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THE BUGLE
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September 2003-Updated February 3, 2004
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I came across some new information about the 14th OVI color bearers at this battle and have incorporated this information into the article. The bearers in order were: Unknown from Company C, 1st Sgt. Frank Brumhoffer, Co.C, Corporal Andrew B. Clements, Co. D, Corporal James Wells, Co. D, and finally Private Joseph Wernert of Co. A. There might have been another bearer of the flag between Wells and Wernert; more research should bring this to light along with who the initial color bearer was.
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Defending the 14th Ohio Flag at the Battle of Chickamauga
By Daniel A. Masters
For the second installment of the Bugle, this month I would like to explore the role of the 14th Ohio at the Battle of Chickamauga. The 14th Ohio sustained its heaviest casualties of the war at this battle: 35 killed, 167 wounded, and 43 missing, or 245 of 460 men. In fierce engagements on both days of the battle, the crimson and azure folds of the regimental colors witnessed the death of five soldiers who struggled to hold the flag high and provide a rallying point for the men. The story of the 14th Ohio flag at Chickamauga is truly symbolic of the regiment’s sacrifice at this, the western theater’s most ferocious and sanguinary battle. It is a story of the supreme sacrifice, a forfeiture of life given freely for a beloved symbol of home and of the very freedom that each man believed he was fighting for.
The morning haze hung heavily in the tangled woods near Jay’s Mill on the morning of September 19, 1863. After an all night march, the weary 14th Ohio was just settling down to the morning routine of brewing coffee and cooking breakfast when the order came to fall in. Cursing and grabbing their still steaming coffee boilers, the men formed into line, filed onto an overgrown farmer’s trace and marched off to the east, downing the needed stimulant while on the march. “Although in a bad condition for fighting, still the boys were all willing to do their whole duty, and when the order came for the 14th to take the advance, very man’s countenance seemed to beam with new hope and determination,” remembered Company F commanding officer Captain James A. Chase. Forming into line just to the rear of the 10th Indiana, the 14th advanced slowly through the dense forest eerily reminiscent Adjutant Joseph B. Newton wrote of the “oak openings around Toledo.”
“When within a few hundred yards of the enemy, a line of skirmishers was sent out-the regiments forming in line of battle- and advancing a short distance came in contact with a force of Rebel cavalry (10th Confederate Cavalry) who advanced with the customary yell and whoop and attacked our skirmishers, but a volley of musketry from our lines emptied many Rebel saddles and sent back the balance to their lines,” Newton said. The badly outnumbered and outgunned, the surviving cavalrymen bolted from the field, in the process throwing two regiments of their brigade into confusion.
Croxton halted his brigade and the 14th Ohio was pulled from the reserve and placed on the right of the 74th Indiana. Companies A and F from the 14th were sent forward as skirmishers. The advance resumed and soon came under a steady fire from the dismounted troopers of General H.B. Davidson’s brigade under the personal guidance of Nathan Bedford Forrest. The fighting was done more by feel than by sight, the thick forest and dense overgrowth preventing either side from getting a good look at their adversaries. Delivering several crisp volleys, the 14th Ohio surged over a small ridge as Davidson’s men fell back eastwards to a higher ridge where Forrest frantically worked to rally the dispirited brigade. Davidson’s troopers had lost nearly a third of their number.
But Forrest’s salvation soon arrived on the field in the form of a Colonel Claudius C. Wilson’s Georgia brigade. Approaching Croxton’s line (facing east) from the southeast, Wilson’s brigade opened a devastating flanking fire. Under this initial and unexpected blast, the 14th Ohio’s color bearer was instantly shot down. Wilson’s Georgians advanced a few paces and reloaded while First Sergeant Frank Brumhoffer of Company C raised the fallen colors. In their next volley, Brumhoffer instantly killed by a bullet through the forehead and the colors fell again. Flashes from hundreds of muzzles lit the morning air, the acrid smoke from thousands of discharging muskets already blanketing the woods in a ghostly plume.
Corporal Andrew B. Clements of Company D pulled the flag from Brumhoffer’s grasp as men fell all along the line. Wilson pressed his advantage and Croxton’s brigade started to retreat. With his ammunition nearly exhausted, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Kingsbury ordered a withdrawal in accordance with Croxton’s command and the 14th retreated off to the west. In this harrowing retreat through the woods, Clements was hit. Private Jacob Lohr of Company D later remembered that Clements clung to the colors despite his wound and fell back with the regiment. As his strength failed, Clements said, “Let the Rebels take me but save the flag.” Corporal James Wells of Company D then grasped the now bullet-riddled and blood spattered flag and safely drew it off the field. He was killed the next day.
“Two Corporals of my company were shot down while carrying that glorious emblem of liberty,” related Second Lieutenant Oscar N. Gunn of Company D wrote of Corporal Clements. “One of them was shot down three times before he would give it up. Every shot went through his body. Either of them would have proved fatal. He fell to the earth for every shot, but still rising to his feet would wave the flag on high and shout to his comrades to rally around it. He was the bravest man I ever saw. Our flag was literally shot to pieces. That once beautiful flag is now torn in strings-almost entirely torn away-so much so that it is a mere rag. The staff was cut by a grape shot from a Rebel battery.”
After a difficult passage of the lines, the 14th retired to the field where they had attempted to brew their coffee that morning. In a little over two hours of confused and savage fighting, the 14th had lost 207 men. Nearly half the regiment had been lost in this, its first large-scale engagement.
Adjutant Newton related an interesting story about Captain Noah W. Ogan of Company K who was captured on September 19th. “As they were approaching the Rebel lines, the idea of practicing a little finesse or military stratagem suggested itself. So pretending to be highly gratified with the idea of being a prisoner, he told his captors this is what he wanted-that he had long been anxious to get out of this war and was well satisfied with this mode of getting out. ‘But,’ said he, ‘you are taking me right back into the Federal lines.’ They supposing they had become confused in the heat and hurry of the movement, turned around and brought him within Federal lines, when it became his turn to reciprocate by capturing his captors and demanding them to deliver up their arms, which they did in a very gracious manner.”
The next day was a disaster for the Army of the Cumberland. September 20, 1863. Croxton’s shattered brigade is in line of battle in some dense woods when Longstreet’s attack drives through the fatal gap in the Union line. The 14th Ohio was on the northern edge of the attack and being flanked on the right, took heavy casualties again before breaking for the rear. After Corporal Wells was shot down, Private Joseph Wernert, a young German lad in Company A, snatched the colors from the grasp of the mortally wounded bearer and “gallantly bore it through the fearful shower of leaden hail which had proven so fatal to so many of its noble bearers and brought it out of the fight safe, if not sound.” The casualties for the second day of Chickamauga totaled 7 men killed, 30 men wounded and 12 missing.
The tattered remnants of the 14th Ohio flag were sent to Toledo in late 1863 and the regiment received a new flag from the grateful citizens of Toledo while home on veterans’ furlough in January 1864.
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