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Asahel Kidder Bush was born in New York in 1830. On June 16, 1855, he married Eliza A. Congdon in Washtensaw, Michigan. In the 1860, he was living in Michigan City, La Porte, Indiana. He enlisted on April 22, 1861 he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and on April 25, 1861, he was commissioned an officer in Company B, 9th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. On September 15, 1861, he was promoted to Captain. On July 29, 1861, he was mustered out at Indianapolis, Indiana and on September 30, 1861, he was commissioned an officer in the 4th Indiana Light Artillery. The 4th Indiana Light Artillery Battery was organized at Indianapolis, Indiana to serve three years. His battery consisted of two six pounders, two 12 pounders, and two James rifled guns.
During the battle of Perryville, at 2:30 p.m., the 4th Indiana Battery was brought forward, just as the Confederate attack became hot. Bush’s battery was located on the extreme left of Colonel John Starkweather’s brigade on the extreme left of the Federal First Corps, and went into line of battle faced to the northeast. Maney’s Confederate brigade, along with regiments from Stewart’s brigade, were joined by Captain William W. Carnes battery and Lieutenant William Turner’s battery. Carnes battery was positioned on the crest of the open ridge north west of Wilsons’ creek. From this position Carnes opened fire from the flank, on Starkweather’s line and more importantly were enfilading the artillery horse park. Turner moved up his guns to the Open Knob that was once occupied by Parsons’, now overrun battery. Turner began to shell the center of Starkweather’s line. With Bush’s and Stone’s batteries engaged, Carnes and Turner batteries both fired back, damaging one of Bush’s guns and killed or wounded a number of Union artillerymen and their horses.
The 4th Indiana took their position under heavy fire and several of the horses were shot before they were in position. Captain David Stone’s Battery A, 1st Kentucky Battery, which consisted of two six pounders, two Parrott rifles, and two James rifled guns, was located to Bush’s right and faced east. Bush’s and Stone’s guns were almost hub to hub. The 1st Wisconsin was in the rear of Bush’s battery as support. The 79th Pennsylvania was brought up and formed to the right of Stone’s battery, south of the Benton Road on the forward slope of the High Ridge with a wooded area in front. The 21st Wisconsin was placed in a field of standing corn south of the Benton Road and below Starkweather’s batteries, to link Starkweather’s line with Terrill’s men on the Open Knob. The 1st Tennessee, 27th Tennessee and 41st Georgia Infantry moved across the Benton Road toward Bush’s battery. The 1st Tennessee charged and Bush’s battery opened up against Patterson’s men. With one canister round, eight color bearers were killed. Lt. Col. Patterson was wounded in the hand. Patterson led his men under the crest of the hill and Bush could not lower his guns enough to reach Patterson’s men. The 1st Wisconsin moved closer to Bush’s battery. Elements of Maney’s brigade, composed of the 6th, 9th and along with the 5th Tennessee, of Stewart’s brigade, advanced through a cornfield and attacked the 21st Wisconsin. The 21st Wisconsin fired one volley at 4 rods through the tall corn, staggering the Confederates momentarily, and then fell back to Starkweather’s main line. The 5th Tennessee also came under the heavy fire of the 79th Pennsylvania Infantry at this time. To the right of the 5th Tennessee, the 9th, 6th moved through the cornfield and up the hill toward the Federal batteries. The 79th Pennsylvania, along with remnants of Terrill’s brigade and Stone’s battery fired on Maney’s men. The Confederate regiments fell back, but the 1st Tennessee moved up the hill toward Bush and the 1st Wisconsin. The 1st Tennessee forced the 1st Wisconsin back to the battery and a hand to hand combat broke out between the two regiments. Sam Watkins, Company H, 1st Tennessee, wrote “Our Lieutenant Colonel Patterson hallowed to charge and take their guns, and we were soon in a hand to hand fight-every men for himself-using the butts of our guns and bayonets. One side would waver and fall back a few yards and would rally, when the other side would fall back, leaving the four Napoleon guns; and yet the battle raged. Such obstinate fighting I never had seen before or since. The guns were discharged so rapidly that it seemed the earth itself was in a volcanic uproar. The iron storm passed through our ranks, mangling and tearing men to pieces. The very air seemed full of stifling smoke and fire which seemed the very pit of hell, peopled by contending demons. Our men were dead and dying right in the very midst of this grand havoc of battle. It was a life and death to death grapple. I cannot describe it.” i.
Starkweather had ordered Bush’s battery to limber up, but the horses dropped faster than Bush’s men could get them out of the harnesses and three men were wounded and one killed in attempting to fix the prolongs. Bush was able to get off the caissons and limbers and the 1st Wisconsin regiment pulled off only two of Bush’s guns. Stone’s battery managed to bring off all of his guns. Starkweather told the commanders of the 79th Pennsylvania and 24th Illinois to hold their positions in order to haul Bush’s guns to a safer position.
The 1st Wisconsin fell back and Bush’s battery fell into the hands of the Confederates. The 1st Tennessee did not pursue the 1st Wisconsin. During the confusion, the 1st Tennessee fell back down the hill to a ravine west of the Benton Road.
The 5th, 24th, and 33rd Tennessee attacked the 79th Pennsylvania and 94th Ohio, along with the 24th Illinois, and fragments of Terrill’s brigade. The 6th and 9th Tennessee along with the 4th Tennessee came to a stop in their attack by the Federal line, but the 1st Tennessee drove back the Federal line, which was anchored by the 1st Wisconsin. Two of Bush’s guns fell into Confederate hands. The 1st Tennessee, 27th Tennessee, and 41st Georgia advanced between a thinly wooded hill and another ridge that was planted with corn. On the second ridge Stone’s battery had taken position, along with Bush’s two remaining guns. Bush’s battery, Stone’s battery, the 79th Pennsylvania and the 24th Illinois opened fire on the 1st Tennessee.
Terrill sent Colonel Garrard’s Detachment to support Bush’s battery. General Terrill, former chief of artillery in McCook’s division, followed Garrard’s Detachment and there decided to man on of Bush’s guns as an example for Garrard’s Detachment. Shortly after, while trying to go forward to rally more men to the secondary line, he was mortally wounded when a shell fragment ripped open his chest.
Starkweather attempted to stabilize his secondary defense line, as main body of the 1st Wisconsin fell back to Starkweather, the colors fell. John Dunham, at the secondary line, jumped the fence and retrieved the colors. When he raised the Wisconsin colors in the valley between the ridges, the 1st and 21st Wisconsin surged forward to those colors, resulting in a counter attack on Maney’s position. Captain Bush managed to recover his lost guns. Sergeant John Dunham received a Medal of Honor for his actions.
With a flanking support fire from two companies of the 79th Pennsylvania, the 1st Wisconsin and 21st Wisconsin charged the 1st Tennessee and the 1st Tennessee fell back. Hand to hand combat broke out again between the contending regiments. The 1st Wisconsin captured the flag from the 1st Tennessee. The 4th, 6th and 9th Tennessee drove the Federals off the thinly wooded hill. The 5th Tennessee drove back the 79th Pennsylvania. As the 5th Tennessee was driving the Federals from the field, Companies B and C of the 1st Wisconsin were dragging away Bush’s remaining abandoned guns. The 1st Wisconsin regiment, which supported Bush’s battery, started out with five hundred men, but lost over three hundred men. The 79th Pennsylvania lost 220 men.
The 5th Tennessee advanced south of the Benton Road but came across strong opposition. Bush’s remaining two guns were positioned on a hill in a cornfield and fired on the 5th Tennessee. The 5th Tennessee came to a halt. On the 5th Tennessee’s right, across the Benton Road, the 6th and 9th Tennessee pushed the Federals back through the cornfield on the other side of the thinly wooded hill. Stone’s battery, which was two hundred yards to Bush’s left on the same hill fired on the approaching Confederates. The new Federal line consisted of Bush, Stone, 1st Wisconsin, fragments of the 121st Ohio, 79th Pennsylvania, 24th Illinois, and 21st Wisconsin and other companies of Terrill’s shattered brigade. The 4th, 6th and 9th Tennessee approached the Federal line. The 9th Tennessee pushed ahead and fought their way to the crest of the hill but they came under heavy fire from Stone’s battery on their right. They managed to get within fifty feet of Stone’ battery when they fell back. The 6th and 4th Tennessee advanced up the hill, but were also forced back. Maney advanced to the top of the summit of the hill, but they were not able to hold the hill and fell back. Maney’s regiments could do no more for the day. Bush’s and Stone’s battery along with the depleted brigades of Terrill and Starkweather fell back towards the Mackville Road. They formed a new Union line on a hill three hundred yards to the rear.
As night came on the musketry ceased and the only sound heard was an occasional gun from the 4th Indiana battery. The battery was “the only salute to the moon, riding full and red over the trees in the direction” ii. of the Confederate army. A. A. Starr of Bush’s battery walked the battlefield at 10 p.m. and saw the Federals and Rebels wandering around among the dead and wounded and ambulances were gathering up the wounded. According to Starr, he “doubted if there was a helpless man on the field by this time that had not been robbed. Our men, during the whole day, had suffered from thirst and every wounded man, with swollen tongue, would call for water.” iii. A party of Confederate cavalry slipped around the hill, captured several men that were on picket duty. At 1 a.m., the battery took a position on the Federal right. During the night, the battery gathered up horses, fixed harnesses, and packed ammunition for the expected battle the next day, but the battle never came. Confederate General Braxton Bragg pulled his army out of Perryville during the night. The next day, the burial detail began and Starr was on the battlefield three days later continuing to help with the burial detail and commented that hundreds of bodies were unburied. He commented that the Confederate dead with “their long hair, butternut clothes, and blackened faces looked bad.” iv.According to Starr, the battery lost twelve men killed and wounded and thirty-five horses were lost. The men killed during the battle were George Smith, Sergeant Hildebrant and Thomas Nugent. Among the wounded were Corporal A. Youngs, B. R. McClellan, W. T. Francis, C. Kasbeam, R. Rainer, James Ray, R. Tremaine, and Corporal G. Blair.
At the battle of Stone’s River, on December 30, 1862, Bush encountered the Confederates in full force, who retired to their entrenchments. The battery had a severe duel with one of the Confederate batteries at a distance of only 450 yards. The Confederate battery was silenced and forced to retire after a duel lasting two and a half hours. The battery lost four killed and three wounded. On December 31, 1862, the battery fought part of the day with General Phil Sheridan’s division and the rest with General James Negley’s division. Bush lost two men killed and fourteen wounded, two were taken prisoner and lost forty-three horses. On September 19 and 20, the battery fought at the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia. On September 29, 1863, Bush was mustered out and transferred to the Veterans Reserve Corps. When he mustered out, the battery was commanded by Captain Benjamin F. Johnson. The battery was mustered out in July of 1865. During the Civil War, the battery lost twelve men killed and one officer. v.
On March 13, 1865, Bush was brevetted major and on March 13, 1865, he was promoted to brevet colonel. Not much is known about Bush’s life until 1892, when he married his second wife Julia A. Carlie. By 1900, he was living in Westport, Chehalis, Washington, and was a doctor and local corner for Aberdeen, Washington. vi. He had a son William H. Bush from his first marriage and Silas Bush from his second marriage.vii. He died on November 24, 1902, in Aberdeen, Washington. According to the local newspaper, he was a pioneer physician for Aberdeen and died at his home. He was seventy-two years old. His burial service was conducted at his home and he was laid to rest by his comrades in the Garfield Post of the Grand Army of the Republic in the local cemetery. viii
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