1861

OCT 8   William enlists as a second lieutenant in the 51st Indiana Volunteer Infantry. 

DEC 31   The regiment is mustered into Federal service at Camp Morton, Indianapolis.

1862

 APR 6  Battle of Shiloh   William and the 51st Regiment are in a supporting role guarding the troop supply trains.

                         A most handsome monument for guard duty!

The 51st Indiana Infantry's monument at Shiloh is located in a prestigious place within the military park, even though their main responsibility was guarding the wagon trains.  They were under the command of future President James A. Garfield.
                    
                                                  
                                                  Back of the monument reads:

                     

This regiment was detailed by Brigadier General James A. Garfield at Savannah,  Tennessee, to guard and bring up the brigade train and also the division supply train and was not engaged at Shiloh.
 

MAY–SEP  The regiment  participates in General Buell’s campaign in middle Tennessee and northern Alabama, then pursues General Bragg in Kentucky.

 OCT 8   Battle of Perryville.   The 51st regiment is held in reserve and sees no action but hears the sounds of battle.

Nov-DEC   The regiment advances on Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

 DEC 31    Battle of Stone’s River- First Day of Battle   The 51st is at the far left of the Union line and ordered to cross Stone's River when suddenly they are attacked by the enemy.  The command to cross the river is rescinded and the regiment is then ordered to defend their new position.  They fight continuously throughout the afternoon but eventually they are forced to retreat where distant cousins Isaiah and Levi Wallick's regiments have positioned themselves.

All three Wallick soldiers who fought at Stones River retreated to this position at the end of the first day of battle.  The field is located south of present day Asbury Road.
  

                                                                   1863

JAN 1   There is an all-day lull in the battle as each side adjusts and strengthens their lines. 

JAN 2   Battle of Stones River- Second Day of Battle   William and his regiment are moved on the battlefield to the Union left and engage the Confederates in some brief but heavy fighting around Stones River.  By January 3rd the battle is over and the 51st is ordered to occupy Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

JAN-FEB   Duty at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

FEB 20  William begins his diary. (William Wallick’s Diary-WWD)  He writes of himself, “Lieutenant Wallick takes command of his company on the 20th of February, 1863.” At first William’s diary entries are very few and brief but by mid-March he offers more details concerning his regiment, the weather and letters to Molly, his wife. He is captured in early May and his entries during his incarceration become very short, but regular, until they start digging out of prison.  By the beginning of January, 1864, there is a noticeable difference in the frequency and quality of information in his writing and the daily, whiny, mantra -“Still in this Hell and no prospect of getting out soon…” ceases.  William, one of the tunnelers, didn’t have time to write or whine while he was preoccupied with escaping.  Also, during this time, his diary reads more positively and he is much less despondent.  In this biographical sketch the focus of his diary will be limited to the dates of his capture, imprisonment and escape. He writes in a very free form, paying little attention to spelling or punctuation.  Some of these shortcomings have been corrected here to help the reader. 

APR 19-May 1   Colonel Streight (William's commanding officer) with 1700 men,  leave  Nashville, TN, to begin their raid on Rome, Georgia, in order to destroy the Western & Atlantic Railroad.  The raid turns into a disaster.
 

MAY 2    WWD  “We march hard all day.  The rebs attack us and kill Colonel Wethermerz and several others.”

 MAY 3   William is captured and becomes a POW   The entire command of the 51st Regiment is captured just east of Cedar Bluff, Alabama, by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his troop five hundred cavalrymen.  General Forrest tricks Colonel Streight into believing that the Confederates confronting him are a much larger force than the Federals by simply parading his troops in a partially concealed circle over a nearby ridge.  Although vastly outnumbering the Confederates, Colonel Streight is deceived and surrenders his entire command.  Because of this deception William becomes a prisoner of war for  the next nine months at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia.

WWD  “We are fired into 20 miles from Rome, Georgia.  We surrender and go to Rome.  We are treated hard.” 

         General Forrest paraded his men on this ridge and deceived Colonel Streight.
            William was captured here, along with 1466 others soldiers, May 3, 1863

 
                       Surrender site of William Wallick and the 51st Indiana Regiment.  
          The monument below was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.



                           



MAY 5   WWD  “We take the cars to Atlanta, Georgia, 65 miles away.  We get there at night, get the courthouse for quarters.  We get supper a 10:00 at night.”

MAY 7    WWD  “Some prospect of getting away.  We are now confined to the room entirely.  Something is afloat.  We have all we want to eat.  The weather is still cold, I wish I could send a letter home.  The citizens are not allowed to see us.  The boys fare hard.”

MAY 14   WWD  “We travel all day in North Carolina.  We have a hard trip of it.  Nothing much to eat…  We get to Petersburg at night.  Stop all night.”

MAY 16  WWD  “…we arrive at Richmond.  Searched and put in prison but thank God all in good spirits.”

MAY 20   WWD  “Still in Libby Prison but in good spirits.  Some hope of getting out soon.  Here I sit and look out on the James River, I feel unwell today.”

                                                                                                Libby Prison                   
The Confederate government converted the Libby & Son Ship Chandlers & Grocers Warehouse near downtown Richmond, Virginia,  into a prison for captured Union officers. Conditions at Libby Prison were harsh even by Civil War standards.  The 150 x 100 foot three-story prison held 1,200 men in eight crowded, vermin-infested, and drafty rooms.  Union Colonel Thomas E. Rose, of the 77th Pennsylvania, was placed in Libby Prison after being captured at the Battle of Chickamauga in September, 1863. Rather than endure the conditions in the prison, Rose planned to escape by tunneling from the cellar of the prison across a 50 ft. wide vacant lot and up into a shed on the other side of a board fence bordering the lot. By making a hole in the back of a fireplace on the first floor, Rose was able to gain access to an unused section of the cellar. With makeshift tools he and a few fellow prisoners, including William Wallick, toiled for weeks and carved a narrow tunnel under the empty lot.  However, this first tunnel soon became flooded due to its proximity to the James River, rendering it unusable. A new tunnel was started and on February 7, Colonel Abel D. Streight, now the commanding officer of the prisoners, declared the new tunnel long enough and as senior officer involved in the project he demanded to be the first to escape. Unfortunately, when he broke through the ground he found he was still several feet from the fence and he overheard guards discussing the strange sounds coming from the ground.  Miraculously, the hole in the ground remained undiscovered as the prisoners worked furiously for two more days to extend the tunnel. 

This is just one version of the escape.  Variations of this account were told and disputed for years after the war, however, there is little disagreement about the following facts:

During the evening of February 9, Colonel Rose, along with Colonel Streight and some of his  men, crawled through a tunnel made by the prisoners and disappeared into the streets of Richmond.  At morning roll call it was discovered that 109 prisoners were missing, making it the largest mass prison escape of the war. Fifty-nine of them, including William, made it back to Union camps, two drowned while crossing streams, and the other 48, including Colonel Rose, were recaptured.

We continue with William’s confinement…