From Western Deserts to Carolina Swamps: A Civil War Soldier's Journals and Letters Home

5: Reenlistment, Joining Sherman’s Army, and the Beginning of the Atlanta Campaign, February–May 22, 1864

67 CHAPTER FIVE Reenlistment, Joining Sherman’s Army, and the Beginning of the Atlanta Campaign, February–May 22, 1864 T he 50th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, the Adams County regiment, entered service on September 12, 1861, and did occupation duty in Missouri during the late fall and winter of 1861–1862. It gained the derisive nickname “The Blind Half Hundred” from the incidence of soldiers missing one eye as well as squint- and cross-eyed comrades. The name became a badge of pride.1 Then in February 1862, the regiment shipped out to join the attacks on forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. After these successes, it went into camp at Pittsburg Landing in southern Tennessee, where it suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Shiloh on April 6. Later that year, it was brigaded with the 7th and 57th Illinois Infantry regiments and found itself heavily engaged at the Battle of Corinth, Mississippi, on October 3–4. This affair reduced the strength of the 50th Illinois to twenty officers and 265 men.2 By the end of 1862, the 39th Iowa Infantry joined the brigade, and these four regiments served together until the end of the war. Lewis Roe often made references to these other units.3 After Corinth, the 50th Illinois marched, maneuvered, went into camps, and occasionally skirmished with guerrillas in the northeastern cornerofMississippiuntilNovember12,1863,whenitarrivedatLynnville in south-central Tennessee. At this point the regimental commander, Col. Moses M. Bane, was ordered to mount the men on mules, for what became a five-month stint as mounted infantry. By early December, the 50th Illinois found itself mule-borne, their mounts supplied partly by the army’s quartermaster department and partly by raiding the countryside. 68 Chapter Five The troops lived well, thanks to well-filled granaries, smoke houses, and herds of cattle, sheep, and hogs.4 Under General Orders issued in June and September 1863, many of the original enlistees met the requirements for reenlistment as veteran volunteers. Some 340 members of the regiment received a discharge effective December 31, 1863, and on January 15–16, 1864, were mustered in again. The regiment then boarded a train and rolled into Quincy, Illinois, early on January 23, to a grand reception and a thirty-day furlough for everyone. The veterans encouraged recruits to join and fill up the ranks, and more than 200 new members followed after the 50th Illinois returned to Lynnville on March 5.5 Roe, as explained earlier, enlisted again and at this point his own introduction6 to his 1864–1865 army journals resumes: [I] enlisted in Company “C” 50th Ills. [Veteran] Volunteer Infty. Feb. 10th 1864 to serve three years or during the war. I enlisted at Quincy, Ills. The 50th was then at Lynnville, Tenn. From Quincy [I] was sent to Camp Yates near Springfield, Ills. This was the worse hole I ever was in. Rain and mud continually, not much to eat, and what there was not fit for a hog. Several thousand recruits were crowded in a small enclosure. A great many died. After a few weeks we were transferred to Camp Butler, a short distance from Camp Yates. This place was in some respects better than Yates, but still far from decent—but we expected to endure privations and hardship, so there was not much complaining. While here we drew uniforms, and with new clothes and somewhat better rations, we got along very well. Here we remained for only about eight or ten days, until it came our turn to start for the south. Finally on a bright Sabbath evening our party, consisting of Lieut. [Cornelius F.] Kitchen and 12 recruits for the 50th, left Springfield by railroad for our Regt. I being an old soldier was placed next in command under the Lieut. Running eastward through Decatur [and the] State line, [we] took dinner at LaFayette, Ind., thence south through Indianapolis to Jeffersonville on the Ohio. Crossing the river into Ky. we put up over night at the Soldiers Home. Next morning on the rail again for Nashville. Arriving there, we were placed with about 2,000 other recruits in a building known as the Zollicoffer House. It was seven stories in height [and] had never been finished, only enclosed and studding and flooring put in.7 Reenlistment, Sherman’s Army, and the Atlanta Campaign 69 I shall not attempt to describe this place...