For more information about the 20th
| （1) Col. C. C. Marsh. | （2) Col. Daniel Bradley. | （3) Col. Henry King. |
| companies. | killed and died of wounds. | died of disease, accidents, in Prison, &c. | Total Enrollment. | |||||
| Officers. | Men. | Total. | Officers. | Men. | Total. | |||
| Field and Staff | 3 |
| 3 |
| 1 | 1 | 16 | |
| Company | A |
| 10 | 10 |
| 17 | 17 | 93 |
|
| B |
| 12 | 12 |
| 22 | 22 | 110 |
|
| C | 1 | 14 | 15 |
| 14 | 14 | 93 |
|
| D | 1 | 14 | 15 |
| 15 | 15 | 102 |
|
| E |
| 15 | 15 |
| 25 | 25 | 114 |
|
| F |
| 11 | 11 |
| 13 | 13 | 105 |
|
| G |
| 11 | 11 |
| 22 | 22 | 111 |
|
| H | 1 | 14 | 15 |
| 18 | 18 | 132 |
|
| I | 1 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 21 | 110 |
|
| K |
| 12 | 12 | 1 | 23 | 24 | 106 |
| Totals | 7 | 132 | 139 | 1 | 191 | 192 | 1,092 | |
139 killed == 12.7 per cent.
Total of killed and wounded, 503.
| Battles. | K. & M. W. | Battles. | K. & M. W. |
| | 30 | Siege of | 6 |
| | 39 | | 1 |
| Britton's | 6 | | 2 |
| | 1 | | 10 |
| Edwards's Station, Miss. | 1 | Siege of | 6 |
| Raymond, Miss. | 29 | The | 2 |
| Champion's Hill, Miss. | 5 | Fayetteville, N. C. | 1 |
Present, also, at
Notes.--Organized May 14, 1861, at
Interestingly enough, the 20th Illinois played the key role in an engagement you don't have listed here: the Battle of Port Gibson. Exasperated by watching Osterhaus spinning his wheels all day, Grant sent McPherson with Smith's brigade over to the Confederate right flank with instructions to see what he could do. After a false start by Smith and some refusal by Osterhaus to participate in the flanking move that Osterhaus himself had requested, McPherson donned a cloak to mask his rank, reviewed the front lines, and devised a turning movement that sent the 20th Illinois into the Confederate rear and saved the day.
ReplyDeleteFox only listed a battle in the main part of his sketch if a regiment suffered men killed or mortally wounded there. According to the OR, the 20th Illinois had two men wounded at the battle of Port Gibson. I think that many people assume that a regiment did not play an important role at a battle if they suffered few casualties, but you have provided an excellent example of a brigade that performed important service without suffering heavy casualties. I have never read the story about McPherson before--interesting.
ReplyDeleteYou won't read about McPherson's role at Port Gibson from the usual sources, which have done a very good job of ignoring McPherson's contributions to the Vicksburg Campaign.
ReplyDeleteWhich of course begs the question--what is your source for McPherson's role at Port Gibson?
ReplyDelete"I Marched With Shermn" Ira Blanchard's account of his service with the 20th Illinois gives the details of McPherson designing the movement that put the 20th Illinois in the Confederate rear.
ReplyDeleteHickenlooper's papers, via Timothy Waldsmith's recent McPherson biography, has the account of Grant growling "Mac, get over there and see what you can do" after watching Osterhaus tear through artillery ammunition like there was an unlimited supply.
McPherson had the 20th Illinois stage in the Bayou Pierre bottoms and rush up into the Confederate rear. The position being made instantly untenable, the Confederates broke and ran for the bridges over the bayou. Osterhaus attempts to lay claim to the assault, claiming to have personally led a "gallant charge." However, by the time Osterhaus got involved, he was facing a single Missouri regiment that in the confusion had not received the order to retreat. The commander of the Missouri regiment easily extricated his men by loudly ordering them to fix bayonets and prepare to charge. If you look at the two regiments involved on Osterhaus' end, you can see why the Missouri regiment fared so well: the two regiments Osterhaus grabbed to make his "gallant charge" were not even brigaded together.
Herpa derp!
Meanwhile, McClernand and the federal main body had broken contact with the enemy to make camp for the night. I think Logan's report has an angry bit about suddenly looking around and realizing that McClernand had decided to withdraw for the night without notifying Logan, leaving him with one brigade isolated in front of the Confederate main body for a brief period!
Wilson reports being perplexed after the battle after trying to coax Grant to kiss and make up with McClernand since the army has enjoyed the success of establishing a bridgehead into the Mississippi interior. Instead, Grant seems to fume at McClernand. Given what Grant knew, it's no wonder. By breaking contact with the enemy at the very moment McPherson evaporated the Confederate right flank, McClernand had pissed away a fine opportunity to bag the best Confederate division in Mississippi. The fact that McClernand responded when Grant asked him to conserve artillery ammunition by snapping back "this is MY battle" I'm sure didn't help either.
lol ... is that a cynical silence I detect?
ReplyDelete:)
Here is the passage from Blanchard, by the way:
In the meantime General McPherson had dismounted, and throwing a blanket over his shoulders that his uniform might not attract bullets, came to the front unattended, and being a good engineer, looked the ground carefully over; when he said he believed he had hit on a plan that would win.
Under a tremendous fire of artillery on the block house, he directed the 20th Illinois to crawl along the edge of the ravine, which we did without loss, then letting ourselves down by boughs or grapevines we finally reached the bottom unobserved. Then by the 'right flank' we went into them with a will, striking them left and rear before they knew what was coming. Whole companies laid down their arms. One 'reb' Captain, when he found himself cut off from escape and between two fires, was so terrified that he took off his hat and quietly walked up to Captain Stevens and delivered him his sword, supposing him to be the commanding General.
Thus in twenty minutes after the old Twentieth had reached the bottom of that ravine they had carried the block house which had been a bone of contention all day anad taken nearly 300 prisoners.
Finding their block house gone and their position turned, they fled in all directions and left us masters of the situation.
Ha! No, my silence is due to the fact that the fall semester started at my university yesterday--the press of business calls!
ReplyDeleteWell, cynicism is certainly warranted ... McPherson isn't even mentioned at Port Gibson in most Vicksburg Campaign histories. Bearss, Shea, Winschel, Ballard, Kiper, Smith, Foote, Groom ... I was thinking Grabau had at least mentioned him, but after review McPherson does not show up in the text. McPherson does at least appear on Grabau's map of the battle ... positioned well behind the lines.
ReplyDelete:D
And don't even get me *started* on the Battle of Raymond (yes, McPherson performed very well there too, but you won't see that in any published Vicksburg Campaign histories).
This discussion thread, although interesting, does not relate to the main theme of my blog. So, I will not be accepting any more comments about McPherson's role or non-role or limited role (whatever the case may be) at Port Gibson, Raymond, etc. This thread does show, though, that there is quite a bit of interest in the Vicksburg campaign. Perhaps that campaign would be a good theme for a blog???
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, I'm suggesting that someone else do that blog on the Vicksburg campaign--writing about the trans-Mississippi is enough for me!
ReplyDelete