Remembering Snodgrass Hill

    For many, remembering the war brought painful thoughts of the past. Commanders of companies and regiments frequently had to relive the war when families wrote asking about the details of the deaths of their loved ones. John B. Palmer served as colonel of the 58th North Carolina Troops and fought at the battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, (you can read more about his life here). David B. Kirby, a cousin-in-law to Colonel Palmer, wrote the colonel about a decade after the war, asking about the details of the death of Edmund Kirby, his brother. Not only does Palmer provide details on the death of Kirby, but details on the role of the 58th North Carolina’s first charge against Snodgrass Hill. On their second charge at the close of the battle, they met the 21st Ohio Infantry. The Ohio soldiers retreated after the charge and the 58th North Carolina held the hill.

Col. John B. Palmer

   Columbia, S.C., June 10, 1875

MY Dear David: - Your letter of the 1st reached here during my absence in Baltimore. I will enceavor [sic] to answer your enquires as correctly as possible.

   At the battle of Chickamauga the 58th N.C. was in Kelly’s Brigade, Preston’s Division, Buckner’s Corps. Your brother Edmund was killed on the evening of the second day’s fight, in an attack on a strong position . . . It was the first charge by our division, but another division, Hindman’s, I think had previously charged and been repulsed.

   If my recollection serves me it was about 4 P.M. when your brother, who had been out in command of a skirmish line, was ordered back with two companies of the 58th. As soon as they reported I, in temporary absence of the brigade commander, was instructed to move with the brigade for the purpose of charging the Ridge [Snodgrass Hill]. We moved forward at a double quick and formed in line with the balance of the division near the base of [Snodgrass Hill], and I resumed command of my regiment. Here an officer, Gen. Hindman, I think, whose command had just been repulsed, at the request of our brigade commander, formed out brigade line for us, and we moved forward. Unfortunately instead of forming us on a line with the balance of the division, and parallel with position we were to charge, we were moved through the timber at a considerable angle, so that when the 58th emerged from the woods and got fairly under fire, the balance of the brigade was under cover. My regiment was a large one, consisting of twelve companies. Leit. Col. Kirby on the right, Maj. Dale [Dula] on the left. In spite of my efforts, seconded by Lieut. Col. Kirby, it was impossible, owing to the angle at which we were advancing, to keep in contact with the brigade on our right, and thus our left being so far in the rear and some little interval existing on our right, the right company, then right wing, and then the whole regiment became subject to a fire from the front, right and left of the enemy’s position. It was terrific. Company A, Capt. Tobey, started on the charge with thirty-four muskets, and reached the top of the hill with only twelve, losing twenty-two in the charge. In the very hottest of the fight, your brother, encouraging the men, and as he fell, I heard him cry, “push them men, (or boys) push them!” In this charge the regiment lost sixty-five men, the Lieut. Colonel, the Major and myself (slightly) wounded, and more than half the other officers either killed or wounded.

Lt. Col. Edmund Kirby

   In the regiment were three young men – boys, in fact – sons, and relatives of wealthy gentlemen of my acquaintance. These youth’s names were Childs, Sherwood and Phifer, all warm personal friends of your brother; indeed Childs had slept under the same blanket the night before. When after the fight I looked for your brother’s body, I found all the four together, almost within reach of each other. They were the most intimate friends your brother had in the regiment and must all have offered up their lives at the same moment.

   Shortly after dark our brigade, temporarily under my command, succeeded in capturing the troops who had been opposing us. They proved to be Ohio and Michigan troops, and I understood the officer to say, as I passed them to the rear, that they belonged to Granger’s command. Some of them said that when the 58th charged with such apparent recklessness, and without any apparent support, they thought we must be drunk.

   I think I told you that your brother had assumed the duties of Lieutenant Colonel only the day before the battle, and that having no proper uniform, he had cut four stars out of tin and affixed them to his collar to designate his rank; two of these stars were perforated by bullets.

Very truly yours,

John B. Palmer

David N. Kirby, Esq., New York

Lt. Col. Edmund Kirby's grave.

Lieutenant Colonel Edmund Kirby’s remains were exhumed after the war and were reburied at Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia, next to the remains of his brother, Pvt. Reynold Marvin Kirby, Richmond Howitzers. The brother died of typhoid fever in July 1861. 

Palmer’s account appeared in the October 1876 issue of Our Living and Our Dead. A stone was placed on the grave of Edmund Kirby in 2012 through the work of the Col. John B. Palmer Camp 1946, Sons of Confederate Veterans.