Video
Assault Trail: Facing Fearful Odds Part 1
Transcript
Hey guys welcome back to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. My name is Ranger James. I'm one of the interpretive rangers here and this is our Battle Anniversary programming uh sort of in remembrance of the 157th anniversary of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. I'm standing here at the beginning of our Assault Trail and that trail is exactly what you would think it would be. it's kind of retracing the footsteps of the Union soldiers as they assaulted Cheatham Hill. It's one of our lesser known trails; it's about a half- mile and it starts here at activity area three. So this position is uh really important because this was where the heaviest fighting occurred and this particular program that we're going to be doing here is going to be again retracing the steps leading up to when the the order to charge was given.
Then we have a couple more programs after this. One, including an infantry shoot. So that, that's really neat, musket shoot. And then we have another one wrapping things up which actually talks more on the Confederate perspective with our great historian Philip Whiteman up at the Dead Angle itself. So I'm standing at here in front of this big open field behind me. This open field would have been the site where the Union army would have staged and gotten ready to go on the attack. There were five brigades involved right around eight or nine thousand men. Going from north to south you have: Kimball, Wagner, Harker, McCook and Mitchell. So the top three (Kimball, Wagner and Harker) are going to be concentrating their forces going up against Confederate commander Patrick Cleburne whose defensive line runs basically the length of Cheatham Hill Drive. And then the other two, those are primarily what we're going to be focusing on today- Mitchell to the south and then especially Dan McCook's brigade which came straight at the angle itself. Dan McCook's brigade, Dan McCook himself he comes from a very famous family of Unionists who all were applauded for winning accolades during the Civil War. They were called the "Fighting McCooks" and they were a very brave family that fought in some of the key battles going as far back as First Bull Run. And before the war, Dan McCook actually had a law firm that he shared with William Tecumseh Sherman. So they go back and they have a history in the Ohio area. But the day of the battle we have a correspondent from the Cincinnati Daily Commercial that writes of the moment of these men getting ready to go on that charge and it was rare for Sherman to allow newspaper correspondents to tag along with the army especially from the Cincinnati Daily Commercial because that was a newspaper that had called him crazy earlier in the war. But we are fortunate that we have this resource because it really gives us a glimpse into what it's like to gear up to assault this entrenched position and what it must have been like the morning of this fight. So the Cincinnati Daily Commercial writes: "The minutes passed immediate apprehension. There was no evidence in the movement of "or bearing of the men that they were so soon to assay the deadly imminent breach- "that they must have been conscious that the task laid out for them was one which none but men hoping to meet death would covet. During the brief respite that ensued before the word charge was given the men rested silently in their places and no one could have guessed from their undisturbed faces that all the latent gallantry of their natures could be aroused and lashed into a fury of heroism during the next 10 minutes. Here was a man carefully replacing his shoe and tucking away the strings. Letters were torn and crumpled and thrown furtively aside. Doubtless photographic miniatures came from their hiding places for a moment that morning but such things are done in the army in profound secrecy. The soldier hates a scene and none more than the purely sentimental variety. Now from the Confederate perspective, and again this is going to mainly be following the Union perspective here, but we do have a really awesome source in the in the memoirs of Sam Watkins who is with the 1st/27th consolidated Tennessee up in the angle itself at the very tip of the salient and he does a great job of describing what it must have been like to see the Union army getting ready at this exact moment: "On the fatal morning of June 27th as the sun began to mount towards the zenith everything became quiet and no sound was heard save a peckerwood on a neighboring tree tapping on its old trunk trying to find a worm for his dinner. We all knew it was but the dead calm that precedes the storm. On the distant hills we could plainly see officers dashing about hither and thither and the stars and stripes moving to and fro and we knew the Federals were making preparations for the mighty contest. We could hear the rumbling sound of the heavy guns and the distant tread of a marching army as a faint roar of the coming storm which is soon to break the ominous silence with the sound of conflict such as was scarcely ever heard on this earth. My pen is unable to describe the scene of carnage and death that ensued in the next two hours."
Now the idea with this particular assault was that there was going to be a cannonade firing that would occur that would soften up the Confederate line. As is the case in most cannonade firings, that fails, that fails to do that. So what ends up happening is the Union army is basically charging over open ground almost 400 yards of just open ground and ends up amounting to a really heroic bayonet charge up against the fortified positions on Cheatham Hill. So at this particular point, the trail splits off into three different directions. We are going to take from your perspective the rightmost path and that will lead us through the field into the wood line and towards the entrenchments and that's where we'll continue on. Meet you there.
Hey guys welcome to the next tour stop in our assault trail hike. We are here at a series of earthworks just beyond this fence line. And these earthworks would have been held most likely by the 85th Illinois during the time of the battle. And this entire ridge as you see here was contested ground leading up to the main assault itself. There's several skirmishes that occurred in this area. And in fact those skirmishes are what convinced Cheatham, General Cheatham the Confederate commander on what's now known as Cheatham Hill to kind of bolster up his defenses because he figured maybe there was an attack coming. So what you'll see here is a series of what looks like ditches now but they would have been well fortified trench lines. And this is most likely where that first line of defense was going to be for the Union army. And this is where as the Union assault approached they would have had to navigate through these trench lines, up over it, and then just below at the far side of the ridge there is John Ward Creek, which they would have had to navigate during the charge. And there are several accounts that state that they actually started taking firing as soon as they were near these earthworks from a picket line, a Confederate picket line that's down below, but we'll save that for the next video. What we're going to be doing now is we're going to be moving along the trail. There's a small monument that's here dedicated to Dan McCook and we're going to talk exclusively about what happened there. And again sort of the the feeling for some of the officers as they're getting ready to go on this attack. So we will see you there.
Hey guys welcome back to our, this is going to be our final stop along our assault trail hike. And, uh, I'm standing in a wooded area. It wouldn't have been so wooded during the time of the attack remember. But the Union line that we were just discussing is just behind me and then also we have a monument that's been placed here which reads: "This marks the starting point of Colonel Dan McCook's Third Brigade Second Division 14th Army Corps in the assault on the Confederate works to the east on the morning of June 27 1864". What I'm going to want to do now is I'm going to be reading from a really awesome resource that we use frequently in the park and this is Richard Baumgarter's "Kennesaw Mountain" book- highly recommend it. And this is going to discuss what some of the officers were thinking prior to the battle and then also what happened in this location where we're standing at now up to when the command to charge was given. So Colonel Dan McCook- his brigade consists of four regiments. we have the 125th Illinois, the 86th Illinois, the 22nd Indiana, and the 52nd Ohio. And the way that those troops are placed one right after the other; one line right after the other. Again, if you think about this attack in terms of like D-day, uh what they were trying to do is overwhelm the Confederate line with as many people as they could. It was basically a big blue wave that was coming up the crest. But at the end of the day, the Confederates were just too well dug in and the attack ended up faltering. But...uh... "During the final minutes of anxious waiting the 86th Illinois Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Allen L Fahnstock (which we'll be talking more about him in another video by one of our awesome rangers, ranger Jake), loaned his henry rifle and gave 120 rounds of ammunition to the regiment's principal musician, Fife Major Allison P Webber. In battle, musicians usually were employed as stretcher bearers but Webber insisted on participating in the attack."
Now this is really important because Allison P Weber would end up earning the Medal of Honor for taking up that rifle and participating in the attack here at Kennesaw Mountain. So it's awesome that he includes that there. "Fahnstock then crept ahead to the 125th Illinois where Colonel Oscar F. Harmon and Company C's Captain William W. Fellows (the brigade's acting inspector) sat talking behind a bush: 'We three knelt down on our left knees,' "Fahnstock wrote: 'each facing the other in conversation. I unloosened my gorilla whistle and tore up my letters. Colonel Harmon asked me whether I thought we would carry the works. I replied that I thought not as we had too far to run and the rebels were reinforcing their lines. I also told him that if we fail to carry the works I will surrender before my men should return over the open field. He agreed with me but said that he thought he would carry the works.' "
So this is really telling because this tells you then that for the commanders and the men that are actually going on this assault there were only really two options for them that they saw: death or capture. So that tells the bravery of the men participating in this attack. "At the column's rear, Davis and McCook held a final consultation concealed in a hole behind a large tree stump. And this marks the position of where that would have been. When the parlay ended and McCook departed, a sergeant in the 52nd Ohio heard Davis call out: ''Don't be rash, Colonel, don't be rash.' The 29- year old brigade commander, a student of military history, calmly walked forward (talking of McCook, only 29 years old at this time). In an apparent attempt to inspire his men, McCook then began reciting verses from Thomas Mccully's 1842 poem depicting the legendary Roman warrior Horatius as he faced battle defending a bridge over the Tiber River."
And it goes something like this:
"Then out spake brave Horatius, the captain of the gate, to every man upon this earth death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better than by facing fearful odds for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods.'
"Lieutenant Colonel Fahnstock, still conversing with Harmon and Fellows, did not witness this impressive scene but he will go on to say: 'I told them that I was sick and had been under the doctor's care all night and had a dream that I was in a terrible battle but got out safe.' "Colonel Harmon said that he too had a dream that previous night. That he was fighting copperheads up north and then engaged in a big battle but did not know how it terminated. Captain Fellows said he also had dreamed that his left foot was shot off with a cannonball. And as he said this he brought his hand down across his left foot. Just as he did so, the signal gun fired. The command was given: Right shoulder, shift arms, forward!'"
So that's going to wrap up our Assault Trail hike. What you'll want to do if you ever come down this way, is you're going to want to continue down the path. It'll actually cross over a bridge, two bridges going across John Ward Creek. And again just imagine what that must have been like to try and navigate that as an assaulting force. It broke up the lines which actually helped, which actually aided in the the faltering of this attack. But it will continue up and actually go up Cheatham Hill, again following in the footsteps of the soldiers as they made that attack. But this is Ranger James signing off. Hope to see you next time. Thank you!
Description
[Sun 2:00 pm ET} One of our lesser known historical trails is the Assault Trail which begins at Activity Area 3 and continues to Cheatham Hill, re- tracing the footsteps of the Union soldiers who made the daring charge against the Confederate works there on June 27th, 1864. Ranger James takes us along this trail, reading from primary sources and describing the build-up to the assault. This video highlights Driving Tour Stop #5:Cheatham Hill and Tour Stop #6: Sherman/Thomas Headquarters
Duration
13 minutes, 24 seconds
Credit
NPS/ J. Dalton
Date Created
06/27/2021
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