jon_norstog
02-01-2021, 09:54
After we got back from that December hunt, I stayed at my brother's [place a few days and spent time with the grandkids. While I was there I found one of our dad's old books, a hardcover Civil War history. It was so good I took it home with me to keep reading.
Lightning at Hoover’s Gap: the Story of Wilder’s Brigade
Glenn W. Sunderland New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1969
This book focuses on the history of a single brigade in the western theater of the Civil War. The core of the brigade included the 17th and 72nd Indiana infantry, the 98th and 123rd Illinois infantry and the 18th Indiana Battery. The 17th mustered in June, 1861 with John T Wilder, the future Brigade Commander, as a company captain. Within a few months he was a colonel in command of that regiment. Wilder was a civilian, an engineer, inventor and businessman. In December 1862 the 17th was part of a brigade attached to Rosecrans’ force in Kentucky and Wilder was its commander. That Christmas day the brigade was sent in pursuit of Morgan’s raiders – on foot in the rain and snow. They didn’t have a chance of catching him.
Wilder decided to mount his troops and got Rosecrans to approve. In March, 1863 the brigade had a visitor: Christopher Spencer, demonstrating his repeating rifle. The men wanted that rifle and the Army didn’t, and couldn’t have moved on it very fast anyway. Wilder had money and called his banker, who lent the cash, $35.00 per man, to buy the weapons. Each soldier signed a note and Wilder cosigned all of them. By April the brigade, armed like infantry but way faster, 50 miles a day when they had to, had become the “workhorse” of the Army of the Cumberland. May 15 they got their rifles. June 3-4 they used the in a fight with 1st Kentucky Cavalry, routing them and capturing their supplies.
The book follows the Lightning Brigade, as it became known, through the campaigns in Tennessee, Northern Alabama and Georgia, including Nashbille, Chickamauga, Chattanooga. Resaca and the battles for Atlanta. The thing that keeps coming up is the mobility and firepower of the brigade. In one fight they had to wade a stream against Confederates in breastworks on the far side. The water was up to their chests but they just kept shooting! The enemy wasn’t prepared for that and they ran. In general mobility and firepower gave them the ability to solve tough tactical situations.
The Lightning Brigade’s last fight was an assault on the fortifications at Selma, Alabama. This was a hellaceous battle, in which a single line of men stormed the works. It was April 2, 1865.
The book is readable, the author places all the action in the context of the western campaigns, and it is full of personal, geographical and military detail. The author notes and numbers the primary sources he used in the book, including letters and diaries as well as official reports and contemporary news. It is a scarce book, Amazon has a few used copies starting at $60, but the list price is $920.99. Wow! I would say get it on interlibrary loan … it is that good.
jn
Lightning at Hoover’s Gap: the Story of Wilder’s Brigade
Glenn W. Sunderland New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1969
This book focuses on the history of a single brigade in the western theater of the Civil War. The core of the brigade included the 17th and 72nd Indiana infantry, the 98th and 123rd Illinois infantry and the 18th Indiana Battery. The 17th mustered in June, 1861 with John T Wilder, the future Brigade Commander, as a company captain. Within a few months he was a colonel in command of that regiment. Wilder was a civilian, an engineer, inventor and businessman. In December 1862 the 17th was part of a brigade attached to Rosecrans’ force in Kentucky and Wilder was its commander. That Christmas day the brigade was sent in pursuit of Morgan’s raiders – on foot in the rain and snow. They didn’t have a chance of catching him.
Wilder decided to mount his troops and got Rosecrans to approve. In March, 1863 the brigade had a visitor: Christopher Spencer, demonstrating his repeating rifle. The men wanted that rifle and the Army didn’t, and couldn’t have moved on it very fast anyway. Wilder had money and called his banker, who lent the cash, $35.00 per man, to buy the weapons. Each soldier signed a note and Wilder cosigned all of them. By April the brigade, armed like infantry but way faster, 50 miles a day when they had to, had become the “workhorse” of the Army of the Cumberland. May 15 they got their rifles. June 3-4 they used the in a fight with 1st Kentucky Cavalry, routing them and capturing their supplies.
The book follows the Lightning Brigade, as it became known, through the campaigns in Tennessee, Northern Alabama and Georgia, including Nashbille, Chickamauga, Chattanooga. Resaca and the battles for Atlanta. The thing that keeps coming up is the mobility and firepower of the brigade. In one fight they had to wade a stream against Confederates in breastworks on the far side. The water was up to their chests but they just kept shooting! The enemy wasn’t prepared for that and they ran. In general mobility and firepower gave them the ability to solve tough tactical situations.
The Lightning Brigade’s last fight was an assault on the fortifications at Selma, Alabama. This was a hellaceous battle, in which a single line of men stormed the works. It was April 2, 1865.
The book is readable, the author places all the action in the context of the western campaigns, and it is full of personal, geographical and military detail. The author notes and numbers the primary sources he used in the book, including letters and diaries as well as official reports and contemporary news. It is a scarce book, Amazon has a few used copies starting at $60, but the list price is $920.99. Wow! I would say get it on interlibrary loan … it is that good.
jn