Steve Raymond - In the Very Thickest of the Fight: The Civil War Service of the 78th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment

To Those Who Served

Copyright 2012 by Steve Raymond

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, CT 06437.

Layout artist: Sue Murray

Project manager: Ellen Urban

Maps by Melissa Baker, Morris Book Publishing, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN 978-0-7627-8283-3

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE I FOUND THE LETTER. HIDDEN IN A collection of old papers, it was obviously much older than the others, a fact confirmed by its date, August 10, 1863. It had been written by Capt. Maris R. Vernon, commander of Company K of the 78th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, requesting a furlough for Sgt. Jonathan Butler, one of his men.

Butler, the letter said, had for the last month been unfit for duty, sick in the regimental hospital... Sergt. Butler has had little or no sickness prior to this since entering the service. He has always been with the regiment on the march, and without regard to weather has ever discharged his duties in a prompt and soldierly like manner. A furlough would not only benefit him in health and spirits, but would also afford him an opportunity to arrange his business matters at home in a more satisfactory manner for absences. Sergt. Butler has never before asked for a furlough.

As Civil War letters go, this one was not unusual; there were probably thousands like it. Nevertheless, it challenged my curiosity. Who was Jonathan Butler, this soldier who had always been with the regiment and discharged his duties faithfully? What illness confined him to the hospital? What business did he have at home? Was his furlough granted?

And who was Captain Vernon? The letter made it clear he was an educated man who wrote well. It was also clear he cared enough for his men to write such a letter. What was his story?

For that matter, what was the story of the 78th Illinois Volunteer Infantry? In years of studying the Civil War, I had encountered few references to this regiment. Had it spent the war in obscurity? Or merely suffered from lack of a historian to record its exploits?

I decided to try to answer these questions.

At first I searched casually, finding scraps of information here and there and filing them away in a folder. Membership in the Puget Sound Civil War Roundtable brought contact with other members who provided some information, but for a long while my folder remained thin. The Internet, which had been little more than an idea when I started my quest, provided a gradually increasing source of further information and contact with others interested in the 78th Illinois, mostly descendants of men who served in its ranks. From them and other sources I learned of a few published diaries or memoirs and was able to find copies. Through diligent detective work, I tracked down other diaries or letter collections in libraries around the country and obtained copies with the generous help of archivists at these institutions.

Bit by bit, my collection of information on the 78th grew until it occupied not just a single folder but many, and I realized what had begun as a casual search had become an obsession. I also realized I was on the track of a remarkable story, for the 78th Illinois had a very unusual history. It got off on the wrong foot in nearly every way possible, serving under a lackadaisical colonel who was often absent, feuded with his officers and superiors, ended up in arrest, and finally retreated to his tent and did nothing. The regiment was issued ancient rifles, including many that didnt work, and those that did work were almost as dangerous to their users as they were to the enemy. The regiments companies were posted separately as guards at railroad bridges, which prevented the regiment from drilling and learning to maneuver as a unit. The companies also were beyond mutual supporting distance, so the Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan was easily able to capture two of them. Reduced in numbers, devoid of leadership, distrusted by senior officers, the 78th became a regiment that was always left behind when others went to the front. For the first year of its existence, it fired few shots in anger.

But after the regiments reluctant colonel was finally forced to resign, his second in command, Lt. Col. Carter Van Vleck of Macomb, Illinois, took over. Van Vleck, a forceful, no-nonsense officer, had been in command only a short time when every available regiment, even the 78th, was called to take part in the campaign to capture Chattanooga. The 78th, part of Maj. Gen. Gordon Grangers Reserve Corps, was summoned urgently to assist Maj. Gen. George Thomas in his desperate defense of the Union left during the second day of the Battle of Chickamauga. And there, in its first real test of combat, the regiment charged up Horseshoe Ridge, drove a veteran Confederate force from its crest, then held against furious counterattacks, helping Thomas earn his sobriquet, the Rock of Chickamauga. The 78th lost nearly one hundred men that day and ended up under temporary command of a lieutenant, but never again would anyone ever question its bravery or spirit.

The 78th later joined the pursuit of Confederates retreating from Missionary Ridge, then made the brutal winter trek to relieve Union forces besieged at Knoxville. As part of the XIV Corps in the Army of the Cumberland, it joined Shermans campaign against Atlanta and fought at Buzzards Roost, Resaca, Rome, and Dallas. It behaved heroically in the assault at Kennesaw Mountain, fought in battles around Atlanta, and achieved perhaps its greatest moment when its determined soldiers braved showers of canister to capture a rebel battery and a Confederate general at Jonesboro.

The 78th then joined Shermans March to the Sea and was in the thick of the action at the final great bloodletting at Bentonville, North Carolina. After the Confederate surrender, the regiment marched to Washington, D.C., and stepped proudly through the city as part of the Grand Reviewa tough, veteran regiment that had overcome great adversity to forge a record that inspired other soldiers to call it the Old, Reliable 78th.

Uncovering this remarkable story was a deeply satisfying experience, though some questions remain unanswered. I was able to learn what ailed Jonathan Butler and what became of his requested furlough, but found little else about him. If he wrote letters home during the war, apparently they did not survive, so he is seen here only as others saw him. As for Maris Vernon, he was later promoted to lieutenant colonel and his terse reports appear in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. A few of his letters also survive. But the man himself remains mostly a mystery.

Fortunately, however, the words and deeds of many other soldiers of the 78th Illinois Volunteer Infantry have been preserved, and their individual stories are as fascinating as the story of their regiment. Their letters and other sources also provide previously unreported details of the fighting at Chickamauga, Kennesaw Mountain, Jonesboro, and other actions and incidentsdetails new to history.