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In the aftermath of the siege of Vicksburg, it was necessary for the Union army to defend the city that they had taken as such high cost. Toward this end, the Union occupation forces in Vicksburg dug a new set of fortifications to defend the city. Stretching some 5.7 miles and known as Fort Grant, the entrenchments were about three miles shorter than the line used by the Confederates to defend
Vicksburg. These new fortifications were designed to be held by a force of 7,500 men, and in the spring of 1864 a crack brigade of veteran regiments was formed at Vicksburg to man them. Led by Brigadier General Jasper A. Maltby, the brigade was composed of the 7th Missouri Infantry, 17th Illinois Infantry, 81st Illinois Infantry, 124th Illinois Infantry, 8th Ohio Battery, and the 26th Ohio Battery.
In addition to Maltby's veterans, the Vicksburg garrison also has two brigades of colored infantry commanded by Brigadier General John P. Hawkins. While they lacked the combat experience of their white counterparts, the sheer number of black soldiers stationed at Vicksburg made them an important part of the city's defense. These two brigades amounted to 320 officers and 5,854 men present for duty, which was over half of Vicksburg's garrison. ("Defense of the Mississippi Valley" by Jeff T. Giambrone, North & South Magazine, Volume 7, Number 6, October 2004)
The large force stationed at Vicksburg needed a well run ordnance department to keep its soldiers supplied with arms and ammunition. Fortunately the city's ordnance department was run by Captain James Oliver Churchill, a very competent officer. He enlisted in the 11th Illinois Infantry as a corporal in April 1861, and was promoted to sergeant just three months later. In February 1862 he was promoted to 2nd lieutenant, and during the battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, he was badly wounded in the fighting. After recovering, he was quickly promoted to 1st lieutenant, and in July 1862 was promoted again to captain and transferred to the quartermaster corps. (Illinois Adjutant General's History of the 11th Illinois Infantry, https://civilwar.illinoisgenweb.org/r050/011-a-in.html; also see The Freeport Daily Journal, Freeport Illinois, September 30, 1905, page 4)
It can be hard work to document the work of ordnance officers such as James O. Churchill, but fortunately, the
Vicksburg Herald wrote a lengthy article about the work done by the city's ordnance department in the July 7, 1864, edition of the paper:
The Ordnance Department.
Yesterday we made a tour through the Depot Ordnance Department, now under direction of Captain James O. Churchill, of the 11th Regiment Illinois Infantry, Depot Ordnance officer. Through the kindness of the captain we were shown every nook and corner of this department, and we shall give our readers a part of what we observed on our tour.
The ordnance department is unlike all other departments of the service inasmuch as the material is different. The technical names of articles used in this department are numerous, and would in themselves form quite material enough for a respectably sized dictionary. The material used in the manufacture of ordnance and ordnance stores being extremely costly, this department is the most expensive to the Government of any others and requires the most active and efficient officers to conduct it; and as a general rule they are all practical men, and men of no inconsiderable knowledge of science.
There are some ten different classes of materials, etc., used in this department, such as cannon; artillery carriages; artillery harness; artillery projectiles, prepared; artillery projectiles, partly and fully prepared; small arms; other material, etc. It will be seen from the above that all this requires the utmost care and unceasing vigilance in handling and keeping in proper order in store. Captain Churchill occupies some thirty-five store and other rooms, in different portions of the city - all of which he is in the habit of inspecting daily in person, which requires no inconsiderable labor and attention.
We visited the repair shops which are now in the Paxton Foundry on South Street - This property is now confiscated to the United States - the owner being a rebel, and having used his foundry for casting cannon, repairing arms, etc. The building is closely guarded and no admission allowed except on business.
The first object of interest on entering was the old boilers which were in use for driving the engine and machinery of the foundry. These are lying outside of the building having been rendered useless by being pierced with a 30-pound Parrott solid shot from one of our gunboats. Notwithstanding the exposed condition of the building, the foundry was kept running during the siege and this 'accident' occurred. The shot penetrated six thicknesses of boiler iron. The captain has just replaced it with a portable steam engine and will run the repair shop for small arms by steam power. In the basement story is the repair shop for small arms. In this room there are some fifty armorers constantly at repairs of muskets, rifles, pistols, sabres, etc. Here can be witnessed the different changes through which a musket or rifle passes while being repaired.
The upper story of this building is occupied as a repair shop for artillery harness - There are some thirty employees at repairing unserviceable harness. With this foundry there are two blacksmith shops. In one of these we saw a novel invention by Mr. David Campbell, foreman of the ordnance department under the captain's charge. The invention is of great practical utility and is called the 'Tyre Upsetter,' and is used in contracting tyres of wagon and artillery carriage wheels, a process, hitherto burdensome, now requiring but a few minutes.
Next we visit the buildings on the riverbank in which the ordnance stores are kept. Here we find something which we cannot enter into detail of description, from our very indifferent knowledge of this class of ordnance. The buildings occupied here are those of Reading's Foundry, and number some twenty or more. The captain has built several store rooms here for use of storing ammunition. Here we saw the ordnance trophies of the surrender of Vicksburg, which we shall take pleasure in describing some future time. We then visited the yard in which are piled over one hundred thousand cannon balls, shot and shell of different kinds. Here we could have spent the afternoon very pleasantly contemplating these objects of interest; but the extreme hot sun warned us to the shade.
We then passed through the building in which cartridges for the different arms are kept. The captain was very fluent in his discourses upon the different kinds of guns, ammunition, etc. At length he suggested a visit to the powder house, but we modestly declined, having 'smelt powder' once we had no desire to 'smell him' again. We might give some startling figures on the amount of the 'noisy kill seed' whose infernal fire lies stored away in that building, but do not deem it prudent.
Here are observed the strictest orders and vigilance known to the service, and the soldiers doing guard duty are placed upon the highest point of honor. There are one hundred and twenty men picked from different regiments in charge of two commissioned officers, on guard duty.
In taking leave of the ordnance department we can but do so by saying that there is a responsibility resting upon the efficient officer second only to that devolving upon a commanding general in the field upon whose actions the fate of an army in a measure depend - and probably that of the nation.
Captain Churchill remained at Vicksburg until March 1865, when he was transferred to Fort Smith, Arkansas, to serve as assistant quartermaster for the Frontier District. He remained at this post until he was mustered out of service in 1866. Just before he left the army, his superiors made sure that his contributions to the war effort were
recognized by the government. General Henry J. Hunt, commander of the Frontier District and former head of artillery for the Army of the Potomac, sent a letter to Washington requesting that Churchill be given brevet promotions to major and lieutenant colonel for his wartime service. In his letter Hunt noted that Churchill was "badly wounded in the assault on Fort Donelson (both thighs broken) from which he is still partially disabled. He entered upon his duties as A.Q.M. for this District and Post in March 1865, these duties have been faithfully and diligently performed under a succession of commanders, and in commendation of these services, which have been important, and of his gallantry in the field, I respectfully recommend him for the brevet rank of major and lieut. colonel of volunteers." (Letters Received by Commission Branch 1863 - 1870. File of James O. Churchill, letter from Henry J. Hunt to General John A. Rawlins, March 30, 1866)
After he got out of the army, Churchill remained in Arkansas and became clerk of the United States district court. He later moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and became vice-president of the Western Anthracite Coal Company. In 1889 he was appointed collector of the port of St. Louis by President Benjamin Harrison. (Freeport Journal-Standard, Freeport, Illinois, September 30, 1905; Chicago Tribune, March 28, 1889; Decatur Weekly Republican, Decatur, Illinois, April 4, 1889)
James O. Churchill died in St. Louis on September 4, 1910, and in his obituary, the newspaper summarized a letter
he wrote while recovering from the wounds he received at Fort Donelson:
A treasured possession of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, preserved in their rooms in the Laciede Building, is a letter written by Col. Churchill, then in the old Chestnut Street Hospital, to his mother, in which he described his dramatic experiences on the field at Fort Donelson. While charging at the head of his men he was shot down by a Confederate cavalryman, and lay among the dead for twenty-two hours. He tells in his letter of being given up as a hopeless case by Confederate surgeons, and of questioning one of the cavalrymen of the troop he had fallen before as to the make of firearm with which he had been shot. When the progress of the battle again brought him within the Union lines he was found by members of his company lying across a fallen tree with his hair frozen into the ground. (St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 5, 1910)
James Oliver Churchill is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. He has a very simple tombstone with no other information than his name and the years of his birth and death. In the course of writing this article, I added Churchill's obituary from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat to his listing on Findgrave.com. Even if his real-world grave has no mention of his Civil War service, his virtual one will.