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161 { 10 } Hazen’s Summer Camp and a Stern Chase With the end of the Atlanta campaign, the 90th Illinois went into summer quarters with the rest of the Army of the Tennessee at East Point, Georgia, remaining there until October 4, 1864 (see Map 10, in chapter 9). Both Union and Confederate armies needed time to rest and refit. The Irish Legion had earned a respite, having marched over 380 miles during the Atlanta campaign, most of it over muddy roads guarding trains. During the campaign, the Legion had lost 117 officers and men killed, wounded, and missing; however, of that total, 30 of the wounded had returned to duty by the end of September, increasing the number of enlisted men present for duty to 195. On September 9, Charles A. Thompson mustered in at East Point as the Irish Legion’s surgeon, replacing Henry Strong, who had resigned some two months earlier. During September, six members of the 90th Illinois, paroled at Rough and Ready, about five miles south of East Point, and officially exchanged, returned to active duty. Five had been captured on July 22, and some had been confined at Andersonville.1 Several companies had new commanders. Captain John C. Harrington of Company C received a discharge for disability on September 8, and James Dunne, called “Old Shakehead” from his habit of expressing himself without words, replaced him. First Lieutenant Thomas Murray, who had commanded Company I since August 11, 1863, except for three months’ recruiting duty during the spring of 1864, officially became its captain on September 13, 1864. First Lieutenant Lawrence McCarthy, who commanded Company H, remained detailed to the brigade. Colonel John Oliver appreciated having an Irish tenor at his headquarters, as had his predecessor, Colonel Reuben Williams. However, McCarthy obtained a poorly timed twenty-day leave dated September 23 and would not rejoin the Legion until 162 • Hazen’s Summer Camp April 25, 1865. First Lieutenant John McAssey assumed command of Company K when Captain Patrick Real went on sick leave to Chicago at the end of September and resigned from the service on November 16, 1864, due to continued poor health. When Lieutenant William White, now recovered from his wound suffered in the fighting at Ezra Church, returned to the regiment on September 18, he immediately assumed command of Company F, replacing Captain Patrick Feeney, who remained in Chicago recuperating from wounds also received in the same battle. The discontinuation of the Fourth Division on September 15, 1864, directly affected the Irishmen of the 90th Illinois. Its First Brigade, now reduced to the 48th and 90th Illinois, 99th Indiana, 15th Michigan, and 70th Ohio, became the Third Brigade of Brigadier General William B. Hazen’s Second Division of the XV Army Corps, where it would remain for the rest of the war. Colonel Oliver continued to command the brigade. On September 23, Brigadier General John M. Corse’s former Second Division of the XVI Corps became the replacement Fourth Division of the XV Corps. The commander of the XV Corps, Major General John A. Logan, a congressman from southern Illinois before the war, returned to his home area to help the Republican Party carry Illinois in the coming election, and Major General Peter Osterhaus replaced him.2 The 90th Illinois now had a thirty-three-year-old West Point graduate with extensive combat experience for a division commander. A no-nonsense professional soldier, Hazen had not been pleased with the level of discipline, instruction, and administration he found in his new command or with the free and easy ways of his western troops. Hazen described the condition of the division upon his assuming command on August 15 as “wretched” and “deplorable” with many men “absent or non-combatant.” He quickly issued a series of orders to correct the situation. The effect was magical; within a week, the numbers of men with muskets increased from 1,700 to 2,200. After joining Hazen’s division in mid-September, the number of enlisted men of the 90th Illinois on detached or daily duty decreased to twentyseven , fifteen fewer than reported in August.3 On September 29, Principal Musician Patrick Sloan, writing to his wife from the hospital at East Point, probably spoke for most of the 90th Illinois when he described his new division’s commander as a “great disciplinarian” who “has the Division out nearly all the time drilling or exercising in some way.” From September 19 to October 4, the troops...

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