Blood, Tears, and Glory: William B. Hazen

Showing posts with label William B. Hazen. Show all posts

Friday, February 29, 2008

ON THIS DAY: Thursday, Feb. 27, 1862

“Best soldier in the world”

“The American citizen, properly commanded and instructed, makes the best soldier in the world,” Gen. William Babcock Hazen wrote in his post-war memoirs, proudly recalling those days when he “properly commanded and instructed” the raw soldiery of the West. On this date in 1862, he issued the following orders to his brigade, now camped two miles from Nashville:

1. “There will be bayonet exercise…from nine to ten a.m. and battalion drill from eleven to twelve.

2. “At four p.m….the regimental grounds [will] be thoroughly policed under direction of the officer of the day.

3. Officers’ drill, until further orders, will be that of skirmishers. None are excused from the above duties…”

In what his men would undoubtedly have called an understatement, Hazen fondly recalled that “While at Nashville, we were very busily engaged with drills and preparation for moving forward.”

Two days before, Hazen’s 19^th Brigade of Don Carlos Buell ‘s Army of the Ohio had marched into Nashville, abandoned only the day before by its Confederate defenders. One of Hazen’s most trusted officers, Capt. Emerson Opdycke of the 41^st Ohio writes his wife today about how happy he is to be in Nashville. “It is a beautiful city. People seem glad to see us. Many had left, supposing we would plunder and destroy; but they are now seeing their great error… I am delighted with Nashville and its surroundings.”

Not everyone welcomes the Union forces, however. Reporting a common reaction to their appearance throughout the war, Opdycke notes, “The women are by far the bitterest against us, knowing they can say what they pleased without fear of injury.”

(Pictured above: the 51st Ohio Volunteer infan try on dress parade in Nashville)

IT’S COMING SOONER THAN YOU THINK: April 12, 2011—less than 3½ years from now!—will be the 150^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, April 12 was the day Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions about this blog are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author and his newest book, please go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

Thursday, February 28, 2008

ON THIS DAY: Tuesday, Feb. 25, 1862

The colonel arrives

Col. William Babcock Hazen, acting commander of the 19^th Brigade of Brig. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio, rides into Nashville. Recently deserted by their Confederate defenders, many unhappy citizens remain in the city. It is Hazen‘s observation that “the people showed great bitterness.”

Riding a short distance in front of his brigade, Hazen has barely turned a corner when a well-dressed woman ahead of him “stamped vigorously upon the sidewalk and cheered for Jeff Davis.” Then Hazen’s brigade, marching smartly with arms glistening in the sun, follows him around the corner. The woman took one look at the oncoming thousands and “betook herself at double-quick to the nearest house.”

Hazen halts at the St. Cloud Hotel, where the host, a Mr. Carter, invited the colonel and his staff for drinks at his bar. Carter “tasted everything first…to assure us.” Out of curiosity, Hazen examines the hotel’s register, discovering his immediate predecessor was William Babcock of Illinois, “a cousin I had not seen since a child of three years, and never since.” Throughout the war, symbolic incidents like these will remind soldiers North and South again and again how closely they were related, whether by blood or in spirit—fellow Americans all.

Hazen and his men found something else in the hotel: “Fast asleep and very drunk, one Rebel soldier, the largest man I ever saw in uniform.” Hazen sent him away with a single guard, the pair looking like “a veritable giant guarded by a pygmy. We all wondered if he was a sample of the men we were about to encounter.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: In Richmond, the Confederate capital, the bitter words of politicians reflect the Confederacy’s anxiety over the losses in Tennessee. The people’s representatives are angry and demanding investigation into the performance of their generals and even President Jefferson Davis.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

ON THIS DAY: Friday, Feb. 21, 1862

One Interview, Two Views

Col. William B. Hazen, commander now of the 19^th Brigade in Buell’s Army of the Ohio, has spent three months rusticating in a pesthole known as Camp Wickcliffe in Kentucky. As was common in army camps early in the war, Camp Wickcliffe was tormented by health problems, especially diarrhea and measles.

A few days ago, Hazen’s brigade was shipped down the Cumberland River to join Grant’s siege of Fort Donelson, only to arrive after it was over. Hazen’s brigade came to rest at Paducah, while higher authority decided where to send it next. While at Paducah, Hazen met Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman for the first time.

Sherman, until recently sequestered in a backwater of the water, has suddenly been elevated to command of the District of Cairo. He is both excited at this unexpected opportunity and regretful still about his emotional breakdown in November. “All I hope for is a chance to recover from the past,” he writes his wife, Ellen. He also tells her he just had “a long interview” with Brig. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner (pictured above), the fallen commander of Fort Donelson and a Union prisoner, being held on a steamboat anchored in the Cumberland River.

Apparently, it was a fruitful discussion. “I used to know him well and he frankly told me of many things I wanted to know.” Buckner places the blame for his downfall on Maj. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, the Confederacy’s western commander. Writing his brother, Sherman says, “I have seen Buckner & prisoners of war, and learned many things not heretofore known.”

Hazen took a different view of Sherman’s meeting with Buckner, at which he was present. Before the war, Hazen had known Buckner well, considered him “a man of many fine qualities,” and was “touched at seeing him our prisoner.”

Perhaps because of that, Hazen was poorly impressed by the meeting at which Sherman “learned many things not heretofore known.” Hazen claimed the meeting “was destitute of an y element of cordiality,--a few cold words only passing between Sherman and Buckner,--the latter taking Sherman to task for opposing peaceable secession, who replied that the Southern people had no right to seize public property, and that they must not expect submission” [from the Federal government.]

Two views of the same small event. Sherman said Buckner “frankly told me of many things I wanted to know.” Hazen remembered only “a few cold words” passing between the two, concluding, “I was not agreeably impressed by the meeting.”

It was not the first time, and certainly not the last during this war, in which participants in an event would remember it differently—even if they belonged to the same side.,

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: Although much of it will be scarcely remembered, there will be warfare in almost every corner of the United States. In New Mexico today, Confederates under Brig. Gen. H.H. Sibley drive the Federals under Col. E. R. S. Canby into Fort Craig., This is the battle of Valverde, named for a Rio Grande ford. This small battle included two remarkable events. At one point, Texas cavalrymen charged with lances. At another point, Union soldiers created an Improvised Explosive Device, consisting of a mule loaded with gunpowder. The mule was detonated and demolished, but no Confederates were harmed.

In Washington, meanwhile, there is mourning for Willie Lincoln, the President’s son, who died of typhoid yesterday in the White House.

Friday, February 1, 2008

ON THIS DAY: Friday, January 31, 1862

A Day in the Life of…

Capt. Emerson Opdycke of the 41^st Ohio, is one of Col. William B. Hazen’s most trusted officers. Hazen, who started out as colonel of the 41^st, is now commander pro tem of the 19^th Brigade in Brig. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio. The 19^th Brigade includes the 41^st Ohio, 46^th and 47^th Indiana, and the 6^th Kentucky (loyalist). The brigade occupies Camp Wickliffe in west-central Kentucky’s LaRue County.

Opdycke sits down near midnight to reply to his wife’s latest letter and describe a typical day in his life in camp (which, Opdycke says, is “devoid of much incident.”)

The hard-driving Hazen is, as usual, demanding every man in the brigade train ceaselessly. Opdycke—a no-nonsense officer who emulates Hazen—is one of the colonel’s designated taskmasters. He writes Lucy:

At half past seven or eight A.M., your most obedt marches through mud half way up to his knees to the camp of the 47^th Ind. about a quarter mile distant; drills the officers…for one and a half hours, then superintends those officers drilling their companies, til half past eleven A.M., then wades back to dinner; but stop, before dinner, I recite [my own lessons] to Col. Hazen, or in his absence, I hear others recite, then dinner, and at one p.m. I wade back and drill the battalion…until four P.M., return and at six P.M., recite to Col. H. till seven, when I wade again, to hear the officers of the said 47^th Ind recite for two hours. In the intervals of time I get my lessons and attend to much Company business; and the balance of the day I have for letter writing and sleeping.

Opdycke then describes his bed and “I assure you after the exercises above spoken of, I sleep most soundly upon it. We spread our rubber blankets on the ground, upon them we have a little straw, over the straw that comfortable [?] you gave me, then a layer of soldiers (Self and Lieutenant Mc.) then my shawl, then Lt’s blanket then overcoats, and overall, my Louis Napoleon [a large overcoat with a cape].

“It is now just twenty minutes past twelve P.M. [he means A.M.] so with your permission I will write myself

Affectionately Yours.

AND AT CAIRO, ILLINOIS: All is hustle and bustle as Grant prepares for his attack on Fort Henry, the Confederate post guarding the Tennessee River. Yesterday morning, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, in St. Louis, telegraphed his formal approval to “take and hold” Fort Henry, reversing his opposition of only a few days earlier. Today, Grant wires Halleck, “I expect to start Sunday evening [Feb. 2], taking 15,000 men. He tells Gen. C. F. Smith to prepare a brigade from Paducah plus “all the command from Smithland, except the 52 ILL and one battalion.” Grant orders Brig. Gen. Lew Wallace to take command and hold the Union base at Smithland, Kentucky, near the confluence of the Ohio and Cumberland rivers. He arranges for ammunition, rations for horses, and transportation of soldiers by steamer.

ELSEWHERE: Putting the spurs to the immobile McClellan, President Abraham Lincoln supplements his “General War Order No. 1” with a special order to “seize and occupy” a point on the railroad near Manassas Junction. But will it make any difference to the stubborn McClellan?

Monday, December 31, 2007

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 1, 1862

“I…so signally failed”

It is New Year’s Day. From western Virginia, Capt. Tom Taylor of the 47^th Ohio sends his wife, Netta, a picture of himself as a “New Year’s gift.” Also in western Virginia, Lt. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes of the 23^rd Ohio is his usual cheery self, noting the weather was windy and threatening “as if a storm were brewing, but no rain or snow. I set it down as a pleasant day.” In Kentucky, Col. William B. Hazen prepares to take command of a brigade—6 regiments—as well as his own regiment, the 41^st Ohio. Elsewhere, it is business as usual for Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at his headquarters in Cairo, Illinois. He wrestles with problems with army bread, writes an order regarding transport of sick soldiers to and from a hospital, and wonders how to handle with “delicacy” a change of staff in his quartermaster’s department.

And at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman is suffering the miseries of the damned as he thinks back to the emotional flame-out in Kentucky which caused him to relinquish command.

I am here in a subordinate place whilst others occupy posts I ought to. I cannot claim them for having so signally failed in Kentucky and here I could not demand a higher place….The idea of having brought disgrace on all associated with me is so horrible to contemplate that I cannot really endure it.

Cump writes this to wife, Ellen (pictured above), in Lancaster, Ohio, to whom he now clings desperately as his emotional anchor…but he does not mention exactly what he means that he “cannot really endure it.” Three days later he tells his brother:

I am so sensible now of my disgrace from having exaggerated the force of our enemy in Kentucky that I do think I should have committed suicide were it not for my children.

How can Cump and his military career be saved?

Monday, December 10, 2007

ON THIS DAY: Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1861

“Hazen’s Humanity”

Col. William B. Hazen (right), commander of the 41^st Ohio, is widely regarded as a tough, demanding commander, one who practically ran his regiment ragged while it was in basic training and who continues to require his officers to attend class in military tactics, during which they are graded.

And yet Hazen is really a hard-nosed pragmatist, doing nothing without a reason, whether anybody else likes it or not. Having seen fighting in the Indian wars, Hazen understands the importance of good training and wants his men to be ready for battle. (Eventually, the men of the 41^st will come to understand the value of their training.) And, when Hazen sees how sick many of his men are in their new camp, Camp Wickliffe, about 30 miles from Louisville, he breaks the rules of the camp by sending the sickest men home.

As he will tell it after the war:

Our experience at Camp Wickliffe was perhaps the most dispiriting of the war. All the diseases to which new troops are most subject here afflicted us. Diarrhea, fevers, measles, and pneumonia attacked a large part of the regiment, and the fatality [rate] was very great.

“Whenever possible I sent the sick at once to their homes, and in so doing while violating the orders of the camp, I saved many lives; and now, when I go home, some one almost invariably relates how his life was saved by removal from Camp Wickliffe in the night, when no knew it.

By the end of the war, two out of every three deaths of both Union and Confederate soldiers will be from illness, not from combat. But thanks to Hazen’s hard-headed approach to managing soldiers, some lives will have been saved.

IN NEWS ELSEWHERE: On very shaky grounds indeed, the Confederate Congress today “admits” Kentucky and Missouri to the Confederacy, bringing the supposed number of Confederate states to 13—hence, the 13 stars on the Confederate flag. In fact, the Confederacy has no more than furtive, skeleton “government” in Kentucky and Missouri, which sometimes cling to bits of territory in their respective states and sometimes are forced into exile. In reality, neither Kentucky nor Missouri can ever be said to have really left the Union and, at its peak, the CSA will effectively include only 11 states.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author’s book, go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

Friday, November 30, 2007

ON THIS DAY: Saturday, Nov. 30, 1861

“Occasion for Congratulating Myself”

Col. William B. Hazen and his 41^st Ohio Volunteer infantry have just arrived in Kentucky.

By now, hard-driving, tough-minded Hazen has decided that one of the most promising men in his 41^st Ohio is a tall, balding ex-storekeeper from Warren, Ohio, named Emerson Opdycke (pictured above). Hazen is keeping an eye on him.

Today, Opdycke writes his wife, Lucy, to tell her of his arrival in Kentucky and to boast of how he has impressed Hazen.

The admiration is mutual. Opdycke likes Hazen’s no-nonsense approach to all things military and he models himself on the West Pointer. Like Hazen, he is strong-willed and quick tempered. Unlike West Pointer Hazen, Opdycke has no prior military experience.

Opdycke is first lieutenant of the 41^st Ohio’s Company A. He is vain, covets promotion, and hopes soon to become a captain of Company A. Only time will tell if this volunteer citizen-soldier will prove worthy of Hazen’s trust.

Only five days ago, the 41^st was stationed at Gallipolis, Ohio, to help keep an eye on western Virginia, just across the river. Now the regiment is at Camp Jenkins, about 6 miles from Louisville, where Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell makes his headquarters. An Ohioan, Buell commands the Army of the Ohio, of which the 41^st is now part.

In his letter to Lucy, Lieutenant Opdycke calls Camp Jenkins “a terrible mudhole.” He mentions the weather (cold, and it snowed last night) but says a stove purchased for $4.50 is keeping his tent warm. Then he gets to the most important news.

In the “regular classes for study and recitation” Hazen requires of his 32 officers, Opdycke ranks highest in Hazen’s grade book. “I see more real occasion for congratulating myself, [now] that I have gained as a honorable position as I...hold, “ he tells Lucy.

In fact, Opdycke is so confident of promotion that he tells Lucy he will turn down an offer—as yet, only hinted at—to join Brig, Gen. Jacob D. Cox’s staff in western Virginia as an aide. That would be an advancement of sorts and he likes Cox, but Opdycke thinks his prospects for advancement are better where he is now. And, although he doesn’t say so, he yearns for combat and considers western Virginia an unappealing backwater of the war—a sideshow.

Back in western Virginia, Rutherford B. Hayes and the 23^rd Ohio are settling into winter quarters at Fayetteville in the Kanawha region of western Virginia. In writing his wife today, Hayes betrays the condescending attitude some out-of-staters have developed for the region’s poor, isolated rural dwellers, now crowding into camp to take the oath of allegiance to the Union. “A narrow-chested, weakly, poverty-stricken, ignorant set,” he writes. “I don’t wonder they refuse to meet our hardy fellows on fair terms.”

Hayes’ harsh opinion is not unique. Many Ohio soldiers are dismayed by the poverty and lack of education of the citizenry here. Scattered among the region’s hills and valleys, many western Virginians live isolated lives of unremitting labor, forced to scratch out bare livings from small, hillside farms.

>>> In other news of the day, the British foreign secretary tells his ambassador to the United States to tell the Lincoln administration it must turn over the Confederate commissioners it captured on the high seas and offer an apology for the “Trent affair.” Otherwise, the ambassador will be recalled. In Washington, officials continue to fret over what to do.

As usual, skirmishing between Federals and Confederates continues to break out here and there, with no reports of in casualties in incidents in Missouri and western Virginia.

Monday, November 26, 2007

ON THIS DAY: Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1861

“A Second Great Army”

As the feisty Col. William B. Hazen’s 41^st Ohio prepares to leave Ohio for Kentucky, thousands of other Ohioans stay home but fight for the Union in their own way. They are the women of Ohio (right). Many are the mothers, wives, sisters, and sweethearts of the soldiers, but others are simply patriotic women who want to do their part.

And their part is an important one. Especially in the early months of the war, soldiers often lack even the basics in medical supplies, clothing and bedding, and food. This is especially true of the Western armies, which often dangle, poorly supplied, at the end of long, cumbersome supply lines. It is likely that some battles will not be won for the Union—let alone fought—without the support services of volunteer women.

As soon as the war broke out, women in cities, towns and villages across Ohio began meeting in farmhouse kitchens and church basements to roll bandages, knit socks, and can food. The Cleveland Soldiers’ Aid Society, possibly the first of its kind in the nation, sprang into existence within a week of Fort Sumter’s surrender. One of the Cleveland women’s first campaigns was a “blanket raid” (as they called it) during which they went cold-calling door to door throughout the city. In two days they collected a thousand donated blankets to give to a regiment of raw recruits who arrived in camp with only the clothes on their backs.

The Soldiers’ Aid Societies in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati morphed into three of the ten major branches of the United States Sanitary Commission, an early version of the Red Cross. [The name derives from the agency’s goal of reducing disease among soldiers by cleaning up their camps. Granted official standing by the Union government, “The Sanitary,” as it is nicknamed, provides a wide array of support services. Much of the labor is supplied by women.]

Across Ohio, hundreds of smaller aid societies in towns and villages channel the work of their hands to the main branches, which forward them to the western armies. Some women volunteer to do nursing in military hospitals both inside and outside the state. The work the women do is so important that a government official termed them “a second great army…working scarcely less earnestly and efficiently for the same great end” as the soldiers.

>>>In Boston, the local grandees throw a banquet in honor of Capt. Charles Wilkes, who commands the San Jacinto, the Navy vessel that stopped the British mail steamer Trent and removed Confederate envoys Mason and Slidell. That made Wilkes a national hero, but already members of the Lincoln administration are fretting about the potential for British anger. In Wheeling, delegates from throughout western Virginia begin meeting to write a constitution, part of an effort to win statehood from the Union government. Meanwhile, at two points in eastern Virginia, Union and Confederate troops skirmish, with Pennsylvania cavalrymen taking a few casualties. Another skirmish occurs near independence, Missouri, with no casualties reported.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

ON THIS DAY: Monday, Nov. 25, 1861

“The 'Northwest' Will End the War"

In war, things can change in the wink of an eye. Today is an example.

The day starts with Col. William B. Hazen, commander of the 41^st Ohio, stationed in Gallipolis, Ohio, preparing a lightning strike against Confederate raiders causing mischief in western Virginia. Hazen plans to cross the Ohio River and--uninvited and without orders--enter the region, properly the domain of Union Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans. Old Rosy is irritated by this bold interloper from Ohio, but Hazen—a veteran Indian fighter who fears no one—doesn’t care a fig what Rosecrans thinks.

Suddenly, Hazen receives orders from elsewhere to join Brig. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s new command, headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. The lightning strike into western Virginia is abruptly abandoned and Hazen begins barking orders in another direction. He takes a moment, however, to toss a last insolent message over his shoulder to Rosecrans’ headquarters: “I am not a little surprised at the tenor of your last dispatch,” he writes, annoyed by the busybody tone of that message. Saucily, he asserts that plans made by experienced Indian fighters who, like himself, know their business “invariably succeed.” Take that, General Rosecrans, and goodbye.

Hazen and his regiment are part of a troop buildup in Kentucky—just the thing that Buell's predecessor, William Tecumseh Sherman, had begged for. Ironically, Sherman has been gone from Kentucky only a few days.

Ohioans dominate in the Union's defense of Kentucky, a border state claimed by both sides in the war. Today’s edition of The New York Times reports the numbers in the Bluegrass State: 11 regiments from Ohio, 8 from Illinois, 7 from Illinois, 3 Pennsylvania, 2 from Wisconsin, and 1 from Michigan, 32 regiments totaling about 20,000 men. Moreover, the Times correspondent notes with satisfaction, another 10,000 men are nearby in Ohio’s biggest military camps, and 7 of those regiments are “ready to go.”

In both Kentucky and western Virginia, therefore, Ohio has supplied the largest number of troops. Ohio is the linchpin of the Union’s Western Theater operations.

>>> Meanwhile, near Washington, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s huge Army of the Potomac remains rooted in its camps, moving only for the elegant reviews that McClellan likes to stage for the Capital’s elite. The Times correspondent in Kentucky comments bitingly, “If the Grand Army of the Potomac will only take care of Virginia and Maryland, [the Midwestern states] will be more than a match for the other 10 secessionist states. Let the grand army stand still and the Northwest [meaning the Midwest] with the aid of the navy will end the war.”

Friday, November 23, 2007

ON THIS DAY: Sunday, Nov. 24, 1861

“The Best Hated Man”

His mustachios tapered down to dangerously sharp-looking stiletto points. His snapping dark eyes were so piercing that photographers almost always posed him looking off to one side. Trying to look at the man head-on simply would be too daunting to the viewer.

That’s William Babcock Hazen (pictured above), a brave and talented soldier without an ounce of tact. His friend Ambrose Bierce would call him the “Best Hated Man” he knew, and meant it as a compliment. Hazen knew his business. He just didn’t know how to hold his tongue.

Born in Vermont, Hazen grew up in Hiram, Ohio, where James A. Garfield was a close friend. A West Pointer and career army officer, before the Civil War Hazen served primarily in the Indian Wars and was severely wounded during a fight with the Comanches. While convalescing he was given light duty as an instructor at West Point, where he squirmed in frustration as the Civil War broke out without his participation.

By mid-September, however—probably with Garfield’s help and only after an appeal directly to President Lincoln—Hazen had won the colonelcy of the 41^st Ohio, then in training at Camp Wood near Cleveland. The newly minted colonel hit the parade ground running, issuing order in rapid-fire order on everything from cleanliness to haircuts. He drove his young charges mercilessly from reveille to lights out, seemingly as “insensible to fatigue as a threshing machine,” two veterans of those days recalled later. It was drill, endless drill, all day long with intervals during which the panting young soldiers had to study military books, on which they could be expected to be tested. "There was no idle time," as Hazen himself put it.

In mid-November, Hazen and the 41^st Ohio were ordered to Gallipolis, on the Ohio border with western Virginia. Hazen quickly demonstrated his tactlessness by treading on the toes of Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, who has responsibility for western Virginia. Today, Hazen, who is not under Rosecrans’ direct authority, is planning a lightning strike in Rosencrans’ territory with no regard for Old Rosy’s wishes on the matter.

Hazen’s hard-headedness, predilection for feuds, and fearlessness as a whistle-blower will win him enemies throughout the rest of his life (and some examples will be reported here at appropriate times). No one will ever doubt his courage, however.

>>> Skirmishing erupts at Johnstown and Lancaster, Missouri. A loyal Missouri infantryman is killed, two others injured. The Navy warship San Jacinto, carrying the captured Confederate envoys Mason and Slidell arrives in Boston, where the Confederates will be held in Fort Warren. Lincoln and his cabinet puzzle over what to do about them.

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