Week 40 - A Moment of Courage - Nathaniel Dillingham

By June 27, 1864, Nathaniel Gates Dillingham had been a soldier for nearly two years. When he enlisted in Company E of the 74th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, he was just twenty-four years old. His first months in the army had been difficult. Illness had kept him away from his regiment for a time, and he had been treated at Murfreesboro in the spring of 1863. But Nathaniel recovered and returned to duty. By the summer of 1864, he had followed the 74th through Tennessee and into Georgia as General William T. Sherman pushed southward toward Atlanta. Now, after weeks of marching, skirmishing and fighting, Nathaniel and his comrades found themselves facing the heavily fortified Confederate positions at Kennesaw Mountain.

Nathaniel's regiment was part of the first brigade to attack. 

The morning of June 27th dawned clear and cloudless and the Georgia heat quickly became oppressive. There had been considerable rain for a few weeks, but now the sun beat down, and the dampness made the heat even more exhausting. Around eight o'clock that morning, Union artillery began pounding the Confederate positions. Within the hour, the infantry moved forward. Nathaniel would have advanced with his fellow soldiers, though the heat and thick vegetation to access the heights ahead. The Union soldiers had to cross exposed ground beneath the fire of their enemy. The noise was overwhelming - the roar of artillery, the crack of thousands of muskets, shouted orders and the cries of wounded men.

The assault became one of the bloodiest days in the history of the 74th Illinois. There were 201 men at the beginning of the day and 12 were killed, 38 wounded and 13 missing according to regimental history. Five officers were killed or mortally wounded. Kennesaw was the deadliest campaign for the 74th and over 31 percent of the regiment were killed. His service record places him with Company E during this period, meaning that he was one of the men who experienced the assault firsthand. 

Nathaniel survived Kennesaw Mountain, but there was still much more of the war ahead of him. He continued with the 74th Illinois through the remainder of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign and later through Jonesboro, Franklin and Nashville. He then served in Alabama and Tennessee before finally being mustered out at Nashville on June 10, 1865. He was paid a total of $242.10 when he was released. (Worth $4,975.00 today.)

When he returned to his family in Iowa, he carried with him nearly three years of experiences that could scarcely have been imagined when he first enlisted in Cherry Valley, Illinois. Kenesaw Mountain was only one day of his long military journey, but it was a day in which he witnessed the courage, suffering and sacrifice of the men who stood beside him—and somehow, he came through it.

Nathaniel G & Ellen (Berry) Dillingham

Nathaniel G Dillingham was my maternal great grandfather.  He was born August 25, 1838, in Troy, New York the second oldest of 12 children of Sidney and Katherine (Sweet) Dillingham. The family moved west landing in Cherry Valley, Illinois where the last six children were born. While he was fighting during the Civil War, the family moved on to Cerro Gordo County, Iowa and Nathaniel joined them there after he mustered out.

Barbie