The 18th Michigan Regiment in the Civil War
Hillsdale County’s special connection to the Civil War is the 18th Michigan Regiment. In 1862, after it was clear that the Civil War wouldn’t be as brief as both sides had expected, President Lincoln asked for additional troops. Michigan Governor Austin Blair requested that Henry Waldron organize a regiment. In a shorttwo months of letter writing, rallies and person appeals, Waldron enlisted 1,000 men from Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties: patriots, idealists and farm boys eager to leave the backbreaking and boring life at home and who envisioned a military career of glory. Lewis Emery offered space on his farm as a place for their encampment and was accepted. The current Emery Park on State Road was a marsh at the time, and the camp was situated up the hill that is east of it. With fresh springs, the areas was perfect for healthful bathing, drinking water and cooking. The regiment was mustered into service on Aug. 26, 1862, and began to train.
Charles Camp Doolittle enlisted in the Union Army shortly after the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. He was commissioned a 1st Lieutenant in the 4th Michigan Regiment and was promoted to colonel when he became the commander of the 18th. The regiment left Michigan for Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sept. 18, 1862, with proud and tearful family members waving them off.
Col. Charles E. Doolittle
Col. Doolittle took his regiment first to Kentucky, where they were successful in keeping the Confederates from plundering cities and villages. Next was Nashville, Tennessee, where they did ‘private duty” from November 1863 to June 1864. This official duty was developed early in the war by Gen. George McClellan. It was kind of like being the military police. Among their duties were the “prevention of straggling,” the “supervision of hotels, saloons and places of resort and amusement” and the “suppression of gambling houses or other establishments prejudicial to good order and discipline.” During the summer and fall of 1864, they did garrison duty at Decatur, Alabama, occasionally pursuing Confederates in that area. Col. Doolittle led a heroic defense of Decatur when Confederate generals Hood and Thomas met up in Nashville and then advanced on Decatur. On the first day of a three-day battle, Col. Doolittle’s troops managed to hold off the Confederates with only a small force. Reinforcements began to arrive on the second day, and by the third day Col. Doolittle had 5,000 troops under his command and held his post despite great odds.
The 18th built strong fortifications at Stevenson, Alabama and again did garrison duty in Huntsville, Alabama until June 20, 1865, when the regiment was ordered to Nashville to muster out. It arrived in Jackson, Michigan on July 2 and was paid off and disbanded on July 4.
The 18th wasn’t involved in any of the major battles of the Civil War, but that didn’t keep the boys safe. Many more died of disease than of battle wounds. Some were taken prisoner. The conditions in prisoner-of-war camps in both the North and South were not good. Overcrowding, poor sanitation and water, little food and the lack of medical care were givens. At the beginning of the war, an ongoing prisoner exchange had been one of the agreements between the Confederacy and the Union. In this arrangement prisoners were exchanged, enlisted man for enlisted man and officer for officer. The paroled prisoners were simply released on their honor not to take up arms against the other side until they reached their own regiment. In retrospect, this is a refreshingly gentlemanly expectations. How well it worked is difficult to know. What is known is that the ongoing prisoner exchange was a bust. The men in prison camps were stuck there and simply had to cope with the conditions that existed.
By the end of the Civil War the Southern states were a patchwork, some occupied by Union forces and some occupied by confederate forces. In February 1865 the Confederate commandant of the Cahaba, Alabama prison camp approached the Union commander at Vicksburg, Mississippi with a desperate request for food and medicine for the Union prisoners in his charge. This evolved into a plan for a prisoner exchange. The Union prisoners at Casaba would be exchanged for Confederate prisoners held in Mobile, Alabama. The Union prisoners held at Andersonville, Georgia were eventually included in the deal. Vicksburg, Mississippi was in Union hands but was seen as a neutral site since it had no prison camp. It also had the advantage of being close to the Mississippi River, a major transportation artery. Vickburg was named the parole camp. All prisoners would travel to Vicksburg, there to be exchanged, enlisted man for enlisted man and officer for officer. About 130 men from the 18th were included in this arrangement.
The war made transportation on the Mississippi River dangerous. Steamboat captains were in financial distress due to the lack of passengers and goods. For an unscrupulous steamboat captain named J. Cass Mason the parole camp at Vicksburg was an opportunity to recoup his financial losses. Fearful that other steamboat captains would arrive to transport the men, Captain Mason made a deal with the quartermaster: Only the Sultana would take the final load of parolees. Captain Mason’s desperation resulted in a fatal mistake. When the Sultana reached Vicksburg over 2,200 parolees joined the 100 civilian passengers and 85 crew members on the Sultana—which had a total capacity of 376.
On April 27, 1865, near Memphis, Tennessee, one of the overworked boilers on the Sultana exploded, followed by the explosion of two more. Scalds from the boiling water, burns from the resulting fire and drowning were widespread. The official death count was 1,800, but it was undoubtedly much more. After surviving the harsh conditions of war and the deprivations of a prisoner-of-war camp, over half of the men from the 18th Michigan perished in the Sultana disaster.
One of the soldiers who perished was Jonathan Robins, a second cousin four times removed of Ken Benge, whose family has lived in Allen for many generations. Three letters Jonathan wrote to his beloved sisters Hannah and Sophia have survived through the year to give us a solder’s view of the Civil War. Two are from Nashville, where the 18th was doing provost duty. The third was written 10 days before the destruction of the Sultana. In the last, Jonathan writes without self-pity. His cursive is beautiful, but the lack of capitals at the beginning of sentences and the absence of end punctuation, not to mention the inventive spelling, make it a challenge to read. He says, “there will be many tears shed for those that have fallen in defending the old flag but we know that they fell in a good cause all I have Suffered is for the old flag and I would Suffer a grate deal more before I would see that old flag go down … if we do not live to meet on Earth let us try and live so that we shall meet in heaven.”
A reunion of the 18th michigan infantry, co. d., which may have been taken in Palmyra
These two letters were the last written by soldiers in the 18th Michigan. They were shared by Gene Eric Salecker, author of Disaster on the Mississippi, a heartrending account of the sinking of the Sultana on April 27, 1865.
The following two letters were written by Sgt. Thomas J. Hinds, Co. K, 18th MI Inf. while at the parole camp set up four miles outside of Vicksburg, MS, after his release from Cahaba Prison, AL.
Sent by: Richard Greene, P.O. Box 411, Coulterville, IL, 62237 (August 31, 1995)
Vixburg, Miss. March 25, 1865
My Dear Mother and Father,
as I have an oportunity of writing to you this morning I will improve it I got a pass this morning to come to town and am now writing from the Christian Room it is good thing for they furnish paper and stamps for all we wish to write this is the first time that I have had sight of this great Missippi River it is the greatest wonder how Grant ever took this place for it is one fortress we have a nice camp now we have the shelter tents we have plenty to eat but have not drawn any clothing yet but will in a few days there is no talk of us geting Exchange soon we are only Paroled as yet and how soon we will get home or to our regt I am not able to say but I hope soon for I am tiard of this kind of life we are under the charge of the Rebs yet Lieut Colonel Henderson from the Reb army is in charge of us yet we can not come to town without his consent it is hard and in sight of our own flag but maby it is fair the reason of the rebs fetching us here is they could not feed us any more they are the nearest plaid out of any thing I have saw lately they are worse than my old shoes and they are good for nothing I am in hope to see you all if I can get my pays I shal have now 10 months at dolars besides $50 for clothing our time is out in five months from tomorow the 26th it will not be long to wait if I can not come sooner I have not more at this time but will write soon again from your son
Thomas J. Hinds
Parole Camp, Vicksburg, Miss.,
April 8, 1865
Uncle James: -
The train just came in, and brought me three letters from California, Michigan. I thank you kindly for writing to me so promptly, and am glad you have so good an idea of a Southern prison. You may truly say, I congratulate you on your escape from the ‘Jaws of Hell,’ for that is what the best informed prisoners call that place, but when I describe Cahawba to you, you will hardly believe my statement. You wished a detailed account of our captivity and imprisonment. We were captured the 24th of September by Forrest, the old grey eyed D–1 after fighting ten times our number for five hours; they were on our right, left, rear and front, raining a continuous shower of lead upon us; we used the bayonet to run them off with, and lead to hold them to the ground which they polluted with their foul carcases [sic], but we had officers as true as steel, and brave as lions, that led us on to the hungry hounds. We fought to within thirty rods of a fort, a strong one too, that a Col. Campbell had command of; (He disgraced the quadruped he is named after.) Forrest came to him, and told him, Col. C., that if he did not surrender the fort without fighting, he would make another Fort Pollow [sic] scrape of it, and so scared Campbell that he surrendered, with enough men, white and black, to have held the fort until we could have come to him, which we had almost done when we were forced to surrender. Three hundred and fifty-six men of the 18th Michigan and 102nd Ohio, all told were the number that fought Forrest’s command; but enough of that.
After capture, we were stripped of all our blankets, and rations from our haversacks, or all together, and they took the boots from off our feet; hats off our heads, and buttons off our coats too.
They marched us from 25, to 30 miles a day till they reached an old railroad, put us on board 12 old freight cars to carry us to the confederate states; a dirty lousy Reb. for a conductor, he run seven of the cars all to smash, killed one Yankee and hurt several, but God was on our side, and hurt more of the Rebel guards than of the prisoners. We reached the prison the 5th of October, 11 days on what they called 4 days rations, wormy, hard crackers and poor beef. The prison is an old cotton-house made of brick and a stockade enclosing about an acre of ground and there were 2,300 of us in there – rather thick for comfort, and about 1/8 only of the building was covered, consequently a large number had to lay down on the ground, with no covering of any kind, not a rag of blanket to cover them with, exposed to all the rains and cold, and no fire at that, not enough at times to cook our for them? And they call themselves a Christian people, and to talk to us about the ‘barbarities of the ruthless foe,’ call us damn Yankees. I had no blanket of any kind from time I was captured until the 20th of December, and no stockings, or drawers, and was well off compared to many; men did freeze to death the night of December 20th. We had blankets sent to us by the Washburne, and the 25th, Christmas, we got clothing except shirts, and they were comfortable and happy. The 21st of January, the boys overpowered the guard, took their arms and tried to escape, but could not do it, for a number of reasons.
In consequence of this meeting, as the commanding officer of the prison called it, all rations were stopped for three days; from Thursday noon till Sunday noon we had to fast; - $ 50, Confederate money was offered for one loaf of corn bread. During the time fasting, we 2,300 prisoners stripped as naked as we came into the world, and marched before a lot of Rebel officers, to see if any bayonet wounds could be found on them, but the Guard did not hurt anyone much; they found eight that they put in a dungeon, on bread and water for sixty days. After they found them we got rations again. After the leaders of that affair were punished, and many orders were read to us, about what would be done if the like was undertaken again we got along well untill [sic] the 27th of February when the waters of the Alabama river raised out of its banks and came into the prison; It came in the night of the 27th and before the night of the 28th, three feet of water was in the prison, the water continued to raise until the 4th of March, they took some of the prisoners to Selina, and the rest of us had to get logs, and boards to build places to keep out the water, the Rebels came in little boats to see us, the water was four feet deep in the lower part of the prison, but we lived until the 6th of March, when they called us out, and told us we were going to Vicksburg for exchange, but the Rebels lied to us so much that we did not believe them until we crossed the Pearl river at Jackson, then we breathed free and have since.
Sherman has made his march all the way from Vicksburg to Jackson, the chimneys are all that’s left of the houses; Sherman in the man and Grant too, is the biggest trump; The sound of 100 guns has hardly ceased to vibrate over the glad tidings of the fall of Richmond, and Petersburg; all good, and confirmed too; things is almost played out, and some of the Rebs are getting their just dues in the lower regions.
When I commenced this, I hadn’t intended to write such a letter as this, but please let some of the young heads help you pick it out and digest its contents * * * * I shall probably get a letter from Henry tomorrow, and then I must write to others: You may think some of this rather hard to take, but true, and we fared well, very well, compared to the Andersonville prisoners; the half of suffering has not been told yet, nor can ye know till the 1,300 graves of the noble braves of the dreadful Andersonville reveal the truths to the broken hearts of friends at the north. Someone will have to answer for this * * I don’t know whether I will come home before my time is out, or not, but I hope to see you all by and by. Hoping to hear from you soon again, and that this may interest some of my friends, and each may share a portion of my best wishes; Aunt Mary and the girls, and the rest too, I am
Yours respectfully,
Albert W. Lawrence
Parole Camp Vicksburg, Miss.
“Letter Written in ’65 Graphic Description of Rebel Prison,” Lansing [MI] State Journal, June 1, 1917, p. 8.