Battle of Chickamauga (17th Ohio Volunteer Infantry )

Battle of Chickamauga
Most of the casualties that the Seventeenth Ohio sustained were on the second day when a mixup in orders caused a quarter mile gap to appear adjacent to their position. Longstreet would attack at the point vacated by Wood, placing maximum pressure on the 17th. Few other regiments were in a more dangerous position. Fresh troops under one of the most able generals of the south were about to attack the front and flank of the Seventeenth at the moment the units to their right had abandoned their positions.

At the time of the battle, his chain of command was:
 * Army of the Cumberland under William Rosecrans
 * XIV Corps under Maj. General George Henry Thomas
 * 3rd division under Brig. Gen. John M. Brannan
 * Brigade 1 under Colonel John M. Connell
 * The Seventeenth Ohio regiment under Lt. Col Durbin Ward Most of the casualties died sometime on the 20th during the defense of Thomas's right flank when Confederate General James Longstreet (1821) attacked just as a quarter mile gap was created in the federal line. The total casualties to the Seventeenth Ohio were:
 * Killed: 1 officer killed (Captain Ricketts), 15 Men
 * Wounded: 11 officers, 103 Men
 * Missing: 3 officers, 18 Men.
 * Total: 151

Summary of events
September 19th

September 20th
 * 3AM- Bivouacked in Dyer's field. There is a frost that night and the men are without blankets.
 * 7AM- Assembled on the west side of Poe's field
 * 11:15AM Attack by Longstreet begins
 * Longstreet responds to enfilading fire from the Ohio regiments and sends Perry to extend their right.
 * Connell orders the 17th to turn to the south to face the onslaught but the 17th caught in motion when the 44th Alabama attacks.
 * likely time of death of Captain Ricketts, and many of 7th Ohio's casualties, including Calvin Messerly (1845)
 * Ohio 17th breaks and passes over the Indiana 82nd.
 * 4th Michigan Battery delivers massive barrage to oncoming Perry's Alabama. (4th Michigan withdraws in haste leaving behind 2 guns). This unit cannot move through brush and so had to move due west over the open ground towards Dyer's field.
 * Indiana 82nd wait for the 17th to pass and counterattack, and retaking the breastworks but there are no other Federals to the right left or rear. Indiana 82nd withdraws to to Horseshoe ridge where they repulse several confederate assaults.
 * Perry's 44th continued pursuit of Connell's brigade into Dyer field.
 * Company B of Ohio 17th halts 300 yards from former position and charges the pursuing troops. Additional heavy casualties.
 * Retreating 17th crosses the lines of Van Cleve, disrupting his brigades.
 * 1st Brigade commander Connell and "half of the 17th" retreats due west via the Rossville Gap to Chatanooga along with Rosecrans and one third of the Army of the Cumberland.
 * The other half of the 17th Ohio avoided the confusion of Dyer field and used the cover of trees to move northwest towards the tower at Snodgrass hill. Commander Durbin Ward, and Company B under James Stinchcomb occupy an area around Snodgrass Cabin.  Colonel Morton Hunter of the Indiana 82nd is placed in temporary command of this scratch unit, with General John Beatty (1828) in overall command.  Hunter estimated he had 100 men in the 82nd, and the total for the remnants of Brannan's division on Snodgrass hill was estimated at 400.
 * Twenty minutes prior to Longstreet's assault on Thomas's newly formed right, the ridge is reinforced by Granger's reserves who have moved up in response to the noise of battle. Steedman holds the far right.
 * The 17th Ohio repulses several assaults. They are facing units from Preston, Kershaw, Humphry, and Gracey.  Commander Durbin Ward is shot through the chest and arm.
 * Thomas orders a retreat under cover of night.
 * Ward is carried back five miles via stretcher and is resting at a cabin. General Steedman visits him and braces him with Whiskey.

Positions on the 20th
Line of battle on the 20th. As Longstreet's forces entered the gap created by wood, they were subjected to enfilading fire on their flanks by the 17th and 82nd Indiana. Perry's 44th Alabama along with two other regiments were sent to silence the Ohioans and extend their right flank. When the 17th fell back over their position, the 82nd Indiana rose and let loose a volley that turned the attackers back. The 82nd charged, pushing back the confederates and recovering the breastworks of Brigade one's original position. With the 44th still in pursuit, Company B turned and organized a charge with other remnants of the 17th- "200 yards" to the rear of their original position, possibly on Dyer field, but suffered heavy casualties.

The blunder occurred when division commander General Thomas J. Wood obediently followed a nonsensical command from Rosecrans. Rosecrans was known for micromanagement of units and 90 minutes earlier had subjected General Wood to a severe reprimand in front of his staff for not following orders immediately. At the time of the order, Rosecrans was under the impression that a unit to Wood's left was in motion to the right. Rosecrans' intent was to close what he thought would be a gap between Wood and the other unit (Reynolds). The order read:  Headquarters Department of the Cumberland September 20 - 10:45 a.m.
 * Brigadier General Wood, Commanding Division:


 * The general commanding directs that you close up on Reynolds as fast as possible, and support him.
 * Respectfully, etc.


 * Frank S. Bond, Major and Aide-de-Camp

In military language, "closing up" means to stay in line and close any gap. However, the second part means something quite different. A support position would require him to move out of line to the rear of Reynolds.


 * "Starling gave the order to Wood, and as he was reading it, began to explain its intent, but Wood cut him off. Wood could clearly see that Brannan's division was still in position on his left, between he and Reynolds. He pointed out to Starling that there was no gap in the line to be filled. "Then there is no order", Starling told Wood. Yet this did not suite Wood. As will be recalled, Rosecrans had hotly berated Wood in front of his troops a short time before that morning for not obeying the order to come into line quickly enough after Negley was ordered to the north. Additionally, Rosecrans had sent a written rebuke across the wire for all to see, following Wood's part in a failed reconnaissance mission on Lookout Mountain some days before the battle. Being twice humiliated by the commanding general in front of his troops was enough for Wood. He snatched the order out of Starling's hand. The order was quite clear, he told Starling, and he would obey it at once. Wood expressed that he was glad Rosecrans had put it in writing, as it would be a good thing to have "…for future reference". Before placing it in his pocket notebook, it is believed that he held the order aloft and waved it around in front of his staff. He said "Gentlemen, I hold the fatal order of the day in my hand and would not part with it for five thousand dollars" (Cozzens, 1992) With that, incredibly and spitefully, Wood ordered his division out of line."

Although Wood could have verified the meaning of the instructions since Rosecrans was 5 minutes away, Woods decided instead to follow the orders creating maximum vulnerability at exactly the point where the Confederates would attack. Rosecrans fled the battle and did not return to assist Thomas in his stand at horseshoe ridge which averted destruction of the army. Rosecrans was quickly relieved by Grant in October. .

When rebel troops poured into the gap created by Wood, Colonel Connell ordered the Seventeenth to turn and face south towards the 44th Alabama brigade that was threatening his now unprotected right flank. Under the command of Col William F. Perry, the 44th Alabama caught the Seventeenth as it was in movement, and the Seventeenth broke when the rebels got within 75 yards of their line at Poe field. As reported in the History of Fairfield county, only Company B retreated in order. It then turned, gathered others of the 17th and charged. Calvin may have died during this late morning action or later in the afternoon when the confederates attempted to dislodge Thomas's forces from Horseshoe Ridge. The remnants of the 17th Ohio were at Snodgrass hill. Col. Ward was shot through the chest sometime during this afternoon battle, so it is possible it was an afternoon rather than the morning battle in which Calvin died.

Excerpts
 September 19th: Regarding counter attack by the 9th and 17th Ohio to recapture an abandoned battery The panic did not affect Ferdinand Van Derveer (1823) and Connell's men. They had replenished their cartridges after Ector's attack and now lay quietly while the Regulars ran through their ranks and the cheering Rebels drew near. When the Mississippians close to within forty yards, the Federals rose up and delivered a volley that brought the Mississippians to an abrupt halt. The ten guns of Church's and Smith's batteries swept the field with cannister and Walthall's line began to back out of range.

At that moment Colonel Gustave Kammerling road up behind the Second Minnesota at the head of his Ninth Ohio Infantry. It was an all German regiment, using German tactics and speaking only German. The Ninth began the day in the rear guarding the corps ammunition train, a duty that Kammerling and his men regarded as an ethnic slur. At the first sound of firing, Kammerling "raved and tore about... attacking every general officer he met and asking to be ordered into his command, until finally he succeeded in getting an order to rejoin his brigade.

Now Kammerling feared he had missed the action. "Where dem got tam rebels gone," he yelled angrily at no one in particular. Someone pointed to the front. Without hesitating a moment, Kammerling formed line of battle and led his men past bemused Minnesotans on the run. Van Derveer yelled at him to come back, but his voice was drowed out by the German cheers. VanDerVeer sent his adjutant, Captain John R. Beatty (1828), after Kammerling and then saw to it that no one else joined in the fun, halting the 87th Indiana the moment it started forward. The hapless Connell, on the other hand, merely watched as his 17th Ohio disappeared into the woods after the Ninth.

Kammerling and his 502 Germans must have looked like a brigade to the Walthall's tired Mississippians. They struck the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-fourth Mississipi head on and and completely lapped Walthall's right flank. The Mississippians fell back rapidly past Burnham's ruined battery, and the germans swarmed around the abandoned cannons.

 An account of the local area of Calvin's position on the morning of September 20, 1863:

That morning the sky was clear, and when the sun arose it looked as red as blood through the fog, and was an omen to many as to what the day would be. The light commenced on the left about 9 o'clock in the morning and grew more furious each moment thereafter. Many supposed the attack on our left was a mere feint to draw our forces from the right to oppose it, while the enemy massed his troops in front of our line where this gap of a quarter of a mile or more appeared. Be that as it may, the enemy finding themselves unable to break the line on the left, suddenly commenced an attack in our front. About fifteen minutes before the fighting commenced in our front, General Wood moved a brigade of his to the left and in line with us, but Rosecrans sent to him an order to close to the left and support Reynolds, as the fighting at that time had reached Reynolds, but Wood did not know how to obey the order unless he moved out of line and to the rear of Reynolds, as Brannon was in line between him and Reynolds.

Woods' brigade stayed there but a few moments when it moved out of line, and went to the left in rear of Reynolds. It had been gone but a short time when the enemy commenced a heavy attack on us. The Seventeenth and Thirty-first Ohio had made a breastwork of rails in their front. When the enemy made the attack it was so furious and angry that the Seventeenth and Thirty-first Ohio, resisting with all their power, soon gave way, and came back to the rear and passed over us. I had the Eighty-second Indiana lying down. The enemy were pressing the Seventeenth and Thirty-first with all their power, when I ordered the Eighty-second to fire, and to raise and charge them, which they did. The fire proved so deadly, and the shock was so great and unexpected to the enemy that they gave way, and we pressed them until we regained the breastworks from which the Seventeenth and Thirty-first Ohio had been driven. In going this short distance of sixty yards I lost ninety-two men, killed and wounded. On looking to my left I saw the whole line had given way as far as I could see. I expected that the Seventeenth and Thirty-first Ohio, when they had passed over my regiment, and saw that I had gone to the front, would reorganize and come to our support. When I reached the breastworks from which they had been driven I looked around, and not a single man in the Union army, outside of the Eighty-second Indiana, was to be seen. My regiment was left alone, and had to take care of itself. I did not go any further than the breastworks, seeing I had no support, and ceased firing, when the enemy, about five minutes later, saw there was no force following them, reorganized and came back. When I saw them coming on our right and in front of us I ordered Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, of my regiment, to throw back the right of the Eighty-second so that the enemy could not surround us. He did so, and then I ordered the regiment to fall back and wheel and fire about every fifty yards, which kept the enemy in check. While we were falling back, Captain McCallister, of Company K, a brave officer, was killed, and our flag-staff was shattered to pieces and the flag was disconnected from the staff, when Colonel Davis seized the flag and carried it with him.

 From wikipedia article on the Battle of Chickamauga:''
 * Thomas requested reinforcements, and Rosecrans began shifting units to react to the initial attacks on his flank. At about 11 a.m., General T.J. Wood was ordered to replace Brig. Gen. John Milton Brannan's division, which had been ordered to Thomas's aid. Brannan had not followed the order, however, after being attacked by Stewart's men; the order was poorly written and told Wood to close up and support Reynolds. Although he could not close up on him, he could move his men to a supporting position, which created a real gap that corps commander Alexander McCook was trying to fill when Longstreet's entire wing of the army attacked. They were able to exploit this gap and struck the columns of Union soldiers in their flanks as they moved. Longstreet had, however inadvertently, achieved another successful surprise assault, for which he had a well-deserved reputation in the war.


 * The Union troops in the gap began to retreat, carrying Rosecrans along with them, and McCook's and Crittenden's commands soon followed. By 1 p.m., Thomas was the sole commander left on the battlefield. He received word from Rosecrans to withdraw the troops to Rossville, Georgia, a few miles to the north in the direction of Chattanooga. But Thomas was too heavily engaged to move. He began consolidating forces on Horseshoe Ridge and Snodgrass Hill. The Union Reserve Corps commander, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, who was north of the battlefield at MacAfee's Church, heard the firing to the south and, on his own initiative, sent Brig. Gen. James B. Steedman to support Thomas. Steedman arrived about 2:30 p.m., just in time to stop Longstreet's attempt to envelop Thomas's right flank. At about 4 p.m., Longstreet made one final effort but could not break the stubborn Union defense.

 History of Fairfield County:
 * At the battle of Chickamauga the regiment was on the extreme right of the center, attached to the corps commanded by General Thomas. When General Wood's division was double- quick out of the line, the gap left exposed the right flank and front, causing it to lose heavily, and scattering the men in confusion. Company B, being the only one of the regiment that retreated in a body, was halted about three hundred yards from where they had been driven, gave three cheers, sounded the rally for the Seventeenth Ohio, gathered some two hundred of them together, and charged back on the enemy, but to little purpose, as the rebels outnumbered them ten to one. Falling back again, now only about one hundred strong, they held a given point, and fought throughout that memorable day, leaving the field with but fifty-two men. The loss of the Seventeenth in this battle in killed and wounded was over two hundred, not counting those with slight flesh wounds. This was the severest fight in which the regiment had participated. The gallant Captain Rickets fell dead in the early part of the fight, and Lieutenant Colonel Ward fell about the middle of the afternoon, on the front line, badly wounded.

 from Biography of James William Stinchcomb (Captain of Company B)
 * After the Confederate forces had penetrated the Union center, they wheeled right and hit the First Brigade(Connell's Brigade) in front and flank, sending most of the Brigade reeling back in disorder. At least half of the Brigade, including Col. Connell was routed, and sent reeling back towards the Rossville Gap, and Chattanooga. Company B had retreated about two hundred yards, in a compact formation, rallied and charged upon the advancing Confederates, losing at least half their number in this futile charge. The Senior Officer, Lt. Col. Durbin Ward pulled his remaining men back behind the thin Union line, and were consolidated with elements of the 31st Ohio, under Col. Moses Walker, and the 82nd Indiana, under Col. Morton C. Hunter (1825), who was placed in temporary command of all three units, with overall command being by Brig. Gen. John Beaty. This scratch unit was placed in location upon Hill no. 1, on Horseshoe Ridge, building barricades from rail fences, and helping to repulse the savage, multiple charges of Confederate General James Longstreet's Confederate Soldiers upon the thin Union line gathered on Snodgrass hill, and Horseshoe Ridge.

 Regarding the afternoon defense of the ridge I filled up an unoccupied space on the ridge between Harker, of Wood's division, on the left, and Brannan, on the right, and this point we held obstinately until sunset. Colonel Stoughton, Eleventh Michigan ; Lieutenant- Colonel Rappin, Nineteenth Illinois; Lieutenant- Colonel Grosvenor, Eighteenth Ohio ; Colonel Hunter, Eighty-second Indiana; Colonel Hays and Lieutenant-Colonel Wharton, Tenth Kentucky; Captain Stinchcomb, Seventeenth Ohio, and Captain Kendrick. Seventy-ninth Pennsylvania, were there, each having a few men of their respective commands; and they and their men fought and struggled and clung to that ridge with an obstinate, persistent, desperate courage, unsurpassed, I believe, on any field.

Calvin probably died sometime on the 20th during the defense of Thomas's right flank when Confederate General James Longstreet (1821) attacked just as a quarter mile gap was created in the federal line.

Burial
The Union army was in retreat in the face of overwhelming rebel strength, so it is doubtful that any bodies were recovered. The number of dead on both sides was staggering, and the few marked graves indicated by findagrave for Chickamauga Military Park are those of southern troops.

  From "John Basil Turchin and the fight to free the slaves": "Three months after the bloody fighting at Chickamauga, the obligation of providing a proper burial for the dead remained. The confederates were in possession of the of the ground for a month after the battle.  While the rebels went through the motions of burying the dead of both armies, it was generally felt that 'they had treated the Union dead in a most shameful manner... at the best but a slight covering of earth was given thre reamins of any.'  The federal government had done nothing more in the two months after the Confederate withdrawal to Dalton.  Nadine Turchin wrote in disgust in her diary,
 * "what is horrible to say and incredible to acknowledge is the fact that up to now no official steps have been taken for a decent burial for all these defenders of our country fallen on the battlefield. When the enemy occupied the land we denounced loudly and repeatedly through the press the inhumanity of the Confederates for letting dogs and pigs devour our dead.  Although the enemy was beaten and driven back thirty miles a month ago, we have not yet thought to bury the remains of our poor soldiers... Horribly unbelievable but true.'
 * "The Army of the Cumberland sent a detail from every regiment to collect and bury the remains. They proceeded on December 16.  General Turchin and his staff accompanied the burial details.  Turchin upon returning told his wife, "Many corpses are no more than bones".  Men of the Eleventh Ohio reported finding 'many arms and feet protruding above ground, and parts of bodies half burned.'"