Personal Recollections of Sherman's Campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas

by George W Pepper

  THIRD BRIGADE.

  Brigadier General George S. Greefte commanding.

  18th Kentucky— Lieutenant Colonel H. K. Milward.

  14th Ohio — Lieutenant Colonel Albert Moore.

  38th Ohio— Captain Charles M. Gilbert.

  74th Indiana— Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Morgan. i

  FIRST BRIGADE.

  Colonel M. C. Hunter, commanding, and Staff.

  23d Missouri — Major John H. Jolly.

  89th Ohio — Lieutenant Colonel William H. Glenn.

  92d Ohio — Lieutenant Colonel John C. Morrow.

  31st Ohio— Captain Eli Wilkin.

  82d Indiana — Lieutenant Colonel J. M. Matthews.

  17th Ohio—Lieutenant Colonel Beiy. H. Showers.

  SECOND BRIGADE.

  Colonel N. Gleason, commanding, and Staff.

  2d Minnesota — Colonel I. W. Bishop.

  76th Indiana— Lieutenant Colonel William O'Brien.

  105th Indiana — Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Doane.

  87th Indiana — Lieutenant Colonel Edwin J Hammond.

  105th Ohio — Lieutenant Colonel George T. Perkins.

  FAREWELL.

  Major General John A. Logan has finally wound up the career of the Army of the Tennessee, by mustering it out in obedience to the orders from the War Department. The following is the Farewell Address of Major General Logan :

  HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF TENNESSEE,

  Louisville, Ky., July 13, 1865.

  The profound gratification I feel in being authorized to release you from the onerous obligations of the camp and return you laden with laurels to homes where warm hearts wait to welcome you, is somewhat embittered by the painful reflection that I am sundering the ties that trials have made true, time made tender, suffering made sacred, perils made proud, heroism made honorable, and fame made forever fearless of the future. It is no common occasion that demands the disbandment of a military organization, before the resistless power of which, mountains bristling with bayonets have bowed, cities surrendered, and millions of brave men been conquered.

  Although I have been but a short period your commander, we are not strangers, Affections have sprung up between us during the long years of doubt, gloom, and carnage, which we have passed through together, nurtured by common perils, sufferings and sacrifices, and riveted by the memories of gallant comrades, whose bones repose beneath the sod of a hundred battle fields, nor time nor distance will weaken or efface. The many marches you have made, the dangers you have despised, the haughtiness you have humbled, the duties you have discharged, the glory you have gained, the destiny you have discovered for the country in whose cause you have conquered, all recur at this moment in all the vividness that marked the scenes through which we have just passed. From the pens of the ablest historians of the land, daily drifting out upon the current of time, page upon page, voluble up volume, of your heroic deeds, arid floating down to future generations, will inspire the student of history with admiration, the patriot American with veneration for his ancestors, and the love of republican liberty with gratitude for those who, in a fresh baptism of blood, reconstructed the powers and energies of the Republic to the cause of constitutional freedom. Long may it be the happy fortune of each and every one of you to live in the full fruition of the boundless blessings you have secured to the human race. Only he whose heart has been thrilled with admiration of your impetuous and unyielding valor in the thickest of the fight, can appreciate with what pride I recount the brilliant achievements which immortalize you and enrich the pages of our national history. Passing by the earlier, but not less signal' triumphs of the war, in which you participated and inscribed upon your banner such victories as Donelson and Shiloh, I recur to campaigns, sieges and victories' that challenge the admiration of the world, and elicit the unwilling applause of all Europe. Turning your backs upon the blood-bathed heights of Vicksburg, launched into a region swarming with enemies, fighting your way and marching without adequate supplies, to answer the cries for succor that came to you from the noble but beleaguered army at Chattanooga. Your steel next flashed among the mountains of the Tennessee, and your weary limbs found rest before the embattled nights of Mission Ridge, and there with dauntless courage you breasted against the enemy's destructive fire, and shared with your comrades of the Army of the Cumberland the glories of a victory than which no soldier can boast a prouder.

  In that unexampled campaign of vigilant and vigorous warfare from Chattanooga to Atlanta, you freshened your laurels at Resaca, grappling with the Enemy behind his works, hurling him back dismayed and broken. Pursuing him from thence, marking your path by the graves of fallen comrades, you again triumphed over superior numbers at Dallas, fighting your way from there to Kenesaw Mountain, and under the murderous artillery that frowned from its rugged heights, with a tenacity and constancy that finds few parallels, you labored, fought, and suffered through the broiling rays of a Southern midsummer sun, until at last you planted your colors upon its topmost heights. Again, on the 22d of July, 1864, rendered memorable through all time for the terrible struggle you so heroically maintained under discouraging disasters, and, that saddest of all reflections, the loss of that exemplary soldier and popular leader, the lamented McPherson, your matches courage turned defeat into a glorious victory. Ezra Chapel and Jonesborough added new laurels to a radiant record, the latter unbarring to you the proud Gate City of the South.

  The daring of a desperate foe in thrusting his legions northward, exposed the country in your front, and though rivers, swamps and enemies opposed, you boldly surmounted every obstacle, beat down all opposition, and marched onward to the sea. Without any act to dim the brightness of your historic page, the world plaudits when your labors and struggles culminated at Savannah, and the old "Starry Banner” waved once more over the wails of one of our proudest cities of the seaboard. Scarce a breathing spell had passed when your colors from the coast, and your columns plunged into the swamps of the Carohnas. The sufferings you endured, the labors you performed, and the success you achieved in these morasses, deemed impassable, forms a creditable episode in the history of the war. Pocotaligo, Salkehatchie, Edisto, Branchville, Orangeburg, Columbia, Bentonville, Charleston, and Raleigh, are names that will ever be suggestive of the resistless sweep of your columns through the territory that cradled and nurtured, and from whence was sent forth on its mission of crime, misery, and blood, the disturbing and disorganizing spirit of secession and rebellion

  The work for which you pledged your brave hearts and brawny arms to the government of your fathers, you nobly performed. You are seen in the past gathering through the gloom that enveloped the laud, rallying as the guardians of men's proudest heritage forgetting the thread unwoven in the loom, quitting the anvil and abandoning the workshop, to vindicate the supremacy of the laws and the authority of the Constitution. Four years have you struggled in the bloodiest and most destructive war that ever wrenched the earth with human gore; step by step you have borne our standard until today, over every fortress and arsenal that rebellion had wrenched from us. And over city, town and hamlet, from the Lakes to $he Gulf, and from ocean to ocean, proudly floats the starry emblem of our National unity and strength.

  Your rewards, my comrades, are the welcoming plaudits of a grateful people, the consciousness that in saving the Republic, you have won for your country renewed respect and power at home and abroad; that in the unexampled era of growth and prosperity that dawns with peace, there attaches mightier wealth of pride and glory than ever before to that loved boast, "I am an American citizen."

  In relinquishing the implements of war for those of peace, let your conduct be ever that of warriors in times of peace. Let not the lustre of that bright name you have won as soldiers, be dimmed by any improper acts as citizens, but as time rolls on let your record grow brighter and brighter still.

  JOHN A. LOGAN, Major General.

  Headquarters, Middle Division of the Mississippi, in the Field,

  Washing
ton, D. C, May 30, 1865.

  The General Commanding announces to the armies of the Tennessee and Georgia that the time has come for us to part. Our work is clone, and armed enemies no longer defy us. Some of you will be retained in service until further orders. And now that we are about to separate, to mingle with the civil world, it becomes a pleasing duty to recall to mind the situation of political affairs when, but little more than a year ago, we were gathered about the ' twining cliffs of Lookout Mountain, and all the future was wrapped in doubt and uncertainty. Three armies had come together from distant fields, with separate histories, yet bound by one common cause— the union of our country and the perpetuation of the government of our inheritance. There is no need to recall to your memories Tunnel Hill, with its Rocky Face Mountain, and the Buzzard Roost Gap, with the ugly forts of Dalton behind. We were in earnest, and paused not for danger and difficulty, but dashed through Snake Creek Gap and fell on Resaca, and then on to the Etowah, to Dallas, Kenesaw; and the heats of summer found us on the banks of the Chattahoochie, far from home and dependent on a single road for supplies. Again, we were not to be held back by any obstacle, and crossed over, and fought four heavy battles for the possession of the citadel of Atlanta. That was the crisis of our history. A doubt still clouded our future; but we solved the problem, and destroyed Atlanta, struck boldly across the State of Georgia, secured all the main arteries of life to our enemy, and Christmas found us at Savannah. Waiting there only long enough to fill our wagons, we again began a march which, for peril, labor, and result, will compare with any effort made by an organized army. The floods of the Savannah, the swamps of the Combahee and Edisto, the high hills and rocks of the Santee, the flat quagmires of the Pedee and Cape Fear Rivers, were all passed in midwinter, with floods and rains, in the face of an accumulating enemy; and after the battles of Averysborough and Bentonville we once more came out of the wilderness to meet our friends at Goldsboro. Even then we paused only long enough to get new clothing, to reload our wagons, and again pushed on to Raleigh, and beyond, until we met our enemy, suing for peace instead of war, and offering to submit to the injured laws of his and our country. As long as the enemy was defiant, nor mountains, nor rivers, nor swamps, nor hunger, nor cold had checked us; but when he, who had fought us hard and persistently, offered submission, your General thought it wrong to pursue him further, and negotiations followed, which resulted, as you all know, in his surrender. How far the operations of this army have contributed to the over throw of the Confederacy, of the peace which now dawns on us, must be judged by others, not by us. But that you have done all that men could do, has been admitted by those in authority; and we have a right to join in the universal joy that fills our land because the war is over and our Government stands before the world by the joint action of the volunteer "armies of the United States. To such as remain in the military service, your General need only remind you that successes in the past are due to hard work and discipline, and that the same work and discipline are equally important in the future. To such as go home he will only say; that our favored county is so grand, so extensive, so diversified in climate, soil, and productions, that every man may surely find a home and occupation suited to his tastes; and none should yield to the natural impatience sure to result from our past life of excitement and adventure. You will be invited to seek new adventure abroad; but do not yield to the temptation, for it will lead only to death and disappointment.

  Your General now bids you all farewell, with the full belief that, as in war you have been good soldiers, so in peace you will make good citizens; and if unfortunately new war should arise in our country, Sherman's army will be the first to buckle on the old armor and come forth to defend and maintain the Government of our inheritance and choice. By order of

  Major General W. T. SHERMAN.

  CHAPTER XXVII.

  Sketches of Major General John A. Logan, O. O. Howard, Thomas Francis Meagher, and W. T. SHERMAN.

  The name of John A, Logan will long be dear to the friends of the American Union, and his life, when written, will form one of the most brilliant chapters in the National literature of the nineteenth century. For many years his name has been pronounced by the loyal millions of the Northwest. To such a man we feel, that some tribute is justly due, and we now proceed to lay before our readers the general facts of his public history.

  General Logan was born in Jackson County, Illinois, on the 9th of February, 1826. His father, Dr. John Logan, was a native of Ireland, and emigrated to this country in the year 1823. Dr. Logan was a member of the celebrated United Irish organization, having for its object the establishment of a Republic in Ireland. The effort proved a splendid failure, and he, together with others, made their escape to the United States. Ingram makes honorable mention of the patriotism of young Logan, in his memory of the dead, as given in the u Spirit of the Nation."

  John A. Logan is the oldest of eleven children. Schools being scarce in those days, he received the first rudiments of his education, under his father's eye. He completed the days of his pupilage at Shiloh College, where he attained considerable distinction. He afterwards studied law in the city of Louisville. After receiving his diploma, he settled down to the practice of his profession, in Benton, Franklin County, Illinois. When Logan began to plead at the bar, little did the men of Benton know that an orator of rare abilities and surpassing power was in their midst. He had previously served as a Lieutenant in the Mexican war, where he won distinction for personal bravery and skill in the management of troops. On November 27th, 1855, he was allied in marriage to Miss Mary S. Cunningham, a beautiful and high-minded woman. This noble woman used her powerful influence in the war for the Union.

  Logan very soon attained a, highly respectable position as a lawyer. He was earnest and devoted to the interests of his clients, and always made elaborate preparation in the discharge of his duties. Having tilled several minor offices, he was elected to Congress in 1858, and re-elected in 1860; a memorable year in our history. At a very early period of his political career, he was looked upon with especial favor by the Democracy. He defended the peculiar principles of the lamented Douglas with all his popular oratory, maintaining them with a richness of argument, knowledge and education which has never been equaled. His heart and zeal were inflamed in the cause of popular rights. Logan always belonged to the Democratic Party, until he espoused the side of Mr. Douglas, with whom he efficiently co-operated until the re-election of President Lincoln, whose election he warmly supported.

  When the first gun was fired at Fort Sumpter, and the cry, “to arms!" echoed over the prairies of Illinois, then the patriotism and courage of John A. Logan shone forth like the morning star. Resigning his seat in the halls of Congress, he shouldered his musket, and fought in the ranks of Colonel Richardson's regiment, distinguishing himself by his artless heroism and. bravery. Returning to Illinois he found the hardy farmers and mechanics preparing for the conflict. His noble State exhibited at this time a sublime patriotism, that will render her illustrious in all time to come. When the wicked hand of rebellion, applied the torch to destroy the fairest form of government that ever rose to animate the hopes of mankind, the sons and daughters of no State were more enthusiastic in defense of the National domain than the people of Illinois. The citizens of Marion County, with unbounded enthusiasm, in two weeks raised a full regiment, and offering it to Logan, he accepted, and was soon afterward commissioned Colonel v In his first battle, — at Belmont, — the regiment fought gallantly, Logan leading them in the hottest of the fight and showing great coolness and gallantry. He had a horse shot under him and barely escaped himself. In the battle of Fort Donelson he freely expose his person and cheered on his men with the brave words: "Fear death, but not dishonor." All the rebel batteries and muskets seemed to have concentrated their showers of iron missiles on Logan's Brigade, which shook and oscillated like a huge painted ship tossed on an angry sea. “Stand to your guns," cried the chief. On the brave fellows dashed, and covered the gr
ound with dead and wounded rebels. Logan seemed born for the crisis:

  “To ride the billows and direct the storm."

  The troops fought like heroes and practiced veterans

  Their gallant leader was severely wounded, the blood pouring freely from two wounds, one in the thigh and one in the shoulder. Exhausted by loss of blood he was exhorted by his friends to retire from the scene of conflict. Logan aroused to the height of sublimity, pointed with his sword down to the ground and exclaimed "This is the place for labour," and then pointing his sword upward to the Heavens, " There is a place for rest " For his splendid courage on this occasion he was promoted to the a Brigadier General of Volunteers, to date March 5th, 1862.

  He, accompanied General Grant in Northern Missions participating with his Division in all the marches and skirmishes. At the battle of Port Gibson, his troops decided the fortunes "of the day. Id the memorable forty days campaign at Vicksburg, Logan had the post of honor. He met six thousand rebels at Raymond, and though they fought desperately, Logan, leading his men up to the muzzles of their guns, succeeded in scattering them in every direction. General Grant pronounced this " one of the hardest small battles of the war' against the terrible fire of Fort Hill, the key-to Vicksburg, Logan boldly led his column. The crash of bullets from the fort was terrible, but the gallant leader threw himself in front, inspiring and arousing his men, by his own most chivalrous example. His Division was the first to enter Vicksburg, and the General was appointed the same day Military Governor.

  General Logan's next important military service was in connection with the proud Military Division of the Mississippi. His record on the 27th of June, at Kenesaw Mountain, is one of which any officer might justly be proud. In the terrible battle of the 22d of July, Logan's conduct was grand and perfectly overwhelming. The army was surrounded on all sides by the fierce and audacious legions of Hood; the peerless McPherson had fallen; when the sad news of his death reached our lines, a gloom, a bitter gloom, swept over all hearts.