Video
Assault Trail: Facing Fearful Odds Part 2
Transcript
[audio description] Against a black backdrop the National Park Service arrowhead logo stands above the words Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another virtual program from Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. My name is Ranger Jake Boling and I'm coming to you from one of the most iconic places in the battlefield. Of course, we are presenting this program as part of our 157th Battle Anniversary. For that anniversary, a lot of rangers and volunteers are coming at you from a lot of different locations throughout the park to give you different insights, to tell the different stories, all from the facets and different awesome parts of the battle of Kennesaw Mountain. So that we can help really appreciate this place and commemorate and honor the sacrifice of those soldiers that were here back in June of 1864. Now I am coming to you from, you guessed it, Cheatham Hill, or more specifically, the base of Cheatham Hill.
I'm standing, for those of you who have not been to the park before, I'm standing in the middle of a LARGE field. Behind me is this very large beautiful green field. On both sides of the field going behind me and kind of going to a point. Are, is huge lines of trees, and at the very BACK of me is the famous Cheatham Hill and you can see just in the distance the tall gray figure of the Illinois Monument. This point; this park of the park was where there the heaviest fighting on the 27th occurred, and the most casualties were incurred. Now, because of this, we have split the action and the strategy of this area up into several different programs. You will have heard from Ranger Kyle about the planning and special orders that initiated and got this thing moving. You'll hear from Ranger James about the assault and the lead-up to the assault and some of the key figures. And later, you're going to hear what happens when the Union soldiers make it to Cheatham Hill itself and to the Confederate earthworks.
What my program is going to be on is what happened right here in this field before the hand-to-hand combat at the earth works, before the truce, and before all these other things that you have heard about and will hear about. And I'm going to tell you about the Union assault that happened in this area. So to start that. I'll set the stage for you. So you have already heard from Ranger James about the lead up and how the men made it up to this point. There are Union earthworks and entrenchments behind this position through the tree line. And on the day of the 27th, before the order to officially attack was given. The forces that were here were under two brigades Mitchell and McCook, and you will hear those names a little bit more. especially Colonel Dan McCook's. Before the heavy infantry lines actually made the push and made the assault, one of the first things the Union forces did was send out skirmishers, and what skirmishers were, were kind of the first line of offense. They were a spread out force of men that were not shoulder to shoulder, they were spread out, and their job was to lay down suppressing fire to soften the enemy lines and to kind of make the initial push. Behind them the plan was to send in waves of blue; heavy, dense lines of infantry soldiers and we'll get to that point in a second. So as the skirmishers go out, they have some of the first and only success of the Union soldiers at this point on the 27th. We have the words of Colonel Fahnstock of the 86 Illinois. "Our skirmishers under Dilworth, under Colonel Dilworth of the 85th Illinois killed, wounded, and captured the greater portion of the rebel pickets." Now 'killed wounded or captured the greater portion of the rebel pickets' just on the other side of the initial Union entrenchments, just past a creek that is beyond this tree line (that you can't see behind the camera), there was the defensive version of skirmishing and those are picket lines. A picket line was the first line of offense. The picket line's duty was to be forward of the main entrenchments (which the Confederate entrenchments were over here behind me) and the picket line's duty was to be kind of the early warning system and to maybe fend off some of those first pushes. But unfortunately for the Rebel, for the Confederate picket lines that were here in this area, they did not fare too well on the morning of the 27th. After these skirmishers took care of that and again killed wounded or captured the majority of those Rebel pickets, he assault begins. I have the words of Chesley Moseman at the 59th Illinois: very dramatically: "Suddenly, the signals belched forth and Newton on our left and Davis on our right spring to the charge!" Now, to set the stage: it was not the wide open field that you see today. The Confederates dug in and they dug in hard, because they expected a potential heavy, heavy push. So instead of this beautiful, open green, and you can't quite tell in the video, but there are slight rises in the field. It's not just a flat ascension. There are slight rises and hills in there. And on those rises, the Confederates had constructed field fortifications. Those field fortifications came in two forms. The first form was what they would call, the official title was called abatis. And what the abatis were were rows and rows of brush and small trees and saplings that had been tangled together and strung together and stretched out in a line across the field. That was the first level of fortification. Just behind that were the heavier, more deliberately constructed fortifications, usually referred to as cheval de fris. And the cheval de fris were huge logs with sharpened stakes stuck between them. Really effective against guarding against cavalry. And, in addition to that, each log in each section was chained together. Now the effect that it had...remember, there was no field vehicles. There were no tanks that the Union was going to be able to utilize. They knew, the Confederates knew that this was an on foot charge. So the effect that it had was to have the men stop and work their way through these fortifications. And it was extremely effective on the Confederate side because, if you can kind of tell, you can see the distance from me to the monument, to the crest of the earthworks. From here to there, I'm probably about 250 or so yards, well within range of Confederate musket fire. And as the men stopped to move and to work their way through the fortifications, they are now sitting targets. Ok. They're sitting targets for the Confederates to pick them off, and easy targets. And that way that also means that it blunts the effect of the main of charge. Now, the charge on the earthworks; the assault on the earthworks was very specifically designed to be a bayonet charge. Specifically a "bayonet charge, double quick". Two brigades, this was a just under a thousand men, roughly. They were going to punch a hole; The idea was for them to punch a hole. After they got through the field fortifications, the idea was to do a quick, heavy bayonet charge and punch a hole through the Rebel earthworks. But unfortunately, it did not work out that way. After the initial push through the field fortifications of abatis and cheval de fris, the men that make it through there attempt, on those 2 brigades, attempt to do a double quick bayonet charge but chaos ensues. Again from Chesley Moseman: "The enemy's guns roar and the rattle of musketry is terrible. While the air is filled with missiles. The assault, though gallantly made, is over in a few moments." I would say that is a mouthful. After that, the attempt of the bayonet charge falters, the men realize that that's not going to work. They get to the earthworks and it is said that a large disorganized volley of infantry fire happens right before the men assault the works themselves. Now what the men had been told prior to the charge was to load their weapons but not to prime, and what that meant was they would pre-load a round in the barrel of their gun but not put a percussion cap under the hammer, in case they didn't want it to accidentally discharge. But having that pre-loaded round in the gun would save them the 20 or 30 seconds that it would take to load it otherwise. That way, they would have a round ready. And many of the men that made it there initially would take use of that and make their initial infantry volley. So after a disorganized volley of infantry fire and musketry fire, the men assault the works themselves. Now we're going to hear from volunteer Philip Whiteman in another program about the fighting that took place on the earthworks at the famed Dead Angle. So I will not get too much into the weeds with that. I'll let him tell it; he tells a great story. But the aftermath of the day and before the men really dig in and set upon the Dead Angle, a lot of things are happening. So after that, again, after that disorganized volley, we have casualties being incurred left and right. And notably some of the casualties that occur are on the officer and leadership level. That has a huge effect when you kill the leader, especially at a chaotic charge like that. It has an extreme effect on the men. Again, from Colonel Fahnstock of the 86th writes: "Our men, after running so far in the heat of the day and Colonel Dan McCook mortally wounded, Colonel Harmon killed, and Captain Fellows killed, not to mention our 300 killed and wounded in our brigade. A second charge was ordered, but it failed." When the leaders are killed in the middle of battle, the men don't know what else to do and the secession has to be figured out on the spot and on the fly. And those leaders were well-liked. These were men that had been with these infantry soldiers for months and months, so the effect was extreme. One of the more notable leaders that died, Union leaders that died during this assault was General Harker. General Harker rode up to the front, which was not super common for a officer of his stature to be on the front lines in the middle of the battle, but he wanted to lead from the front. He rode up to the front of his men to the Union left, and the Confederate right, just beyond the trees on another part of the assault. And he is shot/ mortally wounded there. In the book by Mr. Baumgartner on the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, he writes: "as Harker approached the abatis in the midst of the 42nd Illinois, "horse and rider suddenly sank to the ground. A bullet had torn through an arm and buried itself in the general's chest. He must have known that nothing but a miracle could save his life, yet he never flinched. Surmised an Illinois private." So leadership is going down, there's chaos, there's blood in the air, there's smoke in the air, and eventually, as we mentioned, the men dig in on the hill. Now despite the heavy Union loss and the chaos and tragedy of the day there were still notable accounts of bravery, and later, which Mr. Whiteman will talk about, humanity between the two sides. One of the more notable accounts of bravery that happened here, if we remember back to the quote and to the mention of Colonel Fahnstock of the 86th Illinois, Well, his chief musician, the chief musician of his regiment was a man named, a fifer named Allison P. Weber, and Mr. Weber demanded that he be ...Usually musicians were relegated to support duty: to run shot, to load weapons, preload weapons, and to carry the wounded to and from the battle. Well Allison P. Weber demanded that he'd be a part of the assault. And upon that, Colonel Fahnstock lent him his repeating Henry rifle, which was a very high-tech weapon for the time and very effective on the field of battle. Well, Allison P. Weber took that Henry rifle and wielded it with deadly accuracy and actually saved the lives of several of his men. This would earn him the illustrious honor of the of the medal of honor after the battle. So again, it is hard to talk about, my my urge is to want to tell you the whole story but we have some other great speakers that are going to finish up.
So I'm going to wrap myself up and force myself to stop there. But in companionship with my video here, there's going to be a an infantry demonstration that we will also show. Now while we unfortunately don't have several hundred volunteers to show you what a heavy infantry volley would look like, we have a handful of volunteers that are going to give you somewhat of an idea of what it could have been. It'll show you how much it took. They're going to be loading at will and firing at will. So pay attention to how long it takes them to load each round and what it looks like when men are firing several rounds in secession at their own rate of fire. Okay, it's a pretty impressive sight and again, even though it's only a handful, it's living history and gives you a sense of a section of the battle.
So, to wrap up, again, thank you very much, as always, for attending this virtual program with me and the rest of my friends, volunteers, and co-workers during this 157th Battle Anniversary. We really appreciate your time and we hope that you enjoy! And above all we hope that these programs give you a new interest and appreciation in this and other battlefields. So thank you very much, this is Ranger Jake signing off and I will see you guys at the mountain! Bye
Description
[Sun 2:00 ET] In further detailing the events at Cheatham's Hill during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Ranger Jake discusses the initial and fateful Union push against the Confederate defenses. This video is connected with the next video titled "Infantry Demonstration."
*Audio description is embedded in this video. The infantry demonstration video has standard audio description attached.*
Duration
12 minutes, 56 seconds
Credit
NPS/ J.Boling
Date Created
06/27/2021
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