Ozaukee County's
War History
by Daniel E. McGinley

as extracted from THE PORT WASHINGTON STAR
September 12, 1896



The Ozaukee Rifles
Chapter 12

ìThen Kenesaw frowned in its glory --
Frowned down on the flag of the free;
But the East and the West bore our standard,
And Sherman marched on to the sea!î

The grand army, with which Gen. Sherman invested the enemy's position at Kenesaw, consisted of three minor armies, the Army of the Cumberland, Gen. Geo. H. Thomas commanding, forming the center of the line, with the Army of the Ohio, under Gen. J. M. Schofield, on the right, and the Army of the Tennessee, Gen. J. B. McPherson, on the left. The 17th corps, forming the left of the Army of the Tennessee, swung into line on the extreme left of Shermanís line. In so doing it met with strong opposition, and in the midst of a heavy rain that lasted nearly a week, our boys had a series of brisk skirmishes in which the Sixteenth had three or four men wounded. Sergt. McGinely, of the Rifles, was knocked down and stunned by a glancing bullet, but soon recovered.

But the blue lines pressed forward steadily and by the 16th of June had advanced some distance on the open plain north of Kenesaw and its neighboring mountains. The line securely entrenched itself in every new position gained, and the plain was soon dug into two parallel lines of earth-works. The 17th corps faced Brush Mountain, a low range or ìhogbackî beginning about a mile east of Kenesaw and extending a long distance in that direction. During one of the daily bouts with the rebels, Nic. Colling, a noisy German from Port Washington, was peering over the breastworks when a bullet struck a timber near his face, glanced up and touching his forehead carried away his hat. Nic. being dazed, and feeling the bullet touch his head, thought it had passed through, and thinking he had received his death wound, fell back at full length in the ditch. Some of his comrades bent over him, and not seeing any wound shook him up and soon had him on his feet again, amid the cheers of the company. Nic. had been one of the company cooks for some time and one of his comrades explained that the reason why the bullet did not enter Nic's forehead was that the skin was so greasy that the bullet slipped off! Poor Nic. never heard the last of the jokes about his being ìkilledî at Kenesaw.

On June 17th the rebelsí batteries on Brush Mt. opened on that part of the line in which was the Sixteenth, and for half an hour rained shells upon it thick and fast, but a battery near our regiment soon got its range and after a spirited contest, during which the air seemed full of hissing, whirring shells, the enemy's guns were silenced. That night Gen. Jos. Johnston, commanding the rebel army, ordered the evacuation of Brush Mt. on his right, and Lost Mt. on his flanks, holding Kenesaw his ìsalientî. By doing so he shortened and strengthened his lines, and had his army well in hand for any quick move that might be necessary.

The next day the Third division of the 17th corps (the division to which the Sixteenth belonged), took possession of Brush Mt. and from this new position our boys could look down into the enemy's entrenchments at the base of Kenesaw, which our artillery shelled day and night, but which were out of rifle range. On the 21st of June the Sixteenth, accompanied by the Thirty-first Illinois and the Eighth Michigan battery, in which the present well-known Judge Tuthill of Chicago was then serving as a lieutenant, went out several miles to the left to the vicinity of Noonday Church, to assist our cavalry which were there struggling with a large force of the enemy. Generals Blair, Leggett and Force with their staffs accompanied the two regiments and battery. On coming within range of the enemy, the battery unlimbered on the top of a hill, and while the two regiments lay in close support poured shells into a large body of rebel cavalry which could be seen forming in line on the further side of a large clearing. While the battery was firing, a large force of Union cavalry appeared and formed in line of battle on the left of the Sixteenth, and when the rebel line had been thrown into confusion by the rain of shells the Union bugles sounded the charge, and our Ozaukee boys had the pleasure of witnessing one of the grandest and most successful cavalry charges of the war. The enemy's cavalry were driven in confusion from the field, and the two infantry regiments and battery returned to their position on Brush Mountain that night.

Rebel batteries had been entrenched on the bare crest of Kenesaw, and several lines of rifle pits had been constructed by their infantry in the timber that covered its sides and base. As a constant fire of artillery and musketry was maintained between the lines of the opposing armies day and night the nightly scenes on and around Kenesaw were grand and thrilling. The fiery trails of the shells crossing and recrossing high in the air; the continued flashing of cannon, the bursting of the shells over and upon the mountain; the seemingly innumerable flashes from the rifle pits on the sides and at the base, and the accompanying roar of artillery and rattle of musketry formed a scene that has been seldom, if ever, equaled in the world's history.

In preparing for an assault upon the enemy's position made June 27, ë64, the Third division left its position on Brush Mt. on the night of the 26th and with the other divisions of the 17th corps closed up as near as possible to the rebel's lines at the base of Kenesaw. While marching through the dense forest that night the Sixteenth took the wrong road or path, and would have probably marched straight into the enemy's lines had not a rebel band in the lines they were approaching opportunely struck up ìThe Bonnie Blue Flag.î The Sixteenth immediately halted, retraced its steps and soon found the right road.

In the assault of the next day, the Third division carried and held the outer line of the enemy's entrenchments east of Marietta and southeast of Kenesaw, and then laid on their arms in line of battle and listened to the terrible battle that raged for two or three hours a mile or two to their right, where their gallant comrades of the 15th corps, under the leadership of the dauntless Gen. John A. Logan, were fighting their way up the steep side of Kenesaw. But, as all readers of history know, the assault which was Shermanís gravest error, failed after losing 2,000 men and many gallant officers. The Sixteenth, which happened to be in the second or supporting line that day, lost a few men wounded, but none of the Ozaukee boys were hit. The other regiments of the brigade lost 30 or 40 men and the bullets flew thick enough during the charge on the works to make weak knees very shaky.

That night the Union army fell back to the lines it had occupied before the battle, and Sherman now seeing the folly of assaulting such a strong position, determined to force Johnston to evacuate Kenesaw by extending his (Shermanís) right. To assist in this movement the Army of the Tennessee was ordered from the left to the right of the line, and on the night of the 2nd of July the boys on Brush Mt. turned over their works to the Union cavalry and, with the balance of the Army of the Tennessee, stole silently to the rear in the darkness, and turning West marched as rapidly as the darkness would permit toward the right of the line some fifteen miles away.

But Johnston, through spies or otherwise, had discovered the movement, and knowing that if the veteran Army of the Tennessee reached his rear his army would be lost, he evacuated Kenesaw that night and on the morning of the 3rd was in full retreat. Shermanís army immediately started in pursuit and pressed Johnston hard, thinking to catch him at the fords of the Chattahoochie and there capture or annihilate the greater part of his army. But the wily Johnston had previously prepared for the move, and had had negro laborers construct a line of trenches in a strong position on the south bank of Nickajack creek, one of the northern affluents of the Chattahoochie, and six or seven miles north of it at the railroad line which ran south from Kenesaw.

Having marched all night our boys of the Army of the Tennessee halted long enough to cook coffee and eat breakfast, and then joined in the chase, marching steadily until about seven o'clock on the evening of the 3rd, when they halted some three miles north of the Nickajack and went into camp nearly exhausted. All day long there had been skirmishing and cannonading by the advance guard, but no strong opposition had been met with but the boys went to sleep feeling certain that the morrow would bring with it a day of battle.

In this move the Ozaukee Rifles had lost one of their number. When the regiment left its trenches on Brush Mountain to march toward the army's right, it was so dark that the men had to pin patches of white cloth or paper to the back of their file leaders so as to be able to follow them, as the form of a man could not be seen a yard away in the dense timber. While descending the mountain the white patch that was being followed by the writer, and which was on the back of Sam. Orcutt, of Fredonia, suddenly disappeared, and it was several moments before I discovered what had become of Sam; but presently I heard one of the boys further ahead say in a savage undertone (we dared not speak loud as by so doing we might attract the enemy's attention and bullets): ìWhat in ___ and ___ are you doing?î Presently we heard Sam groan some distance off down the side of the mountain. He had stumbled over some obstruction in the path, and had pitched headlong down the declivity, striking one of the boys as he went, and injuring himself so badly that he was sent to the hospital, and never returned to the regiment.