"We Would Stand with Anyone, If Properly Taken In": The 79th Pa at Chickamauga, Part I

Battle of Chickamauga, Morning of Sept. 19, 1863 (Source)
The 79th Pa belonged to Baird's Division.

During the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19-20, 1863, the Lancaster County Regiment fought a battle in which it incurred significant casualties for the second time.  Although the 79th Pa's casualty total compared to that of Perryville, the regiment experienced battle in a dramatically different way at Chickamauaga.  While at Perryville the regiment stood its ground on an open hillside for an entire afternoon against repeated Confederate attacks, Chickamauga was defined by chaos, confusion, and dense woods.

The campaign that culminated in the Battle of Chickamauga began at the end of August as Gen. William S. Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland -- spurred on by Washington -- crossed the Tennessee River and ventured towards Georgia.  Mountainous terrain presented significant logistical challenges, and it would be much more difficult to get supplies now that the army's supply pipeline from Nashville was restricted.  Just after noon on September 12, the regiment reached the summit of the Lookout Mountain range as it passed through Stevens Gap.  While the 79th Pa was enjoying majestic vistas, Gen. Rosecrans realized that his army was scattered, split by the mountain range, and vulnerable to a counterattack.  He set out to concentrate his army and withdraw northward through a valley to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

September 19, Late Morning

Brig. Gen. J. C. Starkweather
(Source)

The Battle of Chickamauga began in earnest on the morning of September 19 when Gen. George H. Thomas, commander of the Fourteenth Corps (which included the the 79th Pa) dispatched one of his divisions to attack a Confederate brigade rumored to be trapped on the west side of the Chickamauga Creek.  A fight escalated as combatants requested reinforcements and both sides committed more men to the fight. The second division that Gen. Thomas committed was Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird's, which included the 79th Pennsylvania (in a brigade commanded by Brig. Gen. John C. Starkweather).  Starkweather's brigade advanced behind two other of Baird's brigades.  Although listed as having an effective strength of 424 men and 21 officers, around 350 men were present with the regiment on September 19 to go into battle.  Starkweather's brigade moved in support of Baird's other brigades until Gen. Thomas ordered him to move to the left to relieve a brigade in another division.

While advancing through dense woods towards the fight that was supposed to be to the east, Confederates marching northward slammed into Starkweather's brigade just north of the intersection of Brotherton and Alexander's Bridge Roads.  Starkweather tried to wheel right and form a semicircle to confront the enemy.  As the front right regiment on the advance, the 79th Pennsylvania bore the brunt of the attack.  The recently promoted Capt. William S. McCaskey -- who led Companies A and B as skirmishers -- recounted, "We had not moved far, before we were completely flanked, and surprised.  I had charge of the skirmishers, but had not gotten them into position before they received a murderous fire from the enemy."  McCaskey tried to rally the skirmishers, but the rest of the line withered, unable to do anything about the Confederates firing on their right flank.  Starkweather's adjutant-general, Lieut. Charles Searles, was shot in the breast and fell from his horse.  The Union soldiers got off at most three or four shots and fled to the rear.  The Confederates did not advance far, though, as they were struck in their flank and rear by adjacent Union brigades.  

Capt. William S. McCaskey
(Richard Abel Collection)

In these brief disastrous moments, the regiment took most of its casualties during the battle (according to McCaskey).  Captain Louis Heidegger of Company F fell mortally wounded.  Captain Abraham Godshalk of Company H was wounded in the leg, which was soon amputated.  Lieuts. James Benson and Charles Madden were both wounded.  From a historian's perspective, it is sad to note that this action silenced the pen of the regiment's active and articulate soldier-correspondent, Corp. Elias H. Witmer.  Witmer was wounded in the thigh and left behind as the regiment hastily retreated, never to be heard from again.  Others left on the field would later be retrieved, including Cyrus Tool and Corp. Charles W. Wiley of Company B.

Eventually, the pace of the retreat slowed as the 79th Pennsylvania gained some distance from the spot of the their rout.  Lieut. John M. Johnston, in command of Company G (which served as the color company) recalled, "Our pace slackens.  I keep near the colors, and try to gather the stragglers around them; but my heart's in my mouth.  I feel more like crying than anything else."  Gen. Starkweather began to regain control of his brigade.  Johnston continued, "

But now Starkweather's stentorian voice is heard trying to rally the men.  He orders the colors to halt and face to the front.  I spring to the side of the boy who is carrying the striped flag and face him about, calling on Adjutant [Lyman] Bodie to stop the bearer of the blue flag who is still further to the rear.  But the blue flag still goes to the rear, till Starkweather dashes forward with an oath and drawn sword and orders the color bearer back into line.  And now a reorganization of the regiment rapidly commences. 

Note: See the Chickamauga section of the "Battle Files" page for sources.  Also, see the Civil War Preservation Trust's map of the morning fight for another visual resource. 

The 79th Pennsylvania in the Battle of Perryville: The Fight

Engraving entitled ""Battle of Perryville--The Extreme Left--Starkweather's Brigade" (Library of Congress)
I wonder if this intends to show the Confederate attack on the 21st Wisconsin in the cornfield in front of the 1st WI/79th PA position.

The following narrative tells the story of the Lancaster County Regiment in its first battle, the Battle of Perryville.  It is my attempt to synthesize over a dozen primary source accounts of the 79th Pennsylvania with the story told by Ken Noe in his campaign study Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle.  If not explicitly referenced in the post, sources should be pretty obvious to identify in the "Sources" and "Battle of Perryville" tabs.  

At the Bend in the Benton Road: 2:30-5:30pm

A note about sources: The most confusing part of parsing battle accounts for the 79th Pennsylvania is determining what refers to actions on in each of the regiment's two positions.  For example, even after much reading, I'm still not sure whether the regiment took more casualties in its first or second position.  Quotes are presented where I think they belong, but do know that it's possible that I'm misapplying comments between the Benton Road bend position and the Starkweather's Hill position.  If you can correct/enhance/sharpen my hasty analysis, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment below.

Hoping to protect his other brigades from a Confederate attack on his left flank, Rousseau ordered Starkweather's two batteries and infantrymen forward to another ridge that extended his second line.  The regiment's hospital steward and newspaper correspondent, John B. Chamberlain, recorded his impressions of the advance:

The 1st Wisconsin and 79th were ordered up to support the battery and hold that position at all hazards.  As the solid, serried ranks of glistening bayonets and brave men moved onward with all the regularity and precision of a dress parade, and with the steadiness of veteran troops, the two regiments involuntarily paid a just tribute to the other by sending up long and loud cheers of hearty approval.  It was a spontaneous tribute to the others soldierly bravery and appearance.  Like twin brothers they marched on side by side and calmly awaited the enemy's onslaught.

A rookie regiment in Starkweather's brigade, the 21st Wisconsin, was (pointlessly?) stuck out in front on lower ground by a cornfield.  Behind that regiment was a stronger main line on the ridge, consisting from left to right of the more experienced 1st Wisconsin, 79th Pennsylvania, and 24th Illinois.

The exhausted and inexperienced brigade of William R. Terrill was positioned in front of Starkweather's brigade in a weak position that would have been Starkweather's had Jackson's division not cut in front of him on the march to the battlefield. The Confederate attack first hit Terrill, whose brigade was positioned on the "Open Knob."  After some hard fighting, Terrill's line gave way around 3:30pm and ran to rally behind Starkweather's line.

The advancing Confederates next hit the 21st Wisconsin, who also broke and fled to the rear after a couple volleys.  Col. Hambright later wrote that it was "sickening" that as soldiers on the retreat ran through his regiment's ranks, "shouting to my men to give the rebels a fire, then run."  Clark recorded in his diary that the routed Union soldiers yelled, "The Secesh are coming, run for your lives!"

Starkweather's three regiments (minus the 21st Wisconsin) and two batteries now had the responsibility of stopping two surging Confederate brigades.  Although roughly positioned to support each other the 1st Wisconsin, 79th Pennsylvania, and 24th Illinois lines were not fully connected, and to Col. Hambright it felt like the regiment stood alone on the hillside "without support of any kind, no artillery, nothing but their own determination."

Col. Henry A. Hambright
Commanding 79th Pa.
(Likely a photo from 1861)
Richard Abel Collection

As Col. Hambright moved his men into a position that Gen. Rousseau ordered "held at all costs," Rebel sharpshooters in dense woods and undergrowth in front of and below the regiment's line on the hillside.  Hambright wrote in a letter to his former senior captain (who had been captured by Morgan's raiders back in May), "the enemy opened a most destructive fire on us while moving by the flank, but it had no effect to cause unsteadiness.  We gained the point ordered too, and faced the enemy in largely superior numbers, and opened a fire that soon gave us a clear space in front."

From the point of view of Corp. Charles G. Fisher of Company G:

At this point the balls came thick and fast, and the whistling of them I shall never forget.  We were all lying flat on the ground and could hear them distinctly.  We were then ordered in line, which position we took on the double-quick, under a heavy fire, but before we had a chance to fire a shot, many a one of the glorious 79th fell.  There we stood and fired for three hours, as fast as arms could move, without giving way an inch.  

The Confederates aimed to seize one of Starkweather's batteries and struck the 1st Wisconsin.  The 79th Pennsylvania assisted with an oblique fire and began taking casualties as they traded volleys with Confederates attacking from a position covered with underbrush in front of the 79th Pennsylvania.

Two 79th Pennsylvania officers, Capt. Samuel Boone and Lieut. Henry Test of Company C, fell dead almost immediately.  Hambright recounted, "The men fell so fast at one time that it required all my efforts to close the lines."  Quartermaster Sergt. Marshall tied his horse by a hospital (never to see it again), grabbed a musket, and joined friends in Company B.  He wrote, "During the engagement we kept continually closing up to the right, so that as our line became shorter and shorter, we all knew what dreadful havoc the secesh balls were making in our ranks."

After the initial fighting, a Confederate battery that began firing from the left flank attracted Starkweather's attention and caused concern.  In response, he planned to move his line back to its position before ordered forward by Rousseau  First, he would remove his artillery, and his three infantry regiments were to follow.

Before Starkweather's plans could be executed, the Confederate brigades of Maney and Stewart--encouraged by the sight of the evacuation of the Union artillery--renewed their attack.  Sergt. Marshall wrote, "The rebels took courage at [the retreat of Starkweathers' batteries] and followed up their advantage with a yell.  The 79th was now exposed to the whole of their fire."   The regiment responded by delivering such a "raking fire that they scattered in all directions.  And then went up a yell such as only Lancaster county can give--well, the fact is, the boys were shouting and cheering and yelling all the time."

At the battle's height, General Rousseau paid a visit to the regiment in an incident frequently retold after the battle.  Marshall wrote that "Gen. Rousseau rode up to us, and waving his hat, said, 'The 79th never leave a stain on old Pennsylvania!' and we answered him with three deafening cheers, and all this during the hottest of the fire.  So you can perceive how cool and self-possessed the men were."  Chamberlain wrote that Rousseau called the 79th Pennsylvania "his 'Stonewall.'"

Corp. William T. Clark
Wounded three times
Richard Abel Collection

Sergt. John Dean of Company A was the color bearer and wounded in the wrist.  The colors were "shot away" four times.  Col. Hambright and Adjutant Lyman Bodie each took turns borrowing the flag to encourage the regiment, and/or wave a silk flag that Hambright produced from his coat.

The 1st Wisconsin on the 79th Pennsylvania's immediate left fought off the attackers in hand-to-hand combat to save the Union batteries.  In the smoke of battle, the Lancaster County soldiers perceived a dark blue Polk flag as a "black flag" and inferred the Confederates were under a take-no-prisoners policy, which only steeled their nerves.  As the 1st Wisconsin counterattacked, Col. Hambright swung his two leftmost companies, Companies B and G, out to "pour a cross fire that perfectly withered the advancing files of rebels."  One Confederate regiment left its flag behind as it fled, and the 1st Wisconsin picked up the flag and claimed credit for its capture, a source of griping for many in the 79th Pennsylvania after the battle.  Years later, Sergt. John Durham of the 1st Wisconsin received the Medal of Honor for retrieving this flag.  

"Polk Flag" captured by 1st Wisconsin
Shot down by 79th Pennsylvania?
(Wisconsin Veterans' Museum)

Casualties continued to mount.  Honorary Company B member Sergt. Marshall  was hit in the ankle harmlessly by a spent ball and nearly escaped when a shell exploded "within a few inches of my right foot and flew into a thousand pieces, severely wounding a man in the arm but without striking me at all."  Others weren't so lucky.  William T. Clark was wounded three times but kept fighting, writing about it at day's end, "I am wounded in the side flesh wound, buck shot between the elbow & one near the right shoulder, all flesh wounds & I will soon be able to take my place in line." Sergt. William Eckert was wounded twice before struck by a third ball that killed him.

Lieut. William S. McCaskey
Richard Abel Collection

Two corporals in Company B, Frederick H. Sener and John A. Keller, of a group of four friends who had worked as typos in the Examiner and Herald officer were mortally wounded.  Their friend and lieutenant, William McCaskey, wrote afterward in a letter to his sister:

I looked around where Fred fell, and he was looking toward me, as soon as he noticed me, he beckoned for me.  I stepped aside a few steps, for he was shot alongside of me, and I got him out of ranks, he bid me goodbye, and told me not to attend to him, but return and revenge him, this I done as well as possible, and bullets never went into hotter muskets with a more stead and determined hand.  You could see the miserable looking varments trying to creep up on you, crack would go our muskets, down go the game.  I don't know, but I think they got their fill, and I am certain in saying that Sener and Keller were revenged.  In Fred's last moments he was insane, and accused me of having water by his side, and refused him a drink.

In Company G, Corp. Fisher described the losses:

Many, many a man fell by the balls of the 79th, and our ranks suffered severely as the accounts will show.  My right-hand man was wounded; my rear man also.  H. Snyder and H. Young, both next me on the left, were wounded and fell, and I was left alone for awhile.  There were sixteen wounded in our company.  D. Leonard was slightly wounded in the hip, the ball going through his cartridge box; but he still kept blazing away.

After repulsing the series of Confederate attacks and allowing the Union cannon time to be safely removed, Starkweather's line was able to move back to its second position.  The 1st Wisconsin, 79th Pennsylvania, and 24th Illinois, kept their alignment but now stood behind a low stonewall on a steeper, higher ridge.  Marshall wrote, "We changed our position, and it all seemed as cool as though going through a dress parade."

Map of Battle of Perryville, 3:45pm on Oct. 8, 1862
By Hal Jesperson (Wikimedia Commons)
Based on maps in book by Ken Noe

A Complaint from Col. Hambright

Union Army Officers in Camp, identified as part of 44th New York (Mathew Brady via fold3.com)

Today's letter affords us our first opportunity to hear from Col. Henry A. Hambright, leader of the Lancaster County Regiment.  Over the course of the war, we get the sense that his duties running the regiment and filling brigade-level roles assigned by Gen. Negley kept him extremely busy, so don't expect the same level of introspection that has characterizes Corp. Witmer's and Lieut. Nevin's letters.  In fact, the letter Col. Hambright wrote on November 19, 1861, aimed to deny and crack down on rumors coming out of his regiment that caused a little stir in Lancaster.  

The rumors that so infuriated the commander of the 79th Pennsylvania essentially were communicated by certain soldiers in the regiment and said that certain officers in the regiment were worthless and frequently drunk, and about to be kicked out of the regiment.  I actually haven't been able to find any corroborating sources--private or public--from November 1861 so it must have flown under the radar and stayed out of the newspapers (although I could have missed something).  I don't know who the "recruit" or "schoolmaster" was that Col. Hambright mentions, although it's possible it involved J. P. McCaskey the Lancaster Boys High School who we know was pretty deeply involved in 79th Pennsylvania controversies later in the war.  But that's just speculation, as there were a large number of education-related temperance-sympathizing soldiers, including just about all of Company E.

The letter also reminds me that I don't really know much about disciplinary actions within the regiment and the negative side of army life--drunkenness, desertions, and incompetence--which for the most part stayed out of Lancaster's newspapers.  Perhaps some of the more official documents in Harrisburg or Washington can illuminate.

Anyway, here's Col. Hambright's letter, published in the November 27, 1861, Examiner and Herald: (alternate link)

Lieut. William McCaskey's Two Black Confederate Regiments

If you've spent a few minutes browsing Civil War websites and blogs in recent weeks, you'll inevitably (and lamentably) hit a somewhat bizarre and controversial topic known as "Black Confederates"--the proposition that African Americans fought in significant numbers as soldiers with Southern armies.  It's promoted by a fringe element of self-styled defenders of the Confederacy's heritage, but basically all historians dispute the interpretation of the evidence (if not the evidence itself) behind their claims and view it them as the disturbing descendant of the early-20th century "faithful slave" narrative.

The issue has even gained national attention with the Virginia textbook mini-scandal of last year and a recent episode of the "History Detectives."  I'll refer you to primers on the subject that can be found on two blogs: Dead Confederates and Civil War Memory.  The whole issue is sad as it diverts talented and/or passionate historians and readers from connecting new resources with new questions in novel ways--an activity that I hope ends up defining the Civil War Sesquicentennial.

William S. McCaskey, Co. B, 79th PA
Richard Abel Collection, USAMHI

With the attention of this past week to Black Confederates, I thought I'd throw out a reference I coincidentally discovered while re-checking a note about Corp. Elias H. Witmer, a 79th Pennsylvania soldier-correspondent who penned his first letter to the Lancaster Daily Evening Express 150 years ago last week.  The source is a private letter from Lieut. William S. McCaskey, Co. B, 79th Pennsylvania, to his brother John Piersol McCaskey (a locally famous educator and the namesake of Lancaster's McCaskey High School), written in Murfreesboro, TN, on March 20, 1863--a very interesting time when the Union army was dealing with the Emancipation Proclamation and going through its own internal "Republicanization."  Here's the excerpt, as transcribed in The Letters of William S. McCaskey:

A negro brigade or two would come might handy, to throw into the thickest of the fight, for by this, you scary many a white man, and at no cost to the government.  I sounded most all our boys, and most of them did not like the idea of having them as comrades, but when the matter was fully explained and when they heard that Van Dor of the rebel army had two regiments in the fight at Franklin some few weeks ago, to which Regiments (Negro), many of the men had to surrender, they kind of changed their foolish ideas and now the cry is, "let them come, let them come," with regard to those remarks of mine, and your request to show them to [Corp. Elias H.] Witmer, I would say, that your request has been complied with and he will give them a little thunder.  with regard to my being acquainted with him, I would say that he is a member of Co. E., and I had command of him some two months and further that he is a very particular friend of mine.  (March 20, 1863, Murfreesboro, Tennessee)

Although it's hard to prove a negative, it appears to us as obviously a false rumor that Confederate Gen. Earl Van Dorn fought with two regiments of black soldiers.  Note the fairly apparent motivation of the myth here: McCaskey was trying to justify the use of African-American soldiers in the Union Army to the men of his company (and maybe even to himself).  This thought process calls to mind Frederick Douglass' 1861 comments about Black Confederates. 

J. P. McCaskey
Richard Abel Collection, USAMHI

Even more interesting to me is the coordination dynamics between the home front and battlefield.  We have Republican agitator J. P. McCaskey, who we know (from other letters) occasionally put anonymous articles in the Express attacking Democrats, appealing for an audience through his brother to soldier-correspondent Elias H. Witmer.  J. P. McCaskey's concern was presumably a Lancaster citizens' public claim of receiving a letter from another 79th PA soldier stating that "contraband negroes are fed better than soldiers," as Witmer's next letter, published in the Express on April 6, 1863, contained a lengthy build-up to a strong denial:

I have been led to this train of thought by a letter handed me written by a prominent citizen of Lancaster, saying that at a meeting held in that city, one of the speakers remarked that he saw a letter from the 79th P.V., stating that contraband negroes are fed better than the soldiers.  I do not wish to have any controversy of a public character with any person, but justice to the army, and to the government demands a denial of so fabulous a charge.  If the letter was written from this regiment it is a misrepresentation of facts; if it was an imaginary fabrication, manufactured for the occasion, it was done to drop a narcotic into the public heart and breath a upas breath into the public mind.  If the letter was written in this regiment it promulgates a falsehood; if not written here, the publication of such a statement was the damning work of partisanship bordering on disloyalty, and should receive the condemnation of every loyal citizen in the country...I forewarn all men against writing to men in this regiment telling them to lay down their arms, as this is a war for the nigger.  I shall expose every man that resorts to this "snake in the grass" manner of sending discord in our ranks.  (April 6, 1863, Daily Evening Express)

Those are pretty harsh words for simply suggesting that African Americans could achieve equality in terms of caloric intake, but I think it testifies to the sensitivity and volatility of the issue of race at that time in the North.  If you want the Democratic counterpoint to Witmer's letter, see this poem reprinted from the Philadelphia Sunday Mercury in the February 17, 1863, edition of the Lancaster Intelligencer.

The Union army's winter camps of 1863 seemed to provide a crucible for matters of race, so it will be interesting to catalog the diverse perspectives within the 79th Pennsylvania (recall Lancaster was home to both Thaddeus Stevens and James Buchanan) and their evolution during the war and after.  Based on other research, I'm fairly confident that Witmer, McCaskey, and the Daily Evening Express approximately represent the median Republican opinion, so it's important to note the reluctance in early 1863 to advocate on African Americans' behalf as a benchmark for future reference. 

Letter by Elias H. Witmer, Co. E, 79th Pennsylvania, appearing in the April 6, 1863, Lancaster Daily Evening Express: (alternate link)