Beloved Commander of the “Blind Half-Hundred Regiment”
The manuscript
that I’m holding in my hands was written by Colonel William Hanna of the 8th
Illinois National Guard in 1880. It is a
short note written to Civil War veteran, Samuel B. Sherer, who rose to the rank
of Captain during the Civil War, and after the war became a General in the
Illinois National Guard and an active participant in Grand Army of the Republic
activities. General Hanna is writing to
send his regrets that he cannot attend a reunion that was to be held in
Galesburg. The letter is written in ink
on an ornately designed letter head that lists the names and ranks of the
officers, along with their home towns.
They are: Colonel William Hanna-Keokuk Junction, Major C. Y.
Long-Carthage, Major R. H. McMahon-Quincy, Surgeon S. H. McClung-Mt Sterling,
Chaplain Edward J. Rice-Clayton, Adjutant H.E.Selby-Quincy and Quartermaster O.
M. Smeigh-Quincy.
As with any
signed Civil War document of local interest that I’m fortunate enough to
acquire, I wanted to learn more about the man who penned the note. Finding nothing in local collections, I
searched on-line, and discovered the existence of William Hanna’s military
diary. It was in the possession of
Southern Adventist University’s Mckee Library, in Tennessee. When I contacted the curator and asked if I
could pay to have it copied and sent my way, in one of the many acts of
kindness that you’ll run into while researching, the librarian was kind enough
to scan and send me copies of the material.
The diary and other material were compiled by Dr. R. C. Slater of
LaSalle, Illinois in 1960. As much as I
looked forward to reading the diary and using it to flesh out the character of
General Hanna, I was disappointed. The
diary is rather terse. It offers
information about where the regiment was on a particular day, and often about
what the weather was like, but rarely does William Hanna indulge in any
character sketches or descriptive prose that graces other diaries that I have
encountered. He was evidently a man who
dealt in facts, not conjecture, and not a man given to recording his feelings
or reactions to events.
William Hanna was
born in Lexington, Indiana on June 23rd, 1833 to parents of
Scotch-Irish descent. The childhood that
most of us hold so dear was sadly brief for him, as he was left an orphan at
the age of ten. Chagrined, but not undaunted
by the death of his parents, he found neighbors for whom he could work in
exchange for room and board, and money enough for clothes and to pay for an
education at the district school. Early
in his life he resolved to study for the ministry, but ill-health put an end to
that ambition. He went into business
instead, and soon made a lot of friends and a success of his ventures. The advent of war saw him a successful
merchant.
Soon after war
was declared he assisted in raising Company E. of the 50th Illinois
regiment from Camp Point, Illinois, and in appreciation for his efforts was
named Captain of the regiment. The
regiment was mustered into service on December 12th, 1861 and made
its way first to Hannibal, where they encountered their first foe, an epidemic
of measles, and then down to Cairo. In
February they were shipped to Tennessee in time to participate in the capture
of Fort Henry and then the siege of Fort Donelson. The 50th Illinois had earned the
nickname the “Blind Half-Hundred,” because
a good number of the men who enlisted in the regiment were either cross-eyed or
blind in one eye. The nickname was
cemented to them the day shortly before Fort Donelson fell. Their “blind obedience” to orders led them to
embark on a charge that helped capture the last entrenchments of the fort, a
factor that led its Rebel commanders to surrender the fort shortly
afterwards.
The men who
thought that they’d experienced war at Fort Donelson discovered that it was nothing compared to the
ferocity of the battle of Shiloh in early April. Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston
launched a surprise attack at dawn, vowing to drive the Union army into the
Tennessee river. The 50th was
situated on the left of the Union line, at the top of a steep ravine. Despite the formidable terrain the Rebs moved
forward. The enemy’s initial assault
killed three of the 50ths officers.
Despite the determination of the assault and the superior numbers that
they faced, as well as having the element of surprise work against them,, the
50th Illinois fought a commendable defensive withdrawal, delaying
the enemy advance the best they could until they finally halted and found
refuge and formed a final line of defense in front of a mass of artillery that
had been set up to halt the Rebel advance.
The men of the “Half-Blind
Hundred” hurled themselves to the ground in front of the guns, firing from
a prone position into the vanguard of the enemy advance until the tired and
discouraged Confederates finally fell back.
The next day saw the arrival of Union reinforcements under the command
of General Don Carlos Buell, and the reinvigorated and reinforced Yankees,
including the 50th Illinois, moved forward to retake the field that
had been wrest from them at so bloody a cost the day before.
The 50th
accompanied General Halleck on his inexcusably slow advance on Corinth. They remained there, and were present when
Confederate General Earl Van Dorn launched an assault to attempt to retake
Corinth on June 5th. The
resolute Union defenders beat the attackers back. The “Blind
Half-Hundred” regiment performed creditably, capturing a stand of colors,
and 151 prisoners, including 2 officers.
Van Dorn launched frontal assaults upon a well defended position, having
some success on the first day of the battle, driving the Federal army from the
rifle pits that they’d been using as their first line of defense, and
exploiting a gap in the Union lines, driving the defenders back into their
inner line of fortifications. The second
day saw the Confederates repulsed after they attempted to storm Battery Powell
and Battery Robinett. After some
ferocious hand to hand fighting, the Rebs attack on the second day was
repulsed. The results were a disaster
for the Confederates. They suffered 473
Killed compared to 355 for the Union troops, and the horrendous total of 3750
wounded and missing compared to 2200 for the defenders. As noted above, the 50th Illinois
had done their share to account for this disparity in numbers. Despite the victory that he won, General
Rosecrans was criticized by both President Lincoln and General Grant for not
pursuing and perhaps losing a chance to annihilate the retreating and
demoralized Confederates.
For a time, when he held a Captain’s rank,
William Hanna served as an Acting ADC on the staff of General Grenville M.
Dodge, who would go on to earn great renown as the Chief Engineer of the Union
Pacific who was instrumental in the construction of the first Transcontinental
railroad, the Union
Pacific. Captain Hanna gained valuable
experience working as a subordinate officer for the very competent Union
commander, experience that served him well when he shouldered more command
responsibility. Hanna’s wartime diary
begins late in the war, on January, 1864.
It’s disappointing in its terseness.
By this time he had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. For example, His entry for the 5th
of October, a momentous day in the “Blind
Half-Hundred’s” history, consists of a lackluster five sentences. He mentions that the fighting was heavy, that
he was wounded (in the left thigh) and the casualties inflicted on the
regiment. Seven thousand rebel troops
attacked the 2900 Union defenders of Allatoona Pass in Georgia. The determined enemy inflicted casualties of
962 men upon the Union defenders, but suffered close to 2200 casualties before
they were beaten back, saw 400 of their men captured prisoner, and lost 3 flags
and close to 800 weapons.
It was a costly
defeat and cemented the 50ths reputation as a fighting regiment. A bit of local interest: The commander of the Union defenders was
General John Corse, a Burlington, Iowa native, made his reputation in this
battle. General Corse was slightly
wounded during the battle, but he magnified the importance of his wounds in a
dramatic message that he sent to General Sherman. It read: “I
am short a cheekbone and one ear, but am able to whip all hell yet.” You will find an equestrian statue of him in
Burlington’s Crapo Park, inscribed with the words “Hold the Fort.” These words
are the refrain of a popular hymn that used the heroic defense of Allatoona
Pass as inspiration. The hymn, by Chicago evangelist Phillip P.
Bliss featured the chorus: “Hold the fort;
for we are coming; Union men be strong.”
You can find General Corse’s gravesite in a little chapel named for
him that is situated in Burlington’s Aspen Grove Cemetery. Aspen Grove can boast of a number of
prominent Civil War burials in it. Next
to the Corse Chapel is the gravesite of General Karl Matthies and within short
walking distance are the graves of Civil War Medal of Honor recipient Nicholas
Bouquet and Major General Jacob Laumann.
Couple a visit here with a visit to Crapo Park and the Des Moines County
Historical Society and one can spend a day exploring links to the Civil War in
that historic Iowa City. The repulse at
Allatoona Pass was disheartening for the Confederates, as they had hoped to
seize the one million rations that were stored there, or at least to burn them
to deprive Sherman’s army of their use.
After the fight
at Allatoona Pass the 50th and William Hanna continued with General
Sherman as he took Atlanta, then set out to make Georgia howl as he cut a swath
of devastation across the state as they made their way to Savannah. Then the 50th accompanied
Sherman’s army into North Carolina, fought with Joe Johnston and the Rebels in
Bentonville, North Carolina, and was present at the surrender of Johnston’s
army. At the war’s end the “Blind Half-Hundred” participated in the
Grand Review of the Armies in Washington DC, and then travelled by train to
Louisville where the regiment was mustered out.
Before the
mustering out the 50th earned more laurels, winning a Divisional
competition in Louisville as the best-trained regiment. At his time Colonel William Hanna was
presented with an inscribed sword and cartridge box in recognition for his
leadership and as a token of the high esteem his men held him in. He had also been honored by his government by
being awarded the brevet rank of Brigadier General on March, 13th,
1865 for his gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Allatoona,
Georgia.
General Hanna ran
a country store after the war in Golden, Illinois. He died there on August 4th, 1907
and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, in Camp Point, Illinois. His large red granite monument is easy to
find. On it he is given the tribute “Of such as he was, there are few on
earth.” His stone also lists his
rank as Brevet Brigadier General, and ten important battles and sieges that he
participated in: Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, the Siege of Corinth, the
Battle of Corinth, Resaca, Lay’s Ferry, Allatoona, Savannah and Bentonville. William Hanna was a merchant, with no
military training, but his determination and willingness to learn and adapt to
military life made an integral cog in forging the 50th Illinois into
a fighting machine to be reckoned with.
How respected was the regiment?
Perhaps the best tribute paid to it is that before his death Ulysses S.
Grant chose a number of battle flags to be displayed in the tomb that was being
planned for him in New York City. Doomed
by the ravages of cancer, the former General and President reflected during his
illness on the regiments whose efforts he respected, and whose battle flags he
would deem worthy enough to be displayed in the monument that would be his
final resting place. One of the flags that the dying
warrior chose was the faded, battle-scarred standard made glorious by the efforts
of the “Blind Half-Hundred.”
Bibliography:
Wartime Diary of
William Hanna, 1864 Dr. R.C. Slater
1960
Battle of Shiloh
Wikipedia
Battle of Allatoona
Pass Wikipedia
Battle of Corinth Wikipedia
50th
Illinois Infantry Regiment Wikipedia
50th
Illinois Infantry Regiment History
Civilwar.illinoisgenweb.org
