Sometimes Readers Send Us Research Questions….

By Stephen Davis · Originally published August 2019 · p. 33

Publisher’s note: From time to time one of our regular columnists receives an e-mail from a reader who writes, “Hey, I liked your recent article, and it prompts me to ask if you know anything about…?” Sometimes the query is of interest to our writers, as happened last month when Dave Langford of Hollywood, Md., wrote, “I have an ancestor who was in the 24th Wisconsin. He was killed in the fight at Adairsville, Ga. I have a copy of his officer’s report of how he was killed. But when I visited there several years ago, the marker did not lend itself to understanding the skirmish action. Do you know someone in Georgia who is knowledgeable about that battle?” Well, we referred Mr. Langford’s question to our Book Review Editor, who cobbled together the following response from books at his home (“The Brigadier General Clement Anselm Evans Memorial Research Library,” as he calls it.) Here’s Steve’s answer to Dave: Dear Mr. Langford: You are so right about the Georgia Historical Commission’s marker, placed in the 1950s in Bartow County, northwest of Atlanta. The county was renamed from Cass County during the war, to honor Col. Francis Bartow, slain at Manassas; the county seat, Cassville, was even renamed Manassas for a while. Actually, there are three markers in the area: “Johnston’s Army at Adairsville,” “Federal Armies at Adairsville,” and “McPherson’s Troops to Barnsley’s.” Their texts, probably written by the renowned Wilbur G. Kurtz, refer only to Federal troop movements on May 18, 1864, the day after the skirmish at Adairsville, fought on May 17. Sherman’s armies were pressing south from Calhoun toward

Cassville that day. As Albert Castel relates in Decision in the West (1992), Col. Frank Sherman’s First Brigade of Newton’s Second Division, was in the advance of Oliver O. Howard’s IV Corps. The 24th Wisconsin, your ancestor’s regiment, was part of Sherman’s brigade. It encountered Wheeler’s cavalry and the infantry of Frank Cheatham’s Division, which was dug in and ready for them. Howard ordered them to move forward anyway, and in a sharp skirmish the Federals got nowhere. That night Johnston’s army retreated toward Cassville. In their forward movement, as Castel writes, Sherman’s troops “suffer a large number of unnecessary casualties” (page 193). Colonel Sherman recorded in his diary for May 17: “Resumed the march at 6 A.M.; 1st Brigade in advance. Skirmished and drove rear guard of rebs back to Adairsville where they made stand. My brig. heavily engaged until night. Loss 167 men.” (C. Knight Aldrich, ed., Quest for a Star: The Civil War Letters and Diaries of Colonel Francis T. Sherman of the 88th Illinois [1993], page 114). By the way, I do not see a campaign report in the Official Records from Colonel Sherman; he was captured on July 7, and exchanged on Oct. 7, 1864. From Christopher Losson, Tennessee’s Forgotten Warriors: Frank Cheatham and His Confederate Division (1989): On the afternoon of May 17, Wheeler’s cavalry were falling back slowly before the enemy advance. Cheatham’s troops formed a line to help cover the retreating horsemen. “Some of Cheatham’s men were cooking supper, while others were just stretching out their blankets for the night,” Losson writes, “when the Yankees made their appearance. Confederate cavalry screened the Union advance, and Cheatham’s men at first were ‘thrown into a kind of hollow square or ambuscade’ to help defend the cavalry as they fell back.” Men of Col. Hume R. Feild’s First and Twenty-seventh Tennessee occupied all three levels of a tall octagon-shaped house and fired from its windows (page 147). By the way, Dave, you might have seen my article in the May 2019 Civil War News, in which I wrote about the Sons of Confederate Veterans having recently bestowed its Confederate Medal of Honor on Colonel Feild. Lt. Thomas Mackall kept a diary during the campaign; his cousin, Brig. Gen. William Mackall, was Johnston’s chief of staff and the lieutenant served on the general’s staff. The diary entry for May 17: “by 5 p.m. Cheatham, who was one mile in advance, was skirmishing. Pack up and saddle. Troops who had not been in line, but massed in bivouac, quickly formed, while firing going on” (Mackall diary typescript at William and Mary, copy courtesy of Richard McMurry). Interestingly, as I have said, in the 1950s Wilbur Kurtz did not devote a roadside marker to the fight at Adairsville, which further entitles it to rank as a skirmish, not a “battle.” Still, Kurtz was evidently captivated by the Octagon House, as he made a color painting of Confederates fighting around it on May 17 (Atlanta and the Old South: Paintings & Drawings by Wilbur G. Kurtz [1969], page 34). You might be interested in knowing that Atlantan E. Joseph Seguin has just published an appreciative history, Wilbur G. Kurtz: A Most Remarkable Life. I wrote the Foreword, in which I term W.G.K. (as he signed himself) “the guardian angel of our city’s Civil War history.” Sam Watkins, of course, was in the 1st Tennessee, and in one of the editions of Co. “Aytch” that I have here (ed. by Ruth McAllister, Franklin TN., 2007), he writes of the fight at the Octagon House. His regiment lost some thirty men that afternoon, but he describes more of the damage to the house: “Fine chairs, sofas, settees, pianos, and Brussels carpeting,” he recalled, “being made the death-bed of brave and noble boys, all saturated with blood. Fine lace and damask curtains, all blackened by the smoke of battle. Fine bureaus and looking-glasses and furniture riddled by the rude missiles of war. Beautiful pictures in gilt frames, and a library of valuable books, all shot and torn by musket and cannon balls. Such is war. When we first got into the house, the papering on the walls was white. When we came out, it had the look of an old wall begrimed with soot. The fine lace had all been torn down and trodden under foot” (pages 166-67). Well, Dave, I hope this adds context to your research into your forefather’s service with the 24th Wisconsin, and his tragic death at Adairsville. Best wishes in your continued journey. Sincerely, Steve Davis Publisher’s note: we can’t promise this kind of response to all research inquiries, but when we receive an interesting one, such as Mr. Langford’s, we’ll occasionally turn to our expert staff writers to see if they can add any informational answer. Send your research inquires to [email protected].