REMINISCENCES OF AN OHIO VOLUNTEER
By PHILIP D. JORDAN and CHARLES M.
THOMAS
Introduction
When Fort Sumter felt the crash of
Confederate guns on April
12, 1861, a nation knew that an
irresistible conflict had at last
reached a climax. Chattering telegraph
keys took the drama of
Charleston harbor through the North in
frantic haste. In the village
of Oxford, Ohio, students of Miami
University were gathering for
chapel services. President John W. Hall,
himself from the South,
solemnly opened the exercises with the
46th Psalm, beginning,
"God is our refuge and strength, a
very present help in trouble."
Students and faculty sat silent,
noticing that the President was at
times so overcome by emotion that he
could scarcely speak. "The
quivering of the lips, the rising in the
throat, and the moisture in
the eye," noted one observant
student, "in the case of one who had
always been so self-controlled, bespoke
the fear he had, not only of
a dismembered college, but of a bloody
fratricidal war."1 Boys
from North and South left that
convocation to serve the causes in
which they believed. Southerners soon
entrained for Cincinnati,
borderland city, and from there moved to
join detachments of
gray-clad troops.2
Northern sympathizers quickly gathered
in the college chapel
where one of the students, Ozra J.
Dodds,3 suggested the organiza-
tion of the University Rifle Company
whose services were to be
offered immediately to the State. Within
a few minutes, 160
undergraduates and local boys had given
their names to the clerk.4
1 Robert N. Adams, My First Company (n.
p., n. d.), a pamphlet in the Miami
University Library. Originally read
before the Minnesota Commandery of the Loyal Legion.
2 Alfred
H. Upham, Old Miami (Hamilton, Ohio, 1909), 215-7.
3 Ozra J. Dodds, a senior, was elected
captain of the University Rifles mainly be-
cause he had been a student at Wabash
College when General Lew Wallace was president
and had learned the rudiments of
military drill under Wallace. Dodds was a prominent
figure on the Miami campus, being one of
the editors of the Miami Student. See "The
Crisis of Our Country," Miami
Student, I, no. 5 (May-June 1861), 177-84. Dodds
eventually rose to the rank of colonel
and after the war practiced law in Cincinnati.
4 See B. S. Bartlow, comp., A Partial
Roster of Miami University Students in the
Mexican War, Union and Confederate
Armies of the Civil War and in the Spanish-American
War (Hamilton, n. d.).
(304)
BROWN: REMINISCENCES 305
Among the village boys who signed this
first informal muster
roll was a journeyman carpenter, Edwin
Witherby Brown. His
company was ordered to proceed to Camp
Jackson at Columbus as
soon as possible. Hurried preparations
disrupted college routine
and turned placid Oxford into an uproar.
Girls of the three female
colleges in Oxford set about making
flannel underclothing. "Either
want of economy or their extravagant
notions of my proportions,"
wrote one recruit years later,
"gave me a pair of drawers I could
button around my neck and the strings of
which were each about a
yard in length."5 Oxford
citizens presented the command with a
beautiful new silk flag, and each man
was given a small New
Testament of the type later to be issued
by the United States
Christian Commission.6 The
company was drawn up in line on
the west side of the campus on the
afternoon of April 22, 1861.
Hall made a farewell speech, and the
march to the train began. At
the station an "immense
concourse" of people had gathered to
see Oxford's first company off to the
war. "While many students in
other colleges have given up their
books, and gone off in some
military company," proudly
commented the Miami Student, "yet
we know of no college, either East or
West, which has sent out in
a body such a number to represent it in
the wars."7
Brown, although not a university
student, had been one of
the first to enroll in the University
Rifles and marched to the rail-
road station with his comrades. He was
to serve with this com-
pany during its three months' enlistment
and was to re-enlist a sec-
ond time. Fortunately, he possessed a
sharp memory for details,
a keen wit, and a rather attractive
literary style. Years later a
manuscript volume, although perhaps not
entirely holographic,
recorded his experiences as an Ohio
volunteer soldier.
Brown was born in Worcester,
Massachusetts, on May 26,
1837. His parents were Henry Lewis Brown
and Mary Knoulton
Brown, both of whom were of English
stock. When Edwin was
eight years of age, his parents
emigrated to Yankeetown, Indiana,
where they remained until 1848. Then
they back-trailed to Butler
5 Adams, My First Company, 288.
6 Dr. Stephen Cooper, "Miami in the
Civil War," Miami University, Bulletin, V,
no. 8 (October, 1906), [4].
7 I, no. 5 (May-June, 1861), 197. Also
Cincinnati Enquirer, May 1, 1892, for
article by W. H. Chamberlain, a Miami
University student in 1861.
306
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
County, Ohio. Here the boy helped on the
family farm and then
was apprenticed to a local carpenter.
Brown's military record shows that he
was enrolled April 18,
1861, at Oxford to serve three months.
He was mustered in May
14, 1861, at Columbus as a private of
Company B, 20th Regiment
Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was
mustered out with his company
and honorably discharged on August 18,
1861, at Columbus while
serving as a private. The record further
shows that he was en-
rolled September 19, 1861, at
Greenfield, Ohio, to serve three
years, was mustered in the same date at
Cincinnati as a corporal,
Company C, 81st Regiment Ohio Volunteer
Infantry, with which
organization he was mustered out and
honorably discharged on
September 26, 1864, at Camp Chase, Ohio,
as a private. He was
detailed at various times during his
service as a hospital waiter,
nurse, ward-master, and steward.
Brown's first enlistment was mainly
served in western Virginia
where he guarded railroad bridges and
had some hospital experi-
ences. After his enlistment in the 81st
Regiment Ohio Volunteer
Infantry he took part in the Missouri
campaign of the winter of
1861-2. Subsequently, he moved with his
company and shared in
the military operations around Shiloh,
Corinth, Chattanooga, and
Atlanta.8
After he was mustered out, Brown took up
his farming career
again. But, feeling the call of the
Kansas frontier, he left Butler
County in the 1870's. Upon his return,
toward the close of the
decade, he worked as a carpenter in
Oxford and vicinity until ad..
vanced years. He died at the home of a
son, Dr. Kent Brown, in
Hartford, Connecticut, on July 22, 1925.
He was buried in the
Oxford village cemetery.9
Sometime between 1912 and 1914, Brown,
now a man past
seventy, completed writing the narrative
of his war experiences.
The final draft was penned in a careful
hand upon the 300 pages of
a blank book, bound in stiff, black
boards and measuring 101/2 x 71/2
inches. Examination of the script leads
us to believe that Brown
8 Two excellent accounts of the 81st
Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry are: W. H.
Chamberlain, History of the
Eighty-First Regiment . . . During the War of the Rebellion
(Cincinnati, 1865), and Charles Wright, A
Corporal's Story . . . of Company C, 81st Ohio
Volunteer Infantry (Philadelphia, 1881). In the latter, references to
Edwin W. Brown are
found on pages 5, 6, 18.
9 Hamilton
(Ohio) Daily News, July 28, 1925, for obituary.
BROWN: REMINISCENCES 307
himself did not make the majority of
entries, but he probably did
make certain insertions and emendations
as the wavering script,
usually associated with a person of
advanced years, is present in
several places.
The author entitled his manuscript
"Under a Poncho with
Grant and Sherman" and dedicated it
to his mother. He divided
it into an introduction and twenty
chapters. In 1937, the manu-
script came into the possession of
Professor E. W. King, librarian
of the Miami University Library, who,
with his customary grace
and generosity, brought it to the
attention of the senior editor and
furthermore gave his permission for the
volume's publication.
The editors, therefore, selected those
portions of the manu-
script which they felt were particularly
significant as a further
contribution to the Civil War history of
Ohio. We have followed
the author's original spelling,
punctuation, and sentence structure
as closely as possible. Here and there
explanatory material has
been inserted in the text in the usual
square brackets. Other
supplementary information was placed in
footnotes.
Selections from the Manuscript
When the roar and thunder of the
confederate guns, in their
attack on Fort Sumpter, reverberated
through the north, and the
nerves of every loyal man tingled with
the sound, and Abraham
Lincoln called for 75,000 troops, and
the call was put to us at a
meeting in the Town Hall at Oxford O., I
was the third man to
get in line.
At that time I was a journey man
carpenter at work at Western
College of Oxford, that was then
building after being burned the
first time.
Ozro J. Dodds, a member of the senior
class in Miami Uni-
versity, raised a company composed
largely of students, and especi-
ally of the senior class.
We were called the University Rifles,
and became Co. B. of the
20th Ohio Regiment of Volunteers.
Everybody was full to the brim of
excitement and patriotism,
and enthusiasm.
The ladies collected at the chapel of
the Institute, and brought
here all the sewing machines they could
get, and also all the red
flannel in town, and after sewing their
very best all night, presented
us each with a red flannel shirt, which
was all the uniform we had,
and of which we were very proud.
In the meantime Prof. [0. N.] Stoddard
of Miami University
308
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
telegraphed to Cincinnati for the silk
for our banner, and another
band of women made it for us, so that we
were ready to march off
with our red shirts flaming and our
banner flying very proudly over
us.
The news that a company from Oxford was
about to leave
spread all over the country, and every
body came to town to see us
off.
Oxford never saw such a croud of people.
Thousands and thousands were there.
As we stood in line waiting for the
train, that whole mob
tried to shake hands with every one of
us.
One dear old motherly woman, fat and
puffy, after walking
the length of the whole line, and
shaking every one of us by the
hand completely broke down at the last
and fairly screamed, "Just
to think that all these handsome young
fellows are going away to
be slaughtered."
Nobody at this age can hardly concieve
the intenceness of
the excitement we labored under at that
time, unless they go
through with it themselves.
But at last our train was off and it was
a great relief, since
our sweethearts were all on hands, and
there was any amount of
kissing and squeezing done before we
left our dear girls in tears
when our train moved out.
I cannot quite forget one kiss I got.
I was not particularly fond of the girl,
but it happened in
such a way that it inspired a rhyme a
few lines of which Ill re-
cord.--
"With my heart in my mouth,
And my head in a whirl;
I came round the corner
And met my dear girl;
I met her in the street,
And I got a parting kiss;
And I ever carried with me
The memory of its bliss."
In due time we reached Columbus in the
middle of the night,
marched through the city to Goodell
Park, where we went into
camp at what was called Camp Jackson.
I can never forget the sensation I had
here upon entering
the gate to see the sentinels with their
slow and stately tread pac-
ing to and fro, and one of them knowing our feelings
from his
own experience thoroughly enjoyed adding
to the sensation by ex-
claiming in a low sepulchral voice, "Now weve got
you!"
BROWN: REMINISCENCES 309
There was nothing for us to do but go in
and lay down under
the trees for the rest of the night.
Here we took up the regular course of
Military Drill and
worked at it with a will so that we might become
proficient in the
evolutions of a soldier.... Just about
this time they made a detail
of ten men from each Co. who were handy
with tools, and sent us
to Zanesville O., for the purpose of
erecting a barracks for the
regiment...
[During the summer of 1861, Brown
returned to his regiment
which moved to Missouri. That winter he
camped near Franklin,
moved against the enemy in November, and
saw service in Mont-
gomery County in December. Brown
continues the narrative as
of March 1, 1862.]
Immediately we were ordered to march to
St. Louis and join
Gen'l Grant's Army then about to begin
the campaign through the
south.
We boarded the steamer Meteor, packed in
like sardines for
eleven days eating nothing but hard tack
and raw pork and drink-
ing water dipped up from the river.
We arrived at Pittsburg Landing about
March 16, [1862]
and went into camp, little dreaming what
we were to go through on
this very ground.
The steamer Meteor was one of the
largest of the Mississippi
river boats, and she was loaded to the
limit. Our regiment was
bivouaced on the upper deck. The cabin
and state rooms were
occupied by ladies and officers, Gov.
[Richard] Yates of Ill. being
on board, while below was wagons and
artillery, horses, mules and
all sorts of stuff. Army supplies of
every kind filled every inch of
space not imperatively demanded for fuel
to run the boat. If my
memory serves me right we were crowded
on this boat eleven days,
and not a morsel of food or drink except
hardtack, raw pork, and
river water entered my mouth until we
disembarked at Pittsburg
Landing. After we had been on board long
enough to get pretty
hungry some of our boys discovered a
pile of sutler's goods on the
foreward deck covered up with a
tarpaulin smug and tight --
crackers, cheese, bologna and other
eatables -- and began to help
themselves, when the owner with true and
generous bonhomie
gave them several boxes of crackers, a
couple of cheese and a big
pile of bologna, so that everybody was
ashamed to rob the man
after such a treat so graciously given,
but after we landed at Shiloh
and our sutler had opened his stock of
goods for sale we discovered
that the price of things had very
suddenly taken a jump up. ...
From one bluff the boat following us
(Black Warrior) was
fired upon and three or four men were
wounded. No one was
310
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
killed but it stirred up a hornets nest
on the boat and a fine fusillade
from the Black Warrior was the result
that sent the would be
guerillas scampering over the hill and out of sight in
a rather
unsoldierly sort of a way. After that
little affair with the bush-
whackers we were ready when ever our fleet approached a
bluff
for a scrap but we were not again
molested on the entire trip....
I could not bar the thoughts of the
reckless daring of such a trip
into the very center of the Confederacy,
and what sort of a recep-
tion we would receive, and how we would
get back, if we ever were
to, for we were rushing into (for almost
all of us) a terra-incognita
peopled by the fierce and bloody
southerners of whose prowess we
had heard so much. The decendents of
Jackson, Crocket, Housten,
and Bowie were to be our foes, and fight
on their own hills and
rivers, in defence of their own homes
and hearth stones.
As I contemplated this condition of
things I confess I did not
feel very hilarious but my thoughts
assumed a rather somber hue.
. . . March 16th, [1862] we tied fast to
a tree at Pitts. Ldg. and
began to get our baggage on shore, and
before daybreak we were
camped on the hill near by....
If a hundred men wrote of bloody Shiloh
every one would tell
a different tale, so if mine is unique
so much the better.
That Easter morning broke over the
eastern hills of Tenn.
exceedingly fair. No Sabbath morning ever gave promise of
"Peace on earth: Good will to
men" in larger measure.
That April 6th, [1862] at daybreak in
our camp was over-
flowing with joy and gladness....
But what does all that racket mean away
over towards old
Shiloh church? ... we stood and and
wondered and listened to the
first pattering shots of the first great
battle in which the most of
us had taken part.
Fortunately for us of the 81st O. V. I.
our camp was the
extreme northern one and as far as it
could be from the point of
attack two miles and a half to the
south.
But while we stood and listened and
doubted the first shell
fired in the Battle of Shiloh came
screaming with crash after crash
through the treetops and the question
was settled once for all,
and rather abruptly.
I had turned out just at dawn, taken
three canteens, and gone
up Snake Creek a mile and over to a
spring of water that I thought
was purer than that used at our camp,
and was crouching down
under the bank filling my canteens with
my head almost touching
the earth, when I heard the tread of the
confederates 70,000 of
whom were at that moment smiting the
earth with their rapid ad-
vance.10
10 Authorities generally estimate the
Confederate force at 40,000.
BROWN: REMINISCENCES 311
I was at first puzzled to know what that
purring of the ground
meant, but I remember speaking to myself, "That
sounds just like
an army marching" but when their battery opened on
our camp I
was wide awake instantly, and rushing back to camp
doing as fine
a job of sprinting as I had ever put up,
but by the time I reached
my regiment the boom of cannon, scream of shell and
their constant
crash through the treetops, the terrific
roar of musketry was simply
awful.... Many of the trees were torn
all to pieces, while branches
and tops were falling all through the
woods.
Two weeks after the battle my ears
played me all sorts of
pranks and tricks, and made me hear any
amount of sounds that
had no reality, and nothing that I heard
seemed in a natural or
ordinary tone.
So sensitive were my auditory nerves
that the click of the
wagon wheels on the iron axeltrees
sounded just like volleys of
musketry, and to this day I have the
same old rattle that has stuck
to my tympanums all these years.
When our gunboats the Tyler and
Lexington got the range on
the rebel lines and opened with their
heavy guns at our backs, with
their great roaring shells almost taking
our hats off at every dis-
charge, it was fierce and furious. It at
times almost broke my
neck and the sharpest pain I ever
endured was caused by those
terrific explosions.
When night came to our relief and the
battle on land was all
over for the day, those great guns kept
up the fight, slowly pound-
ing away all night long. The sensation
at every shot was that of
being lifted two feet and slammed down
with a good healthy old
whack which got rather monotonos before
morning.
About midnight a severe thunder storm
came up and while the
rain fell in torrents the most vivid
flashes of lightening and nerve
racking crashes of thunder were
incessant. It seemed like the Lord
was rubbing it in on us poor sinners.
after all we had gone through
that day.
At the beginning of the battle that 81st
rushed into the line
and was sent to hold the bridge over
Snake Creek, on the way to
Crumps Landing, where Lew Wallace was
stationed with his division.
We held this bridge in spite of [James
R.] Chalmers' Rebel
Cavalry until after noon when we were
hurried to the center of the
fight with orders to press forward as
far as possible and hold our
position with the most determined
tenacity.
We moved forward promptly and passing
through a bit of
woods were suddenly confronted by a
battery of six brass, Napo-
leon guns, which we captured in fine
style and held until the regi-
ment was ordered to fall back on the
double quick to prevent
capture as the enemy was closing in on
our rear.
312
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The orderly who brought the order to
fall back on the main
line lost his life by a shell just a second after
delivering the message.
Back with a rush went the regiment just
in the nick of time and
got a position in the line farther to the right.
This line was not broken although the
enemy rushed upon it
time after time with desperate courage but only to be
torn to pieces
by our batteries and slaughtered by the terrific
musketry they had
to face, and undoubtedly were as glad to
see the sun go down as
were we.
At this time the first regiment of
Buell's Army came with a
quick step up the hill from the landing,
shouting, "We are with you
boys! We heard the roar of the fight all
day but couldn't get
here any sooner."
These were soon followed by others so
that by morning we
were heavily reinforced by the army in
command of that General.
And just at dusk Lew Wallace came
creeping in with his tardy
division.11 . . .
The first tent directly on the Crump's
Landing road as you
came into our camp was used by Wallace
that night and it happened
to be the tent ordinarily occupied by E.
W. Brown (with others).
Our orders were for every man to
consider himself on duty
all night long, but a good bit of
foraging was done for something to
eat, for no one had eaten a bite all day
and the need of food was
getting urgent by dark.
At the first hint of day our boys were
aroused and our lines
very soon began the forward movement.
The enemy had fallen
back more than a mile to a strong
position and were grimly waiting
for us. No one who was on that march can
or will ever forget it,
being over the ground where the most
desperate fighting of the day
previous had occurred. The dead in all
manner of mutilation
were every where intermingled with
hundreds of the wounded,
brave fellows many of them feebly waving
their hands to cheer
our line as they carefully picked their
way among their fallen
comrads. ...
Friend and foe were intermingled and it
seemed that every
man in grey had a companion in blue. The
enemy made a very
stubborn fight until well in the
afternoon but were only fighting
for time and were getting every thing
possible strung out on the
road for Corinth.
When the struggle was over we were all
of us just about dead
on our feet and did not know that it was
possible for us to follow
up the enemy immediately, as two years
later we would have surely
done....
11 Lew Wallace, An Autobiography (New
York, 1906), II, 503-603, for defense of
action at Shiloh.
BROWN: REMINISCENCES 313
The army under Gen'l Grant that fought
that great battle
was lied about by almost every person who wrote of the
fight.
Even Whitelaw Ried wrote some shameful
misrepresentations.12
Safe on a steamboat, behind a high bluff
where he could only see
the sick and thousands of wounded and
the comparatively few
poltroons who are in evidence in every
army, he wrote of as brave
an army as ever fought a battle, as
huddled behind the hills in
helpless fright.
Such being the condition of our army, I
want to ask what
power kept the 70,000 rebels from the
Landing and who killed the
1800 dead rebels and who hurt the 12,000
wounded, on that bloody
field.13 . . .
The 81st with others presses on two or
three miles after the
retreating enemy but were halted in a
low wet spot where the
ground was covered with water that was
of a brick-dust red be-
cause of the blood from the slain of
both men and horses.
After a few minutes waiting, being about
all in, and standing
in the mud and water, leaning on a
musket was a poor way to rest,
and seeing a chance to slip in by the
side of a man seated on a
chunk of wood between the roots of a
large elm tree, with his hat
pulled down over his nose. I quietly slipped in at his
side and
in a minute my head was resting on his
shoulder and I was sound
asleep. How long I slept I do not know
but I awakened with a
queer feeling, and lifting the hat I discovered my
peaceful and
quiet friend was taking his long last
sleep, having been shot in the
right eye. I simply arose and looked for
another seat....
A few days after the battle I had been
down to the Landing
but was returning to camp, when I had a
very singular experience.
For a moment I seemed to be back in
Oxford and it seemed so
real that I feared I was demented and
stood in a sort of dazed
condition and I almost let it startle me
quite a bit, but in a
moment I made the discovery that a bell
on a steamboat, that was
ringing, had exactly the same tone as
the old school bell at home.
As long as it rang I stood and listened
fairly fascinated by the
delightful sound so familiar and dear to
my homesick soul. And
for days I waited and listened for that
bell and I heard it fre-
quently afterwards and always to my
delight for it was a dispeler
of the cloud of gloom that for a time
enshrouded me....
After the battle of Shiloh there was a
great rush up the Tenn.
river by steamboats to view the great
battle field. Many came to
see friends and help care for the
wounded or to take home their
dead for burial, but the greater number
came just to see, and quite
12 Whitelaw Reid, Ohio in the War (Cincinnati,
1868), II, 465-9, for general ac-
count of the 81st O. V. I.
13 Authorities generally estimate the Confederate losses at 1728 killed,
8,012 wound-
ed, and 959 missing. The total Federal
losses were 13,047.
314
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
a good many came to make money, and soon
the river bank was
lined with bakeries, and eating houses, and all seemed
to be doing
a rushing business, for as we were soon
paid off for three or four
months time, money was plentiful, and
every body spent it freely
for anything that was good to eat, with
little thought of cost or
value.
The steamboats on the Mississippi and
Ohio rivers were al-
ways infested with gangs of gamblers. We
called them Black-
legs. That they were desperados every
one knew. Human Wolves!
A gang of this class soon collected and
had fleeced every fool who
gave them a chance at the Landing. They
had all sorts of gambling
devises to trap the unwary and soon
collected a lot of women as
bad as the worst man in the whole bunch,
and they soon got so
terribly bad that the whole lot were
sent off down the river, but
immediately after the capture of Corinth
they began gathering
again like buzzards about carrion, and
soon had to be run off
again.
But this time they found an island in
the Tuscumbia river
that was covered with a growth of willow
trees that stood so thick
on the ground that a person could hardly
squeeze through and in
that stronghold they united their
forces, and determined to defy
the General in Command.
Getting word of that Gamblers Hell, I
went over to see the
place but five minutes was as long a
time as I wanted to spend
there. Money -- gold and silver -- was
fairly stacked up on their
long table, and every man had two Navy
revolvers.
But a few days after I was there, a
whole regiment of men
was taken down to the place and without
any warning, with fixed
bayonets, charged the place, smashed all
their gambling machines
and got most of the money. This broke up
the gang for good.
By the time those who played cards were
in the army three
years they were almost all gamblers and
the exceptions were few.
Very soon after every pay a certain
clique in every regiment
had almost all the money, and the
simpleton would have to borrow
for spending money until the next visit
of the Pay Master. ...
We left Pittsburg Landing beginning our
advance on Corinth
May 8th, [1862] skirmishing for about
three weeks, wading
through swamps, building corduroys, and
caring for our sick, most
of whom were taken ill through drinking
such impure water. ...
The sickness however was so severe in
some of the most north-
ern regiments, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and
Michigan suffering the
most severely, that some whole regiments
were excused from duty,
and it took most of the well men to care
for the sick ...
On May 29th while helping the boys build
a breastwork, I
climbed on top to tramp the earth down,
when a rebel skirmisher
BROWN: REMINISCENCES 315
drew a bead on me, and only missed me by
a graze, which gave
me quite a start as it was the first
time I was sure a rebel had
undertaken to kill me.
On this morning we were startled by
three successive tre-
mendous explosions in Corinth which was
our first intimation that
the enemy was evacuating. We immediately
went over and took
possession of the town, and in a few
hours time were in pursuit.
The enemy retreated to Blackland and
Guntown, probably
fifty miles away, destroying the water
by pollution, tearing up
bridges, blocking roadways and anything
they could do to impede
our progress. After thirty miles of this
kind of marching we were
ordered to return to Corinth and rest.
This march was the most severe in my
whole service. The
heat was intense and the dust almost
intolerable. Our advance
was under the immediate command of Gen'l
[John] Pope. The
line of pursuit and retreat was to the
south east and followed for
many miles a dry divide so that in a
whole days march we did not
cross a flowing stream. The houses were
far apart and their water
was secured from deep wells mostly bored
and not one but was out of
use, purposely no doubt. Had they all
been in repair they could
not have furnished a drop in every
barrel of water needed. 100,000
men and at least 30,000 horses and
mules, on a forced march on a
hot day, will if it can be procured
consume enough water to float
an ocean liner, and then some, and
without it suffer terribly from
thirst.
The soil was of a light sandy nature
easily tramped into dust.
The fences were all either burned, or
thrown down, and the roads
from two to three hundred feet wide were
the whole width a bed
of blinding, suffocating dust.... We dug
it out of our ears, wiped
it from our eyes, and blew it from our
nostrils as we doggedly
pushed on held to our desperate task by
the certain knowledge that
water, blessed water was only to be had twenty miles
away. It
seemed an eternity to reach it that
broiling hot day, but reach it I
did, though I was outran by thousands of
men, horses and mules.
As I approached the swift flowing
stream, I saw a solid line of men,
up and down as far as one could see,
drinking and bathing their
faces. ...
Along about the middle of July a
malignant typhus fever
broke out in the 81st Ohio [at Camp
Corinth]. Some of the men
lived but thirty-six hours, the fever
raging so severe that most of
us wondered if a week would find us
living or dead. I was Ward-
master and had full charge of the sick, working from
noon until
midnight, and sleeping but a few hours,
and that on the ground
under a big hickory tree. ...
316
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
I have always thought that this sickness
was due to that miser-
able, foul smelling water secured on that worst of
marches. ...
Immediately after the battle of Iuka
[Mississippi, Sept. 19-20,
1862] the slaves held in northern
Mississippi and Alabama by a
preconserted plan came rushing into Corinth and for
some time
after the battles of Corinth they kept
coming in squads and driblets
until 7,000 were finaly collected at
their camp east of the town and
a motly croud they were -- old, young, little, big,
black and
white, for I could detect no trace of
black blood in some of them.
There were no buildings in which to put
them and no tents
to spare so the poor blacks had to take
the weather like cattle un-
til cabins could be built and they had
to mainly shift for them-
selves until several weeks after the battles of Corinth
on the 3d and
4th of Oct., for we had all we could do to look out for
ourselves
with the wounded of both battles on our hands.
A place about a mile east of town where
there was plenty of
water and wood was selected for their
camp, and they were supplied
with tools, and all the able-bodied were
put to work on their camp,
and by the time cold weather came on
they were quite comfortably
housed and as rations were issued to
them they seemed as happy
as a lot of school children on a
vacation.
But when they first came in they had as
tough a time as any
set of human beings I ever saw, for they
were without any shelter
or bedding and only half clad. A three
days rain, quite cold,
came on and how they did suffer! It was
pitiful . . . and hundreds
were helpless with acute inflamatory
troubles of all sorts, and
every day there was a long death list --
a dozen funerals in progress
all the time, and prayer meetings just
raging all over their camps,
while right in the vortex of the whole
eruption a grand ball was
in progress all the time at night. I
witnessed shindigs and hoe-
downs the like of which I had never
dreamed of. ... after the
battle of Corinth, an officer was put in
command of the negro camp
and soon order and discipline began to
tell on that rag-a-muffin
croud. A full regiment of men was enlisted and set to
drilling and
very soon made a fine show and, I
believe, good soldiers. They
were armed and equiped the same as the
rest of us, and officered
by selecting good men from different
regiments of white troops....
Before Corinth was abandoned as a
military post two regiments
of black troops were formed out of this
camp. What became of
the remainder after our army
concentrated at Chattanooga I do not
know. ... If I am not mistaken a large
per cent of those poor
fellows because of their black skins
were murdered at the Fort
Pillow Massacre by Forests brutal
confederates.14. . .
14 General
N. B. Forrest commanded a force of 1500 Confederates in the battle of
Fort Pillow, Tennessee, April 12, 1864.
The garrison of 557 federal soldiers refused to
surrender. The fort was captured in less
than thirty minutes, and Union losses were 221
killed, 130 wounded. Union negro troops
suffered most.
BROWN: REMINISCENCES 317
The latter part of Oct. [1862] an order
came for the enroll-
ment of the entire camp, and blanks were
furnished for that pur-
pose ...
One gang that I enrolled, sixty in
number, had been so terribly
abused, beaten, lashed and branded, that
they were little better
than beasts, and could hardly tell their
own names and not half of
them had any idea about their own age,
but all referred me to a
bright, mulatto girl of more than usual
intelligence, of about
twenty five years of age who had her two
children with her, that
looked to me white. As I took down her
name I put the usual
question, "Are you married?"
and received the answer, "No"!
"Whose children are these?
"Them's minel"
"Who's their father?"
"My master!"
As I enrolled this gang of plantation
hands and saw the great
ugly seams on their backs, and actually
great brands on their
thighs, full four inches long, burned so
as to leave a deep, red
scar, and the embruited and pitiable
condition of all of them, I
thought Mrs. Stow's Legree a saint as
compared with the owner of
these slaves. And at that time I would
as soon have shot him
as killed a rattle snake.
The officer in charge of the camp was so
over whelmed with
work that he was compelled to use
everybody that he could trust
who was willing to help, so I took all
sorts of jobs -- acted the
doctor and got into some terrible,
trying positions. One poor girl,
who became a mother, died in the most painful
convulsions. How
many of these poor people I cupped and
mustard plastered I can
never tell, and finaly was detaled to
help in the examination of
the enlisted men before they were
mustered into the U. S. service.
They were brought perfectly nude, three
at a time, into a
room for examination so that I had an
unusual chance to see and
know for myself the exact condition they
were in, and I want to
here testify that three-fourths of them
had by lash or brand been
cruelly treated.
Some of these, especially the women,
were most incredably
strong. We made tubs for them by sawing
the pork barrels
through the middle which made two very
heavy, large tubs. I
have seen a woman take one of those
heavy half barrels on her
head and a six or eight gallon camp
kettle in each hand, go down
quite a steep hill to a creek, fill all
three vessels brim full of water,
ballance the tub on her head without
spilling a drop, catch up the
two kettles, and walk up the hill with
perfect ease. It seemed to
me that the women were stronger and more
brutal than the men.
Having written at such length of the
somber and savage side
318
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of these poor, plantation people, it is
with real pleasure that I now
tell of the brighter side of the
picture. One day a mulatto man
came to me and called me Mister instead
of Master, and at once
I saw he was far above the ordinary
southern slave. He told me
that he wanted work, terribly bad. On
interogating him, his reply
was, "I can do most anything! I was
my masters manager and
run the plantation and my wife run the
house and is the best cook
in the state, and my daughters were the
housemaids," and he add-
ed "I am a preacher! Mr. Marquis
was always very kind and
good to us. I have no fault to find with
him!" I was about as
glad to get this man and his wife as
they were to secure a place to
work for at that time I had a vile old
steamboat cook in charge of
my hospital kitchen, who was drunk
almost half of the time, and
when drunk was a perfect old blasphemous
brute, and at this very
time was off on a toot. In a few minutes
my preacher man had his
family on hands and the woman made good,
and we had such a
supper as not one of us had tasted since
our mothers did their best
to give us a farewell meal to be
remembered. There was real re-
joicing all around for I had about six
or eight of the sick who need-
ed just what they got that night.
At the close of the war mother
Bickerdike took them all to
Chicago, and in the then outskirts of
the city they got hold of
some land and the growth of the city and
real estate values, made
the family wealthy. ...
During the last part of the first days
battle at Hatchie Hills,
[Tenn. Oct. 5, 1862] and while it was
still a terrible roar, but a
short distance off a long freight depot
was filled with wounded
men, and the ambulances unloading more
all the time, and only
three or four surgeons working in the
building. ...
The last morning of the battle we began
pitching shot and
shell at each other over and through a
small house which we later
found to hold a mother and two tiny
girls. They escaped harm
however....
[The preceding sentences were written
over an erasure which
can be deciphered as having been first
written: "The last morn-
ing the rebels began pitching shells
into our camp and killed some
wounded men."]
When the rebels invaded our camp my knap
sack was stolen.
It contained a bunch of letters from a
lady friend and these the
rebel threw one by one along the road as
he rode on. William H.
Moore of Iowa was passing over the same
road a few days later
and picked them up, read them all and corresponded with
the girl.
He returned them to me when he came to
Corinth and as a result
of it we became fast friends and have
corresponded ever since.
We had so many wounded at the battle of
Corinth that the
BROWN: REMINISCENCES 319
81st Ohio had to remove their hospital
from my tent to a four
roomed block which they secured in town.
Each room contained
thirty-two beds, and as Wardmaster I was
given sixteen nurses,
two cooks, two laundresses, and two
ambulance drivers with which
to run the hospital.
Owing to our roominess we were later
made a post hospital
and on one of the coldest nights of the
winter they closed up an
outpost hospital at Iuka, and without
informing me sent all those
who would recover to Memphis and the
twenty seven who had
small hopes for life to me. My beds were
all full and every article
of bedding in use. I consulted both
surgeons and got no help, but
[Norman] Gay, the Surgeon in chief
suggested that I put the
convalescent out of the beds and the
poor dieing fellows in, so to
the miserable undertaking I went. No one
would help me, but
after many tussels and much grumbling I
succeeded in getting
twenty-seven others sick and almost
frozen, in their beds.
In the morning, in order to help out, I
took an ambulance
and went down town to an old Jews' store
and deliberately took
a bale of cotton, probably worth $1000,
yet it didn't hurt my
conscience one bit when I thought of the
need of those poor suffer-
ing men ...
Among the sick rebel prisoners we cared
for, three of them
died, and the Surgeon ordered me to
remove one of the bodies to
a chamber across the street ... for the
Surgeon to dissect....
As it seemed certain that we would pass
the winter in Corinth,
it was the opinion of every body that a
fine camp should be built,
and so a new clean spot was selected,
and everybody went to work
with a will. ...
Teams were free to do the hauling and I
cant tell how many
log cabins were built with great,
generous fire places, and all sorts
of cupboards and shelves. ...
Our camp was a real home for us, and all
the shacks had a
name, some quite ambitious -- Alhambra,
Burnett House, Wild
Cat Den, Possum Rest, Red Pepper Cabin,
Robbers Roost, Bully
Boys, Cripple's Home, and so on without
end. A few of the
names would not bear repeating.
And so the winter passes until the
following May [1863]
without any fighting in our division,
and but three short marches
-- one to Hamburg, one to Eastport, and
the Tupelo Trip.
As the anniversary of the battle of
Shiloh came around it was
determined to celebrate that victory.
Majors [Frank] Evens and
[W. C.] Jacobs took the lead and with
the help of the Devil
concocted a scheme to get the whole
regiment drunk. They pro-
cured a full barrel of whiskey, a box of
lemons and an empty barrel,
and mixed up what was supposed to be two
barrels of lemonade
320 OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
free to every member of the regiment. It
was made on the sly
and given out as simply lemonade and plentifully enough
to give
everybody all he wanted, and the result
was that hundreds of men
tho' never before in their lives were
uproariously and hilariously
fuddled, and such a time I never before
heard of even. It was just
a great big drunk for almost the whole
regiment ...
One day I thought it would be a good
plan to have a circulat-
ing library. We could each manage to
carry one book in our knap-
sack.
So I suggested to the boys that we each
buy a book and ex-
change with a comrade when we finished
reading it. The boys
agreed and although we never again saw
our books we kept getting
another and felt sure ours were going on
....
While we were guarding the Memphis and
Charleston R. R.
a band of bushwhackers gave us a great
amount of trouble. They
were not regular Rebel troops but a gang
who would slip up in
under cover of the night, and burn a
tressle or tear up a bit of
track, and be gone in the morning.
Finaly our Commander lost
all patience and issued an order that
was posted by the use of hand-
bills telling the people that the next
time the road was disturbed
by any power other than a regular
organized force every house
within five miles of the place where the
harm to the road was ac-
complished would be destroyed by fire.
This threat seemed to
work like a charm for a few weeks, but
one night a woman came
to our pickets and told them that a lot
of men were tearing up the
track just below her house. The
bushwhackers were very soon
run off and the next day the penalty was
exacted of the neighbor-
hood, and all the houses were burned
except the one where the
woman lived, but a few nights later a
gang came and burned that
one. Such is war! The boys detaled for
the house burning re-
ported it the meanest job of their whole
service.
There lived across from our hospital the
wife of Major [E. A.?]
Peyton, of the Confederate Army, with
four girls Lizzy, Alice,
Sallie and Pocahontus mostly called
Pokie. The two oldest were
just about grown -- Lizzy and Alice --
who after a while found
out the Yankees were not such terrible
fellows, and the younger,
Alice would sing Dixie or the Bonnie
Blue Flag for me any time.
How they kept soul and body together was
a mystery to me and I
was certain they were hungry at times
and lived skimpy all the
time. One day I called Alice over and
gave her a generous piece of
roast mutton, with a big lot of hardtack
and as much beef stew as
she could carry, and it did me more good
to see how eagerly she
took it and raced home, than to have
eaten the whole lot myself.
I repeated this a good many times and
Alice and I became fast
BROWN: REMINISCENCES 321
friends, but finaly they went away and I
regretted very much to
see them pass into the unknown....
I discovered that I was on my way to
Glendale Miss. where
I had been detaled Hospital Steward with
an increase in pay from
$13 to $30, and I remained here until we
too were ordered to
Chattanooga to reinforce Rosecranzs
Army. Going as an entire
stranger into the 64th Ill. (Yates
Sharpshooters) at Glendale made
it right uncomfortable for me, but I
soon won the friendship of
many ..
One morning, shortly after I had
finished my work, I started
out for a walk, and had gone about a
mile when I saw something
peeping through the bushes. I said
"Hellow" when to my surprise
there came out a man, and another, and
another, and another. The
poor fellows were little better than
start naked. Their clothing
was torn in threads, and their limbs
were covered with mud and
scratches. They surely were the
personification of distress in
appearance. I soon discovered that they
were Union prisoners
who had escaped from Andersonville
prison, and had traveled
across mountains and swamps for three months, and this
was their
first time to get close enough to any of
our men to feel safe....
There were I believe a score of Glendale
girls that frequented
the camp of Yates Sharpshooters. From
what I saw of them I be-
lieved and still hold to my belief that they were very
much more
sinned against, than sinning. I don't
know how many were trapped
by mock marriage ceremonies where a scalawag
hypocritical old
sinner dressed up as a preacher and lent
his saintly look and
sanctimonius drawl to give a semblance
of law and equity to the
foul and dishonorable deception. A few
of these young women
were not over particular or careful, so
that between the ones who
were united (as they believed) in the
Holy Bonds, and those who,
darkey like, tuck up with some boy in
blue, we were as some of
the boys expresses it a much married
regiment.
I think that perhaps a majority of the
people of Glendale
looked with complacent indifference, if
not with approval on the
uncertainty and bad odor of these
military matches. But all the
citizens did not think alike, for one
night as one of the boys was
returning to camp after a visit to his
best girl some one concealed
in the bushes blew half his head off
with a heavy load of buck-
shot, and two others after a mock
marriage, were caught by a
band of bushwhackers and although not
killed were so treated as
to for all time deprive them of the
ability to decieve any more
confiding girls, and it was the opinion
of all the best men in the
camp that they just got their dues.
One of the boys, a vetrinary Surgeon for
the 2nd Ala. Cavalry
was I thought the vilest old brute of
any man in the command.
322
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
While on a scout with his regiment he
went to a house not very far
from camp and made a criminal attack on
the woman of the house
but her screams brought her husband who
with a good gun which
he used beautifully, killed the dirty
foul chap right in the house.
I never heard but one expression about
the affair and that was
"Served him just right." . . .
When the hurry up order came
transfeering the Army of the
Tenn. to Chattanooga (the Hawks Nest of
the Allatoonas) the im-
perative clause was inserted that no woman was to go on
this march
so of course that left all the Glendale
brides behind and oh! but
there was weeping and wailing the day we
started. Only one fellow
cared enough for his sweety to do
anything to help out of the dire
distress. To his honor be it said he
sent his wife to his people up
in Ill. to await his return home.
But some were not to be relieved of
their burden so readily
as believed for after we had reached
Pulaski and gone into camp
in the wintry days of December [1863] we
were surprised to find
when our wagon train arrived that two of
the brides had followed
with the baggage all the way around by
way of Memphis, up the
rivers to Nashville and thence to
Pulaski. I really thought they
had more pluck than wit to follow such
worthless scamps on such
a long trip in the winter, only to be
left in three months again, for
this time it was impossible to follow as
this trip ended only with
the Grand Review at Washington.
We left Glendale, [Miss.] crossed the
Tenn. river at Eastport,
[Miss.] marching on to Pulaski situated
on the Nashville and
Decatur R. R. Here our division was
halted and set to work re-
pairing the railroad, and also to
running the mills along the line,
thus furnishing a lot of flour, meal and
feed in that way for the
great army of men and animals about
Chattanooga and vicinity, a
reasonable price being paid all Union
men for their grain.
The third year of the war was about to
close and the govern-
ment offered four hundred dollars apiece
and a twenty day fur-
lough to any who would reenlist $100
cash and $300 in install-
ments.
I thought the matter over knew the war
wouldn't last much
longer so decided to re-enlist but the
mustering officer crossed out
my name saying I would have to return to
my own regiment which
at this the last moment was impossible.
The Surgeon advised me
to go to Gen'l Dodge about the matter
which I did since we were
friends, and he said, "Just you go
anyway! There is no one to ob-
ject but me and I'm sure I wont."
I didn't get my $400 or furlough but I
took the latter any-
how.15 . . .
15 Records of the War Department show that Brown did
not re-enlist, but was
mustered out and honorably discharged
at Camp Chase, Ohio, September 26, 1864.
BROWN: REMINISCENCES 323
We had quite a time in reaching the
ponton that lacked half
the length of the Titanic of being long enough to reach
our shore,
but an improvised affair, half bridge,
half ferry filled the gap and
we finaly all safely got to the south side [of the
Tennessee River at
the head of Muscle Shoals] where we
camped until the last of
April [1864] when an order sent us to Chattanooga. . .
.
About dusk a lot of the rougher element
among our boys
made a raid on the sutlers who were
fleecing the soldiers, (charg-
ing about two prices for everything) and
simply robbed them of
everything they had. . . .
Just after we had crossed the Tenn.
river at Decatur a croud
of us were out for a walk. We met a
farmer coming along with
a load of vegetables, potatoes, squash,
apples and a nice fat calf.
The boys offered to buy the things but
the farmer refused to sell,
saying that he had already sold the
whole load to the gunboatmen,
but the most of the boys were jealous of
the gunboatmen because
they lived with so much style and as a
consequence everything in
the farmer's wagon was confiscated, calf
and all. The Lieut.
stepped up flashing his sword angry as
could be and threatening to
strike but one of the boys raised his
gun and dared him to strike,
so he had to stand in his anger and see
his purchase disappear. . . .
The next day, July 21st, [1864] we
rested until towards even-
ing leaving about 4 oclock down the road
toward Atlanta. We passed
a mansion on whose porch stood a lady
dressed in white, who looked
almost angelic. She had placed three
clean tubs by the side of
the road and had about twenty darkies,
little and big, keeping the
tubs filled with water for us to drink
as we passed, and we blessed
the lady as she bowed to us. At night we
were just outside of
Atlanta, and we were manuvering to get
our position for the
siege. . . .
Sherman telegraphed to Lincoln,
"Atlanta is ours and fairly
won." This was my last battle as my
time was up and I was dis-
charged, and though offered large sums
of money, I didn't reinlist
a third time.
REMINISCENCES OF AN OHIO VOLUNTEER
By PHILIP D. JORDAN and CHARLES M.
THOMAS
Introduction
When Fort Sumter felt the crash of
Confederate guns on April
12, 1861, a nation knew that an
irresistible conflict had at last
reached a climax. Chattering telegraph
keys took the drama of
Charleston harbor through the North in
frantic haste. In the village
of Oxford, Ohio, students of Miami
University were gathering for
chapel services. President John W. Hall,
himself from the South,
solemnly opened the exercises with the
46th Psalm, beginning,
"God is our refuge and strength, a
very present help in trouble."
Students and faculty sat silent,
noticing that the President was at
times so overcome by emotion that he
could scarcely speak. "The
quivering of the lips, the rising in the
throat, and the moisture in
the eye," noted one observant
student, "in the case of one who had
always been so self-controlled, bespoke
the fear he had, not only of
a dismembered college, but of a bloody
fratricidal war."1 Boys
from North and South left that
convocation to serve the causes in
which they believed. Southerners soon
entrained for Cincinnati,
borderland city, and from there moved to
join detachments of
gray-clad troops.2
Northern sympathizers quickly gathered
in the college chapel
where one of the students, Ozra J.
Dodds,3 suggested the organiza-
tion of the University Rifle Company
whose services were to be
offered immediately to the State. Within
a few minutes, 160
undergraduates and local boys had given
their names to the clerk.4
1 Robert N. Adams, My First Company (n.
p., n. d.), a pamphlet in the Miami
University Library. Originally read
before the Minnesota Commandery of the Loyal Legion.
2 Alfred
H. Upham, Old Miami (Hamilton, Ohio, 1909), 215-7.
3 Ozra J. Dodds, a senior, was elected
captain of the University Rifles mainly be-
cause he had been a student at Wabash
College when General Lew Wallace was president
and had learned the rudiments of
military drill under Wallace. Dodds was a prominent
figure on the Miami campus, being one of
the editors of the Miami Student. See "The
Crisis of Our Country," Miami
Student, I, no. 5 (May-June 1861), 177-84. Dodds
eventually rose to the rank of colonel
and after the war practiced law in Cincinnati.
4 See B. S. Bartlow, comp., A Partial
Roster of Miami University Students in the
Mexican War, Union and Confederate
Armies of the Civil War and in the Spanish-American
War (Hamilton, n. d.).
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