Journal History of the Twenty-Ninth Ohio Veteran Volunteers, 1861-1865 / Its Victories and its Reverses. And the campaigns and battles of Winchester, Port Republic, Cedar Mountain, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Lookout Mountain, Atlanta, the March to the Sea, and the campaign of the Carolinas, in which it bore an honorable part

by J. Hamp SeCheverell

CHAPTER XVIII.

Battle of Peach Tree Creek—Some of the “boys” go to Andersonville.

On the morning of July 20th, just as old Sol was tinting the east with his rosy hue, our army began a general forward movement, the Twentieth corps in this advance being on the right centre, the Fourth corps left, resting on our right, and Newton’s division (Fourth corps) connecting with our left. Slight skirmishing ensued early in the morning, but towards noon the enemy retired. The unbroken stillness which followed caused us to advance cautiously lest the rebels draw us into an ambush. On reaching Peach Tree creek, a narrow, sluggish stream, whose abrupt banks, covered with briars and a dense, almost impassable undergrowth, would be a fatal barrier to a routed army, especially as the stream was without bridges, the entire command came to a halt until crossings could be constructed. Previous to the crossing of the main line General Geary ordered forward a force in reconnoissance, consisting of the Twenty-ninth Ohio, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania, a detachment of the Thirty-third New Jersey, and four pieces of Bundy’s New York battery, Geary himself following and directing the movement. When once across we advanced over several rough sparsely wooded ravines until reaching an eminence overlooking a narrow, open valley on our front and left. Immediately on our right front was a piece of heavy timber, extending also on our rear. The ridge directly in our front was covered with a thick undergrowth, affording a fine position for an ambuscade. Our force was now brought to a halt. Bundy’s battery was hastily put into position on the ridge to cover the valley. The Twenty-ninth Ohio assumed position on the right, and the Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania on the left of the battery. D. E. Hurlburt, captain of company K, had charge of a detail from the Twenty-ninth and Sixty-sixth Ohio regiments in the skirmish of the timber, so he states.

The detachment of the Thirty-third New Jersey deployed as skirmishers across the valley in our front, General Geary and staff following closely in its rear. While they were advancing, we hastily constructed a light barricade of fence rails, and Bundy prepared his battery for business. We anxiously watched General Geary and the skirmishers as they cautiously moved up the ridge.

When within a few yards of the underbrush a large force of rebels came from cover, and with wild yells rushed forward. Captain Bundy at once opened fire upon them, which threw them into disorder, but did not check their advance. As Geary and staff passed over our line his chief, Captain Elliott, fell from his horse, shot dead. Geary shouted to us, “A general engagement! a general engagement! My brave men hold to your position. I will send support to you.” He was answered with rousing cheers. When the little remnant of the skirmishing force had come in we commenced a rapid fire in connection with Captain Bundy’s double-shotted guns, which speedily thinned the advancing columns of rebels, but without avail, as the breaks were at once filled with fresh troops. As the rebels attempted to close with us our men seemed to be endowed with the valor born of desperation, and clubbed them back. Forward they came, a dense mass of living fire, and bravely we sustained the shock of twenty times our number. The sharp rattle of musketry, the loud roar of Bundy’s guns, and the defiant shouts of the combatants, in close hand to hand conflict, can never be erased from the tablets of memory while life shall last. It was grandly, awfully terrible.

A dense smoke settled around the battery and enclosing the extreme left of the regiment, hid the position of our right. Suddenly firing begins on us from our rear. The cannoniers are disabled and the infantry are called upon to work the guns, which were instantly turned to the rear upon heavy masses of rebels advancing from the woods on our flank. The greater part of our regiment had discovered this movement in time to change front to rear, but were instantly forced back by the overwhelming numbers of the rebels, and those in charge of the battery were instantly surrounded by a powerful mob of yelling fiends. Still the double-shotted guns continue to belch forth fire and death, cutting great gaps in the ranks of the enemy at each discharge.

At the guns’ front, with muskets clubbed, a hand to hand conflict was had, to allow the reloading of the guns. The situation was now most desperate. A cordon of the enemy hemmed in the brave band, now reduced to but seventy men, whose ammunition was exhausted, and at last they were forced to surrender the battery. Henry Rood, of company A, and Henry E. Clark, company B, are the only names the writer has been able to secure of those captured at this time.

General Geary came up soon after, charged the enemy and recovered the battery, which was instantly turned upon the rebels, causing great destruction. The prisoners were, however, too far in the rear for recapture, and they were conveyed to that loathsome earthly hell, Andersonville. What they endured, the cruelties of the studied starvation by express order of chivalric Jeff Davis, and the horrible atrocities accorded to defenseless prisoners by the Southern opponents in this unholy, ungodly conflict, the writer will not attempt to describe; language fails in the recital. Loss: Killed, two; wounded, seven; captured, five; total fourteen.