By Phil Spaugy, featuring images from The Liljenquist Family Collection at the Library of Congress
A unique group of images depict the veteran horse soldiers of the 5th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and mountain howitzers. That these Buckeye cavalrymen proudly posed with the guns make them worthy of a bit of research.
The United States Ordnance Department developed the M1835 Mountain Howitzer to fill the need for a portable artillery piece. A smoothbore 12-pound howitzer, it fired canister, spherical case and solid shot. Its range was 1,005 yards at 5 degrees of elevation with a powder charge of one-half pound.
Its carriage was of two types. A Pack carriage, designed to be broken down, with the barrel carried on one horse or mule, and the wheels and carriage on two more such animals. The three components weighed 720 pounds. The Prairie carriage used draft animals to pull the howitzer—a traditional manner of drawing artillery. This is the type of carriage depicted in these images.
In one image, eight dismounted veteran cavalrymen of the 5th pose on the edge of a ditch. They are uniformed in a variety of slouch hats, four button blouses and cavalry shell jackets. Most wear knee-high leather cavalry boots, with a spur or two visible.
The veterans carry Model 1860 Light Cavalry sabers, with saber knots hanging from the guards, 900 of which were issued when they started for the field in early 1862. They also left with 120 Sharps carbines, and 419 Joslyn revolvers described by QM Sgt. Thomas Faning as “patently worthless,” adding they “refuse to fire at a foe; they are consequently only dangerous to their owners.” In May 1862, the regiment received coveted .44 caliber M1860 Colt Army revolvers. No carbines or revolvers are visible.
Whitelaw Reid’s Ohio in the Civil War reveals the connection of the howitzers to the 5th. The narrative begins in Alabama on Oct. 26, 1863, and mentions respected Prussian-born Brig. Gen. Peter Joseph Osterhaus (1823-1917). At this time, he commanded the 1st Division of the Army of the Tennessee’s 15th Corps during the consolidation of U.S. forces around Chattanooga following the disastrous Battle of Chickamauga. Reid noted:
“It being of the utmost importance to keep the enemy in the dark as to the preparations crossing the river at Chickasaw, Osterhaus, on the morning of the 26th, sent the trains with escort to Dickson Station, and with the entire division (the Fifth Ohio in advance) started before daylight for Tuscumbia, driving the enemy continually, occupying the town, capturing a number of prisoners, destroying large quantities of Rebel army supplies, and returning three days afterward. Though in this expedition the enemy had not risked a general engagement, they were scarcely ever out of sight. They promptly followed the division back to its encampment, and upon the next morning drove in the pickets and attacked impetuously in force, pushing their lines to within a short distance of the General’s head-quarters before they were repulsed.”
Reid continues, “The Fifth, in this engagement, as in the eight days of almost constant fighting preceding, did its whole duty, and won weighty compliments from General Osterhaus and staff. Here the regiment drew two fine twelve-pound mountain howitzers, which were christened ‘Lady Heath’ and ‘Lady Bumill,’ and assigned to squadron G.”
The namesakes of the howitzers are revealed after a review of the regiment’s roster, and additional research. They are officer’s wives.
Lady Heath is Mary Elizabeth Bagley Heath (1839-1872). She was the wife of Thomas Tinsley Heath (1835-1925), who played a key role in raising the 5th. He began his service as the regiment’s lieutenant colonel and advanced to full colonel in 1862, the same year he and Elizabeth married.
Lady Bumill is actually Lady Pummill—a misspelling in Reid’s narrative. Julia A. Beatty Pummill (1821-1878) was the wife of Capt. John Pummill (1815-1883) of Company G. Pummill, a carriage manufacturer from Cincinnati, enlisted in the 5th as a private in September 1861 and rose through the ranks to become lieutenant colonel by the end of the war. As captain of Squadron G, he commanded both “Lady” howitzers.
A carte de visite shows Col. Heath, left, and Lt. Col. Pummill standing next to one of the howitzers with the teams’ harnesses hanging over the top of the limber box. She is the Lady Heath. Her name is painted on the cheek of the gun carriage and is partially visible behind the spoke of the wheel. The name is pictured in reverse, which suggests this is a copy of a hard plate image or that the photographer made a paper print from the opposite side of the glass negative. An imprint on the back of the mount identifies the photographer as John Wildman Winder (1828-1900) who operated the Sky-Light Gallery in Cincinnati. A tax stamp above the imprint dates the print between August 1864 and August 1866. This suggests the image might have been made about the time the regiment returned to Ohio in mid-November 1865.
Lady Heath is pictured again in a quarter-plate tintype, and both Ladies Heath and Pummill are pictured in a second carte de visite. The fore- and background appear to be similar in all four images. They may have been photographed at the same time by Winder.
The Ladies played a part in Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea. On Nov. 28, 1864, about 50 miles south of Augusta, Ga., the 5th and its brigade participated in a rear guard action with elements of Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler’s Confederate cavalry. The 5th received orders to guard a bridge crossing at Buck Head Creek as enemy troopers approached.
Heath’s after-action report described how the Ladies did their part:
“Moving rapidly to the rear, it took position, dismounted, threw up barricades of rails, planted its section of howitzers to cover the bridge, enabled the whole brigade to cross in safety, and checked the advance of Wheeler’s whole force, which was exultingly pressing the rear. When the smoke of our discharge of canister had cleared away the rebels who were crowded on the causeways to the bridge were not seen, and Capt. William Jessup, Company D, with twenty of his men, under the fire of their riflemen daringly burned and destroyed the bridge, while shells from the howitzers compelled the enemy to ploy and seek crossing above and below.”
It is fair to state that the Ladies helped win the Battle of Buck Head Creek. Colonel Heath received the brevet rank of brigadier general in December 1864 for gallantry in the engagement.
Phil Spaugy is a longtime member of the North South Skirmish Association (N-SSA). He studies arms and accouterments of federal infantry soldiers with an emphasis on his home state of Ohio, firearms of the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, and the Iron Brigade. He is a partner with Jim Hessler, in Hessler Spaugy Action Travel. Phil is a retired aviation services company executive who lives in Vandalia, Ohio, with his wife, Amy. He is a MI Senior Editor. Contact Phil at pspaugy@aol.com.
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