Statewide County WI Archives Military Records.....Recollections By Wm. Plackett Civilwar 3rd WI Light Artillery Battery ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/wi/wifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com May 13, 2006, 11:46 pm Recollections By Wm. Plackett RECOLLECTIONS BY WM. PLACKETT. Readers of the history of the late war are no doubt familiar with the reply of General Geo. H. Thomas, to General Grant, who, when ordering him to take command of the army of the Cumberland "to hold Chattanooga at any cost." "We will hold the place or starve," and although it was a hard job, and necessitated great labor, and much sacrifice on the part of the rank and file of the army of the Cumberland the promise was kept and the place was successfully held by the remnant of the old and tried army of the Cumberland against a victory-flushed and over confident enemy, strong enough to completely envelop the little remnant of our army, and loose troops enough to prevent getting supplies by any of our ordinary lines of communication. The little army worked manfully day and night for quite a time putting up breastworks for protection, as it seemed to be very likely, if not a certainty, that the enemy would make a rush on us in our weakened state and try to take the place by storm, but it appears that for some reason, or reasons, he did not take that method, and endeavored to starve us out. By taking possession of Lookout Mountain and Will's Valley, the enemy had cut our railroad communication with our base of supplies and to reach our nearest depot of supplies (Bridgeport) we had to take a circuitous route over the mountains, and hills, a distance of over sixty miles; every mile of which was swarming with mounted enemies, on the keen look-out to prevent our getting supplies from that or any other direction, and hundreds of wagons were captured and burned by them, and the mules taken for their own service; such was the need of men in and around Chattanooga to hold the place, that no very considerable force could be spared as a sufficient guard, so that it did look for a time as if Gen. Bragg had hit the right nail on the head, by trying to starve us out. As soon as the army had fallen back to Chattanooga, and its real situation understood, the rations of the men were much reduced in quantity, and as the difficulty and uncertainty of getting more supplies became more apparent, they were reduced still more until towards the last of the time just before being relieved by other portions of our army from the "east," it seemed that almost next to nothing was issued, and such was the scarcity of provisions, that for several days we had one pint of shelled corn issued to each man for the day's subsistence, and for quite a while we had no meat of any kind; coffee or sugar either. Some men require more food than others, and this will account for what I saw at different times, which was, men picking up scattering kernels of corn, that had been scattered by horses and mules while eating. The men would wash the corn, thus obtained, and then parch and eat it, the ration of corn they had received from the quartermaster not being sufficient for them. Now when people read in history that over three thousand mules died in Chattanooga during the siege and the winter following, and wonder at it, they would no longer wonder if they knew that the mule feed had to be given to the men to keep them from starving. And all the time that we were under this state of things, the enemy were not sleeping, but kept us in mind in a very emphatic manner that he was right on hand for business, for it was "pop, pop, poppety, pop, whizz, screech, scrish" and boom all the the [sic] time on the picket lines, but under all these discouraging conditions the tried and true old. Army of the Cumberland had never a thought of giving up Chattanooga. Oh, no. As a matter of course we had -lots of rumors in camp about various measures that were said to be taking place for our relief, but we knew nothing positive for a long time. We did get quite a chunk of encouragement one night, as we distinctly heard the sounds of musketry firing and some cannonading over in what is called the "Wauhatchie Valley" for we believed that some troops, which had been sent for our relief, were getting near at hand, or were driving the enemy from our "cracker line" and it made the boys "yell" as they listened to the sounds of battle, especially as the sound, growing more distinct seemed to intimate that our men were pressing the enemy back, and would soon open communication with us. This was a movement ordered by Gen. Grant and carried out by Generals Hooker and Howard, having for its object the shortening of our "cracker line" and was a complete success, and although owing to the occupation of the Lookout Mountain by the enemy, we had to make a rather crooked road, it shortened our route so much that all prospect of Bragg's starving us put was quite gone. I wish to record here that as far as my observation extended, the Army of the Cumberland cheerfully accepted the situation, having faith that if they held on manfully some effective measures. would be taken for their reliefs and in this they were .not disappointed. A few days after the "affair" in the "Wauhatchie Valley" I had my first look at Gen. Grant, and must confess, that I saw nothing in his appearance that struck me very forcibly, excepting perhaps, his very quiet and calm manner of viewing everything, and there was nothing in his manner that would suggest the thought "this is the man of destiny" in our country's crisis, which indeed he proved to be. That Gen. Grant was about to do some, work that would change the existing state of affairs, in and j around Chattanooga, we soon had abundant evidence, for Gens. Hooker and Howard, had moved up their forces nearer to Chattanooga, and were in a position to strike, or to help strike a blow when needed, and about two months after the seige commenced we saw Gen. Sherman around, and we were quite sure that with Grant, Sherman, Hooker and Howard, and; last, but not least by any means, General Geo. H. Thomas, (who had stuck to us all through thick and thin) with us, something was certainly going to happen—and it did, and it resulted in what caused great rejoicing, not only in our little camp but all over our land. In writing what I do of this battle and the succeeding one of Missionary Ridge, I wish to say that as our battery was so completely disabled by its losses at Chickamauga that it had not been refitted, and were, doing any and all sorts of garrison, duty, and so I was at perfect liberty to use my time in viewing these battles without taking an active part in them, and in this manner had a better opportunity for observation than if directly engaged. The morning of the battle of Lookout Mountain (Nov. 24) the sky was completely overcast with heavy clouds, that hung low down,, and completely shut out from our view the top of the mountain where were stationed a force of the enemy. That a movement was being made by our troops to gain possession of this mountain we soon had evidence in the frequent and rapid discharges of musketry and occassional cannon shots in that direction, but the misty clouds hid some of the moves from us, and we could only guess the position of the contending forces from the sounds, most of the time. At night however we could better discern the position of the troops by the flashes of fire from the muskets, and once during the night it was quite a vivid scene; showing a long line of fire shooting, straight out in net direction of another line of sputtering and irregular firing. After a time the firing grew less and soon ceased altogether, and the next morning the clouds had cleared away enough so that we could see that the enemy were gone and our boys had possession, and the Stars and Stripes were waving from the pinnacle of Lookout where two months the "stars and bars" had waved. Thus ended the battle of Lookout Mountain, called by many writers "Hooker's battle in the clouds," and now Hooker was ready to sweep down into the valley between Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge and co-operate with Sherman and Thomas in driving the enemy from Missionary Ridge. Part of the movements made during the battle of Missionary Ridge took place where it was an absolute impossibility for me to see them, those of General Sherman's troops especially, and of them I can only say, that his troops went up the river on the opposite side to Chattanooga and crossed the river near the mouth of Chickamauga Creek, and came to the northern end of Missionary Ridge near the railroad tunnel and made his attack on the enemy's right flank, and with his usual impetuosity and vim he pushed him so hard that he weakened his center to support his flank and one object of his attack was thus gained. In the meantime while General Sherman was getting into position after crossing the river, the Army of the Cumberland, under Gen. Thomas had moved to their position, and as if on parade, commenced their part of the battle, which they did by making a simultaneous attack on the rifle pits of the enemy along their whole front, and soon they put them to rout, causing them to fall back upon their first line of works near the foot of the ridge. The next move was on the breastworks at the foot of the ridge and the sight to me was a magnificent one when the gallant Army of the Cumberland once again moved forward to attack the enemy. As soon as that line of blue had got fairly started towards the enemy's breastworks, and thus came into full view, the whole length of Missionary Ridge became a vast sheet of flame, the red-mouthed cannon belching forth flames and smoke, filling the air with bursting shells directly over the heads of our advancing troops, and whole sheets of flame from the thousands of muskets stationed in the breastworks, filled the air with hissing bullets; but nothing daunted by this terriffic [sic] show of war, on they pressed and soon with a loud cheer they announced the works were theirs. After the boys had taken possession of this line of outworks, a brief halt was made, but it was not of long duration, for in a short time I saw the line starting up the side of the ridge, on the top of which were thousands of the enemy, who, as, soon as the line began moving in their direction, poured incessant and deadly volleys of musketry into the ranks of our advancing troops; but undismayed and as if there were no enemy in their front, that magnificent line of blue, with "old glory" with its stars and stripes dotted here and there along the line, kept steadily climbing the ridge, and at that time I did feel proud that I was a member (if only a very humble one) of the Army of the Cumberland, and to this day, many years since it happened, I can see that line of blue as it slowly fought its way to the top of that ridge, and a thrill of admiration for my old comrades of the Army of the Cumberland, takes possession of me. Still our boys continue to press their way to the top never halting or faltering, and notwithstanding the brave and determined efforts of the men behind the breastworks at the top, with a rush and a wild hurrah our boys take possession and hold it, and the battle is really over for the day and Chattanooga is ours to keep. There being nothing in the way of duty to hinder me, I thought I would like to go upon the "ridge" and as soon as we saw the "stars and stripes" on top, a few of us went there and saw some of the evidences of the fierce nature of the conflict the men had gone through. The fatalities were not as great as I expected to find them, considering the fierce artillery and musketry fire our men were exposed to all the time they were making the attack. The evidences of the unexpected departure of the enemy was in sight in the shape of abandoned artillery, stores of various kinds and small arms lying around. By the time this had occurred and the lines adjusted properly, it was quite dark, and the next morning a move was made to ascertain the whereabouts of the enemy, with the result that it was found that he had retreated in the direction of Dalton, Ga., where they had considerable fortifications in readiness for them. The Army of the Cumberland remained near Chattanooga, Gen. Sherman going to Knoxville, Tenn., to relieve Gen. Burnside, and we soon had plenty to eat once more, though the winter of '63 and '64 was quite cold, and we were quite uncomfortable with cold some of the time. I have a a [sic] distinct recollection of having got up out of my bunk several different times at night to build a little fire in a sort of fireplace we had made out of brick; this was to try and get a little warmer than I could by staying in my bunk. In evidence of its being a cold winter for us boys, will say that my diary of that time (diary now in my possession) says that on the 22nd day of March, 1864, there was quite a snowstorm at Chattanooga and nearly, or quite, 8 inches of snow fell. But for all the discouraging circumstances, the boys tried to be cheerful and mainly were so; some of them would take pleasure in attending prayer meetings, others would be pleased to play the violin and flute, others again would give impromptu "solo concerts," and occasionally one would be found dancing "juber" with someone to help. We got in quite an excitable state of mind once during the winter; it was this way: We heard some distant cannonading over in the Wauhatchie Valley where Hooker's troops were camped, and soon heard musketry firing and nearer cannon shots, and everything in camp was got in readiness to help Hooker or repel attack if made on us, and a troop of cavalry was sent out to ascertain if Hooker needed help and all the while the infantry was in arms and artillery ready for business, and when the cavalry came back they reported that Gen. Hooker was fighting a sham battle to keep his men's hands in. Additional Comments: Extracted from: History of the Services of the Third Battery Wisconsin Light Artillery In the Civil War of the United States, 1861 -65 Compiled from all sources possible, but principally from members themselves COURANT PRESS, BERLIN DEDICATORY This book is reverently and affectionately dedicated to the Memory of our dead and living Comrades, and to all patriotic relatives of the 3d Battery Wisconsin Light Artillery. PREFACE This book is not expected to cover all the service of the Battery, many facts at this date are lost which will detract from its comprehensiveness. We still have a mass of information in connection with the Battery which for sufficient reasons we cannot at present use. It is of a reminiscent character and very interesting and should be preserved in book form; likewise there should be added several other illustrations, notably one of the Tablet placed upon the ground of our last battle and destruction. I will most gratefully thank in the name of the Association, those who have responded so freely and generously to the request for information. Among the contributors of incidents and essential memoranda I will mention the names of Esau Beaumont, E. D. Case, Wm. Plackett, Harlan S. Howard, E. M. Kanouse, Alf. Lounsbury, Ed. Harroune, Lew D. Williams, E. G. Jackson, Ansel Hayes, Maj. W. J. Colburn, Ira E. Smith and others. H. H. G. BRADT, Secretary. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/statewide/military/civilwar/other/u3rdwilig55nmt.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/wifiles/ File size: 15.6 Kb