In the summer of 1862, a group of volunteer soldiers joined the Twenty-First Michigan Volunteer Infantry in western Michigan. For the next two and a half years, these men saw extensive combat against the Confederacy in America's most brutal and bloody war. Drawn from hundreds of letters, diaries, and memoirs, Into the Tornado of War is the complete history of this Union regiment as seen through the soldiers' eyes. James Genco traces their movements from their first major battle at Perryville, Kentucky, through Tennessee, Georgia, and finally, the Carolinas. In addition to Perryville, the regiment was severely tested in the landmark battles of Stones River, Chickamauga, and Bentonville, and participated in Union General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea in November and December of 1864. As the war wound down in 1865, the regiment was part of the Union Army that cut its way through the Carolinas, ultimately finding itself in the forefront of one of the last major battles of the war. In a valuable contribution to the scholarship on the American Civil War, Into the Tornado of War paints a picture of the realities of the war through the words of real soldiers.

Into the Tornado of War

A History of the Twenty-First Michigan Infantry in the Civil WarBy JAMES GENCO

abbott press

Copyright © 2012 James Genco
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4582-0181-2

Contents

Civilians in Blue: The Battle of Perryville Prologue:..........................11. Dawning of the Regiment "Braver Men Never Took Up Arms".....................112. Rush to the Front...........................................................343. Joining the Army of the Ohio................................................474. Perryville: The Battle for Kentucky.........................................595. Regrouping at Nashville.....................................................696. Rosecrans Forges his Army...................................................837. Stones River: "Courage and Fearlessness in Danger"..........................958. Respite at Murfreesboro.....................................................1209. The Tullahoma Campaign......................................................15310. The Road to Chickamauga....................................................16811. The Battle of Chickamauga: "They Never Saw the Equal"......................17412. Colonel Mccreery's Ordeal..................................................20313. The Battle for Chattanooga.................................................21614. Engineer Duty: Lumberjacks & Carpenters....................................23815. Back into the Fray.........................................................26516. The March to the Sea and Savannah..........................................27317. Punishing the Instigators of Rebellion.....................................30118. Sloshing Across North Carolina.............................................31719 The Battle of Bentonville...................................................32720. "The Wildest Celebration Ever Indulged"....................................346Endnotes.......................................................................363Bibliography...................................................................383Index..........................................................................391

Chapter One

Dawning of the Regiment "Braver Men Never Took Up Arms"

July to September 12, 1862 The Yankee Volunteer of 1862

Twelve weeks prior to the Battle of Perryville, the Twenty-first Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment did not exist. It was the second summer of the Civil War, and all visions of a swift resolution of the conflict had vanished. For the Federal government, these were some of the darkest hours of the war. Despite Union victories west of the Appalachian Mountains, repeated setbacks for the Federals in the east led many to believe the Confederacy could force a peace that recognized its independence. The Confederate armies, fighting on their home ground, had proven themselves tenacious, and there was a sober recognition that a long bloody struggle loomed ahead.

The Union volunteers of this second summer were very different from those who rushed to war in the spring of 1861. Unlike their impassioned comrades who had flocked to the colors with bravado and unrealistic expectations following the Rebels' firing on Fort Sumter, the volunteers who enlisted in the summer of 1862 did so with eyes wide open. No longer was there any expectation of a short war.

While many of the volunteers of 1861 were members of prewar militia companies, most of the volunteers of 1862 had little military experience or inclination. The volunteer of '62 had learned from newspaper accounts and returning veterans about the harsh reality of the war they were entering, and they knew it would be a long, deadly struggle. Disabled veterans returning home were harbingers of the tragedy of combat, and they were frightening embodiments of the very real danger to which the new volunteers would soon be exposed.

The staggering number of casualties published in the newspapers after each battle, and the reports of the even greater numbers of deaths from camp diseases, left no doubt that there were substantial odds that many a recruit would not survive his three-year enlistment. Consequently, while this second wave of volunteers was no less patriotic, the men enlisted with a sober perspective, fully appreciating the potential consequences of their commitment.

The Call to Arms: Summer 1862

The genesis of the call for volunteers in the summer of 1862 was a telegram sent by the Governors of the eighteen Union states, including Michigan's Austin Blair, to President Abraham Lincoln. In their June 30, 1862 communiqué, the Governors reiterated their commitment to preserving the Union and their willingness to follow with action by furnishing all the reinforcements necessary to see the war through to its conclusion. To this end, they proposed sending 500,000 more men. On July 2, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln accepted the offer, but requested only 300,000, since the Administration recognized it could not arm, equip and train a larger force at that time.

With this Presidential Executive Order, the machinery for organizing new regiments sprang into action. Each state was given a quota of men to supply and was authorized to pay each recruit a bounty of $25 to $100. Michigan was to send 11,686 men, and the State Legislature promptly authorized the formation of six new regiments of infantry, specifying that one was to be supplied by each state congressional district. On July 8, 1862 Michigan Adjutant General John Robertson issued Order Number 15 authorizing the creation of Michigan's new regiments. In addition to the Twenty-first, the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-second, Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth regiments of infantry were to be formed at this time.

The First Recruits

While recruiting could not officially begin prior to issuance of Order Number 15, on July 2, upon hearing of Lincoln's call, four enthusiastic men from the vicinity of Hastings, Michigan immediately began forming the nucleus of a company. Despite the fact they had no way of knowing to which regiment they would be assigned, or even if they would be accepted by the State, they nonetheless set about getting commitments from friends to join as a group. Their leader was Leonard O. Fitzgerald, a thirty-one year-old native of Eaton County, Michigan who had moved to Hastings around 1860. A merchant who ran his own meat market, Fitzgerald was a "quiet straight-forward man [who] ... inspired so much confidence among his acquaintances that when the war opened a number of them said they would enlist for service if he would go as their leader."

First to sign with Fitzgerald's prospective company were John Spencer of Baltimore, Michigan and Horatio Sackett of Woodland, Michigan. Spencer, a hardy thirty-three year-old, went on to serve with the regiment throughout its entire term of service, while Hackett, thirty-four, was one of the regiment's first losses, dying on November 3, 1862 from an unknown disease in Louisville, Kentucky. Prior to receiving State authorization to raise a company, Fitzgerald had recruited fourteen men from the villages of Baltimore, Hastings and Woodland.

This group subsequently became the first volunteers of the Twenty-first Michigan. The list included two sets of brothers, the Roushs (Thomas, twenty-three; Allen, twenty-two; and Michael, twenty-one) and the Osborns (John, twenty-eight, and Joseph, twenty-three). On July 18, 1862 Fitzgerald was rewarded for his...