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The Specter and the Soldier
By Daniel J. Wood
FATE :: August 2003

Like most young men in St. Joseph County, John Downey closely followed the fortunes of the local regiment, the Michigan 11th Volunteer Infantry. As the boys became men, they practiced drills under homemade standards and dreamed of the day when they too would leave home and cover themselves in glory. In 1861, a 15-year-old Downey watched the regiment march through downtown Three Rivers amid all the fanfare the small agricultural community of 3,000 could muster.

Downey was an exceptionally intelligent boy, and his parents enrolled him in the prestigious Colon Seminary, a prep school that produced as many teachers as any comparable institution in the state. Downey did well, but images of military pageantry intruded themselves into young John's thoughts as his 18th birthday neared. Shortly after his birthday, Downey and two friends signed up for the 11th at the Colon recruiting station.

Disillusionment set in as quickly with these green recruits as it had with those who had joined the fight before them. The 11th had engaged in heavy fighting at Stones River and Chickamauga prior to the arrival of Downey and his young friends in Company E, and veterans grumbled in camp as news of their latest order circulated the afternoon of August 7, 1864.

It was oppressively hot and humid outside Atlanta, so hot that Downey later commented that "all nature" seemed to sink beneath the enervating heat. The men of the 11th were literally counting down the 17 days before their enlistments expired when brigade commander Lieutenant Colonel Mudge ordered them to attack Confederate earthworks. Many did not see why they should risk their lives once again after they had already fought so valiantly. On this sweltering, breezeless day, the Michigan soldiers looked down toward the Confederate positions. The enemy had dug themselves two lines of defense: one just outside a wooded area, the other deeper within. Mudge asked the 11th to charge down an open field and take the first entrenchment.

Noticing their slow response, Mudge climbed atop the breastworks within range of rebel musket fire and delivered a powerful speech. The 11th took heart from their leader's example and surged forward through volleys of gunfire and hails of shell to take the first line of defense. A number of soldiers became so elated by their initial success that they overran the first entrenchment and assaulted the second line as well. This later act of heroism only added to the 11th's casualties. The entrenchment cost the 11th two confirmed dead and 150 wounded. Seven enlisted men were cited as missing; two of these men, George Quay and Daniel Baldwin, hailed from Downey's Company E. Baldwin was Downey's best friend.

Circumstances did not allow Downey to search for his missing comrade, however. The 11th now occupied the inside of an entrenchment which afforded nothing more than a shallow ditch as protection against enemy fire. Recognizing the 11th's predicament, Confederate officers attempted to rally their troops for a bayonet charge in the hope of retaking the first line, but the soldiers refused. The Michiganders then spent the night reworking the Confederate line into an adequate defensive fortification. Only three days later, on the morning of August 10, 1864, did officers feel secure enough to allow the 11th to return to their base camp for some well-deserved rest and hot food.

As the men attempted to relax outside the line of enemy fire, a new horror emerged. George W. Lockwood of Company I, one of the soldiers listed as missing after an unsuccessful assault on the second rebel line, staggered into camp looking like one of the living dead. Downey wrote that Lockwood's appearance "terrified" his breakfasting comrades. "His eyes were sunken far back in his head, his cheeks were hollow, the ghastly pallor of death was upon his face, and he was so weak that he reeled and staggered as he walked. A dead man from the grave could not have startled us more."

For three days, this unfortunate young man had agonized in the field. Ordered to assist the regimental surgeon, Dr. William N. Elliott of White Pigeon, Downey stripped Lockwood and held him down as the doctor cleaned and dressed the wounds, the condition of which Downey described as "simply appalling." Lockwood suffered from flesh wounds on his neck and back, and a bullet ripped through his mouth. Downey later remarked that, "One from the abode of the damned could not have suffered tortures more horrible or revolting."

But the horrors were only beginning ...

Read the rest of this article in the August 2003 issue of FATE

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