Making Georgia Howl!: The 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry in Kilpatrick's Campaign & the Diary of Sgt W.H. Harding

By Dave Dougherty

The 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry Regiment fought over three years, from March 1862 to General Johnson’s surrender in April 1865. It played a major role in Kilpatrick’s Cavalry Corps on Sherman’s March to the Sea; told as an overview of operations and through the diary of Sergeant William H. Harding. Confederate histories have often reported the regiment decimated and defeated in every battle, but this study presents the truth of the matter for the first time. Fighting in Judson Kilpatrick’s 3rd Cavalry Division during Sherman’s campaign through Georgia and the Carolina’s doing everything that could be expected of them and acquitted themselves honorably against the Confederate commanders – Joseph Wheeler and Wade Hampton. This volume is the definitive study of the 5th Ohio and Kilpatrick’s campaign in Sherman’s army from Atlanta to the end of the war. Bonuses include the diary and letters of Commissary Sergeant William H. Harding present in Company K of the 5th OVC from August 1862 to July 1865.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Winged Hussar Publishing, LLC
• Release date: Aug 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781945430381

Dave Dougherty

Dave Dougherty is a polymath. He served as a lieutenant and captain in Army Intelligence’s 513th INTC Group, and was a Professor of Management, Business, and Computer Science, most recently at the University of Texas, El Paso. He holds advanced degrees from Colorado School of Mines and Case Western Reserve University and advanced to candidacy for a PhD at both Case Western Reserve and the University of Maryland. He is a Registered Professional Engineer, and an entrepreneur in computers, being a pioneer in the use of client-server processing, the promotion of the cloud and ARPANET all during the 1970s, and later became arguably the world’s most prolific applications programmer. History was always Dave’s prime avocation, and he built one of the nation’s premier collections in silver and gold ancient and medieval coinage to bring history to life. In Arkansas and Missouri, Dave is a radio personality discussing political problems through the lens of history and a rigid constitutionalist. Dave has authored over twenty academic papers and a number of books, including A Patriot’s History Reader: Essential Documents for Every American, A Patriot’s History of the Modern World, Volumes I and II, Starve The Beast!, The Gnosis Within, Landslide, and now Make Georgia Howl The 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry in Kilpatrick’s Campaign and the Diary of Sgt. William H. Harding.

Book preview

Making Georgia Howl!

The 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry in Kilpatrick’s Campaign and the Diary of Sgt. William H. Harding

By Dave Dougherty

Cover by Ann James Massey

The cover image represents the Regimental Flag of the 5th OVC, as of Nov 1862

Maps by Philip Schwartzberg of Meridian Mapping

Edited by Vincent W. Rospond

Winged Hussar Publishing, LLC, 1525 Hulse Road, Unit 1, Point Pleasant, NJ 08742

This edition published in 2016 Copyright ©Dave Dougherty

ISBN 978-1-945430-38-1

Bibliographical references and index

1. United States - History, Military.  2. American Civil War.  3. U.S. Army

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Acknowledgements

            There are many people who deserve to be recognized for their encouragement, helpful advice, and contributions to this work. First and foremost, the Great-grandfather I never knew who was a member of the 5th OVC for nearly three years, and without whose diary and letters this book would never have been written. Although my interest in the Revolutionary War began in early childhood, my family’s move from Denver to Shreveport, Louisiana in 1952 brought the Civil War into focus, at least from the Confederate side. The James family across the street loaned me Douglas Southall Freeman’s work, Lee’s Lieutenants (three volumes), and Bettye Bohanon, J. Howard Marshall Jr.’s future wife in St. Paul gave me Burton Hendrick’s Statesmen of the Lost Cause in 1955 when I was sixteen, and I was off and running.

            My father, Ralph P. Dougherty, initially typed up the Harding Diary and assisted in transcribing the letters that were often difficult to read. Support and editorial assistance was given generously by my wife, Shirley, and friend and newspaper editor, Rich Fisher, was kind enough to proof-read the manuscript. Larry Schweikart, my co-author on three earlier works provided encouragement and valuable comments. Don Sides, of Coffeeville, Mississippi, filled me in on the Battle of Coffeeville and drove me around to various Civil War sites in Northern Mississippi, and I am indebted to Steve Burke of Waynesboro and Carol Jones of the Burke County Genealogical Society for her searches and unravelling of the location problem for the Reynolds Plantation. In general, I also wish to thank the many individuals I met at Corinth, Holly Springs, Pontotoc, Ripley, Coffeeville, Rienzi, Waynesboro, and other towns across the South from Mississippi to North Carolina for their time and eagerness to supply me with information and sources for the Civil War military movements and battles in their areas.

            The cover painting of the 5th O.V.C.’s flag as of November 1862 was very kindly done by Ann James Massey, a very accomplished artist known for the extreme amount of detail in her works, and the maps were provided by the very professional and talented Phil Schwartzberg of Meridian Mapping of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  It is with pride that I give my heartfelt thanks to both for their invaluable contributions.   

Preface

About the Diary of William H. Harding

The Civil War diary of W. H. Harding gives a day-by-day rendering of life in the Union Army by a cavalryman in the 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry Regiment from 28 August 1862, to 4 July 1865.  Only eighteen years old, William H. Harding (WHH) enlisted for three years and rose from private to quartermaster sergeant before his term of service expired. Trooper Harding grew up on a farm in rural Ohio, and his education was limited to the standard one room rural schoolhouse and schoolmarm system commonly available in sparsely settled townships.

            Most of the actual diary focused on mundane details concerning Army duty and subsistence activities. Such diaries rarely elicit reader interest unless they provide a great deal of context and information concerning what was happening above the soldier’s day-to-day experiences. In this work, therefore, the 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry is the prime vehicle carrying the reader through the Civil War, and the Harding Diary is presented as supporting material. A survey of the literature found only four diaries written by members of the 5th Ohio, including this one by Private Harding. Quartermaster Sergeant Thomas W. Fanning of Company H recorded events from 17 September 1861, but did not begin his diary until 10 March 1862, and only continued it through 3 July 1862. His diary is extremely colorful, although the book he produced from it in 1865 exhibits issues of factual enhancements Maj. Elbridge G. Ricker kept an invaluable diary that ended in March 1863 when he received a medical discharge.  First Lieutenant Robert Major of Company F kept a journal until he mustered out in January 1865, and like WHH, also wrote a number of letters home. In addition to these sources, Gen. Thomas Tinsley Heath produced a number of letters, as did Col. William Henry Harrison Taylor, Maj. Charles S. Hayes, and Capt. William Jessup of Company D. Taylor resigned in August 1863, Hayes was mortally wounded in April, 1863, and Jessup was mustered out in January, 1865.  In addition, court martial records involving Heath when he was a lieutenant colonel cast light on some of the 5th’s command problems during 1862 and the first half of 1863.

All spelling in WHH's entries was faithfully reproduced regardless of correctness. He placed an S to the left of a date to signify that day as a Sunday. WHH's capitalization did not follow any consistent pattern, although in general, he tended to capitalize nouns. Where misspellings were likely to cause misinterpretations, explanatory notes were added and clearly identified as editorial comments. In most of WHH's letters and throughout the diary he failed to use periods as sentence terminators. Sentences were run together, with or without capitalizing beginning words, and often without indicating a new sentence by extra spacing. In this transcription sentences were capitalized and periods added according to current standards.

             The only editing concerning context occurred in WHH's letters to his girlfriend Louisa. Sometimes they contained love poems and other expressions of his love, and those lines were eliminated for this volume as being private in nature.

            WHH wrote a substantial number of letters during the Civil War, and were divided between daughters Lucy and Annie sometime after WHH's death in 1906. Those going to Annie were kept by her son Earl Meeks, and their current whereabouts are unknown.  Lucy's were passed down to Ralph P. Dougherty and have been carefully preserved to the present day. The handwritten transcription by Lucy and Annie is in the possession of the editor.

            The narrative of this work deals with the wartime record of the 5th Ohio and the larger units of which it was a part, with the WHH Diary included by month for source use, beginning in August 1862.

William H. Harding and his first horse, Sept 1862

Introduction

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman was properly concerned that advocates of the Confederacy would control the history books, and might distort the great Union victory in preserving the nation. He believed that each citizen must be faithful to his whole country and not just a part, and each must stand ready to do his duty to the whole country.[1]  To ensure that his part in the war would be accurately recorded, Sherman wrote his memoirs; the first Civil War general to do so.

            To a large degree Sherman’s fears were well founded, particularly with respect to Sherman’s Georgia and Carolinas campaigns. The achievements of Maj. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick’s 3rd Cavalry Division have been almost universally derided by authors on the Civil War, although Kilpatrick’s cavalry was almost uniquely successful in accomplishing all the missions given to his cavalry that were humanly possible from the time Sherman organized his Western Army at Atlanta in November 1864, to Johnston’s surrender at Durham. Some authors have criticized Kilpatrick for failing to recover the Federal prisoners at the Confederate prison camp at Millen, Georgia, for which he had mounted a special raid. The prisoners had been moved earlier, however, and the camp emptied before his men left camp. More criticism came from his failure to finish the burning of the Brier Creek railroad bridge on 27 November 1864, but Kilpatrick completed the job seven days later on 4 December in spite of all Confederate Gen. Wheeler’s attempts to stop him. Otherwise, his primary duty of protecting Sherman’s army from incursions by Confederate cavalry was brilliantly successful, so much so, that Sherman boasted that his army had never lost a wagon to enemy action, nor had his infantry columns ever been broken into by Confederate cavalry.

            This narrative therefore closely examines the evidence surrounding Kilpatrick’s part in Sherman’s campaigns, and contrasts it to his opponents, Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler and Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton. In some circles, both have been raised to near-mythical proportions, aided in Wheeler’s case by his own boasting and writing, which vastly embellished his record. As Southerners took up the crusade of The Lost Cause after the war, warriors like Hampton and Wheeler portrayed gilded heroes slaying the effeminate clerks of the North right and left with unparalleled gallantry and heroism. Writers such as Edward L. Wells, John Witherspoon DuBose, U. R. Brooks, and W. C. Dodson produced tomes wherein their heroes won every battle, slew vast numbers of despicable Federals, captured thousands, never allowed the slightest bit of criticism, and much of this tripe has been assumed to be correct by later historians. This narrative by comparison, attempts to give the Union troopers due respect and coverage.

            Perhaps more than in any other American conflict, gossip and rumors spread during and after the Civil War have been assumed by later writers to be fact. Often a single affair serves as a core case that as the telling spreads, the incident happens over and over again, many times and in many places. Enemy casualties were usually overestimated by opposing commanders, partly as wishful thinking, but often as self-aggrandizement. Accounts of heroic deeds by Confederate generals in single combat fail to be credible and were scoffed at by their contemporaries, but still show up in supposedly factual history books. Worse of all, Confederate accounts of Federal blunders and malfeasance are accepted without considering their source, even stories first related forty-five to fifty years after they were to have happened and make the story-teller heroic.

            More than half of this work is devoted to Kilpatrick’s operations, and those of the 5th Ohio Cavalry, under Sherman’s command. The 5th began the war under Sherman at Paducah, Kentucky, prior to the Battle of Shiloh, and ended it under Sherman at Durham. Perhaps more than any other regiment, the 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry illustrates the neglect of the Federal cavalry arm, its miss-use, command conflicts, lack of arms and equipment, and extreme demands placed on the men and mounts under frightening and dangerous conditions. The 5th OVC did well because of the willingness of its troopers to endure, to fight to the death, and to bear any hardship. They went into battle with ten worn-out carbines per company, 700 sabers for over 1,100 men, and a number of unserviceable revolvers, more dangerous to their shooter than the target. Yet the troopers fought, and fought well.

            By a quirk in how the regiment was raised, neither the state of Ohio nor the Federal Government assumed the responsibility for its outfitting, but the men were undaunted. They were orphans, not receiving a full complement of arms until late November of 1862, fifteen months after having been formed. But they put what they had to good use, and made Ohio proud. It was fitting that Sgt. Harding, the writer of the attached diary and letters, was the Sergeant of the Guard who received Johnston’s emissaries that started the surrender negotiations. He escorted them through the Federal lines at Durham, and the rest is history.

            With respect to the commanders under whom the 5th Ohio served, the regiment first took the field under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh; the 1st Battalion under Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace, and the other two battalions under Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman and then Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlbut. At Corinth, the 3rd Battalion remained behind under Brig. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge while the other two battalions became part of Hurlbut’s 14th Army Corps headquartered in Memphis. In September 1863, the regiment was united for the first time at Camp Davies near Corinth, and was attached to the 1st Division under Brig. Gen. Peter Osterhaus, in Maj. Gen. Francis P. Blair’s 17th Army Corps in Sherman’s Army of the Tennessee. After fighting at Chattanooga and guarding the railroad supply lines during Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, the 5th was transferred to Kilpatrick’s 3rd Cavalry Division for the Georgia and Carolinas campaigns, finishing the war at Durham, North Carolina.

            The Regiment had five commanders: Col. William Henry Harrison Taylor, beginning with the regiment’s organization in September, 1861 and lasting with intervals away from the regiment until his resignation in August 1863; Maj. Elbridge G. Ricker during the medical leaves of Cols. Taylor and Heath, May, 1862 to August, 1862; Maj. Charles S. Hayes from August, 1862 until Taylor’s return in December, 1862; Lt. Col. Thomas Tinsley Heath from January, 1863, to January, 1865; and Maj. George H. Rader from January 1865 to the end of the war. Taylor would be found wanting, but the other four were fine officers and a credit to the regiment. Heath was promoted to Brevet Brig. Gen. of Volunteers for his actions at Waynesboro, Georgia, on 4 December 1864, and remained on occupation duty in North Carolina when the regiment mustered out on 30 October 1865.

            The only blot on the record of the 5th Ohio was at Shiloh, where on the eve of the battle, Sherman transferred his two battalions of the 5th to Hurlbut since they were so poorly armed. The 1,100-man regiment arrived at Shiloh with less than 700 sabers, 120 Sharps Carbines, and slightly more than 400 Joslyn pistols considered by nearly everyone to be worthless. Five hundred Colt pistols arrived late in May 1862, but the regiment did not receive its full complement of carbines until late in November or early December of 1862. It was not until December of 1862 that every trooper was equipped with a saber, a Colt revolver, and either a Burnside or Sharps carbine. That it took so long for the regiment to become properly armed was not the fault of the troopers—even without arms they enthusiastically went south to fight the rebels.             

            The art of maintaining a wartime diary probably reached its apex in the American Civil War with famous diaries being produced on both sides of the conflict, by combatants and various civilian personnel alike. Mary Chesnut gave historians an indelible view of civilian life in the Confederacy, and Henry Douglas and others described battles in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia along with camp life to provide later writers with excellent if sometimes contradictory source materials.[2] On the Union side Elisha Rhodes[3]  of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry rose from private to colonel commanding his regiment while keeping a comprehensive account of literally every major engagement involving the Army of the Potomac from 1st Bull Run to Appomattox.

            William Henry Harding's diary is simple fare when compared to these more illustrious works. He did not write for posterity and cover events as an eye-witness reporter, but it is precisely his micro viewpoint that makes his work important. His writing is dry and laconic, devoid of enthusiasm and heroic renderings, and accurately portrays the usual monotony of camp life even while exposed to danger. His religious fervor rose steadily during his first two years of service, and peaked during the summer of 1864 when his love for his sweetheart Louisa Parks appeared doomed. He became energetic in destroying Southern property during Sherman's March to the Sea and thereafter in the Carolinas, and although he perhaps took out his personal frustrations on the Southern enemy, he clearly differentiated between southern civilians and rebels.

            With regards to military service, WHH did his duty, pure and simple, neither hating nor fearing the enemy. Negroes were Coloreds, Darkies, Niggers, and Negroes; words used interchangeably without special meaning. WHH did not fight to free the slaves; he fought to suppress the rebellion. The South had fired on Fort Sumter, and if the Union was not preserved, it meant the end of Republican democratic institutions as he understood them and the personal liberty for which his ancestors had fought in the Revolutionary War. It was now his turn to defend the nation, this time threatened by rich southern plantation owners seeking to maintain their economic dominance through slavery and bullying the North through their political tactics. Confederate troops were always simply Rebels and Rebs. Only once did he use any other term, and then it was Johnnies.  Irregulars, however, fell into a separate classification which earned his scorn and enmity as Guerrillas and Bushwhackers.

            WHH was born on 25 September 1843, in Guernsey County, Ohio, the firstborn of David Thomas Harding and Lucy Longsworth Harding. Located between the small towns of Gilmore and West Chester in Perry Township in Tuscarawas County, his father’s farm featured extremely fertile land, and David Harding's family prospered to where the farm comprised 168 acres.

            The Hardings were Protestants of mostly Scotch-Irish and Northumbrian stock, and early settlers in the American colonies. Numerous Hardings (and its variations Hardin and Harden) were listed in colonial records from 1628 to 1640, particularly in Virginia and New England. No fewer than forty of the name fought against England in the Revolutionary War, two of them being his ancestors.

            The Harding extended family of relations became enormous when David married Lucy Longsworth of Harrison County, the oldest of eleven children, in 1842. The Longsworths had moved to Ohio from Maryland, and Lucy's father Basil had fought in the War of 1812. Her mother's father and grandfather had fought in the Revolutionary War, and military service was a family tradition. Continuing that tradition, two of Lucy's brothers, Jesse and Cornelius, fought in the Union Army and figured prominently in WHH's diary.

            William was the oldest of eight children, four sons and four daughters of which only one girl died in childhood. As was his duty, WHH enlisted in answer to Lincoln's first call for troops after he turned eighteen years old. He was distressed that the North was forced to draft personnel to meet its manpower needs, and comments concerning the draft and volunteerism are evident in WHH's politically oriented letters.

            The draft directly touched the Harding family, both times involving his father. On 2 May 1863, WHH's seventeen-year-old brother John Basil substituted for his father in the call-up of Ohio Home Guards. He served for one hundred days in Captain Blickensderfer's company and was posted to West Virginia and Virginia during and following Lee's Gettysburg campaign. The Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania caused considerable consternation in the North, and the 100-day men were sent to block Confederate cavalry in the Alleghenies—dangerous duty in light of their almost complete lack of military experience and expertise.

            On 26 October 1864, young Basil again substituted for his father for one year of service in the 47th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (OVI). With minimal training Basil was sent to join Sherman's army at Atlanta where WHH was surprised to find him. The 47th OVI marched with Sherman to Savannah, and spearheaded Maj. Gen. Hazen's attack on Fort McAllister. Basil participated in the assault which breached the fort’s defenses, and the 47th received a unit commendation for its action.

            Apparently, all Harding males were Freemasons, and the family was Presbyterian and Republican. WHH's childhood sweetheart was Sarah Louisa Parks (called Louisa pronounced with a long I), the daughter of another farmer in Perry Township. Louisa's mother Mary Carpenter died only one day after Louisa was born on 10 February 1846, and her father George married Mary Anne Milliken of Rush Township about a year later. During the Civil War no less than four Milliken boys served in Sherman's army, and WHH befriended them as relatives of his girlfriend.

            By all accounts both Louisa and WHH remained faithful to each other during their almost three-year separation, but not without the strains shown vividly in their letters. Modern readers should remember relationships were not so readily consummated during the nineteenth century as today, and Louisa's traveling to visit another boy did not automatically imply being unfaithful to WHH. In any case, true love eventually triumphed, and they married three months after WHH's return.

            WHH's parents were against his attachment to Louisa, possibly due to the Parks family's Democratic political leanings. Worst of all, however, Louisa revealed herself to be a Copperhead, a follower of Ohio's Congressman Clement Vallandigham, actively assisted other boys to avoid the draft and campaigned for immediate peace with the Confederacy. Only sixteen years old when WHH left home, a Democrat and a Butternut (WHH's term for a Southern sympathizer), Louisa wanted the war to cease and her sweetheart returned to her. WHH severely rebuked her in his letters, and finally gave her an ultimatum to become a patriot and support his efforts or terminate their relationship. He stressed his full intent to faithfully discharge his military duties to suppress the Southern rebellion regardless of her stated desires. His country came first, his girlfriend second. That she eventually accepted his point of view provided a happy ending to the story, but obviously service away from home could try a man's soul.

            During the War, WHH performed his duties faithfully and competently. At Salem Cemetery near Jackson, Tennessee, in WHH's first combat experience, the 5th Ohio was pitted against Nathan Bedford Forrest's command, arguably the most feared cavalry unit produced by the War. Although an untried recruit who had not even joined his company on duty at Corinth, Mississippi, WHH acquitted himself honorably facing veteran troopers in grey.

            Units were not in constant action during the war so the next year was spent on monotonous but often dangerous scouting and picket duty in the Corinth, Mississippi area, and WHH was promoted to corporal. His unit, Company K of the 3rd Battalion, became a seasoned and well-blooded outfit. After the battles around Chattanooga, and another period of relative quiet in Northern Alabama and Georgia, the 5th Ohio was assigned to Kilpatrick's 3rd Cavalry Division, and fought its way from Atlanta to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. At Durham Station, North Carolina, while Sergeant of the Guard, WHH personally received Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's white flag of truce for parley, and was part of Gen.Sherman's escort during negotiations. Although WHH was mentioned for a commission as 2nd Lt. at New Bern, North Carolina, the war's cessation brought an end to his army career. He was mustered out at New Bern late in June 1865, to find his way home to Ohio.

            The diary covers the period from 28 August 1862 to 4 July 1865. Much had already transpired with the regiment before WHH's enlistment, as the 5th Ohio had been in service for almost a year before he joined the active troops in Tennessee. Pvt. Harding's group of recruits were the first influx of replacement troops for active Ohio formations after the initial year's battles and normal wastage had taken their toll.

            Lincoln's call for troops on 3 May 1861 had been answered with enthusiasm west of the Alleghenies but much less so in the East. Except for New York, eastern states barely met or failed to meet their quotas. Enthusiasm for the war remained high in the West when Lincoln issued another call for troops on 2 July  1862 for an additional 300,000 men for three years’ service, and it was again oversubscribed with 421,465 men, with Ohio oversubscribing its quota of 36,858 with 58,325. WHH was one of this number.[4]

            To many in the modern age the events of the Civil War and the heroic actions often described seem to belong to ancient history. In 1862 men fought because of principles, abstract concepts such as preserving the Union and their individual rights. Constituencies were poorly defined, and as issues changed, voting patterns could also change. Poor whites without slaves fought for the South, not to preserve slavery, but for their right to self-determination, regardless of any larger issue concerning overall human rights. WHH belonged to one group of thought who felt, that all Negroes should go back to Africa, and that the white and black races were not equal. Nor was his belief in self-determination any less than that of the Confederates. But just because the South lost an election and power had shifted to the North, didn’t mean they could just pick up and leave. The Union was sacred, the Constitution was sacred, and the United States of America had to be saved for all posterity. Much can be learned from contemporary accounts about how local thinking can be re-interpreted over the years, but also a past can be re-discovered.

            WHH gained little, if anything, out of his service in the Civil War, nor did the vast majority of soldiers on either side. Yet both sides fought well, and often to the death in hopeless situations. In thirty years civilization would advance to the point that slavery would be abolished almost everywhere except in Muslim countries, so the South’s position on that issue was clearly anachronistic. Slaves were considered property, and Southerners fought for their property rights, whether or not they owned slaves. Some issues were resolved by the war, some not. But the war set the tone for the American nation for the next hundred years. The Civil War is still important, and there is much to be learned. 

Chapter 1

The Union Cavalry

Organization:

The maximum authorized size for a volunteer Union cavalry regiment varied during the war from 1,189 officers and enlisted men in August 1861 to 1,256 in April 1863, but in reality no regiment ever fielded such a strength regardless of which maximum number was in force. The greatest strength a regiment would ever enjoy was immediately on filling their enlistments—after a battle or two and six month’s service, a regiment would be fortunate to count 650 effectives. Later in the war, cavalry regiments were often 300 to 450 men. In the case of the 5th OVC, a total of 2,737 men were in the regiment at one time or another, yet by the fall of 1864, only 550 were present for duty when the regiment was assigned to Brigadier-General Judson’s 3rd Cavalry Division for Sherman’s march through Georgia. And that was present for duty, the effective strength, subtracting all those wounded, sick, or engaged in other duties, was probably around 400.

            The aggregate numbers are misleading: 1,142 left Cincinnati on 28 February through 1 March 1861, and the regiment recruited 378 replacements from April through October following Lincoln’s July 1862 call for troops, all on three year enlistments. Only 46 additional replacements joined the regiment in 1863 and 135 in 1864, mostly in the fall months before Sherman’s march to the sea.[5]   Counting just those troops, only 1,701 troops can be said to have ever been present with the 5th Ohio at any time in the war zone. The discrepancy is easy to explain. In addition to these numbers, there were troops that were never assigned to companies or the regimental staff: 88 men in 1862, 13 in ’63, and 71 in ’64, essentially men who never arrived at regimental headquarters for duty. There were also 767 recruits and transfers like those from the McLaughlin Squadron in July 1865 that arrived after the war was over. The Official Roster also lists colored cooks, men discharged while still in Ohio, and 114 men for whom no record exists except their original mustering-in.[6]   Some are listed as never joined company, many say no further record found, and other entries are simply blank. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that most of these men were deserters or bounty jumpers, particularly the large number in 1864 that would have received large bonuses for enlisting.

            It is instructive to look at a single company to understand why a regiment’s effective strength was always far below what the numbers might indicate. Departing from Cincinnati on 1 March 1862, Company K probably enjoyed an effective strength of 85 officers and men after subtracting those men already discharged, left behind as sick, or having already deserted. The company would not receive replacements until the January 1863; a contingent of 18 men. However, during 1862, the company would lose 28 men through battle casualties, sickness, transfers and promotions. During 1863, the company would lose 20 men and receive an additional 7 after January. The 1864 losses, including 3-year veterans going home, would reach 44 men, while the company would only receive another 6 replacements and a single re-enlistment.[7]  At any one time, the company could have anywhere from a handful to three dozen men on detached service of all kinds; orderlies, hospital attendants, couriers, fatigue duties, guards, escorts, etc., that could not be counted. Moreover, a unit’s effective strength was always substantially lessened by sickness, and the condition of the trooper’s horse. At all times, a substantial percentage of a cavalry regiment was dismounted for lack of a mount. As the regiment departed the Atlanta area to screen Sherman’s march through Georgia, Company K could only field 31 men.

            The regiment’s organization was changed several times during its existence. On 4 May 1861, General Order Number 15 authorized the establishment of a single volunteer regiment of cavalry with 12 companies, each designated by a letter, A-M, with no company J.  Companies were commanded by a captain, assisted by a 1st lieutenant, and a 2nd lieutenant. The enlisted men were comprised of a 1st sergeant, quartermaster sergeant, 4 other sergeants, 8 corporals, 2 buglers, 2 farriers or blacksmiths, a saddler, a wagoner, and from 56 to 72 privates. The minimum complement was 79, the maximum 95. There was no battalion command structure, and at regimental headquarters, there was a colonel, lieutenant colonel, major, assistant surgeon, and two lieutenants as an adjutant and quartermaster. Enlisted men on the regimental staff included a sergeant-major, quartermaster sergeant, commissary sergeant, hospital steward, two principal musicians, and 16 musicians comprising the regimental band. Altogether a regiment could have 1,168 officers and men.[8]

            On 4 May 1861, the Adjutant General’s Office issued General Order Number 16, establishing the organization for regular army cavalry regiments with the identical company organization, but adding three battalion commands with their staffs. There were three battalions, each with three commissioned officers: a major, adjutant, and a lieutenant handling quartermaster and commissary duties. The battalion staffs were comprised of a sergeant-major, quartermaster sergeant, commissary sergeant, hospital steward, saddler sergeant, and veterinary sergeant. The regimental headquarters consisted of a colonel, lieutenant colonel, adjutant, quartermaster and commissary lieutenant, two buglers and 16 musicians. Regular army cavalry regiments thus varied from 997 to 1,189 officers and men.[9]  In August when the volunteer cavalry regiments began forming, the regular army organization was the one used by the volunteer regiments.

            Traditionally, two companies were combined to make a squadron, and two squadrons made a battalion. During the Civil War, however, the term squadron was used for any detachment of cavalry smaller than a battalion, such as those that frequently performed escort duties for general officers or supply wagons and ambulances commanded by a sergeant or lieutenant. The squadron was now skipped, and above the basic unit of a company came the battalion, composed of four companies and commanded by a major. According to General Army Order 126 issued 6 September 1862, the battalion command structure and staff were eliminated along with the regimental band.

            Under G.A.O. 126, the regimental headquarters was comprised of a colonel, lieutenant colonel, three majors, a surgeon, assistant surgeon, three lieutenants, the adjutant, quartermaster and commissary officers, and a chaplain. On the enlisted staff were a sergeant-major, quartermaster sergeant, commissary sergeant, two hospital stewards, one saddler sergeant, and a chief farrier or blacksmith. Whereas quartermaster and commissary were roles assigned to lieutenants, the sergeants handling those jobs held ranks as quartermaster sergeant (QMS) and commissary sergeant (CSGT). The commissary was responsible for food, and the quartermaster for all other supplies. With the demise of the battalion staff, the company staff expanded to a first sergeant, quartermaster sergeant, commissary sergeant, 5 other sergeants, 8 corporals, 2 teamsters, 2 farriers or blacksmiths, a saddler and a wagoner. With 78 privates, companies contained 103 officers and men, and the full regiment 1,254.[10]

            In 1863 the final iteration of the cavalry regiment’s organization took place with General Order 110, 29 April 1863. At the regimental staff level, a second assistant surgeon was added along with a veterinary surgeon, and the chief farrier was eliminated but a chief trumpeter added. In the companies, the two teamsters were deleted and replaced with two trumpeters. The regimental totals increased by two to 1,256.[11]

            During the war, 272 regiments of cavalry were authorized and filled by the Union Army, almost twice the number (137) formed by the Confederates. In addition, there were many independent companies formed by localities and patriotic citizens, and even independent battalions that sometimes served for short periods to meet various emergencies.

            Prior to the war, experience in cavalry units on the frontier had shown that it took at least two years to train an effective cavalryman, particularly from city-dwellers and farm boys who did not ride regularly. Since the war was expected to be short, War Department bureaucrats assumed it would be over before newly raised cavalry formations could make an impact. Cavalry regiments were also expensive, both to initially equip and train and to maintain in the field. The initial cost of $300,000 for a regiment—the average cost of each cavalry mount alone was $160.00[12]—was considered by the War Department as needless and wasteful spending. It decided the six Regular Army cavalry regiments already in existence would be sufficient, with a single volunteer regiment from New York to meet political demands. The regular army regiments were formed from the 1st and 2nd regiments of dragoons, a regiment of mounted rifles, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd regiments of cavalry.[13]  When Lincoln authorized the regular army’s expansion to 42,000 on 5 May 1861, for service troops and cavalry, these regular army regiments were renumbered as the 1st through 6th cavalry regiments. With such little cavalry available, and the regiments and companies were strewn all across the nation, only seven companies of regular cavalry in scattered detachments were available for the first battle of Bull Run, facing substantial Confederate cavalry operating as full regiments.

            There was also an expectation in the War Department and among top commanders that the cavalry would be of little use, particularly where the bulk of the fighting was expected to take place—between the two capitals, Washington and Richmond. This was a thickly populated area, cut up with fences and stone walls, that supposedly did not contain enough open area to make cavalry effective. In late May, the commanding general, Winfield Scott, developed his Anaconda Plan to split the Confederacy by seizing the Mississippi Valley and strangle the rebel territory like the snake does its prey, although his strategy remained unknown to State governors and the War Department’s personnel authorizing new regiments. Official military dogma continued to confine cavalry to service as couriers, escorts, and scouts until Grant formed cavalry brigades in the fall of 1862.

            After Bull Run in July 1861, the opinions of the Union high command regarding the need for cavalry altered significantly. Eyewitness experiences of full regiments of gray-clad horseman pursuing routed Federals most likely contributed greatly to the turnaround. The expansion of cavalry by authorizing State cavalry regiments began in August, but it would be 1863 before Federal commanders in the East began using cavalry regiments in massed formations and brigading them together for use as a striking force. By the end of August 1861, thirty-one volunteer cavalry regiments had been authorized, and by the end of the first year of war, the Union had raised eighty-two new regiments of cavalry.[14]

Arms:

The volunteer cavalrymen were initially armed with sabers and revolvers as soon as they became available. Until the end of 1862, only a few volunteer cavalry regiments could boast of every trooper possessing a saber and a revolver, even of unsuitable types. Carbines were in very short supply since they had only been issued to the two regular cavalry regiments in service at the start of the war, and no reserve stocks were held in depots. Adding to the shortage was the fact that many stocks of arms had gone south when officers and troops left their posts for the Confederacy. A number of 1853 Sharps carbines - the John Brown carbine or Beecher’s Bibles, so-called for their use by Brown and Henry Ward Beecher’s sending them to Kansas where they would do more good than a hundred Bibles—were purchased from dealers and parceled out to regiments, ten to a company except in the East, where an attempt was made to furnish cavalry regiments enough carbines for four companies. Until May 1863, the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry or Rush’s Lancers, carried lances of the type used by Napoleon’s armies, and found itself having to avoid combat.

            Saber attacks by the cavalry were quickly found to be suicidal. Against muzzle-loaders with an effective range of fifty yards as in previous wars, a cavalry charge could and did break an infantry line. Against the new rifle-musket with an effective range of three hundred yards, the cavalry was decimated by repeated fire and usually unable to close on well-ordered infantry units. When charged by Union cavalry, a Southern general said his men would respond with the cry; Boys, here are those fools coming again with their sabers; give it to them.[15]  It was very quickly learned that cavalry was only effective against other cavalry, at least until they were armed with carbines. Procurement officers scoured the market for anything they could find.

            A few 2nd model Burnside carbines, named for Union General Ambrose Burnside, Treasurer of the Bristol Firearms Company, were on hand. Almost half of the stocks of 2,000 were issued to the 1st Rhode Island Infantry before Bull Run, and small quantities were distributed to the 1st Maine, 1st New Jersey, 1st Pennsylvania, 1st and 2nd Indiana, 1st and 2nd Rhode Island, and 1st US cavalry regiments at a rate of 120 to a regiment. 4th model Burnside carbines went into production in 1862, and of the 7,000 produced, the 5th and 6th Ohio cavalry regiments received their share. From 1863 to 1865, 43,000 5th model Burnside carbines were produced and distributed widely. All of the Burnside breechloading carbines except the few produced as the 1st model featured a 21" barrel, and used a .54 caliber cartridge with a copper or tapered foil casing.

Burnside Carbine

            Because of supply issues at this stage in the war there was still no standardization of arms within a unit. Another carbine that was issued to some troopers of the 5th Ohio was the .52 caliber Gwyn and Campbell breechloader, also known as the Union Carbine.  It was the successor to the 1859-1862 Cosmopolitan carbine made by Cosmopolitan Arms in the same factory in Hamilton, Ohio. These carbines (including the Cosmopolitan) were produced from 1862 through 1864, and were issued exclusively to western cavalry regiments, primarily those raised in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

            The Gallager Carbine was a .50 caliber, percussion breechloader produced from 1861 to 1865, and it was issued to the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th Ohio cavalry regiments. The Greene Carbine produced from 1855 to 1857 was present in the US arsenals in small quantity in 1861, and a few were issued to the 6th Ohio cavalry. It was another breechloader of .54 caliber and featured a 22 barrel. Approximately 1,200 Joslyn model 1855 Carbines were present in Federal arsenals at the beginning of the war, and the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Ohio cavalry regiments each received 100 while the 6th Ohio cavalry received 250. This was another .54 caliber breechloader, also known as the Monkey Tail, with a 22-1/2 barrel. The Joslyn 1862 and 1864 carbines were .52 caliber, produced in quantity (16,500), and used by the 11th Ohio and a number of western cavalry regiments.

            The Maynard Carbine produced in 1858 and 1859 was mainly purchased by Southern states and included in the Confederate ordnance manual as an official weapon. Over 3,000 Maynards of various calibers went south, while 400 in .50 caliber were purchased for the Union Army. Approximately 14,000 Merrill .54 caliber Carbines were purchased for Union cavalry regiments during the war, and another 30,000 Smith .50 caliber Carbines from 1861-1865. Once again, the 6th OVC received some of these weapons, making the regiment seem like a collecting ground for odd weapons.

Maynard Carbine model 1-2 (rifleshooter.com)

The Henry rifle is perhaps the most famous of all civil war arms, and although not technically a carbine, its 24" barrel made it short and light enough for cavalry use. The Henry was a .44 caliber rimfire cartridge rifle, with a tubular magazine under the barrel holding fifteen rounds. This was a revolutionary weapon, and some companies obtained these rifles through private subscription. The lack of production capacity and the difficulty in manufacturing its ammunition kept this rifle from being the premier weapon of the war. Less than 5,000 in total were purchased for military use, and most of that number found their way into cavalry regiments.

            The two primary cavalry carbines were the Sharps and the Spencer, followed closely by the Burnside. The New Model 1859, 1863, and 1865 Sharps .52 caliber carbines were the cavalry carbines against which all others were compared. The State of Georgia acquired two-thirds of the production of the 1859 model, and few were available for Federal use when the war began. But 30,000 of the model 1859 were produced through 1862, most going to cavalry units. Approximately 60,000 of the 1863 model were manufactured, making this weapon the most frequently used carbine of both armies. With a linen cartridge, its ammunition could be manufactured in the South, and captured carbines from Union units were put to good use.

            But the Sharps was a single-shot weapon, and the Spencer took over in the latter part of the war to the consternation of Confederates facing Spencer-armed Federal units. Manufactured from 1863 to 1865, the Spencer Carbine was .52 caliber rimfire weapon with a seven-round tubular magazine in its buttstock. 50,000 were manufactured for military use, and since the Confederacy could not manufacture the cartridges, capturing these weapons without corresponding stocks of ammunition was meaningless. The Spencer rifle first made its appearance in the Gettysburg campaign with Custer’s 5th Michigan Cavalry, causing a captured Confederate soldier to say, [Spencers] load in the morning and fire all day.  The Spencer carbines also made an important contribution at the Battle of Griswoldville, Georgia, in 1864. In the hands of an experienced trooper, the Spencer could fire 21 rounds per minute, giving it firepower far exceeding any single-shot rifle or carbine.[16]  Following the war, however, neither the Henry nor the Spencer were adopted by the regular army. The Chief of Ordnance felt that troopers were being too wasteful of ammunition with a magazine-fed repeater, so the Army reverted to a single-shot weapon, the Springfield Trap-door rifle and carbine, as an economy measure in 1870.

            The situation with pistols for the cavalry was nearly as bad as with carbines at the start of the conflict. Like carbines, pistols were not in abundance in the Ordnance reserve, and they were also used by officers and artillerymen. The primary revolver was the Colt 1860 Army Revolver, of which over 127,000 were purchased by the War Department and issued to troops. Its main competitor was the series of the Remington-Beals Army Model revolver of 1861-62, the 1861 Remington Army Revolver manufactured in 1862, and the Remington New Model Army Revolver of 1863.  The army acquisitions of the three were approximately 1,400, 6,000 and 107,000 respectively. The Colts and Remingtons were all six shot revolvers and .44 caliber percussion models that required hand loading of power, bullet, and cap. Reloading under battle conditions was a problem, and in cavalry engagements, frequent pauses between charges and melees were used for reloading.

Sharps carbine (top) / Spencer carbine (bottom)

At the beginning of the war, however, only a few of the 1860 Colts and the Remington-Beals were available. Earlier Colts were therefore avidly sought by private backers of cavalry regiments, the .31 caliber 1848 Colt Baby Dragoon, the .31 caliber 1849 Colt Pocket Revolver, and the .36 caliber 1851 Colt Navy Revolver. These models were of lesser caliber than the Army 44s, but essentially as lethal without the substantial kick from firing the larger caliber weapon. For many cavalrymen, the smaller caliber was not a deterrent – they only half-loaded their Colts or Remingtons anyway to lessen the kick of the weapon. Other revolvers that were used included the .31 caliber Bacon, the .31 caliber J. M. Cooper Pocket Model, the .44 caliber Joslyn Army, the .31 caliber W. W. Marston Pocket Model, the .36 caliber Starr Arms 1858 Navy, and the Starr .44 caliber 1858 Army.[17]  In addition, officers would frequently carry other side arms that they acquired with their own funds.

            It wasn't uncommon to find a cavalryman sporting two revolvers, particularly Confederate Partisan Rangers, and some Confederates carried more. Confederates in various detachments supposedly favored using pistols over sabers, but if they had sabers, they wore and used them. There was simply no time to reload in a cavalry melee. Unless the Federal cavalry were armed with the seven-shooter Spencer, Confederate cavalry usually held the edge in firepower. Many Confederates carried a double-barreled shotgun and two six-shooter pistols, giving them 14 shots in a melee without reloading, plus a long arm that was useful as a club. Their Federal counterpart at best had a single-shot carbine, and with six shots in his pistol, would have to reload after seven rounds. In essence, the Confederate cavalryman possessed twice the firepower of the Federal. All that would change, however, when the Federals began receiving seven-shot Spencers that could be reloaded quickly.

            The sabers issued early in the war from previous stocks were the heavy, straight, Prussian type wrist breakers, and not made for slashing in close combat. Within a year, those were disappearing rapidly and being replaced by the Model 1860 Light Cavalry Sabre. It was 41 inches long with a 35 inch by 1 inch blade, slightly curved for slashing, and weighed 2 pounds 4 ounces without its scabbard. Sabers were only effective at very close quarters, and without carbines, cavalrymen were taking a knife to a gun fight. Even pistols were only of use in close quarters, and frequently cavalry were driven off by musketry and artillery before coming into range to use sabers or pistols.

            Cavalry often fought as mounted infantry; a practice exhibited by Kilpatrick’s troopers that built barricades whenever practicable and fought dismounted behind them. Attacking cavalry might use a mounted column to punch through a defensive line, but as was shown at Waynesboro in late 1864, dismounted attacks in line were also used effectively. At Monroe Crossroads, dismounted and greatly outnumbered Federals drove mounted Confederates from their camp. Successful cavalrymen developed their own tactics, disregarding the previous practices from Napoleon’s days. Confederate General Basil W. Duke, opined, Exactly the same evolutions were applicable for horseback or foot fighting, but the latter method was much practiced—we were in fact not cavalry, but mounted riflemen. A small body of mounted men was usually kept in reserve to act on the flanks, cover the retreat or press a victory, but otherwise our men fought very little on horseback, except on scouting expeditions.[18]  In the latter part of the war, fighting dismounted made good sense since remounts were increasingly unavailable. Risking horses in an attack was foolish and counterproductive. First, carbines possessed more firepower than the muzzle-loading rifles, and second, troops felt more secure knowing that their horse would be there for a retreat if necessary. However, the necessity of keeping a unit’s mounts nearby but secure meant that a reverse slope with cover a short distance behind the main line was now required.

            During a dismounted battle, one-fourth of the troopers functioned as horse-holders.  When in rank the troopers were always numbered by fours, beginning at the right of the line, the troopers would count one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four and so on, to the last man in the company. In action, troopers one, two and three would dismount and fasten their horses together by means of a strap buckled on the saddle pommel and fastened to the bit of the horse on the right. Number four remained mounted and led the three horses on his right by means of the strap from the pommel of his saddle. The role of horse-holder might be safer in theory, but the horses sometimes became panicked as enemy cannon fire landed among the led horses. Under those conditions, the job of horse-holder could become more dangerous than being on the firing line behind a tree.

            Marches and movements were usually conducted in columns of fours unless the road was narrow or obstructed. The Revised United States Army Regulations of 1861 called for combined arms formations to be drawn up for battle in two or more ranks with the cavalry on the flanks in echelon.[19]  Later, both Confederate and Union tactical instruction favored placing cavalry in a single line, mounted or dismounted.[20]  Nonetheless, mounted charges were often made in columns of fours when there was no time to deploy. The idea of making heavy attacks in massed columns, so effective in Napoleonic times, however, had been laid to rest by firepower.

            On the march, cavalry could generally cover thirty-five miles in an eight-hour day under reasonable conditions. It was not uncommon for units to cover great distance on raids that resulted in substantial losses in mounts from exhaustion. Troopers would sleep in their saddles, sometimes falling off and becoming confused and lost, and mounts broke down when columns failed to stop for water, forage, or rest. In 1864, the 7th Pennsylvania marched nine hundred and two miles, not including picket duty and scouting in a little over four months. During that time, the horses were without regular supplies of forage for 26 days, on scanty forage for 27 days, and without feed of any kind for seven consecutive days. At one point the horses remained saddled for sixty hours. 230 horses were abandoned or died, and 171 were killed or captured by Confederates. The loss in mounts was nearly fifty percent, and that was not while on an exceptional raid or expedition.[21]

            At a walk, cavalry could cover four miles in an hour; at a slow trot, six; at a maneuvering trot, eight; at an alternate trot and walk, five; at a maneuvering gallop, twelve; and at a full extended gallop, sixteen. Large cavalry formations stretched for miles. One authority calculated that a company of 100 men would be a minimum of 100 yards long when in a column of fours, and a Federal officer observed that Sheridan’s column of 10,000 troopers in the Shenandoah Valley stretched for thirteen miles.[22]  Using those numbers, Kilpatrick’s 3rd Cavalry Division with all its attached personnel, wagons

Reviews for Making Georgia Howl!

[dhughes_741486 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book's topic is Sherman's March to the Sea and the Carolinas. The book is formatted in a very unique way. The author has used the daily diary of one of Sherman's staff members. To this he has added the diary of one of the cavalrymen that went through the action from November 1864 to July 1865. This combined with his research he provides convincing reasoning that many of the participants who were considered by history as mediocre officers were actually very good. The only negative which is in presentation not topic is the font used is much too small for older readers.