June 27, 1864: The day Hiram Hancock ended his participation in the Atlanta Campaign as a Union soldier. There is ample information available on the campaign leading up to this point, but that is not within the scope of this blog. I am including the basic outline below though, which is an excellent resource for locating additional information about the unit:
March to relief of Knoxville November 28-December 8.
Return to Chattanooga and duty in that vicinity till May, 1864.
Demonstration on Dalton, Ga., February 22-27, 1864.
• Tunnel Hill, Buzzard's Roost Gap and Rocky Face Ridge February 23-25.
Atlanta (Ga.) Campaign May 1 to September 8.
• Tunnel Hill May 6-7.
• on Rocky Face Ridge May 8-11.
• Roost Gap May 8-9.
• Battle of Resaca May 14-15.
• on Dallas May 18-25.
• line of Pumpkin Vine Creek and battles about Dallas, New Hope Church and Allatoona Hills May 25-June 5.
• about Marietta and against Kenesaw Mountain June 10-July 2.
Regiment lost during service 9 Officers and 110 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer and 149 Enlisted men by disease. Total 269. These numbers are not part of the norm, I suspect due to their heavy battle casualties. Units on average lost three men to disease to every one man who died in battle or from battle injuries.
Cropped from a more fuller map on page 142 of Kennesaw Mountain, June 1864, Bitter Standoff at the Gibraltar of Georgia, by Richard A Baumgartner and Larry M. Strayer. I found this on my honeymoon in the National Park Bookstore.
I vividly remember sitting cross legged on the floor, peering through the index and squealing when I saw Hiram's name, because I rarely find such detailed information on any of my ancestors. The Park Guide Guy helped us find where we need to be to stand in his footsteps. I strongly recommend getting this book if you had an ancestor there, or if you have a heavy interest in the battle because it's very readable and very good.
This is from a photograph I took and cropped from one of the POIs (points of interest) around the park showing what's going on where one is standing. This is The Dead Angle.
From the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Hiram did not make it all the way up the hill to the Confederate rifle pits. In battles such as this, sharpshooting did not take place, men loaded and shot as fast as they could from both sides at close range. In this case the Union soldiers (in blue) were reloading on the run, up hill, in torrid summer Georgia heat, in full uniform which was wool.
I am unclear as how to the specifical source of this. I found the quote as written above but the Baumgartner book attributes it to First Lieutenant William H. Baxter giving the information to McAdams.
How I spent my honeymoon: standing in front of the monument at the Dead Angle, and on top of a rebuilt rifle pit, imagining my ancestor and his unit rushing towards me. I stood there a while, hearing the battle, not the congestion of cars which have dramatically changed the landscape owing to urban advancement. I watched him fall, and teared up at all that I imagined. I felt it a holy place, and one I was destined to find, and share with our family. I'm sure that no others of my blood had ever been there. It was just me. And him.
NEXT: THE LAST DAY OF HIRAM HANCOCK -- The Search For His Body
Comments
Post a Comment