by Bruce Catton
8 Manuscript letters of George L. Lang, Story of the Service of Company E and of the 12th Wisconsin Regiment, p. 196.
9 Forty-six Years in the Army, by Lt. Gen. John M. Schofield, p. 145.
10 Story of the Service of Company E and of the 12th Wisconsin Regiment, pp. 202-4; History of the 33rd Regiment Illinois Veteran Volunteer Infantry, pp. 84-85.
11 Downing’s War Diary, p. 124.
12 B. & L., Vol. III, pp. 530-34, 536; manuscript letters of George L. Lang.
13 B. & L., Vol. III, p. 492.
14 Story of the Service of Company E and of the 12th Wisconsin Regiment, p. 194.
Chapter Ten: LAST OF THE MIGHT-HAVE-BEENS
Pursuit in Tennessee
1 The Sherman Letters: Correspondence between General and Senator Sherman, p. 213.
2 For a suggestive discussion of the connection between Vallandigham’s visit and the Morgan raid, see Howard Swiggett, The Rebel Raider: John Hunt Morgan, pp. 120-26.
3 Official Records, Vol. XXIII, Part 1, p. 640. General Wheeler’s report, emphasizing that Morgan disobeyed orders by crossing the Ohio, is in the same volume, pp. 817-18.
4 History of the 77th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 185; History of the 16th Battery of Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery, pp. 86-88.
5 History of the 53rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, p. 108.
6 Lewis, op. cit., p. 309; Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Vol. I, p. 578 ff.
7 The Negro in the Civil War, pp. 1-11, 13-18.
8 Echoes of the Civil War as I Hear Them, p. 121; History of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, p. 203; History of the 38th Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, pp. 68-71.
9 Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Vol. II, p. 20; Van Horne, Vol. I, pp. 298-99.
10 History of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, p. 202.
11 Official Records, Vol. XXIII, Part 1, p. 408; History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 97; History of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, pp. 210-11.
12 Opdycke Tigers: 125th Ohio Volunteer Infantry by Charles T. Clark, p. 81; Official Records, Vol. XXIII, Part 1, p. 407; History of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, p. 215.
13 History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 98.
14 Ibid., pp. 101, 111.
Ghoul-Haunted Woodland
1 Van Horne, Vol. I, pp. 317, 320, 322-23, 327.
2 B. & L., Vol. III, pp. 641-45.
3 Ibid., pp. 638-39.
4 History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 118; Echoes of the Civil War as I Hear Them, pp. 134-36. Note the remark of the author of The History of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, p. 225: “There was not even a private in the ranks who did not realize the fact that we had a big contract on our hands.”
5 The Army of Tennessee, p. 263. This book, incidentally, contains one of the best of all the accounts of the battle of Chickamauga.
6 History of the 38th Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, pp. 89-91.
7 History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, pp. 134-35; Van Horne, Vol. I, pp. 342-43, 345-47.
8 Ibid., p. 347; B. & L., Vol. III, p. 663; Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 160-61.
9 History of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, p. 239; Opdycke Tigers, pp. 106-8, 117, 123-24; Three Years with the Armies of the Ohio and the Cumberland, p. 54.
10 History of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, p. 242.
The Pride of Soldiers
1 Memoirs of the War, pp. 208-9; Three Years with the Armies of the Ohio and the Cumberland, pp. 57-58; History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 159.
2 History of the 34th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 78.
3 Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Vol. II, p. 26; Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 16.
4 B. & L., Vol. III, pp. 684-85. This volume contains an amusing account of the building of the river steamer, pp. 676 ff.
5 Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 17-19.
6 Footprints through Dixie: Everyday Life of the Man under a Musket, by J. W. Gaskill, pp. 60-62, 64.
7 History of the Fourteenth Illinois Cavalry, by W. L. Sanford, p. 63; Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 84.
8 B. & L., Vol. III, p. 693 n.
9 Ibid., p. 694.
10 Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Vol. II, pp. 42-43.
11 Civil War Papers read before the Commandery of the State of Massachusetts, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, Vol. I, p. 250; History of the Third Regiment of Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Infantry, p. 233 n; Army Life of an Illinois Soldier, p. 218; History of the 33rd Regiment Illinois Veteran Volunteer Infantry, pp. 47-48.
A Half Dozen Roasted Acorns
1 Lewis, op. cit., p. 319.
2 The Life of Major General George H. Thomas, pp. 180-91.
3 Lewis, op. cit., pp. 320-21.
4 B. & L., Vol. III, p. 706.
5 History of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, p. 274.
6 Life of Major General George H. Thomas, pp. 191-92; Opdycke Tigers, pp. 164, 169, 172; History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, pp. 180, 183; Lewis, op. cit., p. 323.
7 B. & L., Vol. III, p. 725.
8 Opdycke Tigers, p. 166; Life of Major General George H. Thomas, p. 197; B. & L., Vol. III, pp. 725-26; History of the Sixth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, p. 275.
9 Ibid., pp. 276-78
10 Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 263; Lewis, op. cit., pp. 325-26.
11 A History of the Sixth Iowa Infantry, pp. 247-48; Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 84-85; Footprints through Dixie, p. 70; Schofield, op. cit., p. 114.
12 Echoes of the Civil War as I Hear Them, p. 187.
13 Life of Major General George H. Thomas, p. 213.
14 Ohio at Shiloh: Report of the Commission, p. 204.
Chapter Eleven: AND KEEP MOVING ON
Year of Jubilo
1 Official Records, Series 4, Vol. III, p. 130.
2 The Living Lincoln, p. 162; Official Records, Vol. XXIV, Part 3, p. 567.
3 General Grant’s Letters to a Friend, 1861-1880; Lewis, op. cit., p. 335.
4 Official Records, Vol. XVII, Part 2, p. 868; The Story of a Cavalry Regiment, pp. 186, 207, 216; Lewis, op. cit., pp. 332-33.
5 Story of the Service of Company E and of the 12th Wisconsin Regiment, pp. 249-50.
6 Official Records, Vol. LII, Part 2, pp. 586-92, 598-99, 606-9.
7 Ibid., Series 4, Vol. II, p. 345; Series 4, Vol. III, p. 86.
Vote of Confidence
1 See Ben Thomas’s Abraham Lincoln, pp. 405-8.
2 Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton, p. 239.
3 Lewis, op. cit., p. 345.
4 The Life of John A. Rawlins, by Maj. Gen. James Harrison Wilson, pp. 426-27; The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. II, p. 201.
5 Official Records, Series 3, Vol. V, p. 650.
6 Drum Taps in Dixie, pp. 144-45.
7 Official Records, Series 3, Vol. V, pp. 649, 651; History of the 34th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 96; manuscript letters of John W. Chase; manuscript letters of George L. Lang; Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 92; Downing’s War Diary, p. 177.
8 Official Records, Vol. XXXIII, p. 776.
9 Greene County Soldiers in the Late War, p. 68; Echoes of the Civil War as I Hear Them, p. 197; Three Years with the Armies of the Ohio and the Cumberland, p. 66.
The Great Decision
1 Lewis, op. cit., p. 343.
2 The Road to Richmond, by Major Abner R. Small, pp. 130-31; Recollections of a Private Soldier in the Army of the Potomac, by Frank Wilkeson, pp. 42-43.
3 R. E. Lee, by Douglas Southall Freeman, Vol. III, p. 287.
4 Manuscript letters of John W. Chase.
A Question of Time
1 Freeman, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 398.
2 See John C. Ropes, “The Failure to Take Petersburg on June 16
-18, 1864,” in the Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, Vol. V; A Stillness at Appomattox, pp. 183-99.
3 Manuscript diary of Henry Mortimer Hempstead, 2nd Michigan Cavalry.
4 A Stillness at Appomattox, pp. 219-51.
5 The Living Lincoln, p. 616.
Chapter Twelve: WE WILL NOT CEASE
That Bright Particular Star
1 Official Records, Vol. XIX, Part 2, p. 505.
2 Reminiscences of the Civil War, from Diaries of Members of the 103rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, pp. 99, 133; Story of the Service of Company E and of the 12th Wisconsin Regiment, pp. 281-82.
3 Lewis, op. cit., pp. 357-58.
4 “Letters of C. C. Carpenter,” edited by Mildred Throne; from the Iowa Journal of History, January 1955, p. 84.
5 Reminiscences of the Civil War, from Diaries of Members of the 103rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, pp. 78, 95.
6 Lewis, op. cit., pp. 375-78.
7 Schofield, op. cit., pp. 131, 231-32.
8 The Life of Major General George H. Thomas, pp. 243-45.
9 Lewis, op. cit., p. 386.
10 Manuscript letter of General Sherman to Emily Hoffman of Baltimore. Family tradition regarding Miss Hoffman’s receipt of the news of McPherson’s death, and her reaction to it, related by her grand-nephew, Mr. Walter Lord of New York.
11 Lewis, op. cit., p. 400.
Wind Across the Sky
1 For slavery as a race problem, see Allan Nevins and Henry Steele Commager, America: The Story of a Free People, pp. 214-15.
2 Abraham Lincoln, by Benjamin P. Thomas, pp. 441-42.
3 Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Vol. III, p. 227.
4 Ibid., p. 218; Thomas, op. cit., p. 445.
5 B. & L., Vol. IV, pp. 379-400.
The Grapes of Wrath
1 Lewis, op. cit., pp. 426, 430.
2 Ibid., p. 431.
3 B. & L., Vol. IV, p. 672; History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, pp. 252-53; Reminiscences of the Civil War, from Diaries of Members of the 103rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 147.
4 History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 252.
5 Manuscript letter, Sherman to Emily Hoffman; Official Records, Vol. XXX, Part 3, p. 698.
6 Reminiscences of the Civil War, from Diaries of Members of the 103rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, pp. 148, 149; History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 278; History of the 34th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 106.
7 History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 263; Footprints through Dixie, p. 124.
8 Reminiscences of the Civil War, from Diaries of Members of the 103rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 153.
9 Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 234; The History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 279; History of the 34th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 173.
10 History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 258.
11 Reminiscences of the Civil War, from Diaries of Members of the 103rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 164; Lewis, op. cit., p. 465; Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 234.
12 Downing’s War Diary, p. 237; A History of the Sixth Iowa Infantry, pp. 379-80, 384; History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 279.
13 Lewis, op. cit., p. 471.
The Enemy Will be Attacked
1 The most exhaustive discussion of Hood’s odd failure at Spring Hill, probably, is that of Stanley Horn in his excellent Army of Tennessee, pp. 384-95.
2 Footprints through Dixie, pp. 136-37.
3 With the Rank and File, pp. 18-19.
4 The Army of Tennessee, pp. 399-404; Schofield, op. cit., pp. 177-79; Opdycke Tigers, pp. 339-53; With the Rank and File, pp. 16-17. Note that the youthful Colonel MacArthur of the 24th Wisconsin, who was wounded in this fight, later became the father of General Douglas MacArthur.
5 Footprints through Dixie, pp. 142-43.
6 Manuscript diary of Henry Mortimer Hempstead.
7 The whole sequence of events is set forth in complete detail in Gen. James H. Wilson’s Under the Old Flag, Vol. II, pp. 64-93; see also B. & L., Vol. IV, pp. 455-56.
8 Manuscript diary of Henry Mortimer Hempstead.
9 History of the 51st Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry, p. 259; History of the Fourteenth Illinois Cavalry, p. 284.
10 Under the Old Flag, Vol. II, pp. 122-23, 126.
11 Ibid., p. 95.
Chapter Thirteen: TWILIGHT AND VICTORY
Reap the Whirlwind
1 History of the 34th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, pp. 179, 191.
2 Lewis, op. cit., p. 490.
3 History of the 83rd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, p. 71; History of the 34th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 354.
4 History of the 83rd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, p. 77; History of the 53rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, p. 176; Reminiscences of the Civil War, from Diaries of Members of the 103rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 176; History of Fuller’s Ohio Brigade, p. 265; History of the 104th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, pp. 309-10.
5 Echoes of the Civil War as I Hear Them, pp. 268-69.
6 History of the 104th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 287.
7 Downing’s War Diary, pp. 251, 259.
8 History of the Seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 297; Reminiscences of the Civil War, from Diaries of Members of the 103rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 183; Story of the Service of Company E and of the 12th Wisconsin Regiment, p. 407; History of the Sixth Iowa Infantry, pp. 411-14.
9 Lewis, op. cit., pp. 506-7.
10 B. & L., Vol. IV, p. 686.
11 Downing’s War Diary, p. 260; History of the 104th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 309; Lewis, op. cit., p. 509.
The Fire and the Night
1 Manuscript diary of Capt. Lot Abraham, 4th Iowa Cavalry.
2 Manuscript letters of Lewis Bissell, 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery.
3 Manuscript letters of David Carpenter, Massachusetts agent for the Christian Commission; Cox, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 397.
4 Official Records, Series 4, Vol. III, p. 1131.
5 Ibid., pp. 1067-70.
6 Ibid., pp. 1161-62.
A Telegram in Cipher
1 Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Vol. II, p. 489. Grant’s own account of the surrender proceedings and the version given by Col. Horace Porter in B. & L., Vol. IV, pp. 729-46, have been followed here.
2 B. & L., Vol. IV, p. 744.
3 Lewis, op. cit., pp. 534-35.
4 Reminiscences of the Civil War, from Diaries of Members of the 103rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, p. 208. A similar note was sounded by an Ohio soldier, who said that “the country will just be riddled and burnt over,” adding wistfully: “I only wish that it was in some other state as there are a great many Union folks in N. C., but they will not escape.” (Manuscript letters of Frank O. Weary, 29th Ohio Infantry.)
5 The terms are summarized from Lewis, op. cit., pp. 540-41.
6 B. & L., Vol. IV, p. 757.
Candlelight
1 The Living Lincoln, pp. 600, 638-40.
2 Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Vol. IV, pp. 319-21.
3 The Story of a Cavalry Regiment, pp. 509, 522.
4 History of the Third Regiment of Wisconsin Veteran Volunteer Infantry, pp. 331-32.
5 A History of the Sixth Iowa Infantry, p. 463.
6 History of the 51st Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry, p. 303; Manuscript diary of Capt. Lot Abraham.
7 Under the Maltese Cross, Antietam to Appomattox, narrated by the Rank and File, pp. 382-83; New York Herald, May 24, 1865.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book could hardly have been written without the help which was provided by a large number of very generous people. Manuscript sources dealing with the lives and thoughts of Civil War soldiers are widely scattered; to get at them a writer is bound to rely
on the kindness of those who own them. He thereby incurs a debt which can hardly be repaid but which can at least be gratefully acknowledged.
In preparing this book, the following manuscript sources were used:
Letters of George L. Lang, of the 12th Wisconsin; loaned by Stanley Barnett, of Cleveland.
Letters of Abram S. Funk, of the 35th Iowa; loaned by Mrs. Erie M. Funk, of Long Beach, Calif.
Letters of Isaac Jackson, of the 83rd Ohio; loaned by J. O. Jackson, of Detroit.
Letters of Frank 0. Weary, drummer boy in the 29th Ohio Veteran Volunteers; loaned by G. H. Lohr, of Cuyahoga Falls, O.
Memoirs of Elmer J. Barker, of the 5th New York Cavalry; loaned by Dr. E. Eugene Barker, of Albany, N. Y.
Diary of Sgt. John P. Beech, of the 4th New Jersey; loaned by Albert C. Lambert, of Trenton, N. J.
Letters of James Gillette, of the 71st New York State Militia, later of the 4th Maryland Volunteers; loaned by Mrs. Amy G. Bassett, of Huletts Landing, N. Y.
Diary of Henry Mortimer Hempstead, of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry; loaned by Miss Helen Hempstead, of Saginaw, Mich.
Diary of Bowman Garrison, of the 7th Pennsylvania Reserves; loaned by Mrs. Charles Haskell Danforth, of Stanford University, Calif.
Diary of Corp. Loring N. Hayden, of the 24th Massachusetts; loaned by Mrs. Genevieve Hayden Berry, of Wollaston, Mass.
Letters of General William T. Sherman to Emily Hoffman of Baltimore; loaned by Walter Lord, of New York.
Diary of Capt. Lot Abraham, of the 4th Iowa Cavalry; loaned by John D. Adams, of Newark, N. J.
Letters of David Carpenter, Massachusetts agent for the Christian Commission; loaned by Mrs. Olive L. Sawyer, of New York.
Letters of John W. Chase, of the 1st Massachusetts Artillery; loaned by Mrs. Margaret J. Collier, of Arlington, Va.