At the Battle of Chantilly, the evening of 1 September 1862, CPT Walcott and the 21st Massachusetts alongside the 51st New York advanced toward the east through dense woods and a thunderstorm to support the advance of the IX Corps upon a Confederate line that threatened the Army of Virginia’s rear. After becoming separated with the 51st New York, the Bay Staters eventually advanced against two Confederate Brigades where they suffered 35% casualties. With the rain spoiling their ammunition, the regiment retreated, only to be found by MG Phillip Kearney who ordered them to support one of his brigades advancing through a cornfield.

Sources used for this episode:

Walcott, Charles F. History of the Twenty-First Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers in the War for the Preservation of the Union 1861-1865 with Statistics of the War and of Rebel Prisons. Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1882. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044024208118&seq=21.

Scott, Robert N. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. ser. 1, vol. 12, pt. 2: Reports. Government Printing Office, 1885. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077728222&view=1up&seq=3.

Davis, George B., Perry, Leslie J., and Kirkley, Joseph W. Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of Union and Confederate Armies. Government Printing Office, 1891-95. https://archive.org/details/atlastoaccompany00unit/page/n6/mode/1up.

At the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, 27 June 1864 SGT Nixon B. Stewart of the 52nd Ohio followed his Brigade Commander, COL Daniel McCook in the assault against the Confederate trenches upon Cheatham Hill held by PVT Sam Watkins and the 1st Tennessee. The vital rail junction and industrial hub of Atlanta lay approximately 20 miles to the south. So intense was the fighting upon this part of the line that it became known afterward as “The Dead Angle.”

Sources used for this episode:

Stewart, Nixon B. Dan. McCook’s Regiment, 52nd O.V.I. A History of the Regiment, Its Campaigns and Battles. Blue Acorn Press, 1900.

Watkins, Sam R. Co. Aytch, Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment; Or, A Side Show of the Big Show. 2nd ed. Chattanooga: Times Printing Company, 1900.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/fk9t14v821&seq=3.

Davis, George B., Perry, Leslie J., Kirkley, Joseph W. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. ser. 1, vol. 38, pt. 1: Reports. Government Printing Office, 1891. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077722977&view=1up&seq=3.

At the Battle of Gettysburg, 2 July 1863, PVT J.S. McNeilly of the 21st Mississippi as part of BG Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade charged the salient created by the Union III Corps. The 21st Mississippi smashed into COL Tippin and the 68thPennsylvania which held the line in a Peach Orchard. After the Confederates successfully broke the III Corps’ line, PVT McNeily and the 21st Mississippi continued their charge, eventually by themselves, toward the newly formed hole in the Union line. With no infantry for support, LTC McGilvery of the 1st Volunteer Brigade had to sacrifice SGT Baker and the 9th Massachusetts Battery, to slow the Mississippian’s advance, and buy enough time to pull any artillery he could find into a new line east of the Trostle Farm.

Sources used for this episode:

McNeily, John S. “Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade at Gettysburg, ‘Most Magnificent Charge of the War.’” In Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, vol. 14. University Mississippi, 1914. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3497860&seq=5.

Baker, Levi W. History of the Ninth Massachusetts Battery. J. C. Clark Printing Co., 1888. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044024337172&seq=13.

Scott, Robert N. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Ser. 1, vol. 27, pt. 1: Reports. Government Printing Office, 1889. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924077699761&view=1up&seq=3.