Submitted by Andrew Ballard

James T. Kinnick 

Co. I, 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry (U.S.)

Andrew Ballard’s great, great grandfather

Born: Jan. 15, 1844, in Clarksburg, Ind.

Died: Sept. 20, 1920, in Franklin, Ind.

Enlisted: Aug.. 2, 1862 (private)

Discharged: June 8, 1865 (sergeant)                      J.T. Kinnick (on right)

Personal Information: Son of Jabez Graham Kinnick and Elizabeth Ann Todd. Worked as a farmer, married to Martha Ellen Tilson in 1869. Father of five sons and five daughters. Enlisted on Aug. 2, 1862, discharged on June 8, 1865.

Engagements:

Russellville, Ky. (Sept. 30, 1862)

Resaca (May 14-15, 1864)

Cassville (May 19, 1864)

New Hope Church (May 25-27, 1864)

Lost Mountain (June 15-17, 1864)

Kennesaw (June 27, 1864)

Marietta (July 2-3, 1863)

Peach Tree Creek (July 20, 1864)

Atlanta (July 22, 1864)

Savannah (Dec. 13, 1864)

Bentonville (March 19-21, 1865)              The 70^th Indiana’s Battleflags

The 70th Indiana was organized at Indianapolis between July 22 and Aug. 8, 1862, with future President Benjamin Harrison as its organizing colonel. James T. Kinnick enlisted in Company I, comprised of men from rural Johnson County, on Aug. 2, 1862. Two of Kinnick’s future brothers-in-law also served in the 70^th. 

About 1,000 men strong, the regiment left Indiana for Louisville, Ky., on Aug. 13, 1862, and had duty guarding the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in Kentucky and Tennessee until February 1863. The regiment had skirmishes in Russellville and Glasow, Ky. on Sept. 30, 1862, in which Company I and five other companies of the 70th routed between 300 and 400 Kentucky cavalrymen under Col. Dorch (or Dortch). 

After guard duty in Gallatin, Lavergne, Murfreesboro, and Nashville, Tenn., the regiment was assigned to the 1st Brigade (Ward), 3rd Division (Butterfield), 20th Army Corps (Hooker), Army of the Cumberland (Thomas). The regiment became part of Sherman's move against Johnston in the Atlanta Campaign. 

On May 15, 1864, Sherman's approximately 104,000 Union men were facing about 66,000 of Johnston's Confederates around Resaca, Georgia. The relatively untested 70th was about to receive its baptism of fire. 

Confederate Maj. General Carter L. Stevenson's division (under Hood) occupied a ridge commanding the Dalton-Resaca road. Capt. Max van den Corput's Georgia battery of four 12-pound Napoleons was in a nearby unfinished fort with an enfilading position. 

Hooker ordered Butterfield to seize the earthworks and battery, and the 70th spearheaded the attack. Future President Harrison led his troops into the open valley separating them from the battery shouting, "Cheer men, for Indiana! Forward! Double quick! March!" 

"The Hoosiers surged ahead, maintaining their lines in parade-ground order despite galling fire from the fort and from riflemen entrenched on the ridge,” according to Time-Life books. Battles for Atlanta quotes van den Corput as writing "They did not mind shot any more than a duck would water." 

The Confederate gunners were discharging canister "so close to us as to blow the hats off our heads," Pvt. William Sharpe was quoted as saying. After their charge through the canister, the men of the 70th threw themselves to the ground just before the parapets. 

Harrison jumped up and urged the Hoosiers into the fort. A fierce melee broke out between the gunners and the charging infantry. 

"One brave fellow would neither run nor surrender, but stood there laying about him with his ramrod," Capt. William M. Meredith of the 70^th would write later. Meredith said he discharged two shots of his revolver and "begged" the man to surrender, but he persisted in swinging the ramrod until shot by Lt. Col. Samuel Merrill, another officer with the Hoosier regiment. 

After receiving support from other Federal regiments, the battery was taken. Harrison took command of the brigade after Ward was wounded in the battle. 

The guns remained in the open area between the two armies until after dark, when they were hauled away by Federal soldiers, as illustrated in the picture to the right.  

Twenty-six men of the 70^th were killed in action at Resaca, and another 130 were wounded. 

During the remainder of the conflict, the 70th Indiana also participated in engagements at Cassville, New Hope Church, Lost Mountain, Kenesaw, Marietta, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, and Savannah, Georgia, as well as Bentonville, N.C. 

The regiment was present at the surrender of Johnston and his army at the Bennett House near Raleigh, N.C., on April 26, 1865, and took part in the Grand Review in Washington, D.C., on May 24, 1865. 

Between 195 and 203 men of the 70th Indiana were killed by combat or disease during the Civil War.  According to family records, Kinnick received a bayonet wound to his leg during the Atlanta campaign, but survived the war and died in 1920 at the age of 76.

      70^th Reunion-@1908 (J.T. Kinnick in center w/AB’s grandfather on knee)