Editor's note: This article was
originally published in The Charger in the Winter of 2001.
I did not have any ancestors who
fought in the Civil War since they were still back in Europe, but
my wife, Lea, had a great grandfather, John J. Babbitt, who served
three years in the 50th Illinois. A farmer living in St.
Augustine, Illinois, Babbitt was twenty years old when he and his
uncle, along with a number of cousins, volunteered on September
24, 1861. After less than a month of training in Quincy, Illinois,
the Regiment crossed the Mississippi River and began operations
against guerrillas in Missouri that continued until late January
of 1862. In February, the 50th Illinois was reassigned and ordered
to Tennessee where it saw action at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson
and then took part in the occupation of Clarksville and Nashville.
At the end of March, the Regiment was sent by river boat to
Pittsburg Landing.
During the morning and early
afternoon of April 6, the 50th Illinois fought on the left flank of
the Federal line about 700 yards east of the Peach Orchard where
General Albert Sidney Johnston was mortally wounded. After the
Federal retreat toward the Tennessee River, Colonel Sweeny,
Babbitt’s brigade commander, was ordered to occupy another position,
Grant’s Last Line, which ran from above Dill Branch Ravine to the
river.
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The Battle of
Pittsburg Landing
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The 50th Illinois held ground
between the 36th Indiana and 11th Iowa, five hundred yards from
Pittsburg Landing where most of the Federal shirkers had fled in
terror. The Confederates attacked until the approach of dusk. James
Chalmer’s brigade of Mississippians made the last charge and came
within a hundred yards of Stone’s Missouri artillery. A private in
the 50th Illinois later recalled: “As soon as they reached the top
of the hill in front, the batteries opened upon them, and such a
cannonading I never heard before. It completely checked the rebels.”
In 1882, Babbitt applied for a
disability pension. His former company commander, Captain S. W.
King, wrote a letter confirming the disability:
State of Illinois, county of
Hancock. John J. Babbitt, Co. G, 50th Illinois.... On the 6th of
April at or near Pittsburg Landing, state of Tennessee, said
soldier incurred deafness in his left ear almost totally and
partial in his right ear. And that said deafness continued up to
the time of his discharge as I could very plainly discover from my
association and conversing with him. The circumstances attending
the contracting of said deafness was as follows. The regiment and
company to which said soldier belonged was placed in position to
support... a Missouri battery. We were placed very close to the
battery. The Rebels charged on it several times. The firing was
very rapid and intense, both artillery and small arms. From firing
and cannonading, said soldier contracted deafness as above stated
and so stated to me at the time and different times afterwards and
was plainly discoverable during the remainder of his time in the
service.
Last August, more than 138 years
after the battle, my son, Geoffrey, and I toured Shiloh National
Military Park. We found the hill where the 50th Illinois had fought
until sunset of the first day. Today it is an open area near the
Visitor’s Center. A marker outlined the events of that terrible
afternoon:
50th ILLINOIS
INFANTRY, SWEENY’S (3d) BRIG.,
W. H. L. WALLACE’S (2d) DIV., ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE.
At 4.30 P.M. April 6, 1862
This regiment formed 50 yards in front of this place and held that
position
one hour and then fell back here, to the support of Stone’s
battery,
and remained in line Sunday night.
After walking in the cemetery among
the tombstones lined up like soldiers in ranks, we drove down to the
Tennessee River and later took the Hamburg - Savannah Road to the
Johnston Monument. Then we went on foot in search of the place where
Geoff’s ancestor had faced the overwhelming Rebel attack on that
long ago Sunday morning in April. As it had been in 1862, the hilly
terrain was overgrown and difficult to traverse. Markers were
scattered about the area. After half an hour of fighting tree
branches and insects, we came upon a large stone monument, partially
illuminated by sunlight filtering through the thick canopy of
leaves. Somehow, we knew this was the one --
ILLINOIS, 50th
Infantry went into position on this line about
10:30 A.M., April 6,
1862, and held its ground until about 2:00 P. M., when the Regiment
retired toward the Landing. Its loss in the battle was 12 men
killed; 2 officers and 66 men wounded; 4 men missing; total 84.
Walking back to the car, we talked
about John J. Babbitt, who was five years younger than Geoff at the
time of the battle. After Shiloh, Babbitt took part in the siege and
battle of Corinth, Mississippi and suffered wounds at Resaca,
Georgia. At the time of his discharge in September of 1864, he was a
corporal in the color guard of the 50th Illinois. Two years after
the war, he married Lizzy Abell, whose parents had known Lincoln
when they lived outside of New Salem. Babbitt later became a
lifetime member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
As we drove north to Illinois, I
wondered what my life would have been like if John J. Babbitt had
been killed at Shiloh. Geoff sitting next to me, and another son,
Scott, back in Ohio, would not be there since my wife, Lea, would
never had been born. Then I thought of a passage from Shakespeare’s
Henry V:
Old men forget; yet all shall be
forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day.
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John J.
Babbitt (1867)
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