A Premonition

[Andy Cardinal]

The 12th Massachusetts approached Keedysville on the afternoon of September 16th. The men were in good spirits after the Army of the Potomac's victory at South Mountain. "Brigades and divisions were filing right and left into open fields and the increasing roar of the guns showed that the enemy was making another stand," George Kimball recalled. "We will have a tussle with them here," Corporal Nathaniel Dyer, who was marching next to Kimball, said. Kimball agreed. Dyer was "usually light-hearted and merry, but now appeared strangely serious and thoughtful," Kimball noted. Dyer looked around to make sure his brother Charles couldn't hear him and said, "George, I don't know why it is, but I cannot get over the feeling that I am going to be hit in this fight. If I am and you get out of it alright, look out for Charley, won't you?" "Certainly," Kimball responded, "but don't think like that is going to happen. Look on the bright side."

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Hartsuff's brigade went into action early on the morning of September 17. Kimball described what happened as the regiment reached a small knoll after crossing the cornfield. There they came face to face with Hays's Louisiana brigade. Both sides opened fire. Kimball described what happened next: "How terrible is the shock and how our men go down! What screams and groans follow that first volley! Then we loaded and fired at will as rapidly as we could. Our officers cry, 'Give it to them boys!' and the men take up the cry, too. There was a pandemonium of voices, as well as a perfect roar of musketry and a storm of bullets. Shells were bursting among us, too, continually. In the wild excitement of battle I forget my fear and think only of killing as many of the foe as I can. The tall soldier at my side, who had told me on the march that he felt as though he was to be hit in this battle, has already fallen. He lies at my feet with a mortal hurt. His brother drags him back a few paces and then returns to his place in the ranks. A few moments more and my brother, too, is wounded, though not so badly. When I have assisted him to a stump a short distance in the rear he creeps up behind it tells me to 'go back and give it to them."

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What I found striking about Kimball's account was that he referred to Dyer, with whom he appears to have been fairly close -- as the "tall soldier." It's a fairly impersonal way to refer someone who appears to have been a friend. I wonder if the memory of Dyer's death was too painful for Kimball to write his name when he wrote his account of the battle.

Edit -- Source:A Corporal's Story

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

What always gets to me is siblings in the same regiment. That had to be awful, worrying about them? Maybe it was better than being in different regiments and never knowing exactly who was where but I don't know. What would be worse, seeing a brother get hit and maybe killed or hearing of it in a letter?

You could be right, thinking it was painful for Kimball writing Dyer's name- vets stories from 40 and fifty years post war speak of friends lost like it was yesterday.

 

[mags48]

Family members, especially brothers, who were killed or wounded serving in the same regiment was a common situation. Death premonitions that became reality were too. The Rufus Dawes (6th Wis) original unedited journals reveal at least three deadly premonitions, and in each case the soldier resisted the foreboding and went into battle anyway as a matter of honor and courage. As to relatives, most striking were four Dawes brothers/cousins who in Feb. '64 enlisted together in the 7th Wisconsin. By June, two were KIA and the other two seriously wounded.

 

[JOHN42768]

As terrible as it must be to have a relative wounded or killed in the same regiment, I think knowing can bring closure as opposed to wondering and worrying if they are buried in an unmarked grave somewhere or in a POW camp. I imagine most of the soldiers at one time or other have thoughts of not making it through the next battle.

 

[ErnieMac]

Reminds me of the scene from the movie Gettysburg when Colonel Chamberlain tells his brother, Tom, "Split up, another close one like that and it could be a bad day for mother". When entire companies were raised in small towns and the surrounding areas it was impossible to avoid friends and relatives serving together. When the unit was involved in heavy fighting the heavy casualties could prove difficult for the men in the unit and the families at home. It wasn't until WWII that the military made it a point to separate family members.