Milton L. Haney, Bushnell’s “Fighting
Chaplain”
To do a man such as Milton Lorenzo
Haney justice would take far more than three 1200 word articles. The man has written an autobiography, “The Story of My Life.” which was
published in 1904 in Normal, IL. The
Galesburg Library boasts a copy in its historical archives. He has been the subject of numerous articles,
and is honored with a monument at the Chaplain’s Memorial at Fort Jackson in
South Carolina, and with monuments in Bushnell and more recently, one erected
in his honor in Abingdon, Illinois. In
the course of this three part series, I hope to emphasize his religious faith,
his bravery, which led him to receive the Medal of Honor for heroism at the battle
of Atlanta, and the high esteem that his men held him in.
Milton Haney was
born in 1825 in Savannah, Illinois to a father who preached the word for over
fifty years. His faith was contagious; 4
of his sons and a grandson and a great-grandson all entered the ministry of the
Methodist Church. Milton received Christ
in his 16th year, and at the age of 21, only six weeks after he had
been licensed to preach, he took the appointment as the junior preacher of the
Dixon, Illinois circuit. Just like lawyers
such as Lincoln did, men of the cloth rode a circuit as well in order to
service the spiritual needs of their rural parishioners. Three years later he married Sarah Huntzinger
of Princeton, Illinois, a union that would last over 70 years.
Haney had been a
“pronounced abolitionist” since 1847, and at the outbreak of the Civil war he
was a vocal supporter of the Union cause.
He had just begun to serve as the pastor of the Bushnell, Illinois
Methodist Episcopal Church when he was asked to assist in raising a company of
local boys to fight to quell the Rebellion.
Within five days he had gathered over a hundred men, many of them
Methodists, who were organized into two companies of the “Bushnell Light
Guard.” Haney was elected Captain of one
of the companies, accepted the honor, and on October 11th, 1861 was
appointed Captain of Company F, 55th Regiment of the 55th
Illinois Infantry. After five months of
serving in that capacity, Haney was asked to resign as Captain in order to
assume the role of Chaplain of the 55th, a role he assumed in March,
1862.
Over the course
of the war he gave a great deal of thought and diligent attention to his duties
as his regiment’s spiritual guide. In
his memoirs he pens a short chapter entitled “The Duties of a Chaplain” in which he reflects upon the qualities
that a man of God should have when accompanying men to war.
1. The
value of prior military experience was incalculable
It can hardly be realized how great a
blessing it was to me as a chaplain to have first been an efficient officer of
the line. In my five months of
experience as a Captain…I saw the
wrongs perpetrated against the men by their officers and disapproved of
them. This gave me power with all [the
soldiers] in the line, so an attempt to put me down was a serious affair to any
officer, for he knew in doing so he would bring [upon himself] the wrath of the
men. So I fearlessly did many things in
the chaplaincy I never could have done had I not gained these advantages. Hence to the end I was free to follow my own
conscience, and none dared to meddle with me.
2. Chaplains who were merely preachers and not
pastors were usually failures
There was a class of preachers who were not a success at home who
secured the position of chaplain and failed.
A chaplain who would remain at headquarters and only be seen by the men
in connection with a perfunctory “Divine Service” amounted to very little. An army in motion, as was Sherman’s, rarely
gives a chance for a set sermon. Hence
the chaplain who depends wholly upon his preaching seems to be an idler, and
easily gets the displeasure of the men.
3. Chaplains need common sense, divine love,
moral courage, and adaptation to personnel contact with soldiers of may
backgrounds.
Divine love ruling in a human
breast always produces a real interest in the weal of others. A chaplain who is head and no heart is a
miserable makeshift. He must be able to
put himself alongside men of a great variety of temperaments and in a variety
of circumstances.
4. Above
all, chaplains must be watchful for opportunities to help and relieve suffering
whenever and wherever possible.
There is a great deal of
suffering in an army, especially when in the field. Men get sick or are wounded, and the best
treatment that can be given, in many cases, would be looked upon with horror in
the home life. The presence of a wise
chaplain filled with the sympathies of Jesus in such cases is as an oasis in
the desert. Besides all this, the
spiritual interests of a thousand men are on his soul, and so many in death, on
field and in the camp, who can be made to see Christ before they go! It will give me ages of comfort, the memories
of what God did for me and through me in those years of war.
The 55th Illinois saw
considerable action during the war, giving Chaplain Haney plenty of opportunity
to bond with the men. When it came to
erecting earthworks, Chaplain Haney took his turn with the shovel, and bore
with his charges during the siege of Vicksburg and Sherman’s drive into
Georgia. He took the role of chaplain
far beyond what was normally expected of a man of the cloth. He often led men in foraging expeditions,
looked after the needs of the wounded and dying, and had command of the
regiment’s ambulances. At the age of 39
he was easily 15 years older than most of the men, but he was easily the most
popular officer in the regiment. He
often could be heard rousing and encouraging the boys by leading them in song,
hymns that he knew by heart from a tiny battered hymnbook that he carried with
him. He remained chaplain of the
regiment despite being elected to the rank of “Colonel” by the men in
recognition of the heroism he demonstrated during the battles around Vicksburg
and Chattanooga. In 1863 he had a chance
to take an action that demonstrated his firm belief in the abolition of slavery
and his faith in the ability of the black man to fight for his own freedom, and
he requested permission to raise a black regiment. By early June of 1864 though, the combined
duties of a Colonel and a chaplain became too burdensome to him. His allegiance to his God took precedence, so
he turned command of the regiment over to Lieutenant=Colonel Jacob M. Augustine
to focus his labors full time as the chaplain of the regiment. The men insisted however, that he retain the
honorary rank of “Colonel,” which testified to the high esteem and the
affection that they held for him.
At
the dawn of July 22nd, 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood
launched a surprise attack against the Union position occupied by McPherson’s
division. Hood reportedly ordered that
whiskey barrels be cracked open so that his boys could fill their
canteens. The hope of the Confederate
high command was that they would drive the Yanks out of the country and
celebrate as they had after a similarly stunning Confederate victory at
Chickamauga. During the morning of the
assault, McPherson galloped into a rebel skirmish line and was shot attempting
to turn his horse and gallop to safety.
He became the highest ranking Union casualty of the war. General Patrick Cleburne, one of the South’s
most able commanders, continued to push the rebel troops forward. Two miles north of McPherson’s flank,
Chaplain Haney heard the incessant thunder of the artillery, and noted in his
memoirs that “the musketry was simply terrific.” The 55th Illinois was first
ordered to march to Decatur< Georgia, 4 miles away, where General Joe
Wheeler and the Confederate cavalry were attacking the Union wagon trains, but
Major General John A. Logan, who took command after McPherson’s death,
countermanded the order and sent the 55th back to bolster the Union
line.
At
about 4pm, Cleburne’s attack on the left lost its impetus. Hood committed his second corps, under
General Benjamin Cheatham, to hit the Union center. This attack would run them up against the
line that the 55th Illinois occupied.
Chaplain Haney watched as three lines of rebel
soldiers, six men deep, advanced toward the 55ths position. Haney saw a musket lying on the ground. He normally did not carry a weapon, but he
reasoned that the rebels would have little time to recognize that he was a
chaplain during this ferocious assault.
Armed now, he stepped into the trenches.
Using the breastworks for good effect, the 55th Illinois
drove the rebels back during the assault on their portion of the Union
defenses. Regrettably, not all of the
Yankee units were so stalwart. The unit
adjacent to them, the 57th Ohio, broke and fled, leaving the 55ths
position untenable.
“When
loading my gun,” wrote Chaplain Haney in his memoirs, “I faced northward and to my surprise the 57th Ohio was
retreating.” As the men of the 55th Illinois sensed that they
were being overwhelmed, they broke too.
Eventually Chaplain Haney and Lieutenant Eichelberger and one other
soldier were all that remained within sight of each other in the heavy smoke of
the battle. They finally had to fall
back as well, much to the mortification of the Lieutenant, who “roared like a wild man,” before he “broke into tears and wept like a child” as
they withdrew, their retreat urge to haste by heavy Confederate fire.
From the vantage point of his
headquarters, General Sherman took immediate steps to quell the Confederate
breakthrough and drive them back. He
ordered that 20 cannon from Schofield’s artillery fire over the heads of the
retreating Union troops into the horde of advancing rebels. The fighting was near enough to headquarters
by now that a bullet grazed General Sherman’s cheek. While the artillery was making life hell for
the rebels, General Logan led two divisions and a brigade forward to
reestablish the Union line. As Logan’s
troops moved forward, Chaplain Haney had a soldier run up to him and assert
that some of the members of the 55th were still holding out,
refusing to retreat. Haney doubted the
man at first, but upon questioning him, realized that he was telling the
truth. Knowing that the men holding on
could use any assistance he could muster, he began attempting to work with Lieutenant
Eichelburger to rally the 55th and move them forward as well. Chaplain Haney well remembered their efforts…
Having
gone through the brush perhaps 30 rods, a group of the scattered men began to
gather around us, and Eichelburger insisted that we return and retake the
works. The men said they would not go
unless I sanctioned it, and now our duty seemed plain. We fell into a thin line and the farther we
went the faster, till suddenly coming into the clearing, we were face to face
with a thousand rebels between us and our works, about twenty steps away. A rebel, seeing me before I saw him, had his
musket drawn on my breast. My musket was
down at a ‘trail arms,’ but was changed to a make ready, aim and fire! In an
amazingly quick time.”
Haney estimated that he
had roughly 40 men in his stalwart group of heroes, but they fought
fiercely. The brave Lieutenant
Eichelberger died, taking a bullet in the head.
Haney watched as some of his comrades staggered and fell to the ground
as well. Some of them had by this time
run out of ammunition and were using their fists to attack the enemy. Haney reflected on that moment in his memoirs…
“As
I turned after firing, it was said by a cool-headed sergeant who was looking
on, that one hundred muskets were fired at my person. It may have been less, but the brush was
mowed to the left and right by rebel bullets and by a miracle my life was
preserved. A voice went through me,
assuring me that no rebel bullet should touch me. I praised God until two o’clock that night
that he had carried my head in time of battle and enabled me to ‘run through a
troop and leap over a wall.’”
Haney and his small
group had delayed the rebel advance long enough. By this time reinforcements had come up,
including more of the members of the 55th that Colonel Martin had
rallied and brought forward. Now the
Confederates were caught in crossfire between the advancing Union
reinforcements and the artillery barrage that was pounding their flank. Haney wrote that the rebels “did go out in haste before the sun went
down, and we were again in possession.” In
his battle report, Confederate John Bell Hood vented his disappointment with
this entry: “A heavy enfilade fire forced [General] Cheatham to abandon the works
he had captured,”
Chaplain Haney’s men never forgot their
spiritual leader’s heroics, and some of them began to lobby in the postwar
years for him to receive the Nation’s highest medal for valor, the Medal of
Honor. The award was finally granted to
him on November 3rd, 1896, for rendering heroic service at Atlanta,
Georgia. He “voluntarily carried a musket
in the ranks of his regiment, and performed heroic service in retaking the
Federal works which had been captured by the enemy on July 22nd,
1864.”
This honor, which would have been the
climax and penultimate achievement in one’s life for most men, was not even
mentioned in the memoirs that Chaplin Haney wrote in 1904. He devoted much of that book to sermons that
he’d given and revivals that he’d led and to churches that he’d been called to
serve in. What perhaps meant more to him,
is a compliment that General Sherman is purported to have uttered when he learned
of Chaplain Haney’s heroics in Atlanta.
In his raspy cigar-ravaged voice, he was said to have asserted that “such a chaplain was worth a thousand men.”
During the evening of July 22nd
Union burial partied found close to 2500 Confederate dead in front of the
earthworks. General Hood’s hope for a
great victory outside of Atlanta had evaporated. Now the city was doomed. It was at a heavy cost in Northern lives as well
though. Sherman had lost close to 3500
men, including his close friend, General James B. McPherson. Chaplain Haney worked through the night and
late into the morning hours ministering to the wounded and dying of both
armies. One soldier who had been
mortally wounded in the stomach was still conscious. He asked Chaplain Haney to tell him “some
words” by which he could be brought to the Lord. Milton Haney shared the gospel with him, and
then softly sang an old revival hymn to the frightened young man. The soldier listened to the song with his eyes
closed, but at the last verse he opened them and said “I have found Him.” He died at peace and ready to meet his
redeemer.
In the Battle of Atlanta the 55th
Illinois lost so many officers and men that it ceased to be an effective
unit. Chaplain Haney was sent back to
Illinois to recruit more men to help fill the regiment, but he was mustered out
when General Sherman took Savannah in December and it looked as though the war
was nearing its end. Haney took a
pastorate in LaSalle, Illinois in the fall of 1865, and began a 31 year career
as a pastor and an evangelist.
Haney rose to prominence as a leader in
the American Holiness Movement, especially in the West. He joined the group in 1878, attended the
Western Union Holiness Convention, which was held in Jacksonville, Illinois in
1880, and soon began to hold offices of state, and eventually National
prominence. He helped bring about the
formation of the National Holiness Missionary Society as well as the California
College and Holiness Bible School. By
the time his picture appeared on the cover of the “Christian Standard,” he had achieved national recognition for his
zeal as an evangelist.
Haney wrote many tracts, books and
articles, most of them dealing on religious topics, with such uninspiring
titles as “Unsaved Church Members<” “Depravity,” “Tares Mixed with the
Wheat,” “Holiness a Hobby” and “Questions to Objectors.” His 1904 autobiography, “The Story of My
Life,” reprinted in 1906 as “Pentecostal Possibilities” has been reprinted and
can be purchased on line or through most independent booksellers.
In the late 1890s the old evangelist’s
health began to worsen. He decided to
apply for an increase in his military pension.
The surviving members of his regiment, still holding him in reverence,
drew up the following petition, signed their names to it, and submitted it to
Green P. Baum, the Commissioner of Pensions in Washington DC.
“Dear
Sir: - We, the undersigned, late members of the 55th Regt. Illinois
Vil. Inf., and now residents of various localities and citizens of different
states, having learned that our old Chaplain and Comrade in arms., Rev. Milton
L. Haney, is now an applicant for an Invalid Pension, would respectfully
represent “First: at the beginning of the war the Rev. Milton L. Haney was a
regularly ordained M.E. minister, filling the better class of appointments in
Central Illinois, and stationed at the town of Bushnell, Il, and one of the
best and most eloquent preachers in his conference. He early espoused the cause of the Union and
threw all of his power and influence of his impetuous nature for a vigorous prosecution
of the war. From the pulpit and the
platform, in public and in private, he denounced treason and pleaded for the
Union. He went from place to place
holding public meetings and rousing the people to a sense of their duty….doubtless
many were enlisted to the cause of the Union by his labors. Early in the fall of 1861, having enlisted in
the army himself, he began the work of securing enlistments, and was very
successful, raising two full companies and recruits for others….No citizen of
Illinois perhaps, used his influence and abilities to better purpose for the
cause of the Union at that time, than Milton L. Haney. He went to the front as Captain of Company F….and
in March, 1862 was promoted to Chaplain…He was respected, honored and beloved
by both officers and men and is idealized by them to this day. He was constant and untiring in his duties
and ministrations as Chaplain: in rescuing our wounded and caring for our sick:
visiting the most dangerous places in the battlefield in time of battle, and
the hospitals in all hours of the night: marching in the ranks and fighting
with his musket in battle.
This man, who gave himself
entirely to our cause, and served as few men can serve any cause, now venerable
with age and infirm in health and dependent upon his own daily efforts for a
living, is an applicant for a valid pension.
His patriarchial and patriotic character, his present straightened
financial circumstances, and his faithful services to our common country and to
our comrades, both living and dead, of the old Regt. in which we had the honor
to serve, impel us, aside from all technical questions of merit in his case, to
bespeak for him and his claim, the most considerate, the most lenient and the most
generous and liberal consideration, consistent with your high sense of public
duty.”
The petition had the
desired effect. In 1915 Milton Haney’s
pension was raised from $30 to $60 a month.
In 1916 the Haneys moved to a new residence at 118 Glorietta Street in
Pasadena, California. There he continued
his evangelical work and served as Superintendent of the Southern California
Interdenominational Holiness Association.
The fiery old saver of souls finally fell to an attack of pneumonia on
January 20th, 1922, just three days before his 97th
birthday. More than 50 ministers
attended the service. Chaplain Haney
mortal remains are spending their eternal rest in a plot at Mountain View
Cemetery and Mausoleum in Altadena, California, in Los Angeles County.
There is a monument to the Medal of Honor
Chaplain at Fort Jackson, South Carolina in its Chaplain Memorial Park. The monument was moved there from its
previous location at Fort McPherson. For
those of you looking for a local tribute to the man, I would urge you to take
the short drive to Abingdon. A recently
dedicated memorial at the corner of Main and Meek has columns dedicated to
Chaplain Haney, as well as Medal of Honor recipients James B. Stockdale and
Robert Dunlop, as well as the early pioneer founder of that Illinois
community. The picture on Milton Haney’s
column shows a man in the prime of life, sporting a black beard. Perhaps this is the same visage that his
comrades remembered when they signed their names to his pension petition.
On the last page of his autobiography,
Milton Lorenzo Haney penned words that could well serve as his epitaph.
“Be
it known by any who may read this story when the hand that wrote it is
palsied: There was one heart which did
not cease its efforts to save men, till it ceased its beating.”
Bibliography:
“The Annals” March
1994, Volume 15, Number 3, “For God and
Country” by Bill Webber
“Methodist History” January,
1992 “A Song of Courage: Chaplain M. L. Haney and
the Congressional Medal of Honor.”
“The Story of My Life” by
Milton Haney, an autobiography, 1906
“Wesleyan Heritage Library” “Holiness Writers: Sketch of M. L. Haney by
Kenneth o, Brown, 1998.
“Find a Grave,” Milton Lorenzo
Haney entry
“Petition by Members of Co. F, 55th
Illinois Volunteer Infantry supporting the claim of Milton Lorenzo Henry for an
Invalid Pension
No comments:
Post a Comment