BANCROFT 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE AND SERVICES 
 
 OF 
 
 BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
 
 Andrew Jonathan Alexander 
 
 UNITED STATES ARMY. 
 
 A SKETCH 
 
 From Personal Recollections, Family Letters and the Records of the Great Rebellion 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES HARRISON WILSON, 
 
 Late Major-General, Volunteers, and Brevet Major-General, U.S.A. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 1887. 
 
"There is a heritage of heroic example and noble obliga- 
 tion not reckoned in the Wealth of Nations, but essential to 
 a nations life, the contempt of which, in any people, may, not 
 slowly, mean even its commercial fall. 
 
 " Very sweet are the uses of prosperity, the harvests of peace 
 and progress, the fostering sunshine of health and happiness 
 and length of days in the land, 
 
 "But there be things Oh, Sons of what has deserved the 
 name of Great Britain, forget it not ! ' the good of which and 
 ' the use of which are beyond all calculation of worldly goods 
 and earthly uses : things such as Love and Honor and the Soul 
 of Man, which cannot be bought with a price, and which do not 
 die with death. 
 
 11 And they who would fain live happily EVER after, should 
 not leave these things out of the lessons of their lives." 
 
 JULIANA HORATIA EWING. 
 
 STOCKFORD, 
 
 Near WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, 
 May 2jd, 1887. 
 
S U T n ?. K V 
 
BREVET BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
 
 ANDREW JONATHAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 i. 
 
 AMONG the many younger officers of the National Army 
 who were rapidly coming to the front at the close of 
 the Great Rebellion, none gave greater promise or bore 
 a higher character than Brevet Brigadier-General Andrew J. 
 Alexander. Although he had not received a military educa- 
 tion, he was an officer of first-rate abilities and many accom- 
 plishments. Before the end of the bloody struggle, which 
 lasted four years, by virtue of great natural aptitude and that 
 extraordinary adaptability so characteristic of young Americans, 
 and especially of those from the Western and Southern States, 
 he had made himself not only a model staff officer but an 
 admirable cavalry commander. Those who had the good for- 
 tune to know him during the War will readily recall his 
 superb figure, his stately carriage, his bright, flashing, blue 
 eyes, his flowing beard, as tawny as a lion's mane, his splen- 
 
6 A NDRE W JON A THA N A LEX A NDER. 
 
 did shoulders and his almost unequaled horsemanship. He 
 was a pure Saxon in coloring, with hair and beard that glist- 
 ened like gold in the sunshine, and a complexion that bid 
 defiance to sun and wind. Standing over six feet in height, 
 he was as trim and commanding a figure as it was ever 
 my privilege to behold. But these were merely the outward 
 indications of perfect physical manhood. The true spirit of 
 the unselfish patriot, the unspotted character and honor of the 
 perfect gentleman, the knightly qualities of the soldier, "with- 
 out fear and without reproach," radiated and controlled his 
 person and his conduct, and commanded the unquestioning 
 confidence and respect of all who came within the circle of 
 their influence. 
 
 It is impossible by words to convey a proper understanding 
 to the reader of how all those beautiful qualities and character- 
 istics showed themselves, one by one, during the multifarious 
 and ever-changing occupations and incidents of the soldier's 
 life in those stirring times when suffering and exposure, hardship 
 and want, might naturally have been expected to arouse the 
 selfish instincts ; and when, as a matter of fact, if there was any- 
 thing mean or disagreeable, ignoble or unmanly in an officer it 
 was sure to come out. And yet in Alexander's four years of 
 unbroken service during the Rebellion, and in the twenty-two 
 of life on the frontier, and at his beautiful home on the shore 
 of Lake Owasco, I venture to say that no human creature ever 
 discovered a mean trait in his character or charged him with 
 an ignoble act or thought. All alike, high and low, officers 
 
SERVICES A T THE CA VALR Y BUREA U. 7 
 
 and privates, friends and foes, men and women, soldiers and 
 civilians, and even the Negroes and Indians recognized in him 
 not only the physical qualities of perfect manhood, but the 
 moral and intellectual graces in that just equilibrium which are 
 the chiefest ornament and glory of our common nature. 
 
 I first met Alexander at the Cavalry Bureau in Washing- 
 ton, where he was serving as its Adjutant-General when I took 
 charge of it, in February, 1 864, and shall never forget his cordial 
 and yet undemonstrative reception of his new and unknown 
 commander. He had gone there with General Stoneman, and 
 had assisted him and his temporary successor, General Garrard, 
 in organizing and managing it. He had also served with 
 Stoneman in the field, and was necessarily devoted to him and 
 his interests. There is reason for believing that, in common 
 with many others, he regarded his chief as, in every way, the 
 best man in the Service for the place, from which he had lately 
 been relieved by the Secretary of War ; and yet, withal, he was 
 a loyal and patriotic officer who never once questioned the 
 Secretary's right to make the change, nor imagined himself 
 aggrieved by it, or at liberty to condemn it, as was so much the 
 custom of the day. To the contrary, he yielded ready and 
 unquestioning, and, what is of still greater importance, uncriti- 
 cising, obedience to the orders in question, and rendered the 
 most cheerful and valuable assistance to me throughout my 
 entire term of duty at the Bureau. I was again brought into 
 relations with him while organizing and commanding the Cav- 
 alry Corps of the Military Division of the Mississippi. He 
 
8 A NDRE W JON A THA N A LEX A NDER. 
 
 was my Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff during the cam- 
 paign against Hood, and as such rendered me invaluable serv- 
 ices, but as soon as the corps could be assembled on the banks 
 of the Tennessee River, I assigned him, in recognition of his 
 experience and qualifications, to the command of a brigade in 
 Upton's division, although he was at the time only a Brevet 
 Brigadier-General with the actual rank of Lieutenant-Colonel 
 in the volunteer staff of the Army. From the time he first 
 joined me till the close of the War, he was constantly with me 
 or under my official observation, and down to his last fatal ill- 
 ness we were intimate friends and correspondents. Almost the 
 last letter he ever wrote was to me, and, like every act of his 
 life, it was redolent of generous and lofty manhood. I men- 
 tion these facts to show that I had the best possible means of 
 knowing him, and that what I say in his praise is not the mere 
 outpouring of friendly regard, but is based upon long associa- 
 tion and the closest personal observation and knowledge. 
 
 He was truly a model soldier and a most chivalric gentleman, 
 who carried with him through life and " into the Silent Land " 
 his purity of soul and character unspotted by the world and its 
 temptations. Throughout his career he was equal to all emer- 
 gencies, combining, in a remarkable manner, perfect courage 
 and promptitude in all his undertakings, with the most thor- 
 ough good sense and soundness of judgment. He was a few 
 years my senior, though still under thirty, when I first knew 
 him, and, in spite of the fact that he had been only two years 
 a soldier, he was already widely noted for his exact and exten- 
 
ADJUTANT-GENERAL AND CHIEF OF STAFF. 9 
 
 sive knowledge of all branches of the military calling. He 
 was a most competent and laborious Adjutant-General and 
 Chief of Staff, as well as one of the most enterprising and 
 dashing cavalry officers I ever met. He was a hard and rapid 
 hitter ; methodical, careful and prudent, looking out for his men 
 and horses with just as much care as he did for his papers and 
 records, but never failing to go for the enemy with all his might 
 and all his men when opportunity offered. He never believed 
 in or adopted half measures ; but, with the true instincts of a 
 born soldier, carried everybody he could control with him into 
 action, and scarcely ever failed to do what was expected of him. 
 He never said " I can't," but always " I'll try," and that, with 
 his grave and composed but virile and vigorous manner to back 
 it, meant " I'll do it if it is within the range of human possibility 
 and my life is spared." He was one of those level-headed, 
 sensible men with the fighting attributes so deeply bedded in 
 his nature that it never occurred to him to dodge an adventure, 
 however desperate, to hesitate about it, or to say " Go," but 
 always and everywhere, "Follow me;" and those of us who 
 watched his career and survive him know that it took a stout- 
 hearted and strong-limbed man indeed to get deeper into a 
 battle than he. With the spirit of a true Kentuckian, as he 
 was, he was always well, and generally superbly, mounted, and 
 thus with his fine physique, his excellent trappings and his 
 spirited charger, he was a perfect cavalier, not light and flashy, 
 but steady-going, robust and invincible. It was a pleasure and 
 satisfaction to see him leading his men into action, for it was cer- 
 
io ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 tain that he had made all proper preparation, that he would per- 
 form his whole duty regularly and in order, and that he would 
 carry everything before him if flesh and blood could do it. 
 
 He had an Arab's love for his horse, and his letters are full 
 of allusions to " Max," who fell at Columbus, Ga., and " Bay- 
 ard," who lost a lock of his hair by a bullet before Atlanta, but 
 there was no animal to which he felt so strong an attachment 
 as the " Black Sluggard." This horse had been raised by Mr. 
 Blair, at Silver Spring, and received his name from Mrs. Blair, 
 who called him after " Le Noir Faineant," in " Ivanhoe," whom 
 she declared he strongly resembled in character. He came 
 into Alexander's possession in '62, and was his companion in 
 many a well-fought fight, was wounded a number of times, 
 but ever displayed a courage and indifference to danger worthy 
 of his gallant rider. Alexander lent him to General Stoneman 
 to ride during his famous raid, as he was so much more reliable 
 than any other horse in the command, and Stoneman would 
 often come into camp at night with the pockets of his blouse 
 stuffed with ears of corn for the favored charger. 
 
 When Alexander was ordered West in the spring of 1 864, 
 he sent his old war-horse to his fiancee at Willowbrook, and 
 wrote as follows : 
 
 " The old Sluggard and I parted to-day he has been my 
 companion in many dangers, hardships and trials, and has in 
 many cases proved himself my best friend. We knew one an- 
 other so well, and I loved him so dearly, that I tell you it was a 
 trial to part with him ; but then I know I shall see him again, 
 
THE BLA CK SL UGGA RD. 1 1 
 
 and I am sure you will take good care of him for my sake and 
 for his past gallantry. He is on the ' retired list,' and the old 
 war-worn veteran will have no greater hardship than to amble 
 quietly along the shores of the beautiful Owasco with a loving 
 girl on his back. He will hear no more the cannon's loud roar, 
 and the bursting shell ; he will mingle no more in the madden- 
 ing charge mid pistol-shots and shouts, and groans and clashing 
 of sabers. No more glory for him ; but it makes me glad to 
 think that in his old age he will not have to submit to the 
 ignoble collar nor pass his declining days in starvation and 
 misery I would have shot him first ! " 
 
 For many years the Black Sluggard was a familiar form at 
 Willowbrook and Auburn, where his "military history" elicited 
 much interest. When old- age made him no longer serviceable, 
 he was tenderly cared for, and in the summer time wandered 
 at will in the grove at Willowbrook. The battle of life was 
 ended for him in June, 1877. He was buried under the oak 
 trees on the shores of the lake, and when " Decoration Day " 
 comes round the little children do not forget to strew his grave 
 with flowers. 
 
 Alexander was, withal, an excellent disciplinarian neither 
 negligent nor a martinet, but a thoughtful, serious man who 
 consulted the comfort and convenience of those under him, as 
 well as the interests of the Service and the requirements of the 
 Army Regulations. The possession of the high qualities which 
 I have attributed to him was not an accident ; they came by 
 inheritance as much as by study and training. 
 
1 2 A NDRE W JON A THA N A LEX A NDER. 
 
 His father, Andrew Jonathan Alexander, of Sherwood, 
 Woodford County, Kentucky, was the fourth son of William 
 Alexander, son of Lord Provost Alexander, M. P., and Marianne 
 de la Croix, who was born at his father's country seat of Airdrie, 
 between Edinburgh and Glasgow, in 1 729 ; and after the death 
 of his first wife, by whom he had two sons and six daughters, 
 the first of which was Sir William Alexander, a lawyer of dis- 
 tinction, who rose to be Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer 
 and Member of the Privy Council, he emigrated to Virginia 
 in 1 783, and finally settled at Staunton, where he lived till 
 1811, when he removed to Kentucky. He took an important 
 social and business position, and married for his second wife, 
 Agatha de la Porte, belonging to an ancient family of Montpel- 
 lier. She was the niece of Count de Tu Bceuf, who emigrated 
 from France before the Revolution, and settled with his sister's 
 children and his retainers in the Clinch Mountains, where he was 
 murdered and robbed under tragic circumstances by the lawless 
 frontiersmen of the neighborhood. The history of Count de 
 Tu Bceuf and his sister, Madame de la Porte, who with her son, 
 an ex-captain of the King's Guard, and her two daughters, tried 
 to carry the civilization and refinements of Paris into the mount- 
 ains of Southwestern Virginia, might well be made the founda- 
 tion of a historical story more interesting than any romance, 
 but we leave that for the hand of another and pass on to the 
 history of a later generation. 
 
 William Alexander had by Agatha de la Porte, six chil- 
 dren : John, Regis, Andrew, Charles, James and Apolline Aga- 
 
FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 13 
 
 tha, who intermarried with the leading families of Virginia. 
 William Alexander died at his seat in Woodford County, Ken- 
 tucky, in 1819. His fourth son, Andrew Jonathan, married 
 Mira Madison, the daughter of Major (afterward Governor- 
 elect) George Madison, of Frankfort, Kentucky, on the 28th of 
 April, 1822. Major Madison was the nephew of President 
 James Madison, and was a gentleman of high character and edu- 
 cation. He took an honorable part in the War of 1812, and was 
 present at the battle of the River Raisin, where he was taken 
 prisoner. He was carried to Quebec, where he was kept in con- 
 finement till peace was made, and then returned to his home in 
 Kentucky so broken in health that he never recovered. On 
 account of his services and high character he was elected Gov- 
 ernor of Kentucky, but died before the time set for his inaugu- 
 ration. 
 
 Mr. Francis P. Blair, of Silver Spring, wrote in 1863: 
 " George Madison was one of the best and bravest men I ever 
 knew. He was modest, unambitious and unselfish ; but when 
 Clay and all the distinguished men of Kentucky were in their 
 zenith, not one of them could have commanded the undivided 
 vote of her keen-eyed sons for the chief magistracy as he did." 
 Andrew Jonathan Alexander and Mira Madison had six chil- 
 dren, two of whom died in childhood, the oldest surviving one 
 of which, Agatha Apolline, married Frank P. Blair, afterward 
 the well-known and distinguished Member of Congress from 
 Missouri, and a gallant and successful Major-General of Volun-. 
 teers in the United States Army. 
 
14 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 The eldest son, George Madison Alexander, married his 
 cousin, Mary Victoire Campbell, of Paducah, Kentucky, a 
 granddaughter of Victoire de la Porte second daughter of 
 Madame de la Porte. Compelled by ill health to seek a drier 
 climate, he made his home for many years in New Mexico, and 
 his memory is still cherished by the early settlers of that wild 
 country, who appreciated the purity and unselfishness of his 
 character, as well as his reckless courage. He succumbed at 
 last to the disease that had so long threatened him, and died 
 in 1866, leaving no children. Another sister, Mira Mariamne, 
 married Franklin A. Dick, Esq., a lawyer of high standing at 
 Washington and Philadelphia. The youngest member of this 
 family was Andrew Jonathan Alexander, the subject of this 
 sketch, who was born at Sherwood, Woodford County, Ken 
 tucky, Nov. 21, 1833. He married Evelina Throop Martin, 
 of Willowbrook, near Auburn, New York, and leaves one son, 
 Upton Alexander, named for his uncle, Maj.-Gen. Emory 
 Upton, who commanded the Fourth Division of the Cavalry 
 Corps of the Military Division of the Mississippi. 
 
 William Alexander, the founder of the family in this coun- 
 try, it should be observed, left his eldest son and several daugh- 
 ters in Scotland. His daughter Isabella married John Hankey, 
 of London, England, and one of their daughters married 
 Colonel Seymour Bathurst and was the mother of the present 
 Earl of Bathurst. 
 
 Mariamne married Jonathan Williams, the nephew and 
 private secretary of Benjamin Franklin. Their daughter 
 
FAMILY CONNECTIONS. 15 
 
 Christine married Thomas Biddle, of Philadelphia, and their 
 son Henry married Julia Rush, the daughter of the celebrated 
 Doctor Benjamin Rush.* Apolline, his youngest daughter by 
 his second marriage, married Mr. Thompson Hankey, Gov- 
 ernor of the Bank of England and Member of Parliament. 
 He was the nephew of John Hankey, the husband of Isabella, 
 and he and his wife are still living in London. By these mar- 
 riages, and others not mentioned here, it will be seen that 
 General Alexander was connected with many distinguished 
 men and women in both Europe and America. He was 
 cousin to the Biddies, Madisons, Prestons, Blairs, Browns, 
 Williamses, Hankeys, and even to noble families of both France 
 and England, and it is but faint praise to say that he was the 
 peer of the best of them. 
 
 His father died by an accident at a mill on his estate, and 
 his mother, shortly afterward, from grief and improper medical 
 treatment, lost her eyesight. The devotion of her children 
 and kindred, and her deep religious faith, sustained her in this 
 dark hour, and enabled her to rise above her misfortunes and 
 to discharge with wonderful ability her duties as a mother and 
 the mistress of a large establishment. Mrs. Alexander, like 
 many humane and intelligent Southerners, was strongly op- 
 posed to slavery, and though she had inherited a large number 
 of slaves, and received from them a faithful and devoted serv- 
 ice, which was invaluable to her, from time to time, as they 
 were prepared to care for themselves, she gave them their free- 
 
 * House of Alexander, p. 33, et seq,, Vol. II. 
 
16 A NDRE W JON A THA N A LEX A NDER. 
 
 dom, and they were all emancipated several years before our 
 late War. When she removed from Kentucky to St. Louis in 
 1850, some forty of them followed her there, where they might 
 still experience the benefit of her kind interest in them. 
 
 She resided in St. Louis, respected and revered by all who 
 knew her till her death in the autumn of 1886. Her son 
 Andrew, together with his brother and sisters, were carefully 
 educated at home, in English, French, and the classics, by the 
 most accomplished tutors, one of whom was the Rev. James 
 Eells, well known in San Francisco and the East. Later An- 
 drew attended college at Danville, Kentucky, and then returned 
 to St. Louis, where he had already begun a business career 
 when the Rebellion broke out. 
 
 Throwing aside all private interests and personal considera- 
 tions, he made haste, as soon as it was certain there was 
 to be a War, to enter the Army as Second Lieutenant, 
 and was promoted the same day to First Lieutenant in the 
 First Regiment of Mounted Rifles, which subsequently became 
 known as the Third (regular) Cavalry. He reported promptly 
 at Fort Leavenworth, and was shortly afterward ordered to 
 Washington for duty on the staff of General McClellan, with 
 whom he served till General Stoneman, with a force of cavalry, 
 infantry and artillery was sent in pursuit of the Confederate 
 Army, which had fallen back in March, 1862, from Manassas 
 Junction to the Rappahannock River. So strongly had Alex- 
 ander, although scarcely yet out of the ways of civil life, im- 
 pressed himself already upon those with whom he had been 
 
ACTING AS REAR-GUARD. 17 
 
 brought in contact, that he was designated to act as As- 
 sistant Adjutant-General of the force. Custer, then also a 
 Lieutenant, and many other young Regular officers, were 
 with the command, but the choice for this most important 
 position fell upon the young soldier from civil life, and 
 fully did his behavior then and afterward justify the com- 
 manding General in his selection. In addition to perform- 
 ing all of the usual duties of his office, he took an active 
 part in the practical operations of the campaign, and in 
 person commanded the rear-guard, as the column withdrew 
 from its advanced position to Alexandria, preparatory to 
 embarking with the Army of the Potomac for the Peninsula. 
 During this expedition he was accompanied by Captain, the 
 Count de Villarceau, of the French Army, who was also serv- 
 ing at that time on the staff of General McClellan, and upon 
 more than one occasion has entertained his friends with an 
 amusing account of how, while acting as rear-guard, in the 
 hurry of the return march, the one lost a dinner, and the other 
 ate it. 
 
 Alexander accompanied General McClellan to the Penin- 
 sula, and, with General Stoneman, took part in all the cavalry 
 operations of the campaign. He was present at the siege of 
 Yorktown, the pursuit of the enemy from that place, and at the 
 battle of Williamsburg. He carried orders day and night, and 
 on the night after the battle was sent by McClellan with impor- 
 tant orders to General Heintzelman, commanding the Third 
 Corps, then six or seven miles away. The woods were almost 
 
i8 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 impenetrable, the roads indistinct, and the ground everywhere 
 soft and muddy, and hence he did not get back till about mid- 
 night. He found headquarters in a small house, the floors of 
 which were covered with sleeping officers, and among them the 
 French Princes. General McClellan occupied the only bed, 
 and after receiving Alexander's report, for which purpose he had 
 been awakened, with that thoughtful kindliness which so en- 
 deared the General to those about him, he invited the tired staff 
 officer to lie down beside him. But, wet and muddy as he was, 
 the latter declined ; the General insisted, and finally the Cap- 
 tain yielded, and slept soundly till about 3 o'clock, when he 
 was called by Colonel Colburn, the officer of the night, to tell 
 another aide-de-camp how to find Hancock's camp. Failing to 
 make the latter understand, he had a fresh horse saddled, and 
 finished the night floundering about in the darkness and mud, 
 but reaching Hancock's camp at daylight. 
 
 I have related this incident, not only because it shows the 
 kind of work an aide-de-camp was called upon frequently to per- 
 form, and how Alexander did it, but because it also illustrates 
 one of the personal characteristics by which General McClellan 
 gained such an extraordinary hold upon the officers who served 
 with or near him. Certainly no General was ever more affec- 
 tionate or considerate to his staff or to the Army under him, 
 and it may well be doubted if any General was ever more 
 loyally or lovingly served than he was, and the reason for 
 which may be partly understood from this otherwise trivial 
 circumstance. 
 
THE BATTLE-FIELD OF WILLIAMSBURG. 19 
 
 After delivering his orders to Hancock, Alexander rode 
 over the bloody battle-field of the day before, and saw for the 
 first time the mangled forms of the dead soldiers, whose com- 
 rades were hurrying them into their hastily prepared graves, 
 and so profoundly was he moved by the distressing sight, 
 strong and vigorous as he was, that he was overcome by 
 nausea, and compelled to dismount till the fit had passed away. 
 Further on he records the fact that the road near the old city 
 of Williamsburg was so muddy that the ambulances, laden with 
 Confederate dead and wounded, had stuck in the mire, and 
 that the drivers had lightened them of their ghastly burden by 
 throwing out the helpless bodies, which the retreating artillery 
 and baggage wagons had crushed and trampled almost out of 
 shape. At more than one spot he saw arms and legs protrud- 
 ing, and thus came to know too well, that the poor bodies of his 
 devoted but erring countrymen, were covered by the ooze of 
 that horrid road. But it was no time for sentiment or delay, 
 and so he pressed on with the advance-guard, which he had 
 joined. The Confederates, in the hurry of their retreat, had 
 not failed to plant torpedoes in the road farther on, and they 
 were so arranged as to explode under the feet of the passing 
 cavalry, but this did no serious injury. 
 
 For the next twenty days Alexander was engaged almost 
 constantly in skirmishing with the enemy. At Slater's Mill he 
 took part in a sharp fight, in which quite a large number were 
 killed and wounded on both sides. He captured a rebel officer 
 in personal combat, and took from him a Colt's revolver, his 
 
20 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 first trophy, which he carried to the end of the War. During 
 this period he visited the house in which Mrs. Custis lived 
 when General Washington courted her, and the old church, 
 built of bricks imported from England, in which they were 
 married. Near here, also, under orders from headquarters, he 
 arrested Major Lawrence Williams, of the Regular Army, for 
 treasonable correspondence with the enemy. This officer was 
 a cousin of the Lees, had gone beyond our picket line, and 
 was fired upon by some of his own men as he returned. Alex- 
 ander took him under guard to General McClellan the next 
 day, but the latter, for reasons satisfactory to himself, re- 
 leased him. He did some good service during the next 
 month, but his heart was not with the flag, and so he obtained 
 leave of absence, went North, and shortly afterward, it is said, 
 deserted and joined the Confederates. About the same time 
 his brother was caught, tried and executed as a spy by the 
 National forces in Tennessee. 
 
 The activity of Alexander was displayed during the Penin- 
 sular campaign in many ways. Not content with what he could 
 learn by scouting, he made an ascent in one of the balloons, 
 which was used for the first time at the headquarters of the 
 Army of the Potomac for purposes of observing what was going 
 on in the enemy's lines. From his high but unsteady seat he 
 obtained his first and only view of Richmond and its immediate 
 surroundings. While lying at Mechanicsville he carried a flag 
 of truce every other day, to a cross-road, a few miles farther 
 west, where he was met by one from the Confederate lines. 
 
UNDER FLAG OF TRUCE. 21 
 
 Each officer was accompanied by about a hundred men, and 
 Alexander always took particular pains to see that his were 
 carefully selected, well-mounted, and clad in their best uniforms. 
 After leaving the lines, he sent fonvard a white flag, carried by 
 a corporal, with three men to act as an advance-guard, and to 
 keep a look-out for the Confederate flag of truce. As soon as 
 they got within a hundred yards of each other the escorts were 
 halted, and the officers advanced to exchange their dispatches 
 and to transact such other business as might have been com- 
 mitted to them. At these meetings it was customary, after 
 planting the flags at the cross-roads, for each officer to throw 
 out a picket toward his own Army, and to allow the men of his 
 escort to mingle with those of the other in the friendliest man- 
 ner. Upon such occasions they passed the time in telling 
 stories, playing cards, and even in running horse-races, while the 
 officers withdrew to a house near by, and shared their flasks, 
 luncheon, and such fruits as they could obtain, as though they 
 were brothers in arms, instead of unrelenting enemies. While 
 thus engaged, it was almost impossible for them to realize that 
 within an hour they might be trying to kill or capture each 
 other. On one of these excursions Alexander escorted Mrs. 
 Robert E. Lee and her daughter beyond our lines, and received 
 from them a graceful acknowledgment of his courteous civility. 
 Two days before the battle of Hanover Court House he was 
 sent with a squadron of cavalry and one gun for the purpose of 
 making a reconnoissance of the railroad running north from 
 Richmond, and the next day went with General Stoneman and 
 
22 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 a large cavalry force to break and destroy it, while General Fitz- 
 John Porter marched out and fought the battle of Hanover 
 Court House. During these operations, and those which fol- 
 lowed, Alexander was kept constantly occupied, and showed 
 himself to be a handy and enterprising cavalryman, always on the 
 alert, and always ready to take any reasonable risk in order to 
 ascertain what the enemy were doing. From " Old Church" he 
 discovered and reported the advance of Jackson's celebrated 
 turning movement, which resulted in the bloody battle and 
 defeat of Porter's corps at Games' Mill. This movement 
 between the main Army and Stoneman rendered it necessary 
 for the latter to fall back to Deep Creek, in the direction of the 
 White House, on the Pamunkey River, and was the principal 
 cause which compelled McClellan to abandon his railroad line 
 to the rear, and change his base to the James River. The 
 next day Stoneman took up a position at the White House, 
 where the sutlers had collected a large quantity of stores, for 
 sale to the troops, and where there were also many regular sup- 
 plies belonging to the quartermaster and commissary depart- 
 ments, all under the nominal protection of a considerable force 
 of infantry and artillery, commanded by an old officer of the 
 Regular Army. The enemy followed the cavalry to that place, 
 and General Stoneman sent Alexander to the officer just men- 
 tioned with the proposition that they should unite their forces 
 and give battle, but the old General received this proposition 
 with tears, instead of ready acquiescence, accompanied by the 
 declaration that McClellan had treated him badly and he would 
 
RETREAT TO THE WHITE HOUSE. 23 
 
 not fight. As a consequence, Alexander was directed to set 
 fire to the property, and in a few minutes after he had given 
 the necessary, orders and distributed matches, the whole plain 
 was ablaze. The White House caught fire, or was set afire 
 without orders, and the troops marched many miles in the 
 direction of Yorktown, by the light which illuminated the hori- 
 zon till far into the night. This destruction, it is now known, 
 was premature, if not entirely unnecessary, as it is certain that 
 the position might easily have been held against any hostile 
 force in the vicinity till all the property had been removed 
 to a place of safety. 
 
 Of course Alexander, being only a staff officer and having no 
 independent authority, was powerless to fight a battle, or even 
 to delay the retreat of the united forces. He accordingly 
 accompanied them to Yorktown, and, after his own chief had 
 gone to Washington, became attached to the staff of General 
 James J. Van Alen, in command of the defenses at the former 
 place. During the campaign he had worn out or lost all of his 
 clothes except those upon his person, but he lost no time in 
 re-equipping himself, and at the end of two weeks, with a small 
 detachment of cavalrymen, he rejoined General McClellan at 
 Harrison's Landing on the James River. He accompanied the 
 headquarters of the Army to Alexandria in August, and, almost 
 immediately after his arrival at that place, was attached to the 
 staff of General Banks, commanding the troops for the defense 
 of Washington. So acceptably did he perform the duties 
 assigned him that when Banks was ordered to New Orleans he 
 
24 A NDRE W JON A THA N A LEX A NDER. 
 
 asked Alexander to accept a place as a permanent member of 
 his staff, but, perceiving that he was not likely to gain much 
 credit in that service, he declined, and in October following 
 was assigned to duty as Assistant Adjutant-General of the 
 Third Army Corps, then encamped under the command of his 
 old chief, General Stoneman, near Pooleville, Maryland. This 
 assignment gave him the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel from the 
 ist of January, 1863, and along with it still harder work and 
 greater responsibilities. He not only assisted in bringing the 
 Corps to the high degree of efficiency it afterward reached, but 
 did much hard riding from one wing of the Army to the 
 other. About this time he was offered an assignment to the 
 Quartermaster's Department but promptly and unhesitatingly 
 declined it, for the more congenial service which brought him 
 into closer relations with the troops and their operations in the 
 field. 
 
 From camp near Leesburg he made a rapid night march 
 with a squadron of Rhode Island cavalry to arrest the Confed- 
 erate, Major Fairfax, who was reputed to be visiting his wife 
 near Aldie, some twenty miles away. He executed the task 
 assigned him with such celerity and good judgment that neither 
 the Major nor his family could fairly realize how it had been 
 done or that he was really a prisoner. After a friendly and 
 bountiful breakfast with the Major's wife and children, and 
 from his kitchen, they returned to the Union lines, where the 
 prisoner was detained as his captor's guest till he was regularly 
 paroled and released. He remained at home till duly ex- 
 
THE FREDERICKSBURG CAMPAIGN. 25 
 
 changed, but took occasion to pay it a flying visit after the cav- 
 alry battle of Beverly Ford. Alexander appeared upon the 
 scene again, but seeing him coming and recognizing the tall and 
 handsome cavalryman, the good wife exclaimed, laughingly : 
 " You are just fifteen minutes too late this time, Colonel ; my 
 husband, fearing that you would be around, has gone, and is 
 now safely beyond pursuit." 
 
 The relief of General McClellan and the assignment of 
 General Burnside to command the Army of the Potomac 
 surprised Alexander as much as it did his seniors. A change 
 was not unexpected, but popular as Burnside was, for his 
 amiability and gallant bearing, neither officers nor men re- 
 garded him as capable of leading them to victory. The 
 bloody fiasco of Fredericksburg was looked upon as the nat- 
 ural result of his incompetency. Alexander took part in all 
 the operations of his own corps during the campaign, and a 
 short time before his death wrote and published in the Phila- 
 delphia Press* a spirited account of the incidents of the battle 
 that came under his observation. He was present on that part 
 of the field where General Bayard was killed. While talking 
 to that gallant and promising officer, whom he had known 
 before the war, the enemy opened a sharp fire from several 
 batteries, and the shot and shell poured into the grove where 
 they were standing. Bayard paid but little attention to the 
 firing, and continued chatting as though there were no danger. 
 The rest of the party sought shelter. Alexander, who was 
 
 * For this paper entire, see Appendix. 
 
26 A NDRE W JON A THA N A LEX A NDER. 
 
 waiting orders, and could not leave, stepped toward a large 
 tree just in front, and had not reached it when a shot rico- 
 cheted near him, glanced from the tree, and crushed Bayard's 
 hip in its passage in such a shocking manner that he died from 
 its effects the next day. 
 
 Alexander, in the article above alluded to, also describes a 
 remarkable truce which the troops of the opposing lines volun- 
 tarily entered into the next day, and as it is a curious and 
 interesting incident of the war, I append it substantially as it 
 was written : 
 
 " Before daylight the next morning," says Alexander, "we 
 were again under arms expecting to renew the struggle, but, 
 to our surprise, the skirmishers continued silent. In a short 
 time it was reported that they had, without consultation with 
 their superiors, agreed to suspend hostilities till their dead and 
 wounded comrades, who lay between the lines, could be 
 removed. The opponents at once mingled in the most 
 amicable way and began their work of mercy. As such a truce 
 was contrary to the customs of war the officers from both sides 
 rushed among the men, making the most strenuous efforts to 
 restore order. But the men's warlike instincts had, no doubt, 
 been softened by the groans and cries of their wounded com- 
 rades during the stillness of the long night, and no efforts to 
 bring about a state of hostilities could prevail till the wounded 
 and dead were removed. Regular details were then made 
 and the truce continued, during which rebel soldiers were 
 seen to carry our wounded into our lines and our soldiers 
 
MEETING WITH GENERAL J. E. B. STUART. 27 
 
 to bear wounded rebels back into the rebel lines. With this 
 generous rivalry the wounded were all speedily cared for." 
 
 Alexander was himself one of the officers who had gone 
 forward to ascertain what was going on, and was with the 
 white flags which had been planted midway between the hostile 
 armies, when General J. E. B. Stuart, the Confederate cavalry 
 leader, also came forward and took part in the pathetic truce. 
 " He was then," in the words of Alexander, " at the height of 
 his military reputation, and was the object of curiosity and 
 admiration to the Confederate as well as the Union troops, as 
 could be seen by the groups of men of both armies who 
 stopped and stared at him. He presented a very martial 
 appearance, being dressed in a new suit of bluish-gray cloth, 
 with the gaudy insignia of his rank on sleeves and collar, a 
 pair of handsome new horseman's boots, with gold spurs at- 
 tached, and a broad-brimmed felt hat from which drooped a 
 long but rather seedy ostrich plume. While talking he rested 
 on and played with a handsome, long French saber. Alto- 
 gether, he was a very striking figure, to which his great reputa- 
 tion as a cavalry officer added much interest." 
 
 As soon as the killed and wounded were removed this 
 extraordinary truce came to an end in the same spontaneous 
 manner that it originated, but it is worthy of note that no fight- 
 ing took place on that part of the field that day, although a 
 heavy battle was in progress within a half-mile while the truce 
 was in force. Alexander and the other officers returned to 
 their posts, and were busy all that night in withdrawing the 
 
28 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 Union troops to the north bank of the Rappahannock River. 
 The next morning he and a party of his brother officers rode 
 out into the open ground overlooking the river to see what the 
 enemy were doing. Their skirmishers were advancing, and one 
 battery, seeing the group of horsemen, opened a spiteful fire 
 upon them, whereupon the latter "turned their backs finally 
 and cheerfully upon the bloody battle-field of Fredericksburg," 
 and galloped into the woods, which happily obscured them 
 from view, and shielded them from further danger. 
 
 The Army returned at once to its former camps and went 
 into winter quarters, where it remained till called out to make 
 another abortive movement, which became known to the officers 
 who took part in it, if not to history, as " Burnside's Mud 
 March." Alexander shared its rests and its labors till General 
 Burnside was relieved and General Hooker took command ; 
 and, in commenting upon it, he says it gave " satisfaction to 
 the Army, which felt that nothing but disaster awaited them 
 under Burnside, and that no other commander could be worse." 
 He adds, what was the common opinion at that time, " Burn- 
 side was an amiable, gallant gentleman, but without military 
 ability, and too much subject to political influence." 
 
 General Hooker at once resorted to every possible measure 
 to restore the morale of the Army, and, among others, to the 
 organization of the cavalry into a separate corps. As is well 
 known, it had, up to that time, been scattered about in small 
 bodies, engaged mostly in picketing and scouting, and had 
 been a laughing-stock and a reproach to the Army. General 
 
ASSISTANT ADJUTANT-GENERAL. 29 
 
 Stoneman was assigned to command it, and at once selected 
 Alexander as its Adjutant-General. In view of the fact that 
 the corps contained nearly all the Regular cavalry and its best 
 officers, I cannot but consider this selection, made as it was by 
 the General who was at that time regarded on all hands as the 
 most accomplished and promising officer of that arm of Service, 
 as a very high compliment to Alexander's character. It shows 
 clearly that he had made a place and a reputation for himself 
 which an older soldier might well be proud of. Fortunately 
 for him, the estimation in which he was held by his chief, from 
 that time to the date of their separation, is not a matter of con- 
 jecture or doubt, for on the 8th of January following General 
 Stoneman, on being relieved from command of the Cavalry 
 Bureau at Washington, addressed him the following note : 
 
 MY DEAR COLONEL : After a long and intimate social and official con- 
 nection, we are now about to part. It would be useless for me to endeavor 
 to embody within the limits of a letter what are, and what I feel you know 
 are the sentiments of my heart toward you. To you more than to any 
 other man am I under obligations for valuable advice and assistance during 
 the past two years in the performance of the various duties to which I have 
 been assigned. Clear, cautious and intelligent in council, prompt and cool 
 in execution, brave in action, affable and courteous to all, firm, just and 
 upright, you have made yourself loved, respected and esteemed by those 
 with whom you have been brought in contact, and by none more than by 
 myself. 
 
 If you have not received the rewards to which all who know you feel 
 that you are justly entitled, you can feel and know that it is for other rea- 
 sons than want of merit. Thanking you most sincerely for what you have 
 been to, and for what you have done for me, I am, very truly, your friend, 
 
 GEORGE STONEMAN, 
 
 Major-General. 
 
30 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 The work of collecting and organizing the cavalry, which, 
 up to that time, had been scattered without head or adminis- 
 tration throughout the Army, imposed a heavy burden upon 
 Alexander as well as upon his chief. With but few clerks 
 and assistants, and at the start with neither desks, paper nor 
 ink, it can be well understood that they were almost over- 
 whelmed by the records and reports of the twelve thousand 
 men which constituted the new corps. Of course the greater 
 part of the details and clerical labor fell upon the Adjutant- 
 General, who was also Chief of Staff. For weeks he worked 
 day and night ; gradually an efficient staff grew up around him, 
 and order emerged from confusion, and the personal pressure 
 upon him was relaxed, but the winter was one long to be 
 remembered. The cavalry, although brought under one com- 
 mander, and subjected, as far as possible, to methodical instruc- 
 tion, drills and reviews, was still compelled to dissipate its 
 strength by the extraordinary amount of picketing which it 
 was constantly called upon to perform. In addition to covering 
 the front of the entire Army against the enemy it had also to 
 cover its rear in order to cut off communication with Washing- 
 ton and to prevent desertion, which was prevalent to an unusual 
 degree at that stage of the War. It is worthy of note that 
 this system of excessive picketing prevailed in the Army of the 
 Potomac till Grant arrived and gave Sheridan command of the 
 cavalry. I have, myself, seen miles of cavalry picket line with 
 another of infantry just behind and in sight of it, and it was 
 no uncommon occurrence for half the corps to be on such duty 
 
STONEMAN' S RAW. 31 
 
 at one time. The wonder is that, with such a system, the Cav- 
 alry ever reached even a passable degree of efficiency. The 
 work was destructive of all discipline to the men, and was 
 literally killing to the horses, which were used up and destroyed 
 by thousands. 
 
 Early in the spring General Stoneman was ordered to cross 
 the Rappahannock and break the railroads between the Con- 
 federate Army and Richmond, but was delayed by extraordi- 
 nary rains and freshets. Later he succeeded in making a 
 double crossing of the river, but one of his divisions was 
 recalled by Hooker without notice to him, while he was him- 
 self left to continue his march toward the James River, above 
 Richmond. Alexander showed great enterprise and resource 
 during the abortive raid which followed, and did his best to 
 make it a success, but he always declared that it had been irre- 
 trievably marred at the start by Hooker's recall of Averill's 
 division, and by his instructions to Stoneman that, under no 
 circumstances, was he to attempt to go into Richmond. In 
 spite of these instructions, however, Alexander, perceiving the 
 great opportunity offered, used every argument he. could think 
 of to induce Stoneman to move against and attack that place, 
 which, he says, " we were certain had no competent garrison," 
 and could be readily taken. Inasmuch as it contained fourteen 
 or fifteen thousand Union prisoners, and was besides occupied 
 by the entire Confederate Government, it offered an extraordi- 
 nary prize, which justified his counsels, and would have fully 
 excused an effort, even against positive orders, to capture it. 
 
32 A NDRE W JON A THA N A LEX A NDER. 
 
 This was really the first considerable raid of the Federal 
 cavalry in Virginia, and, although it failed to inflict serious 
 injury upon the Confederates or their lines of supply and com- 
 munication, it was useful as a means of instruction and in 
 giving confidence to men and officers. The commanding 
 General seemed to rely especially upon Alexander, and kept 
 him so constantly employed, and especially on the return 
 march, riding up and down the column, waking up the men 
 who had fallen asleep upon their horses and stopped the way, 
 and in performing the many duties of a sensible and level- 
 headed staff officer that he was almost dead with fatigue when 
 he rejoined the Army on the north side of the Rappahannock. 
 On reaching Kelley's Ford, where he found a picket of the 
 8th Illinois Cavalry, under the command of Captain (afterward 
 Brigadier-General) Farnsworth, he was informed that instead of 
 the river being fordable " it was fifteen feet deep and impossi- 
 ble to cross." Assuming this information to be entirely cor- 
 rect, coming as it did from an officer of merit whose business 
 it was to know, Alexander rode back and gave it to his chief, 
 who, realizing the danger by which his command was sur- 
 rounded, asked, with some excitement, if he had tried the 
 ford himself. Feeling keenly the rebuke which was implied by 
 the question and the manner in which it was asked, the Colo- 
 nel replied that he had not tried the ford, but would, and 
 angrily wheeling about galloped to the river followed by the 
 General, and, without pausing, plunged boldly in. Of course 
 horse and rider went under, but the horse was a stout swim- 
 
SWIMMING THE RAPPAHANNOCK. 33 
 
 mer, and on rising struck out through the swift flowing stream 
 for the opposite shore. The General was now fully satisfied, 
 but also much frightened as well as sorry for what he had 
 said, and did not hesitate to call loudly for Alexander to re- 
 turn, or, as the latter emerged from the water, to frankly 
 apologize for his hasty speech. 
 
 Worn out with fatigue, and wet and hungry as he was, 
 Alexander, first assuring himself that the command was 
 now safe, climbed to the third story of a mill near by, and 
 throwing himself upon a pile of loose bran which it contained, 
 was soon fasrt asleep. Upon rising at daylight next morning 
 he presented an extraordinary spectacle ; the bran had caked 
 upon his wet clothing and given him an appearance which was 
 ludicrous in the extreme. But disregarding appearances, he 
 personally superintended the passage of the river by the whole 
 division of thirty-five hundred men and horses which was ac- 
 complished with the loss of only one man. It is worthy of 
 note that the division had to swim a hundred and fifty yards 
 through a rapid current, and that in just such emergencies as 
 this Alexander's good judgment was of the greatest possible 
 value. During the passage of the command he swam the 
 river three times without getting wet above the saddle. The 
 battery which accompanied the cavalry was rafted across safely, 
 and was in position and ready to open upon the enemy when 
 they made their appearance, as they did just as the last of the 
 Union cavalry had safely gained the north bank of the river. 
 But Alexander's troubles were not over. That evening, for 
 
 3 
 
34 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 the first time in a week, he felt it safe to pull off his riding 
 boots and place them by the camp-fire to dry. During the 
 night some one built up the fire by which he was sleeping, and 
 made it so hot that it burned off the foot of one boot, so that 
 the owner was for several days compelled to ride with one 
 foot bare. Such accidents as this, although common enough to 
 officers in the field, are none the less annoying on that account. 
 
 On rejoining the Army near Fredericsburg, General Stone- 
 man, who was ill and badly used up by the raid, went on sick 
 leave, and General Alfred Pleasanton succeeded to the com- 
 mand of the Cavalry Corps. He retained Alexander in the 
 position of Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff, and shortly 
 conceived for his good sense and courage the same high opinion 
 that they had extorted from every one else. 
 
 The rest of the winter was passed in picket duty, and con- 
 stant work on the part of the new commander to perfect the 
 organization and efficiency of the National cavalry, in all of 
 which Alexander took a laborious and conspicuous part. On 
 the Qth of June the corps crossed the river at Beverly Ford 
 and attacked the Confederate cavalry under Stuart, and after 
 a stubborn struggle drove it back to Brandy Station. The 
 country was open and level, and presented, on the whole, the 
 best field for a cavalry battle in Virginia. There were perhaps 
 20,000 men engaged. Many brilliant charges were made, 
 many hand-to-hand conflicts took place and much distinction 
 was gained by the Federal troops and commanders, and espe- 
 cially by General John Buford and General David McM. Gregg, 
 
THE COMBAT OF BEVERLY FORD. 35 
 
 and although the Union cavalry, overweighted by the infantry 
 and artillery which came to Stuart's assistance, was finally 
 compelled, after fourteen hours fighting, to retire with the loss of 
 three guns, the officers contended that the honors of the actual 
 fighting, in every instance on that field, were theirs. Certain it 
 is that from that time till the end of the War they never hesi- 
 tated, either in the East or the West, to give battle to the 
 Confederate cavalry. It is equally certain that they succeeded, 
 in spite of hard knocks and many vicissitudes, in maintaining 
 the supremacy, which they always claimed for the Union cav- 
 alry from the day of the "joyous and gentle" conflict of Beverly 
 Ford. Alexander, as usual, took a conspicuous part in the 
 action and in the operations before and after it. He was con- 
 stantly under fire, and was specially mentioned by the command- 
 ing General for his gallant and useful services. During the 
 fight at Aldie, which occurred some days later, between Kil- 
 patrick's Division and Fitzhugh Lee's, he was stunned and 
 slightly wounded in the head by the bursting of a shell near 
 him and by the gravel with which the explosion covered him. 
 He bled freely, and for awhile it was thought he was seriously 
 injured, but with the strong nerves and vigorous constitution 
 of a cavalryman, the shock passed rapidly away without dis- 
 abling him or materially interfering with his comfort. He 
 personally took part in all the charges within his reach, and in 
 one of these captured a twelve-pounder mountain howitzer, 
 which he turned upon the enemy. 
 
 The Confederate cavalry, after much fighting, had gone 
 
36 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 into the Shenandoah Valley and turned down it toward the 
 crossings of the Potomac above Harper's Ferry. Alexander 
 was sent forward with the advance-guard to gain information 
 and to establish the Union cavalry's headquarters at Frederick 
 City, Maryland. Driving the rebel pickets, which had reached 
 there before him, out of the town, he took possession of the 
 principal hotel, much to the disgust of the proprietor who 
 proved to be a rebel sympathizer, and who refused to entertain 
 his unwelcome visitors. This, however, did not disconcert the 
 sturdy Colonel for an instant. He had to have shelter and 
 provisions, and as that was the most eligible place for them, 
 he put the innkeeper in arrest, and for several days thereafter 
 performed his duties with true Kentucky hospitality, which 
 was rendered all the more acceptable to his guests and com- 
 panions by the fact that while the table was the best the coun- 
 try could supply, he made no charges and collected no bills. 
 
 This diversion was, however, too pleasant to last. The rebel 
 advance was the prelude to the Gettysburg campaign, and 
 after a few days General Meade, who had not as yet succeeded 
 in divining the whereabouts and plans of the Confederate 
 Army, sent for Alexander and directed him to take whatever 
 force he deemed necessary and find out what Lee was doing. 
 Selecting only forty men of the Second Regular Cavalry, he 
 started at once across the country toward Gettysburg, where he 
 expected to find two regiments of the Cavalry Corps. Upon 
 reaching the Emmetsburg road about 1 1 o'clock at night, he 
 halted to talk with an old man standing at his gate by the road- 
 
THE PRELUDE TO GETTYSBURG. 37 
 
 side, who after satisfying himself that he was really confronted 
 by a Union officer, told him that the Federal troops had been 
 driven out of Gettysburg, and that there was a strong rebel 
 force on the hill only a half-mile distant. But for this timely 
 information Alexander would have most probably trotted into 
 their camp and been captured. Leaving the direct road, how- 
 ever, and traveling through the farms, by daylight he reached 
 Littletown, where he found the First and Seventh Michigan 
 Cavalry, and under General Meade's orders took command of 
 them. During the night he had, of course, been forced to im- 
 press guides from the citizens of the country, many of whom 
 were unwilling, but, in his quaint and vigorous language, they 
 learned that ''War is a rough trade, and men with arms use 
 convincing arguments." 
 
 Pausing at Littletown only long enough to get breakfast, 
 which the good women of the place furnished with cheerful 
 alacrity, while the men groomed and fed the tired horses of the 
 troopers, and the young girls brought flowers and sung patri- 
 otic songs, he pushed forward, drove back Stuart's pickets and 
 followed him in the direction of Hanover, near which place he 
 overtook and engaged the main body for several hours. Gen- 
 eral Kilpatrick, with his division, was at Hanover, and it became 
 necessary to send couriers around the rebel forces to advise him 
 of Stuart's movement. Two picked men were detailed to go, 
 one of whom was captured, and the other would have shared 
 the same fate, but just as he was about to be overtaken by 
 the rebel pursuers, a patriotic citizen gave him a stout, fresh 
 
38 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 remount which carried him safely through, and was returned 
 to its owner by Alexander the next day. Meanwhile, however, 
 he and Kilpatrick united their forces and followed the enemy 
 from Hanover to York and Carlisle, skirmishing heavily much 
 of the time, and capturing some prisoners, from whom he 
 learned that the main army of the Confederates was in the 
 neighborhood of Gettysburg. On arriving at the conclusion 
 that the latter place would probably be the scene of a great 
 battle, he turned about and marched rapidly in that direction, 
 and first drew rein at the Catholic chapel, four miles east of the 
 battle-field. While resting his horses he opened conversa- 
 tion with the Catholic priest, standing on the porch near by, 
 but so soiled were he and his men by the dust through which 
 they had been riding that the good priest could not tell, from 
 their uniforms, whether they were Union or Confederate 
 troopers, and was therefore quite chary of talking. After they 
 had satisfied him, however, of their loyalty, he told them that 
 a battle was then in progress. Alexander could not believe 
 it, and said there must be some mistake about it. He records 
 the fact that " the day was unusually still, and yet no sound of 
 musket or cannon could be heard." The priest reiterated his 
 declaration, and took him up into the belfry whence, greatly 
 to his surprise, he plainly saw the battle raging on the hills 
 beyond Gettysburg, while not a sound of it reached him 
 though it was afterward ascertained that it was distinctly 
 heard thirty miles away in another direction. Descending at 
 once, he mounted and rode rapidly to Cemetery Hill, where 
 
THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 39 
 
 he found the Eleventh Corps retreating and General Hancock, 
 with a number of officers, engaged in rallying it. He as- 
 sisted in this,, and the line was reformed on the crest of the 
 hill where the great battle was actually fought. 
 
 Of course Alexander now joined General Meade's head- 
 quarters, and was constantly engaged in sending or carrying 
 orders to the cavalry which was now operating on the flanks of 
 the Army. On the 2d of July General Meade sent him with 
 orders to General Sykes, who was commanding the Regular 
 Division on the left, and while riding along the ridge he 
 says: "I came upon the Third Corps "of which it will 
 be remembered he had been the first Adjutant-General 
 " which had just been badly whipped and was retreating in 
 great disorder. I never saw such a rout ; there were men 
 with and without arms, wounded and well, ambulances, am- 
 munition wagons and artillery all mixed up in utter disorder, 
 and hurrying to the rear, while the enemy's shot and shell 
 were tearing up the ground in every direction. General 
 Sickles was being carried back on a litter, with one of his 
 legs gone. I stopped to inquire how he was, and he in turn 
 asked me how the battle was going. He was very pale, but 
 composed and manly. After I had found General Sykes and 
 was returning, I saw General Sedgwick, at the head of the 
 Sixth Corps, coming out of the woods in the direction of the 
 battle. I turned and galloped toward him intending to 
 speak to him, but when I got within about fifty yards of him, 
 a cannon-ball passed over me and struck the earth just in front 
 
40 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 of the General's horse, throwing a cloud of dust and dirt over 
 him and concealing both horse and rider for an instant. 
 When the dust cleared away, the General was seen calmly brush- 
 ing his clothes with his open hand. The men nearest to him, 
 perceiving that he was unhurt as well as undismayed, began 
 cheering, and those in the rear took it up, and the roar went 
 back through the woods for miles along the column, and con- 
 tinued for some minutes. This showed both our men and the 
 rebels that re-enforcements were at hand, and possibly changed 
 the fortunes of the day." 
 
 About sundown that afternoon General Meade and his 
 staff rode the lines in front of the Army and in rear of the 
 skirmishers, and asked Alexander to accompany him, which 
 he did, mounted upon a stout, black charger that had been 
 used as a race-horse. As soon as the cavalcade, moving at 
 a gallop, appeared in the open field the troops began cheering, 
 and this caused Alexander's horse, which doubtless thought 
 a race was on hand, to rush away at full speed. He soon 
 distanced General Meade and his followers, and his rider was 
 getting control of him when his right stirrup-leather parted. 
 The horse now dashed through the skirmish line and was going 
 straight for the rebel position. For a moment it seemed that 
 his gallant rider had lost all control over him, but he finally 
 succeeded in turning him back toward our own lines, though 
 unfortunately he had now attracted the attention of the enemy, 
 and for half a mile became a target for their rifles. Happily 
 he rejoined his companions without receiving any injury. 
 
THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 41 
 
 The next morning, July 3d, there was heavy fighting on 
 the right of our Army, and Alexander records the fact that 
 the roar of musketry was as heavy as any he ever heard, 
 but toward noon it died out and there was a great stillness, 
 unbroken except by an occasional report of a musket-shot 
 from some active skirmisher. The day was hot, and both 
 armies seemed to be taking a siesta. The officers and soldiers 
 about General Meade's headquarters were lying about in such 
 shade as they could find, some of them sleeping and others 
 talking in drowsy tones, when suddenly all were aroused into 
 life and activity by the simultaneous discharge of 150 guns, 
 from which a storm of shot and shell came roaring and bursting 
 over the scene. The great Union battery which General Hunt 
 had massed replied at once, and the roar was terrific. General 
 Meade gave orders for the cavalry to Alexander, who went at 
 once into the little frame house just back of the ridge occupied 
 by the main line of battle, to write them out. He found five 
 other persons in the room General Seth Williams, General 
 Butterfield, General Warren, Colonel Dickinson and Rufus 
 Colburn, Chief Clerk at Heaquarters. Almost immediately 
 afterward, a shell burst in front of the house, filling the air with 
 fragments, one of which passing through the room cut General 
 Williams' neck ; another struck Warren on the chin and throat ; 
 another wounded Butterfield in the side and disabled him ; an- 
 other passed through Colburn's hair and raised a welt on his 
 head, and at almost the same instant a link of a chain from a 
 Shrapnel shell passed through Dickinson's arm, just above the 
 
42 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 wrist, and lodged in his coat-sleeve. Alexander was alone un- 
 touched and unharmed. It will be readily understood that his 
 companions lost no time in getting out of that room, but he, 
 having a duty to perform which could be done there better 
 than elsewhere, quietly remained till he had finished his dis- 
 patches, after which he also went out, and sent them away. 
 Having now nothing to do but wait, which, under the circum- 
 stances, is about as hard a thing as a soldier can be called 
 upon to perform, as it leaves him at leisure to think of his 
 own peril, he lit his pipe and tried his best to appear uncon- 
 cerned. Pickett's celebrated charge, which this heavy artillery 
 fire was intended to prepare the way for, having failed, sev- 
 eral hundred of his men were taken prisoners, and were hur- 
 ried over the ridge to the rear. The rebel guns now opened 
 again, and the rain of shot and shell fell upon both prisoners 
 and Union men alike. The former were, says Alexander, now 
 " utterly demoralized, and sought shelter behind trees, stones, 
 and anything else they could find which promised to give 
 them protection from the fire of their friends. The same 
 men had only a few minutes before charged into our lines 
 with the most desperate courage." This incident serves to 
 show as well as any of which I have any knowledge, that the 
 most conspicuous intrepidity is not inconsistent with or unac- 
 companied by the liveliest sense of bodily fear. 
 
 The day after the battle Alexander went back a few miles 
 to where army headquarters had been established. He had 
 had nothing to eat for thirty-six hours, but by that time the 
 
THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 43 
 
 country people had begun to gather from far and near to visit 
 the battle-field. Many of them took their luncheon with them, 
 and as the headquarters' mess kit had by some mischance been 
 lost, it occurred to him that he might levy a contribution upon 
 the sight-seers ; and this he proceeded to do with such success 
 as not only to fully supply his own wants, but those of General 
 Meade, and the rest of the staff. It was a gratifying surprise 
 all round, and so noticeable that Meade insisted upon knowing 
 how it had been accomplished. Alexander explained with be- 
 coming modesty that he had placed a guard upon the road, and 
 stopped the sight-seers till he had collected from them enough 
 supplies to provide for all immediate requirements. Meade 
 was well pleased, and it at once occurred to him that the car- 
 riages and country wagons, which were conveying the country 
 people to the battle-field, might be impressed for the purpose 
 of removing the wounded to the hospitals in the direction of 
 Washington, and this was done. 
 
 A few days later Alexander participated in the cavalry bat- 
 tle of Boonsboro, and then followed the enemy closely to Will- 
 iamsport, skirmishing continually with him, and under fire 
 almost constantly. During the entire campaign he was in the 
 saddle, day and night, and rendered such conspicuous services 
 that he received the highest commendation of those above him. 
 On the loth of July (1863) General Kilpatrick wrote to General 
 Pleasanton a flattering letter, bringing to his notice " the gal- 
 lant conduct of Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander, Assistant Adju- 
 tant-General of the Cavalry Corps at the cavalry battle of Han- 
 
44 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 over, and during the pursuit of General Stewart." The Gen- 
 eral adds that : " After having, at the head of two of General 
 Custer's regiments, fought his way to my assistance, he remained 
 with me up to the battle of Gettysburg, and to his great assist- 
 ance, good judgment, and gallant example, I owe, in a great 
 measure, the success of my operations. In view of the above 
 (mentioned) facts, and of the great need of an officer to com- 
 mand my first brigade, I recommend that Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Alexander be at once appointed Brigadier-General of Volun- 
 teers and assigned to my division." General Pleasanton prompt- 
 ly approved and forwarded this recommendation, of his own 
 Chief of Staff be it remembered, " for the favorable considera- 
 tion of the General commanding the Army of the Potomac," 
 adding that the brigade lately commanded by Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral Farnsworth, killed at Gettysburg (the same officer who had 
 received Alexander at Kelley's Ford), was much in need of a 
 commander, and that the promotion of Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Alexander would be "of great benefit to the service." General 
 Meade, the same day, forwarded the communication to the Ad- 
 jutant-General of the Army at Washington, " recommended to 
 the favorable consideration of the War Department." It was in 
 due course "respectfully submitted to the General-in-Chief," but 
 unfortunately for Alexander and the Service, so far as the record 
 shows, it came to an end there. At all events he did not receive 
 the appointment which he had so thoroughly won, which had 
 been recommended in such an unusual manner, and which the 
 interests of the Service so manifestly demanded should be made. 
 
FALLS VIOLENTLY ILL. 45 
 
 Meanwhile, however, he pushed on into Virginia after Lee, 
 but had got about thirty miles south of the Potomac when he 
 fell violently ill, as the result of hardship, exposure and a slight 
 wound, from which he had lost a good deal of blood and much 
 strength. He was at once sent back to Berlin under a strong 
 escort, but fainted several times on the way from suffering which 
 was exaggerated by the roughness of the road. He found 
 shelter and rest in the house of a widow, but the two armies 
 had swept off all supplies, and there was nothing left but 
 bacon and hard bread, which, although strong food for the well, 
 is but poor diet for a sick man. Alexander could not eat it at 
 all, and as there was literally nothing else to be had, he came 
 near starving to death. Perceiving that this would be the end 
 of his career unless he could get away, he told his faithful colored 
 servant, Dandridge, that he must go to Baltimore if possible. 
 Dandridge sallied out and found among the convalescents there, 
 an old Regular-cavalry sergeant, who at once undertook to ar- 
 range it. Collecting about a hundred men he took possession 
 of a freight-car standing on the side track near by, and backing 
 it down as close to the house as possible, put the Colonel into 
 it, and then forced the conductor of the next train that came 
 along to couple it up, and haul it into Baltimore. The Colonel 
 had but two blankets, and as the car had no springs, his ride 
 was an exceedingly painful one. Fortunately he was insensible 
 most of the time. The train reached Baltimore about i o'clock 
 in the morning, but there were no carriages at the station. 
 Dandridge went out and found a policeman, who with two 
 
46 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 others hurried to the car and picking up the Colonel in his 
 blankets carried him to the Eutaw House and laid him upon 
 the counter in the office. He had fainted twice on the way, 
 and had been laid upon the pavement to recover. The clerk 
 was much frightened at the moribund condition of his ghostlike 
 guest, and at once called the wife of . the proprietor, who got 
 up, went to the kitchen herself, and lost no time in making a 
 bowl of chicken broth which she administered in spoonfuls every 
 fifteen minutes, till the danger of death from starvation had 
 passed. A week of tender nursing, and judicious feeding at 
 the hands of this most excellent lady, put the sick soldier upon 
 his feet, at the end of which time he was able to go to Silver 
 Spring, the home of the Blairs, near Washington, where he re- 
 ceived every care and attention from loving friends and relatives, 
 and soon regained strength enough to take the field again. He 
 had had a " close call," as soldiers would say, but hurried back 
 to the Army at the earliest possible day, and took part in sev- 
 eral skirmishes near Culpepper Court House. 
 
 Shortly afterward, the Army went into winter quarters, 
 and Alexander, at the request of General Stoneman, his old 
 chief, was ordered to Washington to assist in organizing the 
 Cavalry Bureau of the War Department. His services here, if 
 not so conspicuous and exciting, were none the less useful. 
 The functions of the Bureau were to supervise the Cavalry 
 Service of the entire Army, to furnish it with horses, equipment 
 and arms, and to do all in its power to promote its discipline 
 and efficiency. So well and faithfully did he bend his energies 
 
SERVICES A T THE CA VALR Y BUREA U. 47 
 
 and intelligence to the duties imposed upon him as the principal 
 executive and staff officer of his chief that on the 8th of Janu- 
 ary, 1864, the latter adressed a letter to General Halleck, then 
 General-in-Chief, calling his notice to Colonel Alexander as 
 "one of the most tried and valuable officers in the whole Army." 
 He added : " I know him well, and have seen him tested in 
 almost every way, and he has never failed to acquit himself 
 creditably and satisfactorily. He is possessed of the experience 
 and capacity to fit him for a splendid brigade commander, for 
 which position I beg to add my recommendation to those of 
 many officers of rank and position." Still the promotion did 
 not come, and when I took charge of the Bureau as its Chief a 
 few weeks later, I found him there, as before stated, attending 
 faithfully and intelligently to the routine work of the office. 
 Discovering at once that he was an able and sensible officer 
 of great business capacity, as well as of experience in the 
 field, I lost no time in relieving him from office work, and send- 
 ing him on various tours of special inspection to the horse mar- 
 kets, and also to the armies in the field, in all of which he fully 
 justified the high opinions I had formed of his abilities and 
 character. 
 
 An immense amount of work was done in the next sixty 
 days. I had myself gone to the Bureau under a special 
 arrangement between General Grant and Mr. Stanton, the Sec- 
 retary of War, by which I was to be permitted to rejoin the 
 Army in the field when operations should be resumed in the 
 spring, and necessarily had to work hard myself and to require 
 
48 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 the same thing of the officers under me. There was reason for 
 believing that great corruption, on the part of the contractors, had 
 crept into the business of supplying the cavalry with remounts, 
 and that frauds, costing the Government many millions of dol- 
 lars, had to be detected and punished, and their recurrence 
 rendered impossible. Accordingly we framed and put into 
 effect a new and rigid system of horse inspections, and in super- 
 vising this part of the work, Alexander's services were of the 
 greatest value. An excellent judge of horses himself, and 
 knowing from his two years' experience what were the needs of 
 the active regiments in respect to that important matter, his 
 counsel was of the highest utility. Those who are familiar 
 with the history of the cavalry, attribute the high efficiency it 
 attained almost immediately afterward, as much to the excel- 
 lent work done for it in the Cavalry Bureau during that winter 
 and spring, as to the skill and ability with which it was handled 
 in the field from the time General Sheridan took command of 
 that part of it attached to the Army of the Potomac. 
 
II. 
 
 IN May I joined the Army of the Potomac and assumed 
 command of the Third Cavalry Division ; Alexander was 
 ordered West, and shortly afterward was assigned to duty 
 as Assistant Adjutant-General of the Seventeenth Army Corps, 
 commanded by his brother-in-law, General Frank P. Blair. 
 He joined it at Cairo, and after remaining there with it for two 
 weeks, he accompanied it, by steamer, to Clifton, Tennessee, 
 whence it marched through the country to Huntsville, Ala- 
 bama. From the latter place it returned to Decatur, where it 
 passed the Tennessee by a pontoon bridge, and crossed the 
 mountains to Rome, Georgia. Thence it moved on Kings- 
 ton, which was at that time the terminus of Sherman's railroad 
 line of supply and communication. From the last-mentioned 
 place, the corps proceeded through Alatoona Pass to Big 
 Shanty, in front of Kennesaw Mountain, where it joined the 
 main Army under Sherman. Although the corps was not 
 large, it was composed of hardy veterans, who had never been 
 defeated, and it was hailed with delight by the entire Army, 
 
 4 
 
50 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 and especially by its comrades of the Army of the Tennessee, 
 as a re-enforcement, which would not only make good the losses 
 already incurred in the bloody fights of the campaign, but ren- 
 der victory still more certain in the future. Here Alexander 
 made the acquaintance of Sherman, Thomas, McPherson, Lo- 
 gan, and many others of the distinguished generals of the three 
 armies constituting the Grand Army of the military division 
 under Sherman's command, and it was not long till he had 
 won their confidence in an unusual degree, as will be shown 
 further on. 
 
 There were occasional pauses in the rush of the campaign, 
 and the coming of the Seventeenth Corps occurred in, or 
 caused, one of these, but it was not of long duration. After 
 resting a few days, the Corps moved forward and took position 
 on the left of the Army facing the northwest side of the 
 mountain. From this time forward it was skirmishing and 
 fighting, flanking and assaulting, till it had lost a large number 
 of men and some of its most valuable officers in one of the 
 "strong demonstrations," which were not unfrequently ordered 
 during that extraordinary campaign. After one of these, Alex- 
 ander took a brigade out to the edge of the woods, nearest to 
 the enemy in his front, and leaving the men under cover, 
 walked forward with the brigade commander to reconnoiter 
 the position. " The men behind could plainly see the enemy's 
 works high up the mountain-side, and knowing too well that if 
 ordered to assault, many of them would fall," they employed 
 the interval of the halt in " deliberately tying tags containing 
 
BA TTLE OF KENNESA W MOUNTAIN. 5 1 
 
 their names to their blouses, so that their bodies could be iden- 
 tified in case they should be killed." I use Alexander's words, 
 and he impressively adds : " With these preparations com- 
 pleted, at the word of command they moved gallantly forward 
 to meet their fate. It was a pathetic and heroic sight." No 
 comment can increase the vividness of the picture thus pre- 
 sented, nor convey a clearer understanding of the calm des- 
 peration with which our gallant soldiers faced the extraordinary 
 dangers which so frequently confronted them. 
 
 It was shortly after this incident that Alexander, from near 
 Kennesaw, June 26, 1864, wrote as follows : 
 
 It is enough to make one's heart swell with pride to see so many thou- 
 sands of brave men leave all the comforts of home to risk health and life, 
 and suffer all the discomforts of camp life for our Government. Do not 
 imagine from this that / am particularly uncomfortable, because I am not ; 
 but when I think of Willowbrook, it makes me sigh a little, but only for a 
 moment, for I instantly think of the reason for my being here and I grow 
 strong and willing to do my part in the great work ; and why should I not ? 
 I am young, have no family to take care of, and fight now that the remain- 
 der of my days may be passed in peace, and that those who are dear to me 
 may have peaceful homes and a substantial government to protect them, I 
 trust, for generations to come. 
 
 I am getting very tired of this War, and wish it could be closed, in the 
 only way that can be honorable to our Government, /. e., by the entire submis- 
 sion of the rebels. If the war was right in its inception, too much valuable 
 blood has been spilled for us to stop short of this now. Tell your dear 
 mother, with my love, that I do not go for the " fun " of it, because there is 
 too much misery connected with it, but there are few positions in which 
 one can be placed where some fun cannot be had by a person of cheerful 
 temper. 
 
 It is not necessary for the purposes of this sketch to recount 
 all the operations of the Army, or even of the Seventeenth 
 
52 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 Corps, for they have already been recorded with precision in 
 the official reports and histories of the War. Here, as well as 
 in the East, Alexander not only performed the office duties of 
 his position, but was constantly present with the troops, coun- 
 seling and directing them in the execution of the orders which 
 he had been instructed by the General commanding to transmit, 
 or which, quite as frequently, he assumed the responsibility of 
 originating and giving in person to meet emergencies as they 
 arose. In this respect he showed himself to be, according to the 
 fullest meaning of the words, a model staff-officer, that is to 
 say, one who was entirely competent to take the place of the 
 general with whom he was serving. What was of still greater 
 moment to Alexander and the Service, was the fact that this 
 estimate of his character had come to be the one which com- 
 monly prevailed, not only in the Seventeenth Corps, where he 
 was more intimately known, but also in the Army of the Ten- 
 nessee, of which that Corps formed such an important part. 
 Further on I shall give the most convincing proof of both, its 
 acceptance and the fact, that it was correct and just. 
 
 On the 4th of July, many officers of the various Corps, 
 visited Blair's headquarters to enjoy their hospitality, and 
 among others, Colonel Keogh, that gallant young Irishman, 
 who had served with Alexander on Stoneman's staff, and after 
 escaping all the perils of the Rebellion was massacred by the 
 Sioux Indians, with Custer at the Little Big-Horn. He now 
 sleeps at Mount Hope, in the beautiful cemetery of Auburn, by 
 the side of Alexander and his wife's relations, and at the feet of 
 
THE FOURTH OF JULY. 53 
 
 his friend, the intrepid Upton. On the day in question, while 
 the enjoyment was at the highest and the woods were resound- 
 ing with patriotic songs, a tremendous fire of musketry and artil- 
 lery broke out on the extreme right, and called the merry rev- 
 elers at once to the more serious business of the day. All 
 jumped to their horses "with hot haste," and hurried to their 
 appropriate posts. The enemy had sallied out from his lines, 
 and was making a fierce attack. Matters looked serious for 
 awhile, but that was an army of veterans, every one of whom 
 knew what to do in such an emergency. A sharp and bloody 
 combat took place, and the Confederates were repulsed with 
 heavy loss to both sides. As usual, Alexander was on the line, 
 cool, steady and determined, duplicating the General, and direct- 
 ing and encouraging the men. The honors of the day were 
 with the Union Army, but the battle had had a serious effect, 
 and the celebration of the "Glorious Fourth" was not renewed. 
 On the next day the Union forces advanced to the attack, driv- 
 ing the Confederates across Nickajack Creek, and into their 
 main line of defenses, but finding the latter too strong to storm, 
 they laid in front of them for several days, behind the hastily 
 improvised but effective counter-works, which the troops con- 
 structed with such remarkable facility. But the delay was of 
 short duration, for Sherman, fertile in expedients and untiring 
 in his determination to crush Johnston, or force him from his 
 position, now moved to the left, compelling his antagonist to fall 
 back behind the Chattahoochee, and to seek cover in the works 
 around Atlanta. The Seventeenth Corps was sent to the ex- 
 
54 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 treme left, through Decatur, and thence in the direction of 
 Atlanta. A few miles from Decatur it met a strong force of 
 the enemy, and a sharp skirmish ensued, July 20, in which Gen- 
 eral Walter Q. Gresham, now United States Circuit Judge at 
 Chicago, received a wound that crippled him for life. Alexander 
 was near him at the time he fell, and assisted in removing him 
 from the field. These two officers were about the same age, 
 with tall and commanding figures, and that cool and dauntless 
 courage which marked them as natural leaders of men, and en- 
 deared them to each other. Alexander, as before described, 
 was a perfect blond, blue-eyed and yellow-haired as any Saxon, 
 while Gresham was then, and is now, dark and swarthy as a 
 Spaniard, with black eyes and hair, and a firm and vigorous 
 determination of manner that made him invincible in battle. 
 They were not unlike, withal, in prudence and judgment, and 
 in the high character of their patriotism and manhood. 
 
 That night found the Seventeenth Corps and the Army of 
 the Tennessee, of which it was a part, close up to the 
 enemy's outer line of works covering Atlanta, and the next 
 morning, July 21, Leggett's Division assaulted and carried the 
 ridge in its front at the point of the bayonet. In the words 
 of Alexander, " it was grand to see these long lines of 
 blue coats with gleaming bayonets and waving banners move 
 up the hillside as if on parade, without firing a shot, but 
 leaving many a poor fellow lying in their wake upon 
 the ground. For a few moments the fighting was close 
 and desperate five color-bearers of the 78th Illinois, one 
 
ON THE PICKET LINE. 55 
 
 after another, falling dead " before the murderous fire of the 
 Confederates, but the gallant Leggett and his men finally swept 
 everything before them and made good their hold upon the 
 entrenchments they had carried. Connecting with the Fifth- 
 teenth Corps to their left, which in turn connected with the 
 Army of the Cumberland, they slept on their arms, confident 
 of a crowning victory the next day. 
 
 About eleven o'clock that night, after silence had settled 
 upon both armies, the pickets sent in word that the enemy was 
 withdrawing from his outer line into the main defenses of the 
 city. Feeling anxious, Alexander had not yet retired, and when 
 the information came in, sent it at once to General McPherson, 
 commanding the Army of the Tennessee, after which he lay 
 down without undressing. He had hardly fallen asleep when 
 General McPherson knocked at his tent door and entered. 
 Alexander sat up, and as there were no chairs or camp-stools at 
 hand, the General also seated himself on the blankets, asking at 
 once for further details about the report he had just received. 
 Alexander gave him all he had, and then said he " thought the 
 enemy were evacuating the city and would have disappeared by 
 morning." Thereupon, General McPherson expressed still 
 greater anxiety, and added that he wished he had a trustworthy 
 officer on the picket line to watch closely and send in reliable 
 reports. The Colonel of course said he would send any one out 
 the General might name, whereupon the latter, with a pleasant 
 and persuasive smile, replied : "If you are not too tired I would 
 like you to go." This was more than enough. Alexander at 
 
56 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 once sprang up, ordered his horse and, as soon as he came, 
 galloped to the front. On arriving at the main line he dis- 
 mounted and crawled out among the pickets. There was now 
 some desultory firing going on and the bullets flew unpleas- 
 antly close to him. As day began to break, he crawled still 
 farther out to a large tree which stood in a field some distance 
 beyond the pickets. Thanks to an excellent knowledge of 
 woodcraft, he reached it without being observed, and peering 
 carefully from behind it he found himself within close range of 
 the main works, and in such position that he could see quite a 
 distance along the enemy's line. He saw " large bodies of 
 infantry lying down, as if they had just halted from a long 
 march, and several batteries of field artillery with the horses 
 attached and ready to move." Whilst watching he also saw 
 one or two brigades and several batteries move back into 
 Atlanta and disappear. "By this time it was broad daylight," 
 and, in his own language, " the question arose as to how I was 
 to get back, as I was very near to the enemy's skirmishers. If 
 I crawled back I was almost certain to be observed and fired 
 upon, so I determined to run for it. I raised myself cautiously 
 behind the tree and then ran diagonally, as rapidly as I could, 
 across the enemy's line of fire until I got under cover. A 
 number of shots were fired, but, as I had calculated, none 
 of them hit me. Our own men were excited, as they knew 
 there was a crisis at hand, and cheered like mad when they saw 
 me coming. I met General McPherson at the works and 
 reported what I had seen. He thanked me with that kind and 
 
THE DEATH OF GENERAL McPHERSON. 57 
 
 genial manner which made him such a favorite with his men. 
 I never spoke to him again." A crisis was really at hand, for 
 that day, July 22, the bloody and desperate battle of Peachtree 
 Creek was fought, and the gallant McPherson was killed. Every- 
 body, from the highest to the lowest in the Army of the Ten- 
 nessee, was busy from morning till night, for the Confederates 
 under the resolute and desperate Hood, who had succeeded the 
 more cautious Johnston, now assumed the offensive, and by a 
 turning movement, as well conceived as it was boldly executed, 
 threw the whole weight of his columns upon the Army of the 
 Tennessee, front, flank and rear. Never were the discipline and 
 courage of an Army more severely tried than were those of 
 McPherson's veterans in that memorable battle. It is not 
 my purpose to describe the operations of the Corps, nor to give 
 all the details of Alexander's services on that important day, 
 but a summary of them cannot fail to interest his friends. 
 
 After getting his breakfast and mounting a fresh horse, he 
 rode with the headquarters' escort to the field hospital of the 
 Corps, from which word had come in that it had just been at- 
 tacked. Promptly driving off the few rebels he found there, 
 and disposing of a regiment which General Blair, at his re- 
 quest, had sent for the further protection of the wounded, he 
 was about to turn away, when a picket, which he had sent 
 out, was driven in and reported that the woods in front were 
 " full of rebels." Doubting the truth of the report, even to 
 the extent of saying that the man who brought it was crazy, 
 he dashed forward, but had gone only a short distance when 
 
58 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 he found the road filled with Confederate troops as far as he 
 could see. Wheeling about instantly he retreated as fast as he 
 had advanced, " followed by a shower of bullets which rattled 
 in the trees " about him in a most convincing manner. When 
 it is remembered that this was a half mile to the left and rear 
 of the Corps' main line, and was entirely unexpected, it will be 
 readily understood that he lost no time after hurriedly telling 
 the regiment at the hospital to take care of itself, in riding 
 to the right and front to find General Blair and report. On 
 his way by the circuitous route which he was compelled to 
 take, he stopped at headquarters long enough to tell his serv- 
 ant Trowbridge (a gray-bearded and tyrannical old veteran 
 from Indiana, who was unable to perform military duty, but pre- 
 ferred service rather than to return home before the War was 
 over) to burn his letters and take his trunk to his mother at 
 St. Louis, if he did not return, he galloped toward the road 
 leading to the center of the Corps' position. Just after passing 
 through a broad valley, but before entering the woods by a road 
 which the troops had cut through them the previous day, he saw 
 General McPherson about a half mile ahead of him, disappear 
 into the woods, and shortly afterward heard the volley fired 
 which, it was subsequently ascertained, had killed him, and this 
 volley caused the Colonel to bear to the right and keep in the 
 open ground till he reached " Leggett's Hill," where he found 
 General Blair. Meanwhile the enemy had attacked our works 
 from the rear and been driven back, and the Colonel desiring to 
 see for himself the condition of the troops, and what the enemy 
 
HOOD'S TURNING MOVEMENT. 59 
 
 would probably do next, rode along the front till he reached 
 General Giles A. Smith's division. On that part of the line 
 he saw the enemy advancing to the attack from the Atlanta 
 side of the works. The troops who had been fighting from 
 the front of their intrenchments, now coolly returned to the 
 proper side, and prepared to repel the new assault. Alexander, 
 seeing his peril, put spurs to his horse, and without dismount- 
 ing clambered to the top of the parapet, which was not over 
 two feet wide, and then, with rare skill, carried his charger by 
 a magnificent leap from his uncertain footing, across the ditch 
 to the ground in rear. 
 
 The battle lasted all day, and at intervals till after midnight, 
 but every rebel assault, each of which seemed to be more 
 desperate than the one which preceded it, was repulsed. Dur- 
 ing one of these Alexander was in the ditch of the intrenchments 
 with General Force, when the latter ordered Captain Walker to 
 go to the rear with a message. Instead of creeping along the 
 works the Captain jumped out of the ditch and started to run 
 across the open field, but had not gone fifty feet when he fell 
 with a bullet through his thigh. Seeing the peril that his staff 
 officer was now in the General ran out to bring him under 
 shelter, but he was also stricken down by a bullet through the 
 face. Both were rescued from their perilous position, and not 
 only escaped further injury, but finally recovered. 
 
 It was during this battle, and under Alexander's observa- 
 tion, that part of the Union line held by the isth Iowa Volun- 
 teers, then commanded by Colonel (afterward General) Bel- 
 
60 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 knap, was assaulted three different times by the 45th Alabama 
 Regiment, under Colonel Lampley, a most gallant and de- 
 termined officer, who finally succeeded with thirteen men in 
 reaching the Union breastworks, and refusing to surrender, 
 Colonel Belknap, who was a man of great strength, reached 
 out and seizing him by the coat-collar, lifted him off his feet 
 and pulled him bodily over the parapet which he had striven 
 so valiantly, but vainly, to carry. The gallant Colonel was sent 
 to the rear, and died in prison some time afterward, it is said, 
 from chagrin. His wonderful regiment was almost completely 
 annihilated in front of the works, which proved to be impregna- 
 ble even to its heroic valor, and nothing more can be said, of 
 it or them. 
 
 Alexander, who remained in the line of battle till one 
 o'clock in the morning, and returned to it again before day- 
 light, well declares that this was the most desperate fighting 
 he had ever seen ; " the rebels charged us seven different times 
 from the rear and front alternately, and were repulsed each 
 time with great loss." He estimated their casualties at 5,000, 
 or about half as many as the strength of the Seventeenth Corps 
 in the battle. " The dead and wounded," he adds, " were 
 piled up in some places three or four deep, in the most 
 ghastly confusion. Nearest to our line, and ahead of all his 
 comrades, was a delicate, fair-haired lad of about eighteen, who 
 had fallen dead on his face in the last desperate charge." Not 
 far away, lay also the Confederate General Walker, stiff in 
 death. Shortly after daylight the Confederates sent a flag of 
 
BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 61 
 
 truce with a request for his body and for permission to carry 
 away their wounded. The truce was granted, and Alexander 
 went out to meet the officers from the opposing side. After 
 arranging the necessary details, he walked over a part of the 
 field "on which were lying hundreds of dead and dying, Union 
 and rebel, indiscriminately mixed. Long trenches were dug at 
 once, and the dead were thrown in and covered like so many 
 pieces of wood." 
 
 When this sad duty was ended, orders came for another 
 move, and this time it was to the extreme right of the Army. 
 When the march was completed and the Corps found itself in 
 its new position, it began fortifying, as usual, and as the rebels 
 had captured all their intrenching tools on the 22d of July, they 
 now had nothing left except their bayonets, tin cups and plates, 
 and with these they covered themselves completely between 9 
 and 12 o'clock. 
 
 During a lull in the battle of the 28th, General Logan, who 
 commanded the Fifteenth Corps, galloped up and down in 
 front of the line to encourage his men ; "with his hat off and 
 his long black hair and mustache flying in the wind, he made a 
 very martial figure and was frantically cheered by his soldiers." 
 
 Just as this battle was beginning, Alexander was standing 
 in the rear, showing the men how to cover themselves, when 
 the rebels opened with a battery on the right, enfilading the 
 line. Seeing a 1 2-pounder round-shot ricochetting slowly along 
 toward him, with apparently no more momentum in it than a 
 foot-ball, he stepped aside to let it pass, which it did, but it 
 
62 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 struck a soldier, lying just beyond, in the hip, tearing off the 
 whole of his back. The battery now had the range, perhaps 
 unconsciously, of a narrow wooded ravine behind the line, in 
 which a number of skulkers, of whom there are some in every 
 Army, were concealed, and the bursting shells scared them up, 
 and, for the reason that there was no other direction in which 
 they could go, they started to the front. This amused the 
 men in line and they began laughing and cheering. Where- 
 upon the rebels doubtless thinking they were doing good exe- 
 cution, redoubled their fire and speedily cleared the ravine of 
 the cowards. 
 
 The Corps occupied this ground for several days, making 
 breastworks and batteries, and drawing so close to the rebel 
 lines that one could toss a stone into them. The fighting was 
 sharp and almost incessant. " One could not show a hat above 
 the breastworks without getting a bullet through it, and many 
 men lost their lives in trying to peep over the head logs. 
 General G. M. Dodge, commanding the Sixteenth Corps, had 
 thrown his head back, and was looking over when a ball struck 
 him in the forehead just above the frontal ridge and glanced 
 over his skull, cutting a furrow in his scalp and disabling him for 
 several months. Alexander's duties called him to the trenches 
 nearly every night, and sometimes when delayed till dawn, he 
 had to remain there all day, as it was almost impossible to get 
 out without being shot. Upon one occasion he came out with 
 General Giles A. Smith, and accepted his invitation to break- 
 fast, but just as they "were approaching the mess tent a shell 
 
A RECONNOISSANCE. 63 
 
 went through it, scattering the dishes and ' outfit/ and frighten- 
 ing the cook so that he ran away and, very naturally, could not 
 be induced to, return till the camp was removed to a safer 
 place." 
 
 After a while, however, the Corps moved again, this time 
 toward Jonesboro, but the enemy moved too, and with night 
 fighting and constant skirmishing, and the extension and con- 
 struction of new intrenchments, the desperate combatants not 
 only made life hardly worth living, but made it very difficult 
 for each other to escape death. It finally became impos- 
 sible to show a hand above the works on either side, with- 
 out losing it, so close and so constant was the firing of the 
 sharpshooters. This rendered it necessary for the men to drill 
 holes through the breastworks in order to see what was going 
 on beyond. 
 
 In the midst of this close and deadly work to the front, 
 Sherman and Thomas rode to a hill in rear, from which they 
 could obtain a good view, and where they found Alexander. 
 Thomas soon satisfied his curiosity and left, but Sherman said 
 he wanted to inspect the line more closely. Accordingly, he 
 and Alexander mounted, and accompanied by their respective 
 attendants, rode forward till they reached an open field, which 
 it was necessary to cross. The Colonel, who was familiar 
 with the ground and its dangers, intimated plainly that they 
 had better go round, keeping under cover of the timber, 
 as one of the rebel batteries had the range of the field, 
 and would doubtless open upon a large party passing through 
 
64 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 it. The General replied somewhat impatiently, " Well, if they 
 do, they can't hit anybody " so Alexander, without comment, 
 led the way into the field, Sherman and his staff following. 
 The Colonel was somewhat piqued at the General's tone, and 
 determined to show him that he could stand fire as well as the 
 next one. He therefore took a slow walk and began as un- 
 concernedly as possible to point out the various positions of 
 interest, and, as he expected, the rebels began firing as soon 
 as they got a fair view of the party, and although they had 
 the range perfectly, Alexander took not the slightest notice of 
 the falling shells. Shortly one burst so close to the left of the 
 party, that a fragment passed between Alexander's horse's 
 croup and Sherman's horse's head, and struck into the ground 
 near by with an ominous thud, whereupon the General cried 
 out : " Look here, Alexander, let's get out of this !" It was 
 now the Colonel's turn, and, of course, he retorted with all the 
 imperturbability he could assume : " Oh ! no, General don't 
 be in a hurry, they can't hit anything." The laugh was on his 
 side now, but nevertheless they put spurs to their horses, and 
 ran for it till they got out of range. The Kentuckian's horse 
 being the best of the lot, he was not left behind. 
 
 What with flanking and fighting, marching by night and 
 maneuvering by day, the enemy was repeatedly beaten and 
 driven back till Atlanta was " ours and fairly won." Alexander 
 went through it all, and did his part, both in the office and 
 in the field, thoroughly and well, till he thought the campaign 
 was ended. General Blair had, through the President's direc- 
 
LEA VE OF ABSENCE DENIED. 65 
 
 tion, obtained leave of absence and gone North, and General 
 Ransom had assumed command of the Corps! After getting 
 his official business into proper condition, the Colonel also 
 asked for a thirty days' leave of absence. He was at that 
 time engaged to be married, and knowing this, both General 
 Ransom and General Howard had approved the application, 
 but when it was presented to Sherman, as it was in person, 
 with the fullest confidence that it would be granted, the General 
 promptly and emphatically declared that he could not go, on 
 the unanswerable ground that the Colonel's services could not 
 be dispensed with. Sending his luggage back to Corps head- 
 quarters and submitting without a murmur to what appeared 
 to be an arbitrary assertion of authority, he accepted an invita- 
 tion to dinner with a brother officer in the city, but had not 
 finished eating, when he received an urgent request from Gen- 
 eral Ransom to return to camp at once, to accompany him on 
 a strong reconnoissance toward Fairfield for the purpose of 
 finding out what had become of Hood. 
 
 All arrangements were made that night, and the next morn- 
 ing, bright and early, the column, composed of two divisions of 
 infantry, several batteries of artillery and a squadron of cavalry, 
 was on the road. They marched all day, and in the afternoon 
 came upon the enemy's mounted pickets, which fell back before 
 Alexander and his escort. After a fruitless pursuit of several 
 miles, and then halting for the night, Ransom expressed the 
 wish that some prisoners should be captured as the surest 
 way of getting accurate information, and true to his cavalry 
 
 5 
 
66 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 instincts, Alexander promptly volunteered to do what had 
 been suggested. He was up before dawn and mounted 
 upon his thoroughbred grey. Followed by a dozen picked 
 troopers, he set off in advance of the column, and had not gone 
 far before he came in sight of a rebel outpost, of eight or ten 
 men, who fired upon him hurriedly and fled. Directing his 
 own followers to charge, he put spurs to his fleet-footed steed, 
 and singling out the hindmost man, rapidly overtook and ran 
 him down. Calling out for him to surrender, and at the same 
 time firing his revolver as rapidly as possible, he so discon- 
 certed the poor rebel that the latter failed, or was unable, to 
 guide his horse aright. Mad with fright, it ran blindly into a 
 railroad ditch throwing its rider head first against a cross tie 
 and knocking him senseless. This brought the race to a 
 close, and Alexander pulling up at once, dismounted and did 
 his best to revive his prisoner, but he was seriously injured 
 and did not recover sufficiently to give any information for sev- 
 eral days, by which time it was too late to be of any value? 
 I mention this incident, not for its intrinsic interest, but to 
 show Alexander's alacrity and resource, and especially to 
 call attention to the fact that when important information was 
 required, he not only knew how to get it, but went himself for 
 it, instead of sending any one else. 
 
 Of course it was but a short while till it was known from 
 many sources, that Hood had swung around to the north, re- 
 crossed the Chattahoochee, and was marching rapidly by the 
 railroad, which he was breaking at frequent intervals, toward 
 
IN PURSUIT OF HOOD. 67 
 
 Alatoona, far in the rear of the Union Army. Ransom's 
 column, retracing its steps as rapidly as possible, camped the 
 first or second night in a large cotton-field, where it was over- 
 taken by a violent rain-storm, which drenched both officers 
 and men to the skin, as they had no shelter of any kind. In 
 recounting this incident, Alexander quaintly remarks : " The 
 men took it all in perfect good humor, crying out at intervals, 
 ' Quarter less twain and no bottom,' as if they were sounding 
 the channel of the Mississippi River." 
 
 When they reached Atlanta they found that Hood had cut 
 the railroad leading back to Chattanooga, and that all of Sher- 
 man's Army, except the garrison of the city, was moving in 
 pursuit. They were, however, short of rations and forage, and 
 the mules died, for a few days, in great numbers, but neither 
 this nor anything else could stay the hurrying march which soon 
 brought them to a region abounding in grass. All the world 
 knows how stubbornly General Corse fought for the defense 
 of Alatoona and its million rations, and how General Sher- 
 man, seeing the smoke of battle from the heights of Kennesaw, 
 signaled him to "hold the fort, for I am coming." There 
 was, indeed, no rest for Hood and his footsore battalions. 
 Celerity was the highest duty of the hour, except fighting, 
 for Sherman was thundering upon his heels, and yet Sherman 
 had divided his Army, and now, if ever, was Hood's chance 
 to fall upon and defeat him ; but he proved himself unequal to 
 his opportunities, and having failed to capture Sherman's sup- 
 plies, or to materially injure his line of communication with 
 
68 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 the North by rail, he swung off to the west by the way of 
 Gaylesville to Gunter's Landing on the Tennessee River. 
 
 About the time the i ;th Corps left Atlanta to take part in 
 the pursuit of Hood, General Ransom fell sick, and was obliged 
 to ride in an ambulance and leave the entire conduct and con- 
 trol of the Corps to Alexander. He continued on the march 
 as far as Rome, but could go no farther, and shortly after his 
 arrival at that place, died, much lamented by all who knew him, 
 as an able and courageous General, rapidly rising into promi- 
 nence. As a matter of custom, so long as he remained with 
 the troops, no one could properly raise any question as to his 
 right to command, and the practical direction of details was 
 therefore necessarily left to Alexander, as Chief of Staff and 
 Adjutant-General, but when the General could no longer per- 
 form his duty and could go no farther, it was by law the right 
 and duty of the next in rank to assume command. In this 
 case, however, the next in rank voluntarily waived his right, 
 and the division and brigade commanders united in doing 
 the same thing, and also in asking Alexander to retain com- 
 mand, which he did till General Frank Blair returned from 
 leave of absence and personally took charge of the Corps. 
 This was the highest possible compliment to Alexander and 
 altogether unusual. Indeed, I never new of another case like it. 
 It will be remembered that he was not even a general officer, 
 but only a lieutenant-colonel, and that every colonel, as well 
 as every division and brigade commander in the Corps, was en- 
 titled, in strict legal right, to the succession before he was. 
 
TEMPORARILY COMMANDS THE i*]TH CORPS. 69 
 
 Referring to this subject, General Oliver O. Howard, on 
 the 9th of October, 1865, wrote from the Freedman's Bureau, 
 to Brevet Major-General Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General 
 of the Army, as follows : 
 
 Allow me to call your attention to the services of A. J. Alexander, Cap- 
 tain 3d U. S. Cavalry and Brevet Brigadier-General of Volunteers during 
 the Atlanta Campaign and the subsequent campaign against Hood, when 
 attempting to move to our rear. During this time General Alexander was 
 Assistant Adjutant-General of the lyth Army Corps, one of the corps of 
 which my command, the Army of the Tennessee, was then composed. 
 
 I desire especially to mention his services during the time that General 
 Ransom was in command of the Corps, as he died before making an official 
 report of such. 
 
 General Alexander was in the various battles on the Chattahoochee and 
 before Atlanta, on the aoth, 2ist, 22d and 28th of July, and the battle of 
 Jonesboro on the 3ist of August. In all of these he behaved with distin- 
 guished courage and gallantry. In the campaign against Hood, after the fall 
 of Atlanta, General Ransom, the temporary commander of the i7th Corps, 
 was sick of the disease of which he afterward died, and in the march from 
 Rome, Ga., to Resacaand Gaylesville, was confined to an ambulance ; during 
 this time the Corps was making forced marches and was conducted by Gen- 
 eral Alexander, and he displayed extraordinary judgment and skill in 
 the performance of his duties, especially when the passage was forced 
 through Snake Creek Gap. 
 
 Alexander subsequently wrote, for the information of his 
 young son, an account of this portion of his career, from which 
 I quote as follows : " Having secured our rations at Alatoona, 
 we followed Hood's Army along the railroad toward Chattanoo- 
 ga, trying to overtake him and bring on a battle. We marched 
 to Rome and there heard he was at Dalton. Our Corps was 
 then ordered in that direction ; the advance reached the railroad 
 in the night, and Belknap's brigade was sent to Resaca on cars. 
 
70 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 I went with them and arrived there late at night. We pushed 
 out skirmishers and drove the enemy's skirmishers back a mile, 
 and then waited for daylight. When that arrived we found 
 there was nothing in front of us but cavalry. The Corps came 
 up the next day, and the succeeding morning we started for 
 Snake Creek Gap. I went ahead with a squadron of cavalry 
 to clear the road. When we arrived within about a mile of the 
 Gap, I rode up a little bench of ground with about a dozen 
 men, when we were fired upon by 200 or 300 rebels, who were 
 behind a long line of breastworks. Several of the men and 
 horses were hit. One ball passed through my horse's mane, 
 another cut my coat, and another cut a small limb from a tree 
 just over my head. I trotted along parallel to the works till I 
 got a good view of them and then went back and reported to 
 General Sherman. He immediately deployed the i5th and 
 i ;th Corps in line of battle and prepared for a fight. Mean- 
 time I took the cavalry, went around to the left, flanked the 
 works, and found we had only a few hundred rebel cavalry 
 in front of us. These at once galloped off through the 
 Gap. 
 
 " Snake Creek Gap is a low pass through the mountains, 
 and was densely covered with a large growth of oak, chestnut 
 and other forest trees, which the rebels had 'slashed ' that is to 
 say, cut down in every direction, so as to make it almost im- 
 passable for horses and entirely so for wagons and artillery. 
 The infantry marched through and I accompanied them on 
 horseback, jumping logs and scrambling along the mountain- 
 
THE PASSAGE OF SNAKE CREEK GAP. 71 
 
 side as best I could. At the farther end of the pass was a 
 vacant log-cabin, about twenty feet square, before which I 
 placed a guard to reserve it for the Staff of the Corps. After I 
 had returned from placing the Corps in position I found the 
 cabin occupied by General Sherman and a part of his staff. 
 He apologized for taking my house, but insisted upon my re- 
 maining and as our wagons were all south of the Gap and 
 this the only house near, I did so. After the troops got 
 through I asked Sherman to let me open the Gap and bring 
 our wagons through, as the men were in want of rations. 
 After some discussion he agreed, on condition that I should 
 have the road clear of wagons at daylight, when another Corps 
 would come through. I immediately took 1000 men with axes 
 and 500 to act as log-rollers, and by 9 p. M. had the road opened. 
 About 10 o'clock the wagons began rolling past our cabin in 
 what seemed an endless procession. I was worn out with 
 fatigue and had lain down on the floor with my saddle for a 
 pillow, and was trying to sleep, but General Sherman soon began 
 walking up and down near me abusing the wagons. I finally re- 
 marked that the wagons were necessary to carry food for the 
 men. 
 
 "'No, sir!' he said, 'Hood's men live on sorghum and 
 green corn and go without wagons, and we will never catch 
 them until we travel as they do.' 
 
 " ' But," said I, ' Hood's Army devastate the country and 
 leave us nothing.' 
 
 " ' No/ retorted the General, ' there is plenty, and you 
 
72 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 have more wagons for your headquarters than ought to supply 
 a Corps.' 
 
 " I remarked that ' we had only ten wagons for our head- 
 quarters, and that was less than any other Corps in the Army.' 
 
 " ' Yes,' said he, ' that's just it. I command the whole of 
 the Army 100,000 men and have only three wagons.' 
 
 " ' But,' said I, ' you require us to keep a full staff of twen- 
 ty-five or thirty officers, and make full reports, whereas the 
 most of your staff are in Nashville ' and thus the dispute was 
 kept up nearly all night and I got but little sleep. 
 
 " At daylight I was up, and as my wagons had come in dur- 
 ing the night, my cook had an excellent breakfast, including, 
 among other things, a prime roast pig and sweet potatoes, and 
 I asked General Stoneman and several others to share them with 
 me. Just as we were sitting down Stoneman asked me if I was 
 not going to invite Sherman ; but I said no, and added by way 
 of explanation that he had kept me awake all night, lecturing me 
 about transportation, and I was afraid if he saw my mess chest, 
 which was a particularly large and well-stocked one, that had 
 been given to General Blair by our St. Louis friends, I was 
 afraid he would make me throw it away. In a few minutes, 
 however, Sherman came out of the cabin chewing a cigar im- 
 patiently, and began walking to and fro and gradually near- 
 ing us. I kept my eye on my plate until he got so near that 
 some one spoke to him, when I could no longer resist his evi- 
 dent hunger and asked him to take a cup of coffee. He 
 replied promptly, ' I don't care if I do,' and sat down and ate a 
 
MARRIAGE. 73 
 
 hearty breakfast with evident satisfaction ; and what is better, 
 he not only didn't order me to send away the mess chest, but 
 never alluded to the subject again. That day our Corps was 
 not engaged, and toward evening I rode back to look for the 
 Corps wagons. I met Sherman's headquarters' train and 
 counted thirty wagons, only three of which belonged to him 
 personally. 
 
 " We pursued Hood south, and our Corps marched through 
 Broomtown Valley. It was October, and the country had not 
 been traveled over by an Army, so our men feasted on vegeta- 
 bles, chickens and pigs. After several days' marching we 
 received orders one morning to prepare for a battle, as Hood 
 was only a few miles away. It was delicious autumn weather, 
 and the men stripped for the fight leaving their knapsacks 
 with the wagons and taking a double allowance of ammunition. 
 The road was broad and firm, and the men marched ten or fif- 
 teen abreast, and as rapidly as if they were going to a feast 
 instead of a fight. I was riding ' Max,' my grey thorough- 
 bred, and he could hardly walk fast enough to keep out of their 
 way. After traveling five or six miles we received information 
 that Hood was eighty miles away in the Blue Mountains." 
 
 This ended the campaign, and shortly afterward Alexander 
 applied for and was granted a 30 days' leave of absence ; he 
 hurried North, and on the 3d day of November, 1864, he was 
 married to Evelina Throop Martin, daughter of E. T. Throop 
 Martin, of Willowbrook, New York. 
 
 As Alexander had only 30 days' leave, and was anxious not 
 
74 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 to lose any time, the day for his marriage had been arranged 
 by telegraph, and a large party of friends and relatives had 
 assembled at Willowbrook in anticipation of the happy event. 
 The Colonel, however, was the last to arrive, having met with 
 every possible detention on his way North ; engines had run 
 off the track and trains missed connection, while the tele- 
 grams he sent en route had not been delivered. The fol- 
 lowing letter, dated Willowbrook, November 5, 1864, from his 
 brother, Mr. George Alexander, to his mother, gives an amus- 
 ing account of the excitement caused by the late arrival of 
 the bridegroom elect : 
 
 You have another daughter I can now announce ! You will have to get 
 a full description from Mary of the grand affair ; my pen is inadequate. 
 Andrew was detained on the way twenty-four hours. He should have 
 arrived here Wednesday morning, but the carriage came back with letters 
 and wedding presents, but no Andrew. It was a little annoying. The 
 messenger at noon returned with more bundles and express packages, but 
 without the expected one. The night train brought the same result. Just 
 a shadow of uncertainty seemed to settle down upon the household not 
 much was said, but there was a great deal of thinking. The consequences 
 awkwardness of the occasion without him would have been overwhelm- 
 ing. Mary and I, as representatives of his side of the family, were most 
 nervous, though, like veterans, we put on a bold front in order to keep down 
 a panic. We looked with how much anxiety to the morning train for our 
 relief. In vain ! The laggard came not ! Your veterans were demoral- 
 ized. I requested permission, in a very mild way, to go into the city. I went 
 to the depot, paced up and down the platform for two hours, looking at the 
 clock every five minutes. The last train came. I watched the passengers pour 
 out of the cars, until the last one had stepped out. My heart was down in my 
 shoes, and I was studying the propriety of taking the eastward-bound train 
 when a tall figure with sunny beard loomed in sight, and my cares were 
 ended. 
 
MARRIAGE. 75 
 
 There was a scream of delight, and an enthusiastic welcome from all 
 when we arrived, just in time to prepare for the wedding, which was to 
 take place at 4 p. M. in the little country church. For days it had been 
 raining steadily, but the sun came out propitiously and gilded the spire of 
 the little church as we drove up to the door. The interior was arranged 
 like the Woodford Church in Kentucky, and the reserved seats were in 
 " Quality Corner," so that we were placed to have a front view of the happy 
 pair. In a moment a cloud of tulle floated down the aisle and formed in 
 front of the minister. In the midst stood a stately soldier, and by his side 
 the woman he had chosen, with a wreath of jasmine in her hair and her 
 long veil floating to the ground. The ceremony was brief, impressive and 
 beautiful. The sunset sent a flood of crimson light through the painted 
 window, and it streamed down upon them as they knelt, side by side, to 
 receive the benediction. 
 
 As soon as the ceremony was concluded the bridal party quietly left the 
 church, and while the bells rang out joyously we all drove back to Wil- 
 lowbrook, where the reception was to take place. 
 
 The bay window of the parlor was draped with crimson curtains and 
 festooned with evergreens, and the bride and groom stood in it like a pict- 
 ure in a frame, with the bridesmaids on each side. The reception lasted 
 until 9 o'clock, during which time the supper was disposed of, and the guests 
 dropped off, and they are now man and wife, to buffet with the world 
 together, and for a little while to bear its sorrows and troubles. God grant 
 they may fall lightly upon them. If they are as happy as we have been in 
 our wedded life, and if she is as faithful and true as my Mary has always 
 been to me, they can well put up with the thorns on the weary way. 
 
III. 
 
 AS soon as Alexander's leave of absence had expired he 
 returned to duty, but meanwhile Sherman, despairing of 
 catching Hood or bringing him to an engagement, had 
 destroyed Atlanta, and gone with the greater part of his Army 
 on the celebrated March to the Sea, while General Thomas was 
 left with the remnants of the three Armies of the Military 
 Division to defend Tennessee against Hood. 
 
 I had been sent from the Army of the Potomac to command 
 and re-organize the cavalry, and after remounting and equip- 
 ping Kilpatrick's Division to accompany Sherman's columns, 
 had also returned to Nashville to gather up the scattered divi- 
 sions, brigades and regiments which, during the exciting cam- 
 paign beginning with Hood's passage of the Tennessee River, 
 and ending with the destruction of his Army, was welded into 
 the compact and invincible mass, known in the history of the 
 Rebellion, as the Cavalry Corps of the Military Division of the 
 Mississippi. About the time of my return to Nashville from 
 Georgia, Alexander arrived there from the North ; and inas- 
 
AGAIN CHIEF OF STAFF. 77 
 
 much as it was now impossible for him to rejoin his own Corps, 
 which had gone with Sherman, and I had urgent need of his 
 services, I invited him to accept the position of Chief of Staff 
 with me in the new Cavalry Corps, which was then begin- 
 ning to take shape, but which still required untiring exertion 
 on the part of myself and staff, to collect it and to complete 
 its organization, and to remount and re-equip it. Alexander 
 having, as before stated, been Adjutant-General and Chief of 
 Staff at the time the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac 
 was organized, and having filled the same position in the Cav- 
 alry Bureau, was just the officer of all others to assist in 
 the task which I now had in hand, and as he cheerfully con- 
 sented to do so, I secured the necessary orders assigning him 
 to that duty. Assisted by Beaumont, Bowman, and Noyes of 
 the Regular Cavalry, Andrews of the Regular Infantry, Carling 
 of the Quartermaster's Department, and a number of active and 
 intelligent volunteers, he rendered the most invaluable serv- 
 ices. He was especially efficient in making the details for 
 the impressment of horses in Tennessee and Kentucky, and 
 for their collection and distribution to the troops. His long 
 and valuable experience with the cavalry of the Army of the 
 Potomac, combined with his fine judgment and courteous 
 manners, made him at once acceptable to all with whom his 
 duties brought him in contact, and did much to lighten and 
 expedite the work which fell upon me during that anxious 
 period. During the latter part of November I was with 
 the effective portion of the mounted force in the field, fall- 
 
78 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 ing back before Hood's advance, and fighting Forrest as 
 occasion required, while Alexander and Beaumont were doing 
 their best to collect at Nashville the dismounted men, furnish 
 them with horses, and get them ready to rejoin their regi- 
 ments. After our Army had been concentrated, the cavalry 
 crossed to the north side of the Cumberland River, and made 
 an extensive camp at Edgefield, from which it watched the 
 river both above and below, and conducted minor operations, 
 which it is not essential to describe more fully here. Its most 
 important duty by far at that time was to prepare for the great 
 battle then so near at hand, and in order that it might act with 
 vigor and follow up the enemy with celerity it was essential 
 that it should have horses in great numbers. When the Corps 
 was collected at Edgefield, it was found that it had only about 
 six thousand horses fit for duty, and something like twelve 
 thousand men. Within ten days, it had ten thousand men in 
 the saddle ready to take part in the impending battle, a 
 detached brigade of two thousand, and about three thousand 
 men still dismounted. 
 
 At the battle of Nashville it played a most important part, 
 breaking through the enemy's left center, turning to the left, 
 capturing his intrenchments and guns, and finally enveloping, 
 taking in reverse and overthrowing his entire left wing, so that 
 in conjunction with the attack of the infantry in front, there 
 was nothing left for him but to abandon the field and seek 
 safety in flight. A common misconception in regard to the 
 operations about Nashville is that inasmuch as the horses were 
 
AGAIN CHIEF OF STAFF. 79 
 
 not actually used for charging, nor ridden into the thick of the 
 battle, they were not necessary, and that the operations of the 
 Army should not have been delayed in any way for their 
 collection. At least one writer has sought to affix blame upon 
 General Thomas for delaying the battle on that account, but 
 in doing so has simply displayed his own ignorance of the fact 
 that the principal use of horses in modern cavalry is to transport 
 their riders rapidly, and without fatigue, to distant parts of the 
 field, where they can dismount and operate efficiently on foot. 
 By such means only is it possible to conduct many of the most 
 difficult operations of War successfully, and especially such as 
 relate to turning movements in battle, to the breaking of lines 
 of operation and supply, and to the pursuit of a beaten enemy. 
 Alexander accompanied me during the entire operations of 
 the first day, and at all times displayed the greatest activity, 
 alertness and intelligence. On the second day of the battle, 
 in anticipation of the final defeat of the enemy, he was sent 
 with General Johnson and Harrison's brigade of the Sixth 
 Division, by the Carter's Creek turnpike, to clear the country 
 in that direction, and force a crossing of the Harpeth River, 
 below Franklin, some fifteen miles to the south-west, and 
 after doing so to march by the left bank of the river to that 
 place, and, if possible, cut off the enemy's retreat. The move- 
 ment was rapidly and intelligently made, but owing to high 
 water in the Harpeth, and the distance to be covered, was not 
 entirely successful. The column reached Franklin just as the 
 rebel rear-guard was withdrawing, and while it captured quite 
 
8o ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 a number of prisoners, including all the enemy's wounded, 
 it did not strike the main body of the rebel Army in the 
 flank as it was hoped it would. 
 
 The next day Alexander who was greatly chagrined at 
 the failure of the column he had personally conducted, to make 
 the great stroke that was apparently open to it returned to 
 Corps headquarters, and remained with me till we reached the 
 Tennessee River. Like the rest of us he worked night and 
 day, much of the time with the advance-guard, and on 
 the skirmish line, doing all in his power to bring the 
 enemy to bay, and to destroy him. The weather was as 
 bad as it could be, raining, freezing and thawing, in rapid 
 succession ; the creeks and rivers' were full ; the bottom lands 
 overflowed ; the country roads were impassable, and the only 
 way in which we could make even as good time as the enemy 
 was to keep our columns on the turnpike. The days were 
 short, and at times the country was covered with heavy fog, 
 so that upon more than one occasion our men became inter- 
 mingled with the retreating rebels without knowing who they 
 were. Many sharp fights and rattling charges were made, and 
 always with success, but the work soon began to tell heavily 
 upon both men and horses. Provisions were scarce, and forage 
 scarcer, as might naturally have been expected in a country 
 which Hood's Army and our own had marched over, and 
 the former had subsisted upon, and it was, of course, impos- 
 sible for supplies from Nashville to overtake the hurry- 
 ing columns. The men inspired by the great victory they 
 
THE PURSUIT OF HOOD. 81 
 
 had won, and by the hope of completing it with the cap- 
 ture of what remained of Hood's broken and beaten bat- 
 talions, pressed on, hungry, wet, and without shelter, and as 
 they were veterans used to hardship, stood it well enough, 
 but the poor horses soon began to fail, and by the time we 
 reached Pulaski the roadside was strewn with the dead and 
 dying. Many of them had frozen legs and feet, and hundreds 
 of them lost their hoofs and had, in mercy, to be killed. 
 The advance-guard reached the Tennessee River, just as the 
 last of the enemy were crossing, at which time our main 
 column was at Silver Creek, a few miles in the rear. Nearly 
 half our horses had died or been disabled, and the rest were 
 greatly enfeebled, but Hood's Army had been destroyed, or 
 so nearly so that it never again appeared in the field as 
 a separate organization. The pursuit was continued into 
 Northern Alabama by General Palmer with an outlying de- 
 tachment of the Cavalry Corps which had not been engaged 
 in the battle of Nashville, or in the pursuit to the Ten- 
 nessee River, and the pontoon and wagon train of Hood's 
 Army were destroyed, and many more prisoners were taken. 
 We came to a halt on the ist of January at a misera- 
 ble hamlet on the banks of Silver Creek, and as the country 
 had been swept clear of all its supplies, we had a dreary time 
 of it till the command reached Florence in its march to the rail- 
 road at Huntsville. On New-year's-day we rested from march- 
 ing and fighting, the first time since the battle of Nash- 
 ville. As there was nothing else to be done, Alexander and 
 
82 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 the youngsters of the staff amused themselves in drawing up a 
 grandiloquent dispatch (which, of course, was never sent) to 
 the President, presenting to him the city of Pin Hook the 
 country people's derisive name for the desolate place at which 
 we were camped and all its stores and dependencies as a 
 New-year's gift. It was a harmless diversion while it lasted, 
 and brought a few faint smiles to those who heard it read, 
 but it was not enough, to make any of us forget the hard- 
 ships we had gone through, and still less the hunger we were 
 then enduring. All had done their duty manfully, but Alex- 
 ander had been conspicuous throughout the campaign, not only 
 in assisting me, but in personally directing the skirmish line, 
 in protecting it from the guns accompanying the leading 
 division of infantry which came up with us at the Duck River, 
 where we had been delayed while repairing a bridge, and in 
 charging the enemy's rear-guard at every suitable opportunity. 
 He was always in the advance, encouraging men and officers, 
 and directing them what to do. 
 
 So ably had he acquitted himself during the few weeks he 
 had been with me in all sorts of duty that in addition to thank- 
 ing and expressing my obligation to him in my official report, I 
 recommended him for the Brevet of Brigadier-General of Vol- 
 unteers, and as this recommendation was strongly approved by 
 General Thomas, the appointment was promptly made by the 
 War Department. 
 
 The Corps was assembled in camps and cantonments be- 
 tween Gravelly Springs and Waterloo, a short distance below 
 
ASSIGNED TO THE COMMAND OF A BRIGADE. 83 
 
 the Muscle Shoals of the Tennessee River, early in January, 
 and upon the arrival of Upton's Division from West Tennessee 
 and Missouri shortly afterward, I relieved Alexander as Chief 
 of Staff and assigned him to the command of Upton's second 
 brigade, as a special reward for his distinguished services dur- 
 ing the Hood campaign. In referring to this assignment I 
 mentioned him in my next official report " as a young officer of 
 courage and ability." Of course to let him go was a great 
 deprivation to me, but I felt that our greatest need at that 
 time was competent general officers, and that it would be un- 
 just to keep him on staff duty, when there was a brigade which 
 might be given to him. He accepted it at once, and immedi- 
 ately set about preparing his brigade, under the direction of the 
 distinguished Division commander, for the spring campaign then 
 near at hand. He constructed a model camp, in which both 
 men and horses were well sheltered, and properly supplied with 
 everything necessary to comfort and efficiency. He personally 
 instructed his officers and men most thoroughly in all their 
 duties, and when the weather, the streams and the roads were 
 such that the Corps could move, he and his brigade were in 
 first-class condition. 
 
 The campaign into central Alabama and Georgia began on 
 the 22d day of March, 1865, and the line of march through 
 Russellville and Mount Hope, although divergent at first, lay in 
 the direction of Jasper, where the columns reunited, and near 
 which they forded the west fork of the Black Warrior River. 
 This operation was not only a perilous one, but required the 
 
84 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 greatest celerity on the part of all concerned in it. Alexander 
 had the advance, and as the weather was threatening, and a rise 
 of only a foot, or at the most eighteen inches, would render the 
 passage impossible, he lost no time in getting across. The river 
 was two hundred and fifty yards wide, and the ford a rocky and 
 dangerous one, but in view of the fact that the country west of 
 it was poor and desolate, and therefore unable to support a force 
 of 1 2,000 cavalry longer than a day or two, delay would have 
 been fatal to us. Both Upton, and his two brigade command- 
 ers, Winslow and Alexander, displayed the greatest intelligence 
 and interest in the task before them, and especially in getting 
 forward to Elyton and the Cahaba River, which they knew 
 they would also have to cross before they could see their way 
 clearly to Selma, the objective point of the campaign. They 
 found a small force of the enemy at Elyton, but brushing it out 
 of the way pushed forward to the railroad bridge spanning the 
 Cahaba near Hillsboro. Pausing only long enough for Wins- 
 low to plank it over for the horses and wagons, they marched 
 rapidly toward Montevallo, the two brigades so directed as to 
 destroy the Bibb, the Red Mountain, the Central and the 
 Columbiana Iron Works, the Cahaba Rolling Mill, five collieries 
 and much property of infinite value to the Confederacy. On 
 reaching Montevallo, Upton halted to give the other divisions 
 time to close up, and at the word resumed the advance, Alex- 
 ander in front. Roddy's Division and Crossland's brigade of 
 Forrest's Cavalry confronted him in line of battle just beyond 
 the town, but without delaying to skirmish, Alexander, who 
 
CHARGES THE ENEMY A T MONTEVALLO. 85 
 
 had personally reconnoitered the enemy's position, led his 
 brigade to the charge, broke the rebel line, and drove 
 them with a rush from the field in confusion. The charge 
 was a beautiful one, and the pursuit which followed was main- 
 tained by both Alexander and Winslow till long after dark, 
 and resulted in the capture of many prisoners, and much loose 
 material, which the flying enemy was compelled to abandon. 
 
 The enemy, consisting of Roddy's Division, Armstrong's 
 and Crossland's brigades, a battalion of three hundred infantry, 
 and a battery of four guns, under Forrest in person, was next 
 encountered in a strong position on the north bank of Bogler's 
 Creek, near Ebenezer Church. Our troops were moving on 
 two roads, Upton's Division to the left and Long's to the right. 
 The latter was the first to attack, which it did with great 
 vigor. Alexander's horsemen had the advance of Upton's 
 Division, and when within three miles of the church, heard 
 the firing and cheers of Long's men, and led by their gal- 
 lant commander, pushed forward at the trot till they found 
 themselves also in the presence of the enemy. Alexander 
 taking in the situation at a glance, hastily deployed his bri- 
 gade, mostly on the right of the road, with the intention of 
 connecting with Long's left, and as soon as he got his disposi- 
 tions completed pushed forward his line of dismounted men. 
 In a few minutes, although the resistance was determined 
 and the position was an admirable one for defense, it was car- 
 ried by a gallant charge, and the rebels were again completely 
 routed. Alexander's brigade captured two field guns and about 
 
86 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 two hundred prisoners, while General Long's Division cap- 
 tured another gun. Winslow's brigade passed at once to the 
 front in pursuit, but could not again bring the rebels to a 
 stand. 
 
 The Corps bivouacked that night at Plantersville, nine- 
 teen miles north of Selma, and bright and early the next 
 morning, April 2d, pushed forward, Upton's Division by the 
 Range-line road, to the immediate vicinity of the city, which 
 was known to be strongly fortified. We had already obtained 
 a complete plan of the works, and of the surrounding country, 
 and had arranged to make our principal attack on the left with 
 Long's Division, while Upton with a dismounted force should 
 move through a swamp covering the right center of the enemy's 
 works, and this general plan was adhered to, but the movement 
 of Long's assaulting force was precipitated by an attack in the 
 rear from Chalmers' Division which was trying to force its 
 way into the city. This compelled Long to move against 
 the enemy's fortifications without waiting for Upton to reach 
 the ground he had selected, or for the single shot from one of 
 the batteries, which was to be considered as a signal for both 
 to advance at once to the attack. The assaults were not 
 therefore simultaneous, but fortunately* both were successful. 
 The fighting continued till late in the night ; such of the 
 enemy as had not been captured, fled by the two roads which it 
 had been impossible for our troops to cover, or swam the 
 Alabama River. Alexander, with a part of his brigade, pur- 
 sued Forrest, who, with a remnant of his command, had 
 
PASSAGE OF THE ALABAMA RIVER. 87 
 
 escaped by the Burnsville road, till long after midnight, and 
 captured four field-guns and many prisoners. 
 
 The next morning at daylight Upton, with the greater part 
 of his Division, marched out for the purpose of driving Chal- 
 mers to the west side of the Cahaba, to open communication 
 with McCook, who had been sent against Jackson, in the direc- 
 tion of Centreville, and in conjunction with him to bring in the 
 train which had been left behind. After three days absence, dur- 
 ing which he marched over a hundred miles, Upton returned, 
 bringing McCook and the train with him. He went at once into 
 camp and busied himself with preparing his division for the 
 further operations which he knew were near at hand. While 
 Winslow, who had been assigned to the command of the town, 
 was engaged in destroying the military and naval establish- 
 ments and stores, which we found there, and which constituted 
 the last general depot of the Confederate power, Generals Up- 
 ton and Alexander gave their personal assistance to my staff in 
 the construction of the pontoons and other material for a float- 
 ing bridge across the Alabama River at that place. So swift 
 and deep was the river, and it was rising so rapidly, that the 
 bridge was swept away three times. 
 
 General Alexander, who had obtained a small boat, which 
 was rowed by a crew of the icth Missouri Cavalry, was en- 
 gaged in trying to protect the bridge from drift logs which 
 were being brought down by the flood, was overturned and 
 narrowly escaped with his life, but was seriously injured. His 
 boat was caught between a great tree and the anchor ropes of 
 
88 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 the bridge, and turned bottom-side up. He was pitched out 
 and disappeared under the surface of the swiftly flowing stream. 
 Being a strong swimmer, however, he soon came to the top, 
 and by a few vigorous strokes brought himself to the bow of 
 one of the pontoons, which he seized with both hands, but just 
 as he began to lift himself from the water the upper part of 
 his body was caught by the butt of the drifting log and crushed 
 against the bow of the boat till his ribs cracked audibly. I was 
 standing on the bridge, within twenty feet of him, and seeing 
 his terrible peril had directed the pontoniers with their spike 
 poles to fend off the log, and they promptly did their best, but 
 by its great weight and the strong current it was borne irresist- 
 ibly onward, and in spite of all they could do it seemed to me that 
 it must certainly crush the life out of its struggling and almost 
 helpless victim. Fortunately, however, his hold was not broken, 
 and this, added to the fact that the anchor ropes and the efforts 
 of the men had in some degree overcome the momentum of 
 the floating log, saved his life at the expense of several broken 
 ribs, and a badly bruised chest and back. The log swinging 
 out of the way, he was lifted into the pontoon and carried 
 ashore in a fainting condition. 
 
 The column moved that day in the direction of Montgom- 
 ery, and being unable to mount his horse, Alexander, with 
 much unhappiness, took his place in an ambulance and accom- 
 panied his brigade, without giving up the command. After 
 a few days, although still stiff and sore, he left the ambu- 
 lance and returned to his horse. By the time we reached 
 
THE CAPTURE OF COLUMBUS. 89 
 
 Columbus, which was captured after night, on the i6th of 
 April, Alexander had sufficiently recovered to lead the advance 
 and perform full duty. He participated in the brilliant opera- 
 tions, by which the fortifications covering that important city 
 were taken and our crossing of the Chattahoochie was secured. 
 Winslow and Noble, of Upton's First Brigade, accompanied by 
 Upton himself, led the assault, and Alexander with his own 
 brigade, the gallant Benteen of the loth Missouri Cavalry in 
 the lead, followed it up, secured the bridges, gathered up the 
 prisoners and trophies, and made good the brilliant victory 
 which his comrades had gained. The steadiness, activity, and, 
 above all, the careful preparation which he made for every 
 emergency that could arise, during this campaign, and particu- 
 larly during the night attack upon Columbus, gave Upton, who 
 was hims-elf an incomparable soldier, the liveliest satisfaction, 
 and he lost no opportunity to extol the merits of Alexander 
 and Winslow, his brigade commanders, and of their officers 
 and men. He had served in the Army of the Potomac from 
 the beginning of the War till the battle of Winchester, taking 
 a most conspicuous part in all its operations, but he frequently 
 declared to me that he never saw a better division than the 
 one with which he made the campaign through Alabama and 
 Georgia. He looked upon Alexander as an ideal cavalry 
 officer, and frequently declared him to be equal to any com- 
 mand which the fortunes of War might bring to him. In his 
 enthusiasm over the many excellencies of his Division, and the 
 great advantages of night-fighting, he used to say that he could 
 
90 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 go anywhere in the Confederacy and capture any works his 
 men could clamber over undefended. But unfortunately for 
 him and them, however fortunately for the country, the War 
 was over. There were yet several long and rapid marches to 
 be made, which carried them through Macon to Atlanta and 
 Augusta, but the fighting was happily at an end. When they 
 arrived at Augusta the Confederate chieftains, pursued by 
 General Palmer (of Johnston's Division of the Cavalry Corps), 
 who had entered South Carolina from East Tennessee, were 
 endeavoring to escape through Georgia to the Southern 
 sea-coast where they hoped to find refuge on board a Con- 
 federate cruiser. In anticipation of some such purpose as 
 this, Alexander had already asked for and obtained permission 
 to send his Acting Inspector-General, Lieutenant Yoeman, an 
 enterprising young officer, with a party of twenty men, dis- 
 guised in rebel uniforms, north-eastward into South Carolina, 
 for the purpose of getting timely information of Davis's move- 
 ments, and if possible joining his party. If successful in carry- 
 ing out his plan, he hoped an opportunity might present itself 
 by which he could seize Davis and bring him into our lines 
 as a prisoner of war. Alexander seconded his Inspector's 
 bold undertaking most heartily, and the troopers, after a long 
 and rapid ride, came into the neighborhood of the fugitive 
 chieftain, and in the confusion and excitement joined his heter- 
 ogeneous cavalcade without attracting suspicion to themselves. 
 They sent several couriers through to General Upton, with 
 information as to the movements of Davis and his escort, 
 
THE CAPTURE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS. 91 
 
 which was promptly transmitted to me, and, with what I had 
 obtained from other sources, enabled me to so dispose of other 
 parts of the Corps as to insure the capture of the party which 
 we were all so anxiously looking for. But so vigilant and 
 strong were the escort until after it had entered Georgia, that 
 Yoeman and his party dared not undertake to carry out the 
 last and boldest part of his plan ; and hence neither he nor his 
 chief had the satisfaction of becoming the actual captor of the 
 Confederate President, although they contributed greatly, by 
 the timely and accurate information they sent in, to his capture 
 by others. Alexander, with his headquarters at Atlanta, 
 scouted all through Northern Georgia, with which he had 
 become entirely familiar during the campaign of the year 
 before. He sent patrols and scouting parties as far north as 
 Dalton and as far west as the Alabama line, and by his sleep- 
 less activity and vigilance, not only effectually cut off all 
 retreat to the West through that portion of the State, but kept 
 me constantly informed of every circumstance which he 
 thought could be of the slightest assistance in directing the 
 movements of detachments in other parts of the State. 
 
 Immediately after the Confederate chief was captured at 
 Irwinville, on the loth of May, the scattered detachments were 
 drawn in, and for a few weeks were engaged in paroling the 
 rebel soldiers who were returning home in great numbers, and 
 then came the order to muster out and disband the Army, 
 which had overthrown the Confederacy and re-established the 
 Union under the Constitution and laws. Upton's Division, 
 
9 2 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 after Winslow's brigade had rebuilt the railroad from Atlanta 
 to Dalton, was ordered to Edgefield, Tennessee, and mustered 
 out, and this put an end to Alexander's career as a brigade 
 commander. 
 
 For his part in this successful campaign Alexander was 
 strongly recommended by General Upton and myself for 
 promotion to the full grade of Brigadier-General of Volunteers, 
 and the promotion would doubtless have been promptly and 
 cheerfully made had the War continued. As it was, General 
 Grant had conferred upon him shortly afterward the brevet of 
 Colonel in the Regular Army for " gallantry and military skill 
 at the capture of Selma," and of Brigadier-General for " dis- 
 tinguished skill and gallantry in the cavalry engagements at 
 Ebenezer Church and Columbus, Georgia, and for steadfast 
 devotion to duty in the field during the War." Immedi- 
 ately after his brigade was mustered out, he proceeded to 
 Knoxville, in East Tennessee, and took temporary duty on 
 the staff of General Stoneman, his old chief. He was joined 
 here by his young wife, and for a few months during the 
 period of reconstruction enjoyed the happiness and rest he 
 had so fully won by years of toil and " steadfast devotion to 
 duty in the field." 
 
 Their life in Knoxville was always a sunny memory to 
 Alexander and his wife. Their friend, Colonel Keogh, who 
 was also on General Stoneman's staff, insisted that they should 
 take possession of the cottage in which he was living, and 
 with another young officer, made his home with them as long 
 
SERVICES IN EAST TENNESSEE. 93 
 
 as the headquarters remained at Knoxville. It was a primitive 
 establishment, abounding more in the luxuries than in the 
 comforts of life, but they found endless amusement in riding, 
 driving, hunting quail, which abounded in the country, 
 rowing on the Holston, and still greater pleasure in the 
 companionship of their old friends, General and Mrs. Stone- 
 man, and many others that visited them. 
 
 General Upton was stationed at Sweetwater, twenty-five 
 miles below Knoxville, and every week came up to spend 
 a day and night with Alexander, and discuss some weighty 
 point in tactics, a subject which was then engrossing all his 
 attention. Their affection for each other increased with con- 
 stant intercourse. Upton's marriage, three years later, with 
 Mrs. Alexander's sister, drew them still closer, and allied 
 them to each other in the bonds of an indissoluble brother- 
 hood. 
 
 Among those who visited them at their home in Knoxville, 
 soon after their arrival, was an officer of the Southern Army, 
 Colonel R. A. Alston, of Atlanta, Ga., whose tragic fate a few 
 years later was so widely lamented. He was a gentleman of 
 pleasing manners, and a soldier who had fought gallantly and 
 lost everything for the Southern cause, but now frankly con- 
 fessed himself "well whipped," and as ready to stand by the 
 Union as the best of us. He gave such a distressing account 
 of the destitution in the vicinity of Atlanta, caused by the 
 ravages of War, that Alexander hastened to do what he could 
 to relieve the immediate necessities of his unhappy country- 
 
94 ANDREW JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 men. He wrote to his friends in New York, and soon suc- 
 ceeded in raising a thousand dollars, which was sent for distri- 
 bution to Colonel Alston's father-in-law, Mr. Howard, living in 
 De Kalb County, Georgia. This sum of money, coming at 
 a time when it was so much needed, although comparatively 
 small, saved an immense amount of suffering, and fortunately, 
 it was soon followed by larger contributions from the North, 
 which enabled the inhabitants to subsist until a crop could be 
 raised. 
 
IV. 
 
 TN March, 1866, Alexander, having returned to his proper 
 -- rank in the Regular Army, joined his regiment, the 3d 
 U. S. Cavalry, at Little Rock, Arkansas. He was then, simply, 
 Captain of G troop, but without showing the slightest disdain 
 for the small command which had now fallen to his lot, he 
 cheerfully gave his whole time to the duty of getting his troop 
 into the highest possible state of discipline. In May the regi- 
 ment received its orders to march to New Mexico, and pro- 
 ceeded at once to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where it encamped for 
 a couple of weeks. Here Mrs. Alexander joined her husband, 
 and accompanied him during the remainder of his long and 
 toilsome journey. 
 
 They left Fort Smith the ist of June and arrived at Fort 
 Union, New Mexico, by the middle of August. This was a 
 novel experience for Mrs. Alexander. She took very kindly to 
 camp-life, was a good horsewoman and well mounted, and the 
 march through the Indian Territory and over the rolling 
 prairies of northern Texas was full of adventure and delight 
 
96 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 to her. The country was at that time an unbroken wilderness, 
 filled with every variety of game, countless herds of buffalo and 
 an occasional band of wild horses, consequently both Alexander 
 and his wife always looked back upon this beginning of their 
 nomadic life with none but pleasant recollections. 
 
 Upon arriving at Fort Union Alexander was ordered with 
 his own troop and two companies of colored (volunteer) 
 infantry to establish a new post in southern Colorado, on the 
 head-waters of the Arkansas, and immediately proceeded to the 
 Cuchara, where he was joined by Colonel St. Vrain and Gen. 
 Kit Carson, who had been sent to assist in choosing a site for 
 the new post. A plateau at the foot of the Spanish Peaks was 
 selected, and the command moved to that place without delay. 
 
 Soon after arriving there he had the pleasure of a visit from 
 General Sherman, who was traveling through that remote region 
 on a tour of inspection. Alexander and his wife were warm 
 friends and admirers of General Sherman, and they greatly 
 enjoyed his flying visit to their mountain home. They were 
 living under canvas at the time, but the hospital tent, used for a 
 sitting-room, was provided with a rudely-constructed fire-place, 
 and the keen mountain air was tempered by a glowing fire of 
 pine knots. Here all the officers gathered in the evening, and 
 listened with delight to General Sherman's brilliant reminis- 
 cences of his adventures by flood and field, which Alexander 
 adroitly drew forth. During this visit the General decided that 
 there was no necessity for a post at this point, and that the 
 troops should be removed to Fort Garland. 
 
FIGHT WITH KANIATZE' S BAND. 97 
 
 While Alexander was in camp near the Spanish Peaks he 
 received promotion to a majority in the 8th Cavalry, one of the 
 new regiments in the re-organized Army, but obtained permis- 
 sion to delay joining until spring. 
 
 Early in October very serious troubles broke out between 
 the Ute Indians and the citizens of Trinidad, on the Purga- 
 toire River, and Alexander was called upon to defend the 
 settlement. Taking G troop he rode over to Trinidad and 
 had an interview with the hostile Indians, Kaniatze's band of 
 Utes, who had been robbing the settlement. In reply to 
 Alexander's remonstrances Kaniatze said that "the land was 
 his, and when his children were hungry he would take food for 
 them to eat." Alexander exerted himself strenuously, but did 
 did not succeed in bringing the Indians to terms, and as 
 Kaniatze declared his intention of fighting, the General had 
 "boots and saddles" sounded at once, and went toward the 
 camp at a gallop. Upon arriving in sight of the Indians, 
 he saw about fifty of them attacking Gutierez's ranch, which 
 was bravely defended. He at once attacked, routed and pur- 
 sued the Indians, fighting for several hours till his ammunition 
 gave out, when he fell back to a good position, and encamped 
 for the night. The Indians left thirteen men dead on the field, 
 and continued their flight up the Purgatoire in great haste. 
 As soon as a fresh supply of ammunition could be obtained, 
 Alexander resumed the pursuit of the Indians, who, in the 
 meantime, had continued their devastations through the 
 country, and had appeared at Camp Stevens on the 6th 
 
98 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 of October, where they had attempted to surprise the cattle 
 herd, but were driven off by the soldiers left in camp, 
 with the loss of one cavalryman shot through the lungs by an 
 arrow. 
 
 Alexander continued his pursuit until the savages were 
 driven into Fort Garland, where they surrendered to Kit Car- 
 son, who was in command of that post, which was garrisoned 
 by part of a regiment of New Mexican volunteers, of which 
 he was the Lieutenant-Colonel. In acknowledgment of Alex- 
 ander's services, General Hancock issued the following order : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE MISSOURI, 
 
 GENERAL ORDERS ) FORT LEAVENWORTH, KAN., DEC. 12, 1866. 
 
 No. 31. f 
 
 The conduct of Brevet-Col. A. J. Alexander, Capt. 3d U. S. Cavalry, 
 who, in October last, with a company of that regiment and a detachment 
 of volunteer citizens, promptly attacked and punished Kaniatze's band of 
 Monache Utes, killing and wounding a number and driving the remainder, 
 by a rapid pursuit into the mountains in the vicinity of Fort Garland, is 
 approved and commended. 
 
 This band of Indians had committed devastations upon the settlements 
 along the Purgatory, in Colorado Territory, and had acted in a hostile man- 
 ner when called upon to account for their conduct. 
 
 The success which attended Col. Alexander's operations against these 
 Indians illustrates the fact that promptness to determine, bravery in the 
 encounter, and vigor in the pursuit in War insure success ; whereas a more 
 timid policy might invite disaffection, which would require large forces and 
 extended operations to suppress. 
 
 The sound discretion of Brevet Brig.-Gen. Carson, who, in the absence 
 of detailed instructions, arranged a peace with the beaten Indians, when 
 honor had been satisfied and they had been sufficiently punished, is highly 
 commended. 
 
 Indian Wars are not to be desired by us. They retard the progress of a 
 country and impoverish the public purse ; but when they do occur it is 
 
FIGHT WITH KANIATZES BAND. 99 
 
 believed that such vigorous action as was displayed by Col. Alexander, in 
 his encounter with the Monache Utes, Oct. 3, 1866, tends to prevent the 
 spread of disaffection, and furnishes the best security against the recurrence 
 of such Wars. 
 
 By command of MAJ.-GEN. HANCOCK. 
 
 CHAUNCEY MCK.EEVER, 
 
 Asst. Adjt.-Gen. 
 
 While Alexander was in pursuit of the Indians the camp 
 at the Spanish Peaks had been broken up, the colored troops 
 ordered to Fort Union, and the remainder of the garrison 
 marched across the mountains to Fort Garland, a rather haz- 
 ardous trip, as the mountains were full of the retreating 
 Indians. As already mentioned, Gen. Kit Carson was in com- 
 mand of Fort Garland, and welcomed the new-comers with all 
 the warm-hearted hospitality of an old " mountain man." 
 
 The following extract is from a letter written by Mrs. 
 Alexander at the time : 
 
 A few days after we arrived at Fort Garland I rode out with Kit Carson 
 to the encampment of the Utes, about five miles from the Post, and which 
 contained about a thousand wild Indians, among them Kaniatze's band, 
 who had come in to make peace. Andrew did not go with us, as he was 
 still supposed to be " mad," and had to remain in dignified seclusion. 
 
 I rode my mare Zaidee, and she excited the enthusiastic admiration of 
 Gen. Carson, who declared before we returned home that she was the finest 
 animal he had ever seen. Before we reached the encampment we were met 
 by Ouray and some of his band. He was very handsomely dressed in buck- 
 skin richly ornamented with beads, his hands and feet were small and well- 
 shaped, and his moccasins fitted him perfectly. He is not only a very fine- 
 looking Indian, but honest and reliable, and it was greatly owing to his 
 influence with the tribe that the late outbreak did not involve all the Ute 
 Nation. He has visited Washington and New York, and fully realizes the 
 
ioo ANDREW JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 power and number of the whites, and receives $80 a month from the Gov- 
 ernment as interpreter. 
 
 Ouray was accompanied by his wife, a gayly-dressed and handsome 
 squaw, astride of a fine horse. Ouray and his party escorted us to their 
 camp, and, as I glanced back, I was struck with the picturesque scene we 
 presented. Old Kit and I took the lead, and were immediately followed by 
 several hunters dressed in buckskin, fringed and embroidered. Then came 
 the Indians, whooping to their ponies as they went, and arrayed in buck- 
 skin, bright blankets, beads and feathers, their bows and arrows slung on 
 their backs in cases and quivers of deer-skin, and their long rifles in front 
 of them. 
 
 The Indians were encamped on a large plain ; their teepees were not of 
 skins like the prairie Indians, but were made of drilling stretched over 
 lodge-poles, and looking very like Sibley tents. The lodge of each warrior 
 was indicated by his spear, firmly planted in the ground before the entrance, 
 ornamented with eagle's feathers, and with his decorated shield of buffalo 
 hide and head-dress of feathers hanging from it. We went to Ouray's 
 lodge, and he politely asked me in, but I declined to dismount, and then his 
 squaw brought me a cup of water, which I drank. A crowd of Indians 
 gathered round me, steadily and fixedly gazing at me ; many of them had red 
 blankets, which they wore in the Mexican fashion, hiding all but their eyes. 
 
 We rode around the camp, and passed one teepee where somebody was 
 sick, and they were " making medicine." . The tent was filled with Indians, 
 principally squaws and papooses. They sat around in a circle, droning a 
 low chant, and knocking on some metal. 
 
 Kit Carson was received by all these savages with a wonderful amount 
 of cordiality, their stolid faces brightened into smiles, and they held out 
 their hands with the salutation, " Como le va! " or the Indian " how." 
 
 I saw him shake hands with a squaw who seemed delighted with the at- 
 tention. He told me that when he went on his last campaign against the 
 Navajoes with his Mexican regiment, he was accompanied by fifty Utes, and 
 this old squaw went with them. 
 
 It is forty years this fall since Kit Carson first came to this country, and 
 he is now one of the old land-marks. He was greatly pleased at my going 
 with him to the Indian camp, and told Andrew there were not many who 
 would have cared to take such a ride. 
 
INSPECTS THE POSTS OF NEW MEXICO. 101 
 
 Alexander relieved Gen. Carson in the command of Fort 
 Garland, and remained here until December, when he was 
 ordered to, Fort Union, New Mexico, and two weeks later 
 he marched with his troop from Fort Union to Fort Bascom > 
 and remained in command of that Post until the spring 
 of 1867, scouting after Indians frequently, and on one occasion 
 capturing several of the hostile Navajoes. While at Bascom 
 Alexander received orders from General Grant to make a spe- 
 cial inspection of all the posts in New Mexico, and report to 
 him in person at Washington. This inspection required two 
 months of constant traveling, and much hard labor, but by the 
 middle of May he had accomplished it, and started on his 
 journey Eastward, accompanied by his wife. This second trip 
 across the plains was comparatively short, as they were but 
 three weeks in going by ambulance from Fort Union to Fort 
 Riley, then the terminus of the railroad. 
 
 In January, 1868, Alexander started to rejoin his regiment, 
 the 8th Cavalry, which was stationed in Arizona. As this was 
 before the overland railroad was built, he and his wife sailed 
 from New York for the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in San 
 Francisco the last of January, after having been twenty-five 
 days at sea. From the latter place they proceeded by steamer 
 to Wilmington and Drum Barracks, and from this point started 
 in an ambulance for Fort McDowell. Their route lay across 
 the California and Yuma deserts, and only those who have ex- 
 perienced it can conceive of the discomforts of their long jour- 
 ney of four weeks. 
 
102 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 On arriving at Fort McDowell, Alexander, in compliance 
 with General McDowell's orders, assumed command of the 
 post and of the sub-district of the Verde. He held this com- 
 mand for nearly two years, and was engaged almost constantly 
 in scouting after the Apaches. He had in his employment 
 fifty Pima Indians as scouts, who always accompanied him on 
 his expeditions. Mounted on their ponies with their long 
 black hair, braided and tied with red flannel, reaching below 
 their waists, with their war-paint and trappings, they were 
 always a picturesque addition to the scouting party which left 
 Fort McDowell with every full moon. The Pima and Maricopa 
 Indians, being in the district of the Verde, were under Alex- 
 ander's care, and he shortly acquired great influence over them. 
 They*are a fine race of Indians, of excellent physique and good 
 disposition, and have always lived on friendly terms with the 
 white people. When Alexander, at his own request, was re- 
 lieved from the command of the Verde district, they were greatly 
 distressed, and drew up a petition to have him sent back to 
 them. The following letter shows the feeling with which they 
 
 regarded his departure : 
 
 PIMA VILLAGES, A. T., August 10, 1869. 
 
 A. J. ALEXANDER, Brevet Brig.-General U. S. A. 
 
 General : Antonio Azul, Chief of the Pima Indians, called on us this 
 morning, and stated that hearing you were about to leave Camp McDowell 
 for the Prescott District, he desired, on behalf of himself and tribe, to return 
 you thanks for the many kindnesses they have received at your hands since 
 your arrival among them. He said that both himself and tribe would always 
 be at your service, and expressed many regrets that you could not remain 
 with them longer. 
 
SERVING IN ARIZONA. 103 
 
 The foregoing was written at the request of Antonio Azul, who came 
 here expressly to have his feelings transmitted to yourself. We could not 
 do full justice to him, as we have unfortunately forgotten many of his 
 requests, and more particularly the phraseology. Such as it is, we take 
 pleasure in sending it. 
 
 We also desire to express our regrets for your departure, and shall look 
 back with pleasure upon our past intercourse. 
 
 Wishing you a safe and pleasant trip to your new post of duty, we 
 remain, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 WM. BICHARD & Co. 
 
 In August, 1869, Alexander was ordered to Camp Hualapai, 
 fifty miles from Prescott, in the northern part of Arizona, a 
 move which was most welcome, as the extreme heat and un- 
 healthiness of Fort McDowell was beginning to tell on the 
 health of Mrs. Alexander and their little daughter Emily, born 
 at Fort McDowell the previous summer. The journey was a 
 trying one to take in the middle of August, as it began with a 
 dry march of eighty miles across a sandy desert. It was ac- 
 complished successfully, however, by sending a relay ahead 
 with water in casks, and leaving Camp McDowell at noon one 
 day, and traveling all night, they arrived at Wickenburg about 
 noon the next day, having accomplished the eighty miles in 
 twenty-four hours. From this point the journey was compara- 
 tively easy. 
 
 Alexander remained in command of Camp Hualapai until 
 the 8th Cavalry was ordered across the mountains to New 
 Mexico, in the summer of 1870. On arriving in New Mexico, 
 he went East on leave of absence, spending the summer and 
 
104 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 fall at his home at Willowbrook, and returning in December 
 to Fort Bayard, New Mexico, where he remained in com- 
 mand until February, 1871, when he was ordered to Fort Gar- 
 land, Colorado. 
 
 The following extract is from a letter written from Fort 
 Garland in March, 1871, to his wife : 
 
 " We had quite a time the other night. Mrs. Thomson, 
 who lives on the Trinchera, about two miles from here, sent 
 me word that her two little boys, one 5 and the other 3 years 
 old, had wandered off about dark and got lost. I immediately 
 started with about forty men, and after a terribly anxious 
 search, found the little fellows about one o'clock, A. M., nearly 
 frozen, but stoutly traveling around in the brush. Old Tom 
 Tobin and I trailed them up, and my back has been nearly 
 broken since from leaning over so much. One little fellow said 
 he saw the lanterns and fires, but thought it was the ' Coyotes' 
 eyes after him.' I took my overcoat and wrapped him up in 
 it, and made him drink out of a vial of brandy I had brought 
 for the purpose. After coughing a little he said : ' I think I 
 got too much.' You should have heard the soldiers cheer and 
 roar like madmen. I think I should have joined them but 
 somehow there was something in my throat, for I could not 
 help thinking of you and my little three-year old. I put the 
 brave little fellows in the arms of their frantic mother, and left 
 her in her great joy." 
 
 In the summer of 1871 Alexander was ordered to New 
 York by the Secretary of War, as a member of a Board which 
 
ON BOARD TO REVISE ARMY REGULA TIONS. 105 
 
 was convened to revise the Army Regulations. After being 
 on this duty several months, the Board was ordered to Wash- 
 ington in January, 1872, and continued its labors in that city 
 until May, when Alexander was relieved at his own request, 
 and returned to Fort Garland, Colorado, with his family. He 
 remained there in command until the fall of 1873, when he 
 was ordered to Fort Union, and commanded this post until 
 the summer of 1874. 
 
 He scouted all this summer and fall in the south-eastern 
 part of the Territory, after hostile Indians, displaying at all 
 times the greatest patience and persistency in following up 
 the treacherous and shifty savages, returning to the command 
 of the post in November. 
 
 In the winter he obtained a short leave to go East after his 
 family, and brought them back with him to Fort Union in 
 February, and here, a few days after his return, he met 
 with the great grief of his life in the death of his little 
 daughter Emily. She was a most fascinating child, endowed 
 with great beauty and genius, and her father lavished upon 
 her the passionate devotion of his intense nature. 
 
 In June, 1875, the 8th Cavalry was ordered to Texas. 
 Alexander took command of the regiment, and marched with it 
 to Fort Brown, on the lower Rio Grande, arriving there in 
 October, after a long and fatiguing journey. In January he 
 was joined by his wife and infant son, born at Willowbrook, 
 November 2, 1875, and named "Upton," after his old friend 
 and brother-in-law, General Upton. During the next four 
 
io6 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 years Alexander served almost continuously at Fort Brown 
 and Ringgold Barracks. He was in command of the latter 
 post from September, 1876, until the spring of 1877, when he 
 was ordered back to Fort Brown. While at Ringgold he had 
 the pleasure of a visit from General Upton, who had just 
 returned from his tour around the world, and hastened to 
 Texas to make the acquaintance of his little namesake. 
 
 Alexander made many friends during his stay in Texas, 
 both on the north and south side of the Rio Grande. Diaz, 
 who was then in exile, was entertained at his house at Fort 
 Brown, and when he afterward became President of Mexico 
 was anxious to reciprocate the hospitality. Alexander received 
 many little souvenirs from him and other Mexican gentlemen, 
 which had been sent in acknowledgment of his courtesy, 
 among other things an enormous Mexican sombrero, of gray 
 felt, embroidered with silver, which had been made for him in 
 Zacatecas, and with his initials worked in it in silver bullion. 
 I mention these things to show the cordial relations that Alex- 
 ander was able to maintain on the frontier, not only with the 
 settlers, who always admired and respected him, but also with 
 the Mexicans. 
 
 In March, 1879, Alexander was promoted to be Lieuten- 
 ant-Colonel of the 2d Cavalry, which was then stationed in 
 Montana. He went East on six months' leave, which he spent 
 at Willowbrook, and in October, 1879, started with his family 
 for Fort Ellis, Montana. This was a two weeks' journey, in- 
 cluding a week's camping out, as Fort Ellis was then a long 
 
SR VI NG IN MO NT A NA. 107 
 
 distance from the railroad. Alexander remained in command 
 of this post for two years, and made many pleasant friends in 
 his new regiment and also in the neighboring town of Bozeman. 
 Up to this time all his life on the frontier had been spent in 
 warm climates, and the change from the extreme southern lati- 
 tude of Fort Brown to the rigor of a mountain winter was a se- 
 vere one. Montana had one great attraction for him, however, 
 in its fine hunting. He had always been an enthusiastic and 
 most successful sportsman, and had hunted and fished not only 
 in Kentucky, Virginia and Missouri, but all through the Rocky 
 Mountains, had killed grizzlies in Colorado and buffalo on the 
 plains, and now in Montana he found himself in the home of 
 the elk and mountain sheep. He had a fine pack of hounds, 
 and, when his official occupations would permit, reverted once 
 more to his old amusement, making many fine bags, and enjoy- 
 ing the sport highly. 
 
 In the summer of 1881 he was transferred to the com- 
 mand of Fort Custer, the headquarters of his regiment. It 
 was while he was at this post that his health first began 
 to give way. He suffered from severe attacks of malarial 
 rheumatism, and in July, 1866, was so ill that he had to be 
 carried on a mattress to the railroad, thirty miles distant, and 
 taken East. He never joined his regiment again. His health 
 was improved for awhile by a change to the sea-shore, aided by 
 the most skillful medical treatment, and careful nursing, but the 
 following winter he was taken dangerously ill with pneumonia, 
 attended with serious complications, and for many months his 
 
io8 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 life was despaired of. In the fall of 1884, however, his strong 
 constitution rallied, and he once more regained an appearance 
 of health, although his disease was only kept at bay by vigi- 
 lant care. 
 
 He spent the winter of 1884-5 at St. Augustine, Florida, 
 with his wife and son, and was once more able to enjoy his old 
 pastimes of sailing and fishing, and the companionship of old 
 friends and relatives residing there. 
 
 In the spring of 1885 an effort was made by Alexander's 
 friends to have him appointed Deputy Governor of the Sol- 
 diers' Home, near Washington, as they felt that his long and 
 arduous services entitled him to such consideration. Among 
 the many letters forwarded to the Secretary of War with the 
 application, was the following, addressed to Mrs. Alexander : 
 
 ST. Louis, Mo., April 19, 1885. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. ALEXANDER : I have your letter of the i6th, and as I 
 feel it somewhat indelicate for me to meddle with Army details, will answer 
 you direct, with the understanding that you can use the letter with the Sec- 
 retary of War, or any other person who can aid you in your purpose to have 
 Colonel Alexander detailed as Deputy Governor of the Soldiers' Home at 
 Washington, or other like duty at the East. Colonel Alexander was on 
 General Frank P. Blair's Staff as A. D. C, or Inspector-General [really as 
 Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff], during the campaign of 
 1864-5, which brought him under my personal observation daily. He was 
 then in the prime of manhood, very handsome, a splendid horseman, bold 
 and enterprising, of infinite use to his chief, and rendered conspicuous serv- 
 ice, for which he was repeatedly brevetted. 
 
 On the re-organization after the War, he was retained as Major of the 
 8th Cavalry, and I shall ever remember him and you when I sought refuge in 
 your camp at the Spanish Peaks to repair my broken wagon, and when you 
 both escorted me to Francisco's Ranch in a driving snow-storm. I don't 
 
ON SICK-LEA VE. 109 
 
 know of any field officer of cavalry who was so constantly on duty with his 
 men in all the Indian Wars from 1866 to 1880 from Texas and New Mexico 
 up to the sources of the Missouri. That he now suffers from malarial rheu- 
 matism is the natural and necessary consequence of these many years of 
 exposure to the cold and storms of the Rocky Mountains, and it is but fair 
 and just that both he and you should enjoy a period of comfort and repose. 
 Without, therefore, intending to prefer one over any other of the many 
 most worthy applicants for the post you name, I assure you that it will give 
 me special pleasure to learn that the Colonel has been chosen as Deputy 
 Governor of the beautiful Soldiers' Home at Washington. With great 
 
 respect, your friend, 
 
 W. T. SHERMAN. 
 
 Notwithstanding this high indorsement the detail was 
 not made, but it was, perhaps, just as well, for Alexander's 
 health was never afterward such as would have justified him in 
 undertaking even the agreeable duties that it would have 
 brought upon him. 
 
 As stated by General Sherman in the letter just quoted, it 
 is absolutely true that no field officer of cavalry had been more 
 "constantly on duty with his men in all the Indial^Wars from 
 1866 to 1880, from Texas, New Mexico [and Arizona], up to 
 the sources of the Missouri River," and that his health should 
 have broken down was " the natural and necessary cause of 
 these many years of exposure to the hardships and storms of 
 the Rocky Mountains." He was naturally a man of splendid 
 physique and great toughness of constitution, but withal it was 
 not strange that twenty-five years of such service as he had 
 gone through should prove to be too much for even him. 
 
 Soon after his return from Florida he was ordered before a 
 Board, of which General Hancock was president, for the usual 
 
1 10 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 examination, and on July 3d, 1885, having been found unfit for 
 further active duty, was placed upon the Retired List. 
 
 He' accepted his new lot, not with resignation, but with a 
 fair degree of happiness and contentment. The old home at 
 Willowbrook, which had been in his wife's family for 70 years, 
 and around which a thousand happy memories clustered, was 
 very dear to him. He used often to say it was the only place 
 for which he had formed a local attachment since he left his 
 birthplace in Kentucky, and he and General Upton had agreed 
 to spend the evening of life together there, when 30 years' 
 service should enable them to retire. 
 
 In the house built by Governor Throop on the shore of 
 Lake Owasco, a few hundred yards from the old homestead, 
 he had spent his first days of married life, a brief happiness 
 enjoyed in an interval of an arduous campaign, and in after- 
 years he had revisited here again on leave of absence. After 
 his return ^om Florida he established himself permanently at 
 Willowbrook, and entered with enthusiasm into country life, 
 which had always had strong attractions for him. He took 
 great interest in his roses, strawberries and vegetables, as well 
 as in the improvement of the extensive grounds, which show 
 many marks of his fine taste and judicious care. The beauti- 
 ful lake was a never-failing source of pleasure to him, whether 
 he was rowing on its blue waters, fishing in their transparent 
 depths, or watching the sunset reflected therein. His fond- 
 ness for life in the open air still clung to him, and though he 
 was no longer able to mount his horse, he keenly enjoyed his 
 
LIFE AT WILLOWBROOK. in 
 
 daily drives to Auburn, three miles and a half distant, or 
 through the beautiful rolling country which surrounds the lake. 
 
 For two summers he had the happiness of having his 
 mother and sisters with him in his home, and welcomed 
 there some of his old Army friends, who did not wonder at 
 his laughing declaration that the Army and the frontier had 
 no longer any charm for him. He bore the trials of ill-health 
 with the same cheerful courage that had carried him through 
 many a hard campaign, and his patience and self-forgetfulness 
 could only be understood by those who knew the depths of his 
 religious feeling, and his perfect confidence that his Heavenly 
 Father had ordered all things well. 
 
 Notwithstanding his retirement Alexander continued to 
 take a lively interest in the improvement of the Military Serv- 
 ice, and, even after his entire separation from Army life, partic- 
 ipated in the discussions which had that end in view. He was 
 a vigorous and accurate writer as well as a clear and intelligent 
 thinker, and when the President and Secretary of War in 1886 
 urged that a more rigid system of examination for promotion 
 should be adopted by Congress, he wrote as follows to the 
 editor of the Army and Navy Journal : 
 
 It 'appears to me that sufficient attention has not been given in the pub- 
 lic press to the recommendations of the President and Secretary of War in 
 regard to the examination of officers for promotion. It is one of the most 
 important measures that has been brought to the attention of Congress for 
 the benefit of the Army. 
 
 It is obvious to every one that our field officers are becoming superan- 
 nuated and unfit for the active duties of their profession. 
 
1 12 ANDRE W JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 In all the operations against the Apaches the field officers were conspic- 
 uous by their absence. Although squadrons and battalions were in the 
 field under captains and lieutenants, and in one case where a battalion of 
 infantry had to change station involving a march of some 150 miles, the field 
 officer in command was unable to accompany them and the movement was 
 made under a lieutenant. Twenty years ago no movement of troops, scout- 
 ing or otherwise, occurred without the presence of a field officer when the 
 size of the command justified, and in every regiment officers of this grade 
 were found capable of the most arduous duties. Now the reverse is the case, 
 and it is safe to say that at least three-fifths of our field officers are physically 
 unfit for any except post duty. In fact, our Army is gradually getting into 
 the condition of the English Army in India before the great Sepoy mutiny, 
 as described by Hodson, of Hodson's Horse. In one of his letters, speak- 
 ing of the system of the Indian Army, this distinguished officer says : " At 
 the age at which officers become colonels and majors, not one in fifty is able 
 to stand the wear and tear of Indian service. They become still more worn in 
 mind than in body. All elasticity is gone ; all energy and enterprise worn 
 out ; they become, after a fortnight's campaign, a burden to themselves, an 
 annoyance to those under them and a terror to every one but the enemy. 
 The officer who commanded the cavalry brigade which so disgraced the 
 Service at Chillianwalla, was not able to mount a horse without the assist- 
 ance of two men. A brigadier of infantry, under whom I served during the 
 then most critical days of the late War, could not see his regiment, when I 
 led his horse by the bridle, until its nose touched the bayonets, and then he 
 said faintly, ' Pray, which way are the men facing, Mr. Hodson ? ' ' 
 
 Now there are cavalry officers in our Service who, if mounted, would 
 need more than two men to hold them on at a gallop, and a ten-mile march 
 would put them in hospital. The infantry arm of the Service is, if anything, 
 in worse condition. Many of the " old captains " who served during the 
 War of Secession, are in the same category. This state of affairs is growing 
 worse from year to year, and it is time for the authorities to take steps to 
 stop it. No officer of right feeling could object to an examination by a 
 competent Board, and if he did it would \3tprima facie evidence that he was 
 unfit for his position. No government on earth is so liberal toward its offi- 
 cers and soldiers, and it is therefore entitled to the best service. The 
 increase of the retired list would be but temporary, as in the course of nat- 
 
FAILING STRENGTH. 113 
 
 ure these broken-down veterans would soon disappear. The impulse given 
 to promotion would add new life to the Army, and make the younger ele- 
 ment ambitious and studious. Let the young men, therefore, bestir them- 
 selves with their friends in Congress to have this measure pushed through 
 at the present session. 
 
 When he, with his own incomparable constitution, had 
 failed he knew that others of his own age had not withstood 
 the ravages of time and continuous service, and that it was 
 but the part of common prudence to require a rigid examina- 
 tion as a condition precedent to every promotion. He was a 
 great student of books, and although his disease gradually 
 grew worse and at times threatened to carry him off, he held 
 on bravely and would not surrender till the last moment. He 
 read much, and in the well-stored library at Willowbrook found 
 a constant source of instruction and contentment, which en- 
 dured to within a few weeks of the end. 
 
 And notwithstanding his enjoyment of what seemed to be 
 fairly good health for the last two years, the end was near at 
 hand. After passing through the winter of 1886-7, without 
 serious inconvenience, he was attacked by what at first was 
 thought to be nothing worse than a severe cold. His wife with 
 anxious and unremitting care did everything in her power to 
 nurse back his failing strength, but finding her efforts unavailing, 
 under advice of the family physician she prevailed upon him to 
 go to the sea-coast in hopes that the change would benefit 
 him. Yielding implicitly to her judgment, but apparently more 
 with a desire to please her than with any real confidence in 
 the efficacy of sea air in his case, he consented to make the 
 
1 14 ANDREW JON A THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 proposed visit, and accordingly in April went with her to At- 
 lantic City. He stopped on the way, at Philadelphia, to see his 
 sister and her family, and spent a week of happiness if not of 
 immunity from pain among them. Then, as if anxious to still 
 further relieve his wife's growing solicitude, he completed the 
 journey, but after a few days at the seaside it became evident, 
 in spite of a temporary rally, that he was growing worse instead 
 of better. The heart of the dying soldier longed for the 
 sacred spot around which clustered the dearest memories of 
 his earthly pilgrimage, and he gladly acquiesced in his 
 wife's suggestion that they should return home, his physi- 
 cians believing that he was able to make the journey. 
 With an overpowering consciousness that the fatal day she 
 had so fought against and dreaded for years was now 'close 
 at hand, the stricken wife gave up her last hope for her 
 husband's life, and, with a cheerful countenance but a sink- 
 ing heart, set out with him for Willowbrook. Calling her 
 brother to her assistance they succeeded in getting the invalid 
 to New York with but little discomfort ; but he passed -a 
 restless night at the hotel which sheltered him. The next 
 day they resumed their journey by the Hudson River and 
 New York Central Railroad, and had nearly reached Utica, 
 when it was apparent that a great change was at hand. The 
 General had borne the fatigue of traveling with unwonted cheer- 
 fulness but had early shown signs of unusual difficulty of breath- 
 ing. The car window was opened and his wife and brother 
 fanned him continuously, but the difficulty did not pass away. 
 
DEATH. - 115 
 
 She then asked him if he did not think it would be best to stop 
 over night at Utica. He replied, gravely and calmly, " Matters 
 are getting very serious with me I am dying ! " He rose to 
 his feet, and standing at his full height, strove again to inflate 
 his lungs, but with only partial success. After a few brief 
 moments he resumed his seat beside his wife, and resting his 
 head gently upon her shoulder, with one long sigh, and with- 
 out a struggle, the gallant soldier calmly yielded up his life 
 to Him who gave it. 
 
 Hero-like he met death almost upon his feet, bravely 
 yet hopelessly contending with him for the mastery, but when 
 it was evident that his time had come, yielding to the relentless 
 victor serenely and peacefully as becomes the Christian gentle- 
 man. 
 
 His death occurred on the fourth day of May, 1887, in the 
 fifty-fourth year of his age. 
 
 Thus one by one the heroes of the great conflict pass away, 
 and they were heroes such as the world has rarely seen. Look- 
 ing back upon the noble life which I have so inadequately de- 
 scribed, I cannot recall one selfish thought nor one ungener- 
 ous deed which could be charged against it. It was as pure 
 and beautiful as any woman's, and yet as brave and chivalric as 
 any paladin's. It followed everywhere, and through every 
 danger the lofty banner of Duty duty to country, to all man- 
 kind, and to God ! Its patriotism knew no section, and was 
 limited by no State lines, but was as broad and unconfined as 
 the continent itself. Political sophistry and sectional pride 
 
 
1 16 ANDREW JONA THAN ALEXANDER. 
 
 were alike powerless to disturb by so much as a hair's breadth 
 the simple faith which regarded the whole Union as its own, 
 and knew no North, no South, no East, no West. With no 
 bitterness whatever against those who differed from him in 
 regard to the cause or issue of the great conflict,- but with kind- 
 ness and charity to all as occasion offered, it is but just to add 
 that Alexander cheerfully gave from the first the whole of his 
 mind, strength and character to the support of the National 
 Unity, and had it been required upon the field of battle, there 
 can be no shadow of doubt, would have given his life also, with 
 no regret except that he had but one to lay down, in the great 
 emergency which had come upon his beloved country. 
 
 Gentle and considerate in social life, faithful and devoted 
 in friendship, calm and deliberate in council, vigilant and in- 
 dustrious in camp and on the march, bold and resolute in 
 action, he was a model husband and father, a model citizen 
 and a model soldier. Fortunately such characters cannot in 
 God's providence altogether die or be forgotten. And so long 
 as we continue to value them while living, and to cherish, in 
 any broad and generous way, their memory and example after 
 death, so long may we hope that our liberties will remain un- 
 diminished and our country united, independent and invincible. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS 
 OF THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. 
 
 DURING the campaign ending with the battle of Fredericksburg I 
 was attached to the staff of the Third Army Corps, commanded by 
 General Stoneman. General Stoneman had distinguished himself 
 before the War as one of the best cavalry officers and most enterprising 
 Indian fighters in the " Old Army." When the War broke out and Twiggs 
 surrendered the troops in Texas to the rebels, Stoneman, who was stationed 
 in southern Texas, refused to obey the traitorous order, seized shipping and 
 transported his squadron of cavalry to the North. When McClellan came 
 East he made him his Chief of Cavalry, and charged him with the organiza- 
 tion of this Arm of the Service. In this position he had various important 
 commands during the Peninsular campaign, which he conducted with so 
 much ability that after the battle of Antietam he was intrusted with the 
 command of the Third Army Corps, which had been recently held by Gen- 
 eral Heintzelman. 
 
 Two days before the battle of Fredericksburg our Corps was ordered to 
 be in readiness to follow and support the Second Corps, which was to cross 
 the Rappahannock, opposite the town, and it was therefore brought up close 
 to the river, concealed, however, by the hills, and held in readiness to move 
 at a moment's notice. On the i2th of December over 100 guns were placed 
 in position, and commenced a bombardment of the town and right bank of 
 the river for the purpose of covering the construction of the pontoon 
 
ii8 APPENDIX. 
 
 bridges. A body of the enemy, however, clung obstinately to the bank of 
 the river, and prevented the laying of the pontoons until late in the after- 
 noon. During the bombardment I spent some hours on the river bank 
 watching the result, and was astonished to see what little effect this storm 
 of shot and shell had on the town. I expected to see the houses melt away 
 at once before such a terrible fire, but after hours had elapsed and the artil- 
 lerymen were exhausted with their tremendous labors but little damage was 
 apparent. There was a large clock in a steeple in the center of the town 
 which tolled out the hours and half hours as quietly as if it only regulated 
 the occupations of peaceful life, and one young lieutenant of artillery, in 
 the battery where I spent most of the day, was so exasperated at its monot- 
 onous sound that he fired a shot at it every time it struck, without effect, 
 however, as I heard the solemn peal long after the firing had ceased, and 
 the worn-out soldiers were quietly sleeping beside the smoking cannon. 
 During the day the enemy's guns had maintained a grim silence, but at 
 dusk, when our firing had ceased, they commenced on Marye's Heights, and, 
 continuing along the line to their right, the flash of the guns in the gather- 
 ing darkness, as battery after battery opened fire, showed us the formidable 
 character of their position. 
 
 After the Second Corps had crossed, Whipple's Division of the Third 
 Corps was left as a reserve to the Second Corps, and the remainder of the 
 Third was ordered to report to General Franklin, who had made an easy 
 crossing on the left. The roads were bad and encumbered with trains, etc., 
 making the march slow and tedious, so that we did not reach the river at 
 Franklin's Crossing until about daylight. Here we were halted to get break- 
 fast and await further orders. About 9 or 10 o'clock Meade's Division of the 
 Pennsylvania Reserves was ordered forward. The battle-field in our front 
 was an open plain for about a mile from the river to some hills, which were 
 covered with dense woods and underbrush. A railroad skirted the timber 
 along the foot of these hills and a sunken road lay midway. The enemy 
 had taken position in the woods .behind the railroad, so that they were 
 entirely concealed from view. 
 
 Meade moved steadily across the field and entered the woods, when we 
 heard a heavy fire which told us that the battle had opened. An order came 
 to send a Division to support Meade. Birney's Division of our Corps imme- 
 diately crossed the river, and as the head of it reached the sunken road and 
 turned to the left the enemy opened some batteries on it, causing, however, 
 
FREDERICKSB URG. 119 
 
 little loss. When we reached the rear of Meade's Division it was engaged 
 in a most desperate struggle, judging from the crash of musketry and 
 cheers of the combatants. But little artillery was used on account of the 
 denseness of the woods. Very soon wounded men and stragglers appeared 
 in the field in rapidly increasing numbers, and then the whole of Meade's 
 Division came back. The men appeared sullen and disheartened, as if they 
 had been badly treated and sacrificed by being sent against overpowering 
 numbers without support. One large, fine-looking young man was coming 
 back in a leisurely way. When I rode up in front of him I said : " Halt ! 
 my man ! this is the safest place ! Rally right here in this sunken road ! " 
 He looked at me contemptuously, and, taking his musket by the butt, flung 
 it thirty feet from him, exclaiming : " I've had enough of this sort of d d 
 business," and walked on toward the river bank. 
 
 The enemy followed up Meade's Division closely until our front was cleared 
 of the retiring forces when the rebels were, I should think, not over seventy 
 or eighty yards distant, and were much disordered by their eager pursuit.* 
 Two batteries of " Napoleons " had been placed about the center of our 
 line, and when the command was given to " commence firing " these, with 
 the entire line, opened with a vigor I have never seen surpassed. I was near 
 the batteries, and I think they must have fired without sponging, as there ap- 
 peared to be no interval between the roar of the guns. After a few minutes 
 the firing was stopped, and when the smoke cleared the enemy had disap- 
 peared, except the wounded and one regiment of Georgia troops which had 
 gotten into a ditch in our front, and could not retreat. These were taken 
 prisoners, and Ward's brigade sent to follow up the retiring rebels. It suc- 
 
 * An English volunteer officer in a recent volume, entitled " The Campaign of Fredericks- 
 burg," says: " Burnside's indecision and vacillation led Franklin in turn to resort to half 
 measures. This was seen when Meade, with less than 3000 men in his division, actually 
 broke the Confederate line at some too feebly guarded woods in Jackson's front, and his 
 regiments found themselves in the heart of the enemy's position. At this crisis of the fight, 
 when every available battalion should have been hurried to the front and poured through the 
 still open gap, when a determined rush of the whole fighting line and supports would have 
 probably driven Hill and Early back upon the reserves, Franklin, incapable of a bold offen- 
 sive, made no effort to assist his lieutenant, and, despite the urgent appeal for succor, left the 
 gallant Pennsylvanians to their fate. If Birney had responded to Meade's cry for help, and, 
 with Newton on his right, swept across the open, and, overwhelming Lane and Archer, had 
 pressed on to the military road ; if Doubleday, abandoning the passive defensive, had threat- 
 ened Stewart and induced Jackson to detach to the aid of the cavalry a portion of his reserve, 
 all might have yet been well." Ed. Weekly Press. 
 
120 APPENDIX. 
 
 ceeded in reaching the railroad, but was speedily forced back by overpowering 
 numbers. Sickles' Division had meantime been brought across and formed 
 on the right of Birney. Sickles' right connected with the Sixth, and Birney's 
 left with Doubleday's Division, which made a curve back to the north and 
 rested on the river. This was the last severe fighting of Franklin's com- 
 mand, although heavy skirmishing continued until dark, with one slight 
 attack on the Sixth Corps. The command lay in an open field exposed to 
 a heavy artillery fire from the right and left, both of which almost enfiladed 
 the line. 
 
 When the line had been firmly established, General Stoneman sent me 
 to report the fact to General Franklin. Franklin's headquarters were in a 
 grove of large trees in rear of the Bernard House, and I found him, General 
 W. F. Smith and General James A. Hardie seated and standing behind a 
 large tree near the south-west angle of the grove. Bayard's division of cav- 
 alry and Gibson's battery of horse artillery were standing in the open ground 
 a short distance to the west. I dismounted some twenty or thirty yards 
 from General Franklin, and walked to where he was sitting on an old door. 
 Before reaching him, I saw General Bayard standing against a tree, talking 
 with several officers. I reported to General Franklin and was told to wait for 
 orders. I stepped back to where General Bayard was, and found him talk- 
 ing to Captain Gibson and Major Falls, of the ist Pennsylvania Cavalry. A 
 number of staff officers were lying behind the tree against which Bayard 
 was leaning, some holding their horses. 
 
 I had known Bayard for some years quite intimately, having been with 
 him in St. Louis a good deal when he was recovering from a wound in the 
 face, given by an Indian in a fight on the plains, and therefore stopped to 
 converse with him. The enemy could see from the heights beyond the rail- 
 road the arrival and departure of numerous staff officers and messengers, 
 and rightly judged the location of the general headquarters. Although a 
 hospital flag was flying outside the grove, they occasionally searched it with 
 their artillery. While I was talking to Bayard they opened a very severe 
 fire from several batteries, and the shot and shell poured into the grove. 
 Although entirely exposed, Bayard seemed to tak no notice of the deadly 
 missiles, but continued chatting as gayly as if in no danger. Captain (now 
 General) Gibson invited us to walk over to his battery and get some lunch, 
 and the others accepted, but I told him I was waiting orders and could not 
 leave, but would get behind the big tree to our front, as I saw that every one 
 
FREDERICKSBURG. 121 
 
 else was covered. I turned and had walked toward the tree a rod or two. 
 when a shot struck near me that ricocheted and struck the tree, crushing 
 Bayard's hip in its passage. It also cut General Gibson's saber sling and 
 tore his coat. I turned at once and saw several persons down. Running 
 back I saw that no one was seriously injured except General Bayard, who 
 was immediately carried to the Bernard House, where he expired the next 
 day. Bayard was an ideal cavalry officer ; tall, slight and long-limbed, he 
 sat a horse a^s if part of the animal. He had all the youthful elan of Custer, 
 with the thoughtful steadiness of John Buford. His dark, flashing eye and 
 dashing appearance gave courage and spirit to his men, and his genial 
 manner made him an universal favorite. He was one of the youngest brigadier- 
 generals in the Army, and had won his stars by conspicuous service in the 
 presence of the enemy. His friends and admirers had marked out for him 
 a most brilliant career, which had already commenced, and which was cut 
 short in so unfortunate a manner. The shock rendered him delirious, but 
 his soldierly spirit continued to marshal his forces in imagination until 
 death intervened. 
 
 After waiting at Franklin's headquarters some hours I was relieved, and 
 returned to General Stoneman on the field in front of the sunken road. The 
 men and officers were lying in the open field without any other protection 
 than the irregularities produced by former cultivation. I saw only one 
 earthwork thrown up, which I was informed was General Doubleday's head- 
 quarters. 
 
 Late in the afternoon I was on some duty at the extreme right of the 
 skirmish line where it joined that of the Sixth Corps, when a force of the 
 enemy, amounting to about a brigade, came out of the woods to my right at 
 quick time, firing as they advanced. It was the first time I had ever seen 
 an attack of the kind and as I was quite near and not under fire I saw it to 
 great advantage. 
 
 As the line burst from the woods they commenced firing and cheering, 
 and I observed by the puffs of smoke that at least two-thirds of the muskets 
 were fired at an angle of sixty or seventy degrees, making the fire harmless. 
 The attack was easily repulsed by the skirmish line, which (I think) con- 
 sisted of the Vermont Brigade. After this all became quiet. Fortunately 
 the night was unusually warm, as we had to bivouac without fire or shelter. 
 I for one slept profoundly with no other bedding than an India rubber 
 blanket and overcoat. 
 
122 APPENDIX. 
 
 Before daylight the next morning we were again under arms expecting 
 to renew the struggle, but to our surprise the skirmishers continued silent. 
 In a short time it was reported that the skirmishers had without consultation 
 with their superiors agreed to suspend hostilities until their dead and 
 wounded comrades, who lay between the lines, were removed. They at 
 once mingled in the most amicable way and began their humane office. As 
 such a truce was contrary to all the rules of War the officers from both sides 
 rushed among them, making frantic exertions to restore ord^r. But the 
 men's warlike instincts had no doubt been softened by the groans and cries 
 of their wounded comrades during the stillness of the long night, and no 
 efforts to bring about a renewal of hostilities could prevail until the wounded 
 and dead were removed. It was therefore deemed best by the proper 
 authorities to establish a flag of truce for this purpose. Regular details 
 were then made and the removal speedily accomplished, the men on either 
 side mingling in the most friendly manner for the accomplishment of their 
 sad duties. I was one of a number of officers with the flags, midway 
 between the hostile armies, when General J. E. B. Stuart came up. I had 
 known General Stuart slightly before the War and recalled myself to him. 
 He was then at the height of his military reputation, and was the object of 
 curiosity and admiration to the Confederate as well as Union troops, as 
 could be seen by the groups of men of both Armies who stopped and 
 stared at him. He had a very martial appearance, being dressed in a new 
 suit of bluish-gray cloth with the gaudy insignia of his rank on sleeves and 
 collar, a pair of handsome, new horseman's boots, with gold spurs attached, 
 and a broad-brimmed, soft felt hat, from which drooped a long, rather seedy 
 ostrich plume. While talking he rested on, and played with, a very hand- 
 some long French saber. Altogether he was a very striking figure, to which 
 his great reputation as a cavalry officer added much interest. After a short 
 conversation and a few questions about some of his old friends he moved 
 away. 
 
 The wreck of the previous day's battle having been removed the flags of 
 truce were withdrawn and we resumed our hostile attitude, but to the best 
 of my recollection no shots were fired during the day in front of Franklin's 
 command. The i4th of December was a long, weary day of expectancy. 
 Occasional bursts of cannon-firing at Fredericksburg, accompanied by drop- 
 ping musket-shots, kept us on the alert, but finally, as darkness came, we 
 received orders to recross the river. The night was dark starlight. It 
 
FREDERICKSBURG. 123 
 
 became my duty to withdraw a portion of the skirmish line. This was a 
 very delicate affair, as the safety of the command depended upon the 
 secrecy of the movement. Soon after dark I visited all the officers of our 
 skirmishers and directed them to meet me at a designated point, after notify- 
 ing their men of the anticipated movements and giving them the necessary 
 cautions. After we assembled we waited with a good deal of trepidation 
 for the final orders to withdraw, as the least indiscretion might have brought 
 a heavy force upon us and possible disaster. Finally the orders came and 
 we quietly separated, giving the men directions to find the best way back 
 to the bridges and join their regiments as they could. As I was riding 
 slowly back toward the river, I saw a dark line in front of me which I 
 mistook for one of the roads made by the artillery, but upon urging my 
 horse up to it I found it was a column of infantry, moving as silently as 
 ghosts. No rattling of canteens, bayonets, scabbards or arms indicated 
 their presence. It was almost daylight before I crossed the bridge, and 
 a few minutes after the bridges were taken up. I reached our camp, which 
 had not been moved to the right bank of the river, and found a cup of 
 hot coffee and some breakfast, which were taken as gratefully as any meal 
 I ever ate. As the daylight advanced a party of us rode out into the 
 open ground near the river to see what the enemy was doing. As soon 
 as they found out that we had recrossed the river they sent a heavy 
 skirmish line down to the bank, capturing a few stragglers who had over- 
 slept themselves. One battery, seeing our group of horsemen, opened a 
 spiteful fire upon us, upon which we galloped into the woods and turned 
 our backs finally and cheerfully upon the bloody battle-field of Fredericks- 
 
 A. J. ALEXANDER. 
 
 AUBURN, N. Y. 
 
124 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF ATLANTA. 
 
 The great Army with which Sherman captured Atlanta consisted of three 
 smaller armies, as they were called, viz., the Army of the Cumberland, com- 
 manded by General Thomas, the Army of the Tennessee, General McPherson, 
 and the Army of the Ohio, General Schofield. The first aggregated about 
 60,000 men, the second about 30,000, and the last about 18,000. This anoma- 
 lous divison of his Army by so great a soldier as Sherman has been a subject 
 of comment by military men up to this time. But whatever may have 
 been the reasons, it acted unfairly in the general movements of his command. 
 The "Army of the Cumberland" had the lethargic qualities of its great com- 
 mander, and was too large and heavy to make flank movements, therefore it 
 moved solemnly down the railroad and held the line of communications. The 
 Army of the Ohio (which consisted of only one Corps) was too small, and 
 consequently most of the active work fell upon the Army of the Tennessee, 
 which was sent from right to left as the exigencies of the campaign demanded. 
 The soldiers (in their emphatic language) called it " Sherman's whip-cracker," 
 for whenever he swung his whip the Army of the Tennessee " popped." In 
 plain language, whenever he made one of his many flank movements he used 
 the Army of the Tennesse, which besides its mobile size was composed of the 
 elite of the men of the North-west, was Sherman's old Army, and was officered 
 by men with whom he was familiar, and in whom he placed the implicit con- 
 fidence justified by their conduct in many severe campaigns and hard-fought 
 battles. The narrative which is told below follows the fortunes of this Army, as 
 the writer was attached to the staff of the Seventeenth Army Corps, command- 
 ed by Major-General Frank P. Blair. It is noticeable that the great majority 
 of the trained professional officers and soldiers, both North and South, were 
 drawn to the Eastern Armies, where the capitals of the contending powers 
 were the objective points ; whereas, in the great West, the troops, as a rule, 
 had to learn the trade of War by experience and hard knocks. Thus while 
 corps, divisions and brigades in the East were commanded by West Pointers 
 or Mexican veterans, those in the West were dependent on the citizen sol- 
 diery, most of whom had never seen even a " cornstalk muster." 
 
 This condition of affairs developed an unexpected array of talent, and 
 speedily brought forward men competent for large commands. Among the 
 
ATLANTA. 125 
 
 most prominent of the citizen soldiers was Major-General Frank P. Blair, of 
 Missouri. General Blair was a native of Kentucky, but became a resident 
 of St, Louis in early manhood, when he entered upon the profession of the 
 law, and soon attained the prominence which his talents justified. 
 
 General Grant spoke of him as a " full-fledged Brigadier-General," and 
 Sherman as a " Political General," but while they were quietly engaged in 
 civil pursuits General Blair was organizing and drilling companies, regi- 
 ments and brigades, arming many of them at his own expense, and preserv- 
 ing a magnificent empire to our Government. He became Colonel of the 
 ist Missouri Volunteers, was soon made Brigadier and Major-General for dis- 
 tinguished services in battle, and finally Commander of the Seventeenth Army 
 Corps. General Blair had no millitary ambition save to do his duty to his 
 country in the position where his ability was of the most avail, and always 
 mourned over the ravages of war, and as soon as peace was established ex- 
 erted all his statesmanship to alleviate its sufferings and conciliate his late 
 enemies by all means in his power. 
 
 When Johnston made his retreat across the Chattahoochie River, the 
 Seventeenth Corps was on the extreme right at Nickajack Creek, and as usual 
 the Army of the Tennessee was ordered, after crossing the river, to the extreme 
 left, passing in rear of the other Armies. On the 2oth of July our route lay 
 through Decatur, and then south and east toward Atlanta, in order to cover the 
 left of the Fifteenth Corps. When we got within five or six miles of Atlanta, 
 we met the enemy's dismounted cavalry, which was pushed rapidly back, not 
 without some loss on both sides. On our side General Gresham was severely 
 wounded while superintending the skirmishers of his division. Darkness 
 found us in front of the extreme right of the enemy's advanced line, which 
 rested on a considerable elevation, and was as usual strongly intrenched. 
 On the morning of the 2ist, General Leggett with his Division was sent to 
 the front, and carried the enemy's redoubt in the most gallant style, charg- 
 ing up a steep hill over an open field, driving the enemy from it with heavy 
 loss, and losing on our side about 700 killed and wounded. As this hill was 
 the key to our whole line, the enemy made on the same day two determined 
 efforts to recapture it, but were each time repulsed with severe loss. The 
 Fifteenth Corps formed and connected on the right of the Seventeenth, then 
 came the Army of the Ohio, and then the Army of the Cumberland. The 
 remainder of the day was occupied in intrenching, clearing away the heavy 
 timber and cutting roads of communication. 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 One road was cut about half a mile through dense woods, immediately in 
 rear of the center of the Seventeenth Corps, to some fields, where the wagons 
 were parked. The line to be occupied was so extended that it took the 
 entire Corps, leaving no reserve. The extreme left was formed in a dense 
 wood, which prevented the pickets from seeing more than a few rods in ad- 
 vance, and as we had no cavalry the pickets had to be drawn in close to the 
 main line. The enemy had constructed a line in our front a short distance 
 in advance of the main works about Atlanta. During the night it became 
 my duty to receive the reports of the pickets and forward them to General 
 McPherson. About n o'clock these reports showed that there was an un- 
 usual restlessness in the enemy's advanced lines, which indicated some 
 movement of importance. I sent them to General McPherson, and lay 
 down fully dressed, awaiting further developments. 
 
 In a short time some one knocked at my tent-door, and upon bidding 
 him enter, I was surprised to see General McPherson. In his customary 
 polite and genial manner he apologized for disturbing me, and then com- 
 menced discussing the character of the reports I had sent him. He said he 
 was very anxious, as he was satisfied that the enemy was making some 
 unusual movement, and it was of vital importance that we should find out 
 what he was doing ; that he would like to have some reliable officer on the 
 picket line to give him frequent reports. I told him if he would select any 
 officer he would be sent at once. He replied in the apologetic way in which 
 he generally gave disagreeable orders to his subordinates, and which made 
 him so universally beloved : " If it is not too hard on you, I would like you 
 to go." I immediately ordered my horse and rode to the front. Upon 
 arriving on the picket line 1 sent some reliable men to crawl as close to the 
 enemy's line as possible and reconnoiter. They returned shortly with the 
 information that the enemy had withdrawn from their advanced line into 
 the main works. Our skirmish line was at once advanced, and took posses- 
 sion of the enemy's rifle-pits. These were so close to the main works of 
 Atlanta that we could distinctly hear the necessary bustle which always 
 accompanies the movements of large bodies of men, with the occasional 
 rumble of an artillery carriage. 
 
 Just before daylight I crawled out with one of the pickets to an oak 
 tree on the brow of a hill overlooking the works of Atlanta, and within easy 
 rifle-shot of them. As the day advanced we could see the troops of the 
 enemy massed behind the works, the infantry lying down with their accouter- 
 
ATLANTA. 127 
 
 ments on and muskets in hand, and the artillery harnessed and ready to 
 move. As we looked, regiments, brigades and batteries moved back toward 
 Atlanta, and I became convinced that they were evacuating the city. When 
 the day became well advanced I crept back to the main line, when I met 
 Generals McPherson, Blair and Giles Smith, consulting together. General 
 McPherson questioned me at length about my observations, and then re- 
 marked to the other officers : " I don't know what Hood is doing, but I 
 have ordered up the Sixteenth Corps to support the left." He then turned 
 round and thanked me, asking what I was going to do. I replied that I was 
 going to get breakfast and a fresh horse. He said : " You had better get 
 some sleep, too." I told him I thought we would have too busy a day and 
 left him. This was the last time I ever saw him. I rode back to the head- 
 quarters, which had not been moved since the night of the 2oth, and was 
 about two miles to the left rear of our position. While I was eating break- 
 fast a mounted man came up in great haste to inform me that the enemy's 
 cavalry had attacked our field hospital, about half a mile east of the head- 
 quarters. I took about twenty mounted infantry which were at the head- 
 quarters and galloped over to the hospital, sending word at the same time 
 to General Blair to ask for a regiment to protect the hospital until the men 
 could be removed. He immediately complied with the request. Upon ap- 
 proaching the hospital I found the guard and nurses skirmishing with a 
 small rebel force, which, on our approach, retired by a country road leading 
 toward Atlanta. I followed them a short distance and met the regiment 
 which General Blair had sent. I asked the colonel to send a smay picket 
 on the road the enemy had taken and cover the hospital until the wounded 
 were removed. In a few minutes the picket of a dozen men came running 
 back into the field where we were. I rode up and asked the sergeant what 
 was the matter. He replied that there were " too many Johnnies " on that 
 road for him. I at once galloped down the road, and, upon turning a bend 
 in it, saw that it was entirely filled with infantry and artillery standing at 
 ease. I wheeled my horse, and, escaping the few shots that were fired at 
 me, rode back to the regiment, told the colonel to get his men out as soon 
 as he could, and started to report what I had seen. As soon as I came 
 upon the ridge parallel to the road I had just left I passed the rear of the 
 Sixteenth Corps, which was marching in column toward our left. While I 
 was passing, the enemy (Bates' Division of Hardee's Corps) appeared en 
 their left flank, and was immediately sharply engaged. As I reached the 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 brow of the hill overlooking the valley where the trains were parked, I saw 
 General Blair and staff about to enter the woods on the farther side. Just 
 then there was a rattle of musketry in the woods in front of him, which 
 caused him to turn to the right, in the direction of Leggett's Hill, where I 
 joined him a few minutes later. This was the volley that proved fatal to 
 General McPherson, who was at the time the most promising officer of his 
 age in the Army. 
 
 Before atttempting a further account of this terrible struggle, a few ex- 
 planatory remarks are necessary. Hood's Army of some 70,000 veteran 
 soldiers was divided into three corps d'arm/e of nearly equal strength. This 
 force was supplemented by 20,000 to 25,000 Georgia militia, who, though 
 not considered useful in field operations, became useful defenders of the 
 formidable works behind which they were placed. Hood had failed in his 
 desperate attack on the Army of the Cumberland at Peach Tree Creek on 
 the 2oth and determined to risk all on his great flank movement on the 22d. 
 Therefore, leaving one of his Corps, with the militia facing the Armies of 
 the Cumberland and Ohio, he moved the other two Corps to the left of 
 Sherman's Army, with the intention of placing one Corps in rear of the Army 
 of the Tennessee and another in front, so that a simultaneous attack, front 
 and rear, would destroy this Army, and force Sherman back to the Tennessee 
 River. 
 
 It will be seen that Hood had placed about 40,000 of his best troops 
 against less than 30,000 of Sherman's. This movement was rendered easier 
 by the fact that Sherman had scattered his cavalry over the country, de- 
 stroying railroads, thus depriving his Army of the necessary "eyes and 
 ears." It is well to observe that in our position we had not a cavalryman to 
 patrol the roads to our left, and, therefore, although every one was on the 
 alert, the enemy approached with their line of battle within musket-shot of 
 our slight intrenchments before the alarm was given. Hood's plan was 
 a masterly one and deserved success, but he did not calculate on the oppor- 
 tune arrival of the Sixteenth Army Corps, and the desperate fighting quali- 
 ties of the Army of the Tennessee. 
 
 When I joined General Blair on " Leggett's Hill," the enemy's skirmish- 
 ers, after killing General McPherson, appeared in the edge of the woods to 
 our left and rear. Their main line, pivoting on our left, came up by detach- 
 ments, and engaged our men, who had jumped over the works with their 
 backs to Atlanta. The enemy were much disordered by their passage 
 
ATLANTA. 129 
 
 through the dense forest, and were received by such a withering fire at close 
 quarters that they recoiled. Just as they disappeared in the woods another 
 force of the enemy were observed approaching from Atlanta. Our men im- 
 mediately sprang over the works and received this new attack with the same 
 cheerful alacrity. Four other assaults were made in the same way, each 
 one failing disastrously to the Confederates, because from the nature of the 
 ground they could not co-operate. 
 
 After the first crash of the battle General Blair, myself and some others, 
 tried to ride to our left to see what was going on. We had not gone far 
 when we were warned by the falling of men and horses that we could not 
 proceed. We therefore returned to " Legget's Hill," and leading our horses 
 to the rear, went into the trenches. Walker's Corps of Hood's Army charged 
 our front and the commander was killed within fifty yards of our works. I 
 happened to be near General Force when he directed his Adjutant-General 
 to carry some order to the rear. Instead of proceeding by way of the 
 trenches, he started to cross the open ground immediately behind us. After 
 he had gone about twenty yards he was prostrated by a ball in the thigh. 
 General Force rushed out to his relief, and while raising him from the 
 ground, was shot through the face. After some difficulty they were both 
 brought into the trenches and sent to the rear. 
 
 General M. C. Force was one of those remarkable men that were pro- 
 duced by the War. He was a citizen of Ohio in 1861, and attained the 
 position of brigade commander by distinguished service. He was of me- 
 dium height, of fair complexion, very pale, and had one of those impassive 
 faces which show no emotion under any circumstances. These peculiarities 
 gave him the greatest control over his men, and made him one of the best 
 commanders of troops in the Army. I happened to be near him once in 
 front of Kennesaw Mowtain when a favorite aid-de-camp was killed by his 
 side, and although I knew he suffered all that a man could under the cir- 
 cumstances, his face was as unmoved as if nothing had occurred. 
 
 After several attacks the regiments to the left of " Leggett's Hill " began 
 to disintegrate and drift toward the right, where they were halted and 
 placed in available positions. In one of the attacks I saw a soldier jump on 
 the parapet of the works, fire his musket, and cheer frantically. While ex- 
 posing himself in this way, a fragment of a shell took off a part of his scalp 
 and knocked him into the ditch near me. I presumed he was dead, but a 
 few minutes afterward I saw him firing away with his musket as if nothing 
 9 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 had happened. The 45th Alabama Regiment of Confederates, commanded 
 by Colonel Lampley, was confronted in the first attack by Colonel W. W. 
 Belknap's Regiment, the i6th Iowa. The Alabama Regiment was repulsed, 
 but returned several times to the attack, until it was nearly destroyed. 
 Colonel Lampley and about twenty of his men succeeded in reaching the 
 ditch. They were summoned repeatedly to surrender, but as often replied 
 by musket-shots. Colonel Lampley was immediately opposite Colonel Bel- 
 knap. Both were large, powerful men, and equally determined. The men 
 could not raise their heads above the works without being shot or bayoneted, 
 and consequently continued the fight by thrusting their muskets over the 
 works and firing at random. Colonel Belknap was anxious to save his gal- 
 lant opponent, but every time he appeared above the works he became a 
 target for some of Lampley's men. After repeated efforts he finally suc- 
 ceeded in dragging Colonel Lampley over the works by his coat-collar, 
 whereupon the remainder of his regiment (to the number of thirteen, I 
 think) surrendered and were taken prisoners. Colonel Lampley had been 
 slightly wounded in the back, but I heard he died in prison, more from 
 chagrin than injuries. The Confederates honored the 45th Alabama by 
 burying them on the ground where they fell. 
 
 A great lull came in the combat, and I told General Blair I would go to 
 the left and see what had become of General Giles Smith, who had been 
 assigned to the Fourth Division after General Gresham was wounded. As 
 the last attack had been from the rear, I pushed my horse through an em- 
 brasure, made for a gun, and galloped to the left. Proceeding some dis- 
 tance, I found General Giles Smith sitting in a negligent attitude on his 
 horse, talking to some infantry officers. I asked him how he was " getting 
 on." He said, "We have had it pretty rough, but I think we can hold 
 them. I think we ought to be re-enforced." I to* him we didn't have a 
 man to send him and he would have to do the best he could. Just then a 
 man from the picket line toward Atlanta came running up and said, " Gen- 
 eral, they are coming." Whereupon General Smith warned his men to get 
 over the works, and passed through an embrasure to the other side. 
 
 General Smith was a typical Western man, and belonged to a fighting 
 family. His older brother, Morgan L. Smith (an ex-sergeant of the Regular 
 Army), raised the 8th Missouri Infantry, and became its colonel. After a 
 few desperate battles in the West he was made a brigadier-general, and 
 his brother Giles became colonel of the regiment. The same fortune fol- 
 
ATLANTA. 131 
 
 lowed him, and after one of the sharp campaigns in the West he was pro- 
 moted, and his brother-in-law, Coleman, became colonel of the Fighting 8th. 
 Giles Smith was about 5 feet n inches in height, and weighed perhaps 150 
 pounds ; he, had sandy hair, a bright blue eye, and always a pleasant 
 smile and a cheerful word. His negligent air was never changed in 
 battle, and no excitement could be detected except by the enlargement and 
 brilliancy of his eyes. He was just the man to hold the position, and well 
 did he sustain his own and the reputation of the gallant division which he 
 commanded. 
 
 After trying to drive our men out of the works, and failing after six 
 assaults, the enemy formed a line at right angles to ours, and by enfilading 
 with artillery drove the command down to Leggett's Hill. This point, 
 which was the key of our line, was called " Leggett's Hill " by us in honor 
 of that distinguished officer who had taken it from the enemy on the 2ist. 
 He and General Blair, with their respective staffs, had been busily engaged 
 in collecting and organizing the stragglers who drifted from the left, and 
 finding the original line untenable, formed a new line, placed at right angles 
 to the old one, the right of this new line resting on " Leggett's Hill," its left 
 reaching down into the valley in the general direction of the Sixteenth 
 Corps, which was meantime gallantly maintaining its position. An effort 
 was made to cover the men by hastily constructed breastworks, but before 
 this could be done the enemy made their last desperate effort. They came 
 out of the woods in heavy lines and advanced steadily up the gentle slope, 
 leaving the ground behind them covered with their dead and wounded. It 
 looked at one time as if nothing could withstand their constancy, but when 
 they had nearly reached our position a counter-charge was made by a 
 portion of our line, which was unprotected by works, and after a hand-to- 
 hand struggle, in which flags were taken and retaken, they were rolled back 
 into the ravine, which became a perfect slaughter pen. This substantially 
 ended the battle, although the enemy maintained a position on the hills 
 within thirty yards of our works until nearly midnight, from which point 
 they kept up a heavy fire. Finally they silently withdrew, taking most of 
 their wounded, but leaving their dead piled up in our front. 
 
 After some difficulty we found our camp and obtained some food and a 
 few hours' rest, which was much needed in our exhausted condition. Before 
 daylight of the 23d of July we were again on the line expecting another 
 attack, but as it gradually grew light we ascertained that the enemy had 
 
1 32 APPENDIX. 
 
 withdrawn within the main works of Atlanta, leaving us in possession of the 
 field strewn with all the horrible debris. 
 
 The most prolonged fighting having been in the vicinity of " Leggett's 
 Hill," there was the greatest carnage. In some places the dead of both 
 Armies were piled six and eight deep. One fair-haired boy of 1 6 or 17 years 
 lay prostrate within twenty feet of our line, his face and figure looking as if 
 he was in a gentle sleep. I could not help thinking of his mother, who 
 would never see his handsome face again. In a short time a flag of truce 
 was seen advancing from Atlanta. I was sent out to meet it at the picket 
 line, several hundred yards in advance of our works. I found it in charge 
 of a colonel of the staff, whose name I have forgotten. He desired a truce 
 for the purpose of removing the dead and wounded. As I had no authority 
 to grant it I sent an officer back to General Blair, who referred it to General 
 Logan, commanding the Army of the Tennessee in place of General Mc- 
 Pherson. While waiting for a reply the Confederate colonel asked my 
 permission to search among the dead near our lines for a relative of his. I 
 told him I cpuld not let him approach our lines, as we had been strengthen- 
 ing them. He replied with a significant smile that the precaution was un- 
 necessary, as they had seen enough of them the day before. In a few 
 minutes General Logan sent word that the truce would be granted in a 
 couple of hours. 
 
 I then ascertained that the " relative " the colonel was seeking was his 
 Corps commander, General Walker, whose body had been recognized and 
 taken within our lines. It was, I believe, promptly delivered to the officer. 
 General Sherman, I was informed, was loath to believe that the Army of the 
 Tennessee had fought two-thirds of Hood's Army the day before, but when 
 he overlooked the field during the truce he became convinced of the severity 
 of the action, and no doubt regretted that the Armies of the Cumberland 
 and Ohio had not carried the works of Atlanta during the absence of its 
 defenders. 
 
 A. J. ALEXANDER. 
 
A MORTAL COMBAT. 
 
 Some years ago I was one of a small party hunting in the Rocky Mount- 
 ains. So far our hunt had been very successful, and we had made an ideal 
 hunters' camp on a south-eastern slope of the mountains near the crest, in a 
 scrub-oak thicket which afforded us the best fuel in abundance. The dense 
 timber protected both men and animals from the cold winds, and plenty of 
 " bunch grass " made our animals comfortable. As the huge camp-fire lit 
 up the surrounding trees, there came into view carcasses of white and black- 
 tail deer, bear and mountain sheep hanging on convenient limbs. Our 
 supper had been a beautiful one consisting of such choice parts of the 
 different varieties of game as each one desired. Then came one of those 
 happy periods which only a hunter knows, when fresh logs were piled on 
 the fire, and the delicious aroma of the after-dinner pipe, floated lazily on 
 the air. Each one disposed his tired frame in the most agreeable attitude, 
 and the events of the day, and the prospects for the morrow, were pleasantly 
 discussed. 
 
 Among our party was a mountaineer who had spent many years on the 
 mountains, and had undergone all the vicissitudes of fortune incident to 
 that wild life. The question came up as to which of the savage animals 
 was most powerful. This elicited the following story from the old mount- 
 aineer. I wish I could narrate it in his own words, and give his powerful 
 picture of the scene he described, which would add much to the effect. 
 
 He said he was hunting once in the " Rockies," with an Indian as his 
 companion. They saw at a distance a buffalo on one of the foot-hills, and 
 at once commenced stalking him. As any one knows who has visited the 
 Rocky Mountains, they break off gradually to the eastward in ridges divided 
 by deep and rugged ravines or canyons. The hunters approached under 
 shelter of the ridge next to the one on which they had perceived the buffalo, 
 and when opposite him, and within easy rifle-shot, crawled slowly to the 
 crest, carrying bushes in their hands to conceal their heads. Upon reaching 
 the crest of the ridge they had a full view of the buffalo, which proved to 
 be a bull of the largest size in full flesh and vigor. 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 Their attention was at once attracted to the curious conduct of the 
 magnificent animal. His head was turned partially from them, looking 
 toward the ravine on the opposite side. He was emitting the low, bellowing 
 roar peculiar to the buffalo when excited, throwing up the dirt, and raising 
 his tail as they do when enraged. The hunters thought he was challenging 
 another buffalo, and waited to see the result. In a few moments they saw 
 an enormous grizzly bear moving slowly up to the knoll, where the buffalo 
 awaited his coming. 
 
 The bear approached cautiously, stopping every few yards to observe 
 his antagonist, whose excitement and rage seemed to increase, and whose 
 continuous muffled roar drowned all other sounds. 
 
 Finally, when the bear had arrived within a few rods of his noble enemy, 
 on the narrow bench of nearly level ground, the buffalo brought matters to 
 a crisis by lowering his gigantic head, and charging with all his strength. 
 The bear immediately raised himself on his hind legs, and, skillfully avoiding 
 the buffalo's horns, caught him around the head with his left arm, seizing 
 him at the same time by the back of his neck with his powerful jaws. Then 
 came a grand exhibition of strength, the buffalo using all his tremendous 
 power to get his horns under the bear, and free himself from the close em- 
 brace of his adversary, while the latter, clinging with his teeth and one arm, 
 used the other in an attempt to cripple the buffalo by the most terrific blows 
 on his left shoulder and side. In this tremendous struggle, they turned in a 
 circle several times, until finally the buffalo accomplished his object, and 
 threw the bear from him. 
 
 For a few moments they remained gazing at one another, evidently 
 recovering their breath, somewhat exhausted by their previous efforts. The 
 buffalo was bleeding from several wounds in the neck, and the bear from wounds 
 on his side. They both exhibited the extreme of savage anger, the buffalo 
 bellowing, tearing the earth, and shaking his great shaggy head, while the 
 bear returned his challenge, by continuous roars, showing his great teeth 
 and swinging his massive head from side to side. The buffalo brought the 
 truce to a close by a rapid charge, which the bear eluded, striking his ad- 
 versary a tremendous blow as he passed, which again brought blood. The 
 buffalo turned with the rapidity peculiar to the animal, and repeated the 
 charge several times, without effecting his object. At last they closed in 
 the final struggle, the bear clinging to the buffalo's head and shoulders, 
 while the latter maneuvered to get his horns under his formidable antago- 
 
A MORTAL COMBAT. 135 
 
 nist. Round and round they went, tearing up rocks and bushes, until the 
 buffalo succeeded in his efforts, forced the bear over the edge of the little 
 plateau, and, in the impetuosity of his charge, fell on the bear with all his 
 enormous weight, and turned a complete summersault down the steep 
 decline. 
 
 For an instant both lay still, but the buffalo soon recovered himself, 
 and staggering slowly to his feet, again faced his antagonist with un- 
 diminished resolution. The bear, however, lay quiet, breathing heavily, 
 and evidently hors du combat. 
 
 After waiting a few moments for a renewal of the attack, the buffalo 
 slowly approached his fallen enemy, and, applying his great strength, rolled 
 him over, when, finding him dead, he slowly ascended to the scene of battle 
 and proclaimed his victory by triumphant bellowing. 
 
 The white hunter raised his rifle to shoot him, but the Indian sprang 
 forward and put his hand on the rifle, and, turning it away, said, " No shoot ! 
 Big brave ! " and allowed the victor to march slowly away to seek his 
 
 comrades - A. J. ALEXANDER. 
 
 THE END. 
 
; 
 
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