A Thousand May Fall

by Brian Matthew Jordan

  32.Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 56; “Army Correspondence,” Norwalk Reflector, April 21, 1863; Darius N. Couch, “The Chancellorsville Campaign,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (Reprint ed., New York & London: Thomas Yoseloff, 1956), 3:155; Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 63; Erastus Fouch diary, April 20, 1863, Bound Volume 229, FSNMP; “List of the 11th Army Corps, April 10, 1863,” in RG 393, entry 5319, Letters Received 1863–1864, NA; Special Requisition of Peter F. Young in Warren Russell Papers, Box 3, Folder 2, BGSU.

  33.Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 61, 63; Christian Rieker to dear sister, April 12, 1863, Society of Separatists of Zoar Records, Box 96, Folder 1, OHC; Tiffin [Ohio] Tribune, May 1, 1863; John Bigelow, Jr., The Campaign of Chancellorsville: A Strategic and Tactical Study (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1910), 35; “From the 17th Regiment,” Danbury Times, March 12, 1863; OR, ser. I, vol. 25, pt. 2, p. 239; Augustus Bronson to Dear Times, March 5, 1863, Bound Volume 391, FSNMP; Hennessy, “We Shall Make Richmond Howl,” 10; William H. Warren memoir, Bound Volume 391, FSNMP; Stephen Crofutt to “Excellent Mother,” February 27, 1863, Bound Volume 521, FSNMP; Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 63.

  34.Norwalk Reflector, April 21, 1863; Wooster Republican, May 7, 1863; Greiner, Coryell, and Smither, A Surgeon’s Civil War, 90–91; Ohio Repository, June 24, 1863; William A. Aiken, quoted in Seventeenth Regiment C.V.I. Reunion at Fairfield, Ct., 1862–1883, August 28, 1883 (Bridgeport, CT: The Standard Association, Printers, 1884), 34; Christian Rieker to dear sister, April 12, 1863, Society of Separatists of Zoar Records, Box 96, Folder 1, OHC.

  CHAPTER 4: “COMPLETELY AND SCIENTIFICALLY FLANKED”

  1.Orin Buttles to dear Fred, April 6, 1863, Bound Volume 327, FSNMP; Seth Williams to Oliver Otis Howard, April 26, 1863, in Register of Letters Received, January 1863–April 1864, RG 393, entry 5315, NA; Samuel Surburg diary, as quoted in Ohio Repository, June 24, 1863; E. C. Culp to dear Ma, May 7, 1863, copy in Thomas J. Edwards Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, BGSU.

  2.Ohio Repository, June 24, 1863.

  3.Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 64–67; “From the 107th Regiment,” Stark County Republican, May 21, 1863; The Civil War Diary of Private John Flory, 13; Eric J. Wittenberg, The Union Cavalry Comes of Age: Hartwood Church to Brandy Station, 1863 (Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2003, 40–42; Conner and Mackowski, Seizing Destiny, 259; Edward J. Stackpole, Chancellorsville: Lee’s Greatest Battle, 2nd ed. (Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1988), 42–47; Alexander W. Black to dear father, May 13, 1863, and John A. Black to dear father, May 31, 1863, Bound Volume 197, FSNMP; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, pp. 640, 642; Osborn, et al., Trials and Triumphs, 274; “Life in the Seventeenth No. 10—Under Fire,” Danbury Times, May 14, 1863; Robert Hubbard to darling Nellie, May 8, 1863, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; Erastus Fouch diary, April 28, 1863, Bound Volume 229, FSNMP; William H. Warren memoir, Bound Volume 391, FSNMP; Luther B. Mesnard Memoir, Bound Volume 45, FSNMP; Daniel Biddle, affidavit dated April 6, 1896, Alfred Rider Pension File, RG 15, NA; Thompson, “From Chancellorsville to Gettysburg: A Doctor’s Diary,” 298; Stark County Republican, May 21, 1863; Theodore Meysenberg, “Reminiscences of Chancellorsville,” in War Papers and Personal Reminiscences, 1861–1865, Read Before the Commandery of the State of Missouri, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (St. Louis: Becktold & Co., 1892), 1:298; Joseph R. Reinhart, ed., Yankee Dutchmen under Fire: Civil War Letters from the 82nd Illinois Infantry (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2013), 71; Noble, The Seventeenth Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, 2; Tiffin Weekly Tribune, May 29, 1863, and June 5, 1863; Richard Magee Diary, May 6, 1863, RG 69:163, Connecticut State Library; E. C. Culp to dear Ma, May 7, 1863, copy in Thomas J. Edwards Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, Center for Archival Collections, Jerome Library, BGSU.

  4.Oliver Otis Howard, “The Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 3:192, 190; Earl J. Hess, Trench Warfare Under Lee and Grant: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign, 20; Osborn, et al., Trials and Triumphs, 62; G.K. Warren, report of May 12, 1863, in Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 4:54.

  5.Howard, “The Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville,” 3:191; William S. McFeely, Yankee Stepfather: General O. O. Howard and the Freedmen (New York: W. W. Norton, 1968), 31, 33; “Fighting Them Over,” National Tribune, December 25, 1884.

  6.Orin Buttles to dear Fred, April 6, 1863, Bound Volume 327, FSNMP; Oliver Otis Howard, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard (New York: Baker & Taylor Company, 1907), 1:348–349; Engle, Yankee Dutchman, 156–59; Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 64; [Harrisburg] Weekly Patriot and Union, March 5, 1863; Culp, The 25th Ohio Vet. Vol. Infantry, 59; “The Eleventh Corps,” National Tribune, December 11, 1884.

  7.G. K. Warren, report of May 12, 1863, in Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 4:54; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 197; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 2, p. 151; A. Wilson Greene, “Stoneman’s Raid,” in Gallagher, Chancellorsville, 65–106; Stackpole, Chancellorsville, 108–9; Daniel E. Sutherland, Fredericksburg & Chancellorsville: The Dare Mark Campaign (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), 130; testimony of G. K. Warren, March 11, 1865, in Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 4:116; Ernest B. Furgurson, Chancellorsville 1863: The Souls of the Brave (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), 65, 67; Edward G. Longacre, The Commanders of Chancellorsville—The Gentleman versus the Rogue: The Opposing Strategies and Personalities of Lee and Hooker (Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 2005), 117; Joseph Hooker to Abraham Lincoln, April 27, 1863, Abraham Lincoln Papers, LC.

  8.Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 68–70; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 628; testimony of Daniel Sickles, February 25, 1864, in Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 4:4; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, pp. 171, 633; Justus M. Silliman memoir, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; Jesse M. Spooner to cousin William, May 14, 1863, Bound Volume 281, FSNMP; Tiffin Tribune, May 29, 1863; William H. Warren memoir, Bound Volume 391, FSNMP.

  9.OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, pp. 796–97, 849–50; “Special Orders No. 121,” OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 2, p. 762; James Power Smith, “Stonewall Jackson’s Last Battle,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 3:203; Joseph T. Glatthaar, General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Collapse (New York: Free Press, 2008), 245; Sutherland, Fredericksburg & Chancellorsville, 142.

  10.Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 3:204; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 797; Ohio Repository, June 24, 1863; Meysenberg, “Reminiscences of Chancellorsville,” 1:299–300.

  11.B&L, 3:161.

  12.B&L, 3:205; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 651; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 797; Sutherland, Fredericksburg & Chancellorsville, 148.

  13.Justus M. Silliman memoir, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; Erastus Fouch diary, May 1, 1863, Bound Volume 229, FSNMP; Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 69; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, pp. 167, 633, 642, 644; Fred W. Cross to “The Ladies Who Reside at the Talley Homestead on the Chancellorsville Battlefield,” May 2, 1926, Talley Farm Vertical File, FSNMP; pencil drawing, “Hatch House Div. & Brigade Headquarters, 1st Div. 2nd Brigade 11th Corps,” accession number 1999.161.432, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond; “Family accounts of death of Stonewall,” Washington Times, May 3, 2003, copy in Talley Farm Vertical File, FSNMP; Charles Doerflinger map, Bound Volume 483, FSNMP; William H. Warren memoir, Bound Volume 391, FSNMP; Howard, “The Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville,” B&L, 3:191; Norwalk Reflector, May 19, 1863; New Philadelphia Democrat, May 22, 1863; Tiffin Tribune, May 29, 1863; “Statement of Capt. S. Surburg,” Ohio Repository, June 24, 1863; “Army Correspondence,” Tuscarawas Advocate, May 22, 1863; Meysenberg, “Reminiscences of Chancellorsville,” 1:299–300; Norwalk Reflector, May 19, 1863; Alexander W. Black to dear father, May 13, 1863, Bound Volume 197, FSNMP; E. R. Monfort, “The First Division, Eleventh Corps, at Chancellorsville,” in Monfort, H. B. Furness, and Fred H. Alms, eds., G.A.R. War Papers: Papers Read Before Fred C. Jones Post, No. 401, Department of Ohio, G.A.R. (Cincinnati: Fred C. Jones Post, 1891), 1:60�
�61; “Chancellorsville,” National Tribune, October 22, 1891.

  14.Norwalk Reflector, May 19, 1863; Erastus Fouch Diary, May 2, 1863, Bound Volume 229, FSNMP; “A Private’s Account of the Late Battle,” Tiffin Tribune, May 29, 1863; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 650; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 637; William H. Warren memoir, Bound Volume 391, FSNMP; Culp, The 25th Ohio Vet. Vol. Infantry, 60–62; William O. Dauchy letter, May 31, 1863, Bound Volume 479, FSNMP; Justus M. Silliman Memoir, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; J. C. Hall to Augutus Choate Hamlin, November 12, 1891, Augustus Choate Hamlin Papers, Houghton Library; E. C. Culp to dear Ma, May 7, 1863, Thomas J. Edwards Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, BGSU.

  15.Culp, The 25th Ohio Vet. Vol. Infantry, 61–62, 64; John W. Black to dear father, May 31, 1863, Bound Volume 197, FSNMP; William O. Dauchy letter, May 31, 1863, Bound Volume 479, FSNMP; J. C. Hall to Augustus Choate Hamlin, November 12, 1891, Augustus Choate Hamlin Papers, Houghton Library; Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 72–73; Tiffin Tribune, May 29, 1863; “Somebody’s Blunder,” National Tribune, March 19, 1885.

  16.OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 652; Hans L. Trefousse, Carl Schurz: A Biography (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982), 133; Carl Schurz, The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, 2:418; Thompson, “From Chancellorsville to Gettysburg: A Doctor’s Diary,” 299; “Chancellorsville,” National Tribune, October 22, 1891; “Letter from the 107th Regiment,” Defiance Democrat, May 23, 1863; Lucius B. Swift, “An Enlisted Man in the Chancellorsville Campaign,” John Bigelow Papers, Box 54, Manuscript Division, LC; Sears, Chancellorsville, 264–65; “Chancellorsville,” National Tribune, June 11, 1891.

  17.Culp, The 25th Ohio Vet. Vol. Infantry, 64; William H. Warren memoir, Bound Volume 391, FSNMP; Luther Mesnard Memoir, Bound Volume 45, FSNMP; Norwalk Reflector, May 19, 1863.

  18.Daily Cleveland Herald, May 25, 1863; Stark County Republican, May 21, 1863; “On Picket at Chancellorsville: Captain A. B. Searles Tells How the Eleventh Corps Was Flanked,” Boston Journal, February 24, 1893; Thomas Evans Diary, Manuscript Division, LC; Reinhart, Yankee Dutchmen Under Fire, 72; Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 73; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, pp. 639, 642; Tiffin Weekly Tribune, May 29, 1863; “Letter from the Rappahannock,” Portage County Democrat, May 27, 1863.

  19.OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, pp. 644, 641; “Army Correspondence,” Daily Cleveland Herald, May 14, 1863; “Lieut. Col. Mueller,” New Philadelphia Democrat, May 22, 1863; “Chancellorsville,” National Tribune, October 22, 1891; Tuscarawas Advocate, May 22, 1863; Elyria Independent Democrat, May 27, 1863.

  20.“Life in the Seventeenth Under Fire,” Danbury Times, May 14, 1863; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, pp. 636–37, 644; Augustus Choate Hamlin, “Chancellorsville,” National Tribune, August 3, 1893.

  21.Wooster Republican, May 21, 1863; Christian Rieker to dear sister, May 11, 1863, Society of Separatists of Zoar Records, Box 96, Folder 1, OHC; Daily Cleveland Herald, May 25, 1863; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 638; Osborn, et al., Trials and Triumphs, 71; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 644; Monfort, “The First Division, Eleventh Corps, at Chancellorsville,” 66–67; National Tribune, October 22, 1891; “The Eleventh Corps,” National Tribune, December 11, 1884; Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 74; Thomas Evans Diary, Manuscript Division, LC; Robert Hubbard to dear Nellie, May 9, 1863, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; Justin Keeler letter, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; James Middlebrook to his wife, May 10, 1863, Middlebrook Family Papers, MSS 73139, Connecticut Historical Society; “Life in the Seventeenth Under Fire,” Danbury Times, May 14, 1863.

  22.“107th Ohio Regiment,” Stark County Republican, June 11, 1863; “Wounded Ohio Soldiers in Washington Hospital,” Cleveland Morning Leader, May 15, 1863; “The Killed and Wounded,” Stark County Democrat, May 13, 1863; Norwalk Reflector, May 19, 1863; “The 107th Ohio at Fredericksburg,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 8, 1863; “From the 107th Ohio Regiment,” Tuscarawas Advocate, May 22, 1863; Conrad Messig Pension File, RG 15, NA; “From the 107th Regiment,” Stark County Republican, July 2, 1863; M. N. French to my dear husband, May 7, 1863 and May 10, 1863, Bound Volume 391, FSNMP. My ideas in this paragraph are deeply influenced by Hodes, Mourning Lincoln.

  23.“Capt. A. J. Dewaldt,” Sandusky Register, June 12, 1863; Norwalk Reflector, June 23, 1863; C. H. Gallup, et al., The Firelands Pioneer (Norwalk, OH: American Publishers Company, 1915), 2100; Morning Reports for Company C, 107th Ohio Regimental Order Books, vol. 7, RG 94, NA; Ernst Damkoehler to dear Mathilde, May 13, 1863, Bound Volume 327, FSNMP; Robert Hubbard to dear Nellie, May 9, 1863, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; Christian Rieker to his sister, May 11, 1863, Society of Separatists of Zoar Records, Box 96, Folder 1, OHC; “Touching Letter,” Salem Observer, July 14, 1863; Robert Hubbard to darling Nellie, May 8, 1863, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 75.

  24.“List of Union Officers Taken By the Rebels,” New York Tribune, May 12, 1863; Christian Rieker to his sister, May 11, 1863, and May 30, 1863, both in Society of Separatists of Zoar Records, Box 96, Folder 1, OHC; George Billow affidavit, March 5, 1890, and Edward S. Meyer affidavit, December 4, 1889, Seraphim Meyer Pension File, RG 15, NA; Defiance [Ohio] Democrat, May 16, 1863; Edward S. Meyer to Captain McBailey, June 22, 1864, Edward S. Meyer Compiled Service Record, RG 94, NA; Defiance Democrat, May 16, 1863. In waiting a week for medical attention, Captain Meyer, it seems, was hardly alone. Stephen Crofutt, a soldier in the 17th Connecticut, explained that some “poor fellows lay on the field” for “nearly a whole week” before they received care. Crofutt to dear parents, May 16, 1863, Bound Volume 521, FSNMP.

  25.Edward S. Meyer affidavit, December 4, 1889, Seraphim Meyer Pension File, RG 15, NA.

  26.Stephen Crofutt to dear parents, May 16, 1863, Bound Volume 521, FSNMP; Justus M. Silliman memoir, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; Christian Rieker to dear sister, May 11, 1863, Society of Separatists of Zoar Records, Box 96, Folder 1, OHC; Robert Hubbard to dear Nellie, May 9, 1863, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; Thomas Evans Diary, Manuscript Division, LC; Jesse M. Spooner to cousin William, May 14, 1863, Bound Volume 281, FSNMP; William Southerton Memoir, VFM 3177, OHC. On noise, smell, and sight as portals to the lived experience of war, see Mark M. Smith, The Smell of Battle, The Taste of Siege.

  27.Reid, Ohio in the War, 2:577; Ben Douglass, History of Wayne County, Ohio, 757; Canton Repository, September 22, 1871; Christian Rieker to his sister, May 11, 1863, and May 30, 1863, Society of Separatists of Zoar Records, Box 96, Folder 1, OHC; Special Order No. 22, June 11, 1863, in 107th Ohio Regimental Order Books, vol. 4, RG 94, NA; “107th Ohio Regiment,” Stark County Republican, June 11, 1863; “From the 107th Ohio,” Daily Cleveland Herald, May 25, 1863; Stark County Republican, June 4, 1863; on Franklin Bow, see 107th Ohio Regimental Order Books, vol. 1, RG 94, NA; Defiance Democrat, May 23, 1863; Daily Cleveland Herald, May 14, 1863.

  28.Robert K. Krick, The Smoothbore Volley That Doomed the Confederacy: The Death of Stonewall Jackson and Other Chapters on the Army of Northern Virginia, 1–2; Stackpole, Chancellorsville, 259–260, 269, 280, 283, 285–286, 262; Sutherland, Fredericksburg & Chancellorsville, 161; Carol Reardon, “The Valiant Rearguard: Hancock’s Division at Chancellorsville,” in Gallagher, Chancellorsville, 143–75.

  29.Stackpole, Chancellorsville, 288; Sutherland, Fredericksburg & Chancellorsville, 163; Sears, Chancellorsville, 312–13, 365; John W. Black to dear father, May 31, 1863, Bound Volume 197, FSNMP; Erastus Fouch diary, May 3, 1863, Bound Volume 229, FSNMP; Noah Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time, 57–58.

  30.Thomas Evans Diary, Manuscript Division, LC; Clay MacCauley, “From Chancellorsville to Libby Prison,” in Glimpses of the Nation’s Struggle: A Series of Papers Read Before the Minnesota Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (St. Paul: St. Paul Book and Stationery Company, 1887), 193–94, 200; Christian Rieker to Mary Rouf, May 30, 1863, Society of Separatists of Zoar Records, Box 96, Folder 1, OHC; William B. McCreery, “My Experiences as a Prisoner of War, and Escape from Libby Prison” (Detroit: Winn & Hammond, 1893), 11.

/>   31.Seraphim Meyer Pension File, RG 15, NA; Seraphim Meyer Compiled Service Record, RG 94, NA; Federico Fernandez Cavada, Libby Life: Experiences of a Prisoner of War in Richmond, Virginia, 1863–64 (Philadelphia: King & Baird, 1864), 23. On Libby’s odors, see Evan A. Kutzler, Living by Inches: The Smells, Sounds, Tastes, and Feeling of Captivity in Civil War Prisons (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019), 37.

  32.Richard Magee Diary, May 6, 1863, in RG 69:163, Connecticut State Library; Mahlon Slutz Reminiscences, Indiana State Library; Smith, Camps and Campaigns, 77.

  33.Special Field Orders No. 52, May 8, 1863, in RG 393, pt. 2, entry 2282, NA; Washington A. Roebling to John Bigelow, December 9, 1910, John Bigelow Papers, Box 54, Manuscript Division, LC; Richard Magee Diary, May 6, 1863, RG 69:163, Connecticut State Library; Christian Rieker to his sister, May 11, 1863, in Society of Separatists of Zoar Records, Box 96, Folder 1, OHC; OR, ser. 1, vol. 25, pt. 1, p. 644; Sandusky Register, June 12, 1863; Norwalk Reflector, June 23, 1863.

  34.Francis Foote, as quoted in Bound Volume 76, FSNMP; Jesse M. Spooner to cousin William, May 14, 1863, Bound Volume 281, FSNMP; Robert Hubbard to darling Nellie, May 8, 1863, Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; William Noble, “History of the Seventeenth Connecticut,” Bound Volume 353, FSNMP; Hartford Evening Press, May 7, 1863; E. C. Culp to dear ma, May 7, 1863, Thomas J. Edwards Collection, Box 1, Folder 2, BGSU; “History of the Seventeenth Connecticut by Colonel William H. Noble,” Bound Volume 391, FSNMP.

  35.The Battle of Chancellorsville and the Eleventh Army Corps, 3; [Washington, D.C.] Daily National Intelligencer, May 6, 1863; New Hampshire Sentinel, May 7, 1863. See also Christian Keller, Chancellorsville and the Germans: Nativism, Ethnicity, and Civil War Memory (New York: Fordham University Press, 2007).