The National tribune., 1885-12-31
THE SOth OHIO.
Some "reminiscences of the Battle Of Anti

"reminiscences
To THE EDITOR: The 3Oth Ohio entered
West Virginia at Benwood about Sept l, 1861
spent the first year of the war bushwhackng in
that State and learned but little of the nature
of real battles. In the month of August, 1862,
Brig, Gen. j. D. Cox was ordered to the POto-
mac with Division Of Ohio troops from West
Virginia. consisting oftwo brigades. The First
Brigade contained the 18th, 23d and 30th Ohio,
under command of Col. Seammon, of the 23d
Ohio, of which regiment r. B. Hayes, after
wards President, was Lieutenant Colonel at
that time. The Second Brigade consisted of
the 28th, 3ith and Both Ohio under command
of Col Crooke, of the 36th Ohio. We passed
through Washington and met Pope's army at
Warrenton Junction. Part of the division was
engaged in the second Bull Run BATTLE while
part guarded Gen. Pope's baggage train.
We fell back with the army to Washington,
and in marching out to meet Lee after he
crossed into Maryland, we found ourselves in
the advance at Frederick City, Md. The First
Brigade of Cox's Division, now attached to the
Ninth Corps, drove the rebel rear guard out of
that town, and followed that night to the bank
of Monocacy Creek. On Sunday Sept. IA, our
skirmishcrs found the enemy on South Noun
tain at about 10 n. m, and the brigade was un-
der fire the balance of that day, losing num-
ber of men killed and wounded.
About p NJ the 30th Ohio started to charge
on rebel battery, but met counter charge of
the rebel line coming after one of Capt. Sim
monss guns that the men had pulled up the
mountain by hand with ropes The whole
First Brigade was sOon engaged, and right there
for about 45 minutes there was one of the most
stubborn musketry duels that witnessed dur
ing the war. About o'clock Gen. Reno, COM
| manding the Ninth Corps, rode up in rear of
the 30th Ohio, and within about $50 yards
| of the front battle line. The enemy were
then falling back and the firing had nearly
or yIn lS
sword -scabbard and glancing into his body, he
| fell from his horse mOrtally wounded. Gen.
Cox then assumed command of the corps. Col.
| Scammon took command of the kanawha Di-
| yision-as CoX's Division was then designated
| and Col Hugh Ewing, of the 30th Ohio, took
| command of the First Brigade.
During the earlier part of the 18th, at An
| tietam, our brigade was held in reserve; but
| in the afternoon we were ordered to wade across
| the Antietam short distance below the stone
! bridge known to subsequent history as - Burn
sides Bridge" which was promptly executed
before the rebels "tumbed to our little racket"
and we thereby got the bridge to keep. 1t had
| been taken and lost several times prior to this
| by charge and counter charge The Union line
was then established along the crest of low
ridge running parallel with the creek, and the
| rebel line lay across the valley or depression
| living between our line and the town of Sharps-
burg, and about 400 yards distant. Things had
| assumed pretty favorable aspect, but just
| then somebody made a serious blunder, and
| although even the rank and file had pretty
| good idea who the blunderer was, yet the gen.
eral supposition is that private soldier has no
! business to criticise the officers Suffice it to
| say that our brigade alone was ordered over the
| ridge, past the batteries, and to charge the en-
| tire rebel line. OF course went right down
| into the very jaws of death; but the very au-
dacity of the move so,dumbfounded the enemy
| h,,t W.
reached the bottom of the depression, not over
| 100 yards from the rebel line Ensconced be-
| hind stone fence we opened fire on them with
our old smooth bore Revolutionary muskets,
| and although the guns were not very danger
GUS if you aimed at anything, yet it didn't
take US over five minutes to stir up just little
| the hottest hornets nest any of us had ever
"sot eyes on" The way those Johnnies flat
tened bullets on that stone fence for few
| minutes was caution to noncombatants, and
don't you forget it, But the boys thought the
fence was a pretty good place to shoot from
Part of us being in cornfeld, were unable to
see what the flanks were doing; so that when
they were forced back to the proper line we
were blissfully ignorant of that fact, and kept
| pegging away, until the first thing we knew
| the Johnnies had thrown skirmsh-line in our
| rear and were about to :. take us IN out OF the
wet" They did, in fact take in our regimental
commander, Lieut.-Col. Theo Jones; also, Capt
| Brown and several of the soldiers, but the rest
of US, about 300, seeing the weakness of the
line in our rear concluded, Winkelried-like, to
make way for liberty" Making a rush for
that line we broke it, knocking some of them
down with dubbed muskets, and then scatter
ing like a flock of quails each fellow hunted for
any tall timber that might chance to be grow
ing anywhere near that old bridge. Though
we left IL killed and wounded and captured
ont Of the 300, the balance of us " got thar
| af ha hri OF who
complimented us highly for escaping capture
That division started into the campaign with
one Brigadier- General and six COlonels, and
came out with one Major-General and foul
Brgadier- Generals. Some of the boys face
tiously remarked that we must have shook the
universe, to make the stars fall SO thick. E.
| WALTON, Koleen, Ind.