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[Illustration: MAJOR JOHN R. HOTALING]
THE HISTORY OF COMPANY A, SECOND ILLINOIS CAVALRY
by
SAMUEL H. FLETCHER
A Member of the Company;
In Collaboration with D. H. Fletcher
AS A
TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY
OF
THE MEN WHO FOUGHT IN COMPANY A
AND OF RESPECT
TO
ALL WHO STAND FOR
WHAT THEY FOUGHT FOR
THIS BOOK
IS
DEDICATED
BY
THE AUTHORS.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. Page.
Causes of the war--Slavery, the national issue--Conditions
immediately preceding the outbreak--Manifestations of
patriotism 1
CHAPTER II.
Organization and departure--Presentation of the Flag--Address
by David B. Dewey--"Nick. Hotaling's Speech"--Capture of a
masked battery--Mustered into service--Camp Butler--Fort
Massac--Cairo--Bird's Point--Adventure of Harvey James--Paducah
and Murray, Kentucky--Releasing imprisoned slaves 5
CHAPTER III.
Embarcation from Paducah--Instance of official brutality--Capture
of Fort Henry--Reconnoitering Fort Donelson--First meeting with
Forest's men--Investment of Fort Donelson--McLernand's repulse
--Attack by gunboats--Sortie--Grant turns the tide--Surrender by
Buckner--Interest of Northern friends--Dr. Gould 25
CHAPTER IV.
From Donelson to Metal Landing--Rescue from flooded camp--Pittsburg
Landing--Grand review--Escort Wallace's men to Crump's Landing--The
long-roll--Detailed to bring up Wallace--Hardship of men--Second
day's battle--Retreat and pursuit--Dickey's cowardice--Charge
against Forest's men--Pathetic incidents 45
CHAPTER V.
The Corinth campaign--General Halleck--Manifestation of caution
--"Better to retreat than to fight"--Spade-brigade--Elaborate
fortifications--Battle of Davis' Bridge on the Hatchie River--
Bolivar--Death of Colonel Hogg--Water Valley--Fight at Holly
Springs--Cowardice of Colonel Murphy--Foraging 59
CHAPTER VI.
The final Vicksburg campaign--Situation at and around Vicksburg
--Memphis--Lake Providence--Digging the canal--Cutting levee--
Running batteries--March through swamps--Grand Gulf--Feint
by Sherman--Battle of Port Gibson--Death of McCorkle--Battles
of Raymond and Jackson--Champion Hill--Casler and his "Base of
Supplies"--Battle of Black River Bridge--Investment of Vicksburg
--Grant--the "Silent"--the Invincible 77
CHAPTER VII.
The siege of Vicksburg--The assault--Logan's Headquarters--The
"Bull-pen"--"Boyce's Battery"--Scouting--The mine--The surrender
--Phelps appropriates General Buckner's capitulation papers--
Significance of the victory--Credit due to Grant 99
CHAPTER VIII.
Department of the Gulf--New Orleans--How Official Dignity was
Vindicated by a Cat o'nine-tails--New Iberia--Vermillionville--
Chain-Vidette--"Bower's Charge"--How Ed. Baker won his spurs
--Repulse of Generals Lucas and Franklin--Improvised Cavalry
--Death of Crosby--Superior arms of Confederates--Brilliant
capture of Confederate detachment--Commended by general order
--Outrage committed by Banks and Franklin in confiscating
horses--Cowardly manner of its perpetration--Re-enlistment
--Veteran furlough--Return to the front 113
CHAPTER IX.
The Red River Expedition--Death of Colonel Mudd--How Colonel
Marsh held the line--Fighting Guerrillas--"Alton Hell-Hounds"
--Their remedy for picket shooting--Incidents at Clinton,
Louisiana--Colored wards and the River Jordan--Dash upon
Liberty, Mississippi--Capture of Confederate officers--
Chivalry of prisoners and captors--How a Confederate
Captain "made good" 135
CHAPTER X.
"Davidson's sweet-potato raid"--Southern Alabama--Destruction
of railroads--Oyster fishing--Red-pepper--Mobile Expedition--
Barancas--News of Lee's surrender--Assassination of Lincoln
--Fort Blakely--Mobile--Explosion of Magazine--Return to New
Orleans--Experience of Daniel Shaw in a Texas prison--Shreveport
--"Salt-Horse" vs. Sumptuousness--Cantankerous cans--March into
Texas--San Antonia--Mustered out--Jubilation--War's aftermath 155
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
Colonel Silas Noble 179
Lieutenant Colonel Harvey Hogg 181
Colonel John J. Mudd 189
Colonel Benjamin F. Marsh 199
Major John R. Hotaling 203
Roster 213
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Major John R. Hotaling Frontispiece
Captain William B. Cummins Facing preface
Lieutenant Frank B. Bennett Facing Chapter I, page 1
Lieutenant Albert J. Jackson Facing Chapter II, page 5
Lieutenant James S. McHenry Facing Chap. III, page 25
Cut Site of Fort Henry Facing Chapter III, page 25
Calvin Steel Facing Chapter IV, page 45
View of Pittsburg Landing Facing Chapter IV, page 45
Samuel H. Fletcher Facing Chapter V, page 59
Shiloh Monument (Cut) Special Commands Facing Chapter V, page 59
Joseph Sheaff Facing Chapter VI, page 77
Peter Sheaff Facing Chapter VI, page 77
Osborn Shannon Facing Chapter VII, page 99
James Bowers Facing Chapter VIII, page 113
James L. Padgett Facing Chapter IX, page 135
E. C. Chatterton Facing Chapter X, page 155
Lieutenant-Colonel Harvey Hogg Facing page 181
Colonel John J. Mudd Facing page 189
Colonel Benjamin F. Marsh Facing page 199
Major John R. Hotaling Facing page 203
Hotaling Group Facing page 207
Illinois State Monument at Shiloh Facing page 213
[Illustration: CAPT. WILLIAM B. CUMMINS]
PREFACE
The purpose of this sketch is to keep green the memory of that little
band of men known as Company A, of the Second Illinois Cavalry, who
fought in the Civil War. It is to be regretted that no record has been
preserved and no attempt made to write a history of the company while
the incidents involved were fresh in the minds of its members. As a
result, the essential features of the story are based directly upon the
memory of one of them and that without any memoranda made at the time.
It is not strange therefore, if errors should occur after the lapse of
fifty years.
This little book does not pretend to be an accurate history but rather
a fragmentary and imperfect sketch in which the aim has been to recount
some of the worthy deeds and to recall some of the hardships endured by
those who risked all and suffered much in an effort to do their part
towards the preservation of freedom and right and justice among men.
No apology is offered for its meagerness or fragmentary character.
Should it meet the approval of the few comrades now living or receive a
sympathetic response from others, the time and care expended upon it
will have been rewarded.
The writers desire to acknowledge their indebtedness to the Association
of the Survivors of the Second Regiment, Illinois Veteran Cavalry
Volunteers, from whose report of "Reunion Proceedings," published in
1907, the biographical sketches of Colonels Noble, Hogg, Mudd and Marsh
have been prepared. They also desire to show their appreciation of the
interest and sympathy manifested by Mr. James O. McConaughy, of
Rochelle, Illinois, who was one of the first, if not the first, to
suggest the writing of the book, and whose generous aid, rendered in
every way, has made its publication possible.
D. H. F.
Chicago, Nov. 28, 1912.
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT FRANK R. BENNETT]
THE HISTORY OF COMPANY A
SECOND ILLINOIS CAVALRY
CHAPTER I.
CAUSES OF THE WAR--SLAVERY THE NATIONAL ISSUE--CONDITIONS IMMEDIATELY
PRECEDING THE OUTBREAK.
"Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide."
--Lowell.
The attack upon Fort Sumpter was the final challenge to the birthright
of a race. The North accepted the challenge. The traditions of a
thousand years had prepared its people for the contest. They must
fight. The struggle promised to be the deadliest of all the ages; and
yet--they were ready.
For years the question of slavery had been the all-absorbing theme.
"The Missouri Compromise," "Slavery in the Territories," "The
Underground Railroad," "Bleeding Kansas," "The Dred Scott Decision,"
"Uncle Tom's Cabin," the "John Brown Raid," all were household themes,
discussed at the fireside in every farmer's home, at the cross-roads,
the schoolhouses, at country stores and preached persistently in
churches, at camp-meetings, caucuses and elections, until every man,
woman, boy and girl had a settled conviction concerning them. Conflict
seemed inevitable. The very atmosphere was charged with foreboding. Men
were serious, alert and restless as if apprehensive of some impending
calamity. Strange as it may now seem, this feeling was intensified
among many by a vague and superstitious dread of which rural preachers
were quick to take advantage as presaging "the end of the world."
Ominous words of the prophets were recalled by them as having direct
application to the time. "In those days," they quoted, "there shall be
wars and rumors of wars"; "There shall be signs and wonders in the
Heavens"--pointing with manifest aptness to Donati's great comet whose
marvelous and awe-inspiring train dominated the sky, as a proof, the
awful finality of which could not be questioned. The phenomenal auroral
displays of that year accentuated the proof; the gorgeous red tones
being likened to "streaks of blood" and the rapidly shifting lights to
the "marching and countermarching of armies." If further proof were
required, it was supplied by some who recalled that the Canadian
rebellion occurred during "the year when the stars fell." It was a time
of universal expectancy and profound conviction and required but one
swift influence to unify and concentrate it, as the lightning flash
precipitates the drops from the thunder-cloud. The flash came at
Sumpter. "After this the deluge!"--and those awful words of Madam
Roland were verified when two million men were opposed in a struggle to
the death. War had come. The question throughout the South was: "Will
the Northern man fight?" Its reply was the famous quotation: "He who
hath no sword, let him sell his coat and buy one."
Lincoln's proclamation, calling for three hundred thousand men for
ninety days was soon supplemented by one involving a larger levy--"for
three years or during the war." Preparation was everywhere. The
recruiting officer was omnipresent. Hosts flocked to the standard like
the "minute-men" at Lexington. As the summer advanced the excitement
grew. Men carried their tools from the fields and hastened to enlist. A
farmer-boy in the morning was a soldier at night. The fife and drum was
the popular music. Every city, village, and hamlet in the land
resounded with patriotic songs. Every letter-sheet, every envelop, bore
a picture of the flag. Confections were stamped with union mottoes or
symbols and their packages bore the national colors. The breast-pins of
the girls were the brass-buttons of their soldier lovers and the
shortest path to a sweetheart was through a recruiting office. The
entire North was a hive of preparation and industry, the grewsome
meaning of all of which was merged in the one word--WAR.
Such was the condition in the little town of Lane, Ogle County,
Illinois, in the early summer of 1861.
[Illustration: LIEUTENANT ALBERT J. JACKSON]