"All the night we lay under the brightest moon I ever saw. Under the same moonlight, and only 600 yards away from us, also lay the victorious rebel army. They believed Corinth as good as taken but they had only taken our outer line of forts. Yet it looked bad for us....out there lay thousands of others in line, only waiting the daylight to be also mangled and torn...."
"With the earliest dawn of day, the enemy's [CSA] battery in front opened its fire. What a magnificent display! Nothing we had ever seen looked like the flashes of those guns. No rockets ever scattered fire like the bursting of those shells!"
"Lieut. Robinette did not respond for some twenty minutes; in the meantime, training his guns to the point of attack so as not to send one useless shot"
"After Lieut. Robinette opened his battery of Parrot guns the scene soon changed - as only a few shots were necessary to drive the Rebels from their position."
"Suddenly we heard something, almost like a great whirlwind….amazed to see a great black column, ten thousand strong, moving like a might storm-cloud out of the woods and attacking the troops and forts to our left. Instantly we changed direction a little and, without further firing, witnessed one of the greatest assaults of any war. It was the storming of Fort Robinett....These recklessly advanced on the forts, climbing over the tress and bending their heads against the awful storm of grape and canister from all our cannon....Even an enemy could feel pity to see brave men so cruelly slaughtered."
"Lieut. Robinette did not respond for some twenty minutes; in the meantime, training his guns to the point of attack so as not to send one useless shot"
"After Lieut. Robinette opened his battery of Parrot guns the scene soon changed - as only a few shots were necessary to drive the Rebels from their position."
"Suddenly we heard something, almost like a great whirlwind….amazed to see a great black column, ten thousand strong, moving like a might storm-cloud out of the woods and attacking the troops and forts to our left. Instantly we changed direction a little and, without further firing, witnessed one of the greatest assaults of any war. It was the storming of Fort Robinett....These recklessly advanced on the forts, climbing over the tress and bending their heads against the awful storm of grape and canister from all our cannon....Even an enemy could feel pity to see brave men so cruelly slaughtered."
“In front of us was the most obstructive abattis that it was my misfortune to encounter …, “the forts belched destruction into our ranks; yet our men did not waver or halt …. when about half through the abattis, Robinett changed shells for grape and canister on us. Our yells grew fainter and our men fell faster, but at last we reached the unobstructed ground in front of the fort …”
"Upon the advancing lines the 47th were pouring a deadly enfilading fire with telling effect, the guns of Robinett were double charged and the redoubt was a circle of flame. Magnificently mounted and bearing the Confederate colors aloft, Colonel Rogers of Texas [2nd Texas Infantry-leading the charge on Robinett] led the line of gray, led them to the very edge of the ditch which he was in the act of leaping when the Ohio Brigade arose and delivered a murderous fire, before which the Confederates recoiled …”
"I shall ever remember looking at the face of the rebel Col. Rogers, when not more than 30 paces, and noting the peculiar expression it had, He looked neither to the right or left, neither at his own or our men, but with eyes partly closed, like one in a hail storm, was marching slowly and steadily upon us."
"The fighting in front of Robinett was desperate in the extreme. Many of the gunners from the 1st Inf. were disabled, and when the cannon ceased to belch forth its hail it was soldiers from Capt. Spangler's co. A. 43rd Ohio, who sprang into the fort and assisted in manning he guns until the close of the struggle"
“It seemed as though hell was holding a jubilee." "It was a bloody contest and we could see men using their bayonets like pitch forks and thrusting each other through"
"Lieut. Robinett, of the battery, severely wounded in the head, fell senseless under one of his guns. At this most of his men ran to the rear. A moment later, some of the men of Co. A. of the 43rd Ohio, entered the battery, aided the few brave fellows who had stood their ground, to man the guns.”
“Oh we were butchered like dogs,”
"When the assault had failed and the noise of the battle was stilled, I hurried down in front of Robinett. My canteen was full of water and I pressed it to the lips of many a dying enemy--enemy no longer. Our grape shot had torn whole companies of men to pieces. They lay in heaps of dozens, even close up top the works."
"The rebel dead lay every few feet from the embrasures of Ft. Robinette, a mile to the front."
"In front of Fort Robinett the Confederate dead lay piled from three to seven deep; for a hundred feet the bodies lay so close it was almost impossible to walk between them.”
"They had been cut to pieces in the most intense meaning of that term. Such bravery was never been excelled on any field as the useless assaults on Robinette."
"That night I stood guard under an oak tree. On the battlefield under the unburied dead. Many of the wounded, even, had not yet been gathered up. The moon shone as brightly as the night before, while thousands who had laid there under its peaceful rays before the battle were now again sleeping, never to awaken again."
"They had been cut to pieces in the most intense meaning of that term. Such bravery was never been excelled on any field as the useless assaults on Robinette."
"That night I stood guard under an oak tree. On the battlefield under the unburied dead. Many of the wounded, even, had not yet been gathered up. The moon shone as brightly as the night before, while thousands who had laid there under its peaceful rays before the battle were now again sleeping, never to awaken again."
Battery Robinett
COL Rogers (w/ beard) & Confederate dead.
Keep History Alive
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