Calvin Day French-43 Ohio Volunteer Infantry Civil War Diaries

Calvin and his company under the Command of General Grant travels form May 1, 1863, to July 31, 1863, through 37 cities and towns through the states of Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Arkansas covering more than 4,500 miles while transporting Confederate prisoners by boat and train. Calvin departs from Barnesville, Missouri and ends his travels at Helena, Arkansas.

Beginning March 7, and ending April 30, 1863, Calvin under the command of General Grant began his travel of nearly 300 miles in the area of Southern Tennessee, Northern Mississippi, and Northeastern Alabama. He traveled from the Tennessee towns of Bolivar, Middleburg and Davis Mills by foot and train on their way Corinth, Mississippi a distance of approximately 75 miles. From Corinth, the troops traveled by train north another 55 miles to Jackson, Tennessee, and camped 20 miles south of Jackson. At Jackson, Calvin is detailed to travel by horse Southeast to Purdy, Tennessee a distance of approximately 35 miles. At Purdy, Calvin witnessed the burning of the city at the order of Colonel Fielding Hurst. Calvin again boarded a train to return to Corinth for another 25 miles and camped 8 miles south at Biggersville, Mississippi. Calvin then traveled by foot to Burnsville and East Port, Mississippi and then to Tuscumbia, Alabama all on or near the Tennessee River for a distance of nearly 55 miles. Calvin then returned to Corinth, Mississippi for a distance of nearly 55 miles.

Calvin continued to be assigned to Grant’s command. Grant had resolved to take control of the Mississippi, River from the Confederacy. To do so, President Lincoln and the Union Army and Navy were determined to take the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Vicksburg campaign started in December 1862 and lasted six months before the Union Army finally took the fortress. The campaign combined many important naval operations, troop maneuvers, failed initiatives, and was divided into two stages. The prize of capturing Vicksburg would ensure success and would divide the Confederacy into two eastern and western parts. At the opening of the campaign, Grant attempted to capture Vicksburg over land from the Northeast; however, Confederate Generals Nathan B. Forrest and Earl Van Dorn thwarted the Union Army advance by raiding Union supply lines.

Following the Battle at Corinth, Mississippi comprising 45,000 Union and Confederate troops, General Ulysses S. Grant's Union army began their move into Western Tennessee. Grant hoped to secure control of the Mississippi River for the Union to split the Confederacy in two and control an important north and south route to move men and supplies.

For next 76 days from October 5 through December 20, 1862, Calvin and his company marched through the Tennessee towns of Shiloh and Grand Junction and the Mississippi towns of Corinth, Holly Springs, Waterford, and Oxford before traveling by train to the Tennessee towns of Bolivar and Jackson, a distance of nearly 300 miles.

By the afternoon of September 19, 1862, Confederate Major General Sterling Price withdrew his soldiers from Luka when a scout reported that Union General Ord had formed a column and was on the advance. The Confederate army left Luka and marched to rendezvous with Confederate Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn to participate in the second Battle of Corinth on October 3–4, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi. For the second time in the Luka-Corinth Campaign, Union Major General William Rosecrans defeated the Confederate army at Luka and now at Corinth.

Corinth was a critical rail junction in northern Mississippi and was a major transportation line for the Union. Van Dorn’s objective was to disrupt the Union lines of transportation. The fighting began on October 3, 1862, as the Confederates pushed the Union from the rifle pits that had been constructed by the Confederates during the first siege of Corinth. The Confederates exploited a gap in the Union line and continued to press the Union troops until they fell back to an inner line of fortifications.

Union soldiers engaged at the Battle of Corinth was 23,000 of which 355 were killed, 1,841 wounded and 324 captured or missing for a total of 2,520 men or 11% of the total Union soldiers.

Confederal soldiers engaged at the Battle of Corinth was 22,000 of which 473 were killed, 1,997 wounded and 1,763 captured or missing for a total of 4,233 men or 19% of the total Confederate soldiers.

The battle of Luka and Calvin’s company involvement was on September 19, 1862, at Luka, Mississippi. This was the opening battle of the Luka-Corinth Campaign where Union Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans stopped the advance of the Confederate Army of the West commanded by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price.

In preparation of the battle at Luka, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant brought two armies to confront General Price in a double envelopment. Rosecrans's Army of the Mississippi was to approach Luka from the southwest and three divisions under Maj. General Edward Ord would approach from the northwest. Grant and Ord planned to attack as soon as they heard the sound of battle between Rosecrans and Price. An acoustic shadow suppressed the sound of battle and prevented Grant and Ord from realizing that the battle between Rosecrans and Price had begun leaving only Calvin’s company and Rosecrans’s soldiers to battle the Confederates.

The battle in Luka on September 19, 1862, by Calvin’s company and Rosecrans's men was a long and difficult day. By the afternoon the Confederates withdrew from Luka when a scout reported that Union General Ord had formed a column and was on the advance. The Confederate army left Luka on a road that had not been blocked by the Union army and marched to rendezvous with Confederate Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn.

Total participation by Union soldiers 4,500 of which 144 were killed, 598 wounded and 40 captured or missing for a total of 782 or 17%.

Total participation by Confederate soldiers 3,179 of which 263 were killed, 692 wounded and 561 captured or missing for a total of 1,516 or 48%.

The Union forces arrive at Boonville, Mississippi on May 30, 1862, and after a battle with the Confederates, destroyed 10,000 pieces of small arms and artillery pieces and took possession of large quantities of clothing and ammunition. 2,000 Confederate soldiers were taken prisoner and later paroled as they could not keep up with the Union forces.

Calvin’s company was assigned in the front of the Union Soldiers as skirmishers putting them in arms way.

Calvin contracted the “Camp Disease” and was hospitalized from dehydration for the month of June 1862.

Calvin’s diary entries end on Independence Day, July 4, 1862, with no entry until September 1, 1862.

Calvin is now engaged in The Siege of Corinth, Mississippi which was the First Battle of Corinth lasting from April 29 to May 30, 1862. It took 19 days for Calvin and the other Union soldiers to travel by boat from New Madrid to Corinth.  A collection of 120,000 Union forces under the overall command of Major General Henry Halleck engaged in a month-long siege of the city of Corinth, Mississippi. There were 65,000 Confederate soldiers commanded by General P.G.T. Beauregard. The siege resulted in the capture of Corinth by Union forces. Both the Union and Confederate sides lost approximately 1,000 soldiers each.

Corinth was a strategic point at the junction of two vital railroad lines, the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. Former General Halleck argued: "Richmond and Corinth are now the great strategic points of the war, and our success at these points should be insured at all hazards”.

The siege of Corinth ended when the outnumbered Confederates withdrew on May 29. This effectively cut off the prospect of further Confederate attempts to regain western Tennessee. The Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant took control and made it the base for Grant's operations in the siege of the Mississippi River. Grant in his memoirs recalled the importance Corinth: "Corinth was a valuable strategic point for the enemy to hold, and consequently a valuable one for us to possess ourselves of". The Confederate armies had been driven from the Ohio River, almost out of the States of Tennessee and Kentucky reaching the Gulf States. Sherman wrote of the importance of Corinth: "In Memphis I could see its effects upon the citizens, and they openly admitted that their cause had sustained a death-blow".

Calvin was under the command of Major General John Pope and was one of the nearly 25,000 union soldiers comprising the Army of the Mississippi. Confederate forces had established encampments at a narrow section of the Mississippi River at New Madrid in order to destroy Union boats carrying troops and supplies as they attempted to gain access to the deep south.  River transportation was the most efficient and easily traveled access to the south as travel by road resulted in continuous engagements with confederate forces and southern sympathizers. It was impossible for the Union to protect their transport boats past Confederate embankments. Confederate canons on shore produced tons of cannon balls that could easily destroy Union boats containing hundreds of soldiers and supplies. Union paddle wheel steamers were only equipped with soldiers with rifles which provided no defense to the Confederate canons.

Calvin’s 43rd Regiment of nearly 2,000 solders joined with the Union Army of the Mississippi to prepare for a battle at Island No. 10 at a bend on the Mississippi River near New Madrid, Missouri. This is the 1st of 42 battles that Calvin’s 43rd Regiment participated in during the Civil War. The Army of the Mississippi would eventually grow to nearly 25,000 soldiers. The battle at Island No. 10 became the most impactful battle at this time in the Civil War. By defeating the Confederates at New Madrid and Island No. 10, the Mississippi River was open for the transportation of Union troops and supplies both north and south with little or no resistance from the Confederates.

Preparations for the attack on the Confederates at New Madrid and Island No. 10 began on February 23, 1862, with Major General Pope being placed in command of the Union Army of the Mississippi, assembling at Commerce, Missouri. Pope soon had his army numbering 10,000 men arriving at New Madrid early in March 1862, and in preparation for a siege, Pope requested that his army be supplied with heavy artillery, which arrived on March 12, 1862.

The iron clad flotilla of six gunboats under Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote were sent down from Cairo, Missouri on March 14, 1862. The Union fleet was augmented by the addition of 14 mortar rafts each mounted with single 13-inch mortars.

On March 4th, 5th, and 6th the commander of the Army of the Mississippi, Major General Pope, ordered a reconnaissance in force on the Confederate positions near New Madrid. Then on March 7th a general demonstration against the Confederate works was ordered. General Stanley's Division was ordered to move on Fort Thompson and Colonel Worthington's Brigade was to move on Fort Bankhead and occupy the trenches. The Confederate's discovered the deception and the Confederate gunboats opened up on Worthington's men. Now, caught in crossfire between the Confederate gunboats and heavy guns in the forts, the Union force of approximately 7,000 withdrew from New Madrid without engaging the enemy. Pop and his Division commanders agreed that an all-out frontal assault would be suicide and decided to surround the Confederates. He telegraphed for siege guns and kept his command well distanced from the Confederates to await the big guns arrival.  Pope also continued with other strategies. On March 6th Brigadier General Plummer 's Division was ordered five miles downriver to Point Pleasant, Missouri. To set up batteries on the river to cut off Confederate supply boats from reaching New Madrid and No. 10. Plummer's men dug in along the riverbank; although the Rebel gunboats attempted to dislodge the Federals with their wooden fleet of gunboats, they failed. Plummer's men riddled the boats with small arms fire and scored several direct hits from their field pieces. The Confederate fleet proved it had little offensive value.

The Union siege guns, three 24-pounders and one 8-inch Howitzer, arrived on March 12 and were planted in front of Fort Thompson that night. On the morning of the 13th the Union began returning the Confederate artillery fire in earnest. A daylong artillery battle ensued, and although not terribly bloody, the losses on both sides in excess of 100 killed and wounded. The Union showed themselves to be good marksmen, dismounting two heavy guns in Fort Thompson and scoring several direct hits on the gunboats. The Confederates, not to be outdone, placed an 8-inch ball directly into the muzzle of one of the 24 pounders. Pope ordered an infantry assault on Fort Bankhead by Palmer's Division; however, the Confederates discovered the plan and trained the big guns on the Union solders.

That evening Generals Stewart, McCown and Commodore Hollins met aboard the Confederate Flagship McRae and concluded that the situation at New Madrid was hopeless.