7
Henry Kilburn, 12th Battery, Ohio Light Artillery
August 1862
Henry Kilburn was the next person from our families to enlist, signing up in August 1862 for the 12th Ohio Artillery. His brother Herbert had been serving in West Virginia for a year at that point. Everyone we have seen up until now had joined a newly-forming regiment, so had gone through formal training and had been moved to the field as a whole unit. Henry was the first in the family to join a unit that had already been in existence for a year.
The fact that the 12th Battery actively recruited replacements all through the war was unusual. Most state regiments were raised, sent to the field and forgotten. This was because of the way the Federal government credited troops: a state could fill its quota by placing 900 men into a new regiment; but if 900 men from around the state just signed up and were sent out individually to existing units, the state would not get credit for its quota – the Federal and State governments therefore made no effort to replace any men lost. Also, a Governor could pass out political favors in appointing his supporters as officers of new regiments. The effect of this is that new regiments were formed continuously throughout the war, while old regiments kept shrinking in size. By the end of the war, many regiments were the size of companies; and some lost so many men through casualties, discharges and desertions, that they ceased to exist. Since they could not depend on their state to sign up replacements, the only way a unit could maintain its strength was to send some of its own members back home as recruiters.
The 12th Independent Battery, Ohio Light Artillery, was one of 26 independent batteries raised by the state. The "Independent" means that it operated as a separate unit – many other batteries were just a part of an infantry or cavalry regiment. The "Light" Artillery means they were mobile, field artillery – "heavy" artillery was fixed in forts. The 12th Battery started out with about a hundred men; during the course of the war they lost 3 men killed, and 17 died of disease. They had the distinction of never having a cannon captured in battle – although we will see them lose all their cannon in other ways.
What would become the 12th Battery started out as an infantry company: Company D, 25th Ohio Infantry, at Columbus, Ohio. The 25th Ohio was formed at the same time as Herbert’s 23rd. In July, 1861 they moved to West Virginia and became part of the Army of Occupation of West Virginia. They were on duty guarding the B&O Railroad from Grafton to the Ohio River until August, when they were moved to Cheat Mountain. They took part in the actions at Cheat Mountain on September 12 through 17, including a two-day fight against Robert E. Lee at Cheat Mountain Pass.
In January, 1862, Company D started training for artillery. They were given six steel rifled cannon, mostly 6-pound but a few 12-pound shot. Company D was permanently detached from the 25th Regiment on March 17, 1862, and was renamed the 12th Independent Battery, Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery. This represented a major change in the way the Army was using artillery. At the start of the war, most artillery was owned or controlled by the infantry regiment or brigade that it supported. Experience in battle was proving that artillery could operate more efficiently in independent units.
The battery’s first action came against Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. Under General Milroy, they attacked Jackson on May 8 at the Battle of McDowell. The attack failed, and Milroy retreated back into the mountains to join with Fremont. Jackson pursued them most of the way, both sides moving very slowly on the bad mountain roads, fighting a running battle for three days.
The battery then moved with Fremont to Strasburg and fought in the Battle of Cross Keys on June 8, where they were again defeated by Jackson. The 12th Battery was under continuous enemy fire for six hours, and fired over six hundred shots from five guns. General Fremont’s report of that battle mentions the 12th Ohio Battery using canister shot from point-blank range to prevent the Confederates from overrunning their positions.
As mentioned above, the Department of Mountains was merged into the Army of Virginia under General John Pope on June 26, 1862. Fremont resigned in protest and was replaced by Franz Sigel. The 12th Ohio Battery became part of Milroy’s Independent Brigade, I Corps (Sigel), Army of Virginia (Pope).
Milroy took his brigade up the Shenandoah Valley, crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains at Thornton Gap, and camped at Woodville, Virginia. Nothing happened until the second week of August, during the time that Henry Kilburn was enlisting.
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Henry Clay Kilburn was born in 1843, a few years after the family had moved from New York to Ohio. Like Herbert, Henry was a painter in the family chair factory, and also worked as a clerk in the store owned by his Uncle Levi. The enrollment date that we have for Henry is August 11, 1862. This date appears on the Official Roster of Soldiers of the State of Ohio, and is also the date given on Henry’s application for pension. It differs from the date of enlistment, and I’m not sure what that means; August 11 is probably the date he signed some volunteer roster at New London.
The actual enlistment date appearing on Henry’s volunteer enlistment certificate is August 13, 1862. On that date he enlisted for three year’s service at New London, Ohio. The Battery Descriptive Book in his official records also says that Henry was appointed directly as a corporal on this date, although there is nothing in the enlistment certificate about that. The Official Roster of Ohio Volunteers also gives August 13 as the promotion date.
It seems odd that a new enlistee would be made corporal before getting to his unit, especially when there were many men with a year’s experience already in the unit. I believe the answer to this is in the way artillery units were structured. Privates were called "cannoneers", and they did all the heavy moving, loading, cleaning, etc. The next step up were the "gunners", who were made corporals; they were responsible for figuring out the aiming and range, getting the correct elevation and correcting for wind, etc. Sergeants would figure out the specific target, what type of shot to use, and give the firing order. Apparently Henry showed an ability to handle the elevation and aiming calculations and was made a gunner. It may also have been offered as an incentive to get him to sign up.
This is probably also a good place to inject some general history. William F. Barry was the Chief of Artillery in Washington. He issued a report on operations between 25 Jul 1861 and 1 Sep 1862, in which he defined his concept of the way field artillery should be used:
– a field battery should consist of six guns, all of the same caliber;
– batteries should be assigned to divisions, not brigades, with a pool of four batteries per division;
– for each 2000 men in an army, the army should have 5 active plus two reserve guns.
In the early stages of the war they tried to assign one regular (U.S. Army) battery with each three state volunteer batteries, so that the state batteries could get continuing instruction in the field.
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As Henry was in the process of joining the battery, Pope’s Army of Virginia was starting to move. Pope’s original object was to approach Richmond from the north, drawing the pressure off McClellan’s army and eventually joining up with McClellan, thereby destroying Richmond and winning the war. But unknown to Pope, McClellan had already given up and was planning to move back to Washington. Lee ignored McClellan and set out to destroy Pope’s army.
The Army of Virginia started south in early August, intending to cross the south branch of the Rappahannock. They were stopped by Jackson on August 9 at the Battle of Cedar Mountain. Milroy’s brigade, including the 12th Ohio, left Woodville on August 8 and camped at Crooked Creek, another branch of the Rappahannock
The following week, General Longstreet set out from Richmond with a second army to join Jackson, and McClellan started withdrawing the Union forces back to Washington. Pope abandoned the idea of marching on Richmond, and began moving back north to consolidate his own forces. It was at this point, on August 15, that Herbert Kilburn’s 23rd Ohio received its orders to come join the rest of Pope’s army. On August 19, Milroy’s Brigade withdrew from Crooked Creek to Sulphur Springs. Two days later they were ordered by Sigel to lead the Corps in its advance to the Rappahannock.
Pope’s army formed a line at the Fords of the Rappahannock, trying to keep themselves between Washington, D.C. and the Confederate armies, but Lee, Jackson and Longstreet got around them to the north. Milroy reported skirmishes every day from August 22 through the 27th, all of them involving the 12th Ohio Battery, which fired between 200 and 600 shots daily.
Herbert Kilburn arrived in Washington with Cox’s Division on August 24. About the same time, Henry Kilburn was sent from New London to Columbus, Ohio. There he was sworn into the Army on August 30, 1862. This date is important, as it places Henry in Ohio at the end of the month. Before we found this, all we knew was that he had signed up on August 11, which seemed to leave enough time to get to his unit before the Battle of Bull Run – now we know he definitely was not stuck in this battle. [The reason I’ve gone into a lot of detail on this battle is because I had thought Henry was in the battle – I did all the work before finding out he wasn’t.]
On the night of August 26, Jackson attacked Manassas Junction. Pope now realized that he had been outflanked and moved to Warrenton and Gainesville the next day. Jackson withdrew toward Centerville and Groveton.
On the 28th, Pope ordered McDowell and Sigel from Gainesville to Manassas Junction. He changed his mind after they had started, and told them to go to Centerville along the Warrenton Pike. But these armies were several miles long and could not just turn around; most of the army was already past the road, and King’s Division was the only one to turn off on Warrenton Pike. King ran into Jackson’s army at Groveton in late afternoon and a heavy battle started, lasting until dark. Sigel was nearly at Manassas Junction when the orders to change direction caught up with him. Sigel found a road going back toward Groveton, but Milroy’s Brigade was already past that road too, and could not turn around. They had to double back across rough country to rejoin the rest of the army. The brigade did not reach the area of the battle until dark, by which time it was over.
McClellan had now arrived in Washington, and saw that a large battle was forming. He ordered Cox’s Division of four regiments, including the 23rd Ohio, out to Upton’s Hill, covering the road from Centerville to Washington, and told them to "hold the lines at all hazards."
Pope ordered Sigel to "attack the enemy vigorously" at dawn on the 29th. This filtered down to the level of Milroy’s Brigade as "proceed in search of rebels." Milroy set out at dawn and advanced about 500 yards when the Confederates started firing. As far as they knew, they had found the rebels and completed their assigned job, so they stopped there for breakfast. Milroy himself went up another 500 yards to a hilltop, where he was shot at from some woods. He says, "I immediately ordered up my battery [the 12th Ohio] and gave the bushwackers a few shot and shell, which soon cleared the woods." Milroy then spotted a "major Confederate force" coming up on their right, less than a mile from the front of Sigel’s Corps. Again the 12th Battery fired, and this group also retreated. Milroy’s Brigade continued to advance slowly, and Jackson fell back to a large embankment along an unfinished railroad. Milroy’s infantry made several attacks on this line [officially named "Milroy’s Advance"; it nearly succeeded in breaking through Jackson’s line, and was one of the few bright spots in this Union defeat], but they were driven back. A Confederate counterattack was then repulsed by the 12th Ohio Battery, firing cannister shot at close range. By evening the 12th Battery had used up all its ammunition; it was pulled back to resupply, and a reserve battery took its place.
The battle continued on through the next day (August 30), now called "Second Manassas" or "Second Bull Run." Pope still thought he was winning, since the Union line was holding its position and even advancing in a few places – but his army was almost out of supplies and ammunition, and nothing more was coming. Cox’s Division, holding the line at Upton’s Hill, started seeing ambulances and wounded men coming through in the morning. By afternoon it had turned into a flood of stragglers running from the battle, evidence of a large defeat.
Longstreet’s Corps arrived in the afternoon and pushed back the left side of the exhausted Union line; a new line was formed and held by Sigel’s Corps. Pope’s official report of the battle says that "the main attack against our left was met with stubborn resistance by the divisions of Schenck and Reynolds, and the brigade of Milroy." By evening, both ends of Pope’s line were folded back, and he was in danger of being completely surrounded. Pope ordered a retreat to Centerville. The 12th Battery was involved in the rear guard actions covering the retreat, and was among the very last Union troops to leave the field.
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Pope was relieved of command on September 2 and was sent back West, where he was more successful. The Army of Virginia was dissolved and merged into McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. Lee’s army drove north and crossed the Potomac on its first invasion of Maryland. Milroy was promoted to Major General for his actions in the battle. He spent the next year as a division commander in northern Virginia; we will run into him again later in Tennessee.
While the 12th Battery was fighting at Bull Run, Henry Kilburn was being sworn into service at Columbus. He was mustered into the 12th Battery on September 4. He appears on a Columbus muster roll taken September 6, so he was probably still there on that date. He reached the 12th Battery in Virginia sometime before September 10, when he is shown on their muster rolls.
On September 12, the Army of the Potomac was reorganized. Sigel’s Corps became XI Corps. The 12th Ohio Battery, along with another battery from New York, was the Division Artillery for Steinwehr’s 2nd Division of XI Corps. They were made part of the "Defenses of Washington" and were left in place when McClellan took the rest of the Army north against Lee. It is possible that Henry and Herbert were able to make contact for a few days, but Herbert soon left with McClellan.
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