 |
|
|
Captain Oscar Pinney,
5th Wisconsin Light Artillery, and the Battle of Perryville
|
|
|
|
The 5th Wisconsin Light Artillery was recruited and organized at Camp Utley, Racine, Wisconsin, under Captain Oscar Pinney, of Monroe, Green County, and mustered into service, on October 10, 1861. Captain Pinney was born on October 31, 1819, in Waterbury, Washington County, Vermont. He was in the United States Army for five years and was in Florida during the Seminole Campaign and participated in the Mexican War. In August of 1861, he was commissioned by the Wisconsin governor as a captain of artillery and authorized to raise a company of 150 men for three years. Washington Hill was commissioned First Lieutenant, Charles Humphrey was commissioned Second Lieutenant, and Almon Smith was commissioned Third Lieutenant.
On March 15, 1862, the battery left St. Louis, Missouri and arrived the next day and proceeded to Cairo, Missouri, where they arrived at Bird’s Point. The battery boarded trains and arrived at Sykestown and marched to New Madrid, Missouri and on March 22, the battery reported to Union General John Pope. They constructed earthworks at New Madrid and remained until the surrender of Island Number 10. On April 19, the battery landed at Hamburg, Tennessee and were ordered to Corinth, Mississippi. After the evacuation of Corinth, the battery was assigned to Union General Jefferson Davis’ brigade. By August 1862, the battery marched into Nashville, Tennessee. The battery was ordered to Louisville, Kentucky and joined Union General Don Carlos Buell’s Army of the Ohio. The battery was attached to Union General Jefferson Davis division, but due to Davis’s illness, the battery was attached to General Robert Mitchell’s division, under Colonel Michael Gooding’s brigade. Gooding’s brigade comprised of the 59th, 74th, 75th Illinois, and the 22nd Indiana Infantry and Pinney’s battery. The 59th Illinois and 22nd Indiana were veteran regiments, but the 74th and 75th Illinois were brand new regiments, which had never performed battalion drill or fired a musket.i. Pinney’s battery consisted of two 12 pound howitzers, two 12 pound mountain howitzers, and two 12 pound Parrott rifles.ii. On September 27, 1862, while in Louisville, Pinney wrote to his wife Eliza that he was “well, but pretty well tired out. . . . We have had a very severe march all through those states. . . . all the people our enemies. . . . my horses are quite reduced. . . . no danger in Louisville at present. . . . When we came in the city, the people were all standing with bread and pies, cigars, etc. giving to the soldiers.” On October 1, 1862, the 5th Wisconsin battery marched out of Louisville with Mitchell’s division and headed towards Bardstown, Kentucky.
On October 6, General Robert Mitchell’s division, along with the 5th Wisconsin’s battery, started from camp in Bardstown and marched twenty-two miles and camped six miles east of Springfield, Kentucky. The heat and the lack of water slowed the progress of the Union army. On the morning of October 7, Mitchell’s division in advance, with the first section of the 5th Wisconsin battery, under Lieutenant Hill, was sent to the front to skirmish with the Rebel’s rear guard of cavalry and artillery. The Confederates resisted the Union advance, but every time the Confederates tried to make a stand a well-directed artillery fire caused them to retreat. During the afternoon, the battery reached Perryville, three miles outside of town, where the road ran down a hollow, and the division formed into a line of battle, with two brigades on a ridge to the left. A mile in advance, Sergeants Elijah Booth, Jr. and James Graham, with two guns from the 5th Wisconsin, engaged three Confederate guns and an artillery duel broke out for several hours and the Confederates had to change their position three times and finally the Union guns silenced them, driving the Rebels from the field.
During the night on October 7, divisions of Union troops came up the road and another division passed a mile to the front and formed into line of battle. On October 8, at dawn, skirmishing began and fighting broke out over obtaining water. A small creek was discovered by the Union advance and Union Colonel Daniel McCook’s brigade was ordered to drive the Confederates back and secure the water source. After a sharp fight, McCook took the creek. The Rebels were reinforced and tried to push McCook’s brigade back, but McCook was supported by Union General Phil Sheridan’s and Mitchell’s divisions and repulsed the Rebels.
From morning until 2 p.m., the 5th Wisconsin battery was quiet. Sergeant William Ball, of the 5th Wisconsin, wrote that the battery “waited in line of battle and listened with impatience for the renewal of the struggle. Then our brigade (Col. Gooding commanding) was ordered to move within close supporting distance. We were ready and but a few minutes elapsed before we started. We marched on down the hollow perhaps a mile and took position in a cornfield to the left of the road.” iii. According to Ball, to the battery’s left and to the front was a large grove. To the front and right was a high ridge bent back like a bow. The top and part of the sides were covered with timber.
|
|
|
|
By 5 p.m., the battle had been raging for several hours and General Alexander McCook’s 1st Corps began to take heavy casualties, including his command structure. On the Union left, Union General James S. Jackson, 10th Division commander, General William Terrill, 33rd Brigade commander, under Jackson, Colonel George Webster, 34th Brigade commander, under Jackson, had been killed and Union Colonel John Starkweather’s 28th Brigade, under General Lovell Rousseau, was under heavy assault and slowly was forced back. The Union left was collapsing and forced back towards the Dixville Crossroads. On the Union right, General Lovell Rousseau, 3rd Division commander, and his two brigades under Colonel Leonard Harris and Colonel William Lytle, had also been forced back under Confederate assaults towards the John C. Russell house. The firing on Pinney’s left became closer. Union General Charles Gilbert, commander of the III Corps, and his staff rode by Pinney’s battery with orders that McCook must be reinforced by Colonel Michael Gooding’s brigade or they will lose the battle on that part of the field. The 74th Illinois received orders to guard Rebel prisoners and thirteen wagon loads of ammunition and ordered to the rear, which left only three regiments to protect Pinney’s battery, which was the 75th Illinois, the 59th Illinois, and the 22nd Indiana. The regiment filed off through a grove on the left and the 5th Wisconsin limbered up and followed the regiment. They marched through a grove and reached a lane running east and west. A quarter of a mile ahead was the Union line of battle. The battery moved down the lane and a body of cavalry were drawn up in line were ready for a charge. A little further ahead was what was left of a regiment, which passed to the rear. According to Ball’s account of the battle, he saw strung alongside the roadside blankets from the men of the brigade as they cast off their blankets during the hot autumn day. Beside the road were wounded men, brought off the field by two of their comrades. Just ahead was General McCook and his staff. According to Ball, he heard McCook say to Captain Pinney: “We have whipped them on the right and center [of his corps] and I think this brigade [meaning ours] will turn the scale on the left. You are just in the nick of time.” iv.
He showed Pinney where to plant his battery. The place chosen was on an elevation overlooking the country east of the Union battery. Directly in front three hundred yards away was a frame house. To the left of some woods, McCook ordered Union infantry into the woods. To the right and further off a ridge, the Confederates had a battery. To the right of their battery was a burning house, which was more than likely Henry P. Bottom’s barn. The 5th Wisconsin unlimbered on the edge of some woods to the right of the lane, the Confederate shells began to burst all around the men of the 5th Wisconsin. There was only room for five guns, so the sixth gun remained idle. The 5th Wisconsin opened fire and the shots rang out. According to Ball, the men of the 5th Wisconsin “load and fire with such rapidity, coolness, and precision that they afterward received praise from all who saw them. Their fire was terrible to the enemy.” v.The Confederate battery had to change their position twice. The Rebel infantry tried three times to take the 5th Wisconsin battery, but Ball wrote that “by the sturdy valor of our support and by the destructive fire we pour upon them, they fall.”
A member of the 5th Wisconsin wrote to the Monroe Sentinel newspaper that the Rebel infantry “made a charge upon us but were driven back every time with terrific loss. Our guns were double shot with canister and they fell before it as grass beneath a scythe. They were every time compelled to break and run before and run before they had hardly reached the middle ground between us. They were literally mowed down by the terrible fire of canister-nothing could stand it.”vi. According to Colonel Michael Gooding, commanding the 30th Brigade, he wrote that the brigade fought “alone and unsupported for two hours and twenty minutes, opposed to the rebel General (Sterling) Wood’s entire division, composed of fifteen regiments and a battery of ten guns. Fiercer and fiercer grew the contest and more dreadful became the onslaught. Almost hand to hand they fought at leave five times their own number, often charging upon them with such fearlessness and impetuosity as would force them to reel and give way, but as fast as they were cut down their ranks were filled with fresh ones. At one time the 22nd Indiana charged on them with fixed bayonets and succeeded in completely routing and throwing them from their position on our right, but at the same time they brought in a reserve force on our left.” vii.
An hour passed and the sun had set. The Union support on the left was compelled to fall back. The 59th Illinois Infantry, which was on the extreme left, was outflanked and retreated to a rail fence in the rear, reformed, but did not fire because their comrades were falling back one after another to keep from being taken prisoners. The 22nd Indiana Infantry followed soon after and the 75th Illinois left the field. They all marched west up a ravine to the left of the battery and went back to their old position in the reserve. The fleeing Union soldiers reported that the 5th Wisconsin had been captured.
During the battle, Colonel Gooding, commanding the brigade, was taken prisoner. Lt. Colonel Squire Keith, commander of the 22nd Indiana Infantry, was killed. The 5th Wisconsin continued to fire on a Rebel battery, but by 8 p.m., darkness settled on the battlefield and the battery seized fire. The Rebel battery fired with a single gun and then all became quiet.
After the battle, Captain Pinney reported William Sparks, of the 5th Wisconsin was wounded and Private John F. Smith was killed. After the battle, the 5th Wisconsin remained in position for an hour, then an officer rode up and told the battery they should limber up and be ready to move back through the lane to the rear, because reports filtered in that the Confederates were in the woods taking the wounded prisoners and paroling them. The 5th Wisconsin limbered up and just as they were going to move out three Rebel infantryman opened fire with their muskets and the men of the 5th Wisconsin were taken by surprise. The shots came from Rebel skirmishers who advanced out of the woods on the battery’s left front. Captain Pinney shouted: “Unlimber and give them canister. By God I will show them what we are.” The battery unlimbered and were ready to fire, but never saw the enemy. The battery limbered up again and slowly moved back. They passed a few stragglers and part of a disabled battery of four guns, which fell into Confederate hands during the battle, but the Confederates could not take them off the field. The 5th Wisconsin reached the high ground at the head of the lane and went into battery formation. During the night, the men buried their comrade Private John Smith. The battery marched back through a skirt of woods and took position in a cornfield. They passed five regiments and three batteries, which belonged to Union General Thomas Crittenden’s Corps, which were sent to reinforce McCook’s corps, with Union General George Thomas accompanying the troops.
When daylight arose over the battlefield on October 9, the 5th Wisconsin took up a line of march and passed over the battlefield. Ball stated that he “saw one soldier with his head blown off by a shell or cannon ball, nothing being left but a portion of his lower jaw; another was literally cut in two by the same means. We discovered a good many rebel dead behind a rail fence. I saw a good many hundred muskets thrown down in line and left by a regiment or brigade of rebels, who must have become panic stricken by our cannonading and fled.” On October 10, Captain Pinney wrote while camped on the battlefield near Perryville, that he had been “in a hard fight. Although I am safe as yet I lost one man killed by name of Smith, one man wounded, three horses killed. I was in the fight two hours and twenty minutes without any support at all from any infantry whatever. I cannot tell what our loss is as yet but I do know it is very severe. The dead are not yet buried nor all the wounded taken up yet. . . . it is an awful sight to go around and see the legs and arms and men with no heads on them. My battery saved McCook’s division from being destroyed . . . . I am the luckiest man in the world; General McCook sent for me this morning and wanted to appoint me Chief of Artillery of his whole division but General Mitchell would not let him. An officer from his corps as he said he wanted his own officers. . . . I was the last man that left the battlefield with the battery and fell back in a line and went into battery to protect men of ours picking up the wounded. They charged me in the night. I gave them all the canister they wanted. I buried my own dead and brought the wounded away with me, and all my guns and that is what many of them cannot say. Ask some of those knowing damn fools in Monroe what they think now about making their sons mind. . . . The field is sickening.” viii.
On December 31, 1862, Captain Oscar Pinney was severely wounded at Stone’s River, Tennessee and died on February 17, 1863 and buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Monroe, Green County, Wisconsin.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
i. Fighting Them Over: What Our Veterans Have to Say About Their Old Campaigns, Perryville, April 23, 1885, The National Tribune, Vol. IV, No 37, Whole No., 193, 3.
ii. Kenneth Hafendorfer, The Kentucky Campaign of 1862 and the Battle of Perryville, Volume II, KH Press. 2017, Louisville, Kentucky, 692.
iii. William Ball, 5th Wisconsin Battery, At Perryville: What An Artillerman Saw of the That Battle, Vol. VII, No. 19, Whole No. 331, The National Tribune, 1-2.
iv. Ibid.
v. Ibid.
vi. Monroe Sentinel, October 29, 1862, Letter from unknown member of Pinney’s Battery, Camp Near Perryville, October 10, 1862.
vii. Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Chapter XXVIII, Report Number 25, The Battle of Perryville, Report of Colonel Michael Gooding, 22nd Indiana Infantry, commanding 30th Brigade, 1079-1080.
viii. Pinney, 5th Wisconsin Battery in battle and after, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 10/10/1862, Camp on the battlefield near Perryville, Kentukcy.
|
|
|
Figures in History
|
|
|
|
