FAMILY LINE AND HISTORY
Charles Henry Chatfield
3rd of 4 living children of Levi Tomlinson Chatfield & Lovina Mastick
Born: Oct 3, 1840, Middlefield, Geauga Co., Ohio
Died: Jun 27, 1864 (age 23), Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (near Marietta), Cobb Co., Georgia
Buried: Marietta National Cemetery in Marietta, Cobb Co., Georgia
Military Service: 1859: Kansas Border War
1861-1864: Civil War, Captain in Union Army, Distinguished Service; Company K, 17th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Company D, 85th Illinois Volunteer Infantry
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Timeline and Records
Four living children of Levi Tomlinson Chatfield & Lovina Mastick:
1. Isaac Willard “I.W.” Chatfield
1836 – 1921
2. Clark Samuel “C.S.” Chatfield
1839 – 1906
3. Charles Henry Chatfield
1840 – 1864
4. Ellen Charlotte “Ellie” Chatfield
1846 – 1928
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Oct 3, 1840: Birth of Charles Henry Chatfield, 3rd of four living children of Levi Chatfield and Lovina Mastick, in Middlefield, Geauga Co., Ohio.
1843/44: The family of Charles Henry Chatfield (abt age 4) move to Bath, Mason Co., Illinois.
Mar 1846: Birth of Ellen Charlotte Chatfield, Charles’ sister and the 4th and last child of Levi Chatfield and Lovina Mastick, in Bath.
Nov 11, 1848: Death of Levi Tomlinson Chatfield (age 35) in Middlefield, Geauga Co., Ohio, of Bright’s disease (kidney disease) at the home of his parents, Isaac and Lucy Chatfield. Levi is buried in the Middlefield (Village) Cemetery in Middlefield.
Note: Father of Isaac Willard (age 12), Clark Samuel (age 10), Charles Henry (age 9), and Ellen (not yet 2).
Oct 31, 1850: Federal Census for Mason Co., Illinois:
Chatfield, Levina: age 40, female, born Ohio (mother)
Willis: age 13, male, born Ohio (Isaac Willard)
Clark: age 12, male, born Ohio
Charles: age 10, male, born Illinois
Ellen: age 4, female, born Illinois
Note: Levi Tomlinson Chatfield, the father, died Nov 11, 1848, leaving Lovina with their four children. Lovina is a teacher at Peterville (aka Leaf school) School in Kilbourne, Mason Co., Illinois; in Oct 1850 she was paid $20.70 month. She was later a hotelier in Bath.
1855: State Census for Mason Co., Illinois:
L. Chatfield: head of household (Lovina Chatfield)
3 males (age 10-20) (sons, Isaac, Clark, and Charles)
1 female (age 1-10) (daughter Ellen)
1 female (age 40-50) (mother Lovina)
Apr 20, 1858 Death of Lovina Mastick Chatfield (age 48), mother of Isaac (age 21), Clark (age 20), Charles (age 17) and Ellen (age 12) in Bath, Mason Co., Illinois of lung fever (pneumonia). Lovina is buried in the Bath cemetery. The family bible passes on to Isaac.
May 20, 1858: Marriage of Isaac Willard Chatfield (Charles Henry Chatfield’s oldest brother) & Eliza Ann Harrington in Havana, Mason Co., Illinois. Isaac and Eliza take on the rearing of Charles (age 17) and his sister Ellen (age 11). Charles travels with Isaac & Eliza to Kansas, and stays on to fight in the Border War when Isaac and his family return to Illinois.
Sep 12, 1858: Marriage of Clark Samuel Chatfield (Charles Henry Chatfield’s older brother) & Louisa Tankersley in Havana, Mason Co., Illinois.
Sep 21, 1859: Lovina Chatfield’s estate is settled in bankruptcy. James Robinson sues Lovina’s four children for property indebted to him. The lawsuit claim is against I.W. Chatfield who is called “Willard Chatfield,” as well as his siblings, Clark, Charles and Ellen. The estate is sold for $254.68, the debt on the estate, $391.00.
1859: Charles Henry Chatfield (age 18) serves in the final year of the Border War in Kansas.
Border War
Border War 1854–1859: The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed local voters to decide whether Kansas would be a slave state or a free state, prompted emigration from the Northeast of antislavery groups, the arrival of squatters and speculators, and the presence of an adventurous element recruited from both North and South. Ideological differences over slavery and recurring personal altercations led proslavery and free-state groups to organize regulating associations and guerrilla bands. Lynching, horse stealing, pillaging, and pitched battles marked the years from 1854 to 1859 and inspired the name “Bleeding Kansas” for the territory. The first eighteen months of settlement witnessed sporadic shootings, killings, and robberies. Major conflict terminated in 1859, albeit sporadic disorders continued until the Civil War.
Source: Encyclopedia of American History, Answers.com
Note: The events in Bleeding Kansas directly presaged the American Civil War
1860: Charles Henry Chatfield (age 19) rejoins Isaac’s family in Bath, Mason Co., Illinois
Aug 31, 1860: U.S. Federal Census for Bath, Mason Co., Illinois:
Willard Chatfield: age 23, Farm Keeper, Value of Personal Estate $100, born Ohio
Eliza Chatfield: age 19, born Iowa
Clara E. Chatfield: age 1, born Kansas
Ellen C. Chatfield: age 14, born Illinois, attended school within the year
Charles Chatfield: age 19, laborer, Value of Personal Estate $100, born Ohio
Nov 6, 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected 16th President of the United States
Photo of Abraham Lincoln was in the cache of Edward Livingston Chatfield photos and presumably sent home to his family in one of his many Civil War letters.
Note: Photo courtesy of Terry & Margaret (Chatfield) McCarty, from the Edward Livingston Chatfield collection
Secessionists: When Lincoln was elected, there were thirty-three states in the Union and a thirty-fourth, free Kansas, was about to join. By the time of his inauguration in March of 1861, just twenty-seven remained, and from the Executive Mansion rebel flags could be seen across the Potomac on Arlington Heights.
Source: The Civil War, An Illustrated History by Geoffrey C. Ward, Ric Burns & Ken Burns
In 1860: most of the nation’s 31 million people lived peaceably on farms and in small towns.
Source: The Civil War, An Illustrated History by Geoffrey C. Ward, Ric Burns & Ken Burns
Dec 20, 1860: South Carolina secedes from the Union
1861: The states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee secede from the Union
Jan 29, 1861: Kansas is admitted to the Union as a free state
Feb 8, 1861: Jefferson Davis is elected the provisional president of the Confederate States
Feb 23, 1861: Texas voters approve secession from the Union.
Mar 4, 1861: Inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln. In his inaugural address, he appeals for the preservation of the Union.
Lincoln’s inaugural address was stirring. He appealed for the preservation of the Union. To retain his support in the North without further alienating the South, he called for compromise. He promised he would not initiate force to maintain the Union or interfere with slavery in the states in which it already existed. Soon after, Lincoln received word that Fort Sumter, located in Charleston harbor, South Carolina, would have to be resupplied. The situation presented a problem, as tensions between the North and the South were very high. Resupplying the fort might inflame the situation because it was located in a slave-holding state. Yet Lincoln, in his inaugural address, had promised that the Union would not give up control of federal territory, such as Fort Sumter. The fort was resupplied, and Lincoln refused to evacuate it. The Confederates attacked the fort on April 12, 1861. The Civil War had begun, and President Lincoln was thrust into the middle of one of this country’s greatest crises.
Online source: The Library of Congress Represents America’s Story from America’s Library
www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi
Map of Confederate States
Map Source: The Civil War, An Illustrated History by Geoffrey C. Ward, Ric Burns & Ken Burns, Sep 12, 1990, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Union and Confederate flags
Apr 12, 1861: Start of the American Civil War (also known as The War of the Rebellion). General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard orders his Confederate troops to open fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.
Note: More than 3 million Americans will fight in the Civil War, and over 600,000 (2% of the population) will die in it.
Interior view of Fort Sumter under Confederate flag, April 15, 1861
Photo source: Library of Congress, Washington D.C. (reproduction No. LC-DIG-ppmsca-32284
Civil War & 19th Century Medical Terminology & Diseases
AGUE: recurring fever & chills of malaria
APOPLEXIA: a stroke
BAD BLOOD: syphilis
BILIOUS FEVER: caused by liver disorder
BILIOUSNESS: jaundice or other symptoms associated with liver disease
BLACK DEATH: bubonic plague
BLOODY FLUX: dysentery, sometimes a lead-in to cholera
BRIGHT’S DISEASE: kidney disease
CAMP FEVER: typhus
CATARRH: inflammation of nose and throat, sometimes accompanied by fever
CHILBLAIN: swelling of the extremities caused by exposure to cold
CHLOROSIS: iron deficiency anemia
CHOLERA: an acute, infectious, often fatal disease causing diarrhea, vomiting, cramps and dehydration
CONGESTION OF THE LUNGS: pulmonary edema
CONSUMPTION: TB (tuberculosis)
CORRUPTION: infection
COSTIVENESS: constipation
CRAMP COLIC: appendicitis
CROUP: laryngitis, diphtheria, or strep throat
DROPSY: edema (swelling), often caused by kidney or heart disease
DYSENTERY: infectious disease marked by diarrhea and inflammation and ulceration of lower bowels
DYSPEPSIA: deranged or impaired digestion, acid indigestion
FALLING SICKNESS: epilepsy
FLUX: discharge of fluid from the body
FRENCH POX: venereal disease
GALLOPING CONSUMPTION: pulmonary tuberculosis
GASTRITIS OR GASTROENTERITIS: inflammation of the bowels
GENERAL DEBILITY: feeble and refers to the state of abnormal bodily weakness
GRAVEL: kidney stones
GREEN SICKNESS: anemia
GRIPPE: influenza
INFANTILE PARALYSIS: polio
JAIL FEVER: typhus
LOCKJAW: tetanus
LUMBAGO: back pain
LUNG FEVER: pneumonia
LUNG SICKNESS: tuberculosis
MANIA: insanity
MORTIFICATION: infection, gangrene or death of tissue
MORTIS: death
NEPHRITIS: inflammation of the kidneys
NEURALGIA OF THE BRAIN: neuralgia is nerve pain, possibly migraine
PALSY: paralysis or loss of muscle control
PUERPERAL FEVER: septic poisoning, childbed fever, and childbirth complications
PULMONARY CONSUMPTION: tuberculosis of the lungs
PUTRID FEVER: diphtheria or typhus
QUINSY: tonsillitis
REMITTING FEVER: malaria
RICKETS: disease of the skeletal system
SCORBUTUS: scurvy
SHIPS FEVER: typhus
ST. VITUS DANCE: irregular or jerky, involuntary muscular movements, chorea
SUMMER COMPLAINT: baby diarrhea caused by spoiled milk causing severe dehydration and frequently death; food poisoning
VARIOLA: smallpox
WINTER FEVER: pneumonia
American Civil War
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was a major war between the United States (the “Union”) and eleven Southern states which declared that they had a right to secession and formed the Confederate States of America, led by President Jefferson Davis. The Union, led by President Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party, which had opposed the expansion of slavery into territories owned by the United States, rejected any right of secession. Fighting commenced on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a United States (federal) military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the first state to secede.
By 1864, long-term Union advantages in geography, manpower, industry, finance, political organization and transportation were overwhelming the Confederacy. Grant fought a number of bloody battles with Lee in Virginia in the summer of 1864. Lee’s defensive tactics resulted in extremely high casualties for Grant’s army, but Lee lost strategically overall as he could not replace his casualties and was forced to retreat into trenches. In 1865, the Confederacy collapsed after Lee surrendered to Grant.
All slaves in the Confederacy were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Slaves in the border states and Union-controlled parts of the South were freed by state action or by the Thirteenth Amendment.
The full restoration of the Union was the work of a highly contentious postwar era known as Reconstruction. The war produced about 970,000 casualties (3% of the population), including approximately 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease. The war accounted for more casualties than all other U.S. wars combined. The causes of the war, the reasons for its outcome, and even the name of the war itself are subjects of lingering controversy even today. The main results of the war were the restoration and strengthening of the Union (mainly by permanently ending the issue of secession), and the end of slavery in the United States. About 4 million black slaves were freed in 1865. Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6% in the North and an extraordinary 18% in the South.
Source: on-line Wikipedia
May 23 & 24, 1865: Artists rendition of grand review of Union troops looking down Pennsylvania Ave toward the Capitol. Artwork by James E. Taylor, July 1, 1881 (#111-BA-69)
Source: Pictures of the Civil War, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408
List of the Photographs and Photographic Negatives Relating to the War for the Union (War Department Subject Catalogue No. 5, 1897; 219 p.), National Archives Microfilm Publication T251
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The Chatfield Story
A cousin, Edward Livingston Chatfield, writes of his Chatfield cousins who also served in the Union Army:
Edward Chatfield had many cousins. His Uncle Levi Tomlinson Chatfield and wife Lovina Mastick had three sons and one daughter: Isaac Willard, Clark Samuel, Charles Henry, and Ellen Charlotte. Isaac Willard Chatfield, the first-born, enlisted in August of 1861. Assigned to Company “E” of the 27th Illinois, he moved up from 1st Sergeant to 2nd Lieutenant before resigning on February 19, 1863, just three weeks before Edward received Clark’s letter. Charles Henry Chatfield, the youngest brother, was the first to go to war, having enlisted in May of 1861 at the age of twenty. A private in Company “K” of the 17th Illinois, he was soon promoted to Corporal. Wounded at the February 13, 1862, battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, he was discharged in June of 1862 and returned to his home in Bath, Illinois. The wounds failed to discourage him, and he mustered in again two months later, this time as a 2nd lieutenant. He was assigned to Company “D” of the 85th Illinois and was eventually promoted to Captain, a proud officer who would die in a place he may never have heard of. On June 27, 1864, Charles Henry Chatfield would be cut down in brutal battle at Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia.
Edward stayed in touch with many cousins during the war. He mentions seven of his first cousins in his letters and diary entries: Edward maintained regular contact with three other cousins, sons of Edward’s Uncle Levi Tomlinson Chatfield and his wife, Lovina Mastick. All were born in Middlefield, Geauga County, Ohio, and moved with their parents to Bath, Mason County, Illinois, in 1844.
* Cousin Isaac Willard Chatfield (1836 – 1921) Isaac, the first-born, was six years old when Edward was born and eight years old when his family moved to Illinois. Reaching maturity, he met and married Elizabeth Ann “Eliza” Harrington. In 1859, the family headed west by covered wagon in search of investment property in Colorado. When the war broke out, they returned east to Mason County, Illinois, where Isaac enlisted on August 12, 1861, at the age of 25. Initially the 1st Sergeant, after a week of service, Isaac was promoted to 2nd lieutenant in Company “E” of the 27th Illinois Infantry Within three months of service, while camped with Grant’s forces in Cairo, he developed recurrent kidney and bladder infections that forced him to retire after the Tennessee battle of Stones River, among the deadliest battles of the war. Submitting his resignation in February of 1863, he returned to his family in Illinois. When spring arrived, his health on the mend, Isaac and family returned to Colorado. There, in late November of 1865, Isaac purchased land in Florence (Fremont County) and settled. Six years later, in 1871, he extended his land holdings into the Littleton, Colorado, area. His land-trading and mining interests in Leadville, 100 miles west of Littleton, likely led him to sell some of his Littleton land to his cousin Edward L. Chatfield, on May 17, 1874.
* Cousin Clark Samuel Chatfield (1839 – 1906) Clark Samuel, the second son, married Louisa Tankersley in 1858. They had three children. When war came, Clark’s August 1861 enlistment resulted in his being assigned to Company “C” of the 2nd Illinois Cavalry. Edward regularly corresponded with “Cousin Clark” throughout the war. It was with Clark that Edward spent the night in Memphis when en route to Corinth on August 4, 1863. While in Memphis, Clark served as an orderly for a colonel on General Hurlbut’s staff. Two years after his discharge from the army, Clark and his family moved to Colorado and settled near Clark’s brother in Florence, Fremont County. Following his wife Louisa’s 1868 death, Clark took the train back to Nebraska to bury her. Within a year he remarried and returned to Colorado with his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Morrow, who brought him nine more children. Clark Samuel Chatfield died in Princeton, Colusa County, California, on March 6, 1906.
* Cousin Charles Henry Chatfield (1840 – 1864) Charles Henry was the first of Edward’s three cousins to go to war. Enlisting in May of 1861, Charles became a private in Company “K” of the 17th Illinois and was soon promoted to corporal. Wounded in battle, he was discharged in June of 1862. He volunteered again two months later and mustered back in as a 2nd lieutenant. He was assigned to Company “D” of the 85th Illinois. Subsequently promoted to captain, Charles Henry Chatfield died in the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, in June of 1864.
Source: Edward L. Chatfield’s Civil War diary entries and letters: The Chatfield Story, by Terry M. McCarty and Margaret Ann “Peg” Chatfield McCarty
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May 25, 1861: Charles Henry Chatfield (age 20) enlists in the Union army as a Private in Company K, 17th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.
Jul 23, 1861: Charles’ brother, Clark Samuel Chatfield (age 21), enlists in the Union army as a Corporal, Company C, 2nd Cavalry, Volunteer Regiment, Illinois; promoted to Full Private.
Clark Samuel Chatfield
Aug 12, 1861: Charles’ brother, Isaac Willard Chatfield (age 25) enlists in the Union army, Sergeant 1st Class, Co E. 27th Infantry Volunteer Reg., Illinois. He is promoted on August 16 to 2nd Lt.
Isaac Willard Chatfield
Seventeenth Regiment, Illinois
The Seventeenth Regiment of Infantry was mustered into service at Peoria, Ill., on the 24th of May, 1861, and Leonard F. Ross elected Colonel. The first volunteers from Mason County went into this regiment, and were organized into Company K. The regiment left camp for Alton on the 17th of June. Late in July, it moved to St. Charles, Mo., and the next day went to Warrenton, Mo., and remained two weeks, Company A being detailed as body-guard to Gen. Pope, with headquarters at St. Charles. The regiment went from Warrenton to St. Louis, and from thence to Bird’s Point, Mo., where it remained some weeks on garrison duty, and proceeded to Sulphur Springs Landing; from there, by way of Pilot Knob and Ironton, to Fredericktown, Mo., in pursuit of Gen. Prentice’s command at Jackson, Mo.
From Jackson, Mo., the regiment went over into Kentucky to assist in the construction of Fort Holt; from there to Elliott’s Mills, and back to Fort Holt, and thence back to Cape Girardeau, Mo., in pursuit of Jeff Thompson’s forces. On the 21st of October, 1861, the regiment met Thompson’s forces at Fredericktown, Mo., where the regiment had its first battle with the enemy… all of Company K. Returning to Cape Girardeau, the regiment went on provost duty until February, 1862, when they proceeded to Fort Henry, and from there to Fort Donelson, where they participated in the Fort Donelson battle, and suffered heavy loss in killed and wounded.
Chatfield, Chas. H., Bath:
Enlisted Company K. May 25, 1861
Wounded at Fort Donelson
Discharged. June 13, 1862
Source: 1879 History of Menard & Mason Counties, Published by: O.L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers, 186 Dearborn Street, Chicago, Illinois (www.illinoisancestors.org/mason/
Feb 12 to Feb 16, 1862: Eliza Chatfield (wife of I.W. Chatfield) is a volunteer Union Army nurse and serves at the Battle of Fort Donelson in Stewart County, Tennessee where General Ulysses S. Grant and the North win their first important victory. The capture of the fort by Union forces opened the Cumberland River as an avenue of invasion of the South. There are 2,500 Union and 2,000 Confederate casualties.
Feb 13, 1862: Charles Henry Chatfield is severely wounded at the battle of Fort Donelson.
Note: Feb 12 through Feb 16, 1862: Battle of Fort Donelson, Stewart County, Tennessee. Isaac’s wife, Eliza (Harrington) Chatfield, serves as a nurse during this battle.
Feb 1862: Battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson
Illinois Regiments in the Battles of Ft Henry and Donelson
(near the Tennessee-Kentucky border February 1862)
Due to split public opinion at the start of the war, the State of Kentucky declared itself neutral in the war. Both the Union and Confederate Governments agreed to abide by this decision, but both governments also prepared to act quickly when neutrality ended. The Confederate defensive line was established just south of the Tennessee-Kentucky border at two river forts. Fort Henry and its supporting Fort Heinman were built on the Tennessee River, with Fort Donelson 10 miles away on the Cumberland River at Dover.
After Kentucky’s neutrality ended with the Confederate seizure of Columbus, Kentucky, Union forces under US Brig. General Grant occupied Paducah and Smithfield, Kentucky at the mouths of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Grant also began planning a joint army-navy assault on the twin Confederate forts.
The first target was Fort Henry. It was sited on low land adjacent to the river. Grant’s transports landed troops north of the fort while the Navy’s gunboats moved upriver and bombarded the fort. The fight was so one-sided between the gunners at the fort and the gunboats that the fort’s defenders surrendered even before the infantry arrived. Most of the defenders of the fort escaped down the road to Ft. Donelson.
Grant consolidated his forces and sent the gunboats back downstream to the Ohio so that they could then come up the Cumberland River for the assault on Ft. Donelson. On February 12, Grant’s troops started the march to Ft. Donelson in unseasonably warm weather. Many of the new troops, still green, discarded their heavy blankets and coats. The Union troops marched to Ft. Donelson and took up positions surrounding the fort unopposed by the Confederates.
The Confederate troops were having their own difficulties, notably too many Generals. The commander of the fort was Former Secretary of War Brigadier General John Floyd. Also in the fort was another political Brigadier General, Gideon Pillow. The third General (who happened to be the only professional solider) was Brigadier General Simon Buckner, a former classmate and close friend of Grant’s.
The fortifications of Donelson were too strong to attack with infantry alone, so Grant chose to repeat the plan from Ft. Henry. He would let the gunboats pummel the fort from the river and then mop up with the infantry. Unfortunately, it was the Confederate gunners at Donelson that did the pummeling. The gun placements were on much higher ground. When the Union gunboats closed the range to get better accuracy, the Confederate gunners found the range and started raining shells on the boats, severely damaging 2 of the 4 ironclads in the attack.
As Grant was pondering what to do, the Confederates made the decision for him. Troops had been pulled from the right of the line to attempt a breakout on the Union right (south). While Grant was away from the battlefield conferring with the Navy, General Pillows troops pushed back the Union troops until he had access to the escape route to Nashville. However, instead of capitalizing on the success, the Confederates pulled back to the original lines. When Grant returned, he sensed that the lines on the Confederate right (north) had been stripped of troops for the breakout attempt, and successfully pushed forward on that side. At that point, it was only a matter of time before the battle was over.
Not wanting to be captured, the two political Generals each turned over command and escaped by water. General Buckner was forced to ask Grant for the terms of surrender. In response, Grant replied, “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.” Buckner surrendered 15,000 troops, and countless badly-needed supplies.
The fall of the two river forts opened up all of middle Tennessee to Union control, including the capital in Nashville. Gunboats could also control the Tennessee river as far as northern Alabama. Nashville remained in Union hands for the remainder of the war.
Online source: Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Dyer’s Compendium
Ulysses S. Grant
Apr 6 & 7, 1862: Eliza Chatfield serves at the Battle of Shiloh (also called the Battle of Pittsburg Landing) where General Ulysses S. Grant fights Generals Stonewall Jackson and Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. The casualties on both sides are overwhelming. Eliza is overcome by sickness at this battle and returns to St. Louis, Missouri to recover.
Note: Federal surgeons establish one of the first tent hospitals of the Civil War. By gathering tents from the battlefield and concentrating medical services, patient care is greatly improved, lowering the death rate among the wounded.
Casualties: Out of 100,000 men, over 20,000 were killed, wounded, captured or missing.
Apr 6-7, 1862: Battle of Shiloh:
Illinois Regiments in the Battle of Shiloh (near Savannah, Tennessee Apr 6-7, 1862)
Following the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, the command of the armies in the west was consolidated under Maj. Gen. Halleck. Command in the field was divided between Maj. Gen. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee and Maj. Gen. Buell’s Army of the Ohio. In early April 1862, the two armies began moving to concentrate and move against the key rail junction of Corinth, Mississippi. On April 5, 1862, Grant’s army arrived at Pittsburgh Landing on the west bank of the Tennessee River a few miles south of Savannah, Tennessee. The army camped and awaited the arrival of Buell’s army (expected late the next day) before moving on. The Union forces did not set up defenses or even send out pickets as no Confederates were believed to be nearby.
Unknown to the Union forces, Confederate General Albert Syndey Johnson had assembled his Army of Mississippi and was moving north to intercept and destroy Grant’s army and capture all his supplies before Buell’s army could join him.
The battle began early on April 6 with the Confederate forces streaming out of the woods and totally surprising the Union troops. Grant’s army fell back before the attackers putting up stubborn resistance at a sunken road know later as the “Hornet’s Nest.” The determined resistance at the Hornet’s Nest threw off the timetable of the advancing Confederates and probably saved the rest of Grant’s army. During the fighting, Confederate General Johnson was killed while leading his troops and command fell to Gen. Bragg. By the end of the day, the Confederates had pushed the Union army back into a small pocket next to the river where the Union gunboats could offer some protection.
During the night, Buell’s Army of the Ohio arrived and the troops were ferried across the river to the west bank. At daybreak, the newly reinforced Union army attacked and over the course of the day completely pushed the Confederates back across the battlefield of the previous day.
The Battle of Shiloh is named for a small church located in the central portion of the battlefield. The battle is also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing. The battle was the first of many large battles during the war that had in excess of 20,000 casualties and was an omen that the war would last for a much longer time than anyone had anticipated.
On-line source: Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Dyer’s Compendium
Patriots In Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War
Due to her exploits at the battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862, Belle Reynolds was commissioned as a major by the governor of Illinois. In the summer of 1861 her husband had joined the 17th Illinois Infantry as a lieutenant. (The 17th Illinois Infantry is the same company in which Charles H. Chatfield was enlisted.)
Throughout the fall and winter of 1861-1862, Belle stayed with the regiment, sometimes riding in an army wagon or ambulance, and sometimes on a mule. At other times she marched in the ranks with the soldiers, carrying a musketoon on her shoulder.
In February, 1862 Grant captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson (Note: Eliza Chatfield was serving here as a nurse), opening middle Tennessee to invasion by Union Forces. On April 6, threatened by Grant’s army near Corinth, the Confederates attacked the Union camp at Pittsburg Landing [Shiloh], Tennessee.
Belle wrote in her journal for April 4th: “The long roll has called the regiment out, and we know not what an hour may bring forth. Pickets have been driven in, and skirmishing is going on at the front. Distant musketry and the rumbling of artillery past my tent give the situation a look of reality which I had not dreamed of an hour ago. Although so near the enemy’s lines, we feel no fear. Mrs. N. and myself are the only ladies in camp, and our tents are adjoining.”
The battle broke full force at daybreak Sunday, April 6th, lasting through the next day after an overnight interruption. A sudden attack in force in the early morning hours caused half-awake Union troops to flee their camps. In her next journal entry dated April 17th, Belle reported her experiences when the Union camps were overrun: “At sunrise we heard the roll of distant musketry… [About an hour later] while preparing breakfast over the campfire, we were startled by cannonballs howling over our heads.
“Shells were bursting in every direction about us. Tents were torn in shreds, and the enemy, in solid column, was seen coming over the hill in the distance.” As they fled, they saw cavalry soldiers forming on the parade ground near the camp. “Balls were flying and shells bursting among the terrified horses and fearless riders.”
Before they had gone far, Belle and Mrs. N. came upon ambulances from which the wounded were being carried out and laid on the ground. “We stopped, took off our bonnets, and prepared to assist in dressing their wounds,” she said. But an orderly dashed up, shouting orders to move the wounded immediately to the river. The rebels were closing in, and they were not safe where they were. Making their way to the river, Belle and her friend boarded the EMERALD, one of the steamers that served as Captain Norton’s headquarters. Soon the wounded came pouring in, and they were busy for the next thirty-six hours doing what they could to comfort the soldiers.
By nighttime, the EMERALD alone had 350 wounded aboard. All day long they heard the thunder of artillery, and spent bullets fell like leaden hail on the deck of the boat. Shells directed at the ammunition ship nearby whirled over their heads. Near sunset the retreating Union army crowded the scene, many seeking shelter on the already crowded boats, some swimming to the opposite shore. Just as it seemed their position would be overrun, the gunboats LEXINGTON and TYLER steamed upriver and unleashed a deadly fire on the Confederates. Union reinforcements could be seen on the opposite shore, approaching at the double-quick. As the transports were pressed into service to ferry the soldiers across the river, officers rushed around trying to rally the dispirited army to join in a counterattack.
“At the Landing it was a scene of terror,” Belle reported. “Rations, forage, and ammunition were trampled into the mud by an excited infuriated crowd…. Trains [wagons] were huddled together on the brow of the hill and in sheltered places. Ambulances were conveying their bleeding loads to the different boats, and joined to form a Babel of confusion indescribable. None were calm, and free from distracting anxiety and pain, save the long ranks of dead, ranged for recognition or burial, at the hospital on the hill-side.”
Nightfall brought a temporary halt to the infantry clashes, and both sides tried to rest. But throughout the night the gunboat cannonade continued, and the rain came pouring down. The storm increased in fury as the night wore on. Toward morning the EMERALD slipped downstream to Savannah and unloaded the wounded. Morning found Belle and her friends at work again, dressing the wounds of a new group of soldiers who had just been brought in from the field.
The mud and rain confined them to the boat, but persistent reports reached them that the rebels were retreating. That the Union army, having received strong reinforcement by Major General Don Carlos Buell’s army and Major General Lew Wallace’s division, was pushing the rebels back. The tide had turned.
Throughout the night the storm continued to rage, but on Wednesday morning, “the sun came forth upon a scene of blood and carnage such as our fair land had never known.” The roads were muddy, but Belle and two friends set out to help at the hospital. “We climbed the steep hill opposite the landing, picked our way through the corrals of horses, past the long lines of trenches which were to receive the dead, and came to an old cabin, where the wounded were being brought,” Belle noted in her journal. “Outside lay the bodies of more than a hundred, brought in for recognition and burial–a sight so ghastly that it haunts me now.”
Inside they found one room full of wounded, another with surgeons amputating limbs. Belle pitched in to help. “The sight of a woman seemed to cheer the poor fellows, for many a ‘God bless you!’ greeted me before I had done them a single act of kindness.” The soldiers cried out for water, so Belle organized a bucket brigade to fetch water from the river. She bathed and bandaged their wounds, and distributed the small available supply of bread and jelly. Finding a sutler’s stand, she bought a supply of gingerbread, which she called “singular food for sick men, but very acceptable.”
Side by side on the floor she observed two dying soldiers, one an old man severely wounded in the chest, the other a rebel with both legs taken off below the knees by a cannonball. To one side was a soldier who had been hit in the face by a missile. “His breathing,” she wrote, “was of that horrible sort which once heard is never forgotten. He, too, was past all cure. And that operating table,” she continued, “these scenes come up before me now with all the vividness of reality.”
She watched as one soldier after another was brought in and placed on “those bloody boards,” and given chloroform. Often before the sedation took hold, “the operation would begin, and in the midst of shrieks, curses, and wild laughs, the surgeon would wield over his wretched victim the glittering knife and saw; and soon the severed and ghastly limb, white as snow and spattered with blood, would fall upon the floor–one more added to the terrible pile.”
Finally, about 3:00 P.M., she could stand no more. One of the surgeons gave her a spoonful of brandy, and turned to go back to the boat. That night, each time she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, vivid images of the dying soldiers and the amputating table caused her to bolt awake and jump out of bed. Repeatedly, she had to convince herself that she was not still there in the hospital. A few days later, sorely in need of rest and change of scenery, Belle found space on the steamer BLACK HAWK back to Illinois with a delegation of visitors. About twenty members of the regiment also were on board.
“The terrible scenes were still before [me] and seemed to be a dreadful part of me, which I was glad to have removed, if relating them might have that effect. I told my story to quite an audience of ladies and gentleman, Governor Yates being of the number. As I was one of very few ladies who were present at the battle, and had witnessed so large a portion of its scenes, the story seemed to interest all who heard.”
Note: a sutler is one who sells food, drink, newspapers and necessities usually to an army on the move
Source: online text Patriots In Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War, by Richard Hall, Marlowe & Company, New York, 1994
May 9, 1862: Charles brother, Isaac Chatfield, takes part in the Battle of Island #10 (part of a chain of islands in the Mississippi River lying below Cairo, Illinois) and the Battle of Farmington (north Mississippi above Corinth).
Jun 13, 1862: Charles H. Chatfield is discharged on account of wounds and returns to Bath. He assists in recruiting Company D, 85th Illinois Infantry, and is elected second lieutenant at the organization of the company.
Civil War Military Record:
Charles Henry Chatfield
Captain, Co “D” 85th Illinois Infantry
RESIDENCE: Bath, Mason County, Illinois
AGE: 21
HEIGHT: 5’8 1/2
HAIR: Black
EYES: Dark
COMPLEXION: Dark
MARITAL STATUS: Single
OCCUPATION: Clerk
NATIVITY: Burton, Geauga County, Ohio
SERVICE RECORD
JOINED: JUL 18, 1862 Mason County, Illinois by Cpt. Houghton, Period 3 YRS
MUSTER: AUG 27, 1862 Peoria, IL
Civil War Companies Organized in Mason County, Illinois (1,531 served)
Company “K” 17th Illinois Infantry
Name Rank Residence Date of Muster Remarks
CHATFIELD, Charles H Private Bath May 25, 1861 Discharged Jun 13, 1862; wounds
Company “D” 85th Illinois Infantry
Name Rank Residence Date of Muster Remarks
CHATFIELD, Charles H 2nd Lt. Bath Aug 27, 1862 Promoted [Dec 21, 1862]
CHATFIELD, Charles H 1st Lt. Bath Jan 21, 1863 Promoted [Dec 27, 1863]
CHATFIELD, Charles H Captain Bath Feb 29, 1864 Killed Jun 27, 1864
Dec 1862: Charles’ brother, Isaac, is treated for kidney and bladder disease in the Zollicoffer hospital barracks in Nashville, Tennessee
Dec 21, 1862: Charles H. Chatfield is promoted to First Lieutenant
Dec 31, 1862 to Jan 2, 1863: Isaac is in the Battle of Stones River in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. General William Rosecrans defeats Confederate General Braxton Bragg who retreats.
Note: Of the major battles of Civil War, Stones River has the highest percentage of casualties on both sides:
Union: 1,730 killed, 7,802 wounded, 3,717 captured/missing
Confederacy: 1,294 killed, 7,945 wounded, 1,027 captured/missing
Feb 19, 1863: Isaac Chatfield (age 26) reluctantly resigns his commission as an officer in the Union Army (Company E. 27th Infantry Regiment) and is medically mustered out at rank of 1st Lieutenant.
Note: His regiment musters out on Sep 20, 1864 in Springfield, Illinois.
Letter from Charles’ cousin, Edward Livingston Chatfield
Letter – March 12, 1863
Head Quarters 113th, Youngs point, near Vicksburg.
March 13th 1863
To my Dear Father & Mother.
I had been down to the boats all day yesterday helping to get rations & the first words on returning to camp was that there was a letter for me. You cannot imagine with what feelings of pleasure I received & read it. It brings tears of gladness to my eyes, and new courage to my heart as I read your courage inspiring letters. They make me feel more like battling for the Union which those detestable Copperheads ate at the North are trying to destroy. Just give us soldiers a chance and we would gladly sweep them from existence. Had it not been for our Northern traitors the war would have been ended long ago without the great sacrifice of human life that we have had. It is my wish, and it is the wish of all the soldiers, that we had all of the Northern traitors where we could get our hands on them, and we would make short work of them all. I think that the Conscription act is just right. It will make every man walk up and do his part. And when that is done, the war will be shortly ended in a short time. My health still remains good, and I can give the great giver of all good the praise that he has given me [for] such good health so far. I got a letter from Clark Chatfield last evening. He is at Memphis acting as orderly to General [James C.] Veach. He says that his health is quite good. His address is Co C. 2nd Ill Cavalry Memphis Tenn. He said that his brother Willard [Isaac Willard Chatfield] had resigned and gone home. Charles [Willard’s younger brother] was at Nashville Tenn.
The weather is quite warm & pleasant but the roads are in an impassable condition. We have so much rain that it has almost flooded every thing. The river is on the rampage. It is rising very fast and threatens to flood every thing. The work on the Canal is progressing favorably. There is three dredging machines at work widening & depening it. There is a good many sick but I think that the health of the boys is on the gain. There was a man by the name of Frank Harter, of Bliss Sutherlands Company, that died very suddenly. He was well at night and before morning he was dead. The boys from our neighborhood are usually well and send their best wishes & respects. Well, I must close. Direct the same as usual and write soon.
From your affectionate son,
Edward
To N.S. Chatfield
[On side of letter]: I will send by this letter a piece of what is called Spanish moss that grows on any tree. Hangs from the limbs. It is not like plants. It receives its nourishment from the air.
Edward Livingston Chatfield
Apr 17, 1863
Four unidentified Union soldiers; the third man may be Captain Charles Henry Chatfield
Note: from photos of Edward L. Chatfield, courtesy of Margaret and Terry McCarty
Military historians have claimed that Sherman’s attack was a needless waste of lives against a firmly entrenched opponent. Sherman, however, believed that his actions were justifiable, since they showed Johnston that he was not afraid to fight. Whatever the case, Kennesaw Mountain was one of the few victories for the Confederates during the Atlanta Campaign.
Source: Edward L. Chatfield’s Civil War diary entries and letters: The Chatfield Story, by Terry M. McCarty and Margaret Ann (Chatfield) McCarty. The four photos courtesy of Terry & Margaret (Chatfield) McCarty, from the Edward Livingston Chatfield collection
Kennesaw Mountain
A small group of mountains rise in Cobb County, Georgia. The tallest and northernmost, Kennesaw Mountain, is known locally as “Big Kennesaw” and rises some 800 feet above the Georgia Piedmont. Due south is Little Kennesaw Mountain, separated from Big Kennesaw by a deep gap. Little Kennesaw drops precipitously to Pigeon Hill, named for the carrier pigeon that once darkened the Georgia skies. South of Pigeon Hill the mountains become a low ridge, culminating at a point known today as Cheatham Hill. It was here on July 27, 1864, that William Tecumseh Sherman attacked Joseph E. Johnston in what turned out to be the greatest Union loss during the Atlanta Campaign.
Source: Georgia’s Blue and Gray Trail Presents America’s Civil War, online
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, June 27, 1864: lithograph, 1891, by Kurz & Allison
Jun 27, 1864: Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
Illinois Regiments at Kenesaw Mountain
(near Marietta, Georgia June 27, 1864)
After slugging it out at Dallas, New Hope Church, Pickett’s Mill, Lost Mountain, and Gilgal Church, the Union army under Sherman and the Army of Tennessee under Johnston were facing each other along a six-mile line in the vicinity of Marietta, Georgia. The north end of the line was anchored on two large ridges (Big and Little Kenesaw Mountains) and stretched south in well-entrenched lines with numerous supporting artillery positions.
Johnston had moved Hood’s Corps from the north of the line to the south on June 21. Hood (usually very aggressive) had attacked the Union forces on the south of the line at Kolb Farm. This movement convinced Sherman that while the defensive lines were strong, they might be weak enough to be pierced by a strong frontal assault in the center of the line.
On June 27, 1864, Sherman had demonstrations planned along the line with two principal points of attack. At the north end of the Union line, troops attacked to create a diversion. Farther south, the Division of Morgan Smith (2nd Div., 15th Army Corps) attacked the Confederate lines at Pigeon Hill. The troops moved forward but were unable to dislodge the Confederate defenders in the thick woods on the slope.
The main assault was made at what would become known as Cheatham Hill. Newton’s Division (2nd Div, 4th Army Corps and Davis’ Division (2nd Div., 14th Army Corps) were chosen for the assault. The Union and Confederate lines were closest at this point and a large assembly area on the Union side was screened from view by trees. Union troops in column (one regiment behind another) marched at the double quick with fixed bayonets up the hill. The intention was to charge up the hill and punch though the thin defensive line.
Unfortunately, the attack started late and there was a delay between the preceding artillery bombardment and the infantry assault. In addition, the defenders at the point of assault were among the toughest fighters in Johnston’s army (the divisions of Cleburne and Cheatham). Union troops fought their way up the hill but were repulsed at the crest by artillery positions that had been hidden. Brigade Commanders Harker and McCook (of Illinois) were killed in the attack that cost 3000 casualties in less than an hour with no penetration of the defenses.
While the assault at Cheatham Hill failed to break the Confederate line, a diversionary attack farther south at the end of the Union line captured a key road junction, placing the Union troops closer to the vital railroad than some of Johnston’s army. Johnston felt forced to withdraw to defensive positions closer to Atlanta.
After the war, Illinois Veterans from McCook’s Brigade purchased land on Cheatham Hill and erected a monument to their fallen comrades. The monument was built at the “Dead Angle” which was the focus of the main attack.
(Note: In the battle reports of both Union and Confederate commanders, the mountain and nearby town were spelled Kenesaw. Sometime after 1900, the spelling of both the mountain and town was changed to Kennesaw, which it remains today. A recent publication has suggested that it was always spelled with two n’s, but apparently that spelling didn’t make it to the Confederates of the time.)
Note: Isaac Willard Chatfield’s regiment (27th Illinois Infantry, Co E) fought in the assault of Cheatham Hill, though he had resigned by this time
Source: Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Dyer’s Compendium
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (Jun 27, 1864)
The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought on June 27, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. Despite its name, much of the battle was fought to the southwest of Kennesaw Mountain, near Marietta, Georgia. The main participants in the battle were the Union armies under the command of Gen. William T. Sherman and the Army of Tennessee under the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.
Prelude
All throughout north Georgia, Sherman had advanced his army southeast along the railroad from Chattanooga, Tennessee, towards Atlanta, Georgia. Johnston would take up defensive positions, only to retreat whenever Sherman marched his troops around the Confederate army to flank them. At Kennesaw Mountain, Johnston had a massive network of trenches and earthworks prepared to halt the Union advance. This time, when Sherman tried to march his army southwards around Kennesaw, he was met by an attack at Kolb’s farm from Confederate troops under the command of John B. Hood. Although the Union soldiers turned back Hood’s hastily prepared attack, Sherman’s army could not flank the Rebel army any further. Muddy roads had become nearly impassable because of a series of June rainstorms. Sherman knew that in these conditions, a march further away from his supply line at the railroad would be too slow. Instead, Sherman believed that Hood’s expansion of the southern end of the Confederate line had stretched Johnston’s army too thin. The Union general drew up plans for an attack on the middle of the Confederate defenses.
The Battle
The Union army began the attack early in the morning with a thunderous artillery barrage on the entrenched Rebels. This was followed up by an infantry attack in three parts: the Army of the Cumberland would lead the main attack on soldiers in the center; to the left, the Army of the Tennessee would lead a secondary attack aimed at the slopes of Little Kennesaw Mountain; and to the right, the Army of the Ohio would hold down Hood’s corps at the southern end of the line. The fiercest fighting came at a bend near the center of the Confederate line, a place later known as the Dead Angle. Despite repeated attempts to overrun the Confederate defenses, the Union army could not dislodge Johnston’s well dug-in army. Estimated casualties were 3,000 for the Union side, and 1,000 for the Confederates.
Aftermath
Following the battle, both sides sat at a stalemate. By July 1, the roads had dried out enough for Sherman to continue his flanking movements. Johnston, with the advantage of lookouts on top of Kennesaw Mountain, observed Sherman’s movements and again retreated before the Union army could go around him. The next major battle would be the Battle of Peachtree Creek.
Military historians have claimed that Sherman’s attack was a needless waste of lives against a firmly entrenched opponent. Sherman, however, believed that his actions were justifiable, since they showed Johnston that he was not afraid to fight. Whatever the case, Kennesaw Mountain was one of the few victories for the Confederates during the Atlanta Campaign.
The site of the battleground is now part of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.
Source: Wikipedia
Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign:
Source: Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign
by Earl J. Hess
History of the 85th Illinois Volunteers Illinois Volunteer Infantry
by Henry J. Aten, 1901
CHAPTER XV. (pgs 174 – 193)
June 1864 – July 1864
In the evening, after darkness had set in, the enemy made a noise which the men supposed to be preparations for a countercharge, but it was probably a ruse. Instantly the men were on their feet, when a volley was fired by the enemy which killed Captain Charles H. Chatfield, of Company D, and several enlisted men of the Eighty-fifth. About this time entrenching tools arrived, and a permanent line of works erected, the flanks of the brigade being slightly retired to meet the connecting lines on the right and left. And night and day the fight was continued over the narrow strip of ground, the firing being almost constant, and the men at all times ready to repel a countercharge, an emergency that might arise at any moment.
CHAPTER XXX. (pgs 393 – 407)
Company D was enrolled by Dr. Charles W. Houghton, residing at Bath, Mason county, and was recruited between July 18 and August 8, 1862. At the organization of the company, the following commissioned officers were elected: Charles W. Houghton, captain; Comfort H. Ramon, first lieutenant; and Charles H. Chatfield, second lieutenant. This company was mustered in with 95 officers and men, of whom 5 were killed in action, 3 died of wounds, 1 was accidentally killed and 15 received wounds in battle which did not prove fatal while in the service, 13 died of disease, 22 were discharged for disability, 1 was transferred, and 40 officers and men were mustered out with the regiment. Under the careful training of Lieutenant Chatfield this company became very proficient in the skirmish drill, and upon all occasions performed its duty with zeal and energy. The following is the Company roster.
THE COMPANY ROSTER (pg 393)
CAPTAIN CHARLES H. CHATFIELD was born in Middlefield, Geauga county, Ohio, October 3, 1840, removed with his parents to Illinois in 1843, and settled on a farm in Mason county. After making a trip to Pike’s Peak, in 1859, he settled near Fort Scott, Kansas, and served six months in the Border War. He returned to Illinois in 1860, and was a clerk in Bath when he enlisted as a private May 25, 1861, in Company K, Seventeenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was severely wounded at the battle of Fort Donelson, February 13, 1862. He was discharged on account of wounds June 15, 1862, returned to Bath, and assisted in recruiting Company D, and was elected second lieutenant at the organization of the company. He was a splendid drillmaster and was filled with soldierly pride. General Sheridan once said to Colonel Moore, “You must hold that young lieutenant back – he is too anxious for a fight.” He was promoted first lieutenant December 21, 1862, and to be captain December 27, 1863. He commanded his company from the latter date, until killed in the assault on Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, June 27, 1864. His remains are buried at No. 2331, in the national cemetery at Marietta, Ga.
On-line source: Compiled and published under the Auspices of the
Regimental Association, by Henry J. Aten, First Sergeant Company G,
Member of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, Hiawatha, Kansas,
1901
Submitted online by Janine Crandell,
transcribed by Ron Manroe. www.iltrails.org/fulton
Possibly Captain Charles Henry Chatfield from photos of Edward L. Chatfield, courtesy of Margaret and Terry McCarty
Union Army Captain rank insignia Wikipedia Commons; image by Hoodinski
Civil War Officers—Rank and Insignia: Rank was displayed on epaulettes (dress occasions) or shoulder straps (field duties): no insignia for a second lieutenant, one gold bar for a first lieutenant, two gold bars for a captain, a gold oak leaf for a major, a silver oak leaf for a lieutenant colonel, a silver eagle for a colonel and one, two or three silver stars for a general, depending on his seniority. The color of the shoulder strap fields for a captain was dark blue with trims in gold braid.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_of_the_Union_Army?fbclid=IwAR0SvkcOazhmhy9pda4cAa1T4iw4wEMEz-NoKblkJofocyQI-UyxW-a5zHM#Officers
Jun 27, 1864: Captain Charles Henry Chatfield is buried at the Marietta National Cemetery, Section C, Site 2331, Marietta, Cobb Co., Georgia. (Located in Land Lot 1233, District 16). He is buried near two other soldiers from his same regiment killed in battle at Kennesaw Mountain, Austin Walker and D.A. Brands.
May 1865: End of the American Civil War Over 3 million soldiers battle in the Civil War and more than 600,000 die, two-thirds by disease.
1866: The Marietta National Cemetery is established to provide a resting place for the nearly 10,000 Union dead from Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign.
Marietta National Cemetery
With the death toll rising rapidly during the Civil War, the idea to bury war dead in national cemeteries was conceived in 1862.
During the Atlanta Campaign, and later “The March to the Sea,” Union and Confederate dead were buried across the fields of Georgia. Henry Greene Cole, a prominent Marietta citizen and owner of Cole’s, an inn near the railroad depot, proposed the idea for the Marietta National Cemetery. Also supporting the idea was Dix Fletcher, owner of Fletcher House. Both men were ardent Unionists.
Cole offered a few acres of land near downtown for the cemetery, and the offer was eventually accepted by the federal government. The cemetery was to contain the graves of both Union and Confederate dead. However, Marietta officials did not want Confederate dead to be buried near Yankee dead, so they formed a separate Confederate Cemetery.
Over the next three years Union soldiers from Dalton to Augusta were disinterred and reinterred at the Marietta National Cemetery. These men had been buried with wooden grave markers, and by 1869, when the last group was transferred, many of the markers and the names were gone. Over 17,000 men are buried here, more than 3,000 of them unknown. Many of the men died during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, and a total of 10,172 died during the Civil War.
Source: www.mariettaga.gov/departments/parks_rec/cemeteries.aspx#2
Marietta National Cemetery “Here rest the remains of 10,172 Officers and Soldiers who died in defence of the Union 1861 to 1865”
July 10, 1865: Estate Petition by Clark Samuel Chatfield for his deceased brother, Charles Henry Chatfield:
Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives:
Photos and enlistment descriptions of Chatfield brothers:
Isaac Willard, Clark Samuel, and possibly Captain Charles Henry
Isaac Willard Chatfield — Civil War Military Record:
Enlisted Aug 12, 1861 at Havana, Mason County, Illinois
Enlists as a private in Co. E., 27th Infantry Regiment, Illinois Volunteers and immediately promoted to Sergeant 1st Class
Enlistment Description:
Height: 5’8½”
Complexion: sallow
Hair: black
Eyes: blue
Clark Samuel Chatfield — Civil War Military Record:
Enlisted: Jul 31, 1861, Corporal, Company C, 2nd Cavalry, Volunteer Regiment, Bath, Illinois; promoted to Full Private
Mustered out: Aug 11, 1864, Company C, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, Illinois
Distinguished service
Enlistment Description:
Height: 5’10”
Complexion: light
Hair: black
Eyes: hazel
poss Charles H. Chatfield
Charles Henry Chatfield — Civil War Military Record:
Captain, Co “D” 85th Illinois Infantry
RESIDENCE: Bath, Mason County, Illinois
AGE: 21
HEIGHT: 5’8½”
HAIR: Black
EYES: Dark
COMPLEXION: Dark
MARITAL STATUS: Single
OCCUPATION: Clerk
NATIVITY: Burton, Geauga County, Ohio
2019. Catherine (Clemens) Sevenau.