85th Illinois Infantry: Chapter 3

History of the 85th Illinois Volunteers
Illinois Volunteer Infantry
by
Henry J. Aten

CHAPTER III.
Pages 25 - 33
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     At about nine o'clock on Sunday morning, September 7th, 1862, the Eighty-fifth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry marched out of its camp at Peoria and down through the main street of the city to the railway station. The day was bright and clear, and although the ringing church bells were calling the people to worship the Prince of Peace, the patriotic citizens crowded the line of march to cheer and speed the departing soldiers. There was but little delay at the depot, and about one o'clock, or a little later, a start was made for Louisville, Kentucky. The trip was made without incident or accident of especial note. Lafayette, Indiana, was reached at about eight o'clock the next morning, and Indianapolis at six o'clock in the afternoon, and at two o'clock on Tuesday morning, September 9th, the regiment arrived at Jeffersonville. The men were very tired with the long ride in the crowded cars. Few had slept in all the previous night, as there were two in every seat, and all were glad to change from the crowded cars to the ground for a short rest. About noon the regiment crossed the Ohio river, and marched through Louisville to the southern limits of the city, where it went into camp. The day was hot, the streets dusty, and the men were very much fatigued, although the distance marched was not great.
     Notwithstanding the alleged neutrality of Kentucky, the regiment was now in Dixie. In the city the people were laboring under the most intense excitement. Among the citizens every shade of opinion prevailed from that held by the most devoted loyalist to that of the most pronounced secessionist, and on the day following the arrival of the regiment martial law was proclaimed.
     Wednesday, September 10th, was full of hard work, the day being spent in squad and company drill, particular attention being paid to the manual of arms, the work ending with a dress parade. Dress parade was a new experience to nearly all of the officers and men, but the regiment made a fairly creditable appearance. In the afternoon of the next day a heavy thunder storm suddenly broke upon the camp. The high wind leveled many of the tents to the ground, while the downpour of rain thoroughly drenched the men and the entire outfit of the camp.
     The insurgents having forced into their armies all the able-bodied men in the South, were now exerting their full strength against the Federal line. After a series of bloody defeats, accompanied with heavy loss, the Army of the Potomac had been driven from the peninsula in Virginia, and was now about to engage in a deadly conflict with the flushed victorious enemy, on soil dedicated to freedom and far to the north of the National Capital. On August 17th, a part of Bragg's army under General Kirby Smith turned the Union force out of Cumberland Gap. Whereupon the Union commander blew up his elaborate fortifications, abandoned his heavy artillery, destroyed his stores, and began a hasty and disastrous retreat. After capturing detachments of Union troops on garrison duty at various posts, the rebel column of invasion encountered a green Union force at Richmond Kentucky, which had been hurriedly concentrated to oppose the rebel advance. A fight ensued, in which the Union troops were driven back on reinforcements under Major General William Nelson, who assumed command, but a rebel victory had already been won. The Union troops were dispersed, and General Nelson wounded, while his army lost nine pieces of artillery and many prisoners. The Confederate general set forward for Lexington, which he entered on September 1st, amid the frantic acclamations of the rebel sympathisers of that intensely disloyal region. He moved on through Paris to Cynthiana, and threw his advance well out toward Cincinnati.
     Meanwhile General Bragg with the main body of the Confederate army crossed the Tennessee river above Chattanooga, passed to the left of the Union army, and pushed into Kentucky. This compelled General Buel to abandon the whole of Tennessee except a small district in the immediate vicinity of Nashville, and hasten by forced marches to the defense of the line of the Ohio river. Louisville, with its immense resources, was the immediate object of this gigantic raid, while the capture of Cincinnati and other northern cities was considered possible —even probable, by the enthusiastic followers of the rebel chief. The near approach of the Confederate army filled the rebel citizens in the city with high hopes, while many of the loyalists fled for refuge to various points north of the Ohio.
     General Nelson was assigned to command the army forming at Louisville, and although suffering from a wound received at Richmond, his energetic action restored order, and the air of dejection soon disappeared. With the arrival of almost every boat and train came new troops, who were rapidly formed into brigades and divisions for the defense of the city. The troops that escaped from the battle at Richmond began to appear by this time, and the opportunity for capturing the city was numbered among the lost hopes of the southern people.
     On Friday, September 12th, the Eighty-sixth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry arrived. It had camped near the Eighty-fifth at Peoria, and was mustered in by Captain Wainwright on the same day. There was the usual Sunday morning inspection on the 14th, and on the 15th a brigade was formed, composed of the Eighty-fifth, the Eighty-sixth and the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiments, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, the Fifty-second Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and Battery I, Second Illinois Light Artillery, and designated as the Thirty-Sixth Brigade. The brigade thus formed had quite an unusual experience, in that these regiments and this battery remained together until mustered out at the close of the war, the only change in its composition being the addition of small regiments toward the close of the service. Colonel Daniel McCook, of the Fifty-second Ohio, being the ranking colonel, took command of the brigade by virtue of seniority, holding the position until mortally wounded while leading the command in a desperate charge. The brigade moved at an early hour through the city, and passed in review before the commanding general. The day was hot, the streets dusty, and the men were very tired when they reached camp at six o'clock in the evening.
     On the 18th the brigade was engaged in throwing up a line of entrenchments, the line running through the suburbs of the city. The next day the regiment was held in readiness to march at any moment, with two days' rations in the haversacks. On the 20th the Eighty-fifth moved out on the turnpike, some ten miles toward Bardstown, returning to camp on the evening of the 22nd. No event of importance transpired on the march, but the trip was useful in seasoning the men for the longer marches soon to come.
     On Tuesday, September 23rd, at three o'clock in the morning, there was a call to arms, and the brigade marched to the entrenchments, where it remained under arms throughout the day.
     In the afternoon General Nelson reviewed the line, and urged the importance of firing low in case of an attack. The regiment spent the next day on picket, some distance out, returning to the entrenched line in the evening, when the men were instructed to occupy nearby houses for the night.
     On the 26th the regiment returned to camp, packed up the camp outfit, and moved into the city. Judged by the appearance and smell of this camp, it had recently been occupied as a horse or mule yard. The next day the camp was unusually dull until well along in the afternoon, when a captain of one of the companies, doubtless impelled by a sense of duty, undertook to discipline his first lieutenant. Then a breach of the peace occurred in which the captain prevailed and the lieutenant was thoroughly disciplined in fact, if not in accordance with the provisions of army regulations.
     The veterans of General Buel's army were now arriving, and within a few days that splendid body of trained soldiers were located in camps in the immediate vicinity of the city. They had made a race with the rebel army under Bragg from the Tennessee to the Ohio; had won the race, and were now eager to be led against their old-time foe. Nor had they long to wait, as immediate preparations were made for taking the field against the enemy, who was known to be at Bardstown, only thirty miles away.
     On Monday morning, September 29th, the startling intelligence was brought to the camp of the Eighty-fifth that General Nelson had been shot and killed at the Gait House, and a detachment from the regiment was hurriedly sent to the hotel for guard duty. The following account of the tragedy is condensed from reports current at the time, and is believed to be substantially correct. About eight o'clock in the morning Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis met General Nelson in the office of the Gait House and presented some grievance. A controversy ensued in which Nelson, after applying an insulting epithet to Davis, slapped him in the face. Whereupon Davis, who was unarmed, borrowed a pistol from a by-stander and shot Nelson, who died within a few minutes of the shooting. General Nelson was a man of powerful build, in perfect health, six feet two inches in height, and weighing over two hundred pounds, while General Davis was a small man, less than five feet ten inches in height, and weighing only about one hundred and twenty-five pounds.
     General Nelson had been in command of the department until the arrival of General Buel on the 25th. He was bred a sailor, and was holding a commission in the military service, although an officer in the navy. Intensely loyal to his country, he was among the first to organize by his individual exertion a military force in Kentucky, his native state, to rescue her from the vortex of rebellion, toward which she was rapidly drifting. Unfortunately for himself and his country, he was arbitrary, overbearing, and his outbursts of temper made him many enemies. So totally unfitted for the command of volunteer soldiers was he, that it may well be doubted whether his violent end caused mourning in a single breast among the rank and file of the army.
     General Davis, after serving in the war with Mexico, entered the regular army, and was a lieutenant under Major Anderson at Fort Sumter, when it was bombarded. At the beginning of the Civil War he led the Twenty-second Indiana to the field, and was soon promoted brigadier general. He commanded a division at the battle of Pea Ridge with conspicuous skill and gallantry. He was arrested for the killing of Nelson, but was never tried. The writer has always understood that, but for this lamentable affair, General Davis would have been assigned to command the division of which the Thirty-sixth Brigade was a part in the coming campaign. A year later he assumed command of the division, and finally commanded the corps to which the brigade was attached, and officers and men learned to admire the skill with which he handled his troops.
     The brigades of new troops that had been hurried to the defense of Louisville were distributed among the veteran divisions of Bud's army, and the army thus recruited, was divided into three corps, designated the First, Second, and Third, commanded by Generals McCook, Grittenden, and Gilbert respectively. The Thirty-sixth Brigade was assigned to a division under command of Brigadier General P. H. Sheridan, in Gilbert's Corps.
     The twenty days spent in Louisville were of great advantage to the new regiment. The men became accustomed to camp life; much of the time was spent in drill, and something was learned in marching and picket duty. The regiment was weakened by sickness during the month, and quite a number had to be left in the general hospital when the command entered upon the Kentucky campaign. The deaths at Louisville were: Henry Howell, of Company A; Robert Driver, of Company F, and William Cunningham, of Company H.
     On Tuesday morning, September 30th, 1862, General Buel's army of about 60,000 men moved out of Louisville, and the advance began. Bragg's army numbered about 40,000 men, the greater part being in position at Bardstown. Many delays occurred during the day, and the Eighty-fifth camped for the night within one mile of the city. On the first of October the command moved very slowly, passing through a fine country on very dusty roads. After reaching camp the Eighty-fifth, with the brigade battery, was thrown out on picket a mile and a half in advance of the camp. During the night enough rain fell to soak the men's blankets, and the next morning the regiment resumed the march without breakfast. A series of skirmishes commenced within a few miles of Louisville, which constantly increased until
the cautious advance of the army reached Bardstown on October 5th, when it was found that the enemy had retreated. The regiment passed through that town on Sunday, and camped that night on Rolling Fork, a stream some six miles beyond Bardstown. A timid advance, which could scarcely be called a pursuit, was continued on the 6th and 7th, the regiment passing through Fredericktown, Springfield, Texas and Huntsville, and on the 7th Gilbert's corps, which was in the center, closed down on the enemy, who was concentrated and ready for battle in a position of his own choice near Perryville.
     The season had been very dry, the roads were dusty, the weather hot, and water was so scarce that the troops had suffered exceedingly. Men became so thirsty that it was no unusual sight to see them spread their handkerchiefs over stagnant pools, covered with scum, and slake their thirst with the water thus filtered. The brigade arrived at the front about eleven o'clock in the night of the 7th, and the men lay down, without water, in line of battle for such rest as might be had on the eve of their first battle.

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