Description of a Battle -- The 2d Ohio (Colonel Harris) at
Perryville -- Major-General McCook's Report -- Major-General
Rousseau's Report -- Sketch of Major-General A. McD. McCook.
"Then shook the hills with thunder riven,
Then rushed the steeds to battle driven,
And, louder than the bolts of heaven,
Far flashed the red artillery!"
Many of you have, no doubt, looked upon the field of battle where
contending hosts have met in deadly strife. But there are those whose
eyes have never gazed upon so sad a sight; and to such I may be
enabled to present a picture that will at best give you but a faint
idea of the terrible reality of a fiercely-contested field.
Imagine thousands upon thousands on either side, spreading over a vast
expanse of ground, each armed with all the terrible machinery of
modern warfare, and striving to gain the advantage of their opponents
by some particular movement, studied long by those learned in the art
of war.
Then comes the clang of battle; steel meets steel, drinking the blood
of contending foes. The sabers flash and glitter in the sunlight,
descending with terrible force upon devoted heads, which were once
pillowed on the bosoms of fond and devoted mothers. Jove's dread
counterfeit is heard on every hand; the balls and shells go whistling
and screaming by, the most terrible music to ears not properly attuned
to the melody of war. Thousands sink upon the ground overpowered, to
be trodden under foot of the flying steed, or their bones to be left
whitening the incarnadined field. Blows fall thick and heavy on every
hand. The cries of the wounded and the orders of the commanders mingle
together; and, to the uninitiated, all appears "confusion worse
confounded."
But there is a method in all this _seeming_ madness; and that which
appears confusion is the result of well-laid plans. But as there is
"many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," so there are slips in the
actions of the best regulated armies. Gunpowder, shot, shell, and
steel are not always to be implicitly relied upon: even they sometimes
fail in carrying out what were conceded to be designs infallible; so
true it is that "man proposes, _but God disposes_."
It has been my province to witness battles wherein Western men were
the heroes; and that Western men will fight, has been pretty well
authenticated during the present war. I have noticed the brave conduct
of the gallant troops, the fighting boys of the various regiments of
the West, and have never known them to falter in the hour of danger.
They left their homes totally uneducated in warfare; they are now
veterans--each a hero.
The conduct of the 2d Ohio at Perryville is spoken of thus by a
correspondent:
"The brigade of Len Harris was in the center, and met the shock
simultaneously with the left and right. The whole brigade was in the
open fields, with the rebels in the woods before them. Long and
gallantly did they sustain their exposed positions. An Illinois
regiment, of Terrell's brigade, flying from the field, ran through
this brigade, with terrible cries of defeat and disaster; but the
gallant boys of the 2d Ohio and 38th Indiana only laughed at them, as,
lying down, they were literally run over by the panic-stricken
Illinoisans. Hardly had they disappeared in the woods in Harris's rear
when the rebels appeared in the woods in his front. At the same time
Rousseau came galloping along the line, and they received him with
cheers, and the rebels with a terrible fire. Terrible was the shock on
this part of the line, but gallant was the resistance. Up the hill
came the rebels, and made as gallant a charge as ever was met by brave
men. But, O! so terrible and bloody was the repulse! Along the line of
the 2d Ohio and 38th Indiana and Captain Harris's battery, I saw a
simultaneous cloud of smoke arise. One moment I waited. The cloud
arose, and revealed the broken column of rebels flying from the field,
but, in the distance, a second rapidly advancing. The shout that arose
from our men drowned the roar of cannon, and sent dismay into the
retreating, broken column."
In Major-General McCook's report of that battle, he says it was "_the
bloodiest battle in modern times_ for the number of troops engaged on
our side," and "the battle was principally fought by _Rousseau's
division_; and if there are, or ever were, better soldiers than the
old troops engaged, I have neither seen nor read of them." Speaking
of the new troops, General McCook points out those under the command
of Colonel Harris, saying: "For instance, in the Ninth Brigade, where
the 2d and 33d Ohio, 68th Indiana, and 10th Wisconsin fought so well,
I was proud to see the 94th and 98th Ohio vie with their brethren in
deeds of heroism." The 94th and 98th were new troops, and the example
of the old soldiers in Colonel Harris's brigade, and the distinguished
courage and good judgment of the Colonel, gave them confidence, and
they stood in the storm like veterans.
GENERAL ROUSSEAU'S REPORT OF THE BATTLE.
... "I then returned to Harris's brigade, hearing that the enemy was
close upon him, and found that the 33d Ohio had been ordered further
to the front by General McCook, and was then engaged with the enemy,
and needed support. General McCook, in person, ordered the 2d Ohio to
its support, and sent directions to me to order up the 24th Illinois
also, Captain Mauf commanding. I led the 24th Illinois, in line of
battle, immediately forward, and it was promptly deployed as
skirmishers by its commander, and went gallantly into action, on the
left of the 33d Ohio. The 2d Ohio, moving up to support the 33d Ohio,
was engaged before it arrived on the ground where the 33d was
fighting. The 38th Indiana, Colonel B. F. Scribner commanding, then
went gallantly into action, on the right of the 2d Ohio. Then followed
in support the 94th Ohio, Colonel Frizell. I wish here to say that
this regiment, although new, and but few weeks in the service,
behaved most gallantly, under the steady lead of its brave Colonel
Frizell. Colonel Harris's whole brigade--Simonson's battery on its
right--was repeatedly assailed by overwhelming numbers, but gallantly
held its position. The 38th Indiana and 2d Ohio, after exhausting
their ammunition and that taken from the boxes of the dead and wounded
on the field, still held their position, as did also, I believe, the
10th Wisconsin and 33d Ohio. For this gallant conduct these brave men
are entitled to the gratitude of the country, and I thank them here,
as I did on the field of battle....
"I had an opportunity of seeing and knowing the conduct of Colonel
Starkweather, of the Twenty-eighth Brigade, Colonel Harris, of the
Ninth Brigade, and of the officers and men under their command, and I
can not speak too highly of their bravery and gallantry on that
occasion. They did, cheerfully and with alacrity, all that brave men
could do...."
"I herewith transmit the reports of Colonels Starkweather, Harris, and
Pope, and also a list of casualties in my division, amounting, in all,
to 1,950 killed and wounded. My division was about 7,000 strong when
it went into the action. We fought the divisions of Anderson,
Cheatham, and Buckner.
"I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
"Lovell H. ROUSSEAU."
It will not be amiss here to give a brief outline of the early
history, coming down to a recent date, of the renowned hero,
Major-General A. McD. McCOOK, United States Volunteers.
He was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, April 22, 1831. At the age of
sixteen he entered the Military Academy at West Point, as a cadet. He
graduated in July, 1852, and was commissioned Brevet Second
Lieutenant, in the 3d Regiment United States Infantry. After being
assigned to duty for a few months, at Newport Barracks, Ky., he was
ordered, in April, 1853, to join his regiment, then serving in the
Territory of New Mexico. Here he remained nearly five years,
constantly on active duty in the field, and participating in all the
Indian campaigns on that wild and remote frontier. His long services
and good conduct were mentioned in General Orders by Lieutenant-General
Winfield Scott. In January, 1858, he was ordered from New Mexico to
West Point, and assigned to duty in the Military Academy, as
instructor in Tactics and the Art of War. On the breaking out of the
rebellion he was relieved from duty there, and ordered, in April,
1861, to Columbus, Ohio, to muster in volunteers. Before his arrival
there he was elected Colonel of the 1st Ohio Volunteers, a
three-months regiment, already on its way to the seat of war in
Virginia; and hastening to join the command, to which he was elected
without his knowledge or solicitation, soon had an opportunity of
exhibiting those admirable qualities as a field-officer for which he
has since become so justly distinguished. His coolness in the
unfortunate affair at Vienna, and his consummate military skill in the
management of his command at Bull Run, were universally commended. At
the close of that eventful conflict he marched his regiment back to
Centerville in the same good order in which it had left there, an
honorable exception to the wide-spread confusion and disorder that
prevailed elsewhere among the National forces.
When the three-months troops were mustered out of the service he
received permission to raise the 1st Regiment Ohio Volunteers, a
three-years regiment; but on the 3d of September, 1861, and before
his command was ready to take the field, he was appointed
Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and assigned to command the advance
of the Federal forces then in Kentucky, at Camp Nevin. Here, and at
Green River, he organized his splendid Second Division, with which he
afterward marched to Nashville, and thence toward the Tennessee River.
On the 6th of April, 1862, alarmed by the sullen sound of distant
artillery, and learning the precarious situation of Grant's army, he
moved his division, over desperate roads, twenty-two miles, to
Savannah, and there embarked on steamboats for Pittsburg Landing.
After clearing a way with the bayonet through the army of stragglers
that swarmed upon the bank of the river, soon after daylight on the
morning of the 7th of April, the Second Division of the Army of the
Ohio advanced through the sad scenes of our defeat the day before, and
deployed, with stout hearts and cheers, upon the field of Shiloh.
General McCook fought his troops that day with admirable judgment. He
held them in hand; his line of battle was not once broken--it was not
once retired; but was steadily and determinedly advanced until the
enemy fled, and the reverse of the day before was more than redeemed
by a splendid victory.
In the movement on Corinth, a few weeks after the battle of Shiloh,
General McCook had the honor of being in the advance of General
Buell's army corps, and his skirmishers were among the first to scale
the enemy's works.
The rank of major-general of volunteers was soon after conferred upon
him, in view of his distinguished services--a promotion not
undeserved.
After the evacuation of Corinth, the command of General McCook was
moved through Northern Alabama to Huntsville, thence to Battle Creek,
where his forces remained for two months, in front of Bragg's army at
Chattanooga. Upon the withdrawal of Buell's army from Alabama and
Tennessee, General McCook moved his division, by a long march of four
hundred miles, back to Louisville.
Here he was assigned to command the First Corps in the Army of the
Ohio, and started on a new campaign, under Buell, in pursuit of Bragg.
The enemy were met and engaged near Perryville, and two divisions of
McCook's corps (one of them composed of raw recruits) bore the assault
of almost the entire army of General Bragg. The unexpected and
unannounced withdrawal of General Gilbert's forces on his right; the
sad and early loss of those two noble soldiers, Terrell and Jackson,
and the tardiness of reinforcements, made the engagement a desperate
one, and resulted in a victory, incomplete but honorable, to the Union
forces. After the battle of Chaplin Hills, Bragg's army, worn and
broken, fled in dismay from Kentucky. The army corps of Major-General
McCook was afterward moved to Nashville, and he assumed command of the
Federal forces in that vicinity.
On the 6th of November, 1862, on the arrival of Major-General
Rosecrans, who succeeded Major-General Buell in command, General
McCook was assigned to command the right wing in the Department of the
Cumberland. On the 26th of December, 1862, the Army of the Cumberland
moved from Nashville to attack the enemy in position in front of
Murfreesboro. General McCook commanded the right. On the evening of
December 30 the two armies were in line of battle, confronting each
other. Rosecrans had massed his reserves on the left, to crush the
rebel right with heavy columns, and turn their position. Bragg,
unfortunately, learning of his dispositions during the night, massed
almost his entire army in front of McCook, and in the gray of the
following morning, and before we had attacked on the left, advanced
with desperate fury upon the right wing. Outnumbered, outflanked, and
overpowered, the right was forced to retire, not, however, until its
line of battle was marked with the evidences of its struggle and the
fearful decimation of the enemy. To check the advancing rebel masses,
already flushed with anticipated victory, the Federal reserves moved
rapidly to the rescue. The furious onslaught of the enemy was
resisted, and the right and the fortunes of the day were saved.
The rebels, whipped on the left and center, checked on the right,
foiled in every attack, having lost nearly one-third of their numbers,
fled from the field on the night of the 3d of January, and the
victorious Union army advanced through their intrenchments into
Murfreesboro. The great battle of Stone River, dearly won, and
incomplete in its results, was yet a victory.
The right was turned and forced to retire in the first day's fight.
Whether this was attributable to accidental causes, that decide so
many important engagements, or to the superior generalship of the
rebel commander, it is at least certain that generalship was not
wanting in the disposition of the forces under General McCook; nor was
courage wanting in his troops.
Major-General McCook now commands the Twentieth Army Corps.