Battery "E", 1st Regiment Illinois Volunteer Light Artillery

Battery "E", 1st Regiment Illinois Volunteer Light Artillery
Illinois flag
Active	December 19, 1861 to July 15, 1865
Country	United States
Allegiance	Union
Branch	Artillery
Engagements	Battle of Shiloh 1st Battle of Corinth Vicksburg Campaign Expedition to Oxford, MS Battle of Jackson, Mississippi Siege of Vicksburg Jackson Expedition Battle of Mechanicsville, MS Expedition to Canton, MS Battle of Wyatt, TN Battle of Brice's Crossroads Battle of Pontotoc, MS Battle of Tupelo Price's Missouri Raid Franklin-Nashville Campaign Battle of Nashville

Battery "E", 1st Regiment Illinois Volunteer Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It played a minor but noteworthy role in the Battle of Shiloh—being mentioned specifically in General William T. Sherman's After-Action report on the battle—and also served in several other battles in the Western Theater of the war.

Recruitment

Battery "E" was mustered into service at Camp Douglas, in Chicago, Illinois, on December 19, 1861. Its members came primarily from Cook County. On February 13, 1862, they moved to Cairo, where they were issued with horses, artillery and other necessary equipment.

A photo of the original Battery E flag may be seen here.

Early operations in Mississippi

Battle of Shiloh

Map of the Battle of Shiloh, morning of April 6, 1862. Battery E served in General Sherman's Fifth Division, on the far left in this image.

On March 27, 1862, Battery E travelled by boat to Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, arriving on the 30th. Joining Brig. General William T. Sherman's Fifth Division in Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee (together with its sister unit, Battery "B"), the battery was not assigned to a specific brigade during the upcoming Battle of Shiloh, on April 6–7, 1862.

During this engagement, Battery E fielded four James Rifles, a rifled bronze artillery piece that proved popular during the early stages of the war, but later fell out of favor due to the excessive wear that combat service imposed upon rifled bronze cannon. According to one history of this engagement, Battery E was entirely inexperienced, having received its horses only ten days before the battle, and having drilled with them only three times.

File:Shiloh Church.jpg

Shiloh Church at Shiloh National Military Park, 2006. Battery E was located across a ravine adjacent to this church.

According to General Sherman's After-action report, he placed Battery E on a ridge to the left of Shiloh Church, covering a section of open ground between the 57th Ohio Infantry and the 53rd Ohio, near a house called the Rea Cabin. It was the 53rd Ohio's colonel, Jesse J. Appler, who had earlier tried to warn Sherman of large Confederate forces to his front, only to be told: "Take your damned regiment back to Ohio. There is no enemy nearer than Corinth!" The next morning would prove Sherman fatally wrong, as his division and the rest of the Union Army were attacked during breakfast by a large Confederate force under General Albert Sidney Johnston.

During the coming battle, Battery E would be engaged in turn by elements of Patrick Cleburne's Second Brigade of Johnston's Third Corps, which was under the command of General William Hardee, and by elements of S.A.M. Wood's Third Brigade of the same corps, and later by elements of Patton Anderson's Second Brigade of the First Division of Braxton Bragg's Second Corps. Later, still, the battery would be engaged by two brigades from Leonidas Polk's First Corps, commanded by Bushrod Johnson and Robert M. Russell. Thus, Battery E would face units from all three of Johnston's main Army Corps, during the course of the engagement.

When the battle began, one section (two guns) of Battery E deployed just to the right of the 53rd, which had abandoned its camp and moved into the edge of a treeline facing an open field. The other section remained to the left of the 53rd, as originally deployed. Across this field, Confederates of the 6th Mississippi Infantry and the 23rd Tennessee advanced rapidly toward them. Twelve Confederate guns from Shoup's Arkansas Battery opened up on the Federals, and after firing two rounds in reply, the section that had originally moved to the right was ordered by Sherman's chief of artillery, Major Ezra Taylor, to rejoin the rest of Battery E, on high ground to the left of the 53rd on the other side of Rea Springs and the east fork of Shiloh Branch.

Sherman, who was on the scene as this attack unfolded, ordered Appler to hold his portion of the line, telling him that he had "a good battery" (E Battery) to protect him; he also sent for three additional regiments to protect "Waterhouse's Battery" (Battery E) and the left flank of his line. Sherman later reported that Battery E and a companion battery further off to the right opened up "promptly" on the advancing Confederates along with the assembled infantry, and in Sherman's words: "the battle became general". Battery E, together with Battery B of the 1st Illinois, fired into the Confederates advancing up the ridge toward Sherman's line, as well as on reinforcements crossing Rea Field to their front to aid in the assault.

Although inflicting severe losses on the attacking Southerners, Appler's regiment ultimately broke and ran when its colonel lost his nerve, leaving Battery E unprotected and facing imminent annihilation by the Confederates. Wood's Confederates obliqued to the right to avoid Battery E's fire; they were quickly replaced in turn by Cleburne's and Anderson's brigades, which took horrendous losses at the hands of three Illinois regiments, including the 43rd Illinois, which immediately advanced to assist the artillerists—until they too ultimately broke under the ferocity of the Southern assault led now by elements from Cleburne, Anderson, Russell and Johnson's brigades, including the 13th Tennessee.

Viewing the imminent disintegration of his command, Sherman ordered the remnants of his division, including Battery E, to pull back and regroup on the Hamburg-Purdy Road, about 600 yards behind their then-current position. However, the battery had hardly made 100 yards before Major Taylor rode up and ordered it to unlimber and resume firing, insisting that every inch of ground had to be contested. Captain Waterhouse complied, but this futile gesture cost him three of his four guns, and resulted in both he and his First Lieutenant being wounded. According to David Reed's history of the Battle, Battery E was engaged on its front by several different Rebel regiments, while the 13th Tennessee flanked it on the left side and came up on it from the rear, capturing the guns as the battery members beat a hasty retreat. Colonel (later General) Alfred Vaughan, commanding the 13th Tennessee, reported that when his regiment took possession of Battery E's guns, they found "a dead Union officer [lying] near them, with a pointer dog that refused to allow the Confederates to approach the body."

The remainder of Sherman's division (including the members of Battery E, minus their three lost guns) finally stabilized their lines in conjunction with General John A. McClernand's First Division. The following morning the Federals counterattacked and the Southern army was forced to retreat to Corinth, leaving the exhausted Northerners victors in the bloodiest battle that America had seen up to that time.

Sherman reported that during the battle, his division had managed to capture seven guns to replace those lost to the enemy (three by Battery E, and four from other units) earlier in the engagement; thus Battery E was able to be re-equipped with this captured ordinance. All told, the battery lost one man killed and sixteen wounded, plus one missing, during the two-day engagement.

Historians Mark Grimsley and Steven Woodsworth reported that Battery E had performed "magnificently" during the battle, making "an important contribution to prolonging Sherman's stand here." "This is all the more remarkable," they go on to say, "considering the complete lack of experience of Watherhouse's men."

A series of aerial photographs depicting the exact location of "Waterhouse's Battery" and other adjacent units may be seen at Hike Report: The Battle For Shiloh Church.

Corinth and subsequent movements

Following the Battle of Shiloh, the battery moved with the rest of Sherman's division toward Corinth, Mississippi, which was occupied on May 29, 1862. Following this, they made their way down the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, skirmishing with Confederates along the way, until they reached Memphis, where they went into camp at Fort Pickering. Here they spent their time drilling with their artillery pieces and horses, seeking to improve their efficiency. During this time, the regiment received new recruits, one of whom was Private James Bolton Rice, whose letters to his wife paint a vivid picture of the battery's activities from the time he joined it to late in 1863.

On November 26, Battery E accompanied Sherman's expedition to Oxford, Mississippi, part of a larger operation undertaken by Grant against Confederate General John C. Pemberton's forces entrenched along the Tallahatchie River near Holly Springs. Rice reports that the Federal force made twelve miles per day on average, until it encountered Confederate obstructions near College Hill, near Oxford on December 7. These included trees felled across the road, and "every bridge burned."

Private Rice offers a description of a typical day in Battery E during this campaign:

At three or four AM, the bugle awoke us. We tumble out or rather up, presently the assembly blows. We answer to roll call, then some brings water, some cooks, drivers feed and clean their horses so that in a few moments the drowsy camp is one great thoroughfare. Breakfast is called. We take a piece of meat a cracker in our fingers, and a cup of coffee to wash it down. Put our rations for the day in our horse-sacks roll up our blankets strap them upon our harness. The bugle sounds water and harness guns horses and away we go to execute the command again. The bugle blows hitch up that's done drivers mount limber to the front and from a seemingly disorganized camp we present a solid front of bristling guns, prancing horses and stalwart men. Perhaps we sit right there for 2 or 3 hours as regiment after regiment passes us. We awaiting for our proper place finally the long wished for moment arrives. The order is given perhaps to break from the right to march to the left, forward then all again is life and animation... All day the vast mass tires on. Those in the front get into camp early those in the rear don't till 12 or 1 at night. We'll say we are in the rear, for we are about half the time. All day we tail on. We nibble at our grub. Night comes. We heed it not. We have not got to get so far and there is no use at grumbling. At last our camp is assigned us at 10, 11, perhaps 12 o'clock. The roll is called before we dismount. The picket rope is put up. The horses are watered and some goes after feed. The order comes don't take off your harness the cook has boiled a pot of coffee. We gather up some leaves or whatever comes in our way and spread our blankets roll up and go to sleep over the same next day.

File:James Bolton Rice.jpg

Private James Bolton Rice, who served with Battery E, 1862-1865

Pemberton's army fell back to Grenada without a fight, so Battery E continued with the rest of its division to Corinth. It entered the town of Holly Springs, Mississippi, sometime prior to January 4, 1863, where Rice describes a scene of devastation left behind by Confederate General Earl van Dorn's raid on the town on December 20, 1862: "broken guns, dead horses, several unburned men, pieces of shells, lights out of every window, government wagons and ambulances half burnt up. The great depot all gone, a train of cars burned upon the track. The air filled [with] the smoke and smell of burning cotton. Large brick buildings blown to atoms, pillaged houses and sick men laying beside the streets."

White Station

Battery E moved through Holly Springs and on to White Station, Tennessee, where it arrived on January 31, 1863 and encamped. In an effort to fight the cold conditions while wintering there in a Sibley tent, Private Rice describes heating two cast-iron wheels weighing forty pounds each in a fire until they became red-hot, then taking them into his tent, where according to him: "...they make it comfortable." During this time of relative quiet, Rice reports one muster where the battery commander asked all of the "weak-kneed ones" to step forward, as "we would be in a fight in only three hours." Four men answered this call—but another trooper who had been ordered to stay behind begged to change places with one of those being sent into battle, even offering "his last dollar" as an incentive, before being refused by every man in the battery. Apparently the battle did not materialize, as Rice makes no further mention of it.

On February 19 and 20, the members of Battery E were witnesses to the burning of Hopefield, Arkansas, a small town across the river whose citizens had taken the Unionist Loyalty oath, but were secretly assisting local Confederate guerrillas. After several Federal soldiers had been murdered in or near the town, four companies of Northern troops attacked Hopefield and burnt the entire city to the ground. Though Battery E did not actively participate in this event, Rice described it as a "long-merited punishment." Returning to Memphis on March 14 of that same year, they took steamboats to Duckport, Louisiana, a (now vanished) landing on the Mississippi River a few miles northwest of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Here, they rejoined the rest of Sherman's XV Corps, one of five corps assigned to Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee that was then preparing to embark on the famed Vicksburg Campaign.

Sometime during the winter, according to Private Rice, Battery E was reduced from a six-gun battery to a four-gun battery, numbering 128 effectives. During its time at Vicksburg (see below) the battery was brought back up to its usual six-gun size once again.

Vicksburg campaign

Battle of Jackson

On May 2 the battery went to Grand Gulf, Mississippi; from thence they advanced toward Jackson, Mississippi, the capital of the state. Private James Rice reports that the heat during this time was so intense that even "strong men" fell out of the march and "were left with some comrade to die or come on, as the case might be." Dead horses and mules lay everywhere along the line of march, and Rice reports that Battery E lost six of its own horses to "sunstroke, and drinking poisoned water." Reaching Jackson on May 10, Battery E and the rest of their corps were appalled to discover that the Confederates had disemboweled numerous mules and hogs, then thrown their carcasses into every pond and well to contaminate the water. The air, said he, was filled with the stench of dead animals and members of Battery E and others were detailed over the next two days to bury all the carcasses in the area.

Starting on May 10, Battery E commenced bombardment of the Confederate works at Jackson, beginning at 7am on that Sunday morning. Private Rice reported a bright sunny day, and said that fire and counter-battery fire continued for three hours "as if the heavens were at war with one another, and about to part." Rice himself was nicked by an enemy shell, and others in the battery had what he referred to as "close calls," though no one was seriously hurt.

On May 14, Battery E supported Sherman's final attack on Jackson. Advancing during a driving rainstorm across Lynch Creek—a rain-swollen stream that ran only two miles from the Mississippi State Capitol—the XV Corps quickly ran into the Third Kentucky Mounted Infantry, the First Georgia Sharpshooter Battalion and Captain Martin's Georgia Battery. The Federal advance was temporarily halted by these troops and by enemy artillery fire, before Battery E and a companion battery from the 2nd Iowa responded in kind. One Illinois soldier briefly described Battery E's role in this battle in these terms:

The regiment followed to the brow of the hill that looked down on the creek winding in muddy swirls and many meanderings across the level meadows. Far to the right we could hear our own battery, the Second Iowa, its bronze Napoleons throbbing like a heart of fire. And at our left, the Waterhouse Battery of Chicago [Battery E], was baying like a wolf-hound at the grey-clad battalions.

The "accurate fire" from Battery E and the Iowa artillery, coupled with the overwhelming Federal advantage in manpower, quickly forced the Confederates to retreat into their defensive works; within a matter of a few hours, Sherman's XV Corps had entered Jackson.

Union and Confederate lines at Vicksburg. Battery E's position was opposite the Stockade Redan, at the northeast corner of Pemberton's line.

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File:30 Pound Parrot Rifle.jpg

30 Pounder Parrott Rifles at Port Hudson, Louisiana

Action at Vicksburg

On May 16, Battery E moved on Vicksburg, the South's "Gibraltar of the West", arriving on the 18th, where it took an active part in the siege as part of the Third Division of Sherman's XV Corps. Together with the 2nd Battery of Iowa Light Artillery, it was assigned as the division's artillery force. During this time, the battery fielded four James Rifles and three captured 6-pound guns in a spot near the northeast corner of the Confederate defensive line (currently located along Old Graveyard Road, between Union Ave. and Confederate Ave.). The battery supported the abortive Federal assault upon the "Stockade Redan" on May 22, which resulted in more than a thousand Federal casualties, and led to the awarding of 78 Medals of Honor to attacking soldiers. A photo of the exact location of Battery E's position at Vicksburg may be seen here. The larger page from which this photo was taken may be viewed here.

On May 30, the battery was given a 30-pount Parrott rifle, which it retained until 3 June, when the Parrott gun was moved to a more advanced position at "Battery Jenny."

Federal 12-pound "Napoleon" artillery piece

On 5 June, Battery E was ordered to trade its old artillery pieces in for six new 12-pound guns. The battery was divided into three two-gun sections; two, under Lieutenants John Fitch and Orrin Cram, remained on the line. The third was moved up to an advanced battery. By 7 June, Private Rice reported to his wife that the battery had been split between five different places, and only counted 96 men as fit for duty.

In contrast to the starving Confederates inside Vicksburg—whose lack of food ultimately doomed their defense of the city, rather than the unsuccessful Federal assaults on their defenses—Battery E and the rest of the Union Army fared well with regard to victuals during the siege. Rice reported that he had to eat here: "flour, tea, coffee, sugar, hardtack, pork, dried apples, rice, beans and fresh beef every other day." He said that his favorite food was "flour and water mixed together as you would make batter, fry it in grease with meat, a cup of coffee, a hardtack and sugar; I make out a hearty meal."

Artillerists as infantry

Members of Battery E sometimes played the role of sharpshooters and even infantry during the siege, as Private Rice relates:

Damnation how these Rebels love to shoot. Cuss their eyes, but we'll make them pay for it when we get in Vicksburg to see how cooly we take it... Some go and sharpshoot on their own hook; your Bote [here Rice is speaking of himself] has had a couple of bouts with them and tomorrow I'm going to have another... Get me an Enfield Rifle and shoot toward a Secesh... We have moved up to within 50 rods [825 feet] of the guns, and since I've been writing the boys have been giving them thunder. They only reply with small arms. At the storming of the fort the other day...I made up my mind to go and bullied ahead for this attack. Volunteers were called for from the whole division. 160 volunteered; 100 got back alive.

On 22 June Battery E relocated with two brigades of infantry from its 3rd Division to Bear Creek on the exterior line, where it remained until Vicksburg was surrendered by General Pemberton on July 4, 1863. Throughout the siege, the Battery lost two killed and six wounded.

Later operations in Mississippi

Expedition to Brandon, Mississippi

On July 5, 1863, the day after Vicksburg's surrender, a detachment from Battery E was ordered with elements from the 72nd Ohio Infantry, the 114th Illinois, the 8th Iowa and the 9th Iowa under the command of General Frederick Steele to proceed to Brandon, Mississippi, where they were to locate and burn Confederate military stores and destroy the local railroad. The battery lost one of its three guns while crossing a pontoon bridge over the Pearl River, but the gun was recovered the next day. Encountering Southern cavalry about six miles past the bridge, the battery's "war dogs" (to quote Private Rice) quickly drove them back.

Upon receiving reports from scouts that an enemy battery was on a nearby hill, Battery E was ordered to shell the hillside in an effort to discern the enemy's position. Private Rice describes what happened next:

... My piece was brought into action in the road. The 3rd was planted in the corn to the right between two fields of corn. It was hot as a furnace. The sun was directly over our heads. The infantry had mounted the fences to get air and watch our shots, not believing the Rebs had a gun. We fired two shots, then saw the smoke curling up from two places. The word ran from mouth to mouth: 'good God, a masked battery!' and such a getting down off of fences you never saw... The calm steady tones of our captain saying: 'Steady, my men, be cool; watch their shots and drop.' When the [enemy] shells reached us (1 1/4 miles distant) [we] found them all in line and laying close to the ground... We fought them for two hours, flanked them on both sides, just then a heavy thundershower came up and they withdrew, leaving their supper cooking, three dead horses and two dead men behind them... They had four guns pitted against our two. Just as it began to rain, the infantry charged them. Our loss was some 10 or 12 killed, and 20 wounded. Our gun was their mark... They shot to the left, right, over and all around us.

Riding into Brandon, Battery E fired on Confederate scouts in a house there, "knocking out every window in the house." They set fire to a storehouse and burned down an entire block of the town, then turned their attention to the railroad depot and nearby trackage, which they equally destroyed.

Return to Jackson

File:Jacksonsiege.jpg

Siege of Jackson, Mississippi, July 10–16, 1863

Following this event, Battery E returned to Jackson (which had been reoccupied by Confederate forces). Though harassed during their march by Southern units, Private Rice reported that they "kept out of range of our brass band. For... when we play 'Dixie' on it, it makes them more than dance." Upon arriving at Jackson, it assisted in a nine-day siege, after which Confederate General Joseph E. Johnson evacuated the city. Private Rice describes Jackson as a "doomed city" in the battle's aftermath, affirming that he and his comrades tore up and burned tracks and ties from five different railroads extending twenty miles out from the city in all directions; he equally describes the devastation wrought by the Federal inside the city itself.

Ordered to return to Vicksburg, Battery E and other units crossed the battlefield at Champion Hill, scene of a Federal victory about two months earlier. Rice describes how rain had washed away the soil used to cover the corpses of Confederate dead (who, says he, had simply been tossed into ditches on the battlefield by Federal troops, and covered with a layer of dirt); he describes men seeing and even kicking at skulls, bones and clothing protruding from the half-opened graves.

Bear Creek

On July 23 Battery E went into camp on Bear Creek, in rear of Vicksburg on Oak Ridge, where Private Rice reports that they were exceptionally troubled by chiggers and flies, not to mention the oppressive summer heat. This became their summer camp, and expeditions were made to Mechanicsburg, Miss., Canton, and other places. On November 5 they went to Vicksburg, and took boat for Memphis, arriving there the 12th. During that winter they went to Lagrange, Tenn.; also, Corinth, Jack Creek, then back again to Corinth, and back to Memphis via Lagrange.

Meridian expedition

On February 6, 1864, Battery E was ordered to cooperate with a 7000-man cavalry column led by General William Sooy Smith moving south from Memphis to link up with General Sherman's forces engaged in the Meridian Expedition; by this point, it had been equipped with six 12-pound Napoleon guns. On the 10th of February 1864, it fought in a skirmish at Wyatt, Tennessee, on the Tallahatchie River. On February 15 the Battery was ordered back to Memphis, and took no further role in the campaign. In Memphis, they camped at the head of Main Street, near the city's Navy Yard. In April 1864 the Battery went to Bolivar, Mississippi, and Ripley in search of General Nathan Bedford Forrest; but their supplies soon ran out, and they were forced to return to Memphis to refit.

Brice's Crossroads and aftermath

File:Brices Crossroads.svg

The Battle of Brice's Crossroads.

June 1, 1864, the battery marched to Guntown, Mississippi, where it took part in the disastrous Battle of Brice's Crossroads on June 10. Here, the battery together with the 9th Minnesota Infantry formed a reserve force deployed near the crossroads itself. Attacked by Confederates under General Forrest on both flanks at once, Colonel William McMillian, commanding the infantry on that portion of the field, ordered Battery E to sweep the Guntown Road with grapeshot and canister. Despite heroic efforts by the 9th Minnesota and other Federal units, the Northern army was pushed back, with Col. McMillian ordering Battery E and Battery B of the Second Illinois Light Artillery to hold off the advancing Rebels until the infantry could escape.

The fleeing Federals became bottled up on a bridge just north of the crossroads, with Confederate artillery raking them as they struggled to cross the narrow structure, upon which the retreat became a rout, and Forrest won one of the greatest victories in his career. Battery E, which had been ordered to hold the crossroads itself at all costs, found itself stranded amidst the advancing Southern attack, deserted by all infantry support—but still firing without letup. Captain John Fitch, commanding the battery in this battle, describes the scene amid the tangled underbrush and forest: "I could not see the enemy, but judged from their firing that they were very near. I immediately gave them canister with both pieces, as fast as I could load and fire." Fitch and the rest of Battery E managed to hold their ground until the last of the Federal regiments had passed, though by this time they were being fired on from front, left and rear—including the garden of a plantation house only seventy-five feet away. Incredibly, Battery E managed to limber its two guns and escape to the nearby creek, where they simply stormed through the water to the safety of a road on the other side.

In his after-action report, Colonel Alexander Wilkin, commanding the 9th Minnesota, commended Captain Fitch of Battery E for the "judicious and gallant manner" in which he and his battery had conducted themselves during the battle. Total losses for this battle were one killed, three wounded and four missing. The battery returned to Memphis after the defeat, "every man for himself", with the men listed as "very much demoralized".

The battery next marched on Tupelo, and July 12 it fought at Pontotoc, Mississippi. On July 13, they were ambushed, and lost one wounded. On the 14th, the battery participated in the Battle of Tupelo, which resulted in a defeat for Forrest.

Actions in Missouri

On July 15, 1864, Battery E returned to Memphis. On September 3, 1864, they took steamboats down the Mississippi to White River Gap and from thence to Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas. Marching through Arkansas swamps to Cape Girardeau under General J. A. Mower, they next travelled up the Missouri River to Jefferson City, Missouri, where they joined in the ongoing Federal pursuit of Confederate General Sterling Price (then engaged in a campaign that became known as Price's Missouri Raid) to the western boundary of the State.

After Price's defeat at the Battle of Westport, the Battery returned to St. Louis, arriving there on November 15, 1864.

Service in Tennessee

After drawing a new complement of horses, Battery E took boats for Nashville, Tennessee, and were with General Thomas during the siege of Nashville and annihilation of Hood's Army.

Muster out

The battery's enlistments expired December 19, 1864, but the battery was not mustered out of service until December 24, 1864, at Louisville, Kentucky. New recruits were brought into replace those who had been discharged; these continued to serve until July 15, 1865, when they were discharged near Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Total strength and casualties

The battery lost 5 enlisted men who were killed in action or who died of their wounds and 25 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 30 fatalities.

Anecdotes

Camp followers

Private James Bolton Rice, whose letters home to his wife provide a vivid description of life and action in Battery E from 1862 to 1865, gives a picture of the seedier side of life in a Federal army camp during mid-1862:

If they had women in the hospital [Pvt. Rice is saying this to his wife; he was on temporary duty as a hospital orderly at this time], I would have you come down and we would both go in; but a woman here is thought of no more than one of ill fame, and finely one can't honest stir out unless she is insulted. There is so many of the other class. They will come in from the city [St. Louis] dressed up in style, and pretend to be looking for their husbands until they get a good bid; then off they go out of sight... And there's always women enough to cooperate with anything that comes up.

Rice followed this statement up with his own assurance of loyalty to his wife, telling her that this sight "disgust[s] me more than anything I see in the Army."

On the march

In a letter dated January 22, 1863, Rice describes what it was like to be on the march, on half-rations, in the Federal army:

We had for breakfast hardtack with coffee, and for dinner a small piece of cornbread and also a slice of very good boiled ham smoked for supper... Now one word about rations and half rations... a soldier's feeling is different, his taste is different, his appetite is different, his whole being in regards to enduring fatigue is different; still I never can or could live on corn cake. Let me take a day or two's eating to illustrate for instance. We awoke at three in the morning, we have ten minutes to roll out and prepare for roll call... By the time breakfast is ready, the most of us can eat raw beef if one is well, and as the boys say to eat then why all he has to do is put it in his haversack throughout the day. He nibbles on it. Perhaps we don't stop till 10 or 11 o'clock at night, he has his duty to do come what will. There is no excuse for being tired. We are all tired, would be his answer if he made that as a plea to get free from duty. He's very tired and hungry and if he tries to preserve his health he won't eat much at night but will find a place to lay down. Perhaps at 12 the bugles blows him out again by 4 and by the time breakfast comes I'll bet he'll eat; if not he can trot on another day. Then if he's got a good bottom, a good constitution and good grit, he'll come out all right and in a few weeks, you'd think he could go all the time.

Needless to say, conditions in the Confederate forces were even worse, as their logistics system was not nearly as well-supplied or developed as its Federal counterpart.

Dissention in the ranks

In another letter, Rice describes the antipathy many Federal soldiers felt following the issuance of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863:

To try to disguise or hide the facts that there is a great changing of ideas in the Army (and I think by what I read at home) would be useless. Almost every hour in the day on the march, in the camp, off duty or on duty, in tent or by campfire, one can hear the following expressions: I be d-d if I enlisted to free niggers... if ole Abe doesn't retract his proclamation I hope the Northerners will get together and take the reins of government out of his hands, and thousands of other such expressions... For my part I am down on all such sentiments, I have pledged my arm to the government of my fathers, and thus it shall be raised come well, come woe.

In subsequent paragraphs, Rice voraciously attacks Northern "Copperheads", referring to them as "damning traitors" and saying they should be "choked down and served as we serve them down here." He goes on to say that four men in his own regiment are Copperheads (in his estimation), describing them as "weak-kneed, weak-backed ones who were scared into the Service through fear of the draft." He ends, however on a note of guarded optimism that the government will overcome the "arch-traitors" and "rise like the morning mist, and show the world that America still stands with its government and institutions stronger better dearer than ever."

General Grant

During the Siege of Vicksburg, Rice wrote down his impressions of Ulysses S. Grant's generalship, together with his opinion of the rampant rumors of his drunkenness earlier in the war:

They can say what they please about Grant, but he's the only successful general the North has. They said he was drunk at Shiloh and that he was nothing but an old ditcher this spring [see Grant's Canal], but while he left a few men digging the ditch he was slyly massing his forces, ready when he said the word to pommel on the enemy which he has done; and now he has them corralled in Vicksburg... Johnson [Joseph Johnston] is said to be coming by the way of Black River on our rear and [Braxton] Bragg is said to be at Yazoo City, but we can fight them front and rear, right and left till they get sick of it... Little U.S.G. is equal to the task, and we are all confident in ourselves.

Rice does not indicate whether his glowing opinion of Grant's generalship was shared by his comrades in Battery E, or what their opinions of their military leaders might have been. His assessment of Grant's talent certainly proved well-founded, as Grant would be elevated to General-in-Chief of all Federal armies the following year, and go on to lead the North to victory two years later.

Commanders

• Captain Allen C. Waterhouse - promoted to major.
• Captain John A. Fitch - promoted to major.
• Captain Orrin W. Cram - Mustered out with the battery.

Assignments and service

Organizational assignments

Organized at Chicago, Ill., and mustered in December 19, 1861.

Moved to Cairo, Ill., February 13, 1862.

Attached to District of Cairo, Ill., to March, 1862.

Artillery, 5th Division, District of Memphis, Tenn., to November, 1862.

Artillery, 5th Division, District [1037] of Memphis, Tenn., Right Wing 13th Army Corps (Old), Dept. of the Tennessee, November, 1862.

Artillery, 1st Division, District of Memphis, Tenn., 13th Army Corps, to December, 1862.

Artillery, 8th Division, 16th Army Corps, to March, 1863.

Artillery, 3rd Division, 15th Army Corps, to December, 1863.

Artillery, 1st Division, 16th Army Corps, to June, 1864.

Artillery, 1st Division, Sturgis' Expedition, June, 1864.

1st Brigade, 1st Division, 16th Army Corps, to December, 1864.

Artillery, 1st Division, Detachment Army of the Tennessee, Dept. of the Cumberland, to February, 1865.

Artillery Reserve, Dept. of the Cumberland, Chattanooga, Tenn., to July, 1865.

Engagements and service

Duty at Paducah, Ky., till March, 1862.

Expedition from Paducah to Tennessee River and operations about Crump's Landing, Tenn., March 8–14.

Expedition to Yellow Creek, Miss., and occupation of Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., March 14–17.

Battle of Shiloh, Tenn., April 6–7.

Advance on and siege of Corinth, Miss., April 29-May 30.

March to Memphis, Tenn., via Lagrange, Grand Junction and Holly Springs, June 1-July 21.

Duty at Memphis, Tenn., till November.

Grant's Central Mississippi Campaign, November 2, 1862, to January 10, 1863.

Guard R. R. till March, 1863.

Moved to Memphis, thence to Duckport, La., March 12-April 1.

Demonstrations on Haines' and Snyder's Bluffs April 25-May 2.

Movement to join army in rear of Vicksburg, via Richmond and Grand Gulf, May 2–14.

Jackson, Miss., May 14.

Siege of Vicksburg May 18-July 4.

Assaults on Vicksburg May 19 and 22.

Expedition to Mechanicsburg May 26-June 4.

Advance on Jackson, Miss., July 4–10.

Siege of Jackson July 10–17.

Brandon Station July 19.

Camp at Big Black till November.

Expedition to Canton October 14–20.

Bogue Chitto Creek October 17.

Ordered to Memphis, Tenn., November 12, and duty guarding Railroad till January, 1864.

Expedition to Tallahatchie River February 5–19.

Coldwater Ferry February 8.

Near Senatobia February 8–9.

Wyatt's February 14.

At Memphis till April.

Sturgis' Expedition from Memphis to Ripley, Miss., April 30-May 9.

Sturgis' Expedition from Memphis into Mississippi June 1–13.

Brice's, or Tishamingo Creek, near Guntown, June 10.

Smith's Expedition to Tupelo July 5–21.

Camargo's Cross Roads, Harrisburg, July 13.

Tupelo July 14–15.

Old Town, or Tishamingo Creek, July 15.

Smith's Expedition to Oxford, Miss., August 1–30.

Tallahatchie River August 7–9.

Oxford August 9.

Abbeville August 23.

Moved to Duvall's Bluff, Ark., September 1; thence march through Arkansas and Missouri.

Light Artillery Reserve, Dept. of the Cumberland, to July, 1865.

Mustered out July 15, 1865.

See also

• List of Illinois Civil War Units
• Illinois in the American Civil War

References

• The Civil War Archive
• Roster of personnel assigned to Battery E, 1st Illinois Light Artillery (Note: not all ranks listed are correct as of the end of the war)