09 April 2006

Samuel Woodburn - The Civil War


Samuel Woodburn fought as a Union soldier during the Civil War. He fought for many years, before the company was turned into a pontoon bridge-building regiment (see accompanying photograph). A detailed summery of Samuel’s Civil War regiment and duties are as follows:

History of the Indiana 58th Regiment of Volunteers

Rev. John J. Hight, chaplain of the regiment, kept a diary that totaled some 2000 pages. Col. Gil R. Stormont, then owner and editor of the Princeton Clarion and a member of the 58th, edited this diary. This edited version was published as a book of over 300 pages in 1895. Dr. Andrew Lewis, of Princeton, was asked by Gov. Oliver F. Morton in Sept. 1861 to recruit a regiment in the county. He did so, Dr. Lewis was offered the rank of Colonel, but declined and H. M. Carr, of Crawfordsville, who had been appointed Lt. Colonel, was made Colonel. The other officers: George P. Buell of Lawrenceburg, Lt. Colonel; James T. Embree of Princeton, Major; Dr. W. W. Blair of Princeton, surgeon (Later made medical director of General T. J. Woods division); Samuel Sterne, of Princeton, Quartermaster; Dr. J. R. Adams of Petersburg, assistant surgeon. The regiment at once went into training at the fair grounds in Princeton, and after weeks of drill was ordered Dec. 11 to prepare 3 days rations and be ready to go to Louisville. The men went by train to Evansville, marched down Main Street to the river and boarded the steamer Baltic for Louisville, and went into camp at nearby Bardstown. On Jan 14, 1862 the ladies of Gibson County represented by Mrs. Ophelia Hanks Mowry, Miss Artemesia Hanks and Miss Mollie Summers presented a stand of colors to Lt. Col. Buell and Maj. Embree. The 58th fought courageously in the principal battles of the war such as Shiloh, Chickamauga, Stones River, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Knoxville, Resaca, and Atlanta-March to the Sea. Throughout his diary Chaplain Hight wrote freely, caustically of military practices, events, men, especially the officers. Of Shiloh, one of the bloodiest battles of the war, he said: "Johnston (Confederate General) committed a great error when he attacked our Army on Sunday. One greater than Johnston or Grant has said" 'Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy.' There certainly had been enough of disastrous Sabbath fighting to have taught him a lesson...Another error was filling the canteens of his soldiers with whiskey... The wild huzza of the drunken charge is soon stilled by the leaden hail delivered by sober men... The surprise of our men at Shiloh enabled the rebels to fight wildly and successfully all day, but when night came and the excitement and the whiskey were spent, the rebels went down in their feelings as far below a proper level as they had been above it during the day...Most of them sank down in drunken stupor where night overtook them."

Other details from various Civil War websites:
Organized at Princeton, and Indianapolis, IN, November 12 to December 22, 1861. Ordered to Kentucky December 29, and duty at Bardstown and Lebanon, Ky., till February, 1862. Attached to the 21st Brigade, Army of the Ohio, January, 1862. 21st Brigade, 6th Division, Army of the Ohio, to September, 1862. 15th Brigade, 6th Division, 2nd Corps, Army of the Ohio, to November, 1862. 1st Brigade, 1st Division, Left Wing 14th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to January, 1863. 1st Brigade, 21st Division, 21st Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to October, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, 4th Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, to April, 1864. Unattached Pontooners, Army of the Cumberland and Army of Georgia, till July, 1865.


SERVICE.--March through Central Kentucky to Nashville, Tenn., February 10-March 1, 1862. March to Savannah, Tenn., March 18-April 6. Battle of Shiloh, Tenn., April 6-7. Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30. Pursuit to Boonesville May 31-June 12. Buell's Campaign in Northern Alabama and Middle Tennessee along line of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad June to August. Little Pond near McMinnville, August 30. March to Louisville, Ky., in pursuit of Bragg August 30-September 26. Pursuit of Bragg to Loudon, Ky., October 1-22. March to Nashville, Tenn., October 22-November 7, and duty there till December 26. Advance on Murfreesboro December 26-30. Lavergne December 26-27. Battle of Stone's River December 30-31, 1862, and January 1-3, 1863. Duty at Murfreesboro till June. Middle Tennessee (or Tullahoma) Campaign June 23-July 7. Occupation of Middle Tennessee till August 16. Passage of the Cumberland Mountains and Tennessee River and Chickamauga (Ga.) Campaign August 16- September 22. Expedition from Tracy City to the Tennessee River August 22-24 (Detachment). Occupation of Chattanooga, Tenn., September 9. Near Lee and Gordon's Mills September 17-18. Battle of Chickamauga September 19-20. Siege of Chattanooga September 24-November 23. Chattanooga-Ringgold Campaign November 23-27. Orchard Knob November 23-24. Mission Ridge November 25. Pursuit to Graysville November 26-27. March to relief of Knoxville, Tenn., November 28-December 8. Operations in Ease Tennessee till April, 1864. Re-enlisted January 24, 1864. Assigned to duty in charge of the Pontoon Trains of General Sherman's Army April, 1864, and performed all the bridging from Chattanooga to Atlanta, from Atlanta to the sea, and in the Campaign through the Carolinas. Atlanta Campaign May 1 to September 8, 1864. Demonstrations on Rocky Faced Ridge May 8-11. Battle of Resaca May 14-15. About Dallas May 25-June 2. Nickajack Creek July 2-5. Chattahoochie River July 5-17. Peach Tree Creek July 19-20. Siege of Atlanta July 22-August 25. Flank movement on Jonesboro August 25-30. Battle of Jonesboro August 31-September 1. Pursuit of Hood into Alabama October. March to the sea November 15-December 10. Siege of Savannah December 10-21. Campaign of the Carolinas January to April, 1865. Non-Veterans mustered out December 31, 1864. March to Washington, D.C., via Richmond, Va., April 29-May 20. Grand Review May 24. Moved to Louisville, Ky., June, and there mustered out July 25, 1865.
Regiment lost during service 4 Officers and 60 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 2 Officers and 192 Enlisted men by disease. Total 258.

2 Comments:

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