56th Ohio Infantry Impression

[Timothy Hallman]

I was curious as to if any one had any research on the 56th? Pictures would be great.

[Stephen Lunsford]

Re: 56th Ohio Infantry Impression

Here is some information on the 56th Ohio at the Battle of Champion Hill, May 16, 1863:

From “Deeds of Valor,” edited by W.F. Beyer & O.F. Keydel, pages 184-185:

During the Vicksburg Campaign the Fifty-sixth Ohio Infantry was with Colonel J.R. Slack's Second Brigade of the Twelfth Division, Brigadier General Alvin P. Hovey, of the Thirteenth Army Corps, under Major General E.O.C. Ord. On the 16th of May, about noon, the Federal force attacked the Confederates at Champion Hills. The contest was bitter and stubborn for several hours but finally General Pemberton ordered his army to fall back towards Vicksburg. Thus closed the last and most strenuous effort of the Confederate general to prevent the complete investment of that city by Grant. The Fifty-sixth Ohio participated in the battle of Champion Hills, and Captain George Wilhelm, of that regiment, tells his experience as follows:

“The country over which we advanced on the enemy was hilly and wooded, with an occasional clearing in which we were raked by a most galling fire from the enemy's sharpshooters. I was ordered to deploy two companies of infantry as skirmishers. We were to advance across a clearing, and drive the enemy from the woods on the opposite side, where they were ensconced behind trees in large numbers.
We advanced amid a sweeping fire, and slowly gained on the enemy. During the skirmish I lost a number of men. Unable to maintain the ground I had gained, I turned back and joined my command, the Twelfth Division, Thirteenth Army Corps, in the general engagement.
The whole brigade charged upon the enemy, but we were not able to strike a decisive blow, although we had inflicted heavy losses on them. Five times a charge was made, and after each attempt we retreated part of the distance we had advanced. During the fifth charge, I received a shot in my left breast, the bullet going through me. I reeled and fell, and was left on the field.
Some time later, one of the Confederates rushed to the place where I lay, and taking me prisoner, brought me to the rear of their lines. At Baker's Creek I persuaded my guard to stop and allow me to attend to my wound. I managed to stop the flow of blood by bathing the wound, and the cool water revived my energy.
It was fearfully hot at the time, and I continued to gain new strength, while my guard paid more attention to the fight than to me. When I felt comparatively comfortable, I began to watch for an opportunity to escape. Once my guard turned his back on me; that was his mistake, for no sooner had he turned than I sprang forward, seized his musket and fixed it at his breast. Before he had recovered from his surprise, I ordered him to 'about face' and 'forward, march.' Then I led him by a circuitous route, to the rear of our lines. It wasn't very easy, for I could barely walk myself. My wound pained me considerably and made breathing very difficult. However, I did not betray my own troubles to my prisoner, and brought him safely to our lines, where I turned him over to the guard. Then I applied for medical aid at the hospital.”

From “Voices of the Civil War: Vicksburg,” by the editors of Time-Life Books, page 67:

Lieutenant T. J. Williams, 56th Ohio Infantry, Slack's Brigade
Williams' brother was one of the regiment's 138 men lost out of 350 engaged. Years later Williams wrote about the action for an Ohio newspaper. Soon after a “grizzled veteran” approached him on the street to praise his article, adding, “I was there, but not on your side, but a member of the Virginia battery...that you men stormed, and one of the few that escaped.”
Here follows Williams' account:

“The enemy, as was their custom, presented a stubborn resistance, and we had to fight for every foot of ground; we drove them, step by step, in our front, to a long corn field on top of the hill...; across this field they fell back rapidly to the Raymond road. Here, behind a strong rail fence they poured into us a deadly fire. After entering the field a short distance, the first of our company, Henry Richards, fell, shot through the brain. A little further along, as we halted to give them a volley, my brother, John Henry Williams, was shot through the heart. He had his gun at ready, about to take aim, and as he fell in death, he pitched his musket toward the enemy; it fell with the bayonet stuck in the ground, the stock standing up. Captain Williams instantly grasped the musket and gave the enemy its load. I saw my brother fall, there being but one man between us in the front rank of the company. I stooped over him for an instant, but he never moved; the fatal ball, like an electric flash, had blotted out his young life. There was no stop. The comrade on my left had his arm shot off. Other comrades in the company were being hit, but there was no halt. Closing up ranks we pressed on. We drove them in our front to and beyond the Raymond road; our brigade captured the Virginia battery at the junction of the roads. For a short time there was no firing in our immediate front, and by permission of our Captain I returned to my brother's body, thinking it would be my only chance. I spread his rubber blanket over him, which had been folded across his shoulder, and was perforated through the several folds by the ball that took his life.”


Here are some other excerpts on the 56th Ohio's actions at Champion Hill from “Champion Hill,” by Timothy Smith:

From pages 170-171:
Captain John Cook, commanding the 56th Ohio's Company K, had been too ill to march with his company but suddenly appeared at the front as his regiment awaited orders to attack. “He appeared very weak,” recalled Lieutenant Williams, “and our captain urged him to retire to the rear.” Cook would have none of it. “I am going in with the boys if it is the last thing I ever do,” he answered.

From page 258:
The sudden withdrawal of the 24th Iowa, with the earlier retreat of the 28th Iowa, left the 56th Ohio without protection on either flank. “Our right being uncovered, and having no support on our left, our regiment was forced to leave the fence, for which the enemy made a rush,” explained Williams. “In a moment we were under the most scorching fire from two or three sides. Under this fire our men fell thick and fast.” As the Buckeyes did their best to stem the Southern attack, Williams “witnessed the instant death of two of our gallant young officers, Lt. George W. Manring, of Company A, and Lt. Augustus S. Chutte, of Company D.” The Ohioans loaded and fired as they fell back, disgusted with their plight, explained Williams, “it being the first time for the Fifty-sixth Ohio to turn their backs to the enemy.” The men stopped “at every favorable opportunity...(to) give them a few rounds.” One opportunity arrived from behind a stump. Both Williams and Pvt. Richard T. Davis were using it for protection. When Williams stood to fire Davis chastised him for needlessly exposing himself. A second later the private fell without a word across the lieutenant's feet, his heart pierced by a minie ball.

From page 260:
The color guard for the 56th Ohio had not yet made it out of the cornfield when some hard-charging Rebels spotted the flag and decided to make a run for it. “Captain John Yochum, with a lot of the boys, came to the rescue,” explained Williams, “and the enemy were repulsed.” The captain—described by one of his men as “a thorough and polished soldier”--had served in the German army and was a stickler for discipline. The Ohioans were nearing the tree line when Cpl. Thomas S. Jones was shot through the leg and fell to the ground. The corporal pleaded with the passing Williams to help him, and the lieutenant dragged him into the brush. When some of Green's Arkansans spotted the effort they “made a rush for me, but I escaped,” forced to leave Jones to his fate.

From page 368:
Finding missing and dead friends became a priority for many of the survivors. “In every direction could be seen the lights carried by those in search of the wounded, as they moved among the trees,” recalled Lt. Richard Howard of the 124th Illinois. Some of them may have been from the 56th Ohio of Slack's brigade, which lost heavily that day with 20 killed, 90 wounded, and another 28 missing. The 56th's Lt. Benjamin Roberts took a squad of men to find every dead Buckeye and give him a proper burial. With torches high above their heads, the men scoured ground. “We...saw some of the awful sights of a battlefield,” remembered Lieutenant Thomas Williams. “One, always remembered, was a very large rebel, sitting with his back against a large stump, with more than a deathly pallor, having bled to death; and so many others,lying dead as they fell, friend and foe, now at peace.” And then the Ohioans began to find their dead friends. “We soon found our slain comrades, shrouded in their rubber blankets.” The sights witnessed “on that bloody field can never be forgotten,” wrote the young lieutenant. “Where our brigade stormed the enemy's battery [Waddell's] at the junction of the roads, the dead men and horses were in piles.”



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There are also several old threads on the 56th Ohio including this one posted by Eric Tipton http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?10695-56th-Ohio-Regimental-Leading-Up-to-Vicksburg