at Rogersville, some four miles beyond. A heavy rain had
been falling through the day, which continued without ceasing
throughout the night, and the men spent a miserable night. An early
start was made on the next morning, the command crossing Shoal creek
during the day, and camped for the night within six miles of Florence.
The Third brigade had the advance on the morning of the 6th. Our
skirmishers soon found the enemy, and rapidly drove Forrest's rear
guard through the town and beyond the river. In this skirmish John
W. McClaren {McLaren}, of Company H, was wounded. He had but recentlv recovered
from a wound received near Dallas, Georgia.
On
the evening of the 9th a division of
cavalry commanded by General C. C. Washburn arrived to take up the
pursuit of Forrest. The men thought that these troopers boasted
overmuch of what they would do with Forrest when they found him, and
were not at all surprised to learn later that they had found him a
very tough proposition. The Second division started back to
Athens on the morning of the 10th, and at the same time, with a
flourish of trumpets, the cavalry division crossed the river to hunt
Forrest. Soon after starting we could hear
the roar of artillery in the direction the cavalry had taken, and the
men were assured that our troopers had "found Forrest." Long afterward
we learned that Forrest had turned on his over-confident pursuers and
whipped them to his heart's content. Another illustration of the
truth that "He should boast that putteth off the armor rather than he
that girdeth it on."
From the time the command took the train at
Atlanta until it arrived at Florence the rain fell heavily and
almost continuously. The roads became very muddy and the streams were
swelled to the tops of their banks. The bridges had been destroyed by
the enemy, the command had no pontoons, and the men had to ford
the streams. The water, reaching at times to the armpits, kept their
clothing wet and increased the weight they had to carry. The little
sleep they secured was that of exhaustion and afforded them but little
rest. Their clothing was worn, many were without shoes, and all were
footsore and weary. Perhaps the trip from Atlanta to Florence came
as near taxing to the utmost the physical endurance of the men as any
campaign thus far experienced. However, the weather cleared up while at
Florence, and the return to Athens was much more comfortable,
although the march was rapid, the command arriving there on the evening
of the I2th.
The application for furloughs made at Atlanta
was approved and met the command at this point, and a few of the
Eighty-fifth left for home on the first train for the north. They
little thought that the fortunes of war would interfere with their
return to duty with the regiment until the following spring. But at the
expiration of these furloughs Sherman's army was on its way to the sea,
and those returning from the north were held at Chattanooga
until they could reach the army on the Atlantic coast.
On the 13th the Third brigade boarded a
freight train and arrived in Chattanooga the next day. While at this
place about one-half of the men received shoes, and some clothing was
issued, but still there was but a meager supply. The division was kept
under marching orders during the stay in Chattanooga, and while there
General Sherman was using all the means in his power to bring General
Hood's army, which was known to be between Resaca and LaFayette, to
battle.
In order to understand the situation it is
necessary to briefly review the movements of the two armies since the
Second division left Atlanta. In the last days of September the
President of the Southern Confederacy made a visit to the headquarters
of General Hood, and a bold plan of aggression was mapped out.
According to this plan Hood was to throw his entire army upon our
communications, capture the garrisons and destroy the railroad, then
cross the Tennessee river and invade Tennessee and Kentucky. In
pursuance of this plan Hood soon appeared on the railroad north of
Atlanta and with his whole army began destroying the road. This, the
first step in the second great Confederate scheme of northern invasion,
it was hoped would compel Sherman to abandon Atlanta, and force his
armies out of Georgia. But, leaving the Twentieth corps to garrison
Atlanta, Sherman moved with all his remaining troops in hot
pursuit, with the hope of forcing the enemy to a general
engagement. Hood destroyed over thirty miles of railroad,
captured the garrisons at Big Shanty, Ackworth, Tilton and Dalton, but
was repulsed at Altoona and Resaca. At Altoona Hood met a decided
repulse with heavy loss. Although the garrison at this point
numbered less than two thousand men, it captured over four hundred
prisoners and buried two hundred and thirty-one of the enemy's dead
left on the field. This would show, according to the usual proportion
of killed to the wounded, that the loss of the enemy exceeded in
number the entire strength of the garrison. But Hood was marching
light and living on the country; his strategy was brilliant; his
movements were executed with dash and skill, and it was found
impossible to bring him to a general engagement.
Tuesday, the 18th, our division, with Wagner's
division of the Fourth corps, under the personal command of
General Schofield. moved out on the LaFayette road across the
battlefield of Chickamauga, camping for the night at Lee and Gordon's
mills. The next day the march led through LaFayette, the command
camping just beyond the town. On the 20th we passed the camps
occupied the night before by the rebel army under General Hood.
During the day the Second division came in touch with other divisions
of Sherman's army, and for a time a battle seemed probable. The rear
guard of the enemy showed a disposition to fight, but after making a
pretentious demonstration, he suddenly withdrew from our front, and
continued his retreat toward Gadsden, Ala. Within the next two days the
entire army was concentrated around Gaylesville, ready for the next
move in the game.
At Gaylesville, a small town on the eastern border of Alabama, General
Sherman's army remained almost a week. It was a period of
comparative rest to the rank and file, but of great activity to their
commander, for he was completing plans for his march to the sea. Three
days' rations of bread, meat and coffee were issued, with orders that
they must last five. But as forage was abundant in the rich valleys of
that pleasant region this was considered no great hardship. Guard duty
was light, as the troops were well massed, and the details sent out for
supplies brought in sweet potatoes, meat, molasses and honey. The
men operated the mills in the vicinity, and in this way obtained a
supply of corn meal and unbolted flour. But by the end of our stay the
country was eaten out.
While Sherman's army lay at Gaylesville Hood
began to move north from Gadsden as if bound for Tennessee, and on
the 28th, when the main body of our forces moved south from Gaylesville
the Fourth corps was sent back to defend the line of the Tennessee
river. That day we marched nine miles toward Rome, camping for the
night at Missionary station, near the Georgia and Alabama line. The
next morning the march was resumed, the command arriving at Rome that
afternoon. The Eighty-fifth camped on the north side of the Etowah
river on the ground where the Second division fought the battle of Rome
in the month of May. On the last day of October the Third brigade
guarded the trains of the Fourteenth corps to Kingston, to which point
the First and Second brigades followed on the next day.
At this time the curious and extraordinary
spectacle was seen, of two hostile armies moving in exactly opposite
directions. As Hood moved north, Sherman marched south, and each
embraced in his plan the same object - the invasion of his adversaries'
country. Both were men of sanguine temperament, but the Union leader
manoeuvered with a degree of prudence unknown to the insurgent general.
At first, General Sherman thought Hood would abandon his plan of
invasion, and throw his army to our front, or move south on parallel
lines until opportunity offered for battle; but as the enemy's
northward march continued, it became necessary to provide for the
defense of Tennessee. To this end, the Twenty-third army corps was
turned back from Rome, with orders to report to General Thomas, who was
organizing an army at Nashville to meet and destroy the rebel army
in the event it crossed the Tennessee river.
Friday, the 4th, Major Harris visited the
Eighty-fifth, and officers and men each received eight months' pay. The
soldier is a very honest sort of person, although much given to
borrowing between pay days, and soon the men were engaged in paying off
their small debts. But this large payment coming at a time and place
where there was little opportunity for spending money, made the camp
unusually flush, and what to do with the surplus money became the
question of the hour. Fortunately the regiment had a chaplain {Joseph S. Barwick} whom all
could trust, and after securing a leave of absence for that
purpose, he gathered up the money the men wished to send to family
and friends, and left for the north. On arriving home he went to
all for whom he had money and delivered it in person. This was but one
of the many kindly acts of the good chaplain which endeared him to the
men.
The presidential election occurred while we lay at Kingston, and on the
8th of November, the regiments from nearly all of the states voted for
president. Commissioners were sent to receive the ballots of those in
the army who would have been entitled to vote if at home. But the
Illinois soldiers were denied this privilege because a Copperhead
legislature had refused to make the necessary provision. So while the
men from other states were exercising the elective franchise, those
from Illinois had to content themselves with expressing their contempt
and hatred for those who brought this wrong upon them. Doubtless among
the men from Illinois, there were many "souls made perfect," but if the
remarks made upon that occasion are to be considered in evidence, then
surely none but the wholly unregenerate gave utterance to their
feelings.
On the afternoon of the 10th, we marched
through Cassville, and then went into camp at Cartersville, where we
remained until the morning of the 13th. On the 12th the last railway
trains passed going north, and later in the day the telegraph was cut
and Sherman and his army were left in the middle of the Southern
Confederacy, with no means of communication with the outside world or
base of supplies, until he should open one on the sea coast. That day
General Sherman took dinner at the headquarters of the Second division,
and while there received and answered the last dispatch from the north,
and the work of burning surplus army stores and destroying the railroad
was commenced. That night the line of fire lighting up the road as far
as the eye could reach, revealed the thorough manner in which the work
of destruction was being done.
On the 13th, the division moved at an early hour, and,
after destroying six miles of railroad, marched five miles further,
camping for the night at Ackworth. The next day we marched twenty-one
miles and arrived at Atlanta on the 15th. From Kingston to Atlanta the
line of march lay over familiar and historic ground. Trees riven by
cannon balls or girdled with fierce musketry: breastworks the
command had struggled for but a few short months before, and the graves
of both blue and gray, all testified to the determined nature of the
summer's conflicts.
Everything in the city that could make it
valuable to the enemy as a military point was to be destroyed and we
found Atlanta wrapped in flames. That night the burning mills, machine
shops and warehouses afforded a grand and awe inspiring sight; a sad
and melancholy exhibition of the blighting desolation of war. We had
left that vicinity forty-five days before, and in that period the
Second division marched over two hundred miles, traveled by rail four
hundred miles and destroyed seventeen miles of railroad.
Eli F. Neikirk, second lieutenant of Company
K, resigned on November 4th, but as the company was below the minimum
number, no successor was commissioned to fill the vacancy.
During the period of which this chapter
treats, the following deaths occurred: Henry P. Jones and Martin Troy,
of disease, Company D; Richard Griffin, of Company E. wounds; Clinton
Logan, of Company F, was killed by accidental discharge of a musket,
and Barnhart Noblack, of same company, died of wounds: and Sergeant
Lorenzo D. Gould, of Company G, died of disease.
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