Indiana Men

The Union 44^th Indiana Infantry was organized October 24^th 1861 at Fort Wayne, Indiana.

A Fort Wayne, Indiana druggist, Hugh B Reed was made the Colonel of the 44^th Indiana when it was organized October 22^nd 1861.  The 44^th was made up of volunteers mostly from Indiana’s Tenth Congressional District in the northeastern part of the state.  They left for Henderson, Kentucky in December 1861 and went into camp at Calhoun, Kentucky.  In February 1862 they were moved to the Fort Henry area and then onto Fort Donelson, Tennessee, where the 44^th took heavy casualties during the siege of the fort.  Following this action they moved onto the Battle of Shiloh taking 210 casualties.  The men of the 44^th would also take part in the Siege of Corinth, Mississippi, and the Battles of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and Stones River.  They finished up their duty on provost guard duty at Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The 44^th was mustered out of Union service September 14^th 1865.  During their service the 44^th lost 80 killed and 229 who died from disease.

To Cross The Big Blue

Sterling Price

The Battle of Byram’s Ford [sometimes called the Battle of the Big Blue River] was really a small skirmish fought October 22^nd 1864 in Jackson County, Missouri.

Confederate Major General Sterling Price was moving his Army of Missouri toward Fort Leavenworth and Kansas City, planning to enter Missouri.  In response Union Major General Samuel R Curtis’ Army of the Border blocked his way, while Union Major General Alfred Pleasonton’ cavalry pushed from the rear.  Price was traveling with about 500 supply wagons and so needed a good crossing on the Big Blue River.  Byram’s Ford was the best crossing in the area.

Union Major General James G Blunt’s division was holding the west bank of the Big Blue River on October 22^nd 1864.  At about 10 am a part of Confederate Brigadier General Joseph O Shelby’s division made a frontal attack on the Union men, while the rest of the force flanked them.  Blunt’s troops were forced to pull back to Westport.  Price moved his wagons over Byram’s Ford, safely crossing the Big Blue River, and moving on to the south.

The Camp Was Made Up Of Confederate Trees

The Battle of Ball’s Bluff [also called the Battle of Leesburg or Harrison’s Island] was fought October 21^st 1861 in Loudoun County, Virginia.

On October 19^th 1861 Union Brigadier General George A McCall took his division to Dranesville, Virginia about 12 miles from Leesburg, Virginia to see if Confederate Colonel Nathan Evans had abandoned Leesburg.  Evans was in fact in a defensive position on the Alexandria Winchester Turnpike to the east of the town.

Union Brigadier General Charles Pomeroy Stone was ordered on October 20^th 1861 to conduct a demonstration on the Confederates.  He had troops moved along the river, with artillery firing into the suspected Confederate position; Stone crossed about 100 of the 1^st Minnesota Infantry just before dark.  Getting no reaction from Evans troops, Stone recalled his men.  After dark Stone ordered Colonel Charles Devens of the 15^th Massachusetts Infantry to send about 20 men across the river to gather information.  These soldiers advanced about mile inland, mistaking a row of tree for a Confederate camp they reported this “camp” without verifying.  This information caused Stone to order 300 troops to be moved across the river as soon as it was light.

Devens’ troops quickly discovered on the morning of October 21^st 1861, that there wasn’t a camp for raiding.  He had his men deploy along the tree line and sent back to Stone for new orders.  Stone had the rest of the 15^th Massachusetts cross the river and join the first of Devens’ troops and make a reconnaissance towards Leesburg.  Stone sent Colonel Edward Dickinson Baker to evaluate the situation.  Baker was told to move additional troops across the river or withdraw at his discretion.  At this point Baker learned that Devens’ men had engaged a company of the 17^th Mississippi Infantry, and so decided to move more troops across the river.  The problem was a lack of boats and so the crossing took forever.  Devens found himself facing a growing number of Confederate troops and around 2 pm was forced to withdraw to the bluff along the river where Baker deployed the men he had gotten across.  At about 3 pm the fighting became heavy, continuing until after dark.  Baker was killed about 4:30 becoming the only United States Senator ever killed in battle.  At dark with their line breaking the Union troops began to look for an escape route.  Banks of the river along Ball’s Bluff were steep, boats which were over loaded by men trying to re-cross the river became swamped, and many Union men drowned.

There were 223 Union soldiers killed, including Colonel Baker, 226 wounded, and 553 taken prisoner of war.

The Youngest Confederate General

Confederate Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur died October 20^th 1864 from wounds received the day before at the Battle of Cedar Creek.

Stephen Dodson Ramseur was born May 31^st 1837, the son of Jacob Able and Lucy Mayfield (Dodson) Ramseur in Lincolnton, North Carolina. His family and friends knew him as Dod.  Ramseur studied math at Davidson College, and then finished his education at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He graduated in 1860, ranked 14^th in his class, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the United States Artillery.

Ramseur resigned his commission and joined the Confederate Army before his home state had even seceded.  On May 27^th 1861 he was made Lieutenant Colonel in the 3^rd North Carolina Infantry.  During the Peninsula Campaign Ramseur commanded the artillery in Confederate Brigadier General John B Magruder’s division.  In April 1862 he became the Colonel of the 49^th North Carolina Infantry.  He led a charge and was wounded during the Battle of Malvern Hill.  Ramseur was unable to return to duty until after the Battle of Antietam, when he was given command of a brigade of four North Carolina regiments in Confederate Brigadier General Robert E Rodes’ division.  On November 1^st 1862, Ramseur would be promoted to Brigadier General, and at only 25 was the youngest Confederate General at the time.  He led his brigade against the Union right at the Battle of Chancellorsville, and he would be wounded again.  At the Battle of Gettysburg he led his brigade against the right flank of the Union First Corps on Oak Hill, pushing them all the way through the town to Cemetery Hill.  Ramseur was in the action at the Battles of Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor.

Ramseur was part of Confederate General Jubal A Early’s Corps during the Valley Campaign of 1864.  During the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19^th 1864 the Confederates made a surprise morning attack on a Union camp, routing most of them.  But the Confederates being hungry and worn out stopped, fell out of ranks and started rummaging through the Union camp.  Ramseur pulled together a few hundred of his men, and with those soldiers stood off a counter attack made by Union General Philip H Sheridan for over an hour.  Ramseur leading his men had three horses shot out from under him, before being shot through the lungs.  He was captured by a member of the 1^st Vermont Cavalry, and was taken to Sheridan’s headquarters at the Belle Grove Mansion near Meadow Mills, Virginia where he died.  Ramseur’s last words were, "Bear this message to my precious wife—I die a Christian and hope to meet her in heaven."  He is buried in the St Luke’s Episcopal Cemetery in Lincolnton, North Carolina. 

In His Hands Tightly Clasped

A photo of three children which had been found in their dead father’s hand following the Battle of Gettysburg was published on October 19^th 1863, in an attempt to identify the soldier.

Following the Battle of Gettysburg a dead soldier was found clutching a photo of his three children.  This photo made its way to a local tavern where it was viewed by Doctor John Francis Bournes, a Philadelphia physician who was caring for the battle’s wounded.  Bournes took it upon himself to try to find out who those three children belonged to.  He had published in “The Philadelphia Inquirer” on October 19^th 1863 the story “Whose Father Was He?” it described the photo of the three children, their ages and what they were wearing, with, “After the Battle of Gettysburg, a Union soldier was found in a secluded spot on the battlefield, where,  wounded, he had laid himself down to die. In his hands tightly clasped, was an ambrotype containing the portraits of three small children…and as he silently gazed upon them his soul passed away.  It is earnestly desired that all papers in the country will draw attention [so] the family…may come into possession of it".

To the north in Portville, New York, Philinda Humiston read the description of the photo in “The American Presbyterian” a church magazine, on October 29^th 1863, and since she had not heard from her husband since the Battle of Gettysburg, she responded.  Bournes sent her a carte-de-visite copy of the photo which confirmed that the dead soldier was Amos Humiston.  Bournes made the trip to the Humiston home in New York to return the original photo to her.

The publicity surrounding the photo of the three small children also help to raise the funds that open the Gettysburg orphan’s home, or the “National Homestead at Gettysburg”.  It was to be a home for the children of fallen Union soldiers.  It opened in 1866.

Ten Killed For One

The Palmyra Massacre took place in Missouri on October 18^th 1862, when a Union Colonel had ten Confederate prisoners of war shot in retaliation for the killing of Union sympathizer.

Sixty year old Andrew Alsman was a carpenter and more importantly a Union sympathizer living in a Confederate neighborhood.  It was known that he lead Union troops looking for Confederates in the area.  Confederate Colonel Joseph C Porter had taken Alsman prisoner when he raided through Palmyra on September 12^th 1862.  When forced north, Porter picked a detail of men to take Alsman out of the city limits to the nearest Union line.  Alsman was never seen again, and it was believed that he was killed.  Union Colonel John McNeil had his Provost Marshal, William R Strachan publish a notice in the local newspaper on October 8^th 1862; the “Palmyra Courier”, stating that if Alsman wasn’t returned in ten day, ten of Porter’s men being held in Palmyra and Hannibal, Missouri would be executed.

Ten prisoners were chosen on the evening of October 17^th 1862.  They were Willis Baker [who was in jail because his sons were serving with Porter], Morgan Bixler, Herbert Hudson, Thomas Humston [who was only 19], Eleazer Lake, Francis M Lear, John Y McPheeter, Captain Thomas A Sidnor [a recruiting agent working for Porter], Hiram T Smith, and John M Wade.  On the morning of October 18^th 1862, thirty soldiers from the 2^nd Missouri State Militia formed a firing squad on the old fairgrounds just east of Palmyra.  The ten Confederates were moved on wagons from the Marion County Jail, seated on their coffins to the fairgrounds.  The men unloaded their own coffins and stood without blindfolds.  There were around 100 people present to watch, and a Baptist minister to offer a final prayer.  The initial shots; fired just after noon, only killed three of the ten men, with one not being hit at all, a second round finished them off.  The executed men were placed in their coffins and taken back to the town square so relatives could claim the bodies.

There was a monument erected in memory of the men on February 25^th 1907 by the Palmyra Confederate Monument Association.  The monument is located on the grounds of the Palmyra Courthouse.

Praise From The Command Of Artillery

Union Colonel Charles Shiels Wainwright received his commission to major in the 1^st New York Artillery October 17^th 1861.

Charles Shiels Wainwright was born December 31^st 1826 in New York City, the son of William P Wainwright.  He grew up on his father’s estate in the Hudson Valley known as “The Meadows”, where they grew produce that he delivered to the markets in the city.

Wainwright was 34 in 1861 when the Civil War started.  He began keeping a diary on October 1^st that year.  Wainwright received a commission in the 1^st New York Artillery on October 17^th 1861 to Major.  He was with his guns at the Battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg.  At the Battle of Chancellorsville, Wainwright served as the chief of artillery of the First Corps, where he received praise from Union Brigadier General Henry J Hunt.  During the Battle of Gettysburg Wainwright commanded the artillery on the eastern part of Cemetery Hill on July 2^nd 1863, and was involved in the twilight attack on the hill.  When the Army of the Potomac was reorganized in 1864 Wainwright became the chief of artillery for the Fifth Corps.  It was in this position that his guns broke the Confederate attack at the Battle of North Anna.  He was given a brevet promotion to Brigadier General August 1^st 1864.

After the war ended Wainwright returned to Dutchess County, New York and farming, before doing a tour of Europe, and then settling in Washington, DC.  He died at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, DC September 13^th 1907, and is buried in the Green Wood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York.  Wainwright’s brother inherited the diary he had kept during the Civil War, and he used it to write “A Diary of Battle: The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S Wainwright, 1861 – 1865”.