Letter – Chester Ellis, 4 January 1864

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Letter written by Sergeant Chester C. Ellis of Company H, 80th IL Volunteer Infantry, to his uncle from Whitesides, TN. Ellis says that his regiment has left the 11th Corps, and are now attached to the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 4th Corps, under the command of Colonel Grose of the 36th IN. He writes disparagingly of the “Potomackers,” with whom they fought at Lookout Mountain. Ellis describes the battle as the “grandest” and “coolest” thing he ever saw, and writes how the Army of the Cumberland and the Army of the Potomac stood side by side with General Joseph Hooker and the Eastern Corps. Ellis goes into great detail about the fighting, which lasted a few days. The day after Hooker stormed Lookout Mountain, his regiment marched to support Sherman. They were marching to Knoxville when they heard that Ambrose Burnside had defeated James Longstreet. Ellis describes a difficult march back to camp, beleaguered by cold weather and a lack of provisions. Some men marched barefoot when they wore out their shoes.

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Whitesides Tenn

Jan 4 1864

Dear Unkle

I received your kind letter when we got back to camp after the fight and was glad to hear from you again And I was glad but somewhat surprised to hear that you had been to Ill I did not get [Pru?]’s letter that you spoke of for 2 weeks after I recd yours. I am in good health and we are all in fine spirits the health of our regiment is excellent. We have left the 11th Corps and are permanently attached to the 3rd Brigade 1st Division 4th Corps. The Brigade is commanded by Col Gross of the 36th Ind. that regiment is here and I saw Mr Turner (I believe his name is) the other day. He has left the hospital &

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is with his Reg; We are are all well pleased with our situation for we did not like the Potomackers a bit but they fought like dogs at Lookout Mountain

We were all through the fight at Chattanooga but it happened to be our luck not to be engaged as a Reg: Althought we lost 7 men on our skirmish line ie wounded one (Lieut)

To take the battle from beginning to end it was the grandest as well as the coolest thing I ever saw We left our camp at Lookout Valley about 9 AM of the 22″ and went over to Chattanooga got there after dark the next morning we got up and found the town full of troops: We all knew what was to be done and it was plain to be seen for down on the plain not a mile distant the rebel picket lines

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and back of them were their camp in full view although they had moved a great many the night before. Their lines and ours were from 150 to 200 yds apart

We lay here until noon: And if a stranger had been along and seen us laughing and talking he would have said that we did not know that we were agoing into a fight that day

About 12, the troops were all brought out on to an open field of some 80 or 100 acres & there was about enough to cover it the different divisions were assigned their places, that was prettiest sight I ever saw. There the glorious Old Army of the Cumberland stood with one Corp of the Army of the Potomac side by side while still further on the right was Hooker with the other Eastern Corp and we all well knew

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that Sherman had gone 8 miles up the river to cross with 2 as good corps as ever shouldered a rifle. such determination I dont believe was ever expressed on the countenances of men as were there shown. you could look over that vast army and see men from almost every state & territory from Maine to California. And judgeing from the flags which waved there they were men of the true blue style for some of their flags had been so cut up in former battles, that had every shred been fastened together there would not have made 1/4 yard of cloth. the staffs were in some places almost cut in two by balls – yet they dared to carry them into another perhaps fiercer contest than ever before. About 1 PM some 8 or 10 Regiments commenced filing off down the hill to form a skirmish line Each regiment followed by 8 or 10 men carrying stretchers to bring back the wounded on. They had not been gone long until the cannon from Ft. Wood opened and then the sharp rattle of musketry announced that the ball was opened. in 20 minutes from the time the firing commenced back came the stretchers loaded with wounded

The men went off down the hill as cool as if they were going

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down there to cut wood: every man had when he started, the flaps of his cartridge box raised and buttoned on his coat so that his pills would be handy after they had been fighting some time we started and double quicked it down to the once rebel picket lines 7 found that our skirmishers had driven them from the first line of rifle pits we formed a line of battle & after maneuvering there some time night came on and we lay down and slept sound

The next morning (24″) we were aroused at 2 and after standing around sometime we again lay down and slept until 5. It was today that they shot so many of our skirmishers Sergt Millburn of our Co: was on

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the line at noon I got his dinner and took it down to him. I got up to within 60 yds of him he says “be careful Ellis theyll shoot you sure” he was standing behind a large tree, he came back and while he was eating his dinner I took his post And poked my head around the tree to see if they’d shoot. I was soon satisfied that they would by seeing the smoke of a gun & drawing my head back the ball came whistling past me And concluding that turn about was fair play I levelled my piece and took a pull at them and we had it turn about there for some time. It was playing Ante over on a pretty rough scale but there was some fun in it. While I was there they shot at the man on my right now “says he “you tried me a pull

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poke your skull a little further around the tree and I’ll try you a shot”. They would stand there & tell each other where they shot whether too high too low of too far to the right or left. If it had been me I would have left it to their own judgement & perhaps they would not have hit so often

About 3 oclock Hooker commenced storming Lookout. I thought I had head cannonading before but this surpassed anything I had ever before heard & they kept it up until 12 that night

The next day we marched 8 or 9 miles to the left to support Sherman who was giving them fits up there, we built rifle pits and lay there until next day when after the fog blew away rebs were gone. but for three days we

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here firing from different quarters as they were retreating towards Atlanta. We then struck out for Knoxville and got to within 15 miles of there when we found that Burnside had whipped Longstreet and the latter was retreating. We then turned back & got to our old camp on the 17″ Dec after the hardest marching we ever done. some of our boys marched 3 days barefooted their shoes being worn out & almost every morning the ground would be froze until 10 oclock yet you scarcely ever here a murmur from them. We marched 250 miles in 15 days counting every day that we marched and some we did not go over 8 miles. We had to forage nearly all our provision and when it comes to foraging for 3 army corps you can guess that it makes food scarce If we had went to Knoxville which I was in hopes we would I would have found Hubbard had he been there

Well Uncle I have strung this out about long enough and will quit by asking you to write soon

your Nephiew

Chet C. Ellis

Chester C. Ellis, from Rome, IL, enlisted on August 12, 1862 as a sergeant in Company H, 80^th IL Infantry. After losing heavily at Perryville, KY, the regiment was mounted as infantry in April 1863. Ellis was captured with his regiment at Blount’s Farm, AL on May 3, 1863 by Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command, but was soon paroled. The regiment was exchanged that fall, and Ellis and the 80^th IL participated in the Chattanooga Campaign as part of the 11^th Corps. In 1864, having been assigned to the 4^th Corps, they fought throughout the Atlanta Campaign, but on September 2, 1864 Sergeant Ellis was killed in action at Lovejoy Station, GA.

Letter – Isaac Miller, 21 November 1863

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Letter by Private Isaac Miller of Company E, 93rd OH Volunteer Infantry, to his sister, from Chattanooga, TN. Miller mentions that the Confederate troops are still out in front, though they haven’t shot from Lookout Mountain in two days and are losing many soldiers to desertion. He thinks that the Confederates will soon give up, and that the war will end if General George Meade defeats Robert E. Lee and takes Richmond. He predicts that if the Confederates remove some of their forces to reinforce Lee, they will get a “good drubbing” at Chattanooga.

Chattanooga Saturday November the 21, 1863

Dear Sister

I sit down this morning to answer your letter of the 7[th] which I received some time ago & I had to write to Dad about some money at the time and I thought it was nice [?] to write to both at once. This leaves me well, and hope it will find you all the same. It has rained all night, and is still raining, and it is getting very muddy. We have had very nice weather for some time. It has not been very cold down here yet, and I hope it won’t [be] soon. The Rebels are still out in front. They have not shot from Lookout for two days. I don’t know what they are about, but I think they are

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taking their guns off of it. They might as well, for they can’t do much harm with them, and their men still deserting them. I saw the pickets that came past our camp this morning – had one, and if they come in all around the whole line like they do in front of us they will soon lose their army. Three or four mornings ago it was awful foggy, and they say that there was five hundred came it all together. Their pickets could not see them, and they could get through. They have a hard time to get through. They don’t put any of them on picket that they think will desert. I see by the papers that France has come down on them and took some gunboats from them. I think that they will soon begin to see that they can’t do anything, and will give up.

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I don’t care how soon, for my part. I think that again [come] spring, they will be about started out, and if Meade whips Lee and takes Richmond, it will end the war. And if they take any of their men away from here to reinforce Lee they will get a good drubbing here, and maybe they will anyhow. Sherman is here from Vicksburg with a good force, and Hooker. I think we are able to fight them well. I will close. You write soon and give me all the news, and I will try and answer them. I guess the money has not come yet. It may be some time yet before Doc gets it. It was reported that Capt. Allen lost all he took. I did not like to risk him with much.

Isaac Miller

Isaac Miller, enlisted on August 5, 1862, aged 20, as a private in Co. E, 93^rd Ohio Vol. Infantry. He was mustered out of the army June 8, 1865 at Nashville, Tenn.

Letter – John Doty, 18 November 1863

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Letter written by Captain John S. H. Doty of Company E, 104th IL Infantry, to his brother Francis, from Chattanooga, TN. Doty writes about the weather conditions in Tennessee, and how he was recently paid and sent money home to Illinois. Confederate troops are nearby, but have not “attempted anything warlike.” The Confederates are stationed atop Lookout Mountain, which is several hundred feet higher than the Union’s location on Moccasin Point. He expresses the Union’s need to take Lookout Mountain, comparing the situation to the story of David and Goliath. Doty inquires after a friend, Sergeant Homer Wilson, and mentions how two of his own men are to be tried as deserters. He writes about the severity of General George Thomas, and states that Thomas and General Ulysses S. Grant are both good leaders, though General William S. Rosecrans (“Old Rosy”) is loved throughout the army.

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Chattanooga, Ten. No 18/63

Dear Bro. Francis

As yours came to hand last night and was very glad to hear from you all & that you were well, as I am very well at present, and this was as nice a day as ever you saw. It looks like the springtime in Ills. But yet we have had some very disagreeable weather here already – rain, mud, and cold. We were paid on Sunday last, and have sent part of my wages home to John, and suppose he has received it, or will by the time this reaches you. It will come by express from Springfield, Ill., as we sent by this way of an allotment roll from here to Springfield. From here we have an express office, and that was the only safe way we have of sending money home. The Rebels are here yet, but they don’t attempt anything warlike, except send a shell occasionally, and that is about all the little creatures attempt to do to us. They have wasted a great deal of ammunition, for they have fired from the [Lookout] mountain every day, or all

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most every day since we have been here, & I don’t think they kill a man once a month, or at least I have not seen them. You see Lookout Mountain is very high above us. It is only (2,700) two thousand seven hundred feet above the river, which runs up to the bottom, or foot, of it, and it is very uncertain business shelling from such a height. When we get on our highest hill or mountain [on Moccasin Point], they are still about 700 or 1000 feet above us yet. It stands there like a giant laughing at us. Although it is high as Goliath was above David, still he was reached. And with shell we can reach, and have reached 100 and 200 feet above, as you may call it, giant Lookout Mountain. It seems that their shelling from that mountain does not amount to much, or has not so far. Still, we will have to take that little knoll, as it is an important place for observation, which you know is a good thing where there is an army. And you see the R.R. runs by the foot of their mountain, and we want to use the road to bring our supplies to us, although we are doing very well at present, for we have possession within 3 mile, and can get the rations

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by the way of steamboat & wagons. But we must have that hill. We will say as David the poet said to Goliath of old: With a little stone I will make you fall. So our cannon will say to Lookout Mountain: We can throw shell so fast you cannot count them, and proud Rebels there on that little knoll, I will make you some day hunt your hole, and get down out of that, or some of you might get hurt. Excuse my poetry, for I did forget myself. You see a fellow gets to writing sometimes loses the subject. Frank, do you see Sergt. Homer Wilson in Ottawa, and how is his arm? It seems that it would be about well by this time, or is he in the hospital at Chicago? If he is well, he should be here, for it is not right for him to be back there if he is able for duty. Two of my co. are to be tried as deserters – Debolt & Dunn. It will go rather hard with Dunn, as he was arrested and returned under guard. But Debolt returned voluntarily. Genl. Thomas is rather severe. Give me Old Rosy yet, for I would just as soon trust him as any of them. Although Thomas is good, Grant is good too, but Rosecrans is, or was, loved by his men all through the army.

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John Parrott, a member of my co., is trying, or at least I have been trying, to get him a furlough to go home for a while, as he is not or has not been well for some time. The doctor just handed me an order to make out the discharge papers for one of my company, Thomas Abbott, as he is broke down. Tom was a very good soldier, but he is used up for some time now. Frank, you wrote me that Kate and Rebecca was going to write to me. Good, for I like to get letters from girls & they are just the very two or three I would like to hear from. Well, it is about time to close as news is scarce, and there is no use to write about nothing, is there? As this letter is of little importance on account of things. I will stop by saying give my love to all & tell them to write to me. Oh, I forgot to tell you I bought a new vest today, as I have been without one for about four months – for there was none to be had. But there are some here just came on. That is all, I believe. Write soon to me and I will ever remain your obdt. bro.

Capt. John S. H. Doty

John S. H. Doty was born at Carlisle, PA, and worked in Ottawa, IL as a carpenter. He enrolled at age 23 in April of 1861 with a three months’ regiment. He joined Co. E of the 104^th IL Volunteer Infantry as a captain on August 27, 1862. In the 104^th’s first combat at Hartsville, TN Captain Doty was captured, but soon escaped. Doty served throughout the 1862-63 TN campaigns, and soon after this letter was written led his company in the famous assault on Missionary Ridge. He was killed in action on July 20, 1864 at Peachtree Creek, GA, being shot five times. His last words were; “Tell my father that I die for the flag. Good bye boys.”

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 31 January 1864

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Letter of Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from Chattanooga, TN. Fogg writes that sutlers have come to camp, and retracts his previous request for money. He describes a scouting trip to McLenmore Cove where they rescued families of Union Home Guards who had been taken prisoner. Fogg writes that a cavalry expedition to Dalton found no Confederate troops, and that his regiment is still working on a bridge. The 92nd Ohio is working on burying deceased soldiers in the nearby National Cemetery, while other squads are fencing in the depot and repairing the railroad track to Knoxville. Fogg mentions family friends who have re-enlisted in the 40th Ohio, and were at Shell Mound since the fight at Lookout Mountain but are now guarding the railroad. Veterans from the 36th Ohio have begun to return home. Several deserters have been sentenced in a court martial. Fogg discusses the benefits of instating a draft and concludes by mentioning the recent arrival of sanitary stores.

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Chattanooga, Tenn. Jan. 31/64

Father

I have rec’d 3 or 4 letters from you within the last 10 days; 2 of them containing thread. There was enough in the first one to do me, as the sutlers have now come up. I wrote to you on the 17^th for some money. If you have not sent any, you need not now, for I can get along without it till we are paid again. I believe I have not wrote to you since the scout. We were out on a 3 days’ scout to McLenmore Cove. We started out on the 18^th and went up to where we came down the mountain in Sept. We camped there at the foot of the mountain on the night of the 18^th, and the next day we went a few miles farther and loaded up about 16 or 18 wagons

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with some Union families and their household goods, and came back to the place where we camped the night before. We camped there that night and returned to our camp at Chattanooga the next day. The families which we moved in are families of Union Home Guards, who have been taken prisoners by the Rebs. The Home Guards met to organize and elect officers, and the Rebs slipped in on them in our uniform, and took all but 5 or 6 of them. They shot some of them in the own door yard, stripped some of all their clothing, and made them double quick towards Dalton in their bare feet over the frozen ground. It rained the morning we started out there, and the road was very bad that day. But it froze up that night, and snowed a little.

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It thawed a little the next day, and froze up again at night, so we had pretty good walking back to camp. I understand that our cavalry have been out to Dalton and found no enemy there. Our regt. is still at work on the bridge. The 92^nd [Ohio] is engaged at the work of re-interring the bodies of soldiers who have been killed or died, and been buried near this place.

They are burying them in the National Cemetery near this place. There are also squads at work fencing in the depot, and repairing the track between here and Knoxville. And I think the [rail]cars will be running through to that point in a short time. This is a very lively place at present; nearly everybody appears to be doing something. I saw John Williams’ boys a few

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days ago. They are in the 40^th Ohio. Their division passed up the river. They have been at Shell Mound since the fight at Lookout Mt. They have all three re-enlisted, and expect to go home in a short time. They are going up to guard R[ail] Road between here and Knoxville for the present. The veterans of the 36^th (about 54 in number) started home a few days ago. Harrison Adney is one of them. None of the Salem boys in this regt. have re-enlisted yet. I believe Henry Pedin started home a few days ago on furlough. We have had about 2 weeks of the finest weather I ever saw at this time of the year. It realizes my former ideas of the “Sunny South,” but which all were put to flight by that cold snap in the fore part of the month.

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The deserters are catching it pretty hard at the court martial now in session. Three deserters in Co. B were tried a few days ago. They don’t know their sentence yet. Bill McKey is sentenced to one month’s hard labor, and lose 10 month’s wages. His sentence is light. Some have to work 6 months, lose a year’s pay, and after they have worked out their sentence, return to the regt. and make up for all the time they have lost. All your arguments in favor of big bounties for volunteers look to me as though they might be used as arguments on the other side. If the novelty of the thing has worn off and volunteering is a drag, why not draft at once save time and money, and bring out some of the Copperheads into the ranks who never will be there unless they are drafted, or get more than their services

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are worth in the shape of a bounty. If the draft had come off 6 months ago, there would not have been so many loafing soldiers at home pretending to recruit for months at a time when their services are needed in the field. I think the veterans ought to have twice the bounty that a raw recruit gets, for a veteran is worth more to the gov’t than 2 new recruits. Almost every regt. in the service lost more than half their no. before they ever done any service to the government. A regt. will lose one half its no. in getting seasoned to the service.

Some sanitary stores have reached this place, and the sick and wounded in the hospitals in town have had the benefit of some of them. And the hospital attendants and officers are living in closer. They can afford to be generous when they have more than they can use themselves.

Cecil Fogg

Cecil Fogg enlisted in Company B of the 36^th OH Volunteer Infantry on August 12, 1861 at Marietta, OH at the age of 20. He served through his three year term of service and re-enlisted for the war, but was mustered out July 27, 1865 based upon a surgeon’s certificate of disability. The 36th served in West Virginia in 1861, and participated in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam as a part of the 9^th Corps before being transferred west in January 1863. As a part of the Army of the Cumberland’s 14^th Army Corps (George H. Thomas), the regiment fought at Chickamauga and later in the Atlanta and Savannah, GA (March to the Sea) Campaigns.

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 21 December 1863

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Letter written by Private Cecil Fogg of Company B, 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to his father from Chattanooga, TN. Fogg mentions the recent battle at Chattanooga. He has been at work clearing the ground for a National Cemetery between Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge, and can hear the Engineer Corps blasting as they work on the road around Lookout Mountain. The troops are on reduced rations until the railroad is completed. General William T. Sherman’s 15th Corps recently passed through as well as General Joseph Hooker’s troops. Fogg describes them as being in “destitute condition.” He mentions a letter printed in the Nashville Union from the 2nd Minnesota Regiment, which describes the battle at Missionary Ridge on November 24th and “straightens up” a misleading account written by a member of the 6th Indiana. He states that the 11th Ohio’s flag was the first one in the Confederate works, though it was his division led by Absalom Baird which engaged the enemy in hand to hand combat.

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Chattanooga, Tenn. Dec. 21^st 1863

Father

I rec’d yours of the 11^th yesterday. There is nothing of importance going on here at present. I have written to you twice since the last battle [Chattanooga]. I also sent you a Nashville Union and Louisville Journal, and will send another by this mail. The Union is the anti-slavery paper of this section, and sells the quickest among the soldiers in this army. But the news dealers will persist in bringing on Nashville papers, Dispatches, Louisville Journals, etc., and consequently they have large quantities of them left over which they have to sell at reduced prices for waste papers, etc. The price of newspapers has been reduced from 10 to 5 cents here lately. There are no

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sutlers here, and therefore we have to do without some little necessary articles as well as conveniences. I wish you would send me a skim of thread in a letter the next time you write. The Engineer Corps are at work day and night at the road around Lookout [Mountain]. We could hear them blasting rock all night last night. The river is up higher than it has been before since we came here, and it has been very cold for a few days. About a week ago there was a hard thunder shower, with some of the loudest thunder that I ever heard. It rained 2 or 3 days and then turned in very cold. I was at work one day last week clearing off the ground for a National Cemetery. One-hundred of our regt. done the first day’s work on it. It includes almost 30 acres

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and is on a knoll about halfway between Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge, to the right of “Orchard Knob,” the Knoxville R.R. running just on this side of it. We are still on ¾ rations, without any prospect of any more than that until the R.R. is completed to this place. Sherman’s (15^th) Corps passed down the 18^th, but I did not get to see the boys in the 53^rd [Ohio] as I was out at work that day.

Hooker’s men passed down the day before, and they were in very destitute condition. A great many of them were bare-footed, and many of them had no blankets. They left their knapsacks here when they went up the river. They lived off the country nearly altogether, they said, having drawn only 2 day’s rations from the gov’t since they left here (about the 28^th of Nov.). In the Nashville Union

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of the 17^th, which I send [to] you, is a letter from a member of the 2^nd Minn. Regt., which partly straightens up a very exaggerated and partial account of the battle of the 24^th [of November – Missionary Ridge], which was written by a member of the 6^th Ind, (Johnson’s Division) who doesn’t do any fighting himself, but stands back at Ft. Wood till the battle is over, and then tells about what “we done” at Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Our brigade was not in the advance when the charge was first attempted on Ms. Ridge, but we were on top of the ridge as soon as any of them on our part of the line. The flag of the 11^th Ohio was the 1^st one in the Rebel works on our part of the line. Our regimental flag was not there, or it would have been on the ridge as soon as any of them. It was our division (Baird’s) which engaged the enemy in that hand to hand fight on the left just about sundown after we had driven them a half mile out along the ridge. My overcoat has not arrived yet, but I suppose it is safe as it is in the hands of the Express boat.

Cecil Fogg

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Letter – Chester Ellis, 4 January 1864

Letter – Isaac Miller, 21 November 1863

Letter – John Doty, 18 November 1863

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 31 January 1864

Letter – Cecil Fogg, 21 December 1863