New Stuff on Louisiana at Bull Run Coming…

Back on March 26 I received an email from reader Griff Bartlett. He had a letter from his great-grandfather, a member of the Washington Artillery at Bull Run, to his brother-in-law. The letter describes the fighting at Blackburn’s Ford on July 18, and was printed in the New Orleans Sunday Delta on July 28, 1861,

Mr. Bartlett included his source for the letter, two typewritten pages numbered 52 & 53. I wanted to at least get the publication info on the book to include in my citation for the letter. Griff wrote back that the images were all he had, and that he had acquired them from the library at the Jackson Barracks in Louisiana. So I checked into things on the internet and found a phone number. After a couple calls I was put in touch with Richard Holloway, archivist for the Louisiana National Guard at Camp Beauregard in Pineville, Louisiana. I described the images to him (and later forwarded them) and he immediately recognized them as part of a set of Works Progress Administration (WPA) volumes that collected and transcribed LA newspaper accounts of LA military units and events from the 1700s up to the 1920s.

So far Mr. Holloway has sent me 30 pages of Bull Run related items from one of the volumes. He has yet to locate the volume containing the two pages provided by Mr. Bartlett, but there was some damage to the library collection as a result of Hurricane Katrina and the volume may have been temporarily misplaced (the collection did undergo extensive preservation and restoration efforts). Mr. Holloway has indicated that there is plenty more where these 30 pages came from.

The long and short of it: this is a great news for Bull Runnings. I’ll have plenty of Louisiana primary accounts to put into the Bull Run Resources section of this site, thanks to Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Holloway.

National Tribune Online!

Thanks to Brett Schulte (one link for each name) for sending the welcome news that the National Tribune is now available online here.  This is outstanding news to me, though as Brett explains there are some issues with searchability.

The National Tribune was a publication for Union veterans of the Civil War.  Think Confederate Veteran for the good guys.  It published first as a monthly, then as a weekly from, 1877 to 1917.  It featured current news of interest to vets, but also had contributions from readers recounting the glory days.  Columns like Fighting Them Over featured back and forth between veterans with often wildly conflicting recollections of events.

Now all we need is a good, searchable text version.  But hey, this is a start.  Hopefully I’ll have the patience to start going through and picking out the Bull Run stuff.  If any of you readers has an index, that would make things much easier for me…

UPDATE: A reader notes that there are issues missing and this is not a complete run – but it’s more than we’ve had.

An Ohio Man’s Experience in the Rebel Army Part II

The article is from the Steubenville Daily Herald on August 27, 1861.

The Long Lost “Teen Johnson” turns up at Washington – Has been Impressed into the Secesh Army – His sad Experience of Southern Hospitality and Respect for a “Mud-sill.”

The following letter, with accompanying report, came to hand this morning: 

Washington, Aug. 23d, 1861

W.R. Allison – Dear Sir:

The following I found in this evening’s Star – After reading it, in company with Ed. D. Collier, Esq., I repaired to the Central Guard House, and there found the identical, long lost “Teen” Johnson. He looks a little worse for the wear, but is in good spirits waiting a pass from General McClellan to get home. He will, no doubt, reach Steubenville in a few days, where I bespeak him a kind reception from his relation and friends; if coming through “great fires” and hard treatment should entitle him to such, he certainly deserves it.

Your friend, &c

W.H. Evans

——————————————————-

There is now at the Central Guard house in this city a man by the name of Augustine Johnson, who was formerly a citizen of Steubenville, Ohio, where has has or had a few months since a mother and four children living. In the last four months his experiences have not been of the most agreeable kind, as will be seen on reading the following narrative of his adventures during that time. He is quite intelligent, and gave us this morning a detailed account of his “moving accidents by flood and field,” his “hair breadth ‘scapes,” &c. from which we condense the following statement:

Early last spring he embarked on a flatboat for New Orleans, where he arrived after a trip abounding with the usual incidents of life on the river. On the 25th day of April last he and many other Northern men were impressed into the rebel service. To distinguish these Northern VOLUNTEERS from the chivalry their heads were closely shaved so that they might be easily spotted. It was Mr. Johnson’s fate to fall into the 1st Special Battalion of New Orleans, Major Wheat commanding. After much suffering for want of proper food and clothing the battalion found themselves at Manassas Junction, Mr. J. suffering more than his comrades because he was suspected on account of his northern birth. We omit an account of many painful incidents and come at once to the battle of “Stone Bridge,” or “Bull Run.” Major Wheat’s battalion was stationed on the extreme left – our extreme right. Near him was a South Carolina regiment under cover of the pines, separated by an open space from the Federal Infantry, also under cover. Major Wheat advanced his men into this open space and was fired on by the South Carolina regiment. Somewhat confused by this unexpected attack from friends, the battalion wavered, and a deadly fire poured in by the Federal troops, Major Wheat being the first to fall. The loss of life by that line was terrible. Near Mr. Johnson were two other northern men. One of them David Vance of Philadelphia, was instantly killed. The other, a comrade and warm friend of Johnson’s, an Illinoisan, named John H. Hutchinson, was shot under the eye. He was in such agony that Johnson carried him from the field a long way to the hospital, occasionally resting with the wounded man’s head on his lap.

After taking his friend to the hospital, he thought the time had come to try an escape, as in the confusion there were no pickets out. He took his gun and started westward, up a ravine. After getting a considerable distance from the battlefield, he threw away his gun and cartridge box. The uniform of the battalion was cotton pants of the mixed color known as pepper and salt, and a red shirt. Under his red shirt, Johnson had a checkered cotton shirt. He now changed these by putting the checkered shirt outside and the red one under, expecting instant death if he was arrested as a deserter. He heard the firing all day on Sunday and traveled away from it in a Northwest direction. At night he took two shucks of wheat and made a bed, on which he slept soundly, and was awakened by the rain on Monday morning. He shortly afterwards reached a Quaker settlement in Loudoun county, where he found a haven of rest, being kindly taken care of for some weeks. Being anxious to reach his home, he left Loudoun on Friday last and came by way of Harper’s Ferry to this city, where he is waiting for a pass to enable him to go over the roads without interruption, he having no funds to defray his expenses by railroad.

Mr. Johnson says he did not receive one cent of pay whilst in the Confederate service. He says that Loudoun county is devastated, as if it had been overrun by locusts. The horses and wagons have all been seized and the grain and other provisions carried off, barely leaving temporary subsistence for the old people and children left at home.

See Part I

See Notes

More on A Yankee in Wheat’s Battalion

A while back I posted An Ohio Man’s Experience in the Rebel Army, which is filed in the resources section under Newspaper Accounts – CSA.  That bit was sent to me by friend Jon-Erik Gilot.  Jon-Erik has forwarded another contemporary newspaper account that sheds a little more light on this story.  I’ll post that later today (or tomorrow) and also link to it in the resources section.

Notes on Meeting Between Brothers

Thanks to Art Bergeron for sending along this article on the meeting between two brothers at Bull Run.  Art sent along the following information on the brothers:

Hubbard, Fred L., Pvt. 3rd Co. Battn. Washington Arty. La. En. May 26, 1861, at New Orleans. La. Roll for July and Aug., Present, sustained injury of right arm. July 21, 1861. Roll for Sept. and Oct., 1861, Discharged Oct. 30, 1861, order of Gen. Beauregard. Record copied from Memorial Hall, New Orleans, La., by the War Dept., Washington, D. C., May, 1903, born New York, age when enlisted 22, single, occupation clerk, Res. New Orleans, La. Right arm injured July 21, 1861. Discharged Oct. 30, 1861. Andrew B. Booth, Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Louisiana Confederate Commands (New Orleans, 1920)

Hubbard, Henry A., Pvt., Co. H, 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment. Mustered in April 29, 1861, age 20. Wounded at Bull Run. Discharged for disability December 15, 1861.  See www.1stminnesota.net and search for his name in the rosters.

Meeting Between Brothers

Hillsborough (NC) Recorder, August 14, 1861

AFFECTING INCIDENT

Frederick Hubbard of the New Orleans Washington Artillery, and Henry Hubbard, of the 1st Minnesota Infantry, brothers, were both wounded at Manassas, fighting on opposite sides, and after the battle met for the first time in seven years in a stable, where they and nine other wounded men were laid.  The artilleryman being the less wounded, was found ministering to his brother.  And the case excited so much interest that a surgeon at once dressed the Yankee’s wounds and had him removed to his own hospital.

Richmond Daily Dispatch, August 1, 1861

Camp Near Manassas, July 27th, 1861

To the Editors of the Dispatch:

 –I, together with several other gentlemen from Montgomery, a day or two ago, witnessed one of the most singular, at the same time most affecting incidents which will probably occur during this unholy and unnatural war, if it should last for twenty years. We were straggling over the battle-field, examining the ground upon which we had such a bloody conflict and won such a glorious victory, two days before. We came unexpectedly into the Centreville road and seeing a house upon our left with the usual signs betokening a hospital, one of our party being a physician, expressed a wish to get down and examine the wounded. Upon inquiry we learned that a stable just below the house contained thirteen wounded Yankees; we forth with proceeded to the stable, and upon entering found a Washington artilleryman seated by the side of a wounded soldier evidently ministering to him with great care and tenderness. I introduced myself to him and asked if he aided in working the battery which fought with the 1st Virginia Brigade. He told me he did not — he had fought in a battery lower down, and then remarked “that it was very hard to fight as he had fought and turn and find his own brother fighting against him, ” at the same time pointing to the wounded soldier from whose side he had just risen. I asked if it was possible that was his brother. “Yes, sir, he is my brother Henry. The same mother bore us — the same mother nursed us. We meet the first time for seven years. I belong to the Washington Artillery, from New Orleans — he to the 1st Minnesota Infantry. By the merest chance I learned he was here wounded, and sought him out to nurse and attend him. “–Thus they met–one from the far North, the other from the extreme South–on a bloody field in Virginia — in a miserable stable, far away from their mother, home and friends — both wounded — the infantryman by a musket ball in the right shoulder, the artilleryman by the wheel of a caisson over his left hand. Thus they met after an absence of seven years. Their names are Frederick Hubbard, Washington Artillery, and Henry Hubbard, 1st Minnesota Infantry. We met a surgeon of one of the Alabama regiments and related the case to him, and requested, for the sake of the artilleryman, that his brother might be cared for. He immediately examined and dressed his wounds, and sent off in haste for an ambulance to take the wounded “Yankee” to his own regimental hospital.

M. F.

See notes here.

Image of newspaper page here.

Notes on An Ohio Man’s Experience in the Rebel Army

First, thanks to Jon-Erik Gilot for sending this article to me.  Good readers make good blogs.  This is the kind of thing I was hoping for when I started this project.

Thanks also to two authorities on Louisiana troops who gave me valuable input.  Gary Schreckengost is the author of this book on the First Special LA Battalion, and Art Bergeron of the U. S. Army Heritage & Education Center, still commonly referred to as USAMHI, is the author or editor of several books on Louisiana in the Civil War.

Gary provided the following:

All three men [Johnson, Vance & Hutchinson] are listed as being in Wheat’s original company, the Old Dominion Guards, which was the battalion’s first Company E and second Company D after the Guerrillas left. I believe your article is accurate. I’ve listed what’s in the combined service records. Below is what’s in the records [what Gary sent summarizes the info provided by Art] and what’s cool about this is [the article] gives us actual examples of names of the poor suckers who were shanghaied. The uniform, of course, was of his company and not the entire battalion as each company varied to a degree. The OD Guards most matched the other guards—the Walker Guards, Company A.

Art sent in a little more detail from the microfilmed Compiled Service Records in the National Archives, Microcopy No. 320.

Johnson, Aug., Pvt. New Co. D, 1st Special Battn. (Wheat’s) La. Inf. Roll for June 1 to June 30, 1861 (only Roll on file), states Present. Appears on a List of killed, wounded and missing, in the battle of Manassas, Va., July 21, 1861, dated August 29, 1861, “Wounded. Supposed to be dead, but cant be found.” M320, Roll 101

Vance, David, Pvt. New Co. D, 1st Special Battn. (Wheat’s) La. Inf. En. Camp Moore, La., Aug. 9, 1861. Present on Roll to June 30, 1861. Roll to Oct. 30, 1861, Present or absent not stated. Appears on a List of killed, wounded and missing in the battle of Manassas, Va., July 21, 1861, dated August 29, 1861, “Wounded in knee.” Roll Nov. and Dec., 1861, Absent, detached near Manassas. On Hospital Muster Roll of Hospitals at Camp Pickens, Manassas, Va., to Oct. 31, 1861, attached to hospital Oct. 1, cook, present. On Hospital Muster Roll of Hospitals at Camp Pickens, Manassas, Va., for Nov. and Dec. 1861, attached to hospital Oct. 1, cook, transferred to Moore Hospital Dec. 15, 1861. On Hospital Muster Roll of Moore Hospital, Manassas Junction, Va., for Nov. 1, 1861 to Feb. 28, 1862, attached to hospital Oct. 1, nurse, present. On Hospital Muster Roll of General Hospital, Danville, Va., for March and April 1862, attached to hospital Oct. 1, nurse, present. On Hospital Muster Roll of General Hospital, Danville, Va., for May and June 1862, attached to hospital Oct. 1, nurse, present. On a Receipt Roll for clothing, 1st Div. Gen. Hosp., Danville, Va., for 4th Qtr 1863, dates of issue Nov. 9, 21, Dec. 7. M320, Roll 101

Hutchinson, James H., Pvt. New Co. D, 1st Special Battn. (Wheat’s) La. Inf. En. June 9, 1861, Camp Moore, La. Rolls from June to Dec., 1861, Present. Appears on a List of killed, wounded and missing in the battle of Manassas, Va., July 21, 1861, dated Aug. 29, 1861, “Wounded severely in face.” On a Register of C. S. A. General Hospital, Charlottesville, Va., “wounded in face,”admitted July 22, 1861; returned to duty Aug. 31, 1861. On Register of Payments on Descriptive Lists, from Feb. 28 to May 31, 1862, paid June 30, $30.50. On Register of Payments to Discharged Soldiers, discharged Apr. 29, 1863; paid Apr. 29, 1863.

Hutchinson’s discharge payment certificate shows the following: James H. Hutchinson, Private, Captain O. P. Miller’s Co. D, Wheat’s Battalion Louisiana Volunteers. Born in Salem Co., N. J.; aged 23; 5 feet 8 inches high; light complexion; dark eyes; brown hair; occupation, boatman. Enlisted by Capt. Miller at New Orleans on April 25, 1861, for the war. Battalion disbanded by the Secretary of War August 15, 1863. Hutchinson was last paid to include May 30, 1862. Has pay due him from that date to August 15, 1862. Due him $50.00 bounty and $25.00 clothing. Given to him at Richmond on April 29, 1863. Signed by Major R. A. Harris. Paid $27.50 for two months and 15 days; travel from Richmond to New Orleans, $3.00; bounty, $50.00; clothing, $25.00; balance paid $105.50. Received from Major John Ambler (?) at Richmond on April 29, 1863. Hutchinson made his mark.  M320, Roll 100.

Art’s not convinced of the impressment claim in the article.  Personally, I’m going to need more convincing too.  Anyone?

Art also sent me another article of an incident of the battle, an encounter between brothers who fought on opposite sides.  I’ll have that for you in the near future.

An Ohio Man’s Experience in the Rebel Army

Belmont (OH) Chronicle

September 5, 1861

An Ohio Man’s Experience in the Rebel Army

The Washington Star gives an interesting account of a man named Augustine Johnson, now in that city, whither he has escaped from the Secession army. He is a native of Steubenville, Ohio, where he had, or had a few months ago a mother and four children living. Early last spring he went to New Orleans on a flatboat and was impressed with several companions in that city on the 25th of April. To distinguish Northern from Southern “volunteers,” their heads were shaved. John was assigned a place in Wheat’s First New Orleans Battalion, which, after much suffering for want of proper food and clothing, found itself at Manassas. On account of his Northern birth, Johnson was permitted to endure greater hardships than the southern soldiers. At the battle of Bull Run Wheat’s battalion was stationed at the extreme rebel left – our right. Near it was a South Carolina regiment under cover of some pines, separated by an open space from the National infantry, also under cover. As Major Wheat advanced his men into this open space they were fired upon by the South Carolinians, which caused the battalion to waver and made them easier victims to a very destructive fire that was immediately after poured in upon them by the National troops.

Near Mr. Johnson were two other Northern men. One of them, David Vance of Philadelphia, was instantly killed. The other, a comrade and warm friend of Johnston’s, an Illinoisan, named Jas. H. Hutchinson, was shot under the eye. He was in such agony that Johnson carried him from the field a long way to the hospital, occasionally resting with the wounded man’s head on his lap.

After taking his friend to the hospital, he thought the time had come to try an escape, as in the confusion there were no pickets out. He took his gun and started westward, up a ravine. After getting a considerable distance from the battle field, he threw away his gun and cartridge box.

The uniform of the battalion was cotton pants of the mixed color known as pepper and salt and red shirt. Under this red shirt Johnson had a checkered cotton shirt. He now changed these, by putting the checkered shirt outside and the red one under, expecting instant death if he was arrested as a deserter. He heard the firing all day on Sunday and traveled away from it in a Northwest direction.

At night he took two shocks of wheat and made a bed, on which he slept soundly and was awakened by the rain on Monday morning. He shortly afterward reached a Quaker settlement in Loudon county, where he found a heaven of rest, being kindly taken care of for some weeks. Being anxious to reach his home, he left Loudon on Friday last and came by way of Harper’s Ferry to Washington, where he is waiting for a pass to enable him to go over the roads without interruption, he having no funds to defray his expenses by railroad. Mr. Johnson says he did not receive one cent of pay whilst in the Confederate service. He says that Loudon county is devastated, as if it had been overrun by locusts.

See here for notes.

Meta pdf

General Scott and Bull Run – Who Is To Blame?

Scottish American Journal August 1, 1861

GENERAL SCOTT AND BULL RUN – WHO IS TO BLAME? – CURIOUS REVELATIONS

Immediately after the Bull Run disaster, Gen. Scott was universally condemned for sending forth the army numerically deficient and ill-provided with artillery.  General Scott has since explained his part in the transaction, making a dinner-table the opportunity to do so, and a New York newspaper editor, Mr. Raymond, the medium between him and the public.

On the Tuesday preceding the battle (say the New York Times), General Scott, at his own table, in the presence of his aids and a single guest (Mr. Raymond), discussed the whole subject of this war, and stated what his plan would be for bringing it to a close, if the management of it had been left in his hands.  The main object of the war, he said, was to bring nthe people of the rebellious States to feel the pressure of the Government; to compel them to return to their obedience and loyalty.  And this must be done with the least possible expenditure of life, compatible with the attainment of the object.  No Christian nation can be justified, he said, in waging war in such a way as shall destroy 501 lives, when the object of the war can be attained at a cost of 500.

If the matter had been left to him, he said, he would have commenced by a perfect blockade of every Southern port on the Atlantic and the Gulf.  Then he would have collected a large force at the Capital for defensive purposes, and another large one on the Mississippi for offensive operations.  The Summer months, during which it is madness to take troops south of St. Louis, should have been devoted to tactical instruction; and with the first frosts of Autumn he would have taken a column of 80,000 well-disciplined troops down the Mississippi, and taken every important point on that river, New Orleans included.  It could have been done, he said, with greater ease, with less loss of life, and with far more important results than would attend the marching of an army to Richmond.  At eight points the river would probably have been defended, and eight battles would have been necessary; but in every one of them success could have been made certain for us.  The Mississippi and the Atlantic once ours, the Southern states would have been compelled, by the natural and inevitable pressure of events, to seek, by a return to the Union, escape from the ruin that would speedily overwhelm them out of it.  “This,” said he, “was my plan.  But I am only a subordinate.  It is my business to give advice when it is asked, and to obey orders when they are given.  I shall do it.    There are gentlemen in the cabinet who know much more about war than I do, and who have far greater influence than I have in determining the plan of the campaign.  There never was a more just and upright man than the President – never one who desired more sincerely to promote the best interests of the country.  But there are men among his advisers who consult their own resentments far more than the dictates of wisdom and experience, and these men will probably decide the plan of the campaign.  I shall do, or attempt to do, whatever I am ordered to do.  But they must not hold me responsible.  If I am ordered to go to Richmond, I shall endeavor to do it.  But I know perfectly well that they have no conception of the difficulties we shall encounter.  I know the country – how admirably adapted it is to defense, and how resolutely and obstinately it will be defended.  I would like nothing better than to take Richmond; now that it has been disgraced by becoming the capital of the rebel Confederacy, I feel a resentment towards it, and should like nothing better than to scatter its Congress to the winds.  But I have lived long enough to know tha[t] human resentment is a very bad foundation for a public policy; and these gentlemen will live long enough to know it also.  I shall do what I am ordered.  I shall fight when and where I am commanded.  But if I am compelled to fight before I am ready, they shall not hold me responsible.  These gentlemen must take the responsibility of their acts,as I am willing to take that of mine.  But they must not throw their responsibility on my shoulders.”

In Congress a few days after the battle, Mr. Richardson “stood up” for General Scott.  He said: “General Scott was forced to fight this battle” (Bull Run); and then he proceeded to detail the following strange revelations:

My colleagues (Logan and Washburne) and myself were present with the President, Secretary of War and General Scott.  In the course of our conversation, Gen. Scott remarked, “I am the biggest coward in the world.”  I rose from my seat  “Stay,” said Gen. Scott; “I will prove it.  I have fought the battle against my judgement, and I think the President ought to remove me to-day for doing it.  As God is my judge,” he added, after an interval of silence, “I did all in my power to make the army efficient, and I deserve removal because I did not stand up when I could, and did not.”

Mr. Washburne – As my colleague has referred to Gen. Scott’s remarks, he might also allude to what the President said.

Mr. Richardson – I will do so.  “Your conversation implies,” said the President to Gen. Scott, “that I forced you to battle.”  To which Gen. Scott replied, “I have never served under a President who has been kinder to me than you have been.”  But Gen. Scott did not relieve the President from the fact of the latter having forced him to fight the battle.  Gen. Scott thus merely paid a compliment to the President personally.

[Photcopy courtesy of Terry Johnston]

{See also this post}

Leftwich’s Gun Crew’s Rebuttal

The letter to the Richmond Enquirer written by members of Leftwich’s gun from Latham’s Battery, contesting the report of Captain John D. Imboden, was provided courtesy of Jim Burgess at Manassas National Battlefield Park.  It generated some good comments – check them out at the bottom of the post.  Notice that the gun crew claimed that Wheat’s Battalion alone faced off against 35,000 Federal troops.  This is not all that unusual for after action reports, regardless of th army, the period of the war, or the rank of the writer.  You defeat insurmountable odds, or retreat in an orderly fashion under the weight of same.

For instance, Joe Johnston’s report says 6,000 Confederates held off 35,000 Yankees at Bull Run.  Other reports make similar assertions.  And the myth that the Confederates were significantly out manned at Bull Run persists, showing up as recently as Joseph Glatthaar’s General Lee’s Army (see here and here).  And a new Lost Cause publication states that the Rebels faced the largest army ever assembled on the North American continent up to that time: true, but the book fails to mention that they did so with a force that came in a very, very close second.  I’ll be reviewing that book in the next installment of America’s Civil War’s Six-Picks.

So keep in mind that the two armies probably totaled about 33,000 to 36,000 men each.  We typically don’t include Runyon’s reserve division, or Johnston’s troops who failed to arrive in time, or any nearby Confederate militia units (thanks, Robert).  And the fighting on Matthew’s and Henry House Hills involved only about 15,000 to 18,000 men on each side.  These were evenly matched forces.