Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Co. H-Captain, McHenry Brooks; 1st Lieutenant, Frederick C. Bierer; 2d Lieutenant, Daniel Worthen.

Co. I-Captain, Joseph W. Merrill; 1st Lieutenant, Thomas Sumner; 2d Lieu tenant, John A. Russell.

Co. K―Captain, Abraham T. Bozarth; 1st Lieutenant, Horace Chapin; 2d Lieu tenant, Erastus S. Jones.

*

The 27th left for the field on the 26th of August, and arrived at Cairo on the 30th. On the 7th of November it was engaged in the battle of Belmont, [vide Vol. I., p. 182,] where it was assigned the post of honor, and opened the engagement. After two hours' skirmishing, it was ordered back for rest, and the balance of the column passed through its lines. After waiting half an hour, and receiving no orders, Colonel Buford led the regiment by a circuitous route to the rear of the enemy's camp, upon which it made three distinct charges over fallen timber, routing the enemy and burning their camp. On the retreat from Belmont, the 27th was the last to leave, whereby it was cut off from the main body of the Union forces. It then marched through a railroad cutting from the river, which it again reached seven miles above Belmont, and after a five miles' march up the bank hailed the gunboat Tyler, and was taken on board. On the 4th of March, 1862, it took possession of Columbus, Ky., and on the 14th proceeded to and occupied Hickman. On the 31st it took part in the splendid dash made upon Union City, which resulted in an important, though bloodless victory. [Vol. I., p. 200.] It took part in the siege and capture of Island No. 10, and was the first regiment of Union troops on the Island. On the 13th of April it arrived off Fort Pillow, which place it left four days later for Hamburg, Tenn. In May it took part in the battle of Farmington and the siege of Corinth, and after the evacuation of the latter town by the rebels, joined in the pursuit of them, having a skirmish with the enemy at Booneville. During the summer of 1862 it was encamped at Camp Big Springs and at Iuka. When Bragg began his march for Kentucky and the Ohio river, the 27th was one of the regiments which ran the race with him. On the 12th of September it arrived at Nashville, Tenn., where for two months it subsisted on half rations. On the 3d of October it marched with a detachment to Lavergne, where a rebel camp was completely destroyed, many prisoners captured and the enemy routed. Late in

November, Rosecrans' army arrived at Nashville, releasing the troops from their confinement there and re-opening communication with the North. The battle of Stone River was one of the best illustrations of the tenacity, zeal and courage with which our boys fought, and here the 27th bore a conspicuous part, losing, among others, its Colonel, Fazillo A. Harrington. It next participated in the Tullahoma campaign, and in September, 1863, distinguished itself at the battle of Chickamauga, where it suffered severely. In this battle, Colonel Miles, commanding the regiment, had the entire hilt of his sword and the glasses of his field glass shot away by musket balls. The 27th was next engaged in the storming of Mission Ridge, after which it marched to the relief of Burnside at Knoxville, and was in the East Tennessee campaign which followed. It returned to Loudon, Tenn., January 25, 1864, where it remained till April 18th, when it was ordered to Cleveland, Tenn., to join in the Atlanta campaign. It was engaged at Rocky Faced Ridge, May 9th; Resaca, May 14th; near Calhoun, May 16th; Adairsville, May 17th; near Dallas, from May 26th to June 4th; near Pine Top Mountain, June 10th to June 14th; Mud Creek, June 18th; Kenesaw Mountain, June 27th; Peach Tree Creek, July 20th, and in the skirmishes. around Atlanta. On the 25th of August, 1865, it was relieved from duty at the front by order of General Thomas, and ordered to Springfield, Ill., for muster-out. On its arrival at Springfield, it showed the following record of casualties: Killed or died of wounds, 102; died of disease, 80; number of wounded, 328; discharged and resigned, 209.

Among the many incidents related of the 27th, is the following: Soon after Colonel Buford's promotion to Brigadier-General, he presented the regiment a magnificent stand of colors, which the men said should never fall into the hands of the enemy. At the battle of Chickamauga, the regiment made a charge upon a body of rebels protected by a stone wall. Two color bearers were shot down, when a third sprang on the wall, grasping the colors, when he, too, was killed, falling on the rebel side of the wall, where his body was seized by the enemy, and borne off with the colors, which the rebels retained as a trophy.

General Napoleon B. Buford was born in Woodford county, Ky.,

January 13, 1807. In 1823 he was appointed a cadet at West Point, through the influence of Richard M. Johnson. In 1827 he graduated with honor, and was commissioned Lieutenant of artillery. He was for a time stationed at the School of Practice at Fortress Monroe, where he employed his leisure time in the study of the law. He was next detailed to make a survey of the Kentucky river, and afterward of the Rock Island and Des Moines rapids, on the Mississippi river, both of which commissions he executed with credit to himself and the service. In 1830 he joined his regiment at Eastport, Me., and there resumed his legal studies, and in the following year was granted a leave of absence, by General Scott, that he might enter the Law School of Harvard University, which was then under the direction of Chief Justice Story. In 1833 he was appointed an Assistant Professor at West Point, where he remained until 1835, when he resigned his commission and engaged in the service of his native State, Kentucky, as a civil engineer. In 1843 he removed to Rock Island, Ill., where he was successively a merchant, iron founder and banker. He took an active part in the building of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad, of which company he was long one of the Directors, and was subsequently President of the Rock Island and Peoria Railroad. The breaking out of the rebellion ruined his banking business, as he had a large amount of money invested in Southern State bonds. He gave up all his property to satisfy his obligations, and then offered his services to his country. On the 10th of August, 1861, he was commissioned by Governor Yates Colonel of the 27th Illinois Volunteers, which he thoroughly disciplined and prepared for service. At Belmont and Island No. 10 he gave ample evidence of his good qualities as a soldier, and for his gallant conduct at Union City he was commissioned Brigadier General by the President. After the surrender of Island No. 10 he was attached to the Army of the Mississippi, and moved upon Fort Pillow; but the overflow rendered operations impracticable, and he was ordered to join General Halleck at Corinth, where he commanded a brigade during the entire siege, taking a gallant and conspicuous part. During the pursuit of the enemy, after the second battle of Corinth, he was disabled by a sun-stroke, and borne back to Corinth, nearly insensible. To recover his health, so greatly impaired

"

by the summer campaign, he was granted a leave of absence, and detailed upon court-martial duty at Washington, for a period of two months. At the termination of his duties there he was commissioned Major-General, and the commission was handed to him by the Secretary of War, in person, accompanied by words of high praise and commendation. The Secretary also repeated the words of President Lincoln, that he desired to express his appreciation of his distinguished and faithful services, and sent him the commission in token thereof, which commission he still holds and values, although allowed to expire by constitutional limitation. Reporting to General Grant then before Vicksburg, he was by him ordered to the command of Cairo, where he remained during the siege of Vicksburg. From this command he was ordered to the district of East Arkansas, headquarters at Helena, where he commanded for eighteen months, reducing the great expenses of that command, and bringing order out of confusion. He also held with a strong hand the horde of speculators and smugglers who infested that region, and who tried in vain to escape his strict and impartial investigation. During his long command in this district he devoted himself with great zeal to the best welfare of the freedmen and refugees; established the only self-supporting colony of freedmen, at that time, on the river; protected and encouraged the schools, and founded the first orphan asylum and industrial school for freed people in that Department. The result of his labors is still apparent in the prosperity of the asylum now established on a permanent foundation, and in the increasing usefulness of the industrial school. Both of these institutions were placed by him under the care of the Quakers of Indiana, who have most faithfully carried out his benevolent intentions. He was relieved by General Alex. McD. McCook, in March, 1865, and honorably mustered out of the service in September. He is now employed as General Superintendent of the Federal Union Mining Company, in Colorado.

THIRTY-EIGHTH ILLINOIS INFANTRY.

The 38th regiment was organized at Camp Butler, and mustered into the service August 15, 1861. Its original roster was as follows: Colonel, William P. Carlin; Lieutenant-Colonel, Mortimer O'Kean; Major, Daniel

H. Gilmer; Adjutant, Arthur Lee Bailhache; Surgeon, John L. Teed; 1st Assistant Surgeon, Dudley W. Stewart; 2d Assistant Surgeon, Edward J. Tichener; Chaplain, Jacob E. Reed.

Co. A-Captain, Henry N. Alden; 1st Lieutenant, George H. Alcoke; 2d Lieutenant, Walter E. Carlin.

Co. B-Captain, David Young; 1st Lieutenant, Robert M. Rankin; 2d Lieutenant, Harrison Tyner.

Co. C-Captain, Theodore C. Roding; 1st Lieutenant, Thomas Cole; 2d Lieutenant, James Mullen.

Co. D-Captain, Alexander G. Sutherland; 1st Lieutenant, James A. Moore; 2d Lieutenant, Robert Plunkett.

Co. E-Captain, James M. True; 1st Lieutenant, John McKinstry; 2d Lieutenant, John L. Dillon.

Co. F-Captain, James P. Mead; 1st Lieutenant, William P. Hunt; 2d Lieutenant, Willis G. Whitehurst.

Co. G-Captain, Andrew M. Pollard; 1st Lieutenant, William F. Chapman; 2d Lieutenant, Andrew J. Rankin.

Co. H-Captain, Charles Yelton; 1st Lieutenant, Abraham E. Goble; 2d Lieu tenant, Charles H. Miller.

Co. I-Captain, Charles Churchill; 1st Lieutenant, William Ferriman; 2d Lieu tenant, Edward Colyer.

Co. K-Captain, William C. Harris; 1st Lieutenant, Bushwood W. Harris; 2d Lieutenant, Isaiah Foote.

On the 20th of September, the regiment left for Pilot Knob, Mo. On the 20th of October it marched for Fredericktown, and on the 21st engaged in battle at that place with the rebels under Jeff. Thompson. It then returned to Pilot Knob, and remained there during the winter. From March 3d to May 10, 1862, it was campaigning in Missouri and Arkansas, and was then transferred to the Department of the Mississippi, and went to Hamburg Landing, Tenn., moving to the front at Corinth, and participating in the last days of the siege. It then engaged in the various marches of the brigade in that section, till August 14th, when it set out to join the Army of the Ohio, under Buell, reaching Louisville September 26th, "ragged and exhausted." It left Louisville October 1st, and was engaged at the battle of Perryville [Vol. I., p. 341], and behaved with such gallantry as to receive honorable mention from General Mitchell in his report. It then joined in the pursuit of Bragg as far as Crab Orchard, from whence it marched to Edgefield Junction, near Nashville, arriving November 9th. It was soon sent out on a scout to Harpeth Shoals, and destroyed a large amount of

« AnteriorContinuar »