On the Road to Atlanta

The Wartime Sketches of Horace Rawdon

By Robert Hancock

When war broke out, Horace Rawdon was living in Warren, Ohio, with his wife, Ann, and their two children, Ralph and Emma. Horace was a painter by profession or, more specifically, an embellisher of carriages and buggies. According to the Western Reserve Chronicle which ran a human interest article on three local artists, Rawdon “indulges his taste for the higher branches of his art only during the short intervals he can snatch from the time necessary to support a family by his labor. One of his paintings, The Storm in Harvest, has been in Adam’s Book Store for the last two weeks, until it was purchased a day or two since, by a gentleman from Cleveland.”

In August 1862, Rawdon was just shy of his 40 th birthday when he decided to enlist in the army as a musician. The 105 th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was mustered into service for three years at Camp Taylor in Cleveland.

It was not long before the 105 th Ohio had its first opportunity to “see the elephant.” As a drummer in the regimental band, Rawdon was technically a non-combatant. Though he was not required to carry a rifle, he faced the same dangers as the other men in his regiment.

We do not know if Rawdon kept a diary. No letters from him are known to exist. However, he did chronicle some of his travels with the 105 th Ohio Volunteers by picking up his pencils and brushes and painting watercolor sketches of select areas along the way.

Hoover's Gap

Hoover's Gap. Watercolor.

ACWM

On June 24, 1863, there was a sharp fight at Hoover’s Gap, Tennessee. Confederate forces tried in vain to push the Federals back, but Col. John Wilder’s mounted infantry, who were armed with new Spencer repeating rifles, were able to hold the Gap until reinforcements arrived.

In Rawdon’s sketch, some of the infantry are following the artillery on the road through the hills, while other units are cutting across county. The houses on the left have been requisitioned for the army’s use, and some of the rail fences have been pulled down either for firewood or to help facilitate the movement of the large number of soldiers.

By September 19, Union forces had run the Confederates to ground just south of Chattanooga along a defensive line following Chickamauga Creek (a Cherokee name meaning River of Blood).

Things did not go well for U.S. forces. Major General George Thomas’s command (including the 105 th Ohio) was the only thing preventing a complete rout of the Union army, half of which was already beating a hasty retreat towards Chattanooga. Rawdon and his regiment were at the front all day holding the line against repeated Confederate attacks. That night, the Ohioans retreated with the remainder of the army to the relative safety of Chattanooga. There, they were put under virtual siege by Bragg’s Confederates, who dug in along the high hills overlooking the town.

On November 24, with reinforcements sent by Ulysses S. Grant, Union forces emerged from Chattanooga and fought their way up the steep slopes of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. After two days of hard fighting, the Confederate line was broken, and they retreated into Georgia.

Missionary Ridge

Missionary Ridge. Watercolor.

ACWM

In this painting, Rawdon depicts the divisions under Thomas’s command making their way up the wooded slopes of Missionary Ridge. The blue-coated soldiers have broken through the first line of defense and are attacking the second. (The Confederates had three parallel lines of defenses: one at the base of the hill, the next half way up, and the third at the crest of the ridge. Eventually, U.S. forces were able to push the Confederates off the ridge.) In the foreground can be seen mounted couriers and stretcher parties collecting the wounded.

Lookout Mountain

Lookout Mountian. Watercolor.

ACWM

This view of Chattanooga with Lookout Mountain in the background shows Federal army camps with their neat rows of white tents in the middle ground, while covered supply wagons file past in the foreground. Chattanooga became a huge supply base for the Union army, which was about to follow General Sherman into Georgia. Army engineers built military storehouses, barracks, and Chattanooga’s first waterworks.

Rocky Face Ridge

Rocky Face Ridge. Watercolor.

ACWM

General William Tecumseh Sherman began his campaign to capture Atlanta by pushing his forces south into Georgia in pursuit of the Confederates, now under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, who made a stand at Rocky Face Ridge. Rawdon and the 105 th were part of the U.S. forces tasked with outflanking the Confederates.

In the foreground, a battery of four cannons are loaded and ready to fire at an unseen enemy. On the right, Union infantry begin their assault on Rocky Face Ridge. However, this is just a feint to keep the Confederates occupied while the bulk of Sherman’s army moves around behind them, forcing them to retreat or be surrounded.

Kenesaw [sic] Mountain

Kenesaw [sic] Mountain. Watercolor.

ACWM

Abandoning Rocky Face Ridge and Resaca, the Confederates headed south and made a determined stand at Kennesaw Mountain not far from Atlanta, General Sherman’s objective. Sherman at first tried a direct frontal assault against the Confederates defenses—miles of trenches and earthworks bristling with cannon—with disastrous results. Three thousand Union soldiers lay dead and wounded on the wooded slopes with the Confederates still firmly ensconced in their trenches. General Schofield’s Army of the Ohio finally outflanked the Confederates south of Kennesaw Mountain, forcing them to retreat once more towards Atlanta.

Rawdon’s idyllic scene, with its neat rows of white tents and blue-coated soldiers milling about, shows none of the carnage that was seen on the evergreen-covered slopes.

U.S. forces captured Atlanta in September 1864, and Rawdon and the 105 th Ohio took a nice rest before following General Sherman on his “March to the Sea.” With the surrender of Lee’s and Johnston’s Confederate armies, the 105 th traveled to Washington, DC, passing through Richmond on the way, and participated in the Grand Review on May 24, 1865. Shortly after the parade, the members of the 105 th Ohio were discharged, and Rawdon went home.

Rawdon went back to painting after the war. It is unknown if he painted these images in the field or did them after returning home based on sketches made at the time and his own memory of events. Most would call his style “primitive,” but it does offer a unique view of the war through the eyes of a soldier in the ranks.

By 1900, Rawdon was in his late seventies and living with his daughter, Emma, who ran a hotel in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. His wife had died two years before. Rawdon died in 1908 in Richmond, Virginia, the city Union forces spent four years trying to capture. What he was doing there, we do not know. He is buried in his native Ohio. END

Robert Hancock is the ACWM Senior Curator and Director of Collections.