B Y DAVID T. D IXON

nion Brigadier Generals ease, as Kirk’s remnants had already scat- Willich and his comrades were forced to Edmund Kirk and August tered them. The Confederates prepared sign a parole of honor, promising not to UWillich hardly suspected the to vanquish the Forty-Ninth , while fight the Confederates until exchanged. degree of danger they faced at dawn on Rains and his , Their day of deliverance would be much December 31, 1862, north of the Stones and troops gained the rear. further in the future than they anticipated. River near the town of Murfreesboro, The Eighty-Ninth Illinois vanished, leav- August Willich was the prize capture Tennessee. Two divisions of rebel soldiers ing only the Fifteenth Ohio to make a by Confederates at the Battle of Stones under the commands of Generals brief, futile stand before they, too, took River. A career officer in the Prussian Patrick R. Cleburne and John P. to their heels and skedaddled. army, he had joined ill-fated rebellions in McCown had silently assembled directly Disaster unfolded. All sense of organ- Germany in 1848 and 1849 against his I think, boys, I am done for! Taken captive, a Prussian general in Union blue left a memorable account of his time in Civil War Georgia. opposite Kirk and Willich on the ization disintegrated. Union soldiers ran extreme right wing of Major General for their lives.4 William Starke Rosecrans’s 42,000-man August Willich heard the commotion Army of the Cumberland, well posi- and leapt onto his horse, desperate to tioned to strike the flank of the unwary rejoin his command.5 Amid the smoke soldiers in blue. and confusion, he galloped directly into While Union soldiers enjoyed break- McNair’s Arkansans, who were mopping fast, the Confederates primed their up what was left of Kirk’s broken brigade. troops with a few swigs of whisky and James Stone, a volunteer aide to General awaited orders to attack. At 6:22 a.m. McNair, confronted Willich and Willich and his commander were con- demanded his surrender, but Willich sulting at headquarters, while turned his horse and fled.6 A cannonball Fielder A. Jones of shattered the hind leg of Willich’s horse, king. He then became a political refugee the Thirty-Ninth Indiana Regiment but the general was uninjured. Stone in America. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS probed the enemy with his skirmish took Willich’s sword and led him away.7 In the opening year of the American lines. Suddenly, Jones heard shots. Then Willich and thousands of captured Civil War, Willich rose rapidly in the vol- he saw the enemy coming.1 Union soldiers were rushed to the rear of unteer , commanding a regi- Skirmishers from Edmund Kirk’s the Confederate lines. They crossed a rail- ment that defeated a much larger force of brigade described the onslaught of tens road bridge and caught a glimpse of Confederates at Rowlett’s Station, of thousands of rebels upon their thin Confederate command- , and killed Colonel Benjamin lines as resembling a “tornado,” with er Braxton Bragg directing his 37,000 F. Terry of the famed Texas Rangers. hordes of gray-clad soldiers “yelling and troops from the opposite bank. Jubilant Willich’s sparkling performance at Shiloh shooting like demons.”2 McCown’s front guards herded the captives into the walled in April 1862 earned him promotion to line brigades of Generals James Rains, courthouse yard in Murfreesboro. They the rank of general, commanding what Matthew D. Ector, and Evander McNair, told prisoners that they were lucky, since became the First Brigade in the Second aligned from south to north, overran the rebels would raise the black flag and kill Division of the right wing of Rosecrans’s skirmishers and crashed into Kirk’s main those captured the following day, when army. The Federals were moving forward, line in mere minutes, disabling the com- Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was intent on driving the rebels out of middle mander and sweeping his men from the to take effect.8 field. As they fled northwest, Kirk’s regi- A fellow prisoner observed Willich ABOVE: Major General August Willich ments careened directly through Willich’s wringing his hands and moaning, “My (1810-1878). Willich was a of brigade, creating confusion and panic.3 poor boys! My poor boys!”9 Some fifty artillery in the Prussian Army before joining republican rebels. He emigrated to America in In the meantime, Ector’s Texans were commissioned officers were moved to 1853. Willich helped raise two all-German reg- rolling over the Thirty-Ninth and upstairs rooms to make room for more iments for the Union and served for the dura- Thirty-Second Indiana regiments with Yankee prisoners. His brigade decimated, tion of the Civil War.

50 GEORGIA BACKROADS/SPRING 2019 Tennessee, so Willich’s capture and forms remained, along with two grand The novelist Augusta Evans paid a call removal from the field of battle delighted crystal chandeliers. Otherwise it was on the prisoners one day. She was among Confederate leaders. filthy and looked deserted. In fact, it was the curious citizens of and a Willich gazed out of Murfreesboro’s crowded with new neighbors who would steadfast supporter of the Confederacy. courthouse window at smoke from the make their days unbearable and their James Whelan, the Catholic bishop of battle two miles to the northwest. His nights devoid of slumber. The makeshift Nashville and a strong Union man, also ears told him that the initial rout had prison was infested with lice. stopped in to chat.10 turned into a desperate struggle. His eyes Willich’s fair, thin skin made him a Prisoners had begun arriving in convinced him that reports from rebels particularly sweet treat for the ravenous Atlanta in significant numbers during of Rosecrans in full retreat toward insects. The fifty-two-year-old general the spring and summer of 1862, follow- Nashville were false. A deluge of prison- was so pestered by his unwelcome bed- ing the horrific battle at Shiloh Church, ers into the courthouse yard slowed to a mere trickle. Near nightfall, cannon still thun- dered. Willich and his famished, exhaust- ed comrades marched to the rail station, loaded into boxcars, and began their journey south. The prisoners demanded rations, which were promised on arrival late in the evening at Tullahoma. When they finally arrived, most received only a single small, hard biscuit. The prisoners received only water until they reached Chattanooga late in the evening of January 1, 1863. They were shuttled to a warehouse on the outskirts of town, then back to the cars for a night ride to Atlanta. By early morning, Willich and his companions reached Atlanta for what most figured would be a short stay. It Brigadier General August Willich in the act of being captured by turned out to be several weeks. Confederates at Stones River, Tennessee, December 31, 1862. Drawing Just days after Willich’s arrival in by Adolph Metzner. The artist probably did not witness the event. Atlanta, Confederate President issued a proclamation declaring mates he thought they, rather than the in Tennessee. Atlanta’s secret circle of that captured Union officers should be rebel army, would end his time on earth. Union supporters did whatever they considered complicit in fomenting slave He procured large quantities of mercurial could do safely to help Federal prisoners rebellion, delivered up to local authori- ointment, which made him gravely ill as they passed through town. Local ties, and jailed in civil prisons with com- and did little to alleviate his suffering. Union men, women, and even children mon criminals. Willich believed this was After a hospital stay of several days, an took great risks to assist captive Union just slightly better than being handed emaciated Willich returned to his friends soldiers by placing money in newspapers, over to a lynch mob. complaining, “If I stay here, the little ver- books, and pies on clandestine visits to When the captives first viewed their min will kill me. If I use medicine, the rail cars and prisons. place of confinement, a fine three-story medicine kills me. So, I think boys,” he One Atlanta newspaper reported with brick building at the corner of Whitehall whimpered, “I am done for.” frustration that “respectable” ladies of the and Alabama streets, it looked clean and Life in the prison was not all pain and community brought bouquets of flowers spacious. It was close by the railroad car drudgery. Captives enjoyed an unlimited and strawberries to the Yankee prisoners. shed, where they could watch troops and supply of gas for the chandeliers, using its Pretty Atlanta girls made fun of the supplies being sent to the front. The bright light to enliven cheery “stag dances” Union soldiers on their walks by the building had been the local Masonic Hall and other amusements. General Willich prison. Visits from Confederate officers until 1860. Merchants Brown and gave lectures on military tactics. Another revealed rumors of a planned Northwest officer recited Shakespeare. A third led the Confederacy. Later investigations would Fleming occupied the bottom two floors. 11 On the third floor, where the prisoners prisoners in exercise routines. Inmates prove such schemes were a real threat. were housed, various stands and plat- enjoyed chess, checkers and cards. Food supplied to the prisoners in

I THINK, BOYS, I AM DONE FOR! HISTORY 51 Atlanta was barely enough to keep them Cavalry, who somehow alive. Once a day, a slave entered the acquired a Confederate prison with a small supply of boiled beef uniform. Willich gave and cornbread. “Here’s your meat, here’s Elliott a field map. your cornbread,” the black man Others supplied him exclaimed. Most parolees were allowed to with a pocket compass, a keep money and personal possessions, few dry biscuits and nine creating a thriving underground econo- tattered dollars in genuine my in edible contraband. Greenbacks Confederate currency. were worth twice their face value in When the train Confederate currency, so captives traded stopped for water in their cash for sweet potatoes, onions, and Conyers, Elliott slipped butter. They concocted a tasty stew, com- out the boxcar door and bining these items with meat, cooked vanished into the night. together in an oyster can in one of three Thirty days later, after small fireplaces, using green pine logs as three hundred miles of fuel. One or two prisoners at a time were walking, fording streams allowed to shop at the market, accompa- and hiding out, he nied by a guard. They paid exorbitant walked into the Union prices for basic foodstuffs. On one such Army’s Camp Davis near trip, a Union prisoner would get into Corinth, , still serious trouble.12 wearing the purloined Lady luck had smiled upon rebel uniform. Officers Lieutenant John F. Elliott of the Thirty- of the Fourth Ohio were Sixth Illinois Infantry in the weeks before rightly suspicious of his the Murfreesboro campaign. He was story but, fortunately, The building at right is the former Masonic Hall on Whitehall Street flush with gambling winnings when cap- Elliott’s brother Charles in 1864. Willich and other Union officers were held on the third story of this building, which was used as a storehouse during the Civil War. tured, and managed to conceal this fact was in camp with the from his captors. One day in early Seventh Ohio and vouched for his to Washington City, but had a difficult February, Elliott tried to purchase sup- sibling.14 time securing a meeting with the War plies with a large stash of counterfeit Willich and the rest of the Union Department. The only man who seemed Confederate bills. An Atlanta citizen prisoners reached Augusta the day after to share his passion in defeating the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS came to the prison and accused Elliott of Elliott’s escape, lodging in a large ware- rebellion, according to Willich, was the trafficking in bogus currency. He was house. That evening, Willich found a president himself, so he requested an searched, then whisked away to a judge, German inn and enjoyed a brief respite interview with the commander-in-chief. who indicted him. Elliott was told that from his troubles with “twelve merry Two days later, on May 8, he met with he would be tried in civil court on the German musicians and a German profes- President Lincoln.17 fourth Monday in March. Elliott’s sor.”15 The next day they hopped aboard The president listened carefully as friends feared for his life and immediate- passenger cars for the journey across Willich described the condition of ly began planning his escape.13 They South Carolina. Prisoners foraged for Richmond and other intelligence he had would get their chance a few weeks later. their own vittles when the trains stopped. gathered on his journey across the Deep On February 25, a Confederate offi- At Weldon, North Carolina, their South. Willich described the region as “a cer entered the prison with welcome patience finally ran out. The captives graveyard of walking corpses,” with boys news. Willich and his comrades would demanded and received food. Morale and men of all ages “placed in irons and finally leave for Richmond to be improved as they pulled into Richmond. dragged like wild animals from prison to exchanged. The prisoners were in good Freedom appeared close at hand. prison because they refuse to enter the spirits as they scrambled into boxcars that Such hopes were dashed as the men army.” Rebel officers approached Union evening and headed east. Seventy-five marched to their new home, the infa- prisoners offering to exchange three, four officers crammed into one car, including mous Libby Prison in Richmond, or even five dollars in Confederate cur- Willich and Lieutenant Elliott. They Virginia.16 rency for one dollar in U.S. greenbacks.18 immediately executed the escape plan. Willich endured several months of Willich compared the Confederacy to “a Elliott changed clothes with Captain deprivation in Libby Prison before his little bladder filled with very bad air. D.A. Briggs of the Second Indiana exchange in early May 1863. He traveled Once you prick it, it sinks with a great

52 GEORGIA BACKROADS/SPRING 2019 stink.”19 The old man told the president back below the shoulder blade, barely Fourth Army Corps in Tennessee in 1864 23 that “there was not a sound pair of legs” missing his spine. and the battles of Spring Hill and in Richmond, suggesting that had Union The blow knocked Willich off his Franklin. (1890), 563. troops known how poorly defended the feet. Adjutant General Carl Schmitt was 9. Alexis Cope, The Fifteenth Ohio city was, they “could have fetched Jeff on the scene and helped carry his wound- Volunteers and Its Campaigns (Columbus, Davis and his consorts out of the city.”20 ed commander on a stretcher to the Ohio: Alexis Cope, 1916), 250. Willich had plenty of advice for the reserve lines. When his men crowded 10. William Wirt Calkins, The History of president. He and Mr. Lincoln held sim- around Willich, a young officer ordered the One Hundred and Fourth Regiment of ilar ideas when it came to politics and them back, but Willich rebuked him. Illinois Volunteer Infantry (Chicago: war. They also shared a love for colorful Despite the pain, he implored his boys to Donahue and Henneberry, 1895), 509-11. imagery in their storytelling. Willich do their duty as if he was still with them 11. Thomas G. Dyer, Secret Yankees: The described the war as a battle between a and was quickly spirited off to safety. Union Circle in Confederate Atlanta Union elephant and a Confederate dog. Willich would never fight again. The (Baltimore: the Johns Hopkins Press, The dog constantly harasses the ele- rebel ball that pierced his shoulder at 1999), 82-96. phant, biting at his feet, while the ele- Resaca had severed a nerve in his right 12. Newlin, A history of the Seventy- phant kicks back, trying to knock him arm, rendering that limb and hand near- third regiment of Illinois infantry, 564-7. 24 down. The war would not end, Willich ly useless for the rest of his life. Despite 13. Newlin, A history of the Seventy-third told the president, until “the elephant successful campaigns throughout the regiment of Illinois infantry, 565-6. The gets mad, drives the dog into a corner, West, August Willich would remember account of W.H. Lawrence of J.F. Elliott’s and tramples the life out of the damn his Civil War experiences in Georgia as escape differs from the versions related by beast.”21 If only Lincoln could get his top frustrating times marked by captivity, others, including Elliott and his family. generals to act more like raging bull ele- defeat, and disability. Lawrence claimed the Elliott escaped from phants, rather than plodding, annoyed the Atlanta prison, whereas other sources pachyderms, the republican Union could David T. Dixon is the author of The Lost insist he escaped from a boxcar. be preserved. Gettysburg Address: Charles Anderson’s 14. Soldiers’ and patriots’ biographical Georgians had not seen the last of Civil War Odyssey. His biography of album containing biographies and por- August Willich. He performed with typical Union General August Willich is forthcom- traits of soldiers and loyal citizens in the skill and bravery in a losing effort at the ing. David, a frequent contributor to American conflict, together with the Battle of Chickamauga, covering the Georgia Backroads, lives in Santa great commanders of the Union Army; retreat of Union forces back to Barbara, California. also a history of the organizations grow- ing out of the war: The Grand Army of Chattanooga. His was the first brigade to Endnotes summit two months the Republic, The Loyal Legion, The later, helping to drive the Confederates out 1. O.R., series 1, vol. 20, pt. 1, 313-4. Sons of Veterans, and The Woman’s of east Tennessee and down into Georgia. 2. David R. Logsdon, ed., Eyewitnesses at Relief Corps (Chicago: Union Veteran In the opening weeks of Union the (Nashville: Publishing Company, 1892), 102-5. General William T. Sherman’s Atlanta Kettle Mills Press, 2002), 17-19. Nashville Union, 5 Apr. 1863.St. Charles campaign, Willich found himself once 3. Cozzens, No Better Place to Die, 83-7. (Illinois) Chronicle, 21 Sept. 1916. again staring down rebels, this time dur- 4. Cozzens, No Better Place to Die, 87-90. 15. Reinhart, ed., August Willich’s ing the Battle of Resaca. On the after- 5. Richard W. Johnson, A Soldier’s Gallant Dutchmen, 143. noon of May 15, 1864, the old general Reminiscences in Peace and War (Philadelphia: 16. Newlin, A history of the Seventy- dismounted and climbed to the top of a J.R. Lippincott, 1886), 212-3. third regiment of Illinois infantry, 567. parapet, field glasses in hand, to take 6. Gustavus Kunkler to Rosalie Kunkler 9 17. Abraham Lincoln to Joseph Hooker stock of the stalemate. He was dressed in Jan. 1863, Gustavus Kunkler Papers, 8 May 1863, O.R. vol. 6, 202-3. his full brigadier general’s uniform, Navarro College Archives, Corsicana, Texas. 18. Reinhart, ed., August Willich’s replete with the yellow sash of his office. 7. O.R., series 1, vol. 20, pt. 1, 912, 946- Gallant Dutchmen, 141-2. Willich’s sash waved in the breeze like 8. Madison (Indiana) Daily Evening 19. Easton (Maryland) Gazette, 27 June 1863. a red handkerchief taunting an angry Courier, 17 Jan. 1863. 20. Reinhart, ed., August Willich’s bull.22 A rebel sharpshooter less than two 8. W. H. Newlin, David F. Lawler, and Gallant Dutchmen, 144. hundred yards away crouched low, took John W. Sherrick. A history of the 21. Easton (Maryland) Gazette, 27 June 1863. upward aim at his quarry, and pulled the Seventy-third regiment of Illinois 22. Cope, The Fifteenth Ohio Volunteers, 435. trigger. A single ball ripped through infantry volunteers, 1861-65: including a 23. August Willich Pension File No. Willich’s upper right arm near the shoul- sketch of the services rendered by 77658, National Archives, Washington, D.C. der, glancing off the bone and exiting his Opdycke’s first brigade, second division, 24. Cope, The Fifteenth Ohio Volunteers, 435-6.

I THINK, BOYS, I AM DONE FOR! HISTORY 53