"ALL IN THE THREE YEARS"
~ A Short History of the Fifteenth Kentucky's Service, With Present-Day Photographs of Their Battlefields ~
Civil War battlefield parks come alive when the visitor can relate the ground before him or her to the momentous events that happened on that ground one hundred forty years ago. For that reason, visitors who are not already familiar with the action on the field they are visiting should try to take advantage of the tours available through the Park -- either live tour guides, or audio tapes.
The Fifteenth Kentucky fought for three and a half years through nearly all of the bloody battles of the western theater of the war, including Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, the siege of Chattanooga, and the Atlanta Campaign, sustaining the highest casualty rate of any regiment in the Fourteenth Army Corps, the principal Union army in the west.
After the war, Major William P. McDowell, the first adjutant of the Fifteenth, wrote a short history of the unit for a short-lived veterans' magazine called Southern Bivouac. McDowell's history is reprinted below and on the linked battle pages, together with present-day photographs of the battlefields where the Fifteenth fought, taken from near the positions the regiment occupied.
For a full history of the regiment and a detailed biographical roster of the one thousand men, see The Battle Rages Higher, available through the links on the homepage.
"In August 1861, Curran Pope, son of Louisville's most respected citizens, and a graduate of West Point, received authority to raise a regiment of infantry for the three-year service of the United States Government. He established his headquarters in the city of Louisville, and with the assistance of William P. Campbell and George P. Jouett commenced work of arranging for and receiving recruits. The first camp and rendezvous was at the Fair Grounds, four miles from Louisville, on the Shelbyville turnpike.
Here we remained until the fall, recruiting and drilling. It was during this time that General Anderson was placed in command at Louisville, and sent an order to the regiment directing the Colonel to send all forces in camp to intercept some arms which were being conveyed from Lexington, Kentucky, to the Confederacy. The entire force in camp consisted of about ninety men, all of whom were entirely green as soldiers (some few of the never having handled a gun in their lives), and not being drilled or even instructed in marching. The arms with which the camp was supplied, and with which guard duty was done, consisted of six or eight old altered muskets, so rusty within as not to admit of springing a rammer, with bayonets, but without cartridge-boxes or other accouterments.
General Anderson, being notified of this state of affairs, returned answer that arms and ammunition for ninety men would be sent out on the accommodation train of the Lexington and Frankfort Railroad, and that the men should be armed and transported on the train to Beard's Station, whence a guide sent by him would conduct them to the Taylorsville pike, upon which the arms were carried into the South.
When the train arrived our detachment was in readiness on the platform; the arms were opened and distributed while the train waited, and several rounds of ammunition were given to each man, which had to be carried by them in their pockets, as they were not provided with cartridge-boxes. To see the way in which some of the recruits handled their muskets was amusing; one of them knew no more about loading a gun than an infant, and had to have his piece loaded for him by some of his companions, who created a great deal of amusement by their instructions and recommendations. After boarding the train this subject, a recent importation from the 'Emerald Isle,' asked his companion how he was to make the thing go off. The gun was cocked for him, and he was told to put a cap upon the tube and let the hammer down. In doing this he placed the muzzle of his piece on the car floor, and, without putting his thumb on the hammer, pulled the trigger. The result was that his arm was almost dislocated by the recoil, a large hole was made in the car floor, and the eighty-odd men, his companions, were filled with alarm by the report that the train was fired into by guerrillas.
At Beard's Station the troops left the train, and the march toward Taylorsville pike was commenced. The guide sent out by General Anderson knew nothing of the road or country, and left us at the first opportunity, which occurred shortly after starting. We did our utmost to find the road, but did not succeed. About midnight we aroused a Countryman and learned that we were about three miles from Shelbyville. Nothing was now to be done return to camp, which was accordingly done, making a journey of at least forty miles on foot in one night for those who returned, which number, I am compelled to say, was only three. Arriving about daylight, Colonel Pope was found impatiently awaiting information from us, the order under which we had gone not having communicated to him in town until after the train had left.
Wagons were sent out and stragglers picked up all along the way back beyond Middletown.
The field officers were Curran Pope, Colonel; George P. Jouett, Lt. Colonel; William P. Campbell, Major. The staff, Dr. Luther P. Wetherby, Surgeon; Dr. Richard Logan, Assistant-Surgeon; John W. Clark, Quartermaster; Reverend J.J. Talbot, Chaplain; William P. McDowell, Adjutant.
The line officers were: Company A- Marion C. Taylor, Captain; James A. T. McGrath and Frank Winlock, Lieutenants. Company B- J.B. Snyder, Captain; Ben Houser and W.H. Harrison, Lieutenants. Company C-W.T. McClure, Captain; James B. Forman and A. H. Chambers, Lieutenants. Company D-H. F. Kalfus, Captain; John McDowell and John V. Thompson, Lieutenants. Company E-Noah Cartwright, Captain; J.B. Wood and Charles L. Easum, Lieutenants. Company F-W.S. Wilson, Captain; Aaron S. Bayne and William V. Wolf, Lieutenants. Company G-Frank D. Garetty, Captain; John Spaulding and John Lenahan, Lieutenants.
With these seven companies partially filled, the regiment was ordered to New Haven, Kentucky, about forty-five miles from Louisville, on the Lebanon Branch of the L. and N. Railroad. Here they were engaged in guarding the railroad while drilling and recruiting.
Companies H, I, and K, from Covington and vicinity, joined us here and we were mustered into the State service-armed, equipped, and paid by the State of Kentucky. After being mustered each company was ordered to have an election of officers, this being in accordance with the State law. All of the before mentioned officers were elected except in the cases of Companies F and G. In Company F, Captain Wilson was left out, Bayne being elected Captain, W. V. Wolf and W. H. Booker, Lieutenants. In Company G, John Spaulding was elected Captain, John Lenahan and Frank D. Garretty, Lieutenants.
On the 14th day of December, the regiment was mustered into United States service at New Haven, Kentucky, by Captain C.C. Gilbert, U.S.A., and was then ordered to Bacon Creek, Kentucky. On arrival here it was attached to the Seventeenth Brigade, Third Division, commanded by General O.M. Mitchell. The mud in this camp (at Bacon Creek) was from six inches to a foot in depth, making it necessary to lay all of the avenues in corduroy to enable the men and teams to get about, and a more disagreeable place can not be well imagined. The trip from New Haven to Bacon Creek, the first of any distance made by the regiment on foot, being accomplished in mid-winter, was very trying, but showed of what material the regiment was composed.
When mustered into the United States service the regiment numbered less than nine hundred, but they were good and reliable men, being mostly from the counties of Shelby, Spencer, Henry, Bullitt, Kenton, and Jefferson, and either farmers, farmer's sons, or clerks, and of respectable families. The most fastidious could find plenty of agreeable and entertaining companions among the rank and file of the Fifteenth, which was abundantly proven by the number of privates of this regiment who were promoted to captains and lieutenants of other Kentucky regiments. I feel that I must name here some of the men who started with this old regiment as privates or non-commissioned officers. Beginning with Company A, there was George Deering, Richard Whittaker, Joseph and Henry Lyle, Joseph Atherton, Dan Spaulding, George Ballard, George Petrie, John and Henry Wm. Tilden, Tom Baker, Joseph McClure, Frank Todd, Irvine McDowell, Ezekiel Forman, Lud Luckett, Newt. Sharp, and a score of others who will be remembered by many, but whose names escape me now.
In February 1862, the command crossed Green River (being brigaded with the Third, Tenth, and Thirteenth Ohio, Forty-second Indiana, and Loomis' battery, under command of Brigadier-General Dumont), and by a forced march from Bell's Tavern reached Bowling Green on the 14th of February, the rebels leaving the city as we entered it. Here our boys found a quantity of salt beef and parched rye, which the retreating enemy were unable to carry away, and which was very acceptable to them, for soldiers become very tired of their regular rations, and appreciate any thing out of the regular issue.
On the 22nd we marched to Franklin, and on the 23rd to Mitchellville, Tennessee, thence to Nashville, which had surrendered to Colonel John Kennett, of the Fourth Ohio Cavalry. Stopping a short time in the suburbs of Nashville, we proceeded thence to Huntsville, Alabama, where we remained for five or six months without other action than scouts and reconnaisances to Athens, Whitesburg, etc., in which we did good service and endured great hardships.
From Huntsville the Fifteenth returned to Nashville, and took part in that memorable race with Bragg to Louisville. The Fifteenth Kentucky started from its bivouac, two miles beyond Elizabethtown, one morning early, and the next morning before daylight entered the city of Louisville, making a march of over forty miles (said to be forty-four miles) in the twenty-four hours, which is not bad for 'foot cavalry.' Colonel Pope often told the men and officers that there could be no discipline among troops where no attention was paid to neatness, and was so particular in regard to the appearance of the men that on our first joining the brigade we were christened 'The Paper Collar Regiment,' a name which we bore and by which were called almost constantly up to this time. The Ohio regiments with which were brigaded having been longer in service, and under fire, seemed to think we were only fit for dress-parade and show, and that we could not be depended upon in close quarters. It was not long before they were disabused of this idea. After a stay of a few days in the suburbs of Louisville, the regiment was again started South, by the way of Danville, Kentucky."
~ Click on the link above for "Perryville"~