Ozaukee County's
War History
by Daniel E. McGinley

as extracted from THE PORT WASHINGTON STAR
October 10, 1896



The Ozaukee Rifles
Chapter 15

The night following the battle of Bald Hill was spent by the victors in building a fort on its summit and in otherwise fortifying the hill, which was found to be a very advantageous position, as it overlooked the surrounding country and was within easy cannon range of Atlanta. Gen. Hood felt the loss of the hill so keenly that he determined to make a desperate attempt to drive us from it the next day, July 22nd, and the result was the great battle of Atlanta in which the union arms were again victorious. Hood's plan was a very risky one and showed the daring character of the man. By it he hoped not only to drive us from the hill, but to send Shermanís whole army flying across the Chattahoochee. He ordered Stewart's and Cheatham's corps to hold the defenses of the city, while Hardee with his own corps and Cleburne's division of Cheatham's was ordered to march by a circuitous route to and around Shermanís left and to attack us in flank and rear at early dawn. Hardee marched as ordered. History tells us that he started after dark, but the boys who held Bald Hill during the afternoon of July 21st, saw Hardee's troops passing to our left across an open field over a mile away, for two or three hours before sundown. Regiment and regiment, and battery after battery filed by in plain view, and yet Sherman did not know the movement was being made. Why was he not informed of what was so plainly visible from Bald Hill? That question will probably never be answered; and it is probable that history will keep right on repeating the falsehood that Hardee's troops started after dark. The heavy timber with which a large part of the country thereabouts was then covered, screened the movements of the rebel troops so much that they did not reach the desired point at our left until long after daybreak and it was about eleven o'clock on the 22nd when they were all in position and ready to move. Hardee formed his line at right angles with, and some two miles south, of the left extremity of ours and at the hour named, it advanced to the attack.

The fort on the hill had been finished and DeGolyier's splendid battery of light Rodman guns had been placed in it during the night, and when the light of the mellow July morn disclosed the scene, Bald Hill bristled with defenses over which Old Glory floated in all its beauty and majesty. The transformation that had taken place on Bald Hill in twenty-four hours was wonderful. The farm-house with its garden fence of oaken pickets had completely disappeared, the material of both being used in the construction of the fort and breastworks, and the cornfield was a bivouac. But all was as quiet and still on the hill and in its vicinity as it could be in times of peace, and the little birds, undisturbed by the presence of the blue clad invaders, joyfully sang their matins in the neighboring timber. Far away to the right the booming of cannon told the whereabouts of the Army of the Cumberland, but on and around the hill all was a peaceful as a Sabbath morn. It was the calm before the storm.

Shortly after daybreak it was discovered that the enemy had evacuated his Peach Tree Creek line of defenses, and the armies of the Cumberland and Ohio swept forward in line of battle until they ran up against the rebel inner line which was found to be strongly manned. In the ìclosing inî movement of our lines the 4th division of our corps, which had been in the line at our right was crowded out, and was sent to and formed on the left of our division, it being posted in a dense forest with its left bending back and facing south.

During the forenoon some of our company went to a farmhouse nearly half a mile in front of our lines, where they found some potatoes and beans in the garden and began to help themselves. But they had not been long at work when a rebel battery, which was posted a mile or more away to our left front, opened fire and began throwing shells at the boys in the garden. Our battery immediately replied, and for twenty minutes or more there was a lively artillery duel which ended in our favor. This was the first rumble of the distant storm.

Just before noon, three daysí rations were issued to our boys, who packed them into their haversacks and began to prepare their dinners. While we were thus employed we heard the boom of a cannon back in our rear several miles and in the direction of Decatur. The boys wondered much at the fact, and were discussing the probability of an attack upon our wagon trains by the rebel cavalry when the sound of another, another and still another gun came from the same direction. We sat down to eat our dinners but had hardly begun eating when rifle shots, resembling picket firing, were heard a mile or more to our left. We began to feel uneasy and were commenting upon the strange directions from which the sounds were coming when Maj. Gen McPherson rode by accompanied by an orderly. Gen. McPherson was a fine looking officer, a noble specimen of mankind, and a general favorite with all. He rode down the hill in our rear and entered the timber. A few moments later we were startled by a volley of musketry -- doubtless the volley that killed McPherson, -- which rang out from the timber that he had just entered. It brought every soldier to his feet like a flash, the officers shouted ìFall in! Fall in lively, boys!î and throwing away their unfinished dinners, the troops quickly buckled on their accouterments and in an incredibly short time every regiment was in line of battle.

The other regiments of the brigades fell in behind the works facing Atlanta, but as the attack was coming from our left and rear, our regiment made a left wheel to the rear, and took position in a line of works that ran down the hill on its north-east slope. The right of our regiment joined the little fort on the hill's summit, at an acute angle with the line held by the Twelfth Wisconsin, which was facing Atlanta and the two Badger regiments were thus nearly placed back to back with the Michigan battery in the fort at the apex of the angle. To strengthen the left of our regiment, which was ìin air,î our company was taken from its place near the colors and placed on the extreme left of the regiment, the most exposed part of the line. These movements did not occupy many minutes, but in the meantime a hot skirmish fire had broken out in our rear, and we were hardly in position when the boom of artillery and the vollies of musketry told us that two heavy forces were in deadly combat a half mile east of our hill in the dense timber through which we had marched two days before. We could not imagine for a time what was going on in our rear, as we did not know of any troops, either Union or rebel, being there.

As we learned later, the 16 corps, which had been back on the railroad tearing up the track, had been ordered that morning to march to and form on the left of our corps when it met Hardee's skirmish line. Luckily it was marching directly west, on a road running at right angles with our line, and had only to halt and face to the south and they were in line of battle, and in the right position to meet and cope with Hardee's advancing lines. Surely the hand of Providence was there! Had it not so happened, Hood's plan of battle would have been a success in part at least, as he would have surrounded our corps and had it at his mercy.

But through the gap between the 16th corps and ours poured Cleburne's brave division, the same that our brigade had driven from Bald Hill the day previous, and sweeping out of the timber it passes our position and attacks the division next on our right. But here they get into a hornet's nest. The troops attacked hold their position, the brigade next to ours turns and opens on the rebel flank, our company wheels so as to take them in the rear, and there is such a rain of lead from all around that they are soon glad to surrender, a whole brigade throwing down their arms and marching into our lines.

Hardly have we repulsed the attack from the rear when the rebel batteries in the lines near the city open a storm of shot and shell upon us, and a heavy force sallies from that quarter and advances in magnificent array to assault us from the front. Our batteries pour shells upon the advancing columns, but nothing daunted they move forward steadily until near our lines, when with their piercing yell they rush forward to the assault. Then there is terrific tearing, ripping, earsplitting roar of musketry, and the hill shakes to its foundation as our boys open fire all along the front of the 15th and 17 corps. Our corps soon repulses the assault on its front, but where the line of the 15th corps crosses the railroad there is a deep cut through which a large force of rebels march unseen until quite near to the Union line, and then with a yell rush forward and over the works making a break in our lines and driving one division of our men back a quarter of a mile or more. But the gallant boys of the 15th corps, under the command of the heroic Logan quickly rally and after a desperate struggle drive the enemy from the field and retake their works.

But I have not the space in this short article to describe that great battle in detail. History has told you of the great valor, tenacity and endurance displayed by the army of the Tennessee that memorial day; of how the 16th corps, at first taken by surprise as it was marching to join the left of ours and being attacked by a superior force, lost ground and a large number of its men in the first half hour, but gallantly rallied under fire, drove back the foe and held their line in spite of repeated assaults. It has told you of how the brave boys of the 4th division of our corps were completely surrounded at times, and were alternately the victors and the vanquished until finally they fought their way back to a new line which joined the 16th corps on the left and our brigade on the right, having Bald Hill at the apex of the angle, where they fought the battle out. It has told you of how Bald Hill with its crown of bluecoats stood in that great field of carnage like a promontory jutting out into an ocean, around and against which the great waves of gray-clad soldiery rushed, roared and broke all that long July afternoon, and of how valiantly our two Wisconsin regiments and the Michigan battery held it against heavy and repeated assaults from front and rear. It has told you of the last great charge of Hardee's forces just before sunset, when massing two or three division into one column of attack they crushed the left of our division by the weight and impetus of the assault, capturing and killing hundreds of our boys and sending the remainder flying for shelter into our works on Bald Hill, against which the momentary victors rushed and surged with great determination and heroism, but all in vain. It has told of that heroic and final struggle for the possession of Bald Hill; of the reckless bravery of the boys in grey who chagrined at their repeated defeats, encouraged by their momentary success, and stimulated to the highest pitch of recklessness by liberal potations of whiskey and gunpowder, rush forward through a storm of bullets, grape and canister, in which they go down by the score, reach our ditch and mount our works where they are met by the bayonets of the defenders, and are forced back off of the works, out of the ditch and the survivors are sent flying from the field.

History has also told you of the sad death of the noble McPherson, of how the matchless Logan assumed the command of the Army of the Tennessee and snatched victory from defeat. It has told you of how the rebel army was driven back into its trenches with a loss of 10,000 men on their side and 3,550 on ours, and of how our army captured 18 stands of colors, 5,000 small arms and 2,017 prisoners. It was a glorious victory for the Army of the Tennessee.

None of the survivors of the Ozaukee Rifles were injured in this battle. Although they were in the center of the field and in the thickest of the fight, the protection afforded by the breastworks and their good fortune saved them. One of the original members of Co. G, Zach C. Riley, was killed, and another, Sergt. Wm. Lake, was wounded. In the opening of the battle, I was standing and Riley was laying at my feet, when a minie passed through my pantaloons below the knee and then through Riley's heart. There was a slight quiver of his frame and the brave young hero had gone to report to the Great Commander.