'A wild yell': A future president describes attack at Resaca

Melea Medders Tennant, whose family has long owned land where the Battle of Resaca (May 13-15, 1864)
 was fought, at the remains of these Confederate embrasures.  Captain Maximillian Van Den Corput's 
"Cherokee Battery" of four Napoleons was placed here in front of the Confederate line. 

Amid the firing of canister by the enemy, Harrison's troops swept over this embrasure on May 15, 1864.
(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE.)

Like this blog on Facebook | Follow me on Twitter

Van Den Corput

At the Battle of Resaca (Ga.) on May 15, 1864, Colonel Benjamin Harrison of the 70th Indiana led an attack against a Confederate battery commanded by Captain Maximilian Van Den Corput. Two Union regiments overwhelmed the "Cherokee Battery," bayoneting some of the defenders. Under severe fire from a Confederate line 20 yards behind the battery, Federals were forced to retreat, leaving the abandoned cannon in no-man's land. Under the cover of darkness, Union soldiers advanced to the earthworks and dragged the four Confederate cannon back to their lines.  Here's an excerpt from the report Harrison -- who became 23rd U.S. president in 1889 -- wrote about the attack, paired with images I shot during a recent visit.

---

During the night of Saturday, the 14th instant, under orders, I constructed, with the assistance of Lieutenant and the brigade pioneers, a line of rifle-pits along the front of my line, and had moved in at daylight four companies to occupy them as sharpshooters and watch the enemy, when we were suddenly relieved by another brigade and marched around to a new position on the left of the Fourteenth Army Corps.

Benjamin Harrison, colonel
of the 70th Indiana.

In our new position we were informed that our brigade, supported by the other brigades of our division, was expected to assault the enemy’s rifle-pits, and without delay our brigade was formed in column of battalions in order of rank. My regiment leading, passed from the crest of an intrenched ridge, occupied by our forces, across an open field in the valley and up a steep and thickly wooded hill to the assault of the enemy’s breastworks, whose strength, and even exact location, was only revealed by the line of fire which, with fearful destructiveness, was belched upon our advancing column.

I moved my men at the double-quick and, with loud cheers, across the open space in the valley in order sooner to escape the enfilading fire from the enemy’s rifle-pits on our right and to gain the cover of the woods, with which the side of the hill against which our assault was directed was thickly covered. The men moved on with perfect steadiness and without any sign of faltering up the hillside and to the very muzzles of the enemy’s artillery, which continued to belch their deadly charges of grape and canister, until the gunners were struck down at their guns.

Having gained the outer face of the embrasures, in which the enemy had four 12-pounder Napoleon guns, my line halted for a moment to take breath. Seeing that the infantry supports had deserted the artillery, I cheered the men forward, and with a wild yell they entered the embrasures, striking down and bayoneting the rebel gunners, many of whom defiantly stood by their guns till struck down.

             PANORAMA: Harrison's troops charged up this hill to take the enemy battery.
                                       (Click at upper right for full-screen experience)

"The men moved on with perfect steadiness and without any sign of faltering up the hillside and to the very 
muzzles  of the enemy’s artillery," Colonel Benjamin Harrison wrote. A Confederate cannon was placed here. 

               PANORAMA: A view from behind the position of the Confederate battery.
                                       (Click at upper right for full-screen experience.)

Within this outer fortification, in which the artillery was placed, there was a strong line of breast-works, which was concealed from our view by a thick pine undergrowth, save at one point, which had been used as a gateway. This line was held by a rebel division of veteran troops, said to be of Hood’s command. When we first entered the embrasures of the outer works the enemy fled in considerable confusion from the inner one, and had there been a supporting line brought up in good order at this juncture the second line might have easily been carried and held.

My line having borne the brunt of the assault, it was not to be expected that it could be reformed for a second assault in time. The enemy in a moment rallied in rear of their second line, and poured in a most destructive fire upon us, which compelled us to retire outside the first line to obtain the cover of the works. At this point some confusion was created among our forces in and about the enemy’s works (several of our battalions in rear of me having come up) by a cry that the enemy was flanking us. This caused many to retire down the hill, and had for a time the appearance of a general retreat.

A late 19th-century print of Benjamin Harrison
leading an attack at Resaca. (Library of Congress)

I strove in vain to rally my men under the enemy’s fire on the hillside, and finally followed them to a partially sheltered place behind a ridge to our left, where I was engaged in separating my men from those of other regiments and reforming them preparatory to leading them again to the support of those who still held the guns we had captured, when I was informed that General Ward was wounded, and was ordered to assume command of the brigade and reform it, which duty I discharged and then urgently asked General Butterfield for permission to take it again to the works we had carried and still held, and bring off the guns we had captured. This was refused, and by his order the brigade was placed in a new position on a hill to the left of the point at which we had assaulted, to assist in repelling an attack made by the enemy.

To sum up the account of the day’s fight, I will add that detachments from my regiment, and, I believe, from each of the other regiments of the brigade, held the rebels from re-entering and taking the guns we had captured until they were brought off at night by a detail from the First and Second brigades. I would respectfully call your attention to the following points: First, my regiment entered the enemy’s works in advance of all others, and my colors, though not planted, were the first to enter the fort; second, the enemy’s lines were not penetrated at any other point than that where we entered, although assaulted by other troops on the left; third, my regiment, being in advance and having to bear the brunt of the assault, accomplished all that could have been required of them in entering the works and driving the enemy out.

Under fire, Union soldiers drag a Confederate cannon from Ven Den Corput's Battery from the earthworks.
(Library of Congress)

"I cheered the men forward, and with a wild yell they entered the embrasures, striking down and
 bayoneting  the rebel gunners," Harrison wrote. Another view of remains of Confederate embrasure.

---

-- Have something to add (or correct) in this post? E-mail me here.

SOURCE: Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Volume 38, Part 2.