Civil War-era rock carvings by Daniel C. Miller, top, and Christian Bauhof still stand on the banks of Stones River.
|
|
|
Not all of the Civil War discoveries here are “ancient” so to speak.
There’s the case of Daniel C. Miller, a stone carver, who served with the 115th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
His story was captured by the late Mabel Pittard in her 1984 book, “Rutherford County,” which was part of the Tennessee County History Series published by Memphis State University.
At the time, Mrs. Pittard wrote her book, Miller’s carving along the bank of Stones River had only recently been rediscovered. The inscription simply says:
“Daniel C. Miller; Co. B, 115 O.V.I.”
His name was carved with a scroll effect on a large limestone boulder overlooking Stones River somewhat near the present day Stones River Country Club. Above his name was the inscription of J.C. Bauhof, followed by the same regimental information.
Mrs. Pittard, the dedicated historian she was, took the time to trace Miller’s story.
Miller, it seems, was born in Germany or perhaps Switzerland and moved to the U.S.A. at age 19. His name was originally “Mueller,” but after coming to America it was changed to the more acceptable “Miller.”
At the beginning of the Civil War, he worked as a marble cutter with a Cleveland, Ohio, monument company. He soon enlisted in the 115th Ohio Infantry, a unit which was used primary for occupation and guard duties.
After the construction of Fortress Rosecrans, the 115th Ohio was moved to Murfreesboro where it was detailed along the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad line. Seven blockhouses were built where the railroad crossed streams.
Miller was stationed at blockhouse No. 7 near where the railroad crosses Overall Creek near Murfreesboro, Mrs. Pittard wrote.
A prolific letter writer, Miller penned many in German to his parents. Mrs. Pittard secured copies of many of them and had them translated into English.
“There is evidence from one such letter that during the time he was assigned to his Murfreesboro post, he chiseled the inscription that is found on the Hazen’s Brigade Monument in the Stones River National Battlefield,” Mrs. Pittard wrote.
That memorial is believed to be the oldest Civil War monument standing anywhere in the United States.
It was erected in 1863 by members of that brigade in memory of the unit's casualties in the Battle of Stones River.
After the battle, Capt. A. Johnson, 9th Indiana Infantry, and a detail of officers and men of Hazen's Brigade selected a low crest between the Nashville Pike and the railroad for their monument. This was part of the line they had defended so well during Dec. 31, 1862.
Later in 1863, 45 soldiers were buried next to the monument inside the stone wall. Early in 1864, two
skilled stone cutters carved inscriptions on the monument.
The southern face of the monument (toward Nashville Pike) says:
HAZEN'S BRIGADE
TO
THE MEMORY OF ITS SOLDIERS
WHO FELL AT
STONES RIVER, DEC. 31ST 1862
"THEIR FACES TOWARDS HEAVEN, THEIR
FEET TO THE FOE"
The western face of the monument says:
THE BLOOD OF ONE THIRD OF ITS SOLDIERS
TWICE SPILLED IN TENNESSEE
CRIMSONS THE BATTLE FLAG OF THE BRIGADE
AND INSPIRES TO GREATER DEEDS
A list of men who died during the battle follows. The north face (facing the railroad) says:
ERECTED IN 1863 UPON THE GROUND
WHERE THEY FELL
FORTY FIRST INFANTRY OHIO VOLUNTEERS LT. COL. A. WILEY
SIXTH INFANTRY KENTUCKY VOLUNTEERS COL. W.E. WHITAKER
NINTH INFANTRY INDIANA VOLUNTEERS COL. W.H. BLAKE
ONE HUNDRED AND TENTH INFANTRY ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS COL. T.S. CASEY
Nineteenth Brigade Buell's Army of the Ohio. Col. William B. Hazen 41st
Inf'try O. Vols. Commanding
The eastern face of the monument plays tribute to Hazen’s men who died at the battle of Shiloh.
THE VETERANS OF SHILOH
HAVE LEFT A DEATHLESS HERITAGE OF
FAME UPON THE FIELD OF
STONE RIVER
Capt. James Houghton 9th Ind. Vols.
1st Lt. & Adj. T.J. Patton 9th Ind. Vols.
1st. Lt. Joeseph Turner 9th Ind. Vols.
1st. Lt. Franklin E. Pancoast 41st O. Vols.
2nd. Lt. Chauncey E. Takott 41st O. Vols.
2nd Lt. Anton Hand 6th Ky. Vols
Killed at
Shiloh
April 7th
1862
A letter written by Miller indicates that he was assisted by an individual with the last name of Bashihof (J. Christian Bauhof) in the carving on Hazen’s Monument.
“We like the work very much and can work when we want to. We start in the morning around eight and finish at four in the afternoon. I can’t tell yet whether we shall get extra pay for that, but the supervisor surgeon told us that General Hazen will treat us well,” Miller wrote his parents.
Besides his work on the monument, Miller also wrote about every day life in Tennessee.
“We have shot more than 50 hares since we are here, and when a young pig comes to our line, it will be seized and treated like a Rebel,” he wrote his parents.
Much of his time in Murfreesboro was spent making rings and things like cedar wood canes.
“I am also making a cane out of cedar wood. Instead of a snake design I am making a grapevine on it. It is almost ready. I wouldn’t sell it for eight dollars,” Miller wrote.
The rings he made out of silver coins and engraved orange blossoms on the bands and sold them to soldiers for their brides.
On April 17, 1865, Miller wrote a letter about President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.
“We have heard that our President Lincoln was shot in a theatre in Washington last Friday night and died Saturday morning. If this is true, it will be very bad on us. We are not quite sure of all this but you perhaps heard the news. And also that Rebel General Lee with his army has surrendered, including the bloodhound Forrest.”
Both Miller and Bauhof missed the terrible post-war fate of a number of the 115th Ohio. In December 1864, some 200 members of the unit were captured in blockhouses along the N&C Railroad. The men were taken South where they were paroled and ultimately sent north on the ill-fated steamboat, the Sultana,
The extremely overloaded paddlewheeler exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis on April 27, 1865, resulting in the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. An estimated 1,700 of the 2,400 passengers were killed when one of the ship’s four boilers exploded.
At the time, the Sultana’s explosion was almost forgotten.
On April 9, at Appomattox Courthouse, Va., Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered. Five days later President Abraham Lincoln was assasinated. On April 26 his assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was caught and killed. That same day Gen. Joseph Johnson surrendered the last large Confederate army. Shortly thereafter Union troops captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The Civil War was over.
|
Email
Print
Digg
Facebook
MySpace
Yahoo!