Sgt. Newlon's Tennessee Narrative Continues...

We Shoved from Shore

On the 4th of March at 10 o’clock A.M., orders came for the 3rd Iowa to march, and at 12 o’clock the same day, we were on our way to St. Louis.

The journey was very unpleasant as the weather was remarkably cold. We arrived at St. Louis 9 o’clock P.M., the sixth. The next day was spent in moving from the cars to the steamboat intended to carry us down the river.

I procured a pass in the morning and visited Benton Barracks where I found the 4th Iowa Cavalry. Here I found a number of acquaintances, that I had not seen since enlistment.

The barracks looked almost like home, for I spent two months here last winter and not very pleasantly either. The day was spent very pleasantly with my former associates.

In the evening I returned to the landing and found my regiment aboard the steamer Iatan, all ready to open the way through the running ice down the Mississippi River. Starting time found not

6th

a few of the soldiers intoxicated for they had liberty to do as they saw fit during the day, privilege which a great many abused, bring trouble upon themselves as well as others. At 10 o’clock P.M. the 7th inst., all being in readiness, we shoved from shore, directing our course to the sunny South. Not far had we proceeded, until a member of our company by the name of Robert Blythe, being drunk, fell overboard and was drowned. He was a wicked wretch and prepared for any thing but death. The ice was running in abundance, which made it rather disagreeable traveling.

Sabbath morning March the 9th found us at Cairo, Ill.

A quantity of commissary stores, and coal sufficient to carry us a long distance, but where to, we then did not know, but very soon found out by experience. The town of Cairo was under water. The water in the Ohio River being ten feet above the streets of the town, we found but about 2,000 troops here, all having previously left for the field of active service.

At two o’clock P.M., being fully-equipped with hard bread and bacon, we launched steering our course up the Ohio River which we found remarkably high, overflowing the bottoms on either side, the water paying no attention to the farms or houses covering the former, washing away fences and everything of that nature, and in many instances, half of the first storey of the latter was under water. What had become of the inmates [citizens] is more than I can tell, for, but very few could be seen at any point along the river. In many places cattle and hogs could be seen standing upon dry spots of ground perhaps a rod [16.5 ft.] or two square, apparently waiting for the water to subside that they might once more enjoy themselves upon the land that gave them birth.

Some time during the night of the 9th inst., we arrived at Paducah [Kentucky] at the mouth of the Tennessee River. Starting quite early the next morning up the Tennessee River gave me no opportunity to see the town and therefore I can say nothing about it.

Confederate States of America

7th

The Tennessee River, like the Ohio, was very high; the current ran very swift taking, as a matter of course, more power to carry us up the stream. How unlike the great Mississippi is the Tennessee River. What beautiful valleys, what fine farms and beautiful dwellings along the Mississippi River, everything presenting of industry and civilization. But upon entering the Tennessee River how wild and uncivilized everything appears to be. Yet, it is in the sunny South, the Confederate States of America. The land of Rebellion, containing a people that rebelled against the purest, the best and the freest government ever formed by mortal man.

Our journey up the Tennessee River at first was rather dull-nothing but dense forests of timber, and that covered with water. Once in a great while we would chance to pass an inferior log hut with but little or no improvements around it whatever, presenting an uncivilized appearance, the inmates (as is generally the case with the mass of the people of the Southern States) appeared to be very poor, at one place, where we hauled into repair some damage done the boat, the inhabitants had their shoes tied on their feet with bark. There appeared to be but very little furniture of any kind in their houses, this is the condition of the three fourths of the people so far as I could learn up the Tennessee River.

We traveled but little during the night owing to the high stage of water, also to secure ourselves from the fire of an enemy that might be concealed for that purpose. Care and foresight is the best policy in time of war.

At 12 o’clock March the 10th, we arrived at Fort Henry. Took a good view of the fortifications, the heavy guns about 30 in number, three of which were dismounted. The barracks, which the enemy had prepared for winter quarters, were built of round logs and just of a size, and perhaps two hundred in number.

The enemy went to a great deal of cost and labor in fortifying this place and then evacuated it after such a short engagement leaving everything behind them, no dwelling could be seen near the Fort, more the winter quarters.

8th

Our stay at Fort Henry was but short. We had proceeded on our journey but a short distance after we left Fort Henry till we came up with a fleet of about 30 steamers loaded with troops, and every mile we traveled from this point the number of steamers increased to the number of about 150. Judging from the number of steamers in the fleet and from the number of troops on each that the entire expedition consisted of about 125,000 men. Such a sight never was witness before on the Tennessee or any other River in these United States.

Just here I would say that in almost every instance, through Kentucky and Tennessee the people presented the white flag, and at one time about 40 miles above Fort Henry, a company of horsemen, about thirty in number, hailed us from the shore with white flags, upon nearing the shore they informed us, that there was about 500 of them and that they wanted us to take them to Fort Henry where they desired to be armed that they might fight for the old Union. They were large able-bodied men and looked as though they might do their country good service had they an opportunity.

The fleet landed at Savannah, Tennessee [10 miles northeast of Shiloh N.M.P.] the 12th and remained for three days. Here men from the surrounding county flocked in by hundreds and joined our ranks, and I presume it would be the case all over Tennessee had they a chance to fight for the old Union. This is speaking well for Tennessee.

On the 13th, we were ordered to prepare three days’ rations and equip ourselves for duty. At 6 o’clock on the morning of the 14th, we left Savannah passing up the river some 10 miles. But the river, which had been raising [sic] for two or three days, was so high that a landing could not be effected.

General Sherman’s division landed 25 miles above Savannah [perhaps Peters Landing area] and marched eight miles from the river, but found the water so high that it was impossible to go further, and were

9th

compelled to return to the boats. We remained aboard the boat until the 17th, when a part of the expedition landed at Pittsburgh Landing, Hardin County, Tennessee, where we still remain in camp this the 26th of March.

We are at last brigaded. Colonel [Nelson G.] Williams is acting-brigadier general and has command of the First Brigade in the 4th Division, which gives our regiment the position of honor, which is on the extreme right of the division.

... To Be Continued

BTW,  I'm planning on re-doing Will's web-site: greensblueandgray.com with no ads and more links; shuffle things around a bit, too.

Also, I created a Twitter account for Will yesterday; I'm still in the process of putting it together.

You'll be able to follow Will: @sgtnewlon.

Best Regards to All,
Chris

Tennessee Narrative of Sgt. Newlon, 3rd Iowa

Three Groans – Journal Two Begins

1st [page]

February 8th, 1862

Huntsville, Randolph Co., Missouri

The year of ‘62 dawned upon me at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri. The first day of the new year was spent in a way peculiar only to a military life. A New Year’s dinner was served in the Captain’s room in military style. Nothing worthy of notice took place during the day.

We remained in Benton Barracks until the 11th of January at which time we were ordered to join our Regiment at Montgomery City on North Missouri Rail Road eighty-five miles north of St. Louis. At an early hour we bade adieu to Benton Barracks, but not without giving those remaining behind something to remember us by which we did by forming a line between Headquarters and the General’s house and gave three groans for Benton Barracks. I never was in all my life so much pleased to get away from a place as I was on this morning to leave Benton Barracks, Although, I left many good friends, from Page and Louisa counties.


We marched to the R.R. Depot and in due time were on the cars for Montgomery City. We arrived at St. Charles on the Mississippi River at 11 o’clock A.M. and the river not being bridged we crossed on a large steam ferry. St. Charles is situated on the north side of the river, it contains perhaps 3000 inhabitants and I presume in ordinary times that a great deal of business is done here, it having the advantage of river and R.R. The crossing of baggage and such like occupied considerable time and consequently did not leave till 3 o’clock P. M. And, before we reached our destination, night overtook us and therefore did not get to see much of the country along the road.


At 11 o’clock P.M., arrived at Montgomery City, found our friends hail and hearty. The town of Montgomery City is a new place containing but few inhabitants, and is noted for nothing but the distilling and selling of whiskey and an unfinished well thirteen and fifty feet deep. Water is very scarce here the citizens using cistern water.


Huntsville

2nd

We remained at Montgomery City till the 1st of February 1862. During our stay here I, with four associates, boarded at a private house. The time passed off pleasantly while here.

However on the first of February we were ordered to Huntsville 60 miles north of Montgomery City. We took cars at 3 o’clock in the evening, arrived at Allen Station at twelve o’clock the same evening after a cold and disagreeable ride. We remained in the cars till morning and slept but little on account of the extreme cold. In the morning, after building fires on the ice and snow to get breakfast, we partook a meal gotten up in military style.

After all was over we took up a line of march in the direction of Huntsville six miles west of Allen Station, at which place we reached about noon, stepping to the time of Yankee Doodle. Quite a number of Negroes were upon the streets, with their white eyes turned up as large as a full moon. A few citizens could be seen standing around on the corners dressed in homespun of a blue and brownish color. There is but few, if any, avowed Union men in the town or vicinity. Those who have not declared openly their secession principles take a neutral position.

The town of Huntsville contains perhaps 2,000 inhabitants. There is nothing remarkable grand about the buildings except a magnificent courthouse and an educational institution, without which the town would present an insignificant appearance. The location is among the hills and resembles some of the county towns of eastern Ohio.

There is but five companies of the 3rd Iowa Infantry here and one company of cavalry under the command of Captain Ogg.

On the evening of the 8th of February at 11 o’clock P.M., a detachment of the Black Hawk Cavalry brought to headquarters at Huntsville, 90 kegs of Kentucky Rifle Powder captured some twelve miles from this place, also 7 prisoners. The powder was found part in a corncrib and part of it in a hallow log February 10th, 1862.

News of Other Battles


3rd

News of the Battle and taking of Roanoke on the North Carolina coast February 8th reached here the 13th. The taking of Fort Henry at the same time caused great joy among the troops. News reached here today the 15th of February that the federal troops were shelling Fort Donelson, also of the success of our troops at Springfield. After a short skirmish, [Major General Sterling] Price retreated, leaving General Curtis in possession of Springfield with the stars and stripes floating from the court house for the first time since the Rebs.

The number of prisoners taken at Roanoke was 3000. Our loss fifty killed, about one hundred wounded. The enemy’s loss was still greater; they lost their entire naval force including all their gunboats exception of two.

The enemy is in a perilous condition; they are being struck on every side, with a complete success to our army in every instance. Hurrah for the right and the destruction of the wicked. We still continue to remain in Huntsville, but, up to this date nothing of importance has transpired worthy of notice, February 15th A.D., 1862.

Fort Donelson was attacked on Thursday the 13th of February. The fight continued until Sunday morning at 9 o’clock the 16th, when the fort surrendered to the forces of General Grant. 15,000 prisoners including Generals Pillow, Buckner and Johnson, of a greater victory has not been won since the present war.

The number killed in taking of the fort is __. The number wounded is __. [Will drew the lines, but left quantities blank.] Great joy among the troops today, the army of rebellion is broken. [CS Brig. Gen. John B.] Floyd escaped from Fort Donelson with 5,000 men. A traitor to his country, a traitor to the traitor, he is cursed by his own followers.

Today the 17th of February, a number of slaves and other property were brought into town. Their masters were just starting to Texas, but lo and behold, we relieved them of some of their plunder. The Negroes are here and free, almost frantic with joy.

W.C.Newlon

4th

February reviewed, ’62 (The month of February is at a close, and what has been done in this last month of winter?). The war has been prosecuted with more vigor and more has been done for the cause of the Union in the past month than any three months prior to this, since the war began.

[Brig. General Ambrose E.] Burnside’s Expedition sailed and attacked the enemy at Roanoke with success to our arms, capturing 3,000 prisoners and army equipment of great value. Forts Henry and Donelson were captured by the forces under gallant Brig. Gen. Grant and Flag Officer Foote commander of the gunboats.

Fort Henry was captured with but little difficulty, the enemy having evacuated it after a short engagement. Fort Donelson was taken after a horrible battle, which lasted three days. The Fort was attacked first by the gunboats under Commander Foote and afterwards by the land force 30,000 strong, divided in three divisions, commanded by Generals Smith, Major Generals Don Carlos Buell and John A. McClernand the whole under the command of Brigadier General U.S. Grant.

The battle raged with great fury until the fourth day (Sunday) at six in the morning when General Buckner requested of General Grant an armistice till twelve o’clock for the purpose of coming to some terms of surrender, to which General Grant replied that he would except of nothing but an unconditional surrender, and said he’d propose to move upon your works. Buckner replied that he was compelled to surrender. Thus on the morn of 16th of February, 1862, Brig. General Buckner surrendered Fort Donelson with 15,000 prisoners of war to Brig. General U.S. Grant, commander of the federal troops.


In the meanwhile, Gen. Floyd and Pillow escaped from the fort with 5,000 men leaving their comrades to make the best of it. Oh Floyd, thou traitor, hell is yearning for traitorous souls.

W.C. Newlon

5th

This month has witnessed the retreat of the Rebel leader Major General Sterling Price commanding the so-called Missouri State Guard from the unfortunate State of Missouri into Arkansas closely followed by the gallant Brig. General Curtis [Samuel R., one of several General Curtises] and his noble army.

The enemy made a stand at a formidable position, but after a short engagement, he (Price) beat a hasty retreat, the Feds in hot pursuit capturing arms, baggage, commissary stores, in abundance, also a number of hostile prisoners of war among who is Brig. General Price, son of Sterling Price, Major General, commanding Missouri State. And the notorious Colonel Freeman, both of which are now in Prison at Alton, Ill.

During the past month the 120,000 troops, which were stationed in the State of Missouri, have all, with a few exceptions, left and gone into the field of active service. The Iowa 3rd Infantry still remains in West Missouri, divided in three divisions, part at Mexico, [Brig. Gen. S.D.] Sturgis on the W.M.R.R. [West Missouri Railroad] and four companies there at Huntsville under command of Capt. A. L. Ogg, captain of Company G. &c &c.



Wrapping-up Ben Stein's Article

Here's Ben Stein's concluding remarks:

"The Civil War was our bloodiest conflict, but also the densest concentration of courage ever shown on this continent. And nowhere is this most precious American quality-courage-more fittingly memorialized than on our Civil War Battlefields. Shiloh and Gettysburg, and – saddest of them all - Franklin and Lookout Mountain, and Vicksburg and Upperville and a thousand other battlefields I have never seen make us think more about the courage and sacrifice of Americans on both sides than any other monument or memorial.


The preservation of these battlefields is partly because of their beauty. Partly it is because they are a respite from the relentless strip-malling and subdividing of America. But mostly the battlefields tell us something we need to know about us, and about our nation, and this is something we need to know now more than ever, as we are under attack by anew enemy who believes we are weak and cowardly.

The Civil War battlefields tell us that we are a nation of heroes and that no matter what the struggle, no matter how difficult or long, if we truly believe in the cause, we will fight it out until the end. Our battlefields inspired us to fight the Nazis, to fight the Japanese, to win the Cold War, and now they will inspire us to fight and win the war of the terrorists against all decent people.

In a real sense, the battlefields we preserve pay us back by preserving us and this great country that God has blessed so abundantly. As I say, courage is the primary, indispensable element of a people and a nation. America’s Civil War battlefields are where that courage is best memorialized. Let’s keep them, and keep them glorious and beautiful, keep them above commerce. And let us always remember that the courage that Americans have is a gift from God, and that when we preserve memorials to it, we are thanking God. The battlefields we seek to save are reminders of gifts from God that will save us if we invoke them, even now, one hundred and forty years after Pickett’s Charge.

That’s it. That’s my speech to the Civil War Preservation Trust. And now I have to leave."

Ben Stein is a writer, actor, and economist in Beverly Hill and Malibu.

I'll resume posting my Great Grandfather's Civil War journal entries on my next several posts.

Here is Ben Stein's last question. And I'll wrap it up in my next blog.

10.


But most of all-and closely connected to this last point-how could all of the men and women who participated in the war have been so amazingly brave?

How could they have carried such heavy loads, under such grueling conditions, slept in the rain, slept in the snow, marched right into massed rifle fire and certain death? How could they face death from belly wounds, in agony, maddened with thirst? How could they have undergone surgery with primitive anesthesia or none at all? How could the Army of Northern Virginia, starving, under-clothed, bled white by Grant, still have fought so gloriously in a lost cause at Petersburg? How could the Union soldiers have crossed those pontoon bridges at Fredericksburg under intense rifle fire and then attacked the fortified Confederates time after time? How could Pickett’s men have marched across that horrible open field into the jaws of death, keeping good order, doing their utmost as all of their friends and comrades fell and died around them?

Another question posed by writer, Joe Stein...

"Of all of the amazing, breath-taking truths and myths about the Civil War, why is this one almost always omitted from mention:


that men of one race fought and died in the hundreds of thousands to free from bondage men and women of another race. From all corners of the Northern States, men came and laid down their lives for the Union, yes, but also to free the African slaves, the ancestors of today’s African-Americans. When else in history has anything like this ever happened, that one racial group should die in droves for another’s liberty? This surely is one of the brightest shining dawns in human civilization. When reparations are discussed for African Americans, I am mindful that a certain reparation has been paid, that every drop of blood drawn by the lash has been paid for by a hundred drawn by the sword, to coin a Lincoln phrase."

Here is question number nine posed by Ben Stein


Why is not more attention paid to the stunning contributions of the black man to his own freedom?

Both sides considered blacks unfit to be good soldiers until about 1863. When Lincoln finally relented, they proved to be superb fighters, and their presence on the Union side was a major factor in the Union victory. Other than maybe in the movie Glory, I don’t think that the black soldier gets the credit he deserves for coming from a tradition of oppression and humiliation and then fighting with utmost courage as soon as the chains had been struck from his body.

Why is the Southern cause so compelling even now?

In my attempt to organize, condense and purge my many Civil War file boxes, I now have them lined up in a row out in the garage. From the local office supply store I found handsome blue plastic 'hang and store' containers with lids; they're out there lined up, too. I'm getting closer to being organized. Now the hard job begins - sorting and purging.

So, I continue now with another question posed by Benjamin J. Stein in his 2003 “The American Spectator” article: “Preserving the Civil War”.



7. Why is the Southern cause so compelling even now?

Knowing - as we do - that the Southern economy was largely based on a horrifying notion of racial supremacy, why do we find the South still so haunting and sympathetic? Is it Gone With the Wind? Is it moonlight and magnolias and nonsense? Is it the romance of a lost cause? Why do we find Lee so much more compelling than Grant? Why do we find Lee so much more compelling than a general that even Lee said was the finest on either side in the Civil War, Nathaniel Bedford Forrest? Why do I cry when I visit one of my favorite battlefields, the one at Upperville, Virginia? And why do I have nightmares every time I visit Gettysburg, when most of my ancestors did not even come to America until thirty years after the Civil War ended?

Americans, Northerners at least, had little or no sympathy and compassion for the South in 1865. So when did this romanticism with that cause begin? Did it develop shortly after the last of the Civil War veterans died off in the early 20th Century? What part did Gone With the Wind play, or not play, in this? Has anyone written specifically about this?

When I next comb the History shelves at Barnes & Noble I'll be searching for an answer.