During my two years and a half with the army of the Cumberland, we were the recipients of a great many compliments from our commanding officers. I think I can say without boasting that we had the name of being the best drilled volunteer regiment in that army or at least in the 20th Corps. The best equipped and the best cared for. I will quote extracts from a few general orders received and read to us on the dates given. These I have just lately received with the statistics, herein given, from Colonel John A. Martin, our first Colonel.
Inspector General's Office
Murfresborough, Tennessee
June 14,1863
The drill, military appearance, and dress of the 8th Kansas is
the best observed in the division. That of the 25th Illinois next.
Signed H.W. Hall
Captain and Inspector
1st Division
Very respectfully,
Horace N. Fisher
Lt. Col. and Inspector General Hd. Qrs.
20th Army Corps
June 20, 1863
Respectfully referred to Col. Hegg Comdr. 3rd Brigade, 1stDivision,
who will have this credible compliment conveyed to the above mentioned
regiments by command of Major General McCook.
A.C. McClury
Captain and Acting Adjutant General Hd. Qrs.
_ _ _
Dept. of the Cumberland
Tullahoma, Tennessee
July 15, 1863
Colonel,
I have the honor to make the following extract from the semi monthly report
of Lt. Col. Horace N. Fisher, Acting Inspector General, 20 Army Corps.
The 8th Kansas, lately attached to this Corps, is splendidly equipped
and well cared for. Its long stay in Nashville has enabled it to attain
a polish, to a certain degree impractical in the field, but its example
is valuable to the Corps.
Very respectfully,
A.S. Burt
Captain and Assistant Adjutant General
To Lt. Col. Godard
Acting Adjutant General
Hd. Qrs.
Dept. of the Cumberland
Tullahoma,
July 19, 1863
Respectfully referred to the Comdg Officer of the 8th Kansas
by Command of Major General Rosecrans.
Wm. McMichael
Acting Adjutant General
20th Army Corps
Hd. Qrs.
_ _ _
20 Army Corps
Winchester, Tennessee
July 31, 1863
Colonel,
I have the honor to call your attention to the following extract
from the report on Captain H.W. Hall, Acting Inspector General,
1st Division.
On the camps of the 3rd Brigade:
The camps of the 8th Kansas and 25th Illinois are the best in the division.
These regiments vie with each other in excellence in every particular, and
are models worthy of imitation for army troops with which it has been my
fortune to associate.
Very respectfully,
Horace N. Fisher
Lt. Col. and Acting Inspector General
Hd. Qrs.
20 Army Corps
July 31, 1863
Respectfully referred to the Comdg. Officer
3rd Brigade, 1st Div.
The General Comdg. the Corps is pleased to hear so favorable a report
of the Regiments of this Brigade by command of Maj. General Sheridan.
George P. Thurston
Acting Adjutant General
And Chief of Staff
_ _ _
I have given only extracts, but enough to bear out my statement. What compliments were given us afterwards were mostly given verbally, and were not given for the style of our dress or for our clean camps or our general appearance but for something of much more importance. Our behavior in camps, on the march, and in the battle field was often referred to by our commanders. I will mention a few instances.
One by General Thomas at Chattanooga after we, as skirmishers, had driven the Rebel advance line back and captured Orchard Knob. Opening of the Battle of Chattanooga November 23 1863. And threatened with court martial by General Sheridan if we didn't hold the ridge after it was taken and we were on top. (He [Sheridan] led two divisions in the assault on Missionary Ridge) and that a court martial would be ordered for every one of the two divisions if we didn't stay on top of the ridge. Then it was that he [Thomas] used that characteristic expression that some historians pay to General Wood, our division commander, that with such troops, he could whip all hell. General Wood was a Christian soldier and never indulged in such language And again by our Brigade Commander General Willich, while on that dreadful forced march to Knoxville, East Tennessee in December 1863. (He was a funny Dutchman and kind hearted old man. The boys called him Pap Willich.) He was sitting on his horse as we were passing him one day after we had been out about four days from Chattanooga, and we were then well supplied with something to eat. Each one of us something. A nice ham of meat, a chicken or goose or a nice piece of mutton. He said "Boys, I thought the 68th Indiana were good foragers because I learned them myself, but you 8th Kansas men are the worst thieves in the whole army. Its a wonder you haven't got some of the farms carrying along with you." We had no supply train with us and it was the order to forage plenty and supply ourselves, and we were doing it. And again by generals Cook and Howard our Division and Corps Commanders at the battle of Peach Tree Creek near Atlanta July 20, 1864. The Rebels had entrenched themselves on one side of the creek but back about a half mile. Our skirmish line was at the creek and the line of battle only a little way back. The pioneers were trying to build a bridge across, but the Rebel skirmish line was too close and General Howard said they must be driven back. We had just been relieved and sent to the rear to make our coffee and were the most available just then. So we were ordered in light marching order to double quick re-enforce the skirmish line. The Rebels saw us coming and knew what was up. And they gave us a warm reception from their skirmish line, and from the batteries on the hills. But we crossed the creek on floating planks, formed our lines and drove them back, but they didn't stay back. They were re-enforced and they drove us back into the bend of the creek, and but for the lines back of us, would have taken us out with them and probably treated us to a ride to Andersonville Prison. They charged down in three times to take us out but were beat back. I could see everything in our front and think it would have been a grand sight if I had been in a position to enjoy it. I could only compare it to the old saying at that time. "Hell has broken loose in Georgia" and I think we were having a realization of it in earnest. The Rebels were at a great disadvantage, exposed to a cross fire from two lines of battle behind us. I thought it was bad for us but it was a slaughter for them. I never in all my army experience thought I occupied so perilous a position. Certainly none ever effected me as this did. We could not retreat out of it and had to stay and take it until General Tuttle from Iowa, having crossed below us, came to our relief. We marched out with him and drove the Rebels back and off of the hill too. Then we went back to finish our coffee. And our officers said we had done well; had held the whole Rebel army in check while a crossing was made. They knew that we could not retreat or get out anyway. The creek was too deep to wade and too wide for a common Kansas man to jump. We understood their joke and gave them three cheers. This engagement was the last round of the Battle of Peach Tree Creek and only lasted about 20 or 30 minutes, but I never seen so many dead Rebels as lay on that field as we marched out over it.
General Thomas complimented the regiment in general orders at Nashville for the charge made on the Rebel lines December 15,1864. When Wood's lines were broken and they were sent on that flying retreat across the country. These are a few of the compliments the regiment received, and are given here not merely boasting, but to gain a better idea of the 8th Kansas as an organization. All the praise we ever received was fairly and squarely earned by honest deserving. I hope I may not be accused of egotism for this seeming boasting. My only excuse is the pride I had in my regiment [and] the pride I have in the record it made. I am only sorry that I am not able to give the history of my comrades of the 8th Kansas as they deserve. My association with them for four years is the only history of my life worthy of remembrance. Call it egotism or whatever you choose, I will still say that I have not told the half. I do not claim for the regiment to which I belonged greater soldierly qualities than belonged to many other regiments. I simply assert that having great opportunities to serve its country, it was always equal to them and that, wherever it was placed, it did its whole duty. It was the only Kansas regiment that served in that great Army of the Cumberland. Many other states were represented with scores of good regiments in that grand army but the 8th alone represented the martial spirit of Kansas in its ranks. It would not be fair to say that we were ever treated unjustly because of that fact, but it is true that, when we first joined the Army of the Cumberland, we were treated with some suspicion and a great deal of curiosity. Alone in a great army of two hundred thousand, this little body of four hundred men kept stainless the honor, and added luster to the fame of Kansas. In less than six months after we joined the Army of the Cumberland, no regiment was better or more favorably known and, until we were mustered out, steadily held the respect of our general officers and of the troops with which we were most intimately associated. The record of the regiments service shows that it traveled 10,750 miles. That it participated in 23 battles and many skirmishes. From the date of our muster until our muster out, we had 1081 names on our muster rolls. Our largest numerical strength was in March, 1862. We had 877 on the roll and 656 men present for duty. The regiment lost in battle three commissioned officers and 67 enlisted men killed. Thirteen commissioned officers and 275 enlisted men wounded. Twenty six enlisted men and one commissioned officer missing. A total of 70 killed, 289 wounded and 21 missing. Of the missing nearly all were killed. And of the wounded, about one fifth died of their wounds. In addition to these losses, three commissioned officers and ninety two enlisted men died of disease. One hundred and ninety two were discharged for disabilities resulting from wounds or disease and fifty three died of wounds. The total loss by death, including the 70 killed in battle, was two hundred and eighteen. By discharge, because of wounds and disease, 192. Making a total loss by death or disability of 410 men. The greatest loss the regiment sustained in any single engagement was at Chicamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863, where out of a total of 406 officers and men, we lost (in killed, wounded and missing) 243, a little over 60 percent of the number engaged. Of the first 23 men that constituted Company "I" when I enlisted and all that went from Johnson County, only four lived to return home. One was our second lieutenant and commander of the company, one was first duty sergeant and acting orderly sergeant, and two were high privates. Three of the four are drawing pensions; two for gunshot wounds and one for a disability contracted in the line of duty.
Moses McCleary
Involvement in the Civil War
and his record of the 
