In Memorium: Lieutenant Andrew Urban

Lt. Andrew Urban, 70th Ohio Infantry

I want to make a special blog post here to pay tribute to Andrew Urban. He was a lieutenant in the 70th Ohio Infantry and was killed in action September 3, 1864 during the fighting around Lovejoy’s Station, Georgia, now just called Lovejoy, about 35 miles south of Atlanta. This Civil War battle rolled through what was our old neighborhood. He was just 21 years old. I put this information together while doing research on the battle. 

Andrew was the son of German immigrants living in Cincinnati. He enlisted in 1861 and rose through the ranks from private all the way to regimental adjutant. He had been in every battle the 70th Ohio had been in from Shiloh and Corinth, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Knoxville and through to the end of the Atlanta Campaign. He had survived some really awful battles but lost his life not in the heat of one, but by the odd chance of a sharpshooter's bullet while reading the celebratory announcement to the men of the 70th Ohio that Atlanta had fallen and the campaign was won. The war itself was far from over, but for the rest of the men in his regiment it would be much easier going with little fighting from that point on. So, but for that ill-fated instant in time, Andrew, most likely, would have survived the war, gone home, become a blacksmith like his father, married his sweetheart, raised a bunch of children and died quietly in old age. His body was never sent back home to Ohio and lies in the Marietta National Cemetery here in Georgia. On past Memorial Days we would go there and place a flag at his grave marker.

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Below is a copy of an old military map showing the troop dispositions during the fighting here (Sept 2 - 5, 1864). The solid blue lines are Union entrenchments; the dotted blue lines show the Union lines of march. The solid red lines are Confederate entrenchments. To give you a sense of scale, it's about 2 miles from one end of these lines to the other, running east - west. Our house sat at the angle in Confederate battle line to the left, about where the "S" is in "J. Spralding" on the map.

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The following historical accounts, one Confederate and one Union, address the fighting that was going on here at the time of his death. The Confederate infantry regiment that Sam Watkins served in -1st Tennessee - was positioned in a line of earthworks that centered on a hill where our house sat. Andrew Urban’s regiment - the 70th Ohio Infantry was about 200 yards north of the hill. There is a lot of grit and emotion in this tiny snapshot in time. That's what makes it come alive, at least for me. I thought maybe some of you could appreciate it too.

Sam Watkins, 1st Tennessee Infantry

From the book “Company Aytch” - Sam Watkin's memoirs of the war:

"I am not trying to moralize, I am only trying to write a few scenes and incidents that came under the observation of a poor old rebel webfoot private soldier in those stormy days and times. Histories tell the great facts, while I only tell of the minor incidents.
But on this day of which I now write, we can see in plain view more than a thousand Yankee battle-flags on top of the red earthworks, not more than four hundred yards off. Every private soldier there knew that General Hood's army was scattered all the way from Jonesboro to Atlanta, a distance of twenty-five miles, without any order, discipline, or spirit to do anything. We could hear General Stewart, away back yonder in Atlanta, still blowing up arsenals, and smashing things generally, while General Stephen D. Lee was somewhere between Lovejoy's Station and Macon, scattering. And here was but a demoralized remnant of Cheathams's corps facing the whole Yankee army. I have ever thought that Sherman was a poor general, not to have captured Hood and his whole army at that time. But it matters not what I thought, as I am not trying to tell the ifs and the ands, but only of what I saw. In a word, we had everything against us. The soldiers distrusted everything. They were broken down with their long days' hard marching - were almost dead with hunger and fatigue. Every one was taking his own course, and wishing and praying to be captured. Hard and senseless marching, with little sleep, half rations and lice, had made their lives a misery. Each one prayed that all this foolishness might end one way or the other. It was too much for human endurance. Every private soldier knew that such things as this could not last. They were willing to ring down the curtain, put out the foot-lights and go home. There was no hope in the future for them."

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And in those red dirt earthworks a short distance across the way from Sam Watkins was the 70th Ohio Infantry. The men bone tired too but in much better spirits. Here is an after-battle report written by the commander of the 70th Ohio that includes special mention of the death of Lt. Urban - 

   

HEADQUARTERS SEVENTIETH OHIO INFANTRY.
East Point, Ga., September 9, 1864

SIR: I have the honor to report the operations of this command from the 4th day of August, 1864, to the 3d day of September, 1864, inclusive:

...We remained in this position until September 2, when we were ordered to pursue the enemy, and marched six miles south of Jonesborough, Ga., and fortified a position in front and right of our brigade, in full view of the rebel lines. On the 3d we received the welcome news that Atlanta was ours.

All the officers and men acquitted themselves to my entire satisfaction.

Our losses since the 26th of August are 1 commissioned officer killed, 1 commissioned officer and 3 enlisted men wounded.

I cannot close this report without adverting to the great loss the regiment has sustained in the death of its adjutant, First Lieut. Andrew Urban. He was killed on the 3d instant, while communicating the glorious news of the evacuation of Atlanta by the enemy and its occupation by our forces. He was shot by a sharpshooter, a minie ball passing through his chest. He exclaimed, "Oh! boys, I am killed," and instantly expired. Thus fell the model adjutant, the brave and faithful soldier, and generous friend. The regiment mourns his loss.
I am, captain, respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. L. PHILIPS, Captain, Seventieth Ohio Veteran Volunteers

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And here is another account from the regimental history of the 70th Ohio:

“Presently rumors began to arrive through prisoners captured that Hood had evacuated Atlanta during the night, and had blown up eighty carloads of ammunition, which accounted for the unexplained reports so plainly heard during the night. Soon these reports were confirmed by general orders from General Sherman being read along the lines of each Regiment. Andrew Urban, of Company I, and Adjutant of the 70 th Ohio, was shot and instantly killed while reading this order to Company B of our Regiment. This same ball, after passing through the Adjutant, struck and passed through one of the arms of William Reed, of Company B, inflicting a severe and painful wound.” 

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Here is a remnant of a section of the Confederate earthworks (trenches), running through our backyard. Now made into part of our garden.

It's nice and peaceful now

A good place for a cat nap in the pine straw too, but not on this spot in September 1864.

Above are two Union staff officer uniform buttons. I dug the
one on the left a number of years ago while relic hunting with a metal detector
in the area the 70th Ohio occupied. The button on the right is non-dug. I’m
using it to show the buttons details. Being the regimental adjutant, Andrew
Urban would have had this type of button on his uniform. Maybe this one was
from his uniform coat...