THE HISTORY THE CIVIL IN THE UNITED STATES: ITS CAUSE, ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND CONCLUSION. CONTAINING FULL, IMPARTIAL AND GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF THE VARIOUS MILITARY AND NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS, WITH THE HEROIC DEEDS ACHIEVED BY ARMIES AND INDIVIDUALS, TOUCHING SCENES AND INCIDENTS IN THE CAMP, THE CABIN, THE FIELD AND THE HOSPITAL. AND BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ITS BY SAMUEL M. SCHMUCKER, LLJ). AUTHOR OF "LIVES OF THE FOUR GEORGES, KINGS OF ENGLAND," "HISTORY OF NAPOLEON III.," "ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS AND DISCOVERIES," " LIFB OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON," "HISTORY OF NICHOLAS I.," "THE CRIMEAN WAR," ETC. EEVISED AND COMPLETED BY DR. L. P. BKOCKETT, AUTHOR OF "OUR GREAT CAPTAINS," "PHILANTHROPIC RESULTS OF THE WAR," "THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ETC., ETC. Illustrated with over One Hundred and Fifty Fine Portraits of Generals Battle Scenes, Maps and Diagrams. PHILADELPHIA, CINCINNATI AND BOSTON: JONES BROTHERS & CO. CHICAGO AND ST. LOUIS: ZEIGLER, McCURDY & C 0. LOAN &TACK Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by BRADLEY & CO., In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for tho Eastern District of Pennsylvania. S. A. GEORGE. STKREOTTPER, ELECTROTY t JStt AND PRINTER, U* N. SEVENTH STREET, PHILADELPHIA. GIFT 04- This work will be beautifully illustrated with groups of the following Naval and Military Heroes, distinguished civilians^ prominent Rebels, military and civil; and will contain elegant full-page portraits of President Lincoln and Lieutenani>General Grant, besides numerous fine steel engravings of battle-scenes, etc. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. PRESIDENT LINCOLN, FRONTISPIECE. 32. GENERAL SIGEL. 2. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. 33. " FREMONT. 3. GENERAL MEADE. 34 ORD. 4. HANCOCK. 35. HUNTER. 5. " WARREN 36. SHERIDAN. 6. WRIGHT. 37. KILPATRICK. 7. "BALDY" SMITH 38. " CUSTER. 8. " SICKLES. 39. " MERRITT. 9. " HEINTZELMAN. 40. " AVERILL. 10. " SHERMAN. 41. * BUFORD. 11. " ROSECRANS. 42. " TORBERT. L2. LOGAN. 43. " THOMAS. 13. " HOWARD. 44. JEFF. C. DAVIS, 14. " SLOCUM. 45. " CURTIS. 15. " ROBERT McCOOK. 46. COX. 16. " McCLERNAND. 47. " GORDON GRANGES. 17 LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SCOTT. 48. " PALMER. 18. GENERAL McCLELLAN. 49. M WALLACE. 19. " HALLECK. 50. " GARFIELD. 20. CASEY. 61. " CAN BY. 21. " DIX. 52. " SCIIOFIELD. 22. BUELL. 53. " NEGLEY. 23. SYKES. 54. " FOSTER. 24. " SHIELDS. 55. " SEDGWICK. 25. " FRANKLIN. 56. McPIIERSON. 26. " GILLMORE. 57. " REYNOLDS. 27. " TERRY. 58. " WADS WORTH. 28. BURNSIDE. 59. SUMNER. 29. " HOOKER. 60. KEARNEY. SO. BUTLER. 61. LYON. SL " BANKS. 62. " BIRNEY. 936 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 63. GENERAL MITCHELL. 86 QENKF 64. RENO. 87. 65. GRIERSON. 88. COLON 66. ROUSSEAU. 89. GEN EH 67. " \VILSON. 90. 68. KAUTZ. 91. " 69. CTONEMAN. 92. LIEUT 70. PLEASONTON. 93. MAJ01 71. GREGG. 94. " 72. VICE ADMIRAL FARRAGUT. 95. 73. REAR " PORTKR. 96. 74. J OOTE. 97. " 75. " DU PONT. 98. ANDRP 76. " DAIILGRKN. 99. WILLI 77. " " GOLDSHO ROUGH. 100. SALMO 78. COMMODORE WINSLOW. 101. E. M. SI 79. LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER CUSIIINO. 102. GIDEOI 80. GENERAL R. E. LEE. 103. JEFF. E 81. "STONEWALL" JACKSON. 104. A. n. SI 82. " EWELL. 105. J; P. Bli 83. BEAUREOARD. 106. JAMES 84. LONG STREET. 107. JOHN S 85. BRECKINRIDGE. FITZIIUGII LEE. MOSEBY. GENERAL JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON. HOOD. BRAGG. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL KIRBY SMITH, :NEKAL PRICE. A. S. JOHNSON. HARDER. FORREST. JOHN MORGAN. SO 108. BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SUMTER, 109. ATTACK ON THE SIXTH MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT IN BALTIMORE. 110. VIEW OF HARPER S FERRY AFTER THE DE STRUCTION OF GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS. 111. BOMBARDMENT OF PORT ROYAL. 112. DASHING CHARGE OF GENERAL FREMONT S BODY-GUARD, UNDER MAJOR ZAGONYL 113. GENERAL BURNSIDE S EXPEDITION ENCOUN TERING THE TERRIFIC GALES OFF HAT- TERAS. 114. THE " CARONDELET" RUNNING THE GAUNT LET AT ISLAND NO. 10. 115. DEMAND FOR THE SURRENDER OF NEW ORLEANS. E1TES, ETC. 116. BATTLE OF MALVERN HILL. 117. BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. 118. THE ATTACK ON FREDERICKSBURG. 119. BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 120. CAPTURE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 121. BATTLE >F CHAPIN S FARM. 122. ENTRANCE OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC INTO RICHMOND. 123. SURRENDER OF GENERAL LEE. 124. INTERVIEW BETWEEN GENERALS SHERMAN AND JOHNSTON. 125. PRISONERS CAMP AT ANDERSON VILLE, GA. 126. CONTRABANDS COMING IN TO FORTRESS MONROE. 127. VIEW OF THE UNION VOLUNTEER REFRESH MENT SALOON, AT PHILADELPHIA, PA. It is also illustrated with twenty-four maps, and diagrams of batt4e scenes. PREFACE. No event has occurred on the American continent since the glorious Revolution of 1776, equal in magnitude and interest to the contest which has taken place between opposite and hostile portions of the Federal Union ; and which all true patriots stigmatize by the unequivocal and significant epithet of the Southern Rebellion. So important was this struggle, that it not only enlisted the most vigorous energies of the National Government, and summoned its armies into the field, but it became the paramount topic in every mind. All classes and professions regarded it with intense interest, and watched the progress of events with profound anxiety. For this purpose, scholars suspended their studies in recondite and learned subjects of inquiry ; synods and general assemblies discussed the issues involved with solemn earnestness ; the ordinary pursuits of the community seemed in a great measure to be modified and controlled by the novel and startling aspect of the times. This universally prevalent feeling was amply justified by the immense interests and the vital prin ciples which were to be disposed of by the conflict. Nor is it singular that the war should ultimately engage the attention of mankind in all civilized countries, and that it should be regarded as the event of chief importance then transpiring on the globe. There can be little doubt that a reliable history of the incidents con nected with this memorable drama, and even more than one such histor}^, would be acceptable to the public. In the following work, therefore, the writer has undertaken to describe its thrilling and marvellous scenes. He has set forth, at some length, the most potent of the causes which gave it birth. He has introduced, from time to time, biographical sketches of those soldiers and statesmen who distinguished themselves by their hero ism, or by their patriotism, during its progress. He has followed the march of the Federal armies, as they achieved one victory, or suffered one temporary reverse after another ; and the narrative will be continued, Deo voknte, until the record is complete, and he has described how the Republic was conducted, by firm and skilful hands, through all the storms which have assailed it, to the attainment of a permanent and honorable peace. The general rule, according to which the following work has been written, was to describe events with more or less minuteness of detail, according to the proportion of their historical importance. Many incidents 5 6 PREFACE. necessarily happen in such a struggle spreading, as it does, over so vast an area which may possess an intense, though momentary interest, and greatly excite the public mind at the period of their occurrence, which are, nevertheless, insignificant in their essential nature, and trivial in their ultimate consequences. As it was the design of the present writer to prepare a history of the war within a convenient and moderate compass, it became necessary to omit all, or, at least, any extended allusion to such events, so that the necessary space might remain in which to dwell, with appropriate fulness, upon the really decisive incidents of the contest. For the same reason, no reference is made, in the biographical sketches which are introduced, to those ephemeral and factitious reputations, which were created from time to time; which, going up suddenly, and glaring porten tously, like rockets, descended again as quickly, and relapsed into their legitimate oblivion. An effort has thus been made throughout the work to do justice to those events and persons to whom a genuine and per manent immortality appertains ; at the same time to realize and exemplify the excellent maxim, Parva sed apta, not voluminous, but condensed and comprehensive. The author has been assiduous and careful in regard to the materials from which the contents of the work have been derived. He has applied to his use every attainable source of information which was worthy of confidence and attention. Official reports of eminent commanders, and the narratives of intelligent and truthful eye-witnesses of the scenes described, together with various other depositories of facts, have been thoroughly examined, compared, and appropriated. The author has not the presump tion to imagine that he has in all cases attained perfect accuracy ; but he does not hesitate to assert, that he has left no effort or expedient unem ployed to avoid error and misstatement in every part of the work. An historical narrative of events of recent date labors under some disadvan tages, while, at the same time, it may possess facilities and merits of which the record of more remote and unfamiliar transactions will be destitute. It has been affirmed that a correct history of a war like that against Secession could not be written until after the lapse of many years. We believe this statement to be erroneous. If the writer be impartial, labori ous, and possessed of the necessary literary skill, he will have all the qualities essential to the elaboration of a satisfactory history of such a series of events ; and these qualities he may possess immediately after their occurrence, as well as at a more distant period. At the same time, he will enjoy a superior advantage in the vividness and strength of the impression which the events have made, both upon his own mind, and upon the minds of those whose productions he consults in the preparation of his work. S. M. S. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Origin of the Southern Rebellion Classification of its several causes The Act of 1816 respecting a tariff Agency of Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams Position of John C. Calhoun He first conceives his project of Nullification His memorial to Governor Hamilton The operation of a High Tariff The Legislature of South Carolina Outbreak of the Nullification movement Vigorous measures of President Jackson Mr. Calhoun in the United States Senate A memorable debate Final settlement of the difficulty American slavery Its origin The proposition of Thomas Jefferson Slavery in the Territories The Compact of 1787 Compromise of Henry Clay Annexation of Texas The Wilmot proviso Compromise of 1850 Slavery in Kansas Rise of the Republican Party Its principles and policy Administration of James Buchanan Treason in the Federal Cabinet Preliminary operations of the Conspirators Policy of Mr. Buchanan respecting Secession Presidential Campaign of 1860 Election of Mr. Lincoln The doctrine of State Sovereignty as opposed to Federal centralization Discussion of the subject 33 CHAPTER I. Effect of Mr. Lincoln s election in the South Political movements in South Carolina and Georgia Excitement in Charleston Preliminary acts and events Resignation of Federal officers Election of members to the State Conven tion Opponents of Secession Alexander H. Stephens Federal property seized in Charleston Conventions summoned in Georgia and Alabama As sembling of the Convention of South Carolina The first act of Secession from the Union passed A pathetic statement of grievances Secession logic Re flections on the result Popular feelings at this time in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida Levity and recklessness of the Secession leaders 57 CHAPTER II. Treasonable Proclamation of Governor Pickens Resignation of the Representa tives of South Carolina in Congress The Crittenden propositions of Com promise Their provisions Scramble for Federal property Commissioners of South Carolina to the Federal Government Major Anderson The removal of his command to Fort Sumter Mr. Secretary Floyd His resignation De meanor of the Rebel Commissioners at Washington The Convention of the Slaveholding States Important events at Savannah Secession of Mississippi Pernicious influence of Jefferson Davis Resignation of his seat in the United States Senate The secession of Alabama Of Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas 68 7) CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. Various efforts made for compromise and settlement Conciliatory meetings held in the Northern States Their ultimate failure Apostacy of Alexander H. Stephens Resignation of the Southern Representatives in the Federal Con gress The Rebel Congress convened at Montgomery Its organization Adoption of a Provisional Constitution The organization of the Southern Confederacy Jefferson Davis elected President A. H. Stephens chosen Vice President Prophecies of Senator Wigfall Biographical sketches of Jefferson Davis, of Stephens, of the Cabinet Ministers of the Southern Confederacy, Memminger, Toombs, Mallory, Walker, Benjamin The personal qualities and characteristics of these officers 75 CHAPTER IV. Assembling of the Peace Congress at Washington Their proposals of com promise Their rejection and failure Attitude of President Buchanan Public sentiment respecting Fort Sumter Mission of the " Star of the West" Final establishment of the Confederate Government at Montgomery Inaugu ration of Jefferson Davis as President His address Inauguration of President Lincoln His address His Cabinet Officers The famous oration of A. H. Stephens at Savannah Its historical importance His first position He refutes Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison His second position The foundation stone of the Southern Confederacy Absurdity and fallacy of that foundation The future condition and destiny of the negro race 83 CHAPTER V. The mission of Mr. Yancey and his associates to Europe Their representations to the French and English people Events at Charleston The Rebel Commis sioners at Washington Their absurd deportment General Beauregard de mands the surrender of Fort Sumter Major Anderson respectfully declines Preparations for the bombardment of the fort Size and strength of the works Sketch of Major Anderson Sketch of General Beauregard Commencement of the bombardment Heroism of the garrison Incidents of the first day s attack Events of the ensuing night The continuance of the bombardment during the next day Sufferings of the garrison Ex-Senator Wigfall A deputation from General Beauregard Propositions of surrender They are accepted by Major Anderson Exultation of the Rebels Why the garrison was not reinforced Proclamation of Governor Letcher Proclamation of President Lincoln 89 CHAPTER VI. Enthusiasm of the Rebel States Projected conquest of Washington Proofs that it was contemplated Why it was not accomplished Seventy-five thousand Federal troops ordered out Davis issues letters of marque and reprisal Pro clamation of Governor Letcher Secession of Virginia Blockade of the Southern ports Aspect of the loyal States First in the field The attack on Federal troops in Baltimore Fury of the Rebel mob Results of the attack CONTENTS. 9 Its infamy The Federal Forts are garrisoned Secession of Missouri Rapid march of Federal troops to Washington The Chicago Zouaves The gallant Ellsworth Origin of the term Zouave History of the French Zouaves in Algeria, in the Crimea, in Italy Their peculiar characteristics American Zouaves 98 CHAPTER VII. The Secession of Tennessee Parson Brownlow Declaration of War by the Confederate Congress Skirmish near St. Louis Secession element in Balti more Fort McHenry Secession of North Carolina Adjournment of the Rebel Congress to convene at Richmond Assembly of Federal troops at Washington The occupation of Alexandria Assassination of Colonel Ells worth Sketch of his career His life in Chicago Famous tour of the Chicago Zouaves Ellsworth s military tastes and talents His personal appearance and characteristics His peculiarities as a speaker He organizes the New York Fire Zouaves His death a loss to the cause of the Union General Robert Patterson s campaign in Virginia Crossing the Potomac at Williams- port Battle of Falling Waters Pursuit of the enemy to Hainsville To Martinsburg The march to Bunker Hill To Charlestown Occupation of Harper s Ferry Results of the Campaign 106 CHAPTER VIII. The encounters with the Rebel troops at Fairfax Court House, at Aquia Creek, at Romncy, at Phillippi Gallantry of Colonel Kelley Battle of Great Bethel Causes of the disaster General Pierce Death of Lieutenant Greble Sketch of his career Union sentiment in Western Virginia The new State of West Virginia Harper s Ferry devastated by the Rebels The Ohio troops fired on near Vienna Results of the attack Operations of General McClellan in Western Virginia His admirable plans The Battle of Rich Mountain General Garnett Colonel Rosecrans Results of the engagement Sketch of General McClellan His conduct during the Mexican War His reconnoissance of the Cascade Mountains His secret mission to the West Indies His journey to the Crimea His official report as commissioner His subsequent move ments He becomes Commander of the Department of Ohio 115 CHAPTER IX. The extraordinary Session of Congress in July, 1861 Message of President Lincoln Its characteristics Its demands Sketch of Thaddeus Stevens His political career His personal qualities His action as chairman of the Com mittee of Ways and Means Important bills passed by Congress Opposition of Messrs Vallandigham and Burnett to the policy of the Administration The civil war in Missouri The Grand Army equipped at Washington Com plaints of its prolonged inactivity Order given to General McDowell to advance toward Manassas Arrangement of the Army The advance reach Bull Run The preliminary conflict at that place Repulse of General Tyler s division Position of the Rebel Army at Manassas General Beauregard The impending contest Temper of the Rebel troops The arts employed to inflame them.. . 123 10 CONTENT S. CHAPTER X. The Federal Army at Centreville General McDowell s plan of attack The Divisions of Generals Tyler, Hunter and Heintzelman Their several duties The March from Centreville Interesting spectacle General Tyler first reaches the Battle-field He commences the engagement Movements of Generals Hunter and Heintzelman The gallant Sixty-ninth New York The engage ment becomes general Vigorous cannonading The Rebels gradually over powered The Federals victorious at mid-day Rebel admissions to that effect General Johnston s troops from Winchester arrive on the battle-field They reverse the tide of victory Sudden panic in the Federal Army A general retreat ensues Incidents of the flight Individual instances of heroism Results of the battle Failure of the Rebel commanders to improve their victory Ultimate consequences 131 CHAPTER XI. The impression produced on the public by the Battle of Manassas Various causes of the Federal defeat The preceding march Inferiority of numbers Effect of masked batteries Incompetent or inexperienced officers Remote position of the Reserves Pernicious presence of spectators The coup-de- grace Arrival of General Johnston s troops on the field Immense losses of the Rebel Army Was the defeat in reality a misfortune to the Union Its immediate effects Its influence on the Army Its influence on the Adminis tration It became the means of averting greater calamities It was the cause of subsequent successes to the Federal forces 140 CHAPTER XII Increased energy of the Federal Government Events in Missouri Important battle at Carthage Retrograde movement of General Lyon to Springfield Pursuit of the Rebels under Generals McCullough and Price Condition of their Army Reasons why General Lyon engaged the enemy The great Battle of Wilson s Creek Disposition of the Federal forces Temporary suc cess of the Rebels Incidents of the contest Heroism of General Lyon His last effort against the enemy Its success General Lyon s death Discomfiture of Colonel Sigel Results of the Battle Sketch of General Lyon His rare merits General Fremont made Commandant of the Department of Missouri His policy and measures His Anti-Slavery Proclamation It is modified by- President Lincoln The war against Secession not a war against Slavery 147 CHAPTER XIII. The Federal expeditions against the Rebel forts at Hatteras The forces appro priated to this enterprise Importance of Hatteras and its possession Sailing of the expedition The bombardment The surrender of the forts Commo dore Barren Commodore Stringham Sketch of his career Results of the victory at Hatteras Operations of Rosecrans in Western Virginia Battle at Carnifex Ferry Defeat and flight of Floyd Results of the victory Events in Missouri Colonel Mulligan s forces at Lexington He is attacked by General CONTENTS. ii Price Incidents of the Battle of Lexington Surrender of Colonel Mulligan Sketch of his career Battle on Bolivar Heights Sketch of its hero, Colonel Geary The Battle of Ball s Bluff General Stone Apprehensions of Colonel Baker Incidents of the engagement Defeat and rout of the Federal troops Death of Colonel Baker National sorrow at his fate Sketch of his remarkable career Results of the disaster at Ball s Bluff 155 CHAPTER XIV. Peculiarities of the war against Secession Federal expedition under Commodore Dupont and General Sherman Its departure from Annapolis Its destination Terrible storm near Cape Hatteras The expedition reaches Port Royal Rebel forts on Bay Point and Hilton Head Their bombardment Their strength Incidents of the attack Surrender of the forts Results of the en gagement Sketch of its hero, Commodore Dupont Naval disaster below New Orleans Captain John Pope Events in Missouri Bold achievement of Col onel Zagonyi near Springfield The battle of Belmont General U. S. Grant Incidents of the engagement at Belmont Its results Dismissal of General Fremont from his Department of the West Causes of his removal His admirable demeanor on this occasion His subsequent appointment as com mander of the Mountain Department of Virginia and Tennessee 165 CHAPTER XV. European recognition of the Southern Confederacy Efforts made to obtain it Mission of Messrs. Mason and Slidell Their arrest on board the Trent Legality of that arrest The British Government demand them They are surrendered Reasons of their surrender Diplomatic note of Mr. Seward on the subject Argument of Mr. Sumner in the Senate The battle of Dranesville Incidents of the engagement Its results General McCall Sketch of his career Dis missal of Mr. Cameron from the Federal Cabinet The war in Kentucky The battle of Mill Springs Incidents of the conflict Bayonet charge of the ninth Ohio regiment Defeat of the Rebels Death of General Feliz Zollicoffer His character Results of the battle of Mill Springs Subsequent flight and dis persion of the Rebel troops 173 CHAPTER XVI. The Burnside expedition Its strength and secret destination Its departure from Annapolis It reaches Fortress Monroe Another gale off Cape Hatteras Its results Loss of the steamer City of New York Heroism of General Burn- side The expedition enters Pamlico Sound It steers for Roanoke Island Rebel works erected on that Island The Federal troops disembark Plan of the attack Incidents of the engagement The final charge Defeat and flight of the Rebels Capture of their forts Their strength Results of the victory Death of Colonel De Montreuil Sketch of General Burnside Attack on Fort Henry Strength of the fort Number of the Federal gunboats Incidents of the bombardment Surrender of the Rebel works Trophies of the victory Loss on both sides Skill and heroism of Commodore Foote Sketch of his career Further operations of the Burnside expedition 181 12 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XYII. Position and strength of Fort Donelson General Grant and Flag-Officer Foote prepare to attack it Commencement of their operations Repulse of the gun boats The assault from the land side Incidents of the bombardment Propo sition of General Buckner to surrender The flight of Generals Floyd and Pil low The capitulation of the fort Results and trophies of the conquest Sketch of Ulysses S. Grant Sketch of General Charles Ferguson Smith General Lander s attack on the Rebels at Bloomery Gap Its results Sketch of General Lander Re-election of Jefferson Davis as President of the Southern Confederacy His Inaugural Address Occupation of Columbus, Kentucky, by Federal troops Desertion of Nashville by the Rebel forces Unexpected attack and success of the Rebel battering ram Merrimac Inci dents of the engagement Opportune arrival of the Monitor in Hampton Roads Battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac. . . . 190 CHAPTER XYIII. Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas General Curtis Attack of the Rebels on the rear of the Federal Army Gallantry of General Sigel Continuance of the battle on the second day Incidents of the contest It is renewed upon the third day Complete rout of the Rebels Results of the victory Sketches of Generals Curtis and Sigel President Lincoln s orders to the Federal Armies to move on the twenty-second of February General McClellan s address to the Army of the Potomac Sudden evacuation of Manassas by the Rebels Move ment of Federal troops Bombardment of Island Number Ten Incidents of the contest Reduction of the Rebel works Operations of General Pope Ar tificial channel cut through James Bayou General Pope attacks the Rebels at Tiptonville Consequences of the capture of Island Number Ten Sketch of General Pope General Burnside attacks Newbern The Rebels surrender Consequences of this victory 201 CHAPTER XIX. Movements of the Army of the Potomac Its subdivisions The battle of Win chester Incidents of the battle Its results The killed and wounded Sketch of General Shields Concentration of the Rebel troops near Corinth Approach of the Federal Army under General Grant Disposition of the Rebel Army Commencement of the battle of Pittsburg Landing or Shiloh Attack and capture of General Prentiss s troops Efforts of Generals Sherman and Mc- Clernand The engagement becomes general Desperate fighting on both sides Gradual repulse and retreat of the Federal Army Terrific scenes In terposition of the Federal gunboats End of the first day s battle Arrival of General Buell Disposition of troops during the ensuing night The second day s conflict Incidents of this day Skill and energy of General Buell The tide of victory is gradually reversed Ultimate defeat of the Rebels Their re treat to Corinth Sketch of General Buell Results of the battle of Shiloh 212 CONTENTS. 13 CHAPTER XX. The Federal Army under General McClellan approach Yorktown Collision on Howard Creek Attack on detached Rebel intrenchments Establishment of the Federal camp, and erection of Federal batteries Preparations for a great conflict at Yorktown Brilliant operations of General Mitchell in Alabama Results of his rapid movements Sketch of General Mitchell Events in Georgia --Capture of Fort Pulaski Strength of the Rebel works Incidents of the bombardment of that Fort Results of the capture The conquest of New Orleans Federal armament under Commodore Farragut Bombardment of Forts Jackson and St. Philip An engagement of six days Reduction of these Forts Impression produced by it in New Orleans The Federal fleet approach that city The Rebel troops evacuate it The summons to surrender Imper tinence of Mayor Monroe New Orleans occupied by Federal troops Sketch of Commodore Farragut The bombardment of Fort Macon Incidents of the assault Strength of that Fort^-Results of its capture by the Federal troops. . 223 CHAPTER XXI. Operations of General McCl.iian at Yorktown Battle of Lee s Mill Disaster and retreat of the Federal troops Evacuation of Yorktown by the Rebels Motives of that movement Pursuit by the Federals Engagement between cavalry near Williamsburg Second conflict near Williamsburg Incidents of the battle General Hooker s division Brilliant charge of General Hancock Federal victory Sketch of General Hancock Battle at West Point Incidents of the contest Efficiency of the Federal artillery Rout of the Rebels Bombardment of Sewell s Point Its results Expedition of General Wool against Norfolk Its surrender Operations of General Fremont in the Mountain Department McDowell s division atFredericksburg Rout of Colonel Morgan in Tennessee Incidents of the chase Bombardment of Fort Wright commenced Engage ment of the Federal gunboats at Fort Darling, on James River Its Incidents and results Steady advance of McClellan s Army toward Richmond It crosses the Chickahominy Various skirmishes Decisive engagement anticipated General Hunter s Abolition Proclamation President Lincoln s policy respect ing it 233 CHAPTER XXII. The Corps d Armee of General Banks Imprudent reduction of its numbers The Rebels under Jackson attack the advance at Front Royal Design of the Rebels to overpower Bank s division The latter orders a general retpeat toward Win chester Various engagements on the route Battle of Middletown Action on the march to Winchester Battle at Newtown The battle of Winchester Its results Continuance of the retreat to Williamsport Adventures of the Zouave d Afrique Federal losses during the retreat Sketch of General Banks Attitude of the Federal and Rebel Armies at Corinth A great battle antici pated Commencement of the attack by General Halleck Its results Evacua tion of Corinth by the Rebels Causes of this event An extraordinary spec tacle Pursuit of the retreating foe A reconnoissance on the Chickahominy Skirmish at the Pines The Battle of Hanover Court House Destruction of the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroad Gallant exploit of Lieutenant Davis.. . 244 U CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIII. Approach of the Federal Army to Richmond The corps of General Keyes cross the (Jhickahominy Their exposed position Hostile purpose of the Rebel leaders The battle of Seven Pines Position of the Federal troops Com mencement of the attack Disposition of troops made by General Casey Incidents of the battle Rout of Casey s division General Couch s troops become engaged Desperate fighting Victory of the Rebels The Federals reinforced The engagement of June 1st, General Heintzelman in chief com mand Incidents of this battle Heroism of the Irish regiments and of Sickles Excelsior Brigade The victory of Fair Oaks Its results Popular impatience for the occupation of Richmond Rebel forces in the Valley of the Shenaridoah Their brief occupation of it General Fremont ordered to expel them They abandon Winchester Their retreat through Strasburg and Woodstock Battle of Cross Keys Gallantry of theBucktails Results of the engagement Battle of Port Republic Incidents of this engagement ^-Its results Retreat of Gen eral Jackson toward Richmond Appointment of General Pope as Commander of the Department Withdrawal of General Fremont His military achieve ments His true renown . 256 CHAPTER XXIV. Prominence of the Mississippi River in the events of the war Fleet of gunboats commanded by Commodore Davis Evacuation of Fort Pillow The naval battle before Memphis Relative strength of the combatants Incidents of the engage mentDefeat of the Rebel Fleet Colonel Ellet Results of the victory Gen eral Negle^s expedition against Chattanooga Colonel Hambright Incidents of the expedition Its results General Morgan expels the Rebels from Cum berland Gap Disaster to the Federal Arms at James Island Description of the Rebel works Arrangements for the attack Incidents of the engagement Ultimate defeat of the Federal troops Their retreat Federal loss Gallantry of the Rebel Commander Lamar Expedition of Colonel Fitch up the White River Ttye engagement at St. Charles Horrible accident to the Mound City Execrable cruelty of Captain Fry Capture of the Rebel Forts Final success of the expedition Excursion of Colonel Howard from Newbern to Swift Creek Its results Bombardment of Vicksburg commenced Perilous passage of Commodore Farragut s fleet New Channel of the Mississippi 268 CHAPTER XXV. The intrenchrnents of the Federal Army before Richmond Their extent Inac tivity of the Federal forces Concentration of Rebel troops in Richmond Glowing expectations of the loyal community Their Disappointment The transfer of McClellan s base of supplies and operations to Harrison s Landing First attack of the Rebels on his troops at Mechanicsville Incidents of the battle Commencement of the march toward the James River Battle of Games Mills Desperate Fighting Heroism and valor on both sides Vicissitudes of the struggle The retreat continued toward James River Disposal of the sick and wounded Pertinacious pursuit by the Rebels Singular caravan of wagons, cattle, and fugitives Battle of Peach Orchard Its results Battle at Savage s Station Resolute assaults of the enemy Appalling scenes Important results The race to White Oak Swamp The Federal troops win the race 280 CONTENTS. 15 CHAPTER XXVI. The Battle of White Oak Swamp Position and order of the Federal troops Tem porary panic Desperate fighting Fortunate assistance of the gunboats on the James River Heroism and skill of General Heintzelman A general bayonet charge on the Rebels Its result First engagement at Malvern Hills Incidents of the fight The Irish Brigade Complete defeat of the Rebels The Federal Army removes to Harrison s Landing Results of the several Battles before Richmond Artrllery duel on the James River General Hooker sent to reconnoitre and occupy Malvern Hill The march thither Engagement with the enemy Their defeat Immense reinforcements ordered from Rich mond Return of the Federal troops to Harrison s Landing Final evacuation of their camp by the Federal Army Its future destination Federal losses during the Peninsula Campaign 291 CHAPTER XXYII. Return of the Army of the Potomac from the Peninsula Spirit and purpose of the Federal Government Appointment of General Halleck as Commander-in- Chief of land forces Operations of General Pope Messages of President Lin coln in favor of emancipation of the slaves and confiscation of the property of Rebels Reconnoissance of General King to Beaver Dam Battle of Bayou Cache, in Arkansas Engagement on the Mississippi with the ram Arkansas Boldness and determination of the Rebels Engagement near Memphis, Missis sippi Operations of the Rebel John Morgan in Kentucky Contest at Cynthiana Morgan abandons Kentucky Additional Anti-Slavery Message of Mr. Lin coln Expeditions sent from Newbern to Trenton and Pollocksville Their results Attack made on the Arkansas by Colonel Ellet Incidents of the engagement Defeat of the Queen of the West Causes of the disaster Crea tion of new grades in the Federal Navy President Lincoln orders a draft of three hundred thousand men 299 CHAPTER XXYIII. Designs of the Rebel Generals in Virginia Measures taken to counteract them The Armies of Banks and Jackson approach each other Battle of Cedar or Slaughter Mountain Position of the combatants Commencement of the en gagement Incidents of its progress Its termination and results Loss on both sides Heroism of General Banks Subsequent movements of the Rebels Skirmishes along the line of the Rappahannock Designs of the Rebel Generals Arrangements of General Pope Engagement at Catlett s Station Federal loss of baggage and stores The Rebels cross the Rappahannock Battle with the troops of General Sigel Approach of Rebels toward Manassas Conflict at Kettle Run At Bristow s Station The great Battle at Manassas on August 29th Incidents of the struggle Engagement renewed on the 30th Its inci dents and results Retreat of the Federal Army Battle of Chantilly Death of Generals Kearney and Stevens Return of the Federal Army to Washington Losses during the campaign of General Pope in Virginia Sketches of Gen erals Kearny and Stevens A Court-Mar tial summoned at Washington to in vestigate charges against General Porter Its verdict 312 16 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIX. Battle of Baton Rouge Situation of the place Federal troops posted there- Movements of General Breckinridge Incidents of the engagement Death of General Williams Assistance of the Federal gunboats Final defeat and repulse of the Rebels The Rebel ram Arkansas Its destruction Indian mur ders and devastations in Minnesota Causes which led to them Incidents connected with them Their suppression arid punishment General Sibley Battle fought near Richmond, Kentucky Federal troops engaged Federal advantage Federal repulse Union troops are re-formed in line of battle three times General Nelson Federal losses Battle at Tazewell Expedition of Colonel Ellet on the Mississippi and up the Yazoo Capture of the transport Fair Play Results of the expedition Battle near Denmark, Tennessee Inci dents of the engagement Heroism of Captain Frisbie Federal victory Apprehensions of an invasion of Ohio by the Rebels Proclamation of Governor Tod Preparations made to receive the enemy General Lewis Wallace Re treat of the Rebels Termination of the popular excitement Summary of un important events in August, 1862 325 CHAPTER XXX. The Battle of South Mountain Position of the combatants Troops of General Reno Incidents of the engagement Heroism of General Hooker Victory of the Federal Army Retreat of the Rebels Death of General Reno Sketch of his career Attack of the Rebels on Harper s Ferry Forces commanded by Colonel Miles Incidents of the bombardment Surrender of the works to the enemy Death of Colonel Miles Retreat of the Rebels toward the Potomac The great Battle of Antietam Positions assigned the Federal forces Desperate fighting of Hooker s division Incidents of the battle on the right wing Opera tions of Burnside on the left Events in the Federal centre Conclusion of the engagement Retreat of the Rebel Army across the Potomac Sketches of Gen erals Hooker and Sumner Battle at Mumfordville, Kentucky Its results Federal troops engaged Battle at Washington, North Carolina The Rebels defeated Explosion of the gunboat Picket Civil aspects of the war President Lincoln s Proclamation of September 22d, 1862 Its contents Its influence upon Slavery and upon the Rebel Government Mr. Lincoln suspends the Habeas Corpus Act, on September 24th, 1862 338 CHAPTER XXXI. The battle at luka Dispositions made by General Grant Incidents of the en gagement Victory of the Federal troops Rebels repulsed at Boonsborough Convention of the Governors of Loyal States at Altoona, Pennsylvania Their address to President Lincoln His reply Proposal of Peace discussed in the Confederate Congress Argument of Mr. Foote Fate of the proposition Battle of Augusta, Kentucky Engagement at Corinth, Mississippi Position of the Rebels First day s fighting Incidents of the second day Desperate charges made by the Rebels Their final defeat and flight Sketch of Major- General Rosecrans Invasion of Pennsylvania by the Rebel General Stuart His route Incidents which occurred at Chambersburg Stuart s safe return to Virginia Skirmishes on the Potomac Results of his raid 353 CONTENTS. 17 CHAPTER XXXII. The Federal victory at Lavergne, Tennessee General Negley Battle on the Hatchie River Expedition of General Brannan up the St. John s River Its results The Battle of Perry ville Heroism of General Rousseau Incidents of this engagement Its consequences Final escape of General Bragg and his Army from Kentucky Inefficiency of General Buell His removal from the command of the Army of the Ohio Appointment of General Rosecrans as his successor Fruits of General Bragg s invasion of Kentucky Summary view of minor events which occurred in September and October, 1862 361 CHAPTER XXXIII. Exploits of the Confederate cruiser, the Alabama Her peculiar structure Efforts made to capture her Their failure The expedition sent by General Mitchel against the Charleston and Savannah Railroad Incidents of the t undertaking Battles Their results Return of the expedition Various recon- noissances made by the Army of the Potomac Important results accomplished by them Occupation of Snicker s, Ashby s and Thoroughfare Gaps by the Federal troops Brilliant engagement near Maysville, Arkansas Flight of the Rebels Successful reconnoissance of Captain Dahlgren to Fredericksburg, Virginia Skirmishes at Philomel and New Creek, Virginia, and at Williams- ton, North Carolina Abortive attempt of the Rebels under Morgan and Forrest to capture Nashville, Tennessee Federal expedition to Thibodeauxville, Louis iana Reconnoissance of General M Pherson toward Holly Springs, Mississippi Approach of the Federal Army under Burnside to Fredericksburg The city summoned to surrender The refusal Embarrassing delay of Burnside s operations 370 CHAPTER XXXIV. Assembling of the Federal Congress, December 1st, 1862 Annual Message of President Lincoln Its Characteristics Its discussion of the National Finances Of the Emancipation of the Slaves Plan proposed by the President Official Report of the Secretary of the Treasury Its leading features Financial details Skirmish at Franklin, on the Blackwater, Virginia Capture of Union troops at Hartsville, Kentucky General Geary s Reconnoissance to Charlestown and Winchester Surrender of Winchester Stuart s raid on the towns of Dumfries and Occoquan Expedition of General Washburne from Helena to Coffeeville, Mississippi Its results, and return The capture of the Steamship Ariel by the pirate Alabama Incidents connected with it Her final release Departure of the Banks expedition from New York Infamous frauds perpetrated upon the Government Arrival of the expedition at New Orleans General Banks suc ceeds General Butler Effect of Butler s Administration Results of the Blockade of the Southern Ports 382 2 18 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXV. The Battle of Fredericksburg The laying of the Pontoon Bridges The Pontoniera driven away Renewal of the attempt Its second and third failure Bombard ment of Fredericksburg The bridges are constructed The Federal troops cross the Rappahannock Preparations for the conflict Strength of the works of the Rebels Superior advantages of their position and numbers Commence ment of the engagement by General Franklin Incidents of the Battle on the left wing The results The contest on the right and the centre Movements of Generals Meade and Gibbon Heroism of Sumner Impregnable position of the enemy A gallant charge Heavy losses of the Rebels Operations in the centre under General Hooker Plan of Wilcox and Burns General results of the engagement Federal and Rebel losses Sketch of General Franklin Of Generals Jackson and Bayard Events subsequent to the Battle Resignation of Mr. Seward Popular Censure General Burnside assumes the responsibility The Cabinet remains unchanged Battle at Cave Hill, Arkansas Federal victo-y 393 CHAPTER XXXVI. The expedition of General Foster from Newbern to Kingston and Goldsboro Commencement of the march Skirmish at Southeast Creek Its results The Federals continue their march to Kinston Battle at that place Incidents of this engagement Its results Operations of the Federal Fleet which accompa nied the expedition Skirmish at Whitehall Battle at Goldsboro The return of the expedition Skirmishing with the enemy Exploits of Major Garrard and Fitzsimmons Arrival of the expedition at Newbern Its results Federal losses Sketch of General Foster Capture of Holly Springs Battle of Davis s Mills in Mississippi Heroism of Colonel Morgan Defeat at Van Dorn Posi tion of affairs toward the close of the year 1862 President Lincoln s Emanci pation Proclamation Its provisions Feelings with which it was regarded by different classes of the Community Its influence upon the future events of the . war.. . 404 CHAPTER XXXVII. Conclusion of the year 1862 The armies of Rosecrans and Bragg approach each other at Murfreesboro, Tennessee Position of their respective forces Number of troops engaged Beginning of the Battle Incidents of the first day The Federal right wing driven back Pursuit by the Confederates The retreat stopped End of the first day s combat The engagement resumed Artillery duel Furious charge by the Rebels Heroism of Generals Negley and Davis The Rebels finally overpowered A general charge on their lines Its result- Complete defeat of the Rebel Army Revolt of the Anderson Cavalry Its alleged causes The Loyal Three Hundred Federal loss in the Battle at Mnr freesboro Losses of the Confederates Field Order of General Rosecrans re specting the Anderson Cavalry 416 CONTENTS. 19 CHAPTER XXXVIII. The loss of the Federal Iron-clad Monitor at sea Her peculiar structure Her de parture fromHampton Roads A rising storm The Monitor becomes disabled Cause of the misfortune Her situation becomes desperate Removal of her crew to the Rhode Island Her final disappearance The Federal Army under General Sherman attack Vicksburg, Mississippi Landing of the troops at John son s Ferry, on the Yazoo The attack commenced on the 27th of December Partial success of the Federal forces The assault resumed on the 28th Des perate fighting The first line of works carried Sherman orders a general charge The Federals repulsed and defeated Terrible slaughter The Union Army withdrawn General Sherman superseded by M demand Federal losses Causes of their defeat Minor engagements at Springfield and Harts- ville, Missouri 424 CHAPTER XXXIX. A peculiar feature of the History of this Civil War The Battle of Hunt s Cross- Roads in Tennessee Gallantry of General Sullivan and the Indiana troops Defeat of Forrest His flight to the Tennessee River The expedition of Gen eral Carter into East Tennessee Its objects Its success Difficulties and merit of the undertaking Skirmish near Moorefield, Virginia Attack of the Rebels on Galveston Their success Capture of the Harriet Lane Explosion of the Westfield Federal losses on this occasion Address of the Workingmen of Manchester, England, to President Lincoln His reply The bombardment of Arkansas Post Land and naval forces detailed to this service The location and importance of Arkansas Post Commencement of the assault by Admiral Porter Co-operation of the land troops under General M Clernand Incidents of the conflict Surrender of the fort and of the Rebel troops Losses on both gides Value of the conquest Sketches of Admiral Porter and General M Clernand 432 CHAPTER XL. General Burnside resigns the command of the Army of the Potomac He is suc ceeded by General Hooker The Army in winter quarters Importance of the question of negro troops in the Army Policy of different parties respecting it Exploits of the Rebel Steamer Oreto Destruction of the Steamboat Hat- teras Expedition of General Weitzel up the Bayou Teche Death of Commo dore Buchanan Skirmish at Woodbury, Tennessee Second siege of Fort Don- elson Its result Federal victory over General Pryor on the Blackwater, Virginia Triumph of Confederate Rams in the Harbor of Charleston, South Carolina Sketch of Commodore Ingraham The passage of the National Currency Bill The Conscription Law Loss of the Federal Steamer Queen of the West Capture of the Federal Iron-clad Indianola Destruction of the Rebel Steamer Nashville Attack on Fort ;M Allister Resolutions of Congress Denouncing Foreign Intervention Remaining Military Events of February and March, 1863 Engagements at Strasburg, Virginia At Hartwood Church, Virginia At Bradyville, Tennessee At Thompson s Station. Tennessee 443 20 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLI. Minor Military Operations during March, 1863 Expedition from Mnrfreesboro under Colonel Hall He engages and defeats the Rebels at Milton, Tennessee Expedition of General Prince from Newbern Its results Attack by the Rebels on Union troops at Deep Gully Their repulse Desperate cavalry fight near the Rappahannoqk between Generals Averell, Stuart, and Lee Its result The passage of the Federal Fleet past the Rebel batteries at Port Hudson Co operative movements of General Banks Incidents of the engagement at Port Hudson Death of Commander Boyd Cummings His heroism Loss of the Steamer Mississippi Success of the Hartford and Albatross Conflagration of Jacksonville, Florida Victory of General Gillmore at Somerset, Kentucky Report of the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War Its pecu liarities and contents Its exposition on the conduct of Generals McClcllan, Patterson, and Stone Impression produced by it on the Public mind End of the winter campaign of 1862-3 Skirmishes in Carroll County, Arkansas At Woodbury, Tennessee Abortive expedition of General Sherman up the Black Bayou hi Mississippi 457 CHAPTER XLIL Preliminary Reflections Rise of the Anti-War Democrats, or the Peace Party Its avowed opinions and opposition to the National Administration Suspense of the Writ of Habeas Corpus The course of President Lincoln sustained by Congress and the Loyal portion of the Nation as Constitutional, Wise, and Patriotic Precedent of the British Parliament Factious opposition of the Peace Party to the Conscription Act and to the Prosecution of the War Their proffered friendship spurned even by the Confederates themselves Their alleged but groundless fears of designed Centralization by the National Admin istration Their hostility to the President s Emancipation Proclamation The existence of Negro Slavery and determination to perpetuate it the source of our greatest National difficulties, and the ultimate cause of the present Rebellion The judicious, gradual, and progressive course of the Government on this sub ject vindicated Objections of the Peace artyto the Financial Measures of the Government Their vindictive but futile attempts to detract from the personal character of the President 470 CHAPTER XLIII. The preparations for another attack on Charleston Formidable character of the fortifications The crossing of the bar Order of Battle prescribed by Admiral Du Pont The attack Obstructions in the harbor The terrible storm of fire The New Ironsides unmanageable Gallantry of the Commander of the Keokuk, and of the Commanders of the Monitors The Keokuk riddled and sinking Three of the Monitors disabled Withdrawal of the Fleet Return to Port Royal Admiral Du Pont s action justifiable Other naval actions on the Atlan tic Coast, and in the Gulf and Mississippi River Battles and skirmishes on land In the Department of the Cumberland, at various points in Tennessee and Kentucky ; in the Department of Missouri, the attack on the Sam Gaty ; in the Department of the Frontier, at Fayetteville, Arkansas, and its vicinity, and in the Department of the Gulf Expedition to Pascagoula The Battles on the Teche Destruction of three Rebel Iron-clads, and capture or destruction of eleven transports, and two thousand prisoners Complete rout of the Rebels... 482 CONTENTS. 21 CHAPTER XLIY. Raids in both Armies Marmaduke s expedition for the capture of Cape Girardeau Colonel Carter s demand for the surrender of the town General M Neil s reply Marmaduke s demand The result Flight of Marmaduke, and pursuit by Yandever and M Neil Colonel Streight s raid Difficulties and disasters Penetrates nearly to Rome Is compelled to surrender Rebel treatment of the Officers of the expedition Colonel Grierson s raid Its continued and wonder ful success His Brigade reaches Baton Rouge Results accomplished by the expedition Colonel Clayton s raid Meets Marmaduke Clayton with two hundred and thirty men fights and repels Marmaduke s Division Lieutenant- Colonel Jenkins s fight with Carter s Texas Brigade The expedition reaches Helena in safety Skirmishes in Western Virginia The affair at Greenland Gap Capture of Alexandria, Mississippi Skirmish at Monticello, Kentucky.. 498 CHAPTER XLY. The siege of Washington, North Carolina Attempts to raise it The Steamer Escort runs past the Batteries with reinforcements and supplies General Fos ter escapes in her and prepares to raise the siege The Rebels abandon it Siege of Suffolk, Yirginia Longstreet abandons it to reinforce Lee Hooker s management of the Army of the Potomac His plans for attacking Lee Move ments of his troops Ruse below Fredericksburg The concentration of six Corps in the vicinity of Chancellorsville The counterplot of Lee Jackson s attack on the right wing Panic in the Eleventh Corps Their flight The ad vance of the Rebels checked by Berry s Division Battle of the Wilderness Jackson mortally wounded Hooker re-forms his lines Battle of Chancellors ville, on Sunday morning Hooker again changes his lines Movements of Sedgwick s Corps Battle of Marye s Hill Battle of Salem Heights The Rebels recapture Fredericksburg Battle of Banks Ford Sedgwick s Corps cross the Ford General Hooker calls a Council of War Recrosses the Rap- pahannock at United States Ford Review of the Campaign 515 CHAPTER XLYL Stoneman s expedition The plan of it substantially that of General Burnside Biographical sketch of General Stonernan Starting of the expedition Its adventures Detachments sent in different directions from Thompson s Cross Roads Colonel Wyndham s raid to Columbia Colonel Kilpatrick s adventures Lieutenant-Colonel Davis s expedition to cut the two railroads Results of the expedition The Army of the Potomac after the Battel Lee s determina tion to invade Pennsylvania Pleasonton sent to attack Stuart s Cavalry Biographical sketch of General Pleasonton Success of his attack His subse quent skirmishes and fights with Stuart s Cavalry Lee s positions discovered Movement of Hooker s Army The Rebel Army cross the Potomac Hooker s follow Hooker relieved of the command of the Army Meade appointed his successor Position of the two Armies Only two Union Corps near Gettys burg A Battle impending 532 22 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLYII. Sketch of General Meade Topography of the Battle-field The beginning of the Battle Death of General Reynolds Sketch of his life Coming up of the Eleventh Corps The position on Cemetery Hill procured Retreat of the First and Eleventh Corps to Cemetery Hill Great loss of prisoners The state of feeling in the two Armies Depression of the Citizens of Gettysburg Rein forcements of the Union Army Position of the two Armies on the morning of July 2 Opening of the second day s Battle The attack on Sickles Corps The Ninth Massachusetts Battery The charge of the Pennsylvania Reserves The enemy beaten back Ewell s attack on the Eleventh Corps and on Green s Brigade He penetrates to Spangler s Spring The Third Day s Battle Attack on the Union right The repulse Terrible artillery duel on the Left Centre Assault by Pickett s Division Terrible slaughter Longstreet s attack on Round Top Thte too repulsed The Battle over Retreat of the Rebels " Crossing of the Potomac General Meade s error The losses on both sides General orders of the two Commanders Beneficial result of the invasion to the Union cause 550 CHAPTER XLVIII. General Grant takes command in person of the Army for the reduction of Yicks- burg His Canal projects The Canal across the Peninsula Route by Round- away Bayou Lake Providence Canal Yazoo Pass Steele s Bayou Succes sive failures He resolves to attack from below The running of the Batteries Excitement among the spectators March of the Army to Hard Times, Louisiana Attack on Grand Gulf Repulse of the Gunboats They run past the Batteries Landing at Bruinsburg Battles of Shaiffer s Plantation and Port Gibson Evacuation of Grand Gulf Skirmish at Fourteen Mile Creek Battle at Raymond Capture of Jackson, Mississippi, and destruction of Rebel property there March of the Army Westward Battle of Champion Hill Battle of Black River Bridge Yicksburg invested Assaults of the nineteenth and twenty-second of May Siege of the City Its capitulation on the Fourth of July Terms of the surrender The results of the Campaign Rebel and Union losses Sherman s pursuit of Johnston Capture of Jackson and defeat of the Rebels General Ransom s expedition to Natchez General Herron s capture of Yazoo City Operations of the Gunboats on the tributaries of the Mississippi The Battle of Milliken s Bend Bravery of the Colored Troops Attack on Lake Providence .. . 566 CHAPTER XLIX. The investment of Port Hudson Battle fought by General Auger The arrival of additional forces The assault of the twenty-seventh of May The brilliant attack of General Weitzel s Division Partial success of the assault The assault of the fourteenth of June Its failure The closeness of the siege- Suffering of the garrison Their surrender The Rebel attacks on Brashear City and Terribonne Inhuman massacre of infirm Contrabands and women and children The murder of negroes at St. Martinsville The attack of the Rebels on Helena, Arkansas Their signal defeat Review of the progress of the War during the last eleven months JThe beginning of the end 583 CONTENTS. 23 CHAPTER L. The Army of the Potomac at rest The overthrow of the Rebel power in Arkan sasThe Guerrillas and Bushwhackers of Arkansas and the Indian Territory Quantrel and his band The sacking of Lawrence Attempt to murder Gen eral Blunt Cabell, Marmaduke, Shelby, and Coffey, make a raid into Missouri, and are defeated and routed Morgan s raid into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio His capture and imprisonment His escape Sketch of his life His death The riots of the summer of 1863 The great riot in New York Its causes and objects The reign of terror The mob subdued The loss of life and property by it CHAPTER LI. Department of the South Capture of the Atlanta General Gillmore succeeds Hunter, and Dahlgren, Du Pont Gillmore s strategic plan Reasons for be lieving it an error Folly Island Gillmore s Batteries there Capture of the southern portion of Morris Island Feints in other directions The first as sault on Wagner Repulse Erection of Batteries Bombardment and second assault A costly failure The siege pressed Other Batteries erected The " Swamp Angel" located Bombardment of Fort Sumter Its substantial re duction Gillmore demands the surrender of Fort Sumter and the Forts on Morris Island, and threatens to bombard Charleston in case of refusal Beau- regard replies haughtily and insolently Gillmore s rejoinder The approaches to Fort Wagner completed The garrisons of Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg evacuate those Works Gillmore s despatch announcing the capture Other events in the Department Sketch of General Gillmorc Sketch of Admiral Dahlgren 611 CHAPTER LII. The Department of the Cumberland Army of the Cumberland in motion The strength and position of the two Armies Topography of the country of Middle Tennessee General Rosecrans tactics The movement by the left flank Its complete success Manchester, Decherd, Cowan, Shelbyville, and Tullahoma taken Bragg s Army driven eastward to University and Sweden s Cove, and thence to Chattanooga The movement of the Union Army toward Chatta nooga Rosecrans determines to outflank Bragg s position Route of the several Corps Peril of McCook s Corps The concentration of troops at McLamore s Cove Preparations for Battle The first day of the Battle of Chickamauga The second day The line broken and seven Brigades cut off General Rosecrans at Chattanooga General Thomas fights till sunset and repulses the enemy Sketch of General Thomas Results of the Battle McCook and Crittenden relieved, and their Corps consolidated General Thomas succeeds General Rosecrans Perilous condition of the Army General Grant put in command of the Grand Military Division of the Mississippi Reinforce ments ordered up - 628 24 CONTENTS. CHAPTER LIIL Sketch of General Grant He is appointed to the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, and arrives at Chattanooga The capture of Brown s Ferry Movements of Hooker s command Battle of Wauhatchie The results gained Attempts of the Rebels to break Grant s communications Bragg sends Long- street s Corps to besiege Knoxville General Grant s instructions to General Burnside Fighting and retreating Longstreet arrives before Knoxville and invests it Topography of the Chattanooga Yalley and its surroundings Bragg s Message Grant s plan for the defeat of his Army The capture of the Rebel Batteries on Bald Knobs Sherman s movements The pontoon bridges The Bastion taken Hooker s attack on the Rebel left wing on Lookout Mountain The surprise The " Battle above the Clouds" The fighting on the east side of Lookout Evacuation of their positions by the Rebels Hooker follows them to Mission Ridge Sherman s persistejit and repeated attacks upon Fort Buckner Repulse of his attacking columns Their object gained, in drawing the Rebel troops from Fort Bragg The assault on the centre by the Fourth Corps Difficulties of the attack Capture of the Crest and Fort Bragg Flight of the enemy Pursuit to Ringgold Fight at Ringgold Gap Sherman marches to Knoxville and raises the siege Battle of Bean s Station Results of the Chattanooga Campaign General Grant s congratulatory order General Halleck s estimate of the Campaign 644 CHAPTER LIV. Department of the Northwest Indian troubles in Minnesota Death of Little Crow General Sibley s expedition against the Indians He defeats, pursues, and routs them General Sully s Battle at Whitestone Hill Escape of the Indians General Conner s Battle with the Indians Department of West Vir ginia General AverelFs raid into Southwestern Virginia His capture at Salem and destruction of Commissary and Quartermasters stores His escape from the six Generals Sketch of General Averell Other operations in West Vir ginia Army of the Potomac Lee s flanking movement Its extent General Meade s excessive caution The Cavalry Battle at Brandy Station General Warren s Battle with Hill s Corps at Bristow Station Hill repulsed Ouster s attack on Stuart s Cavalry Lee s return to the Rapidan Imboden s attack on Charlestown, Virginia Lee removes to the Rappahannock and fortifies his po sition Meade drives him back, taking over two thousand prisoners Sedgwick s assault at Rappahannock Station Its success The left wing at Kelly s Ford and Brandy Station Meade s coup-de-main His plans unmasked His with drawal across the Rapidan Results 660 CHAPTER LV. The "Anaconda" Policy Reasons why it could not succeed in crushing the Rebel lion Department of the Gulf The occupation of Texas determined upon The reasons assigned for it General Franklin ordered to Louisiana, Expedi tion of Generals Banks and Franklin to Texas The great preparations made for it The troops and their commanders The disastrous attack on Sabine Pass and City Advance of the Army to Vermillionvillo The coast expedition to CONTENTS. 25 Texas Reconstruction in Louisiana The starting of the advance of the Grand Army Capture of Simmsport, Bayou Glace, and Fort de Russy Alexandria captured and occupied Battles of Teachoes and Cane River The Army too much scattered Arrival at Grand Ecore The advance toward Mansfield The Battle of Mansfield Rout and panic Battle of Pleasant Hill The retreat down the Red River Grand Ecore Jumping the sand-bars Alexandria The Rapids Colonel Bailey s Dams Escape of the Gunboats Rear-Admiral Por ter s Report The retreat to Simmsport and Morganzia General Steele s re treat to Little Rock General Canby in command of the Trans-Mississippi Division Department of the South Political aspirations of Florida Unionists Their pleas for an expedition into Northern Florida The expedition ordered The plan General Seymour at its head Delays and disasters Battle of Olustee Retreat of the Union forces Losses End of the "Anaconda" Policy 672 CHAPTER LYI. Sherman s Meridian expedition The co-operative movements and their failure The movable column Advance into the enemy s country Return General Grant promoted to the Lieutenant-Generalship, and Sherman appointed to com mand the Military Division of the Mississippi Sketch of Sherman Other changes in commands Reorganization of the Eastern and Western Armies Improvement in discipline and morale Forrest and Chalmers set out on an ex pedition for plunder and murder Attack on Union City On Paducah The massacre at Fort Pillow Atrocity of the conduct of the Rebels The Rebel Government promote Forrest and Chalmers for it Buford s demand for the surrender of Columbus, Kentucky Forrest s retreat 689 CHAPTER LYII. Preparations for the advance General Grant s strategy Simultaneous movement The numbers in the opposing Armies Situation of the subordinate Armies of the Union and their numbers General Butler s advance The feint on York River Ascent of the James to City Point and Bermuda Hundred The advance on Fort Darling The troops driven back Attack of the Rebels on Bermuda Hundred They are repulsed Departure of the Eighteenth Corps The attack on Petersburg Its partial failure Army of the Potomac crossing the Rapi- dan The Battles of May 5th and 6th Lee s change of position Death of Wadsworth Sketch of Wadsworth Fighting of May 7th and 8th Partial lull on the 9th Death of General Sedgwick Desperate fighting on the 10th The results still indecisive Quiet on the next day General Grant s despatch " Fighting it out on that line" The terrible Battle of the 12th The charge of the Second Corps Desperate fighting Wilcox s Division forced back Success turning to the Union side Losses of the eight days on the Union side Losses on the Rebel side Impossibility of movements during the storm Sketch of General Sedgwick 704 CHAPTER LYIII. Continuation of Grant s campaign Battles near Spottsylvania Reinforcements " The Battle of the 18th of May The repulse Another flank movement to the North Anna, and beyond Ewell s raid upon the Union rear He is repulsed 26 CONTENTS. with loss Fighting near the North Anna Strength of the Rebel position Another flank movement Recrossing the North Anna March to Hanover- town Cavalry engagement on Tolopatomoy Creek Battle of Tolopatoinoy Creek, or Shady Grove Church Topography of the country north of the Chick- ahominy Position of Lee s Army Cavalry Battle for the possession of Cold Harbor The Battle of Cold Harbor Desperate fighting of the Sixth and Eigh teenth Corps Fighting on other parts of the line The Battle of the Chicka- hominy Indecisive results of the gallant and desperate fighting The opposing lines very near each other Losses of both sides since the Battles of the Wil derness Sketch of General Hancock Sheridan s first raid Richmond threat ened His force surrounded at the Chickahominy Rebuilding Meadow Bridge Gallant charge on the enemy His escape His second raid The Battles of Trevilian Station Sheridan withdraws, after punishing the enemy severely, and rejoins the Army of the Potomac south of the James River 720 CHAPTER LIX. The troops in West Virginia Crook and Averell defeat the Rebels on New River The Battle of New Market Sigel defeated He is relieved of command, and sent to Martinsburg as post commandant General Hunter succeeds him Battle near Mount Crawford The Rebels defeated, and their general killed Hunter captures Staunton and Lexington, and burns the Lexington Military Institute, and Governor Letcher s house, but fails to join Sheridan, and is com pelled by Early to fall back from Lynchburg into the Kanawha Valley, after a losing fight Early takes advantage of this to descend the Shenandoah Valley to the Potomac Hunter s efforts to retrieve his blunder Army of the Poto mac Crossing the James Cavalry reconnoissance to Malvern Hill The at tack on Petersburg Partial success Butler cuts the railroad The assaults of the Second and Ninth Corps on the defences of Petersburg Incomplete success The Rebels retire to their inner line of defences Failure of the attempt to carry these The attacks on the Weldon Railroad The disastrous repulse of June 22d The position nearly regained, but no advance made Wilson s and Kautz s raid on the Weldon and Southside Railroads Great destruction of rail road tracks and property Heavy losses of the expedition in its return march Early s foray into Maryland and Pennsylvania Terror of the inhabitants The Battle of Monocacy Wallace defeated The Sixth and Nineteenth Corps ordered into Maryland General Ord succeeds General Wallace Railroads broken up and trains captured by the Rebels Washington threatened Rebels defeated by General Augur Their retreat across the Potomac Fighting at Snicker s and Ashby s Gaps Averell s Battle near Winchester Defeat of the Rebels Battle of Winchester, July 24th Crook defeated, and Mulligan killed Sketch of Mulligan The panic in Maryland and Pennsylvania renewed Absurd reports Burning of Chambersburg Mosby s little raid Governor Curtin calls a special session of the Legislature Thirty thousand militia called out Early s retreat Fighting near Cumberland, Maryland Rebels defeated by Averell at Moorefield, Virginia The mine at Petersburg Demonstration on the enemy s left Fight at Deep Bottom Explosion of the mine Fatal blundering Repulse and heavy loss 735 CHAPTER LX. Sherman s Atlanta campaign Sherman s preparations The force under his com mand, and the several Armies composing it The Army of the enemy Its CONTENTS. 2t position and commander Sketch of Johnston The demonstration on Rocky Faced Ridge, and Battles there Flanking movement through Snake Creek Gap on Resaca Battles at Resaca Flanking movement toward Kingston Capture of Rome Crossing the Etowah Movement toward Dallas Battles of New Hope Church and Dallas Sherman moves to the left Occupation of Allatoona Pass, and Big Shanty The Pass made a secondary base of supplies The enemy driven from Pine and Lost Mountains The affair of " the Kulp House" Assault on the enemy on Kenesaw Mountain Repulse Flanking again The Rebels compelled to fall back to the Chattahoochie Occupation of Marietta The Union Army cross the Chattahoochie Burning of Roswell factories.. 752 CHAPTER LXI. Rousseau s expedition to Opelika, and the West Point and Mongomery Railroad The position of the Union Army First Battle of Peach Tree Creek, July 20th Second Battle of Peach Tree Creek, July 22d Death of McPherson Biographical sketch of General McPherson Garrard s expedition to Covington Stonernan and McCook undertake cavalry expeditions Failure of Stoneman Partial success of McCook Battle of July 28th before Atlanta Siege of Atlanta Its strength Tenacity of Hood in holding the railroad lines Sher man extends his line to the right, but Hood holds the railroad Bombardment of Atlanta Wheeler s raid to cut Sherman s communication Sherman sends Kilpatrick to cut the railroad below Atlanta Partial success Sherman raises the siege, and sends Williams back to the Chattahoochie, while the main Army moves toward Jonesboro Battles near Jonesboro Hardee defeated and driven southward Hood evacuates Atlanta The Union Army take possession of the city Removal of the citizens from the city Results of the campaign 764 CHAPTER LXIL The Department of North Carolina and Southeast Virginia Capture of the Under writer Attack on Newbern Attack on Plymouth, North Carolina Desperate fighting by the garrison of the Fort Capture of Plymouth The Albemarle s first appearance She drives the Union Gunboats from the river The Battle between the Albemarle and the Sassacus Daring conduct of Commander Roe The Albemarle crippled Explosion of the boiler of the Sassacus The hero ism of the crew The Sassacus disabled Retreat of the Albemarle Her subse quent fate Daring exploit of Lieutenant Gushing Morgan s last raid into Kentucky Capture of Cynthiana, and surrender of General Hobson s troops Defeat of Morgan by General Burbridge The gunboat disaster The Rebel trap Retreat of Sturgis The train in a slough Complete rout and disorder, and loss of train and guns Bravery of the negro troops Forrest s raid on Mem phis The Forts at the entrance of Mobile Bay Farragut s anxiety for their capture The attack on the Forts The Battle with the ram Tennessee Her surrender Results of the Battle Surrender of the Forts Sketch of Comman der Craven Sketch of Farragut 781 CHAPTER LXm. The Middle Military Division organized, and General Sheridan appointed its com mander Organization of the new Army of the Sbenandoah Sheridan concen trates his troops on the line of the Potomac Advancing and retreating 8 CONTENTS. " Harper s Weekly" Early s misconception of Sheridan s character His move ment to Berryville The cavalry fight at Darkesville The Battle of Opequan Creek, or Winchester Early " sent whirling" up the Valley Battle of Fisher s Hill Early again defeated and routed " Settling a new Cavalry General" Rosser s defeat Early defeated again at Little North Mountain, on the 12th of October Sheridan visits Washington Early creeps up on the left flank of the Union Army The Union troops defeated badly, and driven to Middletown Sheridan comes up, makes the fugitives "face the other way," reorganizes the Army, attacks, defeats, and routs Early, and sends him once more " whirling" up the Valley, with the loss of his artillery, wagons, etc. Subsequent opera tions in the Valley, in the Autumn Desolating the <Valley to repress the guerrillas Early sends a part of his force to Lee, and Sheridan returns the Sixth Corps to the Army of the Potomac Biographical sketch of Sheridan. . . 795 CHAPTER LXIV. Political parties, and their influence during the War " The era of good feeling" Its speedy termination Fernando Wood s somersaults The professions of the Pro-Slavery Democratic leaders Their desire for a " more vigorous prosecution of the War" " The great unready" Opposition to emancipation nominally re linquished The suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and arbitrary arrests The conscription Their objections to it Their hostility to the Financial Policy of the Government Secret organizations opposed to the Government The Peace Party and its leader Sketch of Vallandigham His treasonable address and his arrest Judge Leavitt s refusal to grant a Writ of Habeas Corpus, and his opinion of treasonable utterances Vallandigham s trial and sentence The President commutes it to transportation beyond the Union lines Protest of the Albany Committee The President s reply Protest of the Columbus Committee The President s propositions The object of these demonstrations Vallandigham nominated for Governor and defeated His escape to Canada and return to Ohio Character and conduct of his associates in Canada He attends the Chicago Convention The proceedings of this Convention Its platform Its nominees General McClellan s letter of acceptance He accepts the nomination, but repudiates the platform, while Mr. Pendleton accepts both Utter defeat of the Peace Party at the November election Efforts at Nego tiations for Peace The Jacques and Gilmore mission A. H. Stephens appli cation to go to Washington in a Rebel War Steamer The Greeley and Sanderb correspondence " To whom it may concern" The pretended indignation ot Clay and Holcombe Subsequent revelations of their character and purposes Lee s announcement to Jeff. Davis F. P. Blair s mission Rebel Commissioners appointed Mr. Seward and Mr. Lincoln meet them The conference at Hamp ton Roads The demands of Davis Impossibility of conceding them Failure of the conference .. ....* 809 CHAPTER LXV. The Navy of the United States at the commencement of the War Its inadequacy for the work to be done The duty required of the Navy The purchase and construction of vessels for the Navy The number, character, and armament of the vessels of the Navy during the War and at its close The Iron-clads Preference of the Government for the Monitors Their efficiency in Naval Bat tles The River Iron-clads, Turtle-backs and Tin-clads What was accomplished CONTENTS. 29 by the River Squadrons The work of the Blockaders of the Atlantic Coast The Rebel Navy Stolen vessels Their Privateers Their Iron-clads Fate of their vessels The Anglo-Rebel Privateers Their names and character The attempts to build armored ships for the Rebels in England and France Their failure The history of the Alabama Her perfidious attack on the Hatteras She enters the Port of Cherbourg, and finding escape -without a fight impossi ble, her commander challenges the Kearsarge to a Battle The comparative size, armament, and crews of the two vessels, and their means of resistance Captain Semmes s " preparations" The Deerhound The Battle Despicable conduct of the owner of the Deerhound Semmes receives ovations Rage of the English at the sinking of the Alabama Causes of it The capture of the Georgia History of the Florida Her capture Commander Collins censurable for seizing her in a Neutral Port Action of the United States Government Brazil satisfied Lieutenant Reed s adventures as a Pirate Capturing fishing smacks and coasters Cutting out the Gushing Capture of the Lieutenant and his crew The seizure of the Chesapeake Her recapture Career of the Talla hassee, the Olustee, and the Chickamauga The Shenandoah and her piracies She comes to Liverpool and delivers herself up to the British Government Course adopted by that Government The career of the Stonewall or Olinde Her surrender to the Spanish Government, and final transfer to the United States Losses of the Mercantile Marine by the Rebel cruisers 825 CHAPTER LXYI. Disturbances in Missouri The small number of troops in the Department Gen eral Rosecrans in command there Price thinks the opportunity favorable for another invasion of Missouri Marmaduke sent to test its feasibility He is repulsed and driven back toward Arkansas Price s expedition in September The number of his troops The Union force collected to oppose him The Battle of Pilot Knob Fight at Harrison s Station Skilful management of General Ewing Rolla securely garrisoned General Pleasonton takes command of the cavalry Condition of St. Louis and Jefferson City Price makes a fatal delay He threatens Jefferson City, but finding it too strongly defended turns aside to Booneville Sanborn follows and harasses him Pleasonton joins in the pur suit The Battles of the Big Blue Little Osage Crossing, and Marais des Cygnes Price completely routed He is defeated once more at Newtonia Results Indian troubles on the Frontier The league among the tribes of the Sioux Nation General Pope s ideas of the best method of breaking their power General Sully sent with a large cavalry force to attack them, and Posts estab lished along the Frontier His campaign The Battle near the Little Missouri The defeat and flight of the Indians Sully falls back to his trains and pursues them to the " Bad Lands" Description of the " Bad Lands" He attacks and defeats the Indians again They are completely scattered and broken General Pope s plans for Peace with them in future The massacre of the Cheyennes by Colonel Chivington Details of the surprise and slaughter Investigation by the Committee on the Conduct of the War Chivington ordered arrested Rebel Plots against the citizens of the Northern States The scheme for the release of the Johnson s Island prisoners, and the burning of Buffalo, Cleve land, etc. How baffled Blackburn s plan for disseminating Yellow Fever and Small Pox John T. Beall s raid upon Lake Steamers His capture, trial, and execution The raid on St. Albans Arrest and discharge of the robbers The Plot for releasing the prisoners and destroying Chicago How discovered 30 CONTENTS. Attempt to burn the Hotels in New York Arrest, trial, and execution of Kennedy 841 CHAPTER LXVIL Hood attempts to cut Sherman s Line of Communication, and, moving fromMacon, first goes to Dallas, and then falls back upon the railroad at Big Shanty Sherman follows, and witnesses, and directs the Battle at Allatoona Pass, where the Rebel troops are defeated by General Corse Description of Battle of Allatoona Hood captures Dalton, but is compelled to abandon it, and retreats before Sherman to Gadsden, Alabama Sherman pursues to Gaylesville, and then detaching Thomas to Nashville, and sending him two Corps, returns to Kingston Destruction of the railroad Return to Atlanta Its destruction Sherman s Telegraphic Despatch His general orders to his Army The march The enemy deceived and confused The reorganization of his Army Sketches of the leaders of the two wings, Generals Howard and Slocum Disposition of the troops Foraging The route of the troops veiled by the Cavalry Union of the columns at Milledgeville Rest and collection of supplies Skirmishing and fighting at Buckhead Creek and Waynesboro The attempt to rescue the Union prisoners at Millen It is foiled by their removal Approach to Savannah The position of the troops Assault and capture of Fort McAllister by Hazen s Division Communication opened with the Fleet Sherman summons Hardee to surrender, but he declines Preparations for a siege of the City Hardee evacuates it and escapes to Charleston Savannah occupied and governed by General Geary The quiet and good order of the City Sherman s Christmas Present to the President Sherman s encomiums on his generals and troops The results of the capture of Savannah, and of the campaign Sherman s Gen eral Orders His interview with the leading men of the colored people The assignment of the Sea Islands to the negroes during the War 854 CHAPTER LXYin. The Nashville Campaign Sherman s resolve Davia s boast Hood tries to fulfil it The offer to give Hood his rations Movements of General Thomas s com mand The Fourth and Twenty-third Corps assigned to General Thomas Sherman s order His instructions A part of Hood s force crosses the Tennes see The number of Hood s troops Effective force of Thomas Cheatham s Corps crosses the Tennessee Forrest s raid on Johnsonville Schofield passes through Johnsonville to Pulaski Hood advances on Pulaski Schofield s and Thomas s measures Falling back to Columbia Calling in the garrisons The crossing of Duck River Hood attempts to flank Schofield at Spring Hill, but fails to do so Causes of the failure The race for Franklin Schofield wins The importance of the stake Schofield keeps the Rebels at bay till his men have thrown up temporary defences Hood s address to his troops His plan Its partial success Heroism of General Stanley Results of the Battle Sketch of General Stanley Schofield falls back to Nashville, and Milroy to Murfrees- boro Thomas s reinforcements come up Position of the two Armies Hood s blunder The expedition against Murfreesboro Its failure Thomas prepares to attack Hood s left, at the same time demonstrating upon his right The Battle of Nashville First day Results Hood s condition and hopes Second day Disposition of the troops Cavnlry attack on the rear The general advance The assault Repulse Advar^ng again The enemy s lines broken, and he CONTENTS. 31 compelled to fly in the utmost disorder The retreat The pursuit Its relent less character Kesults Gallant conduct of Colonel Palmer The campaign in East Tennessee and Western Virginia Battles of Kingsport, Abington and Marion Capture of Wytheville and Saltville Burbridge s return to Kentucky. 871 CHAPTER LXIX. The Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James Grant strikes the Weldon Railroad Sharp fighting After a desperate engagement Reams s Station falls into the hands of the enemy Fort, or Battery Harrison captured Battle of Chaffin s Farm Capture of Fort McRae Battle of Peebles Farm Kautz s Cavalry defeated Attempt to turn the right flank of the Union Army It fails Repulse of the Union troops The Battle of Hatcher s Run Mahone inter poses between the Second and Fifth Corps Failure of the entire movement The first expedition against Fort Fisher General Butler s management The powder-boat General Butler s debarkation, reconnoissance, and re-embarkation He is relieved of his command The second expedition, under command of General Terry Furious bombardment The Fort carried Sketch of General Terry Sketch of Admiral Porter 893 CHAPTER LXX. The Goldsboro campaign Sherman determines to march through the Carolinas Movement of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps to Hilton Head Capture of Pocotaligo Bridge Movement of the left wing Delayed by floods Grover s Division garrisons Savannah Savannah and its defences transferred to Major- General Foster The Rebels adopt the Salkahatchie as their defensive line Movements of the Army of the Tennessee Slow progress of the left wing The advance upon Orangeburg Evacuation of Charleston The approach to Columbia Surrender of the City Destructive fire The advance to Winns- boro Kilpatrick s movements The speculations of the Rebels as to Sherman s objective They compel Davis to give Johnston the command of their Armies in North and South Carolina Crossing the Wateree The approach to, and capture of, Cheraw Advance on Fayetteville, N. C. Hardee abandons it The Battle of Solomon s Grove Kilpatrick surprised, but rallies and defeats the enemy Sherman s letter to the Lieutenant-General His correspondence with "Wheeler and Wade Hampton Pusillanimity and cowardice of South Carolina The horrors of War dealt out to her in full measure North Carolina spared The last stage of the campaign Hardee s attack on the left wing at Averys- boro The Battle of Bentonville The advance to Goldsboro Mowers daring flank movement Goldsboro reached, and the Army resting and receiving sup plies General Sherman s summing up of results 913 CHAPTER LXXI. Surrender of Rebel Fortifications at the entrance to Wilmington Harbor Gen eral Schofield put in command of the Department of North Carolina--*The advance upon Fort Anderson The Rebels abandon the Fort The operations of the Fleet General Cox crosses Town Creek, bombards Eagle Island Crosses Brunswick River, and drives the enemy out of Wilmington Results The movement on Kinston and Goldsboro Battle at Southwest Creek Capture of Union troops Kinston evacuated, and occupied by Schofield General Terry moves from Wilmington to Goldsboro General Grant determines to cut Lee s communications on the Northwest Sheridan s raid on Lynch- burg General Grant s instructions to Generals Meade, Ord, and Sheridan Gordon s attack upon Fort Stedman He captures the Fort, but it is retaken 32 CONTENTS. General Meade s Congratulatory Order The general advance upon Lee s lines General Grant s instructions to General Sheridan General Warren s repulse His Corps put under Sheridan s command Sheridan s Battle at Dinwiddie Court House The Battle of Five Forks Attack on the Fortifications of Petersburg Petersburg and Richmond evacuated Pursuit of Lee Battles of Jetersville, Farmville, High Bridge, Deatonsville, and Appomatox Station Correspondence between Grant and Lee Surrender of Lee Sketch of Gen eral Lee 986 CHAPTER LXXII. The Assassination of the President The circumstances Attempt to murder other High Officers of the Government Arrest and punishment of the Assas sins Sketch of Lincoln The stability of the Government demonstrated The advance of Sherman to Smithfield and Raleigh Dispositions made to compel Johnston s surrender Johnston asks an interview The "memoran dum drawn up and sent to "Washington Its terms Its rejection by the Cabinet General Grant bears the news, and is authorized to take command Sherman s prompt action Johnston surrenders on the same terms as Lee Sherman marches his Army to Richmond and Washington Disbanding of the forces Stoneman s expedition Canby s siege and capture of Mobile Surrender of the Rebel Fleet General Dick Taylor s surrender Wilson s Cavalry expedition Capture of Montevallo and Randolph Croxton s separate expedition The Battle and capture of Selma Capture of Montgomery, Wetuinpka, Ala., and Columbus, Ga. Battle at West Point, Ga. Its capture La Grange, Griffin, and Forsyth captured Sherman s Armistice Capture of Macon Detention at Macon Croxton s return to the Main Army His achievements The surrender of all the Rebel troops East of the Chatta- hoochie Distribution of troops Pursuit and capture of Jefferson Davis " The poor old mother" and her boots Disposition made of the prisoner Re sults of Wilson s campaign Kirby Smith s surrender Sheridan on the Rio Grande 958 CHAPTER LXXIIL Finances of the War Unpromising state of affairs when Mr. Chase became Secre tary of the Treasury His measures The confidence of capitalists and the people secured The first Seven-thirties The Five-twenty bonds Bonds of 1881 Compound Interest notes Ten-forties The Seven-thirties of 1864, and 1865 Their immense sale The early Gold Demand Notes The Legal Tender Notes Fractional Currency Certificates of Indebtedness Statistical table of the debt Taxation Customs Internal Revenue Income Tax Amount of Revenue collected The National Banking System Suspension of Specie Payment and rise of Gold Comparison of our National Debt and that of Great Britain/in 1815 Probable tune of payment of the Debt Rebel losses of Slave Property Losses by Cavalry expeditions and raids Union losses by raids and by Rebel Privateers Grants made for Bounties and aid of Soldiers families The contributions for the Sick and Wounded The United States Sanitary Commission The Western Sanitary Commission The Christian Commission The Freedmen s Aid Commission The Union Commission Other donations The effect of this liberality on the Nation 989 CHAPTER LXXIV. Review of the War . . ..... 1002 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. INTRODUCTION. ORIGIN OF THE SOUTHERN REBELLION CLASSIFICATION OF ITS SEVERAL CAUSES THE ACT OF 1816 RESPECTING A TARIFF AGENCY OF HENRY CLAY AND JOHN QUINCY ADAMS POSITION OF JOHN C. CALHOUN HE FIRST CONCEIVES HIS PROJECT OF NULLIFICATION HIS MEMORIAL TO GOVERNOR HAMILTON THE OPERATION OF A HIGH TARIFF THE LEGIS LATURE OF SOUTH CAROLINA OUTBREAK OF THE NULLIFICATION MOVEMENT VIGOROUS MEASURES OF PRESIDENT JACKSON MR. CALHOUN IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE A MEMORABLE DEBATE FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE DIFFICULTY AMERICAN SLAVERY ITS ORIGIN TEE PROPOSITION OF THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES THE COMPACT OF 1787 COMPROMISE OF HENRY CLAY ANNEXATION OF TEXAS THE WILMOT PROVISO COMPROMISE OF 1850 SLAVERY IN KANSAS RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ITS PRINCIPLES AND POLICY ADMINISTRATION OF JAMES BUCHANAN TREASON IN THE FEDERAL CABINET PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS OF THE CONSPIRATORS POLICY OF MR. BUCHANAN RESPECTING SECESSION PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860 ELECTION OP MR. LINCOLN THE DOCTRINE OF STATE SOVEREIGNTY AS OPPOSED TO FEDERAL CENTRALI ZATION DISCUSSION OF THE SUBJECT. FROM the period of the establishment of the Federal Government, the people of South Carolina have been remarkable for their restive and trouble some temper. They were among the most tardy and reluctant of the States in announcing their approval and acceptance of the Federal Con stitution. They have always entertained a false and exaggerated estimate of their own importance in the Union ; and in all the troubles which have disturbed and alienated the opposite portions of the country, in all the conflicts in tfye National Legislature which have endangered the per petuity of the Union, they and their leading statesmen have had an un enviable prominence. Their pernicious influence has been extended on various occasions to the communities immediately around them ; and in some instances their disloyal example has been followed by not a few of the Southern States. Thus it was that they were gradually instrumental in fomenting a feeling extremely hostile to the Federal Government, which at length culminated in the outbreak of the Southern Rebellion. Although the censure due to the originators and chief perpetrators of that great crime does not belong exclusively to the people of South Carolina, it is but justice to ascribe to their agency a predominating (3) (33) 34 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. share of it. We may arrange all the controversies which contributed to the birth of this Rebellion, under the three following general heads : I. The Free Trade Policy, which, under the influence of Mr. Calhoun, led to the experiment of Nullification. II. The Advocacy of Slavery, both as already existing in the Southern States, and as proposed in the new territories of the Federal Union. III. The Doctrine of State Sovereignty and Supremacy, in opposition to the policy of Federal Centralization and Power. In discussing the various causes which led to the Southern Rebellion, we will treat of them as comprised under these three general topics, and in the order of their historical sequence. I. In the year 1816 an act was passed by the Federal Congress, by which a reduction of five per cent, was made on imported woolen and cotton goods. The people and the statesmen of the country who were in favor of the policy of protection, were opposed to this reduction, and determined as soon as possible to secure the adoption of a higher tariff. Accordingly, in 1824, Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams suc ceeded in obtaining the passage of a law, by which the profits of certain kinds of manufactures were greatly increased. It was soon discovered that the manufacturers of the Eastern States, those engaged in the iron trade in Pennsylvania, and the producers of wool and hemp in the Northern and Western States, who constituted the most important por tions of the mercantile community in the nation, were not sufficiently protected by this tariff. Accordingly, in the session of Congress of 1827-8, after a long and desperate conflict with the advocates of the interests of the single staple of the South cotton a bill was passed imposing a tariff of duties, the average rate of which was nearly fifty per cent, on imports. This act received the votes of all the Representatives of the nation except those of the more prominent Southern States. The latter condemed it in the most violent terms : stigmatized it as a " bill of abominations;" and began to mutter threats of future resistance and ven geance. At that period the most distinguished member of Congress from the South, with the single exception of the patriotic Henry Clay, was John Caldvvell Calhoun, of South Carolina. No man excelled him, among that high and brilliant galaxy of genius, in logical acuteness, in his power of close, clear, demonstrative reasoning, in his general knowledge of the principles of international and municipal law, and in the boldness and fearlessness of his character. He was even then the Alagnus Apollo of Sectionalism ; and as soon as the tariff of 1828 was passed, in spite of his opposition and that of his confederates, by which the interests of the cotton States were made secondary to the welfare of the whole nation, he commenced to revolve in his mind the desperate scheme of Nullification. If the National Government would not become subservient to the promo- CLASSIFICATION OF ITS CAUSES THE ACT OF 1816. 35 tion of the interests of the South could it not be possible to resist and overpower that government, within the limits of the offended states? Calhoun s answer to this inquiry was an affirmative one. Immediately after the adoption of this high tariff, meetings were held in several portions of South Carolina, in which the policy of Nullification was introduced, discussed, and finally commended. At the request of Borne of his constituents, Mr. Calhoun prepared a document, in July, 1831, which defended this policy under the existing state of affairs. This pro duction was styled " The South Carolina Exposition and Protest on the subject of the Tariff," and was addressed to the Legislature of the State. That body ordered a large number of copies to be printed and distributed, and afterward passed a resolution which declared the Tariff Acts of Con gress for the protection of the manufacturers of the North and East un constitutional ; asserted that they ought to be resisted, and invited other States of the South to unite with South Carolina in opposing the execution of those acts within their respective limits. At that period Andrew Jackson and Mr. Calhoun were personal and political friends. But soon the latter became dissatisfied with the admin istration of the former, and was gradually alienated from him. The President did not condemn the high tariff, as Mr. Calhoun believed it his duty to do ; and from the year 1831 Mr. Calhoun took the position of an open enemy to his policy and his person. One cause of the hostility which thenceforth existed between these remarkable men, was the fact, that at that period General Jackson discovered that Mr. Calhoun had, while a member of Mr. Monroe s Cabinet, advised that he should be rep rimanded for his conduct during the Seminole war, in putting Arbuthnot and Armbruster to death. Thenceforth there was a bitter and implacable hostility between them, which endured without abatement till the end of their lives. Mr. Calhoun continued his active agency in preparing tue people of South Carolina for forcible resistance to the Federal Government, and in preparing the way for practical Nullification. In August, 1832, he addressed a memorial of great length and marked ability to James Ham ilton, at that time Governor of South Carolina, presenting all the arguments which could be devised in favor of that policy. In this production, which the people of South Carolina regarded as their Magna Charta, he assumed and defended the position that the Federal Constitution was a mere compact, which had been made and ratified by the several States which had adopted it, and that they had done so in their capacity as sovereign and indepen dent governments. He further contended, that in adopting the Federal Constitution, the several States regarded the General Government merely as their agent in the exercise of certain powers and functions which they had delegated to that government, of the extent and nature of which the States themselves were, and always must remain, the final and supreme 36 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. judges. He concluded by endeavoring to prove, that when the General Government abused the powers thus delegated to it by the several States, in the opinion of all or any of them, the State or States so regarding it, possessed the right to resist and nullify the illegal acts performed by the Federal Government, each within its own particular limits. These positions Mr. Calhoun defended with great vigor of thought and force of reasoning. His views were, however, in opposition to those of Washington, Hamilton, and nearly all the founders of the Federal Government. They were condemned by the whole Whig party through out the nation ; and even the majority of the Democratic party through out the South, with the exception of South Carolina, withheld their approval of them. The results produced by the existence and operation of a high tariff were found to be most beneficial. The surplus of the revenue constantly increased. The public debt was rapidly melting away from the ample resources furnished by the duties on imports. President Jackson stated, in his annual message of December, 1831, that soon the public debt would by this process be entirely liquidated ; and recommended that, inasmuch as so high a tariff would then be no longer necessary, it should be after ward reduced. Accordingly the act of 1832 was passed by Congress, which was declared by its supporters to be the ultimatum, the permanent proportion, of imposts which ought to exist and be retained in the country. But this wise policy did not satisfy Mr. Calhoun and his confederates. He and they insisted that if the public debt had been liquidated by the public revenue, then there was no longer a necessity for any tariff what ever; and that the reduced tariff just adopted was entirely too high to remain as the permanent law of the land, after the exigencies of the nation and of the government had been met. As no one except the people and representatives of South Carolina could discover the force or the conclusiveness of this reasoning they stood alone in the advocacy of their position. The rest of the nation contended and believed that the machinery of the National Government involved other expenses, and required other resources besides those connected with the public debt; and consequently they insisted that there should still remain a reasonable tariff, which might furnish a sufficient revenue to meet other inevitable expenditures. They therefore refused to adopt the free trade policy, as contended for by the people and the politicians of South Carolina. This determination was the signal for an immediate resort to desperate measures by the disaffected. The Representatives in Congress from South Carolina issued an address to the people of that State, informing them that the Federal Government had at last adopted the protective system as its permanent and unalterable policy ; asserting that no hope of future relief could be entertained from that source, and urging them to adopt OUTBREAK OF THE NULLIFICATION MOVEMENT. 31 such measures as would effectually remedy the evil. An election for members of the State Legislature was about to take place, aud the issue was at once formed for or against Nullification, among the candidates voted for. A violent contest ensued. Although the great majority of the electors in the State were in favor of the policy of Mr. Calhoun, there was another party in existence, small, but highly respectable, and very determined, headed by the distinguished statesman Joel R. Poinset, who supported the measures of the General Government. But their efforts in behalf of law and order were unavailing, and the struggle terminated in the election of a large majority of Nullifiers to the Legislature. That body assembled in October, 1832, and chose delegates to a State Convention, which met at Columbia on the 19th of November. On the 24th of the month, the Convention passed the famous order of Nullifica tion. That ordinance declared the acts of Congress of 1828 and 1832 to be wholly null and void within the limits of the State of South Carolina. It forbade any appeal to be made to the Supreme Court of the United States in any case involving the validity of the ordinance itself. It prohibited the authorities of the State of South Carolina, or of the Fede ral Government, from executing the acts of Congress aforesaid within the State, from and after the first of February, 1833 ; and it declared that any attempt made by the Federal Government to enforce the revenue laws otherwise than through the civil tribunals, which would of course be abortive, would be an outrage so great as to "justify the State in seceding from the Union, and in establishing a separate and independent government" The Legislature of South Carolina was still in session, and that body immediately passed resolutions which approved of this ordinance, and gave it greater effect. It did more. It ordered the State to be placed in a position of defence ; it organized, armed, and equipped the number of troops which were deemed necessary to resist the General Government in its efforts to enforce the collection of the revenue; and it encouraged the citizens to maintain their position and to defend their invaded rights until the last extremity. As soon as the action of the Nullifiers of South Carolina became known to the inflexible hero and patriot who then sat in the chief executive chair of the nation, he took the most vigorous measures to crush them. He issued a proclamation declaring the ordinance of the State Convention treasonable, and subversive of the Federal Constitution ; he announced his determination to enforce the collection of the national revenue at all hazards; and he cautioned the people of the State of South Carolina against the ruinous policy which they were tempted to adopt. This proclamation was answered by another from Mr. Hayne, at that time Governor of the State, in which the policy of Nullification was justified. At the same time the latter summoned twelve thousand volunteers to take arms in opposition to the Federal troops. 38 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. During the progress of these events Mr. Calhoun had remained in South Carolina, and had been the prime mover in the rebellion. In December, 1832, he was chosen to succeed Mr. Hayne in the United States Senate, and to defend the conduct of his native State in the Na tional Legislature. At that moment President Jackson was undecided whether it was not his duty to arrest Mr. Calhoun before he reached Washington, on the charge of treason ; and the general impression was, fchat such an event would take place. Beyond the limits of South Caro lina Mr. Calhoun was generally regarded with distrust, sometimes with abhorrence, as being in heart a traitor to the government ; and on his way to AVashington, he was repeatedly assailed by the. clamors and in sults of the indignant people. But he was at that time Vice President of the United States, and he remained invested with that office until he took his seat in the Senate. That fact and other prudent considerations, induced Jackson to refrain from the extreme measure which he had once contemplated. But it is worthy of remark, that the stern hero of New Orleans afterward bitterly regretted his lenity on this occasion, and con tinued to do so during the remainder of his life. Shortly after Mr. Calhoun took his seat in the Senate, he introduced a resolution requesting the President of the United States to lay before that body the documents connected with, the Nullification ordinance, cer tified copies of which had been transmitted to him by Governor Hayne. Immediately, and before his request could be complied with, General Jackson addressed a message to the Senate bearing date January 16th, 1833, in which he condemned the conduct of "South Carolina in reference to the question of Nullification. This message, and all the documents having reference to the matter, were referred to the Committee on the Judiciary for consideration. Daniel Webster was a prominent member of this committee, and exerted himself to procure the adoption of such a report as should effectually crush the scorpion head of Nullification. Under his guidance the committee reported the famous Force Bill, which invested the President with additional powers in reference to the matter, and extended and increased the jurisdiction of the courts of the United States in cases arising under the revenue laws. The acknowledged pur pose of this bill was to enable and encourage the President to put down Nullification by force of arms. At this crisis Mr. Calhoun came forward, and enacted the most distin guished and important achievement of his life. He addressed the Senate, and proposed that, before the discussion of the provisions of this bill should be commenced, the important abstract questions of constitutional law, which were involved in the issue, should be debated ; and in order to bring about that result, he introduced a number of resolutions, which included the topics at issue. These resolutions contained the substance and the germ of the whole policy of southern resistance to the Federal Gov MR. CALHOUN IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. 39 ernment, and they have been since, and still remain, the creed and catechism of secession politicians. The overwhelming majority which was arrayed against Mr. Calhoun in the Senate, soon laid those resolutions upon the table; and the bill reported by the committee was then taken up for consideration. A memorable debate ensued. Mr. Calhoun deliv ered on this occasion his ablest effort, known as his " speech against the Force Bill." But his logic and e]oquence were useless. The bill passed, after one of the most magnificent displays of forensic power and genius ever witnessed in that hall, which has been the arena of so many masterly and consummate orators. The bill became a law on the 28th of February, 1833. Immediately afterward, General Jackson adopted the most vigorous measures to crush the power and the life of the hydra of Nullification. He dispatched General Scott with a body of troops to Charleston. Forts Pinckney and Moultrie, which have been since invested with an unfortunate celebrity, were strongly garrisoned. When the rebels discovered that they had no time-serving, imbecile, pusillanimous supreme magistrate to contend with ; when they saw that, if they persisted in resisting the pro cesses and the writs of the Federal Government, Charleston would be bombarded, and they would feel the full weight of the just indignation of the government, they retraced their steps, their ardor died out, they approved of more prudent measures; and eventually the same State Convention which had adopted the infamous Ordinance of Nullification, repealed it, and ceased their opposition to the authority of the United States. Such was the termination of the first attempt of the politicians of South Carolina to resist the execution of the laws, and to destroy the unity of the National Government. Nor can we forbear here to indulge the re flection that if, on the more recent outbreak of rebellion which has oc curred in that State, so thoroughly infected with treason, a chief execu tive officer, possessing the same energy, sagacity, and patriotism, had occupied the highest seat of power, measures of the same effective nature would have been adopted, which would have speedily led to the accom plishment of the same glorious and felicitious results. The seed, how ever, which Calhoun and his associates sowed, fell into productive soil, took deep root, sprang up, and brought forth deadly and noxious fruit, some sixty, some even a hundred fold. His memorable saying was not forgotten : " If you should ask me the word that I would wish to have engraven on my tombstone, I answer, it is NULLIFICATION." II. The second cause which led to the Southern Eebellion was the con test, often characterized by extreme bitterness and malignity, which has been progressing during many years between the opposite portions of this Union, in reference to the extension and restriction of slavery, its perpetuity in those States in which it already existed, and its introduction 40 THE CIVIL WAK IN THE UNITED STATES. into those new Territories which have been, and which might hereafter be, from time to time, organized by the Federal Government. In March, 1830, John C. Calhoun declared, in the Senate of the United States, that he had believed from the first that " the agitation of the sub ject of slavery would, if not prevented by some timely and effective measure, end in the dissolution of the Union." His prediction was veri fied. The " agitation" of so important an institution can neVer be pre vented or suspended, even on the part of prudent, moderate, and con servative statesmen, and hence the expedient of disunion was at last re sorted to. We will present a brief survey of the facts connected with the past history and discussion of this irrepressible subject in our country. On the 22d of December, 1620, a Dutch trading vessel, a slave ship, sailing directly from the coast of Africa, passed up James river, in Yir- ginia, and landed twenty negroes, who were immediately sold to the chief inhabitants of Jamestown. They were the first slaves of African origin who ever existed on the American continent. The purchasers were English adventurers, aristocratic cavaliers, who, at home, had been accustomed to idleness and luxury, but having become reduced in wealth, had emigrated to the new world to improve their broken fortunes. To men of such habits and tastes the presence of such chattels as slaves, compelled to obey all their whims and minister to all their caprices, was a very acceptable and novel addition to their means of enjoyment. The example of this Dutch slave dealer, whose name has passed into an igno minious oblivion, was soon followed by others; and in a short time vessels, crowded with the manacled and helpless children of Africa, sailed into every port of the American continent, and freely sold their human cargoes to the inhabitants of every colony which had then been planted. By this means, and by the natural increase of the negroes, slavery became gradually established in all the thirteen colonies. Immediately after the conclusion of the Eevolutionary War, and while the several States were still governed by the Articles of Confederation, Thomas Jeffer son introduced a resolution into the Continental Congress to the effect that, after the year 1800, no slavery should exist in any of the Western Terri- tories or on any soil not included within the established and ancient limits of the States themselves. This proposition was made in April, 1784. But it was overruled because, though sixteen delegates voted for it, and only seven against it, the Articles of Confederation required that the votes of nine /States should be given in favor of any resolution to give it the validity of law. When the Federal Constitution was discussed previous to its adoption, this subject was the most difficult with which the immortal sages and statesmen who composed that instrument were called upon to deal. Already had this institution become closely inter woven with all the customs, interests, and associations of the citizens of AMERICAN SLAVERY ITS ORIGIN. 41 the Southern States ; and whatever might be the abstract opinions which the people of those States entertained in reference to the subject of human liberty, and the equal rights of man, their personal feeling and their individual interests had become identified with negro bondage, as an essential feature of their social and political existence. All, there fore, that could be done by the advocates of the discontinuance of this institution was, to obtain the introduction of a clause in the amendments to the Constitution, somewhat ambiguous in its meaning, which enacted that "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." As this provision amounted to little or nothing in restricting the diffu sion of slavery, when new Territories were occupied and settled in the South, and were afterward elevated to the dignity and invested with the prerogatives of sovereign States, slavery invariably went hand in hand with that process. Thus, when Kentucky was formed out of the limits of Virginia, when Tennessee was carved out of those of North Carolina, when Alabama and Mississippi were created from those of Georgia, this institution constituted a component element of their political and social existence. When first these regions were ceded to the Federal Govern ment as Territories, it was with the express understanding, that Congress should not attempt by any law or statute to abolish slavery within their boundaries ; and they even stipulated, by an express condition, that when these Territories had acquired the requisite number of white inhabitants to entitle them to admission to the Union as States, they should be thus admitted with the institution of slavery as it then already existed in them, fully recognized, allowed, and protected. The sixth article of the compact made in 1787, between the United States and the people and States west and northwest of the river Ohio, pro hibited the introduction of slavery in those immense regions. An attempt was made in January, 1807, in the American Congress, to sus pend this article for ten years throughout the vast "Indiana Territory," of which General Harrison was then the Governor. It failed, and thus those States and Territories have ever since remained exempt from the presence and the incubus of negro slavery. On three several occasions a desperate struggle occurred in Congress, in reference to the existence of slavery in the territory comprised within the State of Missouri. The first was in 1817, when she was admitted as a Territory. Then an effort was made to have a clause forbidding the existence of slavery in her limits inserted in her constitution. After a long and angry debate that clause was expunged. The second contest occurred in 1819, when Missouri presented her claim to admission to the Union as a State. Henry Clay was then Speaker of the House, and the committee appointed by him to report on the subject, were all, with a 42 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. single exception, Representatives from the South. They reported in favor of the recognition of slavery in the Territory. Their recommendation, after another protracted and vigorous conflict, was supported by both Houses ; and slavery was recognized by an express clause of the Constitu tion of the State. The third combat on this subject occurred in 1820. It was called forth by an attempt of the pro-slavery advocates to amend the Constitution of the State, so as to prevent free negroes from entering and residing within the limits of Missouri ; and asking the approval of Con gress to the measure. On this occasion, after a lengthy discussion, Henry Clay, who may justly be termed the Napoleon of Compromises, came for ward with his famons Missouri Compromise, as the best possible settle ment of a difficulty which became apparently more complicated and more pernicious from hour to hour. He proposed, in the report of a committee of which he was the chairman, that a pledge should be required of the Legislature of Missouri, that the Constitution of that State should not be interpreted to authorize the passage of a law, by which any of the citizens of either of the States should be excluded from the enjoyment of all the privileges and immunities to which they were anywhere entitled, under the Constitution of the United States. The meaning of this proposition was, that as negroes were then recognized by the constitutions of several of the States, as citizens possessing certain rights ; and as the Federal Con stitution recognized the validity of those State constitutions, therefore, the State of Missouri should not pass any law which deprived the free negroes residing within her limits of the rights which they might elsewhere have possessed. The measure introduced and advocated by Mr. Clay, was eventually passed, and became the law of the land in February, 1821. The Territory of Texas was originally a province belonging to the Vice-royalty of Mexico, while that State was yet a portion of the Spanish monarchy. After the deliverance of Mexico from Spanish power and tyranny, Texas remained a part of the Mexican Republic. In 1835 her inhabitants revolted from the authority of that Republic, and estab lished an independent government. In 1836 the decisive victory of San Jacinto secured the perpetuity of their liberties, by delivering the Texans from the authority of their former rulers. In 1844 the new Republic applied for admission to the Federal Union ; and as slavery already ex isted within her limits, that difficult and eternally obtrusive theme became a prominent element of the discussions which ensued in conse quence of her application. Texas was finally admitted to the Union in 1845, with a clause in her constitution fully recognizing the existence of slavery within her borders. The war with Mexico whose government had protested against the ad mission of Texas, immediately followed. The armies of the United States, under the generalship of the gallant Scott and Taylor, marched into the SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES. 43 territory of the enemy, and carried the Stars and Stripes in triumph from one field of glory to another, until they were unfurled, and waved in majestic splendor, from the summit of the towers and spires of the city of Montezuma. During the progress of this memorable war, the Federal Congress voted liberal supplies to our armies in Mexico; but in August, 1846, when President Polk demanded an appropriation of thirty thousand dollars for immediate use, and two millions more for subsequent exigen cies, a number of the Representatives from the North determined to em brace the opportunity to place some restriction, as the price of their votes, upon the extension of slavery in the territory which had been the cause of the war. Hon. David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, was chosen as the representa tive of this faction, and he offered in the House his famous proposition, known as the Wilmot Proviso. That Proviso set forth : " That as an ex press and fundamental condition to the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the monies herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servi tude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted." This proposition, after being adopted by the House, was rejected by the Senate. It was subse quently revived in various forms, and under different disguises. Mean while the war progressed to a glorious conclusion, and other topics of grave and absorbing interest occupied the attention of Congress and the nation. But the peculiar circumstances under which the Wilmot Proviso happened to have been originally proposed, gave it a prominence in the annals of American political affairs, to which it was not entitled by any inherent importance or merit of its own. After the triumphant termination of the war with Mexico, a grateful nation elevated Zachary Taylor to the Presidential chair. It became the duty of the Congress which immediately afterward convened, to determine whether or not slavery should be admitted into the newly-acquired Ter ritories of California and New Mexico. This topic elicited, as was usually the case, a discussion of extreme duration and violence. At length, in January, 1850, Henry Clay proposed his resolutions in the Senate known as the Compromise of 1850. The most important propositions contained in this remarkable docu ment were these : That it was inexpedient for Congress to provide by law, either for the introduction of slavery into, or for its exclusion from any of the territory acquired by the United States from Mexico ; that ter ritorial governments should be provided by Congress for all those new acquisitions, without adopting any provision whatever respecting slavery ; that it was inexpedient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, as long as slavery existed in Maryland ; that, however, it was expedient to 44 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. prohibit, within the District, the sale of slaves which should be brought into it from other States, either for the purpose of being sold in it, or of being transported through it to slave markets elsewhere. In support of this compromise Mr. Clay exhausted, for the last time, all the resources of his marvellous and matchless eloquence, an eloquence whose persua sive power and pathos the heavy burden of years had been unable to di minish or enfeeble. The venerable statesman presented in the Senate of the United States, on that occasion, one of the sublimest spectacles evei ex hibited by pure patriotism, by exalted genius, and by dauntless hero ism, in the annals of mankind. He believed that the safety and perpe tuity of the Federal Union, to whose power and glory he had himself contributed so much and so long, depended upon the adoption of the measures which he then proposed ; and he acted and spoke accordingly. One of the most memorable debates which ever occurred in the National Legislature ensued, in the discussion of these propositions. Eminent Senators delivered some of their most elaborate and masterly arguments. Among those who opposed them with great zeal, was Jefierson Davis, then honored as the Senator from Mississippi. During the long period of two months, the subject occupied the exclusive atten tion of Congress. Mr. Clay s propositions gradually became modified by so many amendments, mutilations, and addenda, that they were finally termed, with considerable show of propriety, the Omnibus Bill. As the Omnibus Bill, they were eventually passed by both Houses ; but when thus adopted they retained very little of the spirit and of the purposes which characterized them when they first proceeded from the gifted mind and the patriotic heart of the Sage of Ashland. Another impor tant feature of this act was the adoption of a more efficient fugitive slave law, by which the slave property of the South was protected still more zealously and efficiently than before. All these struggles, to which the institution of slavery had thus far given rise, were mere impalpable conflicts of words. A time now ap proached, in the history of this controversy, when it assumed more tragical and desperate aspects, and became invested with more formida ble and repulsive features. In the session of Congress of 1852-3, Stephen A. Douglas introduced a bill for the purpose of organizing the Territory of Nebraska out of the region lying immediately west of Missouri. It is evident that this Territory was included within the limits of that tract from which slavery was forever to be excluded, and to which exclusion the Southern States had themselves consented, by the terms of the Missouri Compro mise, in order that they might obtain the admission of Missouri as a slave State. In 1852 the National Conventions, both of the Whig and the Democratic parties, indorsed and accepted the Compromise of 1850, which implied that the Territory of Nebraska should not be made a slave SLAVERY IN KANSAS. 45 region. In January, 1854, Mr. Douglas reported a bill for the purpose of organizing the Territory of Nebraska, in which a clause was intro duced, which declared that the Missouri restriction on slavery in that Territory was inoperative and void. In May, 1854, this bill passed both Houses of Congress, was signed by the President, and became a law. During the progress of the discussion, however, the bill had been variously- modified ; and, when finally adopted, it contained the following important provision : that it was the true meaning and intent of the act of 1850, not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to ex clude it therefrom ; " but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to regulate their own domestic institution in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States ;" and that such a policy of non intervention, neither protecting, establishing, prohibiting, nor abolishing slavery within the Nebraska Territory, should remain a fundamental principle in its Constitution. Subsequent to the passage of this law, and expressly covered by its provisions, the Territory of Kansas was organized. It unquestionably left the people, that is, those who were the lawful citizens of both Ter ritories, at liberty to determine for themselves whether or not slavery should exist in future within their limits. It devolved the important duty of deciding the matter upon the legal authorities of each Territory, chosen in a legitimate manner, and expressing their will in a constitu tional way. Then the great struggle began in regard to the ultimate decision of the people respecting the existence of slavery in future among them; and then were enacted all those horrors and outrages which have rendered the annals of Kansas a dark and repulsive spot on the pages of -American history. After the organization of the Territory, successive Governors, ap pointed by the President, administered its affairs with different degrees of integrity and success, some of them being honest, sober, and capable men ; others being knavish, drunken, and imbecile. The legal inhabi tants of Kansas began to assemble in various portions of the Territory, to express their opinions in public meetings, to arrange their plans of political action, and to perform other duties which devolved on them as good citizens. Prominent among these duties, in the progress of time, were the adoption of a State constitution and the formation of a State government. The paramount question to be decided by them still was, whether slavery should be recognized and permitted as a future element in the laws and the social condition of the community. Conventions were held at Lawrence, at Topeka, and elsewhere. The convention which sat at Topeka in September, 1855, possessed all the sanctions and forms of law in its favor, which were necessary to invest its acts with a legitimate and binding authority. It was summoned by an express proclamation of the Governor. It was attended by all the executive 46 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. officers of the Territory, by the Clerk of the Supreme Court, and by the Attorney -General. Its members were chosen in a legal manner, and they represented the lawful inhabitants of the Territory. They passed a resolution providing for the better government and organization of the State, designated the proper qualification of voters, and appointed the times and places where these voters should assemble to determine whether slavery should in future exist within their limits. The large majority of the inhabitants of Kansas were ardently opposed to slavery. The Territory had long been the scene of execrable acts of violence and disorder which were perpetrated chiefly by that class of depraved and irresponsible persons who will always constitute a part of the inhabitants of any new territory. But at the period which now arrived, these outrages assumed a more terrible form, and events occurred in that remote and primitive region, which make the citizens of a well ordered and prosperous social State shudder with horror. This contest also assumed importance in another respect. Kansas became represen tative ground, and the struggle a representative one between the whole North and South between the partisans of slavery and the advocates of freedom throughout the entire nation. As the question whether Kansas should thenceforth be a free State was to be determined at the ballot-box, the ballot-box became the centre around which many of these violent outrages clustered. The majority of the opponents of the freedom of Kansas were to be found among the desperate and savage adventurers who lived in Missouri, in the vicinity of the Kansas border. Immense crowds of these ruffians, infuriated by political rancor, and still more by excess in intoxicating drinks, rode over to the places appointed for holding the elections ; and sometimes by threats, sometimes by actual violence, defeated the purposes of the law, and interfered with, and often entirely suppressed, the rights of the citizens at the ballot-box. The Convention which was held at Topeka, in Kansas, adopted a free State constitution for the future government of the Territory. That constitution was afterward presented in due form to Congress for their approval, by commissioners appointed for that purpose. In the House the document was referred to the Committee on Territories ; a majority of whom reported in favor of the admission of Kansas, under its pro visions, as a free State. A desperate contest then ensued between the advocates of slavery and its opponents, in which Alexander II. Stephens, of Georgia, afterward the Vice President of the Southern Confederacy, especially distinguished himself. At length, however, on the 3d of July, 1856, the final vote was taken upon the subject, and the bill passsed ; thus receiving the sanction of law, so far as the approval of that particular department of the National Legislature was concerned. In this review of the causes which led to the Southern Eebellion, it is "1 RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 47 proper that a brief notice be taken of the famous " Dred Scott case," by which the advocates of the interests of slaveholders succeeded in obtain ing from a majority of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States an opinion which threw the weight and the influence of that august tribunal in favor of pro-slavery interests and pretensions. Chief Justice Taney, while concurring in the judgment of the majority of the Court, that the Circuit Court of the United States, for Missouri, had no jurisdic tion in the suit brought by the plaintiff in error, Dred Scott, on the ground that the latter was not a citizen of Missouri, went on to take jurisdiction for the announcement of an opinion, not growing out of the case, nor justly deducible from any thing which had occurred in it, but only de clared in the interests of slavery, to the effect that for more than a century previous to the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, negroes, whether slave or free, had been regarded as lt beings of an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations ; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect," that consequently such persons were not included among the " people " in the general words of that instrument, and could not in any respect be considered as citizens ; that the inhibition of slavery in the territories of the United States, lying north of the line of thirty-six degrees, thirty minutes, known as the Missouri compromise, was unconstitutional ; and that Dred Scott, a negro slave, who was re moved by his master from Missouri to Illinois, lost whatever freedom he may have thus acquired, by being subsequently removed into the Territory of Wisconsin, and by his return to the State of Missouri. To the monstrous assumptions of this ex parts opinion, unsustained as they were by any authorities, and contradicted by an able argument of the Chief Justice himself in his younger and better days, Justices Nelson, Grier, Daniel, Wayne, Campbell and Catron (the last named with some qualifications) gave their sanction ; while Justices McLean and Curtis, confessedly the ablest members of the Court, dissented in able opinions which exhibited the fallacy of the opinions of the Chief Justice. The opinion of Chief Justice Tan^ was hailed with great satisfaction by the South, which claimed at once that it should be regarded as having the authority of law, a demand which the North never granted. The majority of the people of the Northern States regarded this extra-judicial deliverance of the highest officer of the United States Supreme Court with utter loathing and contempt ; and it was, perhaps, fortunate for its author that no case came up to test its authority before the Court was, by the death, resignation and secession of six of its members, including the Chief Justice himself, completely reorganized. The events which had occurred in Kansas during the administration of Mr. Pierce, and the mysterious disappearance of the Whig party, once so powerful and respectable in the arena of American politics, led to the 48 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. sudden rise of a new and formidable political organization, which took the not inappropriate name of the Kepublican party. It owed its birth, in reality, to the apprehensions created by the continual and insatiable aggressions of the slave power in the United States, which seemed de termined, by every expedient which could possibly be rendered available for that purpose, so to mould and control the Federal Government, in all its various branches, legislative, judicial and executive, as to convert it into the mere tool of a slave propagandisrn. The new party was com posed of old Whigs, moderate anti-slavery men, some native Americans, and some Democrats, who, having become convinced that the old Demo cratic party had entirely betrayed and ignored its primitive principles, felt themselves fully justified in abandoning it. The cardinal doctrine of the Republican party was, not to interfere with the institution of slavery as it already existed, either in the slave States or even in the slave Terri tories. Its fundamental principles and purposes, as set forth first in the Philadelphia platform, under which Mr. Fremont was nominated, and afterward in the Chicago platform, under which Mr. Lincoln was nomi nated, were simply to prevent, by legitimate and constitutional means, the extension of slavery in those Territories which were as yet untainted by its presence and its power. On the 18th of June, 1856, the National Con vention of the Republican party nominated Mr. Fremont as their candidate for the Presidency. Now, for the first time, were the great issues connected with slavery-extension in the Territories placed before the nation in such a form, that the voice of the whole people could be heard upon them with out the mixture of fanatical zeal or ultra partizanship. The contest was one of the most violent which had ever taken place in any free government, in connection with the strict observance of law and order. In its desperate throes with the new organization, the ancient Democratic party was shaken to its centre. James Buchanan, whom it had selected as its candidate for the Presidency, guided his confederates through the storm with consum mate skill. The result of the contest was favorable to his aspirations. Never before had so young a party made so magnificent a display of or ganization and strength as did the Republican on this occasion; but Mr. Buchanan was elected President by an inconsiderable majority. In March, 1857, he entered upon an administration which deserves to be regarded as the most ignominious which has occurred in the annals of the Federal Government. His election, indeed, postponed the act of secession on the part of the South for a limited period; for there is sufficient proof to satisfy every impartial mind that the leading politicians of the South had already determined, in 1856, that, if the Republican candidate had then been chosen, the act which disgraced the year 1861, would have been anticipated in the year 1857. The success of the Democratic party, how ever, deprived them both of the excuse and of the motive for immediate secession. Another Chief Magistrate had been elected, who, they thought, ADMINISTRATION OF JAMKS BUCHANAN. 49 would certainly equal, possibly he might even excel, all his predecessors in subserviency to southern arrogance and southern interests. This hope was more than realized by the result. Nevertheless, the grand enterprise of secession remained constantly uppermost in the minds of the very same men who afterward achieved it,. The Southern Convention which met at Montgomery, Alabama, in 1858, deliberately contemplated the ultimate and inevitable purpose of breaking up the Union into fragments. Already at that period a man of superior talents, of daring spirit, and of perverted ambition, had devoted himself to the attainment of the bad eminence of being regarded as the most active, resolute, and indefatigable of the foes of the Union. William L. Yancey was a prominent member of that Convention, and all the re sources of his powerful eloquence were employed to give perfect form and vigorous spirit to the enterprise of secession. In order to prepare the way for the attainment of ultimate success, he announced the fact that the South were entitled, and would thenceforth assert their right, to what he termed Congressional Protection to slavery in the Territories ; and that doctrine was announced as being a fundamental part of the future issue in party politics. Soon this idea was promulgated by those jour nals in the South which were devoted to secession. In September, 1858, the New Orleans Delta proclaimed this doctrine as being a leading element of future agitation. The Eichmond Enquirer, then under the control of Henry A. Wise, took the same position. But these dema gogues never expected to achieve so disgraceful a result, as to render the Federal Government subservient to that measure. Their real purpose was to make the demand in Congress, knowing that it would be rejected ; thus to create a fresh hostility between the Northland the South, and by the assistance of that hostility to commence the agitation of secession with the greater probabilities of success. The disunion chiefs took time by the forelock, and provided for dis tant emergencies. In September, 1858, Jefferson Davis alluded in a speech delivered at Jackson, Mississippi, to the possibility of the election of a Republican President, and made the following declaration : " If an abolitionist be chosen President of the United States, you will have pre sented to you the question whether you will permit the government to pass into the hands of your avowed and implacable enemies. Without pausing for an answer, I will state my own position to be, that such a result would be a species of revolution, by which the purposes of the government would be destroyed, and the observance of its mere forms entitled to no respect. In that event, in such manner as should be most expedient, I should deem it your duty to provide for your safety outside of the Union, from those who have already shown the will, and would have acquired the power to deprive you of your birthright, and reduce you to worse than the colonial dependence of your fathers." This sentiment 4 50 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. uttered in 1858, increased in intensity and strength until it was realized in 1861. As the administration of Mr. Buchanan progressed, it became evident that he regarded the interests and the demands of the South with a partial eye. Probably unaware of the desperate extremes to which their leaders were capable of going, and unable to penetrate the ultimate purpose of their designs, he aided them whenever it lay in his power EC to do. One important act of this description was the President s agency in reference to the Lecompton Constitution. The Senate not having approved of the instrument which had been adopted by the Topeka Convention, excluding slavery from Kansas, a subtle scheme was contrived by south ern Representatives for the purpose of forcing Kansas into the Union as a slave State, from a knowledge of which scheme even the Governor and Secretary of the Territory were carefully excluded. A new constitution was prepared at Washington, under the auspices of the Administration, the ultimate effect of which was to secure the admission of slavery into the future State. A convention was summoned to meet at Lecompton, for the express purpose of approving and adopting that constitution ; at the same time, the provision made to exclude the Free State men from an equal share of influence at the ballot-box ; the use of United States troops to overawe citizens in the exercise of their legitimate rights ; and other arbitrary acts, clearly demonstrated the perverted feelings which animated the Chief Executive. When infamous frauds were committed at the ballot-box in Kansas, and returns of the elections were made to the Federal Government, which were known and demonstrated to have been illegal, Mr. Buchanan refused to go behind those returns, and insisted on receiving the voice of one fifth of the population of the Territory as the fairly uttered sentiment of the legal majority. Fortunately there was a formidable power in the legislative department of the Government, which was able to overrule the perversity of the Executive. The result was, that the people of Kansas escaped the misfortune of having an institution forced upon them which was repugnant to their feelings, to their principles, and to their interests. Kansas was eventually admitted to the Union as a free State, in spite of the opposition of the southern politician s, and in spite of the compliant artifices of the President. This event was another heavy grievance to the South ; and it confirmed the foregone conclusion of their leaders in favor of secession. The politicians and statesmen of the South were now convinced, from various indications, that the probabilities in favor of the success of the candidate of the Republican party in 1860 were overwhelming. They accordingly commenced to take the preliminary steps which were neces sary to accomplish their favorite project. Unfortunately for the Union, the Cabinet of Mr. Buchanan was infested with men unworthy of their high trust. In the formation of that Cabinet the South had, as usual, ob- PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS OP THE CONSPIRATORS. 51 tained an undue and exaggerated proportion. When the chief conspira tors sounded Mr. Floyd, the Secretary of War, they found him a willing and ready tool. He prostituted all the influence and resources of his office to their designs. Quietly and gradually, so as not to excite public suspicion, an immense number of muskets, belonging to the Federal Government, were transported by that traitor to places in the Southern States, where they could be of no possible service in time of peace, but would be ready at hand in the event of war. During the year 1860, a hundred and twenty-five thousand stand of arms were sent southward from the armory at Springfield alone. During that year, not a single musket was sent to any fort or arsenal in the Northern or Western States. Twenty thousand muskets were sold to the South at a merely nominal price. Thus munitions of war were plundered from their rightful owners, and placed in the hands of the secret enemies of the government, for the ex press and anticipated purpose of destroying it ; and this was done by one who himself held a distinguished post in that government, and had sworn to support the Federal Constitution. Mr. Cobb, Secretary of the Treasu ry, assisted the infamous enterprise, as far as the functions of his office permitted him. Mr. Thompson, Secretary of the Interior, was also a particeps criminis. A large proportion of the Cabinet being in the secret service of the enemies of the Union, they commenced their treasonable purposes with decisive advantages in their favor. It is not probable, however, that Mr. Buchanan suspected, much less that he approved of, the designs of these traitors. No reasonable motive can be assigned, or imagined, which could have induced him so to do. He had attained the highest honor known to exist in any free government. He had occupied the seat which had been adorned by the genius and virtues of Washington, Jefferson, and Adams ; and no Southern Confederacy, however successful and powerful it might become, could give him any glory or profit as great or greater than that which he had already attained. The loftiest aspira tions of his ambition had been realized. He had likewise gratified some of the less noble instincts of his nature, for he had rewarded his worst enemies, and had punished his best friends, to a monstrous and marvellous extent. Why should he desire to see the Union broken into fragments, and his own name descend to posterity surrounded with the execrable distinction of having contributed to destroy that government which, while it had accomplished many better and more commendable things, had also rendered him so illustrious and distinguished ? The supposition is extremely improbable and absurd. The Presidential campaign of 1860 presented several very remarkable features. It was a four-sided conflict, in which almost every shade of political opinion was represented by a separate candidate for the Presi dency. The old Democratic party nominated John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for that office ; against whom the friends of Stephen A. Douglas 52 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. pitted that talented and ambitious statesman. An organization which took the name of the Union party, selected John Bell of Tennessee as their champion ; while the great Kepublican party, buoyant with confi dence and hope, nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois as their standard bearer. It cannot be denied that the ultra pro-slavery faction in the South, found greater sympathy with their own views in the sentiments and policy of Mr. Breckinridge, than in those of any other candidate ; and had he been chosen, it is probable, perhaps it is certain, that as in the case of Mr. Buchanan s election, the act of secession would have been postponed for a brief period.* But such was not destined to be the result. The Republican party entered into the struggle with the resolute determination to leave no fair means untried to attain success. In vain was it urged against them that they were a sectional party, that they were an abolition party, that they were a disunion party. To the first charge they answered that, to call them sectional was merely a petitio principii ; because it yet remained to be demonstrated at the ballot-box whether they were sectional : if they elected their candidate by a constitutional majority, they could not be a sectional party, but the party of the majority of the whole nation. To the second charge, that they were an abolition party, they answered by a direct traverse or denial ; and they supported that denial by the assertion that no abolition sentiment could be found in the Philadelphia or Chicago platform, and that no representative man of the party, who was authorized to speak for them, was, or could be called, an Abolitionist. Because in deed a few Abolitionists chose to vote for their candidate, that fact did not make the whole party Abolitionists, any more than, because some Free masons voted for him, that did not make the whole party Masonic. To the third charge, that they favored disunion, they replied that they sup ported the Constitution and the laws ; that they would never secede from the Union ; that in fact they would fight for it to the last extremity ; that if they gained the control of the administration, it should only be by con stitutional means ; and that they would then administer it only in accord ance with the settled and lawful machinery of the government. The event proved that the greater portion of the nation was with the Republican party. Mr. Lincoln was elected by a decisive majority. lie was a person every way worthy of the high position to which he was elevated. He was a man of the people; the architect of his own fortune ; accustomed to hardship, to vicissitude, to triumph ; familiar with the laws and Constitution of his country; eminent as a prudent and practical statesman ; with a character not only free from every stain, but adorned * The division of the Democratic party by the friends of Mr. Douglas, and his nomination to the Presidency, thereby insuring the election of Mr. Lincoln, may be regarded as having exerted a powerful influence, though innocently and indirectly, in precipitating the outbreak of this pre-destined Rebellion. THE DOCTRINE OF STATE SOVEREIGNTY. 53 Dy many great and rare virtues. Ills election to the Presidency at once capped the climax of that long train of unspeakable wrongs and outrages which the chivalrous South had suffered with such exemplary patience during so many years, from the Northern portion of the Union ! There was an extreme and an excess of injury, however, which transcended the limits of even Southern patriotism and endurance, and that extreme had at last been perpetrated ! III. We stated at the beginning, that the third cause which led to the Southern Kebellion, was the assertion of the supremacy of State Rights in opposition to the policy of Federal Centralization. Before concluding this Introduction, it may be proper to dwell briefly on that point. The seceding States affirmed their privilege to withdraw from the Union on the ground that each individual State possesses the right to take back and recall from the National Government those powers which it delegated to it when the Union was formed, thus resuming its own isolated position and sovereign functions ; and that each State possesses this right, separately, at any time when it may think itself aggrieved. Never was a greater absurdity uttered. If indeed the separate States possessed any such right, then each State would in reality be paramount to the Federal Government, and the idea of Federal consolidation becomes an impalpable phantom and a visionary myth. But that no State which once formed a part of this Union possesses, or can possibly possess, any such prerogative, is evident from the following considerations : The Federal Government was established, not by the States as such, individually, but by the people, of the whole collection of States. The Con stitution was framed and adopted by those who expressly called them selves " The People." Therefore it is the people of the entire Union only who possess the right to dissolve the Federal Government, if, in any case, they feel disposed, for good and sufficient reasons, so to do. This cardinal doctrine was plainly acknowledged by the very men who adopted the Federal Constitution. Among other declarations of a similar character, we may cite the language of Virginia, uttered when she gave her adhesion to the General Government. She then declared that "the powers granted under the Constitution, being derived from the people of the United States, may be resumed by them, whenever the same shall be perverted to their injury or oppression." In this statement no allu sion is made to the reserved and sovereign right of the individual States to withdraw. When the people of the seceding States became integral -^ portions of the Federal Government, they bound themselves, as a part of the grand aggregate of the people, to support it, unless, as a grand aggre gate, they should become convinced that their interests would be pro moted by its dissolution. The Federal Government was established on this basis, not only for those who framed it, but with the express understanding and covenan* . I \ 54 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. that its provisions should benefit and should bind with equal force those who came after them. The makers of it declared that they established it " for themselves and their posterity." Whatever obligation, therefore, bound the party of the first part attached inevitably to the party of the second part. Both live under the same conditions, and are controlled by the same duties. If the separate States which established the National Government could not as Slates secede, neither could their descendants or legal representatives secede; for the latter could inherit and possess no prerogatives which the former did not possess. That those who framed the Constitution never intended that any individual State as such should claim the right to withdraw from the Union is evident from the signifi cant fact that they made no provision in the Constitution itself for such a process. There is no clause in that instrument which designates the way in which a State shall secede. If those who framed the Federal Govern ment intended that either themselves or their descendants should possess the right, as separate States, to withdraw, they would undoubtedly have provided for the exercise of so important and so fundamental a function. Those who established the Federal Government expressly condemned this doctrine of State supremacy. They say, " This Constitution shall be \ the supreme law of the land, any thing in the constitution or laws of a State to the contrary notwithstanding." No assertion could possibly be plainer. This clause declares in substance that the people who estab lished the Federal Government organized it for themselves and for their posterity ; that they went into the Union for the purpose of forming com ponent parts of one grand organic political structure, intended for perma nent and perpetual duration ; and they teach that, should any State undertake to pass laws, or even to adopt a constitution, which shall in any way conflict with the provisions already contained in the Federal Con stitution, and in opposition to this purpose, they shall be null and void. Thus, therefore, if any State, as a State, or the people of a single State, shall pass a law in favor of secession, and against the supremacy of the National Government, that law is ipso facto null and void. Now, those States which seceded approved of this clause in the Federal Constitution by their own Representatives in Congress assembled at that time. It therefore binds them and their descendants forever; and the act of seces sion by any State is, by their own provisions and solemn stipulations, a fraud and a violation of the law which they themselves had sanctioned. Those who asserted that the Southern States, or any other portion of the Union, have a right to secede on the ground that the Union is a mere compact or partnership between the several States, may be answered and condemned out of their own mouths. Let us admit, for the sake of argument, that the Federal Government is a mere partnership, what then? It necessarily follows that, in order to dissolve it legally and rightfully, STATE SOVEREIGNTY DISCUSSION OP THE SUBJECT. 55 the process must be accomplished precisely as all other partnerships are dissolved. According to the established principles of municipal law there are four processes by which a partnership may be dissolved. The first is by the death of one of the contracting parties. The second is by the expiration of the time for which the partnership was entered into. The third, where no definite period was specified, during which the part nership should continue, by the mutual consent of all the parties to the contract. The fourth is, where such general consent has not been obtained, by giving previous notice to all the parties in interest of an in tention to withdraw, and by making a full and final settlement of all the accounts existing between those involved in the partnership. Now, in the present instance, none of these essential conditions were complied with. No one of the parties who formed the alleged partner ship of the Federal Government was extinct. The period of time for which the alleged partnership was entered into had not expired, because no particular period had ever been specified. There remained, therefore, the third condition the unanimous consent of all the parties to the com pact. But that consent was not given ; it was refused pertinaciously and clamorously by twenty-three partners out of thirty -four, and those twenty- three were the parties who had furnished nine-tenths of the capital, who had borne three-fourths of the expense of the concern, and who had always derived the least profit from its operations. Lastly, no previous legal notice had been given of an intention to withdraw ; nor had any provision been made for a full and final adjustment of the accounts and interests existing between the various members of the alleged part nership. If then the Federal Government were a mere compact, where was the right of the Rebel States to secede as they did? By their own showing, their act was illegal ; it was a public and national fraud ; it was a violation of law and order. It was as unjustifiable as their subsequent repudiation of the debts which they owed the citizens of the North, for almost every commodity which promotes the comfort, refinement, and civilization of human society. The secession of one or more States from the Union, in this illegal manner, was unjustifiable in another point of view. When the people who established the Federal Government ceded certain sovereign powers to it, which they would otherwise have enjoyed and exercised under their separate State governments, they did it with the implied pledge that thay should receive in exchange therefor the benefits of a permanent nationality, which would result from the greater power and influence in vested in and exercised by a General Government. That nationality is destroyed, and the benefits once conferred by it are lost, by the secession of a single State. Therefore the State which thus secedes inflicts an in calculable injury on the rest of the community. What nation was more respected throughout the world, what flag was more honored as it floated 5G THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. majestically in every clime under heaven, than that of the "United States of North America?" There was a grandeur and glory associated with that name; bright recollections of the past, glowing visions of the future, inspiring thoughts of freedom, prosperity, enterprise, clustered around it, which invested it with deathless interest. Despots trembled in the re cesses of their palaces, the people everywhere shouted with exultation and joy, when they heard it repeated. "What was the cause of this? It was because the nation was then a unit. Bunion fait la force. But now, because the nation was divided, its glory departed ; it became a laughing stock to tyrants; and the friends of humanity and rational free dom in every land sighed with regret at the lamentable spectacle. This result was produced by the act of secession, which inflicted an incalcula ble injury upon those who were entitled to benefits. But the seceding States had also themselves enjoyed advantages fr^om the same source in a preeminent degree ; they were bound, therefore, both by gratitude and by interest, to preserve the Union intact and perpetual. There was but one answer to these arguments, and that answer is an absurdity. It was asserted by the advocates of secession that, having no longer the majority in Congress, they could no longer mould the laws so as thereby to promote their own interests ; and especially that they could not obtain the admission of new Territories into the Union with slavery expressly protected and allowed in them. People from the free States, they said, could convey their various kinds of property, to those new Ter ritories, and could have their titles thereto protected ; but emigrants from Southern States could not remove their slaves thither and retain posses sion of them ; hence, it was high time to secede. The answer is : that the Southern States themselves assisted in establishing those very laws by which a certain definite majority rules in the National Legislature. They approved of those laws and obeyed them, as long as they operated to their own benefit and promoted their own aggrandizement. But if, in the course of time the South lost the majority which the Constitution requires and with that majority the controlling power, were they justified in re pudiating the government which they had helped to construct, and had sworn to support? On the contrary they were obligated, as men of honor, honesty and veracity, to accept the legitimate consequences of their own free and deliberate acts. POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN SOUTH CAROLINA, ETC. 57 CHAPTER I. EFFECT OF MB LINCOLN S ELECTION IN THE SOUTH POLITICAL MOVEMENTS IN SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEORGIA EXCITEMENT IN CHARLESTON PRELIMINARY ACTS AND EVENTS RESIGNATION OF FEDERAL OFFICERS ELECTION OF MEMBERS TO THE STATE CONVENTION OPPONENTS OF SECESSION ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS FEDERAL PROPERTY SEIZED IN CHARLESTON CONVENTIONS SUMMONED IN GEORGIA AND ALABAMA ASSEMBLING OP THE CONVENTION OF SOUTH CAROLINA THE FIRST ACT OF SECESSION FROM THE UNION PASSED APATHETIC STATEMENT OF GRIEVANCES SECESSION LOGIC REFLECTIONS ON THE RESULT POPULAR FEELINGS AT THIS TIME IN GEORGIA, ALABAMA, MISSISSIPI AND FLORIDA LEVITY AND RECKLESSNESS OF THE SECESSION LEADERS. ON the 6th of November, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was chosen President of the United States, receiving the votes of seventeen States, or of one hundred and eighty electors out of three hundred and three. As soon as the unwelcome intelligence was conveyed by telegraphic flashes to South Carolina and Georgia, an ebullition of intense indignation and disgust instantly burst forth throughout the length and breadth of those ancient communities. How quickly and promptly they were prepared to assume the attitude of rebels against the Federal Government, was demonstrated by the significant fact, that, on the very da} after the one on which the general election was held, resolutions were adopted by both branches of the Legislature of South Carolina, then assembled at Columbia, in favor of calling a convention of the people of the State to act upon the question of secession, to re-organize the militia, and to prepare for military oper ations. There seemed to be so settled a determination among the politi cians and representatives of that State to assume the part which they afterward enacted, that very little preliminary deliberation was necessary to fit them for decisive measures. Nor were the leaders of popular opinion in South Carolina much in advance of their confederates in the neighboring State of Georgia. On the 8th of November a large meeting of the prominent citizens of Savan nah was held in that city, who adopted resolutions admitting the necessity and commending the policy of secession. Great enthusiasm prevailed in the assembly, which passed, without a dissenting voice, a series of resolu tions which set forth, that the election of Lincoln and Hamlin was an outrage which "ought not and will not be submitted to;" that a petition be sent to the Legislature, then in session at Milledgeville, desiring them to co-operate with the Governor of the State in calling a convention of the people to determine on measures of redress ; that the Legislature be re quested to pass laws to meet the commercial crisis which impended, and 58 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. organize and arm the forces of the Commonwealth ; and that the Senators and Eepresentatives of Georgia in the Federal Congress be duly informed of these transactions. The spirit of rebellion and disaffection spread with the utmost rapidity throughout the State. The ancient colonial flag of Georgia was unfurled, and flung to the breeze at Savannah ; and an im mense assemblage, convened at Augusta on the same day, commenced active operations by enrolling a corps of minute men. Notwithstanding these spirited measures elsewhere the city of Charles ton seemed determined to achieve and to retain the first place in the in glorious enterprise of secession. On the 8th of November the time- honored Stars and Stripes, which had so long waved in graceful splendor over the Federal edifices in Charleston, were displaced ; and the Palmetto flag substituted in their stead. The leading officers of the Federal Gov ernment, the District Attorney, the Collector of the Port, and the Deputy Collector, resigned their several positions, and duly notified Mr. Buchan an, who still occupied the White House, of that important and calamitous event. Their example was soon followed by less insignificant personages. On the 10th of the month Mr. Chesnut resigned his seat in Congress, as Senator from South Carolina. The Legislature then adopted a resolution appointing the sixth of the ensuing December as the period for the elec tion of delegates to the convention, which was to determine the future action of the state in reference to Secession ; and they designated the 17th of December as the date of its assembling. These events were the natural and necessary preliminaries to the great revolutionary movement which was destined soon to follow. But it is worthy of remark, that at this early period of the process, the politicians of South Carolina, and the citizens of that State whom they controlled so despotically, either by fear, or by conviction, or by delusion, were unani mous in their support of the policy of rebellion ; whereas no such unani mity existed at that time in the other seceding States. Thus, on the 10th of November, a conservative meeting was held at Augusta, Georgia, composed of very respectable citizens, and presided over by the Mayor ; which adopted resolutions setting forth that, living as the people did under a government of law and order, it was their duty, if they felt that they suffered from the infliction of grievances, to seek redress from them only by legal and constitutional means. But their words of prudence and monition were like the voice of one calling in the wilderness ; or rather like the sound of a gentle whisper amid the roar and thunder of a furious tempest sweeping over the deep, unheard and unheeded by those around them. The feeling in favor of secession gradually became predominant throughout the States of South Carolina and Georgia ; and it was confi dently asserted, that, before the period arrived for the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas, would have united their fortunes with those of the two leading States. The latter had already EXCITEMENT IN CHAKLESTON. 59 gone too far to recede ; they felt that the confidence and respect of the Union were now lost to them ; and they had but one course left, to per severe to the end in the ignominious career they had begun. At this stage of the rebellion there was much doubt in the minds of several distinguished statesmen of Georgia as to the propriety and policy of secession. The most eminent of these was Alexander H. Stephens, who then held a high place in the estimation of the whole nation, for his undoubted talents, and his prudent, conservative disposition. At this period he opposed Secession with earnestness ; and stated his solemn con viction, that the act would be injurious and pernicious to the South in every respect. He contended that the advocates of slavery would be able to protect their rights much more efficiently while in the Union than when out of it ; and of the veracity and wisdom of this opinion there could be no possible doubt. But soon it became known that he had begun to waver in his position ; and the hope was entertained by the secessionists that he might be won over to their cause. Whether it was the bribe of the proffered office of the Vice Presidency of the new Confederacy about to be created, or whether it was the result of further and deeper research into the supposed interests of the South; or whether he had become con vinced that it was useless to resist the overwhelming tide which he saw rushing around him on every hand, we pretend not to say. But it was soon announced that the ablest statesman of Georgia, who had spoken so clearly, decisively and boldly in defence of the Union, had at length aban doned that honorable position, and had declared himself in doubt on the subject of secession. This event greatly elated and encouraged those who had at one time despaired of his co-operation, and had feared his resistance to their enterprise. Further acts of hostility to the General Government continued to be perpetrated at Charleston. On the 13th of November, a company of South Carolina troops took possession of the United States Arsenal near that city. At Columbia the Legislature passed a bill authorizing the or ganization of ten regiments, containing a thousand men each, for defence against the forces of the Federal Government, should the latter attempt to coerce the State into obedience to Federal authority. Soon afterward a public meeting was held in Institute Hall, in Charleston, for the purpose of receiving the members of the State Legislature who had returned from Columbia. An immense crowd assembled ; resolutions were passed com mending these functionaries for their conduct in reference to secession ; and addresses were delivered by leading citizens in favor of the policy of withdrawing from the Union. The enthusiasm became still more in tense when it was announced that Messrs. Toombs, Iverson, Howell Cobb, and Herschel Y. Johnson, of Georgia, had made known their determina tion to aid the cause of disunion. Meetings were then held in all the districts and parishes of South Carolina, in which the justice and necessity 60 THE CIVIL WAK IN THE UNITED STATES. of secession were earnestly defended by popular speakers, who thus im pressed that doctrine more fully and deeply upon the minds of the people. At this period the attention of the citizens of South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, was chiefly occupied in the selection of delegates to the conventions, who were to decide the action of those States in reference to the subject of secession. The ablest men in the community were chosen for that important function in South Carolina, Senators Hammond and Chesnut, Messrs. Khett, Barnwell, Memminger, Keitt; in Georgia and Alabama, Messrs. Toombs, Cobb, William L. Yancey, and T. H. Watts. The prevalent feeling among the great majority of those chosen by all these States was in favor of secession ; so that little doubt existed in the public mind in reference to the policy which they would ultimately adopt when they met and acted in an official capacity. Meanwhile, financial difficulties began to oppress the mercantile community. As soon as the other portions of the National Confederacy discovered the prevalence of the secession sentiment, they lost confidence in the integrity and capabil ity of those who advocated it. No longer were the drafts of the merchants of the seceding States honored at the North; no longer were their bank notes received as a circulating medium beyond their own borders, except at a heavy and ruinous discount. Already did the secessionists commence to feel the injurious effects of the loss of public confidence. The banks of those States were constrained to suspend the payment of specie ; and business of all descriptions became more depressed and stagnant than had ever been the case before. This was, however, but the beginning of evils, which did not in the least degree diminish the treasonable and suicidal zeal of the secessionists. The convention who were selected by the people of South Carolina to determine upon the question of secession, met at Columbia on the 17th of December, 1860. It is recorded that, at the moment when this body assembled, several signs of indignant nature were exhibited, which an ancient Greek or Koman would have asserted, superstitiously, to have in dicated and foreboded the wrath of the gods at the act about to be perpe trated. A heavy fog of unusual dampness and thickness hung over the city, enveloping every thing in gloom and darkness. At the same time, the fearful ravages of the small-pox struck terror into the hearts both of strangers and citizens. Undeterred, however, by these sinister omens, the convention assembled at noon ; General Jamison was chosen tempo rary chairman ; the names of the delegates were enrolled, and the con vention was organized. At a subsequent election for permanent officers, the same gentleman was again elected President. So overpowered was he by his feelings of gratitude, when he rose to thank the convention for the exalted honor conferred upon him, that, having uttered a few inco herent and absurd remarks, he concluded by declaring, with perfect truth : I can t say any thing; I can t express my feelings" and resumed his PRELIMINARY ACTS AND EVENTS. 61 seat amid the sympathy of the audience. One of the first and most pru dent acts of the convention was to remove its sessions from Columbia to Charleston, in consequence of the prevalence and virulence of the small pox, lion. Ilowell Cobb was present as Commissioner from Alabama; Messrs. Elmore and Hooker were the Commissioners from Mississippi. When the convention re-assembled at Charleston on the 18th of December, its first achievement was to appoint a committee to prepare and report a Secession Ordinance, together with a Declaration of Indepen dence. Lawrence M. Keitt, one of the most violent and rabid of southern agitators, was selected as the chairman of this committee. At the same time Mr. Rhett offered a resolution, which wa* adopted with great unanimity, to the effect that a committee be appointed to provide for the assembling of a convention of all the seceding States, for the purpose of forming a constitution, and establishing a new confederacy. It was on the 20th of December that South Carolina consummated her treason and her disgrace by finally adopting the Ordinance of Secession.* When the ballot was taken upon the passage of this ordinance, it was sustained and approved by an unanimous vote. Out of one hundred and sixty-nine members, not a single dissenting voice was heard in favor of the glorious and time-honored Union. As soon as the action of the convention was communicated to the populace in the streets, loud and long acclamations rent the air. It was ordered by the convention that the momentous and decisive act which had just been performed should be communicated by telegraph to the Representatives of South Carolina in Congress ; and provision was made for engrossing the ordinance, and for its signature by all the members of the convention, with great pomp and ceremony, at Institute Hall. Subsequent to the passage of this memorable act, a discussion ensued in the convention in reference to the new position and responsibilities thus assumed by South Carolina. It was asserted that, by the adoption of that ordinance, no person within the limits of the State possessed, or could exercise, any authority which he had previously derived from the Federal Government. There was no collector of the port, no postmaster, no United States judge, or attorney, or marshal; and it would become * This document was as follows : "An Ordinance to Dissolve the Union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled the Constitution of the United States of America : "We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in convention, on the 23d day of May, in the year of our Lord 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying the amend- ments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, and that the Union now subsist ing between South Carolina and other States under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved." 62 THE CIVIL \VAR IN THE UNITED STATES. necessary to appoint other officers in their stead. One member boasted that at last, after a struggle of forty years, there was no man in the State who dared to collect the revenues of the Federal Government. It was asserted by another, and the whole convention seemed to sympathize in tensely with the remark, that great care should be taken in the measures which were adopted ; because nothing should be done which might affect the dignity, honor, and glory of South Carolina. There was a difference of opinion, however, among the assembled wisdom, whether the passage of the Ordinance of Secession abrogated all, or only some, of the laws of the United States within the limits or South Carolina. It was an argument which could not be answered, that the legal tender in the State must re main gold and silver ; and what gold and silver could there be, except such as bore the stamp and superscription of the Federal Government ? That conclusive consideration settled the point, that South Carolina could not as yet wholly ignore the existence of the Government of the United States of North America. They must for the present allow that govern ment at least a quasi existence. And so indeed they generously did. They agreed still to permit the Federal Government to spend money at the rate of a million per annum in carrying the mails through the seced ing States. It was finally settled that the spirit of the ordinance must be observed, until they could treat with the General Government in regard to the further adjustment of details. On the 22d of December, the committee of the convention which had been appointed to prepare an address to the Southern States, for the pur pose of obtaining their co-operation and sympathy, reported. The chair man read an elaborate declaration of the causes which existed, and which they regarded as sufficient justification for secession. It set forth, inter alia, that the Federal Government had signally failed to perform its duty toward the slaveholding States; especially in regard to the matter of executing the fourth article of the Federal Constitution, which provided that persons held to service and labor in one State, and fleeing to another, should be delivered up on the demand of the party to whom such service or labor was due. It was declared that all the Northern, and many of the Western States, had passed laws within their respective limits which effectually nullified this provision of the Federal Constitution; that some States had resisted the right of transit for slaves in the custody of their masters; that others had directly refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder ; and that in one or two States, slaves were pro tected by the connivance of ministers of the law, from the power and grasp of their owners, who had pursued, had overtaken, and had de manded their property. It added that, in view of these great and un speakable outrages on the Federal Constitution, and on the rights of the South, it was time that the slave States should withdraw from a compact in which the legitimate ends contemplated by its establishment were de- A PATHETIC STATEMENT OF GRIEVANCES. 63 feated. To incense the South still more, it was asserted that the free States had been guilty of the immeasurable impudence and presumption of assuming to decide upon the propriety of their domestic institutions ; denouncing as sinful the sacred institution of salvery ; establishing socie ties among themselves whose express object it should be to disturb the peace and injure the property of the South, by enticing their slaves away from their homes, and by inciting those who remained to commit acts of rebellion and servile insurrection. This extraordinary document enumerated other causes of compliiint against the North, which must indeed deeply move the sympathy of the universe. It declared that this malignant spirit, so hostile to the interests of the South, had continued its restless and pernicious agitations for twenty-five years, until at last it had secured a supremacy in the Federal Government. Aggravated, therefore, as former injuries had been, the future promised others still more insufferable. At this stage of the argu ment, a specimen of South Carolina logic was introduced which presented an astonishing instance of dialectical skill. It was asserted that a sectional party had obtained control of the Federal Government, while, however, it had observed all the forms of the Constitution in so doing. It will remain an impenetrable mystery to all rational beings out of the seceding States, how a party can be sectional whose operations are carried on in striot accordance with the forms and provisions of the Federal Constitution, and yet is so powerful, both in force and in numbers, as to exceed every other party, and obtain a supremacy over all competitors in strict accord ance with the provisions of that same Constitution. We may answer, that the triumphant party was either sectional or it was not. If it were sectional, then the National Government must also be sectional. If the government was not sectional, then the triumphant party could not have been sectional. But the National Government is not sectional, according to the admission of the secessionists themselves. Therefore, the party which, by legal and constitutional means, could and did obtain control of that unsectional government, could not possibly have itself been sec tional. But as South Carolina had a logic of its own, so also had it a policy peculiar to itself. After the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, the convention resolved that, until otherwise provided, the Governor of the State should be authorized to appoint collectors and other officers con nected with the customs for the several ports of the State, postmasters, and other necessary persons, instead of the Federal functionaries who had been displaced. The oath to be administered to those persons appointed for that purpose was prepared and enjoined. It was as follows : " I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and true in the allegi ance I bear to South Carolina, so long as I may continue a citizen there of; and that I am duly qualified according to the constitution of this 64 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES* State to exercise the duties of the office to which I have been appointed ; and will, to the best of my ability, discharge the duties of the office, and preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of this State. So help me God." Thus the Eubicon was at length passed, and secession became a stern yet absurd reality. When the news of this event was conveyed to differ ent portions of the Union, it produced in different localities the mosfc opposite effects. The inhabitants of the free States, both in the East, in the West, and in the centre, received the intelligence with mingled sur prise and disgust. They regarded it as an evidence of the amazing stupidity, obstinacy and malignity of the people of South Carolina ; who, without any cause or excuse, except such as must excite the derision of all intelligent people, had dissolved their connection with a glorious and benefi cent government, and had plunged themselves into all the inevitable hor rors of political chaos and ruin. It was evidently a case illustrative of the familiar maxim : Quern Deus vult perdere, priusquam dementat. Even that party in the North from whom the secessionists had confidently expected to receive sympathy and comfort, the former advocates of southern interests, disappointed them in this respect ; and joined heartily in the general chorus of censure and condemnation which resounded throughout the land. The border slave States regarded the event with suspicion and apprehension, and sent no message of encouragement or congratulation. It was only in those States which had already expressed their approval of secession that any sympathy with the policy of South Carolina was expressed or exhibited in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. It is not impossible that this grand and prominent isolation in evil and in ignominy, may have flattered the vanity and strengthened the determination of that State, which has always been so remarkable and eminent for patriotism, and for that extreme modesty which is inva riably an accompaniment of superior merit ! They had already accom plished what was probably the chief motive of the movement they had attracted to themselves the attention of the entire nation ; and they flat tered themselves, doubtless, that soon they would be the object of the admiring scrutiny of the whole world. That eminence would indeed be an ample compensation for all that they would be called upon to suffer and to sacrifice in the future ; and they therefore might select for their motto that other maxim Post nubila Phoebus. Nevertheless, he who carefully considers the circumstances which at tended this important event will be surprised at a singular and anomalous peculiarity connected with it. He will observe that, in this instance, the most sacred of all political relations, involving in its embrace other ties more tender, other associations more solemn still, was ruptured with a degree of thoughtlessness, of exultation even, which indicated the mas tery of malignant passions, and the presence of callous hearts. The actors LEVITY AND RECKLESSNESS OF SECESSION LEADERS. 65 in this melancholy drama, as they went forth from their ancestral homes and their ancient associates, sent no words of kind farewell, they uttered no parting benediction to those with whom they had been so long con nected, and from whose society they thus tore themselves. They made no allusion to past eventual incidents, to storms which, in other and sappier times, they had nobly breasted shoulder to shoulder ; to scenes of sadness, where their gushing tears had mingled in one hallowed stream ; to fields of glory, where they had joined in common struggles and had achieved united triumphs. In that dark hour they seemed unconscious of the real extent of the peril, the disaster, and the disgrace, which, in the impartial judgment of the civilized world, they thereby brought upon themselves. True patriots, disinterested philanthropists, and wise states men, do not disport themselves with such levity in the great crisis of human responsibility and destiny. It was indeed a spectacle calculated to excite the pity of the wise and good of all lands and ages. 6 66 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER II. TREASONABLE PROCLAMATION OP GOVERNOR PICKENS RESIGNATION OF THE REPRESENTA TIVES OF SOUTH CAROLINA IN CONGRESS THE CRITTENDEN PROPOSITIONS OF COMPROMISE THEIR PROVISIONS SCRAMBLE FOR FEDERAL PROPERTY COMMISSIONERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MAJOR ANDERSON THE REMOVAL OF HIS COMMAND TO FORT SUMTER MR. SECRETARY FLOYD HIS RESIGNATION DEMEANOR OF THE REBEL COMMISSIONERS AT WASHINGTON THE CONVENTION OF THE 8LAVEHOLDING STATES IMPORTANT EVENTS AT SAVANNAH SECESSION OF MISSISSIPPI PERNICIOUS IN FLUENCE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS RESIGNATION OF HIS SEAT IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE THE SECESSION OF ALABAMA OF FLORIDA, GEORGIA, LOUISIANA, AND TEXAS. ON the twenty -fourth of December, I860, Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, issued a proclamation setting forth that the State having seceded from the Federal Union, was thenceforth an independent and sovereign community ; and as such had the right to levy war, to conclude peace, to negotiate treaties, and to do all other acts whatsoever which appertain to a free and independent government. On the same day, the Representatives of that State in Congress Messrs. McQueen, Bonham, Boyce, and Ash- more addressed a letter to the Speaker of the House, containing the resignation of their respective posts. That document was as follows: " We avail ourselves of the earliest opportunity, since the official commu nication of the intelligence, of making known to your honorable body that the people of the State of South Carolina, in their sovereign capacity, have resumed the power heretofore delegated by them to the Federal Government of the United States, and have thereby dissolved our connec tion with the House of Representatives. In taking leave of those with whom we have been associated in a common agency, we as well as the people of our commonwealth, desire to do so with a feeling of mutual regard and respect for each other cherishing the hope that in our future relations we may better enjoy that peace and harmony essential to the happiness of a free and enlightened people." It was at this period that John J. Crittenden of Kentucky came forward in the Senate with his famous propositions of compromise, for the purpose, if possible, of healing the difficulty. As these propositions possess an historical interest and importance, it may be proper here to state their principal contents. They provided that thenceforth slavery or involun tary servitude, except for crime, of which the party should be duly con victed by process of law, should be prohibited in all the Territories of the United States lying north of latitude thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes ; that in all the Territories south of that latitude, slavery should not be in terfered with by Congress ; and that when the Territories north of that THE CRITTENDEN PROPOSITIONS OF COMPROMISE. 67 line were entitled to admission as States to the Union, they should be so admitted, with slavery or without it, as their respective inhabitants might themselves at that period determine. They also provided that Congress should possess no right to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia; they denied the same right in the national dock yards and arsenals ; they maintained the right of the transit of slaves through the free States; and they proposed, that States in which fugitive slaves had been rescued from the possession of their masters, when in pursuit of them, should pay the value of them to their alleged owners. But the patriotic efforts of Mr. Crittenden, on this occasion, were useless ; the extreme views held by both the Northern and the southern Senators upon the questions involved in hi3 compromise, rendered an accommodation utterly impossible. The great State of South Carolina having withdrawn from the Union, the next thing to be done was, to remove all the monuments of Federal power, and take possession of all the Federal property, which existed within her limits. It was beneath her dignity to permit those to remain before her eyes as mementos of her former degradation, as an humble member of the repudiated and rejected General Government. According ly, the assembled convention proceeded to select commissioners to proceed to Washington as their representatives, and make a formal demand for these various objects of dispute. Immediately on their arrival at the seat of government, the commis sioners announced their presence to Mr. Buchanan. In a communication to that functionary, Messrs. Barnwell, Adams, and Orr, respectfully, yet firmly set forth that they had been delegated by the State of South Caro lina to inform the Federal Government of their withdrawal from the Union ; to negotiate in her name upon all such questions as necessarily arose in consequence of that act ; and that they were prepared to enter upon these negotiations in a friendly spirit, with the desire to inaugurate their new relations so as to promote the mutual advantage of both parties. They added, however, that " the events of the last twenty -four hours render such an assurance impossible. We came here the representatives of an authority which could, at any time within the past sixty days, have taken possession of the forts in Charleston harbor, but which, upon pledges given in a manner that we cannot doubt, determined to trust to your honor rather than to its own power. Since our arrival here, an officer of the United States, acting as we are assured not only without, but against your orders, has dismantled one fort and occupied another thus altering to a most important extent the condition of affairs under which we came. Until these circumstances are explained in a manner which relieves us of all doubt as to the spirit in which these negotiations shall be conducted, we are forced to suspend all discussion as to any arrangement by which our mutual interests may be amicably adjusted. And, in conclusion we would urge upon you the immediate withdrawal 8 THE CIVIL AYAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of the troops from the harbor of Charleston. Under present circumstances they are a standing menace which renders negotiation impossible, and, as our recent experience shows, threaten speedily to bring to a bloody issue questions which ought to be settled with temperance and judgment." To this address Mr. Buchanan replied evasively ; and his answer elicited a lengthy and haughty rejoinder from the commissioners. Meanwhile, the subject and the destination of the forts in Charleston harbor assumed an increasing importance. At that period Fort Moultrie was commanded by Major Anderson, under whose orders there had been placed a small garrison. On the 26th of December that officer transferred his command from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, a new and greatly stronger work. This act was one indicating intrepidity, sagacity and skill. Major Anderson thereby gained an important advantage over the secessionists ; and he receive d the deserved applause of the nation in return. Immediately afterward the troops of South Carolina took possession of Fort Moultrie, and thus held the first armed position against the Federal Government. That position was of little service to them, however, inasmuch as Major Anderson, before withdrawing from it, had spiked the cannon, had burned the gun-carriages, and had left the works in a mutilated and useless con dition. Secretary Floyd was greatly incensed at the conduct of Major Anderson. Being secretly in the service of the secessionists, he now began more openly to advocate their interests in the Federal Cabinet. Finding that the voice of public opinion was beginning to condemn him with general and harmonious censure, he read the following paper to the President in the presence of the Cabinet, and afterward resigned his office : "It is evident now, from the action of the commander of Fort Moultrie, that the solemn pledges of the Government have been violated by Major Anderson. In my judgment but one remedy is now left us by which to vindicate our honor and prevent civil war. It is in vain now to hope for confidence on the part of the people of South Carolina in any further pledges as to the action of the military. One remedy is left, and that is to withdraw the garrison from the harbor of Charleston. I hope the President will allow me to make ihat order at once. This order, in my judgment, can alone prevent bloodshed and civil war." The commissioners who were sent from South Carolina to the Federal Government, conducted themselves at Washington with such a degree of arrogance as effectually to defeat the purpose of conciliation between the rival Eepublics, if any such purpose had been entertained. Their last communication, addressed to Mr. Buchanan, was a singular effusion of combined impudence and imprudence. They assumed the dictatorial tone of masters, and assured the President that he had, in effect, compromised his honor by not immediately withdrawing the Federal troops from the forts in the harbor of Charleston. They reminded him, also, in language THE CONVENTION OF THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES. 69 which was absurd and ludicrous in itself, that " gentlemen of the highest possible public reputation, and the most unsullied integrity," had advised him to withdraw those troops as a measure due to the claims of peace and the continued prosperity to the country. They added that the authorities of South Carolina were fully justified in taking possession of that portion of Federal property which they had already seized ; and that the President should have followed the counsel of Mr. Floyd in regard to the disputed matters, as that personage was his legitimate adviser in the premises. This assertion was erroneous, to use a gentle and courtly phrase ; because Mr. Floyd had already become strongly and justly sus pected for those acts of treason against the Federal Government which were afterward clearly and unanswerably proved against him. The Commissioners also charged, that by approving of the removal of Major Anderson s command to Fort Sumter, the United States virtually com menced hostilities and declared war against the State of South Carolina, This declaration was equally false.; because the three forts in the harbor of Charleston were exclusively Federal property, erected by Federal money, and therefore the Federal Government possessed an unquestion able right to transfer its own troops to and from its own fortresses pre cisely as it pleased, without involving a menace to any one. They concluded by declaring that the Administration, by refusing to complv with the demands of those whom the commissioners represented, assumed the entire responsibility of rendering civil war inevitable ; that the State of South Carolina accepted the issue ; and they appealed to Him, u who is the God of Justice as well as the God of Hosts," for the propriety of their conduct. They declared that South Carolina would perform the solemn and momentous duty which devolved upon her, " hopefully, bravely and thoroughly." They concluded by informing the President of the impor tant and calamitous fact, that they purposed to return forthwith to Charles ton. However much posterity may condemn the conduct and policy of Mr. Buchanan in reference to the Eebellion, he will deserve their com mendation for the manner in which he treated this extraordinary commu nication. As soon as he became aware of its character and contents, he instantly ordered it to be returned to those from whom it emanated, without the undeserved courtesy of an answer. On the 26th of December Mr. Ehett introduced an ordinance into the Convention of South Carolina, recommending the assembling of another convention, consisting of representatives from all the slaveholding States. This ordinance consisted of six separate clauses. The first provided for the summoning of the convention aforesaid at Montgomery, Alabama, whose duty it should be to adopt a Constitution for the government of a Southern Confederacy. The second clause recommended to the slave- holding States the appointment by each State respectively of as many delegates therefrom as they had members in Congress; and suggested 70 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. that the proposed Constitution should be voted on by States. The third ordained that, as soon as that Constitution shoud have been adopted by the convention appointed for the purpose, it should be referred to the Legislatures of all the States concerned, for their ultimate discussion and approval. The fourth article affirmed that, in the opinion of the State of South Carolina, the Federal Constitution would form a suitable basis for the Confederacy of the Southern States. The fifth clause declared that the Convention of South Carolina should select eight delegates to repre sent that commonwealth in the Convention of the Southern States. The last article provided for the election of one commissioner from each slaveholding State, whose duty it should be to call the attention of the people of his State respectively to the duty of complying with the pro visions of this ordinance, as adopted and recommended by the Conven tion of South Carolina. This important document had been laid upon the table of the Charleston Convention, for the purpose of future and more deliberate discussion. On the same day another ordinance was adopted, whose purpose was to gain the co-operation and aid of the Federal office-holders in the Palmetto State to the cause of the Kebellion. It enacted, that all citizens of South Carolina, who, at the period of the passage of the ordinance of secession, held Federal offices within the limits of the State, were thereby appointed to have and hold the same offices under the new government, and to receive the emoluments of the same until it was otherwise ordered. It also enacted that " the revenue and navigation laws of the United States being abolished, as regards the Federal Government, they shall, as far as may be applicable, be adopted by the State of South Carolina, and executed thenceforth as such ; and that all moneys which may thereafter accrue under those laws shall, when the salaries and expenses of the officials have been duly paid therefrom, be delivered to the Treasurer of South Carolina, and not, as heretofore, be paid to the Federal Govern ment." This important act concluded by authorizing and commanding the officials of the State to "take possession of, and retain in their custody, all the property and funds of the United States which may come within their reach." This ordinance passed the convention with general unanimity. Immediately afterward the Palmetto flag was unfurled from the Charleston Post Office, from the Custom House, from Fort Moultrie, from Castle Pinckney, and from the Arsenal. It must be admitted that the Charleston Convention proceeded in the work of political organization with a considerable degree of sagacity and ability. They passed ordinances amending the Constitution of the State in all those particulars which were rendered necessary by the new atti tude which she had assumed as an independent sovereignty. They authorized the Governor of South Carolina to receive foreign ambassa dors, to appoint representatives to foreign courts, to make treaties "by SECESSION OF MISSISSIPPI. 71 and with the advice and consent of the Senate," to fill vacancies in the Senate during its recess, to convene that body under extraordinary cir cumstances ; in a word, to enact a rdk similar to that of President of the United States, as far as the limited circumstances of the case would permit. The convention also adopted laws governing the future rights and defining the future qualifications of citizens of the State. While these important events were transpiring in South Carolina, the political virus was being rapidly and effectually diffused throughout other portions of the Union. The commissioners who had been pre viously appointed by the convention of that State to proceed to each of the Slaveholding States, and lay before the conventions which might there assemble the ordinance of secession, and solicit their approval and co-operation, had been both diligent and successful in the execution of their trust. The new year 1861 was inaugurated at Savannah by the seizure of the Federal forts Pulaski and Jackson, by order of the authorities of the State of Georgia. This example was immediately followed by the Executive of Alabama, by whose orders the United States Arsenal at Mobile, and Fort Morgan, at the entrance to Mobile bay, were taken possession of by the State troops. The first Southern State which followed in the wake of South Carolina in the act of secession was Mississippi. The convention assembled at Jackson, on the 7th of January, and it soon appeared that the prevalent feeling among the delegates was in favor of withdrawing from the Union. The president, when assuming the duties of his office, delivered an address, in which he advocated that policy in bold and unequivocal language. A committee of fifteen was immediately appointed to prepare and report an ordinance of secession, providing for the immediate with drawal of the State from the Federal Union, with special reference to the establishment of a new Confederacy, to be composed of the seceding States. That committee reported on the 9th inst. Their report was wholly in accordance with the prevalent treasonable spirit. It was read, briefly discussed, and then adopted by a vote of eighty-four yeas to fifteen nays. By this precipitate act Mississippi became an outcast from the Union. The fifteen delegates who had opposed the ordinance made several efforts to postpone action in accordance with its provisions ; but in vain. The torrent of opposition was overwhelming. On the next day those fifteen appended their signatures to the ordinance, thereby making the voice of the convention unanimous. Then the demonstra tions of joy on the part of the populace were enthusiastic in the extreme. The city of Jackson was illuminated, and as the news spread from town to town, and from village to village, glad shouts of rejoicing resounded throughout the State. That State was represented at this period in the Federal Senate by an individual who has since achieved an unenviable immortality. Jefferson 72 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Davis had long been known as one of the most violent and extreme advocates of Southern and sectional interests ; and though a man of acknowledged abilities, he had been too closely identified with the advocacy of disloyal sentiments to have gained the confidence or esteem of the nation. As soon as the news arrived at Washington that the State which he represented had withdrawn from the Union, it was announced that he would resign his seat in the Senate, and when so doing would deliver a brief address. The occasion would be one of unusual interest ; and great curiosity was felt to ascertain how the Senator would acquit himself of the difficult and delicate task before him. Accordingly he arose at the first convenient opportunity, and proceeded, with a tone and manner not destitute of solemnity and pathos, to announce, that the State which he represented in that august body having withdrawn from the Union, it became his duty to resign his seat and his functions in it. He continued by reminding those who heard him that he had invariably advocated, during the long period of his public political career, the right of each State to withdraw from the Union whenever she may choose so to do. This right was an abstract and paramount one, even where a State might not in reality possess any real ground of complaint against the Federal Government. But the case became stronger, and the right of secession more undeniable, when such a ground of complaint does exist. Such was the fact in the present instance. He held that the slaveholding States, and Mississippi among the rest, had serious causes of offence against the Federal Government. He also asserted that a material difference existed between secession and nullification. The former was a total withdrawal from the Union ; the latter was an attempt to resist the authority of the general govern ment, while the parties so resisting still formed a portion of that government. After dwelling upon these general topics he adverted to considerations more personal to himself; and in a tone of sympathy and cordiality which could scarcely have been expected from his hard and stern nature, gave utterance to those feelings of regret which naturally rose within him, at the severance of relations with which many pleasing and grateful recollections would forever be associated in his mind. After the delivery of this address Mr. Davis withdrew from the Senate chamber amid the adieux of his political and personal friends. The example already given by the States of South Carolina and Mississippi was quickly followed by Alabama. A powerful and malignant genius controlled the destinies of that State, and led her on to perpetrate the most unfortunate event in her history. In the convention which met at Montgomery, William L. Yancey was the leading and commanding spirit; for on the llth of January the secession ordinance was passed by that body. That ordinance was a singular and anomalous produc- THE SECESSION OF FLORIDA AND GEORGIA. 73 tion. It commenced by asserting that the " election of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin to the two highest executive offices in the Union by a sec tional party was an insult to the South too great to be borne." We cannot refrain from remarking here what a palpable absurdity appears upon the very face of this declaration ; because it is self-evident to every calm and clear thinker, as we have already asserted, that that party which proved itself at the ballot-box to be the most numerous and powerful in the whole nation, whichever party that might be, could not be called a sectional one; and whatever other defects it ,oight exhibit, it must, in the nature of the case, be more national and i niversal than any other. The inhabitants of Alabama generally receive^ the news of the secession of the State with immense exultation. ID the towns, the villages, and the country, the wildest excitement prevailed. In Mobile particularly the enthusiasm was boundless. Throughout the length and breadth ot the entire commonwealth secession poles were planted, seces sion flags were unfurled to the breeze, bands of music brayed forth seces sion melodies, secession cannon thundered, and secession eloquence re sounded, in honor of the glorious and propitious event. The next member of the Union which followed this ignominious example was Florida. Her apostacy was consummated on the 12th of January. The convention of that State met at Tallahassee, and after a short debate, the secession ordinance was passed. It was signed by each member of the convention in one of the porticos of the capitol ; and it is recorded that, as each delegate appended his name to the instrument, he was hailed with cheers, and a salute fired in his honor. Immediately afterward the Federal property at Pensacola was seized by the Kebels, with the exception of a single fortress. Fort Pickens was then held for the United States by Lieutenant Slemmer, who presented so firm and bold a resistance to the demands of the secessionists, that they desisted from any hostile demonstration for its acquisition. On the 19th of January, 1861, the ordinance of secession was passed in Georgia. The vote stood two hundred and eight against eighty-nine. It is worthy of note, that prominent among those eighty-nine who opposed this inglorious act, not only by their speeches, but by their votes, was Alexander H.Stephens, afterward elected Vice-President of the rebellious confederacy. This was a rare and extreme instance of that inconsistency of conduct and principle which is so frequent and prevalent a vice among American politicians. This ordinance was remarkable for its brevity. The important act of secession was performed by means of an instrument no longer or more elaborate than the following: "We, the people of the State of Georgia, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinances adopted by the people of the State of Georgia in convention in 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States was assented to, ratified 74 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and adopted, and also all acts and parts of acts of the general assembly ratifying and adopting amendments to the said constitution, are hereby re pealed, rescinded, and abrogated. And we do further declare and ordain that the Union now subsisting between the State of Georgia and other States under the name of the United States, is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Georgia is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State." Immediately after the adoption of this ordinance Fort Pulaski was taken possession of by the troops of Georgia, acting under the order of the Goven or of the State. But the catalogue of Rebel States was not yet complete. On the 28th of January, 1861, the convention summoned in Louisiana passed the secession ordinance. The usual process of plunder against the propertj- of the United States ensued immediately after the passage of this ordi nance ; and revenue cutters, arsenals, moneys, and other effects of the United States, were seized by the orders of the Governor of the State. It was not until the 1st of February that the last of the States, which at that time united their fortunes with the secessionists, consummated the act. On that day Texas withdrew, by a vote of her convention, from the Federal Union. EFFORTS MADE FOR COMPROMISE AND SETTLEMENT. 75 CHAPTER III. VARIOUS EFFORTS MADE FOR COMPROMISE AND SETTLEMENT CONCILIATORY MEETINGS HELD IN THE NORTHERN STATES THEIR ULTIMATE FAILURE APOSTACY OF ALEXANDER EL STEPHENS RESIGNATION OF THE SOUTHERN REPRESENTATIVES IN THE FEDERAL CONGRESS THE REBEL CONGRESS CONVENED AT MONTGOMERY ITS ORGANIZATION ADOPTION Ol A PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION THE ORGANIZATION OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY- JEFFERSON DAVIS ELECTED PRESIDENT A. H. STEPHENS CHOSEN VICE PRESIDENT PROPHECIES OF SENATOR WIGFALL BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF JEFFERSON DAVIS, OF STEPHENS, OF THE CABINET MINISTERS OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, MEMMINGER^ TOMBS, MALLORY, WALKER, BENJAMIN THE PERSONAL QUALITIES AND CHARACTERISES OF THESE -OFFICERS. NOTWITHSTANDING the rapidity with which the act of secession had been consummated in so many of the disaffected States, hopes were entertained that a resort to arms might yet be averted, and the schism be eventually healed. Several efforts were made in Congress to pass resolutions so amending the Federal Constitution as to satisfy the South. But those efforts failed, for two reasons : First, because it was not possible, in the nature of things, where such antagonistic interests and principles existed, for any amendment to be made to the Constitution which would meet the requirements and conscientious convictions of honest statesmen on the subject in dispute. Secondly, because it was equally impossible, in such a case, to propose any amendment which would find favor with selfish party leaders, with mercenary politicians, who flourish by means of the distinctions and strifes of factions, and whose occupation would be utterly gone if concord and unanimity prevailed throughout the whole country. Hence it was that, during the brief remainder of Mr. Buchanan s term of office, the several efforts which were made in Congress to heal the difficulty proved abortive. Other expedients which were adopted elsewhere were equally inefficient. One of these deserves to be noticed. It became the fashion in many of the cities of the North to hold public meetings, at which resolutions were adopted, setting forth how much the inhabitants of the free States depre cated the secession of the South; how much they abominated abolitionists and fanatics of every description ; how earnestly they desired the South to draw a broad and clear distinction between these fanatics and the great mass of the conservative people of the -North ; how much the latter valued the good will and the intelligence, which really meant the commerce and the trade, of the slave States. These demonstrations instead of accom plishing the end intended by them, merely excited the contempt of Southern fanatics, and gave the entire population of the Cotton States an undue conception of their own importance. If they had not been deficient 76 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. in arrogance before, their vanity became greatly exaggerated afteiward, in consequence of these pusillanimous and mercenary movements at the North. As soon as the several States had seceded, many of those persons who had, within their respective limits, opposed the act on various grounds, gradually yielded to the pressure of the prevalent sentiments hostile to the North, changed their position, and gave in their adhesion to the oppo nents of the Union. The most extraordinary instance of such conversion was that of Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia. That able man, as we have already stated, had at first opposed secession, and had refused to sign the ordinance when it was passed by the convention. But imme diately afterward, when he discovered that his State no longer remained in any respect identified with the Federal Union, and that there could be no further prospect of dignities and honors for him in that Union, he began to waver in his position. The art and tact with which he prepared the way for his complete apostacy are worthy of notice. Noihing could have been more adroit or more specious. He wrote a preamble and reso lution, which were adopted by the convention, to the following effect: "Whereas, the lack of unanimity in the action of this convention on the passage of the ordinance of secession indicates a difference of opinion amongst the members of the convention, not so much as to the rights which Georgia claims, or the wrongs of which she complains, as to the remedy and its application before a resort to other means of redress ; and whereas it is desirable to give expression to that intention, which really exists among all the members of the convention, to sustain the State in the course of action which she has pronounced to be proper for the occa sion ; therefore, resolved, that all the members of this convention, including those who voted against the ordinance as well as those who voted for it, will sign the same as a pledge of the unanimous determination of this convention to sustain and defend the State in this her course of remedy, with all its responsibilities and consequences, without regard to individ ual approval or disapproval of its adoption." That is to say, those who voted against secession, and refused to sign the ordinance, promised, nevertheless, to sustain the State in the execution of it ; those who con demned secession, and regarded it as pernicious, illegal and wrong, would nevertheless support those to their utmost who have pledged themselves to adhere to that pernicious, illegal and injurious policy to whatever results it may lead ! American political history presents many instances of profound and logical reasoning, of consistent and cohesive policy ; but we imagine that this case transcends the rest ! At this period all the representatives of the seceding States in the Federal Congress, except Mr. Bouligny of Louisiana, had resigned their seats and returned to their constituents. During the month of January, 1861, a number of the conventions which had passed the ordinance of Secession continued to sit, and to adopt those additional measures which were ren dered necessary in consequence of their withdrawal from the Union. Th THE REBEL CONGRESS CONVENED AT MONTGOMERY. 77 Georgia Convention demanded from the Federal Government possession of all the Federal property within the limits of that State ; and appointed commissioners to proceed to the other apostate States, and give them counsel and encouragement. The convention of Alabama adopted a resolution approving of the action of the representatives of the State in withdrawing from the Federal Congress. All the conventions of the seceding States elected delegates to the Congress which had been appointed to meet at Montgomery, Alabama, for the purpose of establishing a Southern Confederacy. The Convention of Florida commended the action of Commodore Armstrong, who, being in command of the Pensacola Navy Yard at that time, surrendered it to the authorities of the State, without making the least effort at resistance. We fancy that Commodore Armstrong, will scarcely take rank, in the history of this memorable war, by the side of Anderson, Slemmer, Ellsworth, Lyon, and other heroic defenders of the Union. Thus had these seven States, which once formed a part of this benefi cent Union, persisted in the suicidal act of completely destroying their connection with it. All the preliminary steps toward the establishment of a rival, and perhaps a hostile, republic in the South had now been suc cessively taken. The foundations of the new political edifice had been laid with a degree of prudence, resolution and harmony worthy of a more glorious and commendable enterprise. The Southern Congress of Montgomery, destined to achieve an unenviable immortality, was about to convene and to complete all the features and details of the architectural monstor which had been begun. The Congress of the seceded States met at Montgomery, Alabama, on Monday, February 4th, 1861. They assembled in the Senate chamber of the Capitol. A full representation from every Rebel State appeared and took their seats. The convention was called to order by Mr. Chilton, a delegate from Alabama. He moved that R. "W. Barnwell, of South Carolina, be chosen temporary Chairman. The motion prevailed. Mr. Barnwell took the chair and made a thankful speech. He then invited the Rev. Dr. Manly to offer a prayer. That individual at once came for ward and prayed. The chairman then reminded the convention that the first duty which devolved upon them was to provide for their more per fect organization by electing permanent officers. But it appears that the chairman was precipitate in his suggestion ; for Mr. Rhett rose and asserted that the first thing in order was not that measure, but to examine and approve the credentials of the delegates. The chairman admitted the truth of the observation, and the verification was commenced. That preliminary process being completed, the delegates signed the roll. The whole convention consisted of forty-one members, one delegate only being absent. The Congress being thus organized, Mr. Rhett proposed that the body proceed at once to the election of permanent officers ; and without giving 78 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the members any opportunity to express their approval or their disapproval of the proposition, he proceeded to nominate Howell Cobb, of Georgia, as President of the convention. He also proposed that the election be made by acclamation. This proposition was also complied with, and Mr. Cobb was chosen by the acclama tory process. The result being announced, and indeed being plainly apparent of itself, it was followed by " much applause." Mr. Cobb then took the chair, and addressed the convention. He, too, was oppressed with more than an ordinary and painful degree of grateful emotion ; but he gave utterance to the best of his ability to his "sincere thanks" for the honor conferred upon him; after which the remaing officers of the Congress were elected. These also received their honors by the exaggerated and superfluous process of acclamation. Mr. Stephens then moved that a committee be appointed to report rules for the government of the convention. This proposition was agreed to ; and the committee being appointed, the proceedings of the first day terminated. It is not pertinent to our purpose to follow the details of the less im portant transactions of this Congress. We will allude merely to those of leading interest, and having a direct bearing upon the events which ensued. The body adopted the novel, but doubtless commendable, expe dient of holding secret sessions, so that a portion of their transactions remains unknown to the general public. Resolutions were passed from day to day perfecting the organization of the new Confederacy. The most important of these had reference to the adoption of a Constitution, the election of Executive officers, providing suitable buildings and accomo- dations for the inferior functionaries of the Confederacy, and selecting a flag and other emblematical and official contrivances. On the sixth day of their deliberations the delegates adopted a Constitution, which had been reported by the committee appointed for that purpose. This Con stitution was termed a "provisonal" one, intended to govern the new Confederacy for one year from the inauguration of the future President, or until a permanent confederation between the States should be put in operation. On the same day which was signalized by the adoption of this Consti tution, the chief executive officers of the new republic were chosen by the Congress : Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was elected President, and Alex ander H. Stephens of Georgia Vice President. It must be admitted that great sagacity and prudence were exhibited in the selections thus made. Among the very considerable number of eminent men who resided within the limits of the Rebel States, it is probable that none could have been chosen so well adapted to the peculiar positions which were then to be filled. It was evident that the future President must needs be a man possessing both civil and military talents. He should be familiar with the machinery and principles of government in the cabinet, as well as with the command and conduct of an army in the field. He should also be well acquainted with the structure and aims of that great and powerful THE PROPHECIES OF SENATOR WIGFALL. 79 Republic against whose lawful control they had rebelled. He must be shrewd, resolute, firm and desperate. Above all things, he must be extremely fanatical in his Southern prejudices, and be thoroughly infected with secession principles. Such a man preeminently was Jefferson Davis. The Vice President must resemble him in all these respects ex cept one. He need possess no military knowledge, no martial experience. It would be his duty to carry on the Government in the absence of the chief Executive ; and while the latter was at the head of the victorious armies of the Southern Confederacy, sacking Washington, driving Mr. Lincoln and his cabinet in hot haste from the Capital, striking terror into the inhabitants of the North, burning cities, blockading ports, capturing ships upon the high seas ; during the progress of all these heroic and magnificent deeds, which it was confidently and exultingly asserted the invincible Davis would soon be achieving, he, the Vice President, must be conducting the home government with prudence, harmony and skill. These boasts respecting the future achievements of the Rebel President formed a prominent feature, at this period, of the prevalent sentiment and utterances in the seceding States. No person was more enthusiastic and constant in giving expression to these vauntings than ex-senator Wigfall of Texas. But Wigfall s prog nostications were liable to an objection of a very peculiar and serious character. King Charles II. of England was accustomed to assert that Prince George of Denmark, who had married his niece, the Princess Anne, afterward Queen, was extremely shallow ; that he had tried the Prince when sober, and he had tried him when drunk ; but that, whether drunk or sober, there was nothing in him. This was precisely the defect of the prophecies of Senator Wigfall. It did not produce the slightest difference whether the prophetic frenzy came upon him when intoxicated, or when not intoxicated ; in either case there was nothing in him ; in no case did his predictions prove to be in accordance with the event. We venture to predict that the role which Jefferson Davis and his chief associates have enacted, will be regarded by posterity, when the passions and prejudices of this stormy time shall have been lulled to repose by the Lethean flood of years, as the most unenviable and execrable which has ever fallen to the lot of any human being. We do indeed read of that " aspiring youth who fired the Ephesian dome," that he might thereby secure an immortality of fame; yet we have never learned that any ex cept the cruel and infamous Gloster, and such as he commended him for the rash act. Those who have striven, from the promptings of a sim ilar motive, to mar and desolate the nobler fabric of the American Union, will incur a condemnation during after ages, more intense, more univer sal, more enduring than his. Let us glance briefly at the personal histo ries and characteristics of these great historic criminals. Jefferson Davis will occupy in future ages a position in the annals of the great republic of the New World not very unlike that of Benedict 80 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Arnold and Aaron Burr. That he is a remarkable man in many respects, capable of high and great as well as of base and mean achievements, is an unquestionable fact. His personal history, which is full of variety and interest, clearly demonstrates the truth of this assertion. He was born in Christian county, Kentucky, in June, 1808. His father, who was a wealthy planter, removed soon after his birth to Wilkinson county, Mis sissippi. His son gave early proofs of superior intelligence and talent, and at the usual age was sent to Transylvania College in his native State. Having completed the course of study there, he was admitted to the Mili tary Academy at West Point in 1824. He graduated in that institution in 1828, and was appointed brevet second lieutenant, and commenced service in the regular army. Mr. Davis distinguished himself in the events which occurred in the Black Hawk war. In 1833 he was promoted to a first lieutenancy of dragoons, and in that capacity made a number of expeditions against the Camanches, Pawnees, and other hostile Indian tribes upon the frontiers. It was in 1835, that, chiefly in consequence of ill health, he resigned his commission, returned to Mississippi and commenced the pursuits of a planter. He remained in retirement and repose till 1843, when he began to take an active part in political life. He entered the arena of politics as a Democrat, and was chosen one of the Electors for the State of Mis sissippi who gave their ballots for Polk and Dallas in 1844. In the following year he was chosen to represent his adopted State in Congress, and thus began a new and more pacific career. In that body Mr. Davis soon acquired fame, and assumed a prominent position as a public speaker and an energetic partisan. His clearness and force of thought, his bold and impressive delivery, his fluency and freedom of utterance, always commanded respect and attention from his auditors. He was thus winning his way to a high political reputation, when, in July, 1846, he was appointed colonel of the first regiment of Mississippi volunteers when they were about to serve in the Mexican war. He im mediately accepted the post, resigned his seat in Congress, proceeded to New Orleans, took command of the regiment, and led them forward to the assistance of General Taylor, then posted on the Rio Grande. At the storming of Monterey, in September, 1846, he acted with great gallantry, and was appointed one of the commissioners to arrange the terms of the capitulation of that city. At the bloody battle of Buena Yista, in February, 1847, he won new laurels, exhibited superior heroism and bravery, was severely wounded, and received from General Scott, com- mander-in-chief, an honorable notice in his dispatch of March, 1847. In the following summer he returned to Mississippi, and was immediately appointed by the Governor of the State to fill a vacancy which had oc curred in the Federal Senate. In January, 1848, he was elected by the Legislature of that State to the same high office ; and after the expiration BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DAVIS AND STEPHENS 81 of his term, in March, 1851, was again chosen for another period of ser vice in the Senate of the United States. In 1851 he was nominated by the Democratic party in Mississippi for Governor, against Henry S. Foote, but was defeated by a small majority. After the nomination of Mr. Pierce for the Presidency, in 1852, Mr. Davis took a very active part in the campaign, and spoke ably in favor of his old comrade in arms throughout the entire State. As a reward for his efficient services, the new President appointed him to the office of Secretary of War. He possessed abilities which qualified him for the duties of his high position, and he conducted its affairs with energy and success. He was exceedingly popular with the officers of the army, and made some important improvements in the service. He in troduced the use of the minid rifle, increased the inland and coast frontier defences, and explored the several routes for the Pacific railroad. What the zeal and ability of Arnold had been previous to his treason to his country, the efforts and services of Davis were before the origin of the Southern Eebellion. After the termination of the administration of Mr. Pierce, Mr. Davis was elected by the Legislature of Mississippi to the Senate of the United States, for the term ending in March, 1863 ; but before that term had expired he had abandoned his post, left the serene haven of high official life, and embarked upon the stormy ocean of rebellion against a great and beneficent government. In this rash act a desperate ambition was unquestionably his leading motive. He vainly imagined that he would attain still higher eminence, and that he would at length strike the stars with his sublime head sublimi feriat sidera vertice. Of the remaining members of the Eebel government it will be un necessary to speak at much length. Alexander Hill Stephens, the Vice President, was born in 1818, and was a man of superior natural talents, a brilliant and powerful thinker, an able and effective orator. He represented the State of Georgia during a series of years in the national Legislature ; and he attained a distinguished position in that body, so richly adorned by diversity, profundity and profusion of talent, among its members, at different periods. Laboring all his life under ex tremely ill health, hovering continually and feebly over an open grave, the slender and uncertain hold which he maintained upon existence did not prevent him from taking an active part in the great debates and forensic battles which occurred in the House during the period of his presence in it. When the project of secession was first agitated in Georgia, he opposed it, as has already been stated, with the utmost zeal. We have previously narrated how he changed his position, stultified his own arguments, and espoused the cause of the Eebels. The reward of his services was the second dignity in the new confederacy. As to his qualifications for the duties of his position, there could be no question ; 82 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. for lie was well adapted to them, both by superior natural talents and by long experience in political life. The most remarkable of the men who were subsequently appointed to the Kebel Cabinet, was Charles G. Memminger, who became Secretary of the Treasury. This person was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1804, and was brought to Charleston when two years of age by his parents. Soon afterward their premature death left him friendless and destitute in the world. He then became an inmate of an orphan asylum; but after some years was so fortunate as to obtain the patronage of Governor Bennet of South Carolina. That gentleman became interested in his fate, and assisted him to commence a career which afterward attained no small degree of distinction. Mr. Memminger s intellectual qualities were much above the ordinary range. His mind was clear, strong, sagacious. In temper he was ambitious, persevering, determined, self-confident. Small in person, he compensated for that deficiency by unusual activity and energy of movement. He was for a long time prominent in political life in South Carolina. For many years he was chairman of the Committee of Finance of the Legislature of the State. He always opposed the ex istence of banks and the use of paper money. In truth, he had been to the State of South Carolina what Albert Gallatin was to the Federal Government in the Eevolutionary era. He was, however, a man of details, and never rose to grand national views, nor achieved a national fame in the arena of politics. By his zeal and earnestness in advocating secession, he invested his name with an unenviable and execrable noto riety, and forever tarnished the honorable eminence which he had pre viously secured. Next in the order of importance in the Kebel Cabinet was Mr. Toombs, the Secretary of State. This person distinguished himself in the Federal Congress, during a number of years, as a zealous advocate of southern interests. He was noted for his impetuous and declamatory style of speaking. He was an admirable representative of the peculiarities of southern eloquence ardent, rapid, noisy. Mr. Mallory, the Secretary of the Navy, formerly occupied a seat in the United States Senate. He was a man of very moderate talents and utilitarian tendencies. General L. Pope Walker, the Secretary of War, was comparatively unknown to the nation at large, but he had acquired some military reputation in the South. J. P. Benjamin, the Attorney-General, had previously represented the State of Louisiana during some years in the Federal Senate. He possessed no inconsiderable attainments as a jurist, and marked ability as a forensic orator ; but his most remarkable and prominent characteris tic was his acquisitiveness, as was demonstrated both by his earlier and by his maturer history. ASSEMBLING OF THE PEACE CONGRESS. 83 CHAPTER IV. ASSEMBLING OF THE PEACE CONGRESS AT WASHINGTON THEIR PROPOSALS OP COMPROMISE THEIR REJECTION AND FAILURE ATTITUDE OF PRESIDENT BUCHANAN PUBLIC SENTIMENT RESPECTING FORT SUMTER MISSION OF THE " STAR OF THE WEST" FINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT AT MONTGOMERY INAUGURATION OF JEFFERSON DAVIS AS PRESIDENT HIS ADDRESS INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN HIS ADDRESS HIS CABINET OFFICERS THE FAMOUS ORATION OF A. H. STEPHENS AT SAVANNAH ITS HIS TORICAL IMPORTANCE HIS FIRST POSITION HE REFUTES JEFFERSON, HAMILTON, AND MADISON HIS SECOND POSITION THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY ABSURDITY AND FALLACY OF THAT FOUNDATION THE FUTURE CONDITION AND DESTINY OF THE NEGRO RACE. WHILE the founders of the Southern Confederacy were thus complet ing their work at Montgomery, a vigorous effort was being made by eminent men in the nation beyond the jurisdiction of the Federal Con gress to heal the difficulty, and avert the horrors of civil war. A Peace Congress was convened at Washington, whose special aim and purpose it was to accomplish this desirable result. Ex-President Tyler presided over its deliberations ; and during the progress of its sessions a committee was appointed, consisting of one member from each State, for the purpose of drawing up pacific propositions, which might be acceptable to both parties. The chairman of this committee was the venerable James Guthrie of Kentucky. After much discussion, certain proposals of compromise were agreed upon. Having adopted a number of elaborate Articles, every word of which had been carefully weighed and discussed, the Congress provided for their being communicated to the hostile and rival Governments, for their con sideration and approval. They then adjourned. But the ultimate fate of these propositions was unfortunate. They satisfied neither party, over whose minds the spirit of extreme irritation prevailed ; and thus they failed in accomplishing the benevolent and patriotic purpose for which they were evidently intended. The leaders of the Southern Rebellion at Charleston were not disposed to permit themselves or their achievements to disappear from public view ; and although the attention of the nation was chiefly directed to the events then progressing at Montgomery, they managed to make sufficient com motion to be the subjects of continued astonishment and general scrutiny. Fort Sumter was still held by Major Anderson for the United States with a small garrison. The administration of James Buchanan continued to drag out its ignominious length ; and the sole purpose of that personage eeemed to be, to keep things as quiet as possible, and to avoid decisive and bold measures of any kind, until he should escape from the difficulties 84 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of his official position. But the voice of public sentiment imperatively demanded that some demonstration should be made for the assistance and support of the commandment of Fort Sumter, which seemed to be in greater peril at that moment than any other of the Federal fortresses. Accordingly, a vessel named the Star of the West, was freighted with provisions and ammunition, and dispatched from New York to the port of Charleston. It was the hope of the nation that efficient relief would by this means be afforded to Major Anderson ; and that he would be so far strengthened, as to be able to resist with success any attack which the Eebels might make upon him. Such, however, was not destined to be the case. As the Star of ,the West hove in sight off the bar of Charleston, she was greeted with a discharge of artillery from the shore. As she con tinued to approach the salute became warmer and more effective. At length the fire from Morris Island assumed a really dangerous vigor and fury. Then the commander of the vessel gave the order to port her helm ; she turned her head ; doubled upon her track ; proceeded out over the bar ; and thence sailed back to New York. A more miserable and abor tive attempt to accomplish any purpose could not possibly be conceived. This result excited general surprise and disgust throughout the nation. People of every class and every party inquired why the Federal Govern ment, once so powerful and so prompt in the public service, both civil and military, had suddenly become so utterly imbecile and worthless, that an armed rebellion against the Government could pursue its insulting and defiant course, could plunder public property, could declare its intention to attack and capture Federal fortresses ; and yet, all that the General Government could accomplish, after three months of menace on the part of the enemy, and of deliberation on the part of the Administration, was the sending of a single unarmed vessel, with a few men and some supplies, to make, as it were, a mere dumb show of relief, snd then return again, without having accomplished anything. What the real secret of this mysterious policy may have been, the future historian and apologist of the administration of James Buchanan must explain, and, if possible, must vindicate. Meanwhile, the establishment of the Eebel Government was progress ing at its infant seat of empire. On the 15th of February the Congress at Montgomery appointed a committee to make suitable arrangements for the reception of the new President, and for the ceremonies of his in auguration. This committee performed their duties with energy and success ; and Jefferson Davis was inducted into his office on the ensuing eighteenth of the month, in the capitol of the State, with as much pomp and ceremony as could be mustered for the occasion. The speech de livered by the new President was elaborated with much care, and was well adapted to the circumstances under which it was uttered. Mr. Davis concluded his address with pious allusions to the blessings THE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 85 of Providence, and with devout petitions for future guidance and direc tion from the Supreme Being. After the close of the ceremonies, the signing of the Provisional Constitution by the members of the assembled Congress ensued. Great exultation prevailed throughout Montgomery on that day; and at night the general rapture was dis played by fireworks, by melodies from brass bands, and by all the usual methods of joyful popular demonstration. Thus at last the Southern Confederacy was fully and permanently organized. Immediately afterward the members of the Cabinet of Mr. Davis were confirmed by the Congress without hesitation. They imme diately entered upon the duties of their several offices. One of the first acts of the President was to appoint General Peter G. T. Beauregard, late a major in the United States engineer corps, to proceed to Charleston, and take command of the forces assembled there for the attack and capture of Fort Sumter. While the attention of the seceding States was occupied by those events, the chief interest of the nation was engrossed by the events tran spiring at Washington. On the 4th of March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated as President of the United States, and assumed the functions of his high office. No man ever inherited a more difficult or a more perilous post than fell to his lot. No man ever left a government in a more wretched state of anarchy and confusion than his predecessor had done. Mr. Lincoln delivered an Inaugural Address characterized by great moderation, by extreme prudence, and by practical sagacity ; and the nation derived fresh confidence from its manly tone and spirit, in his fitness for the anomalous position in which he was placed. He selected his Cabinet with equal judgment and felicity. William H. Seward, one of the most able and eminent of living American statesmen, was appointed Secretary of State. Simon Cameron, an adroit and experienced man of business, became Secretary of War. Gideon Welles, already favorably known for his official ability, became Secretary of the Navy. Salmon P. Chase, one of the most accomplished and profound financiers of the day was placed at the head of the Treasury. Caleb B. Smith took charge of the Interior ; Montgomery Blair presided in the Post Office Department , Edward Bates became Attorney-General. On the 21st of March, Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Southern Confederacy, delivered a memorable speech in the city of Savannah, which was commended by his partisans as a prodigious achievement of logical ability and skill. The professed purpose of this oration was to describe and to defend the leading principles of the Con stitution of the Rebel Republic. It was regarded by the secessionists as an unassailable and impregnable bulwark of their peculiar institutions. Its delivery was a prominent event in the establishment of the new gov ernment. It was cited as a representative speech uttered by a represen- 86 THE CIVIL WAR IX THE UNITED STATES. tative man, and it was applauded as the greatest intellectual monument erected by their statesmen during the progress of the war. As it will always retain an historical importance and significance, we may be per mitted briefly to examine some of its leading positions. Mr. Stephens commenced his oration by observing in substance, that the preeminent and most valuable ingredient of the Southern Constitution was its admirable settlement of the whole subject of slavery, by which that vexed question was clearly defined and practically adjusted forever. He then proceeded to say that the founders of the Federal Government, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and their associates, maintained the posi tion that slavery was a violation of the laws of nature ; that they be lieved it to be inherently wrong, socially, morally and politically ; and that they indulged the hope that at some future time it would be wholly abolished and removed. This opinion, Mr. Stephens asserted, was false. The sages of the Revolutionary era were in error. Their views were limited, superficial, absurd. He had discovered that slavery is not a violation of the laws of nature ; that it is not wrong, socially, morally or politically. Nor was it destined to be evanescent, and eventually to pass away. Such was Mr. Stephens bold and positive assertion. But where is the proof that the founders of the Federal Government on this point were in error ? None whatever is adduced in this speech. Not a single argu ment is advanced by the orator to demonstrate it. He makes a simple and unsupported declaration to that effect. It then becomes a mere question of veracity and authority between A. H. Stephens on the one side, and those whose wisdom and sagacity he calls in question on the other. Either he is right, and Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and their associates were wrong ; or their judgments were correct and his erroneous. Mr. Stephens having placed the argument and the issue on this basis, thereby imposed upon his opponents the necessity of inquiring who pos sesses the greater weight of authority, he, or the Federal founders ? The real question to be decided is : Will A. H. Stephens outweigh in the scales of authority the vast and powerful gravitation of those renowned sages, philosophers and statesmen ? We imagine that he will not. In any instance in which he and they would be balanced against each other, his authority would be as the weight of a feather against the ponderosity of an Alp. Hence it was an act of weakness on his part to put the argu ment on that ground ; and that weakness demonstrated the folly of those who applauded his speech in such extravagant terms. He makes an issue before the public, which issue an impartial public must, at a single glance, discover to be so overwhelmingly against him that an adverse deci sion of their judgments is instantly and inevitably extorted from them. Mr. Stephens second position was the most important, and also the most fallacious, contained in his speech. He asserted that the Southern Be- * FOUNDATION STONE OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY. 87 public was based upon the great principle that the " negro is not equal to the white man ; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is bis natural and normal condition ; and he adds with exultation, that the new government " was the first in the history of the world based on that great physical, philosophical and moral truth." We will not deny that the latter part of this declaration may be true. The boundless and immeas urable absurdity of a professedly free government being based, and abso lutely founded, on a despotic and tyrannical dogma such as the worst tyrants who ever trampled human rights in the dust, and defied all laws human and divine would have approved and applauded ; that monstrous contradiction we verily believe has never before been perpetrated by any race of rational beings. It is a glory belonging not to Turkish, or Eussian, or Austrian autocrats, but to the enlightened statesmen of the Southern Confederacy alone ! But in itself considered this declaration of Mr. Stephens set forth first, a great falsehood, and second, if it were true, it was a most iniquitous and execrable principle on which to establish any government, and especially a government which called itself a Eepublic. We afiirm that it is a false assertion that the negro is essentially and inherently an inferior race, as regards his natural, intellectual and moral capabilities of culture. That he has been made thus inferior, that he now is so, that he may for ages remain inferior, is unquestionable. But that he would have been inferior if surrounded by the same elevating influences which the white races have enjoyed is not proved. If the negro be inferior in the United States to the white man, is that fact not to be attributed to the despotism and prejudice under which he has always lived ? How could it be otherwise, when, from the day on which the race was transported hither to the present time, it has been fewer in number than the whites, destitute of means of improvement, ground into the dust by tyranny, enervated by degrading and exhausting labor, and their minds shut out by a stronger power from the genial influences of education, science, art, liberty and social improvement. It is evident that if the relative positions of the races had been exchanged, if the first inhabitants of the North American colo nies had been free negroes, if a few whites of the lowest grade from Ireland, Germany or England, had been transported hither as slaves, and if they and their descendants had existed for several centuries precisely as negroes have lived during that interval, they would now occupy the same relative position in intelligence with regard to the rival race which the negroes do at the present hour. The truth of this conjecture is demonstrated by the fact that, in cases where negroes have enjoyed favorable influences and opportunities, they have attained a degree of culture and intelligence very far in advance of the status of those negroes who are condemned to endure a life of bondage. This fact proves the capability of the race for improvement. It is useless to adduce many instances which go to illustrate that capability ; because 68 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. one solitary example would establish the truth of the position as well as hundreds ; and with some such examples all men are familiar. But no absurdity is greater than the assertion that in the abstract, and by nature, when living under equally favorable influences, the negro is necessarily and normally inferior to the white race. It cannot be proved, because no case has ever existed in which an equal opportunity was afforded to a whole community of negroes ; therefore no decision against their equality as a race can be derived with conclusive certainty from historical facts. To meet the surprise and disgust with which Mr. Stephens justly sus pected that this sentiment would be received, he proceeded to argue that this great truth which the Southern Kepublic had discovered and had made the corner-stone of its structure, might be very tardy in gaining the assent of mankind; but that fact would be no argument against- its truth fulness, because other great and true principles had been equally slow in their diffusion, and yet had at last attained universal supremacy over the convictions of men. Thus it was, said he, with the discoveries of Galileo in Astronomy, and with the principles of Adam Smith in Political Econ omy. It was no argument against the truthfulness of their doctrines, that it required a long lapse of time before the world appreciated and be lieved them. It would be so, he added, with this new discovery of the statesmen of the Southern Confederacy. But, unfortunately, the opposition of mankind to new doctrines is no evidence of their absolute truthfulness. If men have long opposed novelties founded in truth, they have also op posed novelties founded in error with equal obstinacy. Hence the opposition of men to new doctrines is no argument either way. If it were an argu ment to establish the excellence of a principle, then the opposition which has, during many years, resisted the claims of the Mormons to credibility, would be an evidence in favor of their veracity. To deduce the truth of any new dogma from the fact that men condemn and oppose it, is there fore a non sequitur. This memorable argument of Mr. Stephens concluded, so far as the question of slavery, was concerned, with the declaration that slavery, a condition of inferiority, was not only the natural and legitimate position of the negro, but that experience had also taught, that it was lest for him? What a marvelous specimen of logical absurdity and fallacy is here ? The negro is inferior, degraded and debased ; therefore it is right to enslave him. But it is found by experience that slavery, which retains him in this inferior, degraded and debased condition, "is best for him." Therefore it is best for a certain race of men to remain inferior, degraded and debased. It is a legitimate inference which follows from this premise, that whatever is best for one race must be ad vantageous for all races ; hence, if it is best for the negro thus to be infe rior, degraded and debased, it is also most desirable for all mankind so to be. Any government based on so monstrous and absurd a foundation, carries within its own bosom the elements of its inevitable destruction. THE MISSION OF MR. YANCEY TO EUROPE. 89 CHAPTEE Y. THE MISSION OF MR. YANCEY AND HIS ASSOCIATES TO EUROPE THEIR REPRESENTATION S TO THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH PEOPLE EVENTS AT CHARLESTON THE REBEL COMMISSION ERS AT WASHINGTON THEIR ABSURD DEPORTMENT GEN. BEAUREGARD DEMANDS THE SURRENDER OF FORT SUMTER MAJOR ANDERSON RESPECTFULLY DECLINES PREPARA TIONS FOR THE BOMBARDMENT OF THE FORT SIZE AND STRENGTH OF THE WORKS SKETCH OF MAJOR ANDERSON SKETCH OF GEN. BEAUREGARD COMMENCEMENT OF THE BOMBARDMENT HEROISM OF THE GARRISON INCIDENTS OF THE FIRST DAY S ATTACK EVENTS OF THE ENSUING NIGHT THE CONTINUANCE OF THE BOMBARDMENT DURING THE NEXT DAY SUFFERINGS OF THE GARRISON EX-SENATOR WIGFALL A DEPUTATION FROM GEN. BEAUREGARD PROPOSITIONS OF SURRENDER THEY ARE ACCEPTED BY MAJOR ANDERSON EXULTATION OF THE REBELS WHY THE GARRISON WAS NOT REINFORCED PROCLAMATION OF GOVERNOR LETCHER PROCLAMATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. SOON after the organization of the Southern Confederacy, as has been already narrated, an important step was taken to obtain its recognition as an independent and established government by the leading sovereign ties of Europe. A commission was appointed to proceed to England and France, of whom William L. Yancey was the chief, whose duty it was to effect that desirable result. It is curious to note the grounds upon which success in this enterprise, the importance of which is admitted, and need not be discussed, was based by the Kebel cabinet and their emis saries. It was urged in the South and when the commissioners arrived in Europe they repeated the same representations there that the Union was irretrievably destroyed ; that the seven seceding States would never will ingly return to the Federal Government; and that the idea of compelling them so to do was absurd and visionary in the extreme. It remained therefore to consider what the interests of England and France would be in reference to this new government, whose separate and permanent ex istence should now be accepted as an unquestionable and inevitable fact. The commissioners asserted that "England must have cotton ;" and in that great overwhelming want lay the absolute necessity that she should recognize the new government, and enter into a treaty of commerce with it. Nowhere else on the globe could this indispensable staple be pro duced in sufficient quantities, except in the Southern States. As soon as England perceived as in a few months they asserted she would perceive that thousands of her own manufacturing population were starving for the want of this commodity, her ships would force the blockade of the southern ports, and recommence the trade which had been suspended. The commissioners declared that the cotton crop for the summer of 1861 would be as abundant as usual, after making allowance for the greater proportion of corn and wheat which had been planted and sown. A 90 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. potent motive would thus be offered to England to induce her to resume her commercial intercourse with the Southern States. And if this result occurred, it was highly proper and necessary that the formal recognition of the new Eepublic should have previously taken place. The commissioners furthermore urged, in their informal interviews with the English and French ministers, that the seceding States, rather than return to the Federal Government, after all that had occurred to irritate and alienate them, would greatly prefer to become a colony of England or France. If they were unable to maintain their separate atti tude, rather than again become members of the Federal Union, they would be willing to descend to the humbler relation of dependants upon a royal or imperial sovereign. In that view it would be prudent, in the very beginning of the contest, for France and England to recognize the new republic ; because by so doing they would render the subsequent act of submission to either of their own monarchs more legitimate and and binding. Strange and utterly false ideas were also set forth by the commissioners in regard to slavery, as it existed in the Eebel States. They asserted that the opposition of the inhabitants of the North to that institution was based solely on the fact that, before secession took place, the whole nation was held responsible for it in the eyes of the world ; that as soon as the Southern Kepublic was recognized by European powers, whereby the stigma of slavery would be removed from the North, the latter would in no respect interfere with it, and it would never con stitute any ground of future trouble or conflict between the two govern ments. As a proof of this position, it was alleged that the black servants of the inhabitants of the "West Indies, while sojourning in the Northern States, were never disturbed, nor were any efforts made to entice them from their masters. To overcome that repugnance which all intelligent Englishmen and many Frenchmen feel to slavery, it was urged that the existing slavery in the South was in reality a patriarchal institution ; that the negro race flourished under it ; that in 1808, when the foreign slave trade was abolished, there were but one million negroes in the slave States ; that now, after half a century of experiment, the negroes have increased fourfold ; and that when English and French statesmen closely examined the institution as it now exists, it would be found to be not only profitable for the master, but also most advantageous for the slave. While Mr. Yancey and his associates were zealously proclaiming and defending these questionable doctrines in England and France, and were oscillating between London and Paris with alternate hope and despair, important events were transpiring at Charleston. Until the 7th of April, 1861, friendly relations had existed to some extent between Major Ander son, in command of Fort Sumter, and the authorities of Charleston. Till then he had been permitted to obtain fresh provisions from the markets of the city ; but on that day General Beauregard issued an order to the BEAUREGAIiD DEMAND* THE SURRENDER OF SUMTER 91 effect that no further intercourse would be allowed between the fort and the shore. He then sent a messenger to Major Anderson apprising him of that determination. The immediate cause of this decision seemed to be, that the commission ers who had been recently dispatched from the Kebel Government to Washington for the purpose of settling all questions in regard to rival interests, geographical boundaries, and other issues which necessarily resulted from the full and absolute withdrawal of the seceding States from the Union, sent word to the Eebel President that all their efforts had proved abortive. Mr. Sew^rd, on the part of the Administration of Mr. Lincoln, first refused their request for a private and unofficial interview. He then further informed them that it would be impossible for him, as Secretary of State for the United -States, to hold any official intercourse with them whatever, to recognize them even as diplomatic agents of any body ; and he declined to appoint a day on which they might present the evidences of their authority and the purpose of their visit to the Fed eral Government. The commissioners, Messrs. Forsyth, of Alabama, and Crawford, of Georgia, received this intimation as an insult; flew into a passion of the most approved southern intensity, informed the Eebel Government at Montgomer}^ of the treatment which they had received, and left Washington in high dudgeon. When the inhabitants of the seceding States received the intelligence of these events, they caught the general and infectious rage ; a universal outburst of execration resounded over the South, and curses both loud and deep were unmercifully heaped upon the head of Mr. Lincoln, who had thus dared to snub the southern chivalry. Immediately after the occurrence of these events General Beauregard dispatched Messrs. Chesnut and Lee, his aids-de-camp, to Major Ander son, to demand of him formally the immediate surrender of Fort Sumter. To this polite requisition Major Anderson returned an equally courteous refusal. He declared that his sense of honor, and his obligations to his Government, would absolutely prevent his compliance with the demand. On the 12th of April, about 3 o clock, A. M., a second deputation was sent by the Kebel general to the commandant of the fort, who were com missioned to say, that, if the latter would designate the time, at some future, and perhaps even distant period, when it would suit his conveni ence, from want of provisions, or from any other sufficient reason, to abandon the works, they would give him the assurance that, in the mean time, he should not be fired upon. The reply of Major Anderson to this proposition was equally unsatisfactory to the deputation ; who conse quently left the fort, giving him the agreeable assurance that the batter ies of Charleston would open on him within an hour. And now the most startling and momentous event which had taken place since the commencement of the Rebellion was about to occur. For 92 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the first time since the foundation of the Federal Government, the alienated children of the once glorious Union commenced actual hostilities against each other ; and brothers strove to stain their hands with fratricidal blood. Yet, melancholy as was the spectacle which was now presented to the view of mankind, it exhibited at the same time some ludicrous features. At this very period, accord ing to the statement of the Charleston Mercury a journal which will not be suspected of injustice to their own side there were seven thousand men under arms, and a hundred and forty pieces of heavy ordnance, which were more guns than Napoleon had at Wate^oo, actually in position, and ready for use, in and around the harbor of Charleston ; and this formidable armament was marshaled by the chivalrous and invincible State of South Carolina, in order to capture a fort garrisoned by seventy half-starved men. The fortification which was about to become the scene of conflict, and around which the events and the interest of the whole Eebellion were now to cluster, was named after Thomas Sumter of Eevolutionary fame, and was one of the strongest and largest which had been erected by the Fed eral Government. In form Fort Sumter was a truncated pentagon, one of the five sides being parallel with the shore. On that side was the landing and entrance to the fort from a wharf which extended along the entire length of the fortress and projected toward the land. The height of the walls above the water line was sixty feet, and they were from eight to twelve feet in thickness. The whole number of guns mount ed at the period of the attack was seventy-five, although the full arma ment was a hundred and forty. These were placed in three tiers. The heaviest, consisting of thirty -two and sixty-four pounders, were arranged on the lowest tier. The guns next in size, being twenty-four pounders, frowned from the port-holes of the second tier. From the lofty parapet thirteen-inch columbiads and heavy sea-coast mortars menaced the foe. In the area within the fort there were two furnaces for heating shot. On the eastern and western sides were the barracks and mess halls of the privates. On the southern side were the quarters of the officers. The magazines of powder were well supplied ; the only deficiency under which the garrison labored was that of fuses, men and provisions. The fortress was at this period under the command of Major Robert Anderson. This meritorious officer was born in 1810, and graduated with honor at West Point. His first important service was in the Black Hawk war, in which he behaved with gallantry. His superior merits are indicated by the fact that, in 1838, he was appointed assistant instruc tor and inspector at West Point. In the following year he published a work entitled " Instruction for Field Artillery, Horse and Foot ; arranged for the service of the United States." He was brevetted captain in April, 1838. He afterward was made assistant adjutant-general. In March, COMMENCEMENT OF THE BOMBARDMENT. 93 1848, lie proceeded to Mexico with the Third Regiment of Artillery, and assisted in the siege of Vera Cruz. On that occasion he had command of one of the batteries. He accompanied General Scott in his triumphal march to the city of Mexico. For his gallant services in the war he was promoted to the brevet rank of major ; and in October, 1857, received the position of major in the First Artillery. Throughout his whole military career Major Anderson had been remarkable for his bravery, coolness, general ability as a soldier, and his incorruptible integrity as a patriot. The officer who commanded the rebel forces in Charleston, and who was about to conduct the assault upon the fort, was not unworthy, in some respects, to be the rival of so admirable a soldier. General Peter G. T. Beauregard was a native of Louisiana, and was born in 1817. He was descended, on his mother s side, from Italian ancestors, who are said to trace their lineage to the illustrious ducal family of Reggio. He gratuated at West Point with honor in 1838, and was immediately appointed to the corps of Engineers. In January, 1840, he obtained a first lieutenancy ; and afterward served with distinction through the Mexican war. After the battle of Churubusco he was brevetted on the field as captain, for his gallant and meritorious conduct. After the conflict of Chapultepec he received a similar compliment, with the higher grade of major. His conduct during the entire war was distinguished for superior skill and for titude ; and he had already attained the reputation of possessing engineering talents of a high order. It would doubtless have been impossible for the President of the Southern Confederacy to have confided the important service of reducing Fort Sumter to more able and experienced hands. Major Anderson had. informed the deputation from Charleston, which waited upon him before daybreak on the 12th of April, that his provision would be exhausted on the following Monday, the 15th of April. This information was given in an unofficial manner ; and the communication was perfectly proper under the circumstances. Accordingly, when the chivalrous warriors of South Carolina commenced the bombardment of the fort, it was done with the perfect knowledge of the fact that the siege must end in its capture, if it were only continued for three days. In truth, the commandant would have been compelled to evacuate at that period, whether attacked or not ; or else starve to death. Therefore it is evident that the bombardment of the fort was in reality a complete farce, a mere dumb show of unnecessary, superfluous, ostentatious bravado. This important fact should be borne in mind when we contemplate the events which ensued, and the boundless boastings of the victors. At length, on Friday morning, April 12th, at half-past four o clock, the commencement of the attack was announced by the discharge of a single bombshell, which, after describing a graceful curve through the murky heavens, descended, and burst directly over the fort. The dark ness of the early dawn was suddenly illumined, far and near, by the .flash- 94 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. ing meteor. The sound reverberated over the silent fort, over the watery waste, over the adjacent shores, and over the slumbering city, starting thousands from their repose, and announcing that the last act of the drama had commenced. Major Anderson instantly ordered the sentinels to descend from the parapets, the posterns to be closed, the stars and stripes to be unfurled from the summit of the flag-staff, and the men to remain within the bomb-proofs. After a short pause of preparation, the Eebels commenced to fire upon Sumter from all directions, not only from the forts which had previously existed in the harbor, but also from those works which they had recently erected ; from the iron masked batteries at Curnming s Point, at a distance of sixteen hundred yards ; from the iron floating battery at the end of Sullivan s Island, distant two thousand yards ; and from the enfilading batteries on Sullivan s Island and on Mount Pleasant. In consequence of the smallness of the garrison, Major Ander son did not return a single shot until his men had breakfasted, that they might husband their strength as much -as possible. At seven o clock they were divided into three equal relief parties, with orders to work the batteries by turns for four hours each. Then old Sumter opened her iron mouths, and poured forth an indignant and contemptuous hail-storm of shot and shell upon her multitudinous assailants, which told that the an cient vigor of her garrison had not degenerated. They displayed the utmost enthusiasm in working the guns ; and the several reserve parties could scarcely be restrained from service till their proper turns arrived. The first relief was commanded by Captain Doubleday, of the Artillery, and Lieutenant Snyder, of the Engineer corps. Their compliments were chiefly paid to Fort Moultrie, whose shattered embrasures soon testified to the superior skill and vigor of their gunnery. The immense superiority of the rebel batteries in numbers soon began to tell effectively upon the fortress. Their fire was uninterrupted and vigorous. A deluge of shot poured into Sumter from every quarter at once; and the assailants must have been pigmies in warfare had they not been able to overpower the feeble garrison and demolish the solitary fort. Loose brick and stone now flew in every direction ; portions of the parapet were torn away ; six of the guns were disabled ; and it became certain death to undertake to work the barbette guns on the upper un covered casement. About one o clock, on Friday, the cartridges in. the fort were exhausted; and a party was detailed to use the blankets and shirts in the magazines to supply the deficiency. At length a greater evil than the shot of the enemy began to assail the heroic garrison. During the first day of the siege the barracks caught fire three several times ; and soon the fort was filled with smoke, which blinded the men and almost stifled them. By prodigious exertions the fire was extinguished. In the meanwhile the guns were served with the same alacrity. The men their faces begrimed with powder, the flames roaring within the works SUFFERINGS OF THE GARRISON. 95 and apparently approaching nearer and nearer to the magazine, the bat teries of the enemy reverberating from every quarter, and their red-hot shot exploding above, around and near them, without intermission still worked with dauntless resolution, and the officers gave their orders with the utmost coolness. Amid such a pandemonium the darkness of night descended upon the scene ; and Friday, the first day of the assault, closed. But the fort was not yet reduced. During the night Major Anderson ordered his men to suspend their fire. Not so the assailants. Perfectly aware that after the third day the commandant must evacuate for want of provisions, they determined to make all the bluster and display possible; and hence they continued their useless and superfluous assault during the entire night. It was a grand spectacle for the populace of Charleston. Never before had they witnessed such an exhibition. Never before had there been such a display of sky-rockets, at the public expense, as was made during that night in Charleston harbo.r. Accordingly, the whole population were out. The wharves, and what is called the Battery, were filled with a delighted and astonished multitude, who gazed with mingled wonder and exultation at the countless shells as they described their sym metrical parabolas through the midnight heavens, and then descended upon the silent fortress. That, however, for the most part was a display merely intended to demonstrate the prowess and skill of the besiegers. Little damage was done during the night ; Major Anderson spent the interval in recruiting his men and preparing for the next day s work. At length Saturday dawned, and Sumter began to respond to the fire of the enemy. The seven thousand Kebel troops who were assembled at the scene of conflict had not yet become exhausted ; they still discharged their guns with uninterrupted regularity and frequency. Early in the day the barracks within the fort were set on fire for the fourth time ; and it soon became evident that it would be impossible to extinguish the flames. No sooner would the exertions of the men succeed in suppress ing the conflagration in one quarter, than the red-hot balls of the enemy would kindle them with fresh fury in another. Then it became neces sary to remove the powder from the magazine. Ninety barrels were rolled through the very flames, wrapped in wet woolen blankets, to the port-holes, and thrown overboard. At last it was impossible to accom plish even this ; and the doors of the magazine were closed and locked upon the remainder. And now the smoke became more stifling and insupportable than ever. The men were blinded and smothered beyond endurance. They could only breathe through wet cloths, and by lying on the ground. It is said that, at one moment, had not a propitious eddy of wind lifted the dense smoke from the area within the fortress, nearly all the garrison must have been suffocated. In such a situation there was yet no thought of surrender ; but the guns of the fort could not be worked with the usual rapidity. They were fired slowly, only as 96 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. fast as cartridges could be made in the darkness produced by the smoke, and merely to announce the fact to the assailants and to the admiring citizens that the fort had not yet been silenced. Amid such scenes the hours of Saturday wore away. The final catas trophe was rapidly approaching. Seven thousand valiant soldiers would not easily desist from the conquest of seventy men. Hence the attack was kept up more furiously during this day than on the preceding. A deluge of red-hot shot was still poured upon the shattered works ; the fire within continued its unrestrained ravages; the smoke became more intense, and swelled high up into the heavens, a black rolling mass, which could be seen from afar above the fort ; the main gate was battered down ; the walls were full of breaches ; and the towers had all been demolished. These were the results of the second day s assault, yet the stars and stripes still waved from the flag-staff; their graceful lines of beauty being occasionally visible, as the thick curtain of smoke would be wafted aside by the breeze. The sun was beginning to descend the western heavens, when ex-senator "Wigfall suddenly and unaccountably presented himself at one of the embrasures, with a white flag tied to his sword. Such a spectacle, at such a time and place, at once attracted attention. Lieu tenant Snyder immediately approached him, and demanded his business, He received for answer, that the stranger was no less a personage than General Wigfall, who came from General Beauregard with an important message; and he desired to know why, the flag being down, the fort did not stop firing ? The truth however was, that Wigfall had not come with any message from Beauregard, and that the flag was not down. Never theless a parley ensued, which amounted to nothing. The visitor then disappeared through the embrasure, and soon afterward a deputation arrived, consisting of Messrs. Chesnut, Pryor, Lee, and Miles, who had been sent by General Beauregard. They brought propositions of sur render, which Major Anderson approved and at once accepted, it was stipulated between them, that the garrison should remove all their indi vidual and company property ; that they should march out with all their arms, at their own time, and in their own way ; that they should salute their flag with the honors of war, and then take it away with them. Thus was this memorable assault terminated. On Sunday morning, at half-past nine o clock, the garrison withdrew, firing a salute of a hun dred guns. They then embarked upon a transport furnished by the Rebels ; the patriotic strain of Yankee Doodle floating meanwhile upon the breeze. They were subsequently transferred- to the "Baltic," and sailed for New York. It is superfluous to say that Major Anderson and his men behaved during the bombardment with the utmost gallantry and heroism. It would have been impossible to have defended the fort more ably, or to have surmounted the difficulties of their position moro resolutely, than they had done. The fact that none were killed during WHY THE GARRISON WAS NOT REINFORCED. 9T the assault must be attributed to the precautions used by the com mandant, who stationed a man at every port-hole who gave notice of the approach of shot or shell. President Lincoln subsequently expressed to Major Anderson, officially, his entire approval of the manner in which he had discharged his arduous duties on this occasion. After the victory came the exultation, and it was such exultation as had never before convulsed the chivalrous South. Seven thousand men had conquered seventy men; and shouts of joy reverberated throughout the whole length and breadth of the Rebel States. General Beauregard immediately issued a proclamation, in which he congratulated the troops under his command for their success ; spoke of the great privations and hardships which they had endured in the conflict; and declared that they "had exhibited the highest characteristics of tried soldiers." He took occasion also to thank his staff, the regulars, the volunteers, the militia^ and the naval forces for the prodigious heroism and gallantry which they had exhibited. Much surprise was expressed at the time that President Lincoln did not reinforce the garrison, and that surprise seemed founded in justice. But the Executive himself explained at a later period the reason of this apparent anomaly. That reason, which was amply sufficient, was briefly this : It was the opinion of the chief officers, both of the army and navy, at Washington, whom Mr. Lincoln consulted on the subject and it was also the opinion of Major Anderson himself that it would require twenty thousand men to defend the fort successfully, and that the possession of it was not really worth so great an expense and outlay of men and money. Accordingly the orders given to the commandant simply were, that he should vindicate the honor of his flag by making such a resistance as his resources enabled him to make, and then, if necessary, abandon the fort. This he would have done at any rate on the Monday after the attack, and thus would have saved South Carolina the half million dollars which her two days of empty glory cost her. On the 17th of April, Governor Letcher of Virginia issued a proclama tion, in which he recognized the independence of the Rebel States, and ordered that all armed volunteers, regiments and companies in Virginia should hold themselves in readiness for efficient service. On the same day the convention, which had been summoned to discuss the policy of secession, passed an ordinance repealing the ratification of the Constitu tion of the United States by the State of Virginia, and resuming all the rights and powers granted under said Constitution. Immediately after these events President Lincoln issued a proclama tion, calling for seventy-five thousand troops to suppress the Rebellion, and summoning the Federal Congress to meet at Washington on the en suing 4th of July, 1861, in extraordinary session. 7 98 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER VI. ENTHUSIASM OF THE REBEL STATES PROJECTED CONQUEST OP WASHINGTON PRCOFS THAT IT WAS CONTEMPLATED WHY IT WAS NOT ACCOMPLISHED SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND FEDE RAL TROOPS ORDERED OUT DAVIS ISSUES LETTERS OF MARQUE AND REPRISAL PROCLAMA TION OF GOVERNOR LETCHER SECESSION OF VIRGINIA BLOCKADE OF THE SOUTHERN PORTS ASPECT OF THE LOYAL STATES FIRST IN THE FIELD THE ATTACK ON FEDERAL TROOPS IN BALTIMORE FURY OF THE REBEL MOB RESULTS OF THE ATTACK ITS INFAMY THE FEDE RAL FORTS ARE GARRISONED SECESSION OF MISSOURI RAPID MARCH OF FEDERAL TROOPS TO WASHINGTON THE CHICAGO ZOUAVES THE GALLANT ELLSWORTH ORIGIN OF THE TERM ZOUAVE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH ZOUAVES IN ALGERIA, IN THE CRIMEA, IN ITALY THEIB PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS AMERICAN ZOUAVES. THE fall of Sumter, together with the proclamation of President Lincoln summoning a large body of troops to convene at the Federal capital, which followed that event, appear to have inflamed the military ardor of the Eebel States to a prodigious degree ; and gorgeous visions of extensive conquests rose to their excited views. Prominent among these was the immediate attack and capture of Washington. It has been seriously doubted whether the leaders of the secession movement ever really entertained that ambitious purpose, and especially at so early a stage of the Rebellion. It has been asserted that their views were always confined to the defence of the invaded territory of these States, which had become identified with the secession movement; and that the project of the threatened march on Washington was the sole product of the groundless terrors of the inhabitants of the North. This supposition is erroneous. At the period of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, it was boldly asserted by the Rebel leaders that their next move ment, after the reduction of that fortress, would be the capture of the Federal capital. Mr. Walker, the Secretary of War to the Rebel Gov ernment, declared on the 12th of April, at Montgomery, that no man could prophesy where the war would end ; but that he would predict that the flag of the Southern Confederacy would float in splendor over the dome of the capitol at Washington before the first day of May." He moreover warned the " hostile Yankees" that, if they were not careful how they insulted the chivalry of the South, they would ere long see that flag waving in defiant majesty over Fanueil Hall itself. A similar sentiment was expressed at the same time by many of the leading journals of the South. The Richmond Inquirer declared that nothing was more probable than that President Davis would soon march a triumphant army through North Carolina and Virginia into Washington. The Richmond Examiner asserted that Washington was perfectly within the power of Maryland and Virginia, and added that the whole popula- PROJECTED CONQUEST OF WASHINGTON. 99 tion of the South desired, with the utmost unanimity, the achievement of that enterprise. It was a singular fact that, when the troops of North Carolina proceeded to join the Rebel camp in Virginia, it was with the express expectation that their destination was an immediate attack on the Federal capital. Other southern journals were still more sanguine The Milledgevilk Recorder endeavored to incite the Rebel Government to immediate action; declared that the Confederate States must possess Washington ; and insisted that it was folly to imagine that it could be permitted to remain any longer the headquarters of the " Lincoln Gov ernment." Southern pride demanded that that city should not continue under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. The Ckarkston Courier asserted, on the 14th of April, that the desire to capture Washington in creased every hour among the valiant and patriotic citizens of the South. Similar authorities might be accumulated to a very large extent, to show how widely diffused and how intensely ardent this wish to possess the Federal city was throughout the Southern States. That the Rebel armies, therefore, did not make the attempt, was evidently the result not of a want of inclination, but of a want of ability ; and it is equally plain that this achievement formed a prominent element in the colossal plan of resistance, disorganization and ruin, which their leaders conceived, and which they were able to some extent to realize. Immediately after the proclamation of President Lincoln calling out seventy-five thousand men, the Rebel Congress, then in session at Mont gomery, authorized the raising of an additional force of thirty-two thousand men. Of this number, General Pillow declared that Tennessee alone would willingly furnish ten thousand. Alexander II. Stephens uttered the formidable boast that it would require seventy-five times seventy-five thousand soldiers to intimidate the South, and that even then " they would not stay intimidated." Jefferson Davis inflamed the war like spirit of the Rebels to a still intenser pitch by issuing, on the 17th of April, a proclamation, in which he invites all those who might desire, by service in private armed vessels on the high seas, to aid the Rebel Government in resisting what he termed a wanton and wicked aggres sion, to make application for letters of marque and reprisal, which would be issued under the seal of the Confederate States, and would be freely granted to those who furnished the necessary securities for the observance of the laws of those States. The result of this proclamation was, that an eager host of thieves and pirates immediately sprang for ward to obtain the benefit of the proclamation, and enrich themselves by plundering under the cover of law and public justice. The Legislature of Virginia was at this period in session. That ancient commonwealth had long hesitated as to the policy which she would pursue in reference to secession. Many potent considerations bound her to the old Union, with which all her most glorious and honorable asso- 100 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. ciations were connected. But her present interests, and especially the identity of her sympathies with the South in reference to slavery, led her to cling to the faction of the Eebels. In addition to this, her people were greatly influenced by the intrigues of a number of detestable traitors, of whom Ex-Secretary Floyd was the chief, who were active in their efforts to alienate the minds of the people from the Union. On the 18th of April, John Letcher, Governor of the State, issued a proclamation, in which he declared that the action of Mr. Lincoln in calling for an armed force of seventy-five thousand men was in effect a declaration of war ; that the President possessed no power to issue such a proclamation ; that Congress alone was competent to declare war ; that therefore this act was illegal and unconstitutional ; and that the General Assembly of that State having so pronounced it, he, the Governor, then and there ordered all the armed volunteers within the State to hold themselves in readiness to enter upon military duty against the threatened encroach ments of the Federal Government. At the same period the convention which had been summoned for the purpose of determining whether the State would join the Southern Confederacy or not, voted in favor of secession. There were but seven members who opposed the measure and four of those seven came from Western Virginia. It had now become evident to the most obtuse and the most unwilling observer that the day of reconciliation had passed by; and that the Federal Government had no other alternative left, in order to vindicate its own honor and suppress the rebellion, than the adoption of the most stringent and hostile measures. The blockade of all the southern ports was immediately ordered and immediately executed. The great steam ship Niagara, the pride of the American navy, was stationed off Charles ton harbor, where her heavy guns and her gallant crew would effectually suspend the commerce of that city, the virulent hot-bed of secession. The blockade of the Chesapeake was maintained by the steam-frigate Minnesota, off Old Point Comfort; by the Dawn and the Yankee, off Fortress Monroe ; by the Quaker City, off the mouth of the Chesapeake bay ; by the Montecello, off York river ; by the Harriet Lane, off the mouth of James river. Other vessels were dispatched to Savannah, to Mobile, and to New Orleans, whose trade was effectually sealed and sus pended by the terror of their guns. At this period the loyal States presented to the eye of an observer a strange and unaccustomed spectacle. Their vast and rich domains, usually the scenes of peaceful pursuits, of manufacturing industry, of agricultural thrift, were now teeming with those incidents which are connected with warlike operations. The proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, summoning seventy-five thousand men to the field, infused into the nation a new spirit. That number of men, which, in comparison with the more colossal requisitions of later times, seems insignificant, then ATTACK ON FEDERAL TROOPS IN BALTIMORE. 101 appeared to be an enormous armament; and the business of recruiting^ of arming, of drilling, so unfamiliar to our pacific eyes and ears, became visible and audible on every hand. In a very short time the necessary number were enlisted, and were ready to march to the Federal capital. The honor of having responded with commendable celerity to the proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, and of having been among the first in the field, belongs to a regiment of Massachusetts volunteers, and to a body of troops collected and enlisted in Philadelphia by Colonel Small. On Friday, the 19th of April, these troops commenced their journey from that city. They filled thirty-six cars, and arrived without any accident or detention at Baltimore, on their way to Washington. The loyalty of the chief city of Maryland had been justly suspected; but no suspicions were entertained that the hostility of a portion of its inhabitants to the Union would be developed in so violent and so tragical a manner as in the end occurred. When the cars containing these troops arrived in Baltimore, an im mense assemblage had collected at the intersection of Gay and Pratt streets, for the purpose of making a hostile demonstration against them. The feelings which animated the crowd were readily ascertained and clearly apparent; nevertheless the Massachusetts troops, who occupied the cars in the advance, being well armed and well disciplined, boldly confronted the danger, defied their assailants, and pressed on through the city. The majority of them succeeded in effecting their passage before the rioters were able to barricade the railway track. This they effected by loading it with heavy anchors obtained in the vicinity. This move ment intercepted the further progress of the Pennsylvania troops, who, till this period, had remained in the cars. As they were without arms or equipments of any kind, they would have been unable to resist a hostile force much superior to themselves in numbers. After a period of uncertainty and suspense, however, they descended from the cars and formed in line in the street adjoining the depot. Then the order to advance was given. This forward movement was the signal for the attack of the mob a vast assemblage who filled the neighboring streets and spaces, at whose front was borne a Confederate flag. They discharged a volley of stones at the troops, which compelled the head of the column to fall back. Gradually the attack became more general ; and those among the soldiers who were provided with arms, discharged them in self-defence. But the number of these was comparatively small ; and soon a deluge of stones and the discharge of pistols and guns from, the crowd assailed the defenceless troops. The latter, after a short interval of hand-to-hand combats, were collected together in a train of cars, an engine was attached, and their return toward Philadelphia was com menced. A number had been wounded, several killed, and a still greater proportion were scattered during the mtlee. The latter afterward effected 102 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. their escape with considerable delay and difficulty. The fact that the soldiers were without uniforms, which the regiment expected to procure, together with arms, at Washington, enabled many to elude the fury of the populace, who would otherwise have become their victims. This attack on unarmed men, engaged in so noble a service, by the inhabi tants of a prominent city of the Union, was one of the most despicable acts recorded in the annals of a war so profusely disgraced as this became, by innumerable deeds of infamy, treachery and cruelty. The nation was surprised and alarmed by this unexpected display of treasonable sentiments at Baltimore ; and the immediate effect was to spread the flame of patriotic ardor more widely, and induce the Adminis tration at Washington to adopt more active measures. Forts McHenry, Monroe, and Pickens were quickly furnished with stronger garrisons ; and camps of instruction were formed in various places for the purpose of drilling those troops who, in answer to the President s proclamation, had devoted themselves to the service of their country. It soon became evident that a much greater number of these men were ready to respond to the appeal than had been called for ; and the large number of regiments which arrived successively at Washington, removed all apprehensions in regard to the immediate safety of that city from the minds of the President and his cabinet. On the 3d of May 1861, the Legislature of Missouri convened, and a message was received by them from the Chief Magistrate of the State. In that document Governor Claiborne Jackson declared that Mr. Lincoln, by calling out troops for the purpose of subduing the secession move ment, had committed an unconstitutional and illegal act. He proceeded to defend the right of secession ; and maintained that the proceedings of the States which had withdrawn from the Union had been performed in the exercise of an undoubted right; that the interests of Missouri were identical with the other slaveholding States ; and that the similarity of their social and political institutions clearly demonstrated that it was the duty of Missouri, at the proper time, to follow their example. He concluded by recommending that the Legislature should make such appropriations as would enable the State authorities to resist any attempt which might be made by the Federal Government to enforce the Federal laws. This message was the commencement and cause of that long series of desperate and bloody events which afterward occurred in Mis souri in connection with the Southern Rebellion, and which increased in importance as time progressed. Among the large number of troops which the proclamation of President Lincoln drew forth for the defence of the Union, there was one peculiar class of soldiers, whose name, whose discipline, and whose history consti tute one of the military novelties of the present age. A year before the outbreak of the Rebellion, the American public were surprised and grati- ORIGIN OF THE TERM ZOUAYE. 103 by the appearance and martial drill of a corps of men, organized in Chicago, calling themselves Zouaves. The te/m was new and harsh to the majority of Americans ; but to those who were familiar with the military events of recent times in Europe and Africa, it conveyed a start ling and impressive meaning. The Chicago Zouaves were commanded by a youth of no ordinary spirit and ability ; and the inhabitants of the principal cities of the Union admired, and with justice praised, the pecu liar qualities and the soldier-like virtues of the gallant Ellsworth. When the Rebellion elicited the proclamation of the President, the Chicago Zouaves did not tender their services to the country in a body, but their commander obtained in New York suitable materials for another corps, which he drilled in the old method, and upon whom he conferred much of the old exactitude and perfection. This corps now marched to Wash ington under the orders of Ellsworth. As this peculiar arm of the ser vice was a novelty in its way as the origin, the history, and the achieve ments of the European Zouaves, after whom they were named and mod elled, are a topic of no ordinary interest we will here briefly digress from the direct current of events, and introduce an episode in reference to that subject. What the Tenth Legion was to Caesar, what the Janizaries were to the Sultans, what the Imperial Guard was to Napoleon I., that the Zouaves proved to be, both to Louis Philippe and to Napoleon TTI. The word Zouave was derived or corrupted from the Arabic Zawawah, which is the name of a tribe of Kabyles in the province of Algiers. These people have resided for generations in the most remote and mountainous portions of the Jurjura; and were remarkable for their superior industry, their bravery, and their love of freedom. They were of Arab descent, and they alone, of all the inhabitants of Algeria, had never been completely subjugated by the Turkish power. After the invasion of Algeria by the French, it became necessary for the security and permanency of their authority that a large and formidable force should be constantly maintained under arms in that province. Already had the Zawawah contingent in the Algerian army become distinguished for their superior qualities as soldiers, for their excellent discipline, their desperate courage, their wil lingness to endure privation and suffering in the execution of the most difficult and dangerous commissions. In July, 1830, Louis Phillippe appointed Marshal Clausel Governor of Algeria ; and that officer determined to organize a native corps of cavalry and infantry as one of the first acts of his administration. By a decree bearing date October 1, 1830, he created two battalions, to be composed of such materials; and as the martial fame of the Zawawahs already stood high, he took care that the greater proportion of these new troops should be composed of them. But natives of all sorts were admitted into their ranks, without any distinction of origin, religion, or race; inhabitants of 104 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the mountains, and dwellers on the plains, Kables, Arabs, Negroes, Turks ; and thus it was that this heterogeneous corps, to whom the name of Zouaves was then applied, obtained that anomalous, rude, and ferocious character, which has ever distinguished them. Together with the savage qualities which they possessed as natives, they soon combined that military efficiency which was derived from their being drilled by the best French officers. Some of the most eminent generals in the French service were connected, at an early period of their career, with this remarkable corps. One of the first commanders was Lamoriciere, who afterward became illustrious. Subsequently they were led to battle by Cavaignac ; then by St. Arnaud, and later still, by Baraquay d Hilliers and Bosquet. The Zouaves of Algeria distinguished themselves in many of those bloody conflicts which attended the subjugation of the Arab tribes, who, under the heroic Abdel Kader, endeavored to rescue their country from the tyranny of its French invaders. Scarcely six weeks had elapsed after their organization as a separate corps, when they took part in the famous expedition against Medeah, under Marshal Clausel. The French on this occasion were compelled to retreat ; and nothing saved them from being cut to pieces in a narrow defile except the dauntless courage of the Zouaves, who, passing to the rear, set up their hideous war shouts, fell upon the victorious Kabyles with the ferocity of tigers, and hewed them to the earth. This achievement at once gave them an honorable fame and position in the French army. In every subsequent service of danger, in every expedition of difficulty, they were ordered to take part ; and on all occasions they behaved with a degree of valor which won for them the confidence and admiration of their foreign masters. Their drill was re markable for its precision and energy ; and their costume, which was a singular mixture of Oriental dress with French colors, contributed to render them still more unique and extraordinary. A portion of that activity in which they excelled all the French soldiers in Algeria, was to be attributed to the convenience and freedom of their dress. It gave ample room for the use of the limbs, and was utterly unlike the usual attire of European and American soldiers, by which the body is so squeezed, hampered and choked, as to render ease and vigor of movement almost impossible. The Zouaves took part in the expedition against Oran in 1835, and against Mouznia in 1836. They especially distinguished themselves at the siege of Constantine, where they led the first column of assault and greatly contributed to the victory. In all the conflicts in 1843 and 1844, which took place between the French and Abdel Kader, the Zouaves held a conspicuous place. Their peculiar habits fitted them admirably to resist and to vanquish the Arab soldiery. At the capture of Smalah, and especially at the famous battle of Isly, they fought with a heroism which THE FRENCH ZOUAVES IN THE CRIMEA. 105 received, as it richly deserved, the enthusiastic plaudits of their more civilized masters. After the submission of Abdel Kader in 1847, there remained little op portunity in Algeria for the display of the peculiar qualities of the Zouaves. Their chief service then consisted in maintaining garrisons for the French in remote and dangerous positions, exposed to the sudden attacks of the conquered Arabs. In 1852 their corps were reorganized ; they were armed with rifles ; and another regiment was added to their numbers, thus making three regiments, each consisting of three battalions. Then at length they were transferred from their native soil to that of France. The fame of their heroism so strangely united with ferocity, preceded them ; and they were everywhere the objects of curiosity not unmingled with fear. In 1854, when the war in the Crimea commenced, they proceeded with the French forces to the East. The bloody struggles of Alma, Balaklava, In- kerman, and Sevastopol, witnessed their extraordinary qualities; and in the more recent war in Italy they maintained their ancient fame by pro digious displays of their ancient valor. 106 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER VII. THE SECESSION OF TENNESSEE PARSON BROWNLOW DECLARATION OF WAR BY THE CONFED ERATE CONGRESS SKIRMISH NEAR ST. LOUIS SECESSION ELEMENT IN BALTIMORE FORT MC HENRY SECESSION OF NORTH CAROLINA ADJOURNMENT OF THE REBEL CONGRESS TO CONVENE AT RICHMOND ASSEMBLY OF FEDERAL TROOPS AT WASHINGTON THE OCCUPA TION OF ALEXANDRIA ASSASSINATION OF COLONEL ELLSWORTH SKETCH OF HIS CAREER HIS LIFE IN CHICAGO FAMOUS TOUR OF THE CHICAGO ZOUAVES ELLSWORTH S MILITARY TASTES AND TALENTS HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE ND CHARACTERISTICS HIS PECULIAR ITIES AS A SPEAKER HE ORGANIZES THE NEW YORK FIRE ZOUAVES HIS DEATH A LOSS TO THE CAUSE OF THE UNION GENERAL ROBERT PATTERSON S CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA CROSSING THE POTOMAC AT WILLIAMSPORT BATTLE OF FALLING WATERS PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY TO HAINSVILLE TO MARTINSBURG THE MARCH TO BUNKER HILL TO CHARLESTOWN OCCUPATION OF HARPER S FERRY RESULTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. ON" the 6th of May, 1861, another defection took place among the States of the Union, and another member was added to the cluster of apostate communities. On that day the Legislature of Tennessee passed the ordi nance of secession, and adopted the terms of an alliance with the Confed erate States. The instrument by which this act was accomplished was absurdly called a " Declaration of Independence ;" and it set forth, as all its predecessors had in substance set forth, that the citizens of that State maintained the right of every free and independent people, to alter or abolish their form of government as they pleased ; and that, in the exercise of this right, they, of Tennessee, ordained and declared that all laws which had heretofore constituted the State a member of the Federal Union, were thereby abrogated and annulled; and that henceforth the State should become, what they had indeed immediately before declared it had always previously been, a free, sovereign and independent community." The announcement of this event elicited various and opposite expressions of sentiment throughout Tennessee, for a large Union element existed among her population. Parson Brownlow, the well-known editor of the Knox- vilk Whig, gave utterance to his indignation in terms extremely forcible and appropriate, in a torrent of invective which immediately afterward graced his journal. He stigmatized the act of secession as " a black deed," perpetrated by traitors who had taken a solemn oath to support the Con stitution of the United States; and he affirmed that the ordinance itself- was unconstitutional, unjustifiable, " a vile act of usurpation." He char acterized the agents of the movement as " unprincipled politicians ;" and for this resolute and patriotic conduct he afterward became the victim of the vengeance of the Kebel authorities. On the 7th of May the Congress of the Confederate States, convened at Montgomery, passed an act by which that important body recognized and declared the existance of war with the United States ; and affirmed that SKIRMISH NEAR ST. LOUIS. 107 hostilities had been begun against them by Abraham Lincoln, which it waa their duty to resist and to suppress. The falsehood of this assertion stands out so plainly on the face and front of it, that none except rebels and traitors could be so blind as not readily to detect it. It was in the State of Missouri that the warlike elements of the two parties first came into active collision. On the 10th of May a brigade of the militia of that State, commanded by General Frost, encamped on the western outskirts of St. Louis, and defied the forces of the Federal Gov ernment. The latter were then under the orders of Captain Lyon; who, before running the hazards of a battle against superior numbers, wisely resolved to try the effect upon the rebels of a formal demand to surrender. That demand was made, accompanied by the assurance that those who laid down their arms should be treated with humanity. The gallant Frost immediately complied with this requisition. Eight hundred men became prisoners of war, and were escorted into the city of St. Louis by the Federal troops. During this march an unfortunate conflict took place between the latter and a portion of the populace, in which about twenty persons in the crowd were killed. The captive State troops were afterward released on parole, having taken the oath not to serve again against the United States. Their officers, their camp equipage, their artillery, and their am munition, were retained. These events formed the prelude to other and more important events, which subsequently occurred in that distant portion of the Union. Meanwhile the proclamation of President Lincoln calling out seventy- five thousand troops for three months, had been responded to throughout all the loyal States. Thousands of men volunteered, whose superfluous services could not be accepted. The largest proportion of troops was re quired from New York and Pennsylvania; from the former eleven regi ments, from the latter ten, were demanded. By the 15th of May Balti more was occupied by a numerous Federal force commanded by General Butler. The secession element was still vigorous in that city, and it was strengthened from day to day by the treasonable conduct and influence of Marshal Kane, the head of the police force. Fortunately, Fort McHenry, which commands the city of Baltimore, was well provided with artillery, men and stores, and was in the possession of Federal officers. Its formid able guns, which in an hour might render the city a smouldering ruin, pro duced a beneficial effect in suppressing the treasonable spirit of rebellion. On the 21st of May the State of North Carolina consummated her mis fortune and disgrace by seceding from the Federal Government and uniting with the Southern Confederacy. She was the last in the order of time to perpetrate this ignominious deed. Ten States had preceded her South Carolina, "Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Virginia and Tennessee. Immediately after receiving official notice of the defection of North Carolina, the Congress at Montgomery 108 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. adjourned greatly elated by the success of their operations to convene at Kichmond on the 20th of July ensuing. By the 20th of May the Federal Government possessed the number of troops called for by the proclamation of the President ; and was prepared to commence active operations against the rebels, and invade their terri tory. The several loyal States had responded with alacrity to the requisi tion of the Chief Magistrate ; and the soldiers who assembled at Washing ton, as well as those who occupied several positions in Maryland and Virginia, were eager to meet the enemy. On the 23d, the order was given to advance from the Federal capital to those regiments which had been selected to perform this service. The purpose of the movement was to take possession of Alexandria, on the opposite side of the Potomac, and attack and dislodge any rebel force which might have been posted on Arlington Heights. Eight thousand infantry, two companies of cavalry, and two sections of Sherman s artillery battalion, crossed the Long Bridge under the command of General Mansfield. Four New York regiments, which had been quartered at Georgetown, proceeded at the same time over the Chain Bridge, under the orders of General McDowell. The New York Zouaves embarked on board the "Baltimore" and "Mount Yernon," and proceeding down the Potomac, reached Alexandria at five o clock in the morning. At six they landed, and formed in line upon the dock. The main body of the Federal troops entered Alexandria at the same time. The first Michigan regiment immediately advanced to the railroad depot and took possession of it. They also surprised and captured a troop of rebel cavalry numbering one hundred. The Zouaves, commanded by Ellsworth, proceeded at once to active service, and commenced by destroy ing the railroad track to Richmond. Their next aim was to take posses sion of the telegraph office, and intercept its connection with the rebel camp. Ellsworth now led the way, but his gallant career was destined to be of short duration. As the Zouaves were advancing in double quick time up the street, Ellsworth observed that a secession flag was waving from the Marshal House, a prominent hotel of the place. To such a man such a spectacle could not be other than most offensive, and as his fearless eye gazed upon the floating emblem, he impulsively exclaimed, " That flag must come down 1" Accompanied by a few privates he rushed into the house, ascended to the roof, eagerly cut down the flag, and taking possession of it, commenced his descent. He was met in the hall by Jackson, the enraged proprietor of the house, who, armed with a double-barreled gun, leveled it at Ellsworth, and discharged it. The instrument of death was but too well aimed. Its contents entered the body of Ellsworth, between the third and fifth ribs, and inflicted a mortal wound. lie fell, attempted to open his dress and to staunch the flowing blood ; but rapidly the pallor of death spread over his features, his hands became powerless, he sank ASSASSINATION OF COLONEL ELLSWORTH. 109 upon the floor, gasped for breath, and quickly expired. Before this event occurred his assassin had himself been slain ; for a private named Brownell, who had accompanied Ellsworth to the roof, the moment his commander was shot, leveled his musket at Jackson and discharged it. The rebel and the fallen hero died at the same moment, under the same roof, within a few feet of each other. The body of the former was soon riddled with balls by the frantic Zouaves, and his brains scattered over the scene of his crime and his punishment. The remains of Ellsworth were subsequently conveyed to Washington to be embalmed. Immediately afterward the Federal troops occupied Alexandria without further opposition. A portion of the population, apprehensive of a hostile invasion, had previously deserted the town. The seventh New York regi ment, with others, took possession of Arlington Heights. They met no resistance or interruption in the execution of their task, and they com menced to throw up intrenchments. Three thousand men were constantly employed in the works. General McDowell retained the command of all the troops which were placed beyond the Potomac, and superintended the necessary operations. It is usual when a popular favorite passes away, for his admirers to mag nify and exaggerate his merits to such an absurd and extravagant degree that could he return to life again, it would be impossible for him to recog nize his own portrait in their delineations ; and were he honest he would exclaim with astonishment, that he was not himself aware that he had ever been so wise, or so good, or so great a man. This declaration, which applies with truth to nine tenths of those whom mankind blindly but often unanimously agree to applaud, was not applicable to the case of Ellsworth. The report of his death was the signal for the outburst of such a deluge of regret and praise, as has rarely been accumulated upon the memory and the grave of any departed hero; but he really deserved it. He was in many respects, though young, a remarkable man, possessed of rare quali ties, and adorned by great virtues. Elmer E. Ellsworth was a nativtf of Massachusetts, and at the period of his death was about twenty-six years of age. In his youth his father suffered serious reverses in business ; and thus he was thrown upon his own resources, and initiated into a career of privation and toil, which commenced with his boyhood. The hope of finding a more congenial and facile field for pushing his fortunes induced him, as it has induced thou sands of other aspiring and generous spirits, to journey westward ; and in 1852 he reached Chicago, at that time the rising commercial metropolis of the West. But he was destitute of money and friends, without any profession or trade, and his first experiences of stern life in his new abode were sufficiently dark and cheerless. But he possessed the ines timable boons of health, youth and hope, and with the aid of these he soon acquired friends, and hewed out for himself an honorable name and a HO THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. means of living. His pursuits from time to time were somewhat diversi fied. At one period he commenced the study of law in the office of Mr. Lincoln, at Springfield. He had always felt a great fondness for military life, but no scope had yet been afforded to his martial aspirations. When the exploits of the French Zouaves at Sevastopol excited the surprise and admiration of the world, they kindled the kindred sympathy and ardor of Ellsworth. He studied the principles and peculiarities of their drill with intense interest, and conceived the design of raising from the large circle of friends whom he had acquired among the young men of Chicago, a company who should imitate, and perhaps even emulate, the perfection of the genuine Zouave drill. He succeeded in his purpose ; many of the most estimable and admirable youths of that city joined his company, and some months were spent by them and their young captain in laborious and assiduous drilling. At length Ellsworth found the grand conception which he had formed realized. The Chicago Zouaves, under his guidance, attained a degree of exactitude and skill in the manual of arms, such as had never before been seen in America, and which perhaps could be found alone in Europe among the genuine Zouaves from Algiers. It was very natural that Ellsworth should be proud of his handiwork, and that he should desire to exhibit to the world how much could be accom plished by industry and perseverance in that department of mental and physical effort. He published a respectful challenge to the military corps in the United States, inviting them to a trial of skill. Soon afterward that memorable tour was made by him and his associates through the chief cities and towns of the United States, which formed one of the most ex traordinary military events of this age. But it should not be imagined that this famous expedition was undertaken simply for the purpose of display. In all that Ellsworth did such was the inherent nobility and elevation of his nature there was a lofty and noble aim. The chief design, therefore, of that journey, was to show, by a plain and practical example, how superior scientific drilling was in giving efficiency and power to the soldier, to the ordinary rlethod ; to illustrate what the great principle of military training should be, a principle of which not one com mander or soldier in a thousand had the slightest conception, namely, that a perfect identity of spirit and feeling should exist, for the time being, between the commanding officer and those to whom his orders are given ; as also to illustrate how the true soldier should inure himself to bodily fatigue and self-denial ; how the accomplished soldier will also become an accomplished gymnast ; and how, as much as any thing else, temperance in eating and drinking is not only promotive of bodily health and vigor, but is absolutely indispensable to it. It was during the progress of this expedition that another remarkable quality of Ellsworth was revealed to the admiring public. This was hia extraordinary power over the minds of his associates. He possessed that ELLSWORTH S APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS. HI faculty in a high degree, which is always an element of intellectual great ness the faculty of controlling the wills of others around him. There was also an originality, we may even say grandeur and dignity, in his manner, his voice, his whole person, while engaged in the process of drilling, which was a triumph of martial genius and beauty. At his first word of command, uttered by a voice singularly manly but melodious, with an accent remarkably firm and crisp, every eye brightened, every head became erect, each man instantly became himself, in all his physical and mental fulness ; and then followed such a display of skill and precision in the most elaborate and difficult species of drill known to the profession of arms, as was rarely witnessed. Though not large in person, Ellsworth exhibited as much graceful sublimity and physical grandeur in a field exercise, as any orator could display in the midst of his most imposing and impassioned flight of eloquence. Nor will this result appear anoma lous when we remember the masterly thoughts which lay at the founda tion of his military system. When he commenced his training of the Chicago Zouaves, he trained himself with a degree of vigor which was astonishing. He practiced the manual of arms with so much industry, that he became one of the best marksmen and ablest swordsmen in America. He investigated the theory of every motion with particular reference to the principles of anatomical science ; and so arranged each movement that it became the logical and legitimate groundwork of the one which succeeded it. Thus it was that he introduced a sort of scien tific unity and harmony into the manual of arms which had not before existed in it. This was the stroke of a master ; this, the indication and the presence of superior, creative genius a genius similar in nature to that which the young Napoleon exhibited when, to the horror of all the military drones and fossils of Europe, he not only constantly vanquished the Austrians in Italy, but vanquished them in utter defiance of the es tablished and immemorial usages of the military art. So far had Ellsworth trained himself, in order that he might successfully train others, that a photograph of his naked arm, taken at the period of his visit to Philadel phia, was a model of anatomical and physical beauty ; it was an arm whose formidable accumulation of muscles and sinews, and whose fault less proportion of outline presented such a picture as Michael Angelo or Kubens would have painted, when representing on canvas the ancient Greek conception of the forms of Hector or Hercules. After the return of the Chicago Zouaves to that city, Ellsworth engaged with zeal in the Presidential campaign which ensued ; and strange as it may appear, this youth, so richly gifted as a soldier, proved himself as highly endowed for another sphere. He distinguished himself as one of the most effective and popular of the orators, who, in the State of Illinois, ad vocated the claims of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency. As a speaker he was peculiar for his strong, clear sense, mixed with a degree of wit and repartee 112 THE CIVIL WAE IN THE UNITED STATES. such as few orators possess. After the termination of the campaign, and when the war-clouds began to darken the political horizon, and roll up with portentous gloom from the rebellious South, he tendered his ser vices to the new President. He then proceeded to the city of New York in order to select, from the numerous body of firemen in that city, the materials for an entire regiment of Zouaves. Having obtained these, he removed to Fort Hamilton for the purpose of drilling. After his new recruits had become partially fit for service, through his untiring labors, he proceeded with them to Washington. Their subsequent career is involved in the history of the events which ensued in the vicinity of the Federal capital. Had this gallant young commander survived to take part in the battle of Bull Kun, it is not improbable that the presence and influence of his dauntless courage on the field, might have diminished, though it could not have averted, the horrors and the ignominy of that struggle. It is proper that at this stage of our history, we should narrate the chief incidents connected with the three months campaign of the Federal forces in Virginia, under the command of General Kobert Patterson. On the 30th of June, 1861, the different brigades comprising the division were consolidated into one body, preparatory to their crossing the Potomac. Two enterprises of importance to the Federal cause, were assigned by popular opinion and popular wishes, to this portion of the Union forces. The first was the expulsion of the Rebels under Johnston from Harper s Ferry ; the second was intercepting the march of that general to Manassas, and preventing the junction of his troops with those com manded by General Beauregard. Neither of these purposes was ulti mately accomplished. When the Union forces, nearly twenty thousand strong, began to move toward Virginia, instead of advancing directly to Harper s Ferry, for the achievement of the first of these enterprises, the route taken was toward Williamsport. The enemy were left in undis turbed possession of Harper s Ferry, until, at a later period, when the Eebel generals perceived the greater importance of concentrating their forces at Manassas, General Johnston evacuated the place, having pre viously destroyed a vast amount of Federal property, and the public works erected there. After its evacuation, General Patterson, instead of intercepting, if bis force were sufficiently large for that purpose, the march of Johnston toward Manassas, proceeded to occupy the deserted and desolate town ; and entered it on the very day on which the battle of Manassas was fought, and by the very road on which the Eebel general had marched from it. It was thus that neither of the enterprises anticipated by the popular will was achieved by the division of General Patterson. It was on the 2d of July, that his troops crossed the Potomac, by the ford at Williamsport. The process began at dawn of day, and continued BATTLE OF FALLING WATERS. 113 until near nightfall. Before the fording commenced, a skirmish took place between the Federal pickets, which had been thrown over the river on the preceding day, and the Berkley Border Guard. General Abercrombie s brigade were in the advance of the Federal forces ; and having crossed the Potomac, they continued their march on the turnpike leading from Williamsport to Martinsburg, across the neck of land which is formed by the bend of the river, which takes place at that point. The pickets of the enemy were first seen at Falling Waters, five miles distant from Williamsport. They retired, and about a mile beyond, the encoun ter took place which has been designated as the battle of Falling Waters. This imposing title was applied to a small but pretty stream, whose limpid waters flow over a mill-dam, and perform the useful function of filling the race, which turns the wheels of a solitary grist mill. It was situated a short distance from the Potomac. The skirmish which ensued was sus tained on the Federal side by a portion of Abercrombie s brigade, consist ing of the eleventh Pennsylvania and first Wisconsin regiments, McMullen s Independent Eangers, the Philadelphia City Troop, and Perkin s battery of six guns. After a short but spirited engagement the Kebels were routed, and were pursued for the distance of two miles as far as the village of Hainesville. The rear guard of the enemy were about being captured, when orders arrived from General Patterson to stop the pursuit. Both the battle and the chase occupied nearly two hours. The Rebels were commanded by Colonel, afterward General, Jackson ; and his forces in the action comprised an entire brigade. The Federal troops then proceeded to encamp ; and occupied the position which Jackson had deserted. On the next day they advanced to Martinsburg, which the enemy evacuated at their approach, and it was thus occupied without opposition. The Federal loss at Falling Waters was insignificant, being wo killed and five wounded. After a delay of nearly two weeks at Martinsburg, by which means the period t>f the enlistment of the Federal troops was very sensibly dimin ished, General Patterson again commenced to move. On the loth of July, the march began toward Winchester. Nearly the whole division proceeded as far as Bunker Hill, ten miles from Martinsburg, before nightfall. At Bunker Hill a small body of Rebels had been encamped, who retreated as the Federal troops approached. At this place, which is twelve miles distant from Winchester, the Federals remained for two days. Here the pickets of the armies of Johnston and Patterson were often within hailing distance of each other. On the 17th of July the march was resumed by General Patterson before daylight, and the ad- vance toward Winchester was continued ; but before his rear guard had entirely descended the sides of Bunker Hill, or had reached the road which led to Winchester, a countermarch was ordered, the route to that town was abandoned, and the whole division proceeded twelve miles east- 8 114 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. ward. By this detour Winchester was left on the flank, and a wide area was opened by which General Johnston might transport his troops at any moment, and with perfect safety, toward Manassas. The Federal forces were placed in camp at Charlestown ; and as soon as Johnston became assured that this flank movement was not intended to operate against him, and that there was no danger that he would be attacked in his intrenchments at Winchester, he left a small detachment to occupy them, and hastened to Manassas. After remaining four days at Charlestown, General Patterson enlarged the space between himself and the enemy, by proceeding to Harper s Ferry, which had been evacuated and burned by the Kebels some time previous. Soon after this date the term of the en listment of the Federal troops, as well as the period of the appointment of General Patterson as their commander, expired ; and thus the first army of the Potomac dissolved and vanished from view. If the men and officers who composed this army had not achieved any result of importance to the cause of the Union, if they had not gained any victory of conse quence over the forces of the enemy, it was not from the want of valor or patriotism on their part ; for on every occasion on which they were per mitted to encounter the Eebels, or to exhibit the spirit which actuated them, they displayed the coolness and bravery of veterans, the zeal and ardor of patriots. THE BATTLE OF GREAT BETHEL. 115 CHAPTER VIII. THE ENCOUNTERS WITH THE REBEL TROOPS AT FAIRFAX COURT HOUSE, AT AQUIA CREEK, AT ROMNEY, AT PHILIPPI GALLANTRY OF COLONEL KELLEY BATTLE OF GREAT BETHEL CAUSES OF THE DISASTER GENERAL PIERCE DEATH OF LIEUTENANT GREBLE SKETCH OF HIS CAREER UNION SENTIMENT IN WESTERN VIRGINIA THE NEW STATE OF WEST VIR GINIA HARPER S FERRY DEVASTATED BY THE REBELS THE OHIO TROOPS FIRED ON NEAR VIENNA RESULTS OF THE ATTACK OPERATIONS OF GENERAL MCCLELLAN IN WESTERN VIRGINIA HIS ADMIRABLE PLANS THE BATTLE OF RICH MOUNTAIN GENERAL GARNETT COLONEL ROSECRANS RESULTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT SKETCH OF GENERAL MCCLELLAN HIS CONDUCT DURING THE MEXICAN WAR HIS RECONNOISSANCE OF THE CASCADR MOUNTAINS HIS SECRET MISSION TO THE WEST INDIES HIS JOURNEY TO THE CRIMEA HIS OFFICIAL REPORT AS COMMISSIONER HIS SUBSEQUENT MOVEMENTS HE BECOMES COMMANDER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF OHIO. MANY incidents occur during the progress of a conflict like that against the Rebels of the South, which excite intense interest, and which are in themselves not entirely destitute of importance at the period of their occurrence, but which, after the lapse of time, and when they are considered in connection with the grand current of events, necessarily become of trivial and inferior consequence. Among such incidents it is proper here to enumerate the different skirmishes which took place between the detach ments of Federal and Rebel troops at Fairfax Court House, at Aquia Creek, at the village of Romney, and at Philippi in Western Virginia. At Romney a Rebel camp had been formed. Colonel Wallace, who com manded one of the Indiana regiments, marched from Cumberland to Hampshire county and attacked the troops collected there. The Rebels were surprised by the movement and completely routed ; their camp equipage, their provisions and their arms were captured ; and a decisive reverse inflicted on them by the bravery of Colonel Wallace and his men. A similar contest attended by a similar result took place at Philippi. The assault upon the enemy who held possession of that town, was led in person with great gallantry by Colonel Kelley. The Rebels were defeated and expelled from their position. The most important incident connected with this engagement was the wounding of the commanding officer, who was shot in the breast. The wound was at first regarded as mortal ; but Colonel Kelley eventually recovered, to resume active service in defence of the Union, and to receive the rank of brigadier general, to which his merits fully entitled him. The first serious disaster to the Federal arms which occurred during the progress of the war, took place at Great Bethel, on the 10th of June, 1861. General Butler, who then commanded a large body of troops at Fortress Monroe, having ascertained that there was established a camp at a place ten miles distant from Hampton, which they had strongly fortified, 116 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. determined to attack and dislodge them. He therefore ordered Colonel Duryea, with his regiment of Zouaves, and Colonel Townsend with his Albany troops, to cross the river at Hampton at midnight, and thence pursue their march toward Great Bethel. At the same time the regiment of Colonel Bendix, with a number of men from Vermont and Massachu setts, who were stationed at Newport News, were directed to advance so as to effect a junction with the forces sent from Fortress Monroe, at Little Bethel, three miles distant from the position of the enemy. The entire expedition seems to have been badly planned. So great was the neglect of the commanding officer, that proper signals had not been arranged between the troops proceeding from Newport News and those from Fortress Monroe, by means of which they could recognize each other in the darkness. Accordingly, the first disaster which took place resulted from the want of such recognition. Duryea s Zouaves passed Little Bethel between three and four o clock in the morning. The regiment of Bendix soon followed, and took up its position at the inter section of the roads. As Colonel Townsend s regiment approached for the purpose of making a junction with them, they were mistaken for the enemy and were fired into. After a number had been slain and wounded the error was discovered, the firing ceased, and the united body advanced toward Great Bethel. As soon as the Federal troops came within range of the guns of the Eebels, the latter opened upon them with a formidable array of artillery. The Federals attempted to advance, and by a rapid charge and bold assault, to obtain possession of the works. But they were saluted with such a hail-storrn of shot, and the expert riflemen of the foe seconded the efforts of their artillery so effectively, that the utmost bravery and desperation proved of little avail. Terrible havoc was produced in the ranks of the Federal troops, partly through the confusion and incompetency of General Pierce, who commanded the expedition, and partly in conse quence of the immense advantage in artillery and position possessed by the Rebels. At length it became evident that further effort would be vain, and after an unequal and disastrous contest of two hours, the order to retreat was given. As the beaten troops retired they were pursued by the cavalry of the enemy, and some were slain on both sides. One of the chief disasters of this disgraceful day was the death of Lieu tenant John T. Greble, who accompanied the expedition in command of the few cannon which were taken with it. During the engagement he had acted with great gallantry, and the chief impression produced upon the enemy was effected by the skill and vigor with which he worked his twc guns. Eleven artillerists of the regular army had been placed under his orders. When at last the command to retreat was given, he directed his cannon to be limbered up, and was about to retire, when a cannon ball struck him on the right temple. He fell and expired instantly. DEATH OF LIEUTENANT GREBLE. 117 This young officer, whose early and heroic death at this period rendered him the first martyr to the cause of the Union from among the officers of the regular army, had commenced, and until that hour had pursued, a career of more than ordinary brilliancy and promise. He was a native of Philadelphia, and at the time of his decease was twenty-seven years of age. His early education was received in the High School of the city of his birth. Having obtained admission to the Academy at West Point, he graduated in that institution with honor in 1854. He received the rank of brevet second lieutenant, and was subsequently ordered to Florida, where he served two years in the war against the Seminole Indians. In March, 1857, he was promoted to a first lieutenancy, and was afterward appointed to a position on the Academical Staff at West Point. In Octo ber, 1860, he was ordered to Fortress Monroe; and there he remained until May, 1861, when he was transferred to his last command that of the artillery at the advanced post of Newport News. Lieutenant Greble was descended from ancestors who had held honor able positions in the army of the American Kevolution. He had always distinguished himself in the performance of his official duties by superior intelligence, fortitude, and energy. In the battle of Great Bethel he had displayed the utmost coolness and heroism. It was he who, when the firing took place between the several Federal regiments, first discovered the mistake, rode up to the combatants, and succeeded in putting an end to the work of mutual destruction. He then exclaimed in agony that he had rather himself been shot, than that such a disaster should have taken place. He seems in fact to have entertained a foreboding of the fatal result of the expedition ; and remarked to a brother officer, when he received the order to accompany it : " this is an ill-advised and badly- arranged movement, no good will come from it ; and as for myself, I shall not return from the battle-field alive." After the action began he was left alone with his men on the field, by the confused and irregular operations of the troops ; but he remained undaunted, working his guns with the utmost resolution, and with much success. Several officers, at a later period of the combat, seeing his exposed position, urged him to take better care of himself, and suggested that he should dodge the balls. He replied contemptuously, "I never dodge, nor will I retreat till I hear the notes of the bugle commanding it." At length these notes reached his ears, and not till then did he think of retiring. During the progress of battle he sighted every discharge of his guns in person. It was noticed that his aim was extremely accurate. When he fell, the troops retreated, leaving his body on the field. A short time afterward Lieutenant-Colonel Warren and Captain Wilson rallied a few of the men, returned, rescued his remains and the two cannon, and then sadly joined- in the general flight, The Federal loss was seventeen killed, forty-five wounded. While the destructive tide of Secession was surging to and fro like a 118 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. mighty deluge, devastating the once fair domains of the South, it is grat ifying to notice an opposite current arising in the western portion of Virginia, in favor of the time-honored Union. A convention had been called together at Wheeling consisting of delegates from many of the western counties of the State, for the purpose of deliberating on the pro priety of disavowing the acts of the Richmond Convention, in adopting the secession ordinance ; and to form a new State which should remain a constituent portion of the Union. On the 17th of June the final decision was made in reference to the subject. A unanimous vote was given by the Convention in favor of the establishment of a separate Commonwealth, which was then named Kauawha, but was afterward called West Virginia, and in favor of its admission to the Federal Union. There was not a dissenting voice, but a small number of the delegates were absent. There were fifty -six ballots cast in favor of the measure ; and the declaration which embodied the action of the Convention was signed by each of those fifty -six. In the meantime the martial events of the Rebellion progressed, and the future plans and purposes of the armed traitors became more apparent. The force of fifteen thousand men which, under the Rebel General John ston, had taken possession of Harper s Ferry, evacuated that place, as already stated, on the 14th of June, after destroying a large portion of the public property which there existed. The motive of this withdrawal was judicious on the part of the Rebels; it being simply for the purpose of rendering their forces more available in connection with the anticipated struggle at Manassas. On the 18th of June they inflicted a slight reverse upon that portion of the Federal troops, consisting of the First Ohio regi ment, which was commanded by General Schenck. They had placed a concealed battery on an eminence adjacent to the railroad to Vienna ; and when the cars which contained these troops approached that town, they were suddenly fired upon. The Federal loss was eight killed and twelve wounded ; a temporary panic ensued ; but the troops ultimately resumed their journey, and reached their destination without further opposition. More important and decisive events were now about to transpire in Western Virginia. On the 6th of May, 1861, General George B. McClellan was appointed to the command of the regiments raised in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and he formed the plan, in conjunction with General Morris, of an invasion of Virginia from the West. This project he submitted to the War Department. The evident ability and skill which it exhibited gained it an immediate approval, and McClellan at once proceeded to active operations. On the 23rd of June that officer commenced to execute his purposes. The plan to which we have referred was in sub stance as follows: The main army of the Rebels in Western Virginia, commanded by General Garnett, was then posted at Beverly, about fifty miles south of Grafton. It was proposed to attract and to occupy their THE BATTLE OP RICH MOUNTAIN. 119 attention by marching a force toward them from Grafton through Philippi ; while another division should proceed in a parallel line through Clarks burg and Buckhannon, and penetrating further to the south, reach a point in their rear, prevent their retreat, and by a combined attack, vanquish and capture them. This admirable arrangement was executed in spite of unexpected diffi culties, in an equally admirable manner. The Rebels anticipating no attack except in their front, took a new position twelve miles north of Beverly, and strongly fortified it. General Morris then led a brigade of Ohio and Indiana troops toward the enemy from the north. At Bealing- ton, when within range of their guns, he halted, fortified his position, com pletely obstructed their further advance, and then waited the operations of McClellan. That officer also executed his part of the plan with signal energy and ability. With the main body of the Federal troops which had been posted at Grafton he advanced through Clarksburg to Buckhan non. At Rich Mountain he unexpectedly found a rebel force of two thousand men, under General Pegram, posted in a strong position. He divided his troops into two divisions; placed one under command of Colonel Rosecrans, and himself led the other. Pegram s position was turned by a flank march through the woods. Many of his men were killed and taken ; a total rout ensued ; and on the following day the main body, under Pegram, was compelled to surrender. A small detachment afterward effected their escape. When these fugitives reached the camp of General Garnett, they quickly apprised him of his real danger. Then it was that he attempted to retreat to Beverly ; for had he reached that position he might have effected his escape from superior numbers, by crossing the mountains at Cheat Moun tain Gap. He might thus have joined the rebel forces in Central Virginia or else have united with the troops of General Wise stationed on the Kanawha. But he was defeated in the accomplishment of this purpose by the. energy and promptitude with which McClellan executed his part of the plan. His timely advance toward Beverly interrupted the move ment. Only one alternative, therefore, yet remained to General Garnett, which was to retreat by a road running to the northeast, up Cheat river, until he could obtain a passage through the mountains into the central valley of Virginia. He immediately abandoned his baggage and artillery, and commenced a rapid march toward St. George. The Federal commander immediately detected this movement and pur sued the retiring foe. Then followed a grand and desperate chase, which was in itself an extraordinary achievement. During forty hours, with one single intermission, the Federal forces continued the pursuit. Through a mountainous, rugged, often almost impassable country, sometimes by fording rivers, sometimes by facing storms of wind and rain, they advanced ; and at length reached the rear of the exhausted and retreating Rebels. 120 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. The latter were at once attacked with the utmost energy and resolution. A decisive victory was gained. The Rebels abandoned their camp, their few remaining guns, some prisoners, and fled in the utmost precipitation. Their commanding officer, General Garnett, who seems not to have been deficient in courage or skill, was slain during the engagement. The scattered wreck of his army sought safety, and disappeared from view, in the deeper and remoter recesses of the mountains. It must be admitted that few military plans were ever conceived with greater sagacity, or executed with more signal ability, than this. To whom the credit both of the plan and of its execution may be due is another question. It is clear that it was first known as an enterprise pro posed by General Morris, who was in command of the Federal forces stationed at Grafton previous to the arrival of General McClellan. But as General Morris was not a professional soldier, it is probable that the complete conception of the arrangement is to be chiefly attributed to McClellan. To him also was assigned the execution of much the more difficult portion of the combination. In the practical part of the achieve ment the honors must to some extent be divided among several brave men. Colonel Rosecrans fulfilled his commission with equal valor, and skill. Captain Benham, the principal staff officer of General Morris, also distin guished himself. Nevertheless, with that partiality with which mankind generally over-praise those whom they elevate to the position of favorites, the sole glory of the brilliant movement was attributed, by the popular voice, to the most prominent actor in it. One of the inevitable consequences produced by a revolution, either civil or military, is, that it develops latent greatness of character, and gives an opportunity to men of superior ability to attain eminence, who would otherwise have remained comparatively obscure. This remark applies with truth to the Southern Rebellion. Among its other results its stirring events introduced George Brinton McClellan to the special notice and scrutiny of mankind. This officer was born in Philadelphia in December, 1826. In his sixteenth year, having chosen the military profession as his future pursuit, he entered the academy at West Point. He ranked second in his class for merit and ability among a number of young me r , all of whom were his seniors. He graduated in 1846, and received f . commission as brevet second lieutenant of engineers. The war with Mexico breaking out, he assisted in training an engineer company which had been raised at West Point, and then proceeded with them to active service. He landed with General Scott at Yera Cruz, and took part in all the battles which signalized the career of that commander in Mexico. The progress of his promotion was rapid, but not more rapid than was the development of his merit. In August, 1847, he was breveted first lieu tenant for his gallantry at the battles of Contreras and Churubusco. In SKETCH OF GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN. 121 the next month he was breveted captain for his heroism in the conflicts of Molina del Key and Chapultepec. He was subsequently, in Moy, 1848, promoted to the rank of commandant of sappers, miners and pontoniers. There was scarcely another instance among the many talented young men who distinguished themselves in that war, of a person whose rise in the profession was so rapid and so constant as his. The war being ended, McClellan returned to West Point, where he remained till 1851. The ensuing interval he employed in preparing a manual for the bayonet exercise, which was introduced into the army. That work became a standard authority on the subject. During the summer and fall of 1851 he superintended the building of Fort Delaware. In the following spring he joined the expedition under Major Marcy for the purpose of exploring the Ked river. Thence he proceeded to Texas as senior engineer, to survey the rivers and harbors of that State. While in Mexico he had attracted the attention and won the confidence of Jefferson Davis, whose sagacious eye easily detected his superior qualities. When Davis became Secretary of War under President Pierce, he employed McClellan to make a reconnaissance of the Cascade mountains on the Pacific, with special reference to the future construction of the Pacific railroad. This difficult duty he discharged to the entire satisfaction of the Secretary ; who, having set his heart upon the accomplishment of that important enterprise, was very exacting in regard to every thing which might promote its attainment. In 1854 McClellan was dispatched on a secret mission to the West Indies. In the next year he received a captaincy in a regiment of cavalry ; and then followed the most important commission with which he had yet been honored. lie was selected by Mr. Davis, in connection with Eichard Delafield and Alfred Mordecai, to proceed to the Crimea for the purpose of making observations upon the military operations which were then in progress; and to examine the most noted military establishments of Europe. The commissioners were absent two years, and after their return, each of them submitted to the government a separate report con taining the results of their observations. It may safely be affirmed that though the reports of Delafield and Mordecai were creditable performances, the production of McClellan was superior to them both ; and it was so regarded by the government for whom it was prepared. This elaborate work was published in 1857. It was illustrated by admirable plates, diagrams and maps. Its contents were of the utmost value, including not merely reports upon the events of the great struggle in the Crimea, but also dissertations on many topics of importance connected with military science. It described t with accuracy the characteristics of the French, Austrian, Prussian and Sardinian infantry, the various de partments of the Kussian army, and the regulations for military service in the chief countries of Europe. The author discussed the peculiar tactics 122 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. discipline and equipments of all the great European armies. Nothing of interest which appertained to the organization of troops and camps, the construction of field works, the most approved method of reducing fortified positions, the peculiar merits and defects of British and French, Russian and Sardinian soldiers, was omitted. The principles of modern warfare, hospitals, commissariats, the Zouaves, military instruction in general these and many other subjects of great interest and value were investigated in the various reports which constituted this volume; and they were treated with the ability of a man as well practiced in handling the pen as in wielding the sword. The style of the work is clear and forcible, the research exhibited is thorough and deep, the reflections made are sagacious and original, the learning displayed is accurate and profound. After his return from Europe in 1857, McClellan resigned his position in the army, and assumed that of Vice President and Chief Engineer of the Illinois Central Eailroad. This office he retained until he was elected President of the Ohio and Mississippi .Railroad. It was from this position that he was transferred, immediately after the commencement of the Re bellion, to the military command of the Department of Ohio, comprising that State, together with Illinois, Indiana and Western Virginia, ilis achievements in the latter field we have already narrated. After the battle of Bull Run the Administration at Washington, discovering the incompetence of some of those in high command, felt the necessity of summoning to the capital the best military talent within their reach. Then it was that they conferred upon General McClellan the most respon sible, the most difficult, but also the most honorable post ever bestowed upon any young American officer, since that memorable day when George Washington was chosen by the Continental Congress, in another great crisis of the nation s destiny, to conduct the armies of tthe rising Republic to scenes of victory and glory. MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 123 CHAPTER IX. THE EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF CONGRESS IN JULY, 1861 MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN ITS CHARACTERISTICS ITS DEMANDS SKETCH OF THADDEUS STEVENS HIS POLITICAL CAREER HIS PERSONAL QUALITIES HIS ACTION AS CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE OF WAYS AND MEANS IMPORTANT BILLS PASSED BY CONGRESS OPPOSITION OF MESSRS. VALLANDIGHAM AND BURNETT TO THE POLICY OF THE ADMINISTRATION THE CIVIL WAR IN MISSOURI THE GRAND ARMY EQUIPPED AT WASHINGTON COMPLAINTS OF ITS PRO LONGED INACTIVITY ORDER GIVEN TO GENERAL MCDOWELL TO ADVANCE TOWARD MANAS- SA8 ARRANGEMENT OF THE ARMY THE ADVANCE REACH BULL RUN THE PRELIMINARY CONFLICT AT THAT PLACE REPULSE OF GENERAL TYLER S DIVISION POSITION OF THE REBEL ARMY AT MANASSAS GENERAL BEAUREGARD THE IMPENDING CONTEST TEMPER OF THE REBEL TROOPS THE ARTS EMPLOYED TO INFLAME THEM. THE extraordinary session of Congress which convened at Washington on the 4th of July, 1861, will always remain an event of supreme import ance in American history. It assembled under circumstances such as never before existed since the foundation of the Federal Government; and it may be added, that the peculiarities which marked its deliberations were such as have rarely been exhibited in the proceedings of the national Legislature. A regard was paid, to some extent, to the real purposes for which the members had been summoned to meet ; and wordy speeches for popularity and profit, as well as brutal assaults for supremacy or revenge, were for the time being abandoned. On the 5th of July President Lincoln sent in his message, which was read to both Houses, and became at once the subject of scrutiny and attention. This message was also novel in its character. Unlike Presidential messages in general, it was characterized by brevity, clearness, and prac tical good sense. It went directly to the heart of the great theme which then absorbed and influenced every rnind, It was indeed destitute of the polish of style and the elegance of language which have generally embellished, but have as often obscured or enfeebled, the official addresses of the Chief Magistrate. But every man in the nation could understand it. It possessed the qualities of sagacity and intelligence, which recom mended it to the most cultivated and fastidious. It displayed a vigor of purpose and an earnestness in defence of the Union, which elicited the applause of the most illiterate and obscure. It was precisely the right thing in the right place. It was a faithful response to the convictions and sentiments of every patriot in the community. In this message the President made a requisition upon Congress for four hundred thousand men, and four hundred millions of dollars; in order that, by adopting the most vigorous measures, the most decisive results might at once be attained. One of the first acts of the Speaker of 124 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the House was to appoint the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. That committee, under the existing circumstances, was invested with even more importance than it ordinarily possessed. Upon the ability and industry of its members, and especially of its chairman, the efficiency of the whole body in a great measure depended ; and the Speaker in this instance made a selection which was marked by eminent appropriateness and prudence. No man then occupied a seat in the Federal Congress who was more highly gifted by nature, or possessed greater experience and skill in the management of deliberate bodies, than Thaddeus Stevens ; and upon him this responsible post was wisely conferred, to the exclu sion and the mortification of not a few aspiring politicians, who imagined that their vast abilities and their extraordinary services entitled them to it. Mr. Stevens was one of the most remarkable of a generation of Ameri can statesmen, who have now nearly all passed away. His name and his influence were distinguished in the political history of Pennsylvania for thirty-five years ; and for twenty years he was prominent among our politicians of national reputation. He was a native of Vermont, and was born in 1796. In his early manhood he removed to York, and afterward to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the practice of the law. He quickly become the head of a bar adorned by such men as Judge Reed of Carlisle, Charles B. Penrose, Senator James Cooper, and others of high repute. Being elected to represent his district in the State Legis lature, he there took the first rank among many talented men ; and domineered over both Houses, over the Whig governors, over their Cab inets, and over the affairs of the State generally, during several adminis trations, with an influence which was well nigh absolute. The chief secret of his power and of his success was his superior ability in debate, and his matchless tact in controlling a deliberative assembly. In all the highest arts of a popular and forensic orator, in earnestness and pathos of declamation, in shrewdness and sophistry of reasoning, in scathing severity of sarcasm, in dauntless resolution of temper, in readiness of reply, and in quickness to detect and expose the weak points of an adversary, in all those qualifications Mr. Stevens, when in his prime, had few superiors among the most renowned and accomplished of American orators. In the Federal House of Representatives he always maintained a high rank; although he did not take his seat in it till after he had passed the most vigorous period of his life. His achievements as chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, in the memorable extra session of 1861, formed a noble and appropriate climax to his long career ; and his name will descend to future generations as one of the ablest and most efficient of those coadjutors of the President, who, in that perilous crisis of the nation s history, infused energy, liberality and patriotism into the legisla tive branch of tho government. Though he made no long speeches in IMPORTANT BILLS PASSED BY CONGRESS. 125 the performance of his duties, he accomplished greater things than long speeches could then achieve, by the use of tact, and even by the mainten ance, in some cases, of prudent and significant silence. More than once, when Vallandigham and Burnett the chief representatives of a treason able policy in the House had delivered themselves of impetuous and frothy harangues against the measures proposed by the committee, and briefly advocated by its chairman ; when they had fumed and fretted for an hour, and imagined that they had so effectually badgered the chairman of the committee that he must needs respond, and endeavor to vindicate himself by a speech equally convulsive and equally frantic as their own ; more than once, under such circumstances, and after such a tremendous assault, did Mr. Stevens annihilate all that the adverse orators had uttered, by maintaining an unexpected and contemptuous silence, or, at most by uttering a few words of poisoned and deadly sarcasm. Many able men have served as chairmen of the Congressional Committees of Ways and Means, in many difficult crises of our national history ^ but no one ever acquitted himself with more ability and success than did Mr. Stevens in that position. On the 10th of July a bill was passed, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to borrow, on the credit of the United States, a sum not exceed ing two hundred and fifty millions of dollars ; for which he was author ized to issue certificates of coupon or registered stock, and treasury notes. The stock was to bear interest not exceeding seven per centum per annum, payable semi-annually, and to be irredeemable for twenty years. The treasury notes were to be payable three years after date, with interest at the rate of seven and three-tenths per centum per annum. The faith of the United States was pledged for the payment of the interest, and the redemption of the principal of the loan. This act conferred on the Presi dent the necessary means to carry on the war, and was preliminary to many other important bills which were subsequently passed, and which provided for the continuance of efficient military operations. Two members of the House and one of the Senate particularly disgraced themselves during the entire progress of this session, by their systematic opposition to the patriotic policy of the Government. These were Messrs. Vallandigham of Ohio, and Burnett and Breckinridge of Kentucky. It is difficult to conceive what could have been the real motive of their action, unless it were that perversity which characterizes some minds, and impels them to resist what all other men unanimously approve. It is the unenvi able distinction of these persons that, in this perilous crisis, they exerted themselves to aid the Rebels by obstructing the wheels of legislation, and by the use of every possible expedient by direct opposition, by offering sub Btitutes, by proposing amendments, by calling for the previous question, by moving to lay on the table, and by moving to adjourn by these and other tricks they endeavored to hamper the onward march of the most honorable J26 THE CIVIL WAR IX THE UNITED STATES. measures which were ever^ adopted by any American Congress. They will probably receive their reward ; and by the decision of a just posterity, when the storms and perils of this disastrous time shall have passed away, they will be classed with the Floyds and Davises of the present era, with the Burrs and Arnolds of a former age. It is not necessary here to enumerate all even of the most important of the bills which were passed by Congress during this extraordinary session. It will be sufficient to observe, that every appropriation which the safety and honor of the nation required, was liberally made. Such harmony and unanimity had never before existed in any American Con gress. So far indeed did these qualities prevail, that they led to the occurrence of a phenomenon unknown before in the annals of modern legislation. We read in the history of the Christian Church, of certain harmless and perhaps excusable expedients termed "pious frauds," which were resorted to in different ages and countries, for the purpose of accom plishing results in themselves beneficent and good.* In the present case a measure was adopted which may with equal propriety be termed a patriotic fraud, by which two separate and independent bills were passed, apparently by accident, doubtless by design, which in effect conferred on the President the power to summon a million of men into the field, if he should deem that number necessary for the defence and preservation of the Union. To whom the credit or the blame of this patriotic fraud ought to be attributed, there can be but little doubt ; for in legislative adroitness of this kind, the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means had few superiors. The civil war in Missouri now assumed more tragical features from day to day. The inhabitants of that State were thoroughly divided on the subject of Secession, and the greater ferocity and cruelty which char acterize many of the inhabitants of those outposts of civilization, produced the effect that there the war assumed a more desperate character than it had yet exhibited in any other scene of conflict. Two rival governors claimed the executive authority of the State. Two camps and two armies were gradually collected. The Rebels were commanded by General Clai- borne Jackson, the Federal troops were led by General Nathaniel Lyon ; and it was evident, from the hostile and vigorous spirit which characterized both armies, that a collision between them was imminent. In a republican government such as our own, every man regards himself as a political sovereign, and each one claims the right to interfere in the administration of public affairs. Nor do these individual sovereigns choose to recognize any difference between things military and things civil ; all alike must be subject to their scrutiny and jurisdiction. This disposition was very clearly exhibited in reference to the operations of * Vide Mosheim s Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1, pp. 65, 112 REPULSE OF GENERAL TYLER S DIVISION. 127 what was absurdly termed the "Grand Army," by those whose patriotism was more ardent than their sagacity was penetrating. By this term were meant the Federal troops who were collected at Washington ; and during the early portion of July great impatience was expressed by some leading journals, chiefly in New York, that so powerful an army should be allowed to remain so long in ignoble repose. A general complaint or appeal was made by those journals, that it was high time something decisive should be done, that a battle should be fought, that a victory should be achieved, merely, if for nothing else, to show the Rebels how utterly insignificant they were, and to demonstrate to the world that the Federal Government was omnipotent, and could crush with its finger the whole body of the pre sumptuous foe. It was doubtless in consequence of the impatience of these military tyros, and the pertinacious clamors for a battle with which they persecuted the Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of "War, that orders were at length issued, that on the 17th of July the Grand Army, numbering thirty thousand men, should move forward toward Richmond, under the com mand of General Irwin McDowell. This army, though composed of the best possible raw materials, though brave, though patriotic, though ardently devoted to the cause of the Union, was nevertheless, in the opinion of every man of scientific military attainment, little more than an armed mob ; for it is not possible for any human power to convert the mere citizen into a real soldier by six weeks drilling. The military editors, however, prevailed, and the following dispositions were made: The first division, under General Tyler, forming the right centre, marched toward Vienna. The column of the extreme right, commanded by Colonel Hunter, moved toward Centreville. The left centre column, under the orders of Colenel Miles, proceeded by the Little River turnpike toward Fairfax Court House. The column of the extreme left, led by Colonel Heintzelman, advanced by the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. Previous to this date Fairfax had been occupied by a number of Rebel troops. On the morning of the 17th they abandoned their position with out making any resistance. The Federal forces first entered the town at noon on that day. The Secession flag still waved insultingly from the Court House ; but it quickly gave place to the national colors. The Rebel troops who had retreated from Fairfax were about five thousand in number, and were commanded by General Bonham, who had recently been a member of Congress from South Carolina. On the 18th of July the march of the Federal army was resumed toward Manassas Junction. The fourth brigade of General Tyler s division, commanded by Colonel Richardson, led the advance. General Tyler pushed forward with his staff, and a small escort, to reconnoitre the position of the enemy. When he reached a height opposite to Bull Run, he discovered in a long slope or valley which stretched out before him, 128 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. a number of the Kebel cavalry and infantry moving in the distance. He immediately sent back orders for two twenty pounders to be brought forward. "With these he attacked the enemy, then distant about a mile and a half. This cannonading commenced at half past twelve o clock. Soon the Rebels brought forward a battery of four guns, with which they responded to the Federal artillery. Their shots exhibited such excellent markmanship that it was evident they had taken the range of their guns before. The first body of Federal troops which arrived at the scene was the brigade of Colonel Richardson. He was directed by General Tyler to advance on the right along the outskirts of the forest, for the purpose, if possible, of capturing the enemy s guns. The brigade pro ceeded to execute the order ; but when they approached the spot at which the Rebel guns had been posted, an attack was suddenly made upon them by a strong force of the enemy. These had in reality formed an ambus cade, and they now poured a deadly deluge of rifle shot into the Federal ranks, while concealed in trenches, lying behind embankments, and sheltered by the woods. Soon the field was covered with a dense cloud of smoke, and the Federal troops fought under the immense disadvantage of not knowing the ground, and of being unable to see the foe. Not ex pecting to encounter so fierce and general an attack, our artillery was not provided with sufficient ammunition to maintain a lengthened contest. After the lapse of an hour from the commencement of the engagement, the Federal troops retired. The enemy did not advance from their position, but continued to fire upon the retreating column. The latter brought away with them all their guns. The killed on the Federal side were about sixty, with an equal proportion of wounded. The loss of the enemy is unknown to us. It was probably much less than our own, in consequence of the superior advantages possessed by them, both in position and in numbers. Seven regiments only were engaged on the Federal side. Four times as many troops joined in the action on the part of the Rebels. The effect of this rebuff to our arms was extremely injurious. It gave hope to the Rebels, and depressed the Federals. It was doubt less an imprudent movement to permit a detachment of troops to advance into what might be, and into what actually proved to be, a treacherous and deadly ambuscade ; for they encountered the risk of being over powered by vastly superior numbers. In such a dilemma the bravest will falter, the most valiant fail. And now the critical moment was approaching when a great and memorable conflict was destined to occur. During several months all the martial zeal of the seceding States had been expended in concentmting their military resources at one favorable point, in order that, at that point, they might resist, and if possible hurl back the advancing forces of the Federal Government. The position which they had selected as the scene of this achievement was a spot till then unknown to fame a spot THE TKMl ER OF THE REBEL TROOPS. 129 scarcely marked down on any general map ; but a spot fated thenceforth to be immortal as Manassas Plains. It was admirably adapted by nature to the purpose of defence; and its natural advantages had been increased and improved by the insidious use of every device known to the military art, of which it was capable. The place consists of a succession of hills, nearly equidistant, protected in front by a deep and thickly wooded ravine. It lies half way between the eastern spur of the Blue Ridge on the one hand, and the Potomac river on the other. Its more elevated points command the whole intervening country. The right wing of the intreuchments extended toward the head of the Occoquan, where the thick forest rendered an approach difficult and dangerous. The left oc cupied a rolling table land, interspersed with successive elevations which fully commanded its entire expanse. The centre of the Rebel army was posted precisely upon the key of the whole admirably-chosen position. That position had been as effectively fortified as it had been admi rably chosen. A line of batteries had been erected two miles in extent, whose outline was zigzag in shape, and was strengthened, at the necessary points, with bastions and other structures, with all the skill of a Yauban or a Cohorn. The Rebel camp was abundantly watered by mountain rivulets which murmured through it, on their way to the tranquil bosom of the Potomac. In the rear there lay a fertile country, where wheat, oats, corn, pasture and meadow fields, furnished ample subsistence to the troops. The number of men whom Beauregard had assembled at this point it is impossible for us precisely to state ; but the lowest conjecture, based upon the most reliable evidence within our reach, would make it about forty thousand men. These were composed of an enraged and frantic conglomeration of human beings, chiefly from South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and Virginia; though smaller contingents had been furnished by several other seceding States. They were well provided with artillery and ammunition. The larger portion of their guns had been directly stolen from the United States ; and these the Rebels now purposed to employ against the government which they had defrauded. The energy and ability which General Beauregard had exhibited in collecting, training, and fortifying this army, had inspired them with the utmost confidence in his abilities and in his fortunes. He and his officers had inflamed the passions of their troops to the highest pitch, by all the arts of the demagogue and the soldier. No means had been neglected which might render this formidable host confident of success, contempt uous of their opponents, efficient in combat, and comparatively safe within the shelter of powerful and well constructed batteries. Traitors at Wash ington and elsewhere, had given the enemy timely warning of the approach of the Federal army. They were not, therefore, to be taken by surprise. As the decisive moment approached the last stirring appeal was mada 9 130 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. The Eebels were reminded that the hour of victory, the hour of glory, and the hour of revenge, had at length arrived. Now was the time to slake, in a deluge of Yankee blood, that growing thirst for vengeance which had been accumulating during half a century. Now was the time to demonstrate to the world the immeasurable superiority of the native of the South over the native of the North. And to a deadly combat with such a foe, superior in numbers, in position, and in artillery, the Federal forces marched, little conscious of the real nature of the service before them. GENERAL M C DOWELL S PLAN OF ATTACK. 131 CHAPTER X. THE FEDERAL ARMY AT CENTREVILLE GENERAL MCDOWELL S PLAN OF ATTACK THE DIVIS IONS OF GENERALS TYLER, HUNTER AND HEINTZELMAN THEIR SEVERAL DUTIES THE MARCH FROM CENTREVILLE INTERESTING SPECTACLE GENERAL TYLER FIRST REACHES THE BATTLE-FIELD HE COMMENCES THE ENGAGEMENT MOVEMENTS OF GENERALS HUNTER AND HEINTZELMAN THE GALLANT SIXTY-NINTH NEW YORK THE ENGAGEMENT BECOMES GEN ERAL VIGOROUS CANNONADING THE REBELS GRADUALLY OVERPOWERED THE FEDERALS VICTORIOUS AT MID-DAY REBEL ADMISSIONS TO THAT EFFECT GENERAL JOHNSTON S TROOPS FROM WINCHESTER ARRIVE ON T^E BATTLE-FIELD THEY RHVERSE THE TIDE OP VICTOTCT SUDDEN PANIC IN THE FEDERAL ARMY A GENERAL RETREAT ENSUES INCI DENTS OF THE FLIGHT INDIVIDUAL INSTANCES OF HEROISM RESULTS OF THE BATTLE FAILURE OF THE REBEL COMMANDERS TO IMPROVE THEIR VICTORY ULTIMATE CONSE QUENCES. IT was on Sunday, July 21st, 1861, that the memorable battle of Ma- nassas, the most decisive and desperate which had yet occurred on the American continent, took place. The Federal Army during the preced ing day and night reposed at Centreville, about seven miles distant from the scene of conflict. It was placed under the command of General Irwin McDowell an officer who had received a military education at West Point, had distinguished himself during the Mexican war, had been rapidly promoted from rank to rank, had invariably conducted himself with gal lantry and heroism, and who was worthy of the important trust which was on this occasion conferred upon him. The plan of attack which this officer devised, and purposed to execute, was, in the opinion of those most competent to judge, an admirable one. The army was separated into three divisions, which were ordered to ad vance to the position of the enemy by three routes. Two of these move ments were to be genuine assaults ; the third was to be a feint for the purpose of distracting the attention of the foe. The division of General Tyler was directed to march forward by the "Warrington road, and to cross Bull Run a mile and a half to the right. This division comprised the first and second Ohio, and the second New York regiments under General Schenck; the sixty-ninth, seventy-ninth, and thirteenth of New York, with the second Wisconsin regiments. Three efficient batteries those of Carlisle, Ayres, and Rickett accompanied them. The second road was taken by General Hunter, on the extreme right, who commanded the eighth and fourteenth New York regiments, a battalion of the second, third and eighth regular infantry, a number of artillery, the first and second Ohio, the seventy-first New York, two New Hampshire regiments, and the powerful Rhode Island battery. The third route was to be taken by the division of General Heintzelman, comprising the fourth and fifth 132 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Massachusetts and the first Minnesota regiments, the second, fourth and fifth Maine, and the second Vermont regiments, supported by cavalry and artillery. General Hunter s orders were to pass a small stream called Cub Eun ; to turn to the right, then to the north, to pass the upper ford of Bull Eun ; then, marching southward, to attack the enemy in the rear. General Heintzelman was directed to cross Bull Eun at the lower ford, and there attack the Eebels when they were being driven before the advancing lines of Hunter. The reserve, under Colonel Miles, was posted at Centreville, numbering six thousand men. The actual number of troops who marched to the attack of the Eebels at Manassas was about twenty- three thousand. The duty assigned to Hunter and to lleintzelman was to drive the enemy from the right and from the rear upon the force of General Tyler on the left; so that, hemmed in between the three bodies, their defeat might be more certainly and efficiently accomplished. General McDowell had at first intended to commence the march from Centreville on Saturday afternoon, July 20th, and orders had actually been given to that effect. But it was discovered at the moment of start ing, that a deficiency of heavy ammunition existed, and that a large supply must first be obtained from Fairfax. This process rendered a short delay necessary, and then it was determined to postpone the advance until the following day. Accordingly, at half-past two o clock on Sunday morning, the command was given to strike the tents and to commence the march. Soon the vast multitude began to move forward. The scene which was then presented to the view of an observer was one of imposing magnifi cence, and of solemn, martial splendor. The rnoon shone brightly and serenely in the distant heavens, which were spangled with myriads of sparkling gems ; while the immense assemblage of human beings, swarm ing over many a hill and vale, hurried forward with eager tread toward the field of blood. The mellow light of the dim luminaries served only to add the charm of a mystic and mysterious grandeur to the spectacle. The solemn silence of the Sabbath morn was broken by the rumbling sound of the artillery, by the confused tread of horses and of men, inter mingled with the occasional echo of the stern word of command, or the gladsome voices of laughter and song. General McDowell and his staff accompanied the central column of General Tyler s command. At length the clearer light of the early dawn spread over the face of the earth. Then, after a short interval, the sun appeared in full effulgence in the rosy east; and as he commenced to mount the azure heavens, the head of General Tyler s column reached the eminence, from which the first distant view of the position of the enemy could be obtained. Seldom had a fairer, calmer, or lovelier scene been presented to the charmed eye of the enthusiastic admirer of nature, than that which the wide sweep of country before them exhibited, soon to be torn and riven by the impetu ous rush of infantry and cavalry, by the terrific discharges of the artillery GENERAL TYLER COMMENCES THE ENGAGEMENT. 133 soon to be covered with human gore, and with the bleeding bodies of the dying and the dead. There is nothing more difficult in the whole range of historical inquiry than the attempt to describe a great battle with perfect accuracy and truthfulness. It is easy to imagine or exaggerate a series of thrilling events, and to embellish a narrative with highly-colored pictures, which may interest, excite, and sometimes even appall the reader. But that process will merely produce a work of imagination ; it will not elaborate a scene of historic verity. And if it be perplexing to an observer who has been an actual witness of a great engagement to furnish any thing like a reliable descriptive coup d oeil of the whole conflict, extending over an area of five, and in some cases of ten miles as it undoubtedly is how much more difficult must his task be, who attempts to extract from the conflicting and diversified statements of others, the material of a pen- picture of his own? The more he studies, scrutinizes, and compares the various narratives and versions which others give, all equally confident and equally sincere, the more he will detect the contradictions and incon gruities which exist between them ; and he will be at a loss to know how to act as arbiter, what to credit and what to reject. In such a dilemma his highest aim must be to approximate as near the truth as he possibly can. It was half-past five o clock in the morning when the head of General Tyler s division reached a position favorable for commencing the attack. The enemy could be seen from that position busily forming their lines about a mile in front. Skirmishers were immediately thrown forward, who soon encountered the Rebel pickets and exchanged shots with them. A ponderous thirty pound Parrott rifled cannon was then advanced upon the road, and a number of shells were thrown into their ranks. To this salute they made no reply, and General Tyler ordered his division to move for ward, so as to be in nearer contact with the enemy, who seemed to have concealed the principal portion of their numbers behind the woods and the rolling hills. They had, in fact, taken their position, in great part, in the forest on the right and left, and had posted their artillery and masked their guns behind the groves which were scattered over the inter vening country. The second Ohio and second New York regiments were then ordered by General Tyler to advance and attack the enemy in their concealed position. They obeyed, and soon the response of the guns of the Rebels demonstrated the fact that they had posted themselves in such a manner as to entice our men forward, that they might be more completely within the range of their batteries. So heavy an attack of artillery was now opened upon them from cannon which were almost invisible, and which seemed to pour forth a deadly deluge from fiery mouths opening upon the very surface of the earth, that General Schenck at length gave the 134 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. order to retire from the unequal contest. But at the same moment Car lisle s battery was ordered forward to respond to the masked artillery. His great guns replied with terrible effect. In half an hour the concealed cannon of the foe at this point were completely silenced. While these events were progressing in the front of the enemy s main position, the divisions of Hunter and of Heintzelrnan were operating on the extreme right, so as to reach the flank and the rear of the Kebels. The circuit, which they made was an extensive one of some miles ; the march was difficult, and it was half-past ten before they reached the presence of the enemy. The latter were posted in a strong position beyond Sudley Springs. General Hunter at once attacked them with the fourteenth New York, the Rhode Island regiment commanded by Burnside, the second New Hampshire and the New York seventy -first. As these troops advanced the enemy poured upon them a destructive deluge of shot and shell ; but they continued to advance with firmness and unflinching heroism. This was the northern extremity of the battle ground, and some of the fiercest fighting of that bloody day took place in this part of the engagement. The gallant sixty-ninth rushed forward to the encounter with yells of mingled fury and exultation. They formed the van of a column which General Tyler had sent forward to co-operate with Hunter s division in surrounding the foe ; and they fell upon the Kebels with that combination of gallantry and ferocity which have characterized the Irish soldier in every country on the globe. These various operations were but preliminary to the grand and chief contest of the day. The cannonading between the two armies now became general. All the guns of the enemy were by this time brought into play, and nearly all the Federal forces, except the reserves, had come into action. The battle-field, the range of the artillery, and the various opera tions of the assailants and defendants, extended over an area of about five miles. The discharges of artillery were very numerous ; the reverbera tion was deafening ; the energy, the intensity, and the effect of the combat were terrible. The sullen sound of the guns was heard at Centreville, at Fairfax, at Alexandria; it was even perceptible at Washington. The widely-spread and still-extending conflict over the hills, the valleys and the ravines of Manassas, was now enveloped in countless up -rolling volumes of smoke ; and only at intervals, by the friendly aid of fitful eddies of the wind, could a glimpse be obtained of the exact position and operations of the combatants. Thus far, however, it was evident that all had gone well with the Federal arms. Hunter had succeeded in turning the flank of the enemy, and masses of fugitive Mississippians, retreaufcg before his advancing columns, gave evidence that the tide of victory was his. But as the Federal troops pressed forward in pursuit, new batteries, till then concealed in the rear, opened their deadly mouths upon them, hurling death into their serried ranks. The foe here fought with the THE FEDERALS VICTORIOUS AT MID-DAY. 135 utmost desperation. Occasionally a furious charge from their retiring columns would recover for a moment the lost advantage ; but it would be only to suffer in return a new reverse, and to commence a new retreat. Then again fresh batteries, skilfully masked, would open upon the advancing victors, indicting upon them additional penalties for their success. But the general sweep of the contest here was favorable to the Federal army. Hunter and Heintzelman were successively progressing toward a junction with Tyler, and the arc of a grand and overwhelming circle of destruction and defeat was being inexorably drawn around the Rebel host. And now cheer after cheer rose upon the air, which were wafted by the breeze over the field, from one portion of the exultant and victorious troops to another. At half-past twelve, it may with truth be asserted that, in all essential respects, a decisive triumph had been gained by the Federal arms. Hunter and Heintzelman had penetrated far into the position of the enemy. On the heights toward the enemy s left, regiment after regiment of the foe had been driven in by the heroic charges of our troops. Fresh regiments could be discovered by the distant observer, hastening up to the support of those which were wavering ; and then, after a desperate combat, the whole defeated mass could be seen to recoil, and to plunge into a promiscuous retreat. The Federals made such impetuous assaults^ that the personal presence and frantic efforts of Beauregard himself could not resist them. Whole regiments of the Eebels were here cut to pieces, and the torn and scattered fragments were hurled back in fearful panic and disorder. But still, such was the marvelous ability with which that commander had fortified his position, that fresh triumphs and fresh pur suits on the part of the Federal troops only conducted them into the jaws of additional batteries, which had been posted and concealed in endless succession, up to the very centre of his position at Manassas ; so that it seemed as if satanic skill and malignity had contrived an inevitable ruin for the victors. Notwithstanding all this, the deadly toils were gradually drawing closer around the foe. His desperate efforts were becoming more and more impotent. He had abandoned all his breastworks, in this portion of the field, except one ; and even this was stormed later in the day by several regiments, which were the last to abandon the contest and join in the retreat. At one o clock on this memorable day the Rebel host at Manassas, in spite of all their advantages of position and of numbers were virtually defeated. This may be proved even by their own concessions. Thus, the special correspondent of the Louisville Courier declared, in a communication to that paper, after stating that General Tyler s attack on the centre of the Rebel position was not discovered to be a mere feint until almost too late, that reinforcements were then sent to the troops who were resisting the attack of Hunter and Heintzelman. From that part of the field he 136 1HE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. confessed that they had "been driven back some two miles." He added . " Now came the tug of war. The fortunes of the day were evidently against us. SOT.L ^i our best officers were slain, and the flower of our army lay strewn on the field, ghastly in death or gaping with wounds. At noon the cannonading is described as terrific. It was an incessant roar for more than two hours, the havoc and devastation at this time being fearful. McDowell was just in the act of possessing himself of the railway to Richmond. Then all would have been lost. But most oppor tunely, I may say providentially, at this juncture General Johnston with the remnant of his division re-appeared and made one other desperate struggle to obtain the vantage ground." A similar concession was subsequently made by the correspondent of the Charleston Mercury, who, when describing the death of General Bee, the commander of the South Carolinians on this day, said : " The brunt of the morning s battle was sustained by his (Bee s) command until past twelve o clock. Overwhelmed by superior numbers, and com pelled to yield to a fire that swept every thing before it, General Bee rode up and down his lines, encouraging his troops by every thing that was dear to them, to stand up and repel the tide which threatened them with destruction. At last his own brigade dwindled to a mere handful, with every field officer killed or disabled he rode up to General Jackson and said : General, they are beating us back ! " To this testimony we may add the admissions of the Eichmond Dis patch. The correspondent of that paper wrote as follows : u Between two and three o clock large numbers of men were leaving the field, some of them wounded, others exhausted by the long struggle, who gave us gloomy reports ; but as the fire on both sides continued steadily, we felt sure that our brave Southerners had not been conquered by the over whelming hordes of the North. It is, however, due to truth to say, that the result of this hour hung trembling in the balance. We had lost numbers of our most distinguished officers. Generals Bartow and Bee had been stricken down ; Colonel Johnston, of the Hampton Legion, had been killed, and Colonel Hampton had been wounded. Your correspon dent heard General Johnston say to General Cocke, just at this critical moment, Oh, for four regiments ! His wish was answered, for in the distance our reinforcements appeared. The tide of battle turned in our favor by the arrival of General Kirby Smith, from Winchester, with four thousand of General Johnston s division." It is perfectly evident from such statements, of the highest authority, as well as from the position of affairs on the scene of conflict, that previ ous to the arrival of Johnston s army on the field the strength of the ^Rebels was broken, and that victory had been legitimately earned by the Federal arms. At this crisis the fire of the enemy had become languid. All over the ensanguined hills and plains their remaining guns responded THE REBEL GENERAL JOHNSTON S TROOPS. 137 elowly and feebly. At two o clock the foe seemed extremely disheartened and confused. Three times had they been dislodged from a locality known as " a hill with a house on it," which was one of the strongest positions on the field. At that point the enemy was commanded by General Beauregard in person ; and his troops had been driven a mile and a half from the fiercely contested point, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of that able commander. This discomfiture, which had been accomplished by the regiments under Heintzelman, added still more to the desperate nature of the situation of the Eebels. And yet, after all this heroism and this success, when victory seemed inevitable to the Federal arms, when the exhausted host of the Rebel chiefs appeared to be in extremis, the final issue was completely reversed, and one of the most disgraceful retreats which is inscribed on the historic page, ensued. How was this unexpected and wonderful catastrophe produced ? It was about three o clock when large bodies of troops were observed by the Federal commanders, darkening the hill-tops in the farthest dis tance opposite the centre of the battle-field. Soon they were seen hasten ing to join in the conflict ; and their secession banners waving in the breeze, and the freshness and vigor of their movements, clearly proved that they were reinforcements, which had .endured nothing of the heat, the exhaustion, or the agony of the long struggle. They were in fact a portion of the army of General Johnston ; who, having made good their escape from Winchester, had arrived by railroad at the Junction, and were now hastening to the field to rescue the cause of the Rebels from de struction. This terrible apparition at such a time and in such a juncture, might well have appalled the stoutest heart ; yet, at the moment of its occurrence no thought of flight existed, and additional troops were ordered forward to confront the advancing masses. Among these were three Connecticut regiments, the fourth of Maine and the first Tyler Brigade. Notwithstanding the prodigious exertions which these Federal troops had already made during the protracted contest, they approached their new foes with the utmost heroism. A terrible onslaught ensued between them. One battery was eight times taken and eight times lost. Mean while fresh accessions to the Rebel forces were arriving in successive trains. They deployed upon the field, and were gradually and stealthily winding themselves around the left of the Federal army, with the evident purpose of surrounding them and cutting off their retreat. Nevertheless, an hour of the most desperate fighting ensued, during which prodigies of valor were performed by our exhausted troops. Still, however, the deluge of fresh reinforcements to the enemy continued to pour down upon the field. The left of the Federal army was slowly becoming surrounded and their rear attained. The fresh troops of the Rebels rushed upon their opponents in successive tides with sanguinary fury. One regiment of Mississippians, armed with immense bowie knives, fell upon them with 138 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the yells of maniacs and the ferocity of fiends. Then it was that, for the first time during the long and desperate conflict, our troops began to exhibit confusion and dismay, and the first indication of a panic com menced to appear. A vast body of Kebel cavalry now came pouring out of the woods upon our left, attacked the troops which happened to be near them, and assailed a multitude of unarmed teamsters, who, without any orders to that effect, had moved their wagons forward with the gen- eral advance. The fatal panic which had arisen now spread rapidly from regiment to regiment. Masses of men, in the utmost disorder, rushed down from the distant hills in full retreat. The flight became general, and then ensued that marvelous and ignominious stampede from Manassas to Washington, which will forever remain one of the chief wonders and scandals of American history. No reasonable person will condemn the Federal troops at Manassas for not maintaining the advantage they had gained, or even for retreating. A complete defeat, under such circumstances, was excusable. The crime which cannot be palliated or forgiven is, that the flight should have been continued so long and so far ; that such extreme disorder and frantic fear, such groundless despair and such excesses of weakness, so total an oblivion of all shame, and such a disregard of the dignity of manhood, should have characterized the conduct of men who had exhibited such admirable hero ism and endurance so shortly before. Kegiment after regiment now came rushing along the road and over the fields toward Centreville. But soon all distinctions of regiments and t companies, of infantry, cavalry and artillery, were lost. The confusion of Babel was synthetic order and perfect symmetry when compared with the chaotic confusion which now prevailed. Many of the men threw away their arms and knapsacks, lest they might be impeded in their escape. The heavy guns were abandoned, the traces cut, and the horses, covered with fugitives clinging to them on all sides, were spurred forward in the flight. Soon the passage became choked with private conveyances, with terrified civilians, with broken gun carriages, all tumbling and crashing against each other. Wounded horses plunged to and fro in the midst of the demented mass of human beings. Many were crushed to death. Many threw themselves upon the earth, being either wounded or exhausted, and unable to continue their flight. A few officers, indeed, endeavored to stem the tide and stop the panic, but their efforts were utterly fruitless. Thus the tumultuous sweep of fugitive wretches contin ued to roll onward without the least pause or abatement, until they reached Centreville. There the presence of the reserve under Colonel Miles, and especially Blenker s brigade, tended to diminish the disorder to some extent. But this effect was only .partial. The great mass continued to hurry for ward to Fairfax, to Alexandria, and even to Washington, where they arrived during the ensuing night and day. Our dead and wounded were THE RESULTS OF THE BATTLE. 139 left on the battle-field. Much heavier losses of artillery and ammunition occurred during the flight than during the engagement. No officer eminent for ability on the Federal side had fallen. The loss of the Rebel army in this particular was much greater than that of their opponents. The only pursuit attempted by the victorious and astonished enemy was made with their cavalry, and the assaults of these were effectually ter minated at Centreville by the vigorous charges and deadly aim of Blenker s rifle brigade. That officer even recovered some of the guns which had been abandoned during the flight. Thus ended the battle, the defeat, and the rout of Manassas. At first the loss on the Federal side was supposed to be much greater than actu ally proved to be the case ; as was subsequently demonstrated by the official return made by General McDowell to the government. Accord ing to that return, the Federal army lost four hundred and eighty -one killed, one thousand and eleven wounded, twelve hundred and sixteen missing. The missing included the prisoners taken by the enemy, and those who, having escaped from the slaughter, never returned to the ser vice. The number of artillery lost was seventeen rifled cannon, eight small-bore guns, twenty-five hundred muskets, and thirty boxes of old firearms. But, though the Rebels had obtained a victory, there never was an instance in which conquerors more signally failed to improve their advantages. One of the highest arts of a military commander, is that of following up effectually the opportunities which the favor of fortune may have bestowed upon him ; and more ability has been displayed by some generals in the skill with which they turned a triumph to good account, than they exhibited in gaining it. Many other generals have shown higher genius in the success with which they have averted the consequences of a defeat, than their successful opponents exhibited in gaining the victory. In the present case it proved almost a barren triumph on the one side, and nearly a harmless repulse on the other. The Rebels might, in the midst of that overwhelming and preposterous panic, have marched upon "Washington, entered it, dispersed or captured the officers of the Federal Government, and thus have struck a blow as deadly and decisive as that which Hannibal might have inflicted, if, immediately after the terrible slaughter of Cannae, he had thundered with his legions at the gates of Rome, and had taken possession of the Eternal City. But, like Hannibal, Beauregard failed to improve the propitious moment; and, that moment, being once lost in the vicissitudes of nations, it never returns again. 140 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTEK XI. THE IMPRESSION PRODUCED ON THE PUBLIC BY THE BATTLE OF MANASSAS VARIOUS CAUSES OF THE FEDERAL DEFEAT THE PRECEDING MARCH INFERIORITY OF NUMBERS EFFEC1 OF MASKED BATTERIES INCOMPETENT OR INEXPERIENCED OFFICERS REMOTE POSITION OF THE RESERVES PERNICIOUS PRESENCE OF SPECTATORS THE COUP-DE-GRACE ARRI VAL OF GENERAL JOHNSTON S TROOPS ON THE FIELD IMMENSE LOSSES OF THE REBEL ARMY WAS THE DEFEAT IN REALITY A MISFORTUNE TO THE UNION ITS IMMEDIATE EFFECTS ITS INFLUENCE ON THE ARMY ITS INFLUENCE ON THE ADMINISTRATION IT BECAME THE MEANS OF AVERTING GREATER CALAMITIES IT WAS THE CAUSE OF SUBSE QUENT SUCCESSES TO THE FEDERAL FORCES. THE defeat of the Federal arms at Manassas overwhelmed the nation with astonishment, indignation and shame. They were astonished, because such a catastrophe was previously considered as beyond the range of possibility. They were indignant, because they regarded it as the result of inexcusable neglect, incapacity and cowardice. They were mortified, because victory had graced the arms of an enemy whom they despised and execrated. Various theories were subsequently offered to account for the occurrence of this disaster. At the present time, when the excitement and confusion of the crisis have passed away, and men may scrutinize events calmly and dispassionately, it is evident that the causes of it can be easily indicated j so, clearly indeed, as to show that a contrary result must have been almost impossible. A number of adverse events conspired to produce the defeat of the Federal army, though some of these were more important and more potent than others. In the first place, it was evidently imprudent to exhaust the physical energies of the Federal troops, by marching them from two o clock in the morning, immediately before engaging the enemy. The physical powers of men have their limits of endurance ; and when we remember that the battle continued to rage during the whole day, from sunrise almost until sunset, it is not singular that, toward the termina tion of the struggle, the strength of the troops should have become ex hausted. Nor did the Federal commanders gain any thing on the score of secresy, by thus postponing the march until the day of the battle ; for the enemy were amply forewarned of their approach when they lay at Centreville. It is evident also that the number of Federal troops was too small, and was inadequate to the difficult service of assailing and taking Manassas. Not much more than twenty thousand men took part in the engagement ; and against these twenty thousand there were arrayed, in the end, nearly forty thousand; who, in addition to their superiority in numbers, possessed also an important advantage in being familiar with the ground, in being INCOMPETENT OR INEXPERIENCED OFFICERS. HI fresh to the encounter, and in being intrenched behind powerful batteries. The peculiar manner in which these batteries had been arranged contrib uted greatly to the Federal defeat. The guns of the enemy, in thia instance, were placed at irregular and zigzag points, in endless retrocession; so that as soon as the troops which served one of their batteries had been overpowered, and were compelled to give way, they merely fell back upon other guns served by fresh men, who received the advancing victors with a fresh volley of shot and shell. The Federal troops took many of these batteries seriatim; they drove the Rebels for more than a mile from battery to battery ; and yet they still encountered other guns, which were worked with an energy and effect equal to the first. The peculiar manner in which these batteries were hidden added to their formidableness. They were so masked and concealed, either by brushwood or by being planted in holes dug in the ground, with their muzzles only protruding above the surface of the earth, that they were invisible to the assailants, and were thereby rendered more deadly. It must also be admitted that, though the men fought bravely, many of the subaltern officers were utterly incompetant to perform their duties. There were many majors, colonels, lieutenants, and other officers who had never received any military training, who possessed no military knowledge or experience, and who were useless on the battle-field. Nor will this appear singular when we remember that many of the officers were mere civilians, whose patriotism or ambition had urged them to enter the career of arms, and who had been able to obtain military rank, without possessing a particle of military skill. It is not possible for such men, however intelligent they may be, to acquire a competent knowledge of military affairs by six weeks drilling. What little they may have been able to learn during that interval would be of small service in the midst of the fearful excitement and confusion of an actual battle. The drill-room is a very different arena from the tumultuous field of strife and blood. A scientific military training is just as indispensable to the officer on land, as it is to the officer at sea. Naval tactics are not more intricate and difficult than those of the land service. Let us suppose that a British fleet of a hundred sail suddenly menaced the Atlantic coast ; that an American fleet of equal strength was sent to attack them ; and that this fleet was for the most part commanded and officered by men who had never before sailed upon the deep, much less had charge of a vessel, and had only six weeks experience in studying the details of naval architecture, service and warfare. It is clear that the sailors might be brave, the ship might be staunch, the artillery might be powerful, the officers might be personally heroic; but that such a fleet, in the face of a veteran British armament, would be battered to pieces, and the wrecks of our vessels would soon be scattered far and wide over the ocean and the strand. It must be thus with any land force officered by lawyers, 142 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. merchants and other civilians, who, in a moment of danger, take com rnands in it. So incompetent were some of these officers, that it is certain that many of the orders of General McDowell were never delivered to those to whom they were sent ; and thus fatal errors were committed, against the express precautions of the chief officer. It is probable that the position of the reserve under Colonel Miles was much too far in the rear, to be of actual service in the crisis of the battle. Seven miles is manifestly too great a distance to intervene between the main body of an army, and the reinforcements which must be used in the last extremity. If, when the troops of Johnston deployed upon the field, the regiments stationed at Centreville could have marched against them and checked their advance, the issue of the day might have been different. The field was also encumbered by a host of spectators and visitors, whose presence was most pernicious. If all went well, their shouts would indeed rend the heavens and cheer the victors. But if any disaster occurred, they would be the first to set the example of cowardice, and their flight would inevitably become contagious with troops who had already been disheartened by the duration and difficulty of the struggle. Such actually proved to be the result at Manassas. Prominent in that vast and tumultuous torrent of retreating men were to be seen terrified and frantic civilians ; and among the many who, on that day, fled in hot haste, they led the van, and kept it. It is clear also that many minor blunders were committed which served to consummate the disaster. The unarmed teamsters were permitted to advance with their wagons too near the enemy, and within the range of their attack. The Federal army was not sufficiently provided with cavalry to pursue the retreating foe. Proper care was not taken, when batteries had been captured, to secure possession of them, and turn them upon the Kebels. The left flank and the rear of the Federal army were not suitably guarded against attack. An order to fall back a short distance was mistaken for a general order to retreat. To this must be added the desperate courage of the Kebel troops, the skill and bravery of the Kebel commanders, and the immense advantages of their position. Nevertheless, all these causes combined together would have not in flicted the repulse at Manassas, had it not been for another and still more potent cause. It would have been a victory to the Federal arms, or at least a drawn battle, had not the troops of General Johnston arrived by railway from Winchester, and deployed upon the field precisely at the critical moment. That calamity turned the scale with decisive and re sistless effect. The prodigious influence produced by the sudden accession of fresh troops on the battle-field, to one side or to the other, after a long and obstinate struggle, has been illustrated by the issue of many of the most memorable conflicts of modern times. Thus the great battle of Wagram was lost by the Austrians, after they had in effect wrested the IMMENSE LOSSES OF THE REBEL ARMS . 143 victory from Napoleon by prodigies of valor, because the Archduke John did not reach the field with his reinforcement of eighteen thousand troops, as he had been expressly ordered to do ; which accession would have completely broken the exhausted lines of the French. It is well known that at Waterloo, the issue of the day depended entirely upon tb3 fact whether Blucher would arrive with his Prussians to reinforce the English, or Grouchy would arrive with his division to reinforce Napoleon. Bliicher rushed upon the field when Wellington was almost frantic with despair, and thereby changed the fortunes of the world. Thus also at the battle of Inkermann, forty thousand Russians attacked fifteen thousand British troops. After a protracted and desperate conflict the latter were about to break, when the arrival of a large French force under General Bosquet decided the issue of the engagement. It was precisely thus with the battle of Manassas. The accession of Johnston s regiments turned the scale, and wrested the triumph from the wearied hands of the exhausted victors. By whose fault it was that Johnston was permitted to make good his hurried march to Manassas, we are not prepared to say. It was expected that the junction would be prevented by the division under General Robert Patterson ; but whether the force under his command was suffi ciently large to enable him to achieve that result, it is not for us to deter mine. General McDowell, however, asserted in his official report of the battle, that it was expressly understood when he assumed the command of the army marching against Manassas, that he was not to encounter the troops of Johnston ; and that declaration, thus boldly and publicly made, was never contradicted. If, therefore, the force under Patterson was not sufficiently numerous to intercept Johnston, it was a measure of indispen sable importance that it should have been rendered such, before the advance of McDowell toward Manassas was commenced. It was natural that the Rebels should exult with frantic joy, and with boundless exaggeration, over their unexpected victory. The reports which were di.fTu.sed throughout the Southern States in reference to it exceeded any thing ever exhibited before in the art of misrepresentation. It was confidently asserted that the Federal army had been composed of a hundred thousand men; that twenty thousand had been slain and wounded ; that thirty thousand handcuffs had been taken, with which the Federals intended to manacle the defeated Confederates ; that sixty pieces of artillery had been captured, with an innumerable number of knapsacks, and with provisions enough to support the Confederate army for months. The result of these fabrications was, that the whole South became still more enthusiastic for the war ; and many who, till then, had been reluctant to enter the struggle, now rushed forward, enlisted, and commenced with martial ardor to swarm northward toward Richmond. Soon, however, this general exultation began to give place to sadder 144 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES, and more sober thoughts, when the details of the losses of the Eebels at Manassas began to be known throughout the South. Then it was that they discovered at what an enormous price their victory had been bought ; and like Pyrrhus of old, after vanquishing the Romans, they might exclaim, that another such triumph would complete their ruin. The Eebels had lost many of their best officers. They made great exertions to conceal the precise number of their dead and wounded ; so much so that even southern journals complained that the relatives of the soliders who fought at Ma nassas, could obtain no information as to whether they were living or dead. Every thing was concealed on that subject for a long time. The reason was, that a knowledge of the real facts would have appalled. and disheartened the people by the horrid details involved in them. But such secresy could not always be preserved ; and at length certain revelations began to leak out, which opened the eyes of men as to the actual state of the case. Thus, among other instances, the Eichmond Dispatch, when applauding the heroism of the eighth Georgia regiment, declared that " at length they withdrew from the fight. Their final rally was made with some sixty men out of the six hundred they took in." This regiment, thus almost annihilated, was succeeded by the seventh Georgia regiment, who actually met the same fate, their commanding officer, Colonel Barton, being killed. One Louisiana regiment lost three hundred men out of eight hundred. The Hampton Legion and an Alabama regiment were almost totally destroyed by the terrible charges of the New York sixty-ninth and seventy-ninth. Single facts like these demonstrate how terrific and over whelming the grand total loss must have been on the Eebel side. It was manifestly much greater than the Federal Joss ; and it is not improable that five or six thousand in killed and wounded were the number of the enemy placed hors du combat. In view of indisputable facts like these, it could scarcely be affirmed that the result of this engagement was very advantageous to the cause of the Eebel Government ; while on the other hand, it may with truth be asserted, that under the outward and forbidding guise of a reverse, the general result of the catastrophe at Manassas was propitious to the interests of the Federal Union. This declaration, which seems very like a paradox or an absurdity, we believe to be strictly true ; and we will briefly state the grounds of this opinion. As adversity is often the wisest and best school for the individual learner, so also is it often the wisest and best school for the national learner. Especially in military affairs, a few disasters at the commencement of a war produce a beneficial effect. Many celebrated commanders began their careers with serious defeats, and by those very defeats were taught how afterward to triumph more gloriously. Frederic the Great, to whom reference has already been made, confessed that the first clear insight which he obtained into the military art, was when he was compelled by Charles of Lorraine to retreat with heavy losses from ITS INFLUENCE ON THE ADMINISTRATION. 145 Silesia, at an early stage of the Seven Years War ; yet Frederic subse quently became the greatest general of his age. William of Orange, afterward king of England, acquired more millitary skill from his defeats by the Prince de Conde* than by all his other studies and experiences combined. The Emperor Charles V. of Germany, who agitated Europe during many years by his contests with the chivalrous Francis L, gener ally commenced his campaigns against that monarch with disasters, but invariably closed them with supremacy and triumph. Now it is well known that the American people began the war against Secession with an undue contempt of the resources and the prowess of the Eebels. No proper conception was entertained of the difficulty and intensity of the struggle which was about to commence. It was generally believed that the southern soldiers would not fight ; that they possessed no powers of physical endurance ; that they were enervated by drunken ness and debauchery ; that their conquest would be an easy and rapid achievement. All these were gross and fatal delusions; but the result of their prevalence was, that a spirit of extreme carelessness and frivolity pervaded the Federal army. A reckless temper characterized the public journals. The march to Richmond was to be a grand and exciting hunt for Rebels; and the most rare and excellent sport would be the entertain ment of those who took part in the chase, and of those who accompanied it as spectators. With this hilarious spirit the army marched gaily forth toward Manassas. Inexcusable neglect characterized every thing con nected with their advance. Their numbers were deficient ; their ammuni tion was not properly supplied; the men had received but little drilling; and some of the officers, it was charged, were on this occasion intoxicated. Let us suppose that this army had been successful at Manassas ; and that, after a short and perhaps a feigned resistance, the Rebel forces had retreated toward Richmond. Elated with the easily-earned victory, en tertaining still more contemptuous and absurd sentiments respecting the prowess of the enemy, our troops would have become more reckless and imprudent than before. As they advanced further into the bowels of the hostile country, the dangers which surrounded them would become much greater. Then, at length, when a facile and safe retreat to the entrenchments at Washington would be rendered impossible, even by a Bull Run race; when the army of the Rebels had been increased to three times the number it contained at Manassas ; when our officers and soldiers were regardless of prudence and vigilance, another attack would be made upon them. Is it not perfectly evident that the probability, the certainty even, is, that in that dreadful and unequal onslaught scarcely a single man would have escaped, and that a calamity far greater than that at Manassas would have ensued to the Federal army, to the nation s honor, and to the cause of the Union ? But the effect produced upon the Federal troops by the check at Ma- 10 146 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. nassas was instantaneous and redeeming. Their eyes were at once opened to the terrific depth of that abyss toward which they had been madly rushing. They acquired more valuable information by one day of defeat than they would have attained by ten days of victory. The blow brought them to their senses, and sobered them at once. How soon was a new spirit infused into the service ! How quickly did the most rigid dicipline, the most careful precautions, the most extensive and systematic preparations, take the place of the previous neglect, laxity and bravado ! Every de partment of the army underwent a thorough reformation; and soon there was assembled, under the national colors, a well drilled, well appointed, formidable force of several hundred thousand men. But nothing of this would have existed, had not the defeat at Mauassas taught the nation and the government wisdom. Therefore, we repeat, that that defeat was in reality not a misfortune, but a benefit to the Federal arms, and to the interests of the Union. EVENTS IN MISSOURI. 147 CHAPTER XII. INCREASED ENERGY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EVENTS IN MISSOURI IMPORTANT BATTLE AT CARTHAGE RETROGRADE MOVEMENT OF GENERAL LYON TO SPRINGFIELD PURSUIT OF THE REBELS UNDER GENERALS MCCULLOCH AND PRICE CONDITION OP THEIR ARMY REASONS WHY GENERAL LYON ENGAGED THE ENEMY THE GREAT BATTLK OF WILSON S CREEK DISPOSITION OF THE FEDERAL FORCES TEMPORARY SUCCESS OF THE REBELS INCIDENTS OF THE CONTEST HEROISM OF GENERAL LYON HIS LAST EFFORT AGAINST THE ENEMY ITS SUCCESS GENERAL LYON S DEATH DISCOMFITURE OF 1 COLONEL SIGEL RESULTS OF THE BATTLE SKETCH OF GENERAL LYON HIS RARE MERITS GENERAL FREMONT MADE COMMANDANT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MISSOURI HIS POLICY AND MEASURES HIS ANTI-SLAVERY PROCLAMATION IT IS MODIFIED BY PRESIDENT LINCOLN THE WAR AGAINST SECESSION NOT A WAR AGAINST SLAVERY. IMMEDIATELY after the battle of Manassas, the Federal Government was busily employed in making every possible preparation to defend Wash ington against an apprehended attack from the Rebel forces. The loyal States were called upon to send large masses of troops without delay to the Federal capital. This requisition was speedily and heartily complied with ; and in the course of a few weeks, as we have stated, several hundred thousand armed men rallied around the seat of government. At the same time, various other measures, required by the peculiar exigencies of the occasion, were adopted. General McClellan was summoned from Western Virginia to Washington; other officers of merit, including Fremont, Wool, Banks and Lyon, were promoted to positions of importance ; and soon the administration of Mr. Lincoln, which seemed by one deadly blow to have been brought to the very verge of ruin, presented to the enemy a front much more formidable and defiant than that which it had exhibited before the battle of Manassas. No military operations of any importance were destined to occur in that vicinity for several months but ; hostilities were carried on with great vigor in the southwestern department of the Republic. We have already described the process by which the State of Missouri became the scene of conflict between two hostile parties which had arisen within its borders ; and how its inhabitants had become much divided on the subject of their allegiance to the Union. The first important conflict, which occurred between them, took place at Carthage, on the 5th of July, 1861, where eight thousand Missouri Rebels, commanded by the pseudo- Governor Jackson, attacked two thousand Federal troops, under Colonel Sigel. The battle was a desperate one. Notwithstanding the immense advantage of numbers on the Rebel side, their loss was very heavy, and the general issue of the day was adverse to them. This result was chiefly due to the superior skill with which Colonel Sigel served and directed his 148 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. artillery. General Lyon, who commanded another Federal force in the State, was ninety miles distant from Carthage at the period of the battle, and was therefore unable to effect a junction with Sigel, Nowhere, in any portion of the Union, had the ruinous effects of civil war been as terrible as within the limits of Missouri ; for at this time, throughout a large portion of the State, especially to the south of the Missouri river, solitude and desolation reigned throughout the country. Nearly all the houses and plantations had been deserted by their inhabitants. Wheat, corn, and the various products of the earth, rotted unharvested. In other portions of the State the dominion of terror prevailed and there was no protection for life or property to the citizen or the stranger. As soon as General Lyon received the details of the battle of Carthage, he fell back with the troops under his command to Springfield. lie had been informed that a powerful Rebel force under McCulloch and Price were advancing upon him by several different routes. He expected an immediate attack, inasmuch as he was assured that their commissariat was in a miserable condition, and they would be compelled at once literally either to fight or to starve. General Lyon was well aware of the critical nature of his position. The Kebel force had swelled to an immense multitude of desperate, disorderly, and sanguinary adventurers, twenty thousand in number, whose attack, though irregular, would still be ener getic and destructive. His own troops did not then exceed five thousand men ; but they were well fed and clothed, and provided with a powerful battery of artillery. His army had been increased to that number by the junction of the force under Colonel Sigel; and he made every preparation which an able and skillful commander could possibly employ, to confront and overpower the danger which impended over him. The battle of Wilson s Creek, which soon ensued, was one of the most bloody and desperate which had occurred during the progress of the war ; and the conduct of General Lyon, on this occasion, covered his name and his memory with enduring renown. It was on the seventh of August that the Rebel force under McCulloch and Price reached a position twelve miles distant from Springfield. The inhabitants of that town at once became panic-stricken at the proximity of the foe : and earnest appeals were made to General Lyon to induce him to withdraw his troops from the place, and not to subject it, by his pres ence, to the horrors of an attack. Many of his officers, discouraged by the immense superiority in numbers which the enemy possessed, regarded the risking of a battle as the height of imprudence; and asserted that it would lead to inevitable defeat. A council of war was called, and a ma jority were in favor of retreating at once toward Rolla. But General Sweeney earnestly opposed the measure, and General Lyon coincided with his bolder counsel. The considerations which induced the commander to risk a battle were the following : THE GREAT BATTLE OF WILSON S CHEEK. 149 It was very true, indeed, that his numbers were greatly inferior to those of the enemy. lie had repeatedly besought the Federal Govern ment to reinforce him ; and had set forth, with clearness and power, the reasons which rendered such a course imperative. But the Government was either unable or unwilling to comply, and he was left to his fate. But it was also evident that a retreat from Springfield would, at that critical moment, be highly pernicious to the cause of the Union in Mis souri, and might produce the most disastrous effects. Thousands would thenceforth regard the Rebels as irresistible, and identify themselves with their side. A defeat even would be preferable after a battle, than a flight without a conflict. But, like a brave and gallant officer, Lyon an ticipated a victory even against overwhelming odds ; and he resolved to try the issue of a desperate and deadly conflict. His first plan was to make a night attack on the foe ; but his arrangements could not be com pleted until several hours after the appointed time. He then determined to postpone the engagement until the next day. This was Saturday, August 9th, 1861. At eight o clock on the preceding evening Colonel Sigel was ordered to march with his command, with that of Colonel Solomon, in a southward direction from Springfield ; to pass around the camp of the enemy unob served; to take a position in their rear, and when he heard the guns of Lyon s division in the front, to commence an attack on the Rebels. Sigel accom plished his journey by two o clock on Saturday morning. He had taken six cannon with him. General Lyon advanced from Springfield with all the troops under his command during Friday night, and reached the position of the enemy, nine miles south of that town, at four o clock in the morning. He then halted until the hour of attack arrived. At six o clock the action commenced. The Rebels were posted in an advan tageous position. Their camp had been placed at the northern end of a verdant vale ; but their troops were drawn out to meet the Federals upon the hills which intervened between them and their camp. The pickets of the latter were first driven in. Then Captain Wright, with four companies of mounted Home Guards, skirmished with a small body of horsemen who had taken a position in advance on the left. These were the mere lures of an ambuscade ; and, by retiring, they endeavored to draw the Federal detachments into a position of danger. The artifice partly succeeded ; for three thousand Rebels rushed upon the Federals, and by superioity of numbers, compelled them to give way. By this time the Federal troops on the other extremity of the line had engaged the enemy. The first Missouri regiment, the battalion of Oster- haus, and the battery of Totten, were advantageously posted on an eminence ; and they commenced a vigorous attack upon the Rebel host arrayed against them. Soon the latter broke and fled in confusion, until they reached the summit of another hill in the rear. The Federals pup- 150 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. sued, but in their advance they encountered a fresh regiment of Louisiana troops. A desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued between them. This lasted about forty-five minutes. The Eebels were again routed; and as they retired, were pursued till the victors reached the brow of a third eminence. There they encountered another fresh detachment of the enemy, and another desperate contest followed, more furious and deadly than had yet occurred. The contest here was also protracted, and the combatants struggled inch by inch for the possession of the field. The fire of the Rebels was very destructive, and the result was for a time doubtful. Fresh Iowa and Kansas troops were ordered forward to sup port those already engaged, and were assailed by treble their own num bers. Captain Gratz was slain while gallantly leading forward his men. Lieutenant Brown was disabled by a severe scalp wound, and was carried to the rear. The slaughter on both sides was fearful. The powerful batteries of Totten and Dubois, which were admirably served, mowed down the serried ranks of the enemy like frost work, and covered the ground with heaps of the wounded and the slain. But the vast numbers of the Rebels enabled them to repair their losses with new detachments, and to hurl back the tide of death upon their assailants. Thus the action became general between both armies along the whole line. The chief brunt of the battle had been borne by the Missouri, the Iowa and the Kansas regiments. General Lyon had superintended all the operations of the Federal troops. He rode fearlessly from regiment to regiment, encouraging the men, and giving the necessary orders. He had received two wounds, which, though painful, were not dangerous. Still he rode from rank to rank, inspired with a heroism which, by voice and gesture, he endeavored to communicate to his men. He well knew the mighty and overwhelming odds against which he and they contended ; and when he saw unusual acts of steadiness and bravery, he cheered the actors with almost boyish ardor. He had feared, before the battle began, that the first Iowa regiment, under Colonel Merritt, would not prove staunch when made to confront the foe. When, however, he saw them, pass into action under a heavy fire with the utmost firmness; assault the enemy with the vigor and energy of veterans ; compel the successive masses of fresh troops which the Rebels brought forward to recoil; relieve the first Missouri regiment which, after two hours of fighting, were nearly exhausted and were about giving way, and thus recover the advantage over the exultant foe ; when General Lyon observed all this, he cheered the Iowa regiment heartily, and expressed his admiration of them with the utmost enthusiasm. At length that heroic commander resolved to make a still more vigor ous and combined effort to overpower the Rebel host and secure the victory. He gave the order to prepare to make a general bayonet charge. When all was ready and the troops were about to advance, it was discovered HEROISM OF GENERAL LYON. 151 that the commanding officer of the Iowa troops was missing. No time was to be lost, and General Lyon exclaimed ; " Come on, brave men ! I will lead you 1" At the head of the gallant Iowa boys he rode forward toward the enemy, whose inexhaustible numbers still swelled up toward them like the tumultuous tides of an endless and fathomless sea. The charge was made, the enemy wavered and fled after a terrific collision ; but General Lyon, during the struggle, was slain. He received a ball in the side, fell from his horse, and immediately expired. About the same moment General Sweeney was wounded in the leg and disabled. The command then devolved upon Major Sturgis. The partial retreat of the enemy now caused an interval of twenty minutes in the firing, after which they made a fresh assault. That assault was their most desperate one, but it was their last. The field was already covered with bleeding and man gled multitudes of their dead and wounded. Their immense hordes had been greatly thinned by the heroic and desperate valor of the Federal troops ; but the fire of Totten s battery, with the general energy and bravery of our men, again shattered and broke their columns and again they fled. It was now eleven o clock, and during five hours the battle had raged. Before retiring the enemy set fire to thirty or forty wagons* lest they might fall into the hands of the victors. At this time, though the Federal troops had gained a decisive victory, they were unable to continue the contest or to make a pursuit. The reason was because the ammunition of Totten s battery had become exhausted, and because the death and wounds of so many officers on the Federal side diminished their confidence and vigor. Moreover, it had been ascertained that the troops under Sigel had. been unfortunate, and had not effectually carried out their portion of the programme. As soon as that officer heard the guns of Lyon in the front of the enemy, he ap proached the scene of conflict and commenced an attack. But he was met and overwhelmed by so vast a body of Kebel troops that, after a brief but vigorous contest, he was defeated, and compelled to give way. He lost five of his guns and many of his men, and effected nothing in favor of the Federal troops who were operating in front. He succeeded afterward in making his escape with the larger portion of his command. After the conclusion of the battle the whole of the Federal army retired in good order to Springfield, and still later to Holla, under the skilful guidance of Colonel Sigel ; the defeated foe making no effort to pursue them. The loss of the Federal troops was considerable, being about two hundred killed and seven hundred wounded. They took four hundred horses and seventy prisoners. The loss of the enemy was much greater than our own, though the precise number is unknown to us. The battle field was covered with gory heaps of their dead and wounded. Their vast superiority in numbers, and their formidable batteries of twenty- one guns, were the sole causes that they maintained the contest so long 152 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITiUD STATES. and the reason why their defeat was not still more disastrous. The praise of superior bravery, steadiness and skill, belonged to the little band of heroes who, on this bloody day, fought for the honor and su premacy of the immortal Stars and Stripes. Many of them now sleep in a soldier s grave; but the noblest and bravest of them all was he who commanded them, and led them to victory. The war for the Union has not failed to develop instances of the most exalted patriotism and valor, which will forever elicit the grateful pride and enthusiasm of every lover of his country. One of the most remarka ble of those who have challenged the close and admiring scrutiny of niankind was the conqueror of the Rebel hordes at Wilson s Creek. General Nathaniel Lyon was one of the genuine heroes of this stormy and dis astrous time. There was no hypocritical sham, no false or arrogant pretence, no mean or selfish impulse about him. His character realized, with rare completeness and clearness, Carlyle s definition of what con stitutes a genuine hero. Said that profound thinker, in his fourth lecture on Heroes and Hero worship ; " We have repeatedly endeavored to ex plain that all sorts of heroes are intrinsically of the same material ; that, given a great soul open to the divine signifiance of life, then there is given a man fit to speak of this, to sing of this, to fight and work for this, in a great, victorious, enduring manner ; there is given a hero, the out ward shape of whom will depend on the time and the environment he finds himself in."* Every characteristic of General Lyon and every act which he performed, indicated the presence and power of such an heroic soul within him. Nathaniel Lyon was born at Ashford, Connecticut, in the year 1819. He was well descended ; and his ancestors on his mother s side distin guished themselves in the Eevolutionary War. One of those ancestors was the famous Colonel Knowlton, who commanded the Connecticut troops at the " Old Rail Fence," on the* left wing of the patriot army at Bunker Hill. He was afterward killed at the battle on Harlem Heights, near New York. The future hero of Wilson s Creek gave indications of superior talent at an early age ; but the tendency of his mind was toward mathematical studies and mechanical contrivances. Having chosen the military profession he entered the Academy at West Point. He gradua ted with honor in 1841, entered the regular service, rapidly rose to the rank of capt ain, and distinguished himself in the Mexican war. He dis played superior skill and bravery at Vera Cruz, Contreras, Churubusco, and was wounded while fighting near the Belem Gate, in the city of Mexico. After the termination of the war he was engaged in active service in Missouri and California. His reputation stood high in both of those States. When the war of Secession began, he was chosen by the * Heroes, Hero Worship, and the Heroic in History, by Thomas Carlyle, page 133. FREMONT COMMANDANT DEPARTMENT OF MISSOURI 153 Missouri volunteers as their brigadier-general. During the course of his adventurous life he had been familiar with the most difficult and danger ous kinds of service in Texas, Oregon, Kansas, and along the whole border of the western and southwestern territory of the -United States. He was, therefore, particularly adapted to command the Federal troops in Missouri; and his courageous spirit found a congenial theatre for the ex ercise and display of its peculiar attributes amid the tumultuous camps, the desoiate wastes, and all the semi-barbarous scenes connected with warfare in the outskirts of civilization. He was remarkable for his patriotic devotion to his country, and for the eagerness with which he sprang forward to her defence on every occasion of danger. To her he gave his best services and his life. To her, it may with truth be said, he devoted his all, for even his property he devised by his will to the cause of the Union. Being unmarried, and without domestic dependents, he felt at liberty to devote his wealth to that object which, above all others, he loved best ; and, like his immortal ancestors of the revolution, he con secrated to his country his life, his fortune and his sacred honor. The deeds and fame of such a man present a rare and grateful theme of con templation. When he marched against the enemy at Wilson s Creek he well knew, that the immense superiority of numbers on the side of the Rebels would inevitably entail a heavy loss upon his troops, and that his life would probably be the forfeit of his boldness. But he also felt that the cause of the Union demanded an heroic venture ; he willingly made it ; and he met a soldier s death on the field of honor and of victory. The Federal Government discovered the necessity, at an early stage of the Rebellion, of forming a military department of Missouri, of which St. Louis should be the headquarters, and of placing it under the com mand of an officer of ability, experience and patriotism. The person selected to fill this post was Major-General John C. Fremont, who .had already distinguished himself in the annals of American conquest and ex ploration. When the Rebellion commenced, his services were demanded by the Government, and were rendered with the utmost promptitude. After his removal to St. Louis he was laboriously engaged in the perform ance of the duties of his office ; in fortifying that city ; in organizing the department ; in raising an army ; and in preparing to defend the Union against the attacks of its foes in Missouri. In this station he was annoyed, and perhaps impeded, by the hostility of Colonel Frank P. Blair ; who entertained the opinion that General Fremont did not exhibit the energy and capacity which the crisis demanded. In this judgment, however, the administration at Washington did not, for a long time, concur, and Fremont retained his difficult and responsible position. His most important and noteworthy act was the issuing of a proclama tion, by which he endeavored to strike a powerful and deadly blow at the institution of slavery. In that proclamation he proclaimed, by virtue 154 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of the authority vested in him, that " the property, real and personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri, who shall take up arms against the United States, or who shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use ; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared freemen." This decisive step was hailed by the Abolitionists throughout the country with enthusiasm and exultation. They affirmed that now, at length, the axe had been laid to the root of the tree; that the only true policy was therein indicated ; that all men would now be convinced that this was pre-eminently a war against slavery; and that in proportion as the cause of the Union triumphed, it would, in that same degree, overturn the peculiar and execrable institution of the Rebel States. But the more conservative people of the North and the West regarded this proclama tion of Fremont with very different feelings. To them it appeared like a dangerous and illegal, though well-meant, exercise of power ; as subser vient to a fanatical faction, which, as they thought, had always been the bane and curse of the nation ; and as an attempt to assert a false theory, to the effect that the war against the Rebels was in substance and chiefly a crusade against slavery. The latter opinion was the one entertained in reference to the matter by thp administration at Washington; and accordingly, Mr. Lincoln im mediately addressed a letter to General Fremont, directing him so to modify his proclamation as to make it correspond with the provisions of the act of Congress which appertained to the subject, and which had been passed during the late extra session. That act expressly provided that whenever slaves should be required or permitted by their masters and owners, to take up arms against the United States, or to assist the Rebellion in any manner whatever, in such cases only the said slaves shall become free, and their former owners shall forfeit all their right, title and interest in them. This modification of General Fremont s decree was very essential and material. It effectualy contradicted the erroneous assertion that this was a war against slavery, as such ; and it thereby disarmed the Rebels of one of the most potent levers with which they controlled public sentiment and intensified popular prejudice at the South. Nor could any more efficient expedient have been employed to render the war unpopular even throughout the Free States, than to diffuse abroad this delusion, that the war was in reality a mere crusade against slavery. On the contrary, it must be regarded by every intelligent and impartial observer, as simply an attempt to restore and to perpetuate the dissevered Union. Whatever lawful agencies would assist in accom plishing that beneficent result, were employed. As a war to preserve the Union it received the hearty support of the nation ; but as an Abolition war, strictly speaking, it would have been rejected and discountenanced by a large proportion of those very men, whose blood and treasure were most lavishly expended in its prosecution. EXPEDITIONS AGAINST REBEL FORTS AT 11ATTEIIAS. 155 CHAPTER XTIL THE FEDERAL EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE REBEL FORTS AT HATTERAS TTIR FORCES APPRO PRIATED TO THIS ENTERPRISE IMPORTANCE OF HATTERAS AND ITS POSSESSION SAILING OF THE EXPEDITION THE BOMBARDMENT THE SURRENDER OF THE FORTS COMMODORE BARRON COMMODORE STRINGHAM SKETCH OF HIS CAREER RESULTS OF THE VICTORY AT HATTERAS OPERATIONS OF ROSECRANS IN WESTERN VIRGINIA BATTLE AT CARNIFEX FERRY DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF FLOYD RESULTS OF THE VICTORY EVENTS IN MISSOURI COLONEL MULLIGAN S FORCES AT LEXINGTON HE is ATTACKED BY GENERAL PRICE INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE OF LEXINGTON SURRENDER OF COLONEL MULLIGAN SKETCH OF HIS CAREER BATTLE ON BOLIVAR HEIGHTS SKETCH OF ITS HKRO, COLONEL GEARY THE BATTLE OF HALI/S BLUFF GENERAL STONE APPREHENSIONS OF COLONEL BAKER INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT DEFEAT AND ROUT OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS DEATH OF COLONEL BAKER NATIONAL SORROW AT HIS FATE SKETCH OF HIS REMARKABLE CAREER RESULTS OF THE DISASTER AT BALL S BLUFF. Ix the great and perilous game of war, success frequently alternates from side to side, and he who exults over the laurels of victory to-day, to-morrow may be overwhelmed by the mortification and calamities of defeat. The war against the Southern Rebellion was no exception to this rule. The disaster of Bull Kun was quickly followed by the triumph of the Federal arms at Hatteras. The Federal Government had contemplated for some time an armed descent upon the coast of North Carolina, and had been quietly making preparations for such a movement. A combined land and naval force was placed under the orders of Commodore Stringham and General Butler. The former commanded the Atlantic blockading squadron, the latter a portion of the troops at Fortress Monroe. The fleet which trans ported the expedition comprised the flag-ship Minnesota, the Adelaide, the George Peabody, the Pawnee, the Susquehanna, the Wabash, the Cumberland, the Harriet Lane, and the Fanny, vessels of different sizes and armaments. About a thousand land troops were placed under the orders of General Butler ; a smaller naval force served under the com modore. The special object of the expedition was the capture of the forts which had been erected on Cape Hatteras. This position was one of great im portance to the enemy. It was the chief defence of the coast of North Carolina The principal fort was of considerable strength, containing ten heavy guns in position, with five unmounted. The works were nearly surrounded by water, the only approach on the land side being through a marsh five hundred yards wide. One of the forts contained a bomb proof capable of protecting four hundred men. Its form was octagonal, and it covered nearly an acre of ground. Both forts were abundantly 156 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. provided with ammunition and provisions, and were occupied by a large body of troops. The place was the key of the Albemarle, and was second in importance only to Fortress Monroe, on the Atlantic coast, as a depot for furnishing supplies to a blockading squadron, as a harbor for the coasting trade, and as a retreat either from stress of weather or from the pursuit of pirates. It was an advantageous position, from which ex peditions could start forth along the shore of Carolina to Bogue Inlet, to Newbern, and to Beaufort. The fleet sailed from Fortress Monroe on Monday, August 26th, and arrived off Hatteras Inlet on Tuesday afternoon. Preparations were immediately made to disembark the troops, and early the next morning the process began. But a stiff gale blew from the southwest, and a heavy surf was breaking and rolling upon the beach. This rendered the task a difficult and dangerous one; so that when three hundred and fifteen men had been landed, the iron boats were swamped, and the flat boats were stove. This disaster put an end to the landing. An effort was subsequently made by Lieutenant Crosby to reach the shore in a boat from the war-steamer Pawnee. But the boat was beached in the attempt so that she could not be got off. The wind then rose higher, and the sea became still rougher, so that all further attempts to convey the troops on shore were abandoned. During this interval, the ships of war had hauled in and commenced to cannonade the forts. Only one of these responded to our guns. Im mediately afterward a white flag was run up on the forts, which the Federal commanders interpreted as a signal of surrender. General Butler then ordered the Harriet Lane to attempt to cross the bar and enter the smooth water, accompanied by the Monticello ; and the Susquehanna towed the Cumberland to an offing, for the purpose of completing the capitulation. But the enemy either practiced an act of perfidy, or had changed their purpose for on the approach of these vessels they renewed their fire, and several shots struck the Monticello. The fleet immediately recommenced the bombardment and continued it with spirit. The troops on shore then advanced to attack the forts. They found the smaller one deserted, and they took possession of it. Night fell, and the attack was necessarily suspended. Part of the Federal troops on shore occupied the forts ; the remainder bivouacked on the beach near the place of landing. At eight o clock on the ensuing morning the fleet resumed the attack. The Harriet Lane ran in to the shore for the purpose of protecting the troops on land. In this movement a large steamer was observed moving down the sound. It was the Winslow, and contained reinforcements for the enemy. But they were prevented from accomplishing their purpose by the vigilance of Captain Johnson, who opened a fire upon the Eebel steamer with several guns from a sand-battery on the shore. The vessel then returned up the channel, leaving the forts to their fate. The can- . SURRENDER OF THE REBEL FORTS. 157 nonading from the ships now became heavy, and did great execution. An attempt was made to land an additional number of troops. Before this purpose could be accomplished, a white flag was again run up from the remaining fort. A signal was made to the ships to cease firing. General Butler sent an officer on shore to ascertain the meaning of the flag. That officer proceeded to the fort, and was received by Commodore Barron, the commander of the Kebel forces. He authorized Lieutenant Crosby to communicate to the Federal officers the fact that he had six hundred and fifteen men in the fort, but was anxious to spare the effusion of blood ; and would consequently surrenaer the fort, arms and munitions of war, provided the officers were permitted to retire with their side-arms, and the men without arms. To this proposition General Butler replied, that it was wholly inadmissible ; and that the only terms which could be accepted were an unconditional surrender of officers and men, who were to be treated as prisoners of war. On receiving these conditions, Commodore Barron summoned a council of war, and submitted the matter to their consideration. Each of these heroes advised an immediate surrender. It was at this moment that several vessels of the Federal fleet had gotten into a perilous position, of which the Rebels might with ordinary energy and vigilance have taken decisive advantage. The Adelaide, in carrying the troops to the shore, ran aground. The Harriet Lane, in attempting to enter the bar, met the same fate. Both vessels were within full range of the guns of the fort, and both might have been seriously disabled and damaged. But they failed to take advantage of the opportunity. General Butler now in formed the Rebel commodore that if the terms were accepted, the articles of capitulation must be signed on board the flag-ship Minnesota. At length, after the deliberation of an hour, the terms were accepted by the enemy, and Commodore Barron, Major Andrews and Colonel Martin, proceeded to that vessel and formally surrendered the forts to the United States ; the parties stipulating that the officers and men should receive the treatment due to prisoners of war. The instrument was duly signed and sealed, by Messrs. Stringham and Butler for the United States, and by Messrs. Barron, Martin and Andrews for the Confederate States. Im mediately afterward General Butler landed, took formal possession of the forts and munitions of war, inspected the troops and their arms, marched them out, embarked them on board the Adelaide, manned the fort with his own troops, hoisted the stars and stripes, and saluted them with the very guns which had been shotted by the captive enemy. On the following day the Rebel troops were transferred to the Min nesota, which sailed for New York. A large number of Rebels had been killed and wounded during the bombardment, though the exact amount of their loss was carefully concealed. They reported fifteen killed and thirty -five wounded. During the attack all the war- vessels of the fleet 158 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. took part, and the cannonading was at certain periods very heavy. The capture of these forts was an event of decisive importance. They had become a pernicious and piratical nest, which seriously injured the com merce of the United States, and their possession was an achievement greatly to be desired. It astonished and terrified the Rebel States exces sively, and was with justice regarded by them as a heavy calamity. The chief praise of this success is justly due to Commodore String- ham, the commander of the fleet. This officer occupies a distinguished place in the American navy. He is a native of Orange county, New York, and entered the service as a midshipman in 1809. Twenty -two years of his life have been passed at sea. He rose gradually from rank to rank, and successively commanded the Falmouth of the East India squadron, the John Adams of the Mediterranean squadron, the Inde pendence of the Home squadron, the Ohio of the Brazil squadron, and other vessels. He has also been the commandant of the Brooklyn, the Norfolk, and the Charlestown navy yards. When the administration of Mr. Lincoln determined on the blockade of the southern ports, he was summoned to Washington, and ordered to take command of the block ading squadron whose operations lay between Cape Charles, at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on the north, as far as Key West on the south. A large fleet, containing twenty-five vessels, manned by three thousand five hundred sailors and marines, was placed under his command. His first expedition proved eminently successful. The part performed in it by General Butler, the commander of the land forces, though commenda ble, was of secondary importance to that achieved by the gallant com modore. The official reports of the expedition, however, were chiefly drawn up by General Butler. After the removal of General McClellan to Washington, the command of the Federal troops in Western Virginia was conferred on Brigadier- General William S. Rosecrans, who had already distinguished himself in the events which had transpired in that portion of the Union. This officer, a native of Ohio, was born about 1821, and entered the Academy of West Point in 1838. He graduated in 1842, and received an appoint ment as second lieutenant of engineers. For a year afterward he officiated as assistant professor of engineering at West Point, subse quently of natural and experimental philosophy, and again of engineer ing, till 1847. In 1853 he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant. In 1854 he resigned his functions in that institution, entered civil life, and commenced manufacturing operations in Ohio. Immediately after the opening of the war he tendered his services to the Federal Govern ment. They were accepted, and he was assigned a position under General McClellan in Western Virginia. His ability in this new position justified the confidence which had been reposed in him. Immediately after receiving the supreme command of the Federal THE BATTLE OP CARNIFEX FERRY. 15$ forces in Virginia, Rosecrans commenced to augment and strengthen them, A large Eebel army under Floyd was now approaching him, and at length, on Tuesday, September 10th, an engagement took place between them at Carnifex Ferry, on the Gauley river. The battle was the most important and severe which had yet been fought in Western Virginia. The Rebels were well intrenched. They had six regiments of troops and a large number of artillery. The Federal forces reached the fortified po sition of the enemy after a march of eighteen miles. Their pickets were driven in and an attack immediately commenced. The battle began at half-past three o clock, and continued four hours. The intrenchments of Floyd were erected on the west side of the Gauley river, and were so surrounded by dense forests as to be almost hidden from view. The tenth Ohio regiment were ordered by General Rosecrans to com mence the attack, they being in the advance. The thirteenth Ohio fol lowed, together with the twelfth. The Rebels received the assault with spirit, and a hot fire was poured upon the Federal troops from cannon and all sorts of small arms. McMullen s howitzer battery and Snyder s two field pieces responded with much effect. Their sharpshooters suc ceeded in picking off some of the Federal officers. Colonel Lowe was killed. Colonel Lytle was wounded. But the fire of the Rebels grew feebler as night approached. Rosecrans then drew off his men, and they lay upon their arms in front of the enemy s works during the night, ready to resume the attack with the ensuing dawn. But Floyd fled during the darkness. He effected his escape by the ford and a bridge over the Gauley, in his rear. It is evident that his retreat was precipitate, for he left behind him his camp equipage, much of his ammunition and stores, several colors, and a large number of cattle. Rosecrans then took pos session of the vacated intrenchmeints; but he thought it prudent not to pursue the retreating enemy, who was probably hastening to unite his forces with those of Henry A. Wise. The Federal loss was twenty killed and one hundred wounded. By this decisive action, which the flight of the foe prevented from being still more disastrous to his arms, that part of Western Virginia was released from the presence and supremacy of the Rebel troops. The extremely rugged nature of the country through which Floyd retreated, composed of deep ravines and rugged mountains, rendered the pursuit of him not only difficult, but scarcely remunerative to the victors. The latter were all Ohio troops, and they exhibited un usual coolness and fortitude during the engagement, even when under the severe artillery fire of the enemy. The great battle of Wilson s Creek was indecisive in its results, and Missouri still remained the abode of a divided and hostile population, and the destined theatre of future warlike and bloody events. In the earlv portion of September a powerful Rebel force was collected by General Sterling Price, and with these he commenced a march toward Lexington. 160 THE CIVIL WAE IN THE UNITED STATES. That city had been occupied and fortified by Colonel Mulligan with five regiments of Federal troops ; although, as seemed to be generally the case with the Federal commanders in the southwest, they were inferior in numbers to the force brought against them. Colonel Mulligan had fortified Lexington by heavy earthworks ten feet in height, and by a ditch twelve feet in width. The number of troops under his command was about three thousand; that of General Price was about fifteen thousand. On Thursday, September 12th, General Price reached the scene of conflict, and immediately commenced operations by driving in the Federal pickets. Mulligan ordered out four companies to confront the advanced guard of the enemy. These were about five thousand in number. The Federal troops attacked them with spirit, killing a large number, but were compelled to retire within the intrenchments. Price followed with six guns, and commenced to fire upon the college building in which the ammunition and provisions of Mulligan were stored. This attack commenced at three o clock in the afternoon, and continued till nightfall. Mulligan responded with his five guns with effect. lie silenced one of the cannon of the Eebels, knocking it to pieces, and killed about seventy -five men. But when his firing ceased all his ammunition had been expended. The engagement on the 12th was adverse to the enemy; they had lost a greater number in killed and wounded than their opponents, and had accomplished nothing. They did not renew* the attack an the ensuing day. It was not until the morning of the 17th that the Rebels were pre pared to recommence the conflict. During this interval they had received reinforcements, and were now able to surround the city com pletely and cut off all access to the river. At eight o clock a signal -gun from General Price s headquarters announced the opening of the battle. His numerous artillery poured upon the Federal troops and intrench ments a tremendous shower of shot and shell, to which Mulligan replied with his guns as well as his limited means permitted. The battle laste d from the 17th to the 20th. During the first two days -the Rebels accom plished nothing, and advanced no nearer the intrenchments than they had been at first. On the 19th they commenced to erect breastworks of hemp bales, from behind which they continued to fire, and which from time to time they rolled nearer to the position of the Federals. About three o clock on that day the enemy made a charge, and flouted their colors upon the summit of the Federal breastworks. Mulligan ordered the Irish brigade, who were posted on the opposite side of the works, to leave their position and retake the intrenchments of which the enemy had gained possession. This order was obeyed with the utmost alacrity, and, as seems to be the invariable fact during this war in every case in which the Irish have been brought into action, they charged with such impetu osity and heroism as to completely overpower the enemy. They regained SURRENDER OF COLONEL MULLIGAN. 161 possession of the iotrenchraents, killed and wounded about three hundred, and captured their colors. Colonel Mulligan, who led the charge in per son, was wounded, and his clothes were perforated by six balls. TLis decisive repulse put an end to the operations of that day. On the 20th the enemy recommenced the battle. During this day they made several desperate charges upon the works, and were as frequently repulsed with great slaughter. Still, the losses on the Federal side were heavy ; and although Colonel Mulligan and his men fought with the utmost heroism, there were causes which rendered their ultimate defeat inevitable. During this day they exploded six mines successively, under the advancing Rebel forces, destroying them by hundreds. At length, at four o clock, it became impossible to continue the contest any longer. Colonel Mulligan and his men had been destitute of water for several days ; most of their ammunition was expended ; and one half of their cannon had been silent for some time for want of balls During the pro gress of the entire attack the Federal troops had been casting their own round shot at a foundry within the city ; and even that resource had at last been exhausted. Retreat by the river had been cut off by the Rebels, who swarmed upon the shores and took possession of all the boats. The surrender was therefore unavoidable, though a decisive moral victory had been achieved by the dauntless heroism displayed by the Federal troops. It was computed that, before the end of the contest, the number of men who had collected under the Rebel banners at Lexington amounted to twenty-five thousand. They had sixteen cannon, and were provided with ammunition in abundance. Their loss was heavy, not less than a thousand in killed and wounded. The loss of the Federals was about one hundred killed and three hundred wounded. So deeply was the Rebel commander impressed with the bravery of Colonel Mulligan and his troops, that, at the surrender, he refused to accept the colonel s sword; declaring, with a magnanimity worthy of a better cause, that he was too brave an officer to be deprived of his arms, and well deserved to keep them. Colonel Mulligan and his troops became prisoners of war. Colonel James A. Mulligan, whose heroism thus stamped his name in delibly upon the annals of this contest, was born in Utica, New York, in 1829. His parents were natives of Ireland. He was educated at the Catholic College of Chicago. In that city he studied law and was admit ted to the bar. In 1857 he accepted a clerkship in the Department of the Interior at Washington. After spending a year in the Federal Capital, he returned to Chicago, and was elected captain of the Shields 7 "Guards. When the war broke out he entered zealously into the contest, and proceeded to Washington with a letter, penned by Senator Douglas on his death-bed, commending him to the confidence of the Administra tion. He had been elected colonel of the Irish regiment, whose services the Government at once accepted. The rest of his public history is 11 162 THE CIYIL WAE IX THE UNITED STATES. summed up in the heroic struggle of which Lexington was the memorable scene. It is a remarkable circumstance, which must have attracted the atten tion of every intelligent observer of the war against Secession, that the arena of the conflict was one of unusually vast and extensive circuit. It spread over thousands of miles; and at one and the same moment events of vital importance occurred at the most remote and distant points. In this respect few parallels are presented to it in the annals of modern warfare. From the shores of the Missouri river we return to the shores of the Potomac ; from the intrench ments of Lexington, to the rugged heights near Harper s Ferry ; from the achievements of Mulligan, to those of Geary. On the 16th of October a battle occurred on Bolivar Heights, between several Eebel regiments from Mississippi and Alabama, and several regiments of Federal troops commanded by Colonel Geary. Three thousand Rebels took a position on Bolivar Heights, and chal lenged their opponents to an engagement. The challenge was accepted. They were soon driven from their position ; and one of their heavy guns was captured. Their loss in killed and wounded was considerable. During this action Colonel Geary and his men exhibited much coolness and gallantry. This officer had already attained a name of some distinc* tion in the annals of his country ; and his daring spirit and superior abilities seemed destined to conduct him to still greater eminence. He figured with credit in the Mexican war, and was promoted for his merito rious conduct at Cerro Gordo and the city of Mexico. In 1848 he took up his residence in San Francisco, and was chosen the first Mayor of that city. In July, 1856, he was appointed Governor of Kansas by Mr. Buchanan ; and he continued to act as the chief magistrate of the Terri tory until March, 1857. He then retired to private life until the com mencement of the war, when his services were tendered to the Government and accepted. After his removal with his regiment to "Point of Rocks," he exhibited superior vigilance, activity and ability, in the performance of his military duties. At a later period his merits were justly rewarded by his promotion to the rank of brigadier- general. On the 21st of October a portion of the Federal army of the Potomac, which had already spent a considerable period of time in apparent in activity, was put into motion ; but with so little skill as to lead to the most disastrous results. The division under General Stone had been posted between Washington and Harper s Ferry. That officer com manded Colonel Baker, of the California regiment, to cross the river- opposite Leesburg and obtain possession of the Virginia shore, so that the remainder of his division, and that of General Banks, might afterward pass over unmolested by the enemy. This order was to be executed by a body of eighteen hundred men, consisting of portions of the California APPREHENSIONS OF COLONEL BAKER. 163 regiment, of the Massachusetts fifteenth, and of the New York Tammany regiment. When Colonel Baker received the order to make this movement, he expressed his surprise at it, and intimated that, under the circumstances, it was equivalent to his own death-warrant and a disaster to the Federal arms. Nevertheless, he prepared instantly to obey it. Never was an important military operation attempted under more unpropitious circum stances. General Stone had provided no proper means for transporting the troops ; and what was more portentious still, he had neglected to furnish any facilities for escape across the river should his forces be compelled to retreat. Three miserable scows were procured to convey the Federal troops to the Virginia side. Scarcely had they reached the opposite shore, about nine o clock in the morning of the 21st, when they were attacked by the Rebels with an overwhelming superiority of num bers. Notwithstanding this disadvantage the Federal troops fought with the utmost desperation, and stood their ground with heroic firmness during a large portion of the day. But in the afternoon the Rebels received heavy reinforcements, which gave them a superiority that was resistless. In vain did the bravest of men sternly confront their foes. In vain were prodigies of valor lavishly wasted. The overwhelming masses of the Rebels, led on by General Evans of South Carolina, surrounded them on all sides. Renewed assaults exhausted their failing energies. No reinforcements came, as they should have come, to the Union troops. General Stone seemed strangely to have forgotten the men whom he had ordered into the jaws of destruction. The result was, that toward the close of the day the Rebels were victorious, in spite of the utmost forti tude on the part of the forces under Colonel Baker. The Rebels drove the latter to the brink of the steep bluff which bordered the river, and afterward they poured their deadly fire upon the unwilling fugitives below while they sought to flee over the stream and beyond the reach of the guns of their assailants. The most necessary means of transport for the troops not having been provided, many perished beneath the waves. Many were slain by the sharpshooters of the Rebels as they stood defenceless upon the shore. But before the flight began, Colonel Baker had fallen while cheering on his men to a most desperate charge. Never did a patriot and hero perish in a more noble cause, or under more glorious circumstances. While urging on his men to the unequal combat he was pierced with five bullets. It was with difficulty that his body was rescued from the desecrating touch of the triumphant foe. Lieutenant-Colonel Wistar, an able and valuable officer, was severely wounded during the engagement, in which he had distinguished himself by his coolness and his valor. The broken remains of the Federal troops the victims either of official stupidity or of official perfidy reached the opposite banks of the Potomac in the most pitiable plight. They 164 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. were destitute of every thing necessary to their comfort. With great difficulty the wreck of this brave corps made their way back to their former encampment. The loss of Colonel Baker, who died the most heroic death which could be suffered by an officer of the army of the Union, was one of the chief incidents connected with this unfortunate expedition. The report of the death of Edward Dickinson Baker overwhelmed the community with profound sorrow ; for he had gained their admiration and esteem in an eminent degree. He fully merited the popular interest which he had excited. He was in truth a remarkable man ; his life and genius were marvelous and romantic. He had been left an orphan in his youth ; and he became the sole architect of his high fame and fortune. Ho crossed the snowy Alleghanies on foot, at the commencement of his public career, and sought in the then remotest West the most inviting arena for his exertions. He there devoted himself to the profession of the law, and at the bar of Springfield, Illinois, his eloquence made him the formidable and justly feared antagonist of Douglas and Lincoln. He was sent to Congress from that State in 1845, and he soon distinguished himself in the national councils. In the Mexican war, his demeanor was that of a brave and skilful soldier. At San Francisco, whither his ad venturous disposition afterward allured him, he took exalted rank as an orator and a statesman. Over the bleeding remains of his chivalrous friend Broderick, who was killed in a duel, he delivered one of the most magnificent and touching orations which ever fell from human lips. That oration was characterized by such overwhelming pathos, by such brilliant and gorgeous imagery, by such appropriate and impressive re flections, that it produced a profound and indelible impression upon a whole generation of readers. It created for him a national reputation. It was a masterpiece which alone would have rendered his name im mortal. After taking his seat in the Federal Congress as Senator from Oregon, he delivered a powerful address in answer to a specious argument of Mr. Breckinridge, superior to any other which the events of the Rebellion had yet elicited. As an officer he was equally admirable prudent, dauntless, patriotic. He passed away prematurely from the stage of action ; but his memory will live with fadeless beauty and lustre in the hearts of myriads of his admiring countrymen. In the battle of Ball s Bluff the loss of the Federal troops was very heavy. The killed, wounded, and prisoners, amounted to almost two thousand men. The circumstances under which this disaster occurred, added greatly to the intensity of that emotion of mingled indignation and regret, with which the fiation beheld the slaughter or the captivity of so large a number of their bravest and best troops. EXPEDITION UNDER DUPONT AND SHERMAN. 165 CHAPTER XIV. PECULIARITIES OF THE WAR AGAINST SECESSION FEDERAL EXPEDITION UNDER COMMODORE DUPONT AND GENERAL SHERMAN ITS DEPARTURE FROM ANNAPOLIS ITS DESTINATION TERRIBLE STORM NEAR CAPE HATTERAS THE EXPEDITION REACHES PORT ROYAL REBEL FORTS ON BAY POINT AND HILTON HEAD THEIR BOMBARDMENT THEIR STRENGTH INCIDENTS OF THE ATTACK SURRENDER OF THE FORTS RESULTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT SKETCH OF ITS HERO, COMMODORE DUPONT NAVAL DISASTER BELOW NEW ORLEANS CAPTAIN JOHN POPE EVENTS IN MISSOURI BOLD ACHIEVEMENT OF COLONEL ZAGONYI NEAR SPRINGFIELD THE BATTLE OF BELMONT GENERAL U. S. GRANT INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT AT BELMONT ITS RESULTS DISMISSAL OF GENERAL FREMONT FROM HIS DEPARTMENT OF THE WEST CAUSES OF HIS REMOVAL HIS ADMIRABLE DEMEANOR ON THIS OCCASION HIS SUBSEQUENT APPOINTMENT AS COMMANDER OF THE MOUNTAIN DE PARTMENT OF VIRGINIA AND TENNESSEE. WHOEVER examines with attention the operations of the Federal forces during the progress of the war against Secession, will observe that, from the nature of the case, it must become a conflict involving extensive military combinations and far-reaching strategy. The immense area of territory which was to be recovered, the numerous armies which were to be subdued, rendered it absolutely necessary that various movements should be effected from different points at nearly the same time ; that those points should, while steadily pursuing their separate paths of victory, gradually converge toward a central position ; and that, at that position, a few resistless blows should demolish the concentrated military strength of the Rebel States. This principle will furnish the key to the subsequent aggressive movements of the Federal troops which occurred, and which were made as soon as the necessary preliminary preparations could be effected. The Rebel States were still convulsed with that frantic and exaggerated exultation which usually elated them at the attainment of the least success, in consequence of their victory at Ball s Bluff, when sudden terror and apprehension overtook them. The cause of this revulsion of feeling was the departure of a powerful Federal fleet from Annapolis, for some un known destination in the South. This armament consisted of nearly fifty vessels, including those used for transport, and was placed under the orders of Commodore Samuel F. Dupont. The expedition had been in preparation for several months, and was fitted out under the combined auspices of the Army and Navy Departments at Washington. General Thomas W. Sherman commanded the land forces which were embarked in the transports. The fleet sailed from Annapolis on the 21st of October, 1861, and proceeded to Hampton Roads near Fortress Monroe. The last necessary preparations there having been completed, the vast squadron 166 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. left its anchorage at early dawn on the 29th of October. A signal gun was fired from the commodore s flag ship, the Wabash, which led the way ; immediately afterward the fleet formed in line and proceeded sea ward through the capes. The stately and numerous array, as it sailed toward the broad bosom of the ocean, presented one of the most magnifi cent spectacles which the imagination can conceive. This land and naval force was destined to invade the territory of South Carolina ; and by a just but singular act of retribution, the very spot ou which many of the designs of the conspirators had been originally con ceived, or at a later day matured, was destined to become desolated by the presence and the terror of the Federal troops ; for Beaufort, in the vicinity of Port Royal, had been the sumptuous summer retreat of some of those men, whose names will forever remain prominently connected with the annals of the Rebellion. When the advancing fleet reached a position in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras, it was assailed by one of the most furious tempests which ever swept the surface of the deep. Excellent seamanship alone preserved it from destruction. In spite, however, of the utmost efforts of fortitude and skill, two transports were lost during the storm. At length, on the morning of the 7th of November, the fleet, with the flag-ship in the advance, reached the mouth of Port Royal Entrance. At that spot two Rebel for tifications frowned over the waves, and menaced the commerce of the loyal States. They were named Forts Walker and Beauregard, after two prominent Rebel chiefs. It was with some difficulty that the larger vessels of the Federal fleet could be brought over the bar, two miles in width ; but the skill of Commodore Dupont, and the determination of his troops, ultimately effected that result. Their merit in regard to this achievement was the greater, in consequence of the fact, that all the usual aids to navigation had been removed from that vicinity by the vigilance and industry of the Rebels. At half-past nine, on the morning of the 7th of November, the Federal ships cleared for action, were brought within range, and the bombard ment of the two forts commenced. These were located on Bay Point and Hilton Head. They were stongly garrisoned, containing eighteen hun dred men ; and were protected by a fleet of seven gunboats under the com mand of Captain Tatnal. As the Union ships approached the forts, the vessels of that officer, which might be fitly termed a diminutive fleet, began to fire. But they were soon chased, by a few well-directed shots, beyond the reach of the Federal guns, and were dispersed among the obscure streams leading toward Savannah. The bombardment of the forts was then continued with vigor. It had boen agreed between the two Federal com manders, that the naval troops should alone be employed during the bom bardment. The land forces therefore remained, though unwillingly, idle spectators of the scene. The ships of war took positions six hundred yards SURRENDER OF THE REBEL FORTS. 167 distant from the forts, and frequently engaged the batteries on both sides at the same time. The Rebel forts had been constructed with skill, and were provided with heavy guns and abundant supplies. Their cannon responded at first to those of the Federal fleet with rapidity, but rarely with precision. They therefore produced little damage to their assailants. It soon became evident that their defense was useless, and the conquest of the works inevitable. The overwhelming hailstorm of shot and shell which was poured upon the forts without intermission, and with superior accu racy of aim, was rapidly rendering them untenable. The large and in creasing number of their killed and wounded, was convincing the Rebels that their doom was sealed. Their own guns in the forts were at length so badly served, that they frequently did more damage to their gunners than to their assailants. After a contest of four hours, the Rebels aban doned their works, and commenced a precipitate retreat. They carried their wounded and some of their dead with them. At a quarter before three o clock they struck their flag on Fort Walker, and before evacua ting it ran up a white one. The Federal fleet, at a signal from Commo dore Dupont, then ceased firing, and Captain Rodgers was sent ashore to ascertain the state of affairs. He found the fort deserted, and precisely at three o clock, he unfurled the stars and stripes from the summit of the flag-staff. The glorious ensign was then greeted by long and enthusiastic cheers from the thousands of patriotic sailors and soldiers who manned the fleet, which echoed far and wide over the land and the sea. At nearly the same time Fort Beauregard was evacuated by the Rebels, and with the same precipitation which characterized their flight from Fort Walker. It should be noted that, during this attack, the Federal fleet did not remain stationary. As the Rebel forts were situated two miles and a half apart, on opposite sides of the strait, the ships continually made a detour in a line, by which means they came within range of the forts suc cessively. They thus formed a formidable procession, resembling a con course of destroying angels, who, with inexorable vengeance, approached the Rebel works from time to time, to inflict deserved destruction upon them. Each ship of war, as it passed, remained within range about twenty minutes; and each of them delivered, during that interval, a very large number of shells. The spectacle thus presented was one of the most novel and imposing which could be imagined ; while the shriek of the deadly missiles as they coursed through the heavens, and the far resounding re verberation of the guns, which was heard both at Savannah and at Charleston, added to the intense interest of the scene. After the evacuation of the forts the process of landing the Federal troops immediately began. Though only a portion of them were then required on shore, the transfer of all of them was completed before night- 103 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. fall. Fort Walker, at Hilton Head, was found to be a work of great strength and of colossal proportions. It covered an area of four acres, was angular in form, was surrounded by a deep ditch, and mounted twenty-four guns. Three of these had been disabled during the contest. Twenty -six dead bodies were counted in and near the fort, and it is probable that the killed and wounded of the Rebels numbered several hundreds. At a later period discoveries were made which justified the belief that their loss had been very heavy. The Federal loss was eight killed and twenty wounded. It should not be inferred, however, from this circumstance, that the guns of the Rebels had been inefficient. They occasionally reached the objects of their aim. Thus the "Wabash was struck thirty times. Nearly every vessel which had been engaged, bore some token of the assiduous attentions of the Rebel marksmen. The spoils of the conquest were considerable. A large amount of ammunition was taken, with various stores of necessaries and even of luxuries. It became evident from an inspection of the forts, that the enemy had aban doned them with the utmost trepidation. Innumerable articles of value were strewn around in confusion, and the soldiers were enriched by no insignificant plunder. Swords, pistols, guns, some of which were richly mounted, watches, jewelry, and even money were found. The entire number of cannon captured was forty -three. Many of these were of very heavy calibre. Both forts were soon filled with Federal troops, and thus a permanent position was effectually secured on tbe soil of South Carolina. This great victory filled the inhabitants of that chivalrous State with terror. This feeling soon degenerated into a panic among the inhabitants of the immediate vicinity, and especially among those of Charleston and Savannah. Of dwellers in the nearer Beaufort, there were no longer any left, except the jubilant negro population. All others had fled in the utmost dismay, and had sought refuge in more distant retreats. General Sherman, after taking possession of the forts, issued a proclamation, in which he endeavored to allay the fears of the people, to explain the real purpose of the expedition, and to reclaim the fugitive Rebels back to loyalty to the Federal Government. Commodore Dupont, to whom the chief glory of this important conquest belonged, was born in New Jersey, and entered the naval service in 1815. During the forty-five years which he spent in that service, he occupied with honor a number of important positions. In 1836 he commanded the Warren, and cruised in the West Indies. In 1843 he commanded the brig Perry, on the same station, and subsequently the Congress and the Cyane. In 1859 he was appointed commandant of the Philadelphia navy yard. He had then spent twenty-two years at sea, and nine years in active duty on shore. The high reputation which he had won by energy and ability in various posts of danger and responsibility, amply NAVAL DISASTER BELOW NEW ORLEANS. 169 justified the choice which placed him at the head of this expedition. The successful issue of that expedition filled up the measure of his fame. General Sherman, his associate in command, was born in Rhode Island, and graduated at "West Point in 1836. He served with distinction in the Florida war, and afterward proceeded with General Taylor to Mexico- He was breveted major for his brave and meritorious conduct at the battle of Beuna Vista, in February, 1847. After ihe commencement of the Rebellion, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the fifth artillery ; and at the battle of Manassas had command of the battery which was designated by his name. The defeat which overtook him on that occa sion, in common with many other brave and skillful officers, did not dim the lustre of his reputation. He was subsequently elevated to the rank of brigadier-general, and placed in command of the land forces destined for the conquest of Port Royal. While these important events were transpiring along the eastern sea board, other incidents of inferior moment were occurring in the south west. On the 12th of October, 1861, the Rebel forces below New Orleans gave evidence of their activity by the use of a naval instrument of warfare, or rather by the revival of a means of destruction which had been prevalent among combatants during ages which have long passed away. At half-past three o clock, on the morning of the day just named, while the watch on board the Federal steamer Richmond were engaged in taking in coal from a schooner lying alongside, and while partial dark ness still prevailed, they were astonished by the sudden approach of a steam battering ram toward the vessels. An alarm was instantly given, but before any means of protection could be employed, she struck the Rich mond with tremendous violence, and stove a hole through her side. Three planks were torn away two feet below the water line, making an aperture of considerable dimensions. The ram then passed to the rear of the disabled vessel ; but as she did so, the port guns of the Richmond were discharged at her. At this moment three large fire rafts of the enemy were seen approaching the Federal ships, accompanied by several Rebel steamers. The Federal commander. Captain John Pope, imme diately signalled to the Vincennes, the Preble, and the Water Witch, to slip their cables, proceed down the southwest channel of the Mississippi, and pass over the bar. During the passage, and while the enemy were in chase of them, the Richmond and the Yincennes grounded, and thereby furnished the Rebels a favorable opportunity for the use of their guns. The Federal ships, however, responded vigorously to their fire. After considerable effort, the grounded vessels were lightened, and conducted over the bar, after which the chase and the action ceased. The com manders of the several Federal vessels did not gain many laurels by their display of skill and heroism on this occasion. A more brilliant incident soon after occurred near Springfield, Missouri. HO THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. On the 25th of October, three hundred men, who formed the body-guard of General Fremont, under the command of a Hungarian refugee named Zagonyi, attacked a Eebel camp near that place, containing two thousand men. The movement was an extremely bold and sudden one, and its re sults were most advantageous. The Eebel troops were completely sur prised, overpowered, defeated, and compelled to flee, not only in the utmost confusion, but also wjfh considerable losses. It was a daring and praiseworthy achievement ; but it was unfortunately the only successful movement of importance which was performed, during the administration of that department by General Fremont, by any of the forces or officers under his command. Soon after this event, on the 7th of November, three thousand five hundred Federal troops, under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant, proceeded against a Kebel force stationed at the village of Belmont, in Missouri, nearly opposite to Columbus. General McClernand accom panied the expedition. The troops embarked at Cairo on a number of steamers, and proceeded as far as Lucas s Bend, three miles above Colum bus, on the Missouri side of the river. At that point they landed. The Eebel encampment was placed on elevated ground several miles distant from the shore, and from their position they could clearly perceive the movements of the Federal forces. They therefore had ample time to pre pare for their defence. As soon as the Union troops had disembarked, a large number of the Eebels, advancing from their camps, approached the river, and commenced an attack upon them. A running fight ensued over the entire distance which intervened between the river and the camp. The Federal troops pressed on with success, and each division seemed eager to gain the honor of having first reached the position of the enemy. That achievement was performed by the right division, led by Colonel Buford ; and the twenty-seventh Illinois was the first regiment to unfurl the stars and stripes within the Eebel encampment. That encampment contained about five thousand men, with an ample supply of arms and ammunition. Upon the arrival of the Federal troops at that point, a desperate and bloody combat ensued. The whole camp became the wide scene of tumultuous collisions, of hand-to-hand combats, of advancing and retreating columns, of the capture and recapture of guns, of the conflagration of tents, baggage, and stores, of slaughter and of death. In the end, the Eebel troops were compelled to give way, and to flee in the utmost confusion, leaving the Federal forces in possession of the field, and of their position. Scarcely, however, had this important result been attained, when it was discovered that large and fresh masses of Eebels were rapidly ap proaching the scene of conflict, from the opposite side of the river, for the purpose of cutting off the return of the victors to their transports. These reinforcements came from Columbus, which was at that time strongly INCIDENTS OF Till: ENGAGEMENT AT BELMONT. 171 garrisoned by the enemy. Quickly and clearly discerning the position of affairs, General Grant gave the order to fall back to the boats. While executing this movement, the Union troops encountered the advancing Rebels ; and as they had been compelled to fight their way to the captured camp, so they were now compelled to fight their way back again. They did it valiantly. They brought away with them several hundred prison ers, two cannon, and a quantity of arms and ammunition. They reached their boats after some very hard fighting, and then returned to Cairo. The conflict had lasted from ten o clock in the morning till five in the afternoon. The loss was considerable on both sides ; that of the Federal troops being about three hundred in killed and wounded, that of the enemy was perhaps greater. General Grant had two horses shot under him. A similar accident befell General McClernand. As a whole, the battle was a brilliant achievement on the part of the Federal troops, who executed a daring and difficult enterprise, with great bravery and resolu tion. The Federal forces employed on this occasion were from Illinois with the exception of the seventh Iowa regiment. On the 2d of November, 1861, General Fremont was relieved from the administration of the Department of the West. During some time pre vious to that date, loud complaints had been made by men eminent in the civil and military service of the country, in regard to the manner in which he had conducted the affairs of his department. It was boldly charged that he was incompetent to fulfil the duties of his responsible position ; that he was destitute of military skill ; that he had given several hundred military commissions to men utterly unfit for them ; that he had permitted contracts to be made, and had ratified and indorsed them, by which the Federal Government had been defrauded of immense sums of money ; that all his operations were carried on at an enormous and superfluous expense ; and that, notwithstanding that expense, little was accomplished during many months, except the erection of a few fortifications around St. Louis. For the purpose of ascertaining the truth of these charges Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War, visited St. Louis, accompanied by Adjutant-General Thomas. They reached that city on the llth of October. They proceeded to examine into the state of affairs, and inspect the several camps in Missouri, including those at St. Louis, at Tipton and at Syracuse. At these places General Thomas collected the data which he subsequently emboided in a report, which was published and addressed to Mr. Cameron. In that report General Thomas alleged, that the evi dence was conclusive, that Fremont might have reinforced General Lyon at Springfield, and might thus have averted one of the heaviest misfortunes of the war ; that General Fremont had allowed himself to be surrounded by a number of adventurers and speculators, from various portions of the Union, by whom the Government had been defrauded of large amounts ; that he had issued military commissions to incompetent men and to per- 172 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. sonal favorites, who possessed no military knowledge or experience what ever ; that by these and other offences, he had inflicted serious damage on the interests of the nation, and had retarded the operations of the war. These charges, and the proofs which accompanied them, eventually produced a decisive effect on the mind of President Lincoln ; and he felt compelled, though with much reluctance, to order the removal of General Fremont. He was succeeeded in his command by General Hunter, a veteran officer who had fought with great gallantry on several occasions. No reasonable and intelligent person doubted the integrity and the excel lent intentions of General Fremont; and his removal was not intended by the President, nor was it regarded by the nation, as a stigma upon his pri vate character, or on his loyalty and patriotism. He at once acquiesced with dignity and grace in the orders of the Executive ; and urged his offended and incensed troops, who at one time were disposed to mutiny, not to make the least display of dissatisfaction, but to serve his successor in office as faithfully as they had served himself. It may with truth be asserted, that no part of General Fremont s military administration did him so much honor, or evinced his personal excellence more clearly, than his spirit and manner in resigning it. With that superior wisdom and equity which generally marked the official conduct of President Lincoln during his administration, he readily detected where the real difficulty lay; and at a subsequent period evinced his appreciation of the merits of General Fremont, by appointing him to the command of the Mountain Department of Western Virginia. MISSION OF MESSRS MASON AND SLIDELL. 173 CHAPTER XV. EUROPEAN RECOGNITION OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY EFFORTS MADE TO OBTAIN IT MISSION OF MESSRS. MASON AND SLIDELL THEIR ARREST ON BOARD THE TRENT LEGALITY OF THAT ARREST THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT DEMAND THEM THEY ARE SURRENDERED REASONS OF THEIR SURRENDER DIPLOMATIC NOTE OF MR. SEWARD ON THE SUBJECT ARGUMENT OF MR. SUMNER IN THE SENATE THE BATTLE OF DRANESVILLE INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT ITS RESULTS GENERAL MCCALL SKETCH OF HIS CAREER DISMIS SAL OF MR. CAMERON FROM THE FEDERAL CABINET THE WAR IN KENTUCKY THE BATTLE OF MILL SPRINGS INCIDENTS OF THE CONFLICT BAYONET CHARGE OF THE NINTH OHIO REGIMENT DEFEAT OF THE REBELS DEATH OF GENERAL FELIX ZOLLICOFFER HIS CHAR ACTER RESULTS OF THE BATTLE OF MILL SPRINGS SUBSEQUENT FLIGHT AND DISPERSION OF THE REBEL TROOPS. THE crafty and resolute leaders of the Southern Rebellion labored from the beginning of their treasonable movements, with great zeal and earnestness, to obtain the approval and recognition of several of the most important European powers. To this end William L. Yancey and his associates had been sent abroad at an early stage of the rebellion. For this purpose Messrs. Mason and Slidell were selected in October, 1861, to follow them to Europe, as the envoys of the Confederate Government, to unite their efforts with those of their predecessors in accomplishing that desirable result. Scarcely had these commissioners sailed from Havana on board the British packet Trent, when they were arrested, through the vigilance and energy of an American officer. Captain Wilkes, who was already well known for his ability and usefulness in connection with the United States service, commanded the San Jacinto, then cruising in the West Indies; and having been informed, while stopping at Cienfuegos, that these diplomatic Rebels had escaped from the South, and that they had embarked on board the Trent for England, determined immediately to start in pursuit of them. It was while sailing in the narrowest part of the Bahama channel, that he was so fortunate as to encounter the packet. He immediately bore down upon her, fired a shot across her bows to bring her to, and sent two boats under the command of Lieu tenant Fairfax, for the purpose of making the arrest. The Rebels were personally known to the Lieutenant ; and he, having boarded the Trent, and having made known to her commander the purpose of his visit, demanded his prisoners. The furious and profane blustering of the British captain, the solemn and mock-heroic protests of the Rebels, the frantic screams of their wives and children, the blows even which were inflicted by fair and delicate hands on the manly physiognomy of the lieutenant, all availed nothing ; and Messrs. Mason and Slidell, with their two secretaries, descended with many grimaces from the deck of the 174 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Trent into the boats, aud were forthwith transferred, with their baggage to the San Jacinto. This novel and startling incident immediately convulsed the inhabitants of the loyal and the disloyal States with intense though very dissimilar emotions. The former rejoiced that the Eebels had been foiled in their purpose and mission. The latter were at first overwhelmed with indig nation and dismay. But when they began to contemplate the possible consequences of the act, to hope that England might resent the fancied insult to her flag, and to imagine that the Federal Government would thereby become involved in an expensive and ruinous war with that nation, exultation assumed the place of every other feeling in their breasts. The San Jacinto proceeded with her prisoners to Boston, whence they were immediately transferred to Fort Warren, in the harbor of that city. Then followed the universal discussion throughout the land, of the ques tions of the legality of the arrest, the duty of the Federal Government in the premises, and the probable policy of England in regard to the matter. Different opinions were expressed by eminent and learned men on the subject. But the prevalent sentiment was, that the arrest and capture were perfectly justifiable, so far as the abstract and settled principles of international law were concerned, and the uniform practice of England herself in similar cases; and that the government of that country could not, if it had any regard for consistency of conduct, take the least offence at the arrest of the Rebels when on board an English neutral vessel. Though the legality of the capture of the Rebel commissioners might be clear, so far as the abstract principles of law were concerned, the prudence and policy of their surrender, in case the British Government should demand it, was quite a different question. The people of the United States, therefore, waited with intense anxiety to learn what course England would adopt in the premises. As was generally apprehended by those who understood most correctly the spirit of that government, it immediately demanded the unconditional surrender of Mason and Slidell, as a reparation due for the fancied insult which had been inflicted on the British flag. Their conduct demonstrated that the British Government eagerly seized the opportunity which was thus afforded, to embarrass and annoy the people of the United States, in the darkest and most critical moment which had occurred in their career since the period of the storms and struggles of the Revolution, and extort from them while thus embarrassed a humiliating and superfluous concession, which, under other circumstances, would have been resolutely refused. The Rebel commissioners were forthwith surrendered. Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, in a long and elaborate communication which he addressed to Lord Lyons, the British minister then resident at Wash ington, set forth, with great ability, the reasons which induced the ARGUMENT OF MR. SUMNER IN THE SENATE. 175 Federal Government to pursue that policy. lie admitted that the four prisoners were contraband of war ; that Captain Wilkes had the right to search the Trent for their persons ; that the right of search had been exercised in this case in a lawful manner; that Captain Wilkes had the right to seize the Kebels when thus found ; but he contended, on the other hand, that this right of seizure had not been exercised in a legal manner. He held that Captain Wilkes ought to have also taken possession of the vessel which conveyed the Kebels ; that he ought to have brought her into a Federal port ; that he ought to have had her tried, condemned, and confiscated by a Federal tribunal ; and that in no case should he have permitted her to proceed on her voyage to England. Because he failed in adhering to all these technical formalities, Mr. Seward contended that the whole proceeding became legally vitiated ab initio. At a later period Mr. Sumner discussed the subject in the Senate, and vindicated the sur render of the Rebels on no other grounds. lie affirmed that the arrest could not be justified by American precedents and practice; that the Federal Government had never regarded the dispatches of a hostile nation as contraband ; that that government had heretofore considered no persons as contraband except those actually engaged in the military or the naval service of an enemy ; and that it had always opposed and con demned the alleged power on the part of any single officer, to adjudicate and decide personal rights by the tribunal of the quarter deck. These positions Mr. Sumner defended with immense erudition and with some logical force. Nevertheless, the question still remained undetermined in the tribunal of popular judgment and common sense, whether in such cases it was proper and just to pursue toward England that policy which was indicated by English, or that indicated by American precedents, and to myriads of intelligent thinkers it seemed clear, that the British Government ought not to pursue a particular line of policy toward the whole world, and claim the right of search and of arrest in such cases, against all other nations, and then demand, when the occasion served their interest, that all other nations should be required, under precisely similar circumstances, to pursue toward them a policy directly opposite to their own. When, therefore, the rebel commissioners were surren dered to the British authorities, it was done chiefly from motives of expediency, which were concealed and disguised under delicate tissues of elaborate and far-fetched special pleading, which were intended rather to excuse the act, than to demonstrate its validity and correctness in the light of abstract equity, and the established principles of international law. The Federal army of the Potomac had been stationed in the vicinity of Washington, during several months, assiduously employed in perfecting their discipline, and their familiarity with military evolutions, when, on the 20th of December, General McCall determined to send out a large 176 TEE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. foraging party, and to make a reconnaissance in force with a portion of the troops under his command. lie had ascertained that a considerable num ber of Kebels had taken a position at Dranesville, and he resolved to attack them. He gave orders to General Ord to march thither with his brigade. General Keynolds was directed also to advance to Difficult Creek with the forces under his command, to support him. The troops which were thus brought into service consisted of the sixth, ninth, tenth, and twelfth Pennsylvania Keserves, the first regiment of rifles, and Easton s battery. In the march toward the enemy, the rifles, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Kane, led the advance, with Easton s battery, and a portion of the first Pennsylvania cavalry. At half-past one o clock these troops encountered the Kebels, posted near Dranesville, and the ac tion immediately commenced. A portion of the Rebel forces were con cealed in the dense woods, and it was some time before their exact position could be ascertained. The guns of Easton s battery were brought to bear upon them with great effect. They then advanced, for the purpose of turning the left of the Federal troops, but General McCall, who had by this time reached the scene of action with his staff, detected and foiled this movement. He immediately notified Colonel McCalmot, who com manded the left of the Federal forces, of the impending danger ; and such a disposition was instantly made as defeated the purpose of the enemy, and compelled them to return to their position. Meanwhile the engagement was progressing with spirit in the centre and on the right wing of the Union troops. The ninth infantry, under Colonel Jackson, had encountered the Rebels and overpowered them. In the centre, the sixth regiment, under Colonel Ricketts, together with the Bucktail rifles, under Lieutenant-Colonel Kane, received and repulsed the charge of the foe with much gallantry. As the enemy retreated, the Federal troops advanced, until the rout became precipitate and complete. As the victors proceeded through the woods, they met numerous evi dences of the heavy losses which the enemy had suffered ; for the ground was strewn with the dying and the dead, with mangled horses, shattered gun carriages, caissons, arms, ammunition and clothing. The defeat of the Rebels was complete, and their flight ignominious. General McCall ordered the pursuit to be continued for a mile beyond the scene of con flict by two regiments; but so rapid was the pace of the fugitives that it was impossible to overtake them. A hundred dead Rebels were after ward counted on the field ; their wounded, who where doubtless more numerous, they carried away with them. They had probably four thou sand men in the action, and were therefore more numerous than their assailants. The loss on the Federal side was seven killed and sixty wounded. After this engagement, General McCall proceeded to collect forage. He obtained sixteen wagon loads of hay and twenty-two of corn, with which he returned to his carnp. The brigade of General Reynolds THE BATTLE OF MILL SPRINGS. 177 did not reach the battle-field until the contest was over, though they made the latter part of the march with the utmost possible celerity. The engagement of Dranesville was one of the most spirited and suc cessful which had occurred during the progress of the war. General McCall, the chief hero of the day, was a veteran officer, a native of Phila delphia. He entered the United States army in 1818. After several promotions, he served with distinction under General Worth in Florida. He acquired fresh laurels at the battle of Resaca de la Palma, and in July, 1846, was appointed adjutant to General Zachary Taylor, with the rank of major. In 1850 he became inspector-general, with the rank of colonel. He afterward retired from the service, and resided near West Chester, Pennsylvania, until the commencement of the Rebellion. He was then appointed major-general of the fifteen regiments which were authorized to be raised by the Legislature of Pennsylvania. Immediately after the battle of Manassas, the services of these troops, with those of their com manding officer, were tendered to the Federal Government, and accepted. The victory of Dranesville was a worthy continuation of General McCall s previous achievements. He subsequently accompanied the army of General McClellan in the Peninsula, and took a prominent and distin guished part in several of the great battles which were fought in the vicinity of Richmond. At length, in the fearful conflict on the 30th of June, he was taken prisoner, and removed to the Rebel capital ; but after a short captivity he was released. On the 13th of January, 1862, an important change took place in the Federal Cabinet, the announcement of which surprised, and perhaps grati fied, the nation. On that day Simon Cameron, the Secretary of War, waa notified by Mr. Lincoln that he was relieved from the duties of his office, and that he had been appointed minister plenipotentiary to Russia, in the room of Cassius M. Clay. Edwin M. Stanton, a distinguished lawyer, originally from Ohio, but at that time a resident of Washington, was selected as the successor of the retiring secretary. On the 19th of January the Federal forces under General G. H. Thomas, and the Rebel troops under General Felix Zollicoffer, who had been gradually approaching each other in Kentucky, met ; a desperate battle was fought between them near the village of Mill Springs ; and the inhabitants of the loyal States were cheered by the announcement of a splendid and decisive victory to the Federal arms. Previous to this date General Zollieoffer had intrenched himself in a fortified position about fifteen miles southwest from Somerset, and twelve miles from the Cum berland river. This position commanded the whole of the surrounding country, and held the citizens of Pulaski, Wayne, and Russel counties in subjection to the Rebel power. General Thomas had fo rmed the resolu tion to attack these entrenchments in conjunction with the troops under General Schoepff, who was then posted at Somerset. Accordingly, he 12 178 THE CIVIL WAK IN THE UNITED STATES. commenced his march from Jamestown toward the position of the enemy. On the 17th, General Zollicoffer having been informed, by some treason able means, of the contemplated enterprise of the two Federal commanders, determired to defeat it by marching forth from his works, attacking General Thomas first, and having routed him, to assail General Schoepff, thus vanquishing his opponents in detail. The hostile forces first came in contact at seven o clock on the morning of the 19th, when the pickets of Colonel Manson s troops, who had been posted in the advance, were driven in. It was soon evident that the Rebel army was approaching in full force. The distant firing aroused the Fede ral camp,/ and a portion of the tenth Indiana regiment was ordered for ward to the support of the pickets. The whole of that regiment soon afterward advanced against the enemy, who were gradually forming into line, regiment by regiment, and taking their positions on the scene of con flict. After the firing had continued for half an hour, an attempt was made, by a body of Rebel cavalry, to outflank the Federal troops which had thus far been engaged. The movement was partially successful ; and the right wing, consisting of the tenth Indiana, under Colonel Kise, was compelled to fall back to avoid being surrounded. The order to retire was judiciously given; for at that period of the battle the Rebel forces continually rolled forward like an inexhaustible flood ; they advanced with loud and frantic yells, intended to intimidate their foes ; and the superiority of their numbers, at that juncture, might have given them an advantage which would have seriously affected the issue of the day. While thus retiring in good order, the fugitives were met and supported by the fourth Kentucky, the ninth Ohio, and the second Minnesota regi ments. The combat was then renewed with desperate energy on both sides. The enemy had been strengthened by large accessions on their extreme left ; and a portion of the tenth Indiana was ordered to that point, to assist the troops there engaged. The nature of the ground rendered the operations of the troops exceed ingly difficult, being covered, for the most part, by tangled brushwood, fallen logs, or growing corn. It was also difficult to place the artillery in favorable positions, for the same reasons. Nevertheless, as the battle progressed, the batteries of Whitmore, Standard, and Kinney, performed efficient service. The guns of the Rebels, however, did less damage than these, as they were aimed too high. The vicissitudes of the conflict reached over a mile in extent, and were various and vacillating, as hour after hour wore away. Within the limits of the battle-field, several posi tions were of superior importance ; and around these positions the most desperate combats occurred. A log-house and stable were of this class, and both parties contended, in a long and bloody struggle, for the pos session of them. At last the ninth Ohio remained masters of the position. This position, though valuable, still left the issue of the contest uncertain ; DEATH OF GENERAL FELIX ZOLLICOFFER. 179 for the determination of the Rebels remained as unyielding and intense M before. It was now eleven o clock, and no serious advantage had yet been gained by either army. The centre and left of the Federal forces had repeatedly advanced, fired, and fallen back ; and the same evolutions had as often been performed by the Kebels. General Thomas determined at length to attempt a decisive movement. At that time the fourteenth Ohio and tenth Kentucky regiments were approaching the battle-field, along the Columbus road ; and a fresh accession of strength was thus afforded. General Thomas ordered Colonel Caster to flank the enemy s right wing with his regiment, which till then had not joined in the action. In concert with this movement Colonel McCook ordered the ninth Ohio to charge the position of the enemy with fixed bayonets, and turn their left flank. This regiment was composed chiefly of Germans ; and no sooner was this order given, than, having first discharged their guns, they rushed forward to the attack on the Rebel lines with vociferous cheering. The latter at first prepared to receive them. They maintained their position until the formidable wall of bristling bayonets approached within thirty yards of their front. A Tennessee regiment on the extreme left fired a feeble and rambling volley into the advancing Federals ; they then broke and fled. A Mississippi regiment delivered a similar volley, and immediately made a similar retreat. The panic and the rout spread rapidly, until it extended over the entire line of the enemy. The gallant charge of the ninth Ohio had decided the fortunes of the day. The whole Rebel army at length retreated toward their intrenchments in the utmost disorder, and with heavy losses of guns and ammunition. The pathway of their flight was covered with innumerable trophies of their disaster, and with multitudes of the wounded, the dying, and the dead. "But the most serious calamity of this memorable day to the Rebel cause, was the death of General Felix Zollicoffer. It was near the con clusion of the conflict when this event occurred. Zollicoffer, attended by his staff, was riding over the field, directing the movements of his troops, when, being somewhat in advance of his line, the group was observed by Colonel S. S. Fry, of the fourth Kentucky regiment. That officer rode toward them and fired. His shot was immediately returned by one of Zollicoffer s aids, who unhorsed him. He then aimed again, and with fatal accuracy sent his bullet through the heart of the Rebel commander. Zollicoffer fell to the earth, his attendants fled in dismay, and his inanimate remains were left to add to the trophies and glories of the victory. They were afterward found in a wagon, together with the body of Lieutenant Bailie Peyton, on the route of the retreat. The death of General Zolli coffer was no ordinary blow to the Rebel cause. He was a man of great energy and ability. He had risen to eminence through a long gradation of honorable offices, such as the editorship of several leading journals in 180 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Tennessee ; as State printer, as State Comptroller, as member of the State Senate, and as Representative in the Federal Congress. When the Rebellion commenced, he did not regard its purposes and principles with favor. But when he found the majority of the population of the Southern States enthusiastically in favor of the movement, and saw that the tide was becoming resistless, he joined with those around him, and was promoted to a high command in the Rebel army. He was a disap pointed statesman ; an habitual sadness pervaded his spirit ; and on the bloody field of Mill Springs, the last of his hopes was crushed by the hand of death. The fugitive Rebels were pursued on the day of the battle till within a mile of the fortifications which General Zollicoffer had lately occupied. The Federal cannon were then brought to bear upon the works, and the process of shelling commenced. This was continued during an hour. Only a single gun responded. Then night fell, and the wearied victors reposed on their arms, expecting to renew the assault in the morning. At break of day on the morning of the 20th, several regiments were thrown forward toward the intrenchments. Soon the scouts reported that the works were untenanted. The enemy had in fact evacuated them during the night, had fled across the river ; and had thus rendered the triumph of the Federal troops complete. Not only their military strength, but their moral force, had been utterly dissipated by one of the most com plete disasters which had yet overtaken the cause of the Rebellion. The number of troops engaged in this conflict was about ten thousand on the side of the Rebels, and seven thousand on that of the Federals. The victors captured eight six-pounders, and two Parrott guns, one hun dred wagons, twelve hundred horses and mules, a thousand muskets, and a large amount of provisions. The loss of the enemy was a hundred and fourteen killed, and probably six hundred wounded. The Federal loss was forty killed, a hundred and twenty-seven wounded. The conse quences of this triumph were important. Beside inspiriting the whole nation with patriotic exultation, it opened the passes to the Cumberland mountains, which led to the valley of the Tennessee river, thereby giving access to the territory of North Carolina from the west. It thus assisted in completing that chain of military bands with which the Federal Gov ernment was gradually girding the limits of the Rebel Confederacy, with the intent that, at the proper and critical moment, it might, by one powerful and resistless constriction, crush out of it the last remains of vitality. DEPARTURE OF THE BURNSIDE EXPEDITION. 181 CHAPTER XYI. THE BURNSIDE EXPEDITION ITS STRENGTH AND SECRET DESTINATION ITS DEPARTURE FROM ANNAPOLIS IT REACHES FORTRESS MONROE ANOTHER GALE OFF CAPE HAT- TERAS ITS RESULTS LOSS OF THE STEAMER CITY OF NEW YORK HEROISM OP GENERAL BURNSIDE THE EXPEDITION ENTERS PAMLICO SOUND IT STEERS FOR ROANOKB ISLAND REBEL WORKS ERECTED ON THAT ISLAND THE FEDERAL TROOPS DISEMBARK PLAN OF THE ATTACK INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT THE FINAL CHARGE DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF THE REBELS CAPTURE OF THEIR FORTS THEIR STRENGTH RESULTS OP THE.VICTORY DEATH OF COLONEL DEMONTREUIL SKETCH OF GENERAL BURNSIDE ATTACK ON FORT HENRY STRENGTH OF THE FORT NUMBER OF THE FEDERAL GUNBOATS INCI DENTS OF THE BOMBARDMENT SURRENDER OF THE REBEL WORKS TROPHIES OF THK VICTORY LOSS ON BOTH SIDES SKILL AND HEROISM OF COMMODORE FOOTE SKETCH OP HIS CAREER FURTHER OPERATIONS OF THE BURNSIDE EXPEDITION. THE signal success that had attended the several expeditions which sailed to Hatteras and Port Royal, encouraged the Federal Government to continue that effective method of operation. Accordingly, General Burnside was appointed to the command of another armament, consisting of both land and naval forces, whose destination was as yet unknown, but which he was ordered to organize and complete with the utmost dis patch. That able and energetic officer at once addressed himself to the task assigned him. Under his direction a large number of vessels and transports were purchased ; provisions, arms and ammunition, were pro cured ; troops were collected ; and by the 9th of January, 1862, the largest and most formidable expedition which ever proceeded from an American port was ready to sail from Annapolis. The total number of vessels of all kinds, excepting those belonging to the regular navy, was forty-five. The troops on board amounted to sixteen thousand men, and were commanded, under General Burnside, by three brigadier-generals, Foster, Reno and Parke. Each of these officers belonged to the regular army, and were soldiers by profession. The number of guns of heavy calibre carried by the fleet was forty -five, possessing a range of two miles and a half, together with five floating batteries. A large number of the transports had been provided through the necessary agency of contrac tors, and the government was grossly defrauded ; and serious perils were subsequently entailed upon the expedition through the knavery of those who obtained the contract for furnishing the expedition. The embarkation of the troops commenced at Annapolis on the 5th of January. The first brigade, commanded by General Foster, first went on board ; then followed the second, commanded by General Reno ; then the third, under the orders of General Parke. The entire process was completed by the 8th, and on the morning of the 9th the signal-gun from 182 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the Picket boomed over the tranquil waste of waters, announcing tLe moment of departure. Soon every anchor was hauled up, the sails were spread on every craft, the hoarse voices of the many steamers were heard, shouts of joy and martial melodies resounded from ship to shore, and the vast armament began to move with steady and graceful majesty over the blue bosom of the Chesapeake. The first destination of the fleet was Fortress Monroe. They arrived at that point on the 10th, and proceeded at once to anchor abreast of the fortress. On the llth, during the night, the voyage was resumed, and the fleet sailed from Hampton Eoads while the ocean and the land still reposed beneath the beams of a bright moonlight. A propitious breeze gently wafted the adventurers forward on their way, and cape after. cape along the main was quickly passed. When Sunday morning dawned the swiftest steamers were already in view of Hatteras light, and before the evening of that day a number of them had passed over the bar of Hat teras inlet. Thus far all had progressed in the most favorable and fortu nate manner. But during Sunday night the scene suddenly changed. A gale of terrific violence began to blow from the northwest, exceeding any thing ordinarily witnessed on that stormy coast, and soon the bosom of the deep was lashed into fury. The watery waste presented the aspect of an endless series of convulsed and revolving mountains. During two whole days and nights it was impossible for any communication to be had from one vessel to another. They were often lost from each other s sight, either buried in the troughs of the angry sea, or separated by the colossal waves. Gradually the spectacle became one of appalling interest, for the tempest still increased in violence, and soon many of the vessels and transports, from the peculiar character of their freight, became almost unmanageable. The violence of the winds drove some of the ships and transports out to sea, and some it grounded in the swash channel. Over all of them the enormous waves dashed from prow to stern, deluging their upper decks. They reeled and staggered like drunken men. Many lost their guards, and some of the steamers lost their wheel-houses. The menacing wall of breakers which girded Pamlico Sound, seemed im passable to those vessels which had not cleared the bar before the storm began ; and their only safety appeared to be in keeping as far out from land as possible. During the continuance of this terrible tempest, ac companied with deluges of rain, the officers and men exhibited the utmost heroism, and General Burnside sailed to and fro amid the tossing and rolling seas in his staff-boat, the Picket, endeavoring to assist and counsel each of his officers in command. But, in spite of admirable seamanship and dauntless resolution, the usual effects of the destructive violence of the waves commenced to appear ; for rarely had old ocean been the arena of a spectacle similar to that then exhibited in the vicinity of Hatteras. The large steamer City 1HJ17/Y HEROISM OF GENERAL BURNSIDE. 183 of New York was driven on the bar lying at the entrance of the barber. She was three hundred and fifty feet long, twenty-five hundred tons burden, and was heavily laden with stores and ammunition. It was found impossible to render her any assistance, and she eventually became a total wreck. A portion of her crew was saved. When the surf-boat reached the sinking steamer, her officers and men were clinging with desperation to her sides, the sea making clear breaches over her entire deck. The gunboat Zouave, which had on board three companies of the twenty-fifth Massachusetts regiment, sank at her anchorage, though all those on board were fortunately rescued before she went down. The Louisiana, an enormous steamer, three hundred feet in length, haying an entire regiment on board, was driven on a sand-bar, and was seriously disabled. Her passengers and crew were also rescued. A collision took place between the steamer Cossack and the brig Hope, by which both were badly damaged. Colonel Allen, of the New Jersey regiment, his surgeon Weller, and second officer, Taylor, were lost by the swamping of a lifeboat in which they were endeavoring, with generous daring, to render assistance to those imperilled by the ruthless tempest. Such were some of the scenes connected with this memorable oc casion. After the fury of the storm abated, the vessels which had drifted out to sea gradually returned, and passed successively over the bar, by means of steam-tugs and other appropriate helps, into the tranquil waters within. Nothing but the superior skill and dauntless resolution of the officers who commanded this expedition could have saved it from entire destruction. Most commendable among these was General Burnside himself. While the winds blew, and the rains de scended, and the billows rolled with the greatest violence, he was con stantly sailing in his staff-boat to and fro amid the watery world of tumult and danger, regardless of his own peril, solicitous only for the safety of his men and his ships. It was a thrilling spectacle to witness his movements. At one moment his small steamer would be seen riding on the summit of a monstrous wave then he would become enveloped in the deluge of spray which swept over the entire vessel and then again he would become wholly invisible, swallowed in the yawning gullies of the deep. Undaunted, he would soon appear, to go through the same process, with the same result. At length the storm wholly ceased. After five days of incessant labor, on the 22d the entire fleet entered Pamlico Sound. The naval portion of the expedition had been placed under the command of Commodore Golds- borough. He and his officers had contributed greatly by their skill and valor, to the preservation of the fleet during the recent storm. Their assistance and co-operation in the events which ensued were of eaual im portance and value to the Federal cause. 184 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Some days elapsed, after the termination of the storm, before General Burnside and his troops were ready to resume operations. On the 4th of February the steamer Patuxent was dispatched to every vessel in the fleet, with orders to be in readiness to sail on the ensuing morning. At four o clock on the 5th a busy scene was presented by the vast assemblage of vessels, and all were soon in proper trim to advance. Each steamer towed two or three sailing vessels, filled with troops and stores, and the signal to weigh anchor having been given, seventy-five vessels of every imaginable size and construction began to move. Till that moment the destination of the fleet had remained a secret to all save the commanding officers. The order to steer across Pamlico Sound toward the shore of North Carolina, at last assured the men that Roanoke Island was the in tended point of attack. Forts Hatteras and Clark gradually disappeared in the distance of the southern horizon ; and at nine o clock on the morn ing of the 16th, the vast armament approached the point on the island which the Rebels had fortified. Their works consisted of four batteries, which commanded the main channel through the Croatan Sound. As soon as the Federal fleet came within range of their guns, they opened a fire upon them. To this fire the gunboats, whose lighter draught enabled them to approach nearer the batteries, responded. After several hours the barracks of the rebels were set on fire, which greatly crippled their operations, and their fire gradually ceased. This contest was merely a preliminary one. At five o clock orders were given to disembark the troops. This process occupied the entire night, and when the next morning dawned the Federal flag once more floated over the soil of a Rebel State, surrounded by a powerful and valiant force. In addition to the four forts already mentioned, a Rebel army was encamped several miles to the left of the works. A swamp intervened between the two, which was crossed by a narrow road con structed of the trunks of trees which had been sunk in the quagmire. Up this road General Foster advanced with the twenty-third, twenty- fifth, and twenty-seventh Massachusetts, the tenth Connecticut, and the fifth Rhode Island regiments. At the same time General Reno proceeded with his brigade to attack one of the forts. It was a difficult and dan gerous service, in consequence of the peculiar nature of the surrounding country. It was an almost impassable swamp, sometimes covered with brushwood, sometimes lying under water. The first day terminated before any thing could be accomplished. The night which followed was stormy, and the troops remained under arms, deluged with rain, without shelter or proper food. When morning dawned the contest was resumed. The sharpshooters of the enemy, stationed and concealed in the woods to the rear and the right of the fort, did much execution. Their batteries were also worked with effect, and a continuous discharge of small arms from their troops stationed in the vicinity of the fort, was very destruc- DEFEAT AM) FLIGHT OF THE REBELS. 185 live. The Federal soldiers were often compelled to load their guns while lying in the mud and water. At length the order was given to charge the enemy at the point of the bayonet. During the execution of this order the Eebels increased their fire with deadly effect. As a portion of the Federal troops were com pelled to march to the attack through a swamp nearly waist-deep, their efforts were made under immense disadvantages. Nevertheless, they poured a heavy fire upon the enemy while advancing; and as they ap proached the Rebel works the enemy fled, leaving their guns unspiked, and throwing away in their haste their arms, knapsacks, and whatever else could impede their retreat. The Federal troops at last struggled through the swamp, waded through the moat, climbed over the parapets, and entered the deserted fortification with loud and enthusiastic cheers. The flags of the twenty-first Massachusetts and the fifty-first New York were unfurled at the same moment over the late stronghold of the van quished Rebels. The pursuit of the fugitives was immediately commenced by the troops of the second brigade, commanded by General Reno. They had fled toward their encampment in the interior of the island. Their pathway was covered with evidences of their terror, and of the precipitation of their flight. Many of their wounded were left to the mercy of the victors, and some who fell exhausted and unable to continue their flight became prisoners. Thirty or forty persons put off from the shore in a small sloop, to escape across Roanoke Sound toward the mainland. Among them was 0. Jennings Wise, who had been mortally wounded. General Reno ordered five companies to scour the beach, and to fire upon the Rebel boat if she refused to return. The latter obeyed the summons, came ashore, and surrendered to Major Clark. Meanwhile the Federal forces were advancing toward the Rebel camp named "Georgia," under the command of Generals Foster and Reno. As the advanced guard, consist ing of a company of the twenty -first Massachusetts, were marching through the forest, a number of Rebels who were in ambush fired upon them. These were soon routed, three being killed and five wounded. A short time afterward a detachment of Rebels was observed approaching, bearing a flag of truce. Having come within hailing distance of the Federal lines Lieutenant Poor, who commanded the flag, desired to see the chief Federal officer. He was conducted to General Foster. He inquired what terms of capitulation would be granted. The answer was, that no other terms than an immediate and unconditional surrender were admissible. Lieutenant Poor at once acceded to them and led the way to the Rebel encampment. Having arrived the capitulation was completed, and all the guns, works, ammunition and stores of the Rebels on Roanoke Island became the trophies of the victors. Two thousand Rebel troops were also taken prisoners of war. They were composed chiefly of resi- 186 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. dents of North Carolina. Among them was Colonel Shaw, the comman dant of the Island. The Federal loss during the entire contest was twenty killed and ninety-six wounded. The loss of the Rebels was probably greater, though it was not accurately ascertained. The several forts which had been erected on Eoanoke Island by the Rebels for the purpose of commanding Roanoke and Croatan Sounds, were of considerable strength. Fort Bartow mounted one rifled thirty- two pounder, six smooth bore thirty-two pounders, and one rifled brass six pounder. Fort Blanchard, situated two miles from Fort Bartow, contained four long thirty-two pounders. Farther up the island, and near its ex tremity, was Fort Huger, which contained nine long thirty-two pounders and one rifled gun. In an opposite portion of the island was Fort Forrest, which contained two thirty-two pounders. Though insignificant in size it commanded the route from Croatan Sound to Nags Head. A battery at Kobb s Fishery, on the mainland opposite, which was composed of old barges, and held three guns, was destroyed as worthless by the Federal troops, after the capitulation. When deserting their several forts the Rebels attempted to spike their cannon with tenpenny nails. All of these were afterward extracted, and the purpose of the Rebels defeated. The complete and glorious victory which graced the Federal arms in the capture of Roanoke Island, fell like a thunderbolt on the Rebel leaders. Its value to the cause of the Union was immense ; and its rela tion to operations which were afterward to be undertaken was important. During its progress several personal incidents occurred which invested it with a deep and permanent interest. Among these was the heroic death of Lieutenant Colonel De Montreuil, of the D Epineul Zouaves. When the New York ninth made the gallant charge, which was the chief cause of the desertion of Fort Bartow by the Rebels, he rushed forward in the advance. In one of the last volleys of musketry which they discharged from their works, in the dawning hour of exultant victory, he fell, pierced through the head by a bullet. His death was a serious loss ; for he was an officer of unusual merit. But within the gloomy walls of Fort Bartow, amid all the wreck and confusion produced by the conflict, there was another death-scene of still more melancholy interest. 0. Jennings Wise, the son of Henry A. Wise, after having been brought back wounded to the fort, was placed under the care of a surgeon ; but it soon became evi dent that he was beyond the aid of the physician s art. Until he became speechless he retained the hope that he would recover ; and inquired with great solicitude from the surgeon whether, after his recovery, he would be permitted to return to Richmond on his parole of honor ? His early death was a sad but well-deserved penalty for the prostitution of his talents and his influence to the cause of treason. Previous to the com mencement of the attack, a Rebel fleet, commanded by Commodore Lynch, had been stationed at Roanoke Island. It consisted of nine small vessels, SKETCH OF GENERAL BURNSIDE. 187 which mounted seventeen guns. All these vessels, with the exception of two, were subsequently taken or destroyed by the Federal forces. By this event the enemy were thenceforth deprived of all means of commu nication along Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. Thus far the purpose of this expedition had been successfully attained, and reflected honor on all concerned, but especially upon its master-spirit, General Burnside. This gallant officer was born in Indiana in 1824. He entered West Point Academy at the early age of eighteen, and grad uated in 1817. He was breveted second lieutenant, and joining the army then in Mexico, marched under Patterson to the gates of the capital. After the conclusion of the war he was stationed at Fort Adams, in New port Harbor. In 1849 he was attached to Captain Bragg s battery, and performed frontier service during several years in New Mexico. He af terward received the post of quartermaster to the commission which surveyed the boundary line between the United States and Mexico. He was then already distinguished for his energy and daring. In 1851 he crossed the plains from the Gila river, through the Indian territory, trav eling twelve hundred miles in seventeen days, with an escort of only three men, and brought dispatches from Colonel Graham to the President. He was again stationed at Fort Adams ; but subsequently, wearied with a life of inaction, he obtained the post of cashier of the Land Department of the Illinois Central Railroad, of which General McClellan was then superintendent. Two years later he became the treasurer of the company, and removed to the city of New York. Immediately after the outbreak of the Rebellion, he was invited by Governor Sprague of Rhode Island to take command of the first regiment of that State. He immediately ac cepted the offer, and in half an hour commenced his journey to Providence, He distinguished himself by his coolness and bravery in the engagement at Stone Bridge, and afterward at the more memorable and disastrous conflict of Bull Run. His superior merits as ^n officer and a man strongly commended him as a suitable person to command the Federal expedition against Roanoke Island. The event demonstrated the wisdom, of the appointment. From this scene of triumph on the sea-coast, we turn to another of equal interest, though of less imposing proportions, in the Misissippi valley. On the 5th of February General Grant ordered Flag-officer Foote to take command of seven gunboats and proceed to the attack of Fort Henry, an important Rebel fortification, situated on the eastern bank of the Tennessee river near the Kentucky line, about fifty-five miles from Paducah. A reconnoissance of the works had previously been made by General C. F. Smith, on the 21st of January, by which he ascertained that the Federal gunboats could assume a position in the river from which they could assault the fort with advantage. The fortification contained 188 THE CIVIL WAE IN THE UNITED STATES. two sixty -four pounders, one thirty-two pounder, two twenty-four pound ers, three six pounders, and two twelve pound howitzers. The garrison numbered about sixty men. The capture of the fort was important, inasmuch as it would enable the Federal boats to ascend the Tennessee river to the point where the Memphis and Ohio railroad crossed, and would give the Union troops possession of that valuable means of com munication. The gunboats appropriated to the service of reducing the fort were the Cincinnati, the St. Louis, the Carondelet, the Essex, the Conestoga, the Tyler, and the Lexington. These boats had been built expressly for such enterprises, and were constructed on so broad a model that they pos sessed, while in the water, almost the firmness of a land battery. The Cincinnati carried thirteen guns, and was commanded by Lieutenant R. N. Stembel. The St. Louis carried thirteen guns, and was commanded by Lieutenant Paulding. The force of the Carondelet was the same, com manded by Henry Walke. The Essex had nine guns, and was under the orders of Commander W. D. Porter. The Conestoga, the Tyler, and the Lexington were of similar strength, and were commanded by Lieu tenants Phelps, Gwin, and Shirk, respectively. These vessels having approached on the 6th of February within seventeen hundred yards of Fort Henry, commenced the assault at half-past twelve o clock. The action was spirited on both sides, and continued during nearly two hours. The firing of the Rebels was made with precision. A shot passed through the boiler of the Essex, which disabled her, and killed several men by the escaping steam, after which she was compelled to drop down the river. The Cincinnati received thirty-one shots, and had one man killed and eight wounded. During the engagement this boat proudly kept her position in the advance, until at last she reached a point within three hundred yards of the fort. A number of the Rebel guns had now been dismounted, and one of them burst. The enemy lost five killed and ten wounded. At forty minutes past one o clock the Rebel flag was struck, and the fort surrendered. The commanding officer, General Lloyd Tilghman, together with fifty-four men, became prisoners of war. The trophies of the victory consisted of the ammunition and artillery of the enemy, together with a large amount of stores and tents, sufficient to accommodate fifteen thousand men. Previous to the engagement, a body of several thousand Rebel troops had been encamped in the vicinity of the fort. These retreated toward Paris as soon as they discovered that the surrender of the works was inevitable; and by this precipitate flight they succeeded in getting beyond the grasp of the victors. General Grant reached the scene of conflict nearly an hour after the surrender, and immediately took possession of the fort. The land forces under his com mand had therefore no opportunity of participating in the contest. It had been a part of the plan of the assault, that the forces under General Grant SKETCH OF COMMODORE FOOTE. 189 should attack those of the Kebels near the fort, in the rear ; but the con- dition of the roads and of the river prevented that officer, as we have stated, from reaching the scene of conflict until after the termination of the. engagement. The loss on the Federal side was thirty- nine killed and wounded. Immediately after the capitulation, the bridge of the Memphis and Ohio railroad, fifteen miles above the fort, was taken pos session of by a detachment of Federal troops. The gunboats which per formed such efficient service on this occasion were partly iron clad, and generally resisted with success the shot of the enemy. The ball which penetrated the boiler of the Essex, by which the greatest injury was effected, entered the forward part, passing through the heavy bulk head. Immediately after the conclusion of the battle General Grant ordered a large portion of his command to take their position on the road leading from Fort Henry toward Fort Donelson, which important fortification was designated as the next object of attack. Captain Andrew IT. Foote, the chief hero of the capture of Fort Henry, was born in Connecticut, and was a sou of Senator Foote from that State, against whom Daniel Webster delivered one of his most famous and elaborate orations. He entered the United States service in 1822, and gradually rose in his profession until 1852, when he attained the rank of commander. He spent twenty years in service at sea, and the re mainder of his professional life in duty on shore. When the rebellion broke forth, he was in command of the navy yard at Brooklyn. He was then promoted to a captaincy, and transferred to the Department of the West, where he was placed in command of the flotilla on the Mississippi. In the course of his diversified services he had visited Japan, and the coast of Africa ; respecting the latter, he wrote and published a volume, which indicated superior literary ability. He deservedly ranked among the most eminent, brave, and worthy naval officers whom the annals of our country, either in war or peace, have yet produced. The Burnside expedition, after having reduced the Eebel batteries on Koanoke Island, and taken possession of it, entered the waters of Albe- marle Sound, and steering in a northern direction, sailed up the Pas- quotank river. The next apparent object of attack at this period seemed to be Elizabeth City, the capital of Pasquotank county, and one of the most important towns in the northeastern portion of North Carolina. But with admirable prudence the commander confined the secret of his purposes to his own bosom, thereby leaving the enemy in a perplexing uncertainty in regard to his future movements. 190 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XVII. 70SITION AND STRENGTH OF FORT DONELSON GENERAL GRANT AND FL^ G-OFFICER FOOTS PREPARE TO ATTACK IT COMMENCEMENT OF THEIR OPERATIONS REPULSE OF THE GUN BOATS THE ASSAULT FROM THE LAND SIDE INCIDENTS OF THE BOMBARDMENT PROPO SITION OF GENERAL BUCKNER TO SURRENDER THE FLIGHT OF GENERALS FLOYD AND PIL LOW THE CAPITULATION OF THE FORT RESULTS AND TROPHIES OF THE CONQUEST SKETCH OF ULYSSES 8. GRANT SKETCH OF GENERAL CHARLES FERGUSON SMITH GENERAL LANDER S ATTACK ON THE REBELS AT BLOOMERY GAP ITS RESULTS SKETCH OF GENERAL LANDER RE-ELECTION OF JEFFERSON DAVIS AS PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDE RACY HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS OCCUPATION OF COLUMBUS, KENTUCKY, BY FEDERAL TROOPS DESERTION OF NASHVILLE BY THE REBEL FORCES UNEXPECTED ATTACK AND SUCCESS OF THE REBEL BATTERING RAM MERRIMAC INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL OF THE MONITOR IN HAMPTON ROADS BATTLE BETWEEN THE MONITOR AND THE MERRIMAC. THE capture of Fort Henry was merely a preliminary movement to the attack on Fort Donelson. The latter was a Rebel fortification of great importance, situated on the Cumberland river, and was one of the keys to the possession and control of Tennessee. The works were twelve miles distant from Fort Henry, and were much larger and stronger than the other, presenting a front of nearly four miles. The outer batteries were located on ridges several hundred feet high, which were covered with a dense undergrowth of timber. The Rebels had placed heavy logs on the top of their breastworks, leaving a narrow space between, through which they could discharge their pieces with greater security. Upon several of the eminences near the main fort smaller batteries had been erected, one of which mounted five guns. An army of thirty thousand men occupied and defended the works. A portion of these troops were recent reinforce ments from Bowling Green, which the enemy were evacuating. The con templated attack on Fort Donelson was to be made by both land and naval forces. General Grant commanded the former, Flag-officer Foote the latter. Their united force numbered fifty thousand men. The operations of the siege were commenced at three o clock on the afternoon of the 13th of February, 1862, by Captain Foote. With four iron-clad and two wooden gunboats, he approached within four hundred yards of the works, on the Cumberland river, and commenced a vigorous assault. The Rebels responded with energy and skill. After fighting an hour and a quarter, two of the vessels were disabled, and became so un manageable, the one by the loss of her wheel, the other by the loss of her tiller, that they drifted down the stream, and beyond the range of their guns. The remaining boats were also severely injured, one of them having received fifty-nine shots. One of the rifled cannon on board the THE ASSAULT FROM THE LAND SIDE. 191 Carondelet burst, killing six men. At length, perceiving the us^lessness of continuing the unequal struggle, Captain Foote withdrew his flotilla, and the action for that day terminated. His loss was nine killed and forty-five wounded. He had, however, succeeded in silencing nine guns in the lower tier of the enemy s works. On the 14th, the attack from the land side began. The forces of General Grant were drawn up in line of battle, on a range of hills outside of those occupied by the exterior batteries of the rebels; by which means the latter were completely encircled, from the Cumberland, south of the fort, to the waters of a stream which flowed on the north side of it. The attack was commenced by a discharge of artillery by Captain Tyler, who threw his shells with admirable precision into the works of the enemy, at a point where they seemed to be thickly crowded together. During the 14th, the left wing of the Federal forces was chiefly engaged, and before night the upper fort on the enemy s right, which was the object of their attack, was taken and occupied by the assailants. During this day the Rebels succeeded in capturing Schwartz s battery, but before the action was suspended by the approach of darkness it was retaken. The enemy had accomplished that achievement by making a desperate sortie, in which they drove the Federals half a mile, and then returned to their works with their trophy. Afterward, when the Federals rallied, they not only redeemed the lost advantage, but also gained possession of a portion of the enemy s works. On the following day the engagement was renewed with the utmost fury. General Charles F. Smith led the attack on the lower end of the intrenchments, and was the first to gain a footing within them. General McClernand s division, composed of the brigades of Wallace, McArthur, and Ogleby, fought with great heroism, and suffered heavily. They were chiefly composed of troops from Illinois. The enemy succeeded at one time in turning the right wing of the Federal army ; but after half an hour, the lost ground was regained. During the whole of Saturday, the 15th, the battle raged with varied fortunes. It cannot be denied that little generalship was displayed by some of the chief officers of the Federal army ; for during a large part of the engagement, the men fought in a great measure under the repulse of personal bravery, without any uniform plan of operations, and often fired at will. The enemy fought with very great advantages, being protected by their extensive works, to which, after each renewed repulse, they could retire in comparative safety. From their breastworks they hurled a deluge of grape shot and canister against their assailants, and many fell from musketry and rifle balls. Nevertheless, the Federal troops fought with the utmost resolution, and repeatedly gained important successes by their heroic exertions. When darkness fell on Saturday evening, the issue of the conflict seemed undecided. The Rebels still held possession of the greater por tion of their works, and it was expected that on the ensuing day, the 192 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE CXITED STATES. battle would be renewed with increased fury. Accordingly, during Saturday night a concentration of all the Federal troops was made, and orders were given that every man should be at his post in the early dawn, prepared to charge the enemy at the point of the bayonet. This move ment was to be made simultaneously along the whole line. During the hours of night an unusual and mysterious silence prevailed throughout the works of the Eebels. When at length the morning of Sunday, the 16th, dawned, the first sight which greeted the Federal commanders was a number of white flags displayed at various intervals upon the fortifica tions. Soon afterward a flag of truce was seen approaching. It accom panied a letter from General Buckner, the commander of the Eebel forces, to General Grant, proposing that commissioners should be appointed to arrange the terms of the capitulation of the Confederate forces under his command, and asking for an armistice until twelve o clock. To this communication General Grant immediately replied, that no terms what ever could be accepted except an unconditional and immediate surrender. At the same time he gave the Eebel officer the unwelcome information, that it was his intention to renew the attack without delay. This missive soon elicited a response from General Buckner, in which, after complimenting himself and his troops upon the brilliant valor which they had exhibited, he added that he should accept the "ungenerous and un- chivalrous terms" which had been designated. In a short time afterward, the Federal troops advanced, entered, and took possession of the vast fortifications of the vanquished enemy. The stars and stripes were then unfurled over Fort Donelson, the largest and strongest of the Eebel fort resses in the southwest. Then it was that the most singular and startling announcements were made to the victors. During the previous night Generals Floyd and Pillow had secretly made their escape from the intrenchments, having embarked with the utmost secresy, with about two thousand troops, on the Eebel steamers which were lying in the river. Of the remainder, fifteen thousand became prisoners of war ; many had deserted in small bodies ; and the dead and wounded were numerous. Among the officers captured were General Buckner, Colonels Gantt, Yoorhees, Brown, and Abernethy. Twelve thousand stand of arms were taken, a vast amount of ammunition and stores, fourteen thirty-two pounders, with other guns of smaller calibre. Among those who had distinguished themselves during the engagement were Generals Wallace, McClernand, and Charles F. Smith. The loss of the Eebels during this battle was about five hundred killed, and one thousand wounded. The loss on the Federal side was three hundred and fifty-five killed, fourteen hundred wounded and missing. The immense number of prisoners taken were transferred as quickly as possible to Camp Douglas, near Chicago, and to other suitable points in the northwest. GEN. LANDER S ATTACK ON BLOOMERY GAP. 103 Major-General Ulysses S. Grant, who commanded the Federal forces during this memorable combat, was born in Olermont county, Ohio, in 1822. He entered West Point Academy in 1839, and graduated in 1843, and was appointed brevet second-lieutenant. He served under General Taylor during the Mexican war ; also under General Scott, during his march from Vera Cruz to the capital ; and was twice promoted for his meritorious conduct. He afterward became regimental quartermaster, and in 1854 had attained the rank of captain in the fourth infantry of regulars. Withdrawing then from the service into civil life, he removed to St. Louis county, Missouri, and thence to Galena. When the rebellion broke forth he tendered his services to Governor Yates, was accepted, and appointed colonel of the twenty-first regiment of Illinois volunteers. He was soon after promoted to the rank of brigadier, and took a promi nent part in many of the earlier scenes of the conflict in Missouri. He commanded in the southeastern district in that State ; and by his occupa tion of Paducah, and by his gallant conduct in the battle of Belmont, he earned the high rank of major-general, to which he was promoted by Presi dent Lincoln, and in which he was confirmed by the Senate. The important conflicts at Forts Henry and Donelson added to the lustre of his renown. General Charles Ferguson Smith, who distinguished himself greatly at Fort Donelson, was born in Pennsylvania in 1807. He entered the Academy at West Point in 1821, and graduated in 1825, being appointed at once second lieutenant. In 1829 he was* made an assistant instructor of infantry tactics at West Point. He remained at that institution till 1842, during which interval he attained the rank of captain. In April, 1847, he was breveted major for his gallantry in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. He covered himself with laurels in many of the severest conflicts of the Mexican war, especially at Contreras and Churubusco, and received the rank of colonel. In August, 1861, he was made a brigadier-general of volunteers, and immediately afterward took command of the troops stationed at Paducah. This valuable officer died at Savannah, Tennessee, on the 25th of April, 1862. The glorious triumph of the Union arms at Fort Donelson was due, in a very great measure, to his superior skill and gallantry. The long and monotonous inactivity which had characterized the Army of the Potomac near Washington, during some months, was agreeably broken on the 14th of February by a bold and sudden movement of a part of the troops commanded by General Lander. That officer having ascertained that the brigade of the Rebel General Carson, four thousand in number, had taken a strong position at Bloomery Gap, resolved to attack them. He ordered the five hundred cavalry attached to his brigade to take the advance, and having reached the Cacapon river, to construct a bridge for the passage of the infantry who were to follow. This order was promptly executed. Twenty wagons were placed at intervals in the 13 194 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. river, over which planks were laid, and thus in several hours at night a bridge was constructed a hundred and eighty feet in length, which admi rably answered the purpose of transportation. It was located at a point seven miles distant from the Cacapon railroad, and about the same dis tance from Bloomery Gap, the contemplated scene of conflict. General Lander had intended to make the attack during the night, and having driven the enemy through the Gap, to pursue them with his cavalry, and capture the officers and many of the men. But the enemy had already left their position, either suspicious of an attack or fore warned of its approach ; so that when the Federal troops charged through the Gap they encountered no one. General Lander ordered an immediate pursuit on the Winchester road by his cavalry, followed and supported by the eighth Ohio regiment and the seventh Virginia. They overtook the retreating foe about two miles from the Gap. The Rebels received them with a sharp fire of musketry, under which the cavalry wavered and showed unexpected signs of cowardice. In vain General Lander ordered them to advance and charge. Not a man stirred. The General then exclaimed lt follow me !" One private only, named John Gannon, answered the appeal. Accompanied by this solitary hero, and by Major Armstrong his adjutant, Major Bannister and Fitz James O Brien, mem- bers of his staff, General Lander rode forward toward a group of Rebel officers, several hundred yards distant, and ordered them to surrender. The boldness and daring of this movement seemed to have paralyzed those officers, and they immediately complied. But the Rebel infantry posted in the adjacent woods having commenced a brisk fire, General Lander ordered Colonel Anestanzel to attack them with his cavalry, and attempt to secure their baggage ; while the movement was to be sup ported by the infantry. At first the cavalry seemed disposed to refuse obedience, and. General Lander, justly enraged at their cowardice, shot at one of his men without hitting him. After repeated orders the cavalry advanced, and charged upon the enemy, who were then retreating. The pursuit was continued for eight miles, under Colonel Carroll s direction, until he reached the limits of General Lander s department. The result of this engagement was the capture of eighteen commissioned officers and forty-five non commissioned officers and privates, together with fifteen baggage wagons. The loss of the Rebels was thirty killed ; that of the Federals was seven killed and wounded. The rout of the enemy was complete, notwith standing the inefficiency of the cavalry. That inefficiency was attributed to the fact, that several of their officers were absent, that they had never before been under fire, and that they were unaccustomed to practice with the sabre. General Lander, tho hero of this spirited movement, was a remarkably brave and chivalrous officer. His subsequent premature death was a RE-ELECTIOST OF JEFFERSON DAYIS. 195 serious loss to the Federal cause. He was a native of Salem, Massachu setts. Though not regularly educated to the profession of arms, he pos sessed ample military knowledge, and all the qualities necessary to render him a successful commander. During the years 1859 and 1860 he served as superintendent of the overland wagon-road to California. Immediately after the commencement of the war he joined the staff of General McClel- lan as a volunteer, in Western Virginia. He afterward became provost marshal under that officer. At the battle of Eich Mountain he distin guished himself by his coolness and intrepidity. His horse was there killed under him. He then fought on foot and attacked a Kebel gun. He shot all the men who served it with his own hand, except three. The remainder then fled, leaving a lieutenant alone to work it. That officer continued to discharge the gun, when General Lander ordered him to surrender on pain of immediate death. He refused and continued to fire. Lander then turned away and exclaimed to his men : " I cannot shoot so brave a man, you must do it I" He soon fell, pierced with four bullets. After the battle and the victory General Lander, with chivalrous gener osity, ordered the body of the deceased officer to be conveyed under an escort across the mountain to a point near which the enemy had encamped, and delivered to his late companions in arms. General Lander died on the 2d of March, 1862, in his camp in Northern Virginia, from conges tion of the brain. By that event an ampler page of heroic history will henceforth remain forever unwritten, which without doubt would have otherwise graced the annals of the war. The recent reverses which had overtaken the Eebel arms in almost every department of the arena of conflict, did not prevent the Confede rates from observing the ceremony of electing the chief officers of their government, who were to serve during the term of the ensuing six years. Accordingly, the period for which their provisional administration had b.een erected being about to expire, Jefferson Davis was chosen President, and A. H. Stephens Vice President of the Confederate States, by the unanimous votes of the conventions of all the States which were connected with the Ecbellion. The ceremony of the inauguration of these officers took place at Eichmond, on the 22d of February, with as great a display of pomp and dignity as could be mustered for the occasion. The oath of office was administered to the President by the Hon. J. D. Halyburton, the chief Confederate judge, and to A. H. Stevens by the president of the Eebel Senate. The inaugural address of the Executive was : the most remarkable feature of the occasion. It had been elaborated with great care, and was adroitly adapted to produce a favorable impression upon his constituents. But in spite of all his artificial periods and his simulated confidence, an air of extreme despondency pervaded his utterances. He reiterated the effete accusation that the Federal Government had given birth to the Eebellion by its unjust legislation against the interests of the 196 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. South. He charged the northern armies with cruelty and ferocity in the manner in which they had conducted the contest. He dwelt upon the love of justice and the preference for peace which had characterized the Confederate States, and upon their efforts to avert the horrors of war by an amicable settlement of difficulties at Washington. He congratulated his constituents on the intrepidity and heroism with which they had thus far defended their sacred rights and had resisted the arms of their op pressors. He admitted that the Confederate forces had recently suffered the most serious disasters ; but he affirmed that the effect of these mis fortunes would simply be to unite them in a more determined and unconquerable resolution to achieve their liberties. As a chief encourage ment, he reminded his hearers that the vast pecuniary burdens Avhich the Federal Government was assuming would soon crush it to the earth, and render it incapable of further efficient assaults upon their rights and their territories.* While the Kebel authorities were thus consoling themselves by cheer ing prognostications of the future, the rapid progress of events continually and repeatedly falsified their hopes. On the 1st of March, the right wing of the Army of the Potomac Under General Banks crossed the river, advanced into Virginia, and occupied Bolivar, Charlestown, and Martins- burg. This important movement was a portion of the great network of operations by which the Federal armies, in several vast bodies, were in tended to approach Eichmond by opposite routes, and thus attack it and its defenders simultaneously. At Charlestown, eight hundred barrels of flour prepared for the Eebei army were captured. The corps under Banks were steadily approaching Winchester, where the enemy were posted under Jackson in considerable strength. In other portions of the Union fortune seemed to have deserted the Confederate cause still more unequivocally. In Missouri, the expedition which had been organized under Jefferson Thompson, was attacked at Sykestown by the Union cavalry attached to the brigades of Generals Hamilton, Morgan and Pope, and was driven into the swamps, with the loss of six pieces of artillery and forty prisoners. On the 2d of March, a flotilla consisting of six gunboats, under the command of Flag-officer Foote, sailed down the Mississippi river to Columbus, Kentucky, and made a demonstration against the Rebel works which had been erected there. Anticipating a formidable attack from the Federal forces, the * The officers of the cabinet appointed by Jefferson Davis were as follows : J. P. Benjamin, of Louisiana, Secretary of State. General George W. Kandolph, of Virginia, Secretary of War. S. R. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy. C. G. Memminger, of South Carolina, Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Henry, M. C. from Kentucky, Postmaster-General. Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, Attorney-General. DESERTION OF NASHVILLE BY REBEL FORCES. 197 enemy deemed it more judicious to retire. They therefore abandoned their fortifications and evacuated the town. It had been the strongest Rebel position in the valley of the Mississippi. But before their flight they endeavored to destroy their barracks, the town, and their magazines, by fire. They sank a number of their heaviest guns in the river. The Federal forces took possession peaceably of what remained of the recent stronghold of the fugitives. The occupation of Columbus delivered the State of Kentucky from the presence and supremacy of the Rebel arms. Generals Cullum and Sherman commanded the land forces which were intended to co-operate with the gunboats in the expected attack on the abandoned works. Nearly contemporaneous with this event, was the desertion of Nash ville by the Rebel forces which had been assembled there, and its occupa tion by the Federal troops under General Buell. The stars and stripes were again unfurled from the stately dome of the capitol of Tennessee. The presence of the Union troops in this city produced a magical effect upon the opinions of thousands of the inhabitants of that State, who immediately declared themselves in favor of the Federal Government and solicitous for its eventual triumph. It was already proposed that Andrew Johnson should be appointed by President Lincoln the military pro visional governor of Tennessee, until the legitimate civil authorities could be re-established. Thus, over the entire area of the West and South, wherever the rival republics came into collision, success at this period uniformly attended the champions of the Federal Union. Suddenly, the nation was astounded by the report of a reverse, from an unexpected source, of the most novel and unusual character. On the 8th of March, a steam-vessel of singular structure and appearance was observed by the lookout at Fortress Monroe to issue from the harbor at Norfolk and sail down the channel toward Sewell s Point. Signal guns were immediately fired to notify the Union vessels, the Cumberland, the Congress, the Minnesota, the St. Lawrence and the Roanoke, which Were then riding at anchor in Hampton roads, of the approach of danger. The mysterious craft seemed like a floating house, with its roof and chimney only above the water. Slowly but steadily she pursued her way through the channel toward Newport News, and then turned toward the mouth of James river where the Cumberland and the Congress lay. Soon her fatal character and mission became evident. She was recognized as the famous iron-clad steamer and battering-ram Merrimac, which the Rebel Government had for some time been constructing at Norfolk. As this dangerous monster silently approached the Cumberland, that vessel discharged a volley from her heavy guns at the stranger. The balls indeed reached their aim, but they did not produce the slightest per ceptible effect. They glanced from her iron sides and deck, leaving no trace of their contact. The Congress also added the complement of her 198 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. artillery to those of the Cumberland, but with an equally harmless result, The Rebel craft seemed to defy and scorn their attacks ; for she continued steadily to approach, her ports all silent and shut, but under the impetus of a powerful head of steam. At length she steered with direct aim and increased velocity toward the Cumberland. She struck her amidship with her iron beak, making a frightful gash in her side. She then fired a volley into the wounded vessel, drew off a short distance, and repeated the ferocious assault. It was enough to seal her fate. The Cumberland had been fatally disabled, and was instantly in a sinking condition. During the progress of this attack, two Eebel steamers, the Yorktown and Jamestown, had descended the James river and engaged the Union vessels on the other side. The Merrimac having thus destroyed the Cumberland turned her prow and addressed herself to the Congress. This vessel was unable to make any effective resistance, her crew having been discharged the day before, and several companies of the naval brigade being only temporarily on board. When her commander saw the hopelessness of resistance, the wooden vessels being entirely at the mercy of the iron batterer, he struck his colors to avoid the destruction which had overtaken the Cumberland. The Jamestown then approached, received on board the officers of the Congress as prisoners, and gave the crew an opportunity to escape in the boats. The vessel was then fired by tlie Eebels. Immediately after this achievement, the Merrimac, the Yorktown, and the Jamestown commenced an attack in concert on the batteries of Newport News, to which that fort responded with vigor. Meanwhile the Congress burned to the water s edge, and before sinking blew up. The Cumberland also sank. The loss of life in both ships was considerable, inasmuch as a large number of the crews of both were unable to escape in the boats. The Merrimac having completed her intended achievements, returned in triumph to Norfolk, capturing in her passage several small vessels. This sudden demonstration of naval power was one of the most noteworthy incidents which had yet occurred during the war. Never before had the efficiency of iron-clad steam batteries been so clearly demonstrated. It was now evident that the colossal wooden vessels which had for ages been the pride and the terror of European fleets, could be henceforth rendered harmless by the use of ships of much smaller proportions, if incased in iron, if pro pelled by steam, and if armed with the sharp iron beaks which had been familiar to the naval architecture of the ancient Greeks and Romans. , Fortunately for the honor and safety of the Union cause, the private enterprise of an eminent and opulent citizen had constructed a vessel on the same principle; and that vessel, by an equally propitious accident, arrived in the vicinity of this disaster a few hours after its occurrence. The Ericsson iron-clad steamer Monitor reached Fortress Monroe at nine o clock on the night of the 8th of March. The next morning she pro- ENGAGEMENT OF THE MERR1MAC " AND "MONITOR" 199 ceeded out into the channel and invited tbe exulting enemy to an engage ment. The offer was accepted, and soon the Merrimac, the Yorktown, and the Jamestown, attempted to renew the triumph of the preceding day. A desperate combat of five hours duration ensued. The wooden vessels of the Rebels quickly found it expedient to retire, leaving the two iron bound monsters confronting each other. Then a most singular and novel spectacle was exhibited. During several hours the vessels fought fiercely, butting and grappling each other. They repeatedly discharged their heavy guns against each other s sides ; but while the shot of the Merrimac rebounded harmlessly from the impenetrable covering of her antagonist, the greater calibre of the guns of the Monitor forced tbeir thunderbolts through the sides of the Rebel craft, and severely damaged her. The Monitor was commanded with great skill and fortitude by Lieutenant J. S. Worden, who was wounded during the engagement. At its termina tion the Merrimac was towed back to the port of Norfolk, apparently disabled, and evidently with much less exultation than had characterized her return to her berth on the preceding day. The presence of the Moni tor in Hampton Roads secured the Union vessels, which were enforcing the blockade of James river, from the future attacks of the Merrimac ; and fortunately withered the laurels, which had so suddenly sprung up to decorate the brows of the Confederate naval heroes. The Merrimac, whose sudden onslaught on the Federal ships excited so much surprise and indignation, originally belonged to the Federal Government, had been built in 1855 at the Charlestown navy yard, and was known in the Federal navy by the same name. She happened to be lying in the port of Norfolk, as a store and receiving ship, at the period of the Rebel attack on that city. When the navy yard at Norfolk was abandoned and sacrificed in so mysterious a manner by Commodore McCauley, the Merrimac was set on fire, scuttled, and sunk by his orders. She was thirty-two hundred tons burden, and pierced for forty guns. The Rebel authorities, appreciating her value, subsequently raised the hull, and proceeded to convert her into an iron- clad battery. She was covered with a bomb-proof coating of wrought iron several inches in thickness. Her bow was armed with a steel beak, projecting six feet under the water, with which to strike and perforate her opponents. Her decks were protected by a covering of railroad iron in the form of an arch, from which the shot and shell of her assailants necessarily glanced without effect. Her special mission was intended to be to sink the various vessels engaged in the blockade of the Southern ports ; and it is probable that, had not the formidable and unexpected apparition of the Monitor suddenly intercepted her purpose, it would have been in a great measure accomplished, before any other effectual means to prevent it could have been obtained by the Federal Government. The structure of the Monitor was essentially different from that of her 2CO THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. rival. She was a hundred and seventy-two feet in length, and placed so low in the water as to afford little surface for the assaults of an assailant. Her deck was flat, and her sides encased in heavy armor. Both ends of the vessel were pointed, and she required very little water in which to float. The chief objects which appeared on her deck were a smoke-stack and a turret. The latter was incased in wrought iron, several inches in thickness, and contained two guns, each ball of which weighed a hundred and eighty-four pounds. Within the bowels of the vessel a powerful engine was placed, which drove her with resistless impetus against her enemy. Her flat deck was bomb-proof, and covered with iron plate an inch in thickness. The turret revolved, so as to be able to bring its tremendous guns to bear at any angle which might be desired. The vessel was a marvel of architectural skill and of mechanical power, such as the present age had never before witnessed. =S ^^MX ^ ^^ S <^^T^^ W>^r<\X ^\^rii^^% // \ ^^^^^^^^IF^K LITJLEROCKjf^ I ^^ * ^ ff | f }} ^, BEFJTONirt^^^P^ 3^1 5\ V^^-liil \U .1 THE BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE, ARKANSAS. 201 CHAPTEE XVIII. BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE IN ARKANSAS GENERAL CURTIS ATTACK OF THE REBELS ON THE REAR OF THE FEDERAL ARMY GALLANTRY OF GENERAL SIGEL CONTINUANCE OF THE BATTLE ON TEE SECOND DAY INCIDENTS OF THE CONTEST IT IS RENEWED UPON THE THIRD DAY COMPLETE ROUT OF THE REBELS RESULTS OF THE VICTORY SKETCHES OF GENERALS CURTIS AND SIGEL PRESIDENT LINCOLN S ORDERS TO THE FEDERAL ARMIES TO MOVE ON THE TWENTY-SECOND OF FEBRUARY GENERAL MCCLELLAND ADDRESS TO THE A3MY OF THE POTOMAC SUDDEN EVACUATION OF MANASSAS BY THE REBELS MOVEMENT OF FEDERAL TROOPS BOMBARDMENT OF ISLAND NUMBER TEN INCIDENTS OF THE CONTEST REDUCTION OF THE REBEL WORKS OPERATIONS OF GENERAL POPE ARTIFICIAL CHANNEL CUT THROUGH JAMES BAYOU GENERAL POPE ATTACKS THE REBELS AT TIPTONVILLE CON SEQUENCES OF THE CAPTURE OF ISLAND NUMBER TEN SKETCH OF GENERAL POPE GENE RAL BURNSIDE ATTACKS NEWBERN THE REBELS SURRENDER CONSEQUENCES OF THIS VICTORY. THE un romantic name of Pea Eidge will hereafter designate, on the historic page, one of the most protracted and desperate struggles which occurred during the progress of the war against Secession. This rugged spot is situated amid the mountain wilds of Arkansas. It was there that the Eebel Generals Van Dora, McCulloch, and Price, had concentrated the forces under their several orders ; and on the 6th, the 7th, and the 8th of March, 1862, contested the palm of victory with the Federal troops under the command of Generals Curtis and Sigel. The forces of the enemy numbered about thirty-five thousand men ; their opponents numbered twenty-five thousand. The latter consisted of volunteers from Ohio, In diana, Illinois, Missouri and Iowa. This engagement commenced on the 6th of March by an attack of the Eebel cavalry on the rear of the Union army. The purpose of this movement seemed to be to get possession of the wagon-trains of the Federals. General Sigel being in command of that portion of the troops, resisted the enemy with great gallantry. He pro tected the train during several hours with eight hundred men against an attack of fifteen hundred. The first day of the conflict wore away in various unsuccessful efforts on the part of the Eebels to get possession of the trains, by breaking and dispersing the right wing of the Federals. At eleven o clock on the morning of the 7th, the enemy renewed the attack. During the preceding night General Curtis had made important changes in the disposition of his troops, and had strengthened those por tions of his line against which he anticipated the most vigorous assaults. The centre of the Eebels was led in person by the notorious Benjamin McCulloch, who made prodigious exertions to overpower the firm and steady ranks of the Federals, commanded by Colonel Davis, of Missouri. Repeatedly did that renowned warrior bring up his men to the attack, 202 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and as often were they with heavy slaughter repulsed. Onee only did his troops obtain an advantage by driving back the Federals from " Cross Timber Hollow," which had been occupied by Colonel Carr. But he paid dearly for this temporary success. His columns were assailed with re newed determination, by a combined attack of the troops under Colonel Osterhaus, Colonel Davis, and General Sigel, and were discomfited with immense loss. It was during this struggle that General McCulloch was mortally wounded. He fell while fighting in the thickest of the combat. At the end of the second day s engagement, the advantage greatly pre ponderated in the favor of the Federals. During the following night General Curtis made additional changes in the position of his forces, and when the morning of the 8th dawned he was prepared to receive the renewed attack of the enemy. The combatants on both sides seemed eager for the struggle, and the firing began at sunrise. It soon became general along the whole line, which extended several miles in circuit. The Federal left wing under Sigel made a forward movement against the enemy posted on the hills. General Curtis then ordered his centre and right also to advance, and turning the left wing of the enemy, to assail his centre. This order was admirably executed, and the Kebels were placed by this skillful strategy in the arc of a circle of destructive fire. Having thus enveloped both flanks of the enemy, General Curtis com manded a general charge to be made with the bayonet. The result was decisive. The Rebels were instantly thrown into confusion, and fled pre cipitately on all sides. The division under Price retreated in one direc tion, that under Van Dorn escaped in another. The pursuit was continued by General Sigel toward Keithsville, and by the cavalry toward the mountains. The rout of the enemy was complete. Their loss was heavy. The death of McCulloch was a fatal blow to their cause in the remoter southwest, where his reckless bravery and his military skill had long inspired them with energy and hope. Their killed and wounded were about two thousand. The victors captured more than a thousand pris oners. The Federal loss was about five hundred killed, nine hundred wounded. A peculiar feature of this engagement was the presence of several thousand Indians in the Rebel lines, commanded by Albert Pike. Their savage instincts during the conflict were demonstrated by the fact that after its termination, many of the wounded and slain of the Federal troops were found to have been scalped; thus renewing in those wild western solitudes at the present day, the primeval scenes of sanguinary slaughter, which had characterized and disgraced the earlier struggles which occurred on the American continent. The chief heroes of this great battle were Generals Samuel R. Curtis and Franz Sigel. The former was born in Ohio in 1807. He entered West Point in 1831, and was breveted second lieutenant of the seventh infantry. He resigned in 1832, and studied and practiced law in Ohio, but SKETCHES OF GENERALS CURTIS AND SIGEL. 203 soon turned his attention to civil engineering ; and in 1837 became chief engineer of the Muskingum river improvements. At a later period he became engineer of the Board of Public Works of the State of Ohio. In 1846 he was appointed adjutant-general of that State. During the Mexican war he served as colonel of the third Ohio regiment ; became assistant-adjutant-general to General Wool, and subsequently civil and military governor of Saltillo, Matamoras, Camargo, and Monterey. Re- turning to the United States, he commenced or resumed the practice of the law ; but abandoned it upon being chosen chief engineer of the Des Moines railroad in Iowa. He was afterward elected a Representative of Iowa in the Thirty-Fifth Congress ; and was twice rechosen. When the Rebellion broke forth Colonel Curtis raised a regiment in Iowa, of which he took the chief command. He resigned his seat in Congress, and hav ing been made a brigadier-general, assisted General Fremont in Missouri. In January, 1862, he left Rolla with twenty thousand men, drove Sterling Price from Springfield, routed him at Cross Hollow, and crowned his victorious career by his splendid victory at Pea Ridge. In reward for his valuable and gallant services, he was afterward promoted to the rank of major-general. A far different kind of interest appertains to the history of Franz Sigel. He was nursed in the revolutionary storms of the old world ; and when triumphant despots there succeeded in arresting the spirit of liberty, he emigrated to the home of the free in the far West. * He was born in Baden in the year 1824, and received his education at the military school at Carlsruhe. His rise in his profession was rapid. In 1847 he had attained the rank of chief adjutant; and was regarded as one of the most accomplished officers of artillery in Germany. In 1848 the revolutionary movements commenced in that country, and his enthusiastic spirit soon enlisted him in the service of those who sought to disenthrall the German Fatherland from the dominion of its hereditary tyrants. He was ap pointed to the chief command of one of the armies of the Liberals, and in several engagements distinguished himself by gallantry and skill. On one occasion he confronted eighty thousand men with thirty thousand ; and though a victory against such immense odds was impossible, he made good his retreat without the loss of men or guns. The conclusion of the war and the subjugation of the patriots compelled him to flee. After various changes and vicissitudes he was chosen professor in a col lege at St. Louis, in which, among other departments of science, he gave instructions in the military art. When the Southern Rebellion began, it was the signal for Sigel to abandon the peaceful pursuits of academic life, and re-enter the stormy arena of conflict. Such a man as Sigel, in such a time, and in such a cause, could not possibly remain inactive. He took the lead among the gallant Germans of Missouri who tendered their services to the Federal Government. He assumed the command of 204 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the third regiment of volunteers which was raised at St. Louis. We have already narrated the chief events of his career subsequent to this period. After the death of General Lyon at Springfield, he conducted the retreat to Eolla with great ability. The distinguished part which he enacted at the battle of Pea Ridge, elevated him to a high place among the most eminent and efficient of the generals of the Union during the civil war. His services were properly rewarded, at a subsequent period, by his promotion to the rank of major-general. On the 1 2th of March, 1862, the nation was suddenly surprised and gratified by the announcement that at length President Lincoln had issued positive orders that the Federal armies, including that of the Potomac, which had for so many months remained inactive, should com mence a general advance against the forces of the Eebels. This order, although not published until the 12th of March, had been issued privately to the various commanders on the 27th of January previous ; and the 22d of February, the anniversary of the birth-day of the Father of his Country, was designated as the day on which that welcome movement should begin. Time, however, was allowed to the commander of the army of the Potomac to complete the necessary organization of his troops before moving, if such further organization should be requisite. Several days after the public announcement of this order, General McClellan issued an address to his army, in which he stated that the time of inaction having passed by, the hour of aggressive operations had arrived, and that the accurate drilling and training which were essential to the efficiency of any army had now been attained. He urged them to display bravery, fidelity, and endurance in the operations which were before them ; and encouraged them by the prospects of victory, subse quent peace, and the restoration of the Union. In accordance with the promise contained in this address, a portion of the army of the Potomac began to advance. They took the route toward Centreville and Manassas, which had already been rendered famous by the engagement at Bull s Run. Daring some days previous to the march, vague reports had been current throughout the country, that the Rebel army, which had wintered on the Potomac, had retreated toward Gordonsville ; and that the battle-ground which they had fortified with so much labor and skill, was no longer defended by them against the advance of the Federal forces. To the astonishment of the whole nation, these reports, which at first seemed incredible, were found upon examination to be perfectly true. The great Rebel army had actually vacated their position at Manassas, and were retreating southward as the Federal troops advanced. Their object was now supposed to be to concentrate their strength nearer to Richmond ; and it must be admitted that, by this movement they gained some im portant strategical advantages. The fortifications which they had thus abandoned were formidable. They extended from a point half a mile MOVEMENT OF FEDERAL TROOPS. 205 north of Centreville, toward tlie south as far as the eye could reach. The embrazures had been mounted by heavy guns, which were withdrawn in the retreat. There were ample indications that the ammunition and the stores of the Kebel army had been abundant. Yast warehouses had been erected at Manassas for the storage of provisions, and miles of well-con structed huts demonstrated that during the winter the comfort and health of their forces had been carefully attended to. After their retrograde movement, it did not comport with the plans of the Federal commanders to pursue the line of advance further in that direction ; and the troops returned toward Washington, to continue their operations against the enemy by another and a more circuitous route. That portion of the Federal army which was Jed by General Banks proceeded toward Harper s Ferry, and took possession of Leesburg. This corps was destined to pur sue the retreating enemy toward Winchester, where it was understood they had taken a strong position which they defended with a formidable force. The admirable plan for the subjugation of the southwestern portion of the Eebel States which General Halleck had elaborated, required that the Mississippi river should be opened to the advance of the Federal armies, and that the road to Memphis should be unobstructed. To resist this suspected purpose, the Kebels had taken possession of an island in that river known as Number Ten, had collected together there an army of fifteen thousand men, had fortified it with great skill and industry, and had thus far effectually intercepted the navigation of the river. This island is situated in a bend of the stream, which touches the territory of Tennessee ; and is located two hundred and forty miles from St. Louis, nine hundred and fifty from New Orleans. The Eebel fortifications mounted forty guns of heavy calibre. They possessed also a river force of five gunboats and a floating battery. It had now become essentially necessary to the interests of the Federal cause that this stronghold should be attacked and taken. The Federal fleet of gunboats and mortar flats destined for this service was placed under the command of Commodore Foote. On the 15th of March the gunboats Benton, Louisville, Cincinnati, Carondelet, and Conestoga, proceeded from Cairo. At Columbus they were joined by the Pittsburg, St. Louis, and Mound City, together with eight mortar flats, with transports and ordnance boats. All these vessels sailed down the river, reached the scene of conflict on the same day, and took their positions about two miles above the island. Commodore Foote imme diately commenced the bombardment with three of his batteries. General Pope, who was besieging New Madrid, ten miles below the island, and who had erected works extending fifteen miles along the shore, as far as Point Pleasant, commanded the river below, so as to prevent the escape of the Eebel s in that direction. Yain attempts had been made to send 206 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. transports through the bayous to the assistance of General Pope ; but a gunboat was indispensably necessary to protect those vessels during their transit. At length the Carondelet was selected to pass the Rebel batteries and to peform that service. On her port side a flat boat was lashed, loaded with bales of compressed hay, which protected her from the works erected on the Kentucky shore. On her opposite side a barge laden with coal was attached, which would furnish the necessary fuel. At ten o clock at night she was cast loose, and commenced to sail slowly down the stream. At that moment a storm of terrific fury came raging up the river ; the rain descended in a deluge ; the thunder peals were appalling ; the lightning was fearfully vivid and blinding. In the midst of this chaos of the warring elements ; the Carondelet began to run the gauntlet of the Rebel batteries. As she passed the second of these, a broad and fierce blaze of flame, accompanied by a deafening roar, indi cated to thousands of anxious spectators in the vicinity that the Rebels had at length observed the vessel in the darkness, and had opened on her. Still she proceeded in silence on her way. Battery after battery saluted her as she passed. Slowly and steadily she steamed ahead, and made no response to her assailants. In twenty minutes she passed all the batteries unharmed and untouched. Forty-seven shots had been vainly fired at her. Then her powerful guns answered in an exultant peal, which told that she had attained a point beyond the reach of danger. The patriotic spectators on the Federal gunboats, and on the shore, set up a tumultuous shout of joy, which drowned even the loud howlings of the tempest. The Carondelet then proceeded to New Madrid, to the assistance of General Pope, who soon after made*his approaches with such skill and vigor that the Rebels, rather than endure the horrors of an assault, evacuated the place on the 14th of March. General Pope then took possession of it, and obtained a vast amount of stores, ammunition, and guns. It was soon ascertained that the Rebels had erected a large number of batteries, both on the Kentucky and the Tennessee banks of the Missis sippi, for the purpose of assisting the operations of their confederates on Island Number Ten. Their river boats were also found to be efficient, and assailed the batteries of Commodore Foote with great spirit. But the power and effect of the Federal mortars far transcended those of the enemy. The shells which were discharged by the former were of im mense size, and being sent with remarkable precision into the works of the Rebels, produced the most disastrous results. A single mortar was capable of discharging in a single day about a hundred shells. The Rebels did not respond to the attack on the island until the evening of the 16th, when they opened their defence by firing a hundred and twenty pound rifled shell in the direction of the transports. This enormous missile fell and burst a few yards astern of the Graham and the Silver Wave, which were crowded with troops ; and had the aim of the Rebels gs BOMBARDMENT OF ISLAND NUMBER TEN. 207 been more accurate it might have produced dreadful havoc. A portion of the Federal artillery was placed on the Missouri shore in such a po sition as to be within range of those batteries on the island which were beyond the reach of the guns of the fleet. On the 17th, Commodore Foote tried an experiment which proved successful. He ordered three gunboats, the Benton, the Cincinnati, and the St. Louis, to be lashed to gether, and while the mortars continued to play upon the works of the enemy, they slowly sailed down the river for the purpose of reconnoiter- ing the batteries of the Rebels and drawing their fire from those works which might not yet have been observed. The result was that three batteries located lower down on the island commenced to fire, and with such accuracy that each of the three boats was struck during the excur sion. One shot passed through the upper deck of the Cincinnati, another through the chimney of the Benton, and one of the guns on the St. Louis burst, killing four men and wounding ten. But the purpose of the ad venture had been successfully accomplished. The bombardment of the island continued from day to day, and the Federal vessels retained their original position. The firing was kept up with variable spirit on the part of the Rebels, and with such assiduity on the part of their assailants as to prevent the enemy from strengthening or repairing their fortifications. These became considerably damaged by the Federal guns ; but the effect of their fire on the Federal boats was unimportant. Thus, during the operations of an entire day, only four shots of all those discharged by the forts on the island struck any of the vessels. On the 18th, six additional mortar-batteries came from Cairo and joined the besieging force. Sometimes the scene presented by the bombardment was one of great beauty and sublimity, especially when the firing was continued during the night. At such times, the loud reverbe ration of the guns waking up the unfamiliar echoes of the surrounding shores, the graceful passage of the shells in their parabolic course through the heavens, the sudden flashes of their explosion illumining the dark ness for miles around, the returning shells of the Rebels issuing from the fortifications erected at different points on the island, their explosion above or near the tranquil bosom of the broad stream, the shouts of the combatants, and the calm intervals of silence, soon to be broken by the thunder-tones of new and fresh discharges; these, and many other inci dents of the spectacle, rendered it one of novel and impressive interest. During a portion of the time occupied by the bombardment, the Fede ral fleet did not put forth its entire strength, and the firing was occa sionally suspended. This enigma then seemed unaccountable to the enemy, but at a later period it was sufficiently explained. The design of this mysterious but masterly inactivity, was to occupy the attention of the Rebels and retain all those troops which they had collected on the island in that position, that they might not interfere with the other ope- 208 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. rations of the besiegers and with the plans of General Pope. During this interval the enemy were permitted to strengthen their works, and thus they served the purposes of the Federals by protracting the bombard ment. Meanwhile, General Pope was strengthening his position and rendering the ultimate escape of the enemy down the Mississippi still more impracticable by erecting an additional battery on the Missouri shore two miles below Tiptonville. One of the first achievements of that battery was to sink a transport filled with stores for the enemy, which was proceeding from the Kentucky shore to the head of the island. On the 29th Commodore Foote renewed the bombardment with vigor. The Kebels replied with equal spirit, and from new points which they had recently fortified. At this period the cutting of a channel for the passage of large boats through the James bayou, a swampy peninsula formed by a bend in the river, was commenced. The purpose of this novel and extremely difficult enterprise was to enable General Pope to convey troops over to the Tennessee side ; and by that means, in conjunction with the Union forces which were approaching the scene of conflict from that direction, to surround the enemy more completely. This extraordinary work was accomplished by sawing off the heavy timber which encum bered the bayou, beneath the surface of the water, for a distance of ten miles. Few more remarkable instances of perseverance and determina tion can be found than this enterprise in the annals of modern warfare. At length, on the 7th of April, General Pope transferred a portion of his army through this new channel to the shore of Tennessee. Four steamers were used for the conveyance of these troops. The remainder of his army was transported by the same route afterward. This channel was created by Colonel Bissel and his regiment of en gineers. Their work deserves to be placed among those great master pieces of mechanical skill, of which the Simplon across the Alps one of the proudest products of Napoleon s genius is considered as the most colossal. On the 6th of April, General Pope ordered Captain Walker to make a reconnoissance in the Carondelet to Tiptonville for the purpose of drawing the fire of the concealed batteries which the Rebels had there erected. The exploration was successful the position of the guns was ascertained and they were immediately attacked and silenced. The troops on board, consisting of the twenty-seventh Illinois regiment, then landed, spiked the guns, broke the carriages, and threw the ammunition into the river. On the 7th General Pope, with a portion of his troops, marched to Tip tonville, and attacked the Rebel troops which were posted at that point. The latter were completely routed, and fled into the surrounding swamps. The Federals captured a large number of prisoners, together with cannon and ammunition. This disaster, combined with the knowledge of the construction of the channel through the James bayou, and the renewed SKETCH OF GENERAL POPE. 209 vigor of the attack of the Union fleet on their works on the island, dis heartened the Rebels who were posted there, and induced them to surren der their stronghold. This protracted drama came to a sudden close on the 7th of March. At nine o clock in the evening, a messenger was sent by the Rebel commander to Commodore Foote, proposing to capitulate, and inquiring what terms might be expected. The commodore replied, that no terms whatever would be allowed, except an unconditional sur render. At one o clock on the morning of the 8th, the surrender was formally made. Commodore Foote immediately sent Colonel Buford with two gunboats to take possession of the island. Had the enemy not yielded at that precise period, a simultaneous attack on the island would have been made at once, by the mortar boats, the gunboats, and the land forces under General Pope. The result of this combined movement could not have been doubtful, but the voluntary surrender of the Rebel commander opportunely averted the heavy sacrifice of human life which it would necessarily have involved. The consequences of the capture of this island were very important. The number of batteries which passed into the possession of the Federal ists was eleven, mounting seventy heavy guns. A floating battery of sixteen lighter cannon, which the Rebels had cut adrift, was afterward recovered- A vast quantity of munitions of war, four steamers, and several gunboats, were also taken. The number of prisoners captured was seventeen officers, three hundred and sixty-eight privates, beside several hundred sick and wounded. The defence of the island bad been conducted by the Rebel General William D. Makall, who became a prisoner of war. As soon as the surrender of the works became known, the Confederate troops stationed on the Tennessee shore retreated with precipitation. This great victory, as might reasonably be expected, filled the nation with re joicing ; and they approved with sincerity the message which was imme diately afterward sent to the victors by the Secretary of the Navy, ex pressive of the public gratitude for their services, and exultation at their success. Major-General John Pope, who divided with Commodore Foote the chief glory attendant upon this conquest, was born in Kentucky in 1823. He entered West Point Academy in 1838, and graduated in 1842, re ceiving the brevet rank of second lieutenant of topographical engineers. He distinguished himself by his gallantry during the Mexican war, espe cially at the battles of Monterey and Beuna Yista ; receiving the brevet rank of first lieutenant and captain for meritorious services in those bat tles. He subsequently served in New Mexico and in Minnesota Territory as an engineer officer. In 1854, by appointment of Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, he explored the route for a Pacific railroad from the Red river to the Rio Grande, examining in connection with it the Liang Estacado or Staked Plain in Texas. In 1856 he was promoted to a 14 210 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. captaincy. For the next three years he was engaged in engineering duties in the Western Military Department. In May, 1861, he was made a brigadier-general of volunteers. Though younger than many of his associate officers of similar rank in the army, General Pope was inferior to few of them in energy, ability, and professional skill. His achieve ments at New Madrid and Island Number Ten, especially his bold and original conception of cutting a channel through the swampy bayou near that island, and the success which attended his persevering efforts, deserve to hold a prominent place, and to be invested with no secondary interest, among tha many thrilling and noteworthy events which, in all corning time, will enliven and decorate the annals of the civil war in the United States. After the conquest of Eoanoke Island by General Burnside, that officer prepared to extend his operations ; and on the 10th of March sailed south ward through Pamlico Sound, for the purpose of assailing the Rebel for tifications which had been erected at Newbern. This place is situated at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent rivers, about a hundred and fifty miles from Roanoke Island. It was a port of entry for North Carolina, and the capital of Craven county. Its capture was a necessary prelimi nary to the attack on Beaufort, in North Carolina, as well as to that on Fort Macon. The batteries of the Rebels had been erected two miles below Newbern. Their earthworks extended over a front of nearly two miles, mounted forty-six heavy guns, and were defended by a numerous force. The attack was made on the 14th of March, the troops having been landed on the previous evening at the mouth of Slocurn Creek, on the west side of the Neuse river, about fifteen miles below Newbern. They were divided by General Burnside into three brigades, commanded by Generals Reno, Parks, and Foster. The Rebels had also erected a series of batteries along the banks of the Neuse. These were successively attacked and taken by the Federal troops, in their advance toward New bern. In front of their intrenchments the enemy had felled a number of trees, and these were so arranged as to form an almost impenetrable abattis. The works were defended by about four thousand Rebels, while a reserve of four thousand was stationed at Newbern. The Federals, eight thousand in number, advanced with spirit to the attack on the works at which the Rebels had determined to make their final and most desperate stand. A conflict of three hours duration ensued. The Federals fought at musket range until their ammunition was exhausted. General Burn- side then ordered a general charge to be made with the bayonet. This movement, executed with the utmost gallantry, decided the issue of the day. The Rebels fled with precipitation, and left the most valuable trophies in possession of the victors. During the progress of the battle, an important advantage was gained by the Federalists, by a flank move ment effected by the second brigade, commanded by General Reno, GENERAL BURNSIDE ATTACKS NEAVBERN. 211 assisted by a portion of the third. The Rebels fought with desperation ; and in one instance, when a portion of the twenty-first Massachusetts regiment had advanced with too much eagerness within the intrenchments of the enemy, they were overpowered by superior numbers and compelled to retreat. The advantage, however, was but temporary ; for soon after ward the whole mass of Rebel troops were driven in the greatest confu sion from their works. They left all their guns unspiked. These fell into the hands of the victors, together with three thousand small arms, three light batteries of field artillery, a vast amount of ammunition, and three hundred prisoners. The loss of the Federals was seventy killed, two hundred and fifty wounded. After taking possession of the deserted intrenchments, General Burn- side pressed forward to occupy Newbern. The army passed rapidly along the railroad and the stage road. In their retreat the Rebels set fire to the bridge across the Trent, and afterward attempted, with less success, to burn the city. This ruthless purpose was defeated by the exertions of a number of the inhabitants who remained. It became necessary for the Federal troops to delay on the banks of the river, until the transports had sailed up from below. The first brigade at length embarked and passed over. The second and third -bivouacked during the night of the 1-ith on the other side, and did not cross until the next day. Newbern was nearly deserted by its white population, and the negroes were revelling in a drunken carnival of barbarous license. A provost guard was immedi ately established to restore order, and secure the safety of life and prop erty. The possession of this important place was thus obtained by the Federal forces by a most brave and brilliant assault. The immediate re sult of this conquest was the cutting off of all railroad communication with Beaufort, and the embarrassment of that between Richmond, Charles ton, and the Atlantic slave States ; the control of a large part of eastern North Carolina; and an easy advance either toward Raleigh in the inte- terior, or toward Fort Macon on the south. 212 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER XIX. MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC ITS SUBDIVISIONS THE BATTLE OF WINCHESTER INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE ITS RESULTS THE KILLED AND WOUNDED SKETCH OF GENERAL SHIELDS CONCENTRATION OF THE REBEL TROOPS NEAR CORINTH APPROACH OF THE FEDERAL ARMY UNDER GENERAL GRANT DISPOSITION OF THE REBEL ARMY COMMENCEMENT OF THE BATTLE OF PITTSBURG LANDING OR SHILOH ATTACK AND CAPTURE OF GENERAL PRENTISs s TROOPS EFFORTS OF GENERALS SHERMAN AND MCCLERNAND THE ENGAGEMENT BECOMES GENERAL DESPERATE FIGHTING ON BOTH SIDES GRADUAL REPULSE AND RETREAT OF THE FEDERAL ARMY TERRIFIC SCENES INTERPOSITION OF THE FEDERAL GUNBOATS END OF THE FIRST DAY S BATTLE ARRIVAL OF GENERAL BUELL DISPOSITION OF TROOPS DURING THE ENSUING NIGHT THE SECOND DAY S CONFLICT INCIDENTS OF THIS DAY SKILL AND ENERGY OF GENERAL BUELL THE TIDE OF VICTORY IS GRADUALLY REVERSED ULTIMATE DEFEAT OF THE REBELS THEIR RETREAT TO CORINTH SKETCH OF GENERAL BUELL RESULTS OF THE BATTLE OF SHILOH. WHEN at length, in compliance with the positive order of President Lincoln, the great army of the Potomac, numbering nearly two hundred thousand men, moved to the conquest of Kichmond, it was divided into several separate corps d armee. The command of all but two of these was entrusted to General MoClellan. After leaving Manassas it was conveyed by transports down the Potomac to Fortress Monroe, and having afterward disembarked below Yorktown, prepared to effect the reduction of that place, and then advance toward the Rebel capital. The second corps under General McDowell pursued a middle line of march, due south, toward the city of Fredericksburg. The third, under General Banks, passing through Harper s Ferry, proceeded to Winchester, and thence through the valley of the Shenandaoh, by Strasburg, Woodstock, New Market, and Har- risonburg, toward Staunton. It was a portion of this force which encountered a large body of Rebels near Winchester, and which, led on by General Shields, gained a decisive victory at that place. The Rebel army which thus came into action near Winchester, was commanded by General T. J. Jackson. On Saturday, March 22d, 1862, some skirmishing took place between Ashby s famous cavalry and the Federal pickets, until four o clock in the afternoon, when the enemy appeared in larger numbers. They advanced as far as the Stone House Mill on the Strasburg turnpike. General Shields then ordered three batteries of artillery to be sent to the scene of action, and a brisjt combat ensued between them and the Rebels. It was of short duration, however, for soon the latter broke and retreated. General Shields was on the field during the conflict, and was wounded in the arm. The enemy was fol lowed a short distance, when night put an end to the pursuit. On Sunday morning, March 23d, the Rebels, having been reinforced THE BATTLE OF WINCHESTER. 213 oy five regiments of infantry and two batteries of artillery under General Garnett, renewed the conflict. Their united forces amounted to eight or ten thousand men. Their line of battle extended about a mile on the right of the village of Kerntown. The action commenced with the eighth Ohio regiment, which formed part of General Tyler s brigade. A furious assault was made on these troops, with the design of turning the right flank of the Federals. They were repulsed with great heroism by the Ohio troops; and although they emerged five times from the woods and from behind their stone wall parapets, they were invariably repulsed. The left wing of the Federals consisted of the thirteenth Indiana, the seventh Ohio, and a battery of the fourth regular artillery, commanded by Captain Jenks. The centre consisted of the fourteenth Indiana, the sixty-seventh Ohio, and the eighty-fourth Pennsylvania. The cavalry, comprising the first Michigan and the first Ohio, were drawn up in the rear. The Federal right included the eighth and fifth Ohio, and a battery of the first Virginia regiment. Three regiments constituted the reserve. During the engagement all these troops except the cavalry were brought into action. The battle raged along the whole line from eleven in the morning until half-past two. At that time General Shields ordered his right wing to charge upon the enemy with the bayonet. Previous to issuing this order, he had strengthened his right by the addition of the eighty-fourth Pennsylvania and a battery of artillery. The left wing of the enemy, opposing the Federal right, had also been reinforced ; and the execution of the order to charge had become one, not only of importance, but also of difficulty. On the success of the movement the issue of the conflict depended. It was three o clock when all was ready, and the word of command was given. General Tyler led the charge at the head of his troops. As the Federals advanced toward the Eebels, they encoun tered a hailstorm from their artillery and small arms ; and their loss was heavy. The former reserved their fire until they were within fifteen or twenty yards of the enemy; they then poured into them a destructive deluge of lead and iron, and charged upon them with the bayonet. But the resistance at first made was stubborn and resolute. The enemy fought bravely and contested the ground foot by foot. General Jackson had changed the position of some of his troops during the action, so that now they presented the form of a concave front to their assailants ; and his troops continued the struggle for victory with great determination. Nevertheless, the valor of the Federal forces was destined to triumph. The Kebels at length began to retire, and fled about half a mile. They then placed their guns in position and renewed the contest. Overborne again by the heroism of their assailants, they resumed their retrograde movement, still bringing their guns to bear upon the pursuers at every opportunity. Thus the fight and the pursuit were continued until night fall, when the victorious Federalists bivouacked during the night upon 2H THE CIVIL WAR IN THE. UNITED STATES. the battle-field. On the next day the chase of the Rebels continued as fur as the vicinity of Strasburg. The fighting during the battle of Win chester was at some periods as desperate as can well be imagined ; and the intensity of the struggle may be inferred from the single fact that, within a few minutes, four standard bearers of one of the Federal regi ments were successively slain. Captain Whitcome, of the fifth Ohio, then took up the fallen colors ; but he also fell in a few seconds, while cheer ing on his men. The battle-field, after such a conflict, necessarily pre sented a revolting spectacle. The loss on both sides was very heavy, when the number of combatants engaged is taken into consideration. Eighty-five Rebels were buried on the field in a single grave, thirty feet wide. Ten wagons filled with dead and wounded, accompanied the fugi tives toward Strasburg. Along the stone parapet or wall which formed part of the enemy s line, their dead bodies were found piled in heaps upon each other. The loss on the Federal side was about one hundred and thirty killed, two hundred and fifty wounded. After the pursuit of the Rebels as far as Strasburg, they continued their retreat through the valley of the Shenandoah toward Woodstock. General James Shields, whose skill and valor contributed so much to the victory of the troops under his command, was born in the county of Tyrone, Ireland, in 1810. He emigrated to this country when sixteen years of age, and after pursuing mathematical, classical, and legal studies at the East, settled in Kaskaskia, Illinois, in 1832, and was admitted a member of the Illinois bar. In 1836 he was elected a member of the Legislature of that State. In 1839 he was chosen State auditor, and in 1843 appointed judge of its Supreme Court. In 1845 he received from President Polk the appointment of commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington. When the Mexican war commenced, he was made a brigadier-general of volunteers, and fought with great gallantry at Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo. It was in the latter battle that he re ceived a dangerous wound, and was saved from death by a singular and propitious accident. A copper ball had passed through his body and lungs, the extravasated blood was gradually filling up his lungs, and he- was rapidly approaching the hour of death. His case had been given over as hopeless by the regular surgeons of the army, when a Mexican doctor offered to save his life if he would permit him to operate. The permis sion was readily granted. A fine silk handkerchief was then worked into the wound, and finally drawn through it and taken out at the back, so that daylight could be seen through the aperture. By means of the handkerchief the blood was removed, the wound afterward healed, and the patient recovered. He subsequently distinguished himself at Chapul- tepec, and was again wounded, though less severely than before. His services were rewarded by being made major-general of volunteers. In 1848 he was appointed Governor of Oregon Territory, but soon resigned, ATTACK AND CAPTURE OF GEN. PIIENTI6S S TROOPS. 215 and in 1849 was elected to represent that state in the Federal Senate, in place of Mr. Breese. Technical objections having been raised against his admission to that body, he resigned his seat, was immediately re-elected, and afterward served his full term of six years in that important assem blage. In 1855 he removed to Minnesota. He was soon elected from that State to a seat in the Federal Senate ; but having drawn the short term, his period of service expired in 1859. He then emigrated to Cali fornia, and there resumed the profession of the law. When the Eebel- lion commenced, he was invited from that distant point to accept a com mission in the Federal army. The offer was at first declined; but upon its renewal he accepted it, and at once journeyed to "Washington. The death of General Lander provided a suitable position for him. He received the command of his brigade, being placed under the superior orders of General Banks. The battle and the victory of Winchester soon enabled him to demonstrate that he had lost nothing of that martial skill and heroic valor which had already rendered him distinguished in the annals of American warfare. The severe losses which the Eebels had incurred in the southwest, seemed only to have rendered them more determined ; and their ablest generals gradually concentrated their most efficient troops near tJorinth, Tennessee. General Albert Sydney Johnston, then commander-in-chief of the Eebel armies, was collecting his forces there, assisted by Beaure- gard, Polk, and other able generals. Their purpose was to intercept the victorious march of the Federal troops who had triumphed at Forts Henry and Donelson ; and to prevent their intended advance toward Memphis. For some days General Grant had been transferring his forces to Savan nah Tennessee, and thence across the river to Pittsburg Landing. It was on the fourth of April, that about thirty -five thousand of these had passed over, and had taken their position at the distance of several miles from the shore. They were awaiting the arrival of the remainder of the army under General Buell, containing about an equal number of men, who should have already been on the spot, in accordance with the plans of General Grant. While this unfortunate delay existed, and the separa tion of the Federal army into two bodies, which necessarily resulted from it, continued, the Eebel generals conceived the idea of making a sudden attack. Their time was admirably chosen. They executed their purpose with superior skill and fortitude ; and the great but indecisive battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing was the result. The Federal forces which had crossed the river were posted westward from Pittsburg Landing, in a curved line along the banks, and extended a distance of three and a half miles; the centre facing the road to Corinth. They were commanded by Generals Prentiss, Sherman, Hurlbut, and McClernand. As Corinth was a position admirably adapted for defence, it was not suspected that the enemy would abandon the advantages which 216 THE CIVIL WAK IN THE UNITED STATED. it afforded and venture on an advance. Hence it must be admitted that their attack was in a great measure unexpected. They marched out of Coimth on Saturday, April 5th, seventy thousand in number, in three grand divisions. General Johnston commanded, and was with the centre ; Braxton Bragg and Beauregard commanded the two wings; Hardee, Polk, Breckinridge, and Cheatham, held inferior positions. Their plan of attack was, to assault the centre of the Federal lines, consisting of the divisions of Prentiss and McClernand, penetrate them, and then assail each of the wings on the front and flank. Having thus divided and over powered the Federal army, their purpose was to compel them to surren der, or drive them into the Tennessee river, and thus complete either the capture or the ruin of the whole. During the night of Saturday their numerous forces lay at no very great distance from the Federal camp. Their proximity evidently began to be suspected ; for at two o clock in the morning of Sunday, the 6th, Colonel Peabody, of Gen eral Prentiss s division, sent forward two hundred and fifty men beyond his lines to ascertain whether any Kebel troops lay in that vicinity. These had scarcely proceeded half a mile when they encountered a large body of Eebels approaching them. The latter opened their fire immediately, and drove the Federals with great slaughter, back toward their camp. They followed promptly, and actually reached the position of Colonel Peabody as his regiment, aroused by the disant firing, were falling into line. The gray mists of morning were then about as cending, and throwing a partial, hazy light over the scene, so soon to become the arena of one of the bloodiest struggles of modern times. Many of the officers had not yet risen, many of the men were not yet armed, when the whole Federal camp became aware that a vigorous attack had commenced upon some portion of their line. The twenty-fifth Missouri regiment, belonging to General Prentiss s division, was the first to feel the assault of the approaching enemy, who were firing volleys of musketry as they advanced. Their cannon, already in position and un- limbered, were tossing shells into the heart of the Federal encampment- During this process the Federal army was gradually dressing, arming, and falling into line; but this was not accomplished until a decisive ad vantage had been gained by the enemy. The whole of General Sherman s division was the first to confront the Rebels in line of battle. It was now six o clock. Sherman s troops withstood the shock for some time with heroism ; but being overpowered by superior numbers, were compelled to give way. As they retreated the balls of the enemy ploughed through their living masses with fearful slaughter. The divisions of Generals Sherman and Buckland abandoned their camp equipage, and some of them retreated in disgraceful disorder. Several of the Ohio regiments, especially the fifty -third, commanded by Colonel Appier, fled without firing a single gun, and covered themselves THE BATTLE OF CORINTH. 217 with ignominy. In vain did General McClernand order forward a portion of his left to support the scattering and fugitive troops of Buckland. In vain did General Sherman exert himself to stop the flight of his own men, dashing bravely along the lines amid a hailstorm of bullets. The advan cing billows of the Rebel host overwhelmed every thing before them and while portions of the Federal regiments occasionally paused a few moments to stop the tide of fugitives and pursuers, the great mass rolled onward in a tumultuous chaos toward the river. Then it was that General Prentiss, having succeeded in making a stand for a time, and having been left unsupported on the field, was encompassed by the enemy. A wall of bayonets closed around his men, and after a short but desperate combat they were made prisoners. Three regiments, having laid down their arms, were marched toward the rear of the enemy. It was now ten o clock. One whole division of the Federal army had retreated, leaving a frightful gap in the centre of their lines. Just then the division of General W. H. L. Wallace was deployed into the vacant territory ; and they held their position with great resolution till toward the end of the day. By this time General Grant arrived on the field from Savannah, and immediately placed guards in the rear to stop the retreating soldiers. The temporary flight was thus terminated, the officers became reassured, and succeeded in bringing their troops, many of whom had begun to waver, into order of battle. Then ensued a more regular? universal and desperate combat. The battle raged along the whole line ; for the enemy had now all reached the scene of conflict, and every portion of both armies was brought into action. The roar of the cannon and musketry was deafening; the earth trembled under their shock. The fiercest struggle was in the centre, between the enemy and the troops who had taken General Sherman s position. A furious charge was made upon the fourteenth Ohio battery, and after a long contest it was captured by the Kebels. A similar onslaught was made upon the fifth Ohio battery, which resulted in the capture of three of its guns. The left wing of the Federal forces also encountered and resisted a ferocious assault. The Kebels, by a sudden dash, captured a part of the battery of Waterhouse, together with that of Beer. For nearly two hours a lurid sheet of fire blazed between the two columns, hurling destruction into each other s ranks. Three different times the Federals, weakened by the deadly fire of the Mississippi riflemen, were compelled slowly to retire toward the river; and three times they regained the lost advantage. Dresser s battery of rifled guns on two occasions made the enemy recoil with fear ful losses. Thus till after three o clock the combat raged with appalling fury. The air seemed filled with sulphurous hail ; the wide-spread scene of conflict was covered with a far ascending curtain of smoke, within which the rushing, advancing, receding masses of men might be dimly seen, plunged 218 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. into the mortal struggles of the conflict. At one time the fire of the enemy appeared to be concentrated toward the centre. At another it would ex pand and extend itself up and down the line to right and to left. By this time the ground was covered with the wounded and the slain of both armies. For the most part the superiority of numbers which the Eebels possessed gave them the advantage. As the sun was descending the western heavens, the Federal army was gradually retiring toward the river, un able to resist with success the ponderous and infuriated masses opposed to them. By this time the enemy had full possession of the camps of Sherman, Prentiss, and McClernand. The whole front line, except Stuart s brigade, had given way. To the last the divisions of W. H. L. Wallace and Hurlbut made a heroic stand, and maintained their positions. Hurlbut had been encamped at the end of the line nearest the river. His troops consisted chiefly of Kentucky, Indiana and Iowa regiments. Having open fields before them, they raked the approaching enemy with terrible effect. They held j, their position from ten in the forenoon until half past three. No officer on the field deserved greater praise for his heroism and gallantry than General Hurlbut. His example and his exertions served greatly to avert the horrors of a universal defeat, which impended over the army of the Union on that memorable day. Next in line to his bri gade was that of General W. H. L. Wallace, who commanded the troops which had formerly been under the orders of General Charles Ferguson Smith, whom sickness prevented from being present in this engagement. General Wallace entered into the conflict about ten o clock. lie and his men fought with the utmost resolution till half past three. Four separate times the Eebel generals attempted to turn them by the most furious charges. Just as often their advancing masses were compelled to recoil and retreat with fearful losses. The powerful batteries from Missouri, commanded by Stone, Weber, and Eichardson, were admirably served, and greatly contributed to the partial success of the day, in this portion of the field. But when the general retreat began, and the whole line com menced to retire, they were compelled to yield, for it would have been madness to remain. As the division began to fall back, General Wallace was severely wounded. His soldiers were the last to give way, at that desperate moment when the Federal line was driven back within half a mile of Pittsburg Landing, with the victorious masses of the Eebels crowding within a thousand yards of their confused and retreating ranks. And now the last horrible tragedy of this day seemed about to be consummated. The Eebels at length occupied all the camps of the Federal army. The latter were crowded in wild confusion around Pitts- burg Landing, within the circumference of half a mile. In vain had the soldiers of the Union expended prodigies of valor, in the most desperate attempts to resist their fate. They had now fallen back as far as the nature of the ground would permit. There seemed to be no alternative SKILL AND ENERGY OF GENERAL BUELL. 219 but to surrender, or to perish beneath the tranquil and brightly glancing waves of the Tennessee river; for sufficient transports had not been pro vided to convey over even a small proportion of the multitude of the fugitives. Never had the fate of any army seemed more desperate, its ruin more inevitable. During the day General Buell had been repeatedly telegraphed to hasten his tardy legions ; but he had been unable as yet to reach the scene of conflict. Certain destruction thus appeared to impend over the Union army, when a sudden deliverance unexpectedly arose. The gunboats Lexington and A. 0. Tyler having opportunely arrived from Savannah, were at that moment able to bring their guns to bear upon the masses of the victorious Rebels ; and having steamed up the mouth of Licking Creek, they opened a deadly fire upon their right wing. Broadside after broadside of sixty-four pounders was discharged as rapidly as the most skilful gunnery could send their shells into the serried ranks of the foe. At the same time the long wished-for advance guard of Buell s army appeared on the high bluffs which lined the opposite banks of the river. Their presence at once inspirited the Federal troops, and shout after shout ascended to greet them. But no time was to be lost and quickly several transports which had been tied along the opposita bank were loosed, and filled with artillery and troops. But before they could arrive, Colonel "Webster, the chief of General Grant s staff, had col lected all the guns which remained untaken, had formed them into a semi circle bearing upon the Rebel army, and had opened a formidable assault upon their line. These combined salutes, while they raised the courage of the Federal forces, which had been fighting for so many hours, dis heartened the enemy. The death of General Sydney Johnston now became known, which misfortune added to their panic. Their com manders at length discovered that their successes for that day were ended ; and that no further advantage could possibly be gained. They therefore withdrew as far as the Federal camps which they had taken, and prepared to renew the contest with more decisive results, as they hoped, on the ensuing day. The night of Sunday was industriously employed in transporting the troops of General Buell across the river. As soon as the successive regi ments arrived, they proceeded to take their positions in the Federal lines. The gunboats continued their bombardment during the whole night. They soon made the position occupied by the centre and the right of the Rebels, at the close of Sunday, untenable, and compelled them to fall back from point to point, so that they evacuated more than half the ground they had gained by the retreo,t of the Federal army toward the river. This circumstance will account for the mysterious fact that the Rebels made no assault during the night, as had been confidently expected ; and it also prevented them from commencing the battle at daybreak on Monday. 220 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. During the hours of that memorable night, while a furious tempest raged, and a deluge of rain descended, the Federal commanders were busy in making preparations for resuming the contest. New dispositions had been formed. Ammen s brigade was placed on the extreme left, that of Bruce in the centre, that of Hazen on the right of Nelson s divi sion. At seven o clock on Monday the action began, by a simultaneous advance on both sides ; for both sides seemed equally eager for the com bat. General Lewis Wallace opened the engagement by shelling the enemy opposed to him. He was answered by a powerful Eebel battery, and a duel between artillery ensued. The result here was, that a body of Federal infantry having been sent across a ravine to attack the flank of this portion of the enemy s line, the guns of the latter were soon lim bered up and hastily withdrawn. General Nelson at the same time at tacked the enemy opposed to him. His large mass of troops renewed the contest in all its fury ; the action soon became general along the whole line ; and the rattle of small arms, and the louder, heavier tones of the artillery reverberated without intermission over the far-extending scene of conflict. The Eebels attacked the Federal centre and right with the utmost desperation. At half-past ten the Federals had regained nearly all the ground from which they had been driven on the preceding day. At that moment the enemy concentrated their efforts to make a grand assault. Suddenly, and with much concert, their generals hurled their furious squadrons on the lines of the advancing Federals. Stunned by the shock, the latter reeled, and for a time gave way on the entire right. The ground there was fiercely contested, and the issue would have been doubtful, perhaps disastrous; but just at the critical moment General Buell arrived on that part of the field and assumed the command. He soon comprehended the relative positions of the combatants, and ordered a forward double-quick movement by brigades. The Eebel lines were then driven back for a quarter of a mile. Soon the deserted camps of the Federals were reached, and repossessed by their former owners. By half- past two the entire right of the enemy was routed ; they had lost all in that portion of the field which they had gained ; the captured guns of the Federals were retaken; and some additional trophies were wrested from the retreating enemy. In that part of the Federal lines where the brigades of Crittenden, McCook, Smith, and Boyle were posted, a contest of equal intensity took place. At one time the Federal troops were overpowered and retreated. The day was recovered by a spirited cannonade poured into the Eebel masses by the batteries of Mendenhall and Bartlett. After a long contest the enemy here also began to retire, and to leave the field in the possession of their antagonists. On the extreme right, where the gallant Hurlbut and McClernand commanded, the vicissitudes of the day were equally varied, to be terminated at last by a result equally honor able to the Federal arms. Four times McClernand lost and regained the ULTIMATE DEFEAT OF THE REBELS. 221 position which he occupied at the commencement of the engagement. The troops in the centre of the Federal army, commanded by General Sherman, overpowered by a terrific assault of artillery, in which Watson s Louisiana battery was remarkable for its prodigious effects, were com pelled at one time to give way. But after a long struggle they recovered their advantage, aided by the efficient batteries of Thurber and Thompson. By four o clock, an hour and half later than the victory on the left, the enemy commenced to retire here also, before Sherman s advancing lines. Then the retreat became general, and the whole Kebel army, disheartened and essentially weakened by the immense though futile struggles of the day, withdrew in comparative order toward Corinth. The Federal forces then reoccupied their original camp, and took possession of almost every trophy which, on the preceding day, had fallen into the possession of the temporary victors. During the progress of this memorable engagement, Generals Grant, Buell, Sherman, Nelson, the Wallaces, Hurlbut, McClernand, and McCook, greatly distinguished themselves. They were present in every portion of the field, and exhibited the utmost skill and coolness in every emergency. Yery many of the inferior commanders were equally valiant and equally worthy of commendation. But it must also be admitted, that some of the subaltern officers disgraced themselves during the combat by their cowardice. General Grant was compelled to order a number of these under arrest on the battle-field. The results of this great conflict were important. Their defeat greatly dispirited the Rebel leaders, while it covered the Federal arms with immortal renown. The loss of the enemy was seventeen hundred and twenty-eight killed, eight thousand and twelve wounded, nine hundred missing. Their chief misfortune was the death of Albert Sydney Johnston. The loss of the Federals was about two thousand killed, seven thousand four hundred wounded, and nearly three thousand missing.* The chief glory of this victory will be ascribed by posterity to the two generals who were highest in command, Generals Grant and Buell. The former we have already sketched. The latter was born in Ohio, in 1820. He entered the academy at West Point in 1837, and was breveted second lieutenant of infantry in 1841. He was appointed first lieutenant in June, 1846, and in September of the same year was breveted captain, for his gallantry at the battle of Monterey. At the battle of Cherubusco he was severely wound to. in the chest. In 1848 he was appointed assistant adjutant-general, with the full rank of captain. When the Rebellion * It is impossible to state the number of killed and wounded in this battle with pre cise and perfect accuracy. All the accounts, even those which seem to be most reli able and authoritative, essentially differ. All that can be done with the probability of truth is, to state those numbers which seem to possess the greatest preponderance of authority in their favor ; and those numbers I have given in the text. 222 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. commenced he was stationed in California; but was at once appointed a brigadier-general by Congress, and in the autumn of 1861 succeeded General William T. Sherman, as commander of the Department of the Ohio. He addressed himself to the task of organizing an efficient army in his department, and in arranging some of the details of the campaign, which were afterward realized. The engagement in which Humphrey Marshall was defeated by General Garfield was planned by him. When General Ilalleck was placed in command of the Department of the Southwest, Buell was made his subordinate. At the same time he was promoted to the rank of major-general. The long list of valuable services which he had rendered to the cause of the Union was fitly crowned by his successful and skilful efforts at Pittsburg Landing, where he was instrumental in assisting to turn the tide of victory, and in wresting from the Kebel generals the laurels which were commencing, unworthily, to bloom around their brows. COLLISION AT HOWARD CREEK. 223 CHAPTER XX. THE FEDERAL ARMY UNDER GENERAL MCCLELLAN APPROACH YORKTOWN COLLISION 01* HOWARD CREEK ATTACK ON DETACHED REBEL INTRKNCHMENTS ESTABLISHMENT OF THB FEDERAL CAMP, AND ERECTION OF FEDERAL BATTERIES PREPARATIONS FOR A GREAT CONFLICT AT TORKTOWN BRILLIANT OPERATIONS OF GENERAL MITCHELL IN ALABAMA RESULTS OF HIS RAPID MOVEMENTS SKETCH OF GENERAL MITCHELL EVENTS IN GEORGIA CAPTURE OF FORT PULASKI STRENGTH OF THE REBEL WORKS INCIDENTS OF THE BOM BARDMENT OF THAT FORT RESULTS OF THE CAPTURE THE CONQUEST OF NEW ORLEANS FEDERAL ARMAMENT UNDER COMMODORE FARRAGUT BOMBARDMENT OF FORTS JACKSON AND ST. PHILIP AN ENGAGEMENT OF SIX DAYS REDUCTION OF THESE FORTS IMPRES SION PRODUCED BY IT IN NEW ORLEANS THE FEDERAL FLEET APPROACH THAT CITY THB REBEL TROOPS EVACUATE IT THE SUMMONS TO SURRENDER IMPERTINENCE OF MAYOS MONROE NEW ORLEANS OCCUPIED BY FEDERAL TROOPS SKETCH OF COMMODORE FARRA- GU T THE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT MACON INCIDENTS OF THE ASSAULT STRENGTH OF THAT FORT RESULTS OF ITS CAPTURE BY THE FEDERAL TROOPS. Ox Friday, April 4th, 1862, the army of the Potomac, which had halted temporarily at Fortress Monroe on its way toward Yorktown, resumed its march. Berdan s sharpshooters led the advance, with the fourth Michigan, the fourteenth New York, and the third Pennsylvania cavalry. The route lay through Great Bethel, on the direct road toward York- town. At that spot, already celebrated in the annals of the nation by the decisive victory gained by Washington over Lord Cornwallis, on the 19th of October, 1781, the Rebels had concentrated an efficient army, twenty thousand strong, commanded by General Magruder; had erected numerous breastworks, which extended across the isthmus or peninsula which separates the York and the James rivers; and there they seemed resolved to contest, to the utmost of their ability, the further progress of the Federal forces toward their capital. The enemy had constructed a fort as an outwork on the banks of Howard Creek, near the village of Kosedown, which necessarily became the first object of attack. Allan s fifth Massachusetts battery was detailed to this service. Fifteen round of shell were thrown, after which the Rebels evacuated the fort with great precipitation. It was immediately occupied by the victors, and the stars and stripes were unfurled from the flag-staff. This conquest occupied but a brief period of time, and did not prevent the van of the Federal army from reaching the vicinity of Cocklestcwn, six miles distant from Yorktown, during the same day. On the morrow the march was resumed. The falling rain had rendered the roads extremely difficult, and the progress of the troops and guns was comparatively slow. At length the advance reached a point not more than three miles distant from Yorktown. From this position some 224 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Eebel intrenchments were discovered to the right of the road, at the distance of a mile. General McClellan deemed it advisable not to leave these behind him to annoy his rear ; he therefore ordered a number of his batteries to attack them. The guns were immediately wheeled into posi tion in advance of the infantry by whom they were supported. A heavy bombardment was commenced, to which the guns of the enemy in the forts responded. Their shells were thrown indiscriminately over the entire area covered by the Federal army, and sometimes bursting in the vicinity of the troops, were not harmless. The firing continued without intermission during the entire day. About noon it increased in fury and vigor. Then Morell s brigade on the left advanced within three-quarters of a mile of the intrenchments ; the sharpshooters approached still nearer, and picked off with an infallible aim the most of those who manned the Eebel guns. In vain their artillery directed their special attention to these dangerous assailants, and attempted to drive them beyond the range of their rifles. The heavy firing terminated with the close of the day, though skirmishing was continued between the pickets of both armies during the night. A number had been killed and wounded on both sides. Griffin s battery had silenced three of the guns of the Eebels. During the next day the enemy evacuated their intrenchments on the right, and concentrated their whole force in their main works before Yorktown. Immediately after the termination of this engagement, which was re garded merely as preliminary to the much greater and more decisive operations which were expected soon to follow, the Federal army pro ceeded to establish their encampment before Yorktown. General McClellan carefully reconnoitered the works of the enemy. They were found to be both extensive and formidable. The next duty, therefore, was to commence the construction of counter works, preliminary to a grand and final assault upon the fortifications of the foe. The latter pro ceeded with equal industry to strengthen those breastworks which they had already erected, and to add to their number. At the same time immense reinforcements were ordered to join the Eebel troops already assembled at Yorktown ; so that in a short time tney increased to the number of sixty thousand men. Leaving the combatants here to execute their purpose, in anticipation of the occurrence of a world-renowned combat between them at that spot, which was destined never to take place, we will proceed to narrate the events which were transpiring in other portions of the scene of conflict. It was at this period that General Mitchel achieved one of the most brilliant and effective episodes of the war. Starting from Louisville with a few thousand men, he commenced a rapid advance southward through Alabama, expecting to encounter the enemy upon his line of march. He proceeded, however, without interruption as far as the city of Huntsville, OPERATIONS OF GENERAL MITOHEL IN ALABAMA. 225 of which he took possession. Rebel forces on the route thither, instead of confronting and resisting him, uniformly fled from him. Their only strategy consisted in burning the bridges. Having reached Iluntsville, General Mitchel sent out two expeditions in the railroad cars which he had captured at that place. The one under Colonel Sill, with the thirty- third Ohio, proceeded eastward to Stevenson, where the junction of the Chattanooga, the Memphis and the Charleston railroads takes place. The other, under Colonel Tarchin, with the nineteenth Illinois, went westward, and having arrived at Decatur took charge of the railroad bridge at that place, fifteen hundred feet long, and saved it from the destruction which at that moment impended over it. The former of these expeditions was equally useful ; for it captured a large number of fugitive Rebel troops, five locomotives, and an immense amount of rolling stock. The results of this enterprise were important. General Mitchel thereby obtained pos session of a hundred miles of the Memphis and Charleston railroad. He intercepted the communication between the Rebel army at Corinth and the Rebel authorities in Richmond. It enabled him to threaten Corinth itself in flank and rear; and to march upon it at any moment in concert with Generals Grant and Buell. He obtained the supremacy of a hundred miles of territory in the very heart of Alabama, in the blooming centre of a magnificent cotton region ; and he was able to encourage and protect the friends of the Union in that portion of the Rebel Confederacy. By this achievement the stars and stripes again waved over ten towns within the limits of Alabama, on the railroad line between Decatur and Stevenson. Brigadier-General 0. M. Mitchel, the hero of this remarkable achieve rnent, is known to fame both as a soldier and as a savant. He was born in Union county, Kentucky, in 1810. : He graduated at West Point in June, 1829, and having entered the artillery corps with the brevet rank of second lieutenant, became assistant professor of mathematics in that institution. That position he held until September, 1832, when he re signed his command with the army and engaged in civil engineering He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Cincinnati in 1833. In 183-i he was appointed professor of mathematics and astronomy in the Ohio University. That position he retained during ten years. In 1815 he founded the Cincinnati Observatory, of which he became the director and also published the " Siderial Messenger." In 1848 he held the office of adjutant-general of the State of Ohio, and subsequently became chief engineer of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad. Previous to the commence ment of the rebellion he had distinguished himself as an author and lec turer on scientific subjects. Having tendered his services to the defenders of the Union in the hour of its peril, they were promptly accepted ; and the successful result of his bold and skilful expedition into Alabama, tes- 15 226 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. tified to the high value of the abilities which he brought to the assistance of the government.* On the 10th of April, 1862, victory crowned the Federal arms within the limits of the ancient State of Georgia. On that day the formal siege of Fort Pulaski began, which terminated, after a vigorous cannonading, in the surrender of the works to the Federal troops. This fort was the outpost of the defences of the city of Savannah, and was situated on the Savannah river at the narrowest part of its channel. It was a strong casemated work, mounting fifty-seven guns of heavy calibre. There was a supply of a hundred tons of powder in the maga zines ; and its full armament of men was five hundred. It was in shape an irregular pentagon, with the base line or curtain-face to the inland- Its other faces were casemated, and bore upon the outward approaches. It stood on Cockspur island, which is separated from Tybee island by a narrow arm of sea. The walls were constructed of hard gray brick ; were more than six feet in thickness, and were supposed to be able to resist all kinds of projectiles. It contained at the period of the attack, provisions and water for six months. It was provided with three furnaces for the purpose of heating shot. The curtain was covered by a redan, and the redan was surrounded by a ditch. General Viele and Captain Gil more had been directed by General Hunter, the Federal commander of that department, to erect a number of batteries in order to cut off the communication between the fort and the city of Savannah, and to con struct others on the islands adjacent to the works, for the purpose of as sailing and reducing it. The materials for executing this order were pro cured at Port Royal, and consisted of a detachment of the third Rhode Island artillery, another detachment of volunteer engineers, a battalion of the eighth Maine regiment, the sixth Connecticut regiment, the forty-eighth New York, together with a full supply of heavy artillery and intrenching tools. By a reconnoissance which was made by Lieutenant J. A. Wilson, of the Topographical Engineers, it was ascertained that the Rebels had sunk the hulk of a brig in an artificial channel named Wall s Cut, con necting Wright river, one of the outlets of the Savannah, with Bull river, which served as a thoroughfare between Port Royal and Savannah. It was of essential importance that this obstacle should be removed. The task was committed to Major Beard of the forty-eighth New York. After three weeks of unremitting labor during the night, by the use of ingenious mechanical contrivances, the work was accomplished. The expedition * It is a singular circumstance that not a few of the most eminent Federal generals in this war had previously distinguished themselves as authors, such as Halleck, Fre mont, McClellan, Mitchel. The chief productions of the last were his " Planetary and Stellar Worlds," his " Popular Astronomy/ and his "Astronomy of the Bible," all of which indicate profound scientific attainments and brilliant genius. THE CAPTURE OF FORT PULASKI. 227 against Fort Pulaski then commenced to move; and proceeding to the north end of Daufnskie Island, they established a camp and depot, and commenced operations. Reconnoissances were immediately made for the selection of the most suitable positions for the erection of batteries. These naving been duly ascertained, twelve batteries were successively con structed. Great difficulties attended and impeded the work. Rebel gun boats continually sailed up and down the Savannah river; and to have attempted to float the Federal cannon across in flatboats, would have ex posed them to certain capture. It became necessary to drag them by night over Jones s Island on shifting tramways. The first of the batteries was thus placed in position during the night of the llth of February. Three days afterward another battery was transported. Thus on Venus Point on Long Island, on Turtle Island, on Jones s, Bird s, and Tybee Islands, the batteries were eventually put into position, and breastworks were constructed which commanded the guns of Fort Pulaski. On the 10th of April all was ready, and the bombardment began at seven o clock, after a flag of truce had been sent, demanding in vain the surrender of the fort. The batteries of Tybee Island commenced the assault. In a short time the Rebel flag-staff was cut in two, and the Rebel colors fell. But soon another staff was extemporised, and another standard unfurled from the parapet. The bombardment was continued without intermission through the whole day. The enemy responded promptly and vigorously ; but their shots produced much less execution than the shots of the Federal batteries. The Rebels seem to have been ignorant of the positions of .the Federal works, because their fire in variably followed the successive openings of the different batteries. Their shells generally fell wide of the mark ; but the aim of the Federal gunners was accurate. Accordingly, during the entire day, the brick and mortar of the fort could be seen flying in all directions, and the Rebels were compelled to retire from one portion of their works to another. The number of Federal guns was thirty-six. At the end of the first day, the fire on both sides ceased. During the night a number of guns were transferred to Goat s Island, being the point nearest the fort. On the morning of the llth, two small breaches could be discovered in the southeast face of the fort, which gradually assumed more enlarged proportions. The shells of the Federal batteries were gradually working their way toward the magazines. It was evident also that a number of the Rebel guns had become disabled. Oneof the breaches soon became fifteen feet wide, the other ten. The falling debris from the walls filled the moat, and a storming party could easily have passed over. From twelve different points of the compass the deluge of shot and shell poured into the doomed fort, scattering destruction and ruin around. At length, at eighteen minutes past two, on the llth, a white flag appeared on the parapet of Pulaski. General Gilrnore imme- 228 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. d lately sent a boat to the fort to demand its unconditional surrender. The commandant replied that, as the magazines were now exposed to the shot of the Federals, and might at any moment explode, it was madness to continue the defence. He had therefore concluded, to surrender. The same clay the seventh Connecticut regiment was sent to take possession of the captured works, which, together with all the guns, ammunition, and provisions of the enemy, fell into the hands of the victors. Their sum total was forty-seven guns, seven thousand shot and shells, forty thousand pounds of powder, together with three hundred and sixty prisoners. The latter belonged to the first Georgia regiment of volun teers, commanded by Colonel Charles H. Olmstead. The captive officers and prisoners we^re afterward sent in the steamer Benjamin Deford to the city of New York. This important success restored to the Federal Gov ernment another of the fortresses which had been treacherously stolen from it by the Eebel authorities. It prepared the way for the future re duction of the city of Savannah. Fort Jackson indeed intervened between it and the Federal troops ; but being inferior in size and in armament to Pulaski, it could offer no serious obstacle to the triumphant advance, at the proper moment, of the forces of the Union. In February, 1862, a powerful Federal fleet, consisting of forty -six sail, carrying two hundred and eighty-six guns and twenty-one mortars, was placed under the command of Flag-Officer D. S. Farragut, for the attack and conquest of New Orleans. Preliminary to the bombardment of the formidable forts which guarded the Crescent City, a reconnoissance was made on the 28th of March, by Captain Bell, under the orders of the commodore. He took the gunboats Kennebec and Wissahickon and pro ceeded up the Mississippi. Having arrived in the vicinity of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, below New Orleans, sketches were taken of their construction, and other important information was obtained. During the process, both forts continued to throw their shells in the vicinity of the unwelcome and inquisitive visitors, but fortunately without any serious result. It was ascertained that a strong chain had been thrown across the river, which was supported by eight dismantled vessels and a large raft ; that both of the forts were well armed and fully garrisoned ; that fire-rafts had been prepared to drift toward the bombarding vessels to destroy them ; and that every other expedient had been adopted to accomplish a desperate and protracted defence. On the 4th of April a portion of the Federal fleet pursued a number of RelDel vessels which approached their position in the river The Kimeo closed with a steamer carrying a blue flag, which seemed to indi cate that the Rebel commander was on board. A chase ensued up the stream, until the appearance in the distance of a much larger number of Rebel vessels, including the formidable ram Manassas, rendered it expe dient for the Federal vessels to return to their anchorage. Preparations THE CONQUEST OF NEW ORLEANS. 229 were then made to attack the forts with the full power of the fleet, and, having silenced them, to advance to the subjugation of the crescent city which they defended. Accordingly, on the 18th of April, twenty-one mortar-boats and three gunboats, having approached within range of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, commenced a vigorous bombardment. The enemy in the fortifications replied with spirit ; and after six days bom bardment, finding them still unreduced, Flag-Officer Farragut resolved to run past them, on the morning of the 24th of April. Their fire was heavy and constant, and the obstacles to the navigation of the river also caused some delay. The chain which had been thrown across the river was wrenched in twain by the vigorous blows of two gunboats. One of the fire-ships which the enemy had seat adrift unfortunately came in con tact with the flag-ship Hartford, which was ignited ; but the conflagration was extinguished before any serious damage was done. Other casualties were more important. In an engagement which took place between the Union steam sloop Yaruna, of ten guns, and the Rebel steam iron-clad Morgan, the latter ran into the Yaruna and injured her so severely that she was soon in a sinking condition. But while in this state she dis charged a full broadside into her antagonist, with such effect that she too began to sink, and both vessels went down together. On the other side, the Federal forces destroyed eleven Rebel gunboats and the floating bat tering-ram Manassas. The engagement between the fleet and the forts was not only a pro tracted, but also a desperate one. Some of the Federal soldiers fell dead from mere exhaustion at their guns. The names of these obscure heroes have indeed passed into oblivion ; but they deserve a renown equal to that which clusters around the exploits of their more famous and fortunate commanders. On the 27th of April, a flag of truce was sent to Commo dore Porter, who commanded the mortar-fleet, inquiring what terms of surrender would be accepted. The answer was, as usual with the Fede ral victors during this war, that no terms except an unconditional and an immediate surrender would be entertained. On the 28th, after some delay, the transfer of the two forts, with all their guns, ammunition and stores, was made to the conquerors. Immediately afterward General Butler, who commanded the land forces of the expedition, placed a com petent garrison of Federal troops in the several fortifications. The loss on the Union side was thirty-six killed, one hundred and twenty -three wounded. The number of prisoners taken was four hundred. The Rebels who were killed and wounded numbered about five hundred. Having passed Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the Union fleet resumed us triumphant progress up the Mississippi. Passing the Chalmette bat teries, three miles below the city of New Orleans, on the morning of the 25th, they opened fire, but were silenced in twenty minutes. On the morning of the 26th, Flag-Officer Farragut sent Fleet-Captain Bailey on 230 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. shore to demand a surrender. At first the Mayor proposed to submit the question to the Eebel General Mansfield Lovell, who was in command of the Eebel forces there, but General Lovell who was straining every nerve to get his troops away, replied that he would evacuate the city, and the Mayor could do as he pleased. This being reported to Flag-Officer Far ragut, he renewed his demand on Mayor Monroe. That personage re sponded to the Federal commander in a letter characterized by a singular mixture o& folly and impudence, in which he set forth that the Federal forces possessed the power to take the city by brute force, and they might do it ; but that he never would voluntarily make the transfer. Without waiting for further negotiation, Commodore Farragut dispatched a num ber of troops from the fleet, which took possession of the city on the 29th, occupied the Federal buildings, and displayed the stars and stripes from the positions which had so long been disgraced by the Kebel colors. General Butler s land forces having disembarked on the shore of Lake Ponchartrain, were posted a few miles from the city, and a small portion of them in the city itself; while the Federal fleet rode at anchor in the port, to overawe the inhabitants, and retain them in quiet, and to some extent unwilling obedience to the legitimate authority which had thus resumed its beneficent sway over them. The chief hero of the capture of New Orleans, and of the reduction of its protecting forts, Commodore David G. Farragut, was born in Tennes see in 1801. He entered the navy as a midshipman in December, 1810. He then served under Commodore David Porter, and was the first to board the Essex. He afterward accompanied that gallant officer in his expedition around Cape Horn in 1813. He passed the ten succeeding years in various cruises, and on the 1st of January, 1821, was commis sioned a lieutenant. In 1851 he was ordered to serve as assistant inspec tor of ordnance, being second in command under Commodore Skinner. When a new navy yard was constructed on Mare s Island, near San Francisco, he was placed in command of that post, though then standing the nineteenth on the list. In 1858 he was promoted to the command of the steam sloop of war Brooklyn, which formed a part of the home squadron under Flag-Officer McCluney. He retained that position until the expedition destined for the capture of New Orleans was determined on, when he was chosen from among a host of brave and skilful men as its flag-officer, to lead it to victory. The eminent success with which he fulfilled his important mission proved the wisdom and prudence of the selection. Almost cotemporaneous with this important conquest, the value of which could scarcely be overrated, another brilliant triumph graced the Federal arms in a different direction. After a vigorous bombardment of ten hours, Fort Macon, situated on the coast of North Carolina, near Beaufort and Newbern, surrendered to the assailants. On the 25th of THE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT MACON. 231 March, General Burnside, having completed his arrangements for the attack and conquest of this fort, ordered General Parke to occupy More- head city, and the railroad between that place and Newborn, with the division under his command. The order was obeyed, and a few days afterward Bogue Island, opposite Carolina city, was also taken possession of. The latter position was most favorable for the commencement of operations against Fort Macon, and a camp was there established. On the llth of April active operations began; the fifth Rhode Island regi ment drove in the Rebel pickets, and Captain Williamson proceeded to select positions for the besieging batteries. These having been chosen with great skill, the troops were set to work to construct the intrench- ments. The enemy, having discovered the unwelcome activity of the Federal forces, continually annoyed them with their artillery. But as the precise position of the latter was somewhat screened from view, the execution produced by their salutes was unimportant. The troops em ployed in this service were the fourth and fifth Rhode Island and the eighth Connecticut regiments. By the 24th. of April, all the batteries were completed, and on the same day General Burnside arrived at the scene of conflict from Newbern. He brought with him two barges, the Grenade and Shrapnel, which had been fitted up as a floating battery, and had been armed with several thirty pound Parrott guns. These were placed at anchor about three miles from the fort. Before commencing the bombardment General Burnside sent a flag of truce to the enemy, with a final demand of surrender. On the next morning, the 25th ; that demand was refused. On the 26th, after having given the Rebels a few hours to reconsider their answer, without a favorable result, the Federal batteries opened their fire. These consisted of three breastworks, situated within a mile of the fort, on Bogue beach. One of them mounted three thirty pound Parrott guns, and was commanded by Captain Morris, of the first United States artillery. The second was posted two hundred yards distant, con taining four ten inch mortar batteries, commanded by Lieutenant Flagler, chief of ordnance on General Burnside s staff. The third mounted four eight inch mortar guns, was situated to the right of the first named bat tery, and was commanded by Lieutenant Prouty. The bombardment began at six o clock on the morning of the 26th and continued without intermission during the day. At first the larger guns failed to obtain the proper range of the fort, and their shells fell beyond the mark. Soon, however, this error was corrected, the signal corps of Lieutenants Andrews and Wait, who were posted at Beaufort, having discovered the defect and signaled to the batteries to lower their aim. Then the effect of the gunb was decisive. Three or four shells would be seen exploding at the same moment within the fort or upon the parapets. At the same time the gunboats which accompanied the expedition assisted in the work. Four 232 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of these bore up bravely toward the fort, and added their destructive salutes to those of the land batteries. During this interval the Rebel garrison were not inactive. They replied with energy, and with no in considerable skill. A sixty-four pound ball struck the gunboat Daylight on her starboard quarter, passed through the engine room, the officer s mess room, the captain s state room, and at length lodged in the side of the vessel. A portion of the rigging of the Gemsbok was shot away ; and other minor casualties occurred. So terrible was the bombardment on both sides, that the buildings in Beaufort and Morehead city were shaken in a perceptible degree, and the reverberation of the guns was heard for many miles around. But in spite of their valiant resistance, it soon began to be evident that the strength and energy of the rebel garrison were diminishing. Some of their guns had been dismounted. Before twelve o clock they were driven entirely from the external battery, on the terrace on the outside of the walls, and were compelled to retire to their barbette guns. From this period their firing diminished in rapidity. They were evidently becoming exhausted, while the efforts of the besiegers constantly increased in vigor and- determination. The shot and shell of the latter could be seen dashing through the broken walls of the fort, and exploding within anji around it. At twenty minutes past four o clock a flag of truce waved from the battlements, and the firing ceased on both sides. General Parke was sent for, for the purpose of holding an interview with Colonel White, commandant of Fort Macon ; between whom an armistice was agreed upon until the next day. Then, the surrender of the fort and garrison was formally made to General Burnside. Twelve hundred shot and shell had been discharged by the three Federal batteries during the siege. Fifteen of the Rebel guns had been disabled. Their loss was seven killed and eighteen wounded ; the Federal loss was one killed and two wounded. The fort had mounted forty-eight guns of various sizes. By the terms of the capitulation, it was agreed that the fort, the armament, and the garri son should be surrendered to the United States ; that the officers and men should be released on their parole of honor not again to take up arms against the United States until regularly exchanged ; and that they should carry with them their private effects, their arms excepted. The fort was then garrisoned by a detachment of Federal troops, the stars and stripes were unfurled to the breeze, and another conquest over the forces of the Rebel States was added to the triumphs of the defenders of the Union. BATTLE OF LEE S MILLS. 233 CHAPTER XXL OPERATIONS OF GENERAL MCCLELLAN AT YORKTOWN BATTLE OF LEE*S MILL DISASTER AND RETREAT OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS EVACUATION OF TORKTOWN BY THE REBELS MOTIVES OF THAT MOVEMENT PURSUIT BY THE FEDERALS ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN CAVALRY NEAR WILLIAMSBURG SECOND CONFLICT NEAR WILLIAMSBURG INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE GENERAL HOOKER S DIVISION BRILLIANT CHARGE OF GENERAL HANCOCK FEDERAL VICTORY SKETCH OF GENERAL HANCOCK BATTLE AT WEST POINT INCIDENTS OF THB CONTEST EFFICIENCY OF THE FEDERAL ARTILLERY ROUT OF THE REBELS BOMBARD MENT OF SEWELL S POINT ITS RESULTS EXPEDITION OF GENERAL WOOL AGAINST NORFOLK ITS SURRENDER OPERATIONS OF GENERAL. FREMONT IN THE MOUNTAIN DEPARTMENT MCDOWELL S DIVISION AT FREDERICKSBURG ROUT OF COLONEL MORGAN IN TENNESSEE INCIDENTS OF THE CHASE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT WRIGHT COMMENCED ENGAGEMENT OF THE FEDERAL GUNBOATS AT FORT DARLING, ON JAMES RIVER ITS INCIDENTS AND RESULTS STEADY ADVANCE OF MCCLELLAND ARMY TOWARD RICHMOND IT CROSSES THE CHICKA- HOMINY VARIOUS SKIRMISHES DECISIVE ENGAGEMENT ANTICIPATED GENERAL HUNTER S ABOLITION PROCLAMATION PRESIDENT LINCOLN S POLICY RESPECTING IT WHILE General Banks was driving the Eebel forces under Jackson through the valley of the Shenandoah toward Woodstock and Harrison- burg, General McDowell, with another corps of the divided army of the Potomac, was approaching Fredericksburg, which lay on a different route to Richmond. Cotemporaneous with these movements,, and in concert with them, important operations were progressing under McClellan at Yorktown. The fortifications which the Rebels had constructed to defend that place were extensive and strong ; and it became the employment of the Federal army during some days to erect opposing works, which, by their superior formation and their greater strength, would command them. This laborious task had been progressing with vigor under the direction of General McClellan ; the most skillful engineering had already produced the most formidable results ; when, on the 16th of April, 1862, a collision took place between portions of the hostile armies. The Rebels had erected a fort at Lee s Mill, about eight miles south of Yorktown, on the Warwick river, which they had manned with a number of guns. The special purpose of this fort was to protect the road leading to this mill, which passed a few hundred yards in front of it. In advance of this fort there was a bog several hundred feet wide, and above the bog a large dam. It was necessary to reduce this fort, and to expel the rebels from its possession. Accordingly, at nine o clock on the morning of the 16th, Captain Mott placed his battery within range, and commenced the bom bardment. The Rebels responded with spirit. The engagement con tinued for an hour. During its progress three of the guns of the enemy were silenced. They then ceased to fire, and evacuated the fort. The Federal sharpshooters were immediately sent forward to reconnoitre, and 234. THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. to ascertain what bad become of the garrison. They had wholly withdrawn from the field ; and all remained quiet until about four o clock. At that time a body of Rebel troops appeared in possession of another breastwork at some distance, on which they had mounted several guns. Again Mott s battery was brought to bear upon them, and the firing during half an hour was continuous. Soon the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth Vermont regiments were ordered to advance against the Rebels, who were seen to be occupying the woods adjacent to the fort in large numbers. The Green Mountain boys rushed forward bravely to the charge, wading through a bog several hundred feet wide, sometimes to their knees, sometimes to their waists in mud and water. Having passed this obstruc tion without flinching, they advanced, and suddenly encountered a line of concealed rifle-pits. They fired into these, and their occupants quickly fled. They then advanced again, and met another line of these concealed and deadly man-traps. The Yermonters sent a second volley among their occupants ; while Mott s battery, which had also reached the scene of action, delivered a number of shell and canister among them with immense effect. But at this stage of the action the retreating Rebels were reinforced by numerous accessions; and the Federal troops, receiving no assistance were compelled to fall back. During their advance the enemy had opened the dam, and had flooded the bog, by which means it had become covered with several additional feet of water. A number of the wounded, in passing through it, sank exhausted in the mud, and were strangled to death. Others, while slowly retreating, were shot by the pursuing Rebels, fell and expired in the swampy waste. In vain seven companies of the sixth Vermont turned heroically on the foe, and made every effort to cover the retreat of their comrades. Overwhelming numbers gave the enemy a resistless advantage. At length all except the wounded and the dying reached a position of safety, and the battle ended. The Federal loss in this disaster was forty-four killed, one hundred wounded and missing. The loss of the Rebels is unknown; although appearances indicated that they paid dearly for their temporary and inconsiderable victory. Meanwhile preparations for the general assault of Yorktown proceeded with energy. To the astonishment, however, of the Federal troops, and eventually of the whole nation, the vast army which the Rebels had assembled at that place, suddenly evacuated all their works before day light on the 4th of May, 1862, and commenced their line of retreat toward Richmond. During the preceding night they had kept up a heavy firing till after midnight ; at that time it suddenly ceased ; they then commenced to dismount their guns and prepare to retire. The first intimation which the Federal commanders received of the retreat of the enemy was when the Federal pickets reconnoitered their position on the morning of the 4th ; EVACUATION OF YORKTOWN BY THE REBELS. 235 and, cautiously advancing, found the intrenchments entirely deserted. The news spread with rapidity along the whole Federal line. The regi mental bands commenced to play, filling the air with sweet, exultant melodies. General McClellan issued an order to prepare to follow the enemy instantly, each man provided with two days rations. About eight o clock on the morning of the 4th all was ready, and the pursuit began toward Williamsburg, on the heels of the flying Eebels. The first and sixth cavalry, with four batteries of artillery, led the advance under the orders of General Stonernan. The evacuation of Yorktown by the Rebel army was one of the most im portant and singular events of the war. It had evidently been the original intention of the Rebel chiefs to defend that position to the last extremity ; and they had assembled there for that purpose sixty or seventy thousand men, commanded by Generals Johnston, Lee, and Magruder. It is a probable conjecture that the most potent consideration which induced them to withdraw from a position which they had so carefully fortified, was that they might encounter the Federal army at a safe distance from the Federal gunboats on the York river. The painful lesson taught them at Pittsburg Landing had not been forgotten. It is also probable that they hoped, by a single decisive victory nearer to the Rebel capital, to break the strength of the Federal army in the Peninsula. The trophies which they left behind them at Yorktown were not inconsiderable, con sisting of seventy-one cannon of various calibre, with their carriages and implements complete, and several magazines. Without stopping in the deserted works, the Federal army pressed forward, through a desolated country, in the wake of the retreating Rebels. About two miles from Williamsburg, the Federal advance under General Stoneman encountered their rear guard, on the afternoon of the 4th of May, and a vigorous engagement ensued. Just as the Federal advance, emerging from the woods, obtained the first glimpse of Williamsburg, they also saw the Rebel rear guard. A regiment of cavalry was seen approaching in line of battle about a mile distant. Captain Gibson s battery was immediately ordered to the front, to open upon them as they advanced. At the same time a portion of the sixth United States cavalry were deployed as skirmishers to the right and left. Notwithstanding the havoc produced by the battery on the Confederate squadrons, they continued steadily to advance. As they did so, a fire was opened on the Federals from an earthwork to the right, which had seemed to be deserted. At that crisis portions of the first and sixth cavalry were ordered to charge upon the Rebel horse. The order was executed in an admirable manner. A desperate hand-to- hand fight ensued, during which the enemy broke and fled. The pursuit was not continued for any distance on account of the absence of the infantry. After the close of the action, the Rebel troops continued their line of retreat toward Williamsburg. General Hancock s brigade arrived 236 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. at the scene of conflict soon afterward ; but further operations were post poned for the present. The Federal loss in this engagement was two killed and twenty wounded. Put a conflict of much greater importance and extent impended at Williamsburg. The Rebels had determined not to permit the Federal troops to occupy that place without a struggle. Accordingly, on the morning of Monday, May 5th, as General Hooker s division approached the breastworks which the enemy had erected in the vicinity of the town. their guns opened upon the Federal troops with great fury. The approach to these works lay through a series of ravines and swarnps, which rendered the operations of the Union forces extremely difficult. The Rebel batteries were supported by a very numerous body of troops commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston. Nevertheless, their assailants marched forward to the combat with an admirable spirit, which gave the assurance of ultimate success. The battle began at seven o clock in the morning, when three brigades of the enemy assailed a portion of the division of General Hooker. General Grover s brigade was the first which encountered them. It con sisted of the first and eleventh Massachusetts, the second New Hampshire, the twenty-sixth Pennsylvania, with a regular battery. The remainder of General Hooker s division acted as a reserve. The contest continued during the entire day, and was marked by various and often painful vicissitudes. At one time the ammunition of the Federal troops became exhausted, and the enemy had nearly gained possession of their batteries before a fresh supply could be brought forward. At that crisis the Rebels succeeded in spiking several of the Federal guns, though these were after ward retaken. The most important and decisive operation of the day was a brilliant and skilful movement of General Hancock, by which he suc ceeded in turning the left of the line of the enemy. From that moment the resistance of the Rebels became less vigorous, and their ultimate defeat inevitable. Toward the close of the day the division of General Kearney reached the scene of conflict, and joined in the engagement. During its progress Generals Heintzelman, Hooker, and Frank Patterson had their horses shot under them. The Rebels fought on this occasion with a great preponderance of numbers and advantage of position over the Federals ; but the nature of the ground was such as to render it im possible for a larger body of the latter to be brought into the action. The operations of Hancock s brigade, which decided the fortunes of the day, were specially worthy of admiration. The furious charges which they made on the enemy proved resistless. The havoc in their lines became terrible ; they at length broke and retired in a general and tumultuous retreat. They left nearly seven hundred of their dead upon the field. The Federal troops then pressed on and occupied their deserted position. The loss of the Union forces was three hundred killed and SKETCH OF GENERAL HANCOCK. 237 over eight hundred wounded. When darkness spread over the sangui nary scene, the routed foe was hastening forward toward the banks of the Chickahominy, and the exultant victors in that hard contest were resting from the toils and achievements of the day. The chief hero of this engagement was General "Win field Scott Han cock. This gallant officer was born in Pennsylvania, in 1824. He entered West Point in 1840, and graduated in that institution in June, 1844. Among his classmates was Simon Bolivar Buckner, the Rebel general who held a command and was captured at Fort Donelson. Han cock, on graduating, was appointed brevet second lieutenant in the fourth United States infantry ; and in June, 1846, he obtained his commission as full second lieutenant in the same regiment. He served with honor during the Mexican war, and distinguished himself at the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco. For his meritorious conduct on those occasions he was breveted first lieutenant, his brevet bearing date August 20th, 1847. Subsequently he became regimental-quartermaster and adjutant of the sixth United States infantry. The ranks of full first lieutenant and of captain were bestowed upon him in 1853 and 1855. The Rebellion, at its birth, found him assistant quartermaster-general, still with the rank of captain. He was then appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers, and served in the army of the Potomac under McClellan from the period of the elevation of that officer to its chief command. The brilliant vic tory of Williamsburg afterward placed him among the prominent heroes of the war. Almost contemporaneous with the engagement at Williamsburg, was the attack and defeat of the Rebels at West Point on the York river. On the afternoon of the 6th of May, that division of the army of the Potomac which was under the command of General Franklin, arrived at West Point in transports, for the purpose of disembarking and forming a junction with the troops under General McClellan. During that day about twenty thousand men were transferred to the shore on the south side of the Pamunkey river, at the distance of half a mile from the town. The troops immediately pitched their tents and formed their camp. During the ensuing night, some of the Rebels pickets attacked the Fed eral videttes ; which event gave evidence, or at least created a suspicion, that the enemy were posted somewhere in the vicinity. General franklin, expecting an assault the next morning, ordered the troops to be under arms at break of day; but after standing in line-of- battle for some time and no foe appearing, the men were permitted to return to their camp. Soon, however, several regiments of Rebels appeared in the distance toward the west side of the river. Orders were then given to the six teenth, the thirty-first, and the thirty-second New York, the ninety-fifth and the ninety-sixth Pennsylvania regiments, to form and to advance against the foe. It soon appeared that the latter were posted and con- 238 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. oealed in large numbers in the woods in front ; and from every portion of the shady and tangled retreat of the enemy a destructive fire of mus ketry was now discharged upon the approaching Federals. The fifth Maine regiment led the advance upon the left into the woods with superior steadiness and gallantry. The thirty -second New York achieved the same service upon the right. During three hours the engagement con tinued with great spirit. It became evident however, at length, that the larger numbers of the Kebels were giving them the advantage ; when the Federal cannon were opportunely brought to bear upon them. These soon effectually retrieved the fortunes of the day. The second United States artillery, under Captain Arnold, was ordered forward into position on the right ; the first Massachusetts battery, under Captain Porter, advanced and unlimbered on the left; and both commenced to shell the enemy. They discharged about ten shells per minute, which, bursting among the serried and partially-concealed ranks of the foe, scattered death on every side. The Kebels then transferred their troops further to the left of the Federal lines ; when the gunboats on the river, which were thus brought within range, unexpectedly opened their batteries upon them with still more deadly results. Soon the enemy fled in confusion, totally broken and routed. The salutes of the artillery from these several directions were insupportable, and quickly terminated the engagement. In the battle of West Point the Federal loss was about eighty killed, three hun dred wounded, and about five hundred prisoners. That of the enemy was about one thousand in all. After the conclusion of the engagement, General Franklin immediately sent a dispatch to General McClellan, informing him of the progress of events on the York river, and concerting measures with him for the union of their forces. This result was afterward successfully accomplished, and their united army then steadily advanced toward Kichmond. On the 8th of May, a squadron of Federal war steamers, consisting of the Monitor, Naugatuck, Susquehanna, Dacotah, Seminole, the Stevens and San Jacinto, was placed by Commodore Goldsborough under the orders of Captain Lardner, for the purpose of bombarding the ffcebel forts at Sewall s Point. The design of this attack was to ascertain the pos sibility of landing a body of troops in that vicinity, as well as to reduce the forts. The orders given were that the wooden vessels should attack the Rebel works in enfilade, and that the iron Monitor, together with the Stevens, should advance nearer and operate against them in front. Accordingly, the vessels already named sailed toward Sewell s point, and having arrived within range opened their batteries with shot and shell against the enemy. The position of the Monitor was in advance of the other vessels. The bombardment commenced about noon. For half an hour no response was made from the Rebel works; a number of shots were then fired at the Federal vessels, not one of which reached its aim. BOMBARDMENT OF SEWELL S POINT. 239 At half-past two the Merrimac steamed out from Norfolk, with the appa rent intention of attacking the Monitor. But no such result followed. During the day all the Federal vessels took part in the bombardment either of Sewell s point or of Craney Island. As often as the Monitor advanced to engage the Merrimac, she steamed away toward Norfolk. It was thus impossible to bring her within range or to engage her. During the day the flag-staff at Sewall s point was twice shot away ; and the Rebels could be distinctly seen from the Federal vessels carrying off their dea d and wounded. At five o clock Commodore Goldsborough signalled to the Union ships to return to Fortress Monroe. The chief purpose of the demonstration had been accomplished. It had elicited the fact that the number of guns in the principal fort at Sewell s point had been re duced to seventeen, and that the garrison stationed there was so small as to be quite unimportant. During the action, the barracks attached to the fort had been set on fire, and were considerably damaged. All the Rebel guns on Craney Island were silenced. So accurate was the firing from the Seminole and other vessels, that the breastworks were in some places levelled with the ground, and the sand and earth were seen flying in fragments over the tree-tops in the rear. On the 9th of May, the Rebels evacuated the forts at Sewell s point, and retired to Norfolk, as the ulti mate result of the assault of the Federal fleet. Their abode in Norfolk was destined to be of short duration. On the 10th of May General Wool commenced his march from Fortress Monroe to operate against that city. He landed five thousand troops at Wil- loughby Point, and by five o clock in the afternoon the Federal forces had reached the vicinity of Norfolk. A desperate defence was anticipated from General Huger, who commanded the Rebel troops in that city. This expectation was agreeably disappointed. Early on the 10th he evacuated the place, and soon after the Rebel Commodore Tatnall set on fire and blew up the famous battering ram Merrimac, that it might not fall into the hands of the victors. As General Wool approached Norfolk he was met by a deputation of citizens headed by the Mayor, who for mally surrendered the city and the navy yard to the Federal authorities. General Yiele was placed in command as military governor, and orders were given for the protection of persons and property. General Wool, who had been accompanied by Secretary Chase, returned to Fortress Monroe during the following night. The possession of Norfolk neces sitated that also of Portsmouth, which was likewise returned to its legiti mate masters. The recovery of these places, which had been seized and so long occu pied by the forces of the Rebel government, was an important event in the progress of the war. Thus from day to day the rebellion was cur tailed of its monstrous and hideous proportions, and thus the triumphs of the arms of the Union were enlarged and extended. 240 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES . While these events were taking place in the vicinity of Hampton Eoads, events of minor interest were occurring in other portions of the country. General Fremont, who was in command of the Mountain De partment, occupied no sinecure, although his proceedings, from the nature of the case, glared less obtrusively upon the attention of the gene ral public. The men under his command were required to engage the enemy from time to time in a novel kind of warfare, not inappropriately termed guerilla fighting. Eoving bands of Eebels infested the rugged region over which his jurisdiction extended, who often attacked his men by stealth, and rendered their operations difficult and dangerous. On the 8th of May General Milroy was assailed near Petersburg by a portion of the Rebel troops under " Stonewall" Jackson. During the action Gene ral Schenck fortunately reached the scene of conflict with his command, after a forced march of thirty-four miles, and the enemy were routed. The Federal loss was five killed and seventy wounded. About the same period General Kelley encountered the Rebels at Spencer, and after a spirited contest, in which a number of the enemy were killed and wounded, compelled them to retreat, and to disperse among the mountains. In Alabama the triumph of the Union arms, under the guidance of General Mitchel, continued with undiminished eclat. On the 13th of May he dis patched General Negley, supported by Colonel Little s troops, from Pulaski to Rogersville, in northern Alabama, for the purpose of driving the enemy across the Tennessee river and destroying, their ferry boats. The Rebels fled at the approach of the Federal troops; the latter obtained possession of the bridge across Shad Creek, and of the ferry below the mouth of that stream. The result of these operations was, that more than a thousand Rebel cavalry were enclosed on one side of the river, were cut off from all possibility of escape, and were so hemmed in as soon to fall inevitably into the power of the forces under General Mitchel. The triumphant progress of the Federals arms at this period was illus trated with striking effect by a proclamation which was issued by Presi dent Lincoln, in which he ordered the opening of the chief southern ports, which, since the commencement of the rebellion, had been sealed to the commerce and intercourse of the world, by the presence and agency of the Union war-steamers. On the 12th of May the ports of Beaufort, Port Royal and New Orleans were thus thrown open, as evidence of the rein stated supremacy of the Federal Government in those recent centres of Rebel power and treason. The important division of troops which was commanded by General McDowell, continued to advance, by steady marches, due south from Manassas, toward Richmond ; and having at length reached Fredericks- burg, permanently occupied it. On the llth of May a skirmish took place between a small number of his cavalry, who were scouting at the distance of four miles from the town, and a body of Rebels who were ROUT OF COLONEL MORGAN IN TENNESSEE. 241 stationed and concealed in the woods. General Patrick, being informed that these men were attacked by a superior force of the enemy, ordered his brigade to advance at a double quick pace to the scene of conflict The arrival of this reinforcement was opportune ; the Rebels then fled without offering any further resistance, losing eleven of their infantry and three of their cavalry as prisoners. Among minor engagements of the class to which we are now referring, none were more spirited, or exhibited the bravery of the Union troops to better advantage, than the battle between cavalry which took place at Lebanon, Tennessee, on the 7th of May. The Rebel Colonel Morgan had become notorious in that region of the country, as the commander of a desperate band of mounted rangers and brigands, by whose means he had committed many depredations on the property of loyal citizens, and on the baggage and provision trains of the Union forces. General Dumont, at Nashville, and Colonel Duffield, at Murfreesboro, were ordered to com bine their troops and attack him. The crafty Rebel attempted in various ways, and by numerous artifices, to elude the search of the Federal com manders ; and a protracted hunt took place before they found him. At length he intrenched himself in the town of Lebanon, with eight hundred cavalry ; and there he was attacked by them. A desperate street fight en sued. Morgan and his men were driven from the town. A running battle then commenced, which continued for nearly twenty miles. A hundred and sixty Rebel prisoners were taken. Many were killed and wounded during the pursuit. At last Morgan, his band being reduced to only fifteen men, succeeded in crossing the Cumberland river on a flatboat. Not till then did the chase terminate. A more complete and thorough rout had not taken place since the commencement of the Rebellion. During the occurrance of these events a great naval assault had been pro gressing against Fort Wright, on the Mississippi river, in Tennessee. A large number of Federal gunboats, under the orders of the gallant Flag- Officer Foote, had been directed to attack that fortress. He was assisted in the command by Captain C. H. Davis, of the United States navy. The bombardment had been progressing with various incidents and vicis situdes from the 8th of May. The Rebel works were protected by a formidable force of gunboats and battering rams, commanded by Com modore Hollins, which attacked the Federal vessels with marvelous ferocity and frequency. It was not till a later period, and after a very protracted bombardment, that the contest was ended by the complete evacuation of the fort, and its surrender to the Federal commander and his heroic troops. It was on the James river, at Fort Darling, situated eight miles below Richmond, that, on the 15th of May, the Federal cause received the first reverse which it had suffered for a considerable period of time. On that day the gunboats Monitor, Galena, Aroostook, Port Royal and Naugatuck, 16 242 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. having reached the position already named, on their way toward the Rebel capital, for the purpose of co-operating with the army of the Potomac, suddenly encountered a fierce and formidable assault from the Rebel batteries which had been erected upon Ward s Bluff. At this point the stream makes an abrupt turn, and contracts its proportions. It thus ren dered the batteries placed upon its banks more effective. At the foot of the bluff obstructions had been placed in the river, consisting of sunken vessels secured by chains, which effectually terminated the further advance of the gunboats. The fortifications on the shore were placed on ground two hundred feet above the surface of the river, and a body of Rebel troops were posted in the vicinity, to assist the attack on the gunboats. The latter having been anchored about a thousand yards from the batteries, a desperate engagement immediately commenced. The guns of the enemy poured down an incessant hailstorm of shot upon the decks of the Federal vessels, and seriously damaged them. The latter responded with great spirit, but it soon became evident that the disadvantages of their situation were quite insurmountable. It was found impossible to elevate the guns of the Monitor to the unusual range required by the high position of the batter ies, and therefore she was very nearly rendered useless. She was struck three times on her turret and twice upon her sides. The only effect produced by the balls was to bend the iron plates of the vessel. The Naugatuck suf fered a much more serious disaster. After delivering several effective shots, her immense one hundred pound rifled Parrott gun burst, killing the gunner and wounding two men. The rest of her armament consisted of two board ing howitzers, which in such a contest, were of little consequence. The casu- alities on the Galena were still more serious. The shots of the Rebel batteries riddled her deck with ease, and several of their balls penetrated her side. Fourteen of her crew were killed and thirteen wounded. The narrowness of the channel at this point, which prevented this vessel from turning, so as to work to advantage, rendered her a helpless mark for the enemy. The other gunboats were not seriously injured. The action con tinued nearly five hours ; after which time the uselessness of further effort being apparent, the boats dropped down the river to their former anchorage. The entire Federal loss was then fifteen killed and sixteen wounded. This check did not delay for a moment the steady progress of the Federal forces under General McClellan toward Richmond. On the 20th of May the advance under Stoneman reached New bridge, eight miles distant from that city, driving the pickets of the enemy before them. The Rebels were no longer found in force on that side of the Chickahominy creek, which there becomes an insignificant stream. On the 21st a largo portion of the troops crossed it at Bottom s bridge and at the railroad bridge, and occupied a position a mile and a half beyond. On the 28d several skirmishes took place between portions of the two armies, in one of which the Rebels were driven from Mechanicsville, six miles from fc GENERAL HUNTER S ABOLITION PROCLAMATION. 243 New bridge ; and in another, the famous Louisiana Tigers were dreadfully cut up by the fourth Michigan regiment. Other skirmishes subsequently occurred at different points along the hostile lines, in which the Federal forces usually gained the advantage. These comparatively insignificant operations were viewed as merely preliminary to the colossal and decisive engagements which were expected to take place between the rival hosts, in the vicinity of the Rebel capital; which, with some probability of truth and reason, were regarded as the final arbiters of the fate of the Confederate government, and were expected to prove mortal blows to their already exhausted and expiring empire. A few days previous to the events which have just been narrated, the attention of the nation was temporarily diverted from the exclusive scrutiny of scenes of blood and conflict, by a proclamation which was issued by Major General David Hunter, then commanding the Department of the South, by which he assumed the responsibility of declaring the States of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina under martial law ; at the same time affirming that, as slavery and martial law were incompatible, he pronounced all those persons who had formerly been held to slavery in those States thenceforth forever free. This bold and sweeping proclamation elicited different judgments from the public, according to their previously enter, tained opinions ; some commending it while others censured it. What ever might have been the abstract merit and virtue of the measure, it did not harmonize with the more conservative and moderate sentiments of President Lincoln ; who, on the 19th of May, issued a counter proclama tion repudating the act of General Hunter as unauthorized, and setting forth that he, the President, by virtue of the authority vested in him, reserved to himself the right to determine whether he possessed the power to declare the slaves in any of the States free ; and whether, provi ded he possessed that power, it would ever become necessary to the main tenance and preservation of the Federal Government, for him to exercise it At the same time the Chief Executive set forth that he had on a previous occasion recommended that Congress should pass a joint resolution by which the United States would be obliged to assist any State which might, of its own accord, resolve to abolish slavery within its limits; giving it such pecuniary aid as might be necessary to enable it to execute such a purpose. That recommendation had been accepted and approved by the Federal Congress ; and it stood recorded in their proceedings as a solemn and authentic proposal from the nation to the slave States. Thus far, and no farther, did he deem it prudent and equitable then to determine or to legislate on the subject. The position thus assumed and maintained by Mr. Lincoln received the approval of the majority of the inhabitants of the loyal States, who were not at that period in favor of any more radical or decisive measure in reference to the enfranchisement of the victims of southern bondage. 244 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXII. THE CORPS D ARMEK OF GENERAL BANKS IMPRUDENT REDUCTION OF ITS NUMBERS THE REBELS UNDER JACKSON ATTACK THE ADVANCE AT FRONT ROYAL DESIGN OF THE REBELS TO OVERPOWER BANKS s DIVISION THE LATTER ORDERS A GENERAL RETREAT TOWARD WINCHESTER VARIOUS ENGAGEMENTS ON THE ROUTE BATTLE OF MIDDLETOWN ACTION ON THE MARCH TO WINCHESTER BATTLE AT NEWTOWN THE BATTLE OF WINCHESTER ITS RESULTS CONTINUANCE OF THE RETREAT TO WILLIAMSPORT ADVENTURES OF TUB ZOUAVES D AFRIQUE FEDERAL LOSSES DURING THE RETREAT SKETCH OF GENERAL BANKS ATTITUDE OF THE FEDERAL AND REBEL ARMIES AT CORINTH A GREAT BATTLE ANTICIPATED COMMENCEMENT OF THE ATTACK BY GENERAL HALLECK ITS RESULTS EVACUATION OF CORINTH BY THE REBELS CAUSES OF THIS EVENT AN EXTRAORDINARY SPECTACLE PURSUIT OF THE RETREATING FOE A RECONNOISSANCE ON THE CHICKA- HOMINY SKIRMISH AT THE PINES THE BATTLE OF HANOVER COURT HOUSE DESTRUCTION OF THE RICHMOND AND FREDERICKSBURG RAILROAD GALLANT EXPLOIT O? LIEUTENANT DAVIS. THAT portion of the Federal forces which had been placed under the command of General Banks, had pursued the Rebels under General Jack son through the valley of the Sbenandoah with steady and unvarying success as far as Strasburg, when, on the 23d of May, 1862, a sudden reverse overtook the victors. The division of General Banks was originally an efficient body of troops, comprising three large brigades. These had been reduced from time to time to less than half of their first proportions, through the occult influence of various causes, by sending large detachments to other commanders in the field. The result of this policy was, that General Banks was eventually placed in a critical po sition, in the heart of a hostile country, and liable to be attacked at any moment by an enraged enemy with an overwhelming preponderance of numbers. The commander of the Rebels in that region was too shrewd and vigilant an officer not to discover the immense advantages which were thus unfortunately placed within his reach ; and he soon gave tho friends of the Union ample cause to regret the energy and skill with which he improved the opportunity of revenge and conquest which this indiscretion tendered him. On the 23d of May, the advance guard of General Banks, which was stationed under Colonel Kenley at Front Royal, consisting of the first Maryland regiment, was suddenly attacked by the Rebels with great fury and with an immense superiority of numbers, As soon as information of this event reached the headquarters at Strasburg, General Banks or dered a detachment of cavalry and a portion of his artillery forward to the support of Colonel Kenley; but when it was ascertained, soon after ward, that the troops of that officer had been wholly scattered by the REBEL DESIGN TO OVERPOWER BANKS DIVISION. 245 avalanche which had descended upon them, and that the enemy, twenty- five thousand strong, were rushing on like a deluge for the purpose of surrounding and crushing the comparatively weak force of General Banks, the reinforcements thus ordered forward were recalled. That commander quickly discerned the full extent of his danger, and the novel and peril ous crisis summoned all his rare powers of discrimination into immediate action. He perceived that, under the circumstances, only one of three lines of conduct was possible for him : lie might advance with his whole force from Strasburg toward Front Royal, and attack the enemy on the flank ; he might retire across Little North Mountain, and thus reach the Potomac on the west ; he might retreat to Winchester, there preserve his communications with his original base of operations, wait for reinforce ments, engage the advancing enemy if necessary, or retreat to Williams- port, as the event might demand. The objection to the first plan was fatal : his troops were too few to attack the augmented and greatly supe rior force which the Rebels had suddenly brought together at Front Royal. The argument against the second plan was equally potent : by it General Banks would have been compelled to abandon his whole train, consisting of five hundred wagons of ammunition and stores. The third expedient alone was prudent and feasible; for by a skillful retreat toward Winches ter, and thence to the Potomac, the army might be saved from capture, his stores from total loss, and the cause of the Union from a greater dis aster than any which had occurred since the commencement of the war. Accordingly, at three o clock on the morning of the 24th of May, the hurried dispositions for the retreat were made. Colonel Donnelly s brig ade was ordered forward in the advance with the wagon trains. Colonel Gordon was placed in command of the bulk of the infantry in the centre. General Hatch, with nearly the whole of the cavalry, and six pieces of artillery, was charged with the protection of the rear. By nine o clock all the arrangements were completed ; every man was at his post ; General Banks was ubiquitous over the whole line ; the last orders to march were given ; and then began one of the most masterly retreats which can be found recorded on the checkered pages of history. Soon the Rebel forces came rushing on in full pursuit. The long line of troops and wagons was winding its tedious way, like an immense anaconda, stretching between Strasburg and Middletown, when the enemy, passing the Federal troops by a circuitous route, reached the front of the column and made an attack upon the heavy trains and the troops which guarded them. The enemy had obtained possession of the road at Middletown, for the purpose of intercepting the retreat ; and now the fugitives from the front came running toward the rear in wild confusion, bringing the first tidings of the assault. The position and immediate purpose of the Rebels being thus ascertained, Colonel Donnelly was instantly ordered forward with a body of troops to support the advance. He encountered the enemy in 246 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. full force at Middletown, thirteen miles from Winchester. Colonel Knip6 was directed, with the forty-sixth Pennsylvania, to attack the enemy posted in the woods on the right. He was supported by a portion of Cochran s New York battery and the twenty-eighth New York regiment. After a short, though spirited contest, the Eebels broke and fled. They were then pursued for more than two miles from the scene of action ; but as there seemed to be no visible end to the chase, the victors returned to the main column. As it was the purpose of General Banks to effect his return to Winchester, and not to win battles, except in so far as it was necessary to accomplish that result, he refused to waste valuable time in useless conquests. Thus Middletown was passed, and the heroic march was continued toward Winchester. It was now ascertained that the Rebels had taken another position, for the purpose of intercepting the Federal forces before they reached that city. General Hatch, who still commanded the rear, was then ordered to advance with the greater part of his troops, leaving Colonel De Forrest to protect the rear. Hatch in vain attempted to join the Federal troops in front, being intercepted by the greater masses of the enemy ; he then movtd to the left, and advanced by a parallel road toward Winchester. He found Colonel Gorden at Newtown, where he effected a junction with the main column. But six companies of the New York fifth under Colonel De Forrest, in the rear, were cut off by the enemy from the rest of the troops, and compelled to retreat to Strasburg. At Newtown a spirited contest took place between a large body of the Rebels and a portion of the Federal troops commanded by Colonel Gordon, consisting of the second Massachusetts, the twenty-seventh Indiana, and the twenty-eighth New York. These troops attacked the Rebels with fury, drove them from the town, and the guns of the enemy were silenced by the Federal battery ; but they found it impossible to effect a junction with the cavalry under General Hatch, or to recover the rear of the train which had been cut off. It was here that, as the Federal column continued their line of march, they were surrounded by numerous masses of the Rebel hordes, who repeatedly charged on them with cavalry, but were as often repulsed in solid squares, with all the gallantry and firmness of veterans. During these operations, the wagons which became disabled were burned from time to time, to prevent their contents from falling into the hands of the enemy ; while after each assault and each repulse, the line of march was quietly resumed. Many were wounded and slain on both sides ; and thus by slow stages the Federal forces approached, and finally reached Winchester. It was at this place that the most tragical scenes con nected with this memorable and masterly retreat were destined to occur. The Rebels having concentrated twenty-five thousand men around the Federal forces as they lay in the vicinity of Winchester, commenced the attack at break of day on the 25th of May. The latter reposed upon i THE BATTLE OF WINCHESTER. 247 their arms during their halt, and were ready at a moment s notice to receive the enemy. The right wing, commanded by Colonel Gordon, com prised the third brigade, and the men were protected to some extent from the fire of the foe by stone walls in the vicinity. Colonel Donnelly com manded the remainder of the infantry, which was posted on the left. General Hatch and the cavalry occupied the centre. The enemy com menced the engagement by an attack on the left of the Federal line^ Here they suffered severely, and the advantage remained with the Federals. On the right the enemy were more numerously posted, and were more successful in their operations. They attempted to turn the flank of the Federal troops upon the Berryville road. A portion of the latter then retreated, the Rebels pursued, and a confused flight through Winchester took place. The right wing followed in better order, and covered the retreat through the town. On the opposite side of Winchester order was again restored, and the line of march resumed. This battle continued during five hours. In it about five thousand men, of all arms, had con fronted and encountered with honor twenty-five thousand. The Rebels gained few laurels by the combat. The retreat was then continued toward Martinsburg, the Federal troops marching in three parallel columns. Each of these columns was protected by a rear guard, which repeatedly and defiantly skirmished with the Rebels. At Martinsburg the Federal troops halted two hours and a half, thus demonstrating that they were not making a panic-stricken or precipitate retreat. After that interval the march was resumed ; and at six o clock on the same day, they reached the banks of the Potomac at Williamsport. They had traveled fifty-three miles in forty-eight hours. A small number of the wearied troops crossed the river during the night; the remainder followed on the ensuing day. The Federal loss in this retreat was, under the circumstances a very small one. It was thirty-eight killed, one hundred and fifty-five wounded, seven hundred missing. All the Federal guns, sixteen in number, were saved. Out of a train of nearly five hundred wagons, only fifty-five were lost. Most of these were burned upon the road, because they had become wrecked, and not because they were abandoned to the enemy. Among the officers who especially distinguished themselves on this occasion was General A. S. Williams, commanding the division; Colonels Donnelly and Gordon, commanding the two brigades ; and General Hatch, the chief of cavalry. In the several engagements which took place during the retreat, not a few episodes occurred in which particular corps and single companies displayed the best and noblest qualities of the soldier. Our space forbids us to enumerate all of these. One of the most remarkable, which deserves special mention, was the escape of the Zouaves d? Afrique, who had been the body guard of the commander-in-chief. These men were selected to perform the dangerous duty of burning the bridges in the rear of the retreating column. They were commanded by Captain Collis. 248 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. "When the overwhelming numbers of the enemy became evident, and it remained uncertain whether the Federal troops might not themselves need the bridges by which to return, they abandoned their task, pressed forward toward Winchester, and reached Middletown during the progress of the battle at that place. They there joined in the combat ; but being only seventy in number, were overwhelmed by a vastly superior force, and compelled to retreat. They then pursued their march toward Winchester by a different route. In the vicinity of that town they again encountered the enemy, and were compelled to turn back. Unable to unite with the main column in consequence of this obstacle, they took an obscure path over the mountains, intending to cross the Potomac at Pan-Pan tunnel. At Bloomery Gap they learned that a numerous body of the enemy were posted ten miles in advance, directly on their route. They therefore turned to the right, and marched to Hancock, on the Potomac, a distance of thirty miles ; escaping many perils, exhausted by excessive labors which would have overtasked the strongest frames, and yet safely bringing with them thirty-five wagons loaded with valuable stores, which had been abandoned by the army near Middletown. As Xenophon, in a former and distant age, derived the chief glory of a life not otherwise undistinguished from the skill and valor with which he conducted the retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks, after the death of the younger Cyrus at the battle of Cunaxa, through Asia Minor to the wel come shores of the Euxine Sea; so the greatest renown of General Banks will hereafter probably be derived from the ability with which he effected the escape of his division from the Kebel hordes at Strasburg, and led it in safety to Williamsport. This Federal hero was born in Massachusetts, in January, 1816. His early education was limited to the meagre routine of the common school ; and his earliest industry was expended in the labors of a cotton factory at Waltham. He afterward aspired to the craft and mastered the mysteries of a machinist. While engaged in this pursuit, he gratified his desire for intellectual improvement, and occasionally de livered popular addresses before temperance meetings, literary lyceums, and political assemblies. He afterward assumed the editorship of a rural newspaper, and engaged zealously in the political contests of the day. In 1848 he was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representa tives. In 1851 he was chosen the speaker of that body. In 1853 he was promoted to a seat in the Federal Congress. In 1855 he was re-elected to that position ; and was chosen, after a spirited contest of nearly two months duration, to preside over the deliberations of the House. In 1857 he was elected Governor of Massachusetts; and he performed the duties of that important office with eminent ability and success. The high reputation which he had gained for capacity, energy and integrity, turned the special regard of the administration upon him when the Rebellion broke forth ; and when a selection was to be made of some of the wisest and best men iii ATTITUDE OF T1IE TWO ARMiErf AT CORINTH. 240 the nation, to fill the offices of greatest responsibility in the military service of the country, the once obscure machinist of Waltham was invested with the dignity,and rank of major-general in the Federal army. lie was placed in command of a portion of the troops on the Potomac, and during many months evinced his fitness for his new sphere, by guarding a part of that river and the territory lying adjacent from the inroads of the Rebels. When at last the nation was gratified by the announcement that the march toward Richmond was about to commence, General Banks led his forces into the bowels of the hostile land. We have elsewhere recorded the sub sequent success which attended his movements in this important enterprise We turn from the successful retreat of the Federal troops from Strasburg, to notice the mysterious flight of the Rebel forces from Corinth. Immediately after the battle of Shiloh, near Pittsburg Landing, the im mense army which had conquered under General Albert Sydney Johnston, and had been defeated on the next day under his successor in command, General Beauregard, retreated to Corinth, and entrenched themselves within the limits and in the vicinity of that town. Their future operations were unknown ; it was uncertain whether they would again advance, and try the fortunes of war in the open field, or whether they would await the attack of the Federal troops in their fortified position. The Union forces, were soon afterward placed under the orders of General Halleck, an officer whom though not yet the victor in any great battle, the public unani mously agreed to applaud, as the ablest, or as one of the ablest, of the Federal commanders. By a combination of the troops under Generals Grant, Buell, Pope and Thomas, his army was augmented to the formida ble number of over a hundred thousand men. An intense degree of interest centered around the struggle which, it was anticipated, would occur at that place. During some weeks it was regarded by the popular mind, as equal in magnitude, importance, and the decisiveness of its results, to the final contest which was expected to occur at Richmond. It was thought that, at Corinth, General Beauregard would attempt to revive and freshen the laurals which were withered at Shiloh ; to recover the crown which he had gained at Manassas, but which had been wrested from his brow at Pittsburg Landing. All these prognostications were destined to a sudden and complete disappointment. General Halleck had been slowly approaching Corinth during some days, feeling his way cautiously and prudently, when, on the 27th of May ? he ordered General Sherman to advance toward the outer pickets of the enemy, select a position as near as possible to their entrenchments, and defend himself in it. Six or eight brigades were detailed to this service, and early in the morning of the day just named the operations began. At the first attack upon them the Rebels were taken by surprise ; but they quickly rallied, and their outposts being reinforced, an engagement of some severity ensued. This contest occupied a large portion of the day, 250 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. but at three o clock in the afternoon the whole line of the enemy broke and fled before the vigorous assaults of the Federal infantry and artillery The latter advanced, and at the close of the day occupied the position de serted by the enemy. This position was about thirteen hudred yards distant from the main entrenchments of the Rebel army, upon which they had expended so much labor. General Sherman commenced at once to entrench his troops in their new post; the lines were laid out after night fall ; and so industriously did the Federal soldiers work, that before the dawn of the morning of the 29th their breast- works were completed. By nine o clock of that day the siege trains were brought forward, and the artillery were placed in position. The Federal forces, consisting of a whole division, now occupied an immense curve around Corinth, facing south ward; the right wing resting on the Mobile and Ohio railroad, the left on the main road to Corinth. The two armies were in such close proximity to each other, that the sound of the drums and the voices of those in com mand, could be distinctly heard from the opposite camps. On the 30th of May it was expected that the last and greatest combat would commence. The attention of the Federal commanders had been attracted, and their suspicions aroused, during several previous days and nights, by the fre quent noise of railroad cars arriving and departing in a direction opposite to their own position. At six o clock in the morning of the 30th, a succession of loud explosions which took place within the enemy s works, increased the mystery nor was that mystery solved until, after the order to advance had been given by General Sherman, it was discovered that the entrench ments of the Eebels where wholly deserted. The bigade of General M. L. Smith was the first to reach and to enter the redoubts of the fugitive foe He then advanced into the town of Corinth, which he also found entirely evacuated by the Rebels. General Denver followed ; and by eight o clock the entire division of General Sherman occupied the deserted town. An extraordinary spectacle now presented itself to the view of the Federal troops. Far and wide on every hand could be seen the remains of the aban doned camps. Numerous warehouses, in which the explosions referred to had taken place, were in flames or were smouldering in ruins. Immense quantities of flour and provisions, ammunition and clothing, lay scattered in the wildest confusion ; and it was evident that the Rebels had evacuated their boasted stronghold by a rapid and disorderly retreat. Then it was ascer tained from the remaining citizens of the town that, during several days and nights, the immense army of General Beauregard had been trans ported over two railroads from Corinth ; although a portion of them had been compelled at last to leave in hot haste on foot, in order to escape the impending assault of the Federal troops under General Halleck. The stars and stripes were soon unfurled over the recent fortifications of the enemy ; and in a few hours the victors occupied the various on- A RECONNOISSANCE ON THE CHICKAIIOMINY. 251 trenchments which they had evacuated. That evacuation, so unexpected and so significant, excited the utmost astonishment throughout the nation ; and conjecture was busy in assigning the probable causes which might have produced it. The most prevalent and plausible supposition wap, that the Rebel commander was afraid to encounter the formidable host mustered under the banners of General Halleck ; and thatthey wisely averted the horrors and the disgrace of an overwhelming defeat, by a prudent and clandestine flight. This result was more acceptable and propitious to the Federal cause than a great though sanguinary victory would have been.* A vast amount of stores and ammunition, several thousand stand of arms, and twenty-five hundred prisoners, afterward fell into the hands of the troops of the Union. Subsequent to the occupation of Corinth a pursuit of the enemy was ordered ; and General Pope s division was dispatched after that portion of them who had fled westward. He soon overtook their rear, six miles southwest of the town ; and an engagement ensued in which a number were slain on both sides, and some Eebel prisoners were taken. During the progress of these events, the Federal army in the Peninsula were steadily approaching Richmond. Its advance was marked from day to day by futile opposition on the part of the enemy, and by several im portant and sanguinary contests between the opposing forces. On the 23d of May a reconnoissance was ordered by General McClellan, for the purpose of ascertaining whether the right wing of his army could cross the Chickahominy immediately, with safety and advantage. The troops detailed for this service proceeded up the left bank of the stream about three miles. The sixth Pennsylvania cavalry, who were in the advance, suddenly came in sight of the new bridge which spanned it ; and before the Rebel pickets in the vicinity could apply the torch they dashed forward and took possession of it. They immediately crossed over, together with Robinson s battery, and proceeded a short distance beyond the stream. As soon as these troops had ascended a hill, a few hundred yards distant from the bridge, the Rebels, who were concealed in a dense wood, opened a fire upon them from several batteries. Robinson immediately responded with four guns, Titball with six guns, which they had quickly placed in a favorable position ; and a vigorous cannonade ensued. The Rebel artil lery was supported by a regiment of infantry, and by some squadrons cf cavalry, who in a short time endeavored to outflank their assailants. But this purpose was defeated by the latter, and they were in turn driven back. The action lasted nearly an hour, after which the Rebels aban doned the attack, and the Federal troops encamped for the night on the * The real motive for the evacuation of Corinth was, that the larger portion of thj Rebel forces might be transferred thence to Richmond, and be united with those which afterward repulsed General McClellan from that capital. 252 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. battle-field. On the following morning the action was renewed. The Rebels assailed the Federals with a battery of four guns. But they effected little damage, in consequence of the inaccuracy of their aim. At length Wheeler s battery and Davidson s brigade were ordered forward to. attack and capture the guns of the enemy, which were supported by several regiments of infantry, and by several squadrons of cavalry. The Federal troops advanced with great spirit, filling the air with their defiant shouts, and sending a hail-storm of balls into the ranks of the foe as they ap proached them. The latter did not wait for a nearer or closer contact ; but as soon as the order to charge bayonets had been given they broke and fled. They were pursued a short distance, after which the chase terminated and the Federal troops were recalled to their former position. The Federal loss in this action was two killed and ten wounded. That of the enemy is unknown ; a partial yet plausible conjecture would estimate it at a much larger number. A similar operation, attended by a similar result, was effected >n the left wing of the Federal army on the 24th of May. A reconnoissance was ordered on that day, to ascertain the strength of the Rebels in a position called the Pines ; and a considerable force, consisting of infantry and cavalry, was placed under the command of General Naglee for that purpose. At ten o clock these troops reached the spot where the enemy had planted two batteries, from which they immediately began to salute the Federals. The guns of the latter were quickly made to respond. The Rebel force consisted of these two batteries, containing eight guns, one regiment of infantry, and five hundred cavalry. During the progress of the contest which ensued, the eighth Pennsylvania cavalry attacked the horse of the enemy and completely routed them. The infantr}: also came into collision. But the chief execution was effected on both sides by the artillery. The batteries of the Rebels were shifted several times from their positions, and were driven in every instance from them with heavy loss. At length, after an engagement of two hours duration, the enemy retreated, and were concealed from the view of the victors by the foliage of a dense and shady forest. Skirmishers were then thrown forward to ascertain their location ; but as they could not be found within the compass of several miles, the pursuit was abandoned. They had retreated toward the right, in the direction of the Richmond railroad, in the vicinity of which, it was conjectured, a much larger force was then concentrated. The Federal loss in this action was five killed, sixteen wounded. That of the Rebels was probably much greater, as not a few of their cavalry were seen to fall from their horses, and were afterward conveyed from the battle-field by the retreating enemy. These skirmishes and several others of less importance which took place at this period along the banks of the Chickahominy, were followed on the 27th of May by the more decisive battle of Hanover Court House. THE BATTLE OF HANOVER COURT HOUSE. 253 General McClellan readily discerned the necessity of cutting off the con nection between the Rebel authorities at Richmond with those at Fred- ericksburg, which was preserved and maintained by the railroad running between those two cities. The task of destroying this road, and of rout ing the Rebel forces which might attempt to prevent the execution of the enterprise, was entrusted to the troops commanded by General Fitz John Porter. Accordingly, at four o clock in the morning of the 27th, these troops were under arms, and the march began from the Federal camp. The sixth Pennsylvania cavalry were in the advance of the column, com manded by Major Williams. The line of march was along the New Bridge road, thence over the Hanover turnpike. The first glimpse of the enemy was obtained at McKinsey s Cross Roads, where their mounted pickets were encountered. This place was six miles distant from Hanover Court House, and at noon the vicinity of that spot was reached. During the progress of the day three separate contests took place with the Rebel, forces, in each of which they were routed. The first of these occurred at a locality known as Kinney s House. A number of Rebel troops had been concealed in and around this mansion ; and as the twenty-fifth New York regiment, who were then in the ad vance, approached it, a heavy fire was opened upon them. Their volleys were quickly returned while the Federals advanced. They then com menced to fire with a number of field pieces, which they had posted on a road in front of the house. The Federal artillery were now placed in position, and responded to the guns of the enemy, while, at the same time, Berdan s sharpshooters were distributed to the right and to the left, for the purpose of picking off the Rebel gunners. These famous marksmen, lying flat upon the ground, according to their usual custom, took deadly and infallible aim at the foe; and soon, one of the Rebel guns being wholly unmanned, they rushed forward and took possession of it, During this interval the Federal regiments in the rear were approaching the scene of action. Generals Butterfield and Martindale, and Colonel McQuade, brought their several brigades successively within range. A spirited contest of nearly two hours duration then ensued between the Federal troops and the whole strength of the enemy collected at that point. At the expiration of that time the latter were driven from their position, and fled with precipitation through the woods. General Porter immediately ordered a pursuit ; and for three miles a chase followed, over boggy marshes, through dense forests, and among waving grain-fields. The Rebels clearly demonstrated their superiority, if in nothing else, in their fleetness of locomotion ; and the best efforts of the Federals were defeated in the vain attempt to overtake the fugitives. While a portion of the Union forces were employed in this service, General Martindale s brigade was ordered to hasten to the Virginia Central Railroad, and commence the work of its demolition. The order was obeyed with alacrity. In a 254 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. short space of time forty rods of the road were destroyed, a bridge wag burned, the telegraph was intercepted, and the communication of the enemy between Richmond and Fredericksburg completely ruined. After this success an interval of several hours duration ensued, during which the Federal troops rested upon their arms, and the Rebels were quietly receiving reinforcements from Richmond. At the end of that period the latter again appeared, and began to fire upon a house whk-h had been occupied by the Federals as a hospital, and upon the troops who were in the vicinity. This attack quickly brought the forty-fourth New York regiment forward to the assistance of the assailed ; and soon the entire brigade of General Martindale was formed into line of battle. Thus the second engagement of the day began, during which the Rebels fought concealed in the woods. The firing on both sides from cannon and musketry was rapid and continuous. Griffin and Benson s batteries .scattered shot and shell over the whole position of the enemy; and after the lapse of an hour, the latter began to break and retreat. In a short time all those who had taken part in the action disappeared from view and the Federal troops again remained masters of the field. But the labors and triumphs of the day were not yet terminated. At this crisis a more numerous body of Rebels took their position in the rear of Kin- ney s House, and recommenced the contest with great spirit. It is proba ble that they mustered fifteen thousand men, in this last effort to dislodge the Federal forces from the possession of the railroad. General Porter, perceiving the importance of this final struggle, ordered his artillery to be brought forward and placed on both sides of the front of the enemy, so that he might shell them by diagonal fires, while the infantry made the attack in the centre, commanded by General Butterfield. These orders were executed with admirable skill and firmness. The troops advanced to the assault with hearty cheers which were suggestive of the inevitable victory which was to follow. Hard fighting again took place. The enemy remained for the most part concealed in the woods ; but as the darkness of night approached, their fire slackened, and before the close of the day they had evacuated their entire position. These two additional hours of fighting ended with the complete discomfiture and flight of the Rebel forces. A number of prisoners were taken. The victors slept on their arms, without any shelter, and occupied the field which they had signalized by their valor. The Federal loss during the entire day was fifty-three killed, three hundred and twenty-six wounded. It was evident, from a subsequent examination of the woods in which the enemy had chiefly fought, and which they had evacuated, that their loss must have been much greater ; for the mangled bodies of their dead and wounded covered the ground both far and near. The various operations of an army so numerous as that then posted before Richmond, would necessarily include many minor episodes and GALLANT EXPLOIT OF LIEUTENANT DAVIS. 255 individual achievements which will never be recorded on the historic page, in which the actors exhibited as much heroism as could be dis played on the most extensive and renowned battle-field. Our space per mits us here to allude to but one of these. General McClellan having formed the determination to open communication with the Federal gun boats on the James river, then fifteen miles distant from his camp, ordered Lieutenant Frank C. Davis, of the third Pennsylvania cavalry, to per form the task with an escort of ten picked men. It was a service of con siderable difficulty and danger, from the fact that the intervening country was filled with the pickets of the enemy. The danger of capture or of death was imminent. A rare combination of prudence, tact and boldness was necessary to accomplish the feat. On the morning of Sunday, the 25th of May, the lieutenant started from the Federal camp. Scarcely had he traveled four miles when he encountered the pickets of the enemy posted in a wood. He avoided these by a sudden detour and pursued his journey. The same incident occurred several times when his escape from the impending peril was marvelous. At length he came within view of the James river, three miles distant, and beheld the Union gunboats riding at anchor upon its tranquil bosom. He hid his men in the woods and rode forward alone. Keaching the banks of the river, he obtained a small boat, and hired two negroes to row him to the Galena. He was met when half way by a cutter from the ship. The message with which he had been entrusted, though a very important one, had not been com mitted to writing, in order to avoid the possibility of its becoming known to the enemy by the capture of the messenger. The lieutenant having delivered that message and received his answer, commenced his return. He then encountered the same perils, and evaded them with the same success. He traveled with his escort during the whole night, and reached the camp in safety at eleven o clock on Monday morning. General Mc Clellan directed his chief of staff to express to Lieutenant Davis his ap probation of the prompt, discreet and satisfactory manner in which ho and his men had performed the duty assigned them, in communicating with Captain Rodgers, the commander of the fleet of Federal gunboats in James river. 256 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXIII. APPROACH OP THE FEDERAL ARMY TO RICHMOND THE CORPS OF GENERAL KEYES CROSS THE CHICKAHOMINY THEIR EXPOSED POSITION HOSTILE PURPOSE OF THE REBEL LEADERS THE BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES POSITION OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS COMMENCEMENT 07 THE ATTACK DISPOSITION OF TROOPS MADE BY GENERAL CASEY INCIDENTS OF THH BATTLE ROUT OF CASEY S DIVISION GENERAL COUCIl s TROOPS BECOME ENGAGED DES PERATE FIGHTING VICTORY OF THE REBELS THE FEDERALS REINFORCED THE ENGAGE MENT OF JUNE FIRST, GENERAL HEINTZELMAN IN CHIEF COMMAND INCIDENTS OF THIS BATTLE HEROISM OF THE IRISH REGIMENTS AND OF SICKLES* EXCELSIOR BRIGADE THE VICTORY OF FAIR OAKS ITS RESULTS POPULAR IMPATIENCE FOR THE OCCUPATION OF RICHMOND REBEL FORCES IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH THEIR BRIEF OCCUPA TION OF IT GENERAL FREMONT ORDERED TO EXPEL THEM THEY ABANDON WINCHESTER THEIR RETREAT THROUGH STRASBURG AND WOODSTOCK BATTLE OF CROSS KEYS GALLANTRY OF THE BUCKTAILS RESULTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT BATTLE OF PORT REPUBLIC INCIDENTS OF THIS ENGAGEMENT ITS RESULTS RETREAT OF GENERAL JACKSON TOWARD RICHMOND APPOINTMENT OF GENERAL POPE AS COMMANDER OF THE DEPARTMENT WITH DRAWAL OF GENERAL FREMONT HIS MILITARY ACHIEVEMENTS HIS TRUE RENOWN. THE history of past ages demonstrates that in every great struggle between contending nations, the contest will ultimately culminate in a few particular localities ; that there the chief resources of the combatants will be concentrated ; that the engagements which take place at these points will be more colossal in their proportions, more obstinate and desperate in their spirit, than those which preceded them, and that they will produce a decisive effect on the issue of the contest one way or the other. This maxim holds true with regard to the war against the South ern Rebellion. It was in the vicinity of Richmond that some of the most terrible battles were destined to occur. There the chief military strength of the Rebels had been concentrated. Thither their ablest generals had been summoned. At that place they had evidently resolved, with a heroism not destitute of grandeur and dignity, but sadly perverted to an ignoble end, to conquer or to perish. We have now arrived, in the progress of this history, at the most sanguinary scenes which ever occurred on the American Continent; and we will proceed, in this chapter, to describe a portion of them as they transpired at the spot which every patriot fondly hoped would prove the Arbela, the Pharsalia, the Waterloo, of the Rebel Confederacy. The corps of General Keyes, which formed a part of the army of General McClellan, comprised the two divisions of Casey and Couch. These troops were about twenty thousand in number. They first crossed the Chickahominy, as the pioneers of the grand army in the Peninsula, passing over by a single bridge ; and they were thus placed in the advance in an isolated position. The camp of General Casey, whose troops led GENERAL KEYS CROSSES THE CHICKAHOMINY. 257 the van, was pitched in the vicinity of a spot designated by the name of Seven Pines. It was located about eight miles east of Richmond, near the highway which runs between that city and Williamsburg. The first brigade was placed on the right, the second in the centre, the third on the left of the line. A number of breastworks had been thrown up immediately after the occupation of the camp ; and a line of rifle-pits had been dug. The troops who composed this division, were for the most part new and raw levies, whose discipline was lax, and whose military experience was extremely limited. Many of them, unaccustomed to the hardships and privations of a soldier s life, were sick ; and although the men were individually as brave as their comrades, no corps of the entire army was less fitted than they to repulse the first and sudden attack of an infuriated enemy. The division of General Couch consisted of twelve regiments. He had dug two lines of rifle-pits in front of his position, which was located in the interval between the camp of General Casey and Fair Oaks station. His troops were more familiar with the service, and were more numerous than those of General Casey. The Rebel commanders had conceived the plan of attacking these troops, with an overwhelming superiority of numbers, in their exposed position while cut off from the rest of the Federal army ; and having destroyed them, to press on, break through the lines in the rear, and eventually intercept the communication of the army with the depot at White House, through which its supplies of ammunition and subsistence were obtained. On Friday, May 30th, the enemy made a reconnoissance in force for the purpose of ascertaining the precise position and strength of these troops, and the location of their camps. The Federal pickets, who were a mile in advance of the Federal lines, observed on that day, and on the morning of the following, an unusual commotion in the camp of the Rebels, which was within their view ; but no apprehension was entertained of the mo mentous events which were about to follow. It was on Saturday, May 31st, that the first battle in the vicinity of Richmond took place. On that day the Rebels, having obtained accurate information respecting the exposed position of Generals Casey and Couch, made the attack. In the rear of the Federal troops the swollen waters of the Chickahominy rolled, ef fectually preventing their retreat in case they were overpowered. The plans of the Rebels were well laid ; their time of action was opportunely chosen ; their assault was commenced and continued with energy and determina tion. At one o clock in the day they advanced down the Williamsburg road, toward the Federal camp.* They fired three shells as a signal to * The position of the different brigades of General Casey s division before the en gagement was as follows : General Naglee s brigade, consisting of the one hundred and fourth Pennsylvania, Colonel W. W. H. Davis ; eleventh Maine, Lieutenant-Colonel Palmstead ; fifty-sixth New York, Colonel C. H. Yan Wyck ; fifty-second Pennsyl vania, Colonel J. C. Dodge ; one hundredth New York, Colonel J. M. Brown, were on 17 I 258 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the rest of their forces that all was ready ; and they then came* upon the Feder?l pickets suddenly and unexpectedly. The pickets discharged their p eces, fell back, and communicated the intelligence that the enemy were advancing in considerable force. The one hundred and third Penn sylvania regiment was immediately ordered forward to support the pickets. So sudden was the attack, and so rapid the approach of the enemy, that before this regiment could load their pieces they received a volley of musketry. That volley was so effective that it disabled the regiment, not only by the loss of a fifth of its number, but also by completely de moralizing the rest ; who, overcome and bewildered by the suddenness of the surprise, broke and fled toward the rear in complete confusion. They carried with them to their comrades exaggerated reports of the vast numbers and the ferocious spirit of their assailants; and announced the fact that their own regiment had been cut to pieces. This information, in itself so false, had the unfortunate effect of extending the panic to some extent among the remainder of the division, whose duty it now became to march against the exultant foe, and stem their advancing tide. For this purpose preparations were hastily made by General Casey. Spratt s battery was posted on the right, near the edge of the wood which skirted that extremity of the camp. Eegan s battery was placed next to it. These were supported by the one hundredth New York, the eleventh Maine, the one hundred and fourth Pennsylvania, and the ninety-second New York regiments. The first salute the enemy received was from these batteries ; but they continued to advance with the steadiness of veterans. As they came within range of the musketry of the Federals, they re turned the fire with such effect, and still approached with such rapidity, that they compelled their opponents to retire a short distance. But now their progress was checked by an obstacle, undignified, indeed, and un- heroic, but quite unwelcome and considerable under the circumstances. Four hundred yards in front of the spot where the Federal batteries had been posted a rail fence ran, which it was necessary for the Rebels to cross or to remove. As often as they attempted to accomplish this feat, the Federal guns played upon them with grape and canister so destruc tively, that their progress was arrested, and huge gaps were ploughed through their serried masses. It was not until the ammunition of these the right of the Williamsburg and Richmond stage road, and extended across the rail track for some distance. The second brigade, under command of General Wesscls. consisting of the eighty-fiftn Pennsylvania, Colonel T. B. H. Howell ; one hundred and first Pennsylvania, Colonel S. H. Wilson ; one hundred and third Pennsylvania, Colonel M. H. Lehman ; ninety-sixth New York, Colonel J. Fairman, occupied the centre and guarded the turnpike. The third brigade, General J. N. Palmer command ing, consisting of the eiahty-first New York, Lieutenant-Colonel De Forest; fifty-fifth New York, Colonel T. S. Belknap ; ninety-second New York, Lieutenant-Colonel Anderson ; ninety-eighth New York, Lieutenant-Colonel Durkee, were on the left of the road, and connected with tho pickets of General Couch s division. ROUT OF CASEY S DIYISION. 259 guns was exhausted, and the wagons being still beyond the Chickahominy, it was impossible to bring forward a fresh supply, that the enemy were able to surmount and overcome the obstruction. A closer combat then ensued. In vain did General Casey, with :he coolness and valor of a veteran, ride along his shattered lines and en deavor to steady them, staggered and wavering as they were, from the fury of the assault made upon them by vastly superior numbers. He ordered a bayonet charge to be made, which was executed with as much force and effect as the strength and spirit of the men permitted. But fresh and heavy masses of Rebels still rolled forward from their rear, to the front, so that the Federal troops were at length overpowered. They then retreated within their first line of defence. Here Bates battery of six pieces was posted in a redoubt on the left, and Fitch s battery on the right. These guns now opened on the advancing foe. Four Rebel bat teries which had been brought forward responded to them, while the firing between the infantry was resumed with intense fury. They soon reached the redoubts and the rifle-pits, where the cannon of Bates and Spratt had been placed. It became impossible to save all of these, and in the end some of them were spiked and abandoned. The Federal troops vainly attempted to resist the immense masses which now swelled forward, and swarmed like a countless host around them. Almost every regiment of Casey s division had by this time been effectually broken and routed. It was now half-past four. For three hours and a half those raw and in experienced troops had stemmed the tide ; eight thousand men had resisted thrice their number ; and during all that period not more than half a mile had been yielded to the enemy in retreat. During this period General Casey had exhibited extraordinary courage, coolness and skill; but this brave commander was unable to perform impossibilities. He had lost one fourth of his division, and many of his best officers. He had, how ever, rendered one essential service, by holding the Rebels in check until the Federal forces in his rear had time to prepare for their onset. A brief pause intervened between the retreat of Casey s division and the renewed advance of the enemy against the division of General Couch. The troops of the latter were drawn up obliquely toward the foe, so that when they pressed forward, his right wing became first engaged. Here the twenty-third Pennsylvania regiment was posted, commanded by Colonel Neill. They reserved their fire until the enemy were close upon them ; a sheet of lurid flame and iron hail then flew into their ranks, and completely staggered them. A bayonet charge by the gallant Pennsyl- vanians ensued, which added to their repulse, and to the extent of the slaughter whioh thinned their dense masses. Here a triumph was obtained which, had the Federal success been equal in other portions of the field, might have reversed the fortunes of the day. But soon the heavy fire of the enemy on their flank compelled them to recoil. The whole line was 260 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. now engaged, and a disaster which occurred at this crisis on the left, pro duced a pernicious effect. There the tenth Massachusetts regiment occu pied a post near the rifle-pits, but being ordered further to the left, was accidentally placed in an isolated position. When the enemy advanced the tenth engaged them heroically in front ; but during this action a por tion of the Rebels succeeded in passing unobserved through the adjacent woods to the rear of that regiment. They then attacked the tenth from that point with great fury. The result was that the men, surrounded by destruction on both sides, broke and fled. They were afterward rallied, and subsequently took an honorable part in the engagement. Notwithstanding the heavy losses which the Kebels had already suffered, their endless masses still rushed forward into the conflict. Their batteries also were very effective. Accordingly, after a long and desperate strug gle, the Federal lines began to give way. The first to retreat was the first Long Island regiment. In vain the fifty-seventh and sixty-third Pennsylvania endeavored to stop the flight. Their steady ranks crumbled like frost-work before the terrific and well sustained fire of the enemy. Scarcely an officer remained on horseback. Slowly and reluctantly those heroic troops, which had hurled back the deluge of the Rebel hosts, three times their own number, were compelled to recede toward the Chickahominy, not " unaccountably and discreditably," as was asserted, but simply because human strength and valor, when placed in a desperate and helpless position, could not achieve miracles, or reverse the laws of physical nature. General Couch now fell back with his shattered column in the direction of the Williamsburg road. Here he again arrayed his men in line of battle. At half past four o clock, General Sumner arrived on the field with Sedgwick s division. These troops were disposed of as rapidly and judiciously as the occasion permitted; but not too soon to meet the ad vancing enemy. The thirty-first Pennsylvania, the first Minnesota, and the first chasseurs, were ordered to lie upon their faces, and were thus concealed from their view. As the Rebels emerged from the woods, they delivered a volley at the Anderson Zouaves, who were posted in the rear. Then at the word of command the prostrate troops bounded to their feet and poured a deadly deluge of shot into the serried masses of the foe. Their ranks were mowed down like grain before the scythe of the reaper. The ground where they stood was covered with piles of dead and wounded. That discharge was the virtual end of the battle. Among the Rebel dead was General Davis; among the wounded and prisoners was General Pcttigrew. The troops of Sumner aided in stemming the victorious march of the enemy, and in saving the Federal forces engaged from total rout and destruction. Thus closed the battle of the Seven Pines. Both armies, exhausted, yet undismayed, passed the ensuing night upon the gory field, or near it, surrounded by the multitudes of the dying and the THE ENGAGEMENT OF JUNE FIRST. 261 dead, and anxiously awaited, during its solemn silence, the dawn of the next day for the renewal of the fight and the decision of the struggle. The enemy had captured every thing which belonged to General Casey s camp, except the baggage wagons which had been sent to the rear several days before ; and they occupied the ground at the close of the day which had been Casey s position at its commencement. On Sunday, June 1st, the Federal troops promptly stood to their arms in the dim and misty light of the early dawn. Important reinforcements had arrived during the night. On the right wing, the divisions of Rich ardson and Sedgwick were posted, their left resting on Hooker s right. These divisions comprised the brigades of Burns, French and Meagher. Hooker s division occupied the centre of the line. The left wing was composed of the remains of the divisions of Generals Casey and Couch, whose futile valor had performed its thankless prodigies on the day be fore. At six o clock General Heintzelman, who had received the chief command of the forces engaged, ordered a reconnoissance to be made on the left and on the right, by which it was soon ascertained that the Rebels were posted in great strength in front of the Federal right and left flanks. It was nearly seven o clock when the firing between the pickets gave evidence that the enemy had begun their advance, and were about to renew the engagement. Heintzelman immediately ordered Hooker to attack the Rebels in front, and drive them back through the woods, from which they were then emerging. Hooker s division comprised the Ex celsior brigade of Sickles, with the fifth and sixth New Jersey regiments. These troops advanced gallantly to the attack. They were warmly re ceived by the enemy; but as they approached, they loaded and fired re peatedly with the rapidity and regularity of trained soldiers. After an exchange of shots for some time, General Sickles ordered the second regiment of his brigade to clear the woods at the point of the bayonet. This order was executed with splendid effect. Colonel Hall led the charge in person. The front of the enemy was not a hundred yards dis tant, and as the Federal troops approached, the Rebels fired a tremendous volley into their ranks; but not a single man faltered. Onward rushed the bristling line of glittering steel. Then the shock cnme. and soon the foe, shattered and broken, gave way and fled. Among the prisoners taken at this point was Major Herbert, of the eighth Alabama regiment. During the progress of this achievement, the division of General Richardson was gradually coming into action on the right. Here the ground was ex ceedingly dificult ; but the Irish regiments were fortunately in this part of the fight ; and their powers of endurance and their pugnacious spirit were well adapted to the emergency. As the brigades of French, Meagher and Howard combatted the foe, the men were sometimes up to their knees in the swampy and boggy soil. This unusual disadvantage would have dis gusted or disheartened any other soldiers ; but it could not retard the im- THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. petuous sons of Erin, who rushed forward to the deadly encounter with jocular yells, and with all the mingled glee and furor of a " free fight." The enemy received them with a terrible discharge of musketry. General Howard had two horses shot under him, and was also wounded. A des perate struggle ensued. The superior numbers of the Kebels rendered the issue at one time extremely doubtful. At that moment the fourth and fifth Excelsior regiments of Sickles, who had already gained their share of the victory in another part of the field, were despatched to the support of Richardson s men. The battle now spread around to the New Jersey brigade, who stood manfully to the enemy. At length the Kebels began to recede ; yet slowly and steadily. The Federal troops then pushed for ward, crowding upon the yielding lines of the foe, as they floundered over the swampy ground. Two hundred of these were captured here. By eleven o clock the firing ceased, the battle was over, the victory was won. The enemy were driven from every position which they had gained on the preceding day. Their main column rested a mile beyond the point which they held at the commencement of the engagement. Such was the battle, and such the victory of Fair Oaks, by which the misfortune and defeat of the Seven Pines were compensated for by brilliant success. The Rebels were commanded on this occasion by Generals Joseph E. Johnston, Long- street, Pryor, Cobb and Huger. The guns and ammunition which they had captured on Saturday were not recovered, they having been trans ported with prudent and thrifty haste to Richmond, immediately after the close of the engagement on that day. On Monday the Federal forces were ordered forward to occupy their first position, from which they had been driven on Saturday. The loss of the Rebel troops was very heavy, as the ground was covered thickly in many places with the slain and the woun ded, whom they were unable to remove. The Federal loss during the battles of Seven Pines and Fair Oaks was eight hundred and ninety killed three thousand six hundred and twenty-seven wounded, twelve hundred and twenty-two missing ; making a total who were hors du co /nbat of five thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine.* After the battle of Fair Oaks, the loyal community of the United States generaly expected that an immediate advance would be made by the Federal army against Richmond ; and it is quite probable, that if such a movement had taken place without delay, and no further time had been allowed the enemy to concentrate their troops in colossal masses around the Rebel capital, as they afterward did with extraordinary promptitude and energy, the city might have been captured and occupied with little * The loss of the Rebels, according to the official report subsequently made by General J. E. Johnston, was six thousand six hundred and ninety-seven, including killed, wounded, and missing. He also claimed to have captured ten pieces of artillery, six thousand stand of arms, five colors, beside a large amount of cainp equipage. POPULAR IMPATIENCE FOR THE CAPTURE OF RICHMOND. 263 difficulty. But such an advance of the Federal army at that moment was probably a physical impossibility. A small proportion of McClellan s troops had as yet crossed the Chickahominy ; and these had been greatly weak ened by two days hard fighting. Only two or three bridges had been constructed over the stream, and these were swept away by the violent storm and freshet which ensued the day after the battle of Fair Oaks. The Rebels had fought with heroism with a desperation and firmness unsur passed by any troops in modern times filling up enormous chasms in their columns, when ploughed and shivered to pieces by the Federal guns, with the most wonderful determination and readiness. To attack such troops with sudden and imprudent haste, with inferior numbers, or at a serious disadvantage of position, would have insured the inevitable defeat and de struction of the Federal army. Richmond was defended even then by eight immense fortifications, supported by about fifty thousand effective troops ; and the operations intended to vanquish such formidable arma ments and such resolute champions, must be executed with great deliber ation and skill. Hence it was alleged that the impatience for the imme diate capture of the Rebel capital, which at this period prevaded the loyal community, and the censure which followed its disappointment, were based upon an ignorance of the real facts of the case, and were therefore unrea sonable and unjust. In accordance with the maxims which controlled the conduct of General McClellan, he proceeded immediately after the victory of Fair Oaks, to select his camp, form his lines, and erect his breastworks, for the purpose of making his regular approaches to Richmond. His intrenchments, after his position had been fully taken, presented a front of about fifteen miles, extending from Mechanicsville, on the extreme right, to a position at White Oak Swamp, on the extreme left. Nearly a month was destined to elapse before any further military operations of importance took place near the Rebel capital ; during which interval the Federal troops were employed in the completion of their breastworks, and the Rebels in concentrating all their available forces in the vicinity. In the meantime events of im portance and interest were transpiring in other portions of the Union, to which we will now direct our attention. The sudden and brilliant expedition of the Rebel General Jackson, by which he expelled General Banks from Virginia, and restored the supre macy of their arms in the valley of the Shenandoah, produced results of a transient and inconsiderable character. The occupation of Front Royal by the victors was very brief. They took possession of it on Saturday, the 24th of May, and on the ensuing 30th they evacuated it. This move ment was the commencement of a general desertion of the valley, and of the entire expulsion of the forces of Jackson from the scene of his late remarkable successes. After the arrival of General Banks at Williamsport, General Fremont 264 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. was ordered to descend from his mountain department, and bring his troops to bear upon the enemy. Accordingly he sent forward a brigade, I >receded by four companies of the Rhode Island cavalry, commanded by Major Nelson, with instructions to attack the Rebels, who held possession of Front Royal. These forces consisted of the eighth Louisiana, a portion of the twelfth Georgia regiments, and a body of cavalry. A spirited action ensued before the Rebels evacuated the place. The Federal loss was eight killed and six wounded. Eighteen Federal soldiers were retaken, who had been captured by the enemy a week previous, together with two engines, and eight cars, loaded with ammunition. The loss of the Rebels in killed and wounded was severe. Then began the masterly retreat of Jackson, and the well-conducted pursuit of Fremont, through the valley of the Shenandoah. The latter left Franklin with the main body of his troops, and by rapid marches crossed the intervening moun tains, toiling over a hundred miles of difficult roads, with very limited means of transportation and subsistence. About the same period, General Jackson withdrew from Winchester. Fremont pressed on toward Stras- burg, which the Rebels were approaching in their full strength. Colonel Cluseret, who commanded the advance of Fremont s forces, first encoun tered the enemy, five miles from Strasburg. on the Winchester road. The Federals were assailed by a spirited cannonading : but when General Fremont proceeded to draw out his troops in line of battle, in anticipation of a general engagement, Jackson declined the challenge, and retreated, in the meantime holding the Federal advance in check. The Rebel general continued his retreat through Strasburg toward Woodstock, losing twenty-five prisoners in the chase which ensued. Strasburg was then occupied by General Fremont without opposition. For the purpose of ascertaining the route and position of the enemy, he ordered Colonel Figzelmesi, with a number of men, to make a reconnoissance at midnight near that town. By this movement it was ascertained that Jackson s rear guard was lying in ambush a few miles beyond Strasburg, waiting for the advance of the Federal forces. They fired upon the Federal scouts as they approached, wounding three of them. The next day the pursuit was continued by the cavalry brigade, under General Bayard. Constant skirmishing took place between the pickets of both armies. The Rebels passed through Woodstock without halting. The town was then occupied by General Fremont, the Rebel army lying three miles beyond it. During this portion of the chase, though no engage ment of importance occurred, several hundred Rebel prisoners were captured. The retreat and the pursuit through the valley of the Shenandoah con tinued without further incident of importance until the 8th of June. On that day the Rebels reached a position in the vicinity of Harrisonburg called Cross Keys, where an engagement took place. Colonel Wj ndham GALLANTRY OP THE BUCKTATLS. 265 had been ordered to advance four miles beyond that town, for the purpose }f making a reconnoissance. The first New Jersey cavalry were detailed to this service. The colonel imprudently extended his march three miles further than the distance specified in his orders, and thus fell into an ambuscade which had been placed in the woods. The Rebels being posted in strong force, attacked him. A severe contest ensued. The Rebel General Ashby was conspicuous in this fight for his superior skill and daring. The Federal troops were driven back, and Colonel Wynd- ham was taken prisoner. The enemy were driving the New Jersey troops before them, when General Bayard was ordered to the rescue with the Bucktail regiment, the first Pennsylvania cavalry, the eighth and six teenth Virginia regiments. The contest was then renewed, and was maintained with great spirit on both sides. The enemy were expelled from their position, with the loss of a portion of their camp equipage. The struggle was still continued with an uncertain issue. Night was approaching, when General Bayard ordered Colonel Kane to proceed with the Bucktail rifles to explore the dense forest of pines to the left. This brave company, numbering about a hundred and thirty men, at once advanced toward the almost invisible enemy. They suddenly found themselves surrounded, both in front and on the flank, by a numerous body of Rebels, consisting of four regiments of cavalry, together with artillery. But the Bucktails did not flinch in this emergency, and opened their fire with deadly effect upon the serried masses around them. Their valor was vain and fruitless against such overwhelming numbers. Their ranks were quickly thinned by the destructive attack of the foe. Their gallant commander was wounded and captured. Nothing now remained but to retreat with the wreck of their corps. This feat they performed leisurely and without precipitation, halting from time to time to return the shots of the pursuing Rebels. The loss of the Bucktails was about six killed, thirty-six wounded, ten missing ; that of the remaining Federal troops was one hundred and eighteen killed, four hundred and fifty wounded, thirty missing. The loss of the Rebels was also severe. As General Fremont did not wish at that unpropitious time to court a general engagement, his troops were withdrawn, when darkness overspread the scene. In this battle General Ashby, the bold and chivalrous commander of the Rebel cavalry, was slain. On the next day, the 9th of- Juwe, the pursuit of the enemy was con tinued. The Rebels were then in full retreat toward Port Republic. General Blenker commanded the left wing, General Milroy the right, General Schenck the centre of Fremont s forces. The reserve consisted of the brigades of Stahl and Bayard. The advance of the Federals was so close upon the rear guard of Jackson that the latter had scarcely time to cross the Shenandoah to avoid capture. General Tyler commanded the advance of Shields division, which after ward engaged the enemy. The action which ensued took place at Port 266 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Eepublic, seven miles beyond Harrisonburg, on the route toward Staunton. The number of Federal troops engaged was about three thousand ; that of the enerny was at least eight thousand. General Jackson had posted the latter in the woods so as to outflank the Federals on the left. The batteries of Captains Clark and Robinson were first brought forward, and were made to bear upon them with effect. Several companies of skir mishers were then ordered to penetrate into the woods, to feel the enemy. The Rebels soon advanced from their retreat, and prepared to attack the Federals by a combined front and flank movement. The seventh Indiana infantry, under Colonel Gavin, were sent to the right to counteract the operations of the Rebels at that point. They were there assailed by two regiments advantageously posted under cover of the banks of the Shenandoah. So destructive was the fire of the Rebels here, that Colonel Gavin was compelled to retire. The twenty-ninth Ohio was then sent forward to support him, while the seventh Ohio was despatched to the aid of Clarke s battery, and the fifth Ohio to the help of Huntingdon s battery. The first Virginia regiment was posted on the extreme right and the whole of the Federal troops of General Tyler s brigade being at length in position, the battle became general. The artillery of the Rebels was served with great energy and skill. During the progress of the engagement on the right wing, the Rebel commander placed additional troops in such a position as to attack the Federal batteries posted there with immense vigor, and eventually to capture them. The seventh and fifth Ohio were afterward brought to bear upon the foe with such success that these batteries were retaken. For a short interval the heroism of the Federal troops, though fighting against a much superior force, rendered the issue of the day doubtful, and almost wrested a triumph from the inevitable victors in so unequal a struggle. But at this crisis immense reinforcements were seen crossing the river from the town of Port Republic to the aid of the Rebels and to have encountered these also would have been to invite destruction. General Tyler therefore gave the order to retreat. Unfortunately, it was found impossible to remove the heavy guns, the horses being nearly all either killed or disabled, and they fell into the hands of the enemy. The Federals, how ever, captured one gun and sixty-seven prisoners. They retreated, and the Rebels pursued, until the former approached the main body of General Shields division, when the JJebels fled in their turn. The Federal loss on this occasion was sixty-two killed, one hundred and sixty- one wounded, one hundred missing. The loss of the Rebels, though its exact number is unknown to us, was also heavy. On the advance of Fremont after the battle, two hundred of their dead were counted on the field, and many had already been buried. A number of valuable Federal officers had been slain. One of the companies of the Bucktail regiment lost all its officers, both commissioned and non-commissioned. The battle of Port Republic, though desperately contested during five hours WITHDRAWAL OF GENERAL FREMONT. 267 was in reality a repulse to the Federal arms. The exposed and isolated position of the advance of General Shields, rendered the troops who belonged to it an easy prey to the overwhelming and concentrated masses of the enemy, and invited their assault under circumstances extremely unfavorable to the Union forces. After this engagement the retreat of Jackson was continued toward Staunton, and eventually to Kichrnond. No engagement of any impor tance took place between him and the troops of General Fremont subse quent to the battle of Port "Republic. On the 25th of June the armies of Fremont, McDowell, and Banks, were consolidated by the President into one body, to be designated by the title of the Army of Virginia ; and the chief command of it was conferred on General John Pope, the hero of New Madrid, and of Island Number Ten. By this arrangement the forces of Fremont constituted the first army corps; those of Banks, the second; those of McDowell, the third. General McCall s division, ten thousand strong, which had formed part of McDowell s corps, was trans ferred at once to the army under McClellan. This new arrangement, which the President had adopted for the purpose of giving greater energy and efficacy to the movements of the troops in the valley of the Shenan- doah, was readily acquiesced in by Generals McDowell and Banks ; but it did not meet the approbation of General Fremont. He regarded it as an act of injustice to him; as calculated to diminish his personal consequence in the service, and to injure his reputation with the community. General Pope had been under his command in Missouri, and the relations of the two generals toward each other were not pleasant. He therefore resolved to withdraw from the command of the corps, and notified the Secretary of War of his intention to that effect. Thus ended the brief campaign of General Fremont in the valley of the Shenandoah. It cannot be affirmed that the spirit which marked the abandonment of his command in Virginia, was characterized by the same rare degree of patriotism, dignity, and self-denial, which had adorned his conduct when removed from his administration in Missouri. From the camp and the battle-field he retired to the repose of private life, to observe in his retreat the mar velous vicissitudes of a contest in which he had enacted, if not the first, yet an honorable part. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the chief glory of the career of this eminent man will always be associated with his adventures and achievements as an explorer of the untrodden solitudes of the remotest West, where he became the pioneer to discover the way to new realms, in which a youthful but mighty people could find one of the most profitable and Appropriate arenas for the exercise and develop ment of their gigantic energies. As the heroic and resolute "Pathfinder* to the golden climes of the modern Eldorado, across the frozen precipices, and through the abysmal gorges of the Rocky Mountains, his name will live, and will be justly honored on the pages of American history through many generations to come. 268 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES, CHAPTER XXIV. PROMINENCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN THE EVENTS OF TEE WAR FLEET OF GUNBOATS COMMANDED BY COMMODORE DAVIS EVACUATION OF FORT PILLOW THE NAVAL BATTLE BEFORE MEMPHIS RELATIVE STRENGTH OF THE COMBATANTS INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGE MENT DEFEAT OF THE REBEL FLEET COLONEL ELLET RESULTS OF THE VICTORY GEN ERAL NEGLEY S EXPEDITION AGAINST CHATTANOOGA COLONEL HAMBRIGHT INCIDENTS OF THE EXPEDITION ITS RESULTS GENERAL MORGAN EXPELS THE REBELS FROM CUM BERLAND GAP DISASTER TO THE FEDERAL ARMS AT JAMES ISLAND DESCRIPTION OP THE REBEL WORKS ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE ATTACK INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT ULTIMATE DEFEAT OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS THEIR RETREAT FEDERAL LOSS GALLANTRY OF THE REBEL COMMANDER LAMAR EXPEDITION OF COLONEL FITCH UP THE WHITE RIVER THE ENGAGEMENT AT ST. CHARLES HORRIBLE ACCIDENT TO THE MOUND CITY EXECRABLE CRUELTY OF CAPTAIN FRY CAPTURE OF THE REBEL FORTS FINAL SUCCESS OF THE EXPEDITION EXCURSION OF COLONEL HOWARD FROM NEWBERN TO SWIFT CREEK ITS RESULTS BOMBARDMENT OF VICKSBURG COMMENCED PERILOUS PASSAGE OF COM MODORE FARRAGUT S FLEET NEW CHANNEL OF THE MISSISSIPPI. ONE of the most brilliant pages in the history of the war against Seces sion, is that which records the achievements of the champion of the Union on the Mississippi river. On the great " Father of Waters" defeats and disasters, though not wholly unknown, were unfamiliar things ; triumphs and supremacy were the prevalent features which marked the scene. On the 6th of June, 1862, the fleet of Federal gunboats and rams commanded by Flag-Officer C. H. Davis, comprising eight vessels, approached Fort Pillow, located on the banks of the Mississippi, in the vicinity of Memphis. It was the intention of the commodore to bombard the Rebel works, which were of considerable strength, mounting six one hundred- and-twenty-eight pounders and fifteen sixty-four pounders. But the enemy evacuated the place, together with Forts Randolph and Wright, rendering an attack unnecessary. These places were then occupied by a requisite number of Federal troops. Commodore Davis then proceeded with his fleet toward Memphis. A formidable Rebel flotilla awaited his approach. It consisted of eight gun boats, which respectively bore the names of the General Bragg, the Lovell, the Jeff. Thompson, the Beau regard, General Van Dorn, the Sumter, General Price, and the Little Rebel. They were commanded by Commodore Edward Montgomery. They had previously been river steamers, and had been converted into gunboats: They carried from two to twelve guns each, which were worked en barbette on carriages. In the action which ensued the gunboats of Commodore Davis which were brought into action were the flag-ship Benton, the Louisville, Cairo, St. Louis, and Carondelet. In addition to these there were four steam rams, com- THE NAVAL BATTLE BEFORE MEMPHIS. 269 manded by Colonel Charles Ellet, named the Queen of the West, Monarch, Lancaster, and Switzerland. During the night preceding the battle, the Kebel fleet moved down the river toward Memphis. At that time Com modore Davis lay at anchor two miles above the city. When the morn ing of the 6th dawned, the Kebel fleet was seen steaming up in line of battle. They were soon met by the Federal vessels in gallant style oppo site Memphis. The inhabitants of that city swarmed in multitudes upon the levee, the bluff, and the roofs of the houses adjacent to the river. The stores were closed, and all business suspended, during a day which was destined to witness one of the most complete defeats to the Kebel arms which had yet overtaken them. The engagement began at half-past five in the morning. While the vessels were approaching each other, Colonel Ellet ordered two rams, the Queen and the Monarch, to proceed down the river, and pass between the Kebel boats and the shore. The current was strong, the river was narrow, and the enemy, from their position in fighting up stream, possessed the advantage of the steerage-way. The two rams having reached the de sired position, rounded to and commenced the engagement. The Queen drove with prodigious force into the General Price, one of the Rebel rams, taking her wheel completely off; and after a short exchange of shots the latter sank. Soon afterward the Queen was herself run into by the Beau- regard, and being struck on the wheel-house with tremendous violence, was severely disabled. The Monarch then approached the Beauregard, and saluted her with a ferocious butt in the bow, which completely dis abled her. She subsequently sank, though her crew were rescued by the timely interposition of the Little Kebel. The Benton and the Lovell then came into action. The fifty -pound Parrott guns of the former pro duced an immense effect on her antagonist. She was raked fore and aft, some of the shots penetrating her sides. In five minutes her boilers exploded, and the most horrible spectacle was presented to view. Her crew, scalded, suffocated, and suffering the intensest agonies, rushed upon deck, and filled the air with their frantic screams, praying for help. The vessel immediately began to sink, and it was with difficulty that a yawl sent from the Benton was able to take off a few of the sufferers before she went down in a hundred feet of water. Nearly all her crew were drowned, and their last exclamations of terror and despair mingled with the seething and bubbling sound of the waves, as she descended forever from view. The remainder of the Rebel flotilla had thus far been engaged at long range. The Beauregard had been completely riddled with shot; was rapidly becoming unmanageable ; was filling with water ; and was drifting helplessly toward the shore. She eventually sank upon a shoal to her decks. The Little Kebel was stinick by two shots upon her upper works ; she was then run ashore by her commander, abreast of President s island, 270 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and was eventually abandoned by her crew. Disasters now came thickly upon the rest of the vessels of the enemy. By this time the Jeff. Thomp son was on fire, and the flames soon gained such headway that it was impossible to extinguish them. The fiery tongues of the destroying element ran hither and thither over her whole extent, enveloping every portion of it. Soon her wheel-houses disappeared, then her chimney fell overboard, tearing with it a portion of her deck ; at length her magazine exploded. The concussion shook the earth, uprolled the tranquil bosom of the Mississippi in multitudinous billows, and filled the air with hundreds of flying shells. At last nothing remained of the once formidable vessel except a few blackened and charred timbers, which leisurely floated away in fragments on the surface of the river. The Sumter now became disa bled by the steady and destructive shots of the Federal boats, and was drifted ashore at the foot of President s island. There she was abandoned. The General Bragg, unable any longer to continue the contest, retreated down the river, and was run ashore about three miles below Memphis. She was also abandoned by the Rebels. When the Federal victors from the Benton boarded her, they found twice the ordinary pressure of steam upon her boiler, thus proving the evident intention, on the part of her late occupants, when leaving, to blow her to atoms. A prize crew was then placed on board, the stars and stripes were unfurled, and she was towed to an anchorage at Memphis. About the same time, a shot pene trated the boiler of the active and dauntless Little Rebel. It exploded, and she was at once completely disabled. She started to reach the Arkansas shore, but was overhauled and taken. Thus the entire fleet of the enemy was either captured or destroyed, in an engagement which did not continue longer than an hour and a-half, with the single exception of the flag-ship Yan Dorn. This vessel, in consequence of her superior speed, being fleeter than the Federal gunboats, made her escape. She was pur sued eight miles below Memphis, where the futile chase was relinquished. A more complete and wholesale defeat could scarcely be imagined than that which had thus overtaken this famous Mississippi flotilla. Its com mander, Commodore Montgomery, with most of his officers and some of his men, succeeded in making their escape to the forests on the Arkansas shore. Their loss in killed and wounded was heavy, probably not Irss than a hundred. The Federal loss was comparatively light. Commodore Ellet, the brave commander of the Union rams, was wounded during the action by a pistol shot in the leg. It was a singular fact that he alone, of all the Union soldiers in this engagement, should have been struck by the enemy, and that he should afterward expire from the combined effect of the wound, general exhaustion, aud unskillful treatment. Among the Federal vessels the Queen of the West had been the most severely disa bled. Her machinery was so terribly jarred by the vigorous butting of RESULTS OF THE VICTORY. 271 the Rebel rams, as to be unable to move, and she was towed to her anchorage after the termination of the battle. Immediately after the engagement the victorious fleet steamed up to the landing at Memphis. Commodore Davis then despatched a messenger to John Parke, the Mayor of the city, informing him that he had taken possession of the place, that he would put it under military authority, and that he desired his co-operation in the preservation of order. To this communication Mayor Parke responded that the municipal authorities of Memphis possessed no means of resistance, and that he would be happy to comply with the request of Commodore Davis, and assist him in the preservation of peace and order. A portion of the Federal troops were subsequently quartered in the city, the national colors were unfurled from the public buildings, and the supremacy of the Federal Government again established in one of the chief marts of Tennessee. The ultimate conse quences of this victory were very important. It assisted materially in clearing the Mississippi of the presence and the power of the Rebel gun boats. With the single exception of Yicksburg, every other stronghold of the foe on that great river had now been removed ; the conquest of Vicksburg alone was necessary to complete the triumph ; and by this means one of the chief arteries of the body of the Rebel Confederacy would be effectually severed. It was confidently expected that that desi rable result would be accomplished at an early period. Other triumphs to the Federal arms occurred, nearly at the same time, on the soil of Tennessee. The Rebels had erected strong batteries at Chattanooga, a flourishing town in Hamilton county, a hundred and forty miles southeast of Nashville. It was the eastern terminus of the railroad from the capital of the State, and the point of connection with the railways of Georgia. It was also a valuable shipping point for Middle and Eastern Tennessee. General Mitchel, appreciating the importance of the position, determined to attack it with one of those brilliant and sudden assaults by which he had already distinguished himself. He entrusted the execution of his enterprise on this occasion to General Negley. Chattanooga being situated on the Tenneesee river, at the head of the light draught naviga tion, commanding the mountain region in East Tennessee, being also a great railway centre, and being directly connected by them with Western Virginia, and even with Richmond, fully justified the risks which were run to attain its possession, and to wrest it from the occupancy of the enemy. Starting forth from the camp of General Mitchel at Huntsville, in Ala bama, Colonel Hambright, under the orders of General Negley, rapidly approached Chattanooga, routing and dispersing on his way a body of Rebel cavalry commanded by General Adams. On the 7th of June he commenced an attack on the batteries of the enemy at that place. After a vigorous cannonading of three hours duration, they were silenced and 272 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. evacuate 1. On the next day the town was shelled. In six hours the Rebels were driven from all their works, and were forced to evacuate the place entirely. As they retired they burned the railroad bridges, in order to prevent the pursuit of the Federal victors. Eighty prisoners were taken. A large number of horses and cattle, intended for the Rebel service, were also captured. The Rebel works were completely destroyed, and the place unfitted for future hostile operations. This conquest re lieved the loyal citizens of that vicinity from the heavy yoke of the Rebel authorities which had so long galled them, and confirmed their attach ment to their legitimate government. It wrested from the enemy all the advantages which the possession of the town had given them, from its peculiar position as the great railroad centre, to which we have already referred. After this achievement General Negley returned to camp with the trophies of his victory. His loss was two killed, seven wounded, three missing. The advantages thus gained were increased in Tennessee on the 17th of June, when General Morgan advanced toward Cumberland Gap for the purpose of attacking and expelling the Rebel Generals Stevenson and Smith, who occupied it with thirteen thousand men. This gap is a cleft in the Cumberland Mountains, which run from the northeast to the south west through the State; and it is so deep and narrow that there is room through the gap for only a single roadway. The Rebels had fortified it with great assiduity. Its importance as an entrance to Eastern Tennessee justified their efforts in reference to it. It was expected that they would defend its possession with the utmost tenacity. No such result followed. When the Rebel leaders were informed of the approach of the Union force under General Morgan, they evacuated the place. They left several hundred tents standing, and they threw vast quantities of their projectiles over the cliffs into the yawning ravines below. Their mortar guns were spiked, and their carriages mutilated. After thus rendering what they left behind them as useless as possible, the whole force retreated. The gap was then occupied by the Federal troops, another avenue of commu nication was opened between the loyal citizens of Eastern and Western Tennessee, and another stronghold of the Rebels destroyed. From these successes in the interior of the country, we turn to view the operations of the Federal arms on the Atlantic seaboard. There the tide of fortune turned against the Federal arms, and a disastrous defeat overtook them in the vicinity of the renowned hotbed of rebellion. On the 16th of June, General Benham, the second in command under General Hunter in the Department of the South, attacked the works which the Rebels had erected on James island, in the neighborhood of Charleston, and was ignominiously repulsed with heavy losses. The enemy had constructed a line of defences running across this island, together with a fort and an observatory, in such a position as to enable them to over DISASTER TO THE FEDERAL ARMS AT JAMES ISLAND. 273 look the operation of the Federal commanders. The purpose of General Benham was also to destroy a floating battery which had been anchored near Secessionville, and which, together with the works already named, presented serious obstacles to the further advance of the Federal forces toward Charleston and Fort Johnson. Secessionville was a small village, the summer resort of a few of the planters who resided on James island. Its location is on the eastern side of the island, on a high bank of a creek which passes through the marshes of James and Morris islands, and empties into the Stono river near its mouth. Five hundred yards south of Secessionville, Colonel Lamar had erected a battery, flanked on its sides by the marsh and the creek. The Rebel troops posted here consisted of several companies of the Charleston Light Infantry, and of the Charleston Battalion, with large detachments of the South Carolina volunteers, making in all about five thousand men. The Federal force selected to assault the works consisted of three brigades, commanded by Generals Stevens, Wright, and Williams, comprising about three thousand five hundred men. The attack was commenced by General Stevens, whose troops consisted of the Michigan eighth, the Connecticut sixth and seventh, and the Massachusetts twenty-eighth regiments, supported by a battery of four guns. The Michigan eighth led the van, and suffered more severely than any of their associates. The assault began at break of day. The Rebel pickets were driven in ; and a rapid advance was then made toward the fort. In effecting this movement the Federals encountered an open battery of three guns, which were posted about a hundred yards in front of the intrench ments. The Rebels were driven from these pieces, which were captured. It was evident that the occupants of the intrenchments had been taken completely by surprise, but they were quickly aroused from their slumbers, and received the assailants with the utmost resolu tion. In the engagement which ensued, General Wright s brigade supported General Stevens on the left, while General Williams was ordered to make a flank movement to the right, and from that quarter to join in the attack. As it was suspected that masked batteries were concealed in the woods in this direction, General Williams was advised to execute the movement with caution, but he ordered his men to advance rapidly without taking any measures against surprise. The result was that as soon as his forces reached their desired position at the side of the fort, a powerful battery opened upon them from an opposite direction, which, together with the fire in their front produced a deadly effect. The fighting on both sides now became fierce and desperate. The works were surrounded by deep ditches, and surmounted by high parapets. The eighth Michigan and New York seventy-ninth assailed the fortifications in front with dauntless heroism. They succeeded in filling the ditch, and constructed a causeway at one point, under the close and heavy firing of the enemy. Repeated 18 274 THE CIVAL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES onsets were then made, and determined struggles took place to storm the works ; but though often on the verge of success, the Federals were as often repulsed and driven back by the indomitable resistance of the enemy. It is probable, indeed, that if, at one time during the contest in front, a judicious and vigorous co-operative movement had been made on the flank, the assault might have been successful ; but such was not the case. The Rebels were effectually aided in their defence by the firing from Fort Johnson, which was located at some distance to the right. Many of the gunners in the fort were killed ; especially when, after being repulsed from the attack in front, the Federal troops drew off and renewed the assault on the right flank. There three regiments deployed in line of battle, and being partially protected by a growth of underbush, poured into the fort a continuous and deadly fire, at a distance of a hundred and fifty yards. Some of the gun-carriages in the intrenchments were per forated by their balls. This assault might have proved more successful, had not the Louisiana battalion, commanded by McEIenry, come to the rescue, formed on the right facing the marsh, and opened their fire upon the assailants with such effect that the latter were compelled to recede after suffering heavy losses. Another desperate attempt was made to carry the works by passing further out to the westward, and attacking the fort directly in the rear. But this intention was also defeated by the stubborn and resolute resistance made by the Eutaw regiment. At length it became evident that the assault was a total failure, and a general retreat was ordered. The third New Hampshire troops were the last to leave the disastrous field, and narrowly escaped being captured by several regiments of South Carolina. Two Federal gunboats which then lay in the Stono river were unable to render much assistance, in conse quence of their remote position; but during the retreat, in attempting to shell the pursuing Rebels, they did nearly as much damage to their allies as to their foes. The entire enterprise was a most miserable disaster. Scarcely so great a military abortion had been perpetrated by any other Federal commander during the entire war. General Benham was after ward summoned to Washington to explain and justify his conduct. The total loss of the Federal forces in killed, wounded, and missing, was six hundred and sixty-eight. This large number demonstrated that the Fed eral soldiers had fought with the courage and determination which usually characterized them, and that their defeat was the result of causes which they could not possibly control, and for which they were not in the least degree responsible. In this action the Rebel Colonel Lamar was wounded. He had exhibited a degree of valor and skill which would have conferred honor upon a much nobler cause than that in defence of which he had expended it. The effect of this misfortune on the minds of the loyal com munity was extremely discouraging, inasmuch as they regarded Charles ton and the Rebel works in its vicinity with peculiar repugnance, as EXPEDITION OF COLONEL FITCH UP WHITE RIVER 275 being the real centre and effective source of a rebellion which had inflicted so many and such great calamities on the nation. On the 12th of June an expedition was sent from Memphis under tho orders of Colonel Fitch, for the purpose of sailing up the White river as far as Jacksonport, and conveying supplies and ammunition to the army of General Curtis. It was understood that the Kebels had placed ob structions in the stream, and that they had erected fortifications at St. Charles, an insignificant village about eighty-two miles above its junction with the Mississippi. The expedition consisted of four iron-clad gun boats, namely: the flag-ship Mound City, the St. Louis, Lexington, and Conestoga, with the armed tug Spitfire, and three transports. The land force on board consisted of the forty-sixth Indiana regiment. The first success of the expedition was the capture of a new and valuable Rebel steamer, the Clara Dolsen. The second and more important achievement was the attack and reduction of the works which had been constructed at St. Charles. It was on the 17th of June that the fleet, having proceeded slowly about eighty miles up the White river, suddenly encountered the bat teries which the enemy had erected. These were so concealed in the thick forest and brushwood on the Arkansas shore, that their position r.ould only be conjectured from the direction of their shot. As the Union fleet approached, the Rebels commenced to fire upon them. Their guns were not very heavy, but they were aimed with more than ordinary precision. Two shots struck the casemates of the St. Louis. The Mound City being in the lead up the stream, which at this point is narrow, though deep, immediately returned the fire. She was soon followed by the St. Louis and Conestoga. As the works of the Rebels consisted of two distinct batteries, the Mound City proceeded past the first toward the second, half a mile distant. Both were situated on a high bluff. As the Mound City advanced the second battery opened its fire upon her, to which she promptly responded. While the engagement was progressing between the gunboats and the forts, Colonel Fitch landed about five hun dred men from the transports on the southern shore of the river, for the purpose of attacking the works in the rear. Having reached the proper position, he signalled to the gunboats to suspend their fire, as it might injure his own men, and he felt able to take the forts by a land assault. At that moment one of the most horrible catastrophes occurred which the mind of man can conceive, and to which few parallels can be found in the bloody annals of war. A ball from the enemy, cylindrical in shape, armed with iron flanges on each side, known as a " pigeon-shot/ struck the Mound City on the casemate on her port side, near the first gun. It came at an angle of ninety degrees. It passed through the casemate, and severed the connecting pipe of the boilers. Instantly the steam rushed with the rapidity of lightning into every part of the vessel below, which 276 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. was crowded with the crew, a hundred and seventy-five in number, who had descended from the deck to avoid the shells of the enemy. The horrors of the scene which immediately ensued transcended all powers of description. The hot vapor burnt and withered in a moment the masa of living victims, inflicting instant death upon some, and upon the rest, agonies far more terrible than death. Forty-five expired instantly. The remainder, scalded to a crimson hue, screamed and groaned, writhing with intense suffering. They rushed simultaneously toward the port-holes. Maddened and frantic with their insupportable torments, they threw them selves into the river. Soon seventy or eighty persons were struggling in the water. At that awful moment, when common humanity would have dictated even among savages a cessation of the contest, the Rebels con tinued to fire upon the drowning wretches, as with desperation they strove to reach the land. Very few succeeded in doing so. Out of a hundred and seventy-five, who but a few moments before were in vigorous life, scarcely thirty escaped. Captain Fry, the commander of the Rebels, ordered his sharpshooters to distribute themselves along the shore, and to pick off the exhausted fugitives as they approached. This diabolical command was obeyed with an eagerness of cruelty such as would have disgraced a Fejee islander. The chief officer of the Conestoga promptly lowered his boats, and endeavored to rescue those who were yet alive. As soon as these emissaries of mercy came within range, they were also fired upon by the enemy. Both the gigs were struck, but fortunately were not sunk, and they succeeded in saving some from a watery grave. In the meantime the Federal troops on shore had reached the Rebel works, and having witnessed the scene enacted upon the river, assaulted the enemy with a commendable arid intensified degree of enthusiasm. They soon charged upon them with the bayonet. A brief but desperate resistance was made. In a short time, however, the two forts were carried and occupied by the Federals. The enemy then fled toward St. Charles. Their entire force consisted of five hundred men. Of theso fifty were captured; about a hundred were killed and wounded; the rest escaped. Among the prisoners was Captain Fry, the commander of the Rebels. He had formerly been an officer in the Federal service. The indignation of the Union troops against him was so intense, that it was with difficulty that Colonel Fitch could preserve his life from their assaults, by extending to him a clemency and a protection which he did not deserve. Except /-for the calamity on the Mound City, the expedi tion would have had unmixed success. In the end, nearly a hundred persons died in consequence of the terrible accident which had occurred. In a few days the Federal fleet resumed its progress up the White river; the obstructions in the stream were removed; and it eventually reached its destination without any further opposition or casualty. Among the minor movements which took place in different portions EXCURSION OF COLONEL HOWARD TO SWIFT CREEK. 277 of the field of conflict, to which a brief allusion may be made, was one which, about this period, set forth from Newbern under Colonel Howard, for. the purpose of expelling the roving bands of the Rebels from the peninsula which intervenes between the Neuse and the Pamlico rivers. The expedition consisted of the seventeenth Massachusetts, part of the third New York cavalry, and a detachment of the Marine Artillery, with eight guns. These troops were placed on board the steamers Union, Allison, the Highland Light, and the gunboat Picket. Scarcely had these vessels sailed four miles up the Neuse, when they grounded on a bar, and their progress was stopped. General Foster was then informed by a messenger of the disaster which had occurred. He immediately sent the steamers Pilot Boy and Alice Price to the rescue. After some delay the vessels were relieved, and proceeded up the stream as far as Swift creek, at which point the enemy were reported to have erected some breastworks, and to have made it the centre of their raids in the vicinity, The troops were disembarked, and so completely were the Rebels taken by surprise, that several of them were captured. The seventeenth Massachusetts, com manded by Colonel Fellows, then led the advance, and occupied Swift Creek village. Colonel Howard took possesion of the bridge, and shelled the Rebels, whose breastworks of shingle lay on the opposite side of the stream. A few shots were returned- by the foe, when the order was given to the Federal forces to charge. The enemy did not await the onset. As the Union troops approached they abandoned their intrench- ments in dismay, and fled through the woods in all directions. Their running was so much better than their fighting, that only two prisoners were taken, although a vigorous pursuit was made. On examination the works were found to be insignificant, and they could have presented little resistance to the Federal guns. After this easy conquest the troops re turned to Newbern. The effect produced by the expedition upon the Rebels in the vicinity was beneficial, as their excursions in that portion of the country, in small detached companies, thenceforth terminated. The Federal commanders on the Mississippi continued their operations for the purpose of opening the navigation of that great commercial artery with the most commendable energy and ability. Vicksburg now alone remained, throughout its whole extent, in the possession of the enemy. The situation of this city was remarkable. It is built on the eastern bank of the river, on a considerable elevation. Steep bluffs exist both above and below it, whose height above the level of the stream is nearly a hundred feet. The Rebels had erected strong batteries in the vicinity of the town, and their position was such that the guns of the besieging vessels could not be brought to bear with much effect upon them, while they, from their superior elevation, possessed every advantage. In other respects, also, the situation of the place was peculiar. At this point the Mississippi makes an abrupt bend, in shape not unlike a horse-shoe, inclosing within its 278 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. embrace a strip of land little more than half a mile in width. At the ex tremity of this bend the city is built. These topographical oddities sug gested to the minds of the Federal commanders, at a later period, the.ex- pedient of cutting a canal across this peninsula, thus opening a new chan nel for the river, and setting back the city several miles from the margin of the stream which was the source of its opulence, the avenue of its com merce, and chief implement of its resistance to the Federal Government. On the 21st of June Captain Porter, belonging to the fleet of Commodore Davis, who was then above Vicksburg, made a reconnoissanee in the Octorara, for the purpose of ascertaining the best position at which his flotilla might be anchored. General Van Dorn commanded the Rebel forces at this place. These numbered eighteen thousand men. Having accomplished his purpose Captain Porter returned to his station. Com modore Davis then prepared to approach the city and commence the bom bardment. On Thursday, the 26th of June, a formidable fleet, consisting of about forty vessels of all descriptions, including transports, appeared before Vicksburg.* An attack was immediately commenced, which was chiefly directed against the fortifications on the bluff below the town. The Rebel batteries responded with spirit. The firing continued during the whole day, and ceased only at the approach of night. On the next day it was resumed. In the afternoon the order was given to shell the town. Then the water batteries of the enemy responded, and the contest was kept up during the rest of the day. At night all the Federal captains of divisions were summoned to meet the commander on his flag-ship. They there re ceived directions to resume the fire upon the city during that night, from all their mortars ; and to continue the bombardment until further orders. Accordingly, at the appointed moment, the entire fleet of mortars, twenty in number, commenced the deadly music of their assault. The scene which ensued was extremely grand and imposing. The sound of the guns re sembled a continuous peal of thunder, and the loud reverberations seemed to emulate the most furious discharges of heaven s artillery. The repeated explosions of the shells illuminated the midnight heavens far and near with incessant flashes of lurid light. The earth and river shook with the terrible concussions. The enormous shells, as they descended upon the doomed city, appeared like messengers of destruction from some distant * The fleet of Commodore Porter consisted of the following vessels of war : Octorara, flag-ship, Geo. Brown, Executive Officer; Wesfcfield, Commander W. B. Benham ; Harriet Lane, J. M. Wainwright; Clifton, C. H. Baldwin; Miami, A. D. Barrel; Owasco, John Guest; J. P. Jackson, S. E. Woodworth. Commanding divisions of the mortar flotilla were Lieutenant Watson Smith, commanding first division; Lieutenant W. W. Green, commanding second division; Lieutenant R. R. Breese, commanding third division. The vessels composing the squadron of Commodore Davis were the Benton, Carondelet, Cincinnati, and Louisville. Those of Commodore Farragut were the Hartford, Brooklyn, Sciota, Oneida, Pinola, and the gunboats. NEW CHANNEL OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 279 and hostile sphere. Soon the city was in flames in various places ; and after the lapse of an hour the order was given to suspend the bombardment. On the next day Commodore Farragut, who lay five miles below Vicks- burg with his fleet of wooden vessels, sent word to the commander of the mortars above, that if he would engage the forts on the following morning before daylight, he would attempt to pass the batteries on the bluff, and unite their fleets. The suggestion was complied with, and his entire flotilla, consisting of three men-of-war, two sloops-of-war, and three gunboats, suc ceeded in making the passage during the bombardment. The flag-ship of the commodore was struck twice in the hull, suffering some damage. The other vessels escaped serious injury. This action lasted an hour and thirty minutes. Its result convinced the Federal commanders that how ever much their shot might injure the town, it would-be impossible to cap ture or destroy the batteries which lined the bluffs, without the assistance of a land force. The entire fleet then proceeded a short distance above Vicksburg and anchored. The mere destruction of the town alone would have been barren of results. Commodore Farragut therefore resolved to reopen the navigation of the Mississippi, which was the chief matter in dis pute, by digging a new channel across the peninsula already described, named Cross-bend, thereby leaving Vicksburg at a harmless and impotent distance from the passing stream. Hundreds of negroes were immediately impressed from the adjoining plantations, and set to work in digging. This novel undertaking would require to be half a mile in length, about fifty feet in width, and eight feet below the water level. The chief disad vantage which attended the enterprise was the fact that at that period the water of the river was falling instead of rising. During the engage ment before the town, and in the passage of the fleet of Commodore Farragut, the Federal loss was fifteen killed and thirty wounded. That of the Rebels was severe among the troops of Van Dorn, who then occu pied Vicksburg. Leaving the Federal commanders and their difficult enterprise at that city, which was still in an inchoate condition, we will turn our attention to the more important but not very felicitous events which at this period transpired in the vicinity of the Rebel capital. 280 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXV. THE INTRENCHMENT8 OF THE FEDERAL ARMY BEFORK RICHMOND THKIR EXTENT INACTIVITY OF THE FEDERAL FORCES CONCENTRATION OF REBEL TROOPS IN RICHMOND GLOWING EX PECTATIONS OF THE LOYAL COMMUNITY THEIR DISAPPOINTMENT THE TRANSFER OP MCCLELLAN S BASE OF SUPPLIES AND OPERATIONS TO HARRISON S LANDING FIRST ATTACK OF THE REBELS ON HIS TROOPS AT MECHANICSVILLE INCIDENTS OF TFIE BATTLE COM MENCEMENT OF THE MARCH TOWARD THE JAMES RIVER BATTLE OF GAINER* MILLS DES PERATE FIGHTING HEROISM AND VALOR ON BOTH SIDES VICISSITUDES OF THE STRUGGLE THE RETREAT CONTINUED TOWARD JAMES RIVER DISPOSAL OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED PERTINACIOUS PURSUIT BY THE REBELS SINGULAR CARAVAN OF WAGONS, CATTLE, AND FUGITIVES BATTLE OF PEACH ORCHARD ITS RESULTS BATTLE AT SAVAGE S STATION RESOLUTE ASSAULTS OF THE ENEMY APPALLING SCENES IMPORTANT RESULTS THE RACB TO WHITE OAK SWAMP THE FEDERAL TROOPS WIN THE RACE. AFTER the battle of Fair Oaks, which occurred on the first of June, 1862, the Federal army under General McClellan proceeded to assume it3 position before Richmond, to dig trenches and erect breastworks, and to prepare for a final assault upon the city. This magnificent army con sisted, when it first arrived before Yorktown, of a hundred and twenty thousand men. Subsequently the divisions of General Franklin, contain ing twelve thousand, of General McCall, numbering ten thousand, and a detachment from Baltimore and Fortress Monroe, including eleven thou sand, were added to it. Thus the entire number of Federal troops who had marched to the conquest of Richmond, formed a magnificent array of about a hundred and fifty thousand men. The line of redoubts and intrenchments which they erected and occupied as they lay before the city, extended nearly fifteen miles, in the form of a colossal crescent, the right extremity reaching to the Meadow bridge at Hanover, the left rest ing upon Long bridge at Henrico. Portions of this immense line were within view of Richmond, whose tapering spires and swelling domes were visible in the distance. The most efficient and numerous array of the nation, its pride and hope, after many months of assiduous preparation and of mysterious delay, had at length reached the goal of their aspira tions. The heart of this pestilent Rebellion lay directly before them. The last deadly blow at its pernicious life was anxiously expected from day to day by millions of patriots, when suddenly all was deranged by the new exigencies of the occasion, and by the unquestionable vigor, valor, and skill of the Rebel commanders who defended the city. During the long interval which elapsed between the battle of Fair Oaks and .the first attack made on the Federal troops on the 26th of June, a large portion of the army which General Beauregard had unaccountably withdrawn from Corinth, was transferred to Richmond. General Jack- TRANSFER OP M C CLELLAN S BASE OF SUPPLIES. 281 son s force in the valley of the Shenandoah had also been summoned thither. It is probable, therefore, that at length about a hundred thou sand Rebel troops had been concentrated in the vicinity of that city. These were the chief strength and glory of the apostate community whom they represented ; and thus two nations were in reality to be the contest ants on that far extending and sanguinary field. One of the decisive battles of the world, at the occurrence of which the great horologe of time tolls out the extinction of an expiring age, and the birth of a new and a more glorious era, seemed now to be impending. Unfortunately for the interests of the Federal cause, it became neces sary, just at that period, for General McClellan to change the entire base of his operations, in consequence of the unfitness and insecurity of his source or avenue of supplies at White House. This place was located on the Pamunkey, a tributary stream of the York river, some fifteen miles in the rear of the Federal position. Its remote and isolated situation ren dered it possible for the enemy at any time to intercept General McClel- lan s communications with it, which were maintained by means of the Richmond and YOIK. river railroad. It was constantly necessary to em ploy nearly a whole division of troops in guarding this road from the assaults of the Rebels, which had recently become more frequent and de termined. The large number of Federal soldiers who bad either died or had become unfit for duty, from diseases contracted in the swamps of the Chickahominy, through which a portion of their camps and intrenchments lay, and the increased superiority in numbers of the Rebel forces, ren dered the continual defence of this line of communication both difficult and perilous. These considerations eventually convinced General McClel lan of the necessity of receding from his position before Richmond, to a more secure and convenient one at Harrison s Landing, on James river. Preliminary to commencing this retrograde movement, he made the proper arrangements for re-shipping the vast stores of subsistence and am munition which had been accumulated at White House, and transferring them by means of the fleet of Federal transports to his newly selected depot. The order for the removal was issued about the 24th of June. It was executed between that date and the 28th. It was doubtless the novel and mysterious movement which was thus commenced, of which the Rebels obtained early intelligence, which induced them to venture on offensive operations, and to begin that extraordinary series of engagements which, during a whole week, raged with such destructive fury near the Rebel capital. It was about ten o clock on the 26th of June that the Rebel forces issued in vast multitudes from their camps before Kichmond, and com menced their bold and desperate assaults upon the Federal army. Their first demonstration was an attack on the cavalry commanded by General Stoneman, which were posted in the vicinity of Hanover Court House, on 282 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the extreme right. While this operation was progressing, they extended their assault to the troops stationed nearest to these, which were posted in the vicinity of Mechanicsville. They crossed the Chickahominy at Meadow bridge, above that town, with the evident intention of turning the right wing of the Federal forces. The troops placed here were -the eighth Illinois cavalry, six companies of the Bucktail regiment, and five companies of the Pennsylvania Reserves. These were protected by rifle- pits and breastworks. As soon as the assault of the enemy began, their vast numbers, which appeared to swarm inexhaustibly in front and around the Federal lines, clearly proved that an attempt at resistance by so small a corps would be wholly useless. General Keynolds immediately des patched a messenger to General McCall for reinforcements. During the interval which occurred before these could arrive, the Federals made a firm resistance, and the Bucktails maintained their position with such obstinacy that a large number of them were captured. About two o clock the engagement became more general and more desperate. While advancing down by the rear of Mechanicsville, through low, swampy ground, the enemy were attacked by the Federals frsm the cover of their rifle-pits and earthworks with immense effect. A scene of great carnage and tumult ensued. Many of their men and horses sank in the mire, and became helpless targets for the Federal sharpshooters. By this time the action had spread along the line toward the left, and the troops of General McCall having been attacked, now engaged the enemy. A vigorous contest then took place, which occupied the remainder of the afternoon of the 26th. In vain the Eebels, advancing repeatedly with great resolution, endeavored V> drive the Federals from their position. The latter remained immovable. At six o clock, apparently becoming desperate at the want of success, the Rebels brought fresh toops to bear upon the assault, and the battle perceptibly increased in fury. At that period General Morrell s division arrived opportunely on the field as a reinforcement. The second brigade of this division was called into imme diate action. It was ordered to relieve the centre of General McCall s column. The fourth Michigan, the fourteenth New York volunteers, the sixty-second Pennsylvania, and the ninth Massachusetts, together with a battalion of Berdan s sharpshooters, were drawn up in line of battle. The struggle which followed was well-sustained and desperate on both sides. It continued without any advantage to either party till half-past nine o clock. The loss of the enemy during thib period must have been very heavy, as they were confronted by the Federal forces while protected in a great measure by their rifle-pits and breastworks. All their efforts to dislodge the latter proved fruitless. Late in the day they made a furious charge with cavalry. They were met by a squadron of Federal horse, and driven back, many of their horses sticking fast in the marsh, and being abandoned by their riders. General Fitz John Porter, who com- BATTLE OF GAINES MILL. 283 mancled the entire corps to which the division engaged on this day belonged, was present in every part of the field, and was ably assisted by Generals McCall, Morrell, and Griffin. During the whole battle the artillery on both sides did the chief execution. Easton s Pennsylvania battery was particularly effective. At some periods the firing shook the earth, and the rapidity of the discharges indicated a most furious combat. At seven o clock the enemy made a special effort to break the centre of the Federal troops engaged. This effort was confronted and defeated with great gallantry by General Griffin. The Pennsylvania Reserves on the left, commanded by Seymour and Reynolds, also fought with much heroism, and succeeded in defeating the attempts of the Rebels to cross the bridge over the Chickahominy. Thus, when the close of the first day s fight arrived, the enemy had really gained nothing and had lost heavily. But they were not disheartened. They had merely made a beginning of the gigantic enterprise which they had conceived, and were resolute in its prosecution to a successful issue. During the night which ensued, orders were given to commence the removal of the camp equipage, the stores, and the ammunition of the Federal army toward the James river. Soon, long trains of wagons, several thousand in number, began their slow line of march, extending four miles in the direction indicated. The sick and wounded were also conveyed, some toward the White House, some toward Harrison s Landing. General Porter had been ordered to withdraw his forces from their recent position, nearer to the river. While these movements were progressing in the Federal camp, the Rebels were not idle. Immense reinforcements were promptly brought forward. The early dawn of the next day, the 27th of June, beheld sixty thousand Rebels under arms, ready to renew the assault. The Federals had gained some slight repose during the night, and though wearied, and about to be assailed by superior numbers, were undaunted by the impending terrors of their situation. General Porter had received orders to fall back to a position two miles beyond Gaines Mills. In obeying this order, General Sykes division led the retreating column. Next came the division of General Morrell. During the march perfect order was maintained ; but the enemy, mistaking the movement for a hasty flight, pressed forward in enormous masses, overtook the Fed erals near Gaines Mill, and there resumed the assault upon them. Their advance had been temporarily impeded by the destruction of the bridge at the mill. But soon they constructed a temporary causeway, by which their artillery was conveyed over, and the pursuit of the Federals was renewed. As their retreat was made at an unhurried and leisurely pace, it was not long before they were overtaken by the eager enemy. Then ensued the bloody action of Gaines Mill. The scene of this con flict was an extensive area, about two miles in length, and one mile in breadth. This space was made up of green meadows, waving grain fields 284 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. thick woods, boggy marshes, and rude ravines. Several farm houses ex isted within its limits, which were afterward used as hospitals. General Porter had been ordered to engage the advancing foe, if he were attacked in this position. Accordingly at eleven o clock all was ready to receive them ; each division, each brigade, each regiment, and each gun had then been placed in its proper position. Along the far extending lines at proper intervals the immortal banners of the Republic appeared in view, waving majestically and gracefully in the breeze, and bidding defiance to the approaching host. Bright guns in endless succession flashed in the morning light. The long ranks of Federal troops presented a firm and dauntless front. Generals with their staffs were seen riding rapidly from regiment to regiment, giving orders and perfecting their positions. After a short interval of silence and expectation, the sudden roar of the enemy s artillery, and the falling and bursting of their shells; gave evidence that they had recommenced the contest. The first firing came from the woods and from the roads on the right. The Federal cannon instantly thundered in reply at the still invisible enemy. At length, after a considerable period of time had been expended in this manner, masses of the Rebels emerged from the woods, deployed into positions in front of the Federal lines, and the engagement became general. It was fiercely contested on both sides. Several desperate attempts were made by the enemy to break through the Federal lines on the right and on the left; but they were met in every instance with the unflinching firmness of veterans, and were invariably repulsed with heavy losses to the assailants. The battle continued to rage during the whole day, with the usual vicissitudes which characterize engagements in which brave men contend for the mastery with equal degrees of resolution and obstinacy. As even ing approached, the energy of the attack of the Rebels diminished, and a sudden lull occurred ; but after a short respite the contest was renewed by them with greater fury than before. It then became evident that during this mysterious interval the enemy had been largely reinforced. Their troops now rushed forward in overwhelming masses with savage and frantic yells. With answering shouts the two armies approached each other, and dealt their death-blows upon their opposing ranks with in creased ferocity. The combat now became most desperate and sanguinary. The Federals performed many deeds of the noblest daring and fortitude ; but soon the superior energy and vigor which portions of the Confederate columns exhibited, demonstrated that they had the advantage not merely of a preponderance of numbers, but also of physical freshness. It was well that at this critical moment the Federals received some reinforce ments from the other side of the Chickahominy. They consisted of the brigades of Generals Palmer, French, and Meagher, with some cavalry. These Irish regiments, as was their usual custom, went into the fight with DESPERATE FIGHTING. 285 their coats off, and their sleeves rolled up, and fought the exultant traitors with the fury and ferocity of tigers. Hundreds of Rebels then bit the dust, laid low forever by the stalwart blows of the gallant and pugna cious sons of Erin. The carnage was still progressing all over the wide-spread field, when the sun disappeared in the western heavens, and the shadows of night were about to descend upon the tumultuous and sanguinary scene. The enemy had repeatedly endeavored to force the Federals into the low, marshy tract lying between Games Mill and the bridge. To have been driven into that perilous position would have insured the destruction of a large number of troops, for it was impassable ground, and would have proved the weltering grave of thousands. At one time the Rebels had nearly succeeded in this undertaking. It was when the danger here was most imminent, that the wild rush and determined assault of the Irish regiments saved that portion of the army from destruction. During the progress of the day several partial panics had occurred, and some rapid and frantic running to the rear bad been achieved, by frightened frag ments of the Federal forces. But the vast majority of them fought nobly and well. About twenty-seven thousand Union troops took part in this battle. In addition to those composing the corps of General Fitz John Porter, the divisions of Generals Hooker, Kearney, and Sumner were also engaged. The number of Rebels who figured in the contest was at least sixty thousand, as has already been stated ; and a large por tion of these were fresh troops, who were substituted from time to time for those who had become wearied during the progress of the struggle. Notwithstanding this disparity of numbers, at the close of the day the Federals had not been driven from their position. The main body were still in their first lines near Games Mill. The losses on both sides were very heavy. Many valuable Federal officers were slain, among whom was Colonel Black, of the sixty-second Pennsylvania regiment. The field was covered in many places with heaps of the dead and the dying. The plaintive groans of the wounded, after the roar of the conflict ceased, burdened the midnight air, and added to the horrors of the scene. The combatants on both sides slept upon their arms, except those who were detailed to bury the dead, to convey the wounded from the field, and to perform picket duty. While these operations were progressing on thq right wing of the Fed eral army, an engagement took place on the left, where General Smith held a position consisting of breastworks and two redoubts. He was at tacked on Friday evening at seven o clock, by the Georgia brigade, com manded by General Toombs. The latter were encountered by Hancock s brigade, consisting of the sixth Maine, fifth Wisconsin, forty-third New York, and forty-ninth Pennsylvania regiments, and by Brooks s fifth Ver mont regiment. The guns in the redoubts assisted in the engagement, 286 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. which was brief but desperate. After losing a hundred killed, whom they left on the field, the Georgians retired in disorder before the deadly and con tinuous fire of the Federal troops. This was the first battle at Golding s Farm. The second ensued on the following morning. Mortified at their defeat, the chivalrous Georgians determined to renew the contest. At eight o clock they again advanced toward the redoubts, and resumed the attack. The Federal troops were either protected by the breastworks, or were concealed by lying on the grass. They gave the Georgians a deadly re ception. Colonel Lamar was mortally wounded in the commencement of the engagement, and his lieutenant-colonel was taken prisoner. The result of the contest was the same as before, the Kebels being compelled to retire, after suffering very severe losses. During the following night the removal of the baggage trains, of the sick, and the disabled, toward James river and the White House, was con tinued. The enemy had thus far gained but little advantage, and had been very severely punished. Still, however, deluded by the absurd and fantastic conceit that the retrograde movement of the Federal army was a mere flight before their invincible forces, they were determined to con tinue the contest. In the afternoon of the 27th the headquarters of Gen eral McClellan were removed across the Chickahominy, to the vicinity of Savage s Station. Thither vast masses of stores and ammunition had been transported, on their way to their new depot on James river. Throughout this whole route the houses were converted into hospitals, and were occupied by the wounded of the Federal army. During Friday night the larger portion of the Federal forces crossed the Chickahominy, and thus obtained some advantage over the pursuing enemy. It should oe observed here, that the battles of Mechanicsville and Gaines Mill took place on the left side of that stream. Those which afterward ensued were fought on the right side. This arrangement will be understood when it is remembered that the Chickahominy flows southward into James river; that in describing the events connected with it, the observer is supposed to be facing the mouth of the stream, and that the points of the compass are to be taken accordingly. Notwithstanding the enormous losses which the Rebels had suffered, and although they had not as yet driven their opponents from a single one of their chosen positions, they persisted in claiming continual victories. Under this pleasing delusion they prepared, after the interval of a day, to renew the contest, and to endure additional and still more sanguinary slaughters, in the pursuit of a favorite and fan ciful chimera. No attack was made on the main body of the Federal army on Satur day, the 28th of June. Early in the morning of that day the entire force which had so valiantly confronted the Rebel hosts had crossed the Chicka hominy by four bridges. These were then blown up or burnt, to inter cept the pursuit of the enemy. Later in the day it was ascertained that CARAVAN OF WAGONS, CATTLE, AND FUGITIVES. 287 they were crossing the stream at New bridge, with the apparent intention of moving round toward Bottom bridge, to cut off the communication of the Federals with their railroad and telegraph. But Saturday wore away without any hostile operations on the part of the Rebels; The reason of this apparent inactivity was that a large number of their troops were busily engaged in burying their dead, and in conveying their wounded from the scenes of the late sanguinary engagements into Richmond. Many of the wounded Federal soldiers also fell into their hands. During this day the Union army was withdrawn as far as Savage s Station. From that point several separate trains of cars, filled with the wounded, were sent down to White House. A third trip was about to be made when it was ascertained that the enemy had cut the telegraph wires, and had gained possession of Despatch Station. A large proportion of the sick and wounded who were at Savage s Station were on this day placed in ambulances, and their removal to Harrison s Landing was commenced. But a sufficient number of these conveyances were not to be obtained; and except those who were able to walk, or even to crawl toward a place of safety, the remainder ultimately fell into the hands of the enemy. During Saturday night a vast amount of commissary stores, ammunition, and hospital supplies, for which there were no means of removal at com mand, were destroyed by orders of General McClellan. Four car-loads of ammunition, which had arrived from the White House during the pre vious week, were replaced in the cars, and the entire train, headed by an engine, was let loose, sent down the railroad, and run into the Chicka- hominy at the bridge which had been burnt, to prevent h from falling into the possession of the Rebels. This train rushed forward on its path way to destruction with fearful velocity, and at length plunged into the tranquil stream with a prodigious crash. Strange spectacles were ex hibited by the multitudes of the wounded, and by the long lines of ambu lances and wagons which, during this day, were toiling on their way toward James river. Hundreds of men went limping along, some with their arms in slings, some hobbling on crutches. The ambulances were all filled, and often the wounded would be seen sitting in the end of the wagons, their broken legs or crushed ankles hanging out, and the blood dripping from them upon the ground beneath. The heavy siege guns formed a conspicuous part of this singular and melancholy cortege. These, together with droves of cattle, crowds of negroes, teamsters, sutlers, and frightened fugitives of every kind, together with the noise and tumult, the swearing and screaming, which inevitably attended such a throng, at such a time, presented a most extraordinary combination of contrasts. Some times a sudden terror pervaded the mass, for then a report had arrived that the enemy were interposing a powerful column between them and the James river, thereby cutting off their only means of escape. Then again, when the falsity of this rumor was ascertained by the return of messen- 288 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. gers who had been sent to the front, hope would revive, and a gayer tone would animate the volatile and motley assemblage. Meanwhile, orders had been sent to White House to hasten the depar ture of the Federal troops from that station. These orders were obeyed with ^11 possible despatch, and the place was finally abandoned by the assembled transports and steamers at four o clock on Saturday afternoon, June 28th. All the stores, ammunition, and wounded had been previously embarked and safely removed. About seven o clock in the evening the pickets of the enemy began to make their appearance in the vicinity, but they found only desolation and solitude. Even the insignificant building which had given a name and some celebrity to this locality, had been burned, although the author of the superfluous and barbarous deed re mained unknown. At three o clock on Sunday morning, June 29th, General McClellan, attended by his staff and body-guard, left the scene of his night s repose, and rode forward toward Charles City. He had directed his generals to abandon their intrenchments, to follow with their several divisions until intercepted by the enemy, and then to give them battle. At daylight on Sunday morning General Smith began to retire. Generals Sumner, Heintzelman, Keys, and Franklin soon followed with their respective forces. Then came McCall s division, and last of all, those of Hooker and Kearney, who brought up the rear. As soon as the Rebel com manders observed that the Federal army was again in motion, they com menced to close in upon them ; but it was not till later in the day that a regular engagement took place between them. Then ensued the battle of Peach Orchard. The enemy approached the Federal troops by the Wil- liamsburg road, and had reached a position three hundred yards from the Federals, when the latter opened upon them with their powerful guns. The effect of the discharge upon the serried lines of the enemy was ter rific. Their ranks wavered and staggered like drunken men before the continuous hailstorm of shot and shell which was poured upon them. The battle lasted from eight in the morning until noon. During this period the Rebels endeavored to outflank the Federals on the left, and intercept them on the Williamsburg road, but without effect. They charged several times on the brigades of Burns, Gorman, and Dana, with the evident intention of crushing them in detail, but with no better suc cess. The troops of Richardson, Heintzelman, Sedgwick, Sumner, and M-:igher, fought with distinguished gallantry. All the efforts made by the Rebels to drive the Federals into a retreat from their position, were absolute failures; and it was not until the Federal generals had become assured that the caravan of wagons, ambulances, and cattle of their army had crossed the White Oak swamp, and were safe from the immediate pursuit of the enemy, that they gave the order to fall back. This order BATTLE OF SAVAGE S STATION. 289 was executed leisurely ; and having reached Savage s Station, they again drew up in line of battle, to receive the advancing foe. The contest which ensued at Savage s Station on the same day, was still more fierce and sanguinary. It commenced about five o clock in the afternoon, and did not terminate until eleven o clock at night. Before the attack began, the Rebels had been largely reinforced ; their next assault therefore was much more vigorous and destructive. They ap proached through a dense wood, which concealed them from view until they were within a short distance of the Federal lines. They then sud denly emerged from the edges of the forest, ran out three or four batteries to commanding positions, and opened a rapid fire of shot and shell. This salute they kept up with such skill and resolution, that a portion of the Federals were overpowered and gave way. The one hundred and sixth Pennsylvania regiment broke, and then fled in a panic, after losing a hun dred men in killed and wounded. The Federal artillery could not for a time be served, all the men being either picked off or driven away from their guns. Never had the Rebels fought with more desperate courage. During the progress of the battle the Federal forces were, on several oc casions, in a very critical position. At one time an entire brigade of the enemy were observed to be moving stealthily down to the right, with the design of making an attack upon the flank. This intention was defeated by the promptitude with which Captain Pettit placed a battery in such a position as to sweep the entire column with grape and canister, which eventually compelled them to recoil, and to relinquish their purpose. During the progress of the fight the Irish brigades greatly distinguished themselves, charging in some cases up to the very cannon of the enemy. One of the Rebel batteries they hauled off, spiked the guns, demolished the carriages, and then abandoned them. At length the shades of darkness descended upon this mortal combat, but they brought no termination to its horrors. The roar of the cannon, and the sharper, shriller sound of the musketry, continued to be deafen ing and incessant. The night was made as light as noonday at rapid in tervals, by the lurid flashes of the artillery, and each discharge enabled the combatants to ascertain the position of their foes with more distinct ness. To add to the terrors of the scene, the adjacent woods were set on fire by the bursting shells, and soon the conflagration rolled vast heaving volumes of smoke and flame far up into the vault of heaven, giving to the battle-field the appearance of a pandemonium. Thus the carnage and the contest raged until midnight. The losses on both sides were very heavy. The Rebels had done much damage by firing into the hospitals in which many of the wounded had been placed ; and they perpetrated this bar barity in spite of the significant white and red flags which were placed upon them. At twelve o clock the Federal commanders received orders from General McClellan to fall back rapidly from Savage s Station 290 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. across White Oak swamp, inasmuch as the Kebels were endeavoring to intercept them. A desperate race ensued to determine who should first gain possession of that position. The Federals were compelled to leave all their wounded at Savage s Station in the hands of the enemy. And now the movement toward James river, which had begun in a leisurely and voluntary march thither, unavoidably degenerated into a flight on the part of the Federals, and into a pursuit on the part of the enemy. The Federal soldiers knew this fact, and the resolution, not of hope, but of despair, now actuated them. That wearied, overworked, but heroic band, who had engaged the enemy so often and so bravely, were compelled to exhaust the last powers of human endurance, in order to escape complete destruction. The race to reach the swamp was one of desperate energy, accompanied by equally desperate righting ; for the superiority of num bers which the Rebels possessed enabled them to keep up an attack on the rear of the Union army, while their main body strained every nerve to overreach and intercept the front. The divisions of Heintzelman, Sumner, and Franklin, were compelled to keep continually in line of bat tle across the country, during this part of the retreat, in order to beat off the hordes of the enemy, as from time to time they renewed the assault. At length the last wagon and the last cannons plashed through the waters of White Oak creek. It was eight o clock on Monday morning, June the 30th. The day was bright and hot. The fugitives were exhausted with their superhuman efforts in fighting and retreating. After crossing the creek, hundreds threw themselves upon the ground to rest, or crawling to the green margin of the limpid stream, leaned over, and drank to slake the burning thirst which consumed them. THE BATTLE OF WHITE OAK SWAMP. 291 CHAPTER XXVI. THK BATTLE OF WHITE OAK SWAMP POSITION AND ORDER OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS TEM PORARY PANIC DESPERATE FIGHTING FORTUNATE ASSISTANCE OF THE GUNBOATS ON JAMES RIVER HEROISM AND SKILL OF GENERAL HEINTZELMAN A GENERAL BAYONET CHARGE ON THE REBELS ITS RESULT FIRST ENGAGEMENT AT MALVERN HILLS INCIDENTS OF THE FIGHT THE IRISH BRIGADE COMPLETE DEFEAT OF THE REBELS THE FEDERAL ARMY REMOVES TO HARRISON S LANDING RESULTS OF THE SEVERAL BATTLES BEFORE RICHMOND ARTILLERY DUEL ON THE JAMES RIVER GENERAL HOOKER SENT TO RECON NOITRE AND OCCUPY MALVERN HILL THE MARCH THITHER ENGAGEMENT WITH THK ENEMY THEIR DEFEAT IMMENSE REINFORCEMENTS ORDERED FROM RICHMOND RETURN OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS TO HARRISON S LANDING FINAL EVACUATION OF THEIR CAMP BY THE FEDERAL ARMY ITS FUTURE DESTINATION FEDERAL LOSSES DURING THE PENINSULA CAMPAIGN. A VERY brief period for repose was allowed to the Federal troops. They had indeed won the race to White Oak swamp ; but the vast army of the Rebels was in eager pursuit of them, and in a short time were upon their rear. Then followed another desperate engagement, named after the locality in which it took place. Soon after crossing the White Oak creek the Federal generals formed their new line of battle with great energy and promptness. The chief of .these officers were Heintzelman, Sumner, Kearney, Porter, and Hancock. The new position of the Federal forces extended about four miles in length. On the extreme right wing General Hancock was posted with his brigade. Next to him were placed the troops of Brooks and Davidson. The batteries belonging to this division were commanded by Captain Ayres. Then came the divisions of Sumner, Heintzelman, and Porter. The battle commenced with an attack by the enemy on the column of General Hancock. They opened with about twenty batteries, which were served with such vigor and skill that they soon blew up several of Captain Mott s caissons, shattered his guns, and spread confusion among the teamsters, cannoniers and troops who came within their range. It was at this period that so complete a terror per vaded some of the regiments, that one of them, the twentieth New York, fled in the utmost disorder, and scattered in fragments in every direction. For this disgraceful proceeding General McClellan, on the following day, ordered the provost marshal to arrest all the stragglers as they came into camp. After a short time, however, the Federals who had been attacked re covered their self-possession, and their guns responded to those of the enemy. The latter had not yet crossed the White Oak creek, and the engagement was still confined to the operations of the artillery. At length a portion of the Rebels made an attempt to cross the stream, but were 292 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. met and repulsed with success by General Smith, whose brisk fire of in fantry extended continuously along whole columns. Finding it impossible to cross in front, the enemy detached a powerful force to proceed four miles due south to Charles City Cross Roads, for the purpose of interposing between the Federal forces and James river, thereby intercepting their retreat. The position which they purposed to reach was within a mile and a-half of Turkey Bend, on that river; and had they succeeded in their intention, they would have inevitably accomplished the ruin of the army, and prevented its successful establishment at Harrison s Landing. Fortunately, information of this movement of the Rebels was obtained in time ; and Generals Porter and Keyes so marshalled their wearied troops as to prevent its achievement. They reached the advancing columns of the enemy at four o clock in the afternoon, and attacked them. The Rebels fought desperately, and their artillery produced a dreadful havoc in the Federal ranks. The latter were nearly dead already from the effects of heat, exhaustion, and thirst ; and so little discipline remained that a portion of those regiments which were nearest the James river, at one time broke ranks, rushed to its shores, plunged in, and after slaking their thirst returned to their colors, and resumed the fight. But the resistance of the Federal troops gradually became weaker. Human nature could endure no more. The fresh masses of the exultant Rebel army continued to press forward with still greater resolution. An overwhelming and de cisive victory seemed about to crown the persevering efforts of the Rebel hosts when, at the critical moment, a delivery suddenly appeared. As at Pittsburg Landing, so in the present instance, the gallant navy of the Union rescued the land forces from destruction. At that crisis the gun boats on the James river opened their .fire upon the enemy. At five o clock the enormous rifled guns of the Jacob Bell, Galena, and Aroostook, which were anchored in Turkey Bend, belched forth their colossal shells, with a detonation which completely drowned the feebler chorus of all the artillery on land, and terrified the foe by the unexpected presence of a more formidable antagonist. As the shells descended upon the serried masses of the Rebels, and burst among them, whole ranks were battered to the earth by the flying fragments. Horrible havoc ensued. Confusion and terror were quickly diffused through their columns, and they who, a few moments before, were confident of driving the Federal army into the James river, or of compelling it to surrender, themselves began to give way. Encouraged by the evident effect of the shot of the gunboats, the Fed eral commanders, of whom the most distinguished on this memorable field was General Heintzelman, determined to recover the fortunes of the day by making a combined and desperate charge. The gunboats were there fore signalled to suspend their firef Preparations were quickly made to effect the intended movement. The great-hearted veteran whom we have FIRST ENGAGEMENT AT MALYERN HILL. 2D3 just named, galloped from column to column. He announced the purpose to charge in brief and thrilling words. He then returned to his position, and passed down, to right and to left, the stern order to advance. The bugles sounded, and like the surging of a mighty deluge which had long been compressed within narrow limits, that mass of heroes, having caught new energy and strength from reviving hope, moved forward sublimely to the assault. The steady Massachusetts men of G rover, the fierce and fiery brigades of Meagher and Sickles, the well drilled soldiers of Hooker, Kearny with his brave Jersey Blues, the resolute troops of Heintzelman, and others equally gallant, marched defiantly against the foe, with the determination to conquer or to perish. The enemy met their rushing tides at first with firmness; but nothing could long resist such a delirium of fortitude as seemed to pervade and to inflame their assailants. They gradually gave way ; their lines broke, and they eventually fled from the field iii complete confusion. During this famous battle-shock, many were slain on both sides, and many prisoners were taken. The Rebels had previously captured a large number of guns, being portions of the batteries of Randall, Mott, and Ayres. In the entire engagement at White Oak swamp the Federal loss in killed and wounded was not less than three thousand five hundred. That of the enemy was undoubtedly as great, if not, much greater. But the contest saved the Federal army from ruin or from capitulation, and covered both the generals who commanded, and the soldiers who fought in it, with enduring renown. In vain had the best Rebel officers repeatedly put in practice their favorite tactics of hurl ing fresh masses of troops on the Federal lines, first on one wing, then on the other, and suddenly in the centre. All was in vain. The goal had been safely reached. The glancing placid waters of the James river had at last greeted the longing eyes of the soldiers of the Union, and the pos sibility of their destruction or of a still more disastrous capture was forever averted. At the close of the battle of White Oak swamp the Federal army took possession of Malvern Hill in the vicinity of the river. General McClel- lan had selected Harrison s Landing, six miles below, as his future per manent camp, and thither the convoy of wagons, ammunition stores, and supplies of all sorts continued to be directed. The James river was crowded with transports and vessels of all kinds, to assist in the work of transportation. During Monday night the heroes of a seven days battle rested from their herculean labors. But their task was not yet completed. On Tuesday, July the 1st, the last of this memorable series of engage ments, the battle of Malvern Hill, was fought. As an attack from the enemy was anticipated, the Federal army was drawn out in battle array at an early hour. Their line formed a magnifi cent semicircle, which presented a formidable front. General Keyes, with his command ; was posted on the extreme right. General Franklin s 294 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. corps came next; then the troops of Sumner, comprising the divisions of Sedgwick and Kichardson. The extreme left was occupied by Fitz John Porter. Heintzelman s corps, embracing the divisions of Hooker, Kearny, and Couch, occupied the centre. Fifty heavy guns bristled along the lines from their freshly made earthworks. The battle commenced about noon with a vigorous cannonading on both sides. The enemy were com manded by Generals Lee, Magruder, and Jackson, and opened the en gagement with great spirit. Several hours passed away before the infantry came into action. At four o clock the Rebels advanced, fiercely attacked the troops commanded by General Couch, and attempted to break the Federal line. The effort failed, and the assailants were driven back with great slaughter at the point of the bayonet. But they were not easily disheartened. After a short interval they made a still more desperate effort to accomplish their purpose. The Rebel commanders threw for ward heavy masses of troops, assisted and protected by artillery, against the ranks of Porter and Couch, and continued for more thanan hour to hurl forward fresh columns upon the Federal line. At one crisis their determined efforts seemed about to be successful in driving back the Federals. At that critical moment General Porter despatched a messen ger to General Sumner, requesting immediate reinforcements. The Irish brigade of Meagher, whose valorous troops seemed, in almost every emer gency, to be the protecting ^Egis of the Federal army in the peninsula, were immediately sent to the rescue. They advanced to meet the enemy with their usual enthusiasm. The wavering Federal lines were quickly steadied ; the Rebel host in turn recoiled, and the periled fortune of the day was recovered. Thus the fight was continued until after nightfall. At ten o clock the last gun was fired. During the progress of the engage ment the most signal service had been rendered by the gunboats on James river. The immense shells from their rifled cannon tore shrieking and howling through the forests, and often, exploded within the lines of the enemy, with a concussion which shook the solid earth, and scattered piles of dead and wounded on every hand. In all their efforts to drive the Federal forces from their position the enemy had signally failed. After each advance they had been repulsed with heavy losses. The battle was to them an unqualified defeat. To prove that this statement should not be regarded as exaggerated or inaccurate, we might adduce many admis sions made by the Rebels themselves. One of the most impartial of these will suffice. A leading Richmond journal said : l< Officers and men went down by the hundreds ; but yet, undaunted and unwavering, our line dashed on, until two thirds of the distance across the interval was accom plished. Here the carnage from the withering fire of the enemy s com bined artillery and musketry was dreadful. Our line wavered a moment, and fell back into the cover of the woods. Twice again the effort to carry the position was renewed, but each time with the same results. Night at COMPLETE DEFEAT OF THE REBELS. 295 length rendered a further attempt injudicious, and the fight, until ten o clock, was kept up by the artillery on both sides."* Thus ended the battle of Malvern Hill. Thus terminated the last assault made by the troops of the Rebel Confederacy at this period, upon the army of the Union in the Peninsula. Thus concluded one of the most extraordinary series of engagements which has ever occurred in the blood-stained annals of ancient or modern warfare. The losses endured on both sides were appalling ; and impartial history will hereafter affirm from her high seat, that the Rebels had little of which to boast, in the incidents and results of the battles which were fought near their capital. It is unquestionably true, that the Federal forces would have been with- drawn to James river without these assaults having been made upon them. While, therefore, the Confederates inflicted superfluous wounds and death upon them, they were themselves in turn punished and mulcted to a much more destructive and ruinous extent. The Federal losses in these various engagements were as follows : in the battle of Mechanicsville, the number in killed and wounded was about two hundred ; in that of Games Mill, seven thousand five hundred ; in that of Peach Orchard, two hundred ; at Savage s Station, one thousand two hundred ; in White Oak swamp, three thousand five hundred ; at Golding s Farm, four hundred ; at Malvern Hill, two thousand ; making a grand total of fifteen thousand. This estimate does not include the missing, whose exact numbers are unknown. It is probable that the losses of the Rebels were not far from twenty thousand. During Tuesday night, and on Wednesday, the 2d of July, the con centration and establishment of the Union forces at Harrison s Landing were completed. The enemy were too much broken and exhausted to continue the pursuit or to renew the assault. Their self-imposed task had been finished, with greater infliction of suffering and calamity on themselves than on their opponents. The new position which General McClellan had selected, consisted of a strip of land along the northern bank of the James river, five miles in length, where a number of suitable wharves existed, at which the transports could discharge their cargoes of supplies; and whose external form toward the enemy was admirably adapted to the purpose of defence. It was soon made impregnable against all attacks, by the skilful use of the spade ; for such formidable breast- * Richmond Examiner of Friday, July 4th, 1862. The same journal presents the following graphic picture of the ground which the Rebels had occupied during the progress of the engagement : " The battle-field, surveyed through the cold rain of "Wednesday morning, presented scenes too shocking to be dwelt on without anguish. The woods and the field before mentioned were, on the western side, covered with our dead, in all the degrees of vio lent mutilation, while ir the woods on the west of the field lay, in about equal num bers, the blue uniformed bodies of the enemy." 296 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. works were quickly thrown up, as to convince the Kebels of the impolicy of any attempt to carry them by assault. On the 4th of July, General -McClellan issued an address to his troops, in which he bestowed upon them that praise for heroism and endurance which they had richly merited, and which will continue to be, until the end of time, the just reward of the brave and patriotic men whose undying glory and mis fortune it was to have belonged to the Federal army in the Peninsula. The repose of that army at Harrison s Landing remained undisturbed by the enemy during the period of nearly a month. It was not until the night of the 31st of July that their hostile presence and spirit were again exhibited. The Rebels had crossed the James river in considerable numbers, above the Federal camp; had posted several batteries opposite to the Landing, and in the vicinity of the Union fleet of transports; and then began a vigorous cannonading, both upon the camp and the fleet. The assault continued during an hour and a-half. Their guns threw shell of six and twelve pounds weight, both round and conical. They effected but little damage, inasmuch as they generally fell short of their mark. A few of them exploded within the Federal camp, and some of them reached the shipping. In consequence of the fact that no attack was expected from the foe in that direction, all the Federal guns had been posted in the front; so that a considerable interval elapsed before a suffi cient number could be transferred to the proper position to respond to the enemy. In half an hour the latter commenced to reply, and in a short time the Rebels were silenced. They had made a futile assault ; for, although they discharged several hundred shells, so inaccurate was their aim that the loss on the Union side was only six killed and nine wounded. During the attack the Rebels frequently changed the position of their batteries, and as the night was extremely dark, it was only by the flashes of the guns that their location could be discovered. The vessels on the James river did not return any shots, as by so doing they would have revealed their own location more distinctly to the enemy. This brief and unimportant episode was the mere prelude to the last military operation which was destined to take place between the Federal and the Rebel armies in the Peninsula. The hideous carnival of blood and death which had rendered that spot so sadly famous in all coming time, was now about to terminate with the second battle at Malvern Hill. On Monday, the 4th of August, a portion of the Federal army was ordered to make a reconnoissance in the direction of the Rebel lines. It consisted of the divisions commanded by Generals Hooker and Sedgwick, a brigade of cavalry under General Pleasanton, and four batteries. General Hooker was chief in command. Leaving the camp at four o clock in the afternoon, they marched along the road to Charles City for some distance. They then diverged through several by-roads as far as Nelson s Farm. At that point they bivouacked for the night. Early on EVACUATION OF THEIR CAMP BY THE FEDERAL ARMY. 297 the following morning they resumed their march, and in an hour they reached the rear of Malvern Hill, upon which the enemy were posted. They thus occupied a position between the latter and the remainder of their army, as well as their depot of supplies at Richmond. An admirable opportunity was thus afforded to surround and capture a large portion of the Rebel force. Immediately after coming within view of the latter, the Federal troops were formed in line of battle. The artillery were posted in the front ; the cavalry and infantry were ranged on the flanks. The Rebels commenced the battle promptly at six o clock with their guns. The Federal cannon responded with spirit. The enemy were much inferior in number to the Union troops, comprising only three regiments of infantry, a small portion of cavalry, with four pieces of artillery. They maintained the contest during two hours with great determination ; but the vast superi ority of the Union troops in numbers rendered a further resistance on their part useless. They then retired in good order toward the James river. The Federal victors did not pursue. Their loss was only six killed and twenty-four wounded. The enemy took with them all their guns, their killed and their wounded. This fight enabled General Hooker to take possession of Malvern Hill, which gave him a position six miles nearer to Richmond than that at Harrison s Landing. On Tuesday afternoon, General McClellan, accompanied by a number of officers, visited the spot, and greatly commended General Hooker for his achievement. It was perfectly evident, however, that though the small body of Rebel troops stationed there had been overpowered, large reinforcements would be quickly sent from Richmond to recover the lost position. A general engagement would therefore soon occur to decide the permanent possession of the place. Accordingly, General McClellan immediately sent messengers to his camp ordering a large number of his troops to march toward Malvern Hill, to support the column already posted there. If these troops had arrived in time, the issue of the sub sequent operations might have been different. But the messengers who conveyed the order pursued the wrong road, were unaccountably delayed on their journey, and thus the reinforcements did not approach until the position had been hopelessly lost. Only a portion of those Federal troops which were sent arrived, and these made their appearance only in time to join in the general retreat. On Wednesday the Rebels marched to Malvern Hill in large masses, and as the Federal forces, by this manoeuvre, would have been greatly inferior in numbers, a retrograde movement was precipitately made to Harrison s Landing. Thus ended the capture, the occupation, and the evacuation of the position at Malvern Hill. The Federal loss during the operation was four killed and fifteen wounded. It had now become evident to the Federal Government that the expe dition against Richmond, through the Peninsula, had proved a total and 298 THE CIVIL, WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. irremediable failure. It was quite as evident that the longer delay of the army of the Union in that unpropitious clime would be productive of no good, while it would entail a continued and lavish waste of the national treasure and of valuable lives. General McClellan, therefore, received orders to evacuate Harrison s Landing. This order was obeyed on the 16th and 17th of August, 1862. Through the energy and skill of Colonel Ingalls, all the stores of subsistence and ammunition were safely removed on board the fleet of Federal transports which then lay at Harrison s Landing. Nothing of the least value was left behind. The Kebel com manders, intensely gratified to witness the departure of their formidable visitors, did not offer any resistance to the movement. The army crossed the Chickahominy by a pontoon bridge two thousand feet in length, con sisting of a hundred boats. The troops then marched forward toward Williamsburg, while the transports and gunboats sailed down James river to Fortress Monroe. The future destination of the army of the Peninsula was then as yet unknown. It was, however, intended to be consolidated with the forces which had been placed under the orders of General Pope. This arrangement was afterward completed; and the fortunes of war were again tried under new auspices, against the desperate, yet by no means contemptible conspirators, who had risen in rebellion against their legitimate government, and had thus far struck, with such marvelous energy, ferocity, and skill, against its sacred bosom. Nor can the patriot and philanthropist fail to experience the most poignant emo tions of regret, when reflecting upon the varied incidents and results of the campaign in the Peninsula; when he remembers the brilliant hopes which threw so bright and fair a radiance around the advance of the Union army toward the Rebel capital ; when he recalls the many glorious prodigies of heroism and valor which were vainly performed by the soldiers and officers of that army, in the sanguinary battles which they fought; when he computes how many thousands of valiant and devoted men, from different and distant portions of the continent, were left behind by their departing comrades to moulder in their unknown and unhonored graves, the victims of a climate and of labors more deadly than the bullets and cannon of the foe ; in a word, when he meditates upon the complete and melancholy discomfiture of one of the greatest and noblest enterprises which the checkered page of history presents. SPIRIT AND PURPOSE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 299 CHAPTER XXVII. RETURN OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC FROM THE PENINSULA SPIRIT AND PURPOSE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENT OF GENERAL HALLECK AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF LAND FORCES OPERATIONS OF GENERAL POPF MESSAGES OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN FAVOR OF EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES AND CONFISCATION OF THE PROPERTY OF REBELS RECONNOISSANCE OF GENERAL KING TO BEAVER DAM BATTLE OF BAYOU CACHE, IN ARKANSAS ENGAGEMENT ON THE MISSISSIPPI WITH THE RAM ARKANSAS BOLDNESS AND DETERMINATION OF THE REBELS ENGAGEMENT NEAR MEMPHIS, MISSISSIPPI OPERA TIONS OF THE REBEL JOHN MORGAN IN KENTUCKY CONTEST AT CYNTHIANA MORGAN ABANDONS KENTUCKY ADDITIONAL ANTI-SLAVERY MESSAGE OF MR. LINCOLN EXPEDITIONS SENT FROM NEWBERN TO TRENTON AND POLLOCKSVILLE THEIR RESULTS ATTACK MADE ON THE ARKANSAS BY COLONEL ELLET INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT DEFEAT OF THE QUEEN OF THE WEST CAUSES OF TUK DISASTER CREATION OF NEW GRADES IN THE FED ERAL NAVY PRESIDENT LINCOLN ORLKRS A DRAFT OF THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN. THE disastrous termination of the campaign of the Federal army in the Peninsula, under General McClellan, and its withdrawal from the vicinity of Richmond without having accomplished the magnificent purpose of its mission, filled the loyal community in the United States with disappoint ment and regret. The remains of that once formidable force subsequently returned by way of the Potomac to positions which were then assigned them nearer to the Federal capital. But the reverses which had occurred produced no other effect upon the administration of Mr. Lincoln than to induce it to put forth more strenuous exertions to increase the military strength of the nation, and to resume offensive operations against the Con federates at the earliest possible period with greater energy and efficiency than before. At the suggestion of the Governors of nearly all the loyal States, the President called out an additional levy of three hundred thou sand men, and preparations were immediately made to comply with the requisition. General John Pope, who had distinguished himself by his operations at New Madrid and Island Number Ten, was transferred to the command of the consolidated army of Virginia, composed of the three corps of Fremont, Banks, and McDowell, to which were added, during the last days of August, Burnside s, Sumner s, and Fitz John Porter s corps. A short time afterward General Halleck was summoned to Washington, and invited to occupy the position and discharge the functions of General in-Chief of the land forces of the United States. The evident purpose of this appointment was to increase the efficiency of the administration of affiiirs at the Federal capital, and, in effect, to place a portion of the oper- ntions of the War Department under the control of a professional soldier, familiar with the principles of military science. General Pope took command of the army of Virginia on the 14th of 300 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. July, 1862. On that day he issued a proclamation to his troops, in which he announced his appointment over them, referred to the successes of his operations in the southwest, expressed his confidence in his new asso- ciates-in-arms, and informed them of his determination not to pursue the timid and tardy policy of his predecessor, but to advance without delay to the attack and conquest of the enemy. Tie proceeded to visit every por tion of his army, that he might make himself acquainted with its condi tion, might provide for strengthening its shattered columns, and might arrange his plans for the future. On the same day, President Lincoln communicated a message to Con gress, which was still in session, in which he recommended the adoption of a bill by them in reference to the abolition of slavery. The bill in question provided that whenever the President should become satisfied that any State had abolished slavery throughout its limits, either imme diately or gradually, it should become the duty of the President, assisted by the Secretary of the Treasury, to prepare and deliver to such State an amount of interest-bearing bonds of the United States equal in amount to the aggregate value of all the slaves which were reported to have existed in that State according to the census of 1860. The bill provided, further, that if the abolition of slavery in any State should have been made immedi ate, the payment of the designated sum should also be immediate ; if it were gradual, the payment should be gradual; and if any State should restore slavery within its limits after its abolition therein, the bonds held by it against the United States should thereby become null and void. The Senate, after some discussion, referred his message to the Com mittee on Finances. The House sent it to the Committee on the Aboli tion of Slavery in the Border States. The impression produced by this act of the President was important in its effects on the citizens, both of the loyal and the disloyal States. It revealed to the former what the future policy of the administration would be in reference to the vexed question of slavery, while it convinced the latter that it was the determi nation of the Federal Government to use every means in its power to diminish the supremacy of that institution, which had been one of the most potent causes in producing the Kebellion. In pursuance of the policy thus inaugurated, the President addressed an appeal to the representatives of the border States in Congress, in which he requested them to use the influence which they possessed over their constituents, to induce them to adopt the policy of emancipation as indi cated in his message. Two replies were made to this appeal. The one came from the majority of the representatives referred to, including those from Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri, and Maryland, and was evasive in its character. Its authors denied that any necessity existed for the aboli tion of slavery in the several States which they represented ; and they doubted whether the abolition of slavery in the Kebel States, by Federal RECONNOTSSANCE OF GENERAL KING TO BEAVER DAM. 301 power, would assist in securing the triumph of the Federal arms. The answer of the minority was more approbative and compliant. They ad mitted that slavery was the "Lever-power of the Rebellion; that they were willing to make any sacrifice to restore the Union ; and they con cluded by affirming that if the Rebels could take the initiative, and give up slavery to destroy the Union, "they could surely ask their people to consider the question of emancipation to save the Union." On the 22d of July, the policy of Mr. Lincoln on this subject was fur ther indicated by the publication of an order from the Secretary of War, acting under the direction of the President, to the effect that the military commanders in the States of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, should employ as laborers within the said States so many persons of African descent as can be advantageously used for military or naval purposes, giving them reason able wages for their labor, while, at the same time, accounts should be kept showing from whom such slaves shall have been taken, and the value of their labor, "as a basis upon which compensation can be made in proper cases." These measures, which were generally termed radical, in oppo sition to the more conservative views of the advocates of slavery, were subsequently followed up by others still more effective and decisive. General Pope commenced the performance of his duties as commander of the army of Virginia, with energy and resolution. He introduced material and propitious changes in the method of Ms operations. He dis carded the use of those immense nnd cumbrous wagon-trains for the trans portation of supplies, which had heretofore retarded the movements of the troops ; and he ordered his men to derive their subsistence from the enemy through whose country he purposed to march. The headquarters of General Pope still remained at Washington, from which position he con tinued to issue his orders. He henceforth prohibited guards of Union soldiers to be placed around the property of citizens, especially around those of acknowledged Secessionists, in the line of his march, and an nounced his determination to hold commanding officers responsible for the good behavior of their men. He indicated, by various preliminary measures, that he was determined to carry on the war with vigor, and to use his utmost efforts to secure the speedy triumph of the Federal arms. The first movement that occurred took place on the 19th of July. General Pope had ordered General King to send out a small cavalry force from Warrenton, to reconnoitre the position of the enemy toward Gcr- donsville. The expedition left Fredericksburg on the evening of the 19th, and after marching all night, reached the Virginia Central railroad at Beaver Dam. This point is only thirty -five miles distant from Rich mond. They there destroyed the railroad track for several miles, to gether with the telegraph line, and burned the depot, which contained a hundred barrels of flour and forty thousand rounds of musket ammu- 302 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. nition. Having ascertained that a large portion of the Confederate army, under General Jackson, was posted near Gordonsville, the expedi tion returned to Warrenton, having marched eighty miles in thirty hours. Several additional reconnoissances were subsequently made by order of General Pope, by which important information was obtained re specting the strength and operations of the enemy. During the interval which occurred between this period, and that at which the Federal and Kebel armies were sufficiently concentrated to bring on those colossal engagements which afterward took place between them, events of considerable interest were transpiring in other portions of the arena of conflict, to which we will now direct our attention. In pursuance of the plans of the campaign in the West which had been adopted, General Curtis, the hero of Pea Eidge, commenced his march from Batesville to Helena, in Arkansas, on the 24th of May, 1862. Various detachments of Rebel troops annoyed his men upon the route; but it was not until the 7th of July that they appeared in suffi cient numbers to warrant an engagement. On that day a battle took place near Bayou Cache, in Arkansas, the importance of which entitles it to a place in the annals of the Rebellion. At that point the march of the army had been obstructed by the enemy by a blockade of fallen timber. Colonel Hovey was ordered to advance with a portion of the thirty-third Illinois and the eleventh Wisconsin regiments, to open the way on the opposite side of the Cache, and effect a reconnoissance along the Clarendon road. Three hundred and fifty men were appropriated to this service. A detachment of these first encountered two Texan regiments, which were drawn up in line of battle to receive them. The latter poured into the Federal troops a volley of musketry, which killed five, and wounded a much larger number. The fire was quickly re turned, but the immense preponderance of numbers on the Rebel side soon compelled the Federals to fall back. The enemy followed up their advantage, and made a charge, which gradually converted the retreat into a rout. At this crisis Colonel Hovey hastened to the assistance of his men with the remaining companies of the thirty-third Illinois. Placing his men in ambush behind a fence, he saluted the advancing Rebels with a volley, which killed twenty-five of them, wounded many more, and made their column reel and stagger, and eventually break away in disorder. Colonel Hovey then rallied all his men. At the same time Major Wood arrived upon the scene with reinforcements, consisting of a battalion of the first Indiana cavalry, and two rifled steel guns. The latter were then ordered to advance against the foe. The cannon were brought to the front, and the attack resumed. After the first charge the enemy retired within the shelter of a wood. The Federals then pushed forward a quarter of a mile to continue the assault. A similar result again ensued, for after an exchange of volleys the Rebels retreated, and were pursued for nearly ENGAGEMENT WITH THE RAM ARKANSAS. 303 the distance of a mile. Major Wood then gave the order to the cavalry to charge. The enemy received them with another destructive volley, and then fled. The Federal guns were again brought to be ar upon their retiring foe, who continued to fall back until they were entirely lost to view. The number of Rebels killed during the engagement was a hun dred and ten ; of wounded, about two hundred and fifty. The Federal loss was ten killed, fifty-seven wounded. This unusual disparity of num bers in killed and wounded resulted from the fact that the enemy uni formly aimed too high. The action was a brilliant success on the part of the Federal troops engaged, and conferred distinction upon the command ing officer, Colonel Hovey. On the 14th of July, a spirited engagement took place on the Missis sippi river, near Yicksburg, between a famous and formidable battering- ram, which the Rebels had constructed, named the Arkansas, and a por tion of the Federal fleet, then riding at anchor near that city. The Arkansas was a powerful and dangerous vessel. She was a hundred and eighty feet in length, sixty in breadth of beam. Her bow and stern were sharp, and she was propelled by engines of nine hundred horse-power, placed below the water-line. Her sides were covered with railroad-iron plates, dove-tailed together, and strongly bolted. Her bow was armed with an enormous beak, constructed of cast-iron, with which she per forated her opponents. She was provided with six heavy guns. She was commanded by Captain I. N. Brown, who was renowned on the western waters for his skill and daring in naval warfare. At the period of the engagement in question, she was lying quietly in the Yazoo river, at some distance above its junction with the Mississippi. The Rebels, who then held possession of Yicksburg, expected her speedy arrival at that city, to co-operate with them in its defence. To prevent this result Colonel Ellet was sent by Commodore Farragut up the Yazoo, with two Union gunboats, and a battering ram, namely the Carondelet, Queen of the West, and Lancaster, to attack, and, if possible, to disable her, and thereby intercept her outward passage. Colonel Ellet, after sailing eight miles up the Yazoo, encountered the Arkansas suddenly, as she lay under a bank, with the apparent intention to escape detection. But as soon as her commander discovered that he was observed, he commenced an assault with his heavy guns upon the Federal vessels. The Yazoo being a very deep and narrow stream, the Union boats dropped down the river to obtain more sea-room. The Arkansas immediately followed, continuing to fire. When both parties had reached a position near the entrance of the river, the Carondelet ap proached the Arkansas for the purpose of .grappling and boarding her This achievement was nearly accomplished, when suddenly the Rebel craft opened her steam-pipe, and threw a deluge of steam and hot water over the plank by which the men were about to cross. The Carondelet 304 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. then did the same, and while the vessels were inundating each other in this manner, both of them grounded. The Arkansas was able to relieve herself the Carondelet was not so fortunate and while the former sailed out triumphantly upon the broad bosom of the Mississippi, her antagonist remained firmly aground. By this fortunate accident the Arkansas was able to escape, and continue her way toward Yicksburg. But in order to reach her destination it was necessary for her to run the gauntlet of the Federal fleet, which intervened. As she rounded the point above the anchorage of the latter, her presence and character ex cited much astonishment, but soon both of these became sufficiently known. A small flag floating from her jackstaff was quickly discovered to be the notorious Rebel ensign. The first Union vessel in the line of her approach was the Louisville. The Arkansas immediately turned her heavy prow in the direction of her position, and opened on her with her guns. One of her shot struck the casemating of the Louisville, near the centre of the bow, and glanced off harmlessly. The latter responded with three heavy Dahlgren guns, one of the shot of which took effect on the Arkan sas. Meanwhile, the latter was steadily approaching, and at last struck the Louisville with prodigious violence on the side. But her blow was deprived of a portion of its effect, from the fact that she did not succeed in striking squarely, but diagonally, so that she glided off by her own impetus. As she passed by she received three shots from the guns of her antagonist, at half-cable s length, which perforated her side, and produced a considerable rent in her. Undaunted by this disaster, the Arkansas boldly pursued her way through the Federal fleet, dispensing her favors on all sides. While doing so, one of her shot struck the Benton on the larboard side, and perforated it, killing one man. She was herself somewhat damaged during her progress. The Cairo, Hartford, Richmond, together with three gun boats, all assailed her in passing, and she saluted each of them in return. But she arrived at length in comparative safety before Vicksburg, where her gallant and daring exploit caused her to be received with the greatest enthusiasm by the Rebel forces commanded there by Generals Breckin- ridge and Van Dorn. The Federal loss during these engagements was fourteen killed, fifteen wounded. The result was by no means favorable to the commanders of the Federal vessels, inasmuch as the success with which the Rebel ram defied so numerous a flotilla, proved that an unusual want of vigilance and skill at that time characterized them. At a subsequent period, as if conscious of this fact, the officers who were engaged on this occasion, endeavored to recover the lost lustre of their arms, by a more efficient and more successful assault upon their foe. At this period the Southwest was the scene of a number of spirited movements, both on the part of the Federal and the Rebel troops distrib- OPERATIONS OF JOHN MORGAN IN KENTUCKY. 305 uted in that quarter, several of which merit attention. On the 15th of July a desperate guerrilla combat took place near Memphis, Missouri, be tween a portion of Colonel Merrill s cavalry, about three hundred strong and a detachment of the battalion of Major Rodgers, one hundred in num ber, who jointly attacked six hundred men, comprising the lawless Rebel bands of Dunn and Porter. The latter were concealed behind heavy brush and timber when the battle began, but they were assaulted with such vigor and determination by- the troops already named, commanded by Major Clopper, that they were driven from their position, leaving a large number of dead and wounded on the field. But the enemy fought bravely before yielding, for they repulsed fi ve successive charges across the open field ; and it was not until after the sixth assault, and a desper ate hand-to-hand struggle, that they yielded. The Federal loss in killed and wounded was eighty-three; that of the Rebels amounted to a hundred and twenty. This action was an important blow to the formidable and destructive hordes of guerrillas who had invaded and desolated that region of country. On the -16th of July, the Rebel marauder, John Morgan, who com manded an assemblage of outlaws and adventurers in Kentucky, crossed the Kentucky river from Lawrenceburg, in command of a thousand men, and approached Paris, in that State. Intelligence of this event soon reached Lexington, and immediately General Green Clay Smith started with a troop of cavalry, inferior in number to those of Morgan, to attack him. He reached the position of the enemy and gallantly assailed him. The guerrilla chief and his men made but a feeble resistance, and then fled. Having stolen the fleetest horses in the country, during the progress of their incursions, they were pursued to little purpose, and escaped beyond the reach of their assailants. They proceeded toward Winchester, in Clarke county, where they purposed to rendezvous in greater strength and numbers. Nearly contemporary with this action a similar one occurred at Cynthiana, Kentucky, between the same Rebel leader and the armed in habitants of that place. As soon as the approach of Morgan was known, the Home Guards of the town, three hundred in number, together with a hundred and fifty of the seventh Kentucky cavalry, under Captain Glass, were mustered to resist the threatened assault. Fifty of the Home Guards were posted a quarter of a mile on the road leading to Paris. About sixty of the Rebels approached their position, when they were received with a destructive fire of musketry. This band of guerrillas fled precipi tately. But a much larger force five hundred .strong having dismoun ted, were in the meantime approaching the town from another direction. Captain Glass posted a twelve-pounder in such a position, that his shells exploded in the midst of that body, and did some execution on them. A company of the Union troops, together with several cannon, which had 20 306 THE CIY1L WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. been posted in front of the Licking bridge, prevented a third detachment of Morgan s troops from entering the town by another route. But their resistance was only temporary, for soon the want of ammunition on the part of the Federals, and the overwhelming masses of the guerrillas, gave the latter the preponderance. At this crisis Colonel Landrum, who com manded the Union men, called upon the remaining citizens of the town to come forward and assist in defending it against the common enemy. Many complied with the requisition, and an extemporaneous force charged upon Morgan s troops, through one of the streets. But it was soon ap parent that even this effort would be unavailing. The horde of the Rebel chief was pressing gradually into the town by different openings and avenues, ^nd resistance at last became wholly futile. Colonel Landrum then gave the order to retreat. The Rebels took possession of the place. Their object was merely rapine and plunder. They supplied themselves with horses, carriages, provisions, and other property, wherever they found them. They were sadly disappointed, however, in not finding money. After the marauders had accomplished their purpose, as far as they were able, they evacuated the town, leaving behind them their dead and wounded. The Federal loss was two killed, twenty-eight wounded. After these achievements Morgan was compelled to retreat from the limits of Kentucky. By the end of July that -State was free from his presence. The difficult task of capturing him had been undertaken by several Union officers of rank ; but in vain. The fault lay not so much in them, as in the peculiar nature of the service in question. Morgan and his men were mounted on the swiftest steeds in the country. His march was not en cumbered by baggage or wagons. He might be easily pursued, but not so easily overtaken ; and the utmost that could be accomplished was to drive him away before the approach of a more regular and substantial force. On the 17th of July, an important event took place in connection with the civil and political history of the Southern Rebellion. On that day President Lincoln approved, and by his approval converted into law, the Confiscation and Emancipation Act, which had already been passed by both Houses of Congress. This act was a continuance of the vigorous measures which had been adopted by the administration, to crush by every lawful means the power of the insurgent States. It provided in substance that whoever should thereafter be guilty of treason against the United States, should either suffer death, or be fined and imprisoned, and his slaves, if he have any, should be declared free ; and also, that if any person should in any way encourage and assist the existing rebellion, he should be fined and imprisoned, and his slaves, if he have any, should be set free. It enacted that no person thus aiding the rebellion, in any way, should thenceforth be competent to collect debts which might be due him in the loyal States, or in the District of Columbia : and that the slaves of persons EXPEDITION SENT TO TRENTON AND POLLOCKSYILLE. 307 who had been engaged in hostility against the Government of the United States, who had escaped within the lines of the Federal armies, should not be restored to their masters, but be declared free. It provided that no fugitive slave who had thus escaped should be restored to his master, unless the master should prove that he was loyal to the Federal Govern ment, and had taken no part in the Rebellion against it, or in any manner assisted it; that it should be proper for- the President, if he desire so to do, to employ persons of African descent to assist in the suppression of the Rebellion, in such manner as he may deem expedient ; and that it may also be lawful for him to make provision for the colonization and settle ment of such negroes, who, having been set free through the operation of this act, might desire to locate themselves beyond the limits of the United States. These various provisions, which were evidently founded on in disputable principles of abstract justice and political wisdom, indicated more clearly than ever, the determination of the Federal Government not to trifle with its enemies ; and it must be admitted that they thereby in flicted a heavy blow upon the insurgents, in the most tender and jealously guarded portion of their interests. General Burnside having been ordered to transfer a large portion of his troops from Newbern, in North Carolina, to the army of the Potomac, under General McClellan, the remainder of the force which he left behind him was placed under the orders of General Foster. That officer deemed it expedient, on the 29th of July, to send two expeditions inland from Newbern, for the purpose of ascertaining the strength of the enemy in that vicinity, and to demonstrate to the Rebels that, though the Federal forces had been diminished, they still remained formidable and efficient. Ac cordingly, one detachment under Colonel Lee was sent to Trenton, on the Trent river, another, under Colonel Fellows, was despatched to Pollocks- ville, thirteen miles distant from Newbern. The former body, in their march toward Trenton, encountered a portion of the pickets of the enemy, who instantly fled. A number of the third Xew York cavalry started in pursuit, but were unable to overtake them. At the bridge which spanned the Trent, a few shots were exchanged between the parties, after which the Rebels again retreated, having set fire to the bridge. After some effort the conflagration was extinguished, and the Federals proceeded into the town. They found it entirely evacuated by the troops who had been posted there, and deserted by the majority of the inhabitants. The Fed erals proceeded to refresh themselves after their journey of twenty miles, and at five o clock in the afternoon, resumed their march for the purpose of forcing a junction with the force under Colonel Fellows at Pollocksville. This result was effected without difficulty. The latter town was also found to have been abandoned by the Rebel force which had previously occupied it, and an easy triumph awaited the visitors. On the third day after the expedition started out, it returned to Newbern, without having 308 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. incurred any loss, but having accomplished an important purpose in de monstrating to the disloyal inhabitants of the adjacent country that the Federal forces in their vicinity were on the alert, and prepared to crush any attempt which might be made to resist their supremacy. The successful effort recently made by the Rebel battering ram Arkan sas, to defy the Federal fleet which opposed her approach toVicksburg, was a just ground of mortification to the officers who should have defeated the attempt ; and the demoralizing effect of her triumph upon the Federal troops, and the cause of the Union in that vicinity, was so potent that it was evident that something should be done to diminish its influence. Accordingly, Lieutenant-Colonel A. W. Ellet proposed to Commodore Davis to renew the attack upon her, and offered himself to command the steam ram Queen of the West, which should make the assault upon her, on condition that Commodores Davis and Farragut would occupy the batteries above and below Vicksburg during the operation. The purpose of this stipulation was to prevent the Rebel batteries from damaging or disabling the Queen of the West while making her approach to the Ar kansas. After a short deliberation, the proposition of Colonel Ellet was accepted. It was arranged that the expedition should start at daylight, and every preparation was previously made that prudence and tact could devise to secure success. Colonel Ellet manned his battering-ram, with a selected crew of the best material in the fleet. The plan of attack adopted was as follows : three of the vessels of Commodore Davis the Benton, the Cin cinnati, and the Louisville were to commence an assault upon the upper Rebel batteries ; and the Bragg was to lie behind the bend of the river, ready to attack the Arkansas in case she escaped above. The Essex was to precede the Queen of the West down the river, grapple the Arkansas, draw her out into the stream, and thus give the Queen of the West sea- room to run at her, and destroy her by her herculean and resistless blows During the progress of these events, the vessels under the command of Commodore Farragut were to attack and engage the Rebel batteries below the city. A better plan could not possibly have been devised. The issue, however, furnished a marvelous illustration of the familiar adage man proposes but God disposes. At the time appointed, the Essex, which was to occupy the van, led off in gallant style down the river. The Queen of the West then followed ; but as she passed the flagship of Commodore Davis, the latter, waving his hand, exclaimed "Good luckl good luck." These propitious words were unfortunately misunderstood by Colonel Ellet for an order to " go back." He obeyed, though surprised at such a command ; and it was not till after the lapse of some time that the mistake was corrected. The Queen then resumed her progress toward the Arkansas, but the delay had sepa- ATTACK ON THE ARKANSAS BY COLONEL ELLET. 309 rated her so far from the Essex, that the latter, having delivered a broad side at the Rebel ram, and being defeated in her attempt to grapple her, passed on. down the stream. As the Queen approached the Arkansas, the batteries on the shore opened on her with tremendous fury. In vain Colonel Ellet listened for the promised assistance of the gunboats of the two commodores. Instead of their drawing the hostile fire of the foe, it was all concentrated on the devoted Queen of the West. It was now evi dent to Colonel Ellet that his position was a desperate one. He seemed to have been mysteriously abandoned to destruction by every vessel of the Federal fleet which should have co-operated with him. Nevertheless he did not despair, though a deluge of flaming thunderbolts hemmed him in on all sides. He determined to strike or to perish. To increase the peril of his position he found the Arkansas moored in an unfavorable position for hu assault. He was compelled to approach her by a circular route, and to strike her against the current, which would necessarily diminish both the accuracy of his aim, and the momentum of his blow. Consequently, when he charged upon her, the eddies of the stream altered his course so far that he struck her aft of her aft side gun, and the blow, though violent, was glancing. Notwithstanding these dis advantages, the Arkansas reeled and quivered beneath the assault, and it was at first thought that she was sinking. But it soon became evident that the rebound was almost harmless, and that no very serious damage had been inflicted. Colonel Ellet was now convinced that his only possi bility of escape was by a rapid retreat, but even that was a forlorn and hopeless un/lertaking. Four Rebel batteries were now playing upon his boat, and as she, partially crippled as she already was, slowly struggled up the river, she was assailed by all their guns, together with the guns of the Arkansas. Her situation was terrible. Already she had been struck twenty-five times. Her chimney-stacks were perforated with balls. One of her steam-pipes had been shot away. Large holes had been bored through her sides and her bow. Several immense round shot passed over the head of Colonel Ellet, who, during the passage, lay flat upon the deck. A fifty-pound round rifled shot passed through the pilot-house, within a few inches of the helmsman. Two engineers were thrown down by the wind of the passing shot. Shells exploded in the cabin, shivering every thing within it to pieces. The machinery of the vessel was damaged and wrenched in various places. She was blackened, splintered, and shattered in every part of her exterior and her interior. Her appearance when she reached a point beyond the range of the guns of the enemy, resembled that of a complete wreck. And yet she did not sink ; and what is still more marvelous, not a man on board of her had been killed several had been slightly wounded. The engineers and firemen below expected at every moment t;> see a shot explode her boilers, which accident would 310 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. have inflicted instant death upon them; but that catastrophe did not occur.* At length the Queen of the West regained her anchorage. The excuses given by Commodores Davis and Farragut for not rendering her the promised assistance, were remarkable. The former urged that after the Queen of the West passed him on her downward way, he found the bat teries of the enemy on the shore become so dangerous to several of his gunboats, that he ordered them to sail up the river beyond their reach. After having done so, he remembered his promise to assist the operations of the Queen of the West, and returned. But it was then too late to ren der her any assistance. Commodore Farragut plead that he found it impossible to weigh his anchors, and thus come within range of the bat teries at the appointed time, and was thereby prevented from taking part in the engagement. Notwithstanding the failure of this enterprise, the success with which the Queen of the West ran the gauntlet of the batteries of the enemy, rivalled, and even excelled, the boasted heroism displayed by the Arkansas on a previous occasion, in defying the guns of the Federal fleet; and in so far, the achievement was a success, by causing the laurels of the foe to wither, in presence of the greater daring and glory of the resolute com mander of the Federal ram. Tbe important part which the navy of the United States had performed during the progress of the Eebellion, on many important occasions, very justly attracted to it the special attention of the people and the Govern ment of the United States. Serious objections were made to the manner in which the several ranks and grades of the officers were then constituted, and a change was demanded by the popular voice on the subject. The result was, that a new arrangement was made, and new grades were estab lished, which gave a more favorable opportunity for the promotion of those who distinguished themselves in the service, while it conferred higher dignities upon those veteran commanders who had already attained eminence by a long term of patriotic devotion to the service.f * It is worthy of remark, that the heroism of these men on this memorable occasion, was astonishing. Not a single indication of fear or terror was exhibited ; and it is equally deserving of notice, that the firemen, who were negroes recently taken from the ad acent plantations, displayed a fortitude and firmness under these appalling cir- cumstancers, quite equal to that of their white associates. t It was on the 16th of July, 1862, that the Senate and House of Representatives made this alteration, and ordered as follows : That the active lists of line officers of the United States Navy shall be divided into nine grades, taking rank according to the date of their commission in each grade, as follows : I .... Rear Admirals. VI .... Lieutenants. II.... Commodores. VII. .. .Masters III Captains. VIII Ensigns. IV .... Commanders. IX .... Midshipmen. V .... Lieutenant-Commanders. DRAFT OF THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN. 311 During the progress of these minor events, an unusual degree of enter prise and spirit pervaded the operations of the Federal Government in preparing for the energetic contiuance of the war. On the 4th of August, an order was issued by the President, through the War Department, to. the effect, that a draft of three hundred thousand militia should be made, and immediately placed in the service of the United States, for the period of nine months, unless sooner discharged ; at the same time setting forth, that proper arrangements would be speedily made for assigning the re spective quotas of this number to each of the States. The order also announced, that if by the 15th of August, any State had not furnished its quota of the three hundred thousand volunteers already demanded by a previous order, a special draft should be made in the State to make up that number, and thus supply the deficiency. This requisition was sub sequently complied with, and the loyal States presented to the world the marvelous spectacle which has never before been exhibited in the history of mankind, of the enormous mass of six hundred thousand men, raised, armed, equipped, and marched into the field, during the brief period of three months. And further, That the relative rank between officers of the navy and the army Bhall be as follows, lineal rank only to be considered : Rear Admirals with Major-Generals. Commodores with Brigadier-Generals. Captains w r ith Colonels. Commanders with Lieutenant-Colonels. Lieutenant-Commanders with Majors. Lieutenants with Captains. Masters with First Lieutenants. Ensigns with Second Lieutenants. 312 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XVIII. DESIGNS OF THE REBEL GENERALS IN VIRGINIA MEASURES TAKEN TO COUNTERACT THEM THE ARMIES OF BANKS AND JACKSON APPROACH EACH OTHER BATTLE OF CEDAR OR SLAUGHTER MOUNTAIN POSITION OF THE COMBATANTS COMMENCEMENT OF THE ENGAGE MENT INCIDENTS OF ITS PROGRESS ITS TERMINATION AND RESULTS LOSS ON BOTH SIDES HEROISM OF GENERAL BANKS SUBSEQUENT MOVEMENTS OF THE REBELS SKIRMISHES ALONG THE LINE OF THE RAPPAHANNOCK DESIGNS OF THE REBEL GENERALS ARRANGE MENTS OF GENERAL POPE ENGAGEMENT AT CATLETT s STATION FEDERAL LOSS OF BAG GAGE AND STORES THE REBELS CROSS THE RAPPAHANNOCK BATTLE WITH THE TROOPS OF GENERAL SIGEL APPROACH OF REBELS TOWARD MANASSAS CONFLICT AT KETTLE RUN AT BRISTOW S STATION THE GREAT BATTLE AT MANASSAS ON AUGUST TWENTY-NINTH INCIDENTS OF THE STRUGGLE ENGAGEMENT RENEWED ON THE THIRTIETH ITS INCIDENTS AND RESULTS RETREAT OF THE FEDERAL ARMY BATTLE OF CHANTILLY DEATH OF GEN ERALS KEARNY AND STEVENS RETURN OF THE FEDERAL ARMY TO WASHINGTON LOSSES DURING THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL POPE IN VIRGINIA SKETCHES OF GENERALS KEARNY AND STEVENS A COURT-MARTIAL SUMMONED AT WASHINGTON TO INVESTIGATE CHARGES AGAINST GENERAL PORTER ITS VERDICT. DURING the first week of August, 1862, the military authorities at Wash ington obtained authentic information, which convinced them that the Confederate generals were assembling a formidable force, for the purpose of crushing the army commanded by General Pope, and advancing to the capture either of Washington or of Baltimore. General llalleck im mediately authorized General Pope to summon the forces under General Cox, in Western Virginia, to join him with all possible despatch ; while the former was directed to cross the Rappahannock, occupy Culpepper, and threaten Gordonsville. This movement at once excited the appre hensions of the Rebel leaders. Jackson and Ewell immediately crossed the Rapidan at Barnett s Ford, approached the position occupied by the corps of General Banks, near Cedar or Slaughter Mountain, and on Sat urday, the 9th of August, a battle was fought between the two armies, scarcely second in fury and stubbornness to any which had occurred during the war. The point at which this contest took place was about five miles south of Culpepper Court House, on the road to Gordonsville. The enemy took their position on the side of Cedar Mountain, where they were protected in a large degree by thick forests. They numbered at least twenty-five thousand men. The advantages of their position were very great, for it commanded a full view of the operations of the Federal troops below them, and enabled them to post their batteries in several successive tiers, semicircular in their outline, by which they could simultaneously can nonade the whole body of their assailants. The position of the latter was THE BATTLE OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN. 313 completely exposed to the enemy, having no advantage of natural or arti ficial defence whatever. On the day previous to the battle, the brigade of General Crawford had been thrown forward to observe the movements of the enemy, and oppose his advance. General Banks occupied this posi tion with his entire corps on the day of the engagement. Rickett s di vision of McDowell s corps was three miles in his rear. The corps of Sigel, which had been marching during all the night preceding the battle, w is allowed to halt in Culpepper to recruit for a few hours. Thus the engagement commenced between the enemy and the corps of Banks, which comprised about seven thousand men. The combat opened with an artillery duel, at a quarter-past two o clock in the afternoon. It was at once evident that the Rebels possessed an im mense superiority in the number of their guns. The firing of the Fed erals was also up hill, resulting from the disadvantage of their position; but the greater accuracy of their aim was equally apparent. In an hour one of their six batteries was silenced. The Federals then closed up their lines on the right and left, and advanced toward the enemy. The left wing having approached two hundred yards nearer than their first posi tion, lay on the ground, while the contest between the artillery continued, so that the deluge of shot discharged by the foe passed over them harm lessly, though they could not escape the effect of their bursting shells. At four o clock another of their batteries was silenced. At that moment they advanced from their position, and made a bold attempt to flank the left of the Federals. This movement was repelled and defeated by the gallant advance of Geary s brigade. At half-past four the troops under Generals Prince, Green, and Geary, were ordered to charge the batteries of the enemy on the left. As the Federals approached they were assailed with a terrific storm of shot and shell, which might have appalled even veteran warriors. As they approached the base of the mountain, the Refers, whom the woods till then had concealed, rushed forward in im mense numbers, and attacked the Federals with musketry. The latter were mowed down like grain before the reaper ; but still they advanced without flinching. In a desperate collision they forced the enemy back upon the mountain, and held them there firmly. But soon heavy rein forcements of infantry, consisting of about eight regiments, enabled the Rebels to overpower the heroes before them, and compelled them eventually to retire. This movement was performed quietly and in good order. It was now half-past six, and the engagement became general. It was marked by special fury on the Federal right wing. During an hour the most sanguinary slaughter was inflicted here by both sides. At one time the enemy were successful in surrounding the right flank, by the use of an artifice scarcely excusable by the laws of honorable warfare. Hoisting the stars and stripes, a large body suddenly emerged from the woods in such a position as to assume the appearance of a reinforcement to the 314 THE CIVIL WAE IN THE UNITED STATES. Federals. The latter, deceived by the imposition, permitted the enemy to approach until they were near enough to inflict upon them a destructive volley of musketry. Convinced by this argument of their mistake, the Federal troops instantly returned the salute, and charged upon the foe with such ferocity as to break their ranks, and compel them to retreat in the utmost disorder behind their first position. As night approached, the contest became more and more furious. General Banks still held the position which he occupied in the morning. At seven o clock General Pope arrived upon the field, and sent an order to General McDowell to advance General Rickett s division to support the troops engaged ; and he also directed General Sigel to join in the engagement as soon as possible. Rickett s division being close at hand, was quickly upon the field, and took up their position on the right. The battle was then renewed with greater desperation and destructiveness than before. But it did not long continue, in consequence of the spread of the partial darkness of night over the scene. The discharge of artillery alone was kept up, and cast its lurid horrors around the combat until near midnight. At one time, before the charges of infantry and cavalry terminated, the Rebels drove back the Federal troops for a considerable distance, and occupied their position. But during the night the enemy receded up the mountain to their fastnesses, and on the following day occupied a line of defence still nearer to its summit. On the following day neither side seemed disposed to renew the en gagement. The desperate struggles which had already taken place, the overpowering heat of the weather, the immense number of dead and wounded of both armies, whose bodies covered the plain below, and the mountain above, who must be cared for, removed, or buried, rendered it indispensable that the fighting should be suspended. It was not until Monday evening that the process of burying was completed, or at least terminated. During Sunday all the available Union forces were hurfied forward to join the corps of General Banks. It was then confidently ex pected that the ba.ttle would be renewed, and an attempt made to dislodge the enemy from their position on the mountain. But during Monday night they voluntarily withdrew from their stronghold and crossed the Rapidan. General Buford was sent forward with four regiments of cav alry in pursuit, to watch their movements, and ascertain their route. Many of the Rebel dead were left unburied ; many of their wounded were abandoned to their fate by their departing comrades. The Federal loss in this battle in killed, wounded, and missing, was about two thousand. Generals Augur and Geary were severely wounded. General Prince and his staff were taken prisoners by the enemy. The loss of the Rebels was at least three thousand in killed and wounded. Among the former was General Winder. In this conflict the skill and gallantry of General Banks were conspicuous, and contributed greatly to the partial success PERILOUS POSITION OF GENERAL POPE. 315 of the day. The struggle was one of unusual fierceness and determination on both sides. The ground was covered for several miles with the killed and maimed, whose great numbers and horrible mutilations attested the sanguinary nature of the contest. The ground in innumerable places was ploughed in deep and rugged gullies, by the cannon-balls or exploding shells of the enemy. It was therefore an honor to the Federal troops engaged, under such great disadvantages of numbers and position, that bv their heroism and fortitude they had fought at Cedar Mountain a drawn battle. General Pope had become satisfied by this battle that he had in his im mediate vicinity not a single corps, but the entire army of General Lee, and that his only hope of success lay in fighting a series of retreating battles, until he could receive reinforcements from the army of the Poto mac, now on its way to Aquia creek and Alexandria. General Pope proceeded on the 17th of August to take a position in the rear of the Rap- pahannock, where he could more easily obtain reinforcements, and oppose the passage of the enemy. He was soon joined by the division of General King, and by that part of Burnside s corps commanded by Reno. Several attempts which were made by the Rebels to cross the river were defeated, and every effort was made to gain time, so that McClellan s forces might be able to reach the scene of the impending conflict. One of the most signal repulses which the Rebels received, was effected by the troops of General Rickett s division, on Thursday, August 21st, when they attempted to cross the Rappahannock near the railroad. They were equally unsuc cessful at Beverly ford, five miles distant from the railroad. But on the 22d the Rebels made a bold charge near Catlett s station, in the rear of Pope s army, upon a portion of his baggage and supply trains. They were resisted bravely for a short time by the Purnell Legion and the Bucktail regiment; but overwhelming numbers at length compelled these to give way. The enemy then took possession of a passenger train, to gether with a number of wagons filled with the private stores of Generals Pope and McDowell, and other officers. They also obtained a portion of the papers of General Pope, though none of much importance, They obtained two hundred horses from Pope s train, and twenty from McDowell s ; a quantity of medicines from the hospitals erected at the station, and some money. This bold and successful raid was led by Gen eral Stuart, and its sudden and unexpected character, together with its disastrous results, were a source of mortification to the Federal generals who were the chief sufferers. None of the Federal officers who were en gaged in the brief but spirited contest which occurred on this occasion, displayed more energy and presence of mind than Colonel Kane of the Bucktails, and Colonel Myers of the staff of General Pope. The former was captured, but afterward succeeded in making his escape. During the progress of these events the Rebels were gradually transfer- 316 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. ring the main body of their troops across the Rappahannock. They threw a pontoon bridge over the river, between the Waterloo and Rappahannock stations, during the night of Thursday, the 21st of August, and passed over in immense numbers. They were confronted by the corps of Gen eral Sigel, who assailed them with a deluge of canister-shot during the passage, slaying hundreds of them, and compelling them to retreat across the river. On the next day a brigade, among whom was the seventy- fourth Pennsylvania regiment, were ordered by General Sigel, to cross the stream, drive in the pickets of the enemy, and attack them. But the latter being suddenly reinforced, overwhelmed the Federals with numbers, compelled them to retreat to the river, and while they were in th^water slew many, after having taking a number of prisoners. During this dis astrous movement, General Bohlen, a Union officer of distinction, was killed. On the following day the batteries of both armies, which were posted along the river, continued their exchange of shots. These various skirmishes, of greater and of less importance, were preliminary to the more decisive engagements which were destined soon to take place. While they progressed many were slain on both sides, much property was de stroyed, bridges were burned, and desolation was spread over the face of the country, without any important results having been attained by either party. Notwithstanding the resistance made by portions of the Federal army to the advance of the enemy upon Washington, the latter gradually threw their forces across the Rappahannock, at Waterloo bridge and elsewhere, and advanced toward Manassas. The purpose of the resistance of the Union troops at that stream was to enable General McClellan to reach the scene of action with the army of the Potomac prior to the impending general engagement. In vain had General Halleck, as commander-in- chief, ordered McClellan not to wait for transportation, but to march for ward at once. A mysterious delay characterized the movements of that officer, and General Pope was ultimately compelled to encounter the whole military strength of the Rebel Confederacy in Virginia without the assis tance of the army of the Potomac. The operations of the generals of the enemy at this period were ex tremely complicated and skilful. Lee and Longstreet had been thus far manoeuvring on the Rappahannock in order to detain and occupy Pope, while Jackson and Ewell were reaching a position in his rear. As soon as the Federal commander discovered the adroit intention of the Rebels, he withdrew his forces from Warrenton. He directed General McDowell, with his troops, and with those of Sigel, to proceed to Gainesville ; he ordered Heintzelman and Reno to march to Greenwich ; while he, together with Porter s and Hooker s columns, hastened to Manassas Junction. The troops of Hooker encountered the enemy at Kettle Run, and after a brisk engagement routed them. Meanwhile, the enemy, under Jack- tie* SUBSEQUENT MOVEMENTS OF THE REBELS. 3l7 son, had passed around the north bank of the Rappahannock, and to gether with Lee, Ewell, and Longstreet, had poured a formidable body of troops through Thoroughfare gap, north of Warrenton, and occupiod a position in the rear of Pope s army. This general, at length com prehending his position, ordered McDowell and Sigel to attack the Rebels opposed to them. He directed Hooker to assail those posted at Bristow s station, and drive them back. A severe action took place at this point with the forces under Ewell, in which the Federals obtained the advan tage. By these operations General Pope retrieved his position, and again placed himself in the rear of the Rebel army. His front now faced to ward Washington. On Thursday night, August 28th, Pope obtained possession of Manassas, and effected such a consolidation of his troops, about fifty-five thousand in number, as to be able to attack the enemy, though more numerous than his own troops, with a prospect of success. It was thought that the decisive battle of the war was about to take place, and that an overwhelming victory, on one side or on the other, would terminate the long and desperate agony of the conflict. This great battle was commenced at daylight on Friday, August 29th, 1862. The dispositions which General Pope had made at this stage of the contest for confronting the enemy were judicious. The troops com manded by McDowell, Sigel, and Reynolds, were ordered to take post at Gainesville ; those of Kearny and Reno at Greenwich, and Hooker along the railroad toward Thoroughfare gap. It seemed impossible that the Rebel General Jackson could escape the toils which were so adroitly thrown around him. During Thursday night, the 28th of August, Gen eral Sigel, having been ordered to attack the enemy the following morn ing, made the necessary preparations for so doing. When the next day dawned, his division was already formed in line of battle near Bull Run. The left wing of the enemy also appeared, resting on Catherine creek, his front facing toward Centreville, his centre posted in a long range of ;woods, his right stationed on the hills on both sides of the Centreville road. General Sigel made several important changes in the position of his troops, to adapt it to that of the enemy ; and at half-past six o clock the engagement began. During a struggle of four hours duration, the whole of the Federal in fantry and artillery, commanded by Sigel, were engaged. The result was that, at the end of that time, the troops of Schurz and Milroy had driven the enemy back one mile, and those under Schenck, two miles from their original positions. This reverse spurred the enemy to renewed exertions, and at half-past ten they made a desperate effort to turn the extreme left of the Federals. They attempted to outflank the latter on both wings, and to consolidate a heavy mass of troops in the centre, for the purpose of breaking the Federal lines. It was a critical moment. Jackson s salvation seemed to depend upon the success with which this grand coup on his part 318 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. would be attended. Fortunately for the Federal cause, General Kearny arrived on the field with his forces, and deployed to Sigel s right by the Sudley road. General Keno also came up at the same time by the Gaines ville turnpike. This reinforcement was opportune ; for scarcely were these troops placed in the positions which most needed strengthening, when the grand assault of the evening was commenced, along the whole line, from right to left. A desperate combat ensued. The German regiments fought with the firmness and enthusiasm which generally characterize the stern soldiers of the Teutonic race. In vain did the bold and spirited Jackson hurl upon their steady ranks the furious masses of his Rebel hordes. They remained steadfast, like an immovable rock, surrounded, and assailed by the raging eddies of a stormy sea. At two o clock in the afternoon Gen eral Hooker reached the scene of conflict. He instantly ordered his troops forward to participate in the battle. Their assistance was valuable, but still the preponderance of numbers on the part of the Rebels rendered the issue doubtful. General Sigel had been informed by General Pope that Fitz John Porter had been ordered by him, on the evening of the 27th, to hasten forward with his division to his assistance, and would join him on the left, on the morning of the 29th. This expectation was not realized. During two hours more, from four o clock until six, a vigorous contest progressed between the contending hosts. General Kearny made a desperate charge upon the extreme left of the lines of the enemy, arid compelled them to retire. Here was gained the most signal success of the day. At six o clock a portion of General McDowell s corps reached the scene of conflict. It was now evening, and after a continued struggle of ten hours the battle ceased. The general result of this day s engagement was favorable to the Federal troops. The latter had driven the whole Rebel line some distance from the position which they occupied when the battle began. Nevertheless, the result was indecisive, and the conflict must necessarily be renewed on the following day, before any definite conse quences could be produced by the exertions and sacrifices of either side. The fate of the entire campaign, the issue of the war, the destiny of two rival republics, seemed to depend upon the events of the succeeding day; and the commanders of both armies, during the silent hours of the intervening night, prepared themselves diligently for the final struggle. In this engagement, Banks commanded the right wing of the Federals, Sigel the centre, and McDowell the left. The object of the Rebel Gen eral Jackson was to force his way through the Federal lines, so as to be able to form a junction with the remainder of the Confederate forces under Generals Lee and Longstreet. The evident aim of Pope was to prevent this achievement, and by a powerful and vigorous assault at all points to surround Jackson, crush his forces, and take him and them prisoners. It is probable that if all the orders which were issued by General Pope for ENGAGEMENT OF THE THIRTIETH OF AUGUST. 319 this purpose, especially those sent to Fitz John Porter, had been promptly obeyed, the Rebel general would have been completely overwhelmed before he could be assisted by General Longstreet. But General Porter did not execute the orders sent to him by General Pope, and it may with truth be affirmed, that to the failure of that officer, whether it were volun tary or involuntary on his part, a large portion of the disasters which oc curred on this day :nay be attributed. The battle on the 30th of August did not commence with much energy until noon. The troops on both sides had been too greatly exhausted by the protracted struggles on the previous day to be very eager for the com bat. During the day Lee succeeded in bringing a large number of his troops through Thoroughfare gap to the assistance of Jackson, and Long- street joined him. The magnitude and diversity of this engagement may be inferred from the fact, that when the Federal line of battle was formed, it extended along the slope of the ridges stretching down to Bull Run over a space ten miles in length, and two and a half miles in breadth. The artillery of the Rebels was posted, as usual, with great skill, upon the most advantageous positions, ranging opposite to those of the Federals. This battle was rendered memorable by the circumstance that it was fought upon the scene of the conflict of the 21st of July, 1861, and thus the same ground was detsined to witness, on two occasions, the futile valor, the patriotic devotion, and the sanguinary losses of thousands of the defenders of the Union. It was not till four o clock in the afternoon that the battle became gen eral along the whole line. The Rebels had been so strongly reinforced that by that time the flower of their whole army had been brought into action. All the troops commanded by Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, Hill, Ewell, and Johnston, were hurled in ferocious masses on the Federal lines. It is probable that their colossal columns numbered not far from a hundred thousand men. These were met, and were frequently repulsed with the utmost heroism by the Federal troops, and the issue of the day remained undecided until about half-past five o clock. At that time an overwhelming host of the foe was precipitated on the weakest point in the Federal lines, that on the left wing, commanded by General McDowell. He was compelled to fall back, both from the fury of the assault and the threatened danger of being outflanked by the enemy. This retrograde movement changed the position of the Federal lines. The latter still re mained on the right and centre, where they were posted at the commence ment of the engagement. On one occasion the Rebels boldly advanced, took a portion of a hill, and planted a battery on the flank and almost on the rear of the Federal centre. General Sigel ordered three regiments of infantry to attack them and dislodge them. Colonel Koltes commanded the movement, but its execution failed, the brigade was nearly decimated, and Colonel Koltes was killed while gallantly leading forward his men. 320 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. It was now evident to General Pope that the advancing hosts of the Rebels, as they became more indomitable, enthusiastic, and desperate, from hour to hour, rendered victory hopeless. Accordingly, after dark ness had put an end to the combat, he ordered a general retreat toward Centreville. During the following night the order was executed by the whole army. At Centreville the reinforcements under Generals Franklin and Surnner joined the forces of Pope. Had these divisions been sent by General McClellan a day earlier, the issue of the conflict might have been different. At Centreville the whole army bivouacked, awaiting the further movements of the enemy. It was scarcely to be expected that the triumphant Rebels would not follow up the advantages which they had gained. During Sunday, August 31st, no movement of importance took place on either side. The immense exertions which both had put forth, and the heavy losses which both had suffered, rendered a short interval of delay and of repose indis pensable. During Monday, however, General Pope received information that the Confederates were advancing and concentrating a powerful body of troops on the road to Fairfax Court House, with the evident purpose of attacking his wagon trains, a portion of which they had already cap tured. He instantly ordered . General Heintzelman to proceed with his division to the spot indicated, to attack and to repulse the enemy. Generals Reno and Stevens had already confronted the foe, and an engagement had already commenced between them, when a portion of Heintzelman s corps, commanded by the gallant and heroic Kearny, reached the scene of conflict. Even then the troops of General Stevens, who had just been killed, were retreating from the field, their ammunition being exhausted. The Federal reinforcements passed on toward the foe, and immediately engaged them. The combat quickly became desperate, and the enemy were driven back several miles, a running-fight being kept up during the chase. A number of brilliant charges were made by the Federal troops during the pr-gress of the conflict. Shortly before its conclusion, an incident occurred which led to the death of that admirable officer who commanded the Federal heroes. General Kearny had been informed that the gap in the Federal lines which had been produced by the retreat of the troops of General Stevens, had been filled up. At this moment he discovered that this had not been done, and that this neglect endangered the safety of the Federal linea. He instantly rode forward into the gap, unattended by any of his staff, who had been distributed on various and distant missions, in order to examine the ground. lie was never seen again, alive. He had not pro ceeded very far before he was killed by a well-directed shot from the enemy. The cause of his death was a Minie rifle-ball, fired by one of the sharpshooters of the foe, who, from the direction taken by the missile, must have been concealed in some deep gully or rifle-pit. The ball RETREAT OF THE FEDERAL FORCES. 321 entered below the hip, and passed upward through the chest and lungs. On the next morning a flag of truce was sent into the Federal lines, bearing with it the remains of the deceased hero, which had been found upon the blood-stained field. After his absence from his troops became known, General Birney succeeded to the command of the men. They held possession of the field from which they had driven the enemy until three o clock the next morning. They then returned to their camp near Fairfax Court House. This spirited engagement took place near Chantilly, three miles distant from Centreville. The enemy, in attempting a flank movement, had boldly placed themselves between General Pope and Washington. In the earlier portion of the battle, General Reno commanded on the right, and General Stevens on the left, before the arrival of General Kearny. The death both of General Stevens and General Kearny may be attributed to their reckless and daring valor. The former led forward his troops in person, and was slain at the head of his column. The manner of Kearny s death also indicated that he was brave to a fault. Their loss was a serious calamity to the Federal cause ; and their ardent devotion to the welfare of the Union, with the sacrifice which they freely made to it of their lives, will justly entitle them to the gratitude and veneration of the lovers of their country during all coming time. The greater part of this singular battle was fought in the midst of darkness and tempest. The rain descended in a deluge. The thunder was deafening. The lightning was blinding. Yet these comparatively harmless horrors were transcended by the more destructive fury and vengeance of the human combatants. After the death of General Kearny the battle was conducted to the con clusion with great bravery and skill by General Birney, his second in command. The retreat of the whole Federal army from Centreville to Fairfax was resumed on Monday night, September 1st. The Rebels followed, and on Tuesday morning again took possession of their old line of intrenchments, from which they had so haughtily threatened Washington during the preceding winter, and defied the advance of the Federal armies. During September 2d the retreat was continued ; and on the 3d the ignominious boast might again have been made with truth, that the grand armies of Virginia and the Potomac had arrived safely back again in their former quarters, protected by the thirty forts which frowned so fiercely around the Federal capital. The wounded in the preceding battles had all been brought away with them, in immense caravans of ambulances and wagons, which drew their sluggish length for miles along the road from Fairfax to Alexandria. The retreat was made without much order. The immense exertions through which the commanding officers had passed during the preceding fifteen days, in which as many different engagements of more or less importance had taken place, had so completely overcome them 21 322 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. that they were scarcely able to enforce discipline, or exercise any control over their brave but broken and disheartened troops. Thus ended the campaign of General Pope in Virginia. It was the most disastrous to the Federal cause which had yet occurred. The losses suffered were very great ; though the precise extent can only be conjec tured. It is probable that during all the contests which took place while General Pope held the command, they amounted to eight thousand killed, twenty thousand wounded and missing. The chief cause of the disasters which occurred was the fact, that the army of the Potomac under McClellan was not combined with the army of Virginia, in time to meet and overpower the enemy.* One of the chief disasters connected with these events was the death of General Philip Kearny. This officer had won for himself a high reputa tion. His loss at that crisis was a national calamity. He had earned by his unrivalled heroism and romantic boldness the distinction of being regarded as the Ney or the Lannes of the armies of the Union. He was a stranger to fear, and in every engagement he was to be seen, moving with grand and majestic energy, in the thickest and fiercest of the combat. So well had the Rebel generals and soldiers learned to recognize his per son and his spirit, that they usually designated him by the expressive sobriquet of the " one-armed devil." He served with distinction during the Mexican war, with the rank of major, and lost an arm in one of its bloodiest battles. He had subsequently spent some years in Europe, and had borne a distinguished part as a volunteer in the French army in Alge ria, the Crimea, and at Solferino. In 1861, he was the thirteenth on the roll of two hundred brigadier-generals who were rapidly appointed. It was but a few weeks before his death that his services and merits were tardily remembered, and he received the rank of major-general. He was the favorite warrior of New Jersey, and led the gallant troops of that patriotic State " to glory or the grave," in the memorable battles of the Peninsula, at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, White Oak swamp, * General Halleck, in his official report to the War Department, of December 2d, 1862, said: "I repeatedly urged upon General McClellan the necessity of promptly moving his army, so as to form a junction with that of General Pope. The evacua tion of Harrison s Landing was not commenced till the 14th, eleven days after it was ordered." " Had the army of the Potomac arrived a few days earlier, the Rebel army could have been easily defeated, and perhaps detroyed." In connection with this statement it may be proper to add the following extract from the letter sent by General Halleck to Pope, which indicates the very just estimate which he had formed of the services of the latter. It was dated, " Washington, August 31st, 1862, 11 A. M. Major General Pope: My dear General: You have done nobly. Don t yield another inch if you can avoid it. All reserves are being sent forward ; 1 am doing all in my power for you and your noble army. God bless you and it. Send me news more often if possible. H. W. Halleck." See "Pope s Campaign in Virginia, its Policy and Results, frc. By a General Officer," p. 30. SKETCH OF GENERAL STEVENS. 323 Cross Roads, and Malvern Hill. He was, as all uch men are apt to be, frank, bold, and generous in his temper; intense in his attachments and in his hatreds; but usually just and equitable in his estimate of others. Equally remarkable, though very dissimilar, was the character of Gen eral Isaac Ingalls Stevens, who also fell at Chantilly. He was a native of Massachusetts. When he graduated at West Point, in 1839, he was not only at the head of the best class which had ever graduated there, but so great was his superiority to all his classmates, that there were fifteen de grees in the scale of merit between himself and the first cadet below him. He served with distinction in the Mexican war. He was breveted cap tain for gallant and meritorious conduct at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec. His bravery at the city of Mexico, in the storming of the San Cosme gate, procured him the brevet of major. His eminent scientific abilities were afterward employed by the Government in conducting the survey of the route for the Northern Pacific railroad. President Pierce appointed him Governor of Washington Territory ; and he subsequently represented that Territory in Congress. He was absent in his distant Pacific home when, the Rebellion commenced. He immediately started for the Federal capital, travelled thousands of miles by land and sea, ar rived at the period of the first battle of Manassas, and tendered his ser vices to the Government. He was placed in command of the seventy- ninth New York regiment, whose colonel, Cameron, had fallen on that disastrous field. He subsequently accompanied General Sherman to South Carolina, and participated in the conflicts which took place around Port Royal. He was, at a later period, transferred to North Carolina, whence he returned with General Reno to the army of Virginia. His character was peculiar. He also was ignorant of the emotion of fear ; but he was in many respects the opposite of the impetuous, bold, and reckless Kearny. He was quiet and gentle in demeanor, reticent and reserved in speech, thoughtful and prudent in action, scientific and masterly in his profes sional knowledge, firm, heroic, and sagacious on the battle-field. After the return of the army of Virginia within the works at Wash ington, General Pope resigned his command, and requested to be trans ferred to some other post of duty. He was immediately appointed to the command of the Department of the Northwest, within whose jurisdiction that territory lay which had recently been afflicted by the sanguinary cruelties of the revolted Indian tribes. Before leaving Washington, how ever, he felt it his duty to prefer charges against several of the officers who had received and disobeyed his orders during the engagement near Manassas. The chief of these was Fitz John Porter, to whose neglect or perfidy he charged the misfortunes and defeats which had been suffered by the Federal army. The chief charge which he preferred against that officer, and which was investigated at a later period by a court-martial convened at Washington for that purpose, was, that he had refused to 324 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. march against the enemy, and to unite his troops with that portion of the Federal forces, under Hooker at Kettle Run, on the 28th of August, though General Pope had despatched him repeated and distinct orders so to do. It was also clearly proved at the trial, that General Porter entertained a personal hostility to Pope; that he had severely censured his dispositions for the campaign ; and that he had sent telegrams to his friends in Wash ington, ridiculing the orders and the management of that general. The evidence produced upon this trial modified very essentially the opinion which the nation had entertained in regard to the merits and services of General Pope ; and convinced them that the failure of the operations which he conducted, was to be attributed, not so much to any incapacity or neglect of his own, as to the inefficiency and perfidy of some of those who held command under him. After a thorough investigation of the facts in the case, the court, of which General Hunter was the president, and Mr. Holt the judge-advo cate, rendered a verdict, finding General Porter guilty of all the charges preferred against him ; and intimating that, to his neglect and disobedi ence of orders, the disasters of the campaign of General Pope were chiefly attributable. His finding was approved by the President on the 21st of January, 1863, and General Porter was cashiered and dismissed from the service, and forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit under the Government of the United States. BATTLE OF BATON ROUGE. 325 CHAPTER XXIX. BATTLE OF BATON ROUOK SITUATION OP TEE PLACE PEDERAL TROOPS POSTED THERE MOVEMENTS OF GENERAL BRECKINRIDGK INCIDENTS OF THE ENOAOEMENT DEATH OF GEN ERAL WILLIAMS ASSISTANCE OF THE FEDERAL GUNBOATS FINAL DEFEAT AND REPULSE OF THE REBELS THE REBEL RAM ARKANSAS ITS DESTRUCTION INDIAN MURDERS AND DEVASTATIONS IN MINNESOTA CAUSES WHICH LED TO THEM INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH THEM THEIR SUPPRESSION AND PUNISHMENT GENERAL 8IBLEY BATTLB FOUGHT NKAR RICHMOND, KENTUCKY FEDERAL TROOPS ENGAGED FEDERAL ADVANTAGE FEDERAL RE PULSE UNION TROOPS ARE RE-FORMED IN LINE OF BATTLE THREE TIMES GENERAL NELSON FEDERAL LOSSES BATTLE AT TAZEWELL EXPEDITION OF COLONEL ELLET ON THE MIS SISSIPPI AND UP THE YAZOO CAPTURE OF THE TRANSPORT FAIR PLAY RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION BATTLE NEAR DENMARK, TENNESSEE INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT HEROISM OF CAPTAIN FRISBIE FEDERAL VICTORY APPREHENSIONS OF AN INVASION OF OHIO BY THE REBELS PROCLAMATION OF GOVERNOR TOD PREPARATIONS MADE TO RECEIVE THE ENEMY GENERAL LEWIS WALLACE RETREAT OF THE REBELS TERMINATION OF THE POPULAR EXCITEMENT SUMMARY OF UNIMPORTANT EVENTS IN AUGUST, 1862. WHILE these important events were transpiring in the vicinity of Washington, the champions and the enemies of the Federal Union were active in other portions of the country ; and hostilities were carried on at various points with unremitting energy. On the 5th of August, 1862, a spirited engagement took place at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in which the Rebel forces were commanded by John C. Breckinridge. This town is situated on the first high bluff which exists on the banks of the Mississippi above its mouth. It stretches along the margin of the river; and in its rear, a number of Federal troops had been stationed, commanded by General Williams. These troops consisted of the twenty-first Indiana, fourteenth Maine, the seventh Vermont, the sixth battery, the thirteenth Massachusetts, the fourth Wisconsin, the ninth Connecticut, and the sixth Michigan. But among all these regiments there were not more than twenty-five hundred effective men. The posses sion of Baton Rouge was of importance to the contending parties, inas much as it controlled the navigation of that portion of the Mississippi. The Rebel forces sent to assault it were detached from those which occu pied and defended Yicksburg. These were about five thousand in number, and when they approached Baton Rouge, before dawn on the 5th, a mistake occurred on their part which inflicted upon them a serious calamity. As their column was advancing three miles from the town, they were suddenly assailed by a volley of musketry from an adjoining field of sugar cane, by which a number were slain and wounded. Among the former of these, was Alexander H. Todd, whose relationship to Mr. Lin coln gave him a notoriety which delivered him from an otherwise inevi- 326 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. table oblivion. Cobb s Kentucky battery was also disabled, and their gun- carriages broken. This deadly salute came from the allies of the Rebel forces. As soon as order was restored, the latter continued to advance, and having arrived in the vicinity of the Federal forces, their line of battle was formed. Their object soon became apparent. It was to concentrate their fire upon the centre of the Federal lines where the Indiana regiment was posted. This regiment made a brave resistance; but though the fourteenth Maine soon came to their assistance, both were eventually compelled to give way and retire from their position. The Rebels pur sued their advantage, and advanced into a portion of the Federal camp which had thus been evacuated. This they instantly plundered and burned. They also obtained possession of a single gun of Everett s battery. But the victors were destined to experience a warm reception. The sixth Michigan now opened upon them with musketry and artillery, and as sisted by the Indiana troops who had rallied, charged upon the foe, ex pelled them from the camp which they had gained, and recovered the lost cannon. It was during this brilliant charge that General Williams was slain. He received a musket ball in the breast while at the head of his troops, and as he was carried to the rear, he cheered on his men to victory with his expiring breath. In the centre, the success against the enemy was at this moment complete. Being repulsed at this point, the attack of the Rebels was then directed against the sixth Michigan, who had re sumed their first position. The enemy attempted to scale a high picket- fence which intercepted them. This intention was opposed for some time with desperate determination by one of the companies of this regiment, who deployed along the fence, and running their muskets through the openings of the pickets, fired in the faces of the enemy. The latter quickly returned the assault in the same manner ; and thus the combatants were fighting on opposite sides of the fence and within arm s-length of each other. At length the Rebels succeeded in tearing down the pickets, and the combat continued until they were driven back. After the battle had progressed an hour, a portion of the enemy were discovered approaching the right wing of the Federals, for the purpose of flanking it. The latter reserved their fire until the Rebels came within fifty paces. Both sides then commenced an exchange of musketry which was very destructive. The Federals were driven back into a ditch, but they quickly rallied; a portion of the sixth Michigan came to their aid, and they charged upon the enemy in return. Panic-stricken at this sud den reverse, the Rebels retreated, abandoning their flag, a piece of artillery, and some prisoners. Meanwhile, along other portions of the line the battle raged with fury. Nim s battery, supported by the thirtieth Massa chusetts, was charged upon three times successively, and as often they repulsed the enemy with immense slaughter. Everett s battery was also worked with great effect. After the death of General Williams, Colonel DESTRUCTION OF THE RAM ARKANSAS. 327 Cahill took command, and displayed superior skill and energy in the conduct of the engagement. The Rebels had confidently anticipated the co-operation of the ram Arkansas during the battle. In this expectation they were disappointed. But they suffered from an assault which they had not apprehended. After the battle had continued from four in the morning until noon, the Federal gunboats Essex, Sumter, and Kineo, shelled the enemy in the woods in which they were ensconced, and effectually prevented them from advancing farther in their attack upon the Federal troops. The latter had retreated within the reach of the protection of these valuable allies, and doubtless owed their subsequent safety and escape from the overwhelming masses of the enemy to their proximity and their interposition. When Breck- inridge discovered the efficiency of the Federal gunboats, he gave the order for a general retreat from the scene of conflict. His attack proved a total failure. He was unable to drive the Federal troops from the town, or to obtain possession of it. Among the Rebel slain, was Brigadier-Gen eral Clarke. The losses on both sides were heavy. That of the Federal troops was about two hundred and fifty killed, six hundred wounded. That of the Rebels was much greater, in consequence of the much greater efficiency of the Federal batteries. The fate of the ram Arkansas was singular. She left Vicksburg at two o clock on the morning of Sunday, August 3d, and had ample time to reach Baton Rouge in time to assist the Rebel forces. But when she arrived within fifteen miles of Baton Rouge her starboard engine broke down, and she suffered other derangements in her machinery, which for bade her farther progress, and wholly unfitted her to confront the Federal gunboats, which were already at Baton Rouge. The Arkansas, however, drifted helplessly down the stream, and finally grounded. On the 6th of August, after the battle, the Federal gunboats steamed up the river, and at nine o clock came within view of the Rebel ram. They instantly opened upon their foe, who responded from her rear guns. But as she was in a comparatively harmless and useless condition, her chief officer Lieutenant Stevens, ordered her crew to abandon her, and to escape to the shore. After this had been done, he prepared to blow her up. Soon the match was applied, a tremendous explosion took place, and the vessel was shattered to fragments. Thus ended the career of the famous ram Arkan sas. Commodore W. D. Porter was the commodore of the Federal flotilla which rendered such efficient service to the land forces in the defence of Baton Rouge, without whose aid the enemy would unquestionably have achieved a victory, and obtained possession of the place. After a long period of propitious peace and harmony had existed be tween the citizens of the United States and the Indian tribes who inhabit the remote western frontier, the horrors of civil war were introduced by the savages in August, 1862, and deeds of blood were perpetrated, com- 328 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. pared with which the worst excesses of civilized warfare appear insignifi cant. This insurrection of the Indians extended along the western border of Minnesota, from Fort Ripley to the southern boundary of the State. Two causes, doubtless, contributed to its occurrence. The most potent of these was the neglect of the Federal Government, or of its agents, to pay the sums of money due them, according to the stipulations existing between the two races, in exchange for their bartered territories ; together with the outrageous frauds which the agents of the Government had con tinually practised upon them. During a number of years, these agents had cheated the Sioux and Chippewas in the most scandalous manner. A single incident will illustrate the truth of this accusation. Out of the seventy -five thousand dollars which Congress had appropriated for the education of the Sioux, not five thousand dollars reached its intended and legitimate destination.* The other cause which led to this outbreak of savage ferocity was the influence exerted by a number of emissaries of the Rebel government, who represented that the Federal Union had fallen into chaos, and that the propitious hour of their deliverance and revenge had at length arrived. The most terrible scenes of cruelty, on the part of the savages, occurred at the Upper and Lower Sioux agencies, at New Ulm, and at Fort Ridgley. But the slaughter was not confined to these localities. Through out the whole country already designated, farm-houses were attacked, plundered, and burned, and their inmates murdered. No mercy was shown to sex or age. Furious bands of savages raged through the land, carrying desolation and ruin with them, and hundreds of estimable and innocent citizens were made to suffer calamities which had been prompted by the knaveries of government agents, and the instigations of Rebel emissaries. At New Ulm, an attack was made by two hundred mounted Indians upon the inhabitants of the village, a portion of which they burned. During a series of assaults which they made, several hundred were slain and wounded. The citizens barricaded the streets, and made such defence as they were able against their inhuman foes ; but, had not reinforcements opportunely arrived, consisting of men and arms from the State government at St. Paul, the whole town would have been ultimately destroyed, and its inhabitants murdered. The roads which led from New Ulm to the several Sioux agencies were lined with the bodies of men, women, and children, who had been overtaken in their efforts to escape the tomahawks and rifles of the ruthless foe, and murdered. .The several forts which had been erected in that vicinity were attacked. On the 20th of August, a horde of Indians appeared near Fort Ripley, which was de fended by one hundred Federal troops. It was evidently their intention * A certain Indian agent is well known to have affirmed publicly that his office was worth a hundred thousand dollars. 1 INDIAN MURDERS AND DEVASTATIONS IN MINNESOTA. 329 to make an assault upon the barracks, though they approached the works warily, under cover of the woods and ravines. After driving in the pickets, they discharged a volley upon a detachment which was stationed at one of the northern entrances. Lieutenant Sheehan, who commanded the fort, responded with musketry Sergeant Jones, who had charge of several six-pound mountain howitzers, sent a shell, which exploded among the crowd of the enemy, and killed a number of them. The In dians, who seemed to be nearly one thousand in number, then surrounded the fort, and continued to pour a flood of rifle and musket-balls into every point which was assailable. The garrison and the guns of the fort re sponded briskly, and the contest was continued with unremitting fury, until the darkness of night spread over the scene. The skill and fortitude exhibited by Lieutenant Sheehan, in the defence of the fort, deserve the highest praise, and preserved the lives of hundreds who had taken refuge within its walls. A second attack was made by a numerous body of Indians, on New Ulm, on the 23d of August. The place was then defended by Captain Flandreau, with a small number of troops. The savages made a desperate attack upon the town. They were met with fortitude by the soldiers, and such of the inhabitants as were furnished with arms, who fired from the houses upon the enemy when they charged through the streets. Some of them were on foot, and some on ponies. The conflict continued till dark, and many of the buildings in the town were burned. On the fol lowing morning, the attack was renewed, and was continued until noon. At that time a detachment of a hundred and fifty volunteers arrived, under command of Captain Julian Cox, who had been sent by Colonel Sibley to the relief of the town. This reinforcement induced the Indians to suspend their attack, and retire. But the Union officers thought it wiser that the inhabitants should evacuate the place, rather than endure the horrors of further assault and persecution by the savages. Accord ingly, preparations were made to transport two thousand people, including the sick and wounded, to a safer asylum. At daylight, the barricades were broken open, and a train of one hundred and fifty wagons, filled with the sick and wounded, women and children, commenced their peril ous march through a country in which the treacherous and bloodthirsty savages constantly hovered around them. Their journey was thirty miles in length. They were escorted through the whole distance by the troops under Captain Flandreau s command, and reached their destination in safety. But though they escaped with their lives, they were stripped of almost every thing they possessed. In a single day, hundreds who had been in opulent or comfortable circumstances were rendered destitute and miserable. Similar scenes occurred at other places, the horrid details of which may well be spared. During a number of weeks, terror and desolation reigned 330 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. throughout the country, and an immense number of murders and other outrages were committed, attended with every circumstance to aggravate their atrocity which the human mind can conceive. During their pro gress the State government had not been idle. Governor Ramsey issued a proclamation, calling upon the militia of the valley of the Minnesota, nnd the counties adjoining the frontier, to arm and equip themselves, :nd unite with the expedition which, under Colonel Sibley, was about to move up the Minnesota river, to the scene of hostilities. He placed a regiment of infantry, comprising a thousand men, with three hundred cavalry, under the orders of that officer, which force was to be addi tional to the volunteers who might tender their services. This call received a ready response, and a large number of armed citi zens joined the expedition, which at length began its march from Fort Ridgley, on the 19th of September. On the 22d, Colonel Sibley reached Wood Lake, near Yellow Medicine. During his progress, he saw various groups of savages, who hovered around his column, acting in the capacity of spies to the main body. On the morning of the 23d the camp of the Union troops was attacked by three hundred Indians, who rushed forward suddenty, sounding their savage war-whoops. This body was met by a detachment under Lieutenant Gorman and Major Welch, who, after a furious conflict with musketry, repulsed them. While this was going on another portion of the Indian force passed through a ravine <>n the right, with the intention of making an attack on the flank. The third regiment, with a portion of the seventh, was ordered by Colonel Sibley to confront these savages. Lieutenant-Colonel Marshal commanded these troops, and after a few volleys of musketry, assisted by one six- ]> muder, cleared the ravine, and compelled the savages to retire. An attack was also made by the Indians upon the extreme left of the camp. This was also repulsed after a vigorous contest by the troops under Major McLaren. The Indians, after the battle had raged two hours, retired at nil points, having suffered a complete defeat. Their killed were thirty in number, their wounded two hundred. After the battle, they sent a flag of truce to the commanding officer, stating that a portion of the attacking force desired peace, as they were not sufficiently strong to fight the Union troops. Colonel Sibley replied that it would be time enough to talk of pence, after they had released the numerous captives they had taken, and h;nl treated with the utmost barbarity. The savages were commanded in this battle by a notorious and desperate brave, named Little Crow. The defeat which they suffered at Yellow Medicine produced a decisive eft ect upon their fortitude. Though other collisions of minor consequence subsequently occurred between them and the Federal forces, they were eventually overpowered ; the insurrection was crushed ; a large number of prisoners were taken, including some of their most ferocious warriors, whose atrocities richly deserved the penalty of death ; and tranquillity BATTLE NEAR RICHMOND, KENTUCKY. 331 was again restored to a region which had been desolated by all the horrors of the most inhuman and savage warfare. On the 30th of August, 1862, a desperate conflict took place at Rodgers- ville, six miles from Richmond, Kentucky, between the Federal and Rebel forces, which resulted in a complete and disgraceful overthrow to the champions of the Union. The Federal troops consisted of the ninety- fifth Ohio, the twelfth, sixteenth, sixty-sixth, sixty-ninth, and seventy-first Indiana, the eighteenth Kentucky, together with two regiments of cavalry, under Colonel Metcalf, and nine field-pieces. These troops amounted to about eight thousand men, and were commanded by General M. D. Manson. The Rebel forces numbered fifteen thousand, and were under the orders of General Kirby Smith. On the day preceding the battle, the Union pickets were driven in from Big Hill, ten miles south of Richmond. General Manson then attacked the Rebels, with a portion of his men, and gained a decided advantage. After this skirmish, he moved his troops to Rodgersville and halted for the night, waiting for the approach of the enemy. When the next day dawned, the pickets of the Rebels were encountered. The line of battle was soon formed, and after some partial and preliminary operations, the engagement became general between all the forces. At first the fortune of the day seemed in favor of the Federals. The sixty-ninth Indiana, commanded by Colonel Korf, being ordered to support the troops on the left, who were heavily pressed, executed the movement with great gallantry. They assailed the enemy with spirit, and drove them back. But all their heroism was vain. The immense superiority in numbers which the enemy possessed, compelled the sixty- ninth to give way. The panic now spread from regiment to regiment. Lieutenant-Colonel Topping was killed. Major Conkling also fell. The fire and fury of the Rebels became resistless, and a general rout ensued. The chase was continued two miles and a-half. General Manson then succeeded in reforming his men in line of battle, and renewed the engage ment. His artillery was posted on his right and left wings, and his troops fought with some steadiness, though with much irregularity and confusion. This circumstance resulted from the fact that they were nearly all raw recruits, who had scarcely borne arms a month. They soon became panic- stricken, again broke, and fled in the utmost disorder toward Richmond. Before reaching that town, they were met by Major-General Nelson, who was approaching from Lexington. He endeavored to stem the ignomini ous tide ; succeeded, with the assistance of the officers, in again rallying the fugitives; and for the third time they were placed in line of battle. But it was now ascertained that the ammunition of the artillery was ex hausted. During the flight, the immense number of stragglers, deserters, and captives, had reduced the Federal force to about three thousand men. These were now very nearly surrounded by the enemy. They again fled in greater disorder than before. It was necessary for them to cut their 332 THE CIVIL WAK IN THE UNITED STATES. way through a portion of the Rebel host, to escape capture. In effecting this operation, General Nelson was wounded by a musket-ball in the thigh ; though he afterward succeeded in reaching Lexington. The enemy pursued the Federals into Richmond, expelled them thence, and took pos session of the place before night. The broken remains of the Union force continued their flight beyond the reach of the enemy. Their loss was heavy. Their killed, wounded, and missing amounted to one third of their entire body. This defeat was one of the most overwhelming and unfortunate which had afflicted the Federal cause during the progress of the war. It was a fitting continuation of the disgraceful retreat of the troops commanded by General DeCourcy, from Tazewell to Cumberland gap, on the preceding 9th of August, where the bravery of the men was rendered wholly unavailable through the apparent incompetence of the commanding officer. The remarkable success which the arms of the Con federates had recently obtained, and the vigor with which they were able to repel the most de termined efforts of the Federal Government to crush and conquer them, inspired them with confidence and increased their audacity. The result was that they now conceived the resolution no longer to act on the defen sive, but to become themselves the invaders of the loyal territory. The Rebel leaders confidently expected to find sympathy and co-operation in Maryland. They imagined that a powerful disunion sentiment lay slum bering within the breasts of a large proportion of the population of that Stute, which only required the presence of Confederate armies in their midst, to evoke into active and resistless operation. Accordingly, that portion of their troops which had engaged Pope at Manassas, commenced to move from their position in the vicinity of Fairfax Court House, and approached the Potomac on the 5th of September. Proceeding through Leesburg they crossed at the ferries of Edwards, Conrad, Nolen, and Smith, which are situated about forty miles above Washington. In their progress they destroyed the bridge over the Monocacy. On the morning of the 6th, their advance under General Hill, reached Frederick, and took pos session of the town. They also held Point of Rocks and Poolesville. The advance of the invading force was commanded by General Jackson. Such property of the Federal Government as fell into their hands, they retained or destroyed. The property of individuals, they protected in accordance with the promise contained in the proclamation which General Lee ad dressed to the inhabitants of Maryland, when he entered the State. In that proclamation, being dated at Frederick, September 8th, 1862, he endeavored to convince the people of Maryland that they had suffered innumerable wrongs at the hands of the Federal Government ; and he tendered his services and those of his troops to assist them in recovering their inalienable rights as freemen, of which they had been ignominiously deprived. But the inhabitants of Maryland were not aware of the fact THE RP;BEL ARMY IN MARYLAND. 333 that they had endured so much ; and the pathetic story of their sufferings was an interesting and somewhat amusing novelty to them. Consequently, the Rebel commander and his army received little of that sympathy and co-operation from the citizens of the State, in the execution of their be nevolent design, which they expected. The vast majority of them regarded their proffered commiseration with contempt. Already, however, had shrewd observers apprehended that this invasion would not terminate in Maryland. The popular excitement became intense throughout the border counties of Pennsylvania. On the 10th of September, Governor Curtin issued a proclamation in which he called upon all the able-bodied men in the Commonwealth to organize military companies, and hold themselves in readiness to march against the approaching foe. This order was promptly and willingly obeyed. The several counties of the State, espe cially those near the border, were instantly alive with military activity ; the busy hum of martial preparations was heard on every hand, and a single mind seemed to animate the entire population. From Frederick, the Rebel army advanced through Middletown, Boons- borough, Williamsport, and reached Hagerstown on the 9th of September. While these forces were proceeding northward, a detachment of Federal cavalry, under General Pleasonton, were passing to their rear. These took possession of Frederick after it had been abandoned by the Rebels, for the purpose of intercepting their return. Skirmishing occurred frequently between the rear of the Rebel forces and the Federal troops. Colonel Farnsworth, on the 13th of September, charged, with the eighth Illinois cavalry, upon two regiments of the enemy, at some distance from Hagers town, by which movement he took forty prisoners. In the afternoon of that day, four squadrons of the third Indiana cavalry attacked a regiment of Rebel cavalry on the Middletowu road. The Federal loss was thirty killed and wounded ; that of the Rebels about fifty. But the wagon trains of the latter were so fiercely assailed, that they were compelled to burn a large number of them, to prevent their falling into the hands of the Federals. On the 14th, General Burnside passed through Frederick with a considerable force, in pursuit of the enemy. At this period, General McClellan had put his whole army in motion, except so much of it as was necessary for the defence of Washington, and was approaching the enemy near Hagerstown. This circumstance, together with the disgust and dis appointment of the Rebel generals at the unexpected measure of loyalty which they encountered among the citizens of Maryland, induced them, at this moment, to abandon any design to extend their invasion into Pennsylvania, which they might have entertained. General Lee, therefore, suddenly returned, with the intention of recrossing the Potomac at Wil liamsport and Harper s Ferry. But General McClellan had now succeeded in placing his forces in such a position as to intercept the purposed retreat. It was impossible for the enemy to escape without a battle. The left wing 334 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of the Federal army pursued a part of the Rebel forces to South Mountain, where a desperate engagement was fought on the 14th of September, to be followed by the still more important conflict of Antietam. But before we proceed to narrate the details of these engagements, we will briefly direct our attention to several events which occurred elsewhere, and which require to be noticed here, in their chronological order. On the 16th of August, Colonel .Ellet, who commanded the Federal ram fleet on the Mississippi, stationed at Helena, Arkansas, conducted a spirited expedition down the river, consisting of seven rams and three gunboats. The object of this expedition, was to encounter the flotilla of the enemy, which might be cruising in those waters, especially to meet the Star of the West, which the Rebels had captured and fitted up as a gunboat; and, if possible, by some spirited achievement, to break the monotony and inactivity which had for some time prevailed in the opera tions of the Federal officers in that region. Nothing of importance occurred in the passage down the stream, until at Milliken s Bend they met the Rebel transport Fair Play. She had on board a cargo of five thousand stand of arms, with a large amount of ammunition, provisions, and other property, which were to be disembarked at Little Rock. The presence of the Federal boats was entirely unex pected ; and when surrounded by so numerous and powerful an armament, resistance was impossible. She became an easy yet valuable prey. From this point, the land forces on board the flotilla were sent eight miles inland, along the Yicksburg and Shreveport railroad, to Richmond station, where they destroyed the depot, a number of cars, and a quantity of sugar. Returning to the vessels, the latter then fell down the river as far as the mouth of the Yazoo. They then steered up that narrow and lonely stream, to Haines Landing, where some Rebel earthworks had been erected. The Benton approached these works and commenced to shell them. The reverberation of the guns awakened the unfamiliar echoes of that desolate and deserted land for miles around, and compelled the few Rebel troops and citizens who remained, to flee in hot haste over the hills. The works were taken without difficulty ; and among their contents, were two forty- two pounders, two thirty-two pounders, one brass twenty pounder, one brass twelve pounder, and a quantity of ammunition. The quarters of the officers were plundered, a few buildings were burned, and the expedi tion then proceeded up the Yazoo as far as Liverpool. Not finding any vessels of the enemy in that stream, as far as the Federal boats were able to proceed, they returned. The gunboat Bragg, and the ram Monarch, were left at the mouth of the Yazoo, to watch the operations of the enemy. The expedition landed its troops at Greenville, and chased a small body of Rebels who had assembled there several miles inland. It then returned bo Helena. Such were the chief incidents of the brief and rapid excursion made by Colonel Ellet, which, after the recent failure of the Federal fleet FEDERAL VICTORY NEAR DENMARK, TENNESSEE. -j&j against the ram Arkansas, as already narrated, served to diminish the exultation of the Rebels, and recover the lost renown of the Union forces in that vicinity. On the 4th of September, 1862, a battle took place at Brittan s Lane, near Denmark, Tennessee, in which a decided victory was achieved by the Federals. The troops engaged consisted of six Rebel regiments of infantry and one of cavalry, commanded by General Armstrong, num bering nearly four thousand men, and a single regiment of Federal in fantry from Illinois, commanded by Colonel Dennis. The skirmishers of both parties first came in contact, and the approach of the Rebel host was quickly afterward discovered. Colonel Dennis immediately formed his men in line of battle, in a favorable position on a ridge. A heavy cloud of dust only indicated as yet the position of the foe, and Captain Foster was sent out with his cavalry to ascertain their movements more accurately. He soon encountered them, approaching rapidly and with great confidence, with the apparent determination of riding over and exterminating the small band of heroes opposed to them. They com menced to discharge their muskets while out of range, and their shots fell harmlessly. The Federals reserved their fire until the disorderly mass came close upon them. They then sent a well directed volley into the cavalry in advance, which instantly emptied many saddles. The Rebels fell back in the utmost disorder, but being soon rallied, they again advanced to the attack. They charged upon the whole Federal line, at the same time making a movement upon both flanks. Their intention was to surround and crush an enemy so much inferior in numbers to them selves. A very desperate hand- to-hand combat ensued. The Federal troops fought with great determination and heroism ; but numbers prevailed, and the Rebels succeeded in capturing the Federal cannon and transportation train. At this moment a portion of the thirtieth Illinois, which had not yet been engaged, came into action, fell upon the disor dered foe, and after another furious clash of arms the Rebels were re pulsed. A pause then ensued. The enemy reformed their lines at a distance, and at length again came forward. The Federals reserved their fire as before until the enemy were close upon them, when they discharged a volley which effectually checked their advance. After a time, however, they gained possession of a hill on the Federal right. It became impor tant that they should be dislodged from this position, and Captain Frisbie called out for volunteers to follow him to the charge against them. A large number responded, and rushed forward with him. The foe did not await the onslaught, but fled from their position. In the meanwhile, the enemy had continued their attack upon the centre and left wing of the Federals. Thrice they assaulted the Federal lines, and thrice were they repulsed. After a desperate battle of four hours duration, the Rebels retreated at all points, and left the Union troops in full possession of the 336 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. field. Their loss was heavy. They left a hundred and eleven dead be hind them. Their wounded were about four hundred. The Federal loss was thirty killed, a hundred and twenty wounded. The heroism and resolution exhibited by the Union soldiers in this battle were remark able; and the issue of the conflict against such an immense preponder ance of numbers, covered them with well merited distinction. At the same time that an intense excitement, not unmingled with terror, pervaded Pennsylvania at an apprehended invasion by the Rebel armies, a similar state of public mind existed, produced by the same cause, in Ohio. It became known to the citizens of that State during the month of August, 1862, that some of the Confederate generals in Kentucky contemplated such a movement ; and soon the terrors which arose from this fact were increased by authentic information which was received, to the effect that a powerful army, led by Generals Kirby Smith and Heth, were steadily advancing to the attack and capture of Cincinnati. The same scenes were immediately exhibited in Ohio which had been presented in Pennsylvania. Governor Tod issued a proclamation, dated September 2d, setting forth that the southern border of the State was then threatened with invasion; and recommending that the loyal citizens of the river counties should organize military companies to assist in re pelling the common foe. General Lewis Wallace was placed in command of all the Federal troops assembled at Cincinnati. The male inhabitants of that city were ordered to form companies for the purpose of drilling. All business, except that of druggists, bakers, and grocers, was entirely suspended. The city was placed under martial law. Fortifications and breastwoks were thrown up in the vicinity of the town ; and in a few days an enthusiastic army of thirty thousand men, with formidable de fences, had been extemporized to resist the approaching enemy, with a degree of celerity and efficiency which could be seen in no other country on the globe. An attitude of defiance was assumed, which, together with the admirable preparations which were thus made, soon cooled the ardor of the enemy. They had doubtless anticipated an easy conquest. But on the llth of September, at night, General Kirby Smith, who had ad vanced as far as Florence, gave the order to his troops to retreat. The enemy retired from the vicinity of their intended conquest without an assault ; the volunteer defenders of the Queen City returned to their peace ful homes; business was resumed; and one of the most sudden and violent popular paroxysms which this war, so prolific in surprise and excitements, had yet produced, vanished from existence as rapidly as it had arisen. In addition to the leading events of the war, which occurred during the month of August, 1862, which we have narrated at length, other in cidents of inferior consequence, which took place during that month, and may be briefly alluded to, were the following: On the 2d, there was a SUMMARY OF EVENTS IN AUGUST, 1862. 337 skirmish on the Rapidan, Virginia. On the 3d, the Rebel guerrillas took possession of Alexandria, Missouri. On the 4th, skirmishes took place at Forsythe, Missouri, and at Sparta and Memphis, in Tennessee. On the 7th, conflicts took place near Helena, Arkansas, and Kirksville, Missouri. On the llth, a fight occurred at Clarendon, Arkansas, and the Union troops at Independence, Missouri, surrendered to the Confederates. On the* 14th, a combat between guerrillas occurred in Charleston county, Alabama, and the Union troops occupied Gallatin, Tennessee. On the 16th, the rebels took possession of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. On the 18th, they occupied Barbourville, in the same State. On the 20th, a fight took place at Edgefield Junction, Tennessee. On the 24th, Bayou Sara, in Louisiana, was shelled. On the 25th, the Rebels retreated from Lexing ton, Missouri; and were severely repulsed at Fort Donelson. On the 27th, a skirmish took place at Greenville, Mississippi. On the 28th, the Federal mortar fleet made a futile attack on Vicksburg. On the 30th. a fight occurred at Bolivar, Tennessee, and at Buckhannon, Virginia. On the 31st, conflicts took place at Meadow station and Middletown, Ten nessee, and near Centreville, Virginia. 22 338 THE CIVIL WAR IN TIIK UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXX. THE BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN POSITION OF TIJK COMBATANTS TROOPS OF OENRRAL 1:1 N<> INCIDENTS OF THK ENGAGEMENT HEROISM OF GENERAL HOOKER VICTORY OF THE FEDERAL ARMY KKTRKAT OF TIIK REBELS DEATH OF OKNKRAL RENO SKETCH OF HI* CAREER ATTACK OF THE REBELS ON HARPER S FERRY FORCES COMMANDED BY COLONEL MILKS INCIDENTS OF TIIK BOMBARDMENT SURRENDER OF THK WORKS TO THE KNKMY- --DEATH OF COLONEL MILES RETREAT OF THK REBELS TOWARD THK POTOMAC THE GREAT BATTLE OF ANTIETAM POSITIONS ASSIGNED THE FEDERAL FORCES DESPERATK FIGHTING OF HOOKER S DIVISION INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE ON THE RIGHT WING OPERA TIONS OF BURNSIDE ON THE LEFT EVENTS IN THE FEDERAL CENTRE CONCLUSION OF THK KNOAGKMKNT RETREAT OF THE REBEL ARMY ACROSS THE POTOMAC SKETCHES OF GEN- EKALS HOOKER AND SUMNER BATTLK AT MUMFORDVILLE, KENTUCKY ITS RESULTS FEDERAL TROOPS ENGAGED BATTLE AT WASHINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA THE REBELS DR- FEATED EXPLOSION OF THE GUNBOAT PICKET CIVIL ASPECTS OF THE WAR PRESIDENT LINCOLN S PROCLAMATION OF SEPTEMBER, 22o, 1862 ITS CONTENTS ITS INFLUENCE UPON SLAVERY AND UPON THK REBEL GOVERNMENT MR. LINCOLN SUSPENDS THK HABEAS CORPUS AOT, ON 8KPTKMBKR 24TH, 1862. THK Confederate forces, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, had ivnched the range of mountains known as the Blue Ridge, in the vicinity of Middletown, Maryland, in their flight toward the Potomac, when they were overtaken by the army under General McClellan. Then ensued the battle of South Mountain, on the 14th of September, 1862. The enemy selected their position with their usual skill, on the sides and summit of this portion of the Blue Ridge, and on both sides of a gap through which the turnpike from Middletown to Ilagerstown passed. The Federal army being posted in the ground below, fought with some disadvantage, and even as they advanced and drove back the foe, during the progress of the day, they continued to labor under the same misfortune. The Rebels seemed eager for the encounter. They opened their fire at seven o clock in the morning. Robinson s battery of four light field-pieces responded to the salute. It was not, however, until the division of General Cox advanced toward them, that they seriously commenced the work of the day. Gradually, battery after battery opened their fires from different points along the spurs and sides of the mountain, where they had been stationed This operation called out the response of the guns of the several bat teries commanded by Ilaynes and Cook. The latter posted his guns in advance, in a somewhat exposed position. Scarcely had he opened his fire when his cannoniers were assailed by a tremendous volley of musketry from infantry concealed in the brushwood, which was several times re peated with marvelous rapidity. This assault overpowered the men with a sudden panic, the result of which was that they retreated from their guns, leaving them exposed to the enemy. Two companies of THE BATTLE OP SOUTH MOUNTAIN. 339 cavalry, who had beon placed as a support to this battery, followed their example, and plunged into a disgraceful retreat, rushing through the lines of infantry stationed in the rear. At the same time the Rebels advanced to take possession of the abandoned artillery. The twenty-third Ohio and one hundredth Pennsylvania regiments were ordered forward to resist this attempt. A desperate combat then ensued around the guns. While the issue yet remained undecided, and after a number had fallen on both sides, the forty-fifth New York came to the assistance of the Federals. After a furious resistance, the Rebels were driven away from the guns, and retreated in confusion to their main lines. The victors intensified the bitterness of their defeat by filling the air with their exultant cheers. After this incident, the battle was continued for two hours by the artil lery of both armies alone. Several times the enemy changed the position of their chief batteries, but at the expiration of the time named, they were all silenced. At two o clock, the front of General Hooker s division reached the scene of conflict, to reinforce the troops of General Reno, which had thus far been those engaged. At three o clock the whole line of battle was formed from right to left. The first brigade of Rickett s division occupied the extreme right. The Pennsylvania Reserves came next. The second regiment of United States sharpshooters were posted near the Middletown turnpike. Then came the remainder of Rickett s division ; then General King s division. General Reno s troops occupied the extreme left, about two miles distant from the opposite end of the line. The batteries were distributed at proper intervals, according to the varying nature of -the ground. As soon as this arrangement was completed, the Federal right, centre, and left, commenced to advance against the enemy. The latter received them as they approached with discharges of artillery. But their shells for the most part passed over the heads of the Federal troops harmlessly. The vast line of advancing troops steadily approached nearer and nearer to the position of the foe. The right wing, under Rickett, first became closely engaged. A vigorous fire of musketry from both sides ensued. In this part of the action the gallant Pennsylvania Reserves specially distin guished themselves by their coolness and their fortitude. Thirty minutes were occupied by the action here, the result of which was that the Con federates were forced back from their position, and driven up the mountain to its summit. In accomplishing this result General Hooker displayed his superior qualities as a commander, and assisted materially in gaining the victory. The troops in this part of the field moved on steadily, advancing forward and upward, pouring volley after volley into the masses of the enemy, until at last they broke and ran with precipitation to the top of the mountain. The engagement on the left was more protracted and more desperate. This continued an hour and a-half before the Rebels were driven from 340 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. their position. General Reno fought his troops here with great skill and heroism. He was slain while directing their movements, and cheering them on to victory and glory. Every foot of ground was fiercely con tested ; but the foe at last gave way, and abandoned the contest. The centre of the Federal line was the last to get into action. It advanced while the two wings were driving the Rebels over the top of the moun tain, and rendered the victory complete. At six o clock, after a battle of three hours duration, the enemy were driven over the. summit of the Blue Ridge. The Federal victors bivouacked during the night upon the airy spot which their valor had won, while the discomfited foe pursued his flight under the friendly covering of the darkness of night. The Federal loss in this battle was four hundred and thirty-three killed, eighteen hundred and six wounded, seventy-six missing. But one of the most lamentable incidents connected with it was the death of General Reno. This officer, whose services contributed so materially to the success of the Federal arms on this occasion, was a native of Virginia, but was appointed from Pennsylvania to West Point in 1842. He graduated in 1846, and was breveted second lieutenant of ordnance. He accompanied the Ameri can army to Mexico, and was present in every battle which was fought between Vera Cruz and the capital. He was breveted first lieutenant for his gallantry at Cerro Gordo. He was breveted captain for his valor at Chapultepec, where he commanded a battery, and was wounded. After the close of the Mexican war he served for six months as assistant pro fessor of mathematics at West Point. He was afterward employed in various capacities by the Government as secretary to the artillery board, on the coast survey, and in topographical and military duty in the West. He was on duty at Leaven worth, Kansas, when the Rebellion commenced. When General Burnside organized his expedition to Roanoke, he selected General Reno as one of the officers to accompany him. He distinguished himself in all the engagements which took place during the operations of that expedition. When General Burnside was ordered to join the army in Virginia, General Reno accompanied him, and commanded a division in the battles which subsequently occurred near Washington. He had already won a high place among the rising generals of his country, when the missile of death terminated his brilliant career. Nearly cotemporary with this success of the Federal arms was a reverse at Harper s Ferry, which tended very considerably to diminish the gratifi cation caused by the victory. This famous locality, which had so often been the scene of conflict and of disaster during the progress of the Rebel lion, had been entrusted to the command of Colonel Dixon H. Miles. In additional to its natural advantages, important artificial defences had re cently been erected upon it. A heavy line of earth intrenchments, protected by a deep trench in front, had been constructed on the summit of Harper s Ferry, extending from the Potomac to the Shenandoah. Earthworks had ATTACK ON HARPER S FERRY BY THE REBELS. 341 also been thrown up on "Bolivar heights, intended to protect the infantry from the musketry of the enemy. On the left of these heights, hedge in- trenchments had been interposed, which would prevent a sudden approach or a surprise from that direction. Immediately after the Rebels entered Maryland, Colonel Miles made preparations to resist any attack which might be made upon him. The troops placed under his command num bered about eleven thousand men.* The conquest of Harper s Ferry formed an important item in the programme which the enemy had adopted in reference to the recovery of Maryland. Accordingly, they made their appearance in the vicinity of the place on Monday, the 8th of September, on Maryland heights, three miles distant. They employed the ensuing week in constructing a barricade of trees four hundred yards in front of the look-out. Colonel Ford was appointed by Colonel Miles to guard the heights from the attack which was apprehended. The enemy having completed all their preparations, commenced the assault upon the position on Friday, September the 12th. They began with skirmishing, at half-past three in the afternoon, which they continued until sundown. The decisive action was expected to occur on the ensuing day. During the night, the Federal line of battle was formed three hun dred yards in front of the barricade. At seven o clock, on the following day, the Rebels commenced a vigorous onslaught upon the defenders of the place. They soon attempted to drive them from their position by several charges. But all of these were handsomely repulsed. The fighting then became general between the combatants. After a contest of one hour s duration, the Rebels were reinforced, and advanced toward the Federal lines with yells of rage and fury. They intimidated the one hundred and twenty-sixth New York regiment so completely, that they broke and fled behind the barricades. There they were rallied, principally through the exertions of Colonel Sherrill, and afterward took part in the engagement. Soon afterward the enemy succeeded in turning the left flank of the Federals, which compelled them to fall back. The Rebels themselves retired soon after, and at about four P.M. again advanced to the contest, but made no vigorous attack, and night soon put an end to * His force consisted of the twelfth New York State militia, Colonel Ward; eighty- seventh Ohio, three months regiment. Colonel Bannine ; one hundred and twenty-sixth New York, Colonel Serrill ; one hundred and eleventh New York, Colonel Segoine ; first Maryland Home Brigade, Colonel Halsby ; eightn New York cavalry. Colonel Davis ; first Maryland cavalry, Colonel Russell ; a detaclunent of first Maryland cav alry, (Home Brigade) ; two companies of fifth New York artillery, commanded by Captains McGrath and Graham; fifteenth Indiana, and one or two western batteries. All the infantry, with the exception of the three months men, were raw troops. General White retreated about this time to Martinsburg, via Harper s Ferry, leaving a portion of his command at that place. On Thursday evening, being obliged to evacuate Martinsburg, in consequence of the approach of "Stonewall" Jackson, the remainder of General White s brigade fell back to the ferry. 342 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the contest. It was evident that, unless reinforcements arrived to the Federals, the following day would witness their defeat, and the entire evacuation of the place. Such dispositions as could be made to oppose the enemy, were promptly effected during the night. At four o clock on the morning of Saturday all the Federal troops posted there were ordered to retreat down the mountain, and thus Maryland Heights were abandoned to the enemy ; but they did not occupy them till the afternoon of Satur day. The line of battle was again formed on the breastworks behind Bolivar Heights, very nearly as it had been on the previous day. Colonel D Utassy occupied the extreme right, Colonel Trimble commanded on the left, General White held a position on the heights, and Major Mcllvaine directed the operations of the artillery. The Federals were disappointed in being attacked early in the day. It was not till two o clock that the enemy renewed the assault. At that hour, however, they opened a furious and simultaneous cannonade from Maryland Heights, Loudon Heights, and Sandy Hook, and from batteries posted on the Sheppardstown and Charlestown roads. The Federal guns responded with spirit during the day. As night approached, however, the Federal lines were contracted somewhat, in consequence of the fact that the Rebels had succeeded in turning their left flank. At eight o clock the enemy attempted to take Rigby s battery by storm, but were repulsed with signal slaughter. The second day s struggle had produced no very decisive results either way its final issue still seemed uncertain. During the following night, the Kebels improved their position, and planted new batteries, which were so skilfully placed as to enfilade the Federal forces completely. On Monday morning the enemy renewed the contest with increased energy at five o clock. It soon became evident that they had been reinforced, and now possessed the advantage of superior numbers. In vain had Colonel Miles implored General McClellan, on Sunday, to send him assistance. The enemy had been threatening to attack Harper s Ferry during a whole week ; and yet it had not been defended by a competent force. To add to the desperate nature of the situation, the ammunition of the Federal troops became exhausted at eight o clock. Colonel Miles immediately summoned a council of war. The result of their deliberations was, that he determined to capitulate, as further resistance could only lead to greater and more superfluous loss of life. White flags were then hoisted over the intrenshmcnts, and a flag of truce was sent to General Hill, the commander of the Rebel troops, to propose terms of capitulation. The only conditions allowed by the Rebel general were, that the Federal officers would be per mitted to go out with their side-arms and private effects, the rank and file with every thing except their arms and equipments. The entire number of men who thus became prisoners of -war, and were afterward paroled, were eleven thousand five hundred and eighty-three. The cannon captured were forty-seven, of various calibre. Previous to the capitulation BATTLE AT MUNFORDSVILLE, KENTUCKY. 349 fire of musketry upon the Federal troops, from the cover of the adjacent woods and batteries. The attack of the Rebels was received and repelled with firmness and vigor by the Federal troops, especially by those on the left wing. A bat tery which they planted in that part of the field was soon disabled, and they withdrew in confusion. But the right wing of the enemy was partly protected by a breastwork of fallen timber, and from that point their operations were more successful. They maintained a destructive fire from this position during some hours. Meanwhile, their line on the left was again brought forward, and the attack renewed from a better situation near the Woodsonville turnpike. An hour was occupied by the enemy in effecting these new dispositions. When all was ready the Rebels again advanced, and made an attack of unusual determination, chiefly on the Federal right wing. Conspicuous in this movement were a Mis sissippi and Georgia regiment, both of which greatly distinguished them selves by their reckless and ferocious daring. The Colonel of the one, and the Major of the other, were slain during the assault. They broke and fled, after being completely riddled by the artillery fire, whose balls passed through- and-th rough their crowded ranks. As soon as the retreat of this part of the Rebel force was discovered, the gallant Indiana troops, who were the victors, sprang over the trenches and started in the pursuit. They were encouraged in this bold deed by the voice and the example of Major Abbot, of the sixty-seventh Indiana, who led the way. During this charge he was slain by a rifle-shot sent from the woods as a parting salute by the retreating foe. The Rebel troops on their right wing advanced after their first repulse in admirable order. As they approached, they fell into a double-quick and rushed at the intrenchments with loud cheers, in spite of the hail storm of musketry which thinned their ranks. On the breastworks the most desperate struggle took place. It seemed the turning point of the battle. After a contest of some duration the valor of the Federal heroes prevailed ; the assailants recoiled, and they eventually fled in disorder from that portion of the field. But the battle was not yet ended. After the repulse of the 14th the enemy sent in a flag of truce, again demanding that Colonel Wilder should surrender, and stating the force they had, and the near approach of General Bragg s army. Colonel Wilder again de clined peremptorily. He had on that morning received a reinforcement of about four hundred men of the fiftieth Indiana. The Rebels next asked the privilege of removing their dead and wounded, which was permitted. They withdrew that night from the immediate front of the Federal gar rison, who availed themselves of the opportunity to fortify their position to the best of their ability. There was no fighting on Monday, the 15th, on which day Colonel Dunham, of the fiftieth Indiana, being the ranking officer, took command, and further reinforcements to the number of about 350 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. one thousand men came up. On Tuesday morning, about nine and a-balf A.M., the Rebels renewed the attack, having been reinforced by one entire wing of Bragg s army, and a severe battle ensued, lasting till four and a-half P.M. Soon after General Bragg himself sent a flag of truce demanding their surrender, and though Colonel Dunham at first declined, yet rinding him self surrounded by a force of twenty-five thousand Rebels, with sixty pieces of artillery, he asked a suspension of hostilities, which finally eventuated in his surrender, with all the honors of war. The Union loss in this en gagement was about thirty-seven killed and wounded, and nearly three thousand one hundred prisoners. The Rebel loss was nearly one thousand killed and wounded. At the same time General Morgan evacuated Cumberland gap. On the 18th a fight took place near Cave City, in Kentucky, between a portion of Buell s army an.d a portion of General Bragg s. The former attacked the rear-guard of the latter, and defeated it. On the 6th of September a desperate assault was made by a body of Rebel troops upon the Union forces posted at Washington, North Carolina. The former were commanded by General Martin, the latter by Colonel Potter. The enemy made the attack upon the Federal intrench ments at an early hour in the morning, with the hope of taking the occupants by surprise. Their object was to destroy the works, to burn the town of Washington, to murder the North Carolinians whom they might find under arms in the Federal service, and to carry away as captives the most prominent loyal citizens. An accident prevented their success. It happened that a portion of the Federal troops had been ordered under arrns before daylight, on that very day, and was preparing to depart on an expedition. Had this not been the case, it is probable that the whole Federal force would have been taken by surprise, and disastrous results would have ensued. The advance of the Rebel troops consisted of four hundred cavalry. These rushed through the main street of the town of Washington, and succeeded in passing some of the batteries unharmed. At the other end of the town they were met and attacked by a portion of the third New York cavalry, under Captain Gerrard. A confused struggle ensued, which, in consequence of the fog and the darkness which still prevailed, amounted to nothing. But the noise of the concussion aroused the whole Federal force. Additional troops now advanced, and charged upon the enemy in the streets of the town. Some North Carolina volunteers, a portion of the twenty-fourth Massachusetts, and a part of the third New York artillery, charged manfully upon the foe. In this encounter Colonel Potter had his horse shot under him. At length a portion of the streets was cleared of the Rebels, and the colonel then requested the commander of the gun boat Louisiana, which opportunely lay in the river, to shell that portion of the town which was still held by the enemy. Soon a storm of grape THE PRESIDENT S PROCLAMATION OF SEPTEMBER, 1862. 351 and canister overwhelmed that locality, and the Rebels who were congre gated there, the result of which was to compel them to take refuge be hind houses, and to disperse in various directions. Several buildings were destroyed by the deadly missiles; but the assistance of the gunboat was very important to the land forces. After the engagement had continued four hours, the enemy failed at all points, and were driven from the town and the intrenchments. Their as sault had been signally repulsed. They were pursued the distance of eight miles by Captain Murphy, with a squadron of cavalry. The attack ing troops numbered about a thousand men. The Federals did not ex ceed five hundred. They had been placed there to man Fort Washington. The chief misfortune of the day to the Federal side was the accidental explosion of the gunboat Picket, which lay in the stream above the town. She mounted a thirty-two pound rifled Parrott gun and a twenty-four pound howitzer. The cause of the explosion, though doubtless accidental, was never accurately ascertained. Its effects were melancholy. Nineteen persons were instantly killed, including Captain Nichols, the commander, and eight men were severely wounded. Ten only of the crew escaped uninjured. The vessel became a total wreck, and the surface of the stream was soon covered with the floating bodies and torn fragments of the un happy victims of the disaster. On the same day, the 6th of September, the Rebel General Bragg ad vanced upon Nashville ; the Federal gunboats shelled Hamlet, Mississippi ; and the Rebel army of Virginia,, under General R. E. Lee, crossed into Maryland, and occupied Darnestown, Frederick, and Poolesville. From the everlasting monotony which characterizes the details of the battles, slaughters, and sieges which necessarily form so prominent a fea ture in the annals of this extraordinary war, we turn with pleasure to notice a civil and pacific aspect of it which now demands our attention. On the 22d of September, 1862, President Lincoln issued a proclama tion which will ever form a landmark in the history of the great Republic. It announced his determination to recommend to Congress, at its next meeting, the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid and compensation to all the slave States whose citizens would not then be in Rebellion against the Federal Government, and who might then have adopted, or who should afterward adopt, the immediate or the gradual abolition of slavery within their respective limits ; and advising that the colonization of free negroes at some distant place on the American conti nent should be continued. This proclamation further announced that the President would, on the first of January, 1863, designate those, States, and parts of States, which were then in Rebellion against the Federal Government, and would decree that the slaves of the citizens of such Rebel regions should then become free, and that all the slaves of those engaged in hostilities against the United States should thenceforth be en- 352 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. franchisee!. He also reiterated the details of the several acts of Congress of March 13 and July 17, 1862, forbidding the fugitive slaves of Rebels who came within the Federal lines to be restored to their former owners, or employing the Federal forces in any way to restore them to their former owners.* These were the chief features of this remarkable proclamation. It in flicted a deadly blow upon slavery, which had been one of the chief causes and supports of the Southern Rebellion. It was wise and prudent, when viewed either as a simple war measure, as a tribute to the spirit of pure humanity, or as a response to the loud, fervent, and enlightened require ments of the present age. And although it cannot with truth be affirmed that the original and legitimate purpose, in the commencement of hostilities, on the part of the Federal Government, was the abolition of slavery as such, yet it must be admitted that the measures thus recommended by the President had become desirable, perhaps they had even become indis pensable, to the subjugation of the revolting States, and to the restoration of the dissevered Union. To assist in the accomplishment of this result, the President issued another proclamation on the 24th of September, 1862, by which he en acted, that during the existence of the " insurrection," all Rebels and in surgents, their aiders and abettors, within the limits of the United States, and all persons who should discourage volunteer enlistments, or resist the militia drafts, or be guilty of any other disloyal practices -against the authority of the Federal Government, should be thenceforth subject to martial law, and be tried and punished by courts-martial or military com missions In the same proclamation he ordained that the writ of habeas corpus should be suspended in respect to all persons who should be ar rested for these causes during the continuance of the Rebellion, and were imprisoned by any military authority, by the sentence of any court-mar tial, or by the decree of any military commission. *See Appendix. VICTORY OF THE FEDERAL FORCES AT 1UKA. 353 CHAPTER XXXI. THK BATTLE AT IUKA DISPOSITIONS MADE BY GENERAL GRANT INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGK- MKNT VICTORY OF THE FEDERAL TROOPS REBELS REPULSED AT BOONSBO ROUGH <"N- VENTION OF THE GOYERNORS OF LOYAL STATES AT ALTOONA, PENNSYLVANIA THKIR ADDRESS TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN HIS REPLY PROPOSAL OF PEACE DISCUSSED IN THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS ARGUMENT OF MR. FOOTE FATE OF THE PROPOSITION BATTLE OF AUGUSTA, KENTUCKY ENGAGEMENT AT CORINTH, MISSISSIPPI POSITION OF THE REBELS FIRST DAY S FIGHTING INCIDENTS OF THE SECOND DAY DESPERATE CHARGES MADE BY THE REBELS THEIR FINAL DEFEAT AND FLIGHT SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL RO8ECRANS INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA BY THE REBEL GENERAL STUART HIS ROUTE INCIDENTS WHICH OCCURRED AT CHAMBKRSBURG STUART S SAFE RETURN TO VIRGINIA SKIRMISHES ON THE POTOMAC RESULTS OF HIS RAID. Ox the 19th of September, 1862, General Rosecrans gained a brilliant victory over the Rebel forces under Sterling Price, at the village of luka, in Mississippi. The latter had left Tupelo, with about twenty thousand men, for the purpose of crossing the Tennessee river at Muscle Shoals, and forming a junction with General Bragg. General Grant, the com mander of the Federal forces in that vicinity, having obtained information of the movements of the enemy, determined if possible to defeat them. For this purpose, he despatched Rosecrans with a body of troops, twenty thousand strong, to Rienzi. General Ord was sent with another toward luka, while his own army retained its position at Corinth. By this ar rangement, the enemy would be enclosed within the lines of a triangle, and his escape would be rendered difficult if the plan adopted by the Federal commander were vigorously executed. General Rosecrans reached Rienzi promptly. But Price, having de tected the snare which had been laid for him, adroitly evaded it by diverging from his right line of march, and advanced diagonally across the country toward luka. Of this unexpected movement, Rosecrans also obtained speedy information, which enabled him to pursue the foe. He reached luka, after marching twenty miles, at the moment the vanguard of the Rebels were evacuating it. Though his men were exhausted by a long and rapid march, he continued the pursuit, and overtook the, enemy two miles beyond the town. Skirmishing immediately began between the hostile forces ; but as the darkness of night soon spread over the scene the decisive engagement was, by a mutual impulse, reserved until the next morning. The two armies reposed in sight of each other during the night, and with the early dawn they resumed the contest. The Rebels had taken an admirable position. But Rosecrans arranged his troops so as partially to surround them. General Hamilton commanded his right wing ; General Stanley his left; he himself led the centre. The fighting 23 354 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. continued with desperate energy and with changing vicissitudes until about twelve o clock. At one time, the enemy made a resolute charge, and cut their way through tbe eleventh Missouri, and the twenty-seventh Illinois. It was here that the Federal loss was the heaviest. But the admirable effect of the Federal artillery broke their victorious tide ; and having thus failed in their most determined effort, the Rebel lines gradu ally gave way, broke, and a general retreat ensued. The enemy were pursued for some distance, but they succeeded, with the loss of three hun dred prisoners, and five hundred killed and wounded, in making good their escape. The Federal loss was also heavy, being three hundred and fifty killed and wounded. On the same day, the 20th of September, the fortunes of war were again adverse to the Confederate cause at Boonsborough, Kentucky ; though the number of men engaged, and the results of the combat, were not of sufficient importance to require a more particular notice. On the 24th of this month, an unusual convention of the Governors of all the loyal States took place at Altoona, Pennsylvania. Their deliber ations were secret, but they finally adopted an address to the President of the United States, which they afterward presented to him in person at the Federal capital. That address contained an expression of sincere per sonal and official respect for the Chief Executive. It tendered a pledge that, under all circumstances, they would support his constitutional au thority throughout their respective States. It offered him their assistance in all measures calculated to bring the war to such a speedy termination, as should lead to victory, and the return of the Rebels to their obedience to the Federal Government. It also congratulated the President upon his " Emancipation proclamation," and expressed the conviction that it would be productive of the most beneficial results. It concluded with bestowing well deserved praise upon the services rendered by the Federal soldiers in the field, and of sympathy with their sufferings. The President re ceived the Governors with great courtesy. His reply, however, was brief. He thanked them for what they had done, and for what they promised to do, in support of the Federal Government. He was greatly encouraged by the approval which they had expressed of his proclamation respecting the abolition of slavery. He promised to give the suggestions which their address contained his serious attention, and would follow them as far as the interests of the Union and his sense of duty permitted. After the official interview terminated, an informal conversation ensued between the Governors and the President, of the most cordial and harmonious character. The effect produced upon the public mind, by this spontane ous movement of the chief executives of so many States, was extremely beneficial in its influence upon the further prosecution of the war against the armed enemies of the Federal Union. It was at this period that an incident occurred in the Confederate Con- PEACE PROPOSITION IN THE REBEL CONGRESS. 355 gress, then in session at Richmond, -which deserves notice. It was the introduction of a resolution by Mr. Foote, of Tennessee, to the following effect: " Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That the signal success with which Divine Providence has so continually blessed our arms, for several months past, would fully justify the Confed erate Government in despatching a commissioner or commissioners to the Government at Washington city, empowered to propose the terms of a just and honorable peace." This proposition for peace was advocated by Mr. Foote with ability ; and its author exhibited unusual boldness in bringing it forward at that crisis of the Rebellion. But the arguments with which he advocated its adoption formed a singular medley of shrewd ness, prejudice, and folly. He began by asserting that he entertained little hope that the insolent and cruel enemy of the Confederate States, the Federal Government, would listen to the proposition with favor. Nor had he any confidence in the wisdom, sagacity, or true manliness of Mr. Lincoln and his deluded Cabinet. He was aware that those functionaries had been spurred on ever since their commencement of hostilities at Fort Sumter, by a numerous host of infuriated fanatics and unscrupulous dem agogues, until they had almost reached the lowest depths of hopelessness and ruin; nor had he any confidence that the weak and vacillating Fed eral Executive at Washington possessed sufficient moral courage to re ceive the commissioners of the Confederate Congress if they should be sent thither. Nevertheless, there were reasons which strongly commended the adoption of the measure. If the Federal authorities should madly reject the tenders of a just and honorable peace which should thus be made to them, all the responsibility of a continuance of bloodshed, and of the un speakable horrors which would attend the prosecution of the war, would be accumulated on their heads. The civilized world would hold them alone accountable for their infliction. On the other hand, the Confederate Government would be exculpated. The Confederate soldiers would be justified in using still more determined and unrelenting efforts to crush the power of the common enemy. Moreover, the armies of the Confederate States had uniformly been the victors in the contest thus far. They had driven the vandals of the North with irresistible energy and with match less valor from their confines. The Federal Government and its armies had been humbled on every battle-field. "Such a succession of brilliant and decisive triumphs," said Mr. Foote, "had never heretofore adorned the pages of history." Therefore it was the part of a sublime magnanimity in them, as conquerors, to tender the olive branch to their humbled and enervated foes. Notwithstanding these potent arguments, and these glowing appeals, the Confederate Congress was either so stupid or so wise as to vote down the proposition, by an overwhelming majority. The town of Augusta, Kentucky, was the scene of a spirited contest, on the 27th of September, between six hundred mounted Rebels under 356 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Colonel Morgan, and a small Union force of a hundred and twenty infan try under Colonel Bradford, who were posted at that place. The latter maintained the fight with heroism until they were overpowered by the superior numbers of the enemy. They were eventually compelled to sur render, but before doing so they had set their fatal mark on the ranks of the enemy. A large number of Rebels were slain, among whom was Lieutenant-Colonel Prentice, a son of the patriotic George D. Prentice, of Louisville. The Federal loss was nine killed and fifteen wounded. That of the enemy was seventy-five in killed, wounded, and missing. A portion of the town was burnt during the progress of the engagement. The next scene in this grand martial drama which demands our atten tion, occurred at Corinth, in Mississippi. A desperate battle was fought in its vicinity on the 3d and 4th of October, 1862. The Rebel force, numbering about thirty -five thousand men, was commanded by Generals Van Dorn Price, and Villipigue. The Federal troops were led on by Gen eral Rosecrans, the hero of luka. The right wing of the enemy rested on the Chevalla road, their left on the Mobile and Ohio railroad, their centre on the space between them. Early in the morning of the 3d the pickets of the two armies commenced to skirmish. They were gradually rein forced, until the engagement became general. This part of the contest took place a mile and a half from the redoubts occupied by the Union troops ; but the nature of the ground, which was covered with heavy timber, prevented the use of the heavy guns. The day was spent in irregular and fragmentary charges and repulses on both sides, in which the advantage was generally obtained by the Rebels. The undergrowth of wood being very dense interfered materially with the operations of the troops. During the day the enemy succeeded in outflanking the Federal right wing, by which operation the Federal troops in that part of the line were compelled to give way. Subsequently, however, the line was re formed, a charge was made by the seventeenth Wisconsin and Baldwin s brigade, by which the Rebels were driven back half a mile. Some pieces of artillery which had been lost were recaptured. Thus ended the operations of the first day. The armies then took their several positions for the night. They proceeded leisurely to light their camp-fires, to cook their rations, to take their rest, in close and quiet proximity to each other, as if they had not but an hour before been en gaged in mortal combat, and as if they did not intend to resume the struggle on the following day. At half-past three o clock on the morning of the 4th the battle was promptly commenced by Lieutenant H. C. Robinet, of the first United States infantry, with his battery of siege guns. The enemy, who had planted some cannon during the night in an appropriate position, as promptly responded. This exchange of shots continued until six o clock, when an enfilading fire was commenced upon the enemy by several additional batteries, which compelled them to aban- 9UAN Cf CORINTH AND ITS DEFENCES I MILEG DEFEAT OF THE REBELS AT CORINTH. 357 don their position. A portion of the eighty -third Ohio captured a num ber of the Rebel caissons. Some of Robi net s men obtained possession of a splendid battery of James s rifled cannon. The thirty-ninth Ohio re covered two Parrott guns which the Federals had lost on the day before. At ten o clock the enemy prepared to make a determined charge upon the Federal redoubts. They were led forward in this desperate undertaking by General Rodgers. During their advance the Federal artillery made fearful havoc in their columns. One huge shell exploded in the midst of their solid ranks, and instantly placed thirty men hors du combat. A deluge of grape and canister from the Federal guns in their front and on their left could not dampen their intense ardor. They still pressed for ward. They at length entered the streets of the town. Then ensued a ferocious struggle. The Rebels seemed determined to get possession of the Robinet battery, which had already inflicted such heavy damage upon them. The acquisition of that prize would doubtless have decided the issue of the day. It would have secured them at least the permanent oc cupation of the place. This, then, was the critical moment of the engage ment. General Rodgers, to whom was entrusted the conduct of the charge upon this battery, led his men forward with the greatest gallantry. The Federals were equally determined and energetic. Every gun was brought to bear upon the advancing columns. Whole ranks crumbled to the earth like frost-work before that withering fire. The vacant spaces were instantly filled up, and still the Rebel column steadily advanced. They then charged up to the battery. They mounted the parapet. They were met by a heroic resistance from a firm wall of dauntless warriors. They were compelled to recoil. But they renewed the attempt, and were again driven back. After a third still more desperate struggle, they suc ceeded in gaining the outer works. The Rebel banner was quickly hoisted from the parapet. It was instantly shot away. Again it was raised, and again it was obliterated. For a time, however, the enemy held possession of those works. Then came the master-deed of the day. Two batteries, those of Williams and Robinet, commenced from opposite points to play upon the adventurous Rebels in the position they had won. It was such a fire as no body of men could possibly endure. After being slaughtered like sheep for a short time, they abandoned the Federal works. So fearful had been that cannonade that they left two hundred and sixty dead bodies behind them in their retreat. As the disordered and broken column retired, they were pursued and routed by Colonel Mower s regiment. They had lost the greater part of their officers, and among them was Colonel Rodgers. At half- past twelve the defeat of the Rebels was complete. They retired from Corinth in disorder to their former encampment, but General Rosecrans gave them no time for repose. He commenced the pursuit, and chased the enemy, whose entire force fled in the direction of Chevalla. Skirmishing and fighting took place during 358 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Sunday between the retreating and pursuing forces. The enemy even tually effected their escape. They lost an immense quantity of ammuni tion, of guns, and of baggage, which, with more prisoners than they wanted, fell into the hands of the Federal victors. General William Starke Rosecrans, the hero of this important victory, was born in Delaware county, Ohio, in December, 1819. At the age of nineteen he was admitted to West Point, in which institution he graduated with honor in 1842. He was third in merit in a class containing fifty-six cadets. His first promotion was as assistant to Colonel De Russey at Fortress Monroe. In 1843 he officiated as assistant professor of engineer ing at West Point. In 1847 he was ordered to Newport, where he took charge of the fortifications, and superintended the construction of a large military wharf. In 1853 he completed the survey of the harbors of New Bedford, Providence, and the Taunton river. In 1854 he was employed by the Government in the Washington navy-yard. In that year he ten dered his resignation to Jefferson Davis, at that time Secretary of War, which was, after considerable delay, accepted. He then spent some years in Cincinnati, in the capacity of civil engineer and architect. Subse quently, the Legislature of Ohio appointed him chief engineer of that State. When the Rebellion commenced Governor Den nison conferred on him the rank of colonel of the twenty-third regiment of Ohio volunteers. In June, 1861, Mr. Lincoln nominated him a brigadier-general in the regular army. When the army of Western Virginia, under McClellan, marched against the foe, Rosecrans commanded a brigade of Ohio and Indiana troops, and on the 12th of July he fought the battle of Rich Mountain. He approached the enemy by cutting a passage, nine miles in length, through the dense forest, thereby falling unexpectedly upon their rear. After a contest of two hours duration he defeated the enemy, compelled them to flee in disorder, and took their commanding officer, General Pegram, prisoner. Whea General McClellan was summoned to Washington, Rosecrans was entrusted with the command of the army of Western Virginia. On the 10th of September he routed General Floyd at Carnifex ferry, thus clearing the territory of the Kanawha of the presence and power of the foe. In March, 1862, he was made a major- general of volunteers, and being sent to the southwest, was placed in com mand of the third division of the army of the Mississippi, under the superior orders of General Grant. His headquarters were located at Corinth. In this last capacity he performed those brilliant achievements at luka and Corinth, the details of which are contained in the present chapter. His career has been one of the most uniformly successful and prosperous which the history of any Federal commander presents in con nection with the Southern Rebellion. It was in August, 1862, that Robert E. Lee, the commanding general of the forces in Virginia, conceived the idea of making a sudden raid into INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 35<J Pennsylvania, for the purpose of securing plunder. Such excursions are doubtless justifiable according to the recognized laws of warfare, but they would seem to be beneath the dignity of a great and honorable belligerent. General Lee issued his orders to General J. E. B. Stuart, on the 8th of October, directing him to proceed with a detachment of about fifteen hun dred cavalry across the Potomac above Williamsport, to leave Hagers- town and Greencastle on the right, to proceed to the rear of Chambers- burg, and destroy the railroad bridge over the Concocheague, and to inflict any other damage upon the Federal community which he might deem de sirable. At the same time, General Lee directed Colonel Imboden to make a demonstration with a small force toward Cumberland, for the pur pose of diverting and distracting the attention of the Union forces. In accordance with this order General Stuart started from Darksville on his raid, on the 9th of October, accompanied by four pieces of horse artillery. He crossed the Potomac at daylight on the morning of the 10th, at McCoy s ford, between Williamsport and Hancock. Thence he pro ceeded northward until he reached the great national road running from Hagerstown to Hancock. Near this point the Federals had erected a signal station, but so sudden and so unexpected was the appearance of the enemy that the signal party, their flags and apparatus, were captured, together with ten prisoners of war. From this point Stuart proceeded in the direction of Mercersburg, which town he reached about noon. At this time the news of this singular apparition had spread throughout the sur rounding country, and terror overwhelmed the minds of the inhabitants. The enemy did not tarry in Mercersburg, but pressed forward toward Chambersburg. It had been the intention of Stuart to proceed to Hagers town where immense supplies for the Federal army had been stored. He was deterred from carrying out this purpose by the fact that he appre hended the approach and interference of a part of the Union forces, which were still detained by McClellan at Antietam. He therefore turned to ward Chambersburg, where his presence would be wholly unexpected. He reached that place on the evening of the 10th. As soon as Stuart and his motley, dust-covered force approached Cham bersburg, he despatched an order into the town, demanding its surrender. His emissaries were taken to the office of the provost marshal, to whom the requirements of the invaders were made known. No other civil or mili tary officer could be found in the town none who would admit that they possessed the honors and responsibilities of office. The terms offered by General Stuart were an immediate surrender of the place, and a threat that if any resistance was offered "it would be shelled in three minutes." Several prominent citizens then came forward, assumed the responsibility of acting in behalf of the terrified inhabitants, proceeded toward the place where General Stuart was, at a short distance from the town, and held an interview with the Rebel commander. They admitted that they had no 360 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. means of resistance, and would therefore surrender the place on condition that security of persons and property would be guaranteed from the pri vate plunder of the invaders. These conditions being agreed to, the Rebels entered the town. Each soldier led one or two horses, which he had already stolen. They distributed themselves up and down the streets and lanes, breaking open the stables, and taking from them all the good horses they could find. They then proceeded through the adjacent coun try, entered the barns of the farmers, took from them their horses, together with as much forage as they could carry. In the town they entered sev eral stores, and plundered them of clothing. In one of the warehouses they secured a large quantity of government clothing. In such enter prising activity they spent the night. On the following morning at nine o clock they fired the machine shops and warehouses of the Valley rail road. These were exploded or destroyed, after which the unwelcome visitors departed in the direction of the South Mountain. They had en tered the bank during their visit, but the funds had /been previously re moved, so that they were disappointed in regard to the acquisition of money. They cut all the telegraph wires. They paroled about two hun dred and seventy-five sick and wounded soldiers, who were in the hos pital. The route they took on their return was toward Leesburg. But this purpose Stuart disguised from the loyal community by commencing his return on a false route. They proceeded at first toward Gettysburg, in Adams county, and having crossed the Blue Ridge, turned back toward Hagerstown for six or eight miles, then diverged toward Emmettsburg, and took the direct road toward Frederick. Before reaching Frederick they crossed the Monocacy, and marching all night, passed through Lib erty, New Market, and Monrovia, on the Baltimore railroad. At Hayatts- town they captured a few of McClellan s wagons. Thence they proceeded toward Poolesville. Before reaching that place they encountered a de tachment of Federal cavalry under General Pleasonton, who had been sent out to confront them. He crossed the Monocacy with portions of the eighth Illinois, the third Indiana, and two guns of Remington s battery. Several miles from the ford where they crossed the stream they encoun tered the foe. A brisk engagement ensued. A duel followed between the artillery of the two forces. Several of the guns of the enemy were posted at White s ford. While the contest progressed between the artillery the main body of the Rebels retired toward the Potomac. They eventu ally crossed the river at that place without difficulty or opposition. Gen eral Pleasonton s force, which was only five hundred strong, was too small to be able to make any effectual resistance to their movements. During the whole expedition the Rebels did not lose a single man, though a few of them were wounded. The adventure proved a complete success on their part, and gave ample evidence of the energy, sagacity, and vigor which characterized both the officers and the men concerned in it. FEDERAL VICTORY AT LAVERUNE, TENNESSEE. 361 CHAPTER XXXII. THE FEDERAL VICTORY AT LAVERGNE, TENNESSEF GENERAL NEGLET BATTLE ON THM HATCHIE RIVER EXPEDITION OF GENERAL BRANNAN UP THE ST. JOHN S RIVER ITS RESULTS THE BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE HEROISM OF GENERAL ROUSSEAU INCIDENTS OF THIS ENGAGEMENT ITS CONSEQUENCES FINAL ESCAPE OF GENERAL BRAGG AND HIS ARMY FROM KENTUCKY INEFFICIENCY OF GENERAL BUELL HIS REMOVAL FROM THE COMMAND OF THE ARMY OF THE OHIO APPOINTMENT OF GENERAL ROSECRANS AS HIS SUCCESSOR FRUITS OF GENERAL BRAGG s INVASION OF KENTUCKY SUMMARY VIEW OF MINOR EVENTS WHICH OCCURRED IN SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1862. A BRILLIANT and successful movement was made on the 7th of October, 1862, by order of General James Negley, upon a detachment of the enemy posted at Lavergne, near Nashville, commanded by General Samuel Anderson, by which their camp was completely broken up. The expedition was placed under the direction of Colonels Palmer and Miller. The Federal force amounted to about five thousand men. Those led by Palmer approached Lavergne by the Murfreesboro road ; those under Miller took a route on the left of the railroad. As soon as they arrived in the vicinity of the Rebel camp, they were promptly attacked by the foe, who attempted to outflank them, by concentrating the thirty- second Alabama on their right. A shot from the Federal guns fortu nately entered the powder magazine of the Confederates, and exploded it. This unexpected catastrophe very materially confused and damaged them. Meanwhile the struggle continued with increasing fury. The operations of the Alabama regiment were valiantly confronted by the force under Colonel Miller. The seventv-eighth Pennsylvania assisted in a vigorous charge upon them, and compelled them to give way. They formed again, and made in turn a cavalry charge upon this regiment. But they met so destructive a volley of musketry, that they quickly broke and fled. They were pursued, and the thirty-second Alabama threw down their arms. The Federal artillery continued to keep up the assault upon the position of the enemy with great energy, and the Rebel cavalry were unable to stand before it. They fted in confusion until they reached the cover of the woods. The fourteenth Michigan and the twenty-first Ohio took a large number of prisoners. During the day General Negley, apprehending that his troops might need reinforcements marched out from Nashville with three regiments and a battery. But before his arrival a decisive victory had already been gained. The enemy had fled in confusion from their position, leaving their camp in *he possession of the victors. The latter captured one gun, four hundred small arms, a regimental color, fifty-six loads of flour, and a large 362 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. amount of other provisions. The Federal loss was five killed, nine wounded, four missing. The Rebel loss was about thirty killed and eighty wounded. The number of prisoners taken was three hundred, including two colonels, Langford and Maury, with a squad of inferior officers. The brilliant victory of Rosecrans at Corinth was followed, on the 5th of October, by the rout of the rebels on the Ilatchie, in Mississippi, which was achieved by a portion of the same forces who had distinguished themselves at Corinth. The troops of the enemy engaged on this occa sion consisted of two army corps, commanded by Van Dorn and Price, and comprised fifty-six regiments of infantry and three thousand cavalry, which amounted to at least thirty thousand men. The Federal force engaged was about equal in number, and consisted of the divisions com manded by Generals Ord and Hurlbut. These officers had been directed to pursue the Rebels as they returned from Corinth. In executing this order they overtook a portion of their columns near the Ilatchie river. Skirmishing took place on the 4th, but the Federal forces had on that day marched twenty-four miles in the excessive heat and dust, and the chief attack was postponed until the next day. The enemy intrenched themselves during the interval with considerable skill. Early on the morning of the 6th, the Federals commenced to move. The fourteenth Illinois and the twenty-eighth Indiana were thrown forward as skir mishers. At nine o clock the first serious encounter took place. It was to obtain possession of a hill, whose gentle slopes stretched nearly a mile to the bridge which spanned the stream. The Rebels had planted a battery in front of this bridge to protect their infantry as they advanced. These guns were responded to by Bolton s battery. The enemy then attempted with their infantry to outflank the Federal right wing ; but this purpose was defeated by the effective fire of Burnap s battery, and by the expert marksmen of the infantry, which broke the advancing line of the enemy, routed them, and threw them into such confusion that they retired wholly from the field. And now all the troops on both sides, excepting those just referred to, joined in battle. General Veatch commanded the first line of the Federal forces with great gallantry. His men were quickly engaged with those whom the enemy had thrown across the bridge. A des perate contest here ensued, which lasted twenty minutes, after which four hundred Rebels threw down their arms and surrendered. At the same time hundreds of them fled to the river, plunged in, and swam to the opposite shore. In this contest Colonel Davis, of the forty-sixth Illinois, was severely wounded. While this operation was progressing, General Hurlbut was bringing forward the remainder of the Federal forces to the charge. These all pressed forward toward the bridge, driv ing the enem^ before them. The latter were soon compelled to cross EXPEDITION UP THE ST. JOHN S RIVER. 3f,-t The Federals promptly folk>wed. The twenty-fifth and fifty-third In diana, the fourteenth and fifteenth Illinois, began the passage, amid a deluge of canister and grape-shot, which swept the bridge. Nothing, however, could dampen their ardor, though many fell in that desperate charge. The twenty-fifth Indiana, led by Colonel Morgan, was the first to gain the opposite side of the bridge. As soon as these troops, together with General Lanman s brigade had passed over, they charged upon the enemy with renewed determination. They soon drove them from every position which they had taken. The twelfth Michigan, sixty-eighth Ohio, and forty-sixth Illinois, fought with unusual determination. The Rebels, unable to maintain their position, removed their guns to new points in the rear. The Federal batteries were in turn brought forward, and the exchange of shot and shell resumed. But soon the guns of the enemy were silenced, and at four o clock they moved off from the scene of combat. The Federal cavalry pursued. The Rebels hastened up the river six miles to Cram s Mills, whence they continued their flight south ward. The fruits of the victory were four rifled howitzers, a thousand stand of arms, and four hundred prisoners. The Federal loss was thirty killed and ninety wounded. After this success they continued to explore the surrounding country for several days to capture fugitive and vagabond Rebels, after which they returned to their camp at Bolivar. The routed Rebels pursued their way to Holly Springs, where they formed a junction with the troops stationed there under General Pillow. During the first week of October, 1862, an expedition was sent out from Hilton Head, South Carolina, under the command of General Bran- nan, foi the purpose of attacking the Rebel batteries erected at St. John s bluff, and any other works which the enemy might have constructed on the St. John s river, in Florida. The land forces appropriated to this ser vice numbered sixteen hundred men, and were composed chiefly of Con necticut and Pennsylvania troops. They were conveyed by the trans ports Boston, Cosmopolitan, Neptune, and Ben Deford. The expedition was accompanied by the gunboats Paul Jones, "Water Witch, Cimerone, Hale, Uncas, and Patroon, the last commanded by Captain Charles Steed- man. After entering the mouth of St. John s river, several of these boats were sent up to the works on the bluff, for the purpose of reconnoitering them. But they were soon engaged in a spirited contest with them, which developed their real strength. A landing of the troops was subse quently effected at Mayport Mills, near the mouth of the river, and nearly forty miles distant from the scene of action. The march over the inter vening country threatened to be one of great difficulty, being intersected by numerous swamps and creeks, in consequence of which the troops were reembarked, and the infantry were subsequently landed at Buck Horn creek. It was found impossible to land the cavalry and artillery at that point. Colonel T. H. Good was ordered to proceed with the infantry 364 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and marine howitzers to the head of Mount Pleasant creek, and there es tablish a position to protect the landing of the cavalry and artillery. This movement was effected with skill and success, and on the 3d of October the whole Federal force was disembarked, and placed in position at the head of Mount Pleasant creek, about two miles distant from the Rebel works on St. John s bluff. The force which the enemy had assembled here consisted of about twelve hundred troops, both cavalry and artillery. Their batteries con tained nine heavy pieces of artillery. It was naturally expected that they would have made a vigorous resistance. The surprise of the Federal officers and men was therefore intense when, having advanced toward the works and commenced a regular bombardment of them, no reply was made. Their astonishment increased when it was subsequently discovered that the fortifications, and the guns in them, had been abandoned by their chivalrous defenders. They were instantly taken possession of, the stars and stripes unfurled from the flag-staff, and the camps and batteries occu pied by the entire Federal force. The position was found to be one of superior strength. The works had been skilfully constructed. The natural advantages of the position were great, and they had been improved by every appliance of military art. The artillery was soon placed on board the Federal gunboats. The magazines in the forts were blown up, and the works on the bluff were completely destroyed. After this easy and agreeable achievement, the expedition proceeded up the St. John s river as far as Jacksonville, for the purpose of overtaking the fugitive Rebels. Having arrived at that point, General Brannan dis covered that not only were there no troops of the enemy in the vicinity, but that the town had been deserted by nearly all of its inhabitants. Few were left behind but old men and children. A more perfect spectacle of desolation than the place presented could not possibly be conceived. Here it was ascertained that the enemy commenced to evacuate their works on St. John s bluff immediately after the arrival of the Federal troops at Mount Pleasant creek, on the 3d of October. On the 6th, General Bran- nan was informed that several Rebel steamers had been secreted in a creek some distance up the St. John s river. He immediately despatched the Darlington, with a hundred men of the forty-seventh Pennsylvania, a crew of twenty-five men, and two twenty-four pounders, under the com mand of Lieutenant Williams, together with a convoy of gunboats, to se cure them. This party returned to Jacksonville on the 9th, having in tow the steamer Governor Milton, which they had captured about thirty miles from the town of Enterprise. Subsequently, General Brannan con ducted the whole expedition back again to Hilton Head, and arrived on the 13th of October. The enterprise was completely successful, though in consequence of the cowardice of the enemy in abandoning their works on St. John s bluff, no engagement occurred during its progress. The only THE BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE. 3C5 disaster which had occurred was to the transport Cosmopolitan, which grounded in crossing the bar off Hilton Head, and was temporarily ren dered unfit for service. A much more important and decisive event which occurred at this period was the desperate battle of Perry ville, or Chaplin Hills, in Ken tucky, in which General Buell encountered the Rebel hero Braxton Bragg, on the 8th of October. The immense army of Buell had been fol lowing in leisurely pursuit of the enemy for some time, and the uniform distance between them on their route seemed to indicate that they would never approximate each other. Nevertheless, the Rebels having proceeded from Frankfort toward Harrodsburg, were overtaken by General McCook s corps, of Buell s army, near Perryville, and an action, though probably not desirable by either commander-in-chief, became at length unavoidable. The two armies were drawn up on opposite sides of the town of Perry ville. Of Buell s army only McCook s corps, with a part of Thomas s, were engaged. The division commanders were Rousseau, Sheridan, Jack son, and Gilbert. The action began before daylight. The mellow light of the moon still threw its pale splendors over the sleeping world, when the skirmishers of the enemy commenced a sharp fire upon the eighty- fifth Illinois. Soon the contest became more general. New batteries of the enemy commenced to shell the Federal forces, who, upon the first alarm, had instantly formed in line of battle throughout the whole of the army. The enemy carne on, pouring destructive volleys into the Federal ranks. They compelled the second Michigan cavalry to retire by the fury of their onset. They pressed forward, and came near taking the hill on which the thirty-sixth brigade had been stationed. This hill was in the centre of the Federal line, and its possession was a matter of the utmost importance. At that crisis, which was of importance to the issue of the day, the second Missouri regiment, commanded by Captain Hoppe, which had distinguished itself in the great battle of Pea Ridge, rushed forward with cheers and charged upon the enemy. They were opportunely sup ported by the second Michigan and the fifteenth Missouri. After a des perate battle-shock the Rebel ranks recoiled and broke up in confusion. They were pursued for more than a mile, and the defeat of this portion of their troops was for the time being complete. But this operation was only preliminary to the chief combat of the day It was now after ten o clock. Thus far the cavalry had distinguished them selves, prominent among whom was a portion of the ninth Pennsylvania. The artillery now came prominently into action on both sides. In front the legions of the enemy lay massed on wooded hills, which partially con cealed their strength and precise position. At length, about eleven o clock, the enemy, with their usual promptness and spirit, opened the struggle with a cannonade on the batteries of Simonson and Loomis, in whose vicinity the division of General Rousseau was posted. The Fed 366 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. eral guns responded with vigor, and soon new batteries of the foe were revealed successively from new positions, as their forces came more com pletely into action. At two o clock the cannonade had become general and terrific along the whole line of both armies. Many were slain on both sides by this distant assault. At three o clock General Bragg brought his infantry into action. He led the charge in person. He made a ferocious assault upon the centre and left centre of the Federal lines. At this point he made a combined attack of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. General Eousseau maintained his position, and hurled back the tumultu ous and ferocious masses of the advancing foe with complete success. His guns ploughed bloody avenues of death through their serried columns. Volleys of musketry mowed down whole ranks of them as their tides rolled forward frantically toward the Federal lines. They retired from this portion of the field in confusion, leaving the ground covered with multitudes of their dead and wounded. But the Confederates gained more success in another portion of this field. Compelled to retire before Rousseau, they made a charge upon the division of General Jackson with better effect. This division was on the extreme left wing. Buckner led the assault in this portion of the field, which exceeded in ferocity any thing which the war had yet exhibited. In spite of a brave reception at the beginning of this charge, the Rebels soon proved themselves irresistible, and the twenty-first Wisconsin, eightieth Illinois, and one hundred and fifth Ohio, gave way and fled before the mad onset of the foe. The artillery connected with Captain Parsons battery abandoned their guns, all of which fell into the hands of the enemy. Soon the panic spread. The entire division of Jackson be came disorganized, and fled a quarter of a mile. At that point they were stopped, and gradually reformed. In this deadly charge Generals Jackson and Terrell were slain, while heroically attempting to steady their men, and correct the disgraceful rout and panic which had overtaken them. Emboldened by this success General Bragg determined to resume his attack upon the division of Rousseau, and particularly on the seventeenth brigade, commanded by Colonel Lytle. His chosen legions now ap proached the Federal lines in heavy and formidable masses. As they emerged from the woods to which they had retreated, and advanced down the slopes of the hills, their appearance was extremely imposing. Their long lines of burnished bayonets gleamed brightly in the sun. The pre cision and regularity of these movements, their many proud secession banners waving gracefully in the passing breeze, the spirit-stirring sounds of martial music ; above all, the singular apparition of their commander in-chief, who could be seen marching at their front, mounted on a magnifi cent white charger, surrounded by a numerous and brilliant staff, all rid ing horses of the same color these features of the scene presented one of those INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE AT PERRYVILLE. 367 sublime spectacles of the glorious pomp and circumstance of war which form. the bright, delusive side of a picture in which horror, misery, and death so sadly and so universally predominate. Having arrived within artillery range the enemy quickly planted a dozen cannon, so as to rake the third Ohio and forty-second Indiana with terrible effect. Their infantry continued to advance under the cover of their fire. These two Federal regiments responded to the Rebel fire with great gallantry, until a full third of their numbers strewed the ensanguined field with their fallen bodies. Colonel Bently, of the third Ohio, was re markable for his dauntloss heroism in the midst of that terrific storm of musketry. His men stood as firmly as rocks in the midst of an ocean tempest, and hurled continuous volleys of flame and shot into the ranks of the enemy; but they were compelled at last to give way by a cause which they could not control. A barn filled with hay, near which the right wing of the third Ohio rested, took fire. It soon became enveloped in flames. The heat was so intense that the faces of many of the men were blistered. At length they were compelled to break their ranks, and retire from their position. The fifteenth Kentucky, after resisting the enemy for a while with great heroism, was also compelled to retire. But the success of the enemy in this part of the field was not yet ended. The retreat of the third Ohio and fifteenth Kentucky left the gallant tenth Ohio regiment in an exposed position. Colonel Ly tie expected to receive a charge on his front. But the Rebels, whom theyising ground here par tially concealed, stole around unobserved to their flank, and suddenly rushed upon them from an unexpected quarter. The tenth had been ordered to lie upon their faces. The Rebels surprised them in that unfa vorable position. They sprang to their feet instantly, and made a des perate effort to change their front and charge upon the foe. It was impossible, however, to accomplish this under the withering fire which assailed them, and they soon broke and fled. It was in this awful mo ment of chaos and terror that the gifted and dauntless Lytle fell pierced with balls while in vain attempting to stem the overwhelming tide of disaster and defeat. During the progress of these events an immense body of Rebels, filing to the left, attacked the divisions of Generals Sheridan and Mitchel, who occupied the Federal right and right centre. They charged up the hills on which these troops were posted ; but their audacious valor was vain. They met a reception which shattered their masses into bloody fragments. They were eventually compelled to retire, and were pursued by the valiant legions of Mitchel beyond Perry ville. By this time the seven teenth brigade had been reformed, and charged on the foe, supported by the ninth and twenty-eighth brigades. Then ensued a desperate combat half an hour in duration. It was now nearly sundown. Once more the Rebels made a furious charge upon the Federal lines, as if determined to 368 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATUS. grasp the victory from unwilling fate. The discharges of artillery oil both sides became terrific. At length its thunder ceased, as darkness spread its sable mantle over the scene. The Union army reposed upon their arms during the night, while the enemy leisurely resumed their retreat, and ultimately escaped into Tennessee through Powell s gap. The Federal forces did not pursue them. It was, in fact, little better than a drawn battle. The Federal loss in the division of General Rousseau was nineteen hundred and fifty killed and wounded. The loss in the remain ing portiDns of the army was about four thousand, including killed, wounded, and missing. The enemy captured three hundred of theseduring the engagement, The invasion of the soil of Kentucky, which General Bragg had con ducted, proved eminently successful to the Rebel interest, and the oppo sition which General Buell had effected to his purposes amounted to very little. Bragg succeeded in capturing fifteen hundred wagon loads of pro visions, clothing, and other necessaries for his army. He obtained several thousand valuable horses and mules, five thousand beeves and other cattle, together with an immense amount of groceries and domestic goods, gathered from the stores of Lexington, Frankfort, Danville, Har- rodsburg, and other places. In consqeuence of Buell s slow pursuit he was permitted to retire to a safe retreat, in possession of all this plunder, without having been attacked more than once during the period of five months, in which that general held command of the numerous and power ful army of the Ohio. Bragg had been allowed to traverse the richest portions of the State of Kentucky undisturbed ; to perpetrate the farce of inaugurating a governor at Frankfort ; to rob, defraud, and terrify the citizens of one of the most wealthy and populous States in the Union, and then to make good his escape without the least interference. It is not singular, therefore," that this commander was removed by the Federal Government. This was done on the 30th of October, and General Rose- crans was appointed in his stead. The campaigns of General Buell had borne so little fruit in the way of Union successes that a more energetic and efficient commander was needed. During the concluding portion of the month of September, and in Octo ber, 1862, a number of events occurred of minor importance, a brief allu sion to which will here be sufficient. On the 20th of September, a con flict took place at Shepardstown ferry, Virginia, in which the Corn Exchange regiment of Philadelphia fought bravely and suffered severely. On the 22d of that month General Bragg advanced upon Louisville, and on the next day he demanded its surrender to the Rebel forces. On the 28th a skirmish took place on the Blackwater river, Virginia. On the 1st of October skirmishing occurred near Louisville, Kentucky; and the Sabine Pass, in Texas, was captured by Federal troops. On the 4th of October Federal gunboats shelled Galveston, Texas, and compelled the SUMMARY OF EVENTS IN OCTOBER, 1862. 369 Rebels to evacuate the place. On the same day a battle was fought at Bardstownf Kentucky, after which the town was occupied by the Union troops. On the 6th of October Richard lEewes was inaugurated by Brax- ton Bragg at Frankfort, as Governor of Kentucky. Treasonable speeches were made on the occasion by that general, and by Humphrey Marshall. On the same day they burned the railroad bridge at Frankfort, and the new governor evacuated the place immediately afterward. On the 9th an engagement took place between a small number of Union and Rebel troops in the same vicinity. On the llth spirited skirmishes occurred at Helena, Arkansas, and at Danville, Kentucky. On the 15th a successful Federal expedition proceeded up the Apalachicola river, Florida. On the same day Union troops occupied the town of Paris, Kentucky. On the 16th skirmishes took place near Shepardstown and Charlestown, Virginia. On the 20th a battle occurred at Neuga creek, Missouri. On the 22d skirmishes were fought at Hedgesville, Virginia ; at Maysville, Arkansas ; at Pocotaligo and Frampton, South Carolina. On the 25th another fight occurred on the Blackwater, Virginia, and the Union troops entered Donaldsonville, Louisiana. On the 30th skirmishes took place at Upper- ville and Petersburg, Virginia, and the Union troops occupied Thibo- deaux, Louisiana. On the 31st of October another contest occurred on the Blackwater, and the town of Franklin, Virginia, was destroyed. On the same day Union gunboats bombarded the Rebel batteries at Lavaca, in Texas, and took possession of Tampa Bay, in Florida. 24 370 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXXIII. EXPLOITS OF THE CONFEDERATE CRUISER, THE ALABAMA HER PECULIAR STRUCTURE EFFORTS MADE TO CAPTURE HER THEIR FAILURE THE EXPEDITION SENT BY GENERAL MITCHEL AGAINST THE CHARLESTON AND SAVANNAH RAILROAD INCIDENTS OF THE UNDERTAKING BATTLES THEIR RESULTS RETURN OF THE EXPEDITION VARIOUS RECON- NOISSANCES MADE BY THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC IMPORTANT RESULTS ACCOMPLISHED BY THEM OCCUPATION OF SNICKER S, ASHBY s, AND THOROUGHFARE GAPS BY THE FEDERAL TROOPS BRILLIANT ENGAGEMENT NEAR MAY8VILLE, ARKANSAS FLIGHT OF THE REBELS SUCCESSFUL RECONNOISSANCE OF CAPTAIN DAHLGREN TO FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA SKIRMISHES AT PHILOMEL AND NEW CREEK, VIRGINIA, AND AT WILLIAMSTON, NORTH CAROLINA ABORTIVE ATTEMPT OF THE REBELS UNDER MORGAN AND FORREST TO CAPTURK NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE FEDERAL EXPEDITION TO THIBODEAUXVILLE, LOUISIANA RECON- NOISSANCE OF GENERAL M PHERSON TOWARD HOLLY SPRINGS, MISSISSIPPI APPROACH OF THE FEDERAL ARMY UNDER BURNSIDE TO FREDERICKSBURG THE CITY SUMMONED TO SUR RENDER THE REFUSAL EMBARRASSING DELAY OF BURNSIDE S OPERATIONS. AMONG the many sources of annoyance to the loyal citizens of the United States which occurred during the progress of this civil war, the achivements of the Rebel steamer Alabama were not the least trouble some. This vessel became the most renowned of those piratical cruisers which were called into existence by the proclamation of Jefferson Davis, referred to in the preceding part of this volume, and which granted letters of marque and reprisal to such citizens of the Confederate States as might apply for them. The boldness and skill of her officers and crew soon rendered her formidable on the high seas ; and the number and rapidity of her conquests earned for her a prominent though un enviable place in the annals of the war. This vessel was commanded by Captain Semmes, a person who, until his promotion to that post, had been unknown to fame. Among her other officers was Lieutenant Ho well, a brother-in-law of Jefferson Davis. She registered twelve hundred tons burthen ; was two hundred and twenty feet in length, thirty-two in width, had two decks, and was painted black. She carried three long thirty-two pounders on each side, and was pierced for two more amidships. She had a hundred pound rifled pivot gun forward on the bridge, and a sixty-eight pounder on the main deck. She had also tracks laid forward for a pivot bow-gun, as well as tracks aft for a pivot stern-chaser. Her cannon were all of English manufac ture. She was barque-rigged, and could sail thirteen knots an hour under canvas, fifteen knots under steam. She was provided with the flags of all nations, which she used as occasion required; but she generally un furled the Red Cross of St. George to the breeze when she approached a vessel. Her crew numbered a hundred and thirty men, whom she took EFFORTS TO CAPTURE THE ALABAMA. 371 on board, near the Western Islands, from an English ship. She was generally provided with eight months provisions, and rarely used steam except in particular emergencies. During the year 1862, her conquests were numerous, and she may be said to have checked and damaged the commerce of the loyal States very materially. Among the vessels which she captured were the ship Brilliant, of New York ; the whalers Benja min Tucker, Virginia, and Elisha Dunbar, of New Bedford ; the barque Ocean Rover, of Mattapoisett, and the ship Tonawanda, of Philadelphia. Captain Semmes destroyed the majority of his prizes, after plundering them, and taking their crews on board the Alabama. These were after ward set on shore and paroled. In a few instances he demanded bonds for the payment of the value of the captured ship and cargo, as in the case of the Philadelphia vessel, to be redeemed after the termination of the war, and then released them. The vigor and success of this daring cruiser at length attracted the attention of the public to such a degree, that the Federal Government felt the necessity of making special efforts to capture and destroy her. For this purpose Commander Ronckendorff was despatched with the San Jacinto, which vessel was supposed to be a match for the Alabama. But although he encountered the object of his search on one occasion, in the port of Fort Royal, in Martinique, she succeeded in eluding his grasp by a clever trick, and escaped to sea. Thus the year 1862 wore away with out the capture of this redoubtable pirate having been effected. His protracted career of triumph and impunity continued to be a reproach to the Federal navy ; and the nations of Europe still observed his achieve ments with mingled astonishment and applause. At the same time his singular success greatly encouraged the disloyal inhabitants of the Con federate States in their hope of final victory over the Federal Government, and gained for him their enthusiastic admiration as one of the most efficient and valiant agents of the Rebellion. On the 21st of October, 1862, an expedition which had been planned by General Mitchel, the enterprising commander of the Department of the South, started from Hilton Head. Its purpose was to destroy the tressel-work bridges of the Charleston and Savannah railroad. These bridges crossed three streams, bearing respectively the euphonic and mellifluous names of the Pocotaligo, the Taliafinney, and the Coosawhat- chie, which flow into the Broad river. As a necessary preliminary to the achievement of this enterprise, it was important to make a landing of the troops which composed the expedition, at Mackay s Point, eleven miles from the village of Pocotaligo, where they could be disembarked under the protection of gunboats, and thence advance, by a rapid march, to the scene of conflict. This expedition consisted of portions of the first and second brigades of the Tenth army corps, numbering about four thousand five hundred 372 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. troops. They were commanded by Generals J. M. Brannan and A. H. Terry, the former being the senior officer. The troops were conveyed to their destination by three transports, nine gunboats, and several schooners. They left Hilton Head at midnight on the 21st of October, and reached Mackay s Point at six o clock the next morning. Some small boats had been sent in advance, with a company of soldiers of the seventh Connecticut, under Captain Gray, to surprise and capture the pickets of the enemy, which had been stationed near that point; but the effort was only partially successful. Lieutenant Banks, who commanded the post, was taken with three men ; but a number escaped arid conveyed to the Eebel forces in the vicinity information of the invasion. The process of landing the troops was promptly effected ; and at ten o clock, all of them had been transferred to the shore, except a detachment of the third Rhode Island volunteers, who were detained at some distance by an accident to the gunboat Marblehead, by which they had been conveyed thither. Having disembarked his men, General Brannan led them forward toward the village of Pocotaligo without delay. Their road lay through a fertile cotton-growing country ; yet the scourge of war had desolated it, and the sumptuous mansions, once the abodes of opulence and luxury, which lined their pathway, were abandoned, while a saddening air of loneliness and ruin overspread the once blooming and flourishing face of nature. The forces of the Rebels advanced bravely, seven miles from Pocotaligo, to meet the Federal troops. They had posted their artillery on both sides of the road, on the summit of a small elevation. In order to advance, the Federals were compelled to cross a wide open space, and then a narrow causeway, during which operation they would be exposed to the fire of the enemy s artillery. As the forty-seventh Pennsylvania, which led the van, approached, they were assailed by a vigorous and well directed cannonade of grape and shrapnel, to which they responded with musketry, and with Lieutenant Henry s artillery. The fire of the enemy was very effective. The extent of the damage done by them may be inferred from the fact, that out of six hundred men who went into the engagement, nearly one hundred and fifty were killed and wounded. Notwithstanding this terrible havoc, the heroes pressed forward with enthusiastic cheers. The fourth New Hampshire regiment supported them manfully, and also suffered severely, losing fifty men in killed and wounded. The remaining Federal troops then came up, and after a desperate resistance the Rebels were driven from their position with heavy losses. A chase of several miles in extent then ensued, after which the enemy halted, again presented a hostile front, and made a determined resistance. The result, however, was the same as before. They fled, and at last rallied at the bridge over the Pocotaligo, half a mile from that village. Here again the artillery of the foe demonstrated its deadly efficiency THE EXPEDITION UNDER GENERAL MITCI1EL. 373 Their guns were more numerous than the guns of the Federals. The former were twelve in number; the latter were only four Parrott guns and three boat howitzers. These were commanded by Lieutenant Phoenix. Notwithstanding this serious disadvantage, the Federal infantry charged bravely upon the enemy, routed them, and drove them in confusion over the bridge. As they made their retreat across this structure, they effect ually destroyed it. It was now six o clock in the evening. The Rebels had escaped be yond the reach of the Federal forces. At the same time, the sound of locomotives and the rumbling of trains were heard in the distance. It was evident that these were bringing reinforcements from Charleston or Savannah to the enemy. It was therefore high time to retire. The ex pedition had proved a failure; night was approaching, and longer delay or further effort would only lead to the infliction of severer losses. Gen eral Terry conducted the retreat, which was effected in admirable order. The dead and wounded were all brought away. The Federal loss was two hundred killed and four hundred wounded. A portion of the ex pedition had been detached from the rest, sent up the Coosawhatchie, and disembarked near the village of that name. There they encountered five car loads of Rebel troops which were on their way from Savannah to Pocotaligo. Colonel Barton, who commanded this portion of the ex pedition, immediately opened upon them with small arms and a boat howitzer, killed and wounded about thirty, and then shelled the town. The arrival of large masses of the enemy at the scene of conflict soon compelled him to fall back to the steamer Planter and the gunboats Vixen and Patroon, which had conveyed his forces thither. The entire expedition reached Hilton Head on the morning of Friday, the 24th of October, without having accomplished the chief purpose of its mission. On the 30th of the same month, General O. M. Mitchel, the efficient com mander of the Department of the South, died at Port Royal, South Carolina, of yellow fever. The most important operation of the Federal armies at this period, and the chief interest in the popular mind concerning them, centred, during the early portion of the month of November, 1862, around the army of the Potomac which had fought at Antietam, and which still remained under the command of General McCleLan. But several weeks elapsed, which were occupied in minor movements, in reconnoissances, and in skirmishes, which, though not productive of very decisive results, may here be briefly alluded to. At this period it was evident that the future plans of the commanding generals of the two armies were incomplete or undeveloped, and these explorations were necessary to obtain informa tion of the respective positions of the rival hosts, and to clear the way for more decisive undertakings afterward. The country which was about to become the scene of conflict was very intricate in its topographical 374 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. peculiarities, marked by a number of mountain gaps, which it was neces sary to explore and to occupy in order to prevent the enemy from using them as loopholes through which to make raids upon the rear of the Federal army. At this perod the Rebel army under Lee occupied the Shenandoah valley. His own headquarters were at Berryville. He had been rein forced by the troops who had recently evacuated Western Virginia. This accession added very materially to his strength. The mountain range which rung east of the Shenandoah river was of great strategic impor tance to both armies. The gaps which divided it, especially Snicker s, Ashby s, and Thoroughfare gaps, from their location, could be used, if possessed, to immense advantage. Hence, reconnoissances were sent out by General McClellan to explore and occupy them. One of these was despatched to Snicker s gap on the 2d of November, under Generals Hancock and Couch. As the Federal troops approached this place they discovered that it was occupied by a considerable body of Rebels. Gen eral Hancock soon placed his men ih position. General Caldwell was posted with his brigade on the right, the left was occupied by the Irish brigade, under Meagher, and the regiment of Colonel Zook. The bat teries were also planted in commanding positions. After a time the dark masses of the enemy were seen approaching by the scouts who had been sent to the summit, and were looking down into the valley which bloomed below between the Blue Ridge and Winchester. Their cavalry were in the van, then came the artillery, then their infantry. When they reached a position within range of the Federal guns, they were saluted with a heavy cannonade. Several discharges went directly through their columns. The utmost confusion and panic immediately ensued among them, and they quickly filed to the left and disappeared in the woods. The Federals then advanced and took full possession of the gap at Snickerville and the surrounding country. At the same time a similar achievement was performed by Generals Pleasonton and Averill, near Purcellville and Upper ville, in the valley of the Shenandoah. There the Federal troops encountered the renowned Rebel cavalry under Stuart. The force of the enemy numbered four thousand men, with two batteries. Various skirmishes took place, during several days, between the parties. At length Pleasonton s cavalry made a resolute charge uDon the Rebels, and drove them several miles toward Ashby s gap. The Federals pursued their advantage, and in the end obtained possession of this position after some resistance. On the 3d of November General Sigel advanced with a portion of his corps, and occu pied Thoroughfare gap without much opposition from the enemy. On the same day a reconnoissance was made from Fairfax beyond Bull Run, by a portion of General Sickles command, which revealed the fact that FEDERAL TRIUMPH AT MAYSVILLE, ARKANSAS. 375 the Rebels were posted there in force. It was also ascertained that a por tion of them were then posted at Warrenton. Such are some of the preliminary operations which were progressing, in anticipation, doubtless, of another decisive engagement, when suddenly the community was surprised by the announcement that General McClellan had been removed from the command of the army of the Potomac; that he had been ordered to report himself at Trenton, New Jersey ; and that he had been superseded by General Burnside. This order was conveyed to him by General Buckingham, and reached him at eleven o clock at night, at his headquarters in Salem, Virginia. The reasons assigned for this act by the popular voice were the apparent tardiness and inefficiency which had characterized the movements of General McClellan since -the battle of Antietam. Winter was rapidly approaching; several months of inactivity had elapsed after that battle was fought ; the enemy had not been pursued ; and to the unskilled eyes of a portion of the public, an inexcusable delay, if not a treasonable complicity with the enemy, seemed to disgrace the conduct of the commander of the Potomac. By this class in the community the removal of McClellan, and the appointment of Burnside in his place, were regarded as fortunate and propitious events. General Burnside announced his acceptance of this difficult post to the army in a. brief address, characterized by great prudence and discretion. He expressed his sentiments of regard and esteem for their late com mander, his diffidence in his own abilities, his confidence in the patriotism and valor of the troops, and his firm hope of future success and victory. While the two chief armies of the rival Republics were preparing for their next colossal engagement, other conflicts of minor importance were occurring elsewhere, to which we will now direct our attention. On the 22d of October, General Blunt, who commanded a portion of the army of the frontier, overtook a body of Confederate troops at " old Fort Wayne," four miles from Maysville, Arkansas, and achieved a bril liant triumph. The Rebel army in that region had been divided into two parts, one of which, commanded by Marmaduke and Rains, proceeded southward toward Huntsville ; the other, under Cooper and Standwaite, advanced through Bentonville into the Indian territory. In order to confront this arrangement, the Federal forces were also separated into two bodies. Those under Schofield and Totten started in pursuit of Marma duke and Rains. Those under Blunt followed after Cooper and Stand waite. General Salomon was left with his command, including the batteries of Stockton and Blair, at Pea Ridge, in order to keep open the communication of the Federals with the rear. General Blunt led his troops rapidly in pursuit of the foe. When he came up with them, near Maysville, he was accompanied only by a portion of the second Kansas regiment and his body-guard, all of whom together amounted to only six hundred men. Their artillery consisted of two 376 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. small howitzers. General Blunt ordered his men to dismount and engage the foe on foot. These had taken their position, and were prepared to receive the attack. Their artillery numbered four large brass pieces, and were advantageously posted. The action commenced between the artil- lery. After this had progressed for some time, General Blunt ordered his men to charge upon the enemy. These numbered at least three thousand ; but so determined and ferocious was the assault of the brave Kansas troops, that they broke under the shock, and fled in confusion, leaving their four field-pieces in the possession of the Federals. The enemy then retired under cover of the woods. At this stage of the combat the sixth Kansas, headed by Colonel Judson, came galloping to the scene of battle. They were followed by Eabb s battery, consisting of six pieces. These were quickly unlimbered and opened upon the shelter of the foe. Then came the eleventh Kansas, and afterward the first and third Indiana regi ments. These were all formed in line of battle, and the order given to advance. The Kebels did not wait to receive the assault, but fled from the woods, and made their retreat with such rapidity that the best efforts of the Federals to overtake them proved unavailing. The result of the brief but successful achievement was important. It delivered the south western portion of Missouri, and the northwestern part of Arkansas, from the supremacy of the Rebel forces, and restored the influence of the Fed eral arms and Government. The loss on the part of the victors was slight, being seven killed, fifteen wounded. Not less heroic, though performed on a smaller scale, was tne exploit of Captain Ulric Dahlgren, of the staff of General Sigel, who made a reconnoissance with sixty men of the first Indiana cavalry into Fredericks- burg, Virginia, on the 8th of November. It was ascertained that a con siderable body of Kebels were stationed at that place, forty miles distant, consisting of five companies of the fifteenth, and three companies of the ninth Virginia. On his march thither Captain Dahlgren was joined by a detachment of the sixth Ohio cavalry, under Major Stedman. The entire force crossed the Potomac at half-past seven on the morning of the 9th of November, bravely entered the town, and soon encountered the enemy. A desperate hand-to-hand combat ensued, which continued for some time. The result was that the Rebels eventually gave way and retreated. The Federals captured thirty-nine prisoners, their horses, accoutrements, a Rebel banner, and several w.agons filled with army cloth. The forces then returned to camp with these trophies of their gallantry, having lost but one man killed, three missing. On the same day General Stahel drove in the Rebel pickets which had been stationed near Snicker s and Ashby s gaps, and succeeded in gaining important information respecting the po sition and movements of the enemy. On the same day, the second brigade of General Doubleday s division, commanded by Colonel Hoffman, together with General Pleasonton s EXPEDITIONS IN NOVEMBER, 1862. 377 cavalry, charged upon the detachment of the Kebels posted at Philomel, on the Winchester turnpike, and compelled them to retire beyond Upper- ville. The enemy consisted of three thousaod cavalry, commanded by General Stuart. The Federal loss was four killed, eighteen wounded. On the 9th of November, an expedition under General Kelley, com prising eight hundred men, left their camp at New Creek, Virginia, for the purpose of attacking the Rebels under General Imboden, who was sta tioned four miles from Moorefield. When they reached the camp they found that its occupants had deserted it. They were rapidly pursued, and were overtaken fifteen miles beyond it. A skirmish ensued, which re sulted in the total rout of the foe, who scattered in every direction through the adjacent mountains. The Federals captured thirty-eight prisoners, among whom were two captains and two lieutenants. The victors then returned to their camp, with the loss of only one killed and two wounded. On the 10th of November, General Foster organized an expedition for the purpose of sailing up the Tar river, in North Carolina, and capturing two Rebel regiments, with artillery, which had been sent to attack Ply mouth. A skirmish took place at Williamston on the way to Tarboro , in which the Marine artillery, Belger s battery, a portion of the third New York artillery, and the forty-fourth Massachusetts, were engaged. As the Federals approached Hamilton, the enemy abandoned their intrench- ments, nearly a mile in length, which they had erected on Rainbow bluffs. These were soon occupied by the Federals. Several reconnoissances were then sent out to ascertain the strength of the enemy, as it had been dis covered that they were receiving large reinforcements. The result was that the general commanding was convinced of the impolicy of attacking the foe with so great disadvantage in numbers, and ordered the expe dition to return to Newbern. The Federal loss during the operations of this fruitless expedition, was six killed, ten wounded. Nearly contemporaneous with these events, was the bold attempt made by the Rebel forces under Generals Morgan and Forrest to capture the city of Nashville, Tennessee. General Negley was the commandant of the Federal troops appropriated to the defence of this place. The first approach to it by the enemy was made by the cavalry of the famous Morgan. He dashed into the town of Edgefield, captured the Federal pickets posted there, fired the railroad depot, destroyed a number of cars, and burned the tressel-work of the bridge of the Nashville and Louisville railroad While engaged in this work he was attacked by a portion of Abbot s first Tennessee battery, commanded by Lieutenant Beach, and compelled to retreat from the vicinity. But the more formidable body of Rebels who purposed to capture the capital of Tennessee, approached it at the same time in two bodies, on the Murfreesboro and Franklin turnpikes. They were commanded by Gen eral Forrest. General Negley having received information of his ap proach, advanced from the fortifications of Nashville,, on the Franklin 378 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. road, to confront him. He was accompanied by Stokes first Tennessee cavalry, a portion of the seventh Pennsylvania cavalry, with four pieces of artillery, the sixty-ninth Ohio, the seventy-eighth Pennsylvania, and the fourteenth Michigan. When near Brown s creek, they encountered the cavalry of the foe, accompanied by three field-pieces. General Neg- ley immediately prepared to attack them. He posted his guns advan tageously, and ordered them to open on the enemy. He also directed his cavalry to charge upon them. A contest of some energy and ferocity then ensued, the result of which was that the Rebels eventually broke and fled. The Union troops promptly pursued them, and continued the chase to Brent wood, within four miles of Franklin, and seventeen from Nashville. While Negley was confronting the enemy on the Franklin road, Colonel Roberts had advanced with another Union force from Nashville, on the Murfreesboro turnpike, to meet the Rebels approaching on that route. He commanded a brigade of Palmer s division, consisting chiefly of troops from Illinois. He soon met the approaching enemy, whose cavalry, im mediately upon perceiving him, advanced to the charge, with frantic yells. At the same time the Rebels commenced to shell the Federals with their guns, which they quickly posted on an eminence. Colonel Roberts re sponded vigorously to the latter with Beebe s and Hewitt s Kentucky batteries. The assault of the Rebel horse was bravely met, and effectually broken, so that they soon fled in confusion. The Union troops of all arms promptly pursued them, and the chase continued for some miles, as far as Mill Creek hill, where it was abandoned. In this fight, the Rebels lost four killed and seventeen wounded. The rout was complete of both detachments of the force of the enemy ; and Nashville, whose inhabitants had been suddenly overwhelmed with terror at the apprehenson of com ing horrors from the occupancy of the city by the Rebels, was relieved from its temporary agonies by the bravery and energy with which the invading troops were routed. The Federal loss on this occasion was sin gularly small. It consisted of one killed, five wounded, twelve missing. This, immunity is the more remarkable from the fact that the artillery of the enemy numbered twelve pieces. The entire Rebel loss was ten killed, thirty wounded, forty prisoners, and the capture of several hundred valua ble horses by the Federals. On the 24th of October, an expedition was sent from Carrollton to take possession of Thibodeauxville, Louisiana. It was composed of the Reserve Brigade of Federal troops in the Department of the Gulf, under General Butler, and was commanded by Brigadier-General Weitzel. The troops consisted of the eighth New Hampshire, thirteenth Connecticut, seventy- fifth New York, and first Louisiana regiments. These were embarked on board the transports at Carrollton, and commenced to ascend the Missis sippi. They were escorted by four gunboats, and were disembarked at a point several miles below Donaldsonville. They marched through EXPEDITION TO THIBODEAUXVILLE, LOUISIANA. 379 this deserted town, and then proceeded down the Bayou Lafourche. As the troops advanced, they were joined by multitudes of fugitive negroes^ men, women, and children, who sought by this means to escape from their servitude on the adjacent plantations. But most of these unfortunate and half-starved creatures fett back by the wayside, from exhaustion and fatigue, after accompanying the march for a few miles. The enemy were not encountered in any strength until, after three days, the force reached the vicinity of Labadieville, when an action of some importance took place. Thompson s battery was sent forward to open with shot and shell upon the enemy, who were discovered in the distance. Their batteries, which were posted on both sides of the bayou, responded with spirit. The neces sary dispositions for attacking the foe were then made. The eighth New Hampshire regiment was placed on the right. The twelfth and thirteenth Connecticut were ordered to cross the bayou, with some artillery, and there form in line of battle. The enemy opposed the crossing with a vig orous discharge of artillery ; but their resistance was fruitless. The eighth New Hampshire immediately charged upon the enemy with great spirit, through underbrush, over ditches and fences. The enemy here took to flight; but their escape was prevented by the timely approach of the twelfth Connecticut, who succeeded in flanking nearly the whole of their left wing. This manoeuvre intercepted their flight, and resulted in the capture of a large portion of them. During this operation Colonel Mc- Pheeters, the commander of the Eebels, was slain. He was subsequently buried in a field by the roadside, by his own men who were taken prisoners. In the same spot were entombed Captains Ealston, Warren, and Kellahar, of the eighth New Hampshire regiment, who fell fighting nobly for the cause of the Union. The enemy still contended with desperation ; and their artillery were served with such skill and precision that they pro duced considerable havoc in the Union lines. But after a struggle of sev eral hours duration, they retired from the field leaving one of their pieces in the hands of the Federals. The Union cavalry charged upon them as they retreated. The victors then advanced and occupied the battle-field. Later in the day they entered Thibodeauxville, and took possession ^ of it. A further engagement was expected to occur in this town ; but the enemy had retired with no intention of renewing the contest. In their retreat they partly destroyed the two railroad bridges which crossed Bayou La fourche and Bayou Terrebonne. The route which they took was toward Berwick Bay. The Federal loss in this action was eighteen killed, seventy- four wounded. But the whole number of prisoners taken by them, some of whom were afterward paroled, was two hundred and eight, including several officers. The result of the expedition wa to re-establish the Fed eral authority throughout a considerable portion of the State of Louisiana. Equally successful in its results was the expedition which started from Lagrange, Tennessee, on the 8th of November, under the command of General McPherson. Its purpose was to make a reconnoissance in force 380 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. in the direction of Holly Springs, Mississippi, and ascertain the strength and movements of the enemy posted in that vicinity. The exploring force consisted of the first, second, and third brigades of McPherson s division of Grant s army, together with a body of cavalry. Having reached Old Lamar, the enemy were discovered in the front waiting to intercept their progress. The Federals were immediately drawn out in line of battle. Skirmishers were thrown forward to feel the enemy, who were found to be posted along the road to Holly Springs. The action soon com menced with great energy, between the artillery and infantry of both sides. During the progress of this contest in front, Colonel Lee was ordered to make a detour with his cavalry along a road running southward, attain the rear of the Rebels, and attack them. This order was obeyed with ad mirable promptness and skill. No sooner did the enemy perceive that they were attacked both in front and rear, than they fled in disorder and dismay. At that moment General McPherson directed several companies to deploy on the right of his position and make a charge upon their flank. This movement completed the rout of the enemy. A general chase of the fugitives ensued, which continued as far as Coldwatcr creek. It was not deemed expedient to advance nearer than that point, which was five miles distant from the large body of troops who it was ascertained still occupied and defended Holly Springs. The Rebel loss during the engagement was twelve killed, fifteen wounded. The Union loss was. insignificant, being only two slightly wounded. A hundred and sixty-five prisoners were cap tured from the foe, among whom were ten officers. After this achieve ment the Federal troops returned without any further casualty to their camp at Lagrange. By the 20th of November, 1862, the immense army commanded by General Burnside had been consolidated in the vicinity of Falmouth, op posite Fredericksburg, on the Rappahannock. The most intense interest of the nation was concentrated upon the movements of this formidable force. Their acknowleged destination was known to be the Rebel capital. Their advance would be the fourth attempt made by the most powerful army of the Republic to capture and reduce the chief citadel of this Rebel lion, and the successful termination of its enterprise was confidently ex pected by millions of patriots, who knew the strength of the invading army, who had boundless confidence in the valor and ability of its generals and soldiers, and who had never despaired for one moment, even in the darkest hour of preceding discomfitures, of the final subjugation of the revolted States. On the 21st of November, General Sumner, who commanded the right grand division of the army, by order of General Burnside, sent General Patrick, the provost marshal of his troops, with a requisition to the civil authorities of Fredericksburg, demanding the immediate surrender of the city to the Federal authorities. General Patrick crossed the Rappahan nock under a flag of truce. The written summons of General Surnher set OPERATIONS AT FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA. 381 forth that the city had been used by the enemy as a cover for their hostile operations against the Federal army ; that shots had been fired from the houses upon the Federal troops; that their mills and manufactories had furnished provisions and clothing to the Confederate soldiers; that their railroads had been employed to convey supplies to the Confederate armies ; and that these outrages must be terminated by the surrender of the city to Federal authority. Sixteen hours from the delivery of this letter were allowed for the removal of women and children, the sick and wounded, before the bombardment of the place would begin, if the requisition were not complied with. This communication was conveyed to General Longstreet, who com manded the Rebels at that point. In a short time an answer was returned, apparently from the municipal authorities, but really under the dictation of that general, to the effect that the injuries complained of should be re dressed, so far as the firing of pickets, and the furnishing of supplies to the Confederate army were concerned ; but that the possession of the city by the Federal forces would be resisted to the last extremity. After the receipt of this spirited reply, an immediate advance upon the city wag confidently expected ; but the events which ensued illustrated in a remark able manner, the uncertainty which inevitably attends all military opera tions, even when connected with the designs of the most prudent and patriotic of commanders. General Burnside was utterly unable to execute his threat against the recreant city. The neglect or inefficiency of others completely paralyzed his efforts. It was found, upon inquiry, that the pontoon bridges, by which his army must needs cross the Eappahannock, had not arrived, notwithstanding the fact that express orders had been given by the proper authorities to that effect some time previously, and although General Burnside had been assured by the same authorities that the bridges would be ready for his use at the time he might require them. It was not until the llth of December, that the crossing of his army was eventually effected. During this long interval the commanders of the Confederate troops had ample time to concentrate their forces in the vicinity of Fredericksburg, to erect the most formidable breastworks, and to mature every possible preparation with which to receive and destroy the Federal army when they advanced to the attack. The Rebel generals improved this advantage with the greatest diligence and with consummate skill. Robert E. Lee was the most eminent among them both in rank and in genius. He was assisted by Jackson, Longstreet, the two Hills, and many others, who had already won by their perverted zeal and talents a distinguished name in the annals of the Rebellion. But before we proceed to describe the colossal and sanguinary contest which subsequently took place between the flower of the Federal and Confed erate armies assembled at Fredericksburg, we will notice some preliminary events which demand our attention. 382 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXXIV. ASSEMBLING OF THE FEDERAL CONGRESS, DECEMBER 1ST, 1862 ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESI DENT LINCOLN ITS CHARACTERISTICS ITS DISCUSSION OF THE NATIONAL FINANCES OF THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVES PLAN PROPOSED BY THE PRESIDENT OFFICIAL RE PORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY ITS LEADING FEATURES FINANCIAL DETAILS SKIRMISH AT FRANKLIN, ON THE BLACKWATER, VIRGINIA CAPTURE OF UNION TROOPS AT HARTSVILLE, KENTUCKY GENERAL GEARY ? S RECONNOISSANCE TO CHARLESTOWN AND WINCHESTER SURRENDER OF WINCHESTER STUART S RAID ON THE TOWNS OF DUMFRIES AND OCCOQUAN EXPEDITION OF GENERAL WASHBURNE FROM HELENA TO COFFEEVILLE, MISSISSIPPI ITS RESULTS, AND RETURN THE CAPTURE OF THE STEAMSHIP ARIEL BY THE PIRATE ALABAMA INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH IT HER FINAL RELEASE DEPARTURE OF THE BANKS EXPEDITION FROM NEW YORK INFAMOUS FRAUDS PERPETRATED UPON THE GOVERNMENT ARRIVAL OF THE EXPEDITION AT NEW ORLEANS GENERAL BANKS SUCCEEDS GENERAL BUTLER EFFECT OF BUTLER S ADMINISTRATION RESULTS OF THE BLOCKADE OF THE SOUTHERN PORTS. THE third session of the thirty-eighth Congress of the United States commenced at Washington on December 1st, 1862. A full attendance of the members of both houses graced the splendid halls in which they con vened. The condition of the country was in many respects critical ; and the eyes of a loyal nation were directed with eager interest at that mo ment toward their capital. A still intenser feeling was experienced in regard to the spirit and measures which might be disclosed in the annual message of President Lincoln. This important document was sent to the Senate and the House immediately after their organization, and be came at once the subject of universal scrutiny and attention. It was characterized by that sound sense, that earnest and devoted love of country, that simplicity, directness, and clearness, which adorned all the official productions of that functionary. His message on this occasion discussed the usual topics which appertained to the administration; but it dwelt with special minuteness and force upon two grand cardinal themes, which exerted a vital influence upon the progress of the waj* and on the destiny of the nation. These were the regulation of the finances, and the eman cipation of the slaves. In regard to the national finances, the President set forth, with great truth, that the immense expenditure involved in the prosecution of the war, both on land and on sea, had been met with promptitude, and that the public credit had been amply sustained. But the continuance of hos tilities in future, and the accompanying expense, demanded the serious attention of the national legislature. The suspension of specie payment by the banks throughout the country, soon after the commencement of the Rebellion, rendered it necessary that immense issues of United States ANNUAL MESSAGE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 333 notes should be made. These notes had been rendered more valuable and reliable by the judicious action of Congress, making them receivable for the payment of troops, for loans, for internal duties, and as legal tenders for other debts, thereby saving large sums to the community in discounts and in exchanges. The President, however, contended that a return to specie payment should be kept in view. But he regarded it as doubtful whether a sufficiently large amount of United States notes could be per manently maintained to serve as a universal equivalent for coin, and pay able therein. He therefore recommended as a remedy for this unavoida ble difficulty the organization of banking associations, under a general act of Congress, to which the Federal Government might furnish circulating notes on the security of the United States bonds deposited in the Treasury. These notes being always convertible into coin, would protect the com munity from the evils of a vitiated currency, would facilitate commerce by cheap exchanges, and would diminish that part of the public debt which was employed as securities. The present condition of the Treasury was favorable. During the preceding year the virtual receipts had been $487,788,324 97. The entire expenditure in that period had been $474,744,788 16, thus leaving a small balance in the Treasury. So far the Government of the United States had sustained the colossal burden imposed upon it by the vast expenditures involved in the war with mar velous vigor, prudence, and success. The President proceeded to say that a much more difficult and anom alous question than that of the national finances demanded the attention of the legislature. The irrepressible negro and his future fate had assumed more than their usual importance in connection with the prosecution of the war, and that great enigma must, if possible, soon be solved by the assembled wisdom of the nation. Mr. Lincoln then referred to his preceding proclamation in regard to " compensated emancipation." He affirmed and demonstrated that dis union was no adequate remedy for the difficulties connected with the des tiny of the slave. He proved that there were inseparable objections to the division of the Union ; that the geographical features of the country forbade it ; that the outlets of the Mississippi river, by an eternal law of nature, belonged in common and forever to all the inhabitants of that great valley through whose capacious and verdant bosom the father of waters rolled the mighty burden of his flood to the distant ocean ; that there was no line, either straight or crooked, which the ingenuity of man could devise that would form a propitious boundary-line between the two hostile sec tions ; that even the institution of slavery itself would be damaged and weakened by the establishment of such a dividing line; that disunion would entail countless evils and miseries on both communities ; that slavery was the chief producing cause of the Rebellion ; that the extinction of slavery would inflict a death-blow upon that Rebellion, and that there waa 384 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. a plan of gradual, prudent, equitable emancipation, which, if adopted, would remove this tremendous evil gently, propitiously, and efficiently. That plan he then proceeded to reveal, to expound, and to commend. It was as follows : He proposed so to amend the Federal Constitution that every State in which slavery existed at that time, which should abolish the same within its limits at any period before the 1st of January, A. D. 1900, should re ceive compensation therefor from the Federal Government ; that the Presi dent should deliver to every such State bonds of the United States, bear ing interest, in payment for each slave proved to have been living therein by the eighth census of the United States ; these bonds to be delivered by instalments, or in one parcel, at the completion of the abolition of slavery within such State, according as the same may have been effected, gradu ally or immediately. Should any State, after having abolished slavery, and after receiving these bonds, introduce it again within its limits, the bonds delivered to it should be returned to the United States, and be valueless. The President suggested further, that all slaves whom the chances and vicissitudes of the war had at any time enfranchised should continue to be free, though their former masters, if they had remained loyal to the Union, should be compensated for their losses in a reasonable manner. The President then set forth the advantages of this plan with great earnestness. He said the measure was to be made constitutional by a formal amendment of the Federal Constitution. To accomplish this it is necessary that the concurrence of two thirds of the members of Con gress, and afterward of three fourths of the States should be obtained. The approval of three fourths of the States would involve the concurrence and consent of seven of the slave States. If they would co-operate now, that act would effectually terminate the war, and would restore the Union. He concluded this remarkable message with the following appeal, which was as impressive as it was original, both in thought and in language : " The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must dis enthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. We cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just a way which if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." This message was received by both houses of Congress with that respect which was due to it, and by the nation with very general admiration and applause. Even that portion of the loyal community who disapproved of any action on the subject of slavery, however moderate and conservative L. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 385 it might be, commended the unquestionable honesty, sincerity, and patri otism which illumined and adorned every line of this production. Of the official reports made to the President by the members of the Cabinet on this occasion, the most remarkable was that of Mr. Chase, the Secretary of the Treasury. It displayed that profound financial ability for which that officer had already become distinguished. It set forth among other topics the state of the national finances as they then existed ; and proceeded to the much more difficult task of expounding a method by which the immense exigencies of the future might be met. If the war continued until July 1st, 1863, a deficit of about two hundred and seventy- seven millions of dollars would exist over the receipts from existing cus toms, excise, lands, and other income. If the war should be prolonged until July, 186-i, a deficit of about six hundred and twenty-three millions over all existing revenues would have accumulated, and must be provided for. To accomplish this herculean task, Mr. Chase recommended the adop tion of two important measures. The first was the passage of a general law authorizing the organization of banking associations. The other was the acquisition of money by loans, without increasing the issue of the United States notes beyond the amount fixed by law, unless an imperative exigency should demand it. This report indicated the line of policy which Mr. Chase pursued more minutely, and to its practical results, during the progress of the succeeding session, and was received by the Presi dent and by the members of the Federal Legislature with respect and at tention. While the several departments of the Government at Washington were engaged in the performance of their respective duties, the active opera tions of the war progressed in the field, and battles and slaughters still continued to occur between the armed champions and enemies of the Union. On the 2d of December, 1862, a spirited skirmish took place near Franklin, on the Blackwater river, Virginia. On that day a detachment of Federal troops was sent out from Norfolk under Colonel Spear. It consisted of the eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry, four regiments of infantry, and a battery of artillery. Their orders were to proceed to a point within three miles of the Blackwater, as far as a building known as the Beaver Dam church, from which videttes should be sent out to reconnoitre the adjacent country, in which the enemy were known to have been posted in some strength. This order was promptly executed. The videttes soon encountered a body of Rebels who were out on a foraging expedition. They were the second Georgia regiment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Towne. A brisk firing commenced, and the Federal videttes immediately sent to the main army for reinforcements. Three companies of the cavalry under Major Stratton were, in reponse to his command, ordered forward at a gallop. They soon reached the scene of conflict. A desperate com- 25 386 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. bat then ensued. The Federal troops charged upon the enemy with great gallantry, and after a short collision the enemy broke and fled in confu sion. The Federals then pursued the fugitives with cheers. They quickly overtook them, and cutting to right and left with their sabres among their disorderly masses, slew many of them. The chase was continued for two miles, with great excitement and disorder, until both sides reached the vicinity of Franklin, where the Rebels had erected strong fortifications. It -then became expedient for the victors to retire and to return to Norfolk. The results of this engagement were the capture of twenty-two prisoners, two pieces of rocket battery, forty muskets, and ten horses. The most singular feature in the whole expedition was that not a single person on the Federal side received the slightest injury, although the fighting was at one time quite severe. Yery different was the result of a sudden surprise and assault which was inflicted by the Rebel guerrilla Morgan upon the thirty-ninth brigade of Union troops of Dumont s division, at Hartsville, Kentucky. These forces were commanded by Colonel Moore, and consisted of the hundred and fourth Illinois, the hundred and sixth and hundred and eighth Ohio, a small portion of the second Indiana cavalry, and Nicklen s battery. They were surprised by an unexpected charge at daylight on the 7th of December. Morgan s troops consisted of three regiments of cavalry and two of infantry. The fight continued over an hour. A portion of the Federal troops, notwithstanding the unfavorable circumstances of the case, fought bravely. But the remainder did not support their comrades with any alacrity, and at length broke up in confusion. The result was dis astrous to the entire force, who were, after a short fight, surrounded and compelled in the end to surrender to the enemy. Nearly the whole of the brigade were captured. The enemy then burnt the Federal camp and took possession of the teams and trains of the brigade. The loss of the Union troops during the battle was sixty killed and wounded. After the engagement closed, and when the disgrace and injury were complete, a body of troops under Colonels Harlin and Mellen were sent in pursuit of Morgan; but he had already crossed the Cumberland river with his usual promptitude of movement and was safely beyond their reach. In the army of the Potomac there were some skirmishes and actions of no great moment, but which displayed in a creditable light the courage and daring of the Union officers. General Geary, commanding a division in Slocum s (twelfth) army corps, had throughout the war shown himself a skilful and able officer, and wherever he had been entrusted with re sponsibility, had acquitted himself with great credit. The corps to which he belonged had formed the rear-guard in crossing the Potomac subsequent to the battle of Antietam, and his division was for some time assigned to garrison duty at Harper s Ferry and the fortifications in its vicinity. On Friday, December 2d, he was ordered to make a reconnoissance in force, SURRENDER OF WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA. 387 with a body of three thousand infantry, twelve pieces of artillery, and a squadron of cavalry, toward Winchester, Virginia. At Charlestown, Virginia, they encountered a small force of Rebel cavalry, who were speedily routed and fled toward Winchester. General Geary then ordered his troops to move forward, and at a point two miles beyond Berry ville, they encountered the cavalry in still larger force, and a short action ensued in which four Rebels were killed, twenty wounded, and seven horses disabled. Information was received the next morning that the Rebel General A. P. Hill was at Winchester with fifteen thousand men. General Geary was hardly willing to risk an engagement with a force five times as large as his own, yet he was not disposed to return without ascertaining more defi nitely the position and strength of the enemy. He accordingly moved only a few miles on the 3d, and camped at night on the banks of Opequan creek, having skirmished through the day with the Rebel cavalry. On the 4th he pushed toward Winchester. In sight of it, he found a line of Rebel cavalry drawn up to dispute his entrance into the town. He ascertained that the Rebel forces, except the cavalry, had left the city, and sent a flag of truce to the mayor demanding an unconditional surren der of the place. In a short time he received a reply from Major Myers, the commander of the Rebel cavalry, offering to evacuate the city if an hour s delay were granted for such non-combatants as wished to leave the place. This General Geary refused to grant, and informed Major Myers that he should move immediately upon the town, and the citizens would not be allowed to leave, but would not be disturbed unless they fired upon his troops. The Rebel major, however, had not waited for a reply, but had left with his cavalry with all haste, and the bearer of the flag of truce went on and found the mayor of the city, who surrendered at once. The small-pox was prevalent in the town, and General Geary s troops did not enter it ; but the General and his staff took possession of the forts and the town, and paroled one hundred and twenty-five Rebel soldiers who were sick or wounded in the hospitals, and having driven off the Rebel cavalry by a few well-directed shells, he returned with his troops to Bolivar Heights, Harper s Ferry. General Geary soon after moved with his division southward, and on the llth of December occupied Leesburg without resistance, and a few days later took possession of a part of the road from Aquia creek to Alexan dria, guarding the prominent points from Fairfax Court House to Dum fries. On the 27th of December, the Rebel General J. E. B. Stuart, at the head of about three thousand five hundred cavalry and a battery of artil lery, crossed the Rappahannock for a raid through the Union lines. His first point of attack was Dumfries, where were four regiments (three of infantry and one of cavalry) and a section of artillery, belonging to Gen eral Geary s division, but under the immediate command of Colonel 388 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATED. Charles Candy. The enemy surprised and captured the pickets, about fifty in number, and then opened upon the town with artillery, and made repeated charges upon the Union troops, but were repelled with great promptness and vigor. The fight lasted from two P. M. till eight p. M., when, after a desperate but unsuccessful attempt to flank the Union force, the Rebels retired, discomfited and beaten, to the Neobsco river, four miles above Dumfries. General Geary was promptly notified of the movements of Stuart, and moved the same evening (December 27th) from Fairfax Court House to Wolf Run Shoals, with the remainder of his division, and the next morning crossed the Occoquan and advanced, General Williams division, of the twelfth army corps, following several miles in his rear. The Rebels left their camp on the Neobsco early on the morning of the 28th, and moved on the road from Brentsville to Occoquan, and on their way sur prised the second and seventeenth Pennsylvania cavalry, taking nearly one hundred of them prisoners, arid killing and wounding about twenty. Some of these routed cavalrymen took refuge in General Geary s lines. Ten minutes later he came up and took position near the Brentsville road, and threw out a company of cavalry as a bait to draw the Rebels under his fire. In a few minutes about five hundred of Hampton s Legion charged down the hill upon them, firing and yelling like demons. The infantry opened their lines to admit the retreating Union cavalry, then closed and presented a solid front, and greeted the advancing foe with volleys of musketry and a storm of shell. At this unexpected reception they turned and fled in confusion, having lost twenty killed and wounded in a very few moments. They formed again, with reinforce ments, in a wood not far distant, but were again driven back and across the Occoquan. Nearly contemporary with the occurrence of this engagement was the expedition which was made from Helena into the State of Mississippi, under the command of General Washburne. The purpose of it was to reach Coffeeville, in that State, attack and rout a detachment of Rebels posted there, and destroy the bridges and telegraph offices which they used in furtherance of their purposes. The troops appropriated to this service were some cavalry, chiefly from Illinois and Iowa, numbering about nineteen hundred men, and six hundred infantry. They left Helena on the 27th of November, having embarked on boats provided for their conveyance. They landed at Delta, and immediately commenced their march into the interior of the country. On the first day they ad vanced thirty-five miles, as far as the junction of the Tallahatchie river with the Coldwater. On the next day they succeeded in crossing the former stream, and resumed their march toward Grenada. No incident of importance occurred until they reached the vicinity of the Central Mis sissippi railroad. Major Buje was then despatched with the ninth Illinois CAPTURE OF THE ARIEL BY THE PIRATE ALABAMA. 389 iavalry, and a hundred men armed with carbines, crow-bars, and axes, to destroy the telegraph and the bridges connected with it. This service they performed with energy and success. The expedition then proceeded toward Coffeeville. At Mitchell s Cross-Roads they encountered a detach ment of Rebel troops, and a skirmish ensued, in which the latter soon gave way and retreated in disorder. The march was then continued through Panola and Oakland. The enemy, numbering fifteen hundred, evacuated the latter place as the Federals entered it. They were rapidly pursued, and beyond the town a brisk engagement occurred. The Rebels fought for a while with considerable resolution. They succeeded in cap turing one of the Federal guns which had been imprudently posted too far in the advance. Some Union soldiers were wounded. The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded was more severe, as a number were after ward found in the houses adjacent to the battle-field. They fled toward Coffeeville after having fought bravely for some time. At this point General Washburne obtained intelligence that a large force under Price had assembled at Coffeeville, much superior in numbers to his own troops. He therefore deemed it expedient not to advance further. At this period also he received a despatch from General Hovey, to the effect that, as the chief object of the expedition had been accomplished, he should imme diately return. The order was instantly obeyed ; and after a laborious journey of several days through a country which had been rendered ex tremely difficult by the continual rains which fell, the expedition reached Helena by the same route in safety. It had been absent six days, and had traversed two hundred miles on land. On the 7th of December the Confederate piratical vessel Alabama, achieved another of her signal successes upon the high seas. As the mag nificent steamship Ariel was sailing from New York, bound to Aspinwall. when off Cape May, near the eastern extremity of Cuba, she had the mis fortune to come within sight of this formidable vessel. She was crowded with passengers en route for California. She soon discovered the approach of her unwelcome visitor, and increased her speed to the utmost of her ability. Though she did her best it soon became evident that the superior sailing qualities of the Alabama rendered escape impossible. The latter gained upon her rapidly, and at length fired a blank shot at her. To this the Ariel paid no attention. A more imperative summons soon followed. She fired two shotted guns. One ball passed over the hurricane deck, and the other struck her foremast and severed it. The Ariel then promptly hove to, as the next salute would have been a full broadside. A boat soon reached the vessel, which afterward conveyed Captain A. G. Jones, her commander, on board the Alabama. Captain Semmes met him on deck, and informed him that his ship was a prize ; that the passengers would be landed at a small settlement on the eastern end of Cuba, and that the vessel should be destroyed. Captain Jones protested against the 390 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. cruelty of such a course to the large number of passengers, comprising many women and children, who were on board. Two days elapsed during which time negotiations progressed between the two commanders in regard to the destination of the Ariel. In this interval her sails were thrown overboard, and her steam valve taken away, to prevent her escape in case the Alabama should give chase to any other vessel. At length Captain Semmes determined to put the passengers on shore at Kingston, Jamaica, and both vessels were headed for that port. But the appeals of Captain Jones eventually prevailed, and Captain Semmes finally agreed to take bonds for the value of the vessel and cargo, and re lease them. At eleven o clock at night, on the 9th of December, the arrangements were completed. Securities were entered into by Captain Jones for the sum of two hundred and twenty-eight thousand dollars, payable to Jefferson Davis immediately after peace was declared. The money in the ship, amounting to nine thousand five hundred dollars, was plundered by the pirate. A hundred and twenty United States marines were captured and paroled. All the arms and cannon on board were taken, but the private property of the passengers was respected and un disturbed. It must also be admitted that the conduct of the officers and crew of the cruiser toward those on board the Ariel, during the several days of her detention, was courteous and gallant in the extreme. All the details of the capitulation and release having been arranged, the Ariel re sumed her voyage to Aspinwall, and the Alabama sailed away to resume her lawless depredations on the high seas. Raphael Semmes, who had thus distinguished himself by his energy and rapacity in behalf of the Confederate Government, was born in Maryland, and entered the United States navy in April, 1826. He obtained the rank of lieutenant in February, 1837. During this long interval he had studied law in Cincinnati, and entered upon its practice in that city. He served two years in the Federal navy under Commodore Dallas, in 1838 and 1839. Subsequently he obtained the post of second in command of the brig Somers, in which the famous tragedy of Slidell- Mackenzie was enacted. After the termination of that voyage, Semmes became a resident of Mobile, and there resumed the practice of the law. His success in this profession was limited, and he eventually obtained from Mr. Buchanan the position of inspector of the light-house at Mobile. He was soon afterward transferred to Washington as secretary of the light house board. Secretary Dix dismissed him from this office at a later date for frauds upon the Federal Treasury. He remained unemployed until the outbreak of the Rebellion, when he tendered his services to the Confederate Government, was accepted, and placed in command of the Alabama. During the month of November, 1862, extensive preparations were made in the city of New York to equip and send forth an expedition INFAMOUS FRAUDS UPON THE GOVERNMENT. 391 under the orders of General Banks, whose purpose and destination were as yet unknown. This expedition started from that port on the 4th of December. No warlike undertaking was ever entered upon by the United States, during the progress of any war, in which the villainy of tho.se with whom the Government had negotiated for transports and supplies was as excessive and unblushing, as ruinous to the interests of the public, or as dangerous to the lives of hundreds of the brave defenders of the Union, as in this instance. In purchasing vessels for the transport of the troops, old and rotten boats, which had long been thrown aside as wholly unfit even for the service required by commerce along the seaboard and on the inland lakes, were sold at enormous prices to the agents of the Government, under the pretence that they were perfectly secure and able to encounter all the perils and storms of the deep. As might be expected, many of these came very near being wrecked ; and all on board of them would have perished had they not in some cases been taken off by other vessels, and in others had they not put into some port before half the voyage was completed. Nearly twenty transports out of the whole number which conveyed the expedition were ultimately found to have been worthless, unseaworthy, and infamous impositions upon the Government. The remainder of the vessels reached their destination on the 14th of December. New Orleans proved to be the point for which the expedition had been destined, and its ultimate purpose was conjec tured to be to proceed up the Mississippi, at some future period, to assist in the attack and capture of Vicksburg. On arriving at New Orleans, General Banks superseded General Butler in the command of that im portant post. The latter welcomed his successor heartily, and gave him all the information and advice which he might desire for his guidance in the future performance of his duties. Five thousand of the troops who accompanied the new commandant were landed at New Orleans, to be ready for immediate operations. He issued a proclamation, in which he set forth the motives which should induce the people of that region to remain loyal to the Federal Government, and announced his determina tion to secure the rights and just interests of all the citizens. It must be admitted that the administration of General Butler had been eminently vigorous and efficient. He had indeed performed some acts which the inhabitants of the Confederate States stigmatized as barbarous and inhuman; but these were regarded by General Butler as unavoidable and imperative under the peculiar circumstances of the case One thing, however, was perfectly evident, that the measures which ha had adopted and executed resulted in the complete subjection of the in- habitants of that region to the Federal Government, so far as outward conformity was concerned, whatever the real sentiments and predilections were which many of them may have secretly cherished. After resigning 392 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. his important trust into the hands of his successor, General Butler returned to the North.* * The blockade of the southern ports, which had now been maintained for nearly two years, had produced very perceptible effects upon the commercial and social con dition of the inhabitants of the Rebel States. The truth of this assertion will be demonstrated by an allusion to the prices of the necessaries of life which prevailed at this period among them. We may instance the figures which ruled at Charleston, South Carolina, as a sample of what generally existed. Flour was thirty-six dollars per barrel, corn two dollars and fifty cents per bushel, potatoes four dollars per bushel, coffee two dollars and seventy-five cents per pound, common calico two dollars per yard, shoes sixteen dollars per pair, butter one dollar and thirty cents per pound, salt forty-seven dollars per bushel, wood twenty-two dollars per cord. Such are some of the items which demonstrate that the Federal blockade had been suffi ciently " effective." LAYING OF THE PONTOONS AT FKEDER1CKSBURG. 393 CHAPTER XXXV. TIIR BATTLKOKFRKDKRICKSBURG THE LAVING OF THK PONTOON BRIDGES THK PONTONIKR8 DRIVEN AWAY RENEWAL OF THE ATTEMPT ITS SECOND AND THIRD FAILURE BOMBARD MENT OF FREDERICKSBURO THE BRIDGES ARE CONSTRUCTED THE FEDERAL TROOPS CRO88 THE RAPPAHANNOCK PREPARATIONS FOR THE CONFLICT STRENGTH OF THE WORKS OF THE REBELS SUPERIOR ADVANTAGES OF THEIR POSITION AND NUMBERS COMMENCEMENT OF THK ENGAGEMENT BY GENERAL FRANKLIN INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE OX THE LEFT WING THE RESULTS THE CONTEST ON THE RIGHT AND THE CENTRE MOVEMENTS OF GEN ERALS MEADK AND GIBBON HEROISM OF SUMNER IMPREGNABLE POSITION OF THE ENEMY A GALLANT CHARGE HEAVY LOSSES OF THE REBELS OPERATIONS IN THK CENTRE UNDER GENERAL HOOKER PLAN OF WILCOX AND BURNS GENERAL RESULTS OF THK ENGAGE MENT FEDERAL AND REBEL LOSSES SKETCH OF GENERAL FRANKLIN OF GENERALS JACK SON AND BAYARD EVENTS SUBSEQUENT TO THK BATTLE RESIGNATION OF MR. SEWARD POPULAR CENSURE GENERAL BURNSIDE ASSUMES THE RESPONSIBILITY THE CABINET REMAINS UNCHANGED BATTLE AT CAVK HILL, IN ARKANSAS FEDERAL VICTORY. AT four o clock in the morning of the tenth of December, 1862, the tardy pontoon trains, upon which the army commanded by General Burn- side was to cross the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg, proceeded to the banks of the stream. They were in charge of the seventeenth and fiftieth New York engineers, and under the orders of General Woodbury. The operations commenced with an attempt to throw these bridges across the river, two of which were opposite Fredericksburg, the third at a point where the railroad bridge had formerly existed". The weather was fa vorable to the success of the enterprise, for a heavy fog concealed the labors of the pontoniers from the observation of the enemy. One half of the stream had been spanned, when the mist partly cleared away, and revealed the progress which had been made to the foe. An attack was instantly commenced upon the Federal workmen in the stream by the Rebel sharpshooters, who were posted in rifle-pits along the opposite shore, and from the windows of the adjacent houses. This fire was so brisk and deadly that the pontoniers were compelled to abandon their work, and retreat to the land, beyond the reach of the enemy. After a short interval, the fugitives were again formed and sent back to resume their work. The Rebels immediately commenced the attack, which proved to be more formidable and destructive than before. They swarmed in large numbers on the opposite bank, and in the streets of the town, and soon the boats and planks were riddled with their shot, and many of the pontoniers were slain. Again they were compelled to retire, and it was evident that it would be almost impossible to construct the bridges in the face of the foe. The bombardment of the town across the stream was then determined on. The batteries of the ninth corps, com manded by Edwards, Benjamin, and Miihlenburg, together with others on 394 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the right and left of the town, began to throw their shot and shell into the houses occupied by the Eebel riflemen. These were soon demolished. The bombardment continued from seven until one o clock, and much damage was done to the edifices of that ancient city. During the prog ress of this assault the third attempt was made to construct the bridges. But the enemy had not been dislodged from their position in the rifle- pits, and from these concealed retreats the attack was again continued with destructive effect. After a short time the whole party was ordered back from the pontoons. To drive these sharpshooters from their rifle- pits was indispensable, and in the afternoon of the llth, volunteers were called for, and portions of the seventh Michigan and nineteenth Massa chusetts volunteered, and crossed over in pontoon-boats under a heavy fire, and charging upon the sharpshooters, drove them from their pits, and secured the laying of the bridges without further interruption. In this task they were assisted by the eighty-ninth New York regiment, under the command of Colonel Fairchild. The passage of the Federal troops over the bridges immediately com menced. This process occupied the morning and night of the llth of December. The corps of General Franklin composed the extreme left of the line, and crossed three miles below Fredericksburg. General Sum- ner commanded on the right wing. To General Hooker was assigned a position in the centre. In a council of war which was called by General Burnside some time previous to the crossing of the troops. General Hooker had proposed that he should pass over the stream with his corps at one of the fords ten miles above the city, and by a rapid march along the south banks of the river move on Fredericksburg and take possession of the hills in its vicinity ; and that a combined attack should then be made upon the enemy posted in the rear of the town from two opposite direc tions. Whatever might have been the ultimate result of such a line of operations, it was rejected by the commander-in-chief. The plan of battle adopted was, that Franklin should open the assault by attacking and breaking the lines of the enemy on the Federal left, and as soon as that was accomplished Sumner was to fall upon the centre of the position of the enemy, to be followed by a charge on the right by Hooker s grand division. The assault on the right was not to be made until the rest of the Federal troops had obtained possession of a new road which ran in the rear of the city, crossed the heights which existed there, and connected the two wings of the enemy together. By severing that connection, an assault in the centre and right, as General Burnside supposed, would be made with destructive effect upon their whole line. The issue of events, as they subsequently occurred, proved to be very different from that which that officer so confidently anticipated. The preparations which the enemy had made to receive and repel the Federal army, were of the most formidable description. They had erected rjoraocKS SUGAR LOAF MT SpOfTSYLVANIACJ-fi: :<%. ^5 s SCALE ~ MILES STRENGTH OF REBEL WORKS AT FREDERICKSBURG 395 a series of powerful batteries, which extended for six miles, in the form of a serai-circle, from one extremity at Port Royal, to Guiney s station, on the Richmond railroad, at the other. The most important position in this line was that occupied by the Washington Artillery, which was com manded by Colonel Walton, of New Orleans. It was posted on the heights immediately in the rear of Fredericksburg. A short distance to the southeast of this position stands a still higher eminence, from which the whole range of the impending battle could be clearly seen. On this height General Lee, the Confederate commander-in-chief, took his position. Stuart s cavalry were posted on the extreme left of the Rebel lines. The troops of Longstreet in the centre, of Jackson on the right of the hills as reserves, were prudently distributed along the vast extent of their works. Impartial as well as intelligent observers subsequently affirmed that the position of the Rebel host had been so strongly and so skilfully fortified that it would have been impossible for almost any body of men, however numerous and valiant, to reduce it by means of an assault, or an open attack in front. During Friday, December 12th, the Federal troops which were destined to take part in this memorable engagement were transferred to their re spective positions on the other side of the river. A hundred and forty- five cannon were placed in position. During the day skirmishing took place between the pickets of the two armies ; and in the afternoon some of the Federal guns continued to thunder across the stream into the works of the Confederates on the opposite heights, and into the city. During the ensuing night the hostile outposts were within a hundred yards of each other; and the busy hum of preparation in both the rival hosts was continually heard as the solemn hours of the night wore on. But the passage of the Rappahannock and the transfer of the troops had not been accomplished without heavy loss. At length Saturday, December 13th, dawned. It was a day destined to be invested through all coming time with a melancholy and imperish able interest. The first few hours were obscured by a heavy fog, which burdened the horizon on every hand. At nine o clock it partly rose, and revealed to view as magnificent a spectacle of martial splendor as the most glowing imagination could conceive. The batteries of the enemy, which could be seen extending along a series of heights in the rear of Fredericksburg, supported by an" army of eighty thousand men, frowned upon the plain below, in which forty thousand valiant troops stood under their glittering and gleaming arms ready to commence the contest. As soon as the combatants became visible to each other the engagement began. Every advantage both of numbers and of position belonged to the Confederates, yet the dauntless heroes of the Union eagerly courted the contest. The action opened with the assault of General Franklin s division on 396 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the extreme right of the Rebel forces. The enemy had here advanced a single battery, consisting of four guns, commanded by Captain Carter Braxton, which annoyed the Federal columns exceedingly by its spirited and accurate firing. The ninth regiment of the New York State militia were ordered to charge upon this battery and capture it. They advanced rapidly at a double-quick, with colors flying and muskets glittering. The earth shook beneath their heavy tread. But the enemy met them with fierce and unflinching fortitude, and after a desperate struggle the ninth were compelled to fall back, defeated in their purpose. They were soon rallied, and then, supported by General Tyler s brigade, they advanced a second time to the charge. Another furious struggle ensued, but the noblest valor was in vain. The enemy again prevailed, and the Federals recoiled and again retreated. After another short interval the same troops were reformed, and brought forward once more to the charge. The battery in dispute was supported by a numerous body of Rebel troops posted in the adjacent woods, from which, when the Federals reached a point in their advance within their range, a sheet of flame issued, masking a deluge of rifle shots, which decimated the approaching column, and covered the line of their march with wounded and dead. This circumstance accounts for the difficulty and defeat which attended these several efforts to capture the battery in question. This battery finally remained untaken; but now the engagement gradually extended along the whole left of the Federal line. Here Franklin was confronted by " Stonewall" Jackson. All the art and energy of that able commander were summoned to his support. One of the most desperate combats re corded in military annals took place on this portion of the field. Gen eral Franklin at length prepared to storm the tremendous works erected on the hills before him. He commenced this effort about half-past eleven o clock, and commanded the movement in person. He ordered six brigades to advance to the attack. His chief effort was to turn the posi tion of the enemy on the Massaponax, and drive him beyond that creek. Then ensued a long and sanguinary struggle, which continued with various and shifting vicissitudes during some hours. The Rebels fought from their sheltered and elevated positions with great resolution. But the Union troops were equally determined ; after a protracted contest the enemy began to yield, and retire from some small hills on which their first line had been posted. The Federals pressed upon them, and followed up the advantage which they had gained. At one o clock General Franklin had a decided superiority over the foe. But about three o clock they received heavy reinforcements on their right wing, and made so firm a stand that the Federals in vain attempted to drive them further from their position. Many incidents occurred during this portion of the con test which indicated how ferocious the struggle was. Here it was that the gallant Bayard was mortally wounded on the Federal side. He was con- o txJ MOVEMENTS OF GENERALS MEADE AND GIBBON. 397 versing with General Franklin, when a cannon ball struck him on the hip. The blow threw him far out of his saddle, and it wa-s soon evident that it was mortal. As if to counterbalance this loss, it was at this period that General Thomas R. R. Cobb, of the Kebel army, was struck in the thigh by an exploding shell, and soon after expired from the wound. It was here also that three hundred of General A. P. Hill s division, belong ing to Jackson s corps, were captured and marched off to the rear. J he resolution and skill with which the enemy fought in this portion of the field were not singular. The troops engaged here were the veterans who had taken part in the battles of Cedar Mountain, the second Manassas, and Antietam. Nevertheless, General Franklin succeeded during the progress of the day in driving back the troops opposed to him nearly a mile. When the day closed he held the position which he had wrested from the enemy by the most tremendous exertions. In his portion of the field the Federal forces had gained a success, and had the same good fortune attended their efforts in the remainder of the far-reaching scene of slaughter and blood, the issue of the day would have been very different from that which actually occurred. On the Federal right and centre, which occupied positions nearer to Fredericksburg, the action did not commence as early in the day as on the left. The fog, which in the morning rendered every thing invisible, did not clear away until toward noon. While its thick and heavy folds still enveloped the hills and vales, random shooting from artillery was kept up by both sides. But this produced little effect, though the sullen roar of great guns, as peal after peal rang responsively through the murky air, produced a sublime and solemn effect. As soon as the sun appeared, the infantry of the divisions of Generals Meade and Gibbon were ordered forward. These were soon engaged in close action with the veterans of Longstreet and Stuart. Soon the divisions of Doubleday and Stoneman were sent forward to their assistance. By great effort the enemy were compelled to yield somewhat in the left of the centre. On the extreme right, where the veteran hero Sumner commanded in person, the contest was equally severe. The troops engaged here consisted of the seventh and ninth corps. They won imperishable honor for them selves, though they suffered heavily. It was here that the superior ad vantages of the elevated and intrenched position of the enemy became most conspicuous. It soon became evident that it would be impossible to dislodge the Rebels from their breastworks except at the point of the bayonet. General Sumner therefore ordered General French to charge with his division on the hostile batteries. General Howard s column acted as their support. The Federal troops rushed bravely forward to the charge across the intervening plain, until they reached a point only a few yards distant from the earthworks. Then a terrible fire opened upon them, which cut down whole ranks, strewed the earth with wounded and 398 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. dead, and compelled them to retire in confusion to a ravine in the dis tance. Here these troops were reformed, strengthened by an additional body of infantry, and brought up again to the attack with fixed bayonets at a double-quick step. As they advanced they were overwhelmed by a still more deadly hailstorm of shot and shell than before. The enemy concentrated both their artillery and musketry upon them. Hundreds here strewed the ground with their dead or mangled bodies. So terrible was this assault that these resolute troops were completely shattered and unable to withstand it. They were thrown into confusion and dismay more complete than before. They gave way and fled. For the third time they were rallied and brought back. On each advance their ranks became thinner and thinner, the piles of dead and wounded were more and more numerous. At length it became evident that further attempt to take the heights by storm would be utterly futile ; the troops were withdrawn on the Federal right, and all the available artillery were brought into play for the purpose of shelling the redoubtable enemy in their stronghold. This cannonading continued until darkness put an end to the abortive and bloody contest. But the loss of the enemy had also been severe in this part of the field. The brigade of South Carolina troops, commanded by General Kershaw, suffered terribly. Here General Maxey Gregg was mortally wounded. Here the third regiment of South Carolina volunteers was almost annihilated. Early in the fight its colonel, lieutenant-colonel, major, senior and second senior captains, were all slain. The shattered ranks of that once gallant and formidable body of men furnished appalling proof of the terrible energy and skill with which the Federal troops had assailed and crushed them.* The centre of the Federal lines, in which the third and fifth army corps under Hooker were placed, came into the action about noon. These were then ordered forward to storm the works of the enemy in their front. The same gallant charges were here made in the face of the same desolating hailstorms of shot and shell, attended with the same tempo rary panics, partial successes, and final retreats which characterized the operations of the right wing. At one time General Wilcox detached the division under General Burns, and sent it to the left of the centre, for the purpose of forming a junction with the left wing under Franklin. Burns therefore crossed Hazel Run and took a position on Deep Eun, near to which Franklin s right wing extended. The object of this move ment was to support any operations which might be undertaken between Deep Run and the corps of General Couch. But nothing of the kind occurred, and Burns troops did not take any part in the engagement. During the day General Sturgis was ordered to support Couch in attack ing the Rebel batteries in the right of their centre, which had enfiladed * The Richmond Despatch of December 16th, 1863. SKETCHES OF GENERALS JACKSON AND BAYARD. 399 the troops of that general. Ferrero s brigade led the charge upon these works. Sturgis ordered Naglee to assist Ferrero, and he himself charged valiantly upon the foe. By a dashing assault some of these troops suc ceeded in crossing the intervening space, rushed up the hills, carried their crest, and approached within eighty feet of the Rebel intrench ments. But so fearful was the discharge from the guns of the enemy that it was impossible to advance any further. The troops were eventually compelled to retire from the scene of their heroism, and take a position beyond the reach of the deadly and murderous batteries of the unconquerable foe. Such was the position of affairs over the widespread and revolting scene when the sun descended beneath the horizon and darkness threw its mantle over the exhausted combatants. Of all the Federal troops engaged those under General Franklin alone had obtained any advantage. It was expected that on the following day the struggle would be renewed. Such however was not the case. The memorable battle of Fredericksburg had been fought and ended. Its blood-stained record was complete. During the night which followed, both armies reposed in the positions which they held before the engagement. A portion of the Federal troops occupied the town, whose obscure name has been rendered renowned from its con tiguity to this melancholy and unmerited defeat of the army of the Union. The fourth attempt of the Federal generals to realize the wish of the nation for an advance upon Richmond had proved futile. During the action the Federal gunboats which were in the Rappahannock approached the scene of conflict and shelled that portion of the works of the enemy which came within their range ; but their well directed fire could not materially alter or avert the general issue of the day. Among the casualties of this battle were the deaths of Generals Bayard and Jackson, and the wounding of Generals Yinton, Gibbon, Kimball, Caldwell, and Meagher. The loss of the two first named officers was a serious calamity. Conrad F. Jackson was a native of Pennsylvania. His military career began with the commencement of the war. He then received the com mand of the ninth regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserves, under General McCall. When the Federal army advanced into Virginia, in December, 1861, the corps to which the ninth regiment belonged was posted between the Great Falls, the Chain Bridge, Alexandria, and the Leesburg railroad. On the 20th of December, General Jackson distinguished himself in the battle of Dranesville, in the brigade commanded by General Ord. Sub sequently his regiment was transferred to the army of General McDowell, which was posted at Fredericksburg. In June, 1862, he was ordered to join the force of McClellan in the Peninsula with the Reserves under McCall. He took part in the engagement at Mechanicsville and Games Mill, as well as in the more important contests around Richmond. He fought with honor under Pope at Manassas, under McClellan at South 400 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. , Mountain and Antietara. When General Ord was transferred to the West, he was placed in command of his brigade, led them gallantly into action at Fredericksburg, and there died upon the field of honor. A similar fate befell General George D. Bayard, the gallant cavalry officer who had obtained and merited the epithet of the Murat of Burn- side s army. This officer was a native of New York, and entered West Point in 1852. lie graduated in 1856, and was immediatdly after ap pointed second lieutenant in the first United States cavalry. In August, 1861, he was promoted to a captaincy, and took command of the first Pennsylvania cavalry, attached to General McCall s Reserves. He took part with that brave corps in all the battles in which they served in the Peninsula and in Maryland. He was raised to the rank of brigadier general in June, 1862. He had distinguished himself by his bold and dashing charges upon the foe in many a desperate engagement. He was extremely chivalrous and gallant in his deportment as an officer, and seemed destined by nature for no other sphere than that of a soldier. It was his pride and glory to command a formidable body of horse; and though only twenty -eight years of age at the period of his death, he had already acquired renown as one of the most brilliant, skilful and daring cavalry officers in the armies of the Union. He died as he had lived bravely, grandly, nobly, and like his great prototype of immortal memory, " without fear and without reproach." The losses suffered by the Federal forces engaged at Fredericksburg were very heavy. They were eleven hundred and twenty-eight killed, nine thousand one hundred and five wounded, two thousand and seventy- eight prisoners. The loss of the Confederates in killed and wounded was about three thousand five hundred. This disproportion resulted from the superior advantages of position and protection which the latter enjoyed, and from the vast number of their guns. No fighting of importance occurred on Sunday, the 14th of December. The combatants on both sides were nearly exhausted, and both were en gaged in the humane work of burying the dead and removing the wounded. During the 15th some skirmishing took place between small and detached bodies. It was expected by both armies that on that day the general assault would be renewed. But a council of war having been convened by General Burnside, the conclusion was arrived at that a further attempt to carry the works of the enemy would only involve an enormous sacrifice of life without any probability of success. General Burnside therefore determined to withdraw his forces across the Kappa- hannock to their first position. This purpose was accomplished with great skill, and with perfect success, during the night of the 15th of De cember. Neither men, artillery, nor baggage were lost during the opera tion, nor were the enemy aware of what was transpiring until the trans portation was completed. The reason assigned for this step by General EVENTS AFTER THE BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. 401 Burnside, in a public despatch upon the subject, was the fact that it had become a military necessity either to renew the attack or to retire ; and because a repulse would have been extremely disastrous to the Federal cause under existing circumstances. It would be difficult to describe the intensity of that disappointment which filled the public mind upon the receipt of the intelligence of this defeat. It was regarded as the greatest misfortune and disgrace which had yet befallen the Federal arms since the commencement of the war. The chief blame, in the popular mind, rested upon the comrnander-in- chief, who it was affirmed should not have undertaken to carry by assault a series of works which had been rendered impregnable to any attack by the energy and skill of the Confederate generals during the long interval which had been allowed them by the delay of the pontoon trains. The Republican members of the Federal Senate, then in session, especially the more radical portion of them, conceived the idea that a change should be made in the Cabinet, and in the policy which governed the conduct of the war, before such disasters would be avoided in future, and victory be won by the arms of the Union. These Senators held several private meetings, compared their views together, and at length appointed a committee to wait on the President, in order to demand the removal of Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, and the reconstruction of the Cabinet. Before this committee could perform their functions Mr. Seward received information of their purpose, and instantly sent in his resignation to the President, to gether with that of his son, the assistant secretary. This action of the Kepublican Senators resulted from the fact that Mr. Seward was regarded by. them as the master-spirit, whose influence was paramount in the Cabi net, and who directed its whole policy and movements with resistless potency. In the end, however, the proposed alterations were not effected. Mr. Lincoln, after some days of deliberation, declined to accept the ten dered resignations, or to make any change in his Cabinet officers. At a still later period General Burnside publicly assumed the responsibility for making the attack upon the enemy at Fredericksburg, and affirmed that all the blame and the consequent odium, if any such there were, ap pertained to him alone. This declaration was very honest and ingenuous on his part, but from the testimony afterward given before the Com mittee on the Conduct of the War it appeared that the delay in the for warding of the pontoon trains, which was the real cause of the disastrous character of the battle, was the fault of other parties, and that General Burnside was not in any respect blameworthy for that delay. On other fields, since that time, General Burnside has nobly redeemed his reputa tion from any charges of unskilful generalship, and his prompt assump tion of the blame on this occasion, when most men would have shrunk from it, was in unison with the generosity and manliness a: his character, and won him more friends than his misfortunes had lost. 26 402 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. On the 28th of November, a severe battle was fought near Boones- borough, or Cane Hill, in Arkansas, between the Federal troops, com manded by General Blunt, and the Rebels, led by Generals Marmaduke and Shelby. The former consisted of three brigades, with four batteries and six mountain howitzers. The latter numbered eight thousand men. The purpose of General Blunt was to attack and expel the enemy from the position which they had taken in that vicinity, which contained the richest grain-growing region in Arkansas; for if they were driven thence they would suffer from famine more severely than from a defeat in the field. The army advanced as rapidly as possible over the mountain roads, and at length reached the pickets of the enemy. Some of these were captured ; the rest were driven in. An attack upon the foe was commenced as soon as their main body was reached. The Federals began the assault from a hill which overlooked the town of Boonesborough and the camp of the enemy. The artillery commenced the action. The Rebels responded with spirit, but as soon as a charge was made with the bayonet by the first brigade, led by Colonel Ware, they broke and fled. The Federals pursued them with deafening shouts. A running fight then followed, from one hill to another, through one ravine after another, the Rebels making a brief stand from time to time, and then breaking away again in disorder. Thus the pursuit had continued from ten o clock in the morn ing until night. It was kept up over an area of mountainous country ten rniles in extent. At last, when night came, it found the enemy inclosed in a wild deep mountain-gorge, in which they could not be attacked with much success in the darkness. The Federal troops then suspended their labors. Finding himself destined to inevitable defeat if the battle was renewed, the Rebel General Marmaduke sent a flag of truce asking per mission to remove his dead and wounded, and under cover of this escaped with his demoralized forces to Yan Buren, where a considerable force of Rebels from other portions of the State were concentrating under General Hiudman. The Rebels were greatly chagrined at this defeat, and resolved to avenge it, destroy Blunt s little force, and obtain possession of the wheat region of northwestern Arkansas. For this purpose Ilindman commenced mov ing forward with his army of about thirty thousand men, on the 2d of December, toward Crane Hill. General Blunt was promptly informed concerning his movements, and telegraphed at once to General Herron, then at Wilson s creek, Missouri, one hundred and ten miles distant, to come to his aid by forced marches. Herron received his despatch on the morning of the 3d of December, and in three hours was on the road with his advance column, the others following immediately. The whole dis tance was accomplished in three days, and Herron s force, consisting of about seven thousand men, encountered the enemy in a long valley, run ning from west to east, called Prairie Grove, about ten miles above Cane FEDERAL VICTORY AT CANE HILL, ARKANSAS. 403 Hill, on the morning of December 7th. General Blunt, during three days which intervened, had been skirmishing with the enemy at points eight, ten, and fifteen miles below Cane Hill, endeavoring to prevent them from passing up the mountain road to the east of Cane Hill, and thus intercept ing Herron before he could join him, or pouncing upon his own train, which was at Rhea s Mills, nearly opposite, and to the west of Prairie Grove. On the morning of the 7th he found to his regret that Hind man had succeeded in pushing his main column past his army, and would be likely to attack Herron single-handed. He accordingly pushed north ward with all speed with his little force of about five thousand, saw that his trains were transferred to a safe place, and passing through the valley of Prairie Grove, attacked Hindman in the rear, about three o clock in the afternoon. General Herron s little force had fought with desperate bravery for five hours, and were becoming exhausted in contending against more than four times their numbers; but the sound of Blunt s cannon, and the charges of his men upon the rear of the enemy, infused new vigor into their wearied limbs, and they rushed with energy into the fight, and soon began to drive the enemy before them. At nightfall the Union forces occupied the ground on which the enemy had first formed, and both parties slept on their arms, the Union troops expecting to renew the contest in the morn ing; but toward daylight General Hindman requested an interview with General Blunt, and kept up a parley for five hours, meanwhile repealing Marmaduke s trick of withdrawing his troops during the flag of truce. The Union loss was about seven hundred, that of the Rebels over fifteen hundred. 404 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXXVI. THE EXPEDITION OF GENERAL FOSTER FROM NEWBERN TO KINGSTON AND GOLDSBORO COM MENCEMENT OF THE MARCH SKIRMISH AT SOUTHEAST CREEK ITS RESULTS THE FEDERALS CONTINUE THEIR MARCH TO KINSTON BATTLE AT THAT PLACE INCIDENTS OF THIS EN" OAGEMENT ITS RESULTS OPERATIONS OF THE FEDERAL FLEET WHICH ACCOMPANIED THK EXI KDITION SKIRMISH AT WHITEHALL BATTLE AT GOLDSBORO THE RETURN OK THK EXPEDITION SKIRMISHING WITH THE ENEMY EXPLOITS OF MAJOR GARRARD AND FITZ- SIMMONS ARRIVAL OF THE EXPEDITION AT NEWBERN ITS RESULTS FEDERAL LOSSES SKETCH OF GENERAL FOSTER CAPTURE OF HOLLY SPRINGS BATTLE OF DAVIS* MILLS IN MISSISSIPPI HEROISM OF COLONEL MORGAN DEFEAT AT VAN DORN POSITION OF AFFAIRS TOWARD THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1862 PRESIDENT LINCOLN S EMANCIPATION PROCLAMA TION ITS PROVISIONS FEELINGS WITH WHICH IT WAS REGARDED BY DIFFERENT CLASSES OF THE COMMUNITY ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE FUTURE EVENTS OF THE WAR. AT the time that the cause of the Union was receiving a calamitous blow at Fredericksburg, the general gloom was somewhat mitigated by the intel ligence of a successful movement of General J. G. Foster from Newbern into the interior of North Carolina. The expedition organized by that officer started from Newbern on the morning of the llth of December, 1862. Its object was the capture of Kinston, Whitehall, and Goldsboro, and the severance of some of the railroad lines which connected Richmond with various portions of the Confederate States. Preparations for this undertaking had been progressing with energy for some time. The forces detailed to this service consisted of the ninth New Jersey, which was placed in the extreme advance, the brigade commanded by General Wessel, with those of Generals Peck, Avery, Lee, and Stevenson. The majority of these troops were from Massachusetts. They were accom panied by the third New York artillery, the Belger battery, the first Rhode Island artillery, commanded by Colonel Ledlie, and the third New York cavalry, led by Colonel Mix. Having left Newbern, the expedition marched up the Trent road about ten miles, where it halted. At three o clock in the afternoon the pickets of the enemy were first encountered, and three of them were captured. The march had been already rendered difficult from the fact that the road had been obstructed by felled trees and by other impediments. It was necessary that these should be removed before the advance could be con tinued. This work was accomplished during the ensuing night, and the ninth New Jersey infantry then proceeded until within three miles of Trenton. On Friday morning, the 12th, the march of the main body was resumed. During this day they encountered a body of Rebel cavalry, and nn ambush of their infantry. A portion of the third New York cavalry SKIRMISH AT SOUTHEAST CREEK. 405 charged upon them, driving them from their position, and taking a few of them prisoners. Additional skirmishing took place during the day with out any very important result. On Friday night the column halted, and it being evident that the forces of the enemy were posted in the vicinity in considerable strength, they encamped in line of battle. No fires were allowed to be kindled, and no noise of any kind was permitted. Early the next morning the march was resumed toward Kinston at a slow and cautious pace. At eleven o clock they reached a point about seven miles from Kinston, where the Whitehall and Kinston roads unite. It was ex pected that the enemy would concentrate their forces there, and that it would become the scene of a desperate combat. The Federal troops were formed in line of battle in an open area on the left of the road to Whitehall, and in front of a wood in which it was suspected the enemy had concealed themselves. At nine o clock a company of the third New York cavalry encountered a part of the Rebel troops at a spot called Southeast Creek. Here the latter had thrown a breastwork across the road, and had posted several guns behind it. In front of this position there was a bridge, which the enemy had partially destroyed, so that it was not passable. They opened with their guns upon the Federals before them. These responded with their carbines. Soon afterward a section of the third New York artillery, commanded by Lieutenant Day, arrived, and commenced to fire upon the enemy with good effect. At ten o clock the ninth New Jersey, together with Morrison s battery, were brought forward and placed in action. The latter took a position on a hill two hundred and fifty yards from the battery of the Rebels, and commenced to shell them. A spirited cannonading from both sides then ensued, which lasted nearly an hour. The enemy then began to retire. As they did so the ninth New Jersey were deployed as skirmishers to the left of the road, crossed the stream on a mill-dam, attacked the Rebel battery on the flank, and captured one of the guns a rifled six pounder together with several prisoners. The enemy left six killed and wounded behind them. The stars and stripes were instantly unfurled from the Rebel works, and cheers arose from the whole Union force. Three hours were then consumed in repairing the bridge for the transfer of the troops and the artillery. The column then passed over it and pro ceeded toward Kiuston. When four miles distant from that place they halted and encamped for the night in line of battle, strong pickets being posted in all directions. Just before making this point, they again en countered a portion of the enemy with two pieces of artillery, stationed behind a wood. A brilliant charge by the third New York cavalry soon expelled them from that position, and thus ended the operations of the L8th* * " On Saturday morning Company K, Captain Cole, third New York cavalry, took 406 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. The Federal column, with the cavalry under Mix, and Wessel s brigade in the advance, commenced to move cautiously at daybreak on the morn ing of Sunday, the 14th. After proceeding two miles they drove in the pickets of the enemy. A mile further on, they met their main body near Kinston. They numbered six thousand men, and were commanded by General Evans, the Rebel hero of Ball s Bluff. His troops consisted of three regiments of South Carolina infantry, together with a large body of cavalry and artillery from North Carolina. General Foster immediately made his dispositions for the engagement. The enemy were drawn up in line of battle on a ground which was partially covered with woods and a dense undergrowth. Their artillery was posted in the centre and on their flanks. They presented a form somewhat similar to a triangle, the base of which faced toward the Federals. The latter were posted as follows : In the first line the ninth New Jersey was placed on the right, with Wessel s brigade in the centre and on the left. In the second line, the twenty-third and forty-fourth Massachusetts were posted, while the forty- fifth Massachusetts, the troops of Emory s brigade, together with those of Stevenson and Lee, were held as reserves. The artillery were distributed at intervals .along the right, the left, and the centre of the line. The engagement began at half-past ten. The artillery opened the com bat with energy on both sides, and continued without intermission till the termination of the battle. Soon after the commencement of this artillery duel the infantry came into action. The enemy fought bravely, and were as bravely assailed. During the progress of the battle a flank move ment was made by the troops of General Wessel upon a battery of the enemy on the left. Another portion of the Federals moved to the right, and obtained a position in an open field in that direction, which enabled them to play upon the line of the enemy with great effect. At length the ninth New Jersey, after a furious struggle with the foe, in which both sides lost heavily, obtained a position near the bridge, which was the key and centre of the line of the enemy. In this achievement they were ably the advance, and while moving forward captured two prisoners, belonging to Nether- cote s battalion, who gave some valuable information. Proceeded thence to Southwest creek, about five miles from Kinston. On Captain Cole s approach, the enemy were found engaged in endeavoring to destroy the bridge over the creek. Captain Cole dis mounted a platoon arid fired a volley upon the enemy while they were at work. The enemy then retreated, but soon after fired from a battery of two six pounder howitzers upon our advance, wounding one man a private, named John Costello who was shot through the head. Colonel Hickman, of the ninth New Jersey, (the advance guard of the infantry.) here came forward and ordered the ninth to deploy as skir miahen. This order was quickly executed, and had the effect of partly dispersing the enemy, and Schenck s third New York battery coming up fired about a dozen shells, driving the enemy entirely away. On the ninth New Jersey crossing the bridge, four of the enemy were found dead, the wounded being carried on with the retreating enemy. The ninth succeeded in capturing one of their howitzers, which was brought as a trophy into Newborn." Special Correspondent of the New York Herald. THE BATTLE NEAR KINSTON, NORTH CAROLINA. 407 supported by the seventeenth Massachusetts. It was soon discovered that the Rebels had erected an intrenchment on the opposite bank of the Neuse, nearly two hundred feet in length, which completely commanded all the approaches to the bridge. To capture this fortification a combined move ment now became necessary. The forty-fifth and twenty-third Massa chusetts were ordered forward on the right to execute a flank movement in that direction. The third New York cavalry and some light artillery were posted on the left. Another diversion was made with a detachment of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, under Major Garrard, upon the centre. This result of this combination was decisive. After a contest of more than three hours the Rebels were compelled to evacuate their works and retreat. As they did so they fired the bridge over the Neuse in several places. But the energy of the Federals, led on by the provost marshal, Major Franklin, baffled and defeated their purpose. They succeeded in extinguishing the fires before any material damage had been effected. The Federal troops in the advance immediately crossed the bridge, and as they did so the last of the Rebel forces evacuated Kinston. The tenth Connecticut chased their rear-guard as they were clearing the opposite out skirts of the town. They had fired the railroad depot and other buildings, some of which were ultimately saved through the exertions of the provost marshal. The loss of the enemy in this battle was two hundred and fifty killed and wounded, several hundred prisoners, one thousand rounds of heavy ammunition, eleven pieces of artillery, and five hundred stand of arms. The Federal loss was about two hundred in killed, wounded, and missing. After the close of the battle General Foster despatched a flag of truce after the retreating Confederate general, demanding the surrender of his forces. The latter were then hurrying along the main road and through various by-ways toward Goldsboro and Snow Hill. General Evans re fused to comply with this requisition, but sent a flag of truce in turn, requesting that an interval might be allowed for the removal of the women and children from Kinston, as he had determined to resume the combat at that place with his artillery. This reasonable request was granted. A period of several hours was allowed, and elapsed without further hostile operations. At its termination it was ascertained that this plea of hu manity was a mere imposition, and that the Rebel troops had in the mean time made good their escape from the vicinity of the Federal forces. After the retreat of the enemy the troops encamped for the night in and near Kinston. One of the chief casualties of this engagement was the death of Colonel Gray of the ninety-sixth New York volunteers. The Federal gunboats, which had been sent to assist this expedition, were the Delaware, Seymour, and Shawsheen, commanded by Captain Murray. The steamboats were the Ocean Wave, Allison, North State, Port Royal, and Wilson, under the orders of Colonel Manchester. The gunboats 408 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. were unable to proceed further than fifteen miles, and took no part in the action. But the steamboats which conveyed the marines under Colonel Manchester reached the scene of conflict. As these proceeded up the stream they were occasionally fired on from the shore. When several miles from Kinston they were assailed by an eleven-gun battery, which opened on the Allison, which led the van of the flotilla, as she rounded a point of land and suddenly came in presence of one of the Kebel fortifications, not twelve hundred yards distant. Before she could retire from this danger ous position she was repeatedly struck with shot and shell ; and although she returned the fire with her forward thirty pound Parrott gun, she was materially damaged. The top of her pilot-house was torn off, her smoke stack was pierced by a shell, and her steam safety-pipe was cut away. She eventually backed down the stream, the channel being too narrow for her to turn around, and reached a point of safety beyond the reach of the Kebel batteries. On the 14th, the steamboats continued to descend the stream, inasmuch as the water had fallen fifteen inches during the pre ceding night, and threatened by a further reduction to prevent their re turn altogether ifHhey delayed much longer. During their passage they were assailed by guerrillas from the shore. It was an incident worthy of notice that the bullets which struck the vessels were found, upon exami nation, to have been steeped in verdigris, or had copper wire attached to them, for the purpose of poisoning the wounds which they inflicted, and rendering them incurable and mortal. During the 15th, the expedition continued its advance toward Golds- boro. It left Kinston early in the morning, and marched seventeen miles through an impoverished and hilly country until nightfall, without coming in contact with the enemy. As soon as the camp was chosen, Major Garrard was sent with a portion of the third New York cavalry and a section of the third New York artillery, to proceed four miles to a village on the banks of the Neuse, named Whitehall, for the purpose of making a reconnoissance. At that place they found a Eebel gunboat nearly completed, and a detachment of the enemy posted to protect it. A skirmish ensued between the troops without any very decisive result to either party. But the gunboat was battered to pieces with shot and shell. After this exploit the Federals returned without further incident to their camp. On the 16th the main column under General Foster con tinued its march toward Whitehall. The enemy were now concentrated there in stronger force than before, and disputed the passage of the troops. An engagement of several hours duration ensued. The Rebels succeeded in destroying the bridge which here crossed the Neuse, as if to stop the further advance of the Federals in that direction. But such was not their intended line of march. General Foster deceived the enemy by making several feints, one of which was an attempt to rebuild the bridge. The Federal artillery under Colonel Ledlie drove the Rebels THE BATTLE AT GOLDSBORO. 409 from their position on the opposite side of the stream. But while they were occupied by these simulated operations several important reconnois- sances were in progress by the Federals unobserved by the main body of the foe. Major Garrard was sent with a detachment twenty miles off, to Mount Olive station, on the Wilmington and Goldsboro railroad. He there surprised a train about to start, captured the mail bags, de stroyed the telegraph and the railroad track for some distance, and burnt a bridge and tressel-work. At the same time Captain Jacobs was despatched toward Goldsboro to destroy the railroad track, several culverts, and a bridge. This purpose was successfully accomplished, after which the troops returned to the main column. On the morning of the 17th the march of the entire force toward Goldsboro was resumed. Their route lay through an open country ; on their right flowed the river Neuse, on their left was a long stretch of woods. Having reached the vicinity of the Goldsboro bridge, it was soon evident that the enemy had been reinforced, and were prepared to dispute the further progress of the Federal troops. Their first position was on the near side of the river, and close to the railroad bridge. They withdrew to the other side, however, after a short interchange of cannon ading. Then followed the chief struggle for the possession of the bridge and for the mastery of the position. Colonel Ledlie s battery commenced to assail the enemy with great energy. The ninth New Jersey supported him with spirit. The seventeenth Massachusets, under Colonel Fellows, moving toward the left, crossed a mill stream, and advanced on the rail road directly in front of the enemy. In this operation several men were drowned by the sudden opening of the flood-gates of the dam. The chief aim of the enemy was to protect this railroad bridge. The express pur pose of General Foster in advancing thus far into the interior of the country was to destroy it. The contest, therefore, centred around this structure. To Colonel Hickman was assigned the duty of setting fire to it. That officer called for volunteers to assist him in performing this task. A crowd of brave men instantly rushed forward from the seven teenth Massachusetts and ninth New Jersey, ready to devote themselves to the dangerous task. Lieutenant Graham, of the Rocket battery, was the first tc apply the torch. Soon the bridge was in flames, notwith standing the determined opposition of the enemy. The ruin was com pleted by the destruction of the adjacent railroad track, the ties and rails of which were so effectually injured as to be rendered wholly useless for several miles. This achievement was accomplished while a desperate resistance was kept up by the enemy, and a spirited engagement was going forward between the two hostile forces. And now, the purposes of the expedition having all been attained, General Foster commenced his return toward Newbern. No sooner did the Rebels discover this retrograde movement than they advanced more 410 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. bravely to the charge. The Federal supply train being placed in front, the enemy were received with a deadly salute, which greatly checked their ardor. Two South Carolina regiments, which undertook to make a charge with the bayonet on Morrison s battery, were repulsed with immense losses, for they were assailed at the same moment by the guns of Morri son, by Belger s battery, which put in a destructive cross fire, and by Lee s brigade, which attacked them in front. The rapidity with which they retired much exceeded the velocity with which they advanced. Two hours were occupied in this combat. After its termination the march was resumed. During its progress other exploits were performed by the invading forces. Major Fitzsimmons, with a portion of the third New York cavalry, made an excursion to Dudley station, five miles from the Goldsboro railroad bridge, and captured a train of four cars, tore up the track for three miles, burned a bridge and some tressel work, and de stroyed the telegraph line. Major Garrard proceeded in another direc tion to Tompkins bridge, over the Neuse river. He found the structure already in flames, and surrounded by a detachment of the enemy, con sisting of four regiments of infantry and eight guns. After a combat of several hours the enemy broke and fled, leaving the Federals in posses sion of the scene of conflict. After its termination the troops under Garrard rejoined the main body. The expedition reached Newbern on the 20th without any further in cident worthy of narration. It had proved a complete success, notwith standing the fact that General Evans, who had vainly resisted and har assed it during its advance and return, published an official report which indicated the contrary, but which clearly proved that he had permitted his imagination to embellish his narrative at the expense of his veracity and accuracy. Nevertheless, the Federal successes had not been obtained without considerable losses. In the four combats at Southeast creek, Kinston, Whitehall, and Goldsboro, there were ninety killed, three hun dred and fifty-four wounded. The losses of the enemy could not be ascertained, bat they were evidently heavy, from the results of the several engagements which occurred. General John G. Foster, the commander of this successful expedition, was born in Whitefield, New Hampshire, in 1823. He entered West Point in 1842, where he graduated with honor in 1846. He had exhibited a fondness for the profession of arms from his youth. After concluding his studies at West Point, he immediately received the rank of brevet second lieutenant of engineers. In January, 1847, he was ordered to Mexico in the army of General Scott, as lieutenant in a company of sappers and miners. He was present in all the engagements which took place in the march from Yera Cruz to Molino del Key. In the latter action he was severely wounded while leading a division of the storming party in the assault which was made on the Casa Mata, in which two thirds of the BATTLE AT DA VIS S MILLS, MISSISSIPPI. 4H entire command were destroyed. He subsequently received three brevets for his gallant conduct in Mexico. The first was at Contreras, the second at Churubusco, the last at Molino del Key, where he obtained the rank of captain. After recovering partially from his wound he was ordered, in 1859, to Charleston, South Carolina, as engineer, to repair and com plete the Federal forts in the vicinity of that harbor. After the surrender of Fort Sumter by Major Anderson, he tendered his services to the Federal Government. They were accepted, and he was at first employed in superintending the construction of the great fort at Sandy Hook. He was soon after ordered into active service in the army of the Potomac, with the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers. When General Burn- side organized his expedition to Roanoke island, he was placed in com mand of one of its divisions, and contributed greatly to the success which attended the expedition. He subsequently distinguished himself both at Newbern and at Fort Macon. "When Burnside was transferred to the army under McClellan, General Foster was placed in command of all the Federal forces remaining in North Carolina. The expedition to Golds- boro, by its uniform success, added to his already well deserved and very considerable renown. A spirited contest took place at Davis s mills, Mississippi, on the 21st of December, in which Colonel W. H. Morgan, of the twenty-fifth Indiana regiment, with a small body of troops, attacked and routed a much larger force under Yan Dorn. This place is about twenty miles north of Holly Springs, and is situated on a narrow and deep stream called Wolf river. Several bridges here crossed it. Yan Dorn had captured fifteen hundred Federal troops, and destroyed a large amount of government stores at Holly Springs a short time previous ; and information had reached Colonel Morgan that the Rebel general was then marching northward to attack him at Davis s mills. Morgan determined to dispute the passage of the foe at one of the bridges, and to oppose their advance from two favorable points, the saw-mill and the Indian mound. The mound was quickly con verted into a block-house by the use of several rows of cotton-bales, which were placed at the ends, while the intervening sides were protected by thick walls of bridge timber. A breastwork of earth, three feet in height, was also thrown up around the base of the mound. This fort and the mill were then provided with ammunition and stores sufficient to stand an assault of twenty-four hours ; and a portion of the twenty-fifth Indiana, with some dismounted cavalrymen, were placed in the saw-mill. The remainder of the troops occupied the block-house. The former was termed Fort Morgan, the latter was named the Redan. About mid-day the expected force of the enemy arrived in the vicinity of Davis s mills. They drove in the Federal pickets, then dismounted and formed in line of battle. They advanced rapidly toward the works with colors flying, and making the air resound with their exulting shouts. 412 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. They rapidly approached one of the bridges. The Federals reserved their fire until the enemy were well within range. They then poured several vollies successively, and with immense effect, into the crowded masses before them. The enemy were evidently taken by surprise, and the utmost confusion followed. Many were slain upon the bridge, and many fell into the stream. In a short time, however, they recovered from their astonish ment, and rushed forward to attack the forts ; but before they could reach them another volley was fired from each, inflicting still greater and heavier losses. Soon they spread themselves along the banks of the river and behind the breastwork of the dam, and commenced to attack the works from their shelter. Subsequently they made additional attempts to cross the bridges, but they were fruitless. On each advance they were received with such a shower of bullets as compelled them to retire. Thus the contest continued until four o clock in the afternoon. They then attempted to cross the stream half a mile further down, where a bridge had formerly existed, but had been destroyed by the orders of Colonel Morgan. At this point they were repulsed by a portion of the fifth Ohio cavalry, under Lieutenant Slade, who opposed their passage with great heroism. Seeing that a further prosecution of the attempt to cross the stream at either point would only entail heavy losses upon him, Van Dorn at length concluded that it would be more prudent to retire. He then proceeded ten miles west of Lagrange, where he crossed the Wolf river, advanced toward Bolivar, passed through the Federal lines at Middleburg, and made his escape. His loss at Davis s mills was twenty dead, and thirty severely wounded, whom he left behind him in his flight. The circumstances under which the Confederates had previously ob tained possession of Holly Springs on the 19th of December, were peculiar. The Federal troops had occupied it about a month ; but most of them had been gradually withdrawn, so that when a Rebel force under General Forrest approached it became an easy capture. They entered the town at dawn of day, and found the Federals asleep, and wholly unsus picious of an attack. They were quickly overpowered. Then com menced the work of plunder and destruction. Five hundred thousand dollars worth of goods, consisting chiefly of army clothing, was taken or destroyed, together with a vast quantity of cotton, which was consigned to the flames. After this achievement, Forrest, whose force numbered six thousand well mounted cavalry, proceeded to cross the Tennessee river at Clifton, and advanced toward Jackson. His purpose now was to get possession of the Mobile and Ohio railroad, by which the supplies for General Grant s army were procured. He hastened on toward Jackson. At Lexington, on his way thither, he encountered Colonel Ingersoll, in command of about twelve hundred men. A brisk engagement ensued, in which Forrest held the advantage, capturing two guns, some prisoners, and driving back the Federals to Jackson, and eventually to Trenton. THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 413 This latter post was commanded by Colonel Jacob Fry, of the sixty -first Illinois. His force was feeble, and wholly unable to cope with so large a body of troops as that commanded by Forrest. He concentrated his men in the railroad depot, which he had fortified by surrounding it with bales of cotton, and made a desperate resistance ; but again the vast superiority in numbers possessed by the enemy compelled him, in the end, to sur render. His men were captured and paroled. Forrest then proceeded as far as a point twelve miles distant from Columbus, destroying as he went the railroad, its buildings, its bridges, and its track. By this achievement he cut off for the time being the avenue of supplies to the army of Gen eral Grant, compelled him to make new dispositions of his troops, and effected no inconsiderable damage to the Union cause in that region, of country. With events and contests such as these the end of the memorable year 1862 approached. During its progress two great and powerful communi ties had been engaged in mortal conflict, with indomitable resolution and perseverance. The tide of victory had been variable and fluctuating. On both sides, remarkable energy, skill and heroism had been exhibited. Armies of colossal proportions had been brought into the field and sus tained, which exceeded in magnitude and efficiency the most numerous and formidable forces which the nations of Europe had ever produced. Yet the result remained undecided. The final issue of the conflict seemed as uncertain as it had been at any previous period of the contest. The great disaster to the Federal arms at Fredericksburg cheered and re freshed the inhabitants of the Confederate States with unaccustomed joy, while it cast an unwonted shadow of gloom over the loyal millions who had already done and suffered so much to restore the once glorious Fed eral Union. Under such auspices the old year closed. On the first of January, 1863, President Lincoln introduced a novel feature into the struggle, which at once attracted the attention of the whole community, both in the north and in the south. In accordance with the proclamation which he had issued on the 22d of September, 1862,* in which he had declared that all persons held as slaves within any State or part of a State which should be in Rebellion against the Federal Government on the first of January, 1863, should thenceforth become forever free, and that the Federal Gov ernment and all its agents should thenceforth assist all such persons, in all lawful ways, to assert and maintain their freedom and whereas the Executive had promised in the said proclamation of the 22d of Septem ber, 1862, to designate the States and parts of States which should be in euch a position of resistance to the authority of the Federal Government on the 1st of January, 1863 therefore he proceeded to designate, in this * See both proclamations in the Appendix. 411 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. last proclamation, the localities which should be thenceforth subject to the operation of this law.* Having specified these, he proceeded to decree, by virtue of the authority vested in him, that all persons then held as slaves within the designated States and parts of States should, from and after the 1st of January, 1863, be and remain forever free ; and that tho Executive Government of the United States, including both its military and naval authorities should recognize and maintain the freedom of all such persons. In this same proclamation the President enjoined upon the persons thus enfranchised to abstain from all violence except such as might be absolutely necessary to their self-defence, and to labor with industry and faithfulness for reasonable wages. He also announced that freedmen of suitable condition would thenceforth be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts and other warlike stations, and to man vessels in the naval service. On this solemn and important yet beneficent measure, he then invoked the " considerate judgment of man kind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." The publication of this proclamation produced an unusual degree of commotion and excitement throughout the nation. The extreme radical party regarded it with boundless exultation, as being a measure in accor dance with their own peculiar views, and as a mortal blow aimed at the detested institution of slavery. The more conservative inhabitants of the loyal States generally received it with approbation, as a movement powerfully adapted to assist in crushing the Rebellion, and in diminishing the strength and resources of those who were in arms against the Federal Government, and were striving to destroy the Union. Even the most moderate of those who condemned secession approved of it on the ground that all the property of Rebels who we^e guilty of treason against the Federal Government, and were aiming to destroy it, was justly forfeited to the State ; and they could see no reason why the slave property of such, persons should be exempt from a penalty which, in all civilized countries, was invariably annexed to the heinous crime of treason. It was in the Con federate States alone that this proclamation of Mr. Lincoln evoked a storm of defiance and condemnation more furious and frantic than had yet been elicited by any event of the war. No terms of execration and opprobrium were sufficiently extravagant to express the full extent of the ferocious * The States and parts of States designated in this proclamation were as follows : Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jeffer son, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New (Orleans, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth.) These excepted parts were for the time being left precisely in the same condition as if this proclamation had not been issued. JEFF. DAVIS ON THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 415 condemnation which was heaped upon it and upon him, both by the general voice of the press and of the community. And, as they evidently feared, its subsequent influence upon the fortunes and incidents of the civil war were extremely potent and influential.* * Jefferson Davis, in his third annual message to the Confederate Congress, expressed his convictions in reference to the emancipation proclamation of President Lincoln in the following language : " In its political aspects this measure possesses great significance ; and to it, in this light, I invite your attention. It affords to our whole people the complete and crowning proof of the true nature of the designs of the party which elevated to power the present occupant of the Presidential chair at Washington, and which sought to conceal its purpose by every variety of artful device, and by the perfidious use of the most solemn and repeated pledges on every possible occasion. The people of the Confederacy, then, cannot fail to receive this proclamation as the fullest vindication of their own sagacity in foreseeing the uses to which the dominant party in the United States intended from the beginning to apply their power ; nor can they cease to re member with devout thankfulness that it is to their own vigilance in resisting the first stealthy progress of approaching despotism that they owe their escape from conse quences now apparent to the most skeptical. It is, also, in effect, an intimation to the people of the North that they must prepare to submit to a seperation now become inevitable ; for that people are too acute not to understand that a restoration of the Union has been rendered forever impossible by the adoption of a measure which, from its very nature, neither admits of retraction nor can coexist with them. Humanity shudders at the appalling atrocities which are being daily multiplied under the sanction of those who have claimed temporary possession of power in the United States, and who are fast making its once fair name a by-word of reproach among civilized men. Not even the natural indignation inspired by this conduct should make us, however, so unjust as to attribute to the whole mass of the people, who are subjected to the despotism that now reigns with unbridled license in the city of Washington, a willing acquiescence in its conduct of the war. There must necessarily exist among our enemies very many, perhaps a majority, whose humanity recoils from all partici pation in such atrocities, but who cannot be held wholly guiltless, while permitting their continuenec without an effort at repression." 416 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXXVII. CONCLUSION OF THE YEAR 1862 THE ARMIES OF ROSECRANS AND BRACG APPROACH EACH OTHER AT MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE POSITION OF THEIR RESPECTIVE FORCES NUMBER OF TROOPS ENGAGED BEGINNING OF THE BATTLE INCIDENTS OF THE FIRST DAY THE FEDERAL RIGHT WING DRIVEN BACK PURSUIT BY THE CONFEDERATES THE RETREAT STOPPED END OF THE FIRST DAY S COMBAT THE ENGAGEMENT RESUMED ARTILLERY DUEL FURIOUS CHARGE BY THE REBELS HEROISM OF GENERALS NEGLEY AND DAVIS THE REBELS FINALLY OVERPOWERED A GENERAL CHARGE ON THEIR LINES ITS RESULT-^- COMPLETE DEFEAT OF THE REBEL ARMY REVOLT OF THE ANDERSON CAVALRY ITS ALLEGED CAUSES THE LOYAL THREE HUNDRED FEDERAL LOSS IN THE BATTLES AT MURFREESBORO LOSSES OF THE CONFEDERATES FIELD ORDER OF GENERAL ROSECRANS RESPECTING THB ANDERSON CAVALRY. THE conclusion of the year 1862, and the commencement of 1863, were signalized by the occurrence of one of the most protracted and desperate struggles of the war, for during that period was fought the battle of Mur- freesboro, in Tennessee. The Federal forces were under the orders of General Rosecrans. The Rebel host was led by Braxton Bragg. These commanders had been approaching each other for some time, and assidu ously preparing for a combat which should tell effectually one way or the other on the fortunes of the rival Republics under whose banners they respectively fought. The Federal army numbered about forty-seven thou sand men ; that of the Rebels, fifty thousand. Among their officers were many on both sides whose names had already become renowned, or notorious, in the annals of the Rebellion. The enemy, after having been driven from Nolansville, had taken a strong position in and around Mur- freesboro ; had fortified it with admirable skill, and they awaited the attack of the Federal troops, who were now advancing from Nashville. The last day of the expiring year, 1862, found the two armies at last in pres ence of each other; and on Wednesday, the 31st of December, this memorable engagement of several days duration commenced. The Confederate army was drawn up in line of battle on Stone river, extending from Murfreesboro on their right to the Franklin road on their left. Hardee commanded their left wing. Here were posted the divisions of Cheatham, McCoun, Wither, and Cleburne. General Polk led the right wing of the foe, which included the divisions of Breckinridge and Preston. Smith. General Kirby Smith was posted in the centre. On the Federal side, General McCook commanded the right wing, consisting of the divis ions of Davis, Sheridan, and Johnson. The right centre was commanded by General Thomas, under whom were Generals Rousseau and Negley. Rousseau s division constituted the reserve of the centre. The left wing FIRST DAY S BATTLE AT MUKFEEESB011O. 417 was placed under the orders of General Crittenden, in whose, column Pal mer occupied the right, Wood the centre, Van Cleve the left. The battle field consisted of an extensive plain, three miles in extent, for the most part cleared, but with occasional patches of woodland. It was traversed by a turnpike, on both sides of which there were gentle elevations. The lines of the Rebels reached across the Stone river, a stream which, taking its rise in. Rutherford county, and traversing Campbell county, emptied into the Cumberland, ten miles below Davidson. A western branch of this river flows by Murfreesboro, and bisected the Rebel lines on this occasion. The contest began at break of day on "Wednesday, on the right of the Federal forces. There the whole mass of the foe, under McCoun, Gheat- ham, and Cleburne, had advanced with great impetuosity, and charged the lines of Johnson and Davis. A part of Johnson s infantry gave way and retreated. In vain did the Federal officers endeavor to stop the flight. A panic soon spread through the whole division, and a disgraceful flight commenced. The enemy now succeeded in surrounding the right flank. The confusion became complete and overwhelming. General Rosecrans, perceiving the peril of the moment and of the disaster, despatched one brigade and battery after another from the divisions of Palmer and Neg- ley, to the assistance of the overpowered and shattered troops ; but these reinforcements were in their turn crushed by the impetuous onsets of the now triumphant enemy, and carried away in the whelming torrent of the fugitives. The panic then spread from the division of Johnson to that of Davis, and the whole right wing was soon involved in an unmitigated and disastrous rout. They were driven two miles by the enemy with great slaughter, and the fortunes of the day seemed already to have been irre trievably lost. But the misfortune did not terminate here. The retreat of the divisions of Johnson and Davis left that of Sheridan exposed to the onset of the foe. The Rebel commanders followed up their advantage promptly, and charged with fury on this division, whose flank was unprotected. The troops which composed it resisted the terrible battle-shcK .k of the enemy for some time ; but at length they also gave way, and were driven, though not in much confusion, with heavy losses, to join in the tumultuous flight of their comrades. Before they thus yielded, one fourth of their number lay either dead or wounded on the ensanguined field, proving how determined their resistance had been. The result of this rout of the Federal right, wing was that they were hurled back in their flight toward the centre and left of the Federal army, which remained firm and immovable in its posi tion, facing the woods through which the Rebels were advancing. In the interval which yet existed between them, a turnpike and railroad ran, which was the key of the whole Federal position. There the immense trains of wagons which belonged to the Federal army were placed. If 27 418 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. that were loskall would be ruined. And now the horrible spectacle was presented of thousands of retreating soldiers, who were running in the utmost confusion before the pursuing foe, through the woods and over the plains, making both resound with their maniac yells, either of exultation or of despair. Thus the chaotic mass of fugitives and of pursuers rapidly approached within range of the guns of that wing of the Federal army which remained unbroken, and which was waiting in stern and determined fortitude to receive the enemy with an annihilating salute as soon as their serried masses carne within range. It was a moment decisive of the des tinies of thousands pregnant with the fate of an empire. With admirable skill General Rosecrans now prepared to confront and repel the on-rolling deluge. He posted his regiments and batteries along the turnpike which fronted his line, so that when the Rebels emerged from the woods in pur suit of the flying and scattered Federals, they should receive such a hail storm of shot and shell as might check their advance, break their power, and turn the tide of victory. At length that vast sea of discordant fugi tives appeared in view. So complete had become their confusion and chaos that all distinctions of regiments and divisions, of horse and foot, had been lost. Closer and closer the deluge approached, with the exulting foe pursuing hard upon them. General Thomas commanded that portion of the Federal army to whose skill and valor the salvation of the day had been entrusted. Calmly and firmly he rode along the ranks, cheering and encouraging his men to confront the coming storm with steadiness. Silence as of the grave pervaded his steady columns, while frantic yells resounded from the advancing hordes of the foe. The critical moment had at last arrived. The stern word of command was given. Instantly a daz zling sheet of flame burst from the firm ranks of the Federal heroes, which penetrated the masses of the enemy. It was quickly followed by the roar of their numerous and well served artillery, which shook the very earth, and crushed into flying fragments the thick masses of the enemy. Then came the awful confusion, the sudden recoil, the broken flight of the Confed erates, who had till then exulted in the fancied success of the day. Whole ranks were swept from the field by the terrific fire of the Federals. Entire regiments were battered to pieces. When the heavy mantle of smoke arose, after a few minutes, from the scene, it displayed an appalling spec tacle. The ground was literally covered with piles of killed and wounded, so terrible had been the destruction. The Federals were then ordered to advance. The enemy gave way and retired through the woods, and were in turn driven over a small portion of the ground which had just witnessed the ignominious rout and flight of the Federal right wing. The artillery pursued them with inexorable and destructive vengeance along the scenes of their marvelous success, and followed them as they retired toward the po sition which the Federals occupied at the commencement of the engagement. Thus ended the first day of this great battle. During its progress Gen SECOND DAY S BATTLE AT MURFREESBORO. 419 eral Kosecrans bad superintended in person the operations of his army, and rode bravely over the field amid hailstorms of bullets. It was while thus engaged that Colonel Garesche, his chief of staff, a valuable and accom plished officer, was killed close at his side, and his orderlies fell rapidly around him. Nevertheless, the general results of this day were not very favorable to the Federal forces. The shock given by the defeat of the right wing had been too terrible not to be severely felt. It was evident that a desperate blow must be struck on a later day, before a complete triumph could be claimed by the champions of the Union.* Neither party seemed disposed to renew the engagement on Thursday. Both were exhausted, both had many dead to bury and wounded to pro vide for, so that it was not until Friday, January 2d, that the contest was resumed. During the interval some changes had been made in the positions of the Federal forces. General Van Cleve s division of Crit- tenden s corps was transferred, so that its left wing rested on the Lebanon road, with its right on Lytle s creek. General Palmer s troops were placed east of the Nashville road, Rousseau s were posted between the turn pike and the railroad, McCook s corps lay on the right of Kousseau, and Negley s was held as reserves in the rear. The battle commenced on Friday morning by an attack from the enemy upon the batteries of Rousseau s division, commanded by Colonel Loomis. A furious artillery duel ensued. The deafening reverberation of the guns aroused the whole of both armies, who now seemed eager for the contest. But as yet the strife was confined exclusively to the artil lery. In a short time several of the Kebel batteries were disabled and silenced, and it was evident that the advantage was with the Federals. As soon as this result became apparent the enemy withdrew the rest of their guns from the contest, and an interval of several hours took place, which was employed by the enemy in reconnoitering the position of the Union forces. It was nearly four o clock in the afternoon when they renewed the engagement. At that time they advanced in immense columns, under the command of General Breckinridge, and attacked Van Cleve s division, which was then commanded by Colonel Beatty, of the nineteenth Ohio. General Van Cleve had been wounded and disabled on Wednesday. This division made a gallant resistance for half an hour; but the troops of Breckinridge were reinforced successively by those of Anderson and Cleburne, so that they * General Bragg claimed in his official report to the Confederate Secretary of War, respecting the fight on the 31st of December, that he had captrjed two brigadier- generals, four thousand prisoners, thirty-one pieces of artillery, and two hundred wagons and teams. But he ingenuously admits that his own losses were very heavy. His estimate of the number and value of his prizes was made too soon to permit him to arrive at any thing like even an approximation to the truth ; hence it was charac terized by great exaggeration and ludicrous fallacy. 420 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. were soon overpowered by a resistless superiority of numbers. The Rebels here fought with unusual determination. Soon two brigades of Beatty s troops gave way and retired slowly. They were charged upon by the pursuing foe, and driven as far as the banks of Lytle s creek. A third brigade was about to follow in retreat, when Negley s divison was opportunely sent to their assistance. This division had been placed by Rosecrans with great wisdom and prudence as a reserve, and now it came to the rescue at a critical moment, and with most propitious effect. His troops rushed forward with loud shouts of enthusiasm, and having reached the banks of the creek, opened a fire upon the enemy which completely decimated and destroyed their close masses. They were soon so much broken that they retired in confusion. At that crisis the troops of Jefferson C. Davis arrived on the scene, to complete the triumph of Negley. They rushed forward, plunged into the stream, reached the opposite side, and charged furiously on the confused enemy. The seventy- eighth Pennsylvania, led by Colonel Sirwell, was the first to cross the stream. That officer then ordered his men to charge up the hill. The order was obeyed with enthusiasm. A desperate fight ensued between the seventy-eighth and the twenty-sixth Tennessee infantry. At its con clusion a large portion of the latter were captured, and their colors fell into the hands of the victors. But the latter had paid dearly for their advantage, for many of their bravest comrades had fallen on the bloody field. Colonel Scott and Major Guthrie were severely wounded, Captains Chandler and Camseller were killed. The nineteenth Illinois had lost nearly fifty men. The sixty-eighth Ohio and seventy-eighth Pennsylva nia suffered heavily. But the Federals were the conquerors. They drove the enemy out of the woods and across the corn-fields, which were covered with their dead and wounded over an area of a mile and a-half in extent until they reached the vicinity of Mufreesboro. Several of their colors were captured, together with a battery and a large number of prisoners. While General Negley was achieving this grand success against the enemy before him, General Rosecrans was perfecting the victory through out the remainder of his columns. He now ordered the whole line to advance. Then came a terrific and resistless charge. Hope and en thusiasm had given fresh power to the Federal troops. As their grim and stern battle-line advanced upon the foe, a far extending sheet of deadly fire and flame issued from them, which melted down the serried columns of the enemy like frost-work. In their centre and on their left, which were now assaulted, they made a desperate resistance. But their right wing was broken and pursued by Negley. The distant cheers of the victors came floating on the breeze to their unwilling ears, and seemed the knell of their own inevitable doom. They gave way at length, and retired slowly, until they reached their intrenchments beyond Lytle s creek, close to Mufreesboro. At that moment night descended upon the 1 DIAGRAM I ([POSITION OF ARMIES__DFI? 31 /1URFREESBOROUGH REVOLT OP THE ANDERSON GUARDS. 421 scene, and necessarily suspended the struggle. It saved the works of the enemy from an immediate assault and from inevitable capture. In this pursuit the Federal cavalry under General Stanley had fought with great heroism, and had contributed effectually to turn the flight of the foe into a confused rout. At the close of the day the Federal victors occupied and possessed the ground from which the enemy had been driven. During Friday night their position was intrenched with great industry. When Saturday dawned it found the works completed. During that day the enemy were shelled by the Federal artillery, but no regular engagement took place. The rain descended in torrents, and both armies seemed disposed to await its cessation before resuming hostilities. Another great battle was then anticipated ; but during Saturday night the Confederate forces evacuated their intrenchments and retreated toward Tullahoma, thus furnishing the most conclusive evidence of their discomfiture and defeat. On Wednesday they had captured twenty-eight pieces of artillery, several thousand prison ers, and their other successes were not inconsiderable. But the events of the concluding struggle on Friday demonstrated that the victory at last remained unequivocally with the champions of the Union. An incident happened in connection with this battle which possessed a peculiar character and interest ; and was unparalleled among the trans actions which occurred during the progress of the Kebellion. It was the revolt of a portion of the regiment known as the Anderson cavalry. This troop had been originally recruited in Pennsylvania during the period that General Buell held command of the army of the Cumberland, for the express purpose, and with the distinct understanding, that they should serve exclusively as the body-guard of that officer. An enlist ment under such circumstances was in itself an anomaly in military affairs which was not very indicative of self-sacrificing patriotism. The removal of General Buell from command after the termination of his campaign in Kentucky, necessarily rendered the fulfillment of the precise terms of the enlistment of this troop an impossibility; nor had General Kosecrans, his successor, as yet possessed the leisure or opportunity to make such a disposal of them as might be more congenial with the views with which they had entered the service. Their position thus remained undefined and uncertain, when the great struggle at Murfreesboro approached. The troop had reached the camp only a few days previous to the fight. As it was necessary to summon every energy and resource to assist in crushing the formidable power of the enemy arrayed against him, General Kosecrans immediately assigned this troop to General Stanley s division of cavalry. This order was the signal for the outbreak of a treasonable spirit, which terminated in the refusal of the whole troop, with the ex ception of about three hundred, to continue in the service, or to take part in the impending conflict. The recusants suddenly deserted the camp 422 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and returned to Nashville. The reasons assigned for this act were, that they had been recruited to serve as the body-guard of General Buell alone, and for no other purpose ; that they had no confidence in the officers who had been placed over them ; and that they had not been furnished with proper provisions and supplies. Those members of the troop who remained faithful to their colors, and declined to unite with their associates in deserting the service on these grounds, took part in the several engage ments which occurred in the vicinity of Murfreesboro, and greatly dis tinguished themselves. Their most gallant achievement was in the pre liminary combat which took place on Tuesday, previous to the main actions. On that day several detached struggles occurred between frag ments of the two armies ; and it was in one of these, when charging upon the Eebel horse, that these young heroes displayed the bravery and valor of veterans. In this fight they lost about eleven killed and thirty wounded. Among the former was Major Kosengarten. After the termi nation of the contest General Rosecrans complimented those members of the troop who had remained loyal, notwithstanding the efforts which had been made to seduce them, in just terms of applause and commenda tion. He ordered the remainder to be placed under arrest at Nashville. These were seven hundred in number, and they were reserved to be subjected to the future scrutiny of a court-martial* * The special field-order of General Rosecrans, in reference to this subject, was as follows : " XVIII. The general commanding announces his high satisfaction with those brave and determined men of the Anderson Guards who promptly marched, tinder the gallant Majors Rosengarten and Ward, to aid him in his advance on Murfreesboro. These young soldiers and their brave commander vied with our most veteran cavalry in their steadiness under fire, and the intrepidity of their advance on the enemy, and nobly sustained the honor already won by the seventh Pennsylvania cavalry for the Keystone State. While he deplores the early death of the brave young Rosengarten, the sorrow he feels at his loss is mingled with a soldier s pride, to know that he fell like a hero, and for the sacred cause of nationality. He trusts that Major Ward, recov ering from his desperate but honorable wounds, will live to gather fresh laurels on many a field in his country s service. " The general commanding is grieved to learn that about seven hundred of those noble Guards said to belong to families of good standing at home have chosen, under some pretext or other, not to follow their companions in arms to the field, to share with them the dangers and the glories of the fourteenth army corps. " He could not imagine what could have moved men in whom he laid such hopes to a course so base and selfish. He cannot conceive how they could shame their own kin, and stain the clear honor of their native State by conduct not merely appearing base and cowardly, but so criminal as to deserve the penalty of death. 44 Before proceeding to do what his duty requires, and having them dealt with as their conduct merits before covering them with that deserved infamy which will blast them forever in the esteem of their fellows the general commanding wishes this order read to them ; and, to all who are not too lost to a sense of honor, to step forth arid confess that whatever may have been their private wants and griefs, the FEDERAL LOSS AT THE BATTLE OF MURFREESBORO. 423 The Federal loss in the battles near Murfreesboro was fifteen hundred and thirty-three killed, including ninety -two officers ; seven thousand two hundred and forty-five wounded, together with several thousand prison- ers. Among the Federal officers who fell on this famous field of glory were Brigadier-General J. W. Sill, Colonels Koberts and Schaffer, and Lieutenant- Colonel Garesche. Among the wounded were Major-General Alexander McCook, and Brigadiers Willich, Kirk, Wood, and Van Cleve. The Federal loss amounted to twenty per centum of their whole force engaged. That inflicted upon the Confederates in this great contest was heavier than that suffered by the victors. General Bragg in his official report acknowledged a loss of over ten thousand killed and wounded ; and did not include in this, twenty-eight hundred prisoners and wounded left in our hands. That this statement was much below the truth is certain. In no struggle since the commencement of the war had the enemy fought with more desperate resolution ; in none had they been met with more determined fortitude, than on the blood-stained field of Murfreesboro; and in few had they suffered a more signal and disastrous defeat. hour of their country s need and peril was not the time to stand back and falter, or expose their brothers in arms to danger and death without help. Let them resolve on some reparation which will give them an opportunity to save some of them from impending disgrace and ruin." 424 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE LOSS OF THE FEDERAL IRON-CLAD MONITOR AT SEA HER PECULIAR STRUCTURE HE DEPARTURE FROM HAMPTON ROADS A RISING STORM THE MONITOR BECOMES DISABLED CAUSE OF THE MISFORTUNE HER SITUATION BECOMES DESPERATE REMOVAL OF HER . CREW TO THE RHODE ISLAND HER FINAL DISAPPEARANCE THE FEDERAL ARMY UNDER GENERAL SHERMAN ATTACK VICKSBURO, MISSISSIPPI LANDING OF THE TROOPS AT JOHN SON S FERRY, ON THE YAZOO THE ATTACK COMMENCED ON THE 2?TH OF DECEMBER PARTIAL SUCCESS OF THE FEDERAL FORCES THE ASSAULT RESUMED ON THE 28TH DES PERATE FIGHTING THE FIRST LINE OF WORKS CARRIED SHERMAN ORDERS A GENERAL CHARGE THE FEDERALS REPULSED AND DEFEATED TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER THE UNION ARMY WITHDRAWN GENERAL SHERMAN SUPERSEDED BY M CLERNAND FEDERAL LOSSES CAUSES OF THEIR DEFEAT MINOR ENGAGEMENTS AT SPRINGFIELD AND HARTSVILLE, MISSOURI. * THE commencement of the year 1863 witnessed a scene of intense and thrilling interest, connected with the naval service of the United States, which has rarely been surpassed in the annals of the great deep. At that period the Monitor, the first and oldest of the Federal iron-clad war vessels, foundered at sea. This vessel had become renowned from her successful combat with the Confederate iron-clad Merrimac, which took place in Hampton Roads on the 9th of March, 1862. After a struggle of five hours, she compelled her antagonist to retire disabled into the port of Norfolk. She was a hundred and seventy-two feet in length, forty-one in breadth. Her turret was twenty feet in diameter, and nine in height. Her turret and the pilot-house wqre the only objects visible above her deck, which was so low in the water as to afford scarcely any surface for the balls of an enemy. Every thing else was below the water line. She was covered with rolled-iron armor five inches in thickness. Her hull was constructed of solid white oak, twenty-six inches thick. The turret was protected by rolled-iron plate, an inch thick, over which were riveted five layers of similar plates, each an inch in thickness. The port- hole of the turret was only large enough to permit the muzzle of the gun to be run through it. The turret revolved by means of auxiliary engines. The officers rooms below were large and comfortable, and lighted by dead lights placed in the deck. The Monitor left Hampton Roads, in tow of the steamer Rhode Island, on the 29th of December, at half-past two in the afternoon. She passed Cape Henry at six on the same day. Every thing proceeded favorably. The weather continued to be propitious until five o clock the next morning, when a gale commenced from the southwest. The vessel was commanded on this trip by Captain John P. Bankhead, who had succeeded the gallant LOSS OF THE IRON CLAD MONITOR AT SEA. 425 "Worden. The sea soon began to break over the pilot-house, at some distance in front of the tower, and reached the base of the tower itself. At that moment it was discovered, for the first time, that the packing of oakum, under and around the base of the tower, had become partly loosened by the working of the ponderous tower, which was produced by the pitching and rolling of the vessel, but the bilge-pumps were as yet able to keep her perfectly free from water, and no apprehensions for the safety of the vessel were entertained by her commander. Her condition continued the same during the remainder of the 30th. At half-past seven the wind increased in strength, and caused the sea to be come more rough. The vessel began to tow badly, to yaw very mu^h, and to make more water around the base of the tower. The Worthington pump was then put on to assist in keeping her free, and the centrifugal pump was prepared for use. At this time, which was about eight o clock in the evening, the sea began to rise rapidly, and to become so rough that the vessel plunged more heavily, completely submerging the pilot-house. It was now noticed that when she rose to the swell of the angry deep, the flat iron under-surface of her projecting armor came down with tre mendous force, causing a heavy shock to the whole vessel, and loosening still more the packing around the base of the tower. The condition of the Monitor was evidently becoming critical. Captain Bankhead at length signalled to the Rhode Island to stop, in order that he might ascertain whether, by suspending her progress, the vessel would ride easier and would ship less water. The result was that no difference was perceptible, and what was worse, she fell off immediately into the trough of the sea, and rolled more fearfully than before. The centrifugal pump was now started, in addition to the other pumps, but with no benefit. The sea continued to rise, the water in the hold was not diminished, and it soon rose several inches above the floor of the engine-room. It now became certain that the situation of the Monitor was hopeless. All the resources of able seamanship had been exhausted in vain in her preservation. The scene presented at that moment was terrible, and suf ficient to appal the stoutest heart. The ocean had been lashed into fury by the increasing gale. Far and wide over the watery waste nothing was visible in the partial darkness of the night, except the mountain waves rolling far upward to heaven, or yawning into profound abysses below, together with the roaring of the winds, the dashing of the spray, the angry voices of many waters, and the two vessels tossing like feathers upon the agitated bosom of the deep. The only hope of safety to those on board the Monitor, was in reaching the Rhode Island by means of the boats of that vessel, but so fearful was the tempest and so rough the sea, that this experiment was one of the utmost danger. At length, at half-past ten, Captain Bankhead made the signal of distress, which was immediately answered and obeyed by her consort. He then ranged the Monitor close 426 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. to the Rhode Island, and requested her commander to send his boats to take off his crew, as his vessel was in a sinking condition. Before the first boats reached her, the water had entered her ash-pits. The heavy seas were then breaking and rushing over her entire deck, and it became extremely perilous for any one to leave the turret. Nevertheless, several boats were filled with a portion of the crew, who succeeded in reaching the Rhode Island. Both vessels were at this time proceeding slowly for ward. But at half-past eleven the water extinguished the fires of the Monitor, and she became stationary. While waiting for the two boats to return, it was necessary to organize bailing parties to diminish the water. The vessel again fell into the trough of the sea, and it became impossible for the boats to approach her. As a last resource, Captain Bankhead ordered the anchor to be let go, and all the chains to be given her, for the purpose of bringing her to. This expedient happily succeeded. The vessel swung around her head to the wind. Her deck was now on a level with the water. The boats again approached, and the remainder of the crew were ordered to enter them. In the attempt, several men were washed overboard. A few others, appalled by the horrors of the scene, were so paralyzed that they refused to leave the turret, in and around which they continued to cling with frantic fear. At last, when the rest of the crew had entered the boats, Captain Bankhead abandoned his vessel and proceeded with his men to the Ehode Island. Scarcely had he reached her deck, when the Monitor gave a tremendous lurch, then sank and dis appeared from view forever. The unfortunate men who had remained in the turret descended with her. Great credit was due to Captain Bankhead for the coolness and self- possession with which he had directed his men during this terrible scene, and to Captain Trenchard, of the Rhode Island, for the skill with which he had rescued them from a watery grave. During the transfer, so peril ous was the undertaking, that four officers and twelve men were lost, including those who had remained on the Monitor. It was the opinion of Captain Bankhead that the disaster of the loss of his vessel was chiefly owing to the fact that she must have sprung a leak somewhere forward ? caused by the tremendous shocks which she received as she came down upon the sea. The gallantry of Lieutenant Green, of Ensign Stodder, of Master s-Mate Peter Williams, and of Quartermaster Robert Angier, were conspicuous during the whole of these perilous scenes. The first attempt of the Federal generals to capture Vicksburg, on the Mississippi, proved a failure. That effort was commenced on the 21st of June, 1862, by the gunboats and the fleet under Captains Davis and Porter, as was narrated in a previous page. The effort also to dig an artificial channel for the Mississippi, across the narrow peninsula opposite to the extremity of which the city was built, was abandoned after some time as impracticable. It had been discovered that the co-operation of a THE NAVAL EXPEDITION TO VICKSBURG. 427 land force was indispensable to the reduction of Vicksburg, and to the opening of the navigation of the Mississippi. A considerable period of time elapsed before the Federal authorities, both civil and military, were prepared to resume the undertaking. At length, in the month of Decem ber, 1862, a powerful land force was placed under the command of Gen eral William T. Sherman, and appropriated to the attack and capture of this important stronghold, which the Confederates had fortified during the interval with the utmost energy and skill. The naval portion of the expedition had been assembled at Memphis and Helena. It started from those places on the 23d of December, and proceeded toward Vicksburg. The entire fleet of transports and gunboats numbered nearly a hundred vessels ; and the scene which it presented, as it glided majestically along the broad and tranquil bosom of the great "father of waters," was magnificent and imposing in the extreme. Among the iron-clad gunboats were the Benton, Carondelet, Black Hawk, Mound City, Louisville, Lexington, and Switzerland all of which had already become renowned in the annals of the Kebellion. At two o clock on Monday, the 22d, this arrnada reached Games Landing, and remained there during the night. Before its departure a large portion of the town at this place was destroyed by fire, together with a considerable amount of other property. This outrage was committed through the lawless spirit which disgraced some of the Federal forces under the command of General Sherman, among whom a singular and censurable want of discipline seems to have existed. On the 24th, the voyage down the stream was continued. As a preliminary movement to the grand assault on Vicksburg, an attack was made on the Rebel works at Milliken s Bend, twelve miles above the mouth of the Yazoo. The importance of this operation was evinced by the fact that all the reinforcements which the enemy might wish to send to Yicksburg from Arkansas must, of necessity, pass over the railroad from Shreveport, which traverses this bend. A portion of the Federal forces were therefore disembarked at this place. They burned a part of the town, and then proceeded twenty miles inland. They struck the railroad at a point about twenty-five miles distant from Vicksburg, and imme diately commenced the work of its demolition. They tore up the track, blew up the culverts, burnt the bridges, destroyed the wood and water stations, and rendered the road completely unfit for use. They then re turned to the main body at Milliken s Bend, and on the next day pro ceeded down the river to the mouth of the Yazoo, which they reached on the afternoon of the 26th. They then steamed up that stream a distance of sixteen miles, to the spot which had been selected as the scene of the dis embarkation of the troops. This process was successfully accomplished at several points, extending over an area of three miles, between the junction of the Yazoo with the Old Eiver, and Johnson s ferry. The troops landed on the south side of the stream toward Vicksbunj. The distance from 428 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Johnson s ferry to that city was eight miles. The main army of the Con federates was posted at Haines Bluff, where they had erected a battery f twenty heavy guns. They had also fortified every crest of the range of hills, so as to command completely all the approaches from the land side toward the city. The Federal forces appropriated to the attack of Vicksburg consisted of the troops which had been stationed at Memphis under Halleck, some of those under Curtis in Arkansas, the army which had evacuated Cum berland gap, together with a large number who had been recently re cruited in the Western States. These troops were divided into four grand divisions, commanded by Generals Frederick Steel e, Morgan L. Smith, George W. Morgan, and A. J. Smith. The largest of these divisions was that under the orders of General Steele. Of the commanders of brigades the most distinguished were Frank Blair, A. P. Hovey, Thayer, and Colonel De Courcey. General Sherman, though the commander-in-chief of the expe dition, was under the superior orders of General Grant. The entire num ber of Federal troops who marched to the attack on Vicksburg was about twenty -five thousand. The forces of the Confederates appointed to defend it were known to be much greater, with the advantage of a fortified posi tion, and a hundred guns placed in batteries. The intrenchments were well constructed of felled timber, earth-embankments, together with sloughs and rifle-pits. The place might with truth be termed the Eebel Gibraltar of the southwest. General Sherman s dispositions having been made for the attack, he or dered the brigades of Generals Blair and Stuart to advance through the woods toward the position of the enemy. They surprised their pickets, and drove them in, about a mile from the bluffs. The division of General A. J. Smith then followed, advanced to the front, and took their position in the field. The division of M. L. Smith was next in order. Other dis positions were made on Saturday, the 27th of December, during which some unimportant skirmishing took place. On Sunday morning, both armies being now in line of battle, a cannonading was commenced by a por tion of the artillery, and continued for an hour. During its progress the Federal infantry were ordered to lie upon the ground to avoid the balls. But at the expiration of that time, an order was given to charge upon the nearest batteries of the enemy. In the execution of this order by the thir teenth Illinois and Stuart s brigade, Colonel Wyman was killed, and Gen eral M. L. Smith was wounded. The sixth and eighth Missouri assisted in the assault. The result was that the enemy removed their guns, and retired to a position on the other side of an intervening lagoon at the foot of the bluffs. During the progress of this operation heavy cannonading was heard at a distance on the left, which was supposed to come from the attack made bv General Steele. To occupy the attention of the rest of the enemy s THE ASSAULT UPON VICKSBURG. 429 forces, General Sherman resolved to attempt the carrying of the outer line of the Rebels by assault. General Morgan and Colonel De Courcey were ordered to the front with their forces ; Colonel Landrum s brigade was held as a reserve. In spite of an intervening slough, in which the Fed erals sank up to their knees, they advanced bravely. After a short con flict the enemy abandoned their works and fled. Thus the first line was carried without much difficulty. It was from the position thus obtained that the Federals for the first time saw the full extent and the formidable nature of the intrenchmeuts which they would be required to take before they could capture the city. After this success, the Federal land forces ceased their operations for that day. During its progress the gunboats on the river had not been idle. The Benton, Louisville, and DeKalb, proceeded toward the batteries of the Rebels on the lesser Haines Bluff, and commenced an attack upon them. An engagement of an hour s duration ensued, in which about sixty guns were fired on each side, and by each vessel. Before its conclusion Captain Gwin, of the Benton, was mortally wounded, and his vessel was twice perforated by the balls of the enemy. Four men were killed on board. It soon became evident that the attack on this point was a failure^ and the vessels were withdrawn from the contest. It was on Monday, the 29th of December, that the last grand assault on Yicksburg was attempted. The point selected for this purpose was the one at which the enemy confidently anticipated it ; it was therefore in judiciously chosen, and placed the Federal forces at a disadvantage. It was on the only accessible wagon -road which led into the city. The first gun was fired at nine o clock in the morning. ,Soon battery after battery was hurried up into position, until twelve of these threw their hailstorms upon the position of the enemy on the elevated plateau above them. The Rebels responded with the utmost celerity and resolution. The air was soon filled with a deluge of shot and shell passing in opposite directions on their missions of destruction. The noise and reverberation were deaf ening, and for two hours it continued without the least intermission. Then came a pause. An important movement was now contemplated by General Sherman. It was nothing less than a general assault for the purpose of storming the woiks of the enemy. The necessary dispositions and changes were effected. General Steele s men were brought forward close to those of Morgan. A concentration of troops was made at the forks of an intervening bayou. On the left of the bayou were placed the troops of General Blair. At length, at half-past two in the day, General Sherman gave the order to advance. It was executed by the men with admirable spirit and valor. They rushed forward toward the second line of the enemy, and in spite of the murderous "discharge both of musketry and artillery which was poured into their ranks they succeeded in reach ing the intrenchments of the foe, and after a desperate contest drove them 430 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. out of their strongholds. But they had lost fearfully during the progress of this achievement, and with thinned and shattered ranks prepared to continue the contest. "When all were ready to resume the charge General Blair s brigade advanced with the utmost heroism toward the still more formidable bat teries of the foe. They climbed the hill, as before, amid a flood of deadly missiles. They were followed by the troops of Fletcher, Diester, Thayer, Cavender, and Peckham. At last the stars and stripes were planted near the interior breastworks of the enemy. Then came a mortal combat, on the issue of which depended the fate of the day. It were vain to attempt to describe the intensity of that struggle, in which brave men, commanded by valiant and skilful officers, exerted the last resources of heroism and fortitude to achieve a glorious result. The superior advantages which the enemy possessed in position and in artillery, as well perhaps as in numbers, rendered the most determined efforts of the Federal troops and officers unavailing. They were hurled down the battlemented heights of Yicksburg, with fearful losses broken, mangled, decimated, disconcerted. The carnage was terrible. The place was in fact impregnable to such a force, attacked from such a position, without proper reconnoissances of the positions of the Rebels, and without the necessary combinations, by the commander-in-chief, to divide the strength, divert the attention, and con found the counsels of the enemy. Many obstacles of a peculiar character impeded the operations and diminished the effectiveness of the Federal forces. Among these, in addition to the immense strength of the position and guns of the Rebels, were their insidious rifle-pits, the deep sloughs and bayous, the undergrowth of felled trees and brushwood, and the numerous abattis which had been constructed. While the Federals were overcoming these obstacles with difficulty, the powerful and numerous artillery of the foe had ample time to assail them, and to diminish their strength by adding to their multitude of wounded and slain. It was now evident that this attack on Yicksburg was and must needs be a failure. It was clear that the city could not be taken with the Yazoo as a base of operations. The Federal losses had already amounted to about six hundred killed, fifteen hundred wounded, one thousand prisoners. On Thursday, January 14th, 1863, General McClernand arrived at the camp, and before General Sherman could organize any further offensive operations he was superseded in the command by that officer. At a coun cil of war held on board the Tigress between the commanders of the land and naval forces of the expedition, the conclusion was arrived at that it would be vain and ruinous to renew the attack on Yicksburg at that time and with their present force. The consequence was that the project was abandoned for the present. After several days the troops were re-em barked upon the fleet, and preparations made to direct the energies of the MINOR ENGAGEMENTS IN MISSOURI. 431 brave troops who had failed before Vicksburg under more favorable auspices in some other direction. On the 10th of January, 1863, the Rebels attacked Springfield, Missouri, in considerable force. The place was defended by Colonel Crabb, who commanded the nineteenth Iowa. The enemy made several desperate charges, but were uniformly repulsed, so that they eventually retired in confusion. They left thirty-five dead upon the field, but carried their wounded away with them. The Federal loss was seventeen killed, fifty- two wounded. An engagement also took place at the same time at Hartsville, Missouri, in which seven hundred Federal troops, under Major Collins, attacked and routed several thousand Rebels under General Mar- maduke. The latter were chased five miles southward. The Federal loss was thirty-five killed and wounded ; that of the enemy was about one hundred 432 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XXXIX. A PECULIAR FEATURE OP THE HISTORY OF THIS CIVIL WAR THE BATTLE OF HUNT S CROSS ROADS IN TENNESSEE GALLANTRY OF GENERAL SULLIVAN AND THE INDIANA TROOPS DEFEAT OF FORREST HIS FLIGHT TO THE TENNESSEE RIVER THE EXPEDITION OF GEN ERAL CARTER INTO EAST TENNESSEE ITS OBJECTS ITS SUCCESS DIFFICULTIES AND MERIT OF THE UNDERTAKING SKIRMISH NEAR MOOREFIELD, VIRGINIA ATTACK OF THS REBELS ON GALVESTON THEIR SUCCESS CAPTURE OF THE HARRIET LANE EXPLOSION OF THE WESTFIELD FEDERAL LOSSES ON THIS OCCASION ADDRESS OF THE WORKING- MEN OF MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, TO PRESIDENT LINCOLN HIS REPLY THE BOMBARDMENT OF ARKANSAS POST LAND AND NAVAL FORCES DETAILED TO THIS SERVICE THE LOCA TION AND IMPORTANCE OF ARKANSAS POST COMMENCEMENT OF THE ASSAULT BY ADMIRAL PORTER CO-OPERATION OF THE LAND TRO*. PS UNDER GENERAL M CLERNAND INCIDENTS OF THE CONFLICT SURRENDER OF THE FORT AND OF THE REBEL TROOPS LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES TALUE OF THE CONQUEST SKETCHES OF ADMIRAL PORTER AND GENERAL M CLERNAND. FEW wars have occurred in any country, or any age, in which the number of battles fought was so great in which the activity of the com batants was so restless^and unceasing in which so many important move ments were progressing at the same time over the immense area of con flict, as in the civil war in the United States. It is this peculiar feature of the struggle which renders its history so sanguinary and martial, so destitute of gentler and more pleasing details, and which compels the author to pen, and the reader to peruse, so monotonous a narrative of bat tles, slaughters, and sieges. It is an evil inseparable from the nature of the subject. Contemporary with the battles of Murfreesboro and Vicksburg was that which occurred near Hunt s cross-roads, in Tennessee. The Confederate General Forrest commanded seven thousand troops, chiefly cavalry, to gether w;th a battery pf ten guns. The Federal hero, J. C. Sullivan, from Indiana, led six thousand men into the action, together with eight pieces of artillery. The engagement took place in the vicinity of Lexington. Forrest, after gathering seventy-five wagons loaded with plunder and other spoil, was endeavoring to make good his retreat beyond the Ten nessee river, which he purposed to cross at Clifton. Sullivan was sent out from Jackson to intercept him, and defeat his purpose. As soon as he received information that the Federal general was in pursuit of him, he returned toward Clifton, but was overtaken, and compelled to fight, at Hunt s cross-roads, on the 31st of December. As soon as the two armies came in sight of each other, preparations were made for a combat. Both columns were formed in line of battle on an extensive plain. Soon the enemy opened with their artillery, which were well posted and served. OPERATIONS ON THE EAST TENNESSEE RAILROAD. 433 The battle was gallantly commenced on the Federal side by Major Atkin son, in command of the fiftieth Indiana. In the early part of the engage ment the advantage was on the side of the enemy. The Federal troop3 were nearly all raw recruits, while those of the Rebels were experienced veterans. They had also the advantage of more numerous and better served artillery. But the Indiana troops displayed an unusual degree of steadiness, and continued to advance and charge upon the foe, notwith standing the terrible losses inflicted upon them. The charges made by the Confederates in return were manfully resisted, and a fierce and desperate close combat ensued, upon the issue of which depended the success of the day. At length the gunners were driven from two of the cannon of the enemy. The Federals rushed forward, captured them, and turned them upon the Rebels. This was the turning point of the battle. The enemy were gradually overpowered throughout the entire field. They then fled in confusion, leaving an immense number of dead and wounded behind them. Their entire loss was nearly one thousand. Four hundred of these were prisoners, who, together with seven cannon, their caissons and ammunition, five hundred horses, many wagons, ambulances? and small arms, fell into the hands of the Federals. The loss of the latter was twenty killed, one hundred wounded, sixty prisoners. During the engagement Colonels Dunham and Fuller, Majors Smith and Atkinson, specially distinguished themselves. Similar success attended the expedition which was sent by General Granger to destroy the bridges of the East Tennessee railroad. The force detailed to this service consisted of a thousand cavalry, and was placed under the command of General Carter. That officer proceeded from Man chester, Kentucky, toward the Union and Watauga bridges. He encoun tered the enemy in considerable force at both places, and several spirited actions ensued, in which the enemy were defeated. General Carter suc ceeded in destroying both bridges, as well as ten miles of the railroad, in killing, wounding, and capturing about five hundred Rebels, and in ob taining seven hundred stand of arms, and a large amount of ammunition and stores. These successes were achieved in the face of great difficulties, in consequence of the almost impassable nature of the country, the inclem ency of the weather, and the distance to be travelled. The last was two hundred miles, both in going and in returning. The Federal los$ was in significant, being only ten killed, when compared with the importance of the results accomplished. The chief of these was the severing of one of the main avenues of communication between Virginia and the southwest. So valuable were the consequences of this expedition regarded, that General Halleck, the commander-in-chief, expressed his admiration of General Carter s achievement in a letter of commendation to General Wright, the Federal commander of the department in which it occurred. On the 3d of January, 1863, a spirited skirmish took place at Moorefield, 23 434 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Virginia, between the hundred and sixteenth Ohio, under Lieutenant Col onel Wilder, assisted by a section of Keeper s battery, and a body of Rebels commanded by General Jones. The Federals were encamped near this town, and the purpose of the enemy evidently was to surprise and capture them. They came upon them suddenly, and opened the assault with their artillery. To this salute the Federals responded with courage and skill, and soon succeeded in silencing several of their guns. The attack was then continued by the cavalry of the enemy, but they were effectually checked by the well directed discharges of musketry which proceeded from the ranks of the Federals. The Rebels, however, continued the engage ment with stubbornness, and the issue might have been doubtful, perhaps adverse, had not reinforcements opportunely arrived. Colonel Washburn reached the scene of conflict from Petersburg in command of the twelfth Ohio, with a portion of Chalfont s battery. This unexpected assistance eventually decided the contest ; for the enemy, fearing to be overpowered between two hostile forces, at length retreated in the direction of the South Fork road, and over the mountains toward Petersburg. At Petersburg Colonel Washburn had left behind a number of sick soldiers. These per sons the retiring foe paroled on their route, and thus it was that they claimed the honor of having captured a large body of prisoners. The losses on both sides in this skirmish were inconsiderable ; and the action itself would have been unworthy of record, were it not for the unusual coolness and valor exhibited by the Federal troops during its progress. One of the most complete and signal victories gained by the Confederate arms in this war was achieved at Galveston, Texas, on the last day of 1862, and on the first of 1863. The possession of this place was of great import ance to the Federal cause, inasmuch as it controlled a large portion of the seaboard of that State. Accordingly, a naval force had been sent three months previous to this date to capture it. This achievement was accom plished with little difficulty, for the military strength of the enemy there was then insignificant. But the latter formed the resolution to recapture and possess it at the earliest possible period. The Federal naval force posted at Galveston was commanded by Commodore Renshaw ; but as it was evident that no defence could be made of the city if an attack were made by the enemy, a land force had been sent to his assistance, which reached its posi tion on the 25th of December. This consisted of three companies of the forty-second Massachusetts, commanded by Colonel Burrill, together with additional troops and stores. These were conveyed to Galveston on the steamers Saxton, Cambria and Mary Board man. The situation of Galveston is peculiar. It stands upon an island, and ia connected with the mainland, which is nearly five miles distant, by a mag nificent bridge. The Rebels had collected a considerable force at the op posite extremity of this structure, on Virginia Point. To prevent their approach to Galveston, Commodore Renshaw had determined to destroy CAPTURE OF THE HARRIET LANE. 435 this bridge; but his purpose was altered by an arrangement by which the enemy agreed that it should not be used for the transfer of troops, or for any other contraband purpose. This lenity was afterward perverted, and the Rebels planted a battery at Virginia Point. This act compelled Com modore Renshaw to station the Harriet Lane at the other terminus of the bridge. Trains of cars were, however, allowed to pass at any hour of the day and night; and during the night of the 31st of December, the Rebels^ acting in concert with their naval force in the bay, sent over a large num ber of troops and guns. The troops amounted to about three thousand ; the guns numbered fourteen pieces of light artillery. During that night they erected a battery on Pelican island, which they purposed to turn upon the Federal gunboats, when they proceeded to the assistance of the Harriet Lane, after the attack upon her began. On the evening of the 31st of December, the approach of the Rebel gunboats was first discovered by the lookout on board Commodore Ren- shaw s flagship TVestfield. They were four in number, and the Westfield, together with the Clifton, advanced to encounter them. But the wind and tide being stronger than usual, they were diverted from their intended course, and carried on to Pelican island, where they grounded. Precisely at this time, an attack was made by the land forces of the enemy upon the town. The moon shone so brightly on the animated scene, as to render every object perfectly distinct, and the operations of the different parties, both on land and sea, were visible to each other. As soon as the attack of the enemy was commenced on Galveston, the Harriet Lane opened upon them. She immediately became the object of their assault. She was surrounded on all sides, and soon hundreds of the Rebels succeeded in reaching her deck. A spirited but transient combat ensued for the pos session of the vessel. Yery soon after its commencement her commander, Captain Wainwright, was slain. The crew of the Harriet Lane then be came disheartened, and no longer defended the vessel. But as soon as the enemy gained possession of her, they turned her guns upon the L T nion gunboats. Before her fate was known, the Owasco approached her, and received several broadsides from her guns. But as soon as her real situa tion was known, the Owasco sent a ball through the machinery of her engine, and disabled her. These events occupied the hours of the night. Toward morning, the enemy attacked the Federal land forces who were posted in defence of the city, and their vast preponderance of "numbers soon gave them a resistless advantage. The Federals fought bravely, a large portion of them were slain, and the city fell into the complete possession of the enemy. As soon as this result was attained, General Mngruder, the commander of the Rebel land forces, sent a boat to the commodore, demanding the surrender of the fleet. It was nine o clock, and he allowed but a single hour for deliberation. In this emergency Commodore Renshaw adopted the reso- 436 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. lution to blow up the Westfield, and sent orders to the remaining vessels of the squadron to the effect that, as soon as the explosion occurred, each vessel should, if possible, make good its escape to the sea. It was now half-past nine, and the order was given that every one should abandon the fated flag-ship within fifteen minutes. Prepara tions were instantly made for the explosion. The vessel was saturated with turpentine. The powder magazine was thrown open. The safety- valve of the steam-engine was chained down. At length all was ready. The crew had been transferred to the Boardman, and none now remained except the commodore, Lieutenant Green, the Chief Engineer Zimmerman, and the crew of the commodore s gig. At length these left the vessel, when the commodore, standing at the gangway, applied a match to the train. Instantly a premature explosion took place, which blew the ship to fragments, and destroyed the gallant officers and men who were about to depart from her side. Immediately after the shock, the Federal gun boats commenced their flight toward the sea. The Rebel gunboats pur sued them, but were unable to overtake them. They had previously captured the Harriet Lane, two barques, one schooner, a yacht, and several transports. Thus ended the attack and the conflict at Galveston. The Federal loss was heavy, consisting of about three hundred in killed wounded, and missing. Thirteen had been slain by the explosion of the Westfield. Among those slain on the Harriet Lane was her valiant com mander, Captain Wainwright. His death was one of the chief causes of the feeble defence which was subsequently made by the crew of the vessel. Had he survived it is probable that the Confederates would not have gained so Q&sy and so prompt a victory, nor would the Federal arms have suffered one of the most disgraceful defeats of the war. While the civil war in the United States was thus progressing with varied fortunes, its events and probable issue were exciting increased in terest in Europe. The suspension of the exportation of cotton from the Southern States by the Federal blockade, had produced an important and disastrous effect upon the immense manufacturing communities of several countries of that continent, and the impressions which were created by this result were intense and varied. The aristocratic and moneyed ranks had become, to a considerable extent, hostile to the Union, whose arma ments had, in order to suppress the Rebellion, intercepted and diminished their enormous profits. But the great majority of the working classes condemned the secession movement, and admitted the justice and necessity of the policy pursued by the Federal Government to crush it. Many illustrations of this fact were now furnished, but one of these was so sig nificant that it demands a place in our history. On the last day of 1862, an immense meeting was held in Manchester, England, composed chiefly of operatives, at which an address was prepared and sent to Abraham Lincoln. Several persons of distinction were ADDRESS FROM THE WORKINGMEN OF MANCHESTER. 4?>1 present and took part in the proceedings, among whom were M a member of Parliament, Professor Greenbank, and Mr. lleywood, mayor of the city. The utmost enthusiasm prevailed. After several speeches had been delivered, the address to the President was read, and subse quently adopted. Its purpose was to express the fraternal sentiments entertained by the citizens of Manchester toward him, and toward this country ; to applaud the greatness of the American people as an outgrowth of England, and to honor the United States as u a singularly happy abode for the working millions," where industry and thrift were encouraged and protected as they merited. One thing alone, the address proceeded to say, had lessened the sympathy of its authors with the American people. That was the fact that influential politicians had not only succeeded in main taining the existence of negro slavery among them, but were endeavoring to root it more firmly, and extend it more widely. But since they had discovered that the efforts of the free North were now energetically de voted to the suppression of slavery, their sympathies were entirely won over to the cause of the Union. The address then commended the several anti-slavery measures adopted by Mr. Lincoln, particularizing among the rest his determination to receive ambassadors from the negro Kepublics of Hayti and Liberia.* * Other portions of this address were so peculiar and significant that we quote them verbatim : " We assure you that you cannot now stop short of a complete uprooting of slavery. It would not become us to dictate any details, but there are broad principles of hu manity which must guide you. If complete emancipation of some States be deferred, though only to a predetermined day, still, in the interval, human beings should not be counted as chattels. Women must have rights of chastity and maternity, men the rights of husbands, masters the liberty of manumission. Justice demands for the black, T,O less than for the white, the protection of law that his voice be heard in your courts. Nor must any such abomination be tolerated as slave-breeding States and a slave market if you choose to earn the reward of all your sacrifices in the approval of the universal brotherhood, and of the Divine Father. " It is for your free country to decide whether any thing but immediate and total emancipation can secure the most indispensable rights of humanity against the invet erate wickedness of local laws and local executives. We implore you, for your own honor and welfare, not to faint in your providential mission. While your enthusiasm is aflame, and the tide of events runs high, let the work be finished effectually. Leave not the root of bitterness to spring up and work fresh misery to your children. Tt is a mighty task, indeed, to reorganize the industry, not only of four millions of the col ored race, but of five millions of whites. Nevertheless, the vast progress which you have made in the short space of twenty months, fills us with hope that every stain on your freedom will shortly be removed, and that the erasure of that foul blot upon civilization and Christianity chattel-slavery during your Presidency, will cause the name of Abraham Lincoln to be honored and revered by posterity. We are certain that such a glorious consummation will cement Great Britain to the United States in close and enduring regards. Our interests, moreover, are indentified with yours. We are truly one people, though locally separate. And if you have anv ill-wishers here. 438 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. On the 19th of January, 1863, President Lincoln responded to this ad dress of " the working-men of Manchester." After thanking them for their epistle, he proceeded to dwell upon the chief matter of his commu nication, which was to set forth how " the duty of self-preservation rested solely with the American people." He then expressed his regret that in the performance of this duty other nations had been indirectly involved to some extent in the issue. He deplored the sufferings to which the working people of several portions of Europe were subjected, but he justly laid the blame of this calamity on those Rebels and traitors who were endeavoring to overturn the Federal Government. He concluded by thanking them for their sympathy, and expressing the wish that the wise and equitable sentiments which they had uttered might be universally diffused among the whole British nation, and by hoping that the relations of peace and good will which existed between the two nations might be permanent and perpetual. Nothing could have been more appropriate and dignified than the response of the President on this occasion, and it was with pleasure every loyal citizen in the United States observed this exhibition of friendly and just feeling on the part of a portion of the British people, some of whom had disgraced themselves by sympathy with traitors, and a disguised hostility against a nation whom they evidently regarded as a powerful and hated rival. Immediately after the repulse of General Sherman before Yicksburg, he was superseded, as has been already narrated, by General McClernand. The new commander resolved at once to withdraw from the attack on that city, to postpone its completion until a more propitious period, and to direct the energies of his troops in another channel. It soon appeared that the Rebel fortress known as Arkansas Post, was to be the next object of attack. General McClernand requested Rear Admiral D. D. Porter, who commanded a portion of the Mississippi flotilla of iron-clads, to assist him. That officer readily complied, and ordered the Louisville, Pittsburg, DeKalb, Cincinnati, together with the ram Monarch, and a number of light-draught gunboats, to join the expedition. The combined military and naval forces reached Montgomery Point on the morning of the 8th of January, 1863. On the following day they resumed their progress up the White river. The transports were preceded by the gunboats, and soon reached the cut-off, where they entered the red waters of the Arkansas. That stream was obstructed by many land-bars and snags, so that the progress made was very slow. On the evening of the 9th, the expedition arrived at Belleville, a village situated on the south be assured they are chiefly those who oppose liberty at home, and that they will be powerless to stir up quarrels between us, from the very day in which your country becomes undeniably and without exception the home of the free. Accept our high admiration of your firmness in upholding the proclamation of freedom. THE BOMBARDMENT OF AllKAXSAS i U.ST 439 Kuik of the river, ten miles below Arkansas Post. Here the troops were disembarked, with the exception of one division, which proceeded up the White river beyond the cut-off, for the purpose of making a flank move ment, and intercepting from the rear the line of the retreat of the enemy toward Little Rock. Arkansas Post was one of the oldest settlements in the State whose name it bore. It was founded by the French in 1685. It remained for many years merely a frontier trading-post, and was the favorite resort of hunters and trappers, whose adventurous lives were spent amid the primeval wilds and solitudes of that remote region. It stands upon a bluff of the river, eighty feet in height. Its inhabitants numbered about five hundred at the period of the attack. Below the village, at a point where the Arkansas makes an abrupt turn, the Rebels had erected an extensive fort. It was rectangular in shape, and mounted a number of guns on each of its four sides. Each side was a hundred yards in length. The guns facing the river were long sixty-four pounders, which the enemy regarded as able to destroy any vessels that might dare to approach within their vun^e. Around the fort, they had dug a ditch fifteen feet wide, and an extensive range of rifle pits, which extended along the bluff so as to sur round the village. Outside of these they had constructed a line of abatis, which obstructed the approach to the works on the land. All of the roads, with the single exception of the one which led to Little Rock which they reserved for their own escape, if necessary had been encumbered with felled timber. The commandant of the fort was Colonel Dunnington. The works were defended by about five thousand Eebels, beside the gar rison, who were under the orders of General Churchill. These were con fident of victory at that time, because they had already repulsed an ill- advised attack, which had been made upon them some months before, by General Hovey, who was defeated more by the physical obstacles which impeded his efforts, than by the valor of the enemy. According to the plan of attack agreed upon between General McCler- nand and Admiral Porter, the iron-clad gunboats advanced, and took their position about four hundred yards from the fort. The land troops were all disembarked, and approached the works by different routes, and completely surrounded them. The assault was commenced by the fleet, consisting of the Louisville, Pittsburg, Rattler, De Kalb, and Cincinnati, at three o clock in the afternoon of the 10th of January. These bom barded the enemy s works, during an hour and a half, with great energy and spirit. The cannonading was tremendous on both sides. At first the proper range was not obtained. The balls and shells of the Rebels passed over the iron-clads, while the missiles of the latter reached the Federal land forces in the rear of the fort, and did them much damage. But soon the mistake was rectified. The result was that in a short time several of the guns of the enemy were silenced, and the Union vessels 440 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. were much cut up. In this day s action, the killed on the Louisville were twelve ; those on the De Kalb were seventeen ; those on the Rattler were two. After a contest of an hour and a half, Admiral Porter signalled to his fleet of gunboats to suspend their fire. The reason of this order was that night was approaching, and it was then too late for the land forces to commence and to conclude their co-operative assault. It was therefore determined between the two Federal commanders to postpone the com pletion of the undertaking until the next day. The gunboats were then withdrawn from the vicinity of the fort, and in the evening General McClernand visited Admiral Porter, and arranged the programme for the ensuing day. During the night a shot was fired every half hour to inter rupt the repose of the enemy, and on Sunday morning, the llth of January, at daybreak, the attack was resumed. During the hours of darkness the Confederates had repaired the da mage which they had suffered, and had replaced their dismounted guns. They therefore responded to the cannonading of the fleet with undiminished fervor. But they were now assailed from several points at once. The troops under McClernand advanced toward the fort. General Sherman, who commanded the rear division, planted a number of light artillery guns in a favorable position, and began to shell the Rebel works. During this process a reinforcement of several thousand men arrived to the enemy from Fort Charles, twenty-five miles distant on the White river, and they succeeded in entering the works. The Rebels were soon driven by the land forces from their rifle-pits, and compelled to shelter themselves behind their intrenchrnents. Then the contest continued be tween the artillery in the fortress and the batteries of the gunboats. At one o clock the contest increased in fury, and for three hours and a half a tremendous cannonading continued without any intermission. One of the shells from the fleet exploded over a hundred pound Parrott gun, which was mounted on the southern parapet of the fort. Seven of the men who worked it were instantly killed, their bodies being torn into fragments, and the remaining nine were so severely wounded as to be unfit for duty. This enormous cannon had been the chief reliance of the enemy in defending their position, but it was now so disabled as to be useless. The spirited and accurate firing from the Federal gunboats soon began to tear up and penetrate the solid timber, three feet in thickness, which formed the casemates of the fort, and which was covered with railroad iron. The battered rails commenced to tumble from their posi tion, and many of the guns behind them were dismounted. One shot penetrated a caisson of the enemy, exploded it, destroying six men and nine horses. With the fall and ruin of their casemates, the situation of the Rebels became still more desperate ; yet they bravely continued tho struggle until it became evident that further resistance was useless. THE SURRENDER OE ARKANSAS POST. 441 During the progress of the battle the enemy had at one time emerged from their works, and attacked the Federal right wing, with the inten tion of making their escape in the direction of Little Rock. Here a desperate fight occurred ; but the result was that they were intercepted and repulsed by the division which had crossed from the White river, and which had been expressly detailed for that duty. The enemy were then compelled to abandon this undertaking and return to their works. At, length, at half-past four o clock, General Churchill, the commander of the Confederate troops, determined to yield, and sent out a flag of truce proposing a capitulation. The answer given was that an unconditional surrender would alone be accepted. Immediately after the return of the flag, the Rebel colors were hauled down, and the works given up. Col onel Dunnington, who commanded the fort and its garrison, requested per mission to surrender to Admiral Porter. This request was complied with. General Churchill, who commanded the troops that had been stationed in the fort, surrendered to General McClernand. As these two officers ap proached each other, the latter exclaimed : "I am sorry to meet you under such circumstances ; but your men fought bravely in defending the fort." Churchill replied that " it had not been his intention to surrender so soon, bat that the event had been hastened by treachery within his lines." The fortifications were then entered by the victors. Four thousand eight hundred and ninety-one of the garrison were surrendered as prisoners of war, and paroled. A thousand of them were on the sick-list. All the stores artillery, munitions of war, and several thousand stand of small arms, became the prizes of the conquerors. The loss of the enemy in killed, wounded, and missing, was five hundred and fifty. That of the Federals was about one hundred and twenty-nine killed, eight hundred and thirty- one wounded, and seventeen missing. This heavy loss was to be attrib uted to the fact that at the commencement of the bombardment the shells of the gunboats passed over the fort, and fell among the Federal troops in the rear, aud that some time elapsed before the exact range could be obtained. This victory was of the utmost importance to the Union cause. The fort at Arkansas Post had been erected by the Confederates for the defence of the passage of the Arkansas river. This stream was the highway to Little Rock, the capital of the State. The fortifications were so situated, and were of such strength, that they completely commanded the trade of the river. By this capture it became comparatively easy for Federal vessels and troops to ascend to Little Rock, and also to communicate with Generals Blunt and Herron in the interior ; thus dispensing with the transportation of supplies to them over a long and tedious route from Rolla. The chief merit of this conquest was due to the tremendous and destruc tive firing of the gunboats, whose artillery were much more formidable 442 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. than those of the Federal land forces. The gunboats were skilfully com manded by Admiral David D. Porter, whose prominence in many of the desperate struggles on the Mississippi had already rendered him one of the chief heroes of the war. This officer was born in 1814. He entered the navy as midshipman in 1829, aboard the Constellation. In 1835 he passed his examination, and then served six years on the coast survey. He was commissioned a lieutenant in 18-il, and served during four years on board the Congress with that rank, lie was subsequently placed on active duty under Commodore Tatnall, in the Mexican Gulf, and took an active part in the naval operations which were connected with the Mexi can war. At a later period he commanded one of the steamers of the California mail company. It was while holding this position that ho boldly defied the Spanish authorities at Havana, and ran his ship into the harbor of that city in the face of the shotted and threatening guns of Moro Castle. Immediately after the commencement of the Ee bell ion he was placed in command of the steam sloop-of-war Powhattan, which carried an armament of eleven guns. He distinguished himself greatly in the reduction of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, below New Orleans, on which occasion he commanded the mortar fleet. After the reduction of New Orleans he proceeded up the Mississippi, and took part in severs.! engagements. lie was subsequently ordered to the James river, and while on his way thither in the Octorara, he captured the Anglo-Kebel steamer Tubal Cain. He was soon afterward appointed to the supreme command of the naval forces on the Mississippi, with the rank of rear- admiral, though bis squadron was held distinct from the Western Gulf blockading squadron under Admiral Farragut. His first exploit after his promotion to this important position was the attack and capture of Arkansas Post. His associate in this achievement, Major-General John A. McClernand, was a native of Ohio, and was known, previous to the commencement of the war, as a prominent lawyer and politician in Illinois. He took a leading part, as a friend of Mr. Douglas, in the Charleston Convention. When hostilities began, he abandoned his profession and entered the military service of his country. He soon obtained the rank of brigadier- general of volunteers, and distinguished himself in the engagements at Belmont, Forts Henry and Donelson, and especially at Pittsburg Land ing. His skill and gallantry were justly rewarded by his elevation to one of the highest positions in the army. Having superseded General Sher man, on the 2d of January, in command of the Federal army before Vicks- burg, his success at Arkansas Post soon afterward furnished ample evi dence that the change was a fortunate one for the promotion of the inte rests of the Union GENERAL BURNSIDE SUCCEEDED BY GENERAL HOOKER: 4i3 CHAPTER XL. GB>KRAL BURNSIDE RESIGNS THE COMMAND OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC HE IS SCO CEEDED BY GENERAL HOOKER THE ARMY IN WINTER QUARTERS IMPORTANCE OF THB QUESTION OF NEGRO TROOPS IN THE ARMY POLICY OF DIFFERENT PARTIES RESPECTING IT EXPLOITS OF THE REBEL STEAMER ORETO DESTRUCTION OF THE STEAMBOAT HAT- TEItAS EXPEDITION OF GENERAL WEITZEL UP THE BAYOU TECHE DEATH OF COMMODORR BUCHANAN SKIRMISH AT WOODBURY, TENNESSEE SECOND SIEGE OF FORT DONELSON ITS RESULT FEDERAL VICTORY OVER GENERAL PRYOR ON THE BLACKWATER, VIRGINIA TRIUMPH OF CONFEDERATE RAMS IN THE HARBOR OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA SKETCH OF COMMODORE INGRAHAM THE PASSAGE OF THE NATIONAL CURRENCY BILL THE CONSCRIPTION LAW LOSS OF THE FEDERAL STEAMER QUEEN OF THE WEST CAP TURE OF THE FEDERAL IRON-CLAD INDIANOLA DESTRUCTION OF THE REBEL STEAMER NASHVILLE ATTACK ON FORT M*ALLISTER RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS DENOUNCING FOREIGN INTERVENTION REMAINING MILITARY EVENTS OF FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1863 ENGAGEMENTS AT STRASBURG, VIRGINIA AT HARTWOOD CHURCH, VIRGINIA AT BBADY- VILLE, TENNESSEE AT THOMPSON S STATION, TENNESSEE. AFTER the repulse of the Federal army at Fredericksburg, and the failure of General Burnside as its commander to fulfil the expectations which had been entertained throughout the nation of important and felic- itious results from his abilities and experience, he asked to be relieved from his command, and his request was reluctantly complied with by the President. On the 26th of January, 1863, General Joseph Hooker, who had been appointed his successor as commander of the army of the Po tomac, arrived at Falmouth, and assumed his new duties. General Burn- side, in retiring from the command, issued an address to the troops, in which he urged them to remain faithful in their devotion to their country, until, by continued success, the Rebellion was crushed. On the following day, his successor published an address to the army, in which he in formed them that by direction of the President he had assumed the com mand of the forces at Falmouth. He also complimented them upon their former triumphs, and encouraged them to hope for more important and brilliant results in the future. The new general-in-chief entered upon his duties with energy and vigor, and with the confidence and good wishes both of the army and the nation. From the date of the accession of General Hooker to the command of the army of the Potomac, a period of several months was destined to elapse, during which that army may be said to have remained at Falmouth in winter quarters. The work of reorganization, which devolved on General Hooker, was an immense one, and some time necessarily elapsed before its completion. Important changes and improvements were introduced, anJ new plans were formed and developed in reference to future operations, which involved extensive labors and profound deliberation. It vvus not 444 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. until the spring of 1863 had fairly opened that this colossal army again moved to encounter the enemy. During the interval, events of interest were transpiring elsewhere in the Eepublic, both of a civil and military character, to which we will now direct our attention. It became evident to every observant mind, as the war progressed, that the relation of the negro race in the United States to it, and their future fate, assumed more prominence from day to day. That party in the Fed eral Congress who were termed radical Republicans, of whom the most prominent were Messrs. Wilson and "Sumner, of Massachusetts, Stevens and Kelley, of Pennsylvania, and Trumbull and Lovejoy, of Illinois, were desirous that a law should be passed providing for ttte employment of troops of African descent in the Federal armies. It was the secret con viction of every intelligent person that the negro community were in a great measure, though without any will or fault of their own, one of the causes of the war, and that it was just that they should be made to endure a portion of its burdens and sufferings. Another class felt convinced, in conse quence of the-reverses which had recently befallen the Federal arms, that the assistance of the free negroes, as well as of those who had been eman cipated in the South by the troops of the Union, would soon be indispen sably necessary to the ultimate success of the Federal cause, and therefore that no real patriot could oppose the employment of them in that capacity. The conservative Republicans and the Democrats in Congress opposed the measure, on the ground that it was unnecessary ; that it was revolution ary ; that it would be repulsive to the feelings of the inhabitants of the loyal slave States, and even insulting to the Federal white soldiers. On the^28th of January, Mr. Stevens introduced a bill into the House of Representatives authorizing the employment of African troops in the Federal armies. A spirited debate ensued, in which the subject was fully discussed on both sides. But the proposition proved to be premature; it was therefore withdrawn for the present by that astute manager, and it was not until a later period that he and his associates were able to secure its passage by the House, its confirmation by the Senate, and its approval by the President.* * The bill proposed by Mr. Stevens, and eventually passed by Congress, was as follows : " Be it enacted, etc., That the President be, and he is hereby authorized, to enroll, arm, equip, and receive into the land and naval service of the United States, such number of volunteers, of African descent, as he may deem useful to suppress the present Rebellion, for such term of service as he may prescribe, not exceeding five years; the said volunteers to be organized according to the regulations of the branch of service in which they may be enlisted, to receive the same rations, clothing, and equipments as other volunteers, and a monthly pay not to exceed that of the volun teers; to be officered by white or black persons appointed and commissioned by the President, and to be governed by the rules and articles of war, and such other rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the President. THE REBEL CRUISERS ORETO AI,~D ALABAMA. 445 At the commencement of 1863, the Confederate Government had suc ceeded in adding several formidable vessels to their marine forces. Among these was the steam-corvette Oreto, which had been confined in the harbor rr Mobile, and succeeded in escaping therefrom during the night of the 16th of January. She was chased by several of the blockading squadron, but was not overtaken. Her escape was chiefly due to her superior sail ing qualities, her speed being greater than that of her pursuers. This vessel was built in Liverpool, England, and its owners pretended that she was intended for the Italian government. She carried a complement of eight heavy guns ; she registered seven hundred and fifty tons, and was one of the best constructed vessels of her class then afloat. After arriving in the vicinity of Cuba her genuine character was revealed. Her com mander was Captain John Newland Mafiit, who had been originally ap pointed to the United States navy from New York, but subsequently became a citizen of Georgia. When the Federal navy was reduced during the administration of Mr. Pierce, Captain Maffit was dropped from the service. When the Kebellion commenced he tendered his services to Jefferson Davis, and was accepted. lie was subsequently appointed to the command of the Oreto, or Florida. On the 17th of January, the commander of the Alabama, another of the piratical cruisers of the Rebel Government, was guilty of a most dastardly outrage upon the United States steamer Ilatteras. This vessel was among those which succeeded in making their escape after the conquest of Gal- veston by the Confederates. The Alabama came within sight of the Brooklyn and other Federal war vessels off Galveston. As soon as she was noticed the Ilatteras was despatched to ascertain who the stranger was. When she came within hailing distance Captain Blake demanded the name of the ship. The answer given was that she was her majesty s steamer Spitfire. Blake then replied that he would send a boat on board of her. While this was being done the Alabama suddenly poured a tremendous broadside into the Hatteras. The latter replied feebly from her small battery of four light guns, and immediately commenced to sink. She soon filled and went to the bottom, but her officers and most of her crew were " Provided, That nothing herein contained, or in the rules and articles of war, shall be so construed as to authorize or permit any officer of African descent to be ap pointed to rank or to exercise military or naval authority over white officers, soldiers, or men in the military or naval service of the United States; nor shall any creator pay than ten dollars per month, with the usual allowance of clothing 1 and rations, he allowed or paid to privates or laborers, of African descent, which are or may be in the military or naval service of the United States. Provided further, That the slaves of loyal citizens in the States exempt by the President s proclamation of January 1st, 1863, shall not be received into the armed service of the United States, nor shall there be recruiting offices opened in either of the States of Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee or Missouri, without the consent of the Gover nors of the said States having been first obtained." 446 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. rescued by boats sent from the Alabama. The Hatteras was an iron steamer, built in Wilmington, Delaware, which had recently been pur chased by the Government, and fitted out for the service. Her side was perforated so badly by the accurate aim of the privateer that it was im possible to save her. Contemporary with this event was the expedition conducted by General Weitzel up the Bayou Teche in Louisiana, the purpose of which was to attack and destroy a Confederate steamer named the J. A. Cotton, which had long been committing depredations along the borders of that stream, as well as to attack the Rebel troops collected in that vicinity. The Fed eral troops commenced to move from Thibodeauxon the llth of January. They consisted of the eighth Vermont, the seventy -fifth, the one hundred and sixtieth New York, the twelfth Connecticut, sixth Michigan, twenty- first Indiana, a portion of the first Louisiana cavalry, four regular bat teries, and a portion of the seventy-fifth New York as sharpshooters. These forces were accompanied by four Federal gunboats the Calhoun, Kinsman, Diana, and Estrella commanded by Commander Buchanan. The vessels conveyed the troops, with the exception of the cavalry and artillery, which proceeded by land. The expedition arrived at a point called Corney s bridge at six o clock in the morning of the 14th of January. At this place the Confederates had placed a formidable obstruction across the bayou, consisting of a number of old sunken vessels filled with stones, which rendered it impos sible for the Federal steamers to advance any further. Beyond this barrier the Cotton was moored, awaiting the approach of her assailants. At half-past eight o clock an artillery duel began between the Federal gunboats and the Cotton, assisted by several Eebel batteries which were placed upon the shore. The contest was a fierce one. During its progress a torpedo exploded under the stern of the Kinsman without doing her much damage. In this action Commander Buchanan, who served on board of his flag-ship, the Calhouu, was killed. He was shot by a rifle-ball in the temple, and expired instantly. The fire of the riflemen and bat teries of the enemy on the shore was unusually deadly, in consequence of their proximity to the Federal vessels. The bayou at this point was so narrow that the Calhoun, in turning, had both her bow and her stern aground at the same time. During the progress of this contest between the gunboats, the Federal land forces, who had previously disembarked at Pattersonville and Lynch s Point, proceeded against the enemy and their batteries, and attacked them with spirit. They were soon driven from their rifle-pits and from their breastworks. Three Federal batteries the first Maine, the fourth and sixth Massachusetts had proceeded from Pattersonville, through the woods, to a point above the Cotton, from which they could fire upon her with advantage. Under the heavy firing of these guns, to- REBEL ATTACK ON FOilT DONELSON. 447 getlier with that of portions of the seventy-fifth and one hundred and sixtieth New York, this vessel was thrice compelled to retire up the bayou after thrice advancing. At length it was discovered that she was on fire and soon the immense vessel was seen drifting down the stream, deserted by her crew, and presenting the appearance of one enormous sheet of flame. The Confederate troops were soon after driven away from the vicinity. These troops consisted of the twenty-eighth Louisiana, Simrns battery, Pelican s battery, and Fournet s battalion, comprising in all about twelve hundred men. They were commanded by Colonel Gray. The Federal loss during the whole expedition, was six killed and twenty-seven wounded. That of the Confederates, was fifteen killed, fifty wounded, and forty-three prisoners. The chief misfortune of the Federals was the death of Commander Buchanan, who enjoyed the reputation of being an ex tremely brave and skilful officer. The expedition having thus accom plished the purpose of its mission, which was not, indeed, one of very great difficulty or importance, returned forthwith to Lafourche station near Thibodeaux.* Fort Donelson, situated on the Cumberland river, which had already witnessed one of the most signal victories of the Federal troops in Feb ruary, 1862, became the scene of another contest and of another triumph to the Union cause in the beginning of February, 1863. At that time, a Rebel force, consisting of about five thousand men, commanded by Gen erals Wheeler, Forrest, and Wharton, made an attack upon it. The fort then contained only six hundred men who were fit for duty. These belonged to the eighty-third Illinois regiment. Notwithstanding this immense disparity of numbers, the Federal troops, commanded by Colonel A. C. Harding, determined to resist the foe, with the hope that assistance would opportunely arrive from the gunboats which then lay at Fort Henry. Accordingly, the demand to surrender by the Confederate gen erals was courteously declined, and the action commenced. The enemy brought eight guns to bear on the works, to which the Federals responded with one thirty-two pounder and four brass cannon. At seven o clock in the evening, after a contest of five hours, the Rebels despatched a second demand to surrender, adding the statement that not one half of their force had as yet been engaged. A second refusal was given, and the enemy was further informed that not the slightest idea of yielding had been entertained. The battle was then resumed. But soon the sound of a distant gun, echoing up the river, announced to the besieged the welcome intelligence of the approach of their formidable allies. It was indeed high * A spirited contest occurred on the 23d of January, atTVoodbury, Tennessee, in which General Palmer s division, of Crittenden s corps, attacked and defeated an out- post of the enemy at that place, consisting of seven regiments. The result of the fight was that thirty-four Rebels were killed, and a hundred taken prisoners. The Federal loss was two killed, nine wounded. 443 THE CIVIL AVAR IX TJJE UNITED STATES, time, for already had nearly all the guns in the fort been silenced by the accurate and vigorous firing of the enemy. In a short time the Lexington steamed rapidly within view, and commenced to throw her destructive shells over the fort into the ravines and valleys beyond it, which were occupied by the Confederate forces. She was quickly followed by five other gunboats, which, in like manner, commenced to cannonade the po sition of the enemy. The fort itself shook with the tremendous concus sion of the heavy guns, and the evening air was filled with innumerable howling messengers of death. The result may be easily conjectured. The Kebels were driven in confusion from the vicinity of the fort, and were compelled to abandon the siege. Their loss was about a hundred killed, three hundred wounded, a hundred and forty prisoners. The Federal loss was sixteen killed, sixty wounded, fifty prisoners, and one gun captured by the enemy. Before the arrival of the gunboats, several desperate charges had been made upon the lines of the enemy, one es pecially upon their right wing, which had succeeded in flanking the Federal left, and threatened their rear. The small garrison had fought on this occasion with unusual heroism and fortitude. During some months, the Confederate General Pryor, who commanded a force in Virginia, had loudly boasted that he would deliver the territory of Suffolk, in the vicinity of the Black water, from the thraldom of Yankee supremacy. General Corcoran had been sent thither with a number of Federal troops, and held the country in spite of the threats of the Rebel champion. The latter determined, on the 25th of January, to carry his purpose into execution. During the night of that day, he advanced his forces across the Blackwater, and moved forward ten miles to encounter the Federal general. They met at three o clock in the morning of the 26th. Colonel Spear, of the eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry, reconuoitered the position and strength of the enemy, and immediately afterward both armies joined battle. The conflict was a desperate and sanguinary one, as was usually the case where Irishmen were engaged. The eleventh Pennsylvania cavalry, and Dodge s mounted riflemen, charged on the enemy with drawn sabres. The Federal infantry also made several splendid assaults upon the foe. The Union force engaged, consisted of the sixth Massachusetts, thirteenth Indiana, one hundred and twelfth, thirteenth, and sixty-ninth New York, one hundred and sixty-fifth and one hundred and sixty-seventh Pennsylvania, one company of the seventh Massachu setts, and one battery of the fourth United States artillery. After an action of some hours the enemy began to give way. At two o clock in the afternoon, they were much weakened and disheartened. At three o clock their retreat became general, and they returned in confused haste toward the Blackwater, which they recrossed in the evening. The Federal cavalry pursued them for six miles, when it was deemed prudent to re linquish the chase. A more complete rout could not easily be imagined. DISASTER TO BLOCKADING FLEET OFF CHARLESTON. 449 The Federal loss was twenty-four killed, eighty wounded. That of the enemy was much greater, though the exact number remained unknown to the victors. A great part of the credit of this triumph was due to Torbcrt s battery, of the fourth United States artillery, and to Davis s seventh Massachusetts battery, which were particularly efficient during the entire action. To counterbalance this success, a disaster of some importance overtook the Federal arms, about this period, in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina. On the morning of the 31st of January, a thick fog enveloped and obscured the port of that city. Two iron-clad gunboats took advan tage of this circumstance to emerge from the port through the main ship- channel, and to make a sudden attack on the blockading fleet. The< time was opportune, for two of the most formidable of the Federal vessels, the Powhatan and the Canandaigua, were then absent, coaling and repair ing. The Eebel vessels first encountered the Mercedita, commanded by Captain Stellwagen. The Palmetto State sent a heavy rifle-shell through her starboard sides, which passed into her condenser, through the steam- drum of her port boiler, and then exploded against her port side. It made a hole during its passage some five feet square, killed the gunner, wounded a number of men, and disabled the entire machinery of the vessel. This preliminary blow rendered all attempts at resistance utterly use less, and Captain Stellwagen was compelled at once to surrender. The officers and men were then taken off and paroled. Having thus sealed the fate of the Mercedita, and left her apparently in a sinking condition, the victorious rams proceeded toward the Keystone State, which was the nearest of the Federal vessels, and was commanded by Captain Leroy. A tremendous shell from the Palmetto State exploded in the forehold of this vessel, and at once set her on fire. Undismayed by this disaster, Captain Leroy instantly gave orders to put on a full head of steam, and advance against one of the rams, with the intention of running her down. His guns were also so trained and depressed that at the moment of con tact they would fire into the enemy. While this order was being executed, and the vessel was advancing at the rate of twelve knots per hour, a well directed shot from the Palmetto State passed through the steam-chest of the Keystone State, which completely disabled her machinery, and rendered her helpless. She was then fired at rapidly by the two hostile rams. Of the ten rifle shells which struck her, two burst on her quarter deck ; the remainder struck her near or below the water line. During the progress of these events, the Federal vessels Augusta, Quaker City, Memphis, and Housatonic, attacked the Kebel iron-clads, but with little effect. As soon as the work of the latter was completed, they steamed away to the northward, and obtained a safe position in the Swash Channel, behind the shoals. 29 450 THE CIVIL -WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. This attack by the Confederate rams was one of the most brilliant achievements on their side which occurred during the war. It exhibited extraordinary boldness and skill; and the success which attended it was discreditable to the Union vessels which were engaged in the blockade. The Federal loss during the action was twenty-four killed, twenty-three wounded. Some hours elapsed before the blockading vessels could resume their appropriate positions in front of the harbor. The two disabled vessels were afterward towed to Port Eoyal to be repaired. Immediately after this attack, several vessels from Charleston steamed out toward the Union ships, and then returned. The purpose of this movement was to afford an excuse for the report, which was despatched forthwith to Europe, that at last the blockade of the port of Charleston nad been raised by the daring and skill of the Confederate fleet. Had this assertion been true, its effect abroad upon the political relations of the Confederate States would have been important, and might have led to valuable demonstrations in their favor. But it was essentially erro neous, for a few hours had not elapsed before the blockade was as com plete, as vigilant, and as effective as it had ever been. The Confederate officer to whom the credit or disgrace of this achieve ment was due, was Commodore Duncan N. Ingraham, a native of Charleston, and born in 1802. He received a midshipman s warrant, through family influence, in June, 1812. He commanded the Federal ship Somers, in the blockade off Vera Cruz, during the Mexican war. He subsequently commanded the St. Louis in the Mediterranean. In 1855 he was made a captain ; and in 1856 became chief of the bureau of ordnance at Washington. He held this position at the commencement of the Kebellion, when he resigned it, tendered his services to the Rebel authorities, and became a traitor to the government from which he had received many honors and rich emoluments during a period of nearly half a century. While military events of a stirring nature were thus transpiring between the hostile armies and navies, the Federal Congress, then in session at Washington, was busily engaged in adopting such financial and other measures as were necessary to secure a vigorous continuance of the war. One of these was the passage of a national currency, or banking bill, which was proposed by Mr. Sherman in the Seriate, and. after some modifications, was adopted by the House, and then approved by the President. The chief provisions of this important measure were as follows : It enacted that any number of persons, being not less than five, might be incorporated so that they could carry on the business of banking, provided their capital was at least fifty thousand dollars, in shares of one hundred dollars each. In cities containing more than ten thousand persons, the stock must not be less than one hundred thousand dollars. Thirty per centum of this amount must be paid in before the FEDERAL REVERSES ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 451 association could commence operations. After they had thus begun, ten per centum of the residue must be paid every two months, until the whole amount was made up. But they would be required to purchase bonds of the United States, to the extent of at least one third of their capital, which must be deposited with the treasurer of the United States. For these bonds the comptroller of the currency would give to the association circulating notes equal in amount and in value to ninety per centum of the value in bonds thus deposited. The association was bound to redeem these notes ; and in order to be able so to do, and to pay depositors, they must always keep twenty-five per centum of cash on hand. The notes were to be receivable for all debts due to the United States, except those for customs, and the interest of the public debt. The bonds which were deposited with the treasurer were to be held in trust for the security of the note-holders ; and in case of default being made in redeeming the notes, the bonds were to be sold, and were to be redeemed by the Govern ment. Each shareholder in an association was made liable for an amount equal to the par value of his shares, in addition to the shares themselves. The most prominent and important purpose contemplated by this law was the establishment of one sound, uniform, reliable circulation, possess ing an equal value throughout the whole country, and based upon two firm, immovable pillars the national credit and private wealth. The original author of this admirable scheme was Mr. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, who, by its elaboration, increased and confirmed his fame as a skilful and profound financier. Similar in the effective and beneficial nature of its operation was the conscription bill, which became a law of the land in the month of February, 1863. That bill was designed to call out more completely the military strength of the nation, and to elicit more thoroughly its patriotic ardor. The month of February, 1863, witnessed several minor disasters to the Federal arms upon the Mississippi and other waters, which require a brief notice. One of these was the loss of the steamer Queen of the West, which was commanded by the bold and adventurous Colonel C. R. Ellet. This officer had proceeded from the landing below Vicksburg on the 10th of the month, according to orders which he had received from Admiral D. D. Porter, and had destroyed a large amount of Rebel property along the shores of the Red and Black rivers. He had captured a steamboat laden with forty-five hundred bushels of corn, and had achieved other commendable acts, when, on the 14th, he neared Gordon s Landing, on Red river, a short time before nightfall. Several gunboats of the enemy were lying at that point, and a spirited action was anticipated. As the Queen of the West approached, she was assailed by a vigorous and skilful cannonade from the vessels and a fort on the shore. Soon her escape-pipe was shot away, and an explosion took place which filled the 452 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. interior of the vessel with steam. It was now evident that the Queen was overmatched, and Colonel Ellet gave the order to his pilot to back her out of the range of the guns of the enemy. Instead of complying with this direction, he ran her aground on the right hand bank, within full reach of the destructive firing of the enemy. In this predicament the only alternative was to abandon the steamer to the possession of the Rebels. This was done, and her crew and officers transferred to the De Soto, which had accompanied the Queen as her tender. Several inci dents occurred during this expedition which induced Colonel, Ellet to believe that the conduct of the pilot Garvey was influenced by treason able motives. He therefore ordered him under arrest. He then returned to his former station in the steamboat Era, which he had previously captured from the enemy. At the time of the loss of the Queen, twenty- four prisoners were taken by the Rebels. One white man and four negroes were also drowned during the progress of the disaster. Shortly after this occurrence, the Federal iron-clad Indianola was attacked by the Confederate steamers Webb and the Queen of the West, which had been repaired, and perverted to the service of its recent captors. The action took place on the Mississippi, below Yicksburg, and was a spirited one. But the numerical strength of the enemy gave them a resistless advantage. Soon after the battle began, a shot from the Indianola struck the upper works of the Webb. Another penetrated the machinery of the Queen, partially disabling her. The Webb then pre pared to butt the Indianola, and, as she turned to accomplish her pur pose, she received another shot, which considerably diminished her momentum. At length, however, she struck the Indianola aft the turret, on the starboard side, with tremendous violence. Had she delivered the blow with full force, she would have unquestionably sunk her antagonist immediately. At this stage of the action, the Queen returned to the attack on the other side, and inflicted a heavy blow upon the Indianola. In return the latter, though reeling, sent one of her shot directly through the cabin of the Queen, and another through her pilot-house, which staggered her considerably. While she was recovering, the Webb con tinued the contest by approaching the starboard side of the Indianola, and prepared to strike her. The latter manoeuvred to avoid the blow though without success, and she received a powerful salute, which for a time disabled her. Large seams were made by it in her side, and -the water rushed in rapidly. Notwithstanding her gallant defence, the Indianola was now in a sinking condition, and no alternative was left except to surrender. As soon as the signal was displayed, the Webb and Queen came alongside and took possession. The Indianola was then run aground on the Louisiana shore. Her officers and crew were captured, and were afterward paroled. To counterbalance these disasters, a naval success was achieved near CAPTURE OF THE REBEL STEAMER NASHVILLE. 453 this time at Fort McAllister, on the Ogeechee river, in Georgia, by Com mander J. L. Worden, which consisted in the destruction of the Rebel steamer Nashville. This vessel was a privateer, and had already inflicted some damage on the commerce of the loyal citizens of the United States. Some months previous, she had taken refuge under the guns of the Con federate fort just named; but her exit from the river had been barred by the vigilance of several naval officers. Commander Worden had ordered J. L. Davis, of the Wissahickon, Barnes, of the Dawn, and Gibson, of the Seneca, to watch her movements, and as soon as she ventured to leave the vicinity of the fort, to attack her. On the 27th of February, having been loaded with cotton, and fully armed, she was observed to be moving about, as if preparing to run the gauntlet of the Federal vessels. She soon ran aground, however ; and this fact having been ascertained by a reconnoissance ordered by Commander Worden, that officer immediately directed his whole fleet to advance and attack her. The guns of Fort McAllister were industriously used to assist and defend the Rebel craft, and the crew of the Nashville fought bravely. But their exertions were of no avail. A hailstorm of eleven and fifteen inch shell was rained upon her from the Federal vessels, some of which exploded in her ; and soon she was completely enveloped in flames. In a short time the intense heat discharged one of her own heaviest guns, which effected much damage. Her destruction was soon afterward completed by the explosion of her magazine, which shattered the once stately and magnificent ship into innumerable fragments. Commander Worden superintended these operations on board of his flag-ship, the iron-clad Montauk. Had the Nashville succeeded in escaping to sea, it is probable that her pernicious achievements in the service of the Rebellion would have subsequently rivalled those of the Alabama and the Oreto.* While the Federal Congress at Washington was busily engaged in providing pecuniary means for the vigorous prosecution of the war, it did not neglect other measures which were necessary to increase the ardor of the nation, and to inspire continued hopes of ultimate success. One of the most important and significant of these was the passage of a series of resolutions, which were introduced into the Senate by Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, protesting against all foreign mediations or intervention for the purpose of obtaining peace through concessions made by the Fed- * At a later period, on the 3d of March, an attack was made by the fleet commanded by Commodore Worden on Fort McAllister. The firing was spirited on both sides ; but the engagement was productive of no results of importance. The fort was not taken ; the Federal vessels were not damaged ; the loss on both sides was insignificant ; and after a useless cannonade of some hours, the fleet dropped down the Ogeechee, and quietly returned to Port Royal. The conquest of the fort was not a matter of sufficient importance to the Federal cause to induce a renewed attack upon it at that time. 454 THE CIVIL WAR IX THE UNITED STATES. eral Government to the Eebel authorites. These resolutions set forth that " whereas, it appears from the diplomatic correspondence which had been submitted to Congress, a proposition friendly in form, looking to pacifications through foreign mediation, has been made to the United States by the Emporer of the French, and promptly declined by the President ; and whereas, the idea of mediation or intervention, in some shape, may be regarded by foreign governments as practicable, and such governments, through this misunderstanding, may be led to proceedings tending to embarrass the friendly relations which now exist between them and the United States ; and whereas, in order to remove for the future all chance of misunderstanding on this subject, and to secure for the United States the full enjoyment of that freedom from foreign interference which is one of the highest rights of independent States, it seems fit that Congress should declare its convictions thereon ;" therefore, the following proposi tions were in substance submitted and adopted, as embodying the senti ments of the American Government and people on this subject. They stated that while they sincerely deplored the misfortunes which the war had inflicted on several foreign communities, they viewed all propositions of mediation or compromise from abroad as unseasonable and inadmissible, from whatever source they might come, or by whatever motive they might have been dictated ; that any such propositions must in reality be regarded as calculated to prolong and embitter the contest, by encouraging the insurgents, and in so far as really hostile to the Federal Government and to a loyal nation ; that the Rebels had been from the first encouraged by the hope of foreign intervention, and were still cheered by the antici pations of it ; that the United States were not only confident of ultimate success in the total suppression of the Eebellion, but that they were unal terably determined to prosecute the war to the last extremity, in order to restore the Union of the States and the supremacy of the Federal Govern ment, as they existed before the commencement of the Eebellion. These resolutions were passed, and became the authoritative expression of the sentiments of the Federal Government, of the administration of Mr. Lincoln, and of the loyal citizens of the United States. Their adoption produced a decided effect upon the views and measures of those European potentates who had contemplated an interference in American affairs, and terminated, or at least postponed, their impertinent ^and officious activity in that direction. The remaining military operations which occurred during the months of February and March, 18G3, with the exception of several reserved for the next chapter, were generally conducted on a small scale. The season of the year, and the condition of the roads, necessarily rendered the move ment of large bodies of troops very difficult, if not absolutely impossible, and both the rival Governments were actively employed in preparing for the colossal and sanguinary operations which were anticipated with the MILITARY EVENTS OF FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1863. 455 arrival of more propitious weather in the spring. The events of any con sequence which did occur during this interval of comparative repose may be thus briefly described. On the 26th of February, two battalions of the thirteenth Pennsylvania cavalry were sent from Winchester, Virginia, by General Milroy, to reconnoiter toward Strasburg, and ascertain the position and force of the enemy in that vicinity. The two battalions were commanded by Majors Byrnes and Kerwin. Having arrived at Strasburg without opposition Captain Dewees was sent forward five miles beyond it with fifty men. There he encountered a camp of the Rebels. He attacked them, and drove them into the woods. Soon, however, reinforcements approached from Woodstock, where fc&eir main body was posted, under command of Brigadier-General Jon es. The latter pursued the retiring Federals until they reached the position of the two battalions near Strasburg. There a desperate conflict ensued. The Rebel infantry were assisted by three pieces of artillery. Furious charges were made on both sides, and mutual repulses took place. The enemy were chased as far as Middletown, after which they returned without further interference to Woodstock. The Federal loss was heavy, being about a hundred and fifty in killed, wounded, and missing. That of the enemy was not so great. On the same day, fifteen hundred Confederate cavalry, under General Fitzhugh Lee, attacked the Union picket-line at Hartwood Church, near Stafford Court House, Virginia. The pickets were driven in, and fled to the main reserve in the rear, consisting of three hundred men. The ad vancing Rebels soon reached the position of these, and a spirited combat ensued, notwithstanding the immense disparity of numbers. The enemy were checked for some time, until they gained the flank, and threatened the rear of the Federals. Then Lieutenant-Colonel Jones ordered his men to fall back. The enemy pursued and charged upon them, by which means the retreat was turned into a rout. After a time, Major Robinson succeeded in stopping the retreat, and in making a brief stand against the foe. The latter, then apprehending the approach of a large body of Fed eral cavalry, under General Averill, retired toward the Rappahannock, and recrossed it without opposition. They had captured more than a hundred prisoners. On the 1st of March a brilliant advantage was gained over the Confed erates near Brandyville, Tennessee. This place was then occupied by Rebel troops. Its distance from Murfreesboro is twelve miles ; and not withstanding the propinquity of the great Federal army under Rosecrans, the enemy had continued to ravage and desolate the adjacent country. To rout and punish these General Stanley selected sixteen hundred men from the division of General Negley, seven hundred of whom were cavalry, and proceeded toward Brady ville. He encountered the enemy two miles from the village, numbering about eight hundred. A furious charge was 456 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. inStantly made upon them. They were driven back, through the village, to a position a quarter of a mile beyond. There they made a stand, and renewed the action, fighting with intense stubbornness for half an hour. At length, overpowered by numbers, they again broke and fled. They were pursued for three miles, and many were cut down as they ran by the sabres of the Federal cavalry. Nearly a hundred prisoners were taken, among whom were eight commissioned officers, together with a hundred horses, and a large quantity of quartermaster s stores. The Federal loss was slight, being only three killed, seven wounded. The Federal troops encamped on the battle-ground during the night, and on the next day returned to Murfreesboro. A disaster of considerable magnitude overtook the Federal arms on the 4th of March, at Thompson s station, near Franklin, Tennessee. Colonel Coburn commanded a considerable body of Union troops, consisting of a brigade, at that place ; and was attacked, perhaps surprised, by a much larger force, consisting of about ten thousand men, under General Van Dorn. The greater number of the enemy enabled them to assault the Federals at the same time in front and on both flanks. The twelfth Wis consin, sixty-ninth Michigan, thirty-third and eighty-fifth Indiana, were completely surrounded, and were eventually compelled to surrender. The one hundred and twenty -fourth Ohio being in the rear with the wagon train was separated from the rest, and succeeded in escaping. Desperate fighting occurred, however, before the enemy obtained their victory. The loss of the Federals was one hundred killed, three hundred wounded. The number captured by the Confederates was about twelve hundred. The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded was four hundred, of whom more than a hundred were slain. Two regiments of Indians were engaged in the battle on the side of the enemy, and the contest was unusually fierce and sanguinary. This misfortune was not due to any cowardice or carelessness on the part of Colonel Coburn ; but to the immense superiority of numbers possessed by the Confederates, and to the orders of his superior officer, General Gilbert, by which means he and his men were placed in an exposed and isolated position. Colonel Coburn conducted the battle with great skill and fortitude, and his troops fought with superior heroism and gallantry. All the artillery, the entire cavalry force, sixty of the wounded, and two hundred and fifty men, succeeded in making their escape. This engagement, though it en tailed a numerical loss upon the Union forces, did not inflict any stigma upon the valor of the Federal officers and soldiers engaged in it. EXPEDITION FROM MURFREESBORO. 457 CHAPTER XLI. MINOR MILITARY OPERATIONS DURING MARCH, 1863 EXPEDITION FROM MURFREESBORO UNDER COLONEL HALL HE ENGAGES AND DEFEATS THE REBELS AT MILTON, TENNESSEE EXPEDITION OF GENERAL PRINCE FROM NEWBERN ITS RESULTS ATTACK BY THK I OX UNION TROOPS AT DEEP GULLY THEIR REPULSE DESPERATE CAVALRY FIGHT NEAR THE RAPPAHANNOCK BETWEEN GENERALS AVERILL, STUART, AND LEE ITS RESULT THE PASSAGE OF THE FEDERAL FLEET PAST THE REBEL BATTERIES AT PORT HUDSON CO OPERATIVE MOVEMENTS OF GENERAL BANKS INCIDENTS OF THE ENGAGEMENT AT PORT HUDSON DEATH OF COMMANDER BOYD CUMMINGS HIS HEROISM LOSS OF THE STEAMER MISSISSIPPI SUCCESS OF THE HARTFORD AND ALBATROSS CONFLAGRATION OF JACKSON VILLE, FLORIDA VICTORY OF GENERAL GILMORE AT SOMERSET, KENTUCKY REPORT OP THK CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE OX TUP] CONDUCT OF THE WAR ITS PECULIARITIES AND CONTENTS ITS EXPOSITION ON THE CONDUCT OF GENERALS MCCLELLAX, PATTERSON, AND STONE IMPRESSION PRODUCED BY IT ON TIIK PUBLIC MIND END OF THK WINTER CAMPAIGN OF 18G2-3 SKIRMISHES IN CARROLL COUNTY, ARKANSAS AT TVOODBURY, TENNESSEE ABORTIVE EXPEDITION OF GENERAL SHERMAN UP THE BLACK BAYOU TN MISSISSIPPI. DURING the month of March, 1863, other minor operations occurred in different portions of the Republic which were of sufficient importance to deserve notice, although their influence on the general issue of the con test could not be very potent or decisive. On the 17th of March an expedition set forth from the Federal camp at Murfreesboro, under the command of -Colonel A. S. Hall. It consisted of the second brigade of General Reynolds division, and comprised the one hundred and fifth Ohio, eighteenth and one hundred and twenty-third Illinois, one hundred and first Indiana, a section of the nineteenth Indi ana battery, and a company of Tennessee cavalry. Its purpose was to clear the adjacent region ^of country of a number of Rebel guerrillas who then infested it, under the command of General John Morgan. The expedition proceeded in the direction of Gainesville and Lib erty ; and occasionally encountered small scouting parties of the enemy. These were dispersed without difficulty. Colonel Hall had reached Milton, on his return toward Murfreesboro, when he was suddenly at tacked by the chief object of his pursuit the twenty -five hundred men commanded by Morgan. His own force was not more than one half that number ; yet he instantly prepared to receive the advancing foe. He posted his troops on the crest of a hill, where they would have the ad vantage of a favorable position. The enemy commenced their attack by a fire of shot and shell from their battery in the centre, and by a simulta neous assault on both flanks. These were followed up by furious charges upon the Federal lines, with the evident intention of throwing them into confusion. While executing these movements they were received by the 458 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Federal artillery with sucli spirit as to compel them to recoil. This check, however, was only temporay. Colonel Hall had succeeded in forming his men in three separate lines of battle, which commanded every approach to the hill on which he had posted them. Then followed a desperate combat, consisting of repeated assaults and repulses, several hand-to-hand struggles, and an interchange of shot and shell between the artillery. One of the field pieces of the Rebels was struck and shattered to pieces. Finding his attempts upon the Federal front and flank unavail ing, Morgan then moved his forces to the rear, and charged from that direction. Here he was met and repulsed with equal heroism. In vain did he renew the assault from time to time upon the adamantine ranks of the Federals posted upon the hiN. After a bloody and furious struggle of three hours duration,, he gave up the contest, and withdrew his men. But being reinforced a very short time afterward by the arrival of a regi ment from Woodbury, he renewed the attack. The result was the same as before. So valiant was the defence made, that after another vain attempt he was compelled to withdraw his troops. He retreated rapidly to a point several miles beyond Liberty, and, his men being all mounted pursuit was useless. The Federal victors bivouacked during the ensuing night upon the battle-field, and on the next day returned to Murfreesboro. After the fight was over Colonel Minty arrived with reinforcements to Colonel Hall, which happily were not needed. The Federal loss in this action was only ten killed, thirty- five wounded ; but the loss of the enemy was much greater. It was about forty killed, a hundred and fifty wounded. This engagement and its result diminished very consider ably the terror which the name and prowess of General Morgan were accustomed at this period to create in the minds of the loyal citizens of the State of Kentucky. A short time previous to this date another expedition left Newbern, tinder the command of General Prince. The troops composing it consisted of the Spinola Legion, the Jourdan brigade, two batteries of artillery, and eight companies of cavalry. They proceeded on the first day twenty miles along the south side of the Trent river, as far as McDaniel s planta tion. There they encamped for the night. On the following day they advanced six miles further toward Trenton, for the purpose of attacking a body of Rebels who had been assembled at that point. But the latter evacuated the place on the approach of the Federals, and fled so rapidly that they could not be overtaken. After several movements in the direc tion of Young s cross roads, of Kinston and Swansboro, in search of the fugitive foe, without being able to overtake them, or bring them to a conflict, the expedition returned to Newbern. The only achievement which it had performed was to capture a number of prisoners, and to clear the country between Xewbern and Kinston, for a short time, of the pres ence and depredations of the enemy. The latter, however, soon returned CAVALRY COM IJ AT NEAR KELLYS FORD. 459 to the vicinity of the Federal camp at Newbern, and a spirited action took place between them at Deep Gully, several miles from the quarters of the twenty-fifth Massachusetts regiment, on the 13th of March. The advance of the Confederates was first made known by their driving in the Union pickets about three o clock in the afternoon. General Foster being in formed of the approach of the foe, immediately sent General Palmer to the rescue with a brigade, consisting of the fifth, twenty-fifth, and forty-third regiments of Massachusetts volunteers, together with the batteries of Riggs and Belger. Brisk skirmishing then ensued across the intervening creek until the close of the day, by which the Rebels were thus far held in check. On the following morning the fighting was renewed. It was, however, very , desultory in its nature. The enemy were for the most part concealed in dense woods, in which they were shelled with uncertain effect. At three o clock in the afternoon they retired from the combat, without having achieved any results of importance. At one stage of the action the Rebel General Daniels sent to demand the surrender of the ninety -second New York regiment. But the requisition was answered by its commanding officer, Colonel Anderson, with laughter and derision. The attack of the enemy proved a total failure. The Federal loss was one killed, four wounded ; that of the Rebels was much greater. After their discomfiture their whole force, consisting of four brigades of infantry, two regiments of cavalry, and several batteries of artillery, retired in the direction of Kinston. On the 17th of March, a combat of more than usual proportions and ferocity occurred between a large body of Rebel cavalry, commanded by Generals Stuart and Fitzhugh Lee, and an equal number of Federal horse under General Averill. It took place several miles beyond the Rappa- hannock, in the vicinity of Kelly s ford. This battle chiefly consisted of a series of desperate charges and furious hand-to-hand combats, in which both sides exhibited the utmost heroism and gallantry. Several thousand Rebel cavalry had previously made adaring raid across the river, and had invaded the territory lying between the Federal lines near Falmouth and the Warrenton road. They advanced as far as the Berea Church, then turned toward the Rappahannock, and recrossed it. As soon as in telligence of this invasion reached General Hooker, he directed General Averill to start in pursuit of the foe with about two thousand cavalry. Before he could overtake them they had made good their escape across the stream ; and when the Federal troops arrived near the crossing at Kelly s ford, a portion of the enemy was discovered posted on the opposite side of the river. They had fortified their position by a number of rifle- pits, which were occupied by dismounted cavalrymen. Notwithstanding the disadvantage and danger of crossing the river in the face of the enemy, General Averill boldly gave the order to advance. The ford was narrow, and the stream was so deep that many of the horses 460 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. were up to their girths in the water, while others were compelled to swim. During the process of fording, the enemy opened upon the Federals from a battery which they had concealed in an adjacent wood. Undaunted by this assault, the crossing was soon completed. The Federals then formed in line of battle, and charged upon the enemy occupying the rifle pits, and upon their battery. Both of these were soon silenced, the pits being evacuated and the battery removed. The Federal troops then advanced three miles beyond the river. At tnis crisis, the main body of the enemy, under Stuart and Lee, appeared in sight. They were drawn up in battle array, and were awaiting the attack of the approaching Federals. The latter accepted the challenge thus offered them, and at once charged upon the foe. A tremendous scene of confusion and slaughter ensued, which lasted several hours. While the cavalry were thus engaged, the artillery on both sides continued to play upon each other. But the infantry of the Confederates, who soon arrived at the scene of conflict, did not venture to fire upon the Union troops, in consequence of the complete intermingling of the cavalry, which made it impossible to distinguish the one side from the other. Toward the close of the combat, the ammunition of the Federals, both for their artillery and their carbines, began to be exhausted ; and a retreat became inevitable. It was accomplished, however, in excellent order; and the Confederates had been so severely handled that they did not attempt to follow or intercept them. The loss of the Federals in killed and wounded was about forty. That of the enemy was known to be equally great. The truth is, that both sides fought in this action with unusual gallantry, and deserved the plaudits of their respective commanders. It was one of the most desperate struggles, in which cavalry were almost exclusively engaged, which had occurred during the progress of the war. After crossing the river, the Federal forces returned without further casualty to their camp near Falmouth. About fifty prisoners were taken on each side during the action. A contest of much greater magnitude and interest occurred about the middle of March, at Port Hudson, a stronghold of the Confederates, situated on the banks of the great father of waters, below Yicksburg. A plan of attack had been arranged between General Banks and Admiral Farragut. The former was at that time posted at Baton Rouge with a considerable land force. It was agreed that both commanders should advance to the object of assault, and make a combined attempt by land and water to reduce it. The troops of Banks proceeded from Baton Rouge on the afternoon of Friday, March 13th. General Grover s division led the advance; then followed the divisions of Emory and Augur. They proceeded on the road without any molestation as far as Springfield. At that point they encountered about five hundred Con federate cavalry, who retired without making arty hostile demonstrations. ATTACK OX PORT HUDSON. 461 Reconnoissances were then made in the direction of Port Hudson, along the road to the Bayou Sara, and toward Boss and Springfield landings. Several skirmishes took place between detachments of hostile troops in that vicinity. One of these occurred between the one hundred and sixty- second New York and a body of Kebel cavalry who were concealed in the woods, and made a sudden attack on them. The latter were soon com pelled to fall back in confusion, with the loss of five killed and twelve wounded. Another skirmish took place between the Eebels and a com pany of the second Rhode Island cavalry, commanded by Captain Stevens, who were sent out on the Springfield road to reconnoiter the position and strength of the enemy. They reached a point where a bridge had been destroyed, and the way rendered impassable. "While wheeling around in order to return, they were assailed by a discharge of musketry from the concealed foe. Captain Stevens was wounded and taken prisoner. Three or four privates were afterward missing. The move ments of the troops under General Banks being intended merely as a diversion, to attract the attention of the enemy while the fleet of Admiral Farragut was passing or assailing the works at Port Hudson, General Banks ordered his men to return to Baton Rouge on the 16th. He presumed that, by that time, the purpose of the admiral had been success fully accomplished, and inferred that his services would no longer be needed in connection with that particular enterprise. It was at nine o clock at night of Saturday, the 14th of March, that Admiral Farragut signaled to his fleet to commence their advance. They were then at anchor at the upper end of Prophet s island, five miles below Port Hudson. The moon and stars shone brightly in the heavens. The formidable batteries of Port Hudson were visible in the distance. The principal vessels of the fleet were the flag-ship Hartford, Monon- gahela, Richmond, Kineo, Mississippi, Essex, Albatross, and Switzerland. These were accompanied by six mortar boats. As this fleet approached Port Hudson, five Rebel gunboats were seen nearing the batteries from above, from which a body of troops were landed to strengthen the defenders of the fortifications. At half-past one o clock, at a signal from the sloop of war Hartford, the mortar boats commenced to fire upon the Rebel batteries, for the purpose of ascertaining the range of their guns. It was discovered that they were too distant to injure the works of the enemy. At this period, signal lights were seen flashing along the in- trenchments, which were answered by Rebel forces stationed on the opposite shore, and by the gunboats of the Confederates on the river above. It was now evident that the foe was on the alert, and prepared to give the Federal fleet a fierce and desperate resistance. As the Federals slowly approached the immense works of the Con federates, the latter employed a novel stratagem, which essentially aided their purposes. They kindled au immense bonfire immediately in front 462 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of the most formidable of their fortifications, the glaring light of which, was refracted from the walls across the stream, in such a manner as to expose each vessel clearly to view as it passed. It was this expedient more than any other which enabled the Rebel engineers to direct their shot and shell with such destructive accuracy upon the Union vessels. And now the majestic Hartford, leading the van of the doomed fleet, came gallantly within range. The batteries of the enemy extended over a space of nearly four miles, with an occasional interval between them. They were placed on the high bluffs, and seemed to consist of three distinct and successive ranges of guns. At this point the river bends toward the west, in a curve resembling the shape of a horse-shoe. It is in the centre of this hollow that the village of Port Hudson was situated. The most powerful batteries of the enemy, the central ones, were located in this vicinity. Here four enormous guns were mounted in casemates. The rest of the Rebel artillery were either placed en barbette, or peered menacingly through open embrasures. Such was the terrible gauntlet through which the Union vessels were compelled to pass. As the Hartford came within range, the batteries of the enemy opened upon her. Her guns responded promptly and vigorously. Then came the Richmond, to be followed in quick succession by the Essex, the Monongahela, and the rest. Ere long the mortar boats added their thundering salutes to the already far resounding chorus of the artillery, both on land and afloat. The reverberation of the guns became constant and uninterrupted. The intervening space between the long line of vessels and the land batteries was filled with a heavy volume of smoke, through whose dark curtains the lurid flashes of the guns were continually visible. As the vessels advanced, a new difficulty arose. The dark ness became so complete that it was almost impossible to steer with safety. The tortuous nature of the river at this point increased the danger, and a double peril existed, that the vessels might either be run ashore, or be driven against each other. And now all the vessels had passed the lower batteries of the enemy, and as they proceeded up the stream, the spectacle became one of appalling and majestic splendor. Along the whole line occupied by the Federal vessels a continuous deluge of fiery and destructive hail ladened the air. The midnight heavens were filled with the ascending, descending, and exploding shells, which were passing both ways. Even the howitzers in the tops were continuously discharged. The earth and water shook with the tremendous and rapid concussions. As the fleet approached the central battery, which stood upon a lofty bluff, the cannonading became still more terrific and destructive. At that point the enemy had a decided advantage, for it v^as impossible to elevate the guns on the vessels to the necessary height. Then the batteries of the Rebels, placed on the two horns of the crescent, poured down a fearful cross-fire, to which the vessels could DEATH OF COMMANDER BOYD CUMMINGS. 463 make no return, except a feeble one from their bow and stern chasers. At this point, also, the stream was narrow, and sometimes not more than twenty or thirty yards intervened between the muzzles of the guns of the hostile armaments. It was here that, as the Mississippi was passing the fearful assault to which she was subjected, she grounded. Every effort made by her commander, Melancthon Smith, to remove her proved unavailing; and it soon became evident that the only alternative was to abandon and destroy her, to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy. This was eventually accomplished, and the officers and crew saved. About the same time the executive officer of the Richmond, Lieutenant-Commander Boyd Cummings, was mortally wounded. He was standing on the bridge which connected the starboard with the port gangway, with his speaking-trumpet in his hand, bravely cheering on his men. A conical shot of immense size, after passing through the ham mocks over the starboard gangway, struck him, took off his left leg below the knee, knocked over an adjacent officer with the windage, and then passed through the smoke-stack. The wounded commander was instantly carried below, the blood pouring in torrents from his wound ; and as he descended to undergo a surgical operation, from which he was destined never to recover, he exclaimed aloud to his men : "Get the ship by, boys, and they may have my other leg." While the stunning roar of the conflict resounded around him, he submitted, with the lurid light of battle glaring on his countenance, to the operation, and soon afterward expired. In the far future ages, when the events of this tremendous war shall have become familiar household incidents to millions of freemen yet unborn, the heroism of this dying soldier and patriot will commend him to their reverence and admiration ; and he will be classed with such men as Wolfe, who, when expiring in the hour of victory, exclaimed, " I die happy ;" and with Lawrence, who, amid the death agony, commanded his men never to give up the ship. Vain, however, was the matchless fortitude of Cummings and his as sociates. It soon became evident that an attempt to pass the remainder of the Rebel batteries would entail certain destuction on many of the? vessels. Of the whole fleet, the Hartford and Albatross alone succeeded in effecting their purpose. At length the commanders of the remaining vessels gave orders to their helmsmen to turn their prows ; they steamed quickly down the stream and reached a point of safety on the west side of Prophet s island. There they anchored am.id peaceful scenes, which furnished a singular contrast to the horrible havoc and bloody slaughter from which they had just escaped, for the fragrant blossoms and verdant leaves of the adjacent luxurious forest bent gracefully over the sides of the vessels, and filled the air of night with their sweet perfumes, while their boughs and limbs yielded gracefully to the gentle pressure of the whispering winds. 464 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. During this action, most of the Federal vessels had been more or less injured. The Genessee was severely damaged. The rigging of the Kineo was badly cut, and her rudder-post shot away. Other casualties occurred. On board the Mississippi twenty-two men were killed, and more were wounded. On the Monongahela seven were killed, twenty -one wounded. The entire Federal loss was about forty killed, ninety wounded, forty missing. The battle had continued from half-past nine o clock at night, until one o clock in the morning. The number of Confederate troops who were present were estimated at twenty thousand. After the engagement, Admiral Farragut proceeded with the Hartford and the Albatross five miles above Port Hudson, in a safe position beyond the guns of the enemy, on either side of the river. The chief victim of this disaster, for a disaster it undoubtedly deserves to be termed, was Lieutenant-Com mander Cummings. He was a native of Philadelphia, and entered the United States Navy in April, 1847. He was engaged in active service from that period until his death. He was a brave and talented officer, whose brief career of glory deserves to be enshrined in the grateful memo ries of his countrymen. On the 28th of March, one of those few instances occurred, which tar nished the glory of the Union arms during this war, in which brutal violence was permitted to outrage every sentiment of justice and humanity. On that day, the beautiful town of Jacksonville, in Florida, was nearly destroyed by fire. The conflagration was the work of a number of Fed eral soldiers, who belonged to the force who had occupied the town for some time previous. That force being ordered to a different point, before they took their departure the incendiary torch was applied simultaneously in a variety of places. The chief perpetrators of the deed were members of the eighth Maine, and the sixth Connecticut regiments. Among the ruined edifices, were several churches and other useful public buildings. The conflagration, like that of Pensacola and Hampton, was an act of the most infamous and heartless vandalism, which reflected disgrace upon those who pepetrated and permitted it, upon the cause which they so un worthily represented, upon the age and country in which they lived. On the 30th of March, a desperate contest took place near Somerset, Kentucky, in which a body of Federal troops, under General Gillmore, attacked a number of Rebels commanded by General Pegram, chiefly cavalry. The former were about twelve hundred strong, the latter twenty- five hundred. The action commenced at Button Hill, ten miles distant from Somerset. The Rebels took a strong position, and planted their guns so judiciously that, as the Federals approached, they were able to give them a bloody reception. The Federal artillery responded to those of the enemy, and three of the latter were disabled, after an action of an hour and a-half. A general charge upon the foe was then ordered. Wool- ford on the right wing, Rundle on the left, Garrard in the centre, advanced COMMITTEE * ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR. 465 upon the enemy. After a desperate collision the Rebels broke and fled. They took the road toward Somerset, and were pursued. They dashed through that town in the utmost disorder, with the Federals at their heels. Three miles south of Somerset, they attempted to make a stand, but were again compelled to give way. But at this stage of the action the approach of night terminated it, and the pursuit was not continued. The loss of the Confederates was considerable, being about three hundred in killed, wounded, and prisoners. They also lost two stand of colors, and four hundred cattle which they had collected. The Federal loss was thirty - eight killed and wounded. During the night which followed the battle, the enemy succeeded in crossing the Cumberland river in several places, but the purpose of their invasion of this portion of Kentucky was com pletely baffled and defeated. Their only achievement was the burning of the bridges over Dick s river at Bryantsville and Lancaster, and the plundering of many private residences of articles of dress and ornament. While the attention of the loyal community in the United States was occupied but not wholly absorbed by the occurrence of minor events of this description, a development of a more pacific character was made, which, for a brief period, superseded every other topic in their minds. This event was the publication of the report of the Congressional Com mittee on the Conduct of the War. In December, 1861, a joint committee, consisting of three members of the Senate and four members of the House, had been appointed by Congress, with instructions to inquire into the manner in which the war had been conducted. They proceeded to the investigation of the subject committed to them, and in the first week of April, 1863, their first report was rendered. It was signed by B. F. Wade and Z. C. Chandler, on the part of the Senate ; by D. W. Gooch, J. Covode, G. W. Julian, and M. F. Odell, on the part of the House. It exhibited evidences of extensive research, of impartial investigation, and of a desire to promote the interests of the Union by the exposure of the blunders which had already entailed so many disasters upon the country. A prominent peculiarity which characterized this report, was the fact that it dealt exclusively in events and incidents, and did not undertake to express private opinions, or to draw authoritative conclusions in reference to them. The latter duty the committee transferred entirely to the reader. It threw upon him the whole responsibility of maturing a judgment in regard to the persons to whom the censure was due, for the errors which had been committed, and the calamities which had been thereby entailed. The impression produced upon the public mind by this report was profound. A large portion of it was devoted to the operations of the army of the Potomac under General McClellan. It presented many novel facts in regard to the conduct and movements of that officer from the period of his arrival at Washington in August, 1861 ; also concerning the condition of the defences of the Federal capital at that period, the blockade 30 466 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of the Potomac by the Kebels which ensued, and which was not raised, the long and mysterious delay of McClellan at Washington during eight months, the final advance of the army by the express order of the Presi dent, to take effect on the 22d of February, 1862, the circuitous route that was taken through the Peninsula toward Richmond, instead of the direct road thither, and the protracted and unnecessary delay of the com- mander-in-chief at Yorktown. The report set forth further, how, when the enemy had made all their arrangements to defend Eichmond, they quietly evacuated Yorktown on the very day before that on which McClellan had proposed to attack them ; how the battle of Williamsburg was gained through the gallantry of Hooker, while McClellan remained in the rear; how a procrastinating and over-cautious spirit had charac terized the conduct of the commander-in-chief during the whole of the peninsular campaign ; how, after the pernicious delay of nearly a month in the trenches before Richmond, by which an immense number of his troops perished through disease and exposure, the enemy, having had ample time to complete all their preparations, and to concentrate all their available forces, came forth and attacked the Federal troops ; how those troops fought for mere existence with dauntless heroism and desperation, and finally reached Harrison s Landing in the most pitiable plight ; how the fatigue and exhaustion of the troops were so great that during more than a day and a night after the arrival of the army at the landing, no preparations for defence were made, and the troops lay exposed to certain ruin or capture if the Eebels had been in condition to venture upon another attack during that interval. It cannot be denied that this report astonished and incensed a majority of the loyal community to an intense degree, and that feeling was destined to continue in full force, as long as no reply to it was issued by General McClellan or by his friends, as long as no explanation was given, no coun- terfacts produced to illumine the mystery of the querulousness, hesitation, and inefficiency which seemed to envelope the whole career of that officer after assuming the ccmmand of the army of the Potomac. The conclusion at which the greater portion of the public in the loyal States arrived, after reading this report, was, that McClellan s army numbered, from first to last, a hundred and eighty-five thousand men; that his forces were as fit for use on the 1st of November, 1861, as they were on the 1st of March, 1862, when they moved toward Manassas after Manassas had been evacuated by the enemy ; that the blockade of the Potomac might have been raised at any time during the winter of 1861-2, by four thousand troops ; that the plan of the peninsular campaign was McClellan s own device ; that his arrangements had not been interfered with by the administration in any important respect ; that when McClellan arrived at Yorktown with more than one hundred thousand effective men, the enemy had only twenty thousand to oppose him at that point; that the place could have COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR. 407 been carried at once by an assault with perfect ease ; that McClellan might have captured Richmond at three different times the first, by ad vancing immediately after the battle of Williamsburg, the second, after the battle of Seven Pines, the third, after the battle of Malvern Hill ; that the retreat of the army from Kichmond to Harrison s bar was unnecessary and premature ; that all the reinforcements had been sent to McClellan during the time that he was in the peninsula, which could possibly be spared ; and that even some troops were sent to him which were really indispensable to the safety of Washington. In addition to all these points, the report alleged that when General McClellan received positive orders to withdraw his army from Harrison s Landing, he delayed eleven days before he executed it, by which delay the army of Virginia and the Federal capital were both placed in imminent peril; that the battle of Antietam was unsatisfactory and indecisive in its results ; and that the destruction or capture of the army of Lee would have been certain if the conflict had been renewed on the next day, and if the large body of troops had been brought into action who had remained idle spectators of it ; and finally, that McClellan s mysterious inactivity from the 17th of September to the 26th of October, was extremely pernicious to the cause of h the Union, and greatly promoted the interests of the Rebellion.* This interesting report also presented many facts in relation to the three months campaign of General Patterson in Virginia, which seemed to demonstrate that to his failure in intercepting the march of Johnston to Manassas, was to be attributed the defeat of the Federal forces under General McDowell at Bull Run. The report also set forth the facts in reference to the disaster of the Federal troops at Ball s Bluff, which left the impression that that misfortune was attributable to the neglect and in competence of General Stone, the commanding officer. Other matters of minor importance, including the battle of Fredericksburg, were discussed in this document, and the effect produced by its revelations was to con vince a large proportion of the community that unless its statements could be rebutted by evidence of an explanatory and mitigating character by those parties whose acts were scrutinized in it, the general belief would be that they had been guilty of incompetence, cowardice, and of a line of * This portion of the report of the committee developed an amusing illustration of the playful satire sometimes indulged in by the President, when his patience was exhausted. It was as follows: "On the 25th of October, General McClellan trans mits to General Halleck, a report from Colonel Robert "Williams, commanding a de tachment of cavalry, in which it is stated that nearly half his horses are unsound from sore tongue, grease, and consequent lameness, and sore backs ; and that the horses which are still sound, are broken down from fatigue and want of flesh. To this the President replies on the same day : I have just read your despatch about sore tongue and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done, since the battle of Antietam, that could fatigue any thing ! " Report of Congressional Committee, p. 23. 468 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. policy which had proved pernicious to the interests of the Union. At the same time the friends and partisans of the generals in question, confidently anticipated that they would be able to set forth such facts in defence of their conduct as would demonstrate their loyalty, their ability and their innocence of the charges preferred against them. The summer campaign of 1863 was now rapidly approaching, during the progress of which the most important and decisive engagements were anticipated. Various indications clearly proved that the Confederate leaders, both civil and military, looked forward to the struggles of this campaign as more desperate and bloody than any which had yet occurred during the war ; and that they were determined, with dauntless resolution and unconquerable patience, to exhaust every possible resource within their reach in order to resist and to vanquish the forces of the Union. Previous, however, to the termination of the winter campaign of 1862-3, the events of which we have been describing, several minor incidents occurred which here require a brief allusion. On the 1st of April, a small detachment of the troops connected with the command of General Curtis, in the Department of the Southwest, consisting of two companies of the first Arkansas cavalry, made an in cursion into Carroll county, in the northwestern portion of Arkansas. During this raid they had four skirmishes with the enemy. The result was that they killed twenty-two of the latter and took seven prisoners. Their own loss was insignificant, only one being wounded. On the 2d of April, eight regiments of the army of General Kosecrans marched toward Woodbury, the capital of Cannon county, Tennessee, twenty miles from Murfreesboro, for the purpose of surprising and capturing a brigade of Confederate troops which were posted at that point. The Federals were commanded by Generals Craft and Hazen. The latter made a detour of fifteen miles, with the intention of attacking the enemy on the flank and rear, while the rest of the troops assailed them in front. During the night, however, the pickets of the enemy had been extended in such a way that the cavalry advance of the Federals encountered them unex pectedly before Hazen was able to reach his destination. The result was that the Kebels received notice of their peril, and succeeded in making their escape. A running fight ensued, over the space of three miles, during which twelve of the enemy were slain and thirty captured. They left their camp equipage in the hands of the Federals, together with fifty horses and twenty mules. Contemporary with these skirmishes was the abortive attempt made to proceed through the Black Bayou, in Mississippi, toward the rear of Vicksburg. The expedition consisted of six gunboats from Kear- Admiral Porter s squadron, and two thousand troops from Grant s army, com manded by General W. T. Sherman. This bayou runs for fifty miles chiefly through dense forests, and is composed of a number of tortuous ABORTIVE EXPEDITION UP THE BLACK BAYOU. 469 streams, whose navigation is extremely difficult. It was supposed that the Federal gunboats would move noiselessly and without observation through the woods, and suddenly take a position near the works of the enemy, to their great astonishment and dismay. The event, however, proved to be entirely different. The Confederates had guarded this avenue of access with their usual skill and vigilance. As the expedition slowly advanced, the adjacent woods were found to be swarming with Rebel riflemen the banks of the stream to be lined in many places with batteries defended by bales of cotton, and that immense numbers of negroes were engaged in felling the trees to obstruct the passage. The bed of the bayou was found to have been already made impassable in many places ; and so difficult was the progress of the expedition that ten days were occupied in advancing fifty miles. When at length the admiral found it impossible to proceed further, and resolved to return, he dis covered that the enemy had been actively engaged in rendering that enterprise -more difficult than his advance had been. After a forced march, one of the most extraordinary on record, some desperate fighting, and much hard work, General Sherman succeeded in releasing the gun boats from their perilous situation, and they returned to their former position on the Mississippi. 4TO THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XLIL PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS RISE OF THE ANTI-WAR DEMOCRATS, OR THE PEACE PARTY ITS AVOWED OPINIONS AND OPPOSITION TO THE NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION SUSPENSE OF THE WRIT OP HABEAS CORPUS THE COURSE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN SUSTAINED BY CON GRESS AND THE LOYAL PORTION OF THE NATION AS CONSTITUTIONAL, WISE, AND PATRIOTIC PRECEDENT OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT FACTIOUS OPPOSITION OF THE PEACE PARTY TO THE CONSCRIPTION ACT AND TO THE PROSECUTION OF THE WAR THEIR PROFFERKD FRIENDSHIP SPURNED EVEN BY THE CONFEDERATES THEMSELVES THEIR ALLEGED BUT GROUNDLESS FEARS OF DESIGNED CENTRALIZATION BY THE NATIONAL ADMINISTRATION THEIR HOSTILITY TO THE PRESIDENT S EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION THE EXISTENCE OF NEGRO SLAVERY AND DETERMINATION TO PERPETUATE IT THE SOURCE OF OUR GREATEST NATIONAL DIFFICULTIES, AND THE ULTIMATE CAUSE OF THE PRESENT REBELLION THE JUDICIOUS, GRADUAL, AND PROGRESSIVE COURSE OF THE GOVERNMENT ON THIS SUBJECT VINDICATED OBJECTIONS OF THE PEACE PARTY TO THE FINANCIAL MEASURES OF THB GOVERNMENT THEIR VINDICTIVE BUT FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO DETRACT FROM THE PERSONAL CHARACTER OF THE PRESIDENT. EVERY civil war, like that between the loyal and disloyal States of the Union, will inevitably be rich in developments both of national and indi vidual character. New parties will arise, new systems of political doctrine will be affirmed, which derive their birth from the novel combination of events which take place during such a contest. Perhaps the most remarkable of these developments which, occurred during the progress of this war was the sudden rise of a faction in the free States, to whom the epithet of Anti-War or Peace Democrats was not inappropriately applied. When the Rebellion commenced, the sentiment of the whole community who lived beyond its limits seemed to be unanimous in its condemnation, and harmonious in favor of the prosecution of a vigorous war against it by the forces of the Federal Government, until it should be completely crushed. After the expiration of a year, a few dissenting voices began to be heard ; and at the period whose events we have just described, these malcontents had become much, more numerous, had taken external organization and consistency, had become bold and fearless in their de nunciation of the measures of the Federal Government, and had acquired an importance in connection with the war which renders it proper that they should now be made the subject of our special scrutiny. The opinions and measures advocated by this party were regarded by the majority of the community with great distrust, even with undisguised censure. Many opprobrious epithets were applied to them.* By some they were compared to the Tories and Koyalists of the Eevolutionary era. * One of these, and perhaps the most common, was the significant term " Copper- head." PEACE DEMOCRATS ON THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 471 This comparison, however, was incorrect in one important respect. The motives which gave rise to the two factions were evidently dissimilar and incongruous. The Tory was induced to oppose the patriot cause during the Revolution chiefly from cowardice and fear. He was afraid of the penalties of confiscation and death by the British tyrant. But it cannot be affirmed that the peace Democrats of the period now under considera tion were actuated by an apprehension of punishment in any case from the power and vengeance of the Confederate Government. Whatever may have been their motives, they were free from the craven meanness, the pusillanimous baseness, which disgraced those who opposed the cause of liberty in the memorable period which tried men s souls. Let us proceed to describe the principal opinions affirmed and measures advocated by this party, which, by its numbers, its boldness, and its ability, had already made itself historical. First, they condemned with intense fervor the indemnity bill, which was passed by the Federal Congress during the session of 1862-3, the purpose of which was to throw the broad shield of the protection of the whole Federal Government over those acts which had been performed by the sole authority of the Executive. The title of this bill was " An act relating to the habeas corpus, and regulating judicial proceedings in certain cases." The peace Democrats affirmed that the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus at an early stage of the Rebellion by the President was an unconstitutional measure ; that it was wholly illegal ; and that no subsequent legislation could justify it, or render it valid. It was objected that the effect of this indemnity bill was to delegate to one branch of the Government, namely, the executive, functions which legitimately belonged only to the legislative, which would be an express violation of the estab lished principles maintained by the judicial branch of the Federal Govern- ment.* The answer to this allegation is, that it is an established principle of the Federal Constitution, that Congress may grant to the executive or the judicial branch of the Government administrative functions; and that the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and the arrest and conviction of offenders are functions which are clearly administrative. The truth is, that the act of President Lincoln in suspending this writ at a moment of fearful peril to the country, was clearly justifiable under an express provision of the Federal Constitution, which declared: "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."f Now this section does not specify which branch of the Federal Government shall exercise this power of suspending the writ. It seems to have been vested in each of the three * See address of G. M. Wharton, before the Democratic Central Club of Phila delphia, April 18, 1863. t Constitution of the United States, Art. I. Sec. ix. 2. 472 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. branches. But Congress manifestly cannot suspend the writ when it is not in session. Nor can the Supreme Court when it is not sitting. Hence, if a crisis should suddenly arise, when the safety and the life of the nation required that the writ should be instantly suspended, and the arrest and punishment of traitors be effected immediately, and if Congress be not then in session, or if the Supreme Court be not sitting, who shall or can exercise this high and solemn prerogative, under such circum stances, except the Chief Executive ? Hence, when this indemnity bill declared in its first section that the President shall have the power, during the existence of the Rebellion, to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus throughout the United States, whenever, in his judgment, the public safety may require it, it simply reaffirmed an acknowledged principle of the Constitution, and at the same time announced the conviction of the legislative branch of the Govern ment that the previous exercise of that prerogative by the President was, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, lawful, constitutional, and commendable. It was thus intended to protect him from any unjust cen sure or penalty which the rage of triumphant faction in after time might attempt to inflict upon him. As to the abstract justice and propriety of the conduct, both of the Pres ident and of Congress, in relation to this matter, there could be no doubt in any impartial mind. It is well known as one of the settled principles of all civilized communities that when the situation of a State is so critical that the ordinary powers of law and government are insufficient to protect the life of the nation, the emergency justifies the use of. extraordinary and more desperate measures. Thus the ancient Romans were accustomed in such a crisis to invest their consuls with dictatorial power, with the stern injunction : " Let the consuls see to it that the Republic receive no injury."* The expedient saved the mistress of the world more than once from im pending ruin. It is worthy here of remark that despotic governments never need any indemnity bills, for in them there are no restraints on arbitrary power, and if the monarch perpetrate acts of the most unjustifiable tyranny there is no arm which can punish him. What would be the advantage of suspending a writ of habeas corpus in France under the tyranny of Louis XIV., when a leltre de cachet or secret warrant, obtained by a parasite of the court through favor, could immure its victim in the Bastite for years, without any power existing in any of the judicial tribunals to investigate the merits of the case, or to cite the parties before them for a hearing. In free governments and in limited monarchies the writ of habeas corpus has often been suspended under much less urgent circumstances than those under which it was suspended by President Lincoln. In England this has been repeatedly done in cases where the public safety required that * Videant consulis ne quid Respublica detrimenti capiat. PEACE DEMOCRATS ON THE CONSCRIPTION BILL. 473 suspected persons should be arrested without following the regular pro cesses of law. Thus, in January, 1817, when the Prince Regent, after ward George IV., was returning from Parliament to his palace, he was hooted and insulted by an indignant multitude. Parliament immediately suspended the habeas corpus act, in order to take possession of the offenders, and punish them with signal vengeance. And in the next year Parlia ment passed an indemnity bill to protect all parties who had apprehended and prosecuted persons under the late suspension act.* We cite this case particularly, inasmuch as it so nearly resembles the one under considera tion, with this difference, however, that the urgency and peril in the case of President Lincoln were infinitely greater than they were in that of the besotted and perfidious monarch of England. It is also to be observed that those who condemned the indemnity bill were great advocates for pre cedent and authority. The legalizing the suspension of the writ of habeas corpiis was the prin cipal ingredient of this indemnity bill. Its other provisions were merely those which were necessary to give its operative force celerity and cer tainty. It is unnecessary to dwell upon these. Enough has been said to indicate the real nature of this important act of Congress, and to prove the fallacy of that political creed which condemned the bill as unconstitu tional, and pernicious to the liberties of the nation. The second cardinal feature which characterized the peace Democrats of this period was their condemnation of the conscription bill, which had been passed by the recent Federal Congress. This law was entitled " An act for enrolling and calling out the national forces." Its purpose was to operate more efficiently in procuring troops than could be done by the already existing militia laws, to be less expensive to the Treasury, and less burdensome to the great mass of the people. The objection urged against it by the peace party was that it made a distinction between the rich and the poor, because it designated the sum of three hundred dollars as the price of a substitute. They affirmed that while all the rich could pay that amount, the poor would be unable to do so, and would thus be compelled to serve if drawn. Nothing, however, could be more unfair than this statement, because in reality this conscription act was an immense improvement on all the exist ing militia laws of the several States, which it was intended to supersede. Those laws exempted from service a large proportion of the community, including members of Congress, custom-house officers and clerks, post masters and their clerks, professors and students of colleges, clergymen, judges, and many other officials. On the contrary, the conscription act put an end to this absurd and unjust immunity. It made all classes and persons liable to serve, with very few exceptions. Those exceptions were *See the British General Register for 1827, pp. 80, 81. 474 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of the most commendable kind. They were the only sons of widows, who were dependent upon them for support, the only sons of aged and infirm parents dependent on them for support, the only brother of children not twelve years old, without father or mother, and dependent on such brother for support, and several similar exceptions. These were all dictated by pure benevolence and wise policy. But the objection that this act favored the rich was equally absurd. And for this reason : it provided that if a drafted person could procure a suitable substitute, at any price, however low, within a definite time, that substitute would be accepted in his place. It also allowed the Secretary of War the right to demand a less sum than three hundred dollars in lieu of service, .if in his discretion he deemed it just. The law simply forbade him to demand more than three hundred dollars ; it permitted him to ex ercise his discretion in accepting less. r The equitable operation of this regulation is self-evident, for it is clear that he would require the whole amount from the rich, while from the poor alone would he be willing to accept a less sum. The effect of the law would evidently be to prevent the price of substitutes from ascending to many hundred dollars, as would inevitably have become the result under any other arrangement. If any drafted man could obtain a substitute for a less sum than even that de manded by the Secretary of War, he was at liberty to do so. Such were the chief features of this conscription act. Nothing could be more humane, more equitable, more beneficial in its operation, and it was in vain that the peace party brought to bear upon it their objections and invectives. It commended itself to every loyal and impartial mind in the nation. The third ^leading feature of the party under consideration was, the advocacy of the immediate cessation of hostilities by the Federal Govern ment, the settlement of the dispute by negotiation, and the restoration of the Union as it existed before the war. It seems singular that the difficulties and impossibilities involved in this plan should have escaped the notice of any intelligent observer. In the first place, if the Federal Government should consent to such an arrangement, it would involve a direct admission of the injustice and iniquity of all its preceding acts. It would be a confession that the war, on its side, had been ab initio a cruel and execrable outrage. It would be an acknowledgment that thousands of lives had been destroyed, that hundreds of millions of treasure bad been wasted, that the peace and security of all the seceding States had been invaded by the Federal Government, under a false and delusive pretext, without any show of justice, humanity, or equitable obligation. Even if the war for the Union had been unjustifiable, no government would ever so far criminate and stultify itself as to make such an admission as this. But the truth was, that this war on behalf of the Union was one of the most necessary unavoidable, and righteous which was ever waged by any PEACE DEMOCRATS ON THE CESSATION OF THE WAR. 475 legitimate and beneficent government against rebels, traitors, and out laws. How absurd and unfeasible then must the proposition of the peace party seem in this view of the case to every impartial mind I Other difficulties equally great were in the way. Ample proof existed at this very period that the Confederates themselves would refuse all propositions of peace, from any quarter, which did not involve the full recognition of their new government, and the permanent dissolution of the Union. Such was the universal sentiment uttered and reiterated by their leading journals, by the members of their Congress, by their most important officials, by their most influential citizens. That all these were wearied of the war was already admitted; but with this admission was uniformly connected the firm and resolute determination, the firm and fixed resolve, never to return to the Federal Union, never again to coalesce with the detested invaders of their soil, never to cease hostilities until they had "conquered their independence." They even ridiculed the propositions of the peace party themselves in the North, and assured them of the utter hopelessness and futility of their plans and purposes. But even if the Confederates would have consented to negotiate for peace on the basis of the restoration of the Union, insurmountable diffi culties would arise during the consequent deliberations, which would render an adjustment of the dispute utterly impossible. Thus, what arrangement could be made in reference to the war-debts incurred by the two Governments? It is evident that the loyal citizens of the Union would never consent to pay a dollar of the debts incurred by the Confed erates through their execrable resistance to the lawful Government. It is just as evident that the Kebels would demand reparation for their losses, and full indemnification for their expenses, which they would allege had been inflicted upon them by the unjustifiable coercive measures adopted and executed by the Federal Government. It is also clear that the loyal people of the country would demand that the Rebels should not only pay their own war-debts, but that they should be compelled to repay the Fed eral Government the amount of indebtedness which it had been compelled to incur in the prosecution of its efforts to restore the Union. No peace able negotiation could ever settle such litigated questions amicably. Here was a Gordian knot which nothing but the sword, and that the sword of an Alexander, could cut. Other topics would present difficulties as insurmountable as these. What disposition would be made of the leaders of the Rebellion ? The Confed erates would unquestionably demand that Jefferson Davis, his chief ad visers and associates, should be held harmless ; nay, that they should be honored; probably, that they should receive high dignities in the restored Union. On the other hand, every loyal citizen in the land would clamor for the condign punishment of those arch traitors; would insist that they should suffer a traitor s doom, and end their career on the scaffold. It 4T6 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. would be impossible for a harmonious arrangement to be made in refer ence to these topics. Any national convention which might be convened for the avowed object of adjusting the terms of a re-union, would wrangle for years on these vexed questions without being able to accomplish their purpose. Nor would the difficulties be less, even if the war was at that time to be suspended, for the purpose of effecting the end which some of the peace party desired the quiet dissolution of the Union, and the recog nition of the Confederate Government by the Federal. For in that case the demands of the Rebels would be such as could not possibly be con ceded. It is evident that they would insist upon the restoration of all the territory which had once formed part of the Confederate States, and which had been conquered by the arms or the influence of the Union. They would demand Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Western Virginia, and every other region which had at any time been in sympathy with them. They would also demand the restitution of all the fugitive slaves who had escaped. "What loyal citizen would agree to make such concessions as these ? Who would agree to abandon all the fruits of victory ? Very few, probably none, would be found to do it, and an amicable settlement of the issue would be impossible. Peace could be obtained, and the dis pute could only be settled, throagh the resistless supremacy of the arms of the one or the other of the contending parties. Such are some of the difficulties which would attend the proposal of the peace party, that the contest should be terminated by a cessation of arms, and by subsequent negotiation. It involved impossibilities at that time which no human power could overcome. A fourth peculiarity of this peace party was, that they condemned the measures of the Federal Government, because their tendency seemed to be to concentrate too much power in the Federal Central Government, to the damage and derogation of the several State governments. We admit the truth of the allegation to some extent, but deny the justice of the complaint based upon it. Under the perilous circumstances in which the administration of Mr. Lincoln was placed, with a vast empire reeling around him, and toppling to its destruction, it became indispensably necessary to adopt a centralizing policy, to make the Federal arm as pow erful as possible, to give it unity, harmony, and vigor of action, to remove the possibility of discord and division among the conservators and de fenders of the Union. But in so doing, not a single right of the States was invaded. The Federal Constitution was not violated in a single par ticular. These measures strengthened the Federal Government without weakening the State governments. There was no clashing of jurisdiction ; and the evidence which demonstrates the truth of this assertion is the fact that, during the subsequent operation of the measures adopted by the administration of Mr. Lincoln, no collision of any importance whatever PEACE DEMOCRATS ON THE RIGHTS OF THE STATES. 477 actually occurred between the State and Federal jurisdictions. And this result followed in spite of the strenuous efforts of some to create such collisions. One of the causes of the terror which seemed to pervade the minds of the party in question, was a very absurd and groundless fear lest the absorption of power at Washington indicated " a settled, well-considered, most pestilent design to establish in the fragmentary North a consolidated nationality, operating by its legislation directly on individuals, without regard to State relations and duties."* A more preposterous conception could not be formed. Its fallacy lies on its face. It amounted to this, that the General Government, by using every legitimate means to increase its own power, and by crushing the Rebellion, to cement the whole Union more effectually than ever before into one restored and consolidated government, was preparing the way to establish a " fragmentary" govern ment in the North ! This is a direct contradiction, a palpable impossi bility. If the Federal Government succeeded in the end in crushing the Confederates, and restoring the Union by force of arms, it certainly would not contract its own proportions to the limits of a fragment. If it failed eventually in restoring the Union, by the subjugation of the Rebels, there would still remain a Federal Union, composed of many powerful and prosperous communities, which would constitute one of the foremost empires in the world. In that case there would be neither the temptation nor the power to establish any fragmentary government anywhere in the North, the centre, or the West. Those who seemed to be so jealous of the rights of the States, seemed to imagine that it was a much greater glory to be a citizen of a State, than a citizen of the United States. They appeared to regard Delaware or Rhode Island as equal in majesty and power to the whole colossal Union, of which they formed necessarily an unimportant portion. They forgot that each State by itself is comparatively insignificant; that it is only when they are consolidated into one compact, cemented, harmonious unit, that they rise in majesty, become powerful and formidable, and extort the admiration and respect of the whole community of nations. These people complained that the State governments existed before the Federal Government, and therefore were invested with a sacred and unap proachable sanctity. True, they did exist first in the order of time, but, if they had never existed in any other form than as State governments, and not as components and equal parts of a Federal Union, what would their condition have continued to be ? Would they have attained the power, prosperity, felicity and grandeur which they have enjoyed as members of the great Federal Republic of the Western World ? The supposition is extremely improbable and absurd. * Speech of Hon. William B. Reed, before the Democratic Central Club of Phila- delphia, March 28th, 1865. 478 THE CIVIL AVAR IN THE UNITED STATES. The next feature of the peace party which deserves notice, was their condemnation of the emancipation proclamation of Mr. Lincoln, as well as the introduction of negroes into the military service of the United States, that they might assist in the restoration of the Union. The subject of slavery forms the most singular and anomalous feature on the page of American history. No question within the whole range of Federal or State legislation has ever been the cause of so many malig nant disputes between opposite portions of the Union ; and none had been equally potent in producing this Rebellion. It was like Pandora s box, pregnant with unnumbered ills to the nation. It had continually embar rassed the Federal Government, embroiled the several States, filled Con gress with pernicious and unseemly controversies, and proved itself more difficult of solution than any other enigma connected with American affairs. Even when there were giants in the land, and the Federal halls of legislation were graced by the presence of the greatest of American statesmen, it was constantly a formidable portent of disunion. As often as this hideous spectre would rise, as it continually did, upon the floor of Congress, it was in vain that the wisest and purest of patriots conjured against it. In vain were the mellifluous and soothing eloquence of Clay, the vast constitutional learning of Webster, the acute, logical powers of Benton, the withering sarcasm of Quincy Adams, directed against it. It remained like the ghost of Banquo, a continual source of horror, a perti nacious portent of ruin, which no magician s wand could lay. At length, its poison being thoroughly infused into the political lifeblood of the South, it perfected its fruit, and the Rebellion broke forth. Even after that occurrence, mild measures of negotiation were still pursued. The admin istration then in power did its best to deal gently with this pestilent scourge. The existence of the negro race in the South was ignored in the measures adopted, as long as it could possibly be. At last that policy became utterly unfeasible. The acts of the Confederate Government itself imposed an imperious necessity upon the Government at Washington to recognize the existence, both political and social, of four millions of negroes within the limits of the Rebellion, and to adopt such measures as were calculated to turn their energies to beneficial account, as well as to provide for the future political status of the negroes as freedmen. And what were the measures adopted in reference to this subject ? They Vere prudently gradual and progressive in their character and influence. The slaves of Rebel owners, who were actually in arms against the Union, were enfranchised. The policy of emancipating the slaves of such owners, and of those who directly or indirectly gave aid and comfort to the Rebels, as well as the justice of the order forbidding Federal commanders from returning fugitive slaves to their masters when they had escaped therefrom, was one of the most reasonable and equitable that could, be adopted, because these slaves were claimed and recognized by the Confederate PEACE DEMOCRATS ON THE FREEDMEN AS SOLDIERS. 479 Government as property. They were regarded by their owners as the most valuable of their possessions. By the laws of all civilized countries, the property of traitors and rebels becomes forfeited to the State, and why slave property should be exempt from the operation of this universal and indisputable law it is impossible to discover. The only wonder is that this measure should not have been rigidly enforced from the very com mencement of the Kebellion. The public mind may not then, indeed, have been prepared for it; but it is evident that as soon as the full force of truth had properly enlightened it, this measure should be vigorously enforced. The same principle justifies the other emancipation acts of the admin istration. They flowed logically the one from the other, all justified by principles of abstract justice, by the spirit of the Federal Constitution, by the claims of humanity, and by the perilous exigencies in which the Union was then placed. One of these measures that of employing freedmen as soldiers excited an unusual degree of opposition and denun ciation from the peace party. The utterly absurd charge was made that the enlisting of the negroes was an expedient by which it was intended finally to supersede the regular army, and to substitute soldiers of African descent in their place ! The real reason why a portion of negro troops was employed was that which must approve itself to the common-sense of every man : to increase the number and strength of the defenders of the Union ; to employ the blacks to some extent in those southern terri tories, the peculiar climate of which had proved so pernicious to white soldiers, but which was harmless to the negro ; to permit the latter to demonstrate their gratitude to the Government which had enfranchised them ; and to allow that race, whose rights and wrongs had such an im portant influence in connection with the origin of the Kebellion, to share in the toils and sufferings which were incident to the war intended for its suppression. Nor did this objection to the association of black with white soldiers in the Federal army come with the grace of consistency from those " Peace Democrats," by whom it was principally urged ; for Democracy involves the fundamental conception of equality, and often, essential things being equal, requires that no distinction be recognized by its disciples, from differences merely of nation or color, of social rank, intelligence or wealth. Yet these advocates of ultra Democracy applauded the policy of the Confederate States, whose whole constitution was aristocratic, whose very corner-stone, as A. H. Stevens, its vice- president, had affirmed, was the recognition of the normal and unalterable inferiority of the negro race to the white in intellectual and moral quali ties, in their natural rights, in their foreordained and inevitable abasement in the body politic.* * See Appendix, 480 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Another feature of this anti-war party was its condemnation of the financial measures which had been adopted by the administration to enable it to carry on the war, and perform its duty in restoring the Union. They censured the issue of legal tender notes. They charged it with emitting continental currency in the face of all authority, legislative and judicial ; with enabling and instigating every dishonest debtor in the land to defraud his creditor ; with tainting the very credit which it represents by aboriginal fraud; with foreshadowing that repudiation which such indebted ness renders inevitable in the end ; and with the accumulation of a colossal and ruinous national debt. They condemned the financial measures in question, as tending to break down all the State banks, and as endeavoring to erect a huge system of free banking, based upon that impalpable and unreliable fiction called Federal responsibility. But the absurdity of such charges was self-evident, and alarmed no intelligent or patriotic citizen. The conviction was universal that the financial plans of the administration were the wisest and best which could possibly have been devised by human wisdom, under the peculiar circumstances of the case. The loans of the Government were taken freely and rapidly. Its securities were accepted in the same manner by a confident and loyal nation ; arid the prophecies of impending financial ruin, which were uttered by this party, were re ceived with ridicule and derision by the vast majority of the community. One additional characteristic of the party under consideration deserves our notice. It was this continual and persistent ridicule of the personal qualities of Abraham Lincoln. He was made the laughing-stock on all occasions. He was compared contemptuously with Washington, and even with Jefferson Davis "the stern statesman who administered the execu tive power of the Southern Confederacy." No reasonable man would affirm that the President, whom Providence had placed at the head of the nation in this crisis, was immaculate, or that he had not a considerable share of human weakness. But no one could scrutinize his conduct and character with impartiality, without observing in them many great and good qualities. That as a writer his style was somewhat crude and inele gant ; that in private intercourse he was fond of a jest ; that in his personal appearance he was destitute of the grace and dignity which Washington or John Adams exhibited, might be readily admitted. A severe, yet kindly censor of his acts, would discover and condemn one other fault. He did not exhibit a sufficient degree of determination and rigor in pun ishing traitorous generals, in removing imbecile and dilatory commanders, and in turning the vengeance of the Federal power upon the heads of knaves, thieves, and official villains of all descriptions, who infested the civil and military service of the country during the war. But aside from this defect, the President deserved the esteem and the gratitude of his country. He was laborious, sincere, incorruptible, and profoundly patri otic. He devoted all his energies of mind and body to the herculean task PEACE DEMOCRATS ON PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 481 which had so strangely fallen to his lot the restoration of the Union. His intentions were excellent, and he toiled to the utmost of his abilities to reunite the broken fragments of the once glorious Federal Union. His sole effort was to reinvest that Union with its pristine splendor, and to render it what it once had been, to a greater extent than ever before, the favorite home of the brave and the free, the refuge of the oppressed of every land, the terror of tyrants of every name, the impregnable citadel of true liberty, the blooming paradise of the world 1 Such a man was no legitimate subject for ribaldry or ridicule ; and tho contempt with which the peace party affected to treat the President de monstrated clearly that their cause was an unrighteous one, and that, bad as their cause was, they were driven to still worse expedients to defend it, and to advocate its measures. 31 482 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XLIII. THE PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER ATTACK ON CHARLESTON FORMIDABLE CHARACTER OF THE FORTIFICATIONS THE CROSSING OF THE BAR ORDER OF BATTLE PRESCRIBED BY AD MIRAL DU PONT THE ATTACK OBSTRUCTIONS IN THE HARBOR THE TERRIBLE STORM OF FIRE THE NEW IRONSIDES UNMANAGEABLE GALLANTRY OF THE COMMANDER OF THE KEOKUK, AND OF THE COMMANDERS OF THE MONITORS THE KEOKUK RIDDLED AND SINK ING THREE OF THE MONITORS DISABLED WITHDRAWAL OF THE FLEET RETURN TO PORT ROYAL ADMIRAL DU FONT S ACTION JUSTIFIABLE OTHER NAVAL ACTIONS ON THE ATLAN TIC COAST AND IN THE GULF AND MISSISSIPPI RIVER BATTLES AND SKIRMISHES ON LAND IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND, AT VARIOUS POINTS IN TENNESSEE AND KEN TUCKY ; IN THE DEPARTMENT OF MISSOURI, THE ATTACK ON THE SAM GATY ; IN THE DE PARTMENT OF THE FRONTIER, AT FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS, AND ITS VICINITY, AND IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF EXPEDITION TO PASCAGOULA THE BATTLES ON THE TECHE DESTRUCTION OF THREE REBEL IRON-CLAD8, AND CAPTURE OR DESTRUCTION OF ELEVEN TRANSPORTS, AND TWO THOUSAND PRISONERS COMPLETE ROUT OF THE REBELS. WHILE the reorganization of the army of the Potomac, under the ener getic management of General Hooker, was in progress, and all active movements were prohibited there by the condition of the roads, and at the West General Grant was carefully maturing the plans which were yet to culminate in the overthrow of the Rebel Gibraltar on the Mississippi, the Government had not been unmindful of that fountainhead of the Rebel lion Charleston and was gathering at Port Royal its iron-clad ships for another, and it was hoped a more successful attack upon its strongly for tified harbor. It was expected that the land forces would be able to participate in the attack, but they were not sufficiently strong in numbers for such a work, and it would have perilled the holding of the Department of the South, had they made the effort to do so, for which, as the event proved, there was no opportunity. The appointed rendezvous for the fleet was in the North Edisto river ; and thither, during the last week in March, and the first two or three days of April, it had been concentrating. The New Ironsides, the only broad side iron-clad of the navy, Commodore T. Turner commanding; seven monitors, viz : the Weehawken, Captain John Rodgers ; the Passaic, Captain P. Drayton ; the Montauk, Captain J. L. Worden ; the Patapsco, Commander D. Ammen; the Catskill, Commander George Rodgers; the Nantucket, Commander D. M. Fairfax; the Nahant, Commander J. Downes ; and the Whitney iron-clad the Keokuk, Lieutenant-Commander A. C. Rind, were all assembled there, as well as the Canandaigua, Housa- tonic, Huron, Unadilla, Wissahickon, and other wooden gunboats, and with nearly ninety of the other vessels of the blockading squadron, trans- THE DEFENCES OF CHARLESTON HARBOR. 483 ports, etc., constituted a fleet which has rarely if ever been equalled in formidableness and extent of power for offensive or defensive purposes. The land troops were to disembark on Cole s island, and work their way up across to Folly island, and hold a position as near to Morris island as possible, in the hope of effecting a diversion of the Rebel force, and thus aiding in the naval attack on the Rebel city. It was decided, after such exploration as could be made, that the iron clad vessels alone could be trusted to make the attack, as so terrible would be the concentrated fire of the batteries that no wooden vessels could escape destruction from it. The harbor of Charleston is a cul-de-sac, about four miles in depth, and the lines which bound it on both sides, as well as central points in the harbor commanding its navigable channels, had been fortified with all the skill of the best engineers in the country, who had had two years in which to perfect their work. It was intended to be, and was, to any exclusively naval attack, entirely impregnable. In order to enable our readers to comprehend more fully the character of these defences, it may be well to give a brief description of them. Cross ing the bar, which blocks the entrance, at ordinary tides, to any vessel drawing more than seventeen or eighteen feet of water, we speedily ap proach the gateways of the harbor Sullivan s island on the north, and Morris island on the south. Both islands terminate in long tongues of sandy beach, the extremities of which are not more than a mile apart. This is the mouth of the harbor, and equi-distant from each, and forming the apex of a triangle, of which a line stretched from one headland to the other would be the base, stands Fort Sumter, on an artificial island made for its foundation. Sullivan s island, which forms the northern or right hand boundary to this entrance to the harbor, has three formidable fortifications the first, Breach Inlet battery, at the mouth of the creek (Breach Inlet) which separates the island from the main land, and which furnishes Maffitt s channel, through which most of the blockade-runners enter Charleston harbor. This work, which mounted a number of heavy guns, was principally of use to protect the blockade-runners, arid drive away the vessels of the blockading squadron. Further up on the island, toward the mouth of the harbor, was Fort Beau- regard, a powerful Band battery, with very heavy rifled guns, with which it could sweep the lower portion of the harbor. Near the point of the island was Fort Moultrie, which had been greatly strengthened by the Rebel engineers, and was now one of the most formidable forts on the coast. Fort Sumter was too well known, and has been too often described, to need further portraiture. Beyond this and along the surface of the break water, erected some years ago by the United States Government to pro tect this part of the harbor, intrenchments had been thrown up for a long distance en cremailliere, forming what was known as the Redan, and mounted with fifty heavy guns. Still beyond this, and near the head of 484 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the harbor, on a small island, stood Castle Pinckney, bearing a resem blance in the distance to the appearance of the Battery and Castle Garden at the head of New York harbor. On the left or southern side of the harbor, the first work was Wappoo battery, at the mouth of Wappoo creek, and directly opposite the lower part of the city, effectually commanding the embouchure of Ashley river, and protecting the left side of the city. Next below this and standing in the " middle ground," on an artificial island built by the Eebels, was Fort Ripley. Below this, on a projecting point of James island, was Fort. Johnston, and still below, on the point of Morris island, were at this time Battery Bee, and below this, Fort Wagner, a new and powerful sandwork* Still further down on Morris island was a sand work of considerable ex tent and mounting heavy guns, and at Lighthouse Inlet, which divides Morris island from Folly island, was a fort to prevent the Union troops from landing at that point. Thus the harbor was protected by twelve distinct fortifications, three of them forts of great strength, and aruied with the heaviest and most perfect guns to be obtained, and most of the others sandworks of the most skilful construction, which experience has shown to possess greater capacity of resistance than the best brick or stone forts. All were provided with heavy siege guns, many of them rifled. Ten of the twelve batteries could concentrate upon the iron-clad fleet a fire of more than three hundred guns. It was not without misgivings that Admiral Du Pont decided to attack so formidable a series of fortifications. The odds were greatly against him; the entire number of guns carried by the iron-clads was but thirty- two, and these, though of large calibre and long range, were not superior in these regards to many of those of the enemy. It was an old maxim in naval warfare that one gun on shore was equal to an entire ship s battery ; but the building of iron-clads had changed the old theories in respect to the comparative value of ships and forts in offensive and defensive war. fare. Still the preponderance in this case on the side of the forts was enormous ten to one. The power of resistance of the armed vessels to the fire of the heaviest guns known could hardly be said to have been fairly tested. The first monitor had indeed endured the fire of the Merrimac unscathed, and the iron-clads at the West had taken Fort Henry, though not without serious damage to one of them. On the other hand, at Fort Donelson, at Drewry s Bluff, at Vicksburg, and more recently at Fort Mc Allister, they had failed, and in the two first-named instances had been materially injured. Still, in most of these cases it was not the armored ships of the monitor model which had failed of success, or which had been disabled ; but again, no armored ships had ever been exposed to so con centrated and terrible a fire as was likely to be poured upon these. The results could not be predicted with any certainty, for there were no data from which to reason. PREPARATIONS FOR AN ATTACK UPON CHARLESTON. 485 It was not, then, without anxiety that Admiral Du Pont and the com manders of his iron -clad fleet, men as brave as ever went into battle, looked forward to the coming conflict. The fleet lay at the mouth of the North Edisto river, on the 3d of April, 1863, waiting for favorable weather, and the influx of the spring tide, at which the passage over the bar of Charleston harbor was more easily effected than at ordinary seasons. For two days the wind continued high; and rendered the passage over the bar, in vessels so little adapted to rough weather as the monitors, somewhat hazardous. On the night of the 5th, however, the wind subsided, and the resplendent full moon rose on a calm and unruffled sea. On the morning of the 6th the fleet moved to the blockading station off the bar; and the Keokuk, the coast survey schooner Bibb, and the pilots of the squadron, were sent to buoy out the bar, which they accomplished without difficulty , and on Monday morning, the 7th, Admiral Du Pont transferred his broad pennant from the James Adger to the New Ironsides, which was to be the flag-ship during the en gagement, and the iron fleet got under way in battle order, to cross the bar on the flood tide. This was accomplished without accident or delay, and by nine o clock A.M. the whole nine had gained a position in the main ship-channel, parallel with Morris island, and within a mile of the shore. A slight haze hung, meantime, over sea and shore, and obscured the range by which the fleet was to steer, thus rendering delay necessary. It was also deemed desirable by the pilots to wait till ebb tide, in order the more readily to discover the obstructions with which, report said, the harbor was abundantly strewn. At twelve o clock a gentle north wind dispersed the haze, and left the atmosphere clear and transparent. At half-past twelve the fleet began to move to the attack in accordance with the following order from Admiral Du Pont : " The vessels will, on signal being made, form in the prescribed order ahead, at intervals of one cable s length. "The squadron will pass up the main ship-channel, without returning the fire of the batteries OR Morris island, unless signal should be made to commence action. " The ships will open fire on Fort Sumter, when within easy range, and will take up a position to the northward and westward of that fortifica tion, engaging its left or north west face at a distance of from one thousand to eight hundred yards, firing low, and aiming at the centre embrasure. The commanding officers will instruct their officers and men to care fully avoid wasting a shot, and will enjoin upon them the necessity of pre cision rather than rapidity of fire. " Each ship will be prepared to render every assistance possible to vessels that may require it. 486 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. " The special code of signals, prepared for the iron-clad vessels, will be used in action. "After the reduction of Fort Sumter, it is probable the next point of attack will be the batteries on Morris Island. "The order of battle will be the line ahead in the following succession: " 1. Weehawken, with raft, Captain John Rodgers. " 2. Passaic, Captain Percival Drayton. " 3. Montauk, Commander John S. Worden. " 4. Patapsco, Commander Daniel Ammen. " 5. New Ironsides, Commodore Thomas Turner. " 6. Catskill, Commander George W. Rodgers. " 7. Nantucket, Commander Donald McN. Fairfax. " 8. Nahant, Commander John Downes. il 9. Keokuk, Lieutenant-Commander Alexander C. Rhind. "A squadron of reserve, of which Captain J. F. Green will be the senior officer, will be formed outside the bar, and near the entrance buoy, con sisting of the following vessels : "Canandaigua, Captain Joseph F. Green. " Unadilla, Lieutenant-Commander S. P. Quackenbush. "Housatonic, Captain William R.Taylor. " Wissahickon, Lieutenant-Commander J. G.Davis. " Huron, Lieutenant-Commander G. A. Stevens. "And will be held in readiness to support the iron-clads when they attack the batteries on Morris Island. S. F. Du PONT, "Rear Admiral Commanding South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. 11 The appearance of this little fleet, sailing thus, in single file, into the very jaws of death, was impressive ; not grand and imposing, like that of Nelson s fleet of stately ships of the line at the attack on Copenhagen, or that of the allied forces at the assault on Sveaborg, but impressive as an exhibition of the chivalrous audacity of a little band of brave men attempting, in untried vessels, an assault upon fortifications mounted with ten times their number of guns, and manned by fifty times their number of men. In the appearance of the vessels themselves there was little beauty ; the majesty of the old war-ships, with their three decks towering above the waters, their tall and shapely masts and spars, their network of rigging, and their ports yawning with a hundred cannon or more, was wanting. The New Ironsides had indeed a gun-deck, and its projecting port-shutters indicated that it could deliver a terrible broad side; but it was stripped of all its sailing gear, and with its iron surfaces slushed, to cause the shot more readily to glance off, it seemed rather a resurrection of some of the horrible pachydermatous monsters of the paleontological era, in iron, than a ship of war; while the monitors, seem ingly flat rafts, with a turret rising from their slippery surface, showed NAVAL ENGAGEMENT IN CHARLESTON HARBOR. 487 such apparently feeble powers of attack or resistance, that the mere thought of their assaulting the frowning walls of the vast fortress which stood directly in their path seemed absurd. Meanwhile, they moved onward, the Weehawken, the file leader, having attached to her bows a raft, which was intended for the removal of ob structions, and the exploding of any torpedoes that might hinder the pro gress of the fleet. The grappling-irons attached to this raft became fouled in the anchor-cable of the Weehawken at the moment of starting, and occasioned a delay of about an hour. This trouble remedied, the fleet once more moved forward, and soon came within range of the lower bat teries on Morris island, then within the line of fire of Fort Wagner and Battery Bee, on Cummings Point ; but much to the surprise of the officers of the fleet and the spectators, none of these works fired a gun. The reason for this silence, though not at first apparent, seemed to have been to draw the iron-clad fleet forward into the circle of fire which awaited it when it came within range of Sumter s batteries, and the formidable guns of Fort Wagner and Battery Bee were trained upon the devoted fleet to aid in the tempest of iron hail which fell upon them a few moments later. The line having crossed the front of Morris island rounded to, to make the entrance of the harbor, and soon came within easy range of the guns of Fort Sumter and the batteries on Sullivan s and James islands. For a few minutes the suspense was painful. The stillness of death brooded over the scene, and even the sea-birds paused on wing in mid-air, as if in expectation of some dire event. Suddenly, at four minutes past three, a hollow square of smoke rises from the top of Sumter, and from its line of barbette guns a broadside of flame streams down upon the Weehawken. This is the signal for the opening of the fire from Battery Bee, Fort Moultrie, Fort Beauregard, and the fifty guns of the Redan. The fire of all was concentrated upon the Weehawken ; and the spectators on the Union side looked, with anxious and throbbing hearts, for the clearing away of the smoke, fearing lest, when it lifted, nothing but scattered frag ments of the noble vessel would be seen. Great was their surprise and joy when, through the rifts of the smoke, they discovered her apparently unharmed and indifferent to such a fire as never burst upon a vessel before. But another difficulty now impeded her progress, and, but for the skill of her captain and those of the other ships in the first line, would have placed them all at the mercy of the current, to be drifted ashore into the hands of the Rebels. It will be remembered that the orders issued by Admiral Du Pont contemplated an attack upon the northwest front of Sumter, confessedly its weakest point. This the Rebels were resolved to prevent at all hazards ; and they had stretched a stout hawser from a point close to the northeast angle of Fort Sumter completely across the 488 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. channel to Fort Moultrie, floating on lager beer casks, on which were hung nets, seines, and cables, strung with torpedoes. If the propellers of the iron-dads became fouled with these entanglements, they would at least be deprived of all motive power, and the explosion of the torpedoes might effectually cripple them otherwise. The danger was discovered by the Weehawken not a moment too soon ; and just when another turn of the propeller would have involved her inextricably, she steered off to the right, and the other vessels following her example were saved. There was another channel by which the northwest face of the fort could be reached that between Cummings Point and Fort Sumter. But this was effectually blockaded by a row of piles rising ten feet above the water, and extending completely across, and beyond them were other lines of piles, with torpedoes of vast size at the apparent openings, and still beyond, the three Rebel iron-clads drawn up in battle array. The northwest front, it was evident, could not be reached, and the plan of operations must be changed, and the iron-clads, taking such positions as they could, must assail the fort as best they might, on its strongest side. To add to the difficulties of their position, the flag-ship, the New Iron sides, was caught in the tideway, and not obeying her helm, became almost entirely unmanageable. The two monitors immediately behind her fell foul of her, and it was full fifteen minutes before they could be disengaged and pass on. The admiral now signalled to the other vessels to disregard the movements of the flag-ship, and they proceeded, amid a tempest of shot and shell, to take their places for the attack. The Keokuk, though less fully protected than the monitors from the effects of the enemy s fire, was run by its commander, Lieutenant-Commander Rhind, within a little more than five hundred yards of Fort Sumter, and opened its fire upon it. The Catskill, Commander Eogers, followed, and opened its fire at about six hundred yards distance. Near by was the Montauk, whose commander, J. L. Worden, had already in the first monitor had his baptism of fire, and not far removed were the Passaic, the Patapsco, the Nahant, the Nantucket, and the Weehawken. The Ironsides lay nearer to Fort Moultrie, and poured her broadsides into that work ; but the rest were flinging their massive shot upon the walls of Sumter, and with good effect, disabling four of its guns, making deep cavities in its walls, and tearing off a considerable portion of the parapet and the wall below it near the eastern angle. For thirty minutes from this time the fight continued at its full intensity, and could the fleet have endured another thirty minutes they might undoubtedly have made Fort Sumter untenable; but the storm of fire was too terrible for human endurance, and what was more to the purpose, was crippling too seriously these valuable war vessels. The Keokuk was compelled to come out of the fight in a sinking condition, her turrets riddled, her hull torn above and below the water-line, and twelve of her men ; including her gallant com- UNJUST CENSURE OF ADMIRAL DU PONT. 489 mander, wounded. The Nahant, the Passaio, and the Nantucket, were all disabled so as to be incapable of continuing the fight ; the two-hundred pound Parrott on the Patapsco was so much injured that it could not be fired; and the others had received numerous shots, damaging though not disabling them. The Keokuk sunk the next morning, her crew escaping, though losing all their effects. The loss of life was small, three being killed, and seventeen wounded, several of them slightly. The loss of the Rebel garrisons of Sumter and Moultrie was about the same. During the half hour when the contest raged the fiercest, the number of shot and shell thrown by the Rebel batteries reached one hundred and sixty a minute, and thirty-five hundred rounds were fired in the half hour. It had been expected that the attack would be renewed on the following day; but the admiral, on receiving the reports of the commanders, decided that it was inexpedient to renew the assault, and on Thursday the fleet returned to Port Royal. The monitors, though hit an average of over sixty times each, were so little injured that a few days, and in most of them a few hours only, of repairs were requisite to put them again in fighting condition ; but some modifications were subsequently made, which rendered them more impervious to shot, and prevented the forcing through of the bolts, which had caused injury to some of the crews. The action, fierce as it was, had been in reality but a naval reconnois- sance in force, and had demonstrated the substantial impregnability of the monitors to the heaviest artillery which could be brought to bear upon them. In all past naval history, no vessel or vessels had ever sustained such a fire for even fifteen minutes without destruction, yet of these, though some of them were partially disabled for offensive purposes, not one was penetrated at a vital point, or had their turrets perforated. The Keokuk, on the contrary, whose turrets were composed of only five and three-fourths inches of iron, was riddled both in turrets and hull. The Ironsides received no injury in her plating, but her projecting port-shut ters were carried away, and her wooden bows, which were unprotected, were perforated several times. Admiral Du Pont was severely censured by certain writers connected with the press, for his decision not to renew the attack on the succeeding day; and it was asserted that his removal from the command of the South Atlantic blockading squadron, apd the appointment of Rear Admiral A. H. Foote, was due to the dissatisfaction of the Government with his course. However this may be, there would seem to have been no just grounds for censure in his conduct. It was said that he had no faith in iron-clads ; but few commanders, without full as much faith as their previous trials had warranted in their powers of offence and defence, would have been willing to expose themselves and their men to the terri ble ordeal through which this iron-clad fleet passed. And the doing of this was na piece of reckless foolhardiness ; nor was it the desperate act 490 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of a man goaded to action against his judgment by the powers above him in official station whose behest he is compelled to obey. His action was deliberate and well-considered ; and though not entered upon without a full perception of its hazards and dangers, yet his courage never faltered. It was a scene worthy of a painter s pencil and a poet s pen, when, just before the vessels of the fleet took their positions for the battle, that noble old man stood with bared head in the midst of the four hundred men composing the crew of the New Ironsides, and reverently joined in the prayer offered by Commodore Turner for their preservation in the deadly conflict then about to commence, and for the success of the arms of the defenders of the Union. The repulse which followed was due to no cause which could have been foreseen to none which reflected either upon the honor, courage, or judgmentof the admiral but to circumstances wholly beyond his control ; and to have renewed the battle the next day would have been an act of utter recklessness, which could only have terminated in the loss of several of our iron-clad vessels without inflicting a com pensating damage upon the enemy. During the early part of the month of April, the gunboats of the Union navy achieved several successes, both on the Atlantic coast and in the waters of the Mississippi and its tributaries. On the 1st of the month, Admiral Farragut, with the Hartford, Switzerland, and Albatross, engaged the Rebel batteries at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, and after an action of some hours, succeeded in passing below them without material damage. The next day he proceeded with his squadron to the embouchure of Red river, destroying on his way a large number of Rebel skiffs and flat-boats, and after blockading the Red river for several days, passed down to Bayou Sara, where he seized and destroyed a large quantity of Rebel stores, and finally came to anchor five miles above the Rebel batteries at Port Hudson. On the 13th, on the Bayou Teche, Louisiana, the Union gunboats Estrella, Calhoun, and Arizona, acting in connection with the land troops under command of General Banks, caused the destruction of the Rebel gunboats Diana and Hart, and the iron-clad ram Queen of the West; and on the 20th, having been joined by the Clifton, captured the strong Rebel fortification Bute a la Rose, Louisiana, driving the Rebel gunboats up the Teche, where most of them were afterward captured or destroyed. Several other small gunboats, belonging to the Rebels, were captured about the same time, in Louisiana. On the 14th, the Union gunboats, Commodore Barney, Mount Washington, and Stepping Stones, engaged a Rebel bat tery on the banks of the Nansemond river, Virginia; and, though the Mount Washington had been disabled in a previous fight with B ill s bat teries, near Washington, North Carolina, and was aground at the com mencement of the action, she was hauled off by the Stepping Stones ; and after a severe battle of four hours, they silenced the battery and EVENTS DURING APRIL, 1863. 491 captured six guns. On the 30th, another Rebel battery on the Nanse- mond was silenced, after a spirited contest, by the Commodore Barney and the Morris. Turning to the movements of the Union land forces, we find that while all is quiet, or apparently so, on the Rappahannock, and in the department of the South, there is some activity in the Western departments, espe cially in those of the Cumberland, Missouri, the frontier, and the Gulf. We will notice these in chronological order, as, though few of them were of very great or decisive importance, they served to keep up the martial spirit of the men, and to maintain a constant watchfulness on both sides. In the department of the Cumberland, on the 2d of April, General Stanley, chief of cavalry of General Rosecrans army, left Murfreesboro with about thirty-five hundred men, two thousand of them cavalry, to attack Morgan s and Wharton s Rebel regiments of cavalry and infantry at Snow Hill, Tennessee. They met the Rebels at first near Auburn, and drove them back with considerable loss to Smith s ford and Dry Fork, from both which places they were compelled to retreat after a brief re sistance. They then fell back to Snow Hill, where they made a stand, but were flanked, and their lines broken by the second and fourth Ohio cavalry, and finally fled in great disorder, with a loss of fifty killed and wounded, sixty prisoners, and three hundred horses. On the 6th of April, General R. B. Mitchell, with three hundred and fifty cavalry, made a descent from Nashville on Green Hill, Tennessee, and broke up a R^bel camp there, killing five, and taking fifteen prisoners, with all the arms, horses, and equipments in the camp. On the llth of April, the Rebel General Van Dorn made an attack he had long threatened upon Franklin, Tennessee, with a large force, but was held at bay for an hour or more by the infantry and cavalry pickets and regiments on guard ; and when these fell back the Rebels marched up within short range of the Union batteries, which opened upon them with murderous effect, literally strewing the ground with men and horses. General Stanley, who had been in reserve on the Murfreesboro road, was sent to their rear, and moved down upon them with great energy, captur ing six pieces of artillery and two hundred prisoners ; but afterward, owing to the unfavorable character of the country for cavalry operations, lost most of these. Van Dorn s forces, were however, repulsed on all sides, and driven until darkness put an end to the pursuit. The Union loss in killed and wounded was less than one hundred, while that of Van Dorn was somewhat more than Jhree hundred, of whom nearly one hundred were prisoners. On the same day, a skirmish took place between a small force of Rebels and some Union troops near Waverly, Tennessee, in which twenty -one Rebels, including a major and two captains, were taken prisoners. In Eastern Kentucky, a detachment of two hundred of the thirty-ninth 492 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Kentucky mounted infantry made a forced march on Pikeville, Kentucky, on the 16th of April, and after a sharp fight captured seventy -eight Eebel soldiers, (seventeen of them officers,) with their horses, arms and equipments. Thirteen more were captured the same day in Breathitt county, Kentucky. On the 17th, a skirmish took place at Bear creek, Tennessee, between the Union troops under General Dodge and the Rebels, which resulted in the rout of the latter with considerable loss. On the 19th, three regiments of infantry and one of cavalry left Memphis, Tennessee, and meeting Blythe s Rebel cavalry, had a running fight of two days with them from Nonconnah to Ooldwater river, each side being in turn reinforced. The result of the fight was that the Rebels were routed with a heavy loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners. On the 22d, Me Minnville, Tennessee, was occupied by the Union forces ; and on the 25th a fight took place at Duck River Shoals, on the Tennessee river, between the Union gunboat Lexington and the ram Monarch, and a series of strong Rebel batteries on the bank of the river, which resulted in the defeat of the Rebels, with a loss of twenty-five killed and wounded. On the 27th, a party of Union cavalry from General G. Granger s division of the army of the Cumberland, left their camp at Murfreesboro at daybreak, and captured the entire Texan legion of Rebel troops, posted at a point eight miles from Franklin, Tennessee. In the department of Missouri, the guerrillas belonging to Todd s or Quantrell s band were guilty of a most dastardly outrage on the 28th of March. They stopped the steamer Sam Gaty at Sibley, on the Missouri river, before daylight, and going on board killed two and wounded one of the soldiers on board belonging to Colonel Penick s regiment, paroled all the other soldiers, drove on shore about eighty negroes whom they found on board, and shot ten or twelve of them in cold blood, the rest making their escape in the darkness, robbed all the passengers of what money they had, and compelled them to throw overboard whatever there was of government property on board the steamer. The triumph of these ruffians was short ; for, on the 2d of April, Major Ransom, of the sixth Kansas cavalry, attacked the band in Jackson county, Mis souri, killed seventeen, and hung two, whom he identified as having been concerned in this robbery and murder, and took twenty-one of their horses, and all their camp equipage, ammunition, stores, etc. He also res cued the negroes whom they had driven from the boat. On the 18th of April, a battle of some magnitude was fought at Fay- etteville, Arkansas, a place in which already two or three severe conflicts had taken place, while the vicinity had been fought over more thoroughly than perhaps any other region of equal extent in the Union. The com batants, in this instance, were the first Arkansas loyal infantry, and the first Arkansas loyal cavalry, on the Union side ; and the first and second Arkansas Rebel cavalry, a part of Parsons Texas cavalry, a section of RECONNOISSANCE TO PASCAGOULA. MISSISSIPPI. 493 artillery, and several companies of bushwhackers, making in all about two thousand men, under the command of the Rebel General W. L. Ca- bell. The Union troops were under the command of Colonel M. La Rue Harrison. The Rebels made a forced march over Boston Mountain during the night, hoping to surprise the Union force, and approached the town a few minutes after sunrise. Colonel Harrison was on the alert, and when the Rebel cavalry charged upon his men they were promptly and gallantly repulsed. The battle continued from sunrise to near noon, when the Rebels, having lost about forty killed, sixty wounded, and fifty-five prisoners, retreated in great haste toward Ozark. The Union loss was four killed, twenty-six wounded, sixteen prisoners, and thirty- five missing. On the 20th of April, Colonel Smart, the Union commander at Patter son, Missouri, who had a force of about four hundred men at that point, was attacked by a force of nearly two thousand Rebels, and compelled to retreat to Big creek, about eight miles distant, but saved most of his stores, ammunitions, etc., by skilful management and desperate fighting. His loss was about fifty in killed, wounded, and missing, in the engage ments. He succeeded in crossing the creek in good order, and the enemy did not renew the attack. In the Department of the Gulf, early in April, Colonel N. U. Daniels, of the second regiment of Louisiana volunteers, stationed at Ship island, having learned that the greater part of the Rebel forces at Mobile were to be sent to reinforce Charleston, determined to make a reconnoissance within the Rebel lines at Pascagoula, Mississippi a town of some importance, situated on the Mississippi sound with a view of creating a diversion of the Rebel troops from Charleston, and se curing their detention in the vicinity of Mississippi sound. Accordingly, he embarked on the 9th of April, with a detachment of one hundred and eighty men of his command, on board of the United States transport General Banks, and landed at Pascagoula at nine A. M., and took posses sion of the town, throwing out pickets, and holding by small detachments, the roads leading to it. The Rebels at once sent about three hundred cavalry and one hundred infantry to drive out the invaders, and advanced a large body of troops to a point within six miles of the town. The cav alry attacked Colonel Daniels troops with great fury, but were repulsed with considerable loss ; they came up a second time, accompanied by the infantry, and placing the women and children in front of the houses for a cover, fired from the windows of the dwellings upon the tTnion troops, but were again repulsed, and with more loss than before. A third time they came up with further reinforcements, but were for the third time driven back. Finding that they were bringing up a large body of troops, and having accomplished the object intended, of compelling them to divert their troops from Charleston, Colonel Daniels took advantage of their retreat to withdraw his men, quietly and in good order, on board of 494 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the transport, and returned to Ship island. His loss was two killed, and eight wounded. The Rebel loss was over twenty killed, and a large number wounded. A much more important action, and one which from its magnitude and results is worthy of detailed description, was the expedition into the Attakapas country, in Louisiana, resulting in the series of engagements known collectively as the battle of the Teche. The region lying along the Bayou Teche, the Atchafalaya river, and Grand Lake, and comprising the parishes of St. Mary s, St. Martin s, St. Landry, and Lafayette, is usually denominated by Louisianians the "Attakapas country," and is regarded as the garden of the State. It had been the favorite camping-ground of the .Rebels, and from it they had made repeated attacks upon those portions of the State held by the Union troops the facility of communication with the Mississippi by means of the Atchafalaya river, and with other parts of the State by different water-courses, rendering its possession of great importance to them. During the winter and early spring, they had succeeded in capturing the Diana, one of the Union gunboats on the Mississippi, and also one of the ram fleet, the Queen of the West, and had taken them from the Missis sippi, through the Atchafalaya, into Grand Lake, where, having thor oughly repaired and strengthened them, they were preparing to use them effectively against the Union ports of Brashear City, Berwick, and, if op portunity offered, New Orleans. They had also procured a steamer of great strength and speed, which they had plated with railroad iron, and named the Hart, which they had almost completed, to add to their formida ble iron- clad fleet. General Banks deemed it best to break up this nest of Rebels, and de stroy their fleet of iron-clads before they succeeded in coming out into the Gulf, or the Mississippi, and accomplishing serious mischief. Having ascertained that their land forces numbered about eight thousand a large portion of them cavalry he moved from Berwick City, on the llth of April, with the division of General Emory, and the brigade of General Weitzel, toward Pattersonville, on the Bayou Teche, having despatched, the same day, General Grover s division from Brashear City by a number of transports, tug-boats, etc., convoyed by the gunboats Clifton, Estrella, Arizona, and Calhoun, up the Atchafalaya and Grand Lake, to attack the enemy in the rear. The column commanded by General Banks had con stant skirmishing from Berwick city to Pattersonville, and at the latter place encountered the enemy in considerable force, on Sunday, the 12th, when a severe battle ensued, mainly with artillery, in which the Rebel gunboat Diana took a prominent part. The Rebel forces were on both sides of the Teche, and the firing was continued with great spirit till dark, when the opposing forces encamped on the battle-field. The battle was renewed at half-past six on the morning of the 13th there having been THE BATTLE ON THE TECHE. 495 picket skirmishing all night by the Rebels, with a large infantry and cavalry force, for the purpose of regaining possession of a sugar-house and a piece of woods, from which they had been driven during the night. Their artillery also opened with great fury on the Union troops, the Diana, as before, taking part in the fight. The brigade of General Paine, of Emory s division, were in the advance, and, though at first without artillery supports, and under this galling and terrible fire, succeeded in driving the Rebels back to their breastworks, though not without con siderable loss. They were then reinforced by Mack s, McLaflin s, and Healy s batteries, and the Rebel batteries silenced ; the Diana was dis abled by shells passing through her iron plating, steam-chest, and wheel- houses, killing a number of her officers and crew, and compelled to with draw up the Teche. Colonel Gooding, commanding one of .the brigades of Emory s division, was sent across the Teche, and drove the Rebels before him. Before ten o clock the enemy were driven back along the whole line to their breastworks, and made no further attempt to secure the coveted point the woods and sugar-house for the possession of which they had made their morning attack. The Union troops now moved forward to the breastworks, and bringing up their batteries, com menced an attack upon them. The Rebel position was one of great strength, extending on the west side of the Teche from the river to a dense mass of woods, and on the east side of the river from the Teche to Grand Lake, effectually preventing any flanking movement. For the defence of this fortification they had, on the west side, Yalverde s and Semmes batteries, both of heavy metal, and a number of single guns, rifled and of large calibre ; and on the east, fourteen or fifteen guns. The Union batteries succeeded in silencing part of the guns of the Rebels on the east side, and the infantry moved forward to attack them at mus ket-range, but were met by a terrible cross-fire from both sides of the river, and were compelled to lie down in the plantation ditches ; but soon moved still nearer, and compelled the enemy to expose his infantry force to drive them back. This was a part of General Banks design, in order to ascertain their strength in infantry. It was expected by the troops that an assault on the enemy s works would now be ordered, and General Paine s brigade formed in two lines for this purpose ; but Gen eral Banks deemed it best to wait till morning it was now half-past five p. M. when the gunboat Clifton, which had just arrived, could co-operate in the attack. On the west side of the Teche, the third brigade of Emory s division, commanded by Colonel Gooding, had, after a hard day s fighting, succeeded in carrying the enemy s outworks, and driving them back with very heavy loss. During the night of Monday, the entire Rebel force evacuated their po sition in such hot haste as to leave their cannon unspiked, and made the 496 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. best of their way up the Teche, the cavalry remaining in the rear to pro tect their retreat. On ascertaining this early in the morning, General Banks ordered an immediate pursuit. General G rover, meantime, had ascended the Atchafalaya and Grand Lake with his division, and crossed to the Teche, with the intention of following that stream down, to come upon the rear of the Eebels with whom General Banks was fighting. At a point some distance above Franklin he encountered a small body of the Rebels with some artillery, who, however, retreated after a slight skirmish, and on their retreat at tempted to destroy two bridges over the Teche, but were prevented from accomplishing their purpose by the Union cavalry and artillery. The Union forces pushed on till night, when they bivouacked on the banks of the river. On Monday morning, April 13th, at about seven o clock, the advance reached Irish Bend, a sharp bend of the Teche, about eleven miles above the point where General Banks was engaged with the enemy. Here, on the edge of a dense line of woods, they found the Rebels in position and in large force. A sharp conflict ensued, in which the third brigade of General Grover s division, commanded by Colonel Birge, was, after a time, driven back a short distance ; but General Dwight, of the first brigade, coming up with his command, moved forward with such firmness as to sweep the enemy before him, taking over one hundred pris oners. After a breathing time of an hour or two, the whole division ad vanced upon the enemy s main position, with a view of carrying it by assault ; but on their approach the Rebels evacuated their works, and re treated to the woods and cane-brakes, having first set fire to the gunboat Diana, which had been disabled by the batteries below, and also to the transports Gossamer, Newsboy, and Era No. 2, large river-steamers, which they had seized and converted to their use. The retreat was accomplished in such a way as to prevent effectual pursuit. The Rebel force here en gaged had been, according to the testimony of prisoners, about five thou sand, and they had come up the river with the intention of defeating and driving General Grover s division across the Bayou Teche before General Banks could arrive to form a junction with him. They had been signally defeated in this intention, and had lost between three and four hundred in killed and wounded, beside about one hundred and fifty prisoners. The Union loss in killed and wounded in Grover s division was not far from, four hundred. Immediately on the retreat of the enemy a reconnoitering force was sent out, which met a courier from General Banks army, who announced the retreat of the enemy from the Beasland plantation, where the battles of the 12th and 13th had been fought. General Banks sent his cavalry and artillery, supported by two infantry brigades, early Tuesday morning in pursuit of the flying foe, and they proceeded on both sides of the Teche, the Clifton aiding in the pursuit as far as possible. On the ap proach of our troops to Franklin, the Hart, the new Rebel iron-clad, was COMPLETE ROUT OF THE REBELS ON THE TECIIK.. 497 towed across the Teche, scuttled, and fired by the Rebe s to prevent her falling into the hands of the Union troops; her armament, consisting of two heavy guns one rifled, the other a large brass piece w .s saved by the Union soldiers. The united force now wholly under General Banks command, pressed on to New Iberia, where five Rebel transports, laden with ammunition or commissary stores, were either burned or sunk, and the Rebel hospital-boat, Cornie, with a load of wounded, captured, and some Union prisoners captured some time before on the Mississippi, ?md found on board of her, released. At Franklin a large foundry, employed in casting cannon and gun-carriages for the Rebel army, was taken posses sion of, and another at New Iberia. The New Iberia salt-works, which had furnished salt to most of the Rebel States, were also seized. A large number of prisoners were taken each day, and the Rebels did not attempt to make a stand but once after their retreat on Monday night. This was at Bayou Yermillion, on the 17th, and after a short but sharp contest they again fled precipitately, destroying the bridges behind them, and throwing their guns and ammunition into the bayou. On Friday General Banks had about fifteen hundred prisoners. He proceeded as far as Ope- lousas, the capital of St. Landry parish, when, the Rebel force having become so thoroughly scattered and demoralized as to be no longer formi dable, he desisted from further pursuit with his main army, but sent Briga dier-General Dwight on with his brigade to push forward to Alexandria. The capture of Bute a la Rose, already mentioned, the key of the Atcha- falaya, was also one of the fruits of this expedition, and with the previous victories, secured East Louisiana from invasion or disturbance. General Banks reported from Opelousas, on the 28th of April, as the fruits of this expedition, two thousand prisoners, two transports, and twenty guns taken, and three gunboats and eight transports destroyed. Tha loss of the Rebels in killed and wounded was over one thousand. General Tanks loss was seventy-seven killed, three hundred and sixty-one wounded, and forty missing. 32 498 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XLIY. RAIDS IN BOTH ARMIKS MARMADUKE*S EXPEDITION FOR THE CAPTURE OP CAPE QIRARDEAT5 COLONEL CARTER S DEMAND FOR THE SURRENDER OF THE TOWN GENERAL M NEIL S REPLY MARMADUKE S DEMAND THE RESULT FLIGHT OF MARMADUKE, AND PURSUIT BY VANDEVER AND H*NEIL COLONEL STREIGHT s RAID DIFFICULTIES AND DISASTERS PENETRATES NEARLY TO ROME IS COMPELLED TO SURRENDER REBEL TREATMENT OF THB OFFICERS OF THE EXPEDITION COLONEL GRIERSON s RAID ITS CONTINUED AND WONDER FUL SUCCESS HIS BRIGADE REACHES BATON ROUGE RESULTS ACCOMPLISHED BY THB EXPEDITION COLONEL CLAYTON S RAID MEETS MARMADUKE CLAYTON WITH TWO HUN DRED AND THIRTY MEN FIGHTS AND REPELS MARMADUKE S DIVISION LIEUTENANT- COLONEL JENKINS FIGHT WITH CARTER S TEXAS BRIGADE THE EXPEDITION REACHES HELENA IN SAFETY SKIRMISHES IN WESTERN VIRGINIA THE AFFAIR AT GREENLAND GAP CAPTURE OF ALEXANDRIA, MISSISSIPPI SKIRMISH AT MONTICELLO, KENTUCKY. THE vast extent of territory over which the war extended, the neces sity of railroad lines for the transportation of troops and supplies, and the immense quantities of ammunition, quartermasters and commissary stores which were deposited at points, which, though within the lines ot the army to which they belonged, were not always adequately protected, have offered inducements for expeditions of cavalry, by either army, into the territory claimed by the other, on a more extended scale, and to greater distances, than have been known in any previous war. At first, as was natural, the Rebels possessing a much larger share of cavalry than the Union army, these raids, as they were called, were mostly made by Rebel cavalry officers upon the towns, depots, or rail roads of the North. Such, for instance, were the repeated raids of Ashby, Stuart, and Moseby, in the rear, and occasionally around the army of the Potomac ; such the dashing exploits of Morgan, Forrest, and Wheeler, at the West. These men were regular officers in the Rebel army, and their troops, though sometimes composed in part of citizens farmers by day, within the Union lines, and guerrillas by night were usually regularly enlisted cavalry of that army. In the West, however, there was another set of raiders bushwhackers, as they were called, men not belonging to the army, but ruffians, thieves, murderers, and freebooters, who plundered indiscriminately, and were guilty of the greatest outrages, murder being one of their least criminal offences against society. These men, when captured, claimed to belong to the Rebel army, and indeed fought as irregular troops in some of its battles, and received its protection ; but, being regarded by the Union officers as outlaws, deserving of condign punishment, were not always reserved for exchange. To this class be longed Quantrell s gang, whose outrage on the steamer Sam Gaty was noticed in a previous chapter. Jeff Thompson s and Marmaduke s bands MARMADUKE S EXPEDITION TO CAPE GIRARDEAU. 499 were also largely composed o these ruffians, who swarmed in Missouri and Arkansas. As the Union armies grew stronger in disciplined cavalry, they too engaged in cavalry raids or expeditions, not undertaken for purposes of plunder, but to break up the enemy s lines of communication, to destroy his depots of supplies, and cut off reinforcements to his armies at critical periods. The names of Stoneman, Pleasanton, Buford, and Kilpatrick, in the army of the Potomac, and of Carter, Stanley, Grierson, Wilson, and Clayton, at the West, became as famous for successful expeditions of this sort as those of the Rebel partisan leaders. Several of these raids took place in the spring of 1863, and in most of them the activity, skill, and adroitness of the Union officers placed them in favorable contrast with the Rebel raiders. The first which we shall notice, in the large number of the troops employed was rather the movement of an army to besiege a town than a partisan expedition ; but its leader being best known as a partisan leader of the most unscrupulous character, and its motives and aims being such ,is usually characterize such expeditions, it is generally known as Marma- duke s raid. The hope of regaining some portion of their lost foothold in Missouri had never been relinquished by the Rebels ; and General Sterling Price especially, who had sacrificed social position, standing, and character, for the sake of participating in the Rebellion, looked from his involuntary exile in Arkansas and Mississippi, with longing eyes toward the fair cities and towns of his own State, and in every enterprise for regaining the control of it was always an active participator. Great exertions had been made by the Rebel commanders in the Trans-Missis sippi Department to bring their army, which had been repeatedly defeated and routed by Generals Blunt, Herron, and Banks, up to a degree of efficiency, in numbers at least, equal to that of the Union army in that region. By gathering to their standard large numbers of the bush whackers or outlaws of whom we have spoken, by a rigid and severe military conscription, and by bringing into the field all the Texan troops which could be raised, they had succeeded in assembling a force respecta ble in numbers, if in nothing else. The command of the first army corps of this army was assigned to General Price ; and at his earnest solicitation it was sent at once into southeastern Missouri, to plunder the towns of that region, to seize the large quantities of ammunition and stores belonging to the United States Government at Cape Girardeau, and, perhaps, should fortune favor, to attack St. Louis. For some reason, General Price does not seem to have led this army in person, but confided it to General Marmaduke. The first considerable town reached by this marauding army was Fredericktown, on the headwaters of the St. Francis, from which place there is a good road to Cape Girardeau, at that time a large depot of quartermasters and commissary stores. The post was under the 500 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. command of Lieutenant-Colonel Baumer, ,pf the first Nebraska infantry, and had a garrison of five hundred men, mostly of his regiment, though there were a few artillerymen of the second Missouri artillery also in the town. General McNeil, of the Missouri State militia, a brave and skilful officer, was at Bloomfield, Missouri, with twelve hundred men and six pieces of artillery; and having received intelligence of Marmaduke s entry into Missouri and appearance at Fredericktown, started thither in search of him ; but on reaching Dallas, thirty -five miles from Cape Girardeau, he became so strongly impressed with the belief that Manna- duke would attack that city, that he marched his force thither with all speed, reaching it himself on the 23d of April, and bringing his troops in the next day. He also established communications the same day with St. Louis, and asked for reinforcements and gunboats. The whole force now under his command, including Lieutenant-Colonel Baumer s regi ment, was seventeen hundred ; and, including his own artillery, there were sixteen guns, of various calibres, three or four of them rifled twelve pounders. The town had four, so-called, forts for its defence earthworks of the simplest form, over which cavalry could ride without difficulty; and there was no time for adding materially to these defences, for on Saturday morning, the 26th of April, Marmaduke advanced with his force of ten thousand, divided into four brigades, with the intention of carrying the place by storm. General McNeil had already planted his batteries and stationed his sharp shooters to as much advantage as possible, and awaited the attack. When the enemy approached, he advanced his artillery to within four hundred yards of their line, and stationing his sharpshooters as supports, he poured such a terrible fire upon their advancing columns that they were checked, fell back, and in spite of the urgency of their officers, could not be induced to face the deadly fire again. They retreated out of range after an action of little over an hour ; and some reinforcements arrived for the Union force from St. Louis about the same time. Determined to defend the town to the last, General McNeil had caused all the government stores, etc., to be removed across the river into Illinois, and had sent away the women and children ; and thus prepared, he, with his little force, resolved to fight it out with the invaders. At ten o clock Saturday evening the Union pickets reported the arrival of a flag of truce from the Eebel camp. It was not allowed to come nearer to the town than three miles, and the fol lowing letter was transmitted by it : " HEADQUARTERS FOURTH DIVISION, NEAR CAPE GIRARDEAU, "April 25, 1863. " To the officer commanding United States forces in and around Cape Girardeau : "SiR: By order of Major-General Sterling Price, commanding, I DEMAND FOR THE SURRENDER OF CAPE GIRARDEAU. 501 formally demand of you the immediate surrender, unconditionally, of the troops in Cape Girardeau and the adjoining forts, together with all the ammunition, stores, and other property belonging to the United States, in the same. If the surrender is made, I pledge myself to treat the troops as prisoners of war, and to parole and exchange them as soon as practi cable. I shall scrupulously protect private property; no difference will be made in this particular between parties, whether Union or Southern in sentiment. One half hour is allowed for your decision. Colonel Watson, commanding second Texas cavalry brigade, who bears the flag of truce, will present this demand, and wait for your reply. " I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servamt, " G. W. CARTER, "Colonel-Commanding Fourth Division, First Army Corps, Trans-Mississippi Department." Colonel Strachan, General McNeil s chief of staff, who had been deputed to receive the flag of truce, requested Watson to tell Colonel Carter that he must credit General McNeil with twenty-nine minutes, as one was sufficient for reply, and at once wrote the following : " To G. W. Carter, Colonel- Commanding First Army Corps, Trans- Mississippi Department : " SIR : I am instructed by General John McNeil to decline your demand for the surrender of the post of Cape Girardeau. He thinks himself able to maintain its possession. I have the honor to be, etc., "WILLIAM R. STRACHAN, " Colonel and Chief of Staff." The little garrison lay on their arms that night, and the next morning, Sunday, April 26th, awaited an attack from the Rebels. At about fifteen minutes after ten A. M., they opened fire upon the town with two bat teries, one posted on the Bloomfield, the other on the Jackson road. Soon after the engagement commenced another flag of truce was announced, and the following letter brought in : "HEADQUARTERS CONFEDERATE STATES FORCES, "DISTRICT OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI, "April 26, 1863. " GENERAL : I have this moment arrived, and learn that Colonel Carter has demanded the surrender of the forces in Cape Girardeau, the fortifications, and government property, which demand you have declined. With my combined forces now surrounding Cape Girardeau, I deem it an easy task to storm and capture the town, and I, therefore, reiterate the demand that you immediately surrender to me unconditionally your command. 502 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATEb. "In case the demand is not immediately complied with, I request that you will inform all non-combatants in the town to provide for their safety, as I will immediately proceed to attack your position and storm the works. Major Henry Ewing, adjutant-general, is intrusted as the bearer of this flag of truce. "I am, general, very respectfully, "J. MARMADUKE, "Brigadier- General Commanding. "BRIGADIER-GENERAL McNEIL, "Commanding D. S. Forces in Cape Girardeau." The Rebel adjutant-general was stopped, as his predecessor had been, at a distance from the town, and knowing the base uses which Marmaduke had made on previous occasions of the flag of truce, General McNeil ordered the firing to be continued, and gave the verbal answer to the insulting demand of the Rebel general, that he had already removed the women and children, and that, so far from surrendering, he should defend the place to the last extremity. The adjutant-general attempting to remonstrate, General McNeil told him that the Rebels had had their answer the evening before, and that any further discussion was super fluous. A sharp action ensued, in which, however, the reinforcements from St. Louis took no part, nor did the gunboats, which came up a little after noon, fire a shot; for at thirty minutes past two P. M., Marmaduke was retreating with heavy loss. The fire of the little garrison had been too steady and well directed for his bushwhackers to endure. At first General McNeil supposed that he had withdrawn with the intention of making a night attack, and the whole force was kept on the alert through the night to repel it; but when Monday morning came, and no enemy was in sight, he reconnoitred, and finding that they had fled, made imme diate preparations for pursuit. During the afternoon General McNeil marched with his wearied men sixteen miles to Whitewater, and found the bridge destroyed by the enemy, and that General Yandever, his ranking officer, had made a feeble pursuit, engaged the enemy, and lost quite a number of his troops as prisoners. The bridge was repaired in three hours, and McNeil pushed on ten miles, and had nearly come up with the enemy, when an orderly arrived from General Vandever, who had not left Whitewater, ordering them to halt. Finally, the column was allowed to press forward, and had again come within three miles of the enemy when they were again halted. The pursuit was continued in this way for three days ; and though there were occasional skirmishes with their rear guard, yet whenever the Union troops approached near enough to make an engagement imminent, General Vandever was sure to order a halt ; and thus the Rebels made good their escape into Arkansas with their artillery, and with a less severe punishment than they should have received. RAID OF COLONEL STREIGHT THROUGH GEORGIA. 503 The next raid was one led by a Union officer, and, for the energy and ability with which it was conducted, deserved a better fate than befell the brave men who composed the expeditionary force. General Rosecrans, desirous of ascertaining the real condition of affairs among the Rebels in northern Georgia, and of cutting their communications by which rein forcements were sent to General Bragg, then lying at Tullahoma, and destroying a large foundry, the Round Mountain Iron Works, where cannon and munitions of war were cast for the Rebel army, determined to send a cavalry expedition into Georgia by way of Tuscumbia, Alabama. He selected for this purpose Colonel A. D. Streight, of Indiana, and as he could spare but little of his cavalry force the greater part of it being required to hold in check the enemy s partisan officers, who were con stantly dashing into prominent towns of Tennessee and southern Ken tucky he assigned to him two companies of the Tennessee cavalry, composed of loyal Alabamians, and four regiments of infantry the fifty- first and the seventy-third Indiana, eightieth Illinois, and third Ohio who were to be mounted for the expedition. There was great difficulty in procuring horses for this force. On the llth of April they were sent down the Cumberland from Nashville, and up the Tennessee to Eastport; and on landing, not one half of the whole number were mounted, and many of those who were had only broken-down mules, which could not endure two consecutive days of travel. On the 24th, following in the rear of General Dodge s forces, they reached Tuscumbia, Alabama, where a further quantity of worn-out mules and wagon-horses were received, but not enough to mount the whole brigade, about two hundred and fifty being still obliged to go on foot. At three o clock on the morning of the 27th, the brigade started for Russelville, eighteen miles from Tuscumbia, through a country which had been deluged by recent heavy rains. Their object in moving in this direction was to obtain as many good horses as possible to mount the men, as, if this was not accomplished, the expedition would be of little service. It was found that the inhabitants of Lawrence and Morgan counties, having had information of the object of the expedition, had concealed their horses and mules in the mountains, and very few could be obtained. The brigade finally reached Moulton on the 28th of April, still poorly mounted, and a few of the men yet on foot. Here they learned that the Rebels, under command of Colonel Roddy, a well known cavalry officer, were advancing on them. As, however, General Dodge s column was advancing also, and was likely to be more than a match for Roddy, they felt little apprehension, but moved before daylight on the 29th from Moulton, in order to avoid a collision with the Rebel troops, which might delay their ultimate purpose, and reached Day s gap before night, where they camped and rested. On the morning of the 30th of April, soon after leaving camp, the Rebels commenced firing on their rear guard with 504 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. two pieces of artillery. Selecting a favorable position on the crest of a hill, and dismounting his men, Colonel Streight directed them to await the approach of the enemy, and not to fire till they came very near. He had two small pieces of artillery, which were under the charge of Lieu tenant Pavey, an experienced artillery officer. The Kebels moved up boldly, bringing up their artillery very close, but fired without precision, and their shells went over the heads of the Union troops. When they had approached sufficiently near, Colonel Streight opened upon them with his artillery, and at the same time ordered a charge, which was made with great effect, killing and wounding seventy-five of the Rebels, and cap turing their two pieces of artillery and a considerable number of horses. The Union loss was one killed and twenty wounded, some of them mor tally. Fearing lest the Rebels might be largely reinforced, and return to the attack, Colonel Streight moved forward, leaving his wounded in the care of a surgeon and nurses. This apprehension proved to be well founded. The enemy, reinforced till they numbered about three thousand pursued, and at three o clock in the afternoon again attacked the rear of Colonel Streight s force as they were crossing a small creek. Forming his men in line of battle, the Union commander again awaited their approach ; and as they came forward very boldy, in consequence of their superior numbers, he again poured upon them a terrific fire, and charging upon them with great fury, repulsed them with heavy loss. They fell back for a time, but approached again on both flanks, and suc ceeded in so far turning the Union right as to subject the troops to # galling cross-fire and compel the centre to fall back, with the loss of the two pieces of artillery which had been captured in the morning, though not until their ammunition was entirely exhausted and the cannon spiked. The Union troops, after falling back a few rods, held their position in flexibly, and with their two small brass cannon and their carbines in flicted severe losses on the enemy. Their own loss was but slight, two killed and several slightly wounded. Darkness put an end to the conflict, and Colonel Streight again moved on, the Rebels receiving further reinforce ments just as he left. Expecting to be followed, on reaching a favorable situation he disposed his men in ambush, on both sides of the road, and waited for the enemy to come up. After two hours delay, as they did not come, he again pushed forward, and arrived at Blountsville, the county seat of Blount county, on the Locust fork of the Black Warrior, at noon, May 1st, both men and animals being nearly exhausted with watching, fatigue, and hunger. Stopping here for two hours, rations were issued to the men, and ammunition distributed. All the wagons but one were burned, and the ammunition put upon the backs of pack- mules. At three p. M. the brigade was again on the move, and had not proceeded far when skirmishing again commenced in the rear. Selecting his position on the bank of a stream, the commander again formed his men in line of battle FINAL MOVEMENTS OF COLONEL STREIGHT. 505 and again repulsed the enemy, whose advance only had yet come up, This accomplished, he again moved forward, and continued his course till twelve o clock that night, when he stopped and rested till daylight. On resuming his march, he found that the enemy s skirmishers were still upon his rear, and annoyed his troops. During the forenoon the brigade passed Gadsden, on the Coosa river, stopping only long enough to destroy a large quantity of commissary stores collected there by the Rebels. It had been expected that a small steamer would be found here, on which a detachment of men could be placed, and sent to Rome, Georgia, to hold the place till the brigade arrived ; but there was no steamer in the vicinity, and the wearied troops followed the north side of the Coosa, toward Rome. The animals were becoming very much exhausted, and several of the men falling in rear of the gaurd were taken prisoners ; and to prevent this the whole body were compelled to proceed very slowly. At about one o clock, p. M., May 2d, the Rebels again attacked the rear ; but the coolness and bravery of the rear-guard, assisted by one piece of artillery, kept them at a respectful distance. Arriving soon after at Blount s Farm, which was well provided with corn, Colonel Streight ordered the animals to be sent forward and fed, while one or two regi ments, dismounted, held the enemy at bay. The Rebels were nearer, however, than was supposed, and attacked the men before they were in position, killing Colonel Hathaway of the seventy-third Indiana regiment in their first onset. They were repulsed, after a time, with considerable loss, but continued to skirmish briskly. From this point Colonel Streight sent two hundred men, in command of Captain M. Russell, to Rome, to take and hold it till the brigade should come up. Owing to delay in ferry ing a stream, they did not arrive before the town till nine A. M. the next day, and then found that the citizens had been advised of their advance, and had torn up the bridge across the Coosa, and that the town was pro tected by a considerable force and four pieces of artillery. Finding it im possible to gain possession of the town, Captain Russell slowly retreated to rejoin the main force. Meantime, Colonel Streight had held the enemy in check at Blount s Farm till late in the evening, and during this time had sent on the pack-rnules and a part of his force to cross two tributaries of Coosa river. At the first ford it was expected that a ferry-boat would be found on which the ammunition could be crossed, but it had been taken away by the Rebels, and after a delay of several hours the train proceeded two or three miles up the creek to a point where there was an unsafe ford with a rapid current. In crossing this most of the ammunition was wetted and ruined. At the left of the road, about a mile distant, were the Round Mountain Iron Works, already referred to, where large quantities of can non and munitions of war were cast for the Rebel Government. These were burned to the ground, and all the machinery effectually destroyed At the second tributary of the Coosa was a bridge, which was destroyed 06 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. as soon as the Union forces had crossed ; and believing that two streams were now between them and the enemy, the commander halted his men two miles beyond Cedar Bluffs to rest and feed their animals, and prepare their rations; but they had hardly dismounted before they were again disturbed by firing upon their rear-gaurd. Once more, wearied and jaded as they were, they promptly formed in line, when a flag of truce came up, demanding a surrender. Colonel Streight refused; but the officer who bore the flag of truce assured him that General Forrest, with five thousand men and several batteries advantageously posted, had surrounded them, and that they were at his mercy. Colonel Streight demanded to be per mitted to go round their lines and see for himself whether their represen tations were correct. This was allowed ; and finding that, with his ammu nition damaged by water, and his men exhausted by fatigue, he could not hope to force his way through their lines and escape, he surrendered, first drawing up his men in line, and stating to them the reasons which led him to do so. The men gave three cheers for him, showing their confi dence in him as a leader. The prisoners were first taken to Rome; and then, after a litte delay, sent thence to Richmond, where the men were ex changed, but the officers were subjected <to gross indignities, the Rebel Government refusing to exchange them, and treating them with the ut most cruelty. It was said that the Governor of Georgia claimed them as felons, in consequence of several negroes being found with them when they surrendered. During this unsuccessful raid the brigade had lost twelve killed and sixty-nine wounded. The number surrendered was one hundred and one officers, and one thousand three hundred and sixty-five privates; in all, one thousand four hundred and sixty -six. The Rebel loss in killed and wounded exceeded five hundred. Another expedition sent out during the same month, under General Grant s sanction, was more successful, and indeed, surpassed, in the extent of country traversed, the. damage inflicted upon the enemy, and the com pleteness of its achievements; any previous raid of the war, on either side. General Grant being about to transfer his operations for the reduction of the stronghold of Vicksburg to the region below that city, was desirous of effectually breaking the railroad communications of the Rebels with Vicksburg, in all directions, and thus preventing them from obtaining reinforcements or supplies of ammunition, arms, or quartermasters and commissary stores. For this purpose, he detailed Colonel B. II. Grierson. an enterprising and skilful cavalry officer, then in command of the first cavalry brigade, composed of the sixth and seventh Illinois, and the second Iowa cavalry, to make an expedition into Mississippi, and cut the Mobile and Ohio, the New Orleans and Jackson, and the Meridian and Vicksburg railroads, and to destroy or capture such supplies as he might find on his route. The cavalry force under Colonel Grierson s command CAVALRY RAID INTO MISSISSIPPI. 507 was composed of picked men, well mounted, and with a good supply of led horses. Two of the regiments, the seventh Illinois, and the second Iowa, had previously, under their present commanders, made expeditions into northern Mississippi, and they were men eminently to be relied upon for skill and tact in the management of such an enterprise. On the 17th of April, the expedition left La Grange, Tennessee, on the Memphis and Charleston railroad, near the point where the Mississippi Central crosses it, and marched southerly to the vicinity of Ripley, Mis sissippi, a distance of about thirty miles. The next day, they passed through Ripley to New Albany, and camped four miles south of that town. At Ripley, Colonel Hatch, with his regiment, the second Iowa, had been detached to move eastwardly, and then southwardly, to cross the Tallahatchie about five miles above the New Albany, and then rejoin the brigade six miles below that town. This was accomplished without any incident. From this point regiments and parts of regiments were sent in different directions to scour the country, and ascertain the location of Rebel troops, supplies, etc., and rejoin the brigade at night. Several prisoners were taken, and horses in such quantities, that about one hun dred and fifty men, with a considerable number of led horses, were sent back to La Grange on the 20th. On the 21st, Colonel Hatch and the second Iowa regiment, were directed to turn eastward from Clear Springs, which had been their camping ground the night before, and proceed toward Columbus, destroying as much of the Mobile and Ohio railroad as possible. They marched about twenty-five miles southeast from Houston on the route to Columbus, encountered a force of about eight hundred Rebel cavalry, armed with shot-guns, whom they repulsed with their rifles and a small cannon they had with them, and then turning directly north, crossed a swamp, swam a deep creek, and at sunset of the 23d entered Okalona, on the Mobile and Ohio railroad, entirely unexpected by all, as, the day previous, a large body of southern cavalry and artillery had gone south in pursuit of them. Here they destroyed the depots, barracks, and Rebel Government storehouses, and tore up the railroad track for a long distance, heating and bending the rails. Private property was scrupulously respected. Thence they continued northward, destroy ing the track and bridges on the railroad, and reached La Grange some days later. Meanwhile, Colonel Grierson continued to move southward, with the sixth and seventh Illinois, camping on the night of the 21st, eight miles south of Starkville. On the morning of the 22d, Captain Forbes, of Company C, seventh Illinois, was detached with thirty-five men to cut the Mobile and Ohio railroad and the telegraph between Okalona and Macon as near Macon as possible, with instructions, if he found a force at Macon, to try to cross the Okanoxubee river, and move toward Decatur in Newton county by the shortest route. Captain Forbes found a Rebel force at Macon, and 508 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. followed his directions, moving upon the trail of the brigade to Newton, where he was informed they had gone to Enterprise, on the Mobile and Ohio railroad. He pushed on to Enterprise, and marched into the town, where he found about three thousand Rebel troops just landing from the cars. Raising a flag of truce and riding boldly forward, he demanded the surrender of the Rebel troops, in the name of Colonel Grierson. The Rebel commander, Colonel Goodwin, asked an hour to consider the proposition, and wished to know where Captain Forbes would be at that time. The captain answered that he would go back with the reply to the reserve, which he did with all speed, having first ascertained the strength of the enemy. As may be imagined, he did not return at the expiration of the hour to learn the decision of the Rebel commander. Colonel Grierson had also detached, the same day, Captain Graham, with one battalion, to burn a Rebel shoe-manufactory, which was supply ing shoes to the Rebel army. He succeeded in destroying several thousand pairs of boots and shoes, and a large quantity of hats and leather, and captured a Rebel quartermaster from Port Hudson, who was there procuring supplies for his regiment. Colonel Grierson and the remainder of his troops moved on to a point ten miles below Louisville, a distance of fifty-seven miles, eight miles of it through the swamps of the Okanoxubee, at this time overflowed with water, and having numerous deep mire-holes, in which about twenty of the horses were lost. On the 23d they crossed the Pearl river, near Philadelphia, preserving the bridge over Pearl river, which the Rebels had attempted to destroy. The same day Lieutenant-Colonel Blackburn, of the seventh Illinois, was sent forward with two hundred men to Decatur, and passing through that place at four A. M. of the 24th, reached Newton station, on the Meridian and Vicksburg railroad, at seven A. M., and, with the aid of the rest of the command, who came up at nine A. M. captured two locomotives and two trains of cars, took seventy-five prisoners, burned the bridges and trestles for six miles each side of the sta tion, destroyed two warehouses filled with commissary stores, and four car loads of ammunition, mostly for heavy artillery. At eleven A. M. the brigade moved forward to a plantation twelve miles from Newton, where they encamped. During the 25th and 26th they passed through Raleigh and Millhaven to TV estville, on their way to the Mississippi and Jackson railroad, and on the 27th Colonel Prince, with two hundred men, passed on in advance to Hazlehurst on that road, cut the telegraph wires, and destroyed a large number of cars, four of them loaded with ammunition. This march of twenty-five miles was performed in a drenching rain ; and the Georgetown ferry, over Pearl river a wide and deep stream crossed, the proprietor of the ferry supposing, till the troops were all over, that he was serving the first Alabama (Rebel) cavalry, on their way to Vicks burg. Colonel Grierson with his main column, moved on through Hazlehurst RESULT OF THE RAID INTO MISSISSIPPI. 509 to Gallatin, and encamped near that town, having on their way captured a thirty-two pounder rifled Parrott gun, and fourteen hundred pounds of powder, on its way to Grand Gulf. The next day (28th) four companies were detached to proceed to Bahala, two miles below Ilazlehurst, on the New Orleans and Jackson railroad, and destroy the railroad and transpor tation. The sixth Illinois had a skirmish this day the first during their raid with the Rebels, in which they wounded two and took a number of prisoners. On the 29th, before daylight, the four companies came in, having performed their mission, and bringing about thirty prisoners. The seventh Illinois led the way this day, and charging into Brookhaven another station on the New Orleans and Jackson railroad burned the depot, cars, bridges, etc., and captured and paroled two hundred and one prisoners. On the 30th, the sixth Illinois, being in advance, visited Bogue Chitto, and burned the depot, bridges, and cars there, and all the bridges and trestles between there and Summit, eleven miles below, and the cars, and a large amount of property, belonging to the Rebel Gov ernment, at Summit. No private property was destroyed at any of these places. On the 1st of May, proceeding southwestward, they came to a bridge over one of the forks of Amite river, where the Rebels had stationed an ambush, and Lieutenant-Colonel Blackburn, of the seventh Illinois, was severely wounded in attempting to cross the bridge. The enemy were put to flight by a few rounds from Smith s battery, and the column marched on, and reached and crossed the Amite* river without opposition at ten o clock p. M. On the 2d of May they surprised and burned a Rebel camp at Sandy creek bridge, and soon after captured forty-two of Stewart s Mississippi cavalry on Comitd river, and at noon made their triumphant entry into Baton Rouge. In this expedition they had in fifteen days marched nearly six hundred miles, had cut every railroad in Mississippi, and destroyed most of them for miles, had burned the greater part of the cars, and most of the locomo tives on those roads, taken and paroled over five hundred prisoners, liberated and brought in over three hundred negroes, and taken a large number of excellent horses. Their own loss had been very trifling none killed, and only eight or ten wounded. The communications of the Rebels with Vicksburg in all directions had been completely broken up, and could not be re-established for weeks ; while to restore them to their former condition was beyond the power of the Rebel Government. After the Rebel General Marmaduke s summary expulsion from Mis souri already detailed he remained in Arkansas ; and it was generally supposed had made his way toward the northwest of that State, hoping for an opportunity to slip from the old battle-grounds, where he had been so often repulsed, into Southwestern Missouri. The supposition proved 510 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. erroneous; for he was still in the region lying between the White and St. Francis rivers, watching an opportunity for mischief, and contemplating a junction with General Sterling Price, who was now second in command in the Rebel Trans-Mississippi army, when the two purposed to make a descent upon Helena, Arkansas, and drive out the Union forces there under the command of General Prentiss. Rumors of this purpose on the part of the Rebels had reached General Prentiss early in May, and he resolved to ascertain the actual position of Price s army, to break up a gang of guerrillas under the command of a Colonel Dobbins, and also to destroy any supplies which the Rebels might have collected in the region lying between the White and St. Francis rivers. For this purpose, on the 6th of May, he directed Colonel Powell Clayton, of the fifth Kansas cavalry, one of the best partisan officers in the West, to take command of a brigade composed of his own regiment, the fifth Illinois cavalry, the first Indiana cavalry, one section of Hayden s Dubuque battery, one company of the third Iowa cavalry, and one thousand infantry under the command of Colonel Rice, of the thirty-third Iowa, for an expedition to scour the region between the White and St. Francis rivers. Colonel Clayton detached the infantry, the section of artillery, and the company of Iowa cavalry, under command of Colonel Rice, to take the Cotton Plant road, and make a thorough reconnoissance in that vicinity. In order to reach this place it became necessary to bridge the Bayou de Vue, and believing that it would occupy too much time to construct a bridge over this extensive swamp, such as would admit the passage of artillery and cavalry, and having ascertained satisfactorily that there were no Rebel troops at Cotton Plant, Colonel Rice concluded to return to Mariana, and look after Dobbins, who was said to be in that vicinity. By this course, too, he would be within supporting distance of the cavalry, should they need his assistance. Meantime, Colonel Clayton, with his cavalry force of eleven hundred men, had pushed on toward Clarendon, where he ascertained that the Rebel General Price was at a point about midway between the Arkansas and White rivers, fifty miles from Clarendon, with three brigades of in fantry, and four companies of artillery. From Clarendon Colonel Clayton had gone northward, toward the L Anguille river, by way of the military road leading to Memphis. This road crosses the L Anguille by a cordu roy bridge, which Colonel Clayton deemed it important to guard, as, if they were attacked by superior numbers, it would be their only way of escape. The Indiana regiment was accordingly detailed to guard it, and Lieu tenant-Colonel Jenkins, of the fifth Kansas, (who had just returned from a dash to a camp of negroes, some eight miles distant, and had brought in about twenty,) was sent to Taylor s creek, five miles distant, to recon noitre, and ascertain where Dobbins was. On arriving at Taylor s creek, MOVEMENTS OF COLONEL CLAYTON. 511 Colonel Jenkins learned that Dobbins had crossed Hughes ferry, near Mount Vernon, some distance up the L Anguille river, that afternoon, and consequently could not be far off. This intelligence he immediately communicated by messenger to Colonel Clayton, and went on himself to McDaniel s mills, seven miles from the ferry, where he took the proprie tor of the mill (which had been running for the Rebel army all winter) prisoner, and destroyed between fifty and sixty thousand bushels of corn. Before dawn of the 12th, a negro came into Colonel Jenkins camp, and brought the unexpected and startling news that General Marmaduke, with his whole command, was encamped not more than twenty-five miles up the creek, at Wittsburgh, and that this plan had been devised to cut off the entire expedition; Colonel Dobbins was to be at Hughes ferry with five hundred men to dispute their crossing, while Marmaduke moved down a strong force to attack them in rear. At first Colonel Jen kins was inclined to disbelieve the report, but further examination of the negro convinced him of its truth, and he immediately despatched a second messenger to Colonel Clayton with it. That officer, on the receipt of his previous message, had sent him orders to advance at daylight on Dobbins, and he would follow as soon as possible. On receiving his second message, there seemed to be no other course but to move directly on Mar maduke, and this he did, without informing Colonel Jenkins. This occa sioned him much anxiety, as his instructions to Colonel Jenkins had been to meet him at Taylor s creek, where he would await his coming, and to do this would have brought him immediately upon Marmaduke s force, which now lay between him and Colonel Clayton. But remember ing that Jenkins and his command (the Kansas fifth and the fourth Illi nois) had been thoroughly accustomed, for years, to independent action in emergencies, he felt measurably assured that he was informed of Marma duke s position, and would not attempt to return to Taylor s creek, but would cross at Hughes ferry, where he would receive the support of the infantry force under Colonel Rice. Colonel Clayton s entire force with which he set out to meet Marmaduke, consisted of only two hundred and thirty men, (the Indiana cavalry) the Illinois and Kansas regiments being with Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins. Of these, he was obliged to detail forty as a rear-guard to hold the bridge. Marmaduke had three or four brigades, and his advance, which met Col onel Clayton, consisted of an entire brigade. The Kansas officers had, however, met Marmaduke too often, and driven him from, the field too precipitately, to feel much concern about the superiority of numbers he could bring against them. Colonel Clayton first found the Rebel general near the village of Taylor s Creek, and after a brisk fight, succeeded in driving him out of that village, and into a wood beyond. Following him promptly, and securing a good position, he fought the Rebels for an hour longer, when they fled in disorder. A part of them turned off in a direc- 512 THE (5IVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. tion which Colonel Clayton knew led to a road by which they could reach the bridge and cut oft his retreat. This he must prevent at all hazards, and he accordingly formed his men in column, and marched promptly for the bridge. Just before his arrival, about thirty of the Rebels, who were in advance of the main force, came up and endeavored to set fire to the bridge, but were quickly dispersed by his guard. Colonel Clayton had just placed his little force in position, with his two small field-pieces on an eminence which commanded the bridge, when Marrnaduke came up, and opened fire upon him with artillery and musketry. Clayton replied so vigorously, that after half an hour Marmaduke and his troops fell back, and sought the shelter of the hills. Colonel Clayton was unwilling to show the weakness of his force by pursuing them to their stronghold, and accordingly remained at the bridge, thinking it possible, also, that Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins might attempt to come there according to instructions. In the evening, several citizens were brought into his camp, and from them he ascertained that there were two routes, one above and the other below his camp, by which the enemy could cross Taylor s creek, and reach his rear. Calculating the time it would take them to arrive at the bridge, by either of these routes, Colonel Clayton waited till eight P. M., aL.d then causing the camp-fires to be replenished, and the pickets in front to fire, so that the enemy might believe him still at the bridge, he quietly took up his march for Helena. Meantime, Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins, learning that Marmaduke was at Taylor s creek, and appreciating the importance of consolidating their little forces, started at daylight of the eleventh, to join Colonel Clayton at the bridge. He .had not proceeded far before his advance-guard came upon the enemy, and he at once dismounted seven companies, to serve as his main body, threw out one company to the right, and another to the left as skirmishers, two more to guard the flanks, and one to protect the rear, and ordered an immediate advance. The fire of his men was so well directed that the enemy broke and retired three times, retreating in all about six hundred yards. This occupied about three fourths of an hour. In thus driving the enemy back, Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins had reached a very favorable position, where a small force could successfully check a large one, and ordered his men to cover the road, and reserve their fire till the enemy came within forty yards. Presently the Rebels fired a most terrific volley, and then parted right and left, when a regiment of cavalry, finely mounted, rode toward them at full gallop, in columns of platoons, their colors flying, and the heavy tread of their horses making the earth shake. When within sixty yards, they broke out into a prolonged yell, such as might have came from ten thousand Comanche Indians. Lieu tenant-Colonel Jenkins, sitting calmly on his horse, watched their motions, and gave the order quietly to his men : "Reserve your fire until they are ARRIVAL OF COLONEL CLAYTON AT HELENA. 513 close on you, and then let every shot tell." He knew his troops ; not an eye quailed, not a cheek blanched, but with set teeth, and a firm grasp of their Sharps rifles, every man awaited the shock. The Rebel cavalry were within less than forty yards of the line, when, at the given signal, a stream of fire burst upon them, so well directed and terrible that the head of their column staggered, reeled, and finally broke in confusion, and fell back through the woods to the rear. About twenty minutes elapsed, when the twenty -first Texas (Rebel) Rangers came down in the same style, led by Colonel Carter, their brigade commander, (the same who in Marmaduke s raid demanded General McNeil s surrender). Rendered desperate by the previous repulse of their comrades, they rode forward more fiercely than their predecessors, and uttering the same wild yell, were allowed to approach still nearer, when at Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins word of command, the torrent of flame again burst upon them and swept them down as with the besom of destruction. Colonel Carter was among the wounded, and most of the line officers. The ground was strewed with the wounded, who were begging most piteously for water, and the Kansas men, as tender to the wounded as brave in fight, though the battle still raged, brought water to the men who but a few moments before had sought their lives. A third time the enemy attempted a cavalry charge, but they could not be brought up to the close range which had twice proved so fatal, and halting at the distance of seventy or eighty yards, they retired. Thus far the fifth Kansas had done all the fighting, but the fifth Illinois now eame up ; and were greeted with hearty cheers. The enemy, who were now ascer tained to be the Carter s brigade of Texan troops, about sixteen hundred strong, had taken up a position beyond musket range, and commenced a heavy artillery fire, having the exact range of Jenkins camp. It was now dark, and finding that the enemy could reach his rear by good roads at a short distance, Lieutenant-Colonel Jenkins, after consulting his offi cers, determined to cross the L Anguille at Hughes ferry, though Dobbins* force was said to be there. On arriving at the ferry, he found that Col onel Rice had driven Dobbins away, and crossing in safety, by swimming his horses, he reached Helena the next day, May 12th. The loss of the Union forces in this expedition was two killed, and nineteen wounded. The loss of the Rebels was about fifty killed, and one hundred wounded, including one colonel, four captains, and five lieutenants. The brigade destroyed in all, about one hundred thousand dollars worth of Rebel sup plies, and brought away thirty or forty negroes. Among the minor skirmishes and affairs which occurred during the latter part of April, and the first week in May, were several raids made by Rebel cavalry under Imboden, Jenkins, Harper, and William E. Jones in Western Virginia, at Piedmont, Cranberry Summit, Oakland, Rowles- burg, Altamont, and other points on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad 33 514 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. intended to ascertain the feasibility of an advance of General Lee s army upon Pittsburg, and a severe fight at Greenland gap, a narrow pass in Knobley mountains, Hardy county, where a little Union force of seventy- five men withstood three attacks of a Rebel force of fifteen hundred men, for more than two hours, and were only driven from their position by the Rebels firing the building (a church) in which they had stationed them selves. The Union loss was two killed, and four wounded ; the Rebel loss in killed and wounded, was over eighty, including one colonel and several line officers, being more than the whole Union force. In the De partment of the Gulf, Rear-Admiral Porter, early in May, completed the series of triumphs of the Union arms in Central Louisiana, already com menced by General Banks, by the capture of Alexandria, on the Red river, and the destruction of its fortifications, and by the burning of stores belonging to the Rebel Government, of the value of about three hundred thousand dollars, on the Black river, by gunboats belonging to his squadron. In the Department of the Ohio, on the 30th of April, General Carter, on moving his division, about five thousand troops, across the Cumberland river, at Monticello, Kentucky, encountered a considerable Rebel force, variously estimated at from two thousand to thirty-five hundred, under the command of Colonels Chenault, Morrison, and Pegram, with which his advance-guard skirmished briskly through the day, driving the Rebels two or three miles on the Albany road, and finally pursuing a portion of them some distance farther. The Rebels retreated toward Albany, and the Union troops returned to their camp at Monticello. The Union losses were very slight, one or two killed, and four or five wounded. The Rebel loss was nine killed, a considerable number wounded, and about twenty prisoners, including two officers. SIEGE OF WASHINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA- 515 CHAPTER XLV. THE SIEOE OP WASHINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA ATTEMPTS TO RAISE IT THE STEAMER ESCORT RUNS PAST THE BATTERIES WITH REINFORCEMENTS AND SUPPLIES GENERAL FOSTER ES CAPES IN HER AND PREPARES TO RAISE THE SIEGE THE REBELS ABANDON IT SIEGE OF SUFFOLK, VIRGINIA LONGSTREET ABANDONS IT TO REINFORCE LEE HOOKER S MANAGE MENT OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC HIS PLANS FOR ATTACKING LEE MOVEMENTS OP HIS TROOPS RUSE BELOW FREDERICKSBURG THE CONCENTRATION OF SIX CORPS IN THE VICINITY OF CHANCELLORSVILLE THE COUNTERPLOT OF LEE JACKSON S ATTACK ON THE RIGHT WING PANIC IN THE ELEVENTH CORPS THEIR FLIGHT THE ADVANCE OF THE REBELS CHECKED BY BERRY S DIVISION BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS JACKSON MORTALLY WOUNDED HOOKER RE-FORMS HIS LINES BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE, ON SUNDAY MORNING HOOKER AGAIN CHANGES HIS LINES MOVEMENTS OF SEDGWICK S CORPS BATTLE OF MARYE s HILL BATTLE OF SALEM HEIGHTS THE REBELS RECAPTURE FREDERICKS- BURG BATTLE OF BANKS* FORD SEDGWICK S CORPS CROSS THE FORD GENERAL HOOKER CALLS A COUNCIL OP WAR RECROSSES THE RAPPAHANNOCK AT UNITED STATES FORD REVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN. THE Department of North Carolina, and the adjacent region of South eastern Virginia, were, during the month of April, the theatres of some severe fighting. Washington, North Carolina, on the Tar river, at the point where it debouches into the wide estuary known as Pamlico river, had been occupied by a Union garrison for nearly a year, greatly to the annoyance of the Rebels, who had made frequent attempts to recapture it, but without success. As they had no gunboats in the waters of North Carolina, they were obliged to confine themselves to attacks by land, and these the Union gunboats generally repulsed with heavy loss. On the 30th of March, there was a garrison of about two thousand Union troops there, and the commander of the department, Major-General Foster, was at this time in the place. A strong force of Rebels (two divisions) under the command of General D. H. Hill and General J. J. Pettigrew, appeared, early in the morning of that day, before the place, and drove in the Union pickets and skirmishers with considerable loss, but they were held at bay by the garrison ; and the gunboat Commodore Hull opening upon them with shell, they were driven back to the hills surrounding the town, where they immediately commenced fortifying, with a view of besieging it. They also planted batteries with strong earthworks on Rodman s Point, opposite Washington, at Hill s Point, and at other promontories on the Pamlico river, near and below the town, with a view to prevent the gunboats from aiding in its defence. On the 4th of April, the garrison attempted to capture the battery on Rodman s Point, two hundred infantry, under the command of General Potter, em barking for that purpose on the gunboat Ceres, and intending to land at 516 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. a point above, and attack the battery in rear, while the gunboats assailed in front. The attempt was foiled, however, by the Ceres grounding while within range of the Rebel battery, before the troops were able to land. The enemy immediately opened fire upon her, killing and wounding five men, when the gunboat getting afloat retired. The same day, the Sylvan Shore, a Union transport, coming from Beaufort with troops for Wash ington, was fired at by the batteries on the Pamlico, and compelled to return to Beaufort. The next day, the Union gunboats Ceres and Com modore Hull attacked the Rebel batteries on Hill s Point, and bombarded them for two hours, but were unable to capture them. The Rebel force besieging the town was increased by constant reinforcements, and was drawing its lines closer and closer around the town. A force of eight thousand Union troops, under the command of General Spinola, sent from Newbern by way of the Neuse river, on the 5th of April, to reinforce General Foster and raise the siege, met a superior force of the enemy, and returned to Newbern, reaching that city on the 10th. Learning of their retreat, the Union commander at Newbern resolved to attempt send ing reinforcements, ammunition, and supplies, by steamer up the Pamlico, and past the Rebel batteries. The captain of the transport steamer Escort volunteered to run the batteries with his steamer, which was very fast, and succeeded, though not without some damage to the steamer. He reached Washington on the 13th, and General Foster the next day went on board the steamer, and running past the batteries reached Newbern in safety, when he immediately commenced organizing an expedition for raising the siege. The Rebels finding that he had left the beleaguered city, and knowing that he would soon bring a force against them which they could not resist, prudently abandoned the siege on the night of the 15th. On the Nansemond river, in the vicinity of Suffolk, Virginia, there was some sharp fighting during the month. On the 12th and 13th of April, there was considerable skirmishing, the Union force, under General Peck, being attacked by a considerable body of Rebels, under the command of Geneials Longstreet and Anderson, who were beaten off by Peck s troops and the gunboats Mount Washington and West End. In the action of the 13th the Mount Washington was seriously damaged. On Tuesday, the 13th, the Rebels were reinforced, and one division assailed General Peck, while another engaged the Union batteries and gunboats on the water front. Both were repulsed with heavy loss, though the West End was crippled, and seven of her crew killed or wounded. The Union gun boats Commodore Barney and Stepping Stones participated in the fight ; and after a few hours bombardment the Rebel batteries were silenced and the troops driven back. On Wednesday (15th) a Rebel battery of twenty pounder rifled guns was effectually silenced, and an attack on the Smith Briggs, an armed quartermasters boat, reoulsed. For the next two or HOOKER S PREPARATIONS FOR ATTACKING LEE. 517 three days, repeated attempts were made on the Union lines General Hill having come from Washington, North Carolina, to reinforce Long- street but all were foiled. On the 13th the Rebel battery near the west branch of the Nansemond was stormed by General Getty, and the Union gunboats under command of Lieutenant Commander Lawson, and six guns and two hundred prisoners were captured. The enemy kept up skirmishing for several days longer, but with little success, and finally abandoned the struggle, having lost a large number of killed and wounded, four hundred prisoners, and six guns, during its progress. The Union loss was forty-four killed, two hundred and one wounded, and fourteen missing. As Suffolk possessed no advantage as a military post, and was not susceptible of a good defence, the garrison was soon after withdrawn within the new lines constructed around Norfolk. From these minor skirmishes and battles, which, though possessing local interest, were in no sense material to the final issue of the war, we now turn our attention to the army of the Potomac, where preparations were making for another of those great battles, which it was hoped might prove decisive. From the time when General Hooker took command of that army, his energies had been directed to increasing its efficiency in discipline, in mobility, and in esprit-du-corps. Incompetent and disaffected officers bad been dismissed ; the army train, that incubus which had always paralyzed its movements, had been cut down to two wagons for each regiment ; pack mules had been substituted for wagons, whenever they could be with ad vantage ; the health of the men had been carefully provided for, and their comfort, as far as was consistent with that hardening and toughening which is necessary to make first rate soldiers, had been cared for. The cavalry had been greatly improved, and was now a more efficient arm of the service ; and, in every respect, the army was in more perfect condition than it had ever previously been. It was not the purpose of a commander, whose successful and skilfully managed attacks upon the enemy, when in a subordinate command, had won him the sobriquet of "fighting Joe Hooker," to bring his army up to this splendid condition, without hurling them upon the foe, as soon as a favorable opportunity presented itself; and if, as was hardly to be expected, the opportunity did not come of itself, he held it to be the duty of a gen eral to make one. The topography of the country on both banks of the Rappahannock and Rapidan had been carefully studied, and the fords, the slopes of the hills, the banks of the rivers, the railroads, plank-roads, and turnpikes traced, in the hope of discovering some point where a blow could be suc cessfully struck, and the adroit and able Rebel general outwitted. At length General Hooker seemed to have found what he sought, and busied himself in perfecting the details of a plan which as yet he did not 518 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. communicate even to his most trusted corps commanders, giving them only their orders, from day to day, for each day s movements. A large cavalry force under General Stoneman, with General Averill and Gen eral Kilpatrick as subordinates, was sent off upon a secret expedition ; and on the 26th of April orders were issued that the different corps should be prepared to break up camp the following day, with eight days cooked rations. On the morning of the 27th of April, the several army corps were put in motion, but the purpose of the commander was still impenetrably veiled. Three corps, the first (Major-General Reynolds), the third (Major- General Sickles), and the sixth (Major-General Sedgwick), were moved, Monday evening, to a point near the bank of the Rappahannock, two miles below Fredericksburg the same place where General Franklin had crossed before the battle of Fredericksburg and were covered from the enemy s view by the curtain of hills which fringe the Rappahannock in that part of its course. At the same time, the fifth corps (Major-General Meade s), and the twelfth (Major-General Slocum s), were despatched, by different roads, up the north bank of the Rappahannock, and took up positions in the neighborhood of Banks and United States fords, which are respectively eight and eleven miles above Fredericksburg. The eleventh corps (Major-General Howard s) had gone in the same direction, on the night of the 26th. The second (Major-General Couch s) remained in camp during the day. At dawn on Tuesday, April 28, the boats had been unloaded from pon toon trains, and under cover of a heavy fog, Russell s brigade of Brookes division, sixth (Sedgwick s) army corps, pushed rapidly over the river, took possession of the Rebel rifle-pits on the Fredericksburg side, in which were about four hundred Rebel sharpshooters, took a few prisoners, and assisted in laying the bridges, over which, in the course of the morning, the whole of Brookes division passed. The remaining divisions of that corps did not cross that day. The third corps (Major General Sickles ) had been ordered back to camp, and sent up the river. The first corps (Major General Reynolds ) attempted to cross about a mile and a-half be low Sedgwick s, but were annoyed by the Rebel sharpshooters to such an extent that they could not effect a crossing till after ten o clock, when the batteries opened upon the rifle-pits from the Falmouth side, and kept the sharpshooters in check till a reinforcement could cross in boats and drive them out. One hundred and fifty Rebels were captured by this movement. The bridges were then laid, and General Wadsworth s di vision crossed. The remaining divisions of both Reynolds and Sedg wick s corps, together with the artillery and cavalry, were marched and countermarched around the hills, near the banks of the Rappahannock, in such a way as to give the impression that the force crossed there was not less than a hundred thousand men. This had the desired effect. The MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 519 Rebel forces posted below, as well as those above, began to swarm into Fredericrksburg, and toward the fortified heights which encompassed it, evidently expecting a repetition of the scenes of December. They were destined to disappointment. Major-General Howard s corps (the eleventh) had passed on beyond United States ford to Kelley s ford, on the Upper Rappahannock, twenty- seven miles above Fredericksburg, where they crossed on a pontoon bridge, and were followed by Slocum s and Meade s corps. Howard s and Slocum s corps proceeded twelve miles south, to Germania ford, across the Rapidan, which they crossed by wading. Meade s corps took a road leading east ward, and crossed the Rapidan at Ely s ford. At Germania ford, a force of one hundred and fifty Rebel pioneers, who were building a bridge, were captured. Having crossed the Rapidan, both columns moved, as ordered, toward Chancellorsville, a large mansion situated at the junction of the turnpike from Gordonsville to Fredericksburg, with the Culpepper, Orange Court House, and Fredericksburg plank road, about ten miles west of Fredericksburg. Pleasanton s cavalry kept up a communication be tween the different corps, and protected them on either side from Rebel cavalry. By this movement, United States ford, eleven miles from Fred ericksburg, and just below the mouth of the Rapidan, was opened, the Reb els flying from our cavalry, and Major-General Couch s corps (the second), which had lain at Falmouth up to this time, moved forward, crossed that ford, and approached Chancellorsville by a road running directly south from the ford. The third corps (Sickles ) and the first (Reynolds ) had been withdrawn from their position below Fredericksburg and followed Couch s corps to United States ford. As these corps drew near their des tination, they took position around Chancellorsville as follows : Howard s lay upon the road by which they had come, occupying most of the space between Wilderness church, between four and five miles west of Chancel lorsville, and Dowdall s tavern, two miles west of that place. Slocum s corps, passing Howard s, had camped around Dowdall s tavern ; Sickles , coming from United States ford, had passed Chancellorsville and Dow- dall s, and lay along a road extending southward from Dowdall s to the left, and in rear of Howard s ; Meade s, which had been the first to reach Chancellorsville, was encamped around the Chancellor house, and to the right and left of it ; Couch was posted along the road leading to United States ford, to guard it, while Reynolds, who was the last comer, was lying along the Rapidan, northwest of Chancellorsville, his left being about four miles from Howard s right. The sixth corps (Sedgwick s) had finally crossed below Fredericksburg, with the intention of flanking and capturing the heights which had been so formidable in December. The movements by which Hooker had thus turned Lee s flank, and compelled him to move out of his fortifications and fight in the open field, were masterly, and, as it appeared, took Lee by surprise. The Union 520 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. troops reached Chancellorsville on Thursday evening, April 30. In the house at Chancellorsville was found a letter from Lee s chief of staff, Gen eral Taylor, dated at 4.29 P. M. of that day, in which he informs the Rebel officer in command at that post that General Lee had that moment heard that the Federal force was across Ely s ford, (they had crossed it eighteen hours before ;) that General Anderson who commanded at United States ford with a couple of brigades knew nothing of their arrival, and con cludes by asking him " to come down immediately and consult the com manding general." On Thursday night, April 30th, General Hooker issued the following order : " HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, NEAR FALMOUTH, VIRGINIA, " April 30, 1863. "It is with heartfelt satisfaction that the general commanding announces to the army that the operations of the last three days have determined that our enemy must ingloriously fly, or come out from behind their de fences, and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits them. "The operations of the fifth, eleventh, and twelfth corps have been a series of splendid successes. " By command of Major-General HOOKER. " S. WILLIAMS, Adjutant- General" General Lee, though unquestionably outgeneraled by this brilliant and rapid movement, was too shrewd and experienced a commander to hesi tate long in his action. He did not probably comprehend at first the full magnitude of Hooker s plans ; but he was strong enough to give battle on equal terms to General Hooker, even on ground of his own choosing, for he had, as it afterward appeared, withdrawn the greater part of the Rebel troops from Charleston, and had been reinforced by Longstreet s and Hill s divisions, which, as we have seen, had up to a few days before been oper ating in the vicinity of Suffolk. With these additions his force probably approached very nearly one hundred thousand men. He had also the two advantages, of great importance to a general in his position, of moving on the interior or shorter line, and of knowing thoroughly and minutely the topography of the region in which the impending battles were to be fought. The Union troops, on Friday, were taking their positions and throw ing up defences, with a view to resist more effectually the advance of the enemy; for it was General Hooker s design to make the battle at first a defensive one; to let Jackson, who, from the situation he was known to occupy, would be likely to be the first to assail him, throw himself upon his front, till he was thoroughly, exhausted, and then to bring forward his strong reserves, perfectly fresh, and annihilate the Eebel army. To effect this purpose he had arranged hip troops in the form of an irregular tri- \ EVENTS PRECEDING THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS . 521 ingle, of which the Rapidan and Rappahannock formed the base, the Gor- donsville turnpike one of the sides, and Chancellorsville the apex How ard s, Sickles and Slocum s corps being on the right leg of the triangle, Meade s at the apex and along the left leg, and Couch extending along the left leg, to join Reynolds, whose corps formed the base. The extreme right, Howard s corps, should have joined Reynolds , but there was really a gap of four miles of a wooded region between them. Howard s corps had been, until recently, commanded by General Sigel; it was composed mainly of German regiments, though some of the regiments of one division were of American birth, and they were somewhat disaffected at the loss of their favorite commander. The three divisions of which the corps was com posed were commanded by General Steinwehr, a gallant and experienced officer, General Devens, a Massachusetts officer of moderate reputation, and General Carl Schurz, who, though possessing undoubted bravery and resolution, perhaps lacked somewhat the experience to make him in all re spects qualified to occupy, as he did at this time, the post of danger. Before proceeding to narrate the events of the battle of Saturday, May 2d, it may be well to describe briefly the topographical character of the region in which the battle was fought. The turnpike from Fredericks- burg to Gordonsville passed in this part of its route three prominent buildings, which we have already named, situated at about two miles distance from each other, viz : the Chancellor House, which was General Hooker s headquarters, ten miles west of Fredericksburg, and in the middle of a clearing of elliptical form about a mile in length, by half a mile in width. Beyond this, on all sides the country was broken and wooded, rising toward Fredericksburg, to the heights which overlook that city. Two miles west of this house was DowdalFs tavern, surrounded by undulat ing fields, but on the northern, eastern, and southern sides having heavy timber; within a moderate distance, on the west side, the land sloped down toward open ground, traversed by a small brook. Two miles farther west, in the midst of a dense forest, was a church known as " Wilderness Church," or as often as " Wilderness." On either side of this turnpike was a broken country, wooded, and with a dense undergrowth, and few clearings, and traversed by country roads, coming into the turnpike at a variety of angles. There had been some skirmishing during the afternoon of Friday, May 1st, having mainly for its object the compelling the Rebel commander to develop his force, while at the same time it made the Union officers more familiar with the country, and the routes by which the enemy would approach to attack them. All through Friday night General Howard heard a confused sound south and west of him in the woods the rattle of wagons, the clatter of axes, men s voices, the low words of a multitude. Many supposed that Lee, finding himself flanked, was retreating to Gordonsville. It was THE CI7IL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. known that there was a country road, which had formerly been a turnpike which branched from the Gordonsville and Fredericksburg turnpike, south ward, five or six miles west of Fredericksburg, and crossed the Orange Court House and Fredericksburg plank road nearly at right angles.^ This road crossed the one running south from Dowdall s, on which Sickles corps was posted, also at right angles. The movement of troops which Howard had heard on that Friday night was " Stonewall" Jackson s corps, with Longstreet s division, making in all a force of about forty thousand. They had passed along this old road to a point southwest of Wilderness church, and had, during that night and the next morning, cut a new road from the old road to the Gordonsville turnpike, and by a little after noon of Saturday, May 2d, were massed near and to the south of the Gordonsville pike, just west of Wilderness church. A part of his advance-guard occupied a ridge curving round to the road, running south from Dowdall s, and had thrown up some temporary earthworks and planted one or two batteries in the vicinity of that road. General Sickles had moved down on this road in the afternoon of Satur day, his advance going nearly five miles south. In thus advancing, he had come in contact with Jackson s right wing, under General Longstreet, and the Rebel army train, and had found it intrenched. As he had but one division with him, and met a steady resistance, he sent back to General Howard asking for support, as he was going to attack the enemy. Howard sent word that he would support him, and sent a staff officer to ascertain the exact locality of his line of battle, that he might join it on the right. A few moments later, he received an order from General Hooker to send a brigade to General Sickles. In compliance with this order, he took his reserve, Bohlen s brigade, the best in his corps, conducted it in person to its position, and returned with all speed, but was, nevertheless, too late to arrest the panic which in that brief interval had seized his corps. He had been suspicious, during the afternoon, that the Rebels were massing their troops to the southwest of his position, but was not aware that they had attained a location in which they could flank him. The eleventh corps had been placed in a position in which its three divisions formed three sides of a hollow square; the third division, General Carl Schurz, lying north and parallel to the Gordonsville pike ; the second division, General Steinwehr, at right angles with them, and facing Jack- eon s troops; and the first division, General Devens, lying parallel with the third, below the Gordonsville pike. 1 General Sickles movement had left a break between this division, and Birney s division of his corps, and Bohlen s brigade from Howard s corps, which had just reinforced him. General Howard, returning from General Sickles line, about half-past six P. M., as we have said, heard the roar of the enemy s artillery ; and soon after, on his extreme right, where General Schurz s division was in *ine, the rattle of musketry, and the yells of the Rebel soldiery. Putting PANIC IN THE ELEVENTH CORPS. 523 his horse to a gallop, he soon reached the left, General Devens division, which had also been attacked, and found both this and Schurz s, under the influence of the terrible panic, caused by the unexpected onset of more than three times their number, melting away, and despite the efforts of their officers, and the heroic conduct of some of the regiments, flying in sad and terrible disorder to Chancellorsville. Steinwehr s division held out longest, and struggled nobly to beat back the tide of panic-stricken men that was sweeping them down, but in vain, and they too were at last drawn into the current. Howard, left almost alone, begged, threatened, and strove with all his might to rally his men and retrieve their disgrace, but all in vain. With every yell of the enemy they fled the faster. The news of this panic and retreat reached General Hooker a few min utes later, and mounting his horse, he was soon galloping at full speed to the scene of the disaster. He had no need to go far; the flying soldiers, who had now lost all self-possession in the agony of panic, were rushing toward Chancellorsville in hot haste, each believing himself but an arm s length from the Rebel force. To check this torrent of frightened men, and to drive back the advancing Rebel force in the full flush of victory, were the tasks required of the commanding general, and with a prompt decision he undertook them. Before him, and as yet unaffected by the panic, was General Berry s division of Sickles corps, Hooker s own old division, with which he had fought through the battles of the Peninsula and Pope s campaign, and which had fought so nobly at Antietam and Fredericksburg. That division, now commanded by General Berry, was, in many respects, the finest in the army. To send this, his favorite division, into the breach to stay the onward rush of Stonewall Jackson s forty thousand veterans, was his determination, and very characteristic was his order to General Berry : " General, throw your men into the breach receive the enemy on your bayonets don t fire a shot they can t see you!" The order was obeyed with a promptness and resolution which showed the thorough discipline as well as the heroism of the division. Forward they dashed, at the double-quickstep, but in perfect line, with their bayonets at a charge, in the fast gathering darkness, and as the Rebels rushed furiously onward their advance was summarily checked by the solid line of glittering steel, but not until the head of their columns had gone down under this gallant charge. Meantime, General Hooker was exerting himself to stop the retreat of the eleventh corps, and brave officers and men were rendering him efficient aid in the attempt. Sickles had been promptly recalled, and did himself great honor by his zeal in checking the fugitives. The artillery of the corps, with the exception of seven or eight guns which they abandoned, was thundering down the road, as much panic-stricken as the infantry. About half-way from Dowdall s to Chancellorsville was a stone wall, extending from Scott s creek to the woods, with a gateway across the 524 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. road. Reaching this gateway before the flying artillery had arrived at it, he rode directly at the foremost piece, with sword drawn and pistol raised, and threatened instant death to the drivers unless they stopped. Unlim boring the piece, it was turned against the fugitives. Those behind came crowding on, but could get no farther, and the officers rallying them, their courage began to return, and they soon formed in order. The infantry tumbled headlong over the wall, but Pleasanton s cavalry checked their progress, and General Pleasanton himself took charge of the artillery, turned it up on the ridge, formed it in battery, and brought his cavalry up to support it. Meantime, Captain Best, chief of artillery in Sickles corps, had brought his pieces in position in line with what had thus been saved of Howard s, and with these forty cannon, all pieces of large calibre, opened upon the Rebels, already checked and flung back by the bayonets of Berry s division. It was when his columns had met their first check, but were about to press forward for another assault on the Union troops, that the Rebel General Jackson met his death-wound from the fire of his own men. He had gone forward to reconnoitre with some members of his staff, leaving orders to General Hill not to fire unless the enemy (the Union troops) should approach to attack them. Having completed his reconnoissance, he was returning upon a trot toward his corps, when the advance, supposing that the enemy were approaching, fired and wounded him severely, in the arm near the shoulder, and in both fore-arms, and killed and wounded some of his staff. He fell from his horse, but was caught by one of his staff; and at this moment the Union troops making a charge, drove back his staff, and charged over his body. They were in turn driven back a short distance, and the Rebel advance coming up he was placed upon a litter, and while being borne to the rear, the artillery fire, already mentioned, opened upon the Rebels, his litter bearers were shot down, and he was seriously injured by the fall and contusions. From these injuries, and an attack of pneumonia, partly if not wholly induced by them, he died on the 10th of May. General Jackson was thus disabled at a critical moment. It had been his intention, as he himself avowed, to penetrate that night, and within an hour, to the vicinity of the United States ford, and thus cutting off the line of retreat of the Union troops, he would have had them very much at his mercy. This intention failed of execution in consequence of his wound, and the Rebels losing the presence and enthusiasm of their greatest general, lost with it their desperate energy and dash, and fell back more readily under the galling fire and determined charges of the Union troops. It was nearly ten o clock when General Jackson was wounded, and the fighting continued till about midnight; when, after a last fierce onslaught upon General Berry s division, now supported by Whipple s and Birney s divisions, both of Sickles corps, and by the remnants of Howard s corps (which, with almost superhuman exertion, he NEW LINES ESTABLISHED BY HOOKER. 525 had reformed and brought up to their work), they gave way and fell back, the Union troops regaining a part of their lost ground. The Rebel General A. P. Hill, " Stonewall" Jackson s successor, was wounded in this attack. There was no more fighting through the night, but the Union generals had full employment in reforming and strengthening their lines for the renewal of the struggle in the morning. The new lines established by General Hooker were arranged with skill. The eleventh corps re-organized, but after its flight the day before, hardly yet firm enough to be trusted in a dangerous position, was placed in reserve, and Berry s and Birney s divisions of Sickles corps in the advance. The arrangement of the troops was still in the form of a V or triangle, and the apex was a little below Chancellorsville, but the Gordonsville turnpike was no longer the line on which a part of the corps was massed; they were arranged rather with reference to the United States ford road, which runs at right angles with the turnpike. The line which the day before lay along the Gordonsville pike from Chancellorsville to Wilder ness church, had been swung around at nearly a right angle, and now rested on the Rappahannock near the embouchure of the Rapidan. Reynolds corps was nearest the Rapidan, Meade below him, and a little farther east, while Couch was still farther southeast and rested near the west side of the road to the United States ford. These three corps were in a strong position, and were unassailed by the enemy. Below and farther west, just north of the Gordonsville pike, and perhaps half a mile west of Chancellorsville, Berry s division occupied the extreme advance, with Whipple s division in reserve immediately behind him; south of the turnpike, and forming a continuation of Berry s line, was Birney s division of Sickles corps, with Williams 7 division of Slocum s corps in reserve. In rear of these, on the other side of the United States ford road, and forming, with Birney and Williams, the apex of the Y, was the remainder of Slocum s corps; while extending north of this toward Banks ford, and joining it on the right, was Howard s corps. The artillery was massed in such a way as to command the approaches by the turnpike on both sides. Adhering to the figure of the Y as the best illustration of the position of General Hooker s forces, it will be seen from the preceding account of the location of the different corps and divisions that the Gordonsville road cut the Y just above the joint thus, y. To gain possession of this road, and thus press the Union troops back to the Rappahannock, was the paramount object of the Rebel commanders. For this purpose, they had been massing their troops through the night on both sides of the turn pike, and now, Lee having come up, confronted Berry and Birney, witn a force of nearly or quite seventy-five thousand men. Jackson s corps, now commanded by the Rebel cavalry general, J. E. B. Stuart, advanced on the north side of the turnpike, and the rest of the Rebel army, under 526 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. command of Lee himself, on the south side. They commenced the attack at about 5.30 A. M., Sunday morning May 3d, coming through the woods in solid mass, and receiving in their faces the terrible hailstorm which burst with the fury of a tornado from Berry s and Birney s lines, and from Whipple s and Williams , which were at once advanced to the front. The batteries, at that range, hurled upon them grape and canister. The advancing column was cut up and gashed as if pierced, seamed, and plowed by lightning strokes. Companies and regiments melted away, yet still they came. Berry and Birney advanced to meet them, and the shock was terrible. The living masses surged and rolled against each other like the billows of the sea in a tempest. The enemy, maddened by the resistance of these brave men, rushed up to the muzzles of the cannon, only to be swept back, leaving long lanes of dead men piled where the grape and canister passed through. The Rebel commanders pushed their men forward, and filled up the lines as fast as they were mowed down. But with the immense odds of seventy-five thousand men against twelve or fifteen thousand, the preponderance of numbers must eventually tell, and the weaker party be forced back by the sheer weight of the foe It was so in this case. General Sickles sent for reinforcements, and General Hooker ordered Generals French and Hancock of Couch s corps to advance past Meade and attack the enemy in flank. Couch s corps was in the centre of the V; but in obedience to this order, instead of marching directly down to the point, their divisions marched westward and encountered Stuart, and in half an hour s hard fighting put his troops to flight. Meantime Sickles had been unable to hold out against the vast force assailing him, and his divisions were being driven back toward Chancellorsville ; General Berry was killed, and some of his brigadiers disabled, and large numbers of his men were straggling northward toward the ford, not panic-stricken, but worn out and exhausted. They had had no food since noon of the day before, and no sleep, and had been most of the time fighting five or six times their number. General Hooker feeling that his reserves, Reynolds and Meade s corps, might yet be wanted for a still more desperate struggle, did not bring them forward, but drawing Sickles divisions back a short distance, he reinforced them with Couch s divisions, and thus still retained his V-shaped line, only that the V was now shorter, thicker, and blunter ; and what was of more importance, every part of this new line was strongly intrenched. The battle of the morning ended at a little past eleven o clock. During this battle, and that of the previous evening, the Union troops had taken over two thousand prisoners, and had lost, by the panic in the eleventh corps, somewhat more than three thousand. The line of the turnpike had been relin quished by General Hooker, but at a disastrous cost to the enemy, who now were in front and to the left, the greater part of their force being massed directly between him and Fredericksburg. During the remainder of the MOVEMENTS OF SEDGWICK S CORPS. 527 day there was very little more heavy fighting along Hooker s lines ; the Rebels attacked his positions several times, apparently by way of feeling his force, but retired at once when his artillery opened upon them. Meantime, the sixth army corps (General Sedgwick s) which we left at Fredericksburg, had been busy. Reynolds (the first) corps having re- crossed the Rappahannock, and marched to United States ford on Saturday morning, to join the main army at Chancellorsville, only the sixth corps, which, however, was the strongest and perhaps the best disciplined in the army, was left for the attack on Fredericksburg. At a little past eleven, p. M., Saturday night, orders were issued to take Fredericksburg and effect a junction with General Hooker. The corps was at this time below Hazel run or creek, southeast of the town. Newton s division, with the light brigade under his command, led the advance, followed by Howe s and Brookes divisions. The enemy s skirmishers contested the advance almost step by step, but were pushed back gradually to Hazel run, where they rallied for a desperate resistance, but a bold and furious charge, made by the sixty-seventh New York regiment, routed them, and the town was gained. The rifle-pits and batteries on the heights to the south west of the city, around the Marye house, yet remained frowning upon them, and it was too late and too dark to attack them. The Union troops were therefore massed in town. At dawn of day, on Sunday morning, May 3d, four regiments were thrown forward, in open order, to reconnoi tre the enemy s works, and see if they were occupied, as it had been reported that the Rebels had fled, leaving only a single regiment on picket. The reconnoitering force approached to within twenty paces of the earth works, when, with a fierce yell, the Rebels unmasked themselves, and the whole hill between the Marye house and the Richmond and Fredericks burg railroad became a double girdle of flame. Their artillery opened at the same moment. The reconnoissance had accomplished its object, but full one third of the men engaged in it lay dead and wounded on that blood-stained slope. General Howe s division was now sent to the left, to attempt to storm the heights on the left of Hazel run, and orders sent to General Gibbon s division, of Couch s corps, which had remained at Fal- mouth to hold the camp there, to cross the Rappahannock and endeavor to gain the heights upon the right of the town. Neither of these attempts succeeded, but they prevented the concentration of the enemy upon Gen eral Newton in the centre, where the principal attack was to be made. At eleven A. M. (just about the time the battle with General Hooker ceased) General Newton with his own division and the light brigade under his command moved forward to attack, General Brookes division being held as a reserve, to support him if necessary. The three batteries of McCarthy, Butler, and Harris, opened with concentrated fire upon the Marye house, to prevent its being used as .a shelter for the enemy s re serves. The division moved forward rapidly, with fixed bayonets ; the 528 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. left, consisting of four regiments, was deployed, while the centre (two regiments) and the right (four regiments) marched in column. The attack lasted ten minutes, and was successful, the enemy being bayoneted in their rifle-pits, not having time to get away ; but in that ten minutes the Union force lost a thousand men in killed and wounded. As soon as General Newton had succeeded, General Howe, at the left, pushed the enemy vigorously, and after a short but sanguinary contest took the rifle-pits and heights on the left of Hazel run. Newton and Howe together took about eight hundred prisoners, and twelve guns, among them the battery of the famous Washington artillery. After gaining these formidable and almost impregnable heights, General Sedgwick reformed his lines, placing Brookes division in advance, and Newton s and Howe s following it, leaving Gibbon s division to garrison the just captured heights, and pushed forward toward Chancellorsville, where he was assured Hooker was hotly pressing the enemy. Lee, it will be remembered, had succeeded by the terrible struggle of Sunday morning in obtaining possession of the turnpike road to Fredericksburg ; and as Sedgwick was marching rapidly in pursuit of the flying Rebels whom he had driven from Marye s hill, he was suddenly confronted by the advance-guard of Lee s entire force, on Salem heights, strongly posted in earthworks in the timber on either side of the road, and the under growth filled with rifle-pits and abatis. General Brookes at once engaged them with his entire division, but was overpowered by their superior force, and compelled to retire, the enemy closely following. General Newton, just previous to this, had sent two regiments (the ninety-third and one hundred and second Pennsylvania) to protect the right, which seemed to be in danger, and which, if turned, would cut off the possibility of retreat to Banks ford. These two regiments passed around the enemy s left without opposition, crossing a deep ravine with a stream in it, and to the top of the ridge, beyond which they met a most fearful volley from a hid den foe. To sustain this line many minutes was evidently impossible, and three more regiments (the seventh and tenth Massachusetts and second Rhode Island) were sent to support it. They arrived just in season to check the Rebel advance ; and pouring a flanking fire on the enemy, who were advancing to push Brookes, they caused them to retire with terrible loss. As they retired, the Union troops advanced ; but not deeming it advisable to enter the woods again with the force then at command, they held the west of the hill to which they first came till dark, having been strengthened by additional reinforcements, and in the evening were relieved by Shaler s (late Cochran s) brigade. Sedgwick s corps bivouacked on the field, resupplyiog the stock of ammunition and food, obtaining knapsacks, and collecting their wounded, the number of whom in this second battle (of Salem heights) was very large. At dawn of day they again formed under arms, and rearranged CRITICAL POSITION OF SKPGWICK S CORPS. 529 their lines, extending them to the right and toward the Rappahamiock. The light brigade was sent to occupy the works which the Rebels had constructed at Banks ford to oppose the crossing of Burnside s troops there in the winter. Skirmishing soon commenced, and continued until nine A. M., and the enemy seemed determined to ascertain what was the best point of attack. A lull of an hour ensued, during which General Sedg- wick learned that during the evening previous Lee hud sent a large force past his left and rear, and had repossessed himself of Marye s hill and the Fredericksburg heights, driving Gibbon into the city. Sedgwick s position was a critical one. In his rear Fredericksburg was in the possession of the enemy ; in front and on his left Lee s victo rious troops interposed between him and the remainder of Hooker s army and that army, with its six corps, had found the Rebel force fully its match. Only one way of escape remained, and from this the enemy were pushing vigorously to cut him off. He held as yet the line to Banks ford, and his light brigade occupied the iutrenchments built for the defence of that ford. Crossing there, he might yet fall into a snare, for there was appa rently little to hinder the Rebels from crossing over to Falmouth and taking possession of the fortified Union camp, and thus placing his corps at their mercy. General Sedgwick, however, was a brave and skilful general, and his decision was promptly made. Rearranging his lines, he placed his men in position to meet and hold the enemy at bay, from whichever point they might attack him. Newton was placed on the right, with his right wing on the Rappahannock and facing westward ; Brookes in the centre and facing south ; Howe on the left, facing eastward, and his left resting on the river. At four P. M. the enemy, who had been skirmishing through out three charges, approached in force and attacked Newton s left, but were repulsed; then Brookes centre and left, and were a^iin repulsed; they then concentrated their forces against Howe, endeavoring to break his line, and force themselves between him and the river, to cut off his re treat by way of the ford. Brookes repulsed them, but they massed their forces, and hurled them against him with such fury that he was compelled to fall back a short distance, which he did in good order. Seeing this, they pressed him still harder, but Sedgwick sent up reinforcements, in such numbers, that, with the aid of his batteries, he drove them back with their ranks fearfully thinned, and then fell back to the ford, the Rebels not following closely ; and having reached the fortifications at the ford he again turned and offered them battle. As they were evidently indisposed to engage, and offered no further annoyance, General Sedgwick com menced crossing the Rappahannock at two A.M. of the 5th with his corps, and by daylight had them all across in safety. In this campaign of less than three days he had lost nearly six thousand in killed and wounded, out of a force of not more than twenty-two thousand, but few or no 84 530 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. prisoners. He had taken eleven hundred prisoners, twelve guns, and five stands of colors. We have already noticed the strength of Hooker s position. Finding it vain to assail it, and hoping that the annihilation of Sedgwick s corps, which he confidently anticipated, would be a more satisfactory undertaking, General Lee attempted nothing more on Monday than to place a battery at Scott s dam on Scott s creek, which commanded the United States ford, and commenced shelling that position. This battery was driven away, and the position it occupied held, though not without some difficulty, by the Union troops. Toward night on Monday, May 4th, a heavy rain commenced falling, and it was ascertained that it had been raining all day in the mountains. On Monday night, General Hooker held a council of his officers. Stoneman had not been heard from, and it was not known whether his expedition had been successful or not. Lee had evidently all the troops he needed, and holding Fredericksburg, was not likely to want for supplies. Meantime, Hooker s supplies and ammunition were nearly exhausted, and the Rappahannock, always sensitive to rains in the moun tains, was rapidly rising, and might soon become impassable. Sedgwick, while he had fought with the most undaunted bravery and skill, had failed to take and hold Fredericksburg, and the campaign, from several causes, had lost its chances for success. Such was the condition of affairs ; and the council, entertaining the same views in regard to it with the commander, advised that the army should recross the next morning at the ford, and returning to its old quarters await another and more favorable opportunity to strike a decisive blow. Accordingly, on Tuesday evening, May 5th, General Hooker commenced moving his troops noise lessly across the Rappahannock, at United States ford ; and though the river had risen so much that he was obliged to use the pontoons for three bridges to r*ake two, he brought his entire force and train across in safety, and returned to Falmouth, with his forces in perfect order. The losses of the Union army in this series of battles have never been officially reported. Including General Sedgwick s losses at Fredericks burg, and Salem Heights, they were probably not far from eleven thousand, of whom four thousand two hundred were prisoners, many of them wounded. Of this number about one thousand six hundred were killed. It is. a matter of great difficulty to ascertain, even approximately, the losses of the Rebels. The number taken prisoners by the Union troops ex ceeded three thousand six hundred ; and officers of great experience be longing to both armies were confident that the numbers of killed and wounded considerably exceeded that of the Union troops. It was stated by some of the Rebel papers at nine thousand two hundred. Whether this was intended to include prisoners also is not stated ; if so, it was un questionably far below the truth. The loss of General T. J. Jackson, better known as " Stonewall "Jackson, was a severer blow to them than REVIEW OF HOOKER S CAMPAIGN. 531 the slaughter of twenty thousand troops, for with the exception, perhaps, of General Lee, they had no commander of equal ability with him. In the review of this battle, forming as it did the fourth unsuccessful attempt to open the way to the capture of Richmond, we find that there were certain errors apparent in the movement, which prevented its suc cess, although they do not tarnish the reputation of General Hooker as an able and skilful commander of a great arrny. These were, 1st. That Stoneman was sent too late upon his expedition. To have sent him a week earlier would have prevented the reinforcement of Lee by Longstreet s division of the South Carolina troops, and would have enabled General Hooker to have moved with more certainty and confidence. 2d. A cav alry force should have been placed on duty to guard the approaches to the right wing of the army (the eleventh corps), and thus have prevented the surprise and panic which proved so disastrous. It is the testimony of the officers of that corps that there were but thirty-five cavalrymen de tailed for service on the flank of the right wing. 3d. It was a mistake to have attempted the capture of Fredericksburg by an assault in front, as was done by Sedgwick s corps. The possession of that city, in that way, was of no consequence to the Union army, while it cost six thousand men, and drew off twenty-two thousand of the best troops in the army, whose services were needed in striking a heavy blow upon the Rebel force. Had Lee been defeated, Fredericksburg would have fallen into Hooker s hands as a part of the victory. As it was, it was in the pos session of the Union troops less than twenty-four hours. Aside from these errors, the plan of the campaign seems to have been judicious, and displayed a high order of strategic ability ; while the un daunted courage, readiness of resource, and skilful management of his troops, showed conclusively that General Hooker possessed many, if not all, of the qualities of a great general. In the narrative of this series of battles, we have alluded more than once to the expedition of General Stoneman, as forming an important part of General Hooker s plan of the campaign, but we must reserve for another chapter the account of that ably-conducted and successful expe dition. 532 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XLYI. STONKMAN R EXPEDITION THE PLAN OF IT SUBSTANTIALLY THAT OF GENERAL BURNSIDK BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL STONEMAN STARTING OF THE EXPEDITION ITS ADVENTURES DETACHMENTS SENT IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS FROM THOMPSON S CROSS ROADS COLONEL WYNDHAM S RAID TO COLUMBIA COLONEL KILPATRICK s ADVENTURES LIEUTENANT-COLONEL DAVIS S EXPEDITION TO CUT THE TWO RAILROADS RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC AFTER THE BATTLE LEE S DETERMINA TION TO INVADE PENNSYLVANIA PLEASONTON SENT TO ATTACK STUART S CAVALRY BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL PLEASONTON SUCCESS OF HIS ATTACK HIS SUBSE QUENT SKIRMISHES AND FIGHTS WITH STUART S CAVALRY LEF/S POSITION DISCOVERED MOVEMENT OF HOOKER S ARMY THE REBEL ARMY CROSS THE POTOMAC HOOKER S FOLLOW HOOKER RELIEVED OF THE COMMAND OF THE ARMY MEADE APPOINTED HIS SUCCESSOR POSITION OF THE TWO ARMIES ONLY TWO UNION CORPS NEAR GETTYS BURG A BATTLE IMPENDING. THE expedition, or raid, of General Stoneman, properly comes under the history of the expeditions of that class given in Chapter XLIV., but from its forming a part of General Hooker s campaign it was deemed necessary to give it a place in connection with that campaign. In its boldness, the amount of damage it inflicted upon the enemy, and the success which attended it, from its inception to its close, it may well rank as one of the most remarkable expeditions into the enemy s country ever undertaken. "Without desiring to detract any thing from the merits of General Hooker s well-considered plan of operations for the turning of Lee s flank and crippling his army, we must admit that the idea of a raid like Stone- man s was not original with him. It was conceived, and would have been carried out, by General Burnside in January, but for the interference of some of his subordinate generals. Indeed, Burnside s plan, though not exactly identical, contemplated a still bolder movement the extending his raid in the rear of Kichmond, and reaching the Union lines at Suffolk. It is to the credit of General Hooker that he saw clearly the advan tages of such an expedition, and arranged its details so skilfully as to insure its success. Could it have been undertaken a week earlier, as it would have been but for severe storms and floods, it would in all human probability have made the battles of Chancellorsville successful, instead of disastrous, as Lee would have had from forty thousand to fifty thou sand less men with whom to defend his position, and attack the Union troops. Major-General George Stoneman, the chief of the cavalry corps of the army of the Potomac, under General Hooker, and now (February, 1864) chief of cavalry in the grand military division of the Mississippi, was the STARTING OF THE EXPEDITION UNDER STONEMAN. 533 leader of this expedition. He was born in Busti, New York, in August, 1822, was educated at West Point, where he graduated in 1846, and was appointed on the 1st of July of that year brevet second lieutenant of the first dragoons, but did not obtain his full commission till July 12, 1847. In July, 1854, he was promoted to a first lieutenantcy, and the next year acted as aide-de-camp to General Wool. On the 3d of March, 1858, he was made captain in the second cavalry, and for the next two or three years served in the southwest. In 1859, 1860, and the winter of 1861, he was sta tioned at Palo Alto, Texas. At the outbreak of the Eebellion he returned north, and on the 9th of May, 1861, was promoted to the rank of major in the fourth cavalry, and on the 13th of August was appointed brigadier- general of volunteers. He reported to General McClellan, and when the army of the Potomac moved, was placed in command of the cavalry. When the Eebels evacuated Yorktown, he pursued them closely ; and for his gallantry at the battle of Williamsburg was brevetted lieutenant- colonel in the regular army. He was engaged in active operations during the whole campaign of the peninsula, and for his brilliant movements at the battle of Games mill, June 27, 1862, was further brevetted colonel of cavalry in the regular army. He served under General Pope, in the several engagements before Washington, and also under McClellan in the Maryland campaign. At the battle of Fredericksburg he commanded the third army corps, and with his corps exhibited great bravery and resolution. General Hooker made him chief of his cavalry corps on the 6th of February, 1863 ; and on the twelfth of the same month, he was promoted to a major-generalship of volunteers. In March, he made several successful reconnoissances along the upper Kappahannock, and undertook with great heartiness the expedition we are about to describe. After that expedition he was placed by the Government at the head of the new cavalry bureau, organized in connection with the War Department, and rendered valuable aid in bringing that department of the service up to a high degree of perfection. The plan of the expedition, and the object to be accomplished by it, having been laid down by General Hooker, and instructions furnished, which still gave a large discretion to General Stoneman, he left Fal mouth on the 27th of April, and on the morning of Wednesday, the 29th, crossed his entire force, of about two thousand seven hundred men, over the Rappahannock at Kelly s ford, with the exception of a small division under General Averill, which was sent still further up the river, and crossed near the Orange and Alexandria railroad. This division en countered a small body of Rebel cavalry, soon after crossing, which it repulsed, after a brave contest. General Averill s orders were to proceed along the road toward Culpepper and Gordonsville, and by a dashing flank movement, keep the Rebel troops, which were known to be in that vicinity, employed, while detachments from the main column of cavalry 554 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. were engaged in the important work of cutting off the Kebel army on the Rappahannock from its base of operations Richmond. General Averill was not successful in his attempt to accomplish this. Tie en countered on Thursday, April 30th, a considerable force of Rebel cavalry at Rapidan station, on the Orange and Alexandria railroad, and after a short fight retreated and returned to the Union camp at Chancellorsville. When General Stoneman crossed the Rappahannock at Kelly s ford he had entered the enemy s country, and he ordered at once the most careful precautions to be taken, to avoid surprise from the enemy, and to prevent such intelligence of his movements from preceding him as would thwart his purposes. After crossing, he sent General Buford with a small force to the left, where he had a skirmish with the enemy, whom he repulsed, and before they could advance again he had constructed an abatis of trees, and as they charged again, he received them with a volley which sent them back with some loss. General Stoneman, with the bulk of his command, remained near Kelly s ford, till nightfall, when the order to march was given, and the whole force crossed and bivouacked a short distance beyond a little rivulet, then much swollen by the recent rains, known as Fleischman s river, in an open ploughed field, with no other protection from the heavy rain then falling than their blankets and rubber coats. All fires were prohibited, all bugle-calls suspended, and orders delivered sotto voce, so that the enemy might have no opportunity of judging of the number and position of their force. At dawn the following morning, the force was carefully inspected, and all weak horses, all sick or weak-kneed troops, and all the pack animals except about twenty, were sent back across the river. Having brought his command thus into light marching order, General Stoneman proceeded cautiously for several miles through the woods, till a large open space of rolling ground was reached, when the whole district was patrolled to ascertain the position of the enemy. The same precautions were adopted every day. When the advance of General Buford s column arrived near Minot s ford, on the Rapidan, Lieutenant Gaskill, with a squadron of the fifth cavalry, crossed, and dashing up the river, caused a force of about sixteen hundred Rebel cavalry, who had been stationed there to prevent the crossing of Union troops, to retreat in haste. They had one piece of artillery, which, however, they took with them. He pursued them nearly five miles on the road to Orange Court House, and captured ten prisoners. General Gregg s column, meantime, crossed Raccoon ford without opposition. At night the whole force encamped on a hill commanding the ford. The march was commenced on the morn ing of Friday, soon after daylight, and the force proceeded to Orange Spring, pressing a column of Rebel cavalry so closely that they were forced to throw away several wagon-loads of provisions and abandon their jaded horses. A few prisoners were captured. Several hundred of the STONEMAN AT LOUISA COURT HOUSE. 535 Rebel cavalry escaped by a side road, with their train, but were pursued as far as Madison by Colonel Wyndham. Having halted for a rest, and the night being pleasant, the march was continued till three and a-half o clock A. M. Saturday morning, May 2d, when they halted at Greenwood, one mile west of Louisa Court House. Here they reached the Virginia Central railroad, and detachments were sent up and down the road for miles, to destroy the track, culverts, and bridges, and also to act as pickets to prevent surprise. The work was well and thoroughly done. Just at dawn, Colonel (since General) Kilpatrick charged into the village of Louisa Court House. The people of the village were panic-stricken, and supposed, at first, that they should all be murdered and their property plundered, but on finding that no outrages or insults were offered to pri vate citizens, and that no private property was taken without compensation, they recovered their equanimity. While the troops were halting at Louisa, a squadron of the first Maine cavalry, picketing the Culpepper road, was attacked by a superior Rebel force, and, after a most gallant resistance, fell back, leaving two dead. The remainder of the first Maine, and the second New York, were sent to their support, when the enemy fled. At four o clock p. M. on Saturday, the railroad having been destroyed for many miles, and a number of cars and bridges burned, and the horses and troopers well supplied with forage and rations, General Stoneman moved his command upon a hill to the east of the town, and, for an hour, awaited the threatened attack of Rebel troops known to be approaching from Gordonsville, but the repulse those troops had already received was sufficient to cause them to fall back toward Gordonsville. At five o clock the command resumed their march, and arrived at Thompson s Cross Roads (or Four Corners) at half-past eleven o clock, P. M. From this point General Stoneman had determined to send expeditions in different directions to cut the enemy s lines of com munication. At twelve o clock, midnight, he called all the principal officers together and explained his general plan of operations. The com mander of each detachment was directed to destroy certain specified points, and, the special object of his mission being accomplished, he was allowed the widest latitude for any further operations. Colonel Percy Wyndham, with the first New Jersey and the first Maine cavalry, about five hundred men in all, was sent south to Columbia, on the James river ; Colonel Kilpatrick to Hungary, on the Fredericksburg railroad, and below on the Virginia Central railroad, with the Harris light cavalry ; Lieutenant-Col onel Davis, with the twelfth Illinois, to the South Anne river, and Ash land, on the Fredericksburg road ; General Buford struck westward toward the James river canal at Cedar Point, and thence passed near Gordonsville ; and the remainder of the force scoured the country in the vicinity of Thompson s Four Corners and Yancey ville. And on Friday morning, the 8th of May, the whole force, except Colonel Kilpatrick s 536 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and Lieutenant-Colonel Davis s commands, reached Kelly s ford in safety. The adventures of some of these detachments were interesting, and ex hibited in a favorable light the tact and ability of their commanders. Colonel Wyndham left Thompson s Cross Koads at half past two, A. M., May 3d, and taking a southerly direction, crossed six or seven creeks, and reached Columbia, on the James river, nearly fifty miles northwest of Richmond, at about eight o clock A. M., May 4th. The approach of his force had been heralded by a man who had ridden ten miles to warn the people, but no one believed it. The citizens hooted at him, threw dirt at him, and threatened him with all sorts of vengeance, for starting a report so absurd as that the Yankees were coming into Columbia. Just then Colonel Wyndham s advance-guard, under Major Beaumont, dashed into the town. The people persisted that it must be Stuart s cavalry, and were only undeceived when they found that the gentlemanly and well-behaved troopers took no private property, but destroyed all that belonged to the Rebel Government. The banks of the James river canal, which had been the great route of transportation for Rebel commissary stores and supplies, were cut in several places, and the locks destroyed for a distance of five miles. An attempt was made to destroy the aqueduct by which the canal crosses the James at this point, but for want of suitable tools it was not accomplished. Several canal-boats, loaded with commissary stores for the Rebel army, were burned, and a large quantity of such stores in ware houses were destroyed. Finding that two Rebel regiments with eight pieces of artillery were approaching, Colonel Wyndham, at four p. >r., moved down the river about five miles to Byrd s creek, which he forded, and then turning north, arrived at Thompson s Cross Roads at ten p. M. The command had captured during the day several hundred horses, and were followed into camp by a large number of negroes. Colonel Kilpat- rick s experiences read almost like the feats of a knight-errant in the palmiest days of chivalry. He had under his command his own regiment, the Ira Harris light cavalry, and left the rendezvous at Thompson s Cross Roads early in the morning on Sunday, May 3d ; reached Hungary, a station on the Fredericksburg railroad, about forty miles distant, and eight miles from Richmond, at daylight on the morning of the 4th, and de stroyed the depot, telegraph wires, and railroad track for several miles. He then passed over to the Brook turnpike ; drove in the Rebel pickets down the turnpike and across the Brook ; charged upon a moveable battery, and forced it to retire within two miles of Richmond ; and cap tured Lieutenant Brown, aide-de-camp to the Rebel General Winder, commander of the fortifications at Richmond, and eleven men, inside the fortifications, and narrowly missed capturing General Winder himself. Having thus bearded the lion in his den, he turned eastward, and followed the line of the York river railroad to the Meadow bridge, ovei the EXPLOITS OF LIEUTENANT COLONE1 DAVIS. 537 Chickahominy, burned the bridge, and ran a train of cars into the river. He then retired to Hanovertown, on the peninsula, crossed the Pamunkey, and destroyed the ferry just in time to check the advance of a pursuing cavalry force ; burned a train of thirty wagons loaded with bacon for the Rebel army; captured thirteen prisoners; and encamped for the night live miles from the river. At one o clock, A. M., of the fifth of May, he resumed his march surprised a troop of three hundred Rebel cavalry, at Aylett s, on the Mattapony river, captured two officers and thirty-three men; burned fifty-six wagons, and a depot of Rebel stores containing up wards of twenty thousand barrels of corn and wheat, large quantities of clothing and commissary stores, and safely crossed the Mattapony, and again destroyed the ferry, just in time to escape the advance of the Rebel cavalry and proceeded northeast on the Richmond and Warsaw turnpike to a point a few miles west of Tappahannock, on the Rappahannock river, where he destroyed a third wagon train and depot of stores. From this ooint, finding a large force of Stuart s cavalry in pursuit of him, he made a forced march of twenty miles, almost directly southward, capturing prisoners from his pursuers whenever they pressed too closely. At sun- dovn of the sixth he discovered a force of cavalry drawn up in line of batt e above King-and-Queen Court House. He advanced at once to attacc them, but ascertained that they were a part of the twelfth Illinois, under Major Bronson, who had become separated from Lieutenant-Colo nel Daris s command. At ten A. M. of the 7th of May, after a severe march of over fifty miles, he reached the Union post at Gloucester Point. In this separate expedition Colonel Kilpatrick s command had marched nearly two hundred miles in less than five days, with a loss of one officer and thirty-seven men, having captured and paroled upward of eight hundred men. Lieutenant Estes, of his command, volunteered to carry despatches to General Hooker. He failed in the attempt, but with his escort of ten men, captured and paroled one major, two captains, a lieutenant, and fifteen men. He was afterward captured himself, with his escort, but was retaken by the Union troops. Lieutenant-Colonel Davis s exploits were hardly less remarkable. He left General Stoneman s camp at Thompson s Cross Roads at the same time with Colonel Kilpatrick. His orders were to penetrate to the Fred- ericksburg railroad, and, if possible, to the Virginia Central also, and destroy the communications on both. Should he cross the Virginia Cen tral he was to make for Williamsburg, which was said to be in possession of the Union forces. Passing down the bank of the South Anna river, he burned one bridge, and routed a party of mounted guerrillas who attempted to oppose their advance. Arriving at Ashland, on the Fredericksburg rail road, he sent Lieutenant Mitchell forward with a dozen men to occupy the place. The Rebel force there was small, and they escaped with such haste as to leave their arms, which he destroyed. Assuring the inhabitants. 538 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE {JNITED STATES. who were in great terror, that no injury would be done to persons or private property, he proceeded to cut the telegraph wires, and tear up the rails on the railroad, and burned an extensive trestle-work south of the town, captured an ambulance train of seven cars filled with sick and wounded from the late battle, and paroled the officers of the guard, some of whom were of considerable rank. The cars were left for the benefit of the wounded, but the engine and tender, as well as another found in the town, were rendered completely useless. He captured also a large number of horses and mules collected there for the Rebel Government, and destroyed about twenty wagons. Leaving Ashland about six P. M., and destroying on his way eighteen wagons laden with Rebel stores, he reached Hanover station, on the Virginia Central railroad, at about eight p. M. ? captured and paroled about thirty officers and men at the station, burned an extensive trestle- work below the depot, destroyed a culvert, cut the telegraph wires, and burned the depot-buildings, storehouses, stables, and a train of cars, all filled to overflowing with stores belonging to the Rebel army. He also burned a hundred wagons loaded with commissary stores, a thousand sacks of flour and corn, and a large quantity of clothing and horse equipment. No private property was injured. He next marched to Hanover Court House, where several prisoners were captured, and proceeded southvard to a point within seven miles of Richmond, where his command, bi vouacked till morning, when they marched toward Williamsburg. At Tunstall station, near the White House and Richmond and York river railroad, a train of cars, filled with infantry and a battery of three guns, was run out to oppose them. Colonel Davis charged upon them, "but could not break through, as there were formidable rifle-pits to the laft of the road, and the force largely outnumbered his. He was forced to retire, with a loss of two killed and several wounded. Failing to penetrate the enemy s lines at thi? rjoint, he turned northward to cross the Pamunkey and Mattapony rivers, d reach Gloucester Point. He succeeded in crossing the former river at Plunkett s ferry after a slight skirmish, and the Mattapony at Walkertown, capturing a few persons at each ferry. Between the two ferries Major Bronson and a part of the regiment be came detached, and captured fifteen Rebels, and destroyed a quantity of saddles at King-and-Queen Court House. Colonel Davis having crossed the Mattapony, made the best of his way toward Gloucester Point, stopping however at Saluda to destroy a train of wagons laden with corn and provisions for the Rebel army. His total loss in this separate expe dition was two commissioned officers and thirty-three enlisted men. He brought into the Union lines at Gloucester Point, one hundred mules and seventy-five horses captured from the enemy, and reported Rebel property destroyed to the estimated value of over one million dollars. The fol lowing summary of the work accomplished by General Stoneman in this ex- GENERAL HOOKER S ADDRESS TO HIS ARMY. 539 pedition, shows that it was the most successful raid ever undertaken in this country: bridges destroyed, twenty-two; culverts destroyed, seven; ferries destroyed, five; railroads broken in seven places; supply trains burned, four ; wagons destroyed, two hundred and twenty-two ; horses captured, two hundred ; mules captured, one hundred and four ; canals broken, three; canal-boats burned, five; trains of cars destroyed, eight, storehouses burned, twelve ; telegraph stations burned, four ; wires cut in five places; depots burned, three; towns visited, twenty-five; contra bands liberated, one hundred and fifty. Value of property destroyed es timated at over two million dollars. Colonel Kilpatrick remained with his command at Gloucester Point till near the close of May, making an expedition on the 20th into Glou cester and Matthew counties, in conjunction with the gunboat Commo dore Morris, and capturing a large number of horses, mules and cattle ; burning five mills which were running for the Rebel Government, and which were filled to their utmost capacity with flour and grain, and de stroying a large quantity of corn and wheat collected in storehouses. On the 30th of May Colonel Kilpatrick and his command passed through , j Saluda and Urbanna, crossed the Kappahannock at Union Point, and re ported in person to General Hooker. A portion of the fourth army corps, under command of Major-General Keyes, arrived at West Point on the 7th of May, having come thither from Fortress Monroe by transports, accompanied by a fleet of gunboats, and the same day sent forward a reconnoitering party, which penetrated as far as the White House, and rescued Lieutenant Estes and fifteen men of Colonel Kilpatrick s party who had been taken prisoners. The fourth corps moved forward to a point within a few miles of Richmond, where it remained for several weeks, it being the intention of General Dix, then in command of Fortress Monroe, that it should attack Richmond while stripped of its defenders and before the communications between that city and Lee s army could be re-established. It failed however to accom plish this object, or even to attempt it the failure resulting, it was al leged, from the inefficiency of one of the generals commanding. It was therefore recalled in June, and the troops sent to reinforce the army of the Potomac. We return to the army of the Potomac. On the 7th of May, Major-General Hooker issued the following address to his troops : "HEADQUARTERS, ARMY or THE POTOMAC, "May 6, 1863. "GENERAL ORDERS, No. 49. The Major-General commanding ten ders to this army his congratulations on its achievements of the last seven days. 540 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. " It has not accomplished all that was expected the reasons are well known to the army. " It is sufficient to say they were of a character not to be foreseen or prevented by human sagacity or resources. " In withdrawing from the south bank of the Kappahannock before delivering a general battle to our adversaries, the army has given re. newed evidence of its confidence in itself and its fidelity to the principles it represents. "In fighting at a disadvantage, we would have been recreant to our trust, to ourselves, our cause, and our country. Profoundly loyal, and conscious of its strength, the army of the Potomac will give or decline battle whenever its interest or honor may demand. " It will also be the guardian of its own history and its own arm. "By our celerity and secrecy of movement, our advance and passage of the rivers was undisputed, and on our withdrawal not a Rebel returned to follow. " The events of the last week may swell with pride the hearts of every officer and soldier of this army. " We have added new laurels to its former renown. We have made long marches, crossed rivers, surprised the enemy in his intrenchments, and whenever we have fought we have inflicted heavier blows than we have received. " We have taken from the enemy five thousand prisoners and fifteen colors, captured and brought off seven pieces of artillery, and placed hors du combat eighteen thousand of his chosen troops. " We have destroyed his depots filled with vast amounts of stores, damaged his communications, captured prisoners within the fortifications of his capital, and filled his country with fear and consternation. " We have no other regret than that caused by the loss of our brave companions; and in this we are consoled by the conviction that they have fallen in the holiest cause ever submitted to the arbitrament of battle. " By command of MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER. "S. WILLIAMS, Assistant Adjutant- General" The President visited the camp at Falmouth on the seventh, and con ferred with General Hooker, in regard to the campaign and future move ments, and on his return to Washington expressed his gratification at the condition and spirit of the army. During the remainder of May the army lay at Falmouth, and except some slight skirmishes at the outposts, and cavalry affairs in General Stahl s brigade, there were no military movements. The Rebel general-in-chief had determined, as soon as his broken com munications could be repaired and his supplies accumulated to a degree sufficient to warrant it, to attempt again to invade Maryland and Pennsyl- LEE S DETERMINATION TO INVADE PKN XSYLVANIA. 541 vauia. His previous attempt at invasion had indeed terminated dis astrously, though with less loss than he expected, but he had what he deemed substantial reasons for believing that greater success would attend a second undertaking. The successful raid of General Stonernan had materially diminished the not over-abundant supplies upon which his army was dependent, and had deprived him of a large number of cavalry and artillery horses, of which he had great need. The portion of Mary land and Pennsylvania which he intended to invade was rich in agricul tural products, and abounded in fine horses, and he could thus supply his army at the enemy s expense. In addition to this, it was alleged that General Hooker s army was greatly demoralized by the unsuccessful termination of the recent campaign, and it was well known that a large body of the Union troops which had been enlisted for two years were returning home, their term of service having expired; and he might reasonably regard the Union forces as too much weakened from these causes to be able to offer sufficient and determined resistance to his attacks. There was also an apparent division of sentiment in the loyal States in regard to the conduct and continuance of the war, and some prominent men, in most of the States, were avowing their sympathy with the Rebellion ; or, if they did not openly do this, were seeking in every possible way to obstruct the action of the Government. The number of these sympathizers with the South was far smaller than General Lee sup posed, but his information led him to believe that he had only to cross the border to find an army of Secessionists ready to join him. So con fident were the Rebels of success in the enterprise, that it was heralded and boasted over for weeks before it took place. With a view to this movement, General Lee arranged and perfected his plans as rapidly as possible, and remodelled and strengthened his army, improving its dis cipline, and increasing its numbers from all quarters, till, about the first of June, when he was ready to advance, he was at the head of one of the best disciplined and most efficient armies ever marshalled on this continent. The accumulating signs of the coming storm had not been unnoticed by the United States Government, or the commander of the army of the Potomac, and suspecting that an advance was speedily to take place, General Hooker, having first made a reconnoissance in force, with the sixth army corps, across the Rappahannock, on the 5th of June, to ascer tain whether any considerable portion of Lee s army had yet evacuated their camps near that city, directed that an attack should be made upon the Rebel General Stuart s cavalry corps, at Beverly ford, on the Rappa hannock, by a cavalry and infantry force under the command of General Alfred Pleasonton. This officer, who, on the promotion of General Stone- man to the head of the cavalry bureau, had been appointed commander of the cavalry corps of the army of the Potomac, was born in the District of Columbia in 1824, and appointed a cadet at West Point in 1840. He 542 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. graduated from the military academy on the 30th of June, 1844, ranking seventh in his class, and was at once appointed brevet second -lieutenant in the first regiment of dragoons. lie received his commission as second- lieutenant in the second dragoons November 3d, 1845. He served under General Taylor in the Mexican war, and was brevetted for gallant and meritorious conduct at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palrna. In September, 1849, he was promoted to the first-lieutenancy ; in 1854 he became adju tant of his regiment, and on the 3d of March, 1855, received a captain s commission. In 1856, he was appointed assistant adjutant-general to General Harney in the department o the West. On the 15th of Feb ruary, 1862, he was promoted to the rank of major in the regular army, and served with distinction in the peninsula in the corps of regular cavalry, winning two nominations for brevet rank. On the 16th of July, 1862, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and placed in command of one of the best brigades in Stoneman s division of cavalry. During the Maryland campaign he served with great celerity and bril liancy, and ma.de his splendid dash into Frederick, on the twelfth of Sep tember, driving the Rebels through the town. At Boonsboro, on the 15th of the same month, he again engaged the Rebel cavalry, and drove them out of the place, capturing two guns and several prisoners. During the march of the army of the Potomac from Berlin, Maryland, to Fredricksburg, in November, 1862, General Pleasonton commanded the advance, and was continually engaged in skirmishing with the enemy, driving them from various gaps of the mountains, and clearing the way for the infantry. Although present, he was not engaged in the battle of Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, but was employed in reconnoissances and scouting expeditions. During the advance upon and the battles in the vicinity of Chancellorsville, he was, as we have seen, actively engaged, first in keeping up the communications between the different corps on their march from Kelly s ford, and afterward in checking the flight of the eleventh corps, and opposing the advance of the Rebel force. He was next ordered to the command of the expedition which we are about to describe; and his brilliant conduct in that expedition led to his promotion to the rank of major-general of volunteers, and the command of the cav alry corps ; and in this new capacity his services were of the highest order in the subsequent battles. The force under General Pleason ton s command in the battle of Beverly ford was composed of the first cavalry brigade, under General Gregg, a brigade of regular cavalry, under General John Buford, and the second cavalry brigade, under Colonel Duffie ; together with an infantry force of about two thousand, from the first and second army corps, and two batteries of artillery making in all about nine thousand men. The command bivouacked at Beverly ford, on the Rappahannock, at twelve o clock, Monday night, Jure 1st, commenced their march at three A.M. PLEASONTON S ATTACK ON STUART S CAVALRY. 543 next morning, and at four o clock crossed the ford. After marching about two miles they came up to a semicircle belt of woods, where the Rebels had a line of rifle-pits just within the timber, and had massed their cavalry force, about twelve thousand or fourteen thousand strong, with twenty-five pieces of artillery, under the charge of their most skilful cavalry commander, General J. E. B. Stuart. This force was collected for the purpose, as was ascertained from papers found on one of the pris oners taken by the Union troops, ot leading the way in Lee s advance into Pennsylvania, and would have started on their march within an hour but for the attack of the Union troops. General Buford s brigade, which was on the right, charged at once on the Rebels, Colonel Davis, of the eighth New York, leading the charge. A very severe battle ensued, the Rebels being in strong force, and re sisting the advance with great determination. }n this battle Colonel Davis was killed. The Union troops used the sabre with terrible effect, while the Rebels replied with the revolver. Finding the resistance too great for Buford s brigade, Gregg s, which was in the reserve, moved up to its support, and charge after charge was made by the Union troops with the greatest gallantry, and resisted by the Rebels with equal determina tion. At last, about twelve M., the Rebel force began to fall back, and re treated nearly five miles to the position where their artillery was parked. Here they were heavily reinforced, with infantry and artillery, from Cul- pepper. Finding that he should be greatly outnumbered, and his orders being only to execute a reconnoissance in force, General Pleasonton re tired about four o clock P. M. across the Rappahannock, in perfect order, taking with him two hundred prisoners, whom he had captured, and all his own killed and wounded. His loss in killed and wounded was some what more than two hundred, and from two to three hundred prisoners, and tnat of the Rebels was acknowledged bv them to exceed six hundred, including the prisoners/ The information obtained by this reconnoissance of the intended im mediate advance of the Rebel army was of great importance, and led General Hooker to put his army immediately in motion, so as to prevent Lee, who had several days start of him, from flanking him, and coming between his army and Washington and Baltimore. Hooker had not, however, confined himself to this single reconnoissance. StahFs cavalry had hovered for several days in the vicinity of Winchester, New Balti more, and Front Royal, and had had several skirmishes with Lee s ad vance-guard, whom they drove back toward the main body. On the llth of June, the War Department organized two new military departments the Susquehanna and the Monongahela and assigned Major-General D. N. Couch to the command of the former, with his head quarters at Harrisburg, and Major-General W. T. H. Brookes to the com mand of the latter, with his headquarters at Pittsburg. On the 12th, 544 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Governor Curtin issued a proclamation and General Couch a call to the people of Pennsylvania, urging them to organize and to hasten to the defence of the State, and if possible to drive back the invader before he touched the soil of Pennsylvania. On the the 18th of June, the Rebel advance, under Longstreet, about eighteen thousand strong, reached Winchester, Virginia, and gave battle to General Milroy, who occupied that post with a force of eight thousand to nine thousand men. After a severe battle, General Milroy succeeded in repulsing them ; but on the next day they renewed their attack with a largely increased force, and surrounded the town ; and finding that there was no hope of a successful defence of the place, General Milroy resolved to cut his way through, and in the attempt to do so lost nearly all his am munition and artillery, and a considerable number of men, in killed, wounded, or prisoners,- He succeeded in reaching Harper s Ferry with a portion of his command, and ran his baggage train through safely, by Hagerstown and Charnbersburg, to Harrisburg. About two thousand cavalry and stragglers from his force broke through in another direction, and effected their escape to Bloody Kun, Pennsylvania, where they were reorganized and joined by recruits from the Pennsylvania militia. General Jenkins, one of Longstreet s division commanders, followed in pursuit of Milroy s train to Hagerstown, where he arrived at 10.30 A. M. of the 15th of June, and pushing forward rapidly, entered Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, at 8.30 in the evening of the same day. On the 15th of June the President issued the following Proclamation: " WASHINGTON, Monday, June 15, 1863. "By the President of the United States of America : "A PROCLAMATION " Whereas, The armed insurrectionary combinations now existing in several of the States are threatening to make inroads into the States of Maryland, Western Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, requiring immedi ately an additional military force for the service of the United States: " Now therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, and Commander- in-Chief of the army and navy thereof, and of the militia of the several States when called into actual service, do hereby call into the service of the United States one hundred thousand militia from the States following, namely : " From the State of Maryland, ten thousand. "From the State of Pennsylvania, fifty thousand. " From the State of Ohio, thirty thousand. " From the State of West Virginia, ten thousand. "To be mustered into the service of the United States forthwith, and to serve for the period of six months from the date of such muster into said service, unless sooner discharged to be mustered in as infantry, artillery, PROGRESS OP LEE S INVASION. 545 and cavalry, in proportions which will be made known through the War Department, which department will also designate the several places of rendezvous. " These militia are to be organized according to the rules and regula tions of the volunteer service, and such orders as may hereafter be issued. " The States aforesaid will be respectively credited, under the enroll ment act, "or the militia service rendered under this proclamation. " In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. " Done at the City of Washington, this 15th day of June, in the year of our Lord 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the 87th. "ABRAHAM LINCOLN. * By the President : " WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State." Governor Curtin, of Pennsylvania, issued a proclamation the same day, calling upon the citizens of Pennsylvania to enrol themselves in military organizations, and to encourage others to do so, as well as to contribute money in the defence of the Commonwealth. Governor Tod, of Ohio, and Governor Bradford, of Maryland, also issued proclamations, urging the speedy arming of their people, and calling out the militia for service in the emergency. Governor Seymour, of New York, tendered twenty thousand militia from that State, and Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, all the available militia of that State, including three recently returned regiments. As yet, however, but a single division of Lee s army had entered Pennsylvania, and no more than that force had crossed the Potomac. The remainder were occupying the different passes or gaps in the Bull Bun range, and were moving within supporting distance of each other, ready to cross the Potomac as soon as their commander deemed the time fora movement in that direction propitious. General Pleasonton, who had hovered around them, seeking the opportunity to strike telling blows, and who never permitted such an opportunity to pass unimproved, sent his forces out, on the morning of the 17th of June, from Aldie, to the right and left of Goose creek, in search of the enemy s cavalry, which he supposed to be near Aldie s gap. General Kilpatrick s brigade succeeded in finding them, and a sharp and determined battle ensued, both sides charging with great fury, and after a fight of about three hours the Rebels fled, having lost heavily, and did not make a stand again till they reached Ashby s gap, where the main column of Stuart s cavalry were encamped. General Gregg, who had been fighting the Rebels, at the same time, near Aldie, also drove them to Snickersville, and ordered Colonel Duffle, with about three hundred and sixty men, to proceed to Middleburg, and hold that place. On arriving there, he found that a force of Rebel cavalry greatly outnumbering his own were encamped around the town, and that 35 546 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Stuart s whole force were within supporting distance. Determined to carry out his instructions, he sent back messengers to Aldie, asking for reinforcements. Meantime the Kebels in force attacked him at several different points, and finding himself in danger of being overpowered by superior numbers, he resolved to cut his way through them, and regain his position at Aldie. Failing in this, he turned toward Thoroughfare gap, and had proceeded several miles, when he ascertained that the gap was held by Ewell, commanding the centre of Lee s grand army, and that he was in the vicinity in person. Colonel Duffie then turned to the left, crossed the mountains at Hope gap, and by a circuitous route, succeeded in rejoining the division. In the reconnoissances undertaken by General Pleasonton, between the 9th and the 18th of June, he had caused a loss to the Rebels in killed, wounded and prisoners of about two thousand five hundred. In some of the skirmishes his own loss had been considerable, but in the whole it had been less than one thousand. By the reconnois- sance in the vicinity of Aldie, in connection with others, he succeeded in discovering the location of the three columns of Lee s army. Longstreet, with the left wing, was at this time at Leesburg, and Jenkins division, from his corps, had crossed into Pennsylvania; Ewell, with the centre, was at Thoroughfare gap, in the Bull Run mountains ; and Hill, with the right wing, was advancing by way of Occoquan and Maple Run Shoals. His force was estimated, and probably correctly, to be between ninety thousand and one hundred thousand men. On the 20th of June, another engagement took place between Pleason- ton s cavalry and the Rebel cavalry force, in which, after desperate fight ing through the day, the Union troops drove the Rebels through Ashby s gap into the Shenandoah valley, capturing about one hundred and forty prisoners, and inflicting very severe loss upon them in killed and wounded. He also captured two pieces of artillery, three caissons and many small arms. During this time, General Hooker had been moving his army, by as rapid marches as possible, from Falmouth toward Manassas Junction and Fairfax, keeping between the Rebel army and Washington and Baltimore, and crowding Lee s army constantly to the west of the Bull Run range, and toward the Shenandoah valley, thus compelling them to cross the Po tomac at a higher point than they desired. The people of Pennsylvania complained very bitterly, at the time, that troops were not sent to the de fence of their towns, which were invaded, and threatened with invasion by the enemy ; but General Hooker understood too well that this was just what General Lee desired, and that if his army were weakened by sending detachments to Pennsylvania, Lee would at once precipitate himself upon the remainder, with his whole force, and if he could defeat it, would then be prepared to attempt the capture of Washington or Baltimore. On the 20th of June, Lee had reached Winchester with his left and APPARENT APATHY OF PENNSYLVANIA. centre, and General A. P. Hill, commanding his right, had been forced beyond the Bull Run mountains, and was following toward Winchester. On the 22d, E well s corps crossed the Potomac a part of them at Shep- herdstown, near the site of the battle of Antietam, and a part at Williams- port. Longstreet s corps crossed on the 27th at Williamsport. Hill s corps crossed on the 24th at the same place, or a little above. On the 23d, the Rebel General Rhodes division of Ewell scorps entered Chambersburg, and was followed, the next day, by the remainder of that corps. On en tering the town, General Ewell issued general orders, prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors to his command, and requiring all persons having such liquors in their possession to report the fact and state the amount to the provost-marshal, or nearest general officer, that a guard might be placed on them, and the men prevented from obtaining them. A failure to do this would be punished by confiscation of the liquors, and render the other prop erty of the parties liable to seizure. He also admonished all citizens to ab stain from all acts of hostility, under penalty of being dealt with in a summary manner. Up to this time, the people of Pennsylvania had apparently been apa thetic under the earnest calls of their Governor and General Couch, and the proclamation of the President. Although large bodies of militia from New York, New Jersey, and some from Massachusetts, had hastened to defend the State from the- threatened invasion, the citizens themselves, with but few exceptions, seemed either utterly indifferent to the approach of the enemy, or so panic-stricken that they fled northward or eastward, leaving their property at the mercy of whoever might choose to take it. As the Rebels actually entered the State in large numbers, this pusilla nimity was less marked, and there was a rallying of the volunteer militia of the State in considerable numbers to Harrisburg. Even at this time, however, they were inclined to haggle in regard to the terms and time of enlistment, and to refuse to be enlisted in the United States service, lest they should be required to go into another State to fight the Rebels. In the language of one of her own citizens,* "It was not until the enemy was at our very doors, and three days before the battle of Gettysburg was begun, that the people began to realize the magnitude of their danger, and Philadelphia, which was a most tempting bait for the invaders, began to pour forth her men and treasures in real earnest." Lee, on his arrival in Pennsylvania, was in ignorance of Hooker s movements, his cavalry having been, by unskilful management, separated from his main army, and Hooker s army interposed between. He knew, however, that there was little leisure for delay, and he accordingly directed Ewell to send two of his divisions to Carlisle and York. In their route to York, Early s division entered Gettysburg on the 26th, and finding very little there (the inhabitants having sent off almost all their movable goods which would * Professor M. Jacobs of Gettysburg. 548 THE CIVIL WAH IN THE UNITED STATES. be of value to the Rebels to Philadelphia), they at first attempted to levy a cash contribution of considerable amount, but failing also in this, thev abandoned the place, and proceeded toward York, the cowardly chief burgess of which went six miles from the town toward the Rebels, to find them, in order to surrender the town to them. They occupied York on the 28th of June. Meantime, General Hooker lost no time in following Lee. On the day after the Rebel army entered Maryland, the Union army crossed the Potomac at Edwards ferry, and on the 27th were between Harper s Ferry and Frederick, Maryland. On the 27th of June, General Hooker was relieved of the command of the army of the Potomac, General Halleck says, in his report, at his own request a request made probably from the conviction that, with divided counsels and a lack of efficient co-operation with him on the part of some of his generals, there would be little hope of success, in the battle which it was evident must soon be fought. Major-General George G. Meade was appointed his successor. The general orders of the retiring and the incoming general were as follow: " HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, FREDERICK, MARYLAND, "June 28, 1863. "GENERAL ORDER, No. 65. In conformity with the orders of the War Department, dated June 27, 1863, I relinquish the command of the army of the Potomac. It is transferred to Major-General George G. Meade, a brave and accomplished officer, who has nobly earned the con fidence and esteem of the army on many a well-fought field. Impressed with the belief that my usefulness as the commander of the army of the Potomac is impaired, I part from it, yet not without the deepest emotion. The sorrow of parting with the comrades of so many battles is relieved by the conviction that the courage and devotion of this army will never cease nor fail; that it will yield to my successor, as it has to me, a willing and hearty support. With the earnest prayer that the triumph of its arms may bring successes worthy of it and the nation, I bid it farewell. "JOSEPH HOOKER, " Major- General. "S. F. BARSTOW, "Acting Adjutant-General" "HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, " June 28, 1863. "GENERAL ORDER, No. 66. By the direction of the President of the United States, I hereby assume command of the army of the Potomac. As a soldier, in obeying this order, an order totally unexpected and un solicited, I have no promises or pledges to make. The country looks to this army to relieve it from the devastation and disgrace of a hostile invasion. Whatever fatigues and sacrifices we may be called upon to undergo, let us have in view constantly the magnitude of the interests involved, and let each man determine to do his duty, leaving to an all- POSITION OF THE TWO ARMIES. 649 controlling Providence the decision of the contest. It is with just diffi dence that I relieve in command of this army an eminent and accomplished soldier, whose name must ever appear conspicuous in the history of its achievements; but I rely upon the hearty support of my companions in arms to assist me in the discharge of the duties of the important trust which has been confided to me. "GEORGE G. MEADE, " Major-General Commanding "S. F. BARSTOW, Assistant Adjutant- General." Having assumed command on the 28th of June, General Meade di rected his left wing, the first corps, commanded by General J. F. Reynolds, to move to Emmettsburg, Maryland, and the right wing, the eleventh corps, under General 0. O. Howard, upon New Windsor, leaving General French, with eleven thousand men, to protect the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and convey the public property from Harper s Ferry to Wash ington. Buford s cavalry was at Gettysburg, and Kilpatrick s at Hanover, Pennsylvania. The Rebel commanders, Ewell and Hill, with their corps, reached Fayetteville on the Cashtown road, on the 28th, and Longstreet came up to the same po int on the day following. It now became evident that the point of collision of the two hostile armies would be in the vicinity of Gettysburg, to which they were con verging from opposite directions. On the 29th of June, Buford s Union cavalry encamped in the vicinity of Gettysburg, on McPherson s farm, a mile and a half Horthwest of the village. The first and eleventh corps (General Reynolds and General Howard s, numbering in all about twenty- three thousand men) also came from Emmettsburg, and encamped four miles southwest of the village, on the right bank of Marsh s creek. On the Rebel side, Hill s corps, consisting of Heath s division, ten thousand men ; Fender s, ten thousand ; and Anderson s, fifteen thousand, were moved to the vicinity of Marsh s creek; while from Longstreet s corps, McLaws division, twelve thousand men, and Hood s, twelve thousand, were encamped in the same vicinity. Pickett s division, seven thousand men, was at Chambersburg, and Rhodes and Early s divisions of Ewell s corps, together nineteen thousand strong, were at Heidlersburg, nine miles distant; and Johnson s of the same corps, twelve thousand, was at Carlisle. The plan of Lee was evidently that which he so often found successful, of massing an overwhelming force upon a numerically feeble foe, and thus defeating the Union army in detail. He had, as wiH be seen, fifty-nine thousand, ready to give battle to the two Union corps of twenty-three thousand, while he had also nineteen thousand more in sup porting distance. The remaining corps of the Union army, except the six thousand cavalry of Buford, were not within a day s march, and hence could not furnish adequate support. The great battle could not be delayed, and the prospect for the Union forces was exceedingly dark. 550 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XLYII. 8KKTCH OF GENERAL MEADE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE BATTLE-FIELD THE BEGINNING OF THB BATTLE DEATH OF GENERAL REYNOLDS SKETCH OF HIS LIFE COMING UP OF THB ELEVENTH CORPS THE POSITION ON CEMETERY HILL SECURED RETREAT OF THE FIRST AND ELEVENTH CORPS TO CEMETERY HILL GREAT LOSS OF PRISONERS TUB STATR OF FEELING IN THE TWO ARMIES DEPRESSION OF THE CITIZENS OF GETTYSBURG REIN FORCEMENTS OF THE UNION ARMY POSITION OF THE TWO ARMIES ON THE MORNING OF JULY 2 OPENING OF THE SECOND DAY S BATTLE THE ATTACK ON SICKLES CORPS THE NINTH MASSACHUSETTS BATTERY THE CHARGE OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RESERVES THK ENEMY BEATEN BACK EWELL s ATTACK ON THE ELEVENTH CORPS AND ON GREEN S BRIGADE HE PENETRATES TO SPANGLER s SPRING THE THIRD DAY S BATTLE ATTACK ON THE UNION RIGHT THE REPULSE TERRIBLE ARTILLERY DUEL ON THE LEFT CENTRE ASSAULT BY PICKETT s DIVISION TERRIBLE SLAUGHTER LONGSREET s ATTACK ON ROUND TOP THIS TOO REPULSED THE BATTLE OVER RETREAT OF THE REBELS CROSSING OF THE POTOMAC GENERAL MEADE S ERROR THE LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES GENERAL ORDERS OF THE TWO COMMANDERS BENEFICIAL RESULT OF THE INVASION JO THE UNION CAUSE. AT the close of the last chapter, we left the two armies rapidly ap proaching each other, and both preparing for a battle, whose results could hardly fail of being decisive in their character. Before proceeding to describe the battle of the first three days of July, it may be well to give some account of the new commander of the army of the Potomac, who had been promoted to that difficult and responsible position only two days before the battle. George Gordon Meade was born in Cadiz, Spain, in 1816, where his father was, at that time, United States consul. His elder brother, Captain Richard W. Meade, entered the navy in 1826, and is now (January, 1865) in command of the steam frigate San Jacinto. General Meade was appointed to the West Point military academy, from Pennsylvania, in 1831, and graduated in June, 1835. He was appointed brevet second-lieutenant of the third artillery, July 1, 1835, and received his full commission in the same rank, in December of that year. On the 26th of October, 1836, he resigned his commission, and for the next six years lived in complete retirement. In may, 1842, he again entered the army, as second-lieutenant of topographical engineers, and served in that capacity throughout the Mexican war, distinguishing himself at the battles of Palo Alto and Monterey, and receiving a brevet for "gallant and meritorious conduct" in the latter battle. He was appointed to a first- lie-ate nancy in the topographical engineers, in August, 1851, and to a captaincy in the same corps in May, 1856. During the period which had elapsed since the Mexican war, he had been engaged in topographical surveys of the northern lakes, and in other duties connected with his corps. "When the Pennsylvania Reserve corps was organized for three SKETCH OF GENERAL MEADB. 551 years, Captain Meade was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and ordered to the command of the second brigade of the Reserves, his com mission dating from August 31, 1861. While serving in this corps, he superintended the erection of Fort Pennsylvania at Tenallytown, and subsequently joined the army of the Potomac in the winter of 1862. His brigade belonged to McDowell s corps, and remained at Fredericksburg for some months. On the 18th of June, 1862, General Meade was advanced to the rank of major of topo graphical engineers in the regular army, and assigned the same rank in the newly organized engineer corps of the United States army, In June, 1862, the Pennsylvania Reserves were added to the army of the Potomac ou the peninsula. General Meade took part in the battle of Mechanics- ville, on the 26th of June, and in the battle of Gaines Mill, June 27 ; and for his bravery in the latter battle, received the brevet of lieutenant- colonel of engineers in the regular army. After the capture of Generals McCall and Reynolds, he took command of the Reserves, and in the battle of June 30 was severely wounded, but recovered in season to command his division in the Maryland campaign ; and after General Hooker was wounded at Antietam, commanded his corps, and had two horses killed under him, and was himself slightly wounded. During the battle of Fredericksburg, he commanded th^ second division of the first army corps, and fought in the left wing, under General Franklin, with a tenacity and daring which was hardly equalled in that day of magnificent bravery. All his brigade officers, many of his field and line officers, and more than fifteen hundred men of his division, were either killed or wounded, before he relinquished the attack. Two days after the battle he was promoted to the command of the fifth army corps, and was appointed major-general of volunteers, his commission dating from the 29th of No vember, 1862. He remained in command of the fifth corps during the whole period of General Hooker s command of the army of the Potomac ; and during the battles of Chancellorsville, his corps, though less actively engaged than some of the others, was yet a tower of strength to the rest of the army. When it was found to be the intention of the Government to relieve General Hooker of the command of the army of the Potomac, the other corps commanders, without General Meade s knowledge, unani mously asked his appointment of the Government; and the order re quiring him to take command of the army took him completely by sur prise. In his stragical movements in the battle of Gettysburg, he displayed admirable skill and fertility of resource, and showed, conclu sively that he understood how to foil the most cherished plans of his able and adroit adversary. Gettysburg, the point toward which the two hostile armies were hastening, and which was the scene of the most bloody and desperate battle of the war, is the county seat of Adams county, Pennsylvania. It 552 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. is situated in a small valley, surrounded by hills, some of them rising to a considerable height. South Mountain, the northern prolongation of the easternmost range of the Blue Ridge, is about ten miles west of the town, and has a general course from northeast to southwest. Half a mile west of the town, parallel with South Mountain, and extending southward for several miles, is Oak or Seminary ridge. North of the town this ridge extends across the roads leading to Carlisle and Harrisburg. Immediately south of the town rises the bold, bluff eminence of Cemetery hill, almost wholly destitute of timber, but commanding, from its height, the Semi- nary ridge and the borough of Gettysburg. Southeast of Seminary hill, there are two other smaller elevations the nearer and smaller, Gulp s hill, and the remoter, Wolfs hill. Both are heavily wooded. About one and three-fourths miles directly south of Cemetery hill, and forming a continuation of the elevated plateau, are two summits Little Round Top or Granite Spur, and Round Top. These, too, are crowned with heavy forest-trees. Perhaps half a mile further south, or a little southwest, was another and somewhat lower eminence, occupied, on the 3d of July, by two brigades of Kilpatrick s cavalry. Having thus briefly sketched the leader and the field of battle, let us take up the narrative of the battle itself, from the morning of the 30th of June, when the first corps (Reynolds ) and the eleventh (Howard s) of the Union army, camped, late in the evening, wearied with a long march, on the bank of Marsh s creek, five miles from Gettysburg, with Hill s and Longstreet s corps, fifty-nine thousand strong, in their immediate vicinity, and nineteen thousand more but nine miles distant. General Buford had that day entered the borough of Gettysburg, with his division of six thousand cavalry, and had taken a position on the western slope of Semi nary ridge, northwest of the town. Early in the morning of Wednesday, July 1, he moved forward to a cultivated hill, a quarter of a mile west of Seminary ridge, and placed his batteries on the eastern slope of it, near the summit, and formed his line in rear of his batteries, near the base of the hill. He threw out his pickets a mile or more in advance of his batteries. On this point, the attack commenced a few minutes before ten A. M., by the firing of some of the Rebel skirmishers upon Buford s pickets. Hill s (Rebel) corps, or at least Fender s and Heath s divisions, numbering twenty thousand men, had moved forward by the Cashtown road, and posted themselves along the line of Willoughby creek or river, which flows along the western base of the hill, on which Buford was posted. Anderson s division, of the same corps, followed soon after, and took its position toward the Hagerstown road. The engagement between the pickets and the skirmishers soon grew into the proportions of a battle, and about ten o clock A. M. the artillery on both sides opened. At half- past ten, Major-General Reynolds, with the first corps, came at full speed DEATH OF GENERAL REYNOLDS. 553 through Gettysburg, and formed in line of battle along the eastern slope of Oak ridge, their right wing resting near the Seminary. From this position he ordered the corps to advance to Buford s relief, who was at this time warmly engaged with a force nearly four times the number of his own. In thus advancing, they passed to the northwest till their left was nearly opposite the Seminary, and half a mile west of it. On the east bank of Willoughby run, and about one hundred yards south of Chambersburg tunpike, is a small grove of timber, extending eastward from the run nearly half a mile, to the summit of the hill on which Buford s batteries were placed. This grove the Rebels had filled with sharpshooters ; and as the first corps approached it, Major-General Reynolds, according to his usual custom, rode forward toward the woods, and dismounted to reconnoitre. As he drew near a fence at the eastern extremity of the grove, and stooped forward to examine the woods, he was struck by a ball in the neck, breaking the bone. He fell forward on his face, and expired in a few minutes.* * Major-General John Fulton Reynolds was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1820. He was admitted a cadet at West Point in 1837, and graduated on the 30th of June, 1841. He was appointed a brevet second lieutenant of artillery on the 1st of July, 1841, and on the 23d of October following received his commission as second lieutenant in the third artillery. On the 18th of June, 1846, he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in the same regiment, and served throughout the Mexican war, winning the brevets of captain and major for his " gallant and meritorious con duct" at Monterey and Buena Vista. After his return from Mexico he was engaged in military service in California and against the Indians on the Pacific coast. In IS.") 2. he was appointed aid to General Wool, and on the 3d of March, 1855, was pro moted to the captaincy in the third artillery. At the commencement of the war Captain Reynolds assisted Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania in organizing the State troops, and under the act of the Legislature of May 15, proceeded to raise the Pennsylvania Reserve corps. For these services he was presented with a sword by his native State. On the 14th of May, 1861, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the fourteenth United States infantry. On the 20th of August, 1861, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and appointed to the command of the first brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserve corps, then under General McCall. With this command he was engaged in the construction of Fort Pennsylvania at Tenallytown, and in the early part of 1862 passed over the Potomac, joining the army of the Potomac. The " Reserves," it will be remembered, formed the second division of the first army corps under General McDowell. In Juiie, 1862, they joined the army of the Potomac on the peninsula ; and General Reynolds, on the 26th of June, 1862, participated in the battle of MechanicsvilJe, and the next day took part in the severe and disastrous battle of Games Mill. He was also engaged at Savage s station and at Charles City Cross Roads, where he took command of the division after General McCall was taken prisoner, and at a later hour the same day was himself captured by the enemy and sent to Richmond. For his gallantry in these battles he received the brevets of colonel and brigadier-general in the regular army. After his release from Richmond, he took command of the Pennsylvania militia when that State was invaded in September, 1862, and for his gallant conduct at that time received the thanks of the State, through Governor Curtin, and also 554 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. On the fall of General Reynolds, the command of the corps devolved on General Doubleday. The corps, which had been much reduced by losses at the battle of Fredericksburg, numbered but about eight thousand men. The battle now raged furiously for nearly two hours, the Rebels relying on their superior numbers, and assaulting the Union lines with great fury, and these resisting their efforts with equal determination. A Rebel brigade, under command of General Archer, of Maryland, num bering about fifteen hundred men, attempting to outflank and capture the Union brigade on the extreme right, was itself captured and sent to the rear; and a regiment of Mississippi troops, eight hundred strong, had also been taken prisoners. As he came upon the field, General Reynolds, ob serving the numerical superiority of the Rebel force, had sent back to Major-General Howard, commanding the eleventh corps, requesting him to hasten forward with his troops. General Howard came up about noon, and having stationed Steinwehr s division on Cemetery hill, as the best position for the coming struggle, hastened with Schurz s and Barlow s divisions to the support of the struggling heroes of the first corps. It was time. Rhodes and Early s divisions of Swell s (Rebel) corps, each about twelve thousand strong, which it will be remembered were at Heidlersburg, nine miles distant, the day before, had been ordered forward at an early hour, and formed on the left of Heath (of Hill s corps) with the intention of flanking the Union troops. Rhodes division, which was in the advance, moved forward on the Harrisburg road, and took part in the battle about noon, and were pressing the first (Union) corps so hard that they were beginning to give way, when the divisions of Schurz and Barlow coming up upon the double-quick step, took position on their extreme right, resting on the Mummasburg road. This stayed the tide of battle for an hour, when Early s (Rebel) division coming up on the York road, arrived on the those of General McClellan. On the 26th of September he relinquished this position, and returned to the command of his division, and soon after assumed the command of the first army corps by virtue of seniority of rank. He commanded this corps in the battle of Fredericksburg, being in the left wing under General Franklin. In January, 1863, he was nominated major-general of volunteers, arid confirmed in March, his commission dating from the 29th November, 1862. In the movements preceding the battles around Chancellorsville, General Reynolds distinguished himself for the promptness and skill with which he moved his corps, carrying out the points which General Hooker had planned to deceive the enemy. In the battles the first corps took no active part, being in the reserve. On the 12th of June he was appointed to the command of the right wing of Hooker s army, having charge of three corps. He moved rapidly from the Rappahannock, and crossed the Potomac on the 25th of June. He was, -as we have seen, with his own corps, in the vanguard at Gettysburg, and fell in the very beginning of the battle. He endeared himself greatly to his officers and men by his thoughtfulness for their welfare, and his extraordinary personal courage and daring. MOVEMENTS OF THE TWO ARMIP:S 555 field, and took part in the fight. The Rebels had now forty-four thousand men actually engaged in the battle, and as many more within supporting distance, against not more than twenty thousand Union troops; and as their fresh troops were constantly moving up, and extending farther east, with the evident intention of flanking the Union troops, it became evident that these must fall back to Cemetery hill or be killed or captured. General Howard had anticipated this contingency, and had, on. first coming upon the field, ordered the removal of the heavy artillery to Cemetery hill, and sent orders to Steinwehr s division to be ready to sup port the Union troops, should they find it necessary to retreat. As the pressure of the advancing columns of the enemy became greater, the men of the first and eleventh corps were forced to yield before them. The first corps, for the most part, moved in very good order through the southwestern suburbs of the town, and took position on the left and rear of Steinwehr ; while the eleventh corps, crowding through Washington and Baltimore streets, took position- in front, and on the right centre of the hill. In the confusion consequent upon the dense crowd, they were unable to repel the assaults of the enemy, who were pressing hard upon them, and from two thousand five hundred to three thousand were taken prisoners. At 4.30 P. M. the two corps had reached Cemetery hill, and the well directed artillery fire of Steinwehr s division, and a heavy force of sharp shooters stationed along the front of the hill, prevented the Rebels from pursuing. Soon after they had reached the hill, General Hancock, com mander of the second army corps, who had been sent forward by General Meade to represent him upon the field, arrived, and approving of the ju dicious choice of position made by General Howard, proceeded to post the troops on the hill, and assign positions to the different corps, which, under urgent orders from General Meade, were now rapidly coming up. The twelfth corps (Major-General Slocum s) and part of the third, with its commander, General Sickles, arrived about seven P. M. The twelfth was stationed on Gulp s hill, extending to Wolfs hill, and the third on Cemetery hill, to the left of the first. At night the Rebel forces were stationed as follows: Ewer s corps (Rhodes and Early s divisions) occupied the town, and formed a line thence southeast to Rock creek, a stream flowing southward about a mile east of the town. Johnston s division of this corps did not arrive till the next day (July 2d), and then took its position on the extreme left, beyond Rock creek. Hill s corps was posted on Seminary ridge in the follow ing order : on the left, and extending from the Chambersburg turnpike, to the Shippensburg or Murnmasburg road, was Heath s division ; next came Fender ; then Anderson, who had come up late, and had taken no part in the day s fighting; then McLaws division of Longstreet s corps v irabal ^ q^k uoJ J HIK t nooe ooJ oaioo Jjiiii fl* 556 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. which had also come up too late for the battle of that day ; and this was joined still further on the right, the next morning, by Hood s division. The tone of feeling in the two armies was very dil/crent. The Rebels were boastful and jubilant; they were elated with their success on that day, and fully confident that on the morrow they should completely an nihilate the Union army, fatigued as it was by long marches, and yet scattered, for they were well aware that but two small corps had been fighting them through the day. Their commander, however, saw less oc casion for rejoicing than some of his subordinates. lie had, indeed, driven the small force opposed to him back about two miles, and taken about three thousand prisoners; but they had retreated to a strong and almost impregnable position, and had carried off twenty -three hundred of his men ; and their forces would come up rapidly, and soon would be equal in numbers to his own, with a decidedly superior position. On the Union side there was very little dejection or discouragement, but as little rejoicing. The two corps which had been engaged had made a good fight, and though they had lost heavily, in killed, wounded and prisoners, they had not been panic-stricken and dishonored. They had, indeed, lost their noble and gallant commander, General Reynolds, and the youthful but fearless General Barlow was wounded well jigh to death. Of Schurz s division, of the eleventh corps, numbering in the morning three thousand six hundred men, two thousand two hundred were killed; wounded, or prisoners. With all these misfortunes, however, there was a full belief in the advantages of their position, a certainty that they would be largely reinforced before another day s fighting, and an un shaken confidence in the ability of General Meade. When evening brought Slocum s and part of Sickles corps, and especially when, soon after midnight, General Meade and his staff rode into camp from Taney. town, the spirits of the men, weary as they were, began to rise, and they felt that victory was yet within their reach. The people of Gettysburg were overwhelmed with distress and anxiety during this, the first night of the battle. They had seen one of the finest dwellings of the town, the Ilarrnan house, wantonly burned in the morn ing; th^p knew that the rebels were plundering others at this very time? they had seen the Union army flying before a triumphant foe through their streets, and though they knew that they had succeeded in gaining the Cemetery hill, yet they feared they would not be able to hold it, especially as they knew nothing of General Meade s near approach, or of the reinforcements already come in, or within a short distance from the town. Furthermore, the Rebels encamped in the town were loquacious and boastful, and took delight in telling how easily they should be able to destroy the Union army on the morrow. Disheartened, and almost in despair, the citizens of Gettysburg watched sadly for the dawn, which they feared after all might come too soon, and too deeply laden with * OPENING OF THE BATTLE AT GETTYSBURG. 557 sorrow. At seven A. M. f Thursday morning, July 2d, the remainder of the third corps (Sickles ) and the whole of the second (Hancock s) and the fifth (Sykes ) had reached the camp. Hancock s corps was placed on the left centre, next to the first corps, and Sickles joined it still further on the left, while Sykes held the extreme left wing, resting on Round Top and Granite Spur, or Little Round Top. Sedgwick s corps (the sixth) did not arrive till two P. M., having marched thirty-two miles since nine A. M. of the previous day. As the men were very much wearied with their fatiguing march, they were ordered to take a place behind the fifth in reserve, to be able to support either the right or left as might be required- The Rebels were in no haste to commence the attack. General Lee, the Rebel commander, says in his report, that the force of the enemy (the Union troops) was unknown, and that he deemed it advisable to wait till the rest of his troops came up. They were, however, all in the field ex cept Pickett s division of Longstreet s corps, Johnston s division of E well s corps, and Stewart s cavalry all of which came up on Thursday. The force which was present for duty at Gettysburg, under his com mand, on the morning of July 2d, was not less than seventy-five thousand men ; and about twenty-nine thousand more came in during the day, in cluding Stuart s cavalry, giving an entire force of one hundred and four thousand. The Union army, in the morning, numbered about seventy- eight thousand ; and Sedgwick s corps, of about sixteen thousand, came in at two P. M., making the entire Union force about ninety-four thousand. The day passed in silence, except occasional picket-firing, and now and then a cannon-shot from the Union lines to ascertain the position and strength of the enemy, till twenty minutes past four P. M., when, having perfected his arrangements, the Rebel commander opened a ter rific artillery fire upon the left, and followed it by an infantry attack upon the left wing. General Sickles, in command of the third corps on that wing, moved forward with his corps from half to three fourths of a mile in front of the main line of the Union army, to the vicinity of Sherfey s peach orchard. The ninth Massachusetts battery, Captain Bigelow, ac companied the corps. General Sickles position was unfortunately too far from the main line to be promptly or immediately supported by the second or fifth corps. General Meade sought General Sickles at once, and discussed with him the propriety of falling back to the line of his sup ports ; but the enemy had perceived his exposed position, and were rush ing forward to the attack in heavy force, about twenty-six thousand men being thrown at once upon this single corps. Very early in the engage ment, General Sickles was severely wounded, and Major-General Birney took command of the corps, and retained it, though himself wounded soon after. After a brave and determined resistance, the corps was forced back; and the enemy, flushed with success, pressed forward with all their might for the high ground between R&und Top and Little Round Top or 558 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Granite Spur. If they could reach and hold this, they would be able to command the Union position on Cemetery hill. The struggle was fierce and desperate, and, for nearly four hours, victory seemed poised in the balance. Bigelow s ninth Massachusetts battery, nine months men, who had not previously been under fire, occupied an exposed position, and the Rebels seemed determined to take it. Major McGilvray, who commanded the artillery on the left, ordered Captain Bigelow to hold his position till he could get up two batteries on the ridge, and to give the Rebels grape and canister. Captain Bigelow obeyed, and as the Rebels came up to the very muzzles of his cannon to capture them, he blew them to pieces, and filled the air with the scattered fragments of their bodies. Still they rushed on with demoniac yells, climbing upon the limbers, and shooting the horses, but Bigelow held on, though nearly all his horses were killed, five of his sergeants dead, and three of his cannoneers and twenty- two of his men wounded, and himself shot through the side, till the booming of the guns from the ridge told that McGilvray had planted his batteries. He then brought off five of his limbers and two of his guns, dragging them in part by hand. The Rebels rushed forward, seized the four pieces with loud shouts, and came on for new triumphs, but McGilvray s batteries drove them back with terrible slaughter, and a fresh division (Humphrey s) coming up to reinforce the third corps, charged upon the Rebels and re captured the guns. In this desperate struggle, Doubleday s division of the first corps, the second, and part of the fifth and sixth corps, together with two divisions of the twelfth corps, came to the assistance of the third, and after nearly three hours of the hardest fighting of the war, succeeded in repulsing the enemy, who had at one time gained possession of the summit of Little Round Top. From this point they were driven by Crawford s division of the fifth corps (the Pennsylvania Reserves) who, coming up fresh, charged upon them with great fury, drove them down the rocky front of that hill, across the valley below, over the next hill, and into the woods beyond, taking over three hundred prisoners. In this charge, the gallant Colonel Taylor, com mander of the Bucktail regiment of the Reserves, and brother of- the dis tinguished author, Bayard Taylor, was killed, and the Rebel General Barksdale also fell. Thus thoroughly driven back, and with severe loss, the enemy made no further attempts upon the Union left wing, but the Rebel General Ewell, who commanded on the enemy s left (opposite the Union right) and had determined to obtain possession of Culp s arid Wolfs hills to the right and southeast of Cemetery hill, took advantage of the weakening of the Union right to support the attack of Longstreet and Hill on the left, massed his force first against the position of the eleventh corps on Cemetery hill, and afterward on Green s brigade of Geary s division, which, with Williams division, alone remained of the twelfth, the rest having crossed t<3 the support of the third corps, and THE SECOND DAY S BATTLE AT GETTYSBURG. 559 which guarded the valley between Gulp s and Wolfs hills. The attack upon the eleventh corps was speedily repulsed, and with fearful loss to the Rebels. Howard, depressing the muzzles of his forty cannon, poured such volumes of flame, with such a hail of shell, upon the Rebel troops, who were flying to climb the steep front of the hill, that they fell back completely routed. Ewell s success was somewhat better, in his attempt upon the lines further to the Union right. He attacked Green s brigade, in the darkness, with great fury, but was received by the brigade with the most resolute courage, and the whole ground in front of Green s breast works was covered with the killed and wounded. After some time a brigade of the first corps was sent down to the assistance of this little band of heroes. The conflict raged nearly two hours, till 9.30 P. M. ; and though repelled from Green s breastworks, a small Rebel force succeeded in penetrating to a point inside of the Union lines, near Spangler s Spring, where they lay on their arms during the night. Owing to the late hour and the darkness, they dared not push on further, lest they should fall into a trap. The losses during this day s fighting had been very severe on both sides, but they were heaviest on the side of the Rebels ; and, with the exception of the slight advantage gained at Spangler s Spring, which proved of no subsequent importance, they had been repulsed with great loss in their attempts to carry every point. They were not however defeated ; and the reinforcements which they had received during the day, and which had as yet taken no part in the fighting, together with the fact that & retreat could only prove ruinous to their cause, led the Rebel commander to resolve to continue the assault on the next day, July 3d. To General Ewell he assigned the task of carrying the Union right wing, and to Longstreet that of breaking the Union left centre, the weakest point of the Union lines. On the morning of the 3d, General Geary, who had returned to the right during the night, was attacked at early dawn by the enemy, and re plied with his batteries. The attacking force was that which had pene trated to Spangler s Spring the night previous, now largely reinforced by Swell s best troops. At sunrise Geary s division, which had been rein forced by Shaler s brigade from the sixth corps, and Lock wood s Maryland brigade, charged furiously upon the enemy and drove them back. Rein forced, they again advanced, only to be again driven back, and from 4.30 to eight A. M. the battle raged with the utmost violence, and there were no symptoms of yielding on either side. At eight o clock there.was a lull of a few minutes, and then the strife was renewed again with ever in creasing fury. At 10.30 A. M. the Rebels were retreating, driven by main force over the breastworks with dreadful slaughter, and, as they fell back, a battery on the Baltimore turnpike ploughed through their lines with shot and shell, hurled over the heads of the twelfth corps, and made terrible havoc in their ranks. 560 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. After the retreat of E well s troops to the west and northwest of the town of Gettysburg, the enemy remained quiet till one P. M., when they opened fire with one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty guns on the centre and left, the position of General Hancock s corps, which, from the want of natural defences, was the weakest portion of the Union lines. The Union batteries, fully equal in number and calibre, replied promptly, and for the next two hours the earth shook under the feet of the two armies with the terrible concussion. The air seemed filled with iron missiles, and the forest trees on both sides were riven, torn and splintered, as if struck by lightening. At last the Union troops ceased to reply, not from any disposition to yield, or from lack of am munition, but to compel the Kebels to a further demonstration. They were not slow in making it. Pickett s division, the elite of Longstreet s corps, which had not yet been under fire in this battle, was advanced, and supported by three brigades from Heath s and Anderson s divisions of Hill s corps. They moved steadily forward for nearly a half mile, intending evidently to carry the Union lines by assault, when having arrived within short range, the artillery opened on them with grape, can ister, and shell. They hesitated for a moment, then with tremendous yells rushed on till, when within a short distance of the lines, they were re ceived with a most deadly and destructive fire of musketry. Under this they reeled and staggered, and a part rushing up to the Union lines threw down their arms and surrendered, while the remainder turned and fled. Webb s and Stannard s brigades of Doubleday s division sprang forward, and each captured about eight hundred prisoners, and the other brigades considerable numbers. Fifteen stands of colors were also taken by the Union troops. Of the three brigade commanders of Pickett s division, Garnett was killed, Armistead mortally wounded, and Kemper severely wounded and taken prisoner. General Pettigrew and General Semmes were also wounded, the latter mortally. Over one third of the men en gaged in this assault were left upon the field, and three thousand more taken prisoners. On the Union side the loss had been much less, but Major-General Hancock and Brigadier-General Gibbon were severely, and Generals Warren and Hunt slightly wounded. Of course this closed the battle in this part of the field, as there was no probability of rallying these broken troops for another attack. But Longstreet had not relinquished his hope of effecting a lodgment of his troops upon Kound Top or Granite Spur. Hood s and McLaws division of his corps, while the fight with the Union centre was progress ing, assaulted these points with great vigor in front, and at the same time Longstreet sent an infantry force with two or three batteries, to a point nearly two miles southwest of Kound Top, with orders to press forward and turn the flank of the sixth corps, so as to fall upon the Union rear and secure its trains of ammunition, which were packed behind Bound RETREAT OF THE REBEL ARMY FROM GETTYSBURG. 561 Top. They were, as they thought, making good progress in this move ment, when they suddenly found themselves confronted by two brigades of Kilpatrick s division of cavalry. A fierce engagement ensued, in which the Rebel batteries were silenced, and the infantry driven back to their original position in front of Bound Top, and the Pennsylvania Re serves charged upon them, capturing the battery, taking three hundred prisoners, and five thousand stand of arms. At the same time, General Gregg, with his division of cavalry, who had held a position on tho extreme right, crossed the Baltimore and Bonaughtown road, and attacked Stuart s cavalry and Ewoll s force on the left and rear. The great battle was over. Thwarted at every point, his efforts to penetrate and destroy the Union army all defeated, with nearly one third of his whole force either killed, wounded, or prisoners, his ammunition and supplies nearly exhausted, the Rebel commander sullenly drew back to his intrenchments, and ordered the gathering up of such of hia wounded as could be most readily moved. The Rebel troops which had hitherto occupied the town and the tract southeast of it, moved during the night to Seminary ridge. "Owing to the strength of the enemy s posi tion," says General Lee in his report, "and the reduction of our ammu nition, a renewal, of the engagement could not be hazarded, and the difficulty of procuring supplies rendered it impossible to continue longer where we were." Accordingly, he commenced his retreat by the Fairfteld and Cashtown roads toward Williamsport, on the evening of the fourth of July, in a heavy rain, and with the utmost secrecy, and on the morning of the fifth General Meade ascertained that he was in full retreat, and the sixth corps was sent to pursue him on the Fairfield road, and cavalry on the Cashtown road, by the Emmettsburg and Monterey passes. The fifth and sixth of July having been occupied with the succor of the wounded and the burial of the dead, and General Sedgwick having returned from the pursuit of the enemy, which he had pushed as far as the Fairfield Pass, with the report that the pass was very strong one in which a small force of the enemy could hold in check and delay any pursuing force General Meade resolved to follow the enemy by a flank movement, and accordingly, leaving a brigade of cavalry and one of in fantry to continue harassing the enemy, he put his army in motion for Middletown, Maryland, and sent orders to Major-General French, at Frederick, to re-occupy Harper s Ferry, and to send a force to hold Turner s Pass in South Mountain. He ascertained subsequently that Major General French had not only anticipated some of these orders in part, but had pushed a cavalry force to Williamsport and Falling Waters, where they partially destroyed the enemy s pontoon bridge, and captured its guard. General Meade sent Buford at the same time with his cavalry division to Williamsport and Hagerstown, where they successfully 36 562 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. harassed the Rebel army, destroying its trains, and making many cap tures of guns and prisoners. After halting a day at Middletown, to procure necessary supplies and bring up trains, the Union army moved through South Mountain, and by the 12th of July was in front of the enemy, who occupied a strong position on the heights near the marsh, which lies in advance of Williams- port. In taking this position several skirmishes and affrays had been had with the enemy, principally by the cavalry, and the eleventh and sixth corps. The 13th of July was occupied in reconnoissances of the enemy s position and in preparations for an attack ; but on advancing the next day, it was found that during the night of the 13th they had crossed the river at Falling Waters and Williamsport, Ewell s corps fording the river at the latter point, wading waist deep, and Longstreet and Hill s corps crossing at the former on the pontoon bridge, which had been repaired. The cav alry in pursuit overtook the rear-guard of Longstreet and Hill at Falling Waters, and captured two guns and numerous prisoners. Such is Gen eral Meade s account of the retreat. General Lee, on the contrary, states that he awaited an attack at Williamsport for two days (June 12th and 13th) and that as none was made, and his preparations were completed, he crossed deliberately, and without interference on the part of the Union army. Were it not that General Lee s report is, throughout, disingenuous, and that though he does not directly assert falsehoods, yet often he so states facts as to compel the drawing of false inferences, and as often sup presses important truths which would tell against his cause, we might be disposed to accept as the whole truth his version of his escape. Gen eral Meade did not fail of censure from the Government for thus permitting the Rebel army to glide away from him when it was seemingly within his grasp. It should be said in his favor, that his forces were much ex hausted by their very long, forced marches ; that the Rebel position was one of great strength, and that the Rebel army, fighting for existence, would undoubtedly have fought with the utmost desperation, and the re sult of the battle might have been doubtful. Yet to have fought and been repulsed would have been better than not to have fought at all, since he could hardly have failed to have inflicted as much injury on the Rebel army as he received, and this would have so thoroughly crippled Lee s army as to have rendered it powerless in the future. It cannot be denied that the mistake was a grave one. General Gregg s cavalry force, which had crossed the Potomac at Har per s Ferry on the 12th or 13th, came up with the rear of the enemy at Charlestown and Shepherdstown, had a spirited contest, in which the enemy was driven to Martinsburg and Winchester, and pursued and harassed in his retreat. General Lee says that this cavalry force was at tacked by (Rebel) General Fitz Lee near Kearneyville, and defeated with heavy loss, leaving its dead and many of its wounded on the field. Gen THE LOSSES OF THE TWO ARMIES. 563 eral Meade s army crossed the Potomac at Berlin, and moved down the London valley, and keeping between the Blue Ridge and the Potomac, compelled Lee to retreat up the Shenandoah valley, and to take a position on the Rapidan, where his army remained for some time. In the magnitude of the losses on both sides in this campaign, it is en- titled to be regarded as the greatest campaign of the war up to that period, and the battle as one of the severest of modern times. The Union losses, as officially stated, were two thousand eight hundred and thirty-four killed, fourteen thousand seven hundred and nine wounded, and six thousand six hundred and forty-three missing, of whom not far from four thousand were prisoners. The total loss was therefore twenty -three thousand one hundred and eighty-six. Among the killed were Major-General Reynolds, and Brigadier-Generals Weed, Zook and Farnsworth ; while Major-Gen erals Sickles, Hancock, Butterfield, Doubleday, and Birney, and Brigadier- Generals Barlow, Barnes, Warren, Gibbon, Hunt, Graham, Willard, and Paul, were wounded. The Rebel losses have never been officially stated, but, from the best data to be obtained, it is believed that their dead num bered about five thousand five hundred. Nearly that number were buried by the Union army, and others were found in the woods and ravines sub sequently. The number of wounded, from the most accurate estimates to be obtained, exceeded twenty-one thousand. Of these seven thousand five hundred and forty were left on the field, and abandoned to the care of the victors, and were attended with the same assiduity and tenderness as the wounded of the Union army. The number of Rebel prisoners was thirteen thousand six hundred and twenty-one, inclusive of the wounded. The total loss then of the rebel army was not less then thirty-two thousand one hundred. Among these were Major-General Fender, and Brigadier- Generals Barksdale, Armistead, Garnett, Semmes, and Pettigrew (killed nt Falling Waters), killed ; and Major-Generals Heath, Hood and Trimble, and Brigadier-Generals Kemper, Scales, Anderson, Hampton, Jones and Jenkins, wounded ; and Brigadier-Generals Archer and Kemper taken prisoners. Three cannon and forty-one standards were also captured from the Rebels. On the 4th of July, General Meade issued the following general order to his army : "HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, " NEAR GETTYSBURG, July 4, 1863. rt GENERAL ORDERS, No. 68. The commanding general, in the name of the country, thanks the army of the Potomac for the glorious result of the recent operations. " Our enemy, superior in numbers, and flushed with the pride of a suc cessful invasion, attempted to overcome or destroy this army. Baffled and defeated, he has now withdrawn from the contest. The privations and fatigues the army has endured, and the heroic courage and gallantry it displayed, will be matters of history to be ever remembered. 664 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. " Our task is not yet accomplished, and the commanding general looks to the army for greater efforts to drive from our soil every vestige of the presence of the invader. " It is right and proper that we should on suitable occasions return our grateful thanks to the Almighty Disposer of events, that in the goodness of his providence he has thought fit to give victory to the cause of the just. By command of " (Signed) MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE. S. WILLIAMS, A. A. G." General Lee on reaching Williamsport also issued a general order to his arrny, of which the following is a copy : * HEADQUARTERS ARMY OP NORTHERN VIRGINIA, 11 July II, 1363. "GENERAL ORDERS, No. 16. After the long and trying marches, en dured with the fortitude that has ever characterized the soldiers of the army of Northern Virginia, you have penetrated to the country of our enemies, and recalled to the defences of their own soil those who were engaged in the invasion of ours. " You have fought a fierce and sanguinary battle, which, if not attended with the success that has hitherto crowned your efforts, was marked by the same heroic spirit that has commanded the respect of your enemies, the gratitude of your country, and the admiration of mankind. " Once more you are called upon to meet the enemy from whom you have torn so many fields names that will never die. Once more the eyes of your countrymen are turned upon you, and again do wives and sisters, fathers and mothers, and helpless children, lean for defence on your strong arms and brave hearts. Let every soldier remember that on his courage and fidelity depends all that makes life worth, having, the freedom of his country, the honor of his people, and the security of his home. " Let each heart grow strong in the remembrance of our glorious past, and in the thought of the inestimable blessings for which we contend; and, invoking the assistance of that benign Power which has so signally blessed our former efforts, let us go forth in confidence to secure the peace and safety of our country. Soldiers, your old enemy is before you. Win from him honor worthy of your right cause, worthy of your comrades dead on so many illustrious fields. " R. E. LEE, General Commanding." The invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania by the Rebel army, so far from accomplishing what the Rebels and their sympathizers at the North had hoped from it, was, notwithstanding its immense expenditure of loyal blood and treasure, of great service to the Union. It thwarted the schemes of the " Peace " party, and transformed many who had been ardent sympathizers with the Rebellion, into active advocates of the war. RESULTS OF THE INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA. 565 It roused the dormant patriotism of the professed friends of the Union, and gave a new impulse to volunteering. The heavy loss sustained by the Rebels in the expedition, in men and munitions of war, convinced them that the party on whose sympathy they had relied to sustain them in their struggle, by rising against the United States Government, were utterly powerless to effect any thing in their favor, and this did more to dispirit and discourage them, and to injure their cause abroad, than any previous event. Coming, as it did, in connection with other and still more decisive victories for the Union arms, it encouraged the timid, established the wavering, infused fresh courage into the hearts of the friends of the Union at home and abroad, and turned the tide which had in other countries set so strongly and unjustly against the national cause, if not to favorable regard, at least to a far stricter impartiality than had previously been manifested. 566 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER XLYIII. GENERAL ORANT TAKES COMMAND IN PERSON OF THE ARMY FOR THE REDUCTION OF VICKS- BURG HIS CANAL PROJECTS THE CANAL ACROSS THE PENINSULA ROUTE BY ROUNDAWA Y BAYOU LAKE PROVIDENCE CANAL YAZOO PASS STEELE s BAYOU SUCCESSIVE FAILURES HE RESOLVES TO ATTACK FROM BELOW THE RUNNING OF THE BATTERIES EXCITEMENT AMONG THE SPECTATORS MARCH OF TJIE ARMY TO HARD TIMES, LOUISIANA ATTACK ON GRAND GULF REPULSE OF THE GUNBOATS THEY RUN PAST THE BATTERIES LANDING AT BRUINSBURG BATTLES OF SHAIFER s PLANTATION AND PORT GIBSON EVACUATION OF GRAND GULF SKIRMISH AT FOURTEEN MILE CREEK BATTLE AT RAYMOND CAPTURE OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, AND DESTRUCTION OF REBEL PROPERTY THERE MARCH OF THE ARMY WESTWARD BATTLE OF CHAMPION HILL BATTLE OF BLACK KIVER BRIDGE VICKSBURG INVESTED ASSAULTS OF THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTY-SECOND OF MAY SIEGE OF THE CITY ITS CAPITULATION ON THE FOURTH OF JULY TERMS OF THE SUR RENDER THE RESULTS OF THE CAMPAIGN REBEL AND UNION LOSSES SHERMAN S PURSUIT OF JOHNSTON CAPTURE OF JACKSON AND DEFEAT OF THE REBELS GENERAL RANSOM S EXPEDITION TO NATCHEZ GENERAL HERRON S CAPTURE OF YAZOO CITY OPERATIONS OF THE GUNBOATS ON THE TRIBUTARIES OF THE MISSISSIPPI THE BATTLE OF MILLIKEN S BEND BRAVERY OF THE COLORED TROOPS ATTACK*ON LAKE PORVIDENCE. THE efforts for the reduction of Vicksburg, the principal stronghold of the Rebellion at the West, had thus far proved abortive. Sherman s unsuc cessful assault on Chickasaw Bluffs, at the close of the year 1862, had only resulted in rendering its defences more formidable, and its garrison larger, while it rendered it certain that the north line of the Rebel works around that city could only be carried by a very heavy sacrifice of life, if at all. General Grant had been engaged in operations having in view the command of the Mississippi Central, otherwise known as the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad, as far south as Jackson, and he had hoped to be able to move on Vicksburg in rear, by this route, making Memphis his base. That hope had been dispelled by the cutting off of his communications by the Rebel cavalry in December, 1862. Early in January he took command of the army designed to reduce Yicksburg, in person, and made his headquarters at first at Milliken s Bend, twenty-five miles above Yicksburg, and subsequently at Young s Point, nearly opposite that city. General Thomas Williams, who had been in command at Baton Rouge, and was killed there on the 5th of August, 1862, had, in the early summer of that year, made a survey of the vicinage of the stronghold, and had projected a canal across the neck of land opposite Yicksburg, with a view of turning the channel of the Mississippi into the new route, and leaving Yicksburg an inland town, or at most, with a deep and sluggish bayou in front of it. To make it plain to our readers how this could be done, it may be necessary to state that the Mississippi, moving, as it does, in much of the lower part of its course, THE CANAL PROJECT BEFORE VICKSBURG. 567 through an alluvial soil, is very tortuous, forming a succession of bends for nearly twelve hundred miles. Occasionally, where the peninsula in closed by one of these bends has a narrow neck, the river, in time of flood, breaks through, thus shortening its course, and forming what is called a cut-off, while its older and more circuitous channel, retains a small volume of water, but ceases to be the channel of the main river. There are a number of these cut-offs and passes, by which the river communicates, through the marshy and easily riven soil of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, with interior streams, and a part of its waters either find their way to the gulf through these waters, or into other streams which reenter the great river at points below. It is a little below the centre of the concave front of one of these bends that Vicksburg is situated ; and it was General Williams belief, that by making an artificial cut-off, she could be so far isolated, that her power to obstruct the free navigation of the Mississippi would at least be de stroyed. This canal had, however, been improperly located, its upper terminus being in an eddy, which would render the entrance to it difficult, while its lower terminus was within the range of some of the enemy s guns. When General Grant took command in person, he found that this canal had been abandoned, temporarily, after General Williams death, although a large amount of labor had been bestowed upon it. Believing that notwithstanding its objectionable location it could be so far made available, as to furnish a route for sending transports below the strong hold, he prosecuted the work on it diligently, though much delayed by the succession of heavy rains. Finally, on the 8th of March, the rapid rise of the water in the river, and the consequent great pressure upon the dam across the canal near the upper end, at the main Mississippi levee, caused it to give way, and let through the low lands, back of the camps, a torrent of water that separated the north and south shores of the pen insula as effectually as if the Mississippi rolled between them. This occurred when the canal was so near completion as to promise success within a short time, but it so completely destroyed it that there remained no hope of passing through with transports by that route. General Grant did not confine himself to this measure for the reduction of the beleaguered city. Resolving to make thorough work of the explo ration of the side, or indirect passages, by which the Mississippi might be descended without passing by Vicksburg, he directed the opening of a route from Milliken s Bend through Roundaway bayou, into the Tensas river, which would communicate with the Mississippi at New Carthage, and sent a small steamer and a number of barges through this route, but the water commencing, about the middle of April, to fall rapidly, and the roads becoming passable between Milliken s Bend and New Carthage, it was found impracticable and unnecessary to open permanent water com munication between these two points. He had also caused a channel to 568 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. be cut from the Mississippi river into Lake Providence, which connected through Bayou Baxter, Bayou Macon, and the Tensas, Washita, and Red rivers, with the Mississippi below. This was done for the purpose of communicating more readily with General Banks at Port Hudson. He also opened a channel from the Mississippi into Coldwater river, by way of Yazoo pass. His first intention was only to pass by this route through the Coldwater and Tallahatchie into the Yazoo, and there destroy the Rebel gunboats and transports known to be concealed in that river; but his success in the early stage of the work led him, at one time, to hope that he might be able through this route to obtain a foot-hold on the high lands along the Yazoo above Haines Bluff, and by the reduction of that formidable outwork, make some progress toward the capture of the strong hold itself. But, owing to the difficulty of obtaining a sufficiency of small steamers in season, the movement was delayed till the Rebels had time to fortify a strong fort at Greenwood, the point where the Tallahatchie and Tallobusha unite to form the Yazoo. The land around this fort is low, and was at this time overflowed with water, so that no troops could be put on shore to make an attack by land, while the gunboats bombarded the fort. Only the smallest and lightest draft gunboats had been able to enter the Coldwater river, and these did not carry sufficiently heavy can non to reduce the fort alone. After an engagement of several hours duration they withdrew, being unable to silence the batteries of the fort, but still remained in the Tallahatchie river. While the force thus detached was at a dead-lock at Greenwood, unable to go forward and unwilling to go back, Admiral D. D. Porter, command ing the Mississippi squadron, informed General Grant that he had made a reconnoissance up Steele s bayou, one of the numerous water courses which furrow the district of alluvial soil lying between the Mississippi and Yazoo, and that through this bayou, Black bayou, Deer creek, Roll ing fork and the Sunflower river, there was a practicable passage into the Yazoo, a considerable distance below Greenwood, and at a point where the vessels of the Rebels could be entrapped between the two squadrons. This route was also tried on the 25th of March, but failed in its main .ob ject, rather, as General Grant states, "from a want of knowledge as to what would be required to open this route, than from any impractica bility in the navigation of the streams and bayous through which it was proposed to pass." Incidentally it proved of considerable advantage in the destruction of stores for the Rebel army at Yicksburg, and in furnish ing some supplies to the Union forces. Foiled in these repeated efforts to cut off the Rebel stronghold from its commanding position on the Mississippi, or to assail its strongest out works in the rear, and destroy the great bulk of its supplies, General Grant was not the man to yield to discouragement or despondency. There remained the plan of assailing it from below and from the rear, by GRANT S MARCH TO HARD TIMES, LOUISIANA. 509 making a point some distance below and on the Louisiana side, his base of operations, and tbence, by rapid marches, without heavy trains, fight ing, if need be, as he went, to gain and occupy the hills, which looked out upon its lofty bluffs. The attempt to capture so strong a post by such a movement was one of great daring, and beset by obstacles which many, perhaps most, commanders would have deemed insuperable. The eastern or left bank of the Mississippi was lined with formidable batteries for most of the distance between Vicksburg and Port Hudson; and from Young s Point to some distance below Warrenton, the batteries were con tinuous, and more formidable perhaps than had ever been passed by armed vessels. It would be necessary for a considerable number of Admiral Por ter s best gunboats, and a small fleet of transports and coal barges to run the gauntlet of these batteries, as they would be needed for the reduction of some of the fortified points below. It was also necessary to march his whole army, which had been considerably reinforced, and consisted of three army corps (the nineteenth, fifteenth, and seventeenth), down the right or west bank of the river, to some point below, where they could safely cross the river. The wet, marshy soil, recently overflowed by the Mississippi floods, was ill-fitted to bear the heavy trains which must ac company the army, and the roads were intolerable. General Grant had intended to make New Carthage his base, but the want of transports, an i the formidable character of the defences to be encountered, compelled him to extend the march of his troops to Hard Times, Louisiana, seventy miles from Milliken s Bend, their point of departure. Crossing the river at this point, there was still a march of more than a hundred miles through the enemy s country, and exposed at every step to attacks from a large hos tile force known to be in the field and determined to obstruct his pro gress, before the rear of the fortified city was reached ; and when reached its defences were such that it was nearly as well adapted to resist an at tack in rear as in front. The Union commander, however, having satisfied himself that this was the most feasible plan of attack, was not appalled by any dangers or diffi culties, whether real or apparent, from pressing forward to its accom plishment. As a precautionary step, to cripple as far as possible the power of the enemy, and cut off his communications and supplies, he sent Colonel B. H. Grierson on that expedition, whose successful progress we have recorded in a previous chapter. On the 29th of March, he directed the thirteenth army corps, under the command of Major-General McClernand, to take up their line of march from Milliken s Bend for Hard Times, and ordered the fifteenth and seventeenth corps to follow, moving no faster than supplies and ammuni tion could be transported to them. The fifteenth corps (Major-General W. T. Sherman) was to remain to the last, and by making a feint of 1 570 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. attack on Haines 1 Bluff, with as much show as possible, attract the atten tion of the enemy from the real movement going on below. While the army was thus making its slow and toilsome progress south ward, through the marshes, the gunboats and transports were preparing to run past the batteries. The attempt was hazardous in the extreme; Admiral Farragut had tried it at Port Hudson, and lost the noble frigate Mississippi; and of the five gunboats and rams that had entered upon the fiery ordeal at Yicksburg, the Lancaster had been destroyed, the Essex terribly riddled, and the Queen of the West and Indianola barely escaped destruction, only to fall soon after into the hands of the enemy. In this case the danger would be aggravated by the large number of vessels which would attempt the perilous passage at once. Yet great as might be the peril, there was no reluctance on the part of the brave seamen on the gunboats, or the volunteers from the army, who manned most of the transports, to incur the dangers of the passage. Even the pilots, whose position was more exposed than any others, volunteered in larger num bers than were required. t ,>!) It was determined to send at first eight gunboats, three transports large river steamers, their boilers protected against the shot from the batteries by cotton bales and the transports themselves, laden with com missary stores, and a number of barges, flat-boats, etc., with forage and coal on board. The night of the 16th of April was fixed upon for their departure; and instead of starting just before dawn, as the Switzerland and Lancaster had done, they were to leave the rendezvous near the mouth of the Yazoo at eleven P. M. Long before that hour, all the other steamboats in the vicinity were crowded with anxious spectators, assem bled to watch the passage of the vessels through the ordeal of fire. At last one approached, and floated down silently near the Louisiana shore, its dark sides hardly to be distinguished from the foliage lining the bank, and, just below the rendezvous, crossed obliquely to the Mississippi side, where, as it crept slowly along in the gloom, all its lights hidden and its fires concealed, it would require keen watchfulness to distinguish it from the trees which overhung the river bank. Another followed, and another, till the whole eight gunboats and the three transports had started on the perilous voyage. The spectators, awed with emotion and anxiety, main tained a breathless silence, and listened painfully for the intimation that the enemy had discovered them. The upper batteries had been passed in safety, and, from the time which had elapsed, it was evident that they had reached a point opposite the beleaguered town. Some were sanguine enough to hope that they might escape past the whole without discovery, when suddenly a flame leaped into the air, and was followed almost in stantly by another and another, and soon the heavy booming of the can non succeeded the flashes. The boats had evidently been seen, and the fire of ten miles of batteries was opening upon them. The wind was RUNNING THE BATTERIES BEFORE VICKSBURG. 571 blowing down the river, and the reverberation of the cannon thud, thud, thud fell with a dull sound upon the ear. As time passed, the batteries lower and lower down came into action, indicating to the anxious listeners that some, at least, of the gunboats have yet escaped destruction, and are passing on toward the lower batteries. "While watching their progress as thus chronicled by the reports of the enemy s cannon, the spectators were horrified by observing that the Rebels had lighted an immense beacon- fire on the loftiest bluff of the city, which threw a clear and brilliant light on each arm of the bend of the river, which brought into bold and distinct relief every object passing on its surface. Guided by this light, the gun ners at the Rebel batteries now redoubled their fire, and along the whole line there belched a constant sheet of flame. The light, however, had also revealed to the gunboats the exact position of the Rebel batteries, and soon the fierce screech of the Parrott shells from the armament of the gunboats, mingled with the din, and more than once carried destruction into the batteries on the shore. The upper batteries have at last slackened their fire, and it began to be evident that most, if not all, of the squadron have passed the most dan gerous part of their perilous journey, both from the spiteful fire of the lower batteries and the heavy thunders of the answering guns of the fleet, when suddenly a new light creeps up athwart the sky, about midway be tween the now nearly-extinct beacon and the fire of the lower batteries at Warrcnton. It was soon apparent that this light was moving, and the dense white smoke which rose from it showed that cotton furnished a part of the fuel for the flame. The inference was inevitable one of the trans ports was on fire. The sight of the burning vessel seemed to rouse the Rebels to new exertions, for the firing increased in intensity for some time, as the fiery wreck floated down past their batteries. In the morn ing it was ascertained that the whole of the gunboats had passed this terrible ordeal without material damage, one man only being killed and two wounded on the flag-ship by the explosion of a shell. The transport which was burned was the Henry Clay, which was set on fire by a shell exploding among the cotton with which her engines were protected. Her cargo was all destroyed, but the crew escaped to the Louisiana shore in safety. On the 22d of April, six more transports, and twelve barges, ran past the batteries, and with similar success. One of the transports, the Ti gress, was sunk by a shot in her hull, but the rest escaped, though in a somewhat damaged condition. They were, however, speedily repaired, and having discharged their cargo at the depot below, were used for transporting the troops across the river on the 29th of April. They moved in front of Grand Gulf on that day, and the gunboats Louisville, Carondelet, Mound City, Pittsburgh, Benton, Tuscumbia, and Lafayette, attacked the batteries at Grand Gulf; but after a severe naval action of r 572 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. five hours and a half and sustaining a loss of twenty-six killed and fifty- four wounded, they were unable to silence the batteries completely, and General Grant landed his troops again at Hard Times, and directed them to march across the neck of the peninsula made by a bend in the Missis sippi, and running past the Grand Gulf batteries with gunboats and trans ports, to a point ten miles below Hard Times, crossed his troops the next morning to Bruinsburg, Mississippi. Here, after furnishing the thirteenth army corps with three days rations, in their haversacks, he ordered them to march immediately for Port Gibson. The seventeenth corps (McPher son s) followed as rapidly as it could be put across the river. At a little after midnight on the morning of the first of May, the army moved for ward, and at two o clock A. M. the advance met the Rebel skirmishers eight miles from Bruinsburg, and five west of Port Gibson. The Rebels fell back, but were not pursued far till daylight. As soon as it was light, McClernand s (thirteenth) corps followed the enemy rapidly, and came up with them four miles from Port Gibson, at a point where the road branches in opposite directions, though both eventually lead to Port Gib son. These roads, like most of those in this section, ran along the summit of narrow, elevated ridges, while on either side there were deep and im penetrable ravines and marshes. The enemy s force did not probably exceed twelve thousand to fifteen thousand, and in the attempt to occupy both these roads, with a view to divide the Union troops, he committed the fatal error of dividing his own inferior force still more widely, and exposing the severed portions to be beaten or captured in detail. Three divisions of McClernand s corps, Hovey s, Carr s, and Smith s, pursued the Rebels on the right-hand road, and Osterhaus division followed them on the left. The Union force on the right drove the enemy steadily before them to Port Gibson, though not without stubborn and desperate resis tance, but Osterhaus encountered such vigorous opposition that he sent back for assistance, and a brigade of Logan s division, of McPherson s corps, was sent to him ; but before it came up he had driven the enemy. The struggle at this point, which, for the sake of distinction, is called the battle of Shaifer s plantation, ceased about noon, though the enemy kept up a slow and occasional fire, even while retreating, and attempted to repel pursuit with their skirmishers. At about three P. M., they took another position, on a plateau known as Clear Hills, within little more than a mile of Port Gibson, and opened upon the advancing Union troops with artillery ; but after a sharp struggle, in which the Rebels suffered heavily in killed, wounded, and prisoners, they fled in disorder, and burned the bridge over the Bayou Pierre, on the Grand Gulf road, behind them. The Union troops slept on their arms that night, and in the morning, while a brigade of Logan s division was sent forward to occupy the atten tion of the enemy, on the road on which they jad retreated, a pontoon bridge was laid across the Bayou Pierre, directly at Port Gibson, and the PROGRESS OF GRANT S ARMY. 573 advance of the army commenced crossing upon it at five A. M. on the 3d of May. During the day the enemy were pursued as far as Hawkinson s ferry, with continued skirmishing and a large number of prisoners cap tured. The losses of Grant s army in the engagements in the vicinity of Port Gibson, were one hundred and thirty killed, seven hundred and eighteen wounded, and five missing. On arriving at Hawkinson s ferry, General Grant learned from his scouts that Grand Gulf had been evacuated by the enemy, who, by his capture of Port Gibson, were effectually flanked, and as it was desirable to make that point his base, and as he deemed it unnecessary to send back any considerable number of his troops, who were now fifteen miles on their way toward Jackson, he rode to Grand Gulf, with an escort of fifteen or twenty cavalry troopers, and made his arrangements for a change of base from Bruinsburg, and awaited the ar rival of supplies, wagons, and Sherman s (fifteenth) army corps, at thai point, for four days. These having arrived, he ordered an advance from Hawkinson s ferry on the 7th of May; McPherson s corps, forming his left wing, to keep the road nearest to the Black river; McClernand s corps to follow the ridge road from "Willow Springs (see map); and Sher man to divide his corps between the two roads. All the ferries were closely guarded until the troops were well advanced. It was General Grant s purpose to keep McClernand s and Sherman s corps as near as possible to the Black river, while McPherson was to move farther east, through Utica to Raymond, and thence into Jackson, destroy the railroad, telegraph, the supplies of the enemy, etc., and then push westward to re join the main force. Accordingly, Sherman was ordered to cross Four teen Mile creek at Dillon s plantation, and McClernand to move across the same creek farther west, sending one division to hold and guard the ferry at Baldwin. Both corps skirmished for a considerable time with the enemy at Fourteen Mile creek, before obtaining possession of the crossing. General McPherson met the enemy in considerable force (two brigades) at Raymond, and after several hours hard fighting, drove him toward Jackson, with heavy loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Many of the Rebel soldiers threw down their arms and deserted to the Union lines. General Grant had ordered McClernand s corps to march toward the Jackson and Vicksburg railroad at Edwards station, and Sherman s at a point between that and Bolton (see map), but having ascertained that the Rebels were receiving, daily, large reinforcements at Jackson, and that General Joseph Johnston was hourly expected there to take command of the Rebel forces, he countermanded the order, and directed both these corps to move toward Raymond. On the 13th, General McPherson moved to Clinton (see map), destroyed the railroad and telegraph, and captured some important despatches from General Pemberton (the Rebel commander at Yicksburg) to General Gregg, who had been in command in the battle at Raymond the day be- 574 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. fore. General Sherman took a position at Mississippi Springs, on the Raymond and Jackson road, and General McClernand moved to a point near Raymond. On the 14th, Generals Sherman and McPherson moved their troops toward Jackson, marching fourteen miles in a heavy rain, and about noon engaged the enemy near Jackson. McClernand s corps had been brought up within supporting distance. The enemy marched out their principal force on the road to Clinton, two and a half miles from Jackson, and there gave battle to McPherson s corps, while a small body of artillery and infantry took a strong position in front of Sherman s corps but, by a resolute advance of his troops, were soon driven within their rifle-pits, just outside city. While McPherson was engaged in a fierce fight with the Rebel force, which probably equalled, if it did not exceed his own in numbers, General Sherman, by a reconnoissance, discovered the weakness of the force in front of him, and ordering a general ad vance, soon drove them into and through the city, when he learned that after a battle of about two hours with General McPherson, the Rebels had retreated northward, badly beaten, and had been pursued till night, but without any serious result. Papers captured in Jackson showed that General Johnston, as soon as he became satisfied that Jackson was to be attacked, had sent peremptory orders to General Pemberton to march out from Vicksburg and attack General Grant in the rear. On learning this, the Union commander directed General McPherson to retrace his steps on the Clinton road the next morning, and General McClernand, with Blair s division of Sherman s corps, which was in the rear with McClernand, to face about and march toward Edwards station, on different roads, which converged near Bolton. (See map.) General Grant himself proceeded westward as far as Clinton, leaving General Sherman at Jackson to de stroy the railroads, bridges, factories, workshops, arsenals, and every thing valuable for the support of the enemy, and then move forward to rejoin the other two corps. This work was performed in the most thorough manner. McClernand s corps was sent forward on the morning of the 16th, toward Edwards station, with orders to feel the enemy if he encoun tered him, but not to bring on a general engagement unless he was confi dent of his ability to defeat him. There were then McPherson s and McClernand s corps, and Blair s division of Sherman s corps, all concen trating by different roads from an arc of about ninety degrees upon Edwards station, and the line of railroad a little east of it. The region traversed by the Union troops was very hilly and broken, with heavy timber and deep ravines, and occasionally open and cultivated tracts. At five o clock A. M. of the 16th two men, employees on the Jackson and Vicksburg railroad, who had passed through Pemberton s army the night before, were brought to General Grant s headquarters. From these it was ascertained that the Rebel army consisted of about eighty regi ments, with ten batteries of artillery, and that it numbered about twenty BATTLE OF CHAMPION RILL. 575 five thousand men. They also informed him of the positions occupied by the enemy, and of their intention of attacking the rear of the Union army. General Grant had previously intended to leave one of Sherman s divis ions for a day longer in Jackson, but on learning these facts he decided to send orders to General Sherman to move his whole force forward with all possible speed till he should come up with the main army near Bolton. McClernand s corps was also ordered to push forward rapidly, and Blair s division to establish communication with Osterhaus division, and if the latter became engaged, to move promptly to its support. General Grant also furnished to General McClernand the information he had received, and himself left for the advance at an early hour. General A. P. Hovey s division formed the right of McClernand s corps, and occupied the main road from Jackson to Vicksburg, near the railroad, while the remainder of that corps was coming up on other roads nearly parallel, but from three to five miles south. McPherson s corps were north of this road, and Logan s division of that corps occupied the left, next to Hovey. The skirmishers of Hovey s division found the enemy, before nine o clock A. M., at Champion Hill, on the Champion plantation, about eight miles east of Edwards station, and, by General Grant s orders, skirmishing was maintained as long as possible before bringing on a bat tle, as he did not desire to enter upon a general engagement until McCler nand s other divisions were sufficiently near to come directly to the support of the troops who were engaged. The enemy s position was a very strong one, on a narrow ridge covered with a heavy forest and almost impenetrable undergrowth, and his left resting on a precipitous height, where the Vicksburg road made a sharp turn to the left. In front, beyond the timber, which extended for a short distance beyond the hill, was a succession of gentle slopes, mostly under cultivation, and swept by the enemy s cannon. By eleven o clock A. M., it became evident, from the great rapidity and intensity of the firing, that the skirmishing was fast assuming the proportions of a battle. McCler nand was, at this time, about two and a half miles distant; and, sending several successive messengers to him to hasten forward, General Grant suffered the battle to go on. General Hovey attacked the enemy in front, and Logan s division assisted him in flank. The Rebel force actually en gaged was two or three times the number of the Union troops then on the ground, and they made a stubborn and determined resistance to the Union attack. General Hovey s charge was a gallant and brilliant one, but he was for a short time forced back by the overwhelming weight of numbers, but being reinforced by a part of Quimby s division, regained his position, and Logan, having flanked the enemy and operating on his rear, was in a situation to have captured nearly the entire hostile force, could the attack in front have been made in greater force. Owing in part to the nature of the ground, and the density of the timber, the divisions under 576 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. McClernand s immediate command did not arrive upon the field till four o clock, when the Eebels were in full and rapid retreat. Carr s and Os- terhaus divisions of this corps were ordered forward immediately in pursuit, and captured a train of cars laden with commissary and ordnance stores. The battle of Champion Hill was by far the severest battle which General Grant s forces had yet fought, and though but three divisions, Hovey s, Logan s, and Quimby s, were actually engaged in it, the losses on the Union side were, in killed and wounded and missing, nearly two thousand five hundred. The Kebel loss was nearly three thousand in killed and wounded, almost two thousand prisoners, thirty-two cannon, and an unusual quantity of small arms and equipments. A large propor tion of the prisoners gave themselves up voluntarily. The Eebels had retreated to the Big Black river, eight miles west, and there, in a position of extraordinary strength, they resolved to make one more stand. On the east side of the Big Black (which at this point was crossed by the railroad on a fine trestle-work bridge), a bayou filled with stagnant water about three feet deep, and from ten to twenty feet wide, extends in a semi-lunar form, both ends uniting with the river, and in closing a cultivated bottom land nearly a mile in width. On the inner side of this bayou the Rebels had constructed their rifle-pits, and planted what cannon they had left. They were protected on either flank by heavy timber, while, for a distance of nearly three hundred yards in front, the approach was unobstructed by timber, and was swept by the Rebel can non and musketry. On the morning of the 3 7th, after a heavy artillery duel, the Union troops approached to the edge of the timber, fronting the Rebel position, and by a careful reconnoissance it was ascertained that opposite the extreme right of the Union troops, where the rifle-pits joined the timber, there was an opening through which the Rebel works might be entered at the end, by charging across the ploughed field, three hun dred yards in width. Four regiments, the twenty-third Iowa, the twenty- first and eleventh Wisconsin, and the twenty-second Iowa, all of Lawler s brigade and Carr s division, formed the forlorn hope for this perilous charge. The troops moved forward with fixed bayonets, but their mus kets loaded, at a double-quick step, with heads bowed and faces averted, like men encountering a storm of hail, and though with a loss of more than one tenth of their number, gained the desired point, and rushed through the creek, through the abatis, and over the rifle-pits, into the enemy s works, and poured in a terrible volley, cheering meanwhile most lustily. Thus carried by assault, the Rebel position was surrendered at once ; eleven hundred of their men were taken prisoners, and eighteen cannon and several stand of colors were captured. The remainder of the Rebel forces fled most precipitately across the Big Black, burning the bridge, and thus preventing the escape of any portion of their troops who were still on the east bank of the river. General Sherman and his corps THE SUCCESSFUL INVESTMENT OF YICKSBURG. 577 had been ordered to Bridgeport, a point farther up on the Big Black, and a pontoon bridge sent him, on which he crossed on the morning of the 18th, and marched directly for Walnut hills and the Yazoo river, at the northwest of Yicksburg, and occupied that important position on the even ing of the same day. McClernand and McPherson built floating bridges, and crossed on the morning of the 18th, and McPherson occupied the hills east of the city, while McClernand took possession of those to the southeast. The city was thus completely invested, for the river front, above and below, was held by Admiral Porter s gunboats. In this campaign of eighteen days, General Grant had fought five se vere battles, in all of which he had been victorious ; had skirmished nearly the entire distance (somewhat more than one hundred miles); had taken more than five thousand prisoners, sixty-five field pieces, and nine heavy siege-guns, and an immense quantity of small arms, equipments, etc., and had destroyed a vast amount of the property of the enemy, in flicting upon them irreparable losses. The wisdom and forethought which prompted the expedition of Colonel Grierson, had been signally manifest in this entire campaign. Had not the railroads been so extensively cut, and such large supplies of ammunition and of railroad cars and locomo tives been destroyed, Johnston would have found little difficulty in col lecting at Jackson a force sufficiently large to have effectually checked General Grant s progress toward Yicksburg, and rendered his enterprise, if not wholly a failure, an undertaking in which the losses would have very nearly counterbalanced the gains. Great, however, as had been the advantages derived from this expedition, General Grant was fully aware that they could not in all probability be of long continuance. The rail roads would in a few weeks, perhaps in a few days, be repaired ; and though the locomotives and cars which had been destroyed could not be so readily rebuilt, yet their places could be supplied by those drawn from other roads, and the troops which Johnston was straining every nerve to gather at Canton, would probably be accumulated in sufficient numbers to resume the offensive, and attack Grant in the rear while he was be sieging Yicksburg. General Grant s force/ though sufficient to cope with the Yicksburg garrison, was not as yet large enough to repel also an attack from a considerable force who might attempt to raise the siege. Taking this view of the position, of affairs, General Grant resolved to lose no time in attempting the reduction of the Kebel stronghold by as sault. For success in this he relied very much upon the enthusiasm of his troops, and the demoralization of the Kebels consequent upon their repeated defeats. His first assault was made at two o clock P. M. on the 19th, the day upon which he arrived before Yicksburg. The fifteenth army corps (Sherman s) having already attained a good position, made a vigorous assault, and gained a situation within the enemy s outworks. The thirteenth and seventeenth army corps (McClernand s and McPher- 37 578 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. son s) were less successful, but obtained advanced positions covered from the fire of the enemy. On the 22d of May, a second assault was ordered to commence at ten o clock A. M., and the gunboats of Admiral Porter s squadron made an attack on the front of the city, and bombarded it continually from se\en to 11.30 A. M. The assault on the rear of the city by the land forces was not simultaneous, and the "forlorn hopes" which made the attempts to storm the enemy s forts were not well supported, owing in part to the difficul ties of the ground. On the left, in McClernand s corps, Lawler s brigade headed the assault, and gained a part of one of the forts, but found that it was divided by a partition breastwork, and commanded by rifle-pits in the rear, and the troops were slaughtered in their efforts to hold their po sition. Benton s brigade, followed by Burbridge s, attacked another fort to the right of this, and succeeded in planting their flag* upon the parapet, but were driven back by the Kebels, who hurled shells with lighted fuses down upon them. The struggle was maintained for five or six hours in both these forts, but resulted only in very heavy losses. General McCler- nand asked repeatedly for reinforcements from the other corps, but as they were engaged in assaulting the works in front of their respective positions, and as McClernand s own corps was not fully engaged, General Grant could only direct him to use the remainder of his own troops, and make a diversion in his favor by a more earnest and heavy attack on the part of the other corps. He had also become satisfied that General McCler nand s attempts to capture these forts were not likely to be successful, and that a persistence in the assault would only be attended with great loss of life without advantage. He did, however, finally, at McClernand s repeated and urgent demands, send Me Arthur s, and subsequently Quim- by s division from McPherson s corps, to his assistance, but without other result than a large increase of the killed and wounded.* The assault had proved a failure, and had caused severe losses to the Union army, but it had not in any way impaired its confidence or energy, or its hopes of success. It was necessary, however to resort to the slower method of advancing by regular approaches, and maintaining so close a siege that the belea guered army in the city could receive no supplies or reinforcements. Information received at this time of the difficulty which Johnston expe rienced in raising a sufficiency of Rebel troops to attack him, and tho * In a congratulatory order addressed by General McClernand to the thirteenth army corps on the 30th of May, he claimed for himself and his corps all the success of the campaign thus far, and animadverted so offensively upon General Grant s man. agement of the assault, that that general, having read the order, and given opportu nity for explanation or apology, felt compelled to remove him from the command of the thirteenth army corps. SURRENDER OF THE GARRISON AT VICKSBURU. 579 arrival of very considerable reinforcements from Memphis, Helena, and Louisville, rendered his position safe, and enabled him to invest the city more closely, and to make his approaches rapidly and successfully. At first there was a scarcity of engineer officers for conducting the siege, but under the skilful superintendence of Captains Prince and Comstock, and Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson of General Grant s staff) the volunteer officers rapidly gained a practical experience in military engineering, which made them capable and efficient engineers before the close of the siege. By the 3d of July his saps were so far advanced as to render his success certain, and he had made all preparations for a final assault on the 6th, to be followed immediately by a vigorous pursuit of Johnston s forces, which, though approaching as near as the Big Black river, had never ventured to attack him. On the 3d of July, General Pemberton, who was in command of the Rebel forces in Yicksburg, sent a letter to General Grant, proposing an armistice, and the appointment of commissioners to arrange terms for the capitulation of the place. The correspondence resulted in the surrender of the city and garrison of Vicksburg, at ten o clock A. M., July 4th, 1863", on the following terms : The entire garrison, officers and men, were to be paroled, not to take up arms against the United States until exchanged by the proper authorities ; officers and men each to be furnished with a parole, signed by himself; officers to be allowed their side-arms and pri vate baggage, and the field, staff, and cavalry officers, one horse each ; the rank and file to be allowed all their clothing, but no other property ; ra tions from their own stores sufficient to last them beyond our lines ;* the necessary cooking-utensils for preparing their food, and thirty (fifty were finally allowed) wagons to transport such articles as could not well be carried. These terms, liberal as they were, were, after all, more advantageous to the United States Government than an unconditional surrender. They saved the necessity of transporting thirty-one thousand prisoners to the North, which, from the limited amount of transportation on hand, would have been a matter of great difficulty, and saved also the expense of sub sisting them, while it left Grant s army free to operate against Johnston, and gave him the command of his river transportation, to be used for any purpose which the exigencies of the service might require. A large num ber of the prisoners deserted at once, and would not again serve in the Eebel army. But for the violation of good faith by the Rebel leaders, who forced many of these paroled prisoners into their armies again with out exchange, the arrangement thus made would have been an eminently humane and satisfactory one. The results of this campaign were, in the modest language of General * It was found after the surrender that they had not sufficient rations to do this, and five days rations were furnished them from General Grant s stores. 580 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Grant, "The defeat of the enemy in five battles outside of Vicksburg ; the occupation of Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, and the capture of Vicksburg and its garrison and munitions of war ; a loss to the enemy of thirty -seven thousand prisoners, among whom were fifteen general officers ; at least ten thousand killed and wounded, and among the killed, Generals Tracy, Tilghman, and Green ; and hundreds, and perhaps thousands of stragglers, who can never be collected and reorganized. Arms and mu nitions of war for an army of sixty thousand men have fallen into our hands (there were two hundred and twenty cannon, of which forty-two were guns of heavy calibre and of the very best make, and seventy-one thousand stand of small arms, of which fifty thousand were Enfield rifles in the original English packages), besides a large amount of other public property, consisting of railroads, locomotives, cars, steamboats, cotton, etc., and much was destroyed to prevent our capturing it. General Grant says nothing in his report of the greatest result of this campaign, and the surrender of Port Hudson, which followed a few days later; the opening of the Mississippi, and the division of the Rebel Confederacy into two sec tions, without the means of communicating with each other, except by stealth ; and the terrible blow thus inflicted upon the Eebel Government, which thenceforth began to be distrusted at home and abroad, and though making desperate efforts to retrieve its failing fortunes, found this disaster constantly brought forward against it, as evidence of its inability to main tain its position. The surrender was made partly from the consciousness of the inability of the garrison to resist the assault which was soon expected, and partly from the exhaustion of their supplies, as they had only a sufficiency for three days longer, and had, for two or three weeks, subsisted mainly on mule meat. The Union losses in this series of battles were as follows : Battles. Killed. Wounded. Missing. Port Gibson, or Shaifer s plantation, etc 130 718 5 Fourteen Mile creek (skirmish) 4 24 Kaymond 69 341 32 Jackson 40 240 6 Champion s Hill 426 1,842 189 Big Black river railroad bridge 29 242 2 Vicksburg (mostly in two assaults) 545 3,6$8 303 1,243 7,095 537 or a grand total of eight thousand eight hundred and seventy-five casual ties. Of the wounded many were but slightly injured and continued on duty ; many more required but a few days or weeks for their recovery. Not more than one half of the wounded were permanently disabled. The general-in-chief of the army of the United States, General TIalleck, whose praise is ever bestowed sparingly, well says of this campaign : ll No more brilliant exploit can be found in military history. When we con- eider the character of the country in which the army operated, the EVENTS SUBSEQUENT TO THE FALL OF VICKSBUKG. 581 formidable obstacles to be overcome, the number of the forces, and the strength of the enemy s works, we cannot fail to admire the courage and endurance of the troops, and the skill and daring of their commander." But the grand catalogue of victories and triumphs of the Union arms, in connection with the army of Tennessee, did not close with the fall of Vicksburg. On the 5th of July, General Sherman, by direction of Gen eral" Grant, started with three army corps in pursuit of Johnston, who retreated from the Black river, where he had intrenched himself, toward Jackson, which place Sherman invested on the 14th and captured on the 18th, with a loss in this and a previous attack on the 13th on the part of the Union forces of about one thousand in killed, wounded, and missing. He captured seven hundred and sixty-four prisoners, two rifled guns, and a large amount of ammunition, and destroyed over forty locomotives, and a large number of cars, being almost the entire equipments of the New Orleans and Northern, and the Jackson, Meridian, and Yicksburg rail roads. This loss was a very severe one for the Eebels, and was wholly irreparable. General Ransom, with a force of one thousand two hundred men, was sent to Natchez, on the 6th of July, to stop the crossing of cattle from Texas for Johnston s army. He took a considerable number of pris oners, among whom were five Rebel officers, crossed the river, captured a battery of nine guns, four of them ten pounder Parrotts, marched nine miles back into the country, and seized two hundred and forty -seven boxes of ammunition and a number of teams for its transportation, and nine more guns, the Rebels in charge of the battery flying in consternation. Returning to Natchez he captured five thousand head of Texas cattle (two thousand of which were sent to General Banks, and the remainder brought to Vicksburg), and four thousand hogsheads of sugar. Having learned that Johnston was fortifying Yazoo city, which, with the steamers and gunboats on the Yazoo river, had been captured and destroyed by the gunboats early in May, General Grant sent General F. J. Herron with his division to co-operate with gunboats from Admiral Porter s squadron to destroy the Rebel works. After a short but severe action the Rebels fled, leaving a large amount of stores and ammunition, six heavy guns, and one vessel, formerly a gunboat, in the hands of the Union troops, and destroying four of their finest steamers. General Herron pursued them and took about three hundred prisoners. The Baron De Kalb, one of Admiral Porter s gunboats, ran foul of a torpedo, which exploded and sunk her. No lives were lost. In addition to these substantial results of the enterprise of the Union commander in following up his victories, was the surrender of Port Hud son, which took place on the 9th, and of which a full account will be given elsewhere. The Mississippi squadron penetrated into the interior, on both sides of the Mississippi, by way of its numerous affluents, and destroyed the transports and gunboats which the Rebels were preparing on the smaller rivers. The Louisville and the Elmira, the former the finest 582 THE CIVIL AVAR IN THE UNITED STATES. steamer on the Western waters, were among the captures, and two other large steamers were burned, and a large amount of Rebel stores seized. While the siege of Vicksburg was progressing, General Johnston thwarted in all his efforts to open communication with General Pember- ton through General Grant s lines, attempted to effect it from the west side of the Mississippi, and sent a force of three brigades, under the command of General Walker, to attack Milliken s Bend, on the 6th of June. The greater part of the Union force stationed there was composed of negro troops, portions of four regiments which were forming for the service, but had never been under fire. The whole force, including three hundred or four hundred white troops, did not exceed fourteen hundred men. The Rebel force numbered not far from four thousand five hundred. The Rebels were discovered by a reconnoitering force on the afternoon of the 6th of July, and making an attack, were repulsed by the colored troops ; and on being reinforced, and assailing the intrenchments to which the Union troops had fallen back, were met with such determined resistance, that they in turn fell back. On the morning of the 7th the Rebels again made an attack upon the Union intrenchments at five A. M. The battle lasted till late in the afternoon ; and though, by the use of his cavalry, the enemy succeeded, after a desperate resistance, in turning the flank of the Union troops, and, by an enfilading fire, driving them to the river s brink, the gunboat Choctaw, coming up opportunely, and obtaining the range of the Rebels, compelled them to fly from the field. The loss on both sides was large for the number engaged. The Rebels left sixty dead on the field, but carried away all their wounded and some of the killed. The Union loss was one hundred and one killed, two hundred and eighty- five wounded, and two hundred and sixty -six missing, nearly forty-seven per cent, of the whole number engaged. Of these nearly six hundred were from the colored regiments. The two hundred and sixty-six missing, who were mostly prisoners, were nearly all colored, and there was too much reason to believe that they were all murdered after their capture by the Rebel forces. None of them have since been heard from, and the avowal in a semi-official way, of the intention of the Rebel Government to deal in this manner with any freedmen who became soldiers in the Union armies, coupled with the persistent refusal of the Rebel authorities to give any account of them, justifies the painful presumption that they were thus slaughtered. Their bravery in this, their first battle-field, completely refuted the insinuations which had been so often made, of their want of the courage necessary for the profession of arms. . On the 10th of June a Rebel force attacked the Union garrison at Lake Providence ; but there, as at Millikeu s Bend, they were repulsed and fled. The attack on Helena, Arkansas, on the 4th of July, of which we shall give some account in another chapter, does not seem to have been made by any portion of Johnston s troops, but by a detachment from the Trans- Mississippi army. THE INVESTMENT OF PORT HUDSON. CHAPTER XLIX. THE INVESTMENT OF PORT HUDSON BATTLE FOUGHT BY GENERAL ACGUR THE ARRIVAL OF ADDITIONAL FORCES - THE ASSAULT OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH OF MAY - THE BRILLIANT ATTACK OF GENERAL WEITZEL s DIVISION PARTIAL SUCCESS OF THE ASSAULT THB ASSAULT OF THE FOURTEENTH OF JUNE - ITS FAILURE THE CLOSENESS OF THE SIEGE SUFFERINGS OF THE GARRISON - THEIR SURRENDER - THE REBEL ATTACKS ON BRASHEAR CITY AND TERREBONNE INHUMAN MASSACRE OF INFIRM CONTRABANDS AND WOMEN AND CHILDREN - THE MURDER OF NEGROES AT ST. MARTINSVILLE THE ATTACK OF THE REBELS ON HELENA, ARKANSAS - THEIR SIGNAL DEFEAT REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR DURING THE LAST ELEVEN MONTHS THE BEGINNING OF THE END. left General Banks, the commander of the Department of the Gulf } (Chapter XLIIL, p. 501,) at Alexandria, Louisiana, which place he had enter ed with his troops on the 8th of May. He remained at this point for about ten days, having sent General Augur, meantime, to commence operations against Port Hudson from Baton Eouge, and despatched two expeditions of cavalry to break up the enemy s camps and destroy their communications at Camp Moore, Ponchatoula, and on the Clinton and Port Hudson rail road. Admiral Farragut had also bombarded the batteries on the night of the 8th of May for several hours. General Augur encountered a con siderable Rebel force on Port Hudson plains, about four miles east of the town, on the 22d of May, and fought them for nearly nine hours, and finally compelled them to retreat with heavy loss toward Clinton. The Union loss was nineteen killed and eighty wounded. General Banks moved forward from Alexandria with his troops as rapidly as possible, and crossing his army over the Mississippi at Bayou Sara, which he reached on the 21st of May, effected a junction with General Augur on the 23d. The town was closely invested the next day. Port Hudson is about twenty-five miles above Baton Rduge, on the east side of the Mississippi. Like Yicksburg, it is situated on a bend of the river, but unlike that city it is at the angle of the bend, which in this case is nearly a right angle. On the north, for a distance of eight miles, it is protected by an impassable swamp, which is bounded on the side nearest Port Hudson by Thompson s creek, the hither bank of which is a precipitous bluff, crowned by an intrenched abatis. This abatis extends from the Mississippi river eastward, till it joins a series of intrenchments, nine or ten miles in extent, sweeping to the south in a semicircle till they rest upon the river on the crest of a range of high hills. The country in the rear is rolling, and much of it heavily timbered. Between Baton Rouge and Port Hudson is a long stretch of territory, difficult of access at all times, being covered by dense woods and undergrowth, and abound ing in bayous and marshes. The Port Hudson plains, lying about four 584 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. e miles east of the town, on which General Augur s battle was fought, were two open tracts of level country, one about a mile square, the other half a mile in length by a fourth of a mile in breadth. Both are surrounded by dense forests. The defences of Port Hudson were nearly as formidable and extensive as those of Vicksburg. On the water front were eight batteries, one of them stationed on a bluff eighty feet high. These batteries mounted about, twenty-five guns, two of them one hundred and twenty pounders, and the remainder twenty-four, thirty-two, and forty-two pounders. On the land side, the defences occupied four distinct lines of fortifications, each commanded by the one in its rear. In front of all a formidable abatis extended for many rods. There were two large and strong forts, four redoubts, and three extended bastions, connected with each other by earth works, and strengthened by lines of rifle-pits in front and rear. On these fortifications were mounted between thirty and forty guns, some of them of heavy calibre, and besides these there were four movable field-batteries. The garrison consisted of about seven thousand men, under the command of General Franklin Gardner, an able and skilful officer. On the 25th of May, General Banks had compelled the enemy to aban don his first line of works. The Union forces, having been joined on the 26th by General "Weitzel s brigade, which had distinguished itself so greatly in the campaign on the Teche, General Banks ordered an assault on the Kebel defences for the next day. The artillery commenced firing between five and six o clock A. M., and the squadron of Admiral Farragut opened fire upon the water batteries above and below, about the same time, and continued their bombardment most of the day. At ten o clock, General Weitzel, with his own brigade and portions of Grover s and Emory s divisions, and two regiments of colored troops, un der the command of Colonel Paine---the whole being about five brigades attacked the right of the enemy s works, and after a desperate and pro tracted contest, lasting till after four p. M., succeeded in forcing the enemy s lines, crossing Big Sandy creek, and taking possession of a redoubt, mounting six guns of large calibre, near Foster s creek. In this achieve ment every foot of ground had been contested with the most determined resolution, and the slaughter on both sides had been fearful. The colored troops, especially, fought with such courage and daring as to call forth the highest encomiums from the commanding general. Nearly one half of the casualties of the day were from their ranks. The captured battery, which had been the one which inflicted its death wounds on the frigate Mississippi, was speedily turned upon the enemy, and with great effect The positions gained in this terrible struggle were firmly held. On the left and centre, the assault led by Generals T. W. Sherman and Augur, was- equally resolute and determined, though commenced later, and not crowned with the same measure of success. General Sherman SURRENDER OF PORT HUDSON. 585 was severely wounded, losing a leg, and barely escaping with his life. The bastions were approached but not captured, and after dark the troops were compelled, in order to avoid a flanking fire, to fall back a short dis tance. The success of the day had been sufficient, incomplete as it was, tg> excite the highest hopes of the speedy reduction of the stronghold. The losses in killed, wounded, and missing, were nearly one thousand. There was reason to fear that those of the colored troops who were taken prisoners were put to death by their captors. The siege was now pushed with great energy, and the Rebel garrison was soon reduced to great straits for food. On the 14th of June, General Banks ordered a second assault. It was intended that the attack should be made simultaneously by three divisions, Weitzel s, G rover s, and Paine s, before daybreak, and that General Augur s division should make a feint to divert the attention of the enemy. But the obstructions to be overcome were so many that the three- divisions could not act together; General "Weitzel s division was the first to come up, and drove the Rebels out of their rifle-pits into their breastworks, but after an hour s strenuous assault of these, were compelled to fall back under cover. Paine s division assaulted that portion of the fortifications in front of their camp, but^ early in the attack, their gallant commander was severely wounded, and fell very near the breastworks, where he lay for twelve hours before he could be brought off. The losses in this division were very heavy, as they were also in Grover s division. The assault was unsuccessful, and the loss in f killed, wounded, and prisoners was nearly one .thousand. A charge made on the 17th by the fourth Wisconsin and the sixth Michigan was also repulsed, and the Union army lost heavily in prisoners. The com manding general now proceeded to invest the city still more closely, and to press the siege with greater ardor. The Rebel garrison were speedily reduced to great straits for food, and their mules were killed and eaten, the cattle being entirely exhausted. They had no breadstuffs except a considerable quantity of beans, of very indifferent quality. They held out stubbornly, however, till the 7th of July, when the news of the sur render of Yicksburg having been received by the Union army, and occasioning great rejoicing, the Rebel officers began to inquire the cause of the uproar, and though at first unwilling to believe the intelligence, yet General Gardner, the Rebel commander, on ascertaining its truth, at once made overtures for a surrender, and finally gave up the town, on the 8th of July, though it was not entered by the Union forces till the 9th. By this surrender six thousand two hundred and thirty-three prisoners fell into General Banks hands, together with fifty-one pieces of artillery, two steamers, four thousand eight hundred pounds of cannon powder, five thousand small arms, one hundred and fifty thousand rounds of ammuni tion, and some stores and equipments. It also opened the navigation_of the Mississippi, as Port Hudson was the last of the Rebel fortresses which 5?G THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. had commanded the river, Columbus, Island Number Ten, Fort Wright, Fort Pillow, Memphis, and Vicksburg, having all been captured or aban doned during the previous sixteen months. General Banks now returned to New Orleans, and Port Hudson was garrisoned by colored troops, and made the camp of instruction for tho* colored regiments, which were forming in the Department of the Gulf, under the direction of General Ullman. The necessity of supplying a large force in the siege of Port Hudson, and the expiration of the term of service of a portion of the nine months men, compelled the temporary abandonment by General Banks of the Teche country, which he had so recently rescued from the Kebels, as he had not a sufficient army to occupy it while conducting the siege. The enemy were not slow in availing themselves of the opportunity of repos sessing a portion of it. About the 19th of June they appeared with a force of about seven thousand, mostly Texans, at Terreborme, tore up the track of the Opelousas railroad, and attacked the small Union force at Lafourche, but were repulsed with considerable loss. Their next poiijt of attack was Brashear City, which had been made a depot of stores and the location of a large hospital and convalescent camp. The Union garri. son at that place was about one thousand men, chiefly of the one hundred and seventy-sixth New York and the twenty-third Connecticut, though there were a few squadrons of the second Rhode Island cavalry with them. Two companies of the one hundred and seventy-sixth New York were absent on detached duty near New Orleans. The Union forces were badly handled, and being attacked in front and rear soon surrendered. Three were killed and seven wounded of the New York regiment. The whole number of prisoners taken, including the large number of convalescents) and the sick and wounded in the hospital, was three thousand five hun dred and thirteen. Most of the privates were paroled. The amount of stores lost was estimated at one million five hundred thousand dollars) and included thirty pieces of artillery. There was a large camp of freed - men, mostly the infirm and old men and women and children, near Bra- shear, the able bodied freedmen having joined the colored regiments. After the capture of the town the Rebel troops rushed upon this camp, and slaughtered all indiscriminately, except the few who were able to con ceal themselves and escape. It was estimated that more than two thousand helpless prisoners were thus inhumanly murdered. This atrocious act of barbarity, unhappily, does not stand alone in the history of that depart ment. About a month previous, a body of about five hundred negroes, from the abandoned plantations of the Attakapas country, had determined to come to the Union camp and enlist as soldiers. Arming themselves with such weapons as they could find, old shot-guns, pitchforks, etc., they made their way toward the camp peaceably, molesting no one. Arriving near St. Martinsville, through which they must pass, they resolved to de- REBEL ATTACK ON HELENA, ARKANSAS. 537 marid the surrender of the place, their leader, an intelligent Creole, think ing this would be the best plan to avoid a collision with the people. A number of the citizens of St. Martinsville, together with some professed Unionists then in the place, went out to them with the Union flag, and professing to be friends, told them to lay down their weapons and march into the town. As they did so they were seized by the inhabitants, and every one hung on the spot, and Rebel officers who participated in the horrible massacre afterward boasted of the number they helped to kill. It speaks volumes for the humanity and forgiving nature of the negro troops that, in the opportunities which have since offered, they have not taken signal vengeance on those who had so brutally murdered their kins men and their families. With the capture of Port Hudson, the triumph of the Rebels in the rt Attakapas country " terminated, and they speedily escaped to western Louisiana. The necessity of assembling as large a force as possible for the siege of Yicksburg had led to the reduction of the corps of the other armies of the "West to as small numbers as would be at all sufficient to hold their respective districts. The corps assigned for the defence of northeastern Arkansas, under the command of Major-General Prentiss, having its head quarters at Helena, had, among others, been much reduced for this pur pose, and the Rebel Generals Holmes, Price, and Marmaduke, having ascertained this, acted promptly on their information. Prentiss s army numbered, including several regiments of raw troops, and two or three colored regiments who had not been under fire, a little more than four thousand men. The gunboat Tyler was also in port, and able and willing to render assistance. The oombined Rebel force under Holmes, Price, and Marmaduke, amounted to thirty-seven regiments, or about fifteen thousand men, and they were all seasoned troops, though some of those under Marmaduke s command had done more retreating than fighting. Confident of success, the Rebels made their attack about day light, and though losing terribly by the fire of the Union sharpshooters in the rifle-pits, and the continuous fire from the batteries, they succeeded, after a desperate struggle of nearly two hours, in taking a small fort mounting four guns, one of the outworks of the Union position. Greatly elated at this measure of success, they were pressing forward in the hope of capturing the more important forts near the town, when the gunboat Tyler, having obtained their range, commenced dropping the huge shells from her Parrott guns into their ranks, and drove them back with terrific slaughter. Falling back out of range, they attempted to approach the town from the north, but Colonel Clayton, with the fifth Kansas and the first Indiana cavalry, charged upon them and routed them completely^ They then attempted to approach from the south, but here the gunboat rained its shells upon them. They endeavored to plant batteries to bom- 588 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. bard the town, but General Prentiss charged upon them repeatedlj and rendered their efforts ineffectual. At length, completely foiled at every point, having lost in killed and wounded over one thousand, and in pris oners a little more than eleven hundred, they abandoned the effort to cap ture the town, and in their rage burned the contraband camp, as they retreated. The Union loss in killed, wounded, and missing was two hundred and thirty. The Rebel forces remained in the vicinity for a day or two, but finding that the Union troops were reinforced, and that five gunboats were stationed there, they made the best of their way toward Little Rock, the capital of the State. With this defeat of the Rebels in their final attack in any considerable force upon the posts of the Union army upon the Mississippi river, we close our narrative of the events of the war to the present time. It has reached one of the periods of comparative inaction, though uot of complete cessation of hostilities, which, on several previous occasions, have followed great battles. It remains for us to pass in rapid review the pro gress which had been made- during tlie eleven months whose history we have been attempting to detail. Some of the preceding chapters have been devoted to the record of disasters to the Union army, or, at least, but half-successes. The utter failure of the peninsular campaign, terminating in the igno minious retreat to the James river, and the subsequent transference of the remains of that noble army to Alexandria and Fredericksburg, were followed by the sad and painful scenes of the battles before Washington, where the gallant but unfortunate General Pope strug gling for three weeks to cover the retreat of the army of the Potomac from the Peninsula, found himself constantly confronted by a supe rior force, and pushed back by the irresistible weight of numbers, yet fighting with a resolute determination at every step. At last, by the insubordination and covert hostility of some of the generals of the army of the Potomac, the reinforcements promised to him delayed, or, if brought forward, retained in idleness on some plea or another, forage and supplies withheld, his men worn out with fatigue, hunger, and want of sleep, he is compelled to fall back upon the defences around Washington, and the sound of the enemy s cannon was heard thundering at the gates of the capital. Emboldened by his success, the Rebel commander regarded the capture of Washington and Baltimore as merely a question of time, and pressed rapidly northward to commence a war of invasion upon the Northern States. The Union army, dispirited and demoralized, he argued, could afford no serious opposition to his victorious legions, and Maryland, which the Rebels had always claimed as their own, would not only afford ample supplies, but her sons would gladly embrace the opportunity of enlisting in the Confederate army. These rose-colored visions were doomed to d s- REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 589 appointment. Maryland had awakened from her early dream of secession. With the gaunt, woe-worn and filthy Rebel soldier before them, the dainty secessionists of Maryland felt little inclination to share its hardships, and though Lee had strictly prohibited all plunder ic Maryland, still the wel come he had expected was wanting, aDcl the State remained unflinchingly Union. The opinion he had formed in regard to the condition of the Union forces proved equally in error. At the blust oi the trumpet, calling them to a new conflict to beat back the invader, who new, tor the first time, was penetrating to the homes and hearths of the loyal States, the grini soldier again shouldered his musket, and rushed to the eld, forgetful of his weariness and hardships. The troops which, on Wednesday, haggard, dispirited, and hungry, dragged, with weary steps, their way into the de fences of Arlington Heights, on Friday of tno same week were marching promptly, and elate with hope, northward to encounter the enemy on new battle-fields. Then came the hard-fought batUo of South Mountain, a Union victory, the disgraceful surrender of Harpsr * Ferry, and the bloody but indecisive battle of Antietam, where thousands of brave hearts shed their life blood for a nation s redemption. The retreat of the discomfited Rebel chieftain, thankful that his punishment was no more severe, the leisurely and inefficient pursuit, and the final removal from command of the general, whose magnificent promises had come so far short of perform ance, were the events of the autumn months in the army of the Potomac. At the West, matters were not in a much better state. General Buell, who, though possessing some of the qualifications of an able commander, was a martinet in discipline, and never acquired the love or attachment of his troops, had marched his men, in September, across Tennessee and Ken tucky in that wearisome chase after General Bragg, never overtaking him, and always just too late to prevent some heavy loss which the Rebel General had inflicted. Early in October, when Bragg deemed it desirable to return by the way he came, sending before him his trains laden with the rich plunder of the Blue Grass region, Buell again pursued him leis urely, and finally suffered one of his army corps to be attacked arid fight an indecisive action at Perryville, in which the Union forces were re pulsed, if not defeated, and Bragg reaped sill the advantages of a victory, preventing and delaying effective pursuit, tailing back again to Louis ville, Buell was removed from command, and the brave and able ROKC- crans, who had so recently distinguished himselt at Corinth, put in his place. There was, however, much to be done before the "Army of the Cumberland," as it was now called, was ready to take ihe field. It was in need of almost every thing. The long and severe marches of the pre vious two months had worn out the clothing and shoes of the old troops; the raw recruits, who formed about half the army, were badly equipped, undisciplined, and in many instances commanded by inefficient officers. 590 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. The cavalry arm of the service could hardly be said to exist ; it must be reorganized and almost created anew. The communications with Nash ville, the proper headquarters of the army, were so completely destroyed, that some weeks were required to restore the single line of railroad, over which, in default of a high stage of water in the river, supplies must be brought. Everywhere the master s hand was needed, and everywhere it was felt. In these works of preparation the months of November and December were spent, and it was in the closing week of the year that General Rosecrans felt that he was ready to move forward. Then came the three days at Stone river ; the first, with its disastrous rout of the Union troops on the right wing ; the second and third, with their retrieyal of the disaster, and their terrible slaughter of Breckinridge s (Eebel) corps ; the evacuation of Murfreesboro followed, and on the third day of the new year the song and shout of victory went up from the army of the Cumberland. In the other military departments, the Union armies had but held their own. North Carolina, as well as the Department of the South, had been depleted of so large a portion of her forces, to reinforce the army of the Potomac, that any considerable aggressive movement was impossible ; and though small expeditions were occasionally sent to break up Eebel depots of supplies, or cut railroad communications, nothing further could be attempted, without too great risk. In the Department of the Gulf, the stern but patriotic rule of General Butler had awed and sub dued the secessionists for the time, and had kept the small portion of Louisiana which was included within the Union lines, quiet. More than once, however, the enemy had made threatening demonstrations upon the outposts of the department. At Baton Eouge, on the 5th of August^ they had attacked the Union troops, and only been repulsed after a hard fought battle, and as yet the country of the Attakapas was wholly in their possession, with its labyrinths of bayous and its connections with the Mississippi river. Farther north, but little progress was made during the autumn. The enemy were indeed defeated at luka, and routed, after terrible slaughter at Corinth and the Hatchie, but Vicksburg yet frowned haughtily on its assailants, and barred the passage of commerce down the Mississippi. Helena was held by a Union garrison, but the interior of Arkansas was firmly grasped by the Eebels. In the west of that State, the brave army of the frontier, inured to the hardships of war by their previous experience in the border ruffian contests, defeated the Eebels over and over again, but, like the heaving of the stone of Sisyphus, the toilsome labor was but accomplished when it was necessary to do it anew. Missouri was still harassed by guerrilla bands, villanous outlaws, whose only vocation was to murder and rob. The fair young State of Minnesota made the heavens vocal with her cries of distress and anguish, for the eight hundred of her sons and daughters massacred by the ferocity of the Indian tribes, who had seized the opportunity of war to attempt the ex- EEYIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 591 pulsion of the white population from Western Minnesota. The fearful conflict was but short, and the Indians were many of them slain or brought to justice; but fair villages had been destroyed, and prairie homes made desolate in great numbers, and the mothers everywhere in the State pressed their babes more closely to their breasts as they thought of the peril, perhaps not yet wholly overpast, of the visitation of the murderous and blood-thirsty savage. The principal cities of the States bordering on the Ohio, Cincinnati, Louisville, and New Albany, had been threatened by the Eebel armies, and the arms-bearing population of Ohio and Indiana had been called out to repel the apprehended invasion ; and though this danger had for the time been averted, there was as yet no certainty that it would not return. As the winter approached, the army of the Potomac, under its new commander, prepared for another trial of strength with the enemy, and on the 13th of December, the fearfully -disastrous battle of Fredericksburg was fought. The Union forces were repulsed with very heavy losses, and though not routed or demoralized, they were for the time defeated. In Arkansas, in the latter part of November and early in December, the battles of Cane Hill and Prairie Grove, in which the Union arms were de cidedly successful, alleviated to some extent the gloom which was settling upon the minds of the people at the misfortunes of our armies. But ex cept these successes, and that of the army of the Cumberland at Stone river, the advent of the new year brought little to cheer or encour age- General Sherman had assailed Yicksburg, and been repulsed with severe loss ; the garrison and fleet at Galveston had been attacked, the Harriet Lane captured, and the Westfield destroyed, while the gallant Renshaw, Wainwrigtit, and Lea, had given their lives to the cause of their country. There was one ground of hope and encouragement, however, which made the loyal and true hearted look forward, with more confidence, to the year that was to come. The new year brought the promised procla mation of emancipation ! Hitherto the armies of the Union had been fighting not only the entire Rebel force, but that force strengthened by the labor of the slave, who, though really the friend of the Union, was thus made the powerful ally of the Rebel Government. The Rebels could, with the slaves to till their soil, provide for the support of their families, and perform the severer labors of the camp and fortification, bring a pro- portionably larger force into the field than the North, without seriously perilling their future. To cut of this resource, and thus more nearly equalize the relative position of the two contestants, was a military neces sity, and apart from any humane or moral considerations, its adoption was indispensable to the success of the Union cause. In this instance, too, hu manity, morality, and religion were all on the side of the movement. Slavery had been the spring and cause of the Rebellion ; the determine- THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. tion of the southern leaders to extend its area and increase its power, had been their governing motive in plunging into the war. The intelligent people of the North believed slavery an evil and curse, before they had seen this manifestation of its wicked designs, and as they saw more and more of its atrocities during the progress of the war, its inhumanity to the slave, its violation of all the principles of morality, virtue, and honor^ and its degrading influence upon the white population, both the slave- holding and nori-slaveholding, they were ready to hail with joy a procla mation which brought freedom to the slave. Growing out of this proclamation, as a necessary corollary, was the de termination to arm as large a portion of these new freedmen as possible, to defend the liberty they had received. This measure, though exciting some opposition at first, soon became generally popular, and the freedmen did much to render it so, by their bravery and good conduct in several battles in which they were engaged. Before midsummer of 1863, more than thirty thousand troops of African descent had been enrolled in the Union army. Thus it happened, that with the opening of the new year, a more cheer ful feeling prevailed throughout the loyal States ; and though some disasters occurred to the Union arms, these were far more than counter balanced by the great and extraordinary successes which crowned the effort of the armies to overthrow the Rebellion. The Department of the Gulf was among the first to feel the impulse of the rising wave of Union triumphs. General Banks, who had succeeded General Butler in the command of the department, sent an expedition in January into the Attakapas country, and destroyed a huge Rebel gunboat, and drove the Rebels from Berwick and Brashear City, and two months later cleared the whole region of the Bayou Teche, as far as Opelousas and Alexandria, of their presence, destroying their fortresses, capturing their transports, and burning their gunboats and iron-clads. In Arkansas, Generals Blunt and Herron held the northwestern counties against the raiders, guerrillas, and bushwackers, who had so often sought to bring them into subjection. In Western Missouri, the fleet-footed Marmaduke, who sought the destruction of the stores deposited at Springfield, Missouri, for the supply of the army of the frontier, found his plans thwarted, and was compelled to make one of those masterly retreats for which he had already become famous, down the White river to Batesville. An expedition, under command of Gen eral McClernand, accompanied by gunboats, captured Arkansas Post, Arkansas, on the 10th of January, and ascending the White river, took possession of other important points. Those sturdy sea-kings, Admirals Farragut and Porter, if they had not yet free navigation of the Mississippi, yet managed between them to patrol the lower portions of it very thor oughly, now raining their iron hail upon the batteries which frowned upon its banks, and anon sending some swift gunboat or ram past the de- REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 593 fences of Yicksburg, Warrenton, or Port Hudson, or as in the case of Admiral Farragut at Port Hudson, and later of Admiral Porter at Vicks- burg, running by with a whole squadron. That this was not done with out some damage and loss the shattered wrecks of the frigate Mississippi and the gunboat Lancaster gave sad evidence ; but notwithsanding these losses and others of less importance, their objects were gained the afflu ents of the Mississippi explored, every Rebel gunboat or transport in their waters destroyed, and all the depots of supplies for the Rebel armies seized or burned. In the Department of the South there was activity and zeal, though no remarkable successes. Fort McAllister, near Savannah, was assaulted, but not captured the Nashville, a Rebel iron-clad, de stroyed, and Charleston, the birthplace of the Rebellion, besieged, and Fort Surnter bombarded by the monitors and the other iron-clads. The fort was not captured or silenced, but the substantial impregnability of the monitors was demonstrated, and the problem settled that the Rebel defences there could be successfully assailed. In the Department of North Carolina, the Rebels, in their efforts to capture Washington, North Caro lina, were thwarted, and their forces, which had laid siege to Suffolk, Virginia, were defeated. The army of the Potomac, which in January had again changed gener als, and was now commanded by General Hooker, who had exerted him self to the utmost to perfect its discipline, to increase its mobility, and to make it in every respect the finest army the world had ever seen, was destined to another reverse, not so overwhelming and terrible as that of Fredericksburg, still one which, for a time, cast a gloom over the country. General Hooker attempted to turn Lee s flank, by a movement on the right, crossing the Rappahannock at a considerable distance above Fred ericksburg, with the greater part of his force, while making a feint of crossing below and actually sending one corps to cross and attack the heights where Burnside had been repulsed, while the remainder of his army were assailing Lee s left wing in the vicinity of Chancellorsville. The plan was well devised, but the failure of the eleventh corps (General Howard s) to stand their ground when attacked, and the necessary change of lines which, followed, so deranged his plans as to give his adroit and able adversary an advantage which he was not slow to improve. Fred ericksburg was taken, but lost again within twenty-four hours, and the Union commander was forced to recross the Rappahannock to avoid being cut off from his supplies. The loss by the Rebels of their best general, " Stonewall " Jackson, made the victory a dear one to them, and their killed and wounded in the the three days fighting considerably outnumbered Hooker s losses. The skilfully conducted cavalry expeditions of Generals Stoneman and Kilpatrick, in connection with this battle, were important, not only as showing that the Union cavalry had become superior to that of the Rebels in this kind of expeditions, but in crippling the natural re- 38 594 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. sources of Lee s army, and rendering it a matter of necessity for that commander to move northward to obtain supplies. The remainder of May was occupied with cavalry movements, some of them of considerable importance, and when, early in June, Lee commenced moving his army northward, Hooker, keeping the nearer circle, drove him beyond the Bull Hun mountains, harassed him with his cavalry, de layed his movements, and repelled him from any near approach to either Washington or Baltimore. Thus thwarted iii his main object, Lee moved forward into Pennsylvania, in the hope, doubtless, of reaching its com mercial metropolis, but his movement had been too long delayed, and he found himself compelled to fight at Gettysburg, near the southern border of the State. Here, on the 1st, 2d, and 3d of July, the most sangui nary battle of the war, and one of the most sanguinary of modern times, was fought. General Meade, who had succeeded General Hooker in the command of the Union army, only two days before the battle, manifested rare skill and ability in the handling of his troops, and the battle, which, on the first day, resulted in a partial success of the Kebels, was at its close a most triumphant victory for the Union army. The Rebels were pursued as far as Williamsport, but by a serious error of judgment were suffered to escape and cross the Potomac without fighting seriously. At the West, General Grant, who was in command of the army of the Tennessee, after attempting in a variety of ways to turn the flank of the enemy at Vicksburg and compel the evacuation of that Rebel stronghold, finding his plans partially or entirely unsuccessful, formed the bold project of marching his troops down the west side of the Mississippi, sending the gunboats and transports past the ten miles of continuous batteries around the bend at Yicksburg, and, landing at some point below, marching upon the city from the rear, and investing it. He found himself compelled to run not only the Vicksburg and Warrenton batteries, but those of Grand, Gulf also, after a five hours bombardment of them, and landing at Bruins- burg, marched northeast, fighting a battle at Port Gibson, compelling the evacuation of Grand Gulf, which he made his base, fighting again at Ray mond, at Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, which he captured and nearly destroyed, at Champion Hill, and at Black river railroad bridge, and finally sat down before Vicksburg, eighteen days after his landing at Bruinsburg. He made two attempts to carry the city by assault, but be ing repulsed, commenced its siege, which terminated in its surrender on the 4th of July, its entire garrison of over thirty-one thousand marching out as prisoners of war. No grander or more successful military achieve ment is recorded on the pages of history. .The boldness, energy, skill, and perseverance of General Grant, in this great enterprise, entiile him to rank among the first military commanders of the century. The siege of Port Hudson, conducted by General Banks, simultaneously with that of Vicksburg, and its successful issue on the 9th of July also REVIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR. 595 deserves to be reckoned among the remarkable achievements of the present war. Though defended by a smaller garrison, and in itself a town of much less size than Vicksburg, its defences were even more for midable than those of that stronghold. It was twice assaulted by General Banks army, and each time with the utmost vigor and determi nation, but without effect. When it finally surrendered, the waters of the Father of Rivers, which since 1861 had been closed to peaceful com merce, once more floated argosies laden with the products of the prairie States to the great southern metropolis, New Orleans. The loss of these two fortresses and the consequent opening of the Mississippi to the Union, was the severest blow which had thus far been inflicted upon the Rebellion. The trans-Mississippi region, which had, up to that time, furnished it with cattle, and to some extent with grain also, was thenceforth cut off, and the Confederacy practically sundered. The State of Mississippi, the home of the Rebel President, and, next to South Carolina, the foremost of all the States of the South in the Rebel lion, lay, by these victories, prostrate in the victor s hands ; organized resistance in that State was henceforth fruitless ; and it is but justice to the citizens of Mississippi to say that but few of them were disposed to attempt farther resistance. Louisiana and Arkansas, it was evident, must soon follow, and Tennessee was almost wholly in Union hands already. Mr. Jefferson Davis had seen the inevitable consequences of the loss of these strongholds so clearly that he had strained every nerve to collect a sufficient force, under the command of General Johnston, to raise the siege of Vicksburg, visiting Alabama, Mississippi, and East Tennessee in person, and appealing to the people of these States to rally for the purpose. His efforts proved futile, and his chagrin at his failure was not disguised. From that hour the conscription was pressed with a severity far beyond any former precedent, and the supplies required for his armies seized without regard to the circumstances in which those from whom they were taken were left. Sterner and sterner grew the discipline of the army, and more deadly the vengeance on deserters, whose numbers, nevertheless, increased with ea^h day. The depreciation of the Confed erate treasury notes (the currency of the seceded States) which followed these Union victories was very great, the exchange for gold being fifteen or sixteen dollars for one, and for the United States legal tender notes eleven or twelve for one. Without rehearsing the less important skirmishes or battles, whose influence on the great questions at issue was only indirect, it cannot but be evident to the reader that during the eleven months ending July 15th, 1863, there had been great progress made in putting down the Rebellion. There had been no step backward on the part of the United States Gov ernment. Even the apparently disastrous battles resulted in no perma nent loss of territory or prestige. At least two hundred thousand square 596 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. miles, which, in August, 1862, were under Confederate sway, were, in July, 1863, redeemed for the stars and stripes. The navigation of the Mississippi was no longer obstructed by hostile fortresses and gaping cannon. The blockade had grown fearfully close, and the Rebel promises to pay were little better than waste paper. Well might the President of the United States proclaim a day of national thanksgiving to Him who had so signally blessed the nation in its struggle for the preservation of the freedom bequeathed to them by their fathers, for the victories which his hand had wrought. The war was not ended, indeed, nor the power of the Rebels fully broken : the desperation of their leaders and the bravery of the defenders of the Union were yet to be attested on other bloody battle-fields, but everywhere were seen the evidences that their cause was failing, and those who in other countries had hitherto been their strenuous and per sistent advocates were forced to admit that their fortunes seemed to be on the wane, and that their ultimate success was doubtful. The oppressed Unionists of the South, and the slaves, who had begun to comprehend that the war concerned their future condition, breathed more freely, aa they sent up in secret, their thanksgiving to God that the end drew nigh. OVERTHROW OF THE REBEL POWER IN ARKANSAS. 597 CHAPTER L. THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC AT REST THE OVERTHROW OF THE REBEL POWER IN ARKANSAS THE GUERRILLAS AND BUSHWHACKERS OF ARKANSAS AND THE INDIAN TERRITORY QUANTREL AND HIS BAND THE SACKING OF LAWRENCE ATTEMPT TO MURDER GENERAL BLUNT CABELL, MARMADUKE, SHELBY, AND COFFEY, MAKE A RAID INTO MISSOURI, AND ARE DEFEATED AND ROUTED MORGAN S RAID INTO KENTUCKY, INDIANA, AND OHIO HIS CAPTURE AND IMPRISONMENT HIS ESCAPE SKETCH OF HIS LIFE HIS DEATH THE RIOTS OF THE SUMMER OF 1863 THE GREAT RIOT IN NEW YORK ITS CAUSES AND OBJECTS THE REIGN OF TERROR THE MOB 8UBDUKD THE LOSS OF LIFE AND PROPERTY BY IT. AFTER the Rebel army had crossed the Potomac, and made its way to its old quarters on the Rappahannock, followed as far as the northern bank of the Rapidan by the Union army, there ensued a season of quiet, while the two armies were recruiting in numbers, and being reorganized for another and more desperate conflict. The quiet was not wholly un broken, though there were no engagements, except some slight cavalry skirmishes, until about the middle of October. The battles of the later autumn we shall describe further on. Meantime, we will turn our eyes westward, and observe what progress the war is making there. After the surrender of Yicksburg, the Government deemed it desirable to drive the Rebels out of Arkansas, and assist the Union inhabitants to recover the control of the State, which had been snatched from them by a fraudulent vote. For this purpose General Steele was ordered to move from Helena with a considerable force toward Duvall s Bluff on the "White river, where he was to be joined by General Davidson, who was moving south from Missouri by way of Crowley s Ridge, west of the St. Francis river. The juncture of the two columns was effected, and having established a hospital and depot of supplies at Duvall s Bluff, General Steele moved forward from that point on the 1st of August, 1863, against the Rebel army, which was then lying near the line of the Bayou Metoe, and pushed it back to Little Rock, pursuing it closely, skirmishing frequently and successfully. Having reached the Arkansas river, he crossed it below Little Rock, and with a part of his force marched upon Arkadelphia, the base and depot of supplies of the Rebel army. General Holmes, who commanded the Rebel forces in Arkansas, sent Marmaduke with his cavalry to drive back the Union column; but the Union troops facing about and assaulting him, Marmaduke, as usual, fled with all his men, and Holmes, fearing the effect of Steele s flanking movement, de stroyed what property he could at Little Rock, and after a slight resistance retreated toward Arkadelphia, in great haste. General Steele entered Little Rock on the 10th of September, having captured over one thousand 598 THE CIVIL WAR IX THE UNITED STATES. prisoners, and large quantities of stores, which Holmes in his haste had been unable to destroy. His own loss was less than one hundred. His cavalry and an infantry column continued to push the Eebel army, and harass them as they retreated southwestward. Marmaduke, with three thousand troops, separated from the main Rebel army, and attacked the U nion garrison at Pine Bluff, on the Lower Arkansas. The garrison consisted of only five hundred and fifty men, but they were under the command of Colonel Clayton, who had more than once defeated Marma duke, even at larger odds than this. The battle continued for five hours, Marmaduke showing more than usual pluck, but finally flying, with a loss of two hundred and fifty of his men. On the same day, October 25th, the Union army entered Arkadelphia, the broken remnants of the Rebel army retreating across Red river. The whole of the State, except two small districts, one in the southwest, the other in the northwest of the State, was now restored to the Federal authority. From the beginning of the war the northwestern portion of Arkansas, and the Indian Territory adjacent, had been the haunt of an irregular Rebel force of outlaws, bushwhackers, guerrillas, horse thieves, and mur derers, the associates and successors of the border ruffians of the old Kansas days. These villains were best suited when they could make forays into the peaceful villages or farm-houses of the border, and rob, murder, and ravish defenceless citizens. Sometimes, they would join the Rebel armies, and fight under the Rebel generals of the region for a few days, but they soon tired of this, and returned anew to the work of plunder and bloodshed. To the disgrace of the Rebel authorities, it must be said that most of the villains bore commissions from the Rebel War Department. One of the most daring and villainous outrages of which these outlaws were guilty was the attack upon the city of Lawrence, Kansas, on the 21st of August, 1863. One of the guerrilla leaders, a noted thief and an escaped convict, who had assumed the name of Quantrel, with about eight hundred of his men, entered Lawrence in the early morning, murdered one hundred and twenty-five of its citizens in cold blood, plundered its dwellings and stables, and burned the greater part of the business portion of the city, destroying property valued at upwards of two millions of dol lars. General James H. Lane, at the head of the few mounted troops which could be raised, (Quantrel having stolen all the more valuable horses,) pursued and overtook the rear-guard of his troops, and succeeded in killing nearly one hundred of his men, but the remainder escaped. ^, General James G. Blunt, of Kansas, who had been for nearly two years in command of the army of the frontier, was a terror to these bands of marauders, whom he never failed to visit with severe punishment, when ever he could reach them, and they had sworn to be revenged on him personally, if possible. In July he had attacked Cooper and Stand- REBEL FORAY INTO MISSOURI. 599 watie, the Rebel and Indian commanders of these outlaws in the Indian Territory, and as usual, had defeated and routed a force much larger than his own. Quantrel had been in this battle, and had resolved to capture and murder Blunt. On the 5th of October, he ascertained that the General was on his way from Fort Smith to Fort Scott, in Kansas, with an escort of only one hundred men, and accordingly dressing three hundred of his ruffians in Union uniforms, which he had stolen, he approached General Blunt and his escort when they were but a few miles from Fort Scott. Having come within pistol range of the escort, the disguised guerrillas commenced firing, and the escort, surprised, broke, and seventy-eight of them, including Major Curtis, a son of General Curtis, were captured and murdered after surrendering. General Blunt, collecting fifteen of his men, charged upon the guerrillas, and they, filled with their old terror, retreated until he found an opportunity of moving southward, to a point a mile or two distant, where Lieutenant-Colonel Pond s regiment were sta tioned. Quantrel himself supposed he had killed General Blunt, and there was great rejoicing in the Rebel States over his death. The Rebel commanders of these bands of outlaws, Cabell, Marmaduke, Shelby, and Coffey, having been thus driven by the Union armies to the very borders of Arkansas, and being satisfied of their inability to regain possession of the State again, resolved to collect their forces and make a grand foray into Missouri, where, they believed, they could plunder and murder unarmed citizens with greater impunity than in Arkansas. They accordingly gathered six or seven thousand guerrillas, Indians, bushwackers and the like, and Cabell and Marmaduke started from the Choctaw settlements in the Indian Territory, about the first of October, crossed the Arkansas river east of Fort Smith, and Marmaduke remaining at Fayetteville, Arkansas, with a part of the force as a reserve, Cabell and Shelby went on with the remainder to Crooked Prairie, Missouri, were they were joined by General Coffey with a considerable additional force of similar materials, and moved thence toward the interior of the State, plundering and murdering, unchecked. They reached Booneville, on the Missouri river, but being closely pursued, attempted to double on their trail, but on reaching Merrill s crossing of Salt Fork found themselves confronted by the Missouri State militia, under General E. B. Brown, who fought them for several hours, on the evening of the 12th of Oc tober and having routed them, dispatched Lieutenant-Colonel Lazear, with nine nundred men, to intercept them at Marshall, while he followed them with the remainder of his command. General Brown s and Lieuten ant-Colonel Lazear s forces together did not number over sixteen hundred, but they were more than a match for twice their numbers of the cowardly ruffians whom they fought, and hemming them in between them they punished them without mercy, killing or severely wounding one hundred and fifty, taking several hundred prisoners, capturing two guns, and 600 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. nearly the whole of their train ; and when the remnant left disorderly dirty, and nearly starved reached Fa yetteville, not even Marmaduke could rally or reorganize them. The Eebel guerrilla chief John Morgan, who had, by his daring raid into Kentucky, gained a remarkable notoriety as a partisan fighter, or rather plunderer, for he always avoided fighting where he could, remained quiet during the winter and spring of 1863 ; but early in the summer, under orders it is said from Kichmond, and with the design of creating a diversion to prevent the northwestern States from sending troops to Penn sylvania to thwart Lee s operations, he made preparations for an extensive raid into Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. General Kosecrans ascertained his purposes through his scouts, and notified General Burnside, who then commanded the Department of the Ohio, of his intentions. He moved on the 24th of June, with somewhat more than thirty-five hundred mounted men, and a battery of artillery. His men were carefully selected from Bragg s cavalry and his own brigade. He assembled his force first on the banks of the Cumberland near Jamestown, and, after resting for several days, made a feint of attacking Tompkinsville, on the opposite shore of the Cumberland in Kentucky, and this drew the Union forces, which were watching him, to that point. He then set his men to constructing flat-boats secretly, and moving with great rapidity, crossed the river at Burksville, nearly thirty miles higher up the Cumberland, on the night of the, 1st of July, and by noon of the 2d was on his way toward Columbia, Kentucky. Owing to the heavy condition of the roads he did not reach there till noon of the 3d; and had a rencounter with a small body of Union troops near the town, whom he speedily repulsed. The Union troops from Jamestown who had followed him, on ascertaining the number of his troops, fell back and notified Colonel Wolford, who commanded their brigade, who sent a courier to General Carter, the commanding officer at Somerset, who ordered three brigades to be sent in pursuit. By this delay, Morgan gained two days on his pursuers. Moving to Green river on the 3d of July, Morgan attempted to cross on the morning of the 4th, but found a tete-de-pont on the opposite end of the bridge, together with other earthworks, defended by two hundred men of the twenty-fifth Michigan volunteers, commanded by Colonel Moore. Morgan sent out a flag of truce demanding an instant surrender. Colonel Moore immediately replied, " If it was any other day, I might consider the summons, but the 4th of July is a bad day to talk about surrender, and I must, therefore, decline." Morgan thereupon sent two regiments to storm the works, but after charging upon it repeatedly, they found the fire of its defenders too galling to be endured, and withdrew, with a loss of thirty killed, many wounded, and one hundred prisoners. Finding himself foiled, Morgan now withdrew, and crossing at a ford farther up, reached New Market the same evening, and moved the next morning on Lebanon. Here was RAID OF MORGAN INTO INDIANA. 601 a garrison of four hundred men, without fortifications. Morgan sum moned them to surrender, but their commander, Colonel Hanson, re fused, and sheltering his men in the depot and adjacent buildings, defended the town for seven hours, when Morgan, in a rage, burned the town, and the buildings in which Colonel Hanson and his men were stationed having caught fire, they at last surrendered. Morgan drove them on foot before his cavalry, to Springfield, passing over the ten miles in an hour and a half, and shooting those who were too much exhausted to keep up the pace. Having paroled the prisoners, he kept on with his force to Bardstown, and there was resisted, for several hours, by a company of twenty of the fourth United States cavalry, who, occupying a strong stable, fought him, and held him at bay. He now found his pursuers gaining on him, and moved rapidly on Shepherdsville, on Salt river, and thence to Lawrence- ville and Brandenburg, forty miles below Louisville, and seized the steamer McCombe, and by hoisting signals of distress, attracted the steamer Alice Dean to the south side of the river, and captured her also. After plundering these boats, he used them to cross the river with his troops. The ferrying over his troops occupied him for two days, and on the 8th, two of the Ohio river gunboats came down the river and opened upon him, but as he replied briskly with his rifled pieces, and they, unfortu nately, it was said, had not ammunition suited to their guns, they soon withdrew. Having crossed with his troops, Morgan burned the Alice Dean, but after much solicitation consented to spare the McCombe. General Hobson, who commanded the Union force in pursuit, pressed on with great speed, though his horses were much jaded, but only reached Brandensburg in time to see the Alice Dean in flames, and Morgan s troops trotting up the bluffs on the opposite side of the river. He pro cured other steamers, however, promptly, and by three A. M. of the 10th had his troops all landed on the Indiana side of the river. A party of General Judah s division of cavalry, which had hitherto been stationed in southern Kentucky, joined in the pursuit, coming to Louisville by railroad } and embarking there for some point above on the Ohio, where they might confront Morgan if he attempted a raid into Ohio. Morgan, meantime, marched immediately upon Corydon, where he met with some resistance from a body of about two hundred home guards, but soon overcame them, and killed a number, plundered the town, burned some of the houses, and compelled the owners of factories to ransom them by the payment of a heavy sum of money. On the morning of the 10th, he reached and pillaged Salem, Indiana, and thence proceeded to Vienna, on the Jeffersonville railroad, where he burned a railroad bridge, and bivouacked for the night. On the evening of the llth, he reached Vernon, where Colonel Lowe was stationed with twelve hundred militia. Morgan summoned him to surrender, but he replied, " Come and take me." Mor gan then ordered him to remove the women and children, as he intended 602 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. to bombard the town; they were removed, but under cover of night Morgan and his troopers left, after injuring the railroad as much as pos sible. From Yernon, he proceeded to Dupont s station, and to Versailles, burning and plundering all along his route. He then moved to Harrison on the Ohio State line, plundering stores, houses, and stables, all along his route, stealing clothing, jewelry, horses, carriages, &c. &c., and burning barns, and stacks of grain and hay. He nearly remounted his force in this part of his route, and thus made it very difficult for his pursuers, on their jaded horses, to overtake him. The Ohio and Indiana militia had been. called out, but the raiders spent but four days in Indiana, and were out of the State before the militia could arrive in the vicinity. Cincin nati was thought to be the object of Morgan in Ohio, and the State militia hastened thither for its defence, but Morgan was too shrewd to run the risk of a battle with a largely superior force, and though he passed in the course of his raid within three miles of the city, he made no attempt to enter it. On the 13th of July the Rebels left Harrison, burning the bridge over the Whitewater river, and crossed the Great Miami by the Miamitown, New Baltimore, and Coleraine bridges, each of which they burned, and encamped at night ten miles northeast of Cincinnati. The next morning they passed through Glendale and Springfield, crossed the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton railroad, without doing it much injury, plundered all the houses and stables on their route, threatened Camps Dcnnison and Shady, but were driven off by the convalescents who were stationed in the rifle-pits for the protection of the camps, burned fifty army wagons near camp Shady, and in the vicinity of Miamiville, obstructed the track of the Little Miami railway, threw a train off, burned the cars, captured and paroled two hundred recruits, and passing through Batavia reached Williamsburg at three P. M. on the 14th. After resting for an hour or two, they went on to Sardinia, burning two bridges behind them, and encamped there. General Hobson, in command of the pursuing force, had pushed forward as rapidly as possible, but his horses were jaded, and at Sardinia he was twelve miles behind the Rebels. The military authorities at Cincinnati had sent General Judah s cavalry up the river in steamboats, with orders to land at such a point as would enable them to prevent Morgan from moving southward, and bodies of militia were directed to move down upon him from the north, while the military committees in the counties in his route were ordered to obstruct the roads, and thus delay his progress, that his pursuers might more readily come up with him. The gunboats were also directed to patrol the river, and foil all his efforts to cross. Morgan now began to find that his farther progress in Ohio would be difficult, and looked anxiously about him for some way of escape across the river into Kentucky, where he might plunder without much fear of defeat or capture. He had, on the 14th, sent his brother, Colonel Dick QGAINESBORO NASHVILLE MONTGOMERY^ T E MURFREESRORO SPARTA R T H CAROLINA SCALE OF MILES 10 20 30 40 50 OPERATIONS OF MORGAN S RAIDERS. 603 Morgan, from Williamsburg toward the Ohio river, to discover a route by which he might safely reach the Kentucky shore, but the colonel had found bodies of militia guarding every ford, and the gunboats patrolling the river, and had rejoined the main body of the Rebels, near Jackson ville, Adams county, with the report that escape in that vicinity was im practicable. Meantime, Morgan pushed on, as the only thing he could do, passing through, and plundering Winchester, Jackson, Wheatridge, and Jack sonville, and moved toward Jasper, on the Scioto. Six miles west of this town the road had been obstructed, and the axemen were still at work east of this point, and would have entirely arrested his progress, had he not caused a telegraph operator in his band to send, by means of a pocket instrument, despatches to Chillicothe, and the other towns along the route, to the effect that Morgan was approaching the Marietta and Cincinnati railroad. By the ruse the axemen were called off to obstruct the road above. He did not enter Jasper till the 16th, where, after two or three hours of plundering and burning, he moved on toward Piketon, where he pillaged stores and dwellings, murdered several citizens, and insulted the women of the place. Finding that General Hobson was close upon him, he left Piketon in the evening, burned the bridges over the Scioto, and pressed on to Jackson, Jackson county, which he reached about eleven P. M. Here he destroyed the office, types, and presses of the Jackson Standard, a Republi can paper, at the instance, it was said, of some traitorous citizens of the place. General Hobson, who came up the next morning, retaliated for this, by destroying, in turn, the office and presses of the Jackson Express, the paper of the peace Democrats, who had aided and encouraged Morgan. Early on the morning of the 17th, Morgan left Jackson, and learning that there were twelve hundred government horses at Berlin, six miles northeast of Jackson, guarded only by militia, he turned his course thither^ and after plundering for a time, moved up to attack the militia, who were about twenty-five hundred in number, under the command of Colonel Runkle. That officer had selected a good position, and though his troops were raw, and he had no artillery, he had resolved to fight Morgan till General Hobson could come up. Morgan attacked them, but was repulsed with a loss of about a dozen killed and wounded, and withdrew, moving toward Pomeroy in two colums, one going by way of "Wilkesville, the other through Vinton. The Rebels here found their progress obstructed for two hours by barricades near the little town of Lindsville, and when at last they had passed there and approached Pomeroy, all the roads were blocked up, and defended by home guards. The lines were indeed fast closing around them, as the Union troops were approaching from all points of the compass, and the gunboats on the Ohio rendered it almost impossi ble to cross that river. The river was, however, their only hope, and 604 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. turning away from Pomeroy they reached Chester with great difficulty, in consequence of the frequent barricades, and pushed on to Buffington ford, eight miles above Pomeroy, and opposite Buffington island, which point their advance reached about three A. M. on the 19th of July, and immediately began to make preparations for crossing, while the main body came up and bivouacked in some corn-fields on the river bottom. At four A. M. they commenced crossing, aided by a dense fog, and about fifty succeeded in reaching the Kentucky shore, although they were fired upon and a number wounded by the Kentucky home guard. Meanwhile, General Judah had come on from Pomeroy, and rode down the bluff with a small body of troops into the river bottom, the fog ob scuring the Kebels from view. They discovered his approach first and fired, throwing the Union advance into some disorder. They soon rallied, however, and the fog rising, their artillery was brought up, and opened upon the enemy, while the cavalry charged upon the Kebels, and drove them back. General Hobson s advance came up at the same moment, and attacked the Eebels in rear with great fury, and a body of infantry which had been landed below, moved up along the bottom lands, and the gun boat Moose and the transport Alleghany had reached Buffington island, and were directing their guns upon the Rebel force. Morgan had now only the alternative of surrender or flight along the river bank. About eight hundred of the Rebels, including Dick Morgan s, Basil Duke s, and Smith s, commands, surrendered. Morgan, with the remainder of his band, fled in confusion up the river, leaving behind them all their plunder, con sisting of carriages, horses, mules, dry goods in very large quantities, jewelry, hats, boots, shoes, women s and children s dresses, kid gloves laces, carbines, shot-guns, rifles, pistols, sabres, &c. &c. Most of these articles were carried off by the militia and citizens, and very little was recovered by its original owners. Morgan having with him about two thousand men, reached Belleville ford, fourteen miles above Buffington island, about dark, and attempted at once to cross, but the river was too deep, and over fifty of his men and their horses were drowned. Nearly three hundred finally succeeded in reaching the Virginia shore, and with great suffering, reached, after some days, the Rebel lines in southwestern Virginia. But while these were struggling in the water, the gunboats came up, and opening upon those still on the bank, drove them back; and Morgan, with the remainder, reduced by these losses, and by capture and desertion, struck westward to Harrison ville, and thence southward toward the river again. Near Cheshire, some miles below Pomeroy, on Monday afternoon, July 20th, General Shackleford, who commanded one brigade of Ilobson s division, brought them to a stand, and after fighting for a short time, Morgan sent a flag of truce offering an unconditional surrender, but while the parley was in progress, the wily guerrilla slipped off with about eight hundred PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF MOllGAN. 605 of his men, leaving Colonel Coleman with about four hundred to sur render. About two hundred and fifty men were picked up during the day in Meigs and Vinton counties. At daybreak on the 21st, Shackleford started again, with six hundred picked men, in pursuit. Arrangements had also been made by sending troops by railroad, and by light draft steamers up the river, to guard all the fords of the river, and to head them off from the north. Retreating at full speed from Cheshire, Morgan reached Ervington, in Gallia county, twenty miles west of Gallipolis, on the morning of the 21st, and halting to feed, saw a force of two hundred and fifty militia under Major Sonntag approaching. He immediately sent five men with a flag of truce, demanding that the Major should surrender, assuring him that he had several thousand men with him. The Major immediately complied, and Morgan thus obtained a supply of arms and seventeen rounds of ammunition. Paroling the militia, he moved forward toward Berlin, and came upon another body of militia of about the same number, whose commander, a Major Slain, also surrendered upon his de mand, lie tlien passed through Zaliska, near McArthurstown, and Nel- sonville, and reached Deaverstown in the evening. On the morning of the 23d, he was again early in the saddle, crossed the Muskiugum at Eagleport, skirmished with a militia regiment, but soon escaped from them, passed around another body of militia near Cumberland, and though sixty of his men deserted, he kept on to Senecaville. At five A. M. of the 24th, he crossed the Ohio Central railroad at Campbell s station, burned the railroad bridge and station buildings, robbed the safe of tea thousand dollars, and kept on to Washington on the national road, where, having burned three bridges behind him, he determined to rest, but Gen eral Shackleford entered the town within three hours, and he escaped with difficulty, passing through Winchester, Antrim, Londonderry, Smyrna, and Moorefield, burning the bridges behind him. Thence he moved toward New Athens, but finding a considerable force there, turned and made for Cadiz, in Harrison county, where he arrived at eight A. M. on the 25th- From this point, he again attempted to cross the Ohio near Warrenton* but it was not fordable. Turning northward again, he passed through Alexandria and Centre ville, where he encountered another considerable force, which, after firing a few shots, he managed to elude, and proceeded north to Richmond, twelve miles distant, where he hoped to be able to rest for a few hours, but finding Major Way was pushing him closely with his cavalry, he moved on toward New Lisbon, in the hope of reaching Smith s ferry, nearly opposite Wellsville. Major Way hung upon his rear, and skirmished with him nearly all night, and at last, at eight o clock A. M. on the 26th, succeeded in forcing him into" a fight, and after a sharp action of an hour, routed his forces completely, with a loss of two hundred in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Having secured his captives, Major Way kept on with the pursuit, the Rebels straining every nerve to reach 606 THE CIVIL \VAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Smith s ferry. Meanwhile Major JRae, who commanded the other battalion of cavalry sent from Columbus, had pushed forward with all haste toward Smith s ferry, to prevent their escape. By dint of hard riding, and use of cross-roads, he reached there a few minutes first, and drew up his force for action. Morgan soon came up, and with most consummate impudence, demanded that Major Eae should instantly surrender. Major Kae replied that he would immediately charge upon them unless they threw down their arms and surrendered unconditionally. Morgan tried to secure better terms, but failing to do so, surrendered, though claiming that he was entitled to a parole, on the ground that he had before meeting with Major Rae, surrendered to a militia captain, but the claim was too prepos terous to be allowed, and Morgan being brought before General Burnside^ was by him consigned to the Ohio State Penitentiary, until the Rebel Government should treat Colonel Streight and his officers as prisoners of war. On the 27th of November, 1863, Morgan, with six of his staff* suc ceeded in digging their way out, and making their escape from the Peni tentiary through a sewer. Some of the number were retaken, but the guerrilla chief made the best of his way to Tennessee, and soon raised another band of guerrillas, Major-General John H. Morgan, the Rebel leader of this daring though unsuccessful raid, was born near Lexington, Ky, in 1827. Ilis family were not wealthy, though belonging to a respectable class, lie was the eldest of six brothers, five of whom were, in one capacity or another, connected with the Rebel army. John served in the Mexican war, at first as a private, but was promoted from the ranks to a second lieuten- antcy. On his return he engaged in manufacturing jeans, linseys and bagging for the southern market. A dashing, free-and-easy man in his manners, he was somewhat popular, but had the reputation of being a libertine, and a man of intrigue. Soon after the commencement of the war he resolved to take up arms on the side of the South, and raised a company in the autumn of 1861, and marched to Bowling Green, where he asked to be allowed to serve as a partisan ranger. As this request was not formally granted, he withdrew with his men a short distance from the Rebel camp, and engaged in forays and raids on his own account. His men having increased to a full regiment, he was com missioned colonel, but followed the same course as before, though oper ating to some extent under the direction of the Rebel army commanders. The destruction of railroads and bridges, plundering cars, houses, and vil lages, with occasional acts of murder and outrage, were the style of his pei formances. Occasionally, his natural good nature and friendship for old acquaintances led him to do a humane or romantic act, for he affected the Robin Hood style of plundering ; but generally, he showed no mercy. He was several times in imminent danger of capture, but the fleetness of his horse, or his own agility and muscular power saved him. In 1862 THE RIOTS OF THE SUMMER OF 1863. 607 he made repeated forays into Kentucky, plundering the principal towns of the Blue Grass region, and though seldom risking a battle when he found a force nearly the size of his own, he managed to have matters very much to his liking, and carried off his plunder with impunity. He also made extensive raids within the Union lines in Tennessee, cutting BuelFs com munications with Louisville, obstructing the railroads, burning bridges, &c. In June 1863, as we have seen, he started upon the disastrous raid we have described, in which, though he destroyed a vast amount of property, and killed many unoffending citizens, the only results to the Eebels were the annihilation of nearly thirty-five hundred of Bragg s best cavalry, picked men, and the imprisonment of himself and his officers in the Penitentiary. After his escape he again entered upon a partisan career, visiting and plundering Central Kentucky and Tennessee. On the 3d of September, 1864:, he advanced with a small force upon Green ville, East Tennessee, and halted for the night at the residence of a Mrs. Williams. The daughter-in-law of this lady, in the evening, rode to the Union General Gillem s camp, sixteen miles distant, and informed him of Morgan s whereabouts, and troops were at once sent to surround and capture him. In the attempt to make his escape, Morgan was shot dead by a private soldier. The northern sympathizers with the Eebellion, demagogues who believed that they could attain notoriety, place and fame by their oppo sition to the Government, had been, during the months of May and June, endeavoring to stir up the lowest classes of the population of the large cities to an armed and bloody rebellion against the constituted authorities, While this had been attempted unsuccessfully in Philadelphia, Boston, Troy, and other cities, the emissaries of the Kebels had been specially active in New York city, as having the largest number of low, vicious, and ignorant inhabitants, fit material for demagogues to work upon, in its limits. The motives urged for an outbreak were two ; first, the draft, which, by its commutation provision of three hundred dollars, it was falsely alleged discriminated against the poor; and second, a pretended influx of the negroes in consequence of the emancipation proclamation, and the consequent appeal to the Irish to rally and prevent the negroes from de priving them of work. Neither of these was the real motive of the leaders and promoters of the riot. The commutation feature of the con scription act was an advantage to the poor man, as was afterward apparent, when, on its repeal, the price of substitutes rose from three hundred to one thousand or twelve hundred dollars. There had been no influx oi negroes since the proclamation of emancipation ; indeed there were probably fewer colored people in the city of New York in July, 1863, than in July, 1860. The real motive of the riots was to create a diversion in Lee s favor, and by the destruction of property and life in New York city and elsewhere, to compel the Government to call off its troops 608 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. from making war upon the Rebel chiefs, to protect the property and homes of citizens of New York. It had been the intention of the movers in the matter, to bring on the riot earlier ; the 1st, and afterward the 4th of July, had been named, and letters written in Europe at that time referred to it as probably then in progress. The Secessionists in Paris and London were jubilant at the thought that the great commercial metropolis was being given up to pillage, arson, plunder, and rapine. On the 4th of July, prominent disloyalists addressed large bodies of men in New York city, and sought to rouse their passions to evil deeds. But the news of the great victory over Lee at Gettysburg was coming in, and it roused such a burst of patriotic feeling, that the leaders felt that they must delay. They could not delay long, however. With an alacrity which at the time surprised many of the Union citizens, but which was afterward remembered as evidently a part of the nefarious plot, the chief magistrate of the State, and others in his counsel, had sent from New York and Brooklyn every fully organized regiment of militia, under the plea of rendering prompt aid to Pennsylvania in her hour of need. These would soon return, and the riot must be hastened, in order to avoid a collision with them. Accordingly, the commencement of the draft was fixed upon as the time for rising ; and the general features of the plot, the property to be destroyed, &c., were communicated by the leaders to their subordinate leaders in the mob, and by them to the masses. On Friday night, July 10th, Governor Seymour sent his adjutant-general to Wash ington, to urge upon the President the suspension of the pending draft, on the alleged ground that its enforcement would inevitably produce a riot. Having done this, the governor took no measures to guard against the outbreak which he had pronounced inevitable, but left the State, and did not return till Tuesday. The draft commenced on Saturday, and during that day, July llth, and the next, there were no demonstra tions of mob violence, but on Monday morning, the attempt to complete the draft in the ninth Congressional district, where it had been com menced on Saturday, was made the occasion of the outbreak. Meetings of the prominent rioters had been held on Sunday ; and, at an early hour on Monday morning, organized parties of men, mainly, though not ex clusively, of Irish birth, went from yard to yard, and from one workshop and manufactory to another, to compel the workmen to desist from their labor, and join the processions which were moving toward the enrollment offices. One of the deputy marshals in the ninth district was beaten and left for dead, and the furniture of the room destroyed. The building in which the enrollment office was situated, as well as the whole block, was burned, and the Superintendent of Police set upon by the mob, and nearly killed. Other buildings in which there were enrollment offices, or which were known or supposed to be the residences of prominent Republicans, were fired, and their inhabitants robbed, beaten, or cruelly maltreated. The THE GREAT RIOT IN NEW YORK. 609 mob went in this way from street to street, shouting their huzznhs for Jefferson Davis, the Southern -Confederacy, General Lee, Fernando Wood, and others whom they supposed to be hostile to the United States Gov ernment. The authorities were at first panic-stricken. Only the police 1iad manifested at first much presence of mind or resolution in endeavoring to put down the mob, and their superintendent and several other officers, had been nearly killed. The mayor was naturally timid, and though well disposed, had neither the courage nor the power to resist and subdue such a formidable riot. He could not call out a posse comitatus large enough for its suppression, and he contented himself with half measures ; The major-general of the militia had but very few troops at call, and those but such as had seen no service; and he was like the mayor, nervous, hesitating, and alarmed; the commander of the United States Military Department of the East, Major-General Wool, was in feeble health, and mentally unfit for such a responsibility, and had at, his com mand but a mere handful of troops. For a time, then, it seemed that the mob would have its own way, and would inaugurate a reign of terror. They went to work with a system which showed that their rising was no momentary impulse, but a carefully planned plot. The railroad tracks were torn up, the telegraph wires cut, and they moved from one piece of mischief to another, at the direction of their leaders, with deliberation. The New York Tribune and the New York Times were both obnoxious to them, and the attempt was made to destroy both offices, and it would have been successful in the case of the former, but for the interposition of a small body of police. But while prominent Union men and their dwellings and offices w^re marked for destruction, the hapless negroes were the objects of their special malignity. If a negro man or woman was seen upon the street, they were instantly hunted down, beaten, stamped upon, hung to the lamp-post, or thrown into the river ; their dwellings plundered, torn down, or burned, and helpless women and children beaten and murdered. The colored orphan asylum, a large and fine structure on Fifth Avenue, occupied by seven or eight hundred colored children, was, in accordance with their previously avowed deter mination, plundered and burned to the ground, and but brief time allowed to the teachers and children for escape. On Tuesday the reign of terror continued ; a hotel, a block of buildings on Broadway, and numerous private residences, were burned, and thirty or forty persons murdered. The poor negroes were still pursued with the most relentless hostility, and men and women, mainly Irish and of the lowest classes, vented all the malignity of their natures upon that helpless, quiet, and unoffending race, who, as a class, had been for yeass the most peaceful and orderly in habitants of the city. In the afternoon of Tuesday, the Governor of the State came into the city, and made a speech to the rioters, appealing to them as " his friends," to be quiet, and do no more mischief. This prov 39 610 THE CIVII WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. ing in vain, he soon after issued a proclamation, declaring that the riot must be stopped, and promising if they would disperse, to have vtvi con stitutionality of the conscription act tested in the courts. This produced as Ijttle effect as his speech, the mob having got beyond his control. He finally issued a second proclamation, declaring the city in a state of insur rection, and warning the citizens against resisting the officers of the law. General Harvey Brown, who had command of the forts in the harbor under General Wool, marched a small force of regular troops into the city during the day, and they had two or three collisions with the mob, and dispersed them from several points. The ostensible leader of the mob, a Virginian, and an openly avowed Rebel, meantime led them on from one crime to another. On Wednesday morning, several of the militia regiments, and among them the favorite Seventh, returned, and immediately undertook the work of effectually putting down the mob. The ringleaders were arrested, and in the several collisions which occurred several hundred of the rioters were killed or severely wounded, and the remainder began to seek concealment or flight. During the day, however, they murdered, under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, Colonel O Brien, an Irish officer who had volunteered to aid in putting down the riot. On Thursday, Archbishop Hughes caused a placard to be posted throughout the city, addressed u to the men of New York, who are now called in many of the papers, rioters," inviting them to his house, where he would address them. Very few of the rioters came, but a considerable crowd assembled, whom the Archbishop, in a shrewd speech, advised against resistance to the authorities. But the mob was now effectually subdued. Over one thousand had been killed or severely wounded by the military and police, and many others arrested, and the remainder made their escape to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and the eastern cities and towns, where they either volunteered, or offered themselves as substitutes for those who were drafted, and became the opprobrium and disgrace of the army for the next year. About twenty-five of the police were killed, and perhaps one hundred wounded, and about thjrty negroes were murdered, and sixty or seventy injured. Property to the amount of nearly two millions of dollar was destroyed. CAPTURE OF THE REBEL IRON-CLAD ATLANTA. 611 CHAPTER LI. DEPARTMENT OP THE SOUTH CAPTURE OP THE ATLANTA GENERAL OILLMORE SUCCEEDS HUNTER, AND DAHLGREN, DU PONT GILLMORE S STRATEGIC PLAN REASONS FOR BELIEV ING IT AN ERROR FOLLY ISLAND GILLMORE S BATTERIES THERE CAPTURE OP THE SOUTHERN PORTION OF MORRIS ISLAND FEINTS IN OTHER DIRECTIONS THE FIRST AS SAULT ON WAGNER REPULSE ERECTION OF BATTERIES BOMBARDMENT AND SECOND ASSAULT A COSTLY FAILURE THE SIEGE PRESSED OTHER BATTERIES ERECTED THE " SWAMP ANGEL" LOCATED BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SUMTER ITS SUBSTANTIAL REDUCTION GILLMORE DEMANDS THE SURRENDER OF FORT SUMTER AND THE FORTS ON MORRIS ISLAND, AND THREATENS TO BOMBARD CHARLESTON IN CASE OF REFUSAL BEAURKGARD REPLIES HAUGHTILY AND INSOLENTLY GILLMORE S REJOINDER THE APPROACHES TO FORT WAGNER COMPLETED THE GARRISONS OF FORT WAGNER AND BATTERY GREGG EVACUATE THOSE WORKS GILLMORE S DESPATCH ANNOUNCING THE CAPTURE OTHER EVENTS IN THE DE PARTMENT SKETCH OF GENERAL GILLMORE SKETCH OF ADMIRAL DAHLGREN. THE Department of the South again demands our attention. Though the army stationed there was not large, yet it made for itself, in the sum mer of 1863, a lasting record for patience, endurance under the most try ing circumstances, and that unflinching courage which is not appalled by the imminent perils of the deadly breach, or the terrors of the assault. No army of the Republic has a nobler or more gallant history, and none, through greater perils, has won more brilliant victories, or sustained with equal honor and firmness, inevitable repulses. The sudden death of Rear- Admiral Foote, while preparing to take command of the South Atlantic blockading squadron, led to the appointment of Rear- Admiral John A. Dahlgren to the command of the squadron; while General Hunter was superseded by Brigadier-General Q. A. Gillmore, who had distinguished himself by the reduction of Fort Pulaski, the preceding winter. Before these changes took place, or rather while they were pending, a naval conflict took place within the limits of the department, which re sulted in the surrender to the Union commander of a Rebel armored vessel of great power, and from whose strength and fleetness they had ex pected extraordinary results. The Fingal, an iron merchant steamer, built in Glasgow, had run the blockade in December 1861, and entered the port of Savannah. The vigilant watchfulness of the blockading squad ron had prevented her escape, and she had been finally sold to the Rebel Government at a low figure, and fitted up as an armored ship, the contri butions of the Rebel women of Savannah, it was said, furnishing the means for the conversion. The work of covering her with armor, and effecting such changes as were necessary in her build, armament, and ap pliances, progressed slowly in a city like Savannah, but poorly supplied either with skilled machinists or the necessary material for the work, but 612 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. in the spring of 1863 every thing was completed, and the Rebels vaunted loudly of what they would accomplish with this wonderful iron-clael skip. The blockading squadron were to be driven from the waters of the Geox gin. coast, the iron-dads captured and sent back to Savannah to amuse the women and children, and then, the Atlanta (for that was the new name be stowed upon the armored ship) would visit the great cities of the North, and either bombard them, or exact a prince s ransom for its forbearance. It encountered difficulties, however, from the very day of its launch. Its draught was too great for the shallow river, and after long digging and improving the navigation, it was found necessary to unload its cannon and stores, and send it down to Warsaw Sound light, putting in its cargo again when it had reached deeper water. At length all was ready ; stores, instruments, &c., for a voyage of several months had been put on board, and accompanied by steamers crowded with male and female spectators, who were to witness her prowess, the Atlanta came down the sound. Admiral Du Pont had sent the Weehawken and the Nahant, two monitors^ to Warsaw Sound to await her coming, and Captain John Rodgers, of the Weehawken, having descried her approach near the mouth of Wilming ton river, ordered his ship to be cleared for action, and commenced steam ing toward her, the Nahant following, as soon as she discovered her approach. The Atlanta commenced firing at the Nahant, then a mile and a half distant, but did not reach her; while the Weehawken reserved her fire till she was within three hundred yards of the enemy, when, at 5.15 A. M., she discharged her first shot. She fired but five times (the Atlanta having grounded at the very commencement of the action), but four out of the five told ; the first, a fifteen inch shot, breaking through the Atlanta s armor, prostrating about forty men by the concussion, and wounding a number by the splinters; the second breaking her plates; the third knocking oft the top of the pilot-house, wounding two pilots, and stunning the men at the wheel, and the fourth striking and breaking a port-shutter, and scattering the fragments among the men. In fifteen minutes after the commencement of the action, the Atlanta hauled down her colors and hoisted the white flag, and the steamboats which had ac companied her, made all speed back to Savannah, bearing very different intelligence from that which they had expected to carry to the citizens of that city. The vessel proved a valuable prize, and after some repairs, and such changes as were necessary to improve her ventilation, she was put upon the North Atlantic blockading squadron, where she did good service, though less efficient for the work required of an iron -clad than the monitors, her armament being six and four tenths and seven inch guns, instead of eleven and fifteen inch. The assumption of the command of the department by General Gill- more, and of the South Atlantic blockading squadron by Rear- Admiral Dahlgren, was the signal for new efforts for the reduction of Fort Sumter GJLLM ORE S PLAN FOR Till; CAl TUUK OF CHARLESTON. 613 and Charleston. Attempts had previously been made by land from James island, and from the railroad below Charleston, but these had proved un successful ; as had the attempts to force a passage up the harbor with the iron-clads. General Gillmore, examining the situation with the eye of a skilful military engineer, believed that the most feasible point of approach was by way of Morris island, and that by erecting batteries on that island he could not only destroy Fort Sumter, but with his long ranged rifled can non reach Charleston itself. With the knowledge we now have of the actual position and strength of the Kebel forces at that time guarding Charleston, there is strong ground for the presumption that this decision of the Union general was wrong, and that his true method of approach would have been by way of James island. The garrison of Charleston, and its forts at this time, con sisted of only about five thousand men. It was under the command of General G. T. Beauregard, a Rebel officer of decided ability, fully Gill- more s equal as an engineer, but regarded with hostility and suspicion by Jefferson Davis, with whom he had often differed in opinion. He had repeatedly asked for reinforcements, but had been as often refused, Mr. Davis believing that Charleston was in no danger from the assaults of the northern troops, and declining to send more troops there, to be detained from other, and as he deemed, more important points. Compelled thus to make the most of the mere handful of troops at his command, General Beauregard had assigned twelve hundred of them to the defence of the islands, and of these, less than six hundred were on James island. The number might have been increased on the emergency of an attack to fif teen hundred or two thousand, but General Gillmore had at this time from eight thousand to ten thousand soldiers at his command, and the Rebel works on James island were the weakest of those around Charles ton ; while by a little effort, the channel of Stono river could have been cleared sufficiently for the lighter draught iron-clads and gunboats to have ascended and aided in the attack. The Rebel works on James island once captured, Charleston was at the mercy of the Union commander, and could not have been held for a day ; and the forts in the harbor, the city once captured, could not have held out ten days, and thus Sumter might have been saved, and the two assaults on Wagner prevented. It is not, however, the office of the historian to decide what might have been, but rather, to narrate what actually did occur. Had General Gillmore known the exact condition of affairs in Charleston, it would, no doubt, have modified his plans ; but without that knowledge, his plan had the merit of ingenuity and engineering ability, and, except the route by James island, was the only one offering much chance of success. The map gives a good idea of the position of this and the adjacent islands, and their relations to Charleston and its harbor defences. The Union troops 614 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. had, in April, taken possession of Folly island, a long, narrow sand-spit, forming the outer barrier to the southeast of the group of low marshy islands lying south and southwest of the harbor. This island .was di vided from James island by a wide marsh and a crooked bayou, called Folly river, and from Morris island, by Lighthouse inlet. On this island a lookout, one hundred and forty-five feet in height, had been erected, from which, with a good glass, a view of all the defences of Charleston could be had, and their strength estimated. We have already (pp. 483-4) described these defences as they existed in April. There had been added to these, since that time, some temporary works of no great strength, on the south end of Morris island, while Fort Wagner and the Cummings Point battery (better known as Fort Gregg) had been greatly strength ened. The new general, after a careful and thorough examination of the position and comparative strength of the fortifications of the Rebel harbor and stronghold, decided upon these four points, viz.: 1st. To effect a lodg ment on the southern portion of Morris island. 2d. To carry Wagner by assault, if possibte ; if not to besiege and reduce it, and thus obtain pos session of all the Rebel works on Morris island. 3d. From the positions thus gained, to reduce Fort Sumter. 4th. This accomplished, the war vessels in the harbor were to remove the obstructions, and running by the fort and batteries on Sullivan s island, approach and bombard the city. In the end, this programme was somewhat modified by circum stances, but its general features were carried out, so far as they depended upon the army and its general. To effect a lodgment on Morris island without heavy loss, secrecy was essential, and it was most carefully maintained. Horses, wagons, shovels, gabions, and fascines, were sent up from Hilton Head ; and having fixed upon the locality for the erection of two lines of siege batteries, whose existence should be concealed from the enemy by woods until they were ready to open upon the Rebel batteries on the south end of Morris island, General Gillmore directed a road, entirely covered from view in its whole extent by the dense forest, to be cut, and brushwood laid upon it for a depth of two feet, and this covered with earth, to prevent the noise of cart-wheels and cannon-trucks as they passed over it. The wheels of the wagons were greased, and provided with leather washers, to prevent their creaking ; the horses of the loaded teams were led, and the teams unloaded with the greatest care. Five hundred men worked diligently at the batteries by night, and one hundred more plied the spade by day. The Rebels were aware that something was being done on Folly island, but what, they could not make out, and on the 9th of July, General Ripley, who commanded the works on Morris island, after carefully examining the island from his lookout, announced to his aids that the Yankees had no batteries on Folly island, and that the next day he should send a force of three hundred men to cross the inlet and drive their pickets from the THE ATTACK UPON MORRIS ISLAND. 615 island. On the ninth of July, just seventeen days from the time of com mencement, the two lines of siege batteries, one twelve hundred yards, and the other twenty-two hundred yards from the Kebel batteries, were completed. They mounted forty-seven guns and mortars, and formed an angle of thirty degrees with the Rebel line of fire. On the morning of the 10th of July, General Gillmore was ready to open fire from these batteries; but he had previously arranged with Admiral Dahlgren the details for a combined attack on the Rebel worki on the south end of Morris island, which he supposed to be much stronger than they really were. His batteries were to open upon the Rebel works, and fire as rapidly as possible, the iron-clad fleet meantime to take position in the main ship channel off Morris island, and enfilade the Rebel batteries, and General Strong s brigade to go up Folly river in launches, and secreting themselves behind the woods which skirt Light house inlet on the left, await the opportunity to land on Morris island, and carry the works by assault. In order to make assurance doubly sure, General Terry, with his division, was ordered to proceed in trans ports up Stono river, which separates James from John island, and land ing on James island, threaten a vigorous attack upon Charleston. Every part of the programme was successfully carried out, and had the gallant Terry known how panic-stricken the inhabitants of Charleston were at his approach, he might have gone beyond his orders and captured the city at once, in place of merely demonstrating against it. The astonishment of the Rebels on Morris island, as, under the vigorous blows of two hundred axemen, the trees in front of the Folly island batteries fell and exposed to view the two lines of formidable batteries within easy range of their works, may be imagined, but not described ; and when these batteries opened upon them, they soon began to fly in terror toward Wagner and Gregg, on the northern end of the island, even before Strong, landing his troops, came charging down upon their batteries. Before noon, three fourths of the island, including all that portion which was more than eight hundred yards from Fort "Wagner, was in possession of the Union troops. By the erection of some temporary defensive works, General Gillrnore secured the ground already gained, and, after consultation with Admiral Dahlgren, ordered a combined assault on Fort Wagner at daybreak the next morning. The assault was led by General George C. Strong, a young officer of great merit and bravery, who was mortally wounded in the second assault with his brigade, while the Nahant (iron-clad monitor) was endeavoring to silence the fire of the fort. The storming party, with great energy and resolution, dashed through the terrible fire of the fort at a double-quickstep, and one regiment reached the fort, and mounting the parapet, battled with the garrison desperately ; but the supports could not come up, and they were compelled to fall back and abandon the assault. The number of killed, wounded, and missing, in 616 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. this action and that of the preceding day, did not exceed one hundred and fifty. General Gillmore having satisfied himself that Wagner was a stronger work than had been supposed, now determined tD bombard it until its guns were silenced, and then assault again, with an overwhelming force, lie accordingly commenced the erection of siege butteries, at distances of from eight to twelve hundred yards from Fort Wagner. The work was mostly done at night; but Fort Johnson, on James island, Fort Gregg, at Curnmings Point, and Fort Sumter, opened upon the lines where the battery was erecting with a slow fire, which was very annoying, and Fort Wagner would have joined in, had not General Gillmore stationed his sharpshooters where they could pick off every gunner who dared to show himself at the guns, which were pointed inland. After seven days, or rather nights, of severe toil, the batteries were completed and the maga zines filled, ready for the bombardment. The fleet, including the New Ironsides, the great iron-clad which had previously been unable to pass the bar, was now inside, and ready to join with the monitors in the action. Orders were issued to commence the bombardment on the morning of the 18th of July, and after a concentrated fire of twelve hours by the gun boats and iron-clads on the sea front, and the powerful batteries on the land side, to assault the fort at eventide. Mr. Robert S. Davis, an eye-witness of the whole conflict, thus graphi cally describes the scenes which followed : "At half-past seven o clock, Sumter opens with her morning salute, and throws a shell, which explodes near our batteries; and Wagner, seeing our gunboats take their position in the channel, sends forth a welcome, to which the gunboats immediately reply, delivering their fire in succession as they move around in a circle. This is the beginning of the bombard ment; and the gunboats, having from their previous practice acquired the accurate range, threw their shells at Wagner with effect, bursting many over the fort, on the parapet and sides, and in the moat. Soon our land- batteries open on Wagner, and disclose their whereabouts and calibre. Sumter, Wagner and Gregg now reply vigorously, and the cannonading becomes fearful. The report of Sumter s guns is very heavy, confirming the rumor that the Rebels are using in that fort fine English powder, and double charges at that. At noon, the gunboats withdraw, and the iron clads move up the channel, and take position about a mile and a half from Wagner. With battle-flags flying, they redouble in thundering tones the sound of the cnnnonade. The New Ironsides is enveloped in the smoke of her terrific broadsides ; the monitors belch forth fire and smoke from their turrets like small volcanoes, and the land batteries keep up an incessant fire. Our fleet and batteries fire with wonderful precision and effect; and such a continuous and heavy fire is poured into Wagner, that it seems THE ASSAULT UPON FORT WAGNER. 61T impossible for any garrison to withstand it. Shells and solid shot fall thick and fast, in front-lire from the batteries and cross-fire from the fleet, the whole day long. Large holes are -made in the parapet, and there is hardly a spot, either within or around that fort, that has not been hit. The bursting shells send cart loads of sand high into the air, the parapet is ragged and torn by the iron hail, and the smoke of the bombardment rests on it like a pall. Yet Wagner withstands it all, and her gunners fire with singular regularity at the fleet. Their flag is three times shot away, and as often some daring Rebel leaps upon the parapet and again unfurls it to the breeze. " All day long is Wagner thus bombarded, and in the evening our troops are formed upon the beach for the grand assault. They are arranged in two columns, the supports and reserves commanded respect ively by Colonel Putnam and General Stevenson. The storming column, under General Strong, has already formed behind our battery line, and awaits the coming of its companions the supports and reserves. With colors flying and brave hearts beating, the regiments await in column by company the order forward. Now the cannonade redoubles its fury; our iron-clads and batteries roar with lurid flames, and the enemy, as if penetrating our designs, more stubbornly replies. As the twilight deepens, the flash of the guns becomes more vivid, and the shells of the Rebel forts describe, with their fuses, fiery circles, traversing the heavens in all directions; our batteries are one line of fire, the monitors floating volcanoes, and the Ironsides gleams with continual broadsides ; Wagner is enveloped in a sheet of fire and smoke; yet steadily she fires her guns which point seaward, and when we think her silenced, the fiery volume rushes from her embrasure, and a solid shot ricocheting by the fleet, tells us of men whom our fire can neither terrify nor silence. Sumter, Johnson, and Gregg gleam from their distant parapets ; their shells burst over our batteries, but from them God protects the brave men who faith fully work our guns. " It is now seven o clock. The troops move slowly up the beach, and are soon lost to view in the gathering darkness. They are now beyond the battery line, and have joined the assaulting column under Strong. Seymour is with them, having a general command overall, while Gillmore and his staff choose a position for observation, which, while it gives a good view of operations, is by no means the safest locality on the island. The Rebels have seen the preparations for the assault, and know that our troops are approaching the fort. Their forts are silent, our batteries and fleet have ceased firing, and a strange stillness succeeds the fearful roar of the day s action. What a moment of suspense is this, as we await the gleam of musketry, the whistling grape and canister which, will soon greet our daring columns ! . "Hark! the storming column is already charging along a narrow strip 618 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of land which leads up to the ditch of the fort. Sumter, Gregg, and Johnson, break their ominous silence, and pour a hurricane of shells among the dense columns. Now, Wagner, reinforced, flashes with mus ketry, and from her embrasures and parapet, hiss the death-dealing grape and canister. But our men are undaunted. In the dark, and before a fort of which they know nothing, they press on, and shout a fierce de fiance. In the midst of this whirlwind of death, they cross the ditch rush up the parapet, and strive like heroes to gain the interior of the fort. Who fight more valiantly than the fifty-fourth Massachusetts colored as they struggle in the midst of this darkness and death to vindicate their race? They lead the advance, and follow, without faltering, the brave Shaw, as he ascends the wall of the fort. The parapet is reached, and their lines melt away before the terrible fire of the enemy; but they fight on, though the voice of their colonel is heard no more, and their officers have fallen in the death-struggle. Their color sergeant is severely wounded in the thigh, but falling upon his knees, he plants the flag upon the parapet, and lying down, holds the staff firmly in his hands. Noble Carney ! A half an hour the conflict has been raging, yet the storming column has been unable to capture the fort. The supporting column comes up, and the battle rages more fiercely. What a work of death is here ! The eastern angle of the fort is gained, and held by three hundred brave souls against the onsets of a superior enemy for over two hours. Who shall tell the history of these hours, with their deeds of valor, more heroic than the thought of man can compass ? It will never be written ; for the brave and good perished unseen, and the gathering darkness of death and night covered the wounds of heroes. Only three hundred men gain the interior of the fort ! Where is the remainder of the Union troops whom but a few moments ago we saw marching up the beach so proudly ? Many of them are lying dead and dying on the parapet and in the ditch. See in the light of the hostile cannon, the mass of the wounded and slain strewed a hundred yards around ; and in yon darkness, sneak to the rear the cowards who have deserted their flag and comrades. "But the fight goes on; and against fate, men struggle for victory. Alas that such valor should come to naught ! Officers and men alike are swept down in the merciless fire of the enemy s cannon; or, pierced by the unseen bullet, they call in wild agony upon God, and are no more, Strong and Seymour are wounded ; the gallant Shaw is dead ; Putnam has fallen, sword in hand, among the slain ; and other officers, without number, fall in and around the fort, while striving to animate their com rades to follow them. But the Kebels have made too fierce a resistance. As our columns were moving up to assault, Wagner was reinforced from Cummings Point ; the garrison, which we thought had been killed by the day s bombardment, came forth uninjured from their massive bomb-proof, and poured a destructive fire of musketry and cannon upon our men, so FAILURE OF THE ATTACK UPON FORT WAGNER. sure of victory. Again, our troops had to charge a distance of fifteen hundred yards, before they reached the fort, and that too, under the concentrated fire of the enemy s fortifications. Death and terror have decimated our ranks, and fate has decreed that the valiant men who have fallen, are . sacrificed in vain. The reserves are not ordered up ; it would be folly tp longer con tinue the struggle. The assault is repulsed. The small band of heroes who have fought so long and so earnestly to drive the Kebels from the fort, retire from Wagner, and pass out of range over the heaps of their dead comrades. Three long hours have they fought, and fought in vain ; Wagner cannot be taken by assault. "As our forces retire, Sergeant Carney, who had kept the colors of his regiment flying upon the para pet of Wagner during the entire conflict, is seen creeping along on one knee, still holding up the flag, and only yielding his sacred trust upon finding an officer of his regi ment. As he enters the field- hospital, where his wounded com rades are being brought in, they cheer him and the colors. Though nearly exhausted with the loss of blood, he says, Boys, the old flag never touched the ground. " The losses on the Union side in this sanguinary assault, in killed, wounded, and missing, were fifteen hundred and thirty. But though foiled in his expectation of carrying this immensely strong earthwork by assault, General Gillmore was not discouraged. He ordered immediately the line of the batteries to be advanced, and new ones con structed, mounting in all thirty-seven guns of the largest calibre, all or s- NAVAL BATTtRY. 4- BREACHING Gll^i SCALE OF FEET 250 620 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. nearly all rifled, including one, two, and three hundred pound Parrotts, and two very large W bit worth guns. These batteries, which were only seven hundred and fifty yards from Fort Wagner, were defended by a chevaux-de-frise, an abatis, and a breastwork or entanglement of strong wire, crossed in all directions, was stretched across the narrow beach from the sea shore to the edge of the marsh, a distance varying in width from twenty-five to two hundred and twenty-five yards, to prevent the Reboi garrison from charging upon their batteries. To the left of these batteries a firm corduroy road, two and a half miles in length, was constructed through the deep marsh, and by means of timber, piles, and ten thousand bags of sand, a mound erected, on which it planted a battery Amounting the two hun dred pound Parrott, subsequently known as the "Swarnp Angel," and a sufficient magazine. Meantime, the siege of Wagner is vigorously prose cuted, and parallel after parallel opened, till the fifth was but two hundred yards from the parapet of Fort Wagner, and thence along the narrow beach zig-zags were constructed, till the counterscarp of the fort was mined on the sea point. Twenty-nine days and nights of the severest trial were consumed in the erection of the formidable batteries to which we have alluded, which had for their object the reduction of Fort Sumter rather than Fort Wagner, and fifteen more in the completion of the approaches to Fort Wagner. The distance of the batteries on the first and second parallels from Fort Sumter, was two and two and a half miles ; and though the Rebel officers sus pected that General Gillmore was constructing them to bombard Fort Sum ter, and made a desperate resistance to those who were building them, they did not believe it possible that its walls could be breached at that distance. Still, in order to be perfectly prepared against any possible danger, they proceeded to strengthen the rear or gorge wall of the fortress, which was about six feet thick, of solid hard-burned brick, by piling a wall of sand bags, fifteen feet thick and forty-five feet high, upon its exterior face, and a similar one upon its interior face. Having his batteries all ready, General Gillmore, on the evening of the 16th of August, ordered seven shots fired, by way of experiment, against Fort Sumter. The first three fell short, but the remaining four struck either the wall or the parapet, and did some damage. On the morning of the 17th, the garrison of the fortress defiantly flung to the breeze extra flags (the stars and bars) and formed temporary casemates of cotton-bales to protect the artillerists who were to handle the barbette guns. The New Ironsides and four of the monitors commenced a vigorous bombard ment of Fort Wagner, and soon drove its garrison into their bomb-proofs for safety ; and the batteries and two monitors commenced their bombard ment of Fort Sumter, the batteries giving their undivided attention to the rear wall. Fort Sumter replied to the batteries, and Forts Moultiie and Gregg to the iron-clads. The shot and shell from the batteries and GILLMORE S DEMAND. ON GENERAL BEAUREGARD. 621 Fort Su inter necessarily passed over Fort Wagner, and added greatly to the discomfort of its garrison. The bom hard niQnt of the fort was main tained through the day, and produced a marked effect upon FortSurnter, the sand-bags were cleared from the wall for a considerable space, and the brick wall exposed. During the night a slow fire was kept up, and in the morning the bombardment was renewed with the same severity as on the previous day, and before nightfall the wall was breached. The bombard ment was steadily maintained for seven days, and at the end of that time the fort was in ruins, the lower casemates entirely blocked up with debris, the barbette guns toppled down, and either sunk in the water or buried in the ruins, only two or three guns left in the casemates on the further side, and its whole outline completely broken up; presenting the appear ance indicated in the accompanying sketch, copied from that made by Colonel Turner, chief of General Gillmore s artillery. On the 21st of August, General Gillmore addressed the following note to General Beauregard, the Rebel commander in Charleston : " HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, MORRIS ISLAND, S. C., "August 2lst, 1863. "To GENERAL G. T. BEAUREGARD, "Commanding Confederate Forces, Charleston, S. C. " GENERAL : I have the honor to demand of you the immediate evacua tion of Morris island and Fort Sumter by the Confederate forces. The present condition of Fort Sumter, and the rapid and progressive destruc tion which it is undergoing from my batteries, seem to render its complete demolition, within a few hours, a matter of certainty. All my heaviest guns have not yet opened. Should you refuse compliance with this demand, or should I receive no reply thereto within four hours after it is delivered into the hands of your subordinate, at Fort Wagner, for transmission, I shall open fire on the city of Charleston from batteries already established within easy and effective range of the heart of the city. " I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant. "Q. A. GILLMORE, Brigadier- General Commanding. 11 G22 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. By an oversight; tins note was at first transmitted without the signa ture of the commanding general ; and before an answer was received, twelve shells from the " Swamp Angel" battery had been thrown into Charleston, a distance of four and a half miles, greatly to the astonish ment of the Rebel commander, and the citizens generally, none of whom had believed it possible that a shot from one of his batteries could reach the city. The next day General Beauregard replied as follows : "HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA, " Charleston, S. C., August 22d, 1863. "SiR: Last night, at fifteen minutes before eleven o clock, during my absence on a reconnoissance of my fortifications, a communication was received at these headquarters, dated Headquarters Department of the South, Morris island, S. C., August 21st, 1863, demanding the imme diate evacuation of Morris island and Fort Sumter by the Confederate forces, on the alleged grounds c that the present condition of Fort Sum ter, and the rapid and progressive destruction which it is undergoing from my batteries, seem to render its demolition, within a few hours, a matter of certainty ; and that if this demand were not complied with, or no reply thereto received within four hours after it is delivered into the hands of your (my) subordinate commander at Fort Wagner, for transmission, a fire would be opened on the city of Charleston from batteries already established within easy and effective range of the heart of the city. This communication to my address, was without signature, and was, of course, returned. "About half-past one o clock, one of your batteries did actually open fire, and threw a number of heavy shells into the city, the inhabitants of which were, of course, asleep and unwarned. "About nine o clock this morning, the communication alluded to above was returned to these headquarters, bearing your recognized official signature, and it can now be noticed as your deliberate, official act. Among nations not barbarous, the usages of war prescribe, that when a city is about to be attacked, timely notice shall be given by the attack ing commander, in order that non-combatants may have an opportunity for withdrawing beyond its limits. Generally the time allowed is from one to three days ; this is time for the withdrawal, in good faith, of at least the women and children. You, sir, give only four hours, knowing that your notice, under existing circumstances, could not reach me in less than two hours, and that not less than the same time would be required for an answer to be conveyed from this city to Battery Wagner. With this knowledge, you threaten to open fire on the city, not to oblige its surrender, but to force me to evacuate these works, which you, assisted by a great naval force, have been attacking in vain for more than forty days. Batteries Wagner and Gregg, and Fort Sumter, are nearly due north from your batteries on Morris island, and in distance therefrom BEAUREGARD S REPLY TO GENERAL GILLMORE. 623 varying from half a mile to two and a quarter miles. The city, on the other hand, is to the northwest, and quite five miles distant from the bat tery opened against it this morning. " It would appear, sir, that despairing of reducing these works, you now resort to the novel measure of turning your guns against the old men, the women and children, and the hospitals of a sleeping city, an act of inex cusable barbarity from your own confessed point of sight, inasmuch as you allege that the complete demolition of Fort Sumter, within a few hours, by your guns, seems to you a matter of certainty. 7 " Your omission to attach your signature to such a grave paper must show the recklessness of the course upon which you have adventured ; while the facts that you knowingly fixed a limit for receiving an answer to your demand, which made it almost beyond the possibility of receiving any reply within that time, and that you actually did open fire, and threw a number of the most destructive missiles ever used in war, into the midst of a city, to them unawares, and filled with sleeping women and children, will give you a bad eminence in history, even in the history of this war. " I am only surprised, sir, at the limits you have set to your demands. If, in order to attain the abandonment of Morris island and Fort Sumter, you feel authorized to fire on this city, why did you not also include the works on Sullivan s and James islands ; nay, even the city of Charleston, in the same demand? " Since you have felt warranted in inaugurating this method of reducing batteries in your immediate front, which were found otherwise impregna ble, and a mode of warfare which I confidently declare to be atrocious, and unworthy of any soldier, I now solemnly warn you, that if you fire again on the city from your Morris island batteries, without giving a somewhat more reasonable time to remove non-combatants, I shall feel impelled to employ such stringent means of retaliation as may be available during the continuance of this attack. u Finally, I reply, that neither the works on Morris island nor Fort Sumter will be evacuated on the demand you have been pleased to make. Already, however, I am taking measures to remove all non-combatants, who are now fully aware of, and alive to, what they may expect at your hands. " Respectfully, your obedient servant, " G. T. BEAUREGARD, General Commanding" To this General Gillmore made the following rejoinder: " DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, HEADQUARTERS IN THE FIELD, " MORRIS ISLAND, S. C., 9 P. M., August 22d, 1863. "G. T. BEAUREGARD, Commanding Confederate States forces, Charleston, S. & "SiR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communica tion of this date, complaining that one of my batteries had opened upon 624 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the city of Charleston, and thrown a number of heavy rifled shells into the city, the inhabitants of which, of course, were asleep and unarmed. "My letter to you demanding the surrender of Fort Sumter and Morris island, and threatening, in default thereof, to open fire upon Charleston, was delivered near Fort Wagner at 11.15 o clock A. M., of the 21st inst., and should have arrived at your headquarters in time to have permitted your answer to reach me within the limit assigned, namely, four hours. "The fact that you were absent from your headquarters at the time of its arrival, may be regarded as an unfortunate circumstance for the city of Charleston, but it is one for which I clearly am not responsible. This letter bore date at my headquarters, and was officially delivered by an officer of my staff. The inadvertent omission of my signature, doubtless affords grounds for special pleading; but it is not the argument of a com mander solicitous only for the safety of sleeping women and children and unarmed men. Your threats of retaliation for acts of mine, which you do not allege to be in violation of the usages of civilized warfare, except as regards the length of time allowed as notice of my intention, are passed by without comment. I will, however, call your attention to the well- established principle, that the commander of a place attacked, but not in vested, having its avenues of escape open and practicable, has no right to a notice of an intention of bombardment, other than that which is given by the threatening attitude of his adversary. Even had not this letter been written, the city of Charleston has had, according to your own com putation, forty days notice of her danger. During that time my attack upon her defences has steadily progressed. "The ultimate object of that attack has at no time been doubtful. If, under the circumstances, the life of a single non-combatant is exposed to peril by the bombardment of the city, the responsibility rests with those who have first failed to remove the non-combatants, or to secure the safety of the city, after having held control of all its approaches for a period of nearly two years and a half, in the presence of a threatening force, and who afterward refused to accept the terms upon which the bombardment might have been postponed. From various sources, official and otherwise, I am led to believe that most of the women and children of Charleston were long since removed from that city. But upon your assur ance that the city is still full of them, I shall suspend the bombardment until eleven o clock P. M. to-morrow, thus giving you two days from the time you acknowledge to have received my communication of the 21st inst. "Very respectfully, your obedient servant, " Q. A. GlLLMORE, Brigadier- General Commanding" The delay thus granted was conceded, not to General Beauregard s haughty and insolent demand, but to the courteous request of the Spanish and British consuls, and at the end of that time the bombardment was resumed in a leisurely manner, but with decided effect, on the lower GILLMOIIKS DKsi A iVH TO GENERAL HALLECK. 625 portion of the city. Meantime, though Beauregard had refused to sur render the forts on Morris island, General Gillmore was determined to compel their surrender. The approaches were pushed forward with all diligence ; and though for the last eleven days the losses to the sappers and miners were very heavy, and they became at times dejected and dis couraged, the commanding general did not for an instant give way to discouragement, but renewed his efforts to hasten the completion of the great work, and at the same time to protect his men. He moved all his light mortars to the front, and kept them playing upon the fort, enlarged the positions of his sharpshooters, obtained the co-operation of the New Ironsides, by day, used powerful calcium lights to blind the enemy by night, opened fire with as many of the heavy guns in his rear as he could without danger to his men in the trenches, and thus kept the garrison for the most part in their bomb-proofs, which he sought to breach through a breach in the walls of the fort. Very early in the morning of the 5th of September, he commenced a severe bombardment of the fort, which he maintained steadily for forty-two hours, in order to enable his men to com plete their work. On the night of the 6th of September the work was completed, and every thing was ready for an assault at nine o clock the next morning, which would havd inevitably carried the fort, and captured the garrison, when Colonel Keitt, who commanded the fort, seeing the hopelessness of his position, evacuated both Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg on the night of the 6th, and seventy-five of the garrison were captured in endeav oring to escape. General Gillmore announced this gratifying success to the general-in-chief in the following despatch: " DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, HEADQUARTERS ix THE FIELD, " September 1th, 1863 " MAJOR-GENERAL H. W. HALLECK, General-in- Chief. " GENERAL : I have the honor to report that Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg are ours. Last night our sappers mined the counterscarp of Fort Wagner, on the sea-point, unmasking all its guns,- and an order was issued to carry the place by assault, at nine o clock this morning, that being the hour of low tide. "About ten o clock last night, the enemy commenced evacuating the island, and all but seventy -five of them made their escape from Cumminga Point, in small boats. " Captured despatches show that Fort Wagner was commanded by Colo nel Keitt, of South Carolina, and garrisoned by one thousand four hundred effective men, and Battery Gregg by between one hundred and two hun dred men. Fort Wagner is a work of the most formidable kind. Its bomb-proof shelter, capable of containing one thousand eight hundred men, remains intact, after the most terrific bombardment to which any work was ever subjected. We have captured nineteen pieces of artillery, 40 626 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and a large supply of excellent ammunition. The city and harbor of Charleston are now completely covered by my guns. I have the honor to be, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant, " Q. A. GILLMORE, Brigadier- General Commanding" General Quincy Adams Gillmore, the energetic officer who had thus reduced three of the most formidable forts in the possession of the Rebels on the coast, was born at Black River, Lorain county, Ohio, in 1825. He graduated at West Point, first in his class, in 1849, and was assigned to the corps of engineers, becoming first lieutenant in 1856, and captain in 1861. From 1849 to 1852 he was employed on the fortifications of Hampton Roads, Virginia, and was then, for four years, assistant instructor of practical engineering at West Point, during the last year of which period he was also quartermaster and treasurer of the Military Academy. From 1856 to 1861 he was employed in -New York city in purchasing and for warding supplies for fortifications. In October, 1861, he was appointed chief engineer of the expedition against the southern coast under General Thomas W. Sherman. He euperintended the construction of the fortifica tions at Hilton Head, and planned and carried out the operations for the capture of Fort Pulaski, an account of which he published in 1863. He was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, April 28th, 1862, and after serving for a little time in South Carolina, was assigned in Septem ber, 1862, to the command of the district of Western Virginia, in the army of the Ohio, and subsequently, to a division in the army of Ken tucky. On the 30th of March, 1863, he defeated Pegram, near Somerset, Kentucky. On the 12th of June, 1863, he was appointed to the com mand of the Department of the South, and accomplished the results which we have described above. His siege of Charleston he has described m a very elaborate work, published in January, 1865. In May, 1864, he was ordered with the tenth corps to the army of the James, and made one or two attacks upon Petersburg, which proved unsuccessful, and was engaged in other operations in that vicinity. Sent again to the Depart ment of the South, in February, 1865, he was in command there at the evacuation of Charleston, and occupied it at once with his troops. He 13 now, September, 1865, commander of the Department of South Carolina. The forts on Morris island being now in the possession of the Union forces, and Fort Sumter so thoroughly reduced that it could offer no effectual resistance to the passage of a naval force, the fourth item in General Gillmore s plan was apparently ready for execution, viz., the passage of Admiral Dahlgren s squadron up the harbor to bombard the city. It was found, however, that the batteries, redoubts, and forts, were so formidable, and the obstructions by piles, wire entanglements, and torpe does, so dangerous, that the admiral was unwilling, and perhaps wisely o, to risk his valuable ships where the peril was so greatly dispropor- SKETCH OF ADMIRAL DAIILGREN. 627 tioned to the result to be attained. General Gillmore was therefore obliged to content himself with a bombardment of the city, and rendered the lower portion of it nearly untenable. On the 7th of September, an expedition was fitted out from the fleet, consisting of about four hundred men, Bailors and marines, to make a night assault on Fort Sumter, and if possible capture its garrison. It proved a failure, three of the boats being sunk, a considerable number of the men killed or wounded, and one hundred and thirty taken prisoners. On the 5th of October, the Rebels made an attempt to explode a torpedo under the New Ironsid^, but failed, and the commander and inventor of the torpedo boat was picked up by the crew of the Ironsides. The "Weehawken (monitor) which had captured the Atlanta, was sunk in Charleston harbor on the 6th of December, in a storjn of some severity, by the leaving open of her hatches, and perhaps the improper stowing of her ammunition. Rear- Admiral John A. Dahlgren, who was in command of the South Atlantic blockading squadron from July 6th, 1863, to March, 1865, is a native of Pennsylvania, born about the year 1810, and entered the United States naval service as midshipman on the 1st of February, 1826 ; was promoted to be a lieutenant in March, 1837, a commander in Septem tember, 1855, a captain in 1861, and a rear-admiral, February 7th, 1863, He was detached in 1846, for special service in the ordnance department, having given for years special attention to this subject, and for a number of years subsequent to 1847, he was engaged in important experiments in relation to the form, size, and materials of guns and projectiles. He is the inventor of a shell gun of high reputation, which bears his name, of a very efficient armament for boats, (bronze howitzers,) and light field car riages of iron for these howitzers. He has published several works on ordnance, between 1850 and 1856. Although but eight and and a half years of his thirty-eight years of service in the navy had been spent afloat, yet on his desire for active service, the Government made him commander of the South Atlantic blockading squadron, believing that his skill in ordnance matters, and his strong faith in the monitor iron-clads, would lead him to undertake the work they desired, of capturing Charleston by means of armed ships. This hope was destined to disappoinment, though, perhaps, from no fault or timidity on the part of Admiral Dahlgren. The Rebel officers stationed at Charleston acknowledge that they desired the navy to make the attempt, as they were confident that with the appliances they had at command, they could have destroyed the entire fleet before they had reached the vicinity of the city. Charleston, though destined eventually to fall before the military skill %f the Union commanders, was not yet ready for its downfall, and both General Gillmore and Admiral Dahlgren, after much gallant fighting, and a record of the highest honor, were compelled to acknowledge that the capture of the Rebel city was not within their power. 628 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER LIL THE DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND ARMY OF THE CUMBERLAND IN MOTION THE STRENGTH AND POSITION OF THE TWO ARMIES TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY OF MIDDLE TENNESSEE GENERAL ROSECRANS* TACTICS THE MOVEMENT BY THE LEFT FLANK ITS COMPLETE SUCCESS MANCHESTER, DECHKRD, COWAN, SHELBYVILLE, AND TULLAHOMA TAKEN BRAGG S ARMY DRIVEN EASTWARD TO UNIVERSITY, AND SWEDEN S COVE, AND THENCE TO CHATTANOOGA THE RAILROADS PUT IN ORDER TOPOGRAPHY OF THE REGION AROUND CHATTANOOGA THE MOVEMENT OF THE UNION ARMY TOWARD CHATTANOOGA ROSECRANS DETERMINES TO OUTFLANK BRAGG S POSITION ROUTE OF THE SEVERAL CORPS PERIL OF MCCOOK S CORPS THE CONCENTRATION OF TROOPS AT MCLAMORE s COVE PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE THE FIRST DAY OF THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA THE SECOND DAY THE LINE BROKEN AND SEVEN BRIGADES CUT OFF GENERAL BOSK- CRANS AT CHATTANOOGA GENERAL THOMAS FIGHTS TILL SUNSET AND REPULSES THE EA EMY SKETCH OF GENERAL THOMAS RESULTS OF THE BATTLE MCCOOK AND CRITTENDEN RE LIEVED AND THEIR CORPS CONSOLIDATED GENERAL THOMAS SUCCEEDS GENERAL ROSE CRANS PERILOUS CONDITION OF THE ARMY GENERAL GRANT PUT IN COMMAND OF THE GRAND MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI REINFORCEMENTS ORDERED UP. AFTER the battle of Stone river, both the Union and the Rebel armies were left in a condition of exhaustion, from which, under the circum stances, it required several months for them to recover. The attention of the great military leaders was attracted in other directions : to the east, where the bloody fields of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg were fought, and to the Mississippi, where Vicksburg and Port Hudson were undergoing a siege which would eventuate in the grandest success of the war thus far. No reinforcements could be spared by either side to the armies lying near Murfreesboro, and their operations were confined to raids and expeditions, of some of which we have already given an account. The loss of Streight s cavalry weakened considerably General Rosecrans cavalry force, and it required some months to bring this indispensable arm of the service up to the commander s necessities. The general-in-chief, and the Secretary of War, not thoroughly familiar with the very difficult topographical character of the country between Murfreesboro and Chattanooga and the necessity of a very strong cavalry force to a successful advance, became impatient at General Rosecrans delay, and their urgency, and the irritable tone of their letters, provoked a corresponding irritation on the part of General Rosecrans, who was fully informed both of the character of the country, and the position and strength of his adversary. Having at last, by commendable diligence and energy, succeeded in bring ing his army up to the best possible condition, General Rosecrans ordered a general advance on the 24th of June, and so arranged his movements as to compel Bragg to come out of his strong defences and give battle, or evacuate them and retreat upon Chattanooga. That city, a great railroad POSITION OF THE TWO ARMIES IN TENNESSEE. 629 centre, and commanding the passes of Lookout mountain and Mission Ridge, and being the gateway also to East Tennessee from the south, was Rosecrans ultimate objective, and he had not ordered an advance until he saw the way clear to its capture and occupation ; not indeed, without some hard fighting, but as the result of a severe and protracted struggle. The two armies at this time varied but little in numbers, Rosecrans having probably a small superiority in infantry, and Bragg in cavalry. The region of Middle Tennessee, south of Murfreesboro, is broken and hilly, the land rising into high and infertile plateaus, which have a spongy soil, that under the influence of heavy rains becomes almost like quick sand. These plateaus or barrens are approached by a few narrow, diffi cult, rocky passes, which afford strong natural fortifications to the army holding possession of them. Two affluents of the Tennessee, Duck and Elk rivers, cross these rocky barrens from east to west, in nearly parallel lines, about twenty-five miles apart, and both flow through deep channels, with high, rocky, and precipitous banks. The Union army lay in the immediate vicinity of Murfreesboro, with its reserves toward Nashville ; the Rebel army occupied a strong position north of Duck river, the infantry extending from Shelby ville to War- trace, while their cavalry covered both the right and left wings, extending from Wartrace to McMinnsville, and on the left from Shelby ville to Columbia and Spring Hill. Their immediate base was Tullahoma, situated about midway between Duck and Elk rivers, a strongly fortified position, where Bragg had his headquarters. Liberty and Hoover s gaps, two of the passes through the mountains to which we have already alluded, were held by them with strong detachments. Through these two gaps passed the only macadamized roads leading southward from Murfreesboro, and the only other roads having a southerly direction, were rough dirt roads, difficult of passage, and after heavy rains, nearly or quite impassable by heavy wagons or artillery trains. The Rebels also held possession of the railroad from Tullahoma to Murfreesboro and McMinnsville. General Rosecrans 1 design was to compel his adversary to evacuate these positions by a movement on the left flank, while he demonstrated at the same time on the right. The movement was wisely planned, and was completely successful. Granger s small corps, and Sheridan s division of McCook s, moved to Salem and Middleton, and thus threatened Shelbyville directly, while Johnson s and Davis s divisions of the same corps, passed down the Wartrace road to Liberty gap, which, after a brief action, they captured and held. Meanwhile, Thomas s and Crittenden s corps were moving down on the left, having Manchester, Decherd, and Cowan, for their objectives. Thomas s corps moved on the Manchester road, directly to Hoover s gap, a strongly fortified pass, and .having beyond it a formidable defile two miles in length, known as Mott s Hollow, and after a gallant struggle, suc ceeded in driving the enemy out of both, and on the 27th of June pushed C30 THE CIVIL WAR IX THE UNITED STATES. on to Manchester. Most of Crittenden s corps, and part of McCook s, arrived at Manchester on the 28th and 29th of June, while General Rose crans had sent forward a cavalry and an infantry brigade to destroy the railroad bridge over the Elk river at Estill Spring, and tear up the rail road from Decherd to Cowan, to check and embarrass their retreat. They did not succeed in destroying the bridge, but broke up the railroad for a little distance. The Union cavalry on the right, supported by Granger s corps, had not only demonstrated against Shelby ville, but finding the opposition weaker than they expected, after a brief action, drove the enemy to and through that place, and captured a large supply of stores and ammunition, and several guns. On the 30th of June, General Rosecrans had completed his arrange ments for attacking Tullahoma in front and rear, and issued orders to as sault itr the next morning, but during the night Bragg evacuated it with his army. Occupying the place at once, Negley s and Rousseau s divisions of Thomas s corps were sent forward to harass the enemy, and engage them at Bethpage bridge. After a short Skirmish, the Rebels withdrew behind their intrenchments, south of Elk river. The Union troops were constantly in motion for the next two days, and gave the enemy no op portunity to d estroy the railroad, or to burn the bridges thoroughly. The/ at last succeeded in driving them from the railroad completely, and as they took to the broken country eastward toward University and Sweden s cove, where further pursuit was exceedingly difficult, they re luctantly abandoned it. During this whole period of nine days, the rain had been constant and drenching, and it continued for eight days longer. The effect on these barrens was to turn the roads into quick sands, and for several days the supply and ammunition trains were com pletely stalled in the mud. Bragg made his way, as best he could, with his defeated and dispirited troops, to Chattanooga, burning the bridges behind him, and commenced fortifying his position, and throwing up de fensive works along the Tennessee, at every ford above and below Chat tanooga, for fifty or sixty miles. The losses of the army of the Cumber land in this flanking movement, were eighty-five killed and wounded, and thirteen missing. The Rebel losses in killed and wounded have never been published, but the Union troops captured sixteen hundred and thirty- four prisoners, eight cannon, many hundred small arms, and large quan tities of quartermasters and commissary stores. General Rosecrans deemed it necessary, in order to facilitate the bring ing forward his supplies, and move his troops with rapidity, to repair thoroughly the railroad from Nashville and Murfreesboro to Stevenson, Alabama, the point of junction of the Nashville and Chattanooga with the Memphis and Charleston railroad, a place which, for the time, he could use to advantage as a secondary base. This point was thirty-seven TOPOGRAPHY OF THE REGION AROUND CHATTANOOGA. C31 miles W. SW. of Chattanooga. He also caused the Memphis and Charles ton railroad to be repaired as far as Bridgeport, where it crosses the Ten nessee river, and the Tracy city branch, by which he conveyed supplies to Crittenden s corps. Before proceeding farther with our narrative of the march of the army of the Cumberland toward Chattanooga, let us glance at the topographical character of the region upon which they had entered ; a region whose alternations of hill and valley were so peculiar, that without a description, the movements of the Union and Eebel forces would be absolutely in comprehensible. The Appalachian mountain system, of which the White mountains in New England, and the Alleghanies in the middle States, form portions, extends through East Tennessee into Alabama and Georgia, its western chain taking the general name of the Cumberland mountains^ while the eastern, which bears in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North and South Carolina, the name of the Blue Eidge, or the Smoky mountains, spreads in Georgia, into six or eight parallel ranges of varying height, but mostly with precipitous ascent. The Cumberland mountains consist of two ridges: the Cumberland mountains proper, and "Walden Eidge. The former, sloping gradually, though in broken bluffs, westward toward Middle Tennessee, presents on its southeastern face, a rapid and precipitous descent to the narrow Valley of the Sequatchie. This stream, for more than sixty miles, has riven a pas sage through the longitudinal axis of the mountain. "Walden Kidge, which stretches between the Sequatchie and the Tennessee, is a bold and high ridge, descending by lofty and precipitous banks to either river. It has in its whole extent of more than sixty miles, but two gaps through which a w agon-road can be made, viz: Dunlap s pass, extending to Poe s Tavern, and Thurman s pass, to a point opposite Chattanooga. Below the mouth of the Sequatchie, the hills and bluffs on the northern side of the Tennes see do not approach nearer than within two or three miles of the river ; but on the southern side, the ranges, which, as we have said, seem to belong rather to the Blue Eidge or Smoky mountain chain, abut, with their towering bluffs, directly on the river, leaving no space for the pas sage of road or railroad, except by cutting into the side of the bluff. The Sand mountain range, the westernmost of these, whose northern spur bears the name of Eaccoon mountain, hugs closely this left, or southern bank of the Tennessee, for a hundred miles. Separated from it by the valley of Lookout creek, the lofty Lookout mountain rears its head far above its fellows, and, in a clear day, the vista which spreads for a hun dred miles in all directions from this king of the Georgian mountains, is by turns sublime and beautiful. Its height is over three thousand feet, and a spur from its bold bluff drives the Tennessee northward for several miles, and compresses its waters into a narrow channel against the hills 632 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. on the northern shore ; while the main bluff .meet s the returning curve of the stream, and frowns with its dark shadows upon its rapid current. The Nashville and Chattanooga railroad has cut its way along the side of the steep bluffj through the hard rock, where, with difficulty, it has secured a roadway along the precipitous slope of the giant mountain. Eastward of Lookout, comes Mission Ridge, separated from it by the beautiful valley of Chattanooga creek. Less lofty than Lookout, its sides are also less pre cipitous, though at some points steep and frowning. Beyond, the West Chickamauga creek, or river, makes a somewhat wider valley, shut in at its southern extremity by mountains, and known to the inhabitants as McLamore s cove ; a complete cul-de-sac, accessible from the south, east, or west, only by mountain passes. The eastern wall of the cove is formed by Pigeon mountain, higher, and with more precipitous sides, than Mis sion Ridge. The Chattooga river, an affluent of the Coosa, and its valley, divides this from Taylor s Ridge, a rough, rocky range, with a single practicable gap, through which passes the turnpike from Lafayette to Rome. East of this, are a confused group of mountain spurs, known as Sand mountain, John s mountain, Pocket mountain, and Chattoogata, or Rocky -Faced Ridge ; the latter forming the western bank c>f the Oostan- aula river. The Nashville and Chattanooga, the Chattanooga and Knox- ville, or East Tennessee, and the Chattanooga and Atlanta railroads, curve in and out around the bluffs from these ridges, keeping as near as possible to the banks of the Tennessee, till the last but one has been passed, and then, suddenly striking southward, the Chattanooga and Atlanta road forces its way through the Chattoogata, or Rocky-Faced Ridge, by a diffi cult mountain pass, known as Buzzard Roost gap. "We have been thus minute in our description of the topography of this region, because the want of a thorough knowledge of it led to the undeserved censure of one of our best generals, and because, in all the movements which followed for a year, the features of the country greatly modified the action of both armies. With the fords and ferries of the Tennessee river guarded by Bragg s troops, and the mountain passes, which gave access to the valleys by which it was approached, all watched from the summit of Lookout, and firmly held, if there were indications that they were threatened, it was evident that the capture of Chattanooga by the Union troops, upon which Rosecrans had set his heart, would be a work of great difficulty ; yet without its possession, East Tennessee, which Burnside was now moving to secure, could not be held, and the patient and long-suftering loyalists of KnoxviWe, and the mountains and valleys of East Tennessee, must still submit to the cruelties and murders of the dominant Rebels. Chat tanooga, too, was the key to the possession of northern Alabama and Georgia, and through it lay the route to the further division of the Rebel Confederacy, already sundered by the opening of the Mississippi. MCTEMEXT OF THE ARMY TOWARD CHATTANOOGA. 633 Yet it was evident to the clear intellect of General Rosecrans, that a direct attack upon the stronghold would only result in a terrible slaugh ter of his troops, while the chance of success would be very problematical. He resolved to attempt to compel its evacuation, by a movement by the right flank, which should put Bragg s communications in peril. Such a movement was hardly less perilous than the direct attack, and success, while it would stamp its projector as one of the ablest generals of the time, was rather to be hoped for than expected. To accomplish his pur pose of seriously endangering Bragg s communications, it was necessary to cross the lofty Lookout mountain range, and there were but three passes, in a distance of sixty miles, where wagon trains and cannon could cross, and neither of these passes was in supporting distance of the other. It was desirable, too, to demonstrate directly against Chattanooga from the north bank of the Tennessee, and to make a feint of crossing the river at points above the city, in order to distract the attention of the enemy from the movements below. If he should succeed by this bold movement in compelling the evacuation of Chattanooga, it was not to be expected that Bragg would suffer the Union troops to enjoy, without a struggle, their possession of the stronghold ; and he might, especially if largely reinforced (as there were reports that he was .to be), fall upon one or another of the separated corps, and defeating them in detail, regain his coveted possession, after inflicting upon Rosec^ans the loss of his army. These were important considerations, and they were carefully weighed by the Union general, who, however, did not relinquish his determination to encounter the great risk, for the sake of the prize to be won. All necessary preparations having been made, Crittenden s corps was ordered to move in three columns ; Van Cleve s division to Pikeville, Palmer s to Dunlap, and Wood s to Thurman s, and uniting in the Se quatchie valley, to descend to Jasper, and thence to cross the river at the mouth of Battle creek and Shellmount. Three brigades of cavalry and one of infantry, were sent up the east side of the Sequatchie valley, to oross Walden Ridge to Poe s Tavern, and from Anderson, (opposite Thur man s,) to the Tennessee river opposite Chattanooga, and reconnoitre the northern bank of the Tennessee from Igo s ferry to Chattanooga. General Thomas s corps moved in two columns Reynolds s and Bran- nan s divisions, from University, by way of Battle creek, to take up a concealed position near its mouth ; while Negley and Baird, marching from Tantellon, near the Tunnel, took position along the railroad from Ander son to Stevenson. McCook s corps moved in three columns Johnson s division by Salem and Larkin s fort to Bellefont ; Davis s division by Mount Top to Crow creek, to halt near Stevenson ; and Sheridan s farther west to Maysville, and thence by the Memphis and Charleston railroad to Bellefont, to join Johnson. On the 20th of August, all these movements had been com- 634 THE CIVll WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. pleted; and on the 21st, Wagner s and Wilder s cavalry brigades of Crittenden s corps made a reconnoissance along the north bank of the Tennessee opposite Chattanooga, and shelled the city, to the great con sternation of the inhabitants and of Bragg s troops. The Union army having been brought safely to the Tennessee, General Eosecrans made preparations to cross a matter of considerable difficulty and hazard, as from their signal position on the top of Lookout mountain, the Kebels could observe all his movements, and keep their garrisons at the fords and ferries on the alert. The movement of the cavalry brigades at Chattanooga and above, had, however, so far deceived the enemy that they watched closely the upper Tenneseee, but paid no attention to what was passing below. General Eosecrans crossed his army at four points by a pontoon bridge at Caperton s ferry near Stevenson, by a pontoon and trestlework bridge at Bridgeport, by boats and rafts at Shellmount, and at Alley s ferry, at the mouth of Battle creek. The whole army was across by the 3d or 4th of September ; and having gained the southern side, Crittenden s corps marched to Wauhatchie, and their advance-guard passed over the point of Lookout mountain and threatened Chattanooga, while the main body kept up their communication temporarily with General Thomas s corps, which had at first taken up a position at Trenton, and sent an advance to secure Frick s, Cooper s, and Stevens s gaps in Lookout mountain, the only practicable passes into McLamore s cove. His corps soon after passed by these gaps into the cove, and occupied the head or southern portion of it. McCook s corps had moved down to Valley Head, except Sheridan s division, which was still at Trenton, but was under orders to follow the remainder of the corps to Valley Head or Alpine ; and on his arrival General McCook had directions to send a re- connoitering force to Broomtown and Summerville, in the Broomtown valley, between Pigeon mountain and Taylor s ridge. By this movement he would not only threaten Eome, but be able to ascertain where the Rebel force was concentrated, and what reinforcements were approaching it. The reconnoissance ordered, demonstrated that General Bragg had not retreated upon Eome (he had evacuated Chattanooga and gone south ward on the 8th of September), but was concentrating his forces upon Pigeon mountain, above Lafayette, where Johnson and probably Buckner had already joined him, and that Longstreet s corps, from the army of Virginia, had reached Atlanta about the 1st of September, and were march ing forward with all haste to reinforce him still further. These reinforce ments would make Bragg s force about double that of Eosecrans, and he was now between McCook s corps and the other three corps of the Union army, though, being on the other side of Pigeon mountain, he could not yet take advantage of his position. Crittenden s advance had, meantime, entered Chattanooga on the evening of the. 9th of September, and the remainder of the corps, with its trains, passed around the nose of Lookout V yy ry $Jv DUNLAP%)* NJJELPHI // smo\ p. 4 ^\|U,\^JASPER, PREPARATIONS FOR THE IMPENDING BATTLE. 635 mountain on the 10th, and camped for the night at Rossville. General Thomas had crossed Lookout mountain with his corps, and taken position in McLamore s cove, and was busily engaged in reconnoitering Bragg s position. Crittenden, leaving but one brigade in Chattanooga, was ordered to push on vigorously to Einggold and Dalton, and send a reconnoissance to Gordon s mills and open communication with General Thomas. Two of Thomas s divisions, Negley s and Baird s, had passed through Frick s gap to Pond Spring, and beyond, on the Lafayette road, and there found the enemy in large force. After a short skirmish they fell back into and through Frick s gap, to protect their trains. General Halleck had tele graphed General Rosecrans that Bragg was to be reinforced by Buckner, Johnson, and Longstreet, and it now appeared that they were all near at hand, or had already formed a junction with him, and that his with drawal from Chattanooga had only been made with the intent to secure a better position for fighting the battle which should again give him pos session of that stronghold. General Rosecrans found that the most prompt action was necessary to bring his army together in season to confront his enemy, whose force under the best circumstances would be double his own. His energy was equal to the emergency. Crittenden was ordered up to form a closer connection with Thomas, and McCook was directed to make a forced march by the shortest practicable route to McLamore s cove, lest Bragg s forces should be thrust between him and the remainder of the Union army. McCook was fifty-seven miles south of Thomas s camp, by the nearest road practicable for wagons that from Alpine through Doherty s gap into McLamore s cove but of the existence or good condition of this road he was not informed ; and having sent his train under sufficient escort into Lookout valley, he marched back through Valley Head on the night of the 13th of September, and thence up Look out valley to Stevens s gap, which he crossed into McLamore s cove, arriving on the 17th, and taking position on the right of General Thomas. The delay of nearly two days consequent upon this mistake in regard to the roads, had afforded opportunity for Longstreet to come up within supporting distance of Bragg s army, Aid had so far hindered General Rosecrans arrangements for the battle that he was unable to secure the best position for a defensive conflict, such as under the circumstances he must fight. On \e night of th e 18th, and the early morning of the 19th of September, tne final preparations for the impending battle were made. The small corps of Gordon Granger were stationed as reserves at the extreme left, near Rossville, with orders to guard the two roads leading to Chattanooga, which it was the evident aim of the Rebels to seize. About three miles further south commenced the actual line of battle, Brannan s division of Thomas s corps occupying the exlreme left ; next in order was Baird s division of the same corps ; then Johnson s division of McCook s corps, which had been sent to support this part of Thomas s 636 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. line ; next to Johnson, came Palmer s division of Crittenden s corps; and joining Palmer, Yan Cleve s division of the same corps ; then came Rey nolds division of Thomas s corps, and Wood s division of Crittenden s corps, which covered the Gordon s mills ford ; while Wilder s cavalry brigade guarded the right wing. Four miles below, at Crawfish springs, Negley s division of Thomas s corps was engaged in observing Owen s ford, over the Chickamauga, while a Rebel division on the opposite side of the Chickamauga was endeavoring to cross, to get at the right flank of the Union arrny. In reserve, west of Gordon s mills, were Davis s and Sheridan s divisions of McCook s corps; and immediately behind them, at the widow Glenn s house, were General Rosecrans s headquarters. The battle commenced about ten A.M. of the 19th, two brigades of Braunan s division, on the extreme left, reconnoitering and attacking the Rebel force which was endeavoring to force a passage by way of the Lafayette road toward Chattanooga. These two brigades attacked so vigorously as to drive the Rebels back nearly half a mile, when a very strong column advanced to their support. This column, which General Rosecrans believed to have been composed of part of Longstreet s corps, fell in heavy mass upon the Union left, and forced back the remainder of Brannan s division, and threw Baird s division, which came up to its support, into disorder. Johnson s fine division of McCook s corps now came up, and striking the Rebel column in flank with great fury, drove it back more than half a mile, until the superior numbers of the enemy enabled them to overlap his right, which was in danger of being turned, when Palmer, coming in on his right, which was, in the ardor of pursuit, considerably advanced beyond the main army, threw his division with such force against the Rebels as again to drive back their advancing columns. But the immense numbers of the Rebels which now swarmed up, showed their great superiority in troops to the Union army ; con stantly extending toward the right, they overlapped Palmer s flank, and when Van Cleve s division came up, overlapped that also, and forced it back, as they did Reynolds, who came to his assistance. Davis s division now advanced most opportunely and drove the enemy back, but under the immense pressure of fresh Rebel troops, he too was gradually being pressed back, when Wood s division came up, and again turned the tide of battle the other way. At three P.M., General Rosecrans finding his line hardly pressed, ordered up Sheridan s division, one of the finest in the army, and which till then had been in reserve, to support Wood and Davis. It came up on the double-quick, and drove the Rebels back with such slaughter that they did not again attempt to advance on the right. Meanwhile, the centre (Van Cleve s and Reynolds divisions) was being driven, and the battle was approaching General Rosecrans headquarters. Anticipating this, the general had ordered General Negley s division to move up from Crawford Springs toward the headquarters, and at half- ^^o ! /<> / l 7 - * -^* -rM*" / C.V^A \* THE SECOND DAY S BATTLE AT CHATTANOOGA. C37 past four he reported with his division, and was sent to support Yan Cleve, whom the Rebels had succeeded in dislodging from his position, and attacking the enemy with great vigor, he forced them steadily back, till nightfall. General Bran nan had also been sent by General Thomas, at General Rosecrans request, to support General Reynolds. The result of the day s fighting was indecisive ; both sides had taken prisoners; each in turn had driven the other and been driven themselves; the Union forces had found themselves at all points confronted by greatly superior numbers, and these not raw recruits, but veteran warriors ; but the preponderance of success, if there was any, was in their favor ; the enemy had been forced back from all the ground they had gained, and in the evening were farther east than in the morning. Every brigade but two, aside from Granger s reserves, had been in the fight, and all had acted well. The morrow, however, it was foreseen, must bring still severer fighting, and a more desperate struggle for the possession of the prize for which both were contending. A council was held in the evening, and a new order of battle decided upon for the following day, which was announced to the division and brigade commanders at one o clock in the morning. General Rosecrans, by this new disposition of his troops, had shortened his line more than a mile. His troops, instead of being posted, as they were the day before, on the line of the Lafayette road, were stationed on a road leading in a southwest direction from the Lafayette to the Rossville road, the left wing overlapping the Lafayette road, the extremity of the right wing refused, and covering the position at widow Glenn s house, and resting in a strong position on Mission Ridge, the gap in which was covered by the army. Davis s and Yan Cleve s divisions were wholly, and Brannan s par tially, in reserve. General Rosecrans headquarters were on the Rossville road, in an elevated position, near the gap. He had abandoned the position at Gordon s mills, but the pass through Mission Ridge, and the road from Lafayette to Chattanooga, were all- important, and must be held at all hazards, and while his numbers were so much inferior to those of the enemy, the effectual holding of these would occupy his entire force. The new position was thus much stronger than the one of the previous day, and but for the misfortune which subsequently occurred, the enemy, in spite of their superior numbers, would undoubtedly have been badly defeated. The battle of the 20th commenced at half-past eight A. M., the effort of the enemy being, as on the previous day, to turn the left flank of the Union army, and then gain access to the Lafayette and Chattanooga road. Thomas, who was in command at the left, was hard pressed from the start, and General Rosecrans directed him to hold on, assuring him that he should be reinforced if necessary, by the entire army. One of Negley s brigades, which was on the right, was first ordered up to join the other 638 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. brigades of his division at the left, but for some cause, there was delay and hesitation in obeying the order, which produced some trouble. The two reserve divisions, Van Cleve s and Davis s, were next sent to Thomas s support, and took position near Wood s division. Still, though fighting with great desperation, the Kebels invariably attacking, and being as in variably repulsed, the battle went on without any serious advantage to either side, till about one o clock P. M. The loss of the enemy had, up to this time, been greatly heavier than that of the Union troops, the latter being at some points protected by slight breastworks, and at others, lying down and loading, and only rising to deliver their fire when the Kebels came up. Brannan s division, which at first had been in reserve, had been brought into action, and its commander had formed it en echelon, to enable it the better to resist the Eebel attacks. To a superficial observer, riding along the lines, this formation gave the division the appearance of being partly out of line, and one of General Thomas s aids so reported it to General Rosecrans. Supposing this to be the fact, General Kosecrans ordered Wood to close up on Keynolds, and Davis on Wood, while the remainder of McCook s corps were held in readiness to go to the support of the left. Unfortunately, though naturally enough, General Wood un derstood this order to mean that he should march past Brannan s division, to close up on Keynolds, and in the attempt to do this, he left a gap in the line of battle, into which the Kebels instantly worked, striking Davis in flank and rear, as well as in front, and throwing his whole division into disorder". -The same attack shattered the right brigade of Wood s division, before it had passed beyond the surging tide. The right of Brannan s division was thrown back, and two of his batteries, then moving toward a new position, were taken in flank, and driven through two brigades of Yan Cleve s division, which was at the time moving toward the left, and that division was thrown into complete confusion, from which it never recovered till it reached Kossville. While the enemy poured in through this breach, a long line of Kebels, stretching beyond Sheridan s right, was advancing ; Laibold s brigade (of Sheridan s division) shared the fate of Davis. The other two brigades of that division, at that time moving toward the left, under orders to support General Thomas, made, under their gallant leader, a fierce charge against the enemy s advancing column but were thrown into disorder, by the attack of his line upon their flank^ and were compelled to fall back. They rallied again on the Dry valley road, and repulsed the enemy, but were again compelled to yield to over powering numbers, and retired westward of the Dry valley, and by a circuitous route reached Kossville, from whence they advanced by the Lafayette road to support the left, reaching General Thomas s lines about midnight. Seven brigades, or about one fourth of the entire Union force, were thus swept away by this misfortune, and though the loss in killed and wounded was not very heavy, and that in prisoners less so than PROGRESS OF THE BATTLE AT CHATTANOOGA. 639 would have been expected, they were effectually cut off from rendering any further aid to the remainder of the troops during that day. Among those thus swept away, were, without fault of their own, and greatly to their chagrin, Major- Generals Rosecrans, McCook, and Crittenden. Each made, decided and repeated efforts to rejoin the main body but in vain, and at last fell back toward Rossville, whence General Rosecrans sent his chief of staff, General Garfield, to ascertain how General Thomas was succeeding in holding at bay the greatly superior force of the* enemy, and himself, with Generals McCook and Crittenden, went on to Chatta nooga, to secure the trains and put the city in a state of defence, if, as lie feared, the army should be driven to retreat thither. The Rebels, after pursuing the seven routed brigades for a mile or more into Dry valley, returned to drive General Thomas from the main road, of which they must avail themselves if they would recapture Chatta nooga. Thomas s position was still a strong one, and the rough and temporary breastworks thrown up in front of Reynolds and Palmer s divisions, greatly increased its strength. From these breastworks, as the Rebels returned to the charge, they were swept down in great numbers by the grape and canister poured upon them incessantly by the Union batteries. Through the efforts and bravery of Yandeveer s brigade, of Brannan s division, they were driven back, and Baird and Johnson, with one brigade of Palmer s division, restored the line. From two o clock till sunset; a fierce battle raged along the Union lines. General Thomas, though confronted by a force numbering at least five to his two, stood grim and defiant, resisting the repeated assaults upon his lines with a vigilance and persistency never surpassed. The enemy at last pressed so strongly on his whole line , that he fell back further into the jaws of the gap, and setting his back against the mountains, the "Rock of Chicka- mauga," as he has been appropriately named, held the foe at bay for hours. At length, near sunset, an overwhelming force of the enemy suc ceeded in passing around the left, through a low gap in the ridge, and would in a few minutes more have reached the flank of Brannan s position, and turning it, perhaps have routed the greatly wearied Union troops. At this critical moment, two brigades of Steedman s division, from Granger s reserves, led by General Steed man in person, rushed upon the advancing column of the enemy in a headlong charge. The shook was terrible ; and for a time, as the conflicting foes met in hand-to-hand fight, success swayed from side to side ; a few minutes more, and the enemy rolled back, repulsed with such slaughter that they dared not make the attempt again. A thousand of Steedman s brave troops fell, killed or wounded, in that brief half hour s struggle ; but the Union troops held the gap. Again, however, did Longstreet s corps assay to force a passage through the main gap, by breaking the lines of Thomas s force in the centre. Two large divisions from that corps, determined npon capturing 640 THE CIVIL "VTAR IX THE UNITED STATES. it came up to the assault, and charged to within a few yards of the Union battery of six pieces, which had been planted in the very throat of the gorge. They came too far to return. The grape and canister of the battery, delivered at such short range, mowed them down like grain before the reaper s sickle. The survivors fell back, but after sunset rushed forward once more, when the Union troops, having exhausted their ammunition, rushed on them with the bayonet, and after a contest of extraordinary severity, in which more bayonet wounds were given and received than in any battle of modern times, they gave way, and did not again return. In a final movement of a similar character on the right, the Union troops captured over five hundred Kebel prisoners. The enemy now fell back, leaving the field of battle in the possession of General Thomas ; but finding that the ammunition, food, and water neces sary for his men were exhausted, the general withdrew with his troops about midnight to Rpssville, where they arrived in good order, and took post toward morning, and offered the enemy battle during the whole of the next day, repulsing his reconnoissance. On the night of the 21st, he withdrew from Rossville to Chattanooga, which was now in such a state of defence as not to fear the assaults of the enemy. Major-General George H. Thomas, whose resolution and unflinching tenacity of purpose thus saved the Union army from defeat, and saved the day when all seemed lost, is a native of Virginia, born July 31, 1816, in Southampton county, of wealthy and respectable parents, of "Welsh and Huguenot stock. He commenced the study of law, but at the ige of twenty, through the influence of family friends, received an appointment as cadet in the Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1840, twelfth in a class of forty-five, and was appointed second lieutenant in the third artillery. After serving eighteen months in the Florida war, he was ordered to the New Orleans barracks, in January, 1842, and in June of the same year, to Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor. In Decem. ber 1843, he was transferred to Fort McHehry, Baltimore, and May 17th, 1843, promoted to a first lieutenantcy. In the spring of 1844, he was again ordered to Fort Moultrie. He was ordered to Corpus Christ i, Texas, in July, 1845, and was one of the garrison of Fort Brown when it was besieged by the Mexicans. He subsequently took part in the battle of Monterey, and for his gallantry there, was breveted captain ; aud in the battle of Buena Yista, for which he received the brevet of major. In August, 1848, he returned to Texas, and was, for six months, in charge of a commissary depot at Brazos Santiago. In June, 1849, he rejoined his company at Fort Adams, Newport, E. I., and in July was put in com mand of company C, and sent to Florida. There he remained till Decem ber, 1850, and for the next few months was in command at Fort Indepen dence, Boston harbor, whence he was assigned to duty in March, 1851, at West Point, as instructor of artillery and cavalry. In December, 1853, SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL THOMAS. 641 he was promoted to a full captaincy. In 1854 be was assigned to duty at Fort Yuma, California, and in 1855, was appointed junior major of the second cavalry. After a residence of about six months at Jefterson bar racks, Mo., Major Thomas was ordered to Texas, where he was on duty from May, 1856, to November, I860, and three years of the time, in com mand of his regiment. He made extensive explorations of the country on the headwaters of the Canadian and Red rivers, and had several sharp brushes with the Indians. After a short leave of absence, the second in more than twenty years, he was ordered, in April 1861, to Carlisle bar racks, Pa., to remount his regiment, the second cavalry, which had been dismounted and ordered out of Texas by the traitor Twiggs. On the 25th of April, he was promoted to a lieutenant-colonelcy, and on the 5tb of May, appointed colonel of the fifth U. S. cavalry. In the same month, he was assigned to the command of a brigade in General Patterson s army, and after that general was mustered out, served in the same capacity under General Banks. On the 17th of August, 1861, he was appointed a brigadier-general of volunteers, and on the 26th of the same month, or dered to report to Brigadier-General Robert Anderson, commanding the Department of the Cumberland. On his arrival at Louisville, September 6th, he was assigned to the command of camp Dick Robinson, in southern Kentucky, and at once commenced organizing his troops, and soon estab lished camp Wild Cat, thirty miles SE., where, on the 26th of October, the battle of Wild Cat was fought by General Schcepf. He then made preparations to advance into East Tennessee, but General Buell, who was now in command, ordered him to Lebanon, Ky., to prepare for an active campaign. Early in January, he fought the battle of Mill Spring, in which the Rebels were defeated, and Zollicofier killed. This was the first of a series of successes in that region, which greatly encouraged the Unionists. After this battle, he again prepared to enter East Tennessee, but was again recalled to Lebanon, Ky., by General Buell, and ordered to inarch thence with all speed to Munfordsville, where Buell was then concentrating his forces for an attack on Bowling Green. Before he could reach there, however, he was met by another order to go on to Louisville, and take steamers to move his division to Nashville, which, after the fall of Fort Donelson, had fallen into the hands of the Union army. On his arrival at Nashville, his division was constituted, by General Buell, the reserve of the army of the Cumberland, and did not reach Pittsburg Landing until three days after the battle of Shiloh. On the 25th of April, 1862, he was appointed and confirmed major-general of volunteers, and on the first of May, his division was transferred, by General Halleck, to the army of the Tennessee ; but, forty days later, he was retransferred to the army of the Ohio, and ordered to concentrate his command at Decherd, Tenn. He took part in the campaign which followed in the pursuit of Bragg, and was second in command in the army of the Ohio, both before and after the 41 642 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. battle of Perryville. He was offered the command of the army of the Ohio, by the Government, when Buell reached Louisville, but declined. When General Kosecrans took command of the army of the Cumberland, (the new name given to the army of the Ohio) General Thomas was placed in command of the centre, (the fourteenth army corps,) consisting then of five divisions. He took part in the battle of Stone river, and it was his corps which stopped the victorious progress of Bragg s army, which had crushed and driven back Kosecrans right wing; and his troops also, which visited with such terrible punishment, Breckinridge s audacious assault upon the left wing. We have seen how, against fearful odds, he maintained his position at Chickamauga, and we shall have occa sion to see hereafter how, in command of the army of the Cumberland, his troops scaled the heights of Mission Ridge, and drove Bragg, utterly dis comfited, over its farther slope, and across the mountains beyond ; how, at Dalton and Resaca, at Kingston and New Hope church, at Kenesaw mountain, at Peach Tree creek and Decatur, and at Jonesboro, he was the sheet-anchor of Sherman s army; and above all how, at Nashville, he crushed and crumpled Hood s army, and finally drove it, a demoralized mob, in a flight of thirteen weary days of midwinter, across the Tennes see. General Thomas did not command in person in any action subsequent to the 16th of December, 1864; but his fine and admirably disciplined and equipped army was sent, at the call of the Government, to Wilming ton, to Salisbury, and to central Alabama and Georgia, until the war was ended. Since the close of the war, he has commanded the military divi sion of the Tennessee, embracing the Departments of the Tennessee, Ken tucky, Georgia, and Alabama, with his headquarters at Nashville. After the battle of Chickamauga, he was promoted, October 27th, 1863, to the command of the army of the Cumberland, and at the same time made a brigadier-general in the regular army ; and in December, 1864, after the battle of Nashville, he was promoted to be a major-general in the regular army. The losses of the Union army in the battle of Chickamauga, were, killed, one thousand six hundred and forty-four ; wounded, nine thousand two hundred and sixty-two ; missing, four thousand nine hundred and forty-five; and in addition to this, a loss in the cavalry of about one thou sand, making in all sixteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-one. They also lost thirty-six guns, twenty caissons, eight thousand four hundred and fifty small arms and five thousand eight hundred and thirty -four infantry accoutrements. The Rebel loss, in killed and wounded, was stated by General Bragg, as killed, two thousand two hundred and ninety-nine; wounded, fifteen thousand two hundred and eighty ; making an aggregate of seventeen thousand five hundred and seventy-nine; including four general officers killed, four severely and four slightly wounded. Besides PERILOUS CONDITION OF THE FEDERAL ARMY. C43 these, they lost two thousand and three prisoners, taken by the Union army. After the battle, Generals McCook and Crittenden, the corps comman ders who came into Chattanooga, were relieved of their commands, and their respective corps, the twentieth and twenty- first, consolidated into the fourth, and put under the command of General Gordon Granger. The conduct of these two generals was subsequently examined before a court of inquiry at Cincinnati, and they were acquitted of any intentional mis conduct. General Crittenden subsequently resigned; General McCook was ordered to duty in the Trans-Mississippi department, but neither general participated in any subsequent important action. Chattanooga was too strong to be captured by General Bragg by as sault, but for three months after the battle, there was a lack of supplies. In order to secure the Union position in the city itself, General Rose- crans considered it necessary to relinquish theoutpgstof Wauhatchie, near the point where the Nashville railroad passes the brow of Lookout moun tain, and the enemy at once occupying this point, cut off communication both by river and railroad between General Rosecrans army and its base, and compelled him to bring all his supplies by wagon trains, across the mountain, and down the Sequatchie valley, a distance of sixty miles, over the worst roads to be found. The Rebels had captured also a part of one of the trains belonging to the army, and thus still further reduced their supplies. In October it was found necessary to put the men upon half rations, and one third rations were talked of, while the animals were dying daily by scores, from the insufficiency of forage. On the 27th of October, General Rosecrans was relieved of his command, and General Thomas succeeded him, while General Grant was appointed commander of the grand military division of the Mississippi, and made his headquarters at Chattanooga, to which point were now rapidly concentrating troops from all quarters, the army of the Tennessee, from Vicksburg, under General Sherman, .two corps from the army of the Potomac, under General Hooker, and such other troops from other parts of the west as could be spared. General Burnside had, as we have said, captured Cumberland gap, and occupied Knoxville, and East Tennessee was again under the Union flag, and its long tried inhabitants peaceful and happy. 644 TIIE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER MIL SKETCH OF GENERAL GRANT HE IS APPOINTED TO TIIE COMMAND OF TIIE MILITARY DIVISION OF TIIE MISSISSIPPI, AND ARRIVES AT CHATTANOOGA THE CAPTURE OF BrtOWN s FERRY MOVEMENTS OF HOOKER S COMMAND BATTLE OF WAUHATCHIE TIIE RESULTS GAINED ATTEMPTS OF THE REBELS TO BREAK GRANT S COMMUNICATIONS BRAGG SENDS LONG- BTPEKT S CORPS TO BESIEGE KNOXVILLE GENERAL GRANT S INSTRUCTIONS TO GENERAL BURNSIDE FIGHTING AND RETREATING LONOSTREET ARRIVES BEFORE KNOXVILLE AND INVESTS IT TOPOGRAPHY OF THE CHATTANOOGA VALLEY AND ITS SURROUNDINGS BRAGO fl MESSAGE GRANT S PLAN FOR THE DEFEAT OF HIS ARMY THE CAPTURE OF THE REBEL BATTERIES ON BALD KNOBS SHERMAN S MOVEMENTS THE PONTOON BRIDGES THE BASTION TAKEN HOOKER S ATTACK ON THE REBEL LEFT WING ON LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN THE SUR PRISE THE " BATTLE ABOVE THE CLOUDS* THE FIGHTING ON THE EAST SIDE OF LOOKOUT EVACUATION OF THEIR POSITIONS BY THE REBELS HOOKER FOLLOWS THEM TO MISSION RIDGE SHERMAN S PERSISTENT AND REPEATED ATTACKS UPON FORT BUCKNER REPULSE OF HIS ATTACKING COLUMNS THEIR OBJECT GAINED, IN DRAWING THE REBEL TROOPS FROM FORT BRAGG THE ASSAULT ON TIIE CENTRE BY TIIE FOURTH CORPS DIFFICULTIES OF THE ATTACK CAPTURE OF THE CREST AND FORT BRAGG FLIGHT OF TIIE ENEMY PUR SUIT TO RINGGOLD FIGHT AT RINGGOLD GAP SHERMAN MARCHES TO KNOXVILLE AND RAISES THE SIEGE BATTLE OF BEAN S STATION RESULTS OF THE CHATTANOOGA CAMPAIGN GENERAL GRANT S CONGRATULATORY ORDER GENERAL UALLECK s ESTIMATE OF TUB CAMPAIGN. IN one of the earlier chapters of the present work, we have given some account of the western general who, from this time forward, was to attract the attention of the nation, and of intelligent observers of other nations, as the master mind of the Republic in its great struggle against slavery and despotism ; but as that sketch brought him no farther than to the demand of an "unconditional surrender" at Fort Donelson, it may be well to trace his subsequent career during the war. We havl spoken of him as the master mind of the Republic, not for the brilliancy of his genius, the profundity of his learning, or the rapidity of his action, but because no character of our national history, with the possible exception of Washington, has ever manifested more thoroughly than he that thorough equipoise of the mental and moral faculties, which is the finest attribute of a truly great soul. In some particulars, others surpass him ; but none equal him in that admirable balance, never disturbed, never requiring adjustment. To none other of our officers can be attributed that patient persistence which never gives up its object; and though a dozen or, a hundred efforts for its accomplishment have proved unavailing, is ready at once with another, and if need be others still, till the desired end is attained. He knows no such word as fail The rare unselfishness and reticence of his disposition are also important and excellent traits in his character, and add to its attractiveness. The campaign which began with Forts Henry and Donelson, had its culmination at Shiloh. Nashville SKETCH OF LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. 645 captured, the Tennessee ascended, Johnston driven from Middle Tennessee into Mississippi, there were but few of the generals of that period who would not have regarded the period as an auspicious one to rest awhile upon the laurels already gathered. Not so Grant. As rapidly as possible were the regiments organized or disciplined, and sent to the new camp, far up the Tennessee, within twenty miles of the formidable position held by Johnston. They were new recruits, many of them never under fire ; nay, hardly knowing the use of the musket ; but there was the material for making good troops in them. We will not go over that two days struggle at Shiloh, the attack, the capture of a portion of the Union troops, and the forcing back of others, the apparent defeat, the sudden rallying and return to the battle, the hard fighting and decisive victory of the second day ; but this much we may say, that while Ulysses S. Grant was ably seconded by some of his lieutenants, and notably by General Sherman, the repulse of the enemy on the evening of the first day, and that stern fighting, which on the second day would have cauL3ed the defeat of the enemy, even without Buell s reinforcements, was due to General Grant alone. Persistent then as ever, he would not accept defeat, but struggled on resolutely, till he had plucked victory out of seeming repulse. After the battle of Corinth, in October, 1862, his persistency led again to a pursuit of the enemy so unrelenting and successful that it formed a new epoch in the history of the war. In that long campaign before Vicksburg, when one plan after another failed of success, and one resource after another proved futile, he exhibited the versatility of his genius and his fertility in resources, in being ready with one plan so soon as another had failed, and at last in the route he took for accomplishing his purpose, in the daring which prompted him to cut loose from his base, and plunging into the heart of the enemy s country with the knowledge that two hostile armies, fighting oil their own soil, were ready to meet him, and believed themselves able to destroy his army, and the consummate skill and general ship with which he thwarted all their plans, and defeated their forces, he gave the most decisive proof of his abilities as a military chief. The siege of the city, the various devices for rendering it untenable, the self- possession and generosity manifested at its surrender, and the swift pur suit of Johnston and the other Eebel leaders in the vicinity, fully warranted the high encomiums of the general-in -chief. After the fall of Vicksburg, while on a visit to New Orleans, he was severely injured, but on his recovery was promoted by the Government, as we have seen, to the command of the grand military division of the Mississippi, embracing all the armies of the Mississippi valley, except the departments west of the great river. The appointment was wisely and worthily conferred, as we shall see in the present chapter. With great strategic skill, he managed to wrest from Bragg s hands the territory and the power for which he had been fighting so desperately fcr two and a half years, planted himself 646 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. firmly at Chattanooga, and redeemed Tennessee once for all from, the domination of the Rebels. Called to a still higher command, that of the entire armies of the nation, with the rank of lieutenant-general, we shall endeavor to show how resolutely, grandly, and persistently he undertook the work of finishing the Rebellion ; how, while his lieutenants in far distant fields were under his orders winning fame and achieving victories, he had set to himself the hardest task of all, and adhering to it with a tenacity which has no parallel in history, finally exhausted his adversary, and by compelling the overthrow of his citadels and the capitulation of his army, dealt its death-blow to a war which, in the vastness of its armies and its expenditure, the fierceness of the fighting, and the resolution and persistence of its combatants, has not been equalled in the history of the race. On reaching Chattanooga, on the 23d of October, General Grant found matters assuming a gloomy aspect. It was simply impossible to procure adequate supplies for a large army by hauling them sixty miles overthe horrible roads across the Cumberland and Walden ridges roads in which six miles a day was a greater distance than could be accomplished by a six-mule team, and that with a load of not over five hundred pounds. This state of things must be remedied at once. The plan adopted for this purpose by General Grant evinced alike his ability and his practical good sense. The Tennessee, like most of the western rivers, is very crooked ; just below Chattanooga it makes two bends, one eight miles in circuit, and only one and a half miles across; the other, thirty miles in circuit, and but four or five miles across. If he could obtain possession of these two peninsulas, the wagon transportation could be reduced to ten miles, supplies being transmitted by railroad and river to Shellmount and Kelly s ferry. To accomplish this, he issued orders, on the 26th of October, to Hooker s command (eleventh and twelfth army corps), which had already reached Bridgeport, to move forward from that place through Shellmount to Lookout valley, and thence to Brown s ferry ; and while they were obeying this order, a force of fourteen hundred men from the army of the Cumberland, under the command of General Hazen, were detailed to descend the river, in fifty-six pontoon boats, to Brown s ferry, six miles below the peninsula, carrying with them the materials for build ing a bridge across the Tennessee. The movement was successfully accomplished, though for three miles of the distance the river was guarded by Rebel pickets, yet the night being dark, they succeeded in passing them without alarm, and on their arrival at Brown s ferry, were rein forced by other troops, who had come by land from Chattanooga, and by noon of the next day they had a strong and substantial bridge erected and protected by a tete-du-pont. From this ferry a good road extended to Kelly s ferry, five or six miles distant, and loaded wagons could come from that point to Chattanooga in half a day, if the wagon-road could be THE BATTLE OF WAUHATCHIE. 647 protected from the enemy. To effect this was the purpose of the move ment of Hooker s troops. They had marched promptly on receiving the order from General Grant, reached Shellmount the same evening, and advanced to Lookout valley the next morning, encountering some oppo sition during the day from the enemy, who shelled them from Lookout mountain, -but without much effect. On the night of the 27th, they en camped in Lookout valley, and Geary s division, of the twelfth corps, which had pitched their camp at a distance of about one and a half miles from the remainder of the force, on the road to Wauhatchie, was attacked about two o clock, on the morning of the 28th, by Longstreet, who hoped to surprise them and capture their train. General Geary, however, held his ground firmly, and other divisions coming to his assistance, Longstreet s forces were defeated with severe loss. Meanwhile, the eleventh corps captured and held the Rebel works on Moccasin Point, a spur of Raccoon mountain, which extends across the broader portion of the larger of the two peninsulas formed by the bends of the Tennessee. This position not only commanded the Kelly s ferry road, but the passage from Lookout valley around the northern slope or brow of Lookout mountain, through which the railroad passes, and which was the only route by which the Rebel troops, stationed in the Lookout valley, or on the western slope of the mountain, could communicate with the remainder of Bragg s army, except by the long and difficult road by way of Trenton and Frick s gap, a distance of thirty miles or more. By this movement, then, Bragg s left wing was cut off from his main army, and the Union army secured free communication with their secondary basis, Stevenson and Bridgeport. Steamers commenced plying immediately between these points and Kelly s ferry, occasionally extending their trips to Chattanooga. General Grant availed himself of this reopening of his communications, to urge forward, with all possible despatch, supplies from Nashville and Louisville, and guarded the long line from Louisville to Chattanooga with great care. On the 7th of October, Wheeler, the Rebel cavalry general, who had attempted to cut the railroad line between Nashville and Stevenson, had been terribly punished by General Crook, losing nearly two thousand of his men ; and on the 3d of November, a small guerrilla force, under Cooper, which had attempted a similar feat, had been defeated with very severe loss by Major Fitzgibbon, at Law- renceburg. General Sherman, in command of the army of the Tennessee, had essayed to come by way of the Memphis and Charleston railroad, rebuild ing it as he moved, but finding that he would be subjected to constant delays, he crossed the Tennessee, and marched by the north bank to Stevenson, and about the middle of November the head of his column reached Chattanoog a, though the entire army did not arrive there till about the 22d of the month. 048 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. During the next three or four weeks, the two opposing commander? watched each other narrowly ; Grant was not disposed to move till his old command, the army of the Tennessee, then on its way, should arrive, and he could accumulate supplies sufficient to make a campaign prudent; and Bragg, though having a sufficient force, shrunk from attempting to assault Chattanooga, knowing that its great strength would render an assault perilous and probably unsucceseful. About the 12th of November, General Bragg made the egregious blun der of sending Longstreet with twenty thousand men, more than one fourth of his entire effective force, to attempt the recapture of East Tennessee. General Grant was immediately informed of this, and saw in it an opportunity to defeat both Bragg and Longstreet. He therefore instructed General Burnside, who was then in command in East Tennes see, to lure Longstreet on, fighting moderately at each successive outpost, resisting with just sufficient strenuousness to secure Longstreet s advance, though delaying that advance as far as he could, and at last, falling back on Knoxville, to hold the Kebel general there for a protracted siege, when the army at Chattanooga would break his communications with Bragg, defeat that general, and then send a force to Knoxville sufficient to compel Longstreet to raise the siege. General Burnside performed his part of the plan with admirable skill, paying no heed to the denunciations of the newspapers, at what they called his ignominious retreat. On the 14th of November, when Longstreet attempted to cross the Little Tennes see, Burnside resisted him, and drove back his advance about a mile. He then retreated to Marysville, and the Kebels followed. After a slight skirmish, Burnside again fell back to Lenoir station, where he made a stand, as if intending to hold the place, and repulsed three attacks of the Kebels on the 15th of November. The next morning, he withdrew to Campbell s station, and there fought them from noon until evening, push ing his trains meanwhile into Knoxville, and ordering all hands to labor on the defences of the city. After the battle at Campbell s station, Burn- side again fell back, and after one more battle, retired in good order within the fortifications of Knoxville, which had by this time made considerable progress. On the 18th of November, Longstreet commenced the investment of the city, and Burnside immediately advised General Grant of the fact, who thereupon proceeded to execute his own portion of the programme. To understand fully what this was, we must describe, in a few words, the topography of the region in the immediate vicinity of Chattanooga. In front of the town, looking southward, stretches a considerable plain known as the Chattanooga valley, broken, however by two bluffs or hills, called the Bald Knobs, or collectively as Orchard Knob. On the right, the steep and frowning cliffs, half palisade, of Lookout mountain, towered up above the clouds, with Rebel batteries high up on the western slope, FYNENRS * > \\ CHICKAMAUGA 1 - I BRAGG S MESSAGE TO GENERAL GRANT. 649 and barricades and rifle-pits at Summertown, while on the summit, in a clear day, two sixty-four pounders could be discerned. On Bald Knobs, were stationed two batteries of considerable strength, connected with Lookout mountain on the west and Mission Ridge on the east by a line of rifle-pits. Just east of Chattanooga the Tennessee river, which, at the city, flows from east to west, turns northward, and leaves a considerable open valley, beyond the northern termination of Mission Kidge, through which -the railroads to Knoxville and Atlanta pass. The ridge proper terminates at Tunnel hill, but an isolated knob, or hill, separated by a deep valley from Tunnel hill, forms a continuation of it toward the mouth of the West Chickamauga river. Over this isolated hill, the Rebels had erected a bastion of no great strength ; but on the brow of Tunnel hill, was Fort Buckner, a very strong earth and timber work ; and about a mile and a half below, still on the summit of the ridge, WAS.. Fort Bragg, nearly or quite as strong ; while still- farther south, and but a short distance above the old Chickamauga battle-ground, was a third formidable earth work, Fojt Breckenridge. Fort Bragg was connected with the batteries on Orchard Knob by a line of rifle pits, and the three forts, Buckner, Bragg, and Breckinridge, were protected from approach by two lines of rifle-pits, running parallel with the axis of the ridge, one near its base, the other about half-way up the western slope. The whole position was one of extraordinary strength, the only weak point being the separation of the Rebel left wing from the remainder of their force on Lookout moun tain. Bragg had probably about sixty-five thousand effective troops at this time, and he felt so confident of his ability to defeat Grant, notwith standing he had sent so large a contingent to East Tennessee, that on the 21st of November, he sent a flag of truce to Chattanooga with the follow ing message : " Humanity would suggest the removal of all non-combataiits from the city, as I am about to bombard it. "BRAXTON BRAGG, Lieutenant- General" General Grant made no reply, either verbal or written, to this message ; yet within four days, the Rebel general had received an answer, which though hardly satisfactory, was certainly intelligible. Grant s plan con templated four distinct movements, yet each in some sense depending upon the others ; they were, first, the capture of the Rebel works on Orchard Knob, as the central point from which he could move in either direction ; second, the driving of the Rebel left wing from Lookout mountain, cap turing their artillery and rifle-pits, and the use of the same force to attack Fort Breckinridge in rear ; third, a persistent and resolute demonstration from the north, on the bastion and Fort Buckner, such as should draw the Rebel troops on the crest, around Fort Bragg, to the assistance and support of the garrison of Buckner; and lastly, when, by this demonstra- C50 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. tion, Fort Bragg was essentially weakened, then to hurl upon it a corps of picked troops, and drive the .Rebels over the eastern slope of the moun tain. The strategical ability manifested in this plan was of the highest order, and its successful accomplishment added new laurels to the rising fame of the able commander of the division of the Mississippi. The preparations had been made for crossing the Tennessee and West Chickamauga river, near its mouth, by pontoons, in order to attack the bastion already mentioned and Fort Buckner, on the 22d and the morn ing of the 23d, and Sherman s two corps, (army of the Tennessee,) except one division, were designated for the work, but rinding that the Rebel army was in motion, General Grant deemed it best to make his attack, or rather a reconnoissance in force; upon the enemy s centre, first. On Monday, November 23d, Fort Wood, the only Union work south of Chattanooga, opened with its heavy guns upon the Rebel line, and General Wood s division marched at a quickstep upon the enemy s posi tion, and after a brief but severe action, charged upon their rifle-pits, carried them with a rush, taking two thousand prisoners, and capturing the two batteries on Bald Knobs. While Wood was fortifying and strengthening the position thus suddenly wrested from the enemy, Sheri dan s division was sent to his support, and the eleventh corps captured the rifle-pits on Citico creek, thus giving to the Union army the command of almost the entire upper Chattanooga valley, and enabling them to pour an enfilading, fire into the Rebel rifle-pits and forts on Mission Ridge. Let us turn now for a moment to Sherman s movements. The North Chickamauga creek, a small but partially navigable stream, flows into the Tennessee river about seven miles above Chattanooga; into this stream one hundred and sixteen pontoon boats were launched, having been brought thither by a concealed road from Chattanooga. Three miles down the Tennessee, and just below the mouth of the West Chick amauga river, which enters the Tennessee from the south, a site had been chosen fora pontoon bridge, and an isolated hill there furnished a position for a formidable tele depont, while the bend of the river, and the proximity of the hills to the north shore, at this point, permitted the planting of batteries, which could sweep both sides of the river, if the intended cross ing was discovered. At one A. M. of the 24th of November, General Sherman s force of picked men, about three thousand in number, entered their pontoon boats and moved swiftly down, hugging closely the right bank of the Tennessee for three miles; then crossed, and landed a small force above the West Chickamauga, and the remainder just below it. Having discharged their living freight, the boats were rowed to the other shore, whither the main body of Sherman s army had marched, and where the bridge material had been concealed. Two divisions, with artillery, were at once ferried over by the boats, and the steamer Dunbar, which had been sent up from Chattanooga for that purpose, and by noon, a pon- HOOKER S ATTACK ON LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 651 toon bridge across the Tennessee, fourteen hundred feet long, and another across the West Chickamauga, two hundred feet long, were completed, and strong tetes de pont were erected, covering both bridges. The main body then proceeded to attack the Rebel position in the bastion on the isolated hill, of which we have already spoken. This was carried without much difficulty, the Rebels retreating to Fort Buckaer, on Tunnel hill. The same afternoon, General Sherman, by direction of General Grant, despatched a strong cavalry force across the pontoon bridge over the West Chickamauga to Cleveland, to destroy the railroad, and the Rebel government stores, and manufactories there. They were successful in this expedition, and thus prevented Bragg and Longstreet from communi cating with each other. The bastion on the isolated hill, (or rather hills, for there were three, connected by slight depressions, and forming almost a semicircle around Tunnel hill), having been occupied, and fortified, Sher man s work for the day was done. Let us now see what Hooker had been doing during the day. General Grant had assigned to him the difficult task of dislodging the Rebel left wing from Lookout mountain. The position on that mountain was of great value to the Union army, and must be captured at all hazards, but it was, also, as valuable to the Rebels, and would undoubtedly be defended with great obstinacy. The Rebels occupied the west side, or slope of Lookout mountain in very strong force, and also the front or spur of the mountain. As we have elsewhere intimated, the descent of Lookout mountain is not a reg ular slope from its summit to its base. The upper portion of the moun tain, after twenty-five or thirty feet of descent, is a perpendicular wall of basalt, like the palisades on the Hudson, for some hundreds of feet; below this wall, the descent is sloping, but rough and rocky. There are but three passes by which this wall of palisades can be crossed, one near the front or spur of the mountain, known as. the Summertown road, which winds in zig-zags up the east side of the mountain, ascending the palisades by a steep declivity, and a narrow, tortuous, and rocky road ; a second by a gap, twenty miles south, near Trenton, which was held with strong works by the Rebels ; the third, nearly sixty miles from the river, at Valley Head. General Hooker s intention was to seize the Summertown road, and by so doing, gain possession of the mountain. By eight o clock, General Hooker s column, consisting of one division of Slocum s corps, one of Sherman s (fourteenth corps), and two brigades from the fourth corps, was moving up Lookout valley, and to the sur prise of the enemy on the point of the mountain, it disappeared in the forest south of Wauhatchie, but supposing he was intending to attempt the ascent of the mountain by the pass twenty miles below, which they knew to be well fortified, they gave themselves no uneasiness in regard to his movements. Soon after entering the forest, the Union commander filed 652 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. his troops to the left, and commenced the difficult task of ascending the mountain. Meeting with no opposition, except that of inanimate nature, he was able to reach the palisades in a short time. Here he faced the head of his column northward, forming them in line of battle, with their right resting against the palisades, and their left extending down the slope. A second line was formed from the two brigades of the fourth corps, and a third, which was held in reserve, from the division from the fourteenth corps. Thus arranged, the troops were ordered forward, with a heavy line of skirmishers thrown out, and marching along the slope of the mountain, soon came upon the rear of the enemy, who, entirely unprepared for such a movement, were taken completely by surprise. Before those at the foot of the hill could comprehend the situation of affairs, the Union skirmishers had penetrated far toward the point of the mountain, and now opened a heavy fire upon the enemy, who were trying to escape up the hill, while the Union troops assaulted them from above. At the same time, the Union batteries on Moccasin Point, and those of the Rebels on Lookout mountain, opened on each other, and the day being misty and threatening rain, the base of the mountain was soon enveloped in clouds of smoke and fog, and the battle which followed was, most of it, fought " above the clouds." The Rebels taken, thus in flank and rear, made but little organized resist ance, but their skirmishers fora long time kept up a heavy but irregular fi ret from behind trees and jutting rocks. They were, however, finally forced back by the heavy skirmish line under General Hooker, and the Rebel force on the point of the mountain gradually gave way, and fell back in some disorder to the line of breastworks on the east slope of the moun tain, at Carlin s house. The Union troops then swung around until their line was parallel to that of the enemy, and again advanced, but being met by organized and well directed resistance, recoiled, and hesitated for a little time. Meanwhile, the reserves and the second line were gleaning a large harvest of prisoners, the movement around the spur of the mountain having been so rapid that the Rebel troops stationed at the foot of the mountain, and along the river, had had no time to escape. Thirteen hun dred and sixty prisoners were captured here in a few minutes, and most of them proved to have been paroled unexchanged prisoners from Yicks- burg, who, through the bad faith of the Rebel Government, had been declared exchanged, without an equivalent, and put into the ranks again. The enemy on the east side of the mountain were posted in strong ani deep rifle-pits, and behind them, to the right of Carlin s house, were posted two pieces of artillery. Had the Rebels had the force which had been taken prisoners a few minutes before to aid them in maintaining this line, they would have probably been able to hold their position against Hooker s whole force ; but after a careful reconnoissance, General Hooker THE REBELS DRIVEN FROM THEIR POSITION. 653 became satisfied that their line was very thin, and that under a systematic assault they would be compelled to break it at some point, and at once ordered a resolute advance. As he had foreseen, the Rebels were com pelled to contract their line across the field, and in doing so, left their right flank exposed. The struggle which followed was heavy and severe J for an hour and a half, from two to half-past three P. M., the fighting was very close, and almost entirely between man and man. The advance of Hook er s troops was stubbornly resisted, but a, little before four o clock p. M., the general ascertained that they had been compelled from the lack of numbers to contract their line on the left also, and that some of his troops had effected a lodgement near their rifle-pits. Ordering a charge of the whole line at double-quickstep upon their left flank, he soon had the satisfaction of seeing them fall back, abandoning their rifle-pits, artillery, and position, but still retaining their hold upon the important Summertown road. Apparently repenting of their retreat, the Rebels now hastily reformed, and charging upon the Union lines, sought to regain their position before the Union troops could occupy fully their former position, or turn the captured guns upon them. They rushed forward at first with great vigor, but were soon halted by the terrible fire which was poured in upon them. They attempted to push forward again, but met with a resolute resistance, which would have repulsed them speedily, but for the fact that Hooker s men had nearly expended their ammunition. General Hooker, anticipa ting this, had sent twice for a further supply, but owing to the difficulty of transportation across the pontoon bridges in the rain, it had failed to come. Just at the opportune moment, however, when his men were begin- ing to fall out of the line for want of ammunition, a fresh- brigade from the fourteenth corps, two thousand strong, marched up the hill, and rush ing at once to the attack, repulsed the enemy in ten minutes. The Rebels now fell back, but still kept possession of the Summertown road. It was now night, but not content with what he had already gained, General Hooker pushed forward in the darkness, and after an hour s fight ing, succeeded in intrenching himself within three hundred yards of the enemy s works on the Summertown road. Here the second Ohio regi ment, Colonel Anson McCook s, which was in the advance, was suddenly and furiously attacked by the Rebel sharpshooters, as they were throwing up a line of breastworks, but repulsed their assailants, though not with out suffering heavy losses. In the morning, General Hooker found that the Rebels had abandoned their position on the Summertown road, and on the summit of the mountain, and had escaped to Mission Ridge. The Union troops took possession at once of these positions, and the main body then moved down the eastern slope, by the Hickajack trace the route which General Jackson followed in his campaign against the Cherokees and crossing the Chattanooga creek valley, ascended Mission Ridge, at a point nearly opposite the battle-field of Chickamauga. From 654 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. thence they moved northward to Rossville, and to the summit of Mission Ridge, coming upon the rear of Fort Breckinridge, the southernmost of the three Rebel works still held by the Rebels. While he was thus moving upon the left flank of the Rebel army on the morning of the 25th of November, General Sherman was moving for ward to his allotted work of making a strong and persistent demonstration upon Fort Buckner. Sherman knew, what the newspaper correspondents did not, that this demonstration upon the Rebel fort, though long, contin uous, and bloody, was not expected or intended to be pushed to the point of capture ; that its only intent was to make so strong a feint, as to draw thither a large portion of the troops from Fort Bragg, and thus weaken that stronghold, which, though larger, was weaker than Buckner, so that it could be carried by assault. The capture of this central fort would inevitably be followed by the abandonment of the other two, which might not be the case if either of the terminal ones were captured. But Sher man had learned fully the soldier s lesson of obedience, and though it might bring temporary reproach, he did not hesitate in his fealty to his chief. We have already alluded to the semicircular form of the hill, or cluster of hills, on which his troops were posted, and which enabled him to send his assaulting columns either up the eastern or western slope of Tunnel hill. In the valley which lay between his position and Tunnel hill, was a railroad station, near which the Rebels had planted a strong force. These, by an artillery attack, as well as by a feint of attaching them on the right, he drew out of their position, and compelled to fall back to the fort on the hill. The first attack on Fort Buckner was made by Corse s and Lightburn s brigades of the fifteenth army corps, upon the left or eastern slope of Tunnel hill, and these brigades succeeded in reaching the plateau at the top of the hill, but there met a most destructive fire from the fort, before which they rapidly recoiled and fled. The enemy attempted pursuit, but the Union batteries having the exact range, rained such a tempest of shell upon them, that they were compelled to fall back into the fort for shelter. Meanwhile, another brigade was ascending the western slope of the hill, driving the Rebels from the outworks into the fort, and pursuing them with a pitiless rain of musket-balls and shells. The brigades on the eastern slope, having sheltered themselves below the crest, and Smith s brigade having been added to their ranks, and the eleventh corps (Howard s) advanced to the base of the hill to support them, moved for ward again to attack the fort, and this time approached slowly, and in good order, within a hundred yards of it, only to be again forced back by the terrible blast of fire from the fort, and this time with Generals Corse and Smith among the wounded. General Lightburn reformed them below the crest, and ordered them to lie down and await the attack of the enemy, ahould he venture to make one. Sherman s batteries, meanwhile, and r SHERMAN S ATTACK UPON FORT BUCKNER. 655 Thomas s, from Fort Wood and Orchard Knob, were showering their shot and shell upon Forts Buckner and Bragg, with great rapidity and effect. On the right, another brigade had moved forward, and after skirmishing for some time with the enemy, succeeded in gaining possession of an abrupt ledge of rocks, which, outcropping from the hill-side, afforded a secure position to an attacking column at a point not more than fifty yards from Fort Buckner, which was near the crest of the west side of the hill up which the brigade was now moving. They were soon after rein forced by a second brigade, which reached the position without skirmish ing. The enemy fearing their proximity, and finding themselves unable to reach them effectually with musketry, began to roll down huge stones from the crest of the mountain upon them. These novel missiles did consider able damage, and annoyed the men so much that they demanded to be led against the enemy, but were met by so terrible a fire that they fell back to their ledge again in considerable disorder. Here they formed again, and lay down, waiting an attack from the enemy. On the left, General Sherman now sent two more regiments to reinforce the troops under Lightburn s command. On their approach the brigades sprang up and pushed on again toward the fort, while the supporting regiments toiled up, after them, and though met by a fiercer storm of shot and shell, of musket balls, and as they approached nearer of grape and canister, than before, they pushed forward, continuing their slow ascent for half an hour in the midst of this terrible fire, dashing forward and furi- Dusly upon the guns of the fort, and the flash of their guns meeting that of the enemy, but were hurled back, maddened with their failure. Our brigade, unable to endure this pitiless blast of fire, broke and rushed down the hill, but midway in their flight, an officer of another brigade sprang out in front of them, and shouted "HALT!" when instantly they stopped, wheeled in order at the word of command, and marched up the hill again, as steadily as if they had never faltered. On they went, sternly and grandly, drawing down the visors of their caps over their eyes, as if to shield them from the fearful flame that was sweeping their ranks down. It was but fifty yards, but they found the distance long, and yet seemed just on the point of winning, when the Rebel General Buckner, fearing for the fate of the fort, brought up a large reinforcement from Fort Bragg, and coming upon them at the double-quick, drove them hastily back,, though without disorder or panic. Pushing on to the east side of the hill, the Rebels were met by Lightburn s force, and driven back to the fort. The object of the demonstration had been accomplished ; nearly one half of the troops around Fort Bragg had been drawn by Sherman s persistence, to Fort Buckner, and while Sherman ordered Lightburn to intrench and go into position, the six guns, fired at intervals of two seconds, the signal for the starting of the fourth corps to assault Fort Bragg, had already been heard, and the men who, in their forced idleness 656 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. i had been restless as hounds straining at their leash, sprang at once into position, and in another minute were marching rapidly toward Fort Bragg. The distance from Orchard Knob, where the fourth corps had lain. perdu all day, to the base of Mission Eidge, was a mile and a half, a route " with narrow fringes of woods, rough valleys, sweeps of open fields, rocky acclivities, to the base of the ridge, and no foot in all the breadth withdrawn from Rebel sight. The base attained, what then? A heavy Rebel work packed with the enemy, rimming it like a battlement. That work carried, and what then? A hill, struggling up out of the valley four hundred feet, rained on by bullets, swept by shot and shell ; another line of works, and then up like a Gothic roof, rough with rocks, a wreck with fallen trees, four hundred more, another ring of fire and iron, and then the crest, and then the enemy." The hill was one almost inaccessible to the tourist, who, struggling upward, panting and breathless, found its precipitous sides too steep for his climbing, where no rocks, no steady blaze of shot and shell and minie balls, made the ascent more impossible; how then could these brave soldiers climb it with their muskets and knapsacks, amid a fire whose terrors have hardly been equalled during the war ? They did not, however, stay for impossibilities. The mile and a half to the base was made in thirty minutes, and though the dead and wounded were numerous, there were no stragglers. From six Union batteries, Forts Wood and Negley, Forts Palmer and King, Bridge s battery on Orchard Knob, and the heavy siege guns on Moccasin Point, a steady bombardment was kept up on Fort Bragg, which replied stoutly so long as its shot could reach the assaulting column. The rifle-pits at the base were reached, and taken instantly, the Rebel prisoners streaming out from the rear like the tail of a kite; and giving no further heed to them, since the fire of their own forts would drive them disarmed to a Union shelter, the daring troops went on, up, up, four hundred feet, to the second line of rifle-pits, from which, with a suddenness which would have been ludicrous, had not the occasion been too serious for laughter, they jerked the Rebels out of these also, and sent them flying down the hill, and addressed themselves to the mighty task yet before them. Hitherto, from that crest, thirteen batteries, numbering sixty guns, had poured their concentrated fire upon the assaulting columns, but now the aacent was so steep that the guns could not be sufficiently depressed to reach them. The Rebels did not believe it possible for them to ascend this part of the ridge, but to make that more impossible which they already believed to be completely so, they directed a steady and continuous mus ketry fire upon them, rolled down huge rocks, and shells with lighted fuse upon them, and ranging themselves along the edge of the crest, pre pared to hurl to sudden destruction the score or so who they thought might probably gain its verge. OPERATIONS BEFORE KNOXVILLE. 65T But the heroes of the fourth corps struggled upward amid the thick falling leaden hail, the shells, and the rolling stones, now steadying them selves for a new effort, by the limb of some fallen tree, or the angle of a projecting rock, but ever upward, upward still, till at last, panting with the exertion, the edge of the crest is reached, and with a mighty struggle, the level is gained. Here for a few minutes the fighting was sharp, for a part of the Rebels, veteran troops, stood at bay, like gray wolves; but soou they began to fly down the eastern slope of the ridge, and Bragg, Breckinridge, and Buckner, spurring their horses to the utmost, and barely escaping capture, pushed down the mountain to Chickamauga sta tion. The cannon were seized, and turned on the retreating foe, but it was already night, and further pursuit was relinquished till morning. Meanwhile, Fort Buckner had been captured by Palmer s column imme diately after the fate of Fort Bragg was decided ; and General Hooker s command had driven the Rebels out of Fort Breckinridge. Early in the morning the pursuit was resumed, with three army corps, headed by Sherman, Hooker, Howard, and Palmer, the first named in chief com mand. They reached Chickamauga station, from whence the Rebels were already retreating, and captured there . some of the commissary stores which the enemy had not had time to destroy; they overtook them on Pigeon Ridge, and drove them thence, routed them at Grayville where they attempted to bivouac, pushed them the next morning to and through Ring- gold, and into Ringgold gap, a narrow defile through Taylor s Ridge, where they made a stand, and General Hooker rashly attacking them in front, met with terrible losses, but finally carried the defile, and captured three hundred prisoners. The loss of Hooker s command here was heavier than in the capture of Lookout mountain. The eleventh corps, meanwhile, crossing Taylor s Ridge by Parker s gap, below Ringgold, pushed forward to the Cleveland and Dalton railroad, at Red Clay station, and thoroughly destroyed the road for several miles, thus preventing the junction of Longstreet and Bragg by that route. They also captured about a thousand prisoners. Meantime, the siege of Knoxville was pressed with ardor by Longstreet ; and Burnside, who had had the misfortune, just before the siege commenced, to lose, by the in efficiency of the regimental commanders, a considerable portion of his cavalry, and supply trains of great value, found himself in close quarters. On the 18th of November, he was obliged to put his troops upon half rations. The defences of Knoxville, by almost incredible labor, under the superintendence of Colonel Poe, chief engineer of his staff, had been strengthened so as to be nearly impregnable. A battle of considerable severity had been fought on the 18th of November, at Armstrong s farm, in which General Sanders, a young Union officer of much promise, had been mortally wounded, and the Union troops had lost about one hundred 42 658 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and fifty in killed and wounded, but the Union force fell back in good order behind their second line of defences. Longstreet was poorly supplied with artillery, and hence, though the investment was complete, the siege was not so severe as it otherwise might have been. Several sorties were made by the besieged, and most of them were successful. On the 26th of November, the day after his defeat, General Bragg sent orders to General Longstreet to abandon the siege, and join him, but Longstreet, sanguine of capturing Knoxville, declined to obey. He could not, probably, have succeeded in effecting a junction with Bragg, had he attempted it, for the communications were broken, and Sherman was in his way. On the evening of the 27th of November, General Grant, who had previously ordered General Gordon Granger, with the fourth corps, to go to Knoxville to raise the siege, but had been met with hesitation, objections, and complaints, ordered General Sherman to take his own old corps, (the fifteenth,) together with the fourth and eleventh, and making a forced march, relieve Burnside. The fifteenth corps might well have complained of the hardship, for they had marched with great rapidity from Vicksburg, and with their shoes and clothing badly worn, and without a day s rest, had fought the severe battles of the 23d to the 25th of November ; and now still without rest, in winter, amid snow and deep mud, with but a scanty and ill supplied commissariat, they were required to make a forced march of about one hundred and thirty miles. But the fifteenth corps and its commander were inured to hard ship, and no complaint was uttered by them. Starting at early dawn of the 28th of November, Sherman s cavalry reached Knoxville on the even ing of the 3d of December, and his main column came up on the 4th, when Longstreet abandoned the siege, and hastily retreated toward Vir ginia, but took a strong position at Bean s station, and fortified it, await ing an attack. A sharp fight ensued between General Shackleford, who commanded the Union advance, and the Rebels, though without any very decisive result. Shackleford lost about two hundred men, and a part of his train, and Longstreet about eight hundred. The next day Longstreet retreated to Rogersville, and remained there for several weeks, his men being generally barefoot, and unabte to move on the rough and icy roads* of that region during the winter months. Leaving the fourth corps at Knoxville to strengthen the garrison, General Sherman returned with the eleventh and fifteenth corps to Chattanooga. The Union losses in the Chattanooga campaign, including the relief of Knoxville, were seven hundred and fifty-seven killed, four thousand five hundred and twenty-nine wounded, and three hundred and thirty missing: total, five thousand six hundred and sixteen. The number of Rebels killed and wounded were above six thousand, and they lost beside, six thousand one hundred and forty-two prisoners unwounded, as well as four thousand wounded prisoners, more than sixty pieces of artillery, and a GENERAL HALLECK S ESTIMATE OF THE CAMPAIGN. 659 large train. At the close of this campaign, General Grant issued the fol lowing congratulatory order to the troops under his command: " HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OP THE MISSISSIPPI, IN THE FIELD, "CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, December 10, 1863. " GENERAL ORDERS No. 9. The general commanding takes this oppor tunity of returning his sincere thanks and congratulations to the brave armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, the Tennessee, and their comrades from the Potomac, for the recent splendid and decisive successes achieved over the enemy. In a short time you have recovered from him the control of the Tennessee river from Bridgeport to Knoxville. You dis lodged him from his great stronghold upon Lookout mountain, drove him from Chattanooga valley, wrested from his determined grasp the possession of Mission Ridge, repelled with heavy loss to him, his repeated assaults upon Knoxville, forcing him. to raise the siege there, driving him at all points, utterly routed and discomfited, beyond the limits of the State. By your noble heroism and determined courage, you have most effectually defeated the plans of the enemy for regaining possession of the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. You have secured positions from which no rebellious power can drive or dislodge you. For all this, the general commanding thanks you collectively and individually. The loyal people of the United States thank and bless you. Their hopes and prayers for your success against this unholy rebellion are with you daily. Their faith in you will not be in vain. Their hopes will not be blasted. Their prayers to Almighty God will be answered. You will yet go to other fields of strife ; and with the invincible bravery and unflinching loyalty to justice and right which have characterized you in the past, you will prove that no enemy can withstand you, and that no defences, however formidable, can check your onward march. " By order of Major-General U. S. GRANT. "T. S. BOWERS, A. A. a: 1 Of the battles around Chattanooga, General Halleck said in his report: 11 Considering the strength of the Rebel position, and the difficulty of storming his intrenchments, the battle of Chattanooga must be considered the most remarkable in history. Not only did the officers and men ex hibit great skill and daring in their operations on the field, but the highest praise is due to the commanding general for his admirable dispo sitions for dislodging the enemy from a position apparently impregnable. Moreover, by turning his right flank, and throwing him back upon Ring- gold and Dalton, Sherman s forces were interposed between Bragg and Longstreet, so as to prevent an^ possibility of their forming a junction. 1 660 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER LIV. DEPARTMENT OF THE NORTHWEST INDIAN TROUBLES IN MINNESOTA DEATH OF LITTLE CROW GENERAL SIBLEY S EXPEDITION AGAINST THE INDIANS HE DEFEATS, PURSUES, AND ROUTES THEM GENERAL BULLY S BATTLE AT WHITESTONE HILL ESCAPE OF THE INDIANS GENERAL CONNER S BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS DEPARTMENT OF WEST VIRGINIA GENERAL AVEFELL S RAID INTO SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA HIS CAPTURE AT SALEM AND DESTRUCTION OF COMMISSARY AND QUARTERMASTERS* STORES HIS ESCAPE FROM THB SIX GENERALS SKETCH OF GENERAL AVERELL OTHER OPERATIONS IN WEST VIRGINIA ARMY OF THE POTOMAC LEE ? S FLANKING MOVEMENT ITS EXTENT GENERAL MEADE s EXCESSIVE CAUTION THE CAVALRY BATTLE AT BRANDY STATION GENERAL WARREN S BATTLE WITH HILL S CORPS AT BRISTOW STATION HILL REPULSED CUSTER*S ATTACK ON STUART S CAVALRY LEE S RETURN TO THE RAPID AN IMBODEN S ATTACK ON CHARLESTOWN, VIRGINIA LEE REMOVES TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND FORTIFIES HIS POSITION MEADK DRIVES HIM BACK, TAKING OVER TWO THOUSAND PRISONERS SEDGWICK ? S ASSAULT AT RAPPAHANNOCK STATION ITS SUCCESS THE LEFT WING AT KELLY S FORD AND BRANDY STATION MEADE S COUp-de-main HIS PLANS UNMASKED HIS WITHDRAWAL ACROSS THE RAPIDAN RESULTS. IN the Department of the Northwest, the summer of 1863, though hap pily unsullied by any massacres like the atrocious slaughter of 1862, was not wholly free from Indian disturbances. Little Crow, the wily and daring leader of the Sioux in their deeds of blood in 1862, had, during the winter, visited the British settlements, and endeavored to obtain from the authorities there, arms, ammunition, and provisions, in large quanti ties. He failed in this, but secured from some of the traders a moderate supply of powder and fire-arms, and gathered, in May and the early part of June, a large force of Indians at Miniwakan, or Devil s Lake, in Dakota Territory, five hundred miles northwest from St. Paul. He had sent also in April, May, and June, small bands of Indians, a half dozen or dozen together, to penetrate into Minnesota, and rob, murder, steal horses, and other valuables. Several of these bands had succeeded in eluding the frontier guard of over two thousand men, which had been stationed along the western line of Minnesota, and had succeeded in murdering twenty - five or thirty persons, though full half the number of Indians had met their death at the hands of the settlers. In the latter part of June, from some unexplained cause, Little Crow, taking one of his sons with him, left the Indian camp, and made his way into Minnesota to steal horses. About the first of July, he was in the vicinity of Hutchinson, Minnesota, and Mr. Chauncy Lampson and his son, who were out hunting, observed them prowling about, and evidently bent on mischief. They were nearly six miles from the town. Mr. Lampson fired upon them, and the elder Indian fired in return, wounding Mr. Lampson, when young Lampson fired and instantly killed Little Crow, but his son made his escape. Neither THE INDIAN TROUBLES IN TIIE NORTHWEST. 661 of the Lampsons had an idea that it was the famous Indian chief whom they had killed, and the fact was not known till nearly a month later, when the boy being captured, related the circumstances of his father s death, and the body was identified. General Pope, who was in command of the Department of the Northwest, sent General Sibley, early in June, with a force of about two thousand five hundred men, to Lake Minivva- kan, to attack the Indians who had gathered there ; and ordered General Sully to start, about the same time, with a large cavalry force, to ascend the Missouri river if possible as high as Fort Clark, and co-operate with him in cutting off the retreat of the Indians. Owing to several causes the two forces did not connect, and on the 25th of July/ General Sibley met the Indians, who had abandoned their position at Lake Miuiwakan and had marched toward the Missouri river, and encamped on the lofty plateau extending eastward from the bank of that river, known as Coteau de la Missouri. General Sibley attacked them at once, and fought and pursued them for four days, opening on them with his artillery at every point where they made a stand. There were four distinct engage ments during these four days, at Big Mound, Dead Buffalo Lake, Stony Lake, and the banks of the Missouri. In these, sixty or seventy Indians were killed, and over one hundred wounded. General Sibley lost five killed and four wounded. On the 3d of September, General Sully met and defeated a large Indian force at Whitestone Hill, one hundred and thirty miles northeast of the mouth of the Little Cheyenne. A part of these had participated in the previous engagements with General Sibley. The battle was a very severe one, though occurring near nightfall, the Indians fighting with much greater tenacity than usual for them. They lost several hundred in killed and wounded, and one hundred and fifty-six were taken prisoners. General Sully s loss was twenty killed and thirty- eight wounded. It was ascertained that in August, 1863, these Indians had attacked a Mackinaw boat, coming down the Missouri river, and after fighting with its crew all day, losing themselves ninety-one killed and many wounded, had succeeded in killing all on board, about thirty. The Indians finding themselves thoroughly defeated, fled across the Missouri, and a part of them took refuge in Idaho (now Montana) Territory. Late in the autumn they were guilty of some outrages in that Territory, which were summarily punished by General Conner, who was in command in the Pacific department. General Conner had, on the 26th of January, 1863, overtaken at Bear river, Idaho Territory, a band of about three hundred roving Indians, who had committed thefts and murders on the overland stage route, and attacking them with great fury, had killed two hundred and twenty -four out of the three hundred, and captured one hundred and seventy-five of their horses. His own loss in killed and wounded was sixty-three, beside a considerable number injured by the extreme frost. Returning from this distant portion of the continent, let us pass briefly 662 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. in review some of the movements in the southwestern portion of Virginia, included within the not very definitely determined bounds of the Depart ment of West Virginia. After Longstreet had relinquished the siege of Knoxville, and fallen back on Rogersville, as recorded in the preceding chapter, it became de sirable to prevent his rejoining Lee. (He could not make his way to Bragg, or rather to Johnston, who had succeeded Bragg.) Accordingly, General Averell, one of the ablest cavalry officers of the army, was ordered to penetrate to the Virginia and Tennessee railroad, east of Longstreet s position, and by destroying the railroad, and burning the commissary and quartermasters stores gathered along its route, prevent Longstreet from advancing into Virginia by that route. The service was a dangerous one, for the Rebels had in the valleys of southwestern Virginia five or six of their generals, in command of small forces, half guerrillas, thoroughly familiar with the very difficult country, who would at once be on the alert to entrap any Union force which might penetrate into their region. But General Averell was too energetic a partisan officer to hesitate before any such dangers. He set out on the 8th of December, with three regiments of mounted infantry, one and a half of cavalry, and Ewing s battery, and on the 16th of that month had penetrated to Salem, an important station on the Virginia and Tennessee railroad. Here he broke up and com pletely destroyed fifteen miles of the railroad, burned five bridges, and broke down several culverts, cut and coiled the telegraph wires for half a mile, burned three depots of Rebel stores, containing one hundred thou sand bushels of corn, fifty thousand bushels of oats, ten thousand bushels of wheat, two thousand barrels of flour, two thousand barrels of meal, several cords of leather, one thousand sacks of salt, thirty -one boxes of clothing, twenty bales of cotton, and a very large quantity of harness, shoes, saddles, equipments, and other stores, and one hundred wagons, which had been sent forward for Longstreet s troops. He was obliged on his return to swim his command, and drag his artillery with ropes across Grog s creek, seven times in twenty-four hours. On his return, he found the Rebels of six separate commands, under Generals Early, Jones, Fitzhugh Lee, Imboden, Jackson, and Echols, arranged in a line extending from Staunton to Newport, on all the avail able roads, to intercept him ; but he captured a despatch from General Jones to General Early, giving him his position, and that of Jackson, at Clifton Forge, and marching from Jones s front to Jackson s by night, he crossed the river, and pressing in his outposts passed him. Infuriated at his escape, the Rebel generals concentrated their forces in advance of him, at a place called Callaghan s, where they held every road but one, which they deemed impracticable. Over that one he escaped, crossing the summit of the Alleghanies, and reached Beverly on the 21st of De cember. He stated in his report that his command had marched, climbed, SKETCH OF GENERAL AVERELL. 663 slid, and swam, three hundred and fifty-five miles in thirteen days. His losses were six drowned, five wounded, and fourteen missing. He cap tured and brought in two hundred prisoners, and one hundred and fifty horses. The men suffered much from cold and hunger, but endured all with great fortitude. The raid was one of the most daring and successful of the war. Brevet Major-General William W. Averell, the leader in this brilliant cavalry exploit, was born in New York, about 1834, and received a good education in the academies of New York city. He entered West Point in 1851, and graduated, with a fair standing, in June, 1855 ; was appointed brevet second lieutenant of cavalry, and assigned to the mounted rifles, now third cavalry. On the 1st of May, 1856, he was promoted to a full second lieutenancy, and ordered to service in the southwestern territories. He was on duty in New Mexico from that time to the commencement of the war, and distinguished himself in several conflicts with the Kioway and Navajoe Indians. Returning east in the spring of 1861, he was promoted to be first lieutenant in May of that year, and received leave of absence to enable him to take command of the third Pennsylvania volunteer cavalry. He joined the army of the Potomac with this regi ment, and distinguished himself before Yorktown, at Williamsburg, and at Malvern Hill, and received the brevets of captain and major in the regular army for his gallant conduct. He was soon after placed tempo rarily in command of the cavalry of the army of the Potomac, by General McClellan. In July, 1862, he was promoted to the rank of captain in the regular army; and, as acting brigadier-general of cavalry, was active in the latter part of Pope s campaign, and rendered valuable service in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. For his good conduct in this campaign he was made brigadier-general of volunteers, his commis sion dating from September 20th, 1862. He commanded a brigade of cavalry during the operations of the cavalry under General Pleasonton in the autumn and early winter of 1862-3, and in February, 1863, was appointed to the command of one of the divisions in Stoneman s cavalry corps. In March, 1863, he engaged the Rebels at Kelly s ford. He took part, though with no great distinction, in Stoneman s raid in April and May, 1863, and was soon after appointed to a command in Western Vir ginia. The opportunities for distinction here were not numerous, but he kept the Rebels thoroughly in check. His first opportunity for a brilliant achievement was the raid we have described. In the spring of 1864 he took part with General Crook in a brilliant movement on the Rebel forces in southwestern Virginia, from the Ohio river ; joined Hunter in June, and was engaged with his cavalry in the subsequent actions of the Shenan- doah valley ; led one wing of Sheridan s army at Winchester and Fisher s Hill ; and on the 24th of September was relieved of his command in the army of the Shenandoah, and subsequently held no command. He 664 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. had been promoted to the brevet rank of major-general for his gallant conduct in the raid described in this chapter. The army of West Virginia had, during the preceding summer and autumn, several skirmishes and affairs with the Kebels, which should per haps have received a passing notice. A small force, under Colonel Toland, had captured the Rebel garrison at Wytheville, West Virginia, on the 24th of July, taking one hundred and twenty-five prisoners, two pieces of artillery, and seven hundred muskets, and inflicting a loss of seventy-five in killed and wounded, while their own losses had been only seventeen killed and eighteen wounded. In August, General Averell had attacked a Rebel force, under General Sam Jones, at Rocky gap, Green- brier county, and captured one piece of artillery and one hundred and fifty prisoners, killing and wounding, at the same time, about two hun dred. His own loss was one hundred and thirty killed, wounded, and missing. On the llth of September, the Rebel General Imboden had returned the compliment by attacking, with a large force, a small body of Union troops near Moorefield, wounding fifteen, and capturing one hundred and fifty. On the 5th of November, General Averell avenged this by attacking and defeating a Rebel force near Lewisburg, capturing three pieces of artillery, one hundred prisoners, and a large number of arms, wagons, and carnp equipments, and inflicting a loss of three hun dred in killed and wounded. The hostile armies in eastern Virginia, after the battles of Gettysburg and the retreat and pursuit, had occupied for several months positions facing each other on the opposite banks of the Rapidan. The Union forces extended along the Orange and Alexandria railroad, from the vicin ity of Culpepper to the neighborhood of Raccoon ford, and held possession, also, of Thoroughfare mountain, on the south side of the Rapidan, which they occcupied as a signal station. The Rebel forces occupied the south bank of the Rapidan, and the wooded country back of it, from Germania ford to United States ford, having their headquarters at Chancellorsville. The Rebels had the advantage of the Union army, in being better able to conceal their movements ; the high, steep, and wooded southern bank of the Rapidan hiding from view their evolutions in rear, while they could easily overlook the changes in position of the Union army. Both armies, as we have seen, had sent large contingents, not less than twenty thousand men each, to reinforce their respective armies near Chattanooga ; but the Union army was now considerably the larger of the two. General Meade had been for some time maturing the details of a movement to compel Lee to relinquish the strong position which he held, when he found that his antagonist had anticipated him, and was already executing a flank movement which would compel him to fall back to the vicinity of Manassas Junction. The motive which led General Lee to attempt this piece of strategy is FLANKING MOVEMENT OF LEE S ARMY. 665 somewhat obscure. The most probable explanation is that which sup poses that his object was to so thoroughly cripple the Union army, and destroy its communications with its base, that it would not be able to threaten Richmond, or molest him, should he find it necessary to send further reinforcements to Bragg. If this was his object he did not accom plish it, and his effort was a costly failure. The Rebel advance was made with great caution and secrecy, the object of Lee being to move behind the high bank of the Rapidan, and while deceiving the Union army by maintaining a strong picket-line, and the usual number of camp-fires in their front, to pass westward beyond Orange Court House, to and beyond Burnett s ford, and crossing the Rapidan in that vicinity, move northward to Madison Court House, Sperryville, and Little Washington ; then marching rapidly eastward from that point, to strike the Union army on its right flank, and if possible pass to its rear, and cut off its communications with the capital, On the 8th of October, Heth s and Anderson s divisions, of A. P. Hill s corps, were moved beyond Orange Court House by this route, and the remainder of that corps followed the next morning; while Ewell s corps, which had previously been moved by a road farther south, joined it, and both marched, on the 9th, directly for Madison Court House. But stealthy and secret as these movements had been, the Union signal officers on Thoroughfare mountain had observed them, and telegraphed, on the 9th, that two immense columns of Rebel troops were moving on the Orange and Gordonsville roads, and threatened to flank the right wing of the Union army. General Meade, satisfied that in case of danger he had the interior line, and could outmarch the foe, devoted Saturday, October 10th, to cavalry reconnoissances, to ascertain whether it was any thing more than a cavalry raid, and by a vigorous demonstration upon the Rebel lines, sought to compel them to recall a part, at least, of their troops which had already crossed the Rapidan. Kilpatrick, with his division of cavalry, skirmished with and threatened them at James City, near Robertson s river, and fell back very slowly toward Culpepper when pursued by the enemy, thus obstructing their progress. The first and sixth corps, with two divisions from the other corps, moved toward the Rapidan, demonstrated at all the fords, as if intending to cross imme diately, while Buford, with his cavalry division, hovered around the Union right wing at Germania ford. The Rebels were thus cc-mpelled to recall Ewell s corps to the south of the Rapidan. Meanwhile, Meade had des patched his trains, under Pleasonton s escort, across the Rappahannock, covering their movement by the second and third corps, which were ordered to support Kilpatrick, and were in position between the enemy and Cul- pepper. Gregg s division of cavalry came up, by forced marches, on Saturday and on the evening of that day, Meade had .a powerful cavalry 66C THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. force, commanded by gallant and able officers, in a position to fight the enemy effectively. At two A. M. Sunday morning, October llth, the entire infantry force of five corps commenced falling back to the Rappahannock; the first and sixth moving from the Rapidan, the second and third coining from their position west of Culpepper, and the fifth bringing up the rear. Gregg and Kilpatrick covered their retreat, hovering on each wing, while Buford re mained near Germania ford to delay the passage of the Rebels. Gregg, whose route lay east of that of the army, met with no enemy on his line of march, but Kilpatrick was pressed closely by the Rebel cavalry under General Stuart, who annoyed him continually, during the morning, by his well directed fire. Having crossed Mountain Run about noon, he sup posed himself free from further annoyance, and hearing heavy firing in the direction of Germania ford, he sent some of his staff to open communi cation with Buford, who, he feared, was struggling with a superior force, His messengers returned, reporting Buford as doing well, and that a junction of the cavalry and infantry was to be effected before night at Brandy station. Thither he marched leisurely with his force, anticipating no further opposition ; but on reaching the hill south of the station, he discovered that a division or more of the Rebel cavalry had slipped in be tween him and Buford, and were now strongly posted, and awaiting his approach, while other divisions were gathering on his flanks and rear. They were drawn up across the road in companies, twelve platoons deep with supporting regiments on either side. Nothing daunted, he formec his men in three columns for a charge, and placing himself at their head charged upon the enemy with the utmost fury, shooting, sabreing, and trampling them down. Unable to stand before such an assault, the Rebels gave way in terror, and Kilpatrick s men passed through with but small loss, though they had inflicted a heavy one upon the enemy, and reached Buford s troops on the hill beyond. The Rebels, mortified that they had suffered their prey to escape them so easily, formed again instantly, and attacked the Union cavalry, but they were outmatched, and after a despe- eate fight, lasting till long after nightfall, the foe, tired and exhausted by his efforts, which all ended in his repulse, fell back sullenly, and ceased his attacks ; while the Union troops, gathering up their dead and wounded, withdrew quietly across the Rappahannock, whither the infantry had preceded them. On Monday, General Meade, still in doubt as to the extent of the Rebel movement, with a hesitation which had well nigh proved fatal to his army, determined to send the second, third, and sixth corps, who had already crossed the Rappahannock, back to Brandy station, on a reconnoissance in force ; and sent also, two or three regiments to Jeffersonton and Little Washington, to observe the position of the enemy in that direction. These regiments met the enemy in greatly superior force, and were surrounded, MOVEMENTS OF THE UNION AND REBEL ARMIES. 667 but cut their way through and escaped, though not without heavy loss. The three corps found also, that the Rebels were moving in great force west of them, and the only result of this delay was to give the enemy the advantage of a day or more in his flanking movement. Satisfied, at last, that Lee was moving his entire army in this effort to flank him, General Meade now exerted himself to the utmost to prevent the Rebel general from accomplishing his object. The Rebels were mov ing from Madison Court House in two columns, toward Warrenton ; one by way of Culpepper, the other by way of Sperryville. E well s column, the right, passed through Warrenton on the night of the 13th of October. Meade s army, on the night of the 12th, was posted as follows : The first corps, at Kelly s ford ; the second, fifth, and sixth, near Brandy station ; the third, at Freeman s ford ; Buford s cavalry, at Brandy station ; Gregg s, at Fayetteville ; Kilpatrick s, near Hartwood ; and Pleasonton s, with the trains, toward Bristow station. The actual distance to be passed over in a direct line by the Rebels, to reach the heights around Centreville, was considerably less than that to be traversed by the Union troops, but they were necessitated to use by-roads, and those which impeded their march. The race was, however, very close and exciting, and the more so, from the fact that neither army could ascertain what progress the other had made. Lee, finding that General Meade was fully informed of his move ments, and ready to meet them, changed his tactics, and sent Hill s corps, in light marching order, to gain, by forced marches, the heights of Centre- vine in advance of the Union army, while E well s corps should harass their flank and rear. The marching on both sides was rapid and resolute, and in the space passed by infantry troops in two days, has been rarely equalled; but the Union army won. On Wednesday morning, October 14th, Meade s entire army crossed Cedar Run at Auburn, the second corps (Warren s) bringing up the rear and protecting the corps trains. At this point, EwelFs advance approached, and commenced annoying Warren s rear, and from this point to Bristow station, his rear-guard was constantly skirmishing with Ewell, and by various tactical manoeuvres, delaying his progress. At noon, War ren passed Catlett s station, and at forty -five minutes past two, entered the village of Bristow station, seven miles distant. Here he found Hill s corps drawn up in line of battle. Hill had crossed from Greenwich to Bristow, believing that he should strike the head of Meade s army, but all had passed save the rear corps. General Hill was familiar with the ground at Bristow station, but, by a strange oversight, he had formed his troops in a column perpendicular to the railroad, and had not taken possession of the railroad cut and embank ment. General Warren, coming up on the quickstep, and being saluted as he approached, by a heavy fire from the enemy, comprehended the po sition at a glance, saw Hill s blunder, and jumping his men into these 668 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. ready made breastworks, poured almost instantly a terrible musketry fire into the advancing column of the enemy, which sent them back in disor der and confusion. While they were rallying for another advance, he had brought his artillery up, planted it, and charging it heavily with grape and canister, was ready for them, as they came up a second time with their forces strongly massed, and ploughed great furrows in their columns. They rallied again and again, and sought to break his lines, but in vain, and after five hours of hard fighting, they retreated, leaving six guns on the field (the corps best battery), and having lost over five hundred in killed and wounded, and four hundred prisoners. Hill fell back to Cat- lett s station, and there joined Ewell. Warren, during the night, moved forward quietly, and joined the remainder of the army on the heights of Centreville, leaving Lee s army at Catlett s station. The Union army formed in line of battle on Thursday morning, and awaited an attack from the enemy; but Lee was too shrewd to hurl his forces against those strong works, especially when nothing could be gained by it ; for Meade s posi tion could not be effectually flanked, and Lee had no troops to sacrifice in an attack which could only result in a disastrous repulse. He remained, however, in the vicinity of Bristow station till the 18th, his men, mean while, destroying the railroad from Cub Eun to the Rappahannock, and making reconnoissances around the Union position. On the 18th, he gave orders for the infantry to move southward to the Rappahannock. The Rebel cavalry, under command of General J. E. B. Stuart, formed the rear-guard of Lee s army, and did not move until the 19th. On the morning of that day, Custer s brigade of Union cavalry attacked them, and drove them from Gainesville to Buckland s mills, where, after a sharp fight, he turned Stuart s right flank, and drove him across Broad Run to Greenwich, where the Rebel infantry were overtaken, and came to Stu art s support. Custer fought another desperate battle, inflicting severe losses on the enemy, and then withdrew to the north bank of Broad Run, the Rebels making no attempt to pursue beyond the south bank. In the retreating movement, the Rebels intercepted and cut off" a part of one regi ment, capturing nearly two hundred prisoners. But for this misfortune, Custer s losses, in a protracted battle against such heavy odds, would have been light. On the 21st of October, Lee had returned with his army to his old quar ters south of the Rapidan. The Rebels had captured, in this expedition, nearly two thousand prisoners, but their own losses, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, were fully as many, and they had lost, also, their best bat tery. They had, indeed, destroyed the railroad for twenty-six miles, but, with the abundant material and facilities possessed for replacing it by the Union army, it would be rebuilt in a few days. It was, in fact, restored almost completely in seventeen days. General Lee had ordered General Imboden, who was in com maud of SEDGWICK S ASSAULT ON RAPPAHANNOCK STATION. 669 the Rebel forces near the Potomac river, to make an attack simultaneously with his own, upon the Union troops near the Potomac. Accordingly, on the 18th of October, he marched suddenly and rapidly upon Charles- town, Va., and surprised and captured the Union garrison, taking four hundred and thirty-four prisoners, and though pursued by a Union force from Harper s Ferry, he managed to reach Front Royal with his prisoners, without serious loss. As we have said, Lee at first returned to his old quarters on the south bank of the Rapidan, but he presently broke up his camp there, and advanced to the Rappahannock, occupying the south bank, from Rappa- hannock station to Kelly s ford, while at the former point, he established his camp on both sides of the river, and protected it by a strong fort, two redoubts, and lines of rifle-pits. He evidently intended to make this po sition his winter quarters ; but General Meade had no intention of being thus pushed back, and on the 7th of November, the railroad being nearly repaired, he moved from Cedar Run, in the vicinity of which his troops had been encamped, to regain possession of the line of the Rappahannock. The sixth corps, forming the Union right wing, marched from Warren- ton toward Rappahannock station ; the second, third, and fifth corps, forming the centre, moved from Warrenton Junction to Bealeton, whence the fifth turned its course to join the sixth corps, and the second and third directed their march to Kelly s ford, whither also the first corps, forming the left wing, had marched. Moving rapidly, and throwing out heavy lines of skirmishers and sharpshooters, the first, second, and third corps, the latter in advance, approached the river, drove the Rebel pickets before them, occupied the line of hills on the north bank of the river with their batteries, and under cover of these, which swept the plains on the south bank, laid their pontoons, and an attacking party crossing, at the double-quickstep, charged the rifle-pits, and captured over four hun dred prisoners. The fifth and sixth corps had a more difficult task before them. Tne fort, redoubts, and rifle-pits on the north side of the Rappahannock, at the station, were held by about two thousand men of Early s division, E well s corps. By a series of brilliant and determined movements, the sixth corps succeeded in obtaining possession of commanding positions in rear of the fort in the morning, and planting heavy batteries on these, bombarded it through the day, and just before dark, General Sedgwick formed a storming column of two brigades, which carried the fort by as sault, capturing over fifteen hundred prisoners, four guns, and eight battle- flags. The Union loss in the sixth corps was about three hundred killed and wounded. The fifth and sixth corps, having crossed the river, secured the country as far as Stevensburg, about midway between the two rivers, the Rebels everywhere retreating before them. The first, second, and third corps moved on toward Brandy station, and two miles east of that 670 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. point, on the morning of the 8th, were confronted by a strong Rebel force of cavalry and light artillery, with whom they skirmished all day, but finally succeeded in driving them two miles beyond the station. The Rebels, by the morning of the 9th, had all retreated beyond the Eapidan, and as General Meade ascertained, occupied a strong position on the south bank of the Rapidan, a little west of their former camp, and were dili gently employed in fortifying it. They had left their camp near the Rap- pahannock in such haste, that they had not destroyed the railroad which they had repaired, or the new station-house, platform, etc., which they had built at Brandy station. While General Meade was waiting for the connection of the railroad to Brandy station, and the bringing up of such supplies as were necessary, he had a careful reconnoissance made of the enemy s position, and the extent to which the lower fords of the Rapidan were guarded. He ascertained that Swell s corps occupied a line running nearly south from the Rapidan toward Orange Court House. His front on the Rapidan was impregnable, consisting of a succession of ridges, commanding every foot of the north bank of the river opposite, which at that point was low and flat. This naturally strong position had been greatly strengthened by extensive, and elaborate fortifications. Hill s corps were at, and below Orange Court House, extending eastward on the Orange and Fredericksburg plank road, and separated by an interval of several miles from E well s corps. The lower fords of the Rapidan were either left unguarded, or were held only by a small picket force. Having ascertained these facts, General Meade determined upon a coup de main, by which he hoped to divide, and conquer in detail, Lee s army. His plan was to cut loose from his base of supplies, taking ten day s rations for his men, cross the Rapidan at the lower fords, and marching in the direction of Old Yerdiersville, on a road midway between the Orange and Fredericksburg plank road, and the Rapidan, moving with great rapidity, to throw his entire force between Ewell and Hill, and from the ridges west of Mine Run, a position of rare strength, attack first one and then the other. In order to accomplish this, however, the elements of time and space must be taken into account. The work was to be accomplished rapidly and simultaneously, every corps reaching its specified position by a given hour. The distance to be traversed by each corps to reach Old Verdiersville, the place of rendezvous, varied from twenty to twenty-five miles. General Meade reasonably calculated that each of the corps com manders could bring their corps over this distance in thirty hours. The advance was begun on the morning of the 26th of November; he ex pected them to reach the designated point on the evening of the 27th. But this was not accomplished. On the morning of the 27th the army were only just across the Rapidan, not more than half the distance, though twenty-four hours had passed. Orders were now given to push forward with greater rapidity. Early in the afternoon, General Warren s second ABORTIVE MOVEMENT OF GENERAL MEADE. 671 corps came up with the enemy, and began developing his strength by a brisk skirmish, but was ordered not to make a serious attack until the third French s corps should come up. This corps, however, did not come up, having been delayed by various difficulties, the most serious of which was, that it took the wrong road, and was brought face to face with Johnson s division of Ewell s corps, which held it in check, and de layed its progress. But this mishap was more serious in its consequences than merely delaying the march of the corps, for it revealed to Ewell the entire movement of Meade, and led him to plant his entire force across the turnpike, and thus prevent Warren s advance, and while holding Warren in check, to bring Hill up to close the gap between them. His plan thus unmasked to the enemy, and completely thwarted by being thus prematurely disclosed, General Meade could only order up other corps to the support of Warren, in the hope that he might yet be able to force Ewell back, and gain the position which he coveted, and from which he might have fought Lee s army with strong hope of decisive victory. The first Newton s corps was ordered up, but did not reach him before dark. The sixth Sedgwick s corps arrived about the same time, and was posted on Warren s right, but they could not fight well in the darkness, where the country was entirely unknown to them, and they were compelled to wait until morning, with the certainty that before that time Hill would have joined Ewell. In the morning, General Meade found the enemy occupying the very position he had striven to gain, their line formed on a series of ridges, with enfilading positions for batteries, while in front stretched the marsh of Mine Run, and the enemy had added forti fications to the natural strength of the position. To attempt to assail this in front, was simply suicidal, for while floundering through the marsh, every soldier would have been destroyed by the concentrated fire of the enemy s batteries. Saturday, and a part of Sunday, were spent in a care ful reconnoissance of the enemy s position ; General Warren had exam ined carefully the enemy s right, and reported confidently his ability to carry it. It was determined to make the assault on Monday morning, and to ensure the success of his attack, two divisions of the third, and one of the sixth corps, were ordered to report to hi**> During the night of the 29th, General Warren again examined the poe^jon, with still greater care, and came to the conclusion that it could not be carried without an immense sacrifice of life. This conclusion he reported to General Meade, who then resolved to postpone the attack. Under the circumstances, to postpone it, was to abandon it. His ten day s rations were nearly exhausted, and a single day s rain would place the army in a perilous position. The com mander, therefore, reluctantly, but of necessity, marched his army back in safety across the Rapidan, to their former position. The losses of the army of the Potomac, in this unfortunate movement, were sixty killed, and five hundred and forty wounded and missing. 612 THE.CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER LV. THE " ANACONDA" POLICY REASONS WHY IT COULD NOT SUCCEED IN CRUSHING THE REBEL LION DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF THE OCCUPATION OF TEXAS DETERMINED UPON TH REASONS ASSIGNED FOR IT GENERAL FRANKLIN ORDERED TO LOUISIANA EXPEDITION OF GENERALS BANKS AND FRANKLIN TO TEXAS THE GREAT PREPARATIONS MADE FOR IT THK TROOPS AND THEIR COMMANDERS THE DISASTROUS ATTACK ON SABINE PASS AND CITY ADVANCE OF THK ARMY TO VERMILLIONVILLE THE COAST EXPEDITION TO TEXAS RECON STRUCTION IN LOUISIANA THE STARTING OF THE ADVANCE OF THE GRAND ARMY CAPTURE OF SIMMSPORT, BAYOU GLACE, AND FORT DE RUSSY ALEXANDRIA CAPTURED AND OCCU PIED BATTLES OF TEACHOE8 AND CANE RIVER THE ARMY TOO MUCH SCATTERED ARRI VAL AT GRAND ECORE THE ADVANCE TOWARD MANSFIELD THE BATTLE OF MANSFIELD ROUT AND PANIC BATTLE OF PLEASANT HILL THE RETREAT DOWN THE RED RIVER GRAND ECORE JUMPING THE SAND BARS ALEXANDRIA THE RAPIDS COLONEL BAILEY S DAMS ESCAPE OF THE GUNBOATS REAR-ADMIRAL PORTER S REPORT THE RETREAT TO SIMMSPORT AND MORGANZIA GENERAL STEELED RETREAT TO LITTLE ROCK GENERAL CANBY IN COMMAND OF THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI DIVISION DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS OF FLORIDA UNIONISTS THEIR PLEAS FOR AN EXPEDITION INTO NORTHERN FLORIDA THE EXPEDITION ORDERED THE PLAN GENERAL SEYMOUR AT ITS HEAD DELAYS AND DISASTERS BATTLE OF OLUSTEE RETREAT OF THE UNION FORCES LOSSES END OF THE " ANACONDA* POLICY. THE policy of the Government of the United States during the first three years of the war, in regard to its prosecution, was that originated, it is said, by General Scott, and more fully developed by General McClellan, and known in popular phrase as the "Anaconda" policy. It contemplated the surrounding the insurgents at all points by a cordon of troops, cutting off their supplies by a land as well as sea blockade, and by a gradual contraction of its lines, hemming them in and crushing them, as the anaconda, by the contraction of its coils, crushes its prey. With a territory far less extended, and a country possessing few or none of the topo graphical difficulties which the region occupied by the insurgents pre sented, and a more gigantic army than that of the Union, this policy would possibly have succeeded ; but, under the circumstances, its success was impossible. Particular battles or campaigns might prove successful ; the enemy might be defeated at one point or another ; his sources of sup ply from one point or another, either by running the blockade, or by communication with the disloyal at the north, might be cut off; but the number of troops required to inclose the insurgent territory, and drive the Rebels in upon their own centre, was too great, the expenditure it necessitated too vast, and the opportunities of evading the pressure too many, to admit of complete success. The triumphs which led to the close of the war were not attained until this policy had been abandoned, and that of concentration adopted. When, by the movements of the THE ANACONDA POLICY. 673 Union armies, the Rebels were compelled to collect their forces mainly around two or three points, whose preservation and defence was vital to their existence, the problem of the continuance of the war was very much simplified. If they could successfully defend these positions, and destroy, or thoroughly and permanently cripple, the armies which assailed them, they would thereby present a claim to foreign recognition, which would not be long withheld. If, on the contrary, they found it impossible, after a long and desperate struggle, to retain their possession of these vital points, and were compelled to yield them to the assailing power, their claim to independence or separate national existence, would be proved futile, and the Rebellion must come to an end. The United States Government had not, however, at the time of which we write, fully comprehended the necessity for the abandonment of the " anaconda" policy. They were beginning, indeed, to see that it involved a vast expenditure, and that when a particular section had been subdued, the work was often to be done over that they could not maintain lines of auch vast extent, even with the great armies they were keeping in the field ; but the desire to overrun and conquer new portions of the insur gent territory, even if their occupation of it were only temporary, where such occupation yielded to the captors a plentiful supply of cotton or cattle, or would result in a crop of lucrative offices, was too strong to be as yet resisted. The Department of the Gulf had not been in all respects judiciously managed. Its civil -administration under General Butler had been wise and efficient ; but the military force, during his administration, had never been sufficient to hold more than a narrow strip of territory along the banks of the Mississippi, and his tenure of some portions of that was pre carious. When General Banks assumed command of the department, he was at first crippled by the same lack of troops ; and it was not until his second expedition into the "Attakapas country" that he was strong enough to hold the region of central Louisiana. When he undertook the siege of Port Hudson, though reinforced by a very considerable body of nine months troops, he was compelled to weaken the garrisons of the central towns to such an extent that the Rebels regained possession of several of them. Galveston, Texas, had been captured and held for a few weeks by a combined naval and land force ; but with the disastrous assault upon the mere handful of Union troops forming its garrison, and the capture, destruction, and defeat of the squadron there, it had lapsed again into Rebel hands, and all efforts to obtain a permanent foothold in Texas had failed from the want of a sufficient Union force to garrison and hold what they might capture. The possession of Texas, except for the relief of its oppressed and long-suffering Unionists, was not essential to the successful conduct of the war. If left alone till the vital points in the insurgent territory were reduced, it would, as it afterward did, fall into the hands 43 6U THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of the Union Government without a battle. But on the " anaconda" theory its occupation was essential, and despite its vast extent, its plains and plateaus, covered only with the mesquit, or the more formidable cactus growths, its unnavigable rivers, and its storm-lashed coasts, the decree went forth that it must be occupied. The reasons assigned for the expe dition for its invasion were sufficiently plausible. It was known that there had been many thousands of Unionists in the State, and that they had been treated with great cruelty, murdered, imprisoned, exiled, and plundered of all they possessed. Those who, amid great suffering, had been able to make their escape into Mexico, or into the loyal States or territories, gave a frightful, but probably not overdrawn picture of the persecutions to which they and their loyal fellow-citizens had been sub jected. The Texan soldiers in the Rebel armies had been among the most efficient and reckless troops in their service. Accustomed to a life on horseback, and skilled in all equestrian accomplishments, leading, especially on the frontier, a life of daring and hardship, exposed for years to the attacks of the Apaches, Camanches, Navajoes, and other formidable tribes of Indians, and educated, from the early history of their State, to a criminal disregard of the sanctity of human life, they were troops which were not to be despised for their prowess, and often to be dreaded for their cruelty. Their numbers, too, compared with the population of the State, were large. Nearly the whole disloyal male population, of military age, had, in one capacity or another, entered the Rebel service, and the larger portion had been enrolled in the armies east of the Mississippi, and in Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. To call these home, or to overrun the State while they were absent, would, it was argued, inflict serious injury upon the enemy. Texas, from a variety of causes, was richer than the other insurgent States. She had, from the first, refused to receive the worthless Confederate currency for her products, accepting nothing but gold in exchange. Her cattle and sheep, which by tens and hundreds of thousands dotted her plains and prairies, had furnished a large part of the Rebel commissariat ; and, on her western border, the Mexican port of Matamoras formed the nominal, and Brownsville, Texas, the real, destina tion of great numbers of blockade-runners, which brought thither the greatly coveted products of European manufactories, and took in ex change, at high prices, vast quantities of cotton, carted across the plains from eastern Texas. To check this blockade-running, and obtain for loyal use this contraband cotton, was surely desirable. The route to be selected was a question of great importance. To send an expedition overland, through western Louisiana and eastern Texas, was difficult, and fraught with numerous dangers ; there were bayous, lakes, and rivers to be crossed, requiring large pontoon trains ; the roads, much of the way, were muddy and heavy, and where they were not, the cross timbers, or dense forest, so matted as to obstruct passage, and extend- THE EXPEDITION TQ TEXAS 675 ing for many miles, and the chapparal, a thick and impenetrable growth of the thorny cactus and the acacia, barred any rapid progress, especially of wagon trains; yet a large force, and one having an immense train, could alone force its way through, and the delay which the trains would necessitate, would leave ample time for the concentration of the Rebel forces in front of the advancing army. The route by sea was perhaps equally perilous. The coast of Texas presented but few even tolerable ports; sand-bars at the mouth of nearly every harbor, obstructed the entrance, and rendered the passage of vessels drawing over ten feet of water impossible ; while the norther, a fierce cold wind which sweeps down upon the gulf from the Rocky mountains, and often lasts for a week, renders the navigation exceedingly dangerous, and imperils the lives of the horses and cattle needed for the land service. The knowledge of the coast possessed by the squadron, was imperfect, especially of that portion adjacent to its ports. Still, with all these difficulties, the Administration, stimulated to the work by those who had sinister ends to gain, and who had the skill to conceal their purposes under the cloak of desire to serve the country and to put down the Rebellion, determined upon the expedition, and, as if to render disaster certain, decided to proceed by both routes, attacking by way of the coast, and sending a column inland through western Louisiana. Major-General Franklin was sent from the army of the Potomac to take command of one of the corps which was to take part in the expedition ; Major-General Ord was to command the other, and Major-General Banks was to have the chief command of the expedition, as department comman der. At a later period, the- commanding general was authorized to borrow what troops could be spared from other departments, and did obtain por tions of the sixteenth and seventeenth army corps, under General A. J. Smith, from the Department of the Tennessee, while General Steele was ordered to march with as large an army as he could collect in Arkansas and Missouri, to his support, through Arkansas. While the troops, supplies, and vessels of light draft were being col lected at New Orleans for the great expedition, it was determined to attack, with a moderate force, Sabine City, a place of considerable strategic importance, and defended by a small but somewhat troublesome fort, a battery of small field pieces, aad affording shelter to two bay steamers, which the Rebels had converted into rams. The town lies at the outlet of Sabine lake, the estuary of Sabine river, and the boundary-line between Louisiana and Texas. The place was supposed to be indifferently fciti- fied ; though the information in regard to it was very imperfect, and such as rendered the enterprise unjustifiable, without a previous reconnoissance. About four thousand men of the nineteenth corps, were sent on this expedition, under the command of Major-General Franklin, while Briga dier-General Weitzel accompanied it as chief engineer and chief of stafU 676 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. They were embarked in transports, and convoyed by the light draft gun boats Clifton, Sachem, Arizona, and Granite City. The attack was to be made on the morning of the 7th of September, the land forces having been previously landed under the protection of the gunboats, and these were then to reduce the small fort first, which the Union troops would imme diately occupy. The whole enterprise proved a failure. So ignorant were the leaders of the expedition of the topography of the place they were attempting to reduce, that they found, "on arriving at the spot where the troops were destined to land," that it was the edge of an impassable swamp, and the Granite City was obliged to protect them in their fruitless endeavors to find more solid ground. As they were thus thrown hoi s du combat, the work of reducing the fort and batteries was necessarily left to the squadron. The Clifton and Sachem, followed by the Arizona, proceeded manfully to the work. For some time the forts deigned no reply, though the gunboats threw their large shells directly into the works ; but at length they opened upon their assailants, and greatly to the surprise of the officers of the gunboats, with eight guns, all of large calibre, and three of them rifled, instead of the two thirty-two pounders which they had been assured constituted the sole armament of the fort. For some time the fighting was severe ; the fort and batteries replying shot for shot, and with great accuracy, to every gun of the three boats. The Sachem, mean while, was working round to the flank and rear of the fort, where the works were weakest, while the Clifton and Arizona continued their attack in front, firing with great rapidity. When the Sachem had nearly accom plished her purpose, she was struck on the side by a rifled shot, which penetrated her armor, entered her steam chest, and made her a complete wreck ; and her crew, being entirely helpless, ran up the white flag. The Clifton, running down closer to the principal battery, to endeavor to silence it, both by her broadside, and by her sharpshooters picking off the enemy s gunners, unfortunately ran aground, when a new Rebel bat tery, hitherto silent, opened upon her at short range. She replied with great vigor, but presently a shot from the battery entered and exploded her boiler, when her commander, Lieutenant Crocker, determined that she should be of no service to the enemy, ordered his deck to be cleared, and loading the after pivot-gun with a nine inch solid shot, fired it through the centre of the ship, from stem to stern, tearing the machinery to pieces, and rendering it utterly worthless to the enemy, and then, with his crew, made his escape to the other gunboats. The Arizona and Granite City, finding themselves unable to cope with the formidable Rebel batteries, withdrew, the Arizona grounding once, but getting afloat again without serious injury, and the gunboats and transports returned to Brashear City. The Union loss in this unfortunate adventure, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was about two hundred and fifty, and twelve heavy guns. MOVEMENTS OP THE FORCES UNDER GENERAL BANKS. 677 The armament of the two gunboats had also fallen into the hands of the enemy. After a somewhat protracted delay at Brashear City, one hundred and thirty miles distant by railroad from New Orleans, the troops under Gene ral Franklin s command moved forward to Franklin and Vermillionville. Here they met with some resistance, on the 9th of October, but, after a sharp fight, drove the enemy before them in a precipitate retreat. The same day the remainder of the nineteenth and the whole of the thirteenth corps, under command of General Ord, reached Vermillionville. General Banks now determined to make New Iberia, on the Bayou Teche, about twenty miles below Vermillionville, his secondary base, and commenced accumulating here the necessary supplies for his grand expe dition. Franklin s corps advanced, meanwhile, to Opelousas, but finding no opposition, returned to Vermillionville, and eventually to New Iberia. One division of the thirteenth corps was sent to Madisonville, on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, and encamped there. Detachments of the thir teenth corps, to the amount of about four thousand men, were embarked at New Orleans, on the 27th of October, in about twenty transports, and accompanied by the gunboats Owasco, Virginia, and Monongahela, for an expedition to the coast of Texas. General Banks accompanied the expe dition, but it was under the special command of General C. C. Washburne. The voyage lasted four days, and the expedition encountered a norther, in which three vessels but no lives were lost. On the 31st of October, they anchored off the mouth of the Rio Grande, and on the 1st of November, a body of troops was landed, without opposition, on Brazos island. From this point they marched to Brownsville, on the Rio Grande, twenty-seven miles distant, and on the 4th of November, General Banks occupied the town, the Rebels having fled, after an ineffectual attempt to destroy the government property. Proceeding along the coast, leaving sufficient gar risons at every important point, the expedition captured, with but insig nificant resistance, successively, Point Isabel, Mustang island, and the Rebel fortifications on Corpus Christi bay, Aransas, Matagorda island and bay, with Fort Esperanza and two heavy siege guns, Indianola, Lavacca, and Saluria. Early in December, General Banks returned to New Or leans. On his return, his attention was much occupied for some months with the efforts making for the reconstruction of Louisiana, and its read- mission to the Union, with Governor, members of Congress, &o., elected mainly by the votes of the soldiers and civilians from the North, who had come thither for business or speculation. The work of collecting supplies and troops went on slowly. The west gulf squadron, finding that their services were not required, scattered to other portions of their cruising ground, and the transports were sent north, to bring Sherman s army from Memphis to Vicksburg, and at the close of his expedition, to return a portion of it to Memphis. Meantime, the garrisons on the Texas coast 678 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. were maintained, but were too small to attempt any enterprise of offence. It was proposed, at one time, to send a considerable force to Indianola or Matagorda, and thence march into the interior, prepared to hold western Texas, prevent the illicit traffic on the Rio Grande, and pressing gradually eastward, joined, as they would have been, by the loyal Texans in con siderable numbers, to crush the Rebel army in Texas between this advan cing force and that under Franklin and Ord, in western Louisiana. The Rebel army in Texas, at this time, was weak, and such a movement, if prose cuted with energy, might have proved successful. Unfortunately, it was neglected, and the notes of preparation sounded for so long a time before any actual movement, served only to rouse the Rebels to action, and before the march was actually commenced, they had thrown into western Louisi ana a force sufficiently formidable to cope successfully with General Banks army. During the winter of 1863-4, from twenty to thirty thousand troops lay idle in Louisiana, waiting for the proposed movement. Early in March, the thirteenth and nineteenth corps moved northward to Opelousas and the banks of the Atchafalaya, abandoning the Teche country, except a few important posts, in order to be nearer Natchez and Port Hudson, both of which were threatened by the enemy. On the 10th of March, an expe dition, composed of detachments of the sixteenth and seventeenth army corps, amounting in all to nearly an average army corps, under command of Brigadier, (now Major General) Andrew J. Smith, left Yicksburg on transports for the Red river. They passed into the Atchafalaya river through the old mouth of the Red, and on the 13th landed at Simmsport, a few miles from the head of the Atchafalaya, and on its west bank. The naval squadron of Rear- Admiral Porter, consisting of three monitors, seven river iron-clads, three rams, and four small gunboats, accompanied them. On the approach of these forces, the enemy abandoned his posi tion and defences at Simmsport, as well as the much stronger position at Bayou Glace, and hastily retreated to Fort de Russy, distant by land about thirty-five miles. Thither, leaving the navy to follow, General Smith pursued, and arrived before the fort on the afternoon of the 14th of March. Fort de Russy was a formidable quadrangular work, with bastions and bomb-proofs, covered with railroad iron, and was regarded by the Rebels as impregnable, especially on its water front. It was garrisoned by a strong force, under General Dick Taylor. That general, learning of Smith s approach, had gone out to intercept him, and had taken by-roads, in the hope of reaching and attacking his flank and rear. But three hundred and fifty troops of the large garrison were left in the fort. General Smith had made a forced march to reach the enemy s posi tion before the squadron, the route by water being nearly seventy miles, and on coming up, immediately ordered an attack. After a very brief engagement, conducted on the side of the Union troops with equal OPERATIONS OF THE ARMY IX LOUISIANA. 679 gallantry and skill, the garrison surrendered, and the Union flag was hoisted on the ramparts just as the squadron hove in sight. By this gallant action, General Smith captured two hundred and sixty pris oners, ten cannon four of which had been captured by the Rebels from the Harriet Lane and other Union vessels a large number of small arms, two thousand barrels of fine powder, and a considerable quantity of ammunition and commissary stores. His losses were seven killed and forty-one wounded. Ordering the destruction of the fort, General Smith embarked on his transports, and in company with the squadron, ascended the Red river to Alexandria, which surrendered without resistance, and was entered the same day by the advance-guard of the cavalry of the army of the gulf, which had moved forward from Opelousas. General Banks, who was still at New Orleans, now exerted himself to push forward his troops, and having repulsed an impudent attack made by a mere handful of Rebel troops on the upper portion of the Bayou Teche, sent the thirteenth and nineteenth corps with all haste by way of Opelousas to Alexandria, a distance from Brashear City of one hundred and seventy- five miles. On the 27th of March, they had nearly all arrived at that point. Alexandria was rich in spoils. Five thousand bales of Confeder ate cotton were found there, as well as other stores. On the 21st of March, while awaiting the arrival of the army of the gulf, General Smith had sent Brigadier-General John A. Mower, with a detachment of several hundred troops, to make a reconnoissance. He followed the retreating foe to Trachoes, near Natchitoches, where, meeting them in considerable force, he repulsed them, and by a skilful flank and rear movement cap tured two hundred and eighty-two prisoners, four pieces of artillery, one hundred and fifty horses, and other spoils. Continuing his advance, he captured, within a few days, thirteen more cannon. On the 27th of March, General Smith left Alexandria to continue the forward movement, accom panied by a few of the troops of the army of the gulf. His whole command did not number more than six thousand men. The next day he met the enemy in force about twelve thousand strong at Cane river, thirty miles above Alexandria, and after a battle of about three hours, the Rebels gave way, losing two hundred in killed and wounded, and over five hundred prisoners. Soon after this battle, General Banks arrived and assumed command of the army. Its progress from this time was slow and it was scattered too widely not to fall a prey to a wily and skilful enemy. Mower, with his advance column, was far on the way to Shreve- port ; Smith, with the force which had defeated the enemy at Cane Hill, was marching near the river, and General Banks, with the greater part of the thirteenth and nineteenth corps, was marching slowly in the interior, at considerable distance from the river, his army gathering cotton in large quantities. His army did not reach Grand Ecore, only sixty miles above Alexandria, until the 6th of April. Porter, with his squadron, had pushed $80 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. up the Eed river as far as Springfield landing, within eighty miles of Shreveport; and the river, which he had ascended at its highest stage, was already beginning to fall. General Steele was marching to join them by way of Arkadelphia, at the head of fifteen thousand men, and General Thayer of the army of the frontier, was coming southward, by way of Washington, Arkansas, with a considerable cavalry force. These troops were, however, too far distant, and their march was too long, to hope for support from them very speedily. The army of the Gulf had been weak ened before starting, by sending a considerable portion of its cavalry on an expedition up the Rio Grande to Eagle Pass, four hundred miles above Brownsville, to capture that post, which had been a noted outlet for Rebel cotton, of which a large amount was captured. Indianola had been evacuated by the Union troops, on the plea that it was of no strategic importance, and Corpus Christi had been reoccupied, and eight hundred prisoners captured, and large quantities of cotton. The greed for this fibre, growing by what it had fed upon, had become the bane and curse of the army. Reckoning their prospective profits by thousands arid tens of thousands of dollars, officers and men alike grew reckless and impatient of restraint, and in a fit condition to meet with a disastrous defeat. It is but just to General Banks to say that personally he did not profit by this mania for cotton, and that he did what lay in his power to prevent the demoralizing effect which it had produced upon the army ; but it was utterly in vain. The entire army were infected by the cotton mania, and had no thought of any thing else. For two days, the cavalry pushed on recklessly, far ahead of the infantry, driving the enemy before them, and supposed they could proceed in the same way to Springfield landing, where the squadron awaited their coming. But they reckoned without their host. The Rebel commander was no longer the easy-going General Dick Taylor, but Lieutenant-General E. Kirby Smith, a skilful strategist, who had met and measured the Union army on the other side of the Mississippi, knew their scattered condition here, knew thoroughly the country through which they were passing a country covered, for the most part, with a dense pine forest and who had at his command a large and well disciplined force, upon which, at that time, cotton had not exercised its demoralizing power. The Union cavalry, marching, as we have said, far in advance of the infantry, had their own immense wagon train following them immediately, laden with the precious fibre. On the afternoon of the 8th of April, near Mansfield, Louisiana, where the road forks to Logansport, they met the enemy, and immediately engaged him, little doubting the result. The Rebel skirmishers fell back a little to the main body, and the Union cavalry found that they had the entire Rebel army to fight. More cavalry was hurried in, and ere long the whole cavalry division, much of it cavalry only in name, was engaged, but was compelled to fight dismounted. The DISASTER TO THE ARMY IN LOUISIANA. 681 Kebel infantry pressed steadily on, his line overlapping the Union forcea on both flanks. Embarrassed by their horses, astonished at the extraor dinary fighting of an enemy who had hitherto shown them only his back, the extemporized cavalry, which had been, for the most -part, only mounted infantry, melted away, the straggling became a panic, the panic a crazy, mad rout of shrieking men on scared horses. The train was in the way of flight or advance, the teamsters insane with fright, the horses, with their traces cut, used by the drivers to expedite their flight, and the wagons, without horses or drivers, effectually blocking the road. The panic-stricken cavalry fly back till they reach the thirteenth corps, which, better disciplined, forms and hurries into action against the pursuing enemy ; but after fighting gallantly for a short time, they too are flanked* and melt into a rout. The enemy, flushed with victory, now comes upon the nineteenth corps, takes it almost by surprise, in the very act of deploying, with scarcely time to recall skirmishers ; rushes upon it with wild cheers to meet the first check that day. The nineteenth corps was unable to hold its position ; but not being pressed by the full weight of the enemy, and being measurably relieved from the terrifying presence of its panic-stricken predecessors, its retreat never became a rout. Next day, at Pleasant Hill, thirty-five miles in the rear of the first scene of battle, the panic having burned out, the troops were halted, a hasty re organization of fragments was attempted, an excellent position taken up, and the onset of the enemy awaited. He attacked impetuously, and with varying success. All day the tide of battle ebbed, and flowed along the line until, finally, a tremendous effort of the enemy, steadily met and vig orously repulsed, exhausted their force, and left the Union troops a fruit less victory and safety. On the following day, the Union army fell back to Grand Ecore. The results of this short campaign, were the loss to the Union army of thirty-nine hundred and sixty-nine men, thirty field guns, and over two hundred wagons. At Pleasant Hill, they captured nearly two thousand prisoners, and it was reported, twenty guns. The Rebel loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was probably not much less than that of the army of the Gulf. Rear- Admiral Porter was notified at once of the disaster which had befallen the army, and was requested to descend the Red river to Grand Ecore, to support their further retreat. The admiral complied at once with the request, though greatly chagrined at the failure. On his way down, he found the river falling rapidly, but though twice attacked by the enemy during his passage down, succeeded in repulsing his assailants without serious loss. He reached Grand Ecore on the 13th, and found two of his gunboats which had been left, aground above the bar with but little prospect of getting off. The army remained at Grand Ecore about two weeks the commanding general summoning to his aid all the avail- 682 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. able troops in his department, including most of those in Texas, and then fell back to Alexandria, its rear constantly harassed by the enemy, who was, however, engaged with spirit at the crossing of Cane river, and re pulsed handsomely, with considerable loss. The fleet and transports, meantime, were following as best they might, "jumping" the sand bars and logs, which, either by accident or design, obstructed their passage. Only one vessel, the Eastport, was lost, while the only wonder was that in this perilous passage, where, in addition to the diffi culties of the navigation, the enemy had planted batteries at every available point, and the light draft gunboats were riddled with their shot, any were saved. The Champion was burned near Alexandria, the Cricket struck thirty-eight times and twenty-three men of her crew either killed or wounded, and the other boats, though suffering less severely, had each lost a num ber of their crew. Arrived at Alexandria, they were safe from the enemy, but a new danger menaced them. They could not pass the rapids, and they could not spend the summer at Alexandria. Already General Sherman had recalled General A. J. Smith and his command, which be longed to his army, to Yicksburg. The rapids at Alexandria, at high water, offer no serious obstacle to the passage of vessels, but at a low stage of the river, they are impassable. Fortunately, there was an officer in the army, Lieu ten ant- Colonel (now Brigadier-General) Bailey, of Wisconsin, acting engineer of the nineteenth army corps, who had had large experience as a superintendent of lum berers, in the navigation in safety of rapid and rocky streams in the north. He proposed to build a series of dams across the rocks at the falls, and raise the water high enough to let the vessels pass over. The proposition seemed feasible to Admiral Porter, and though others ridi culed it, he requested General Banks to detail the necessary force to carry it out. It must be done within ten days, as the supplies of the army were getting short, and they could not wait longer than that time. Colonel Bailey promised to finish it within the ten days. We will allow Admiral Porter to narrate in his own graphic way the process and result of the undertaking. " General Banks placed at the disposal of Colonel Bailey all the force he required, consisting of some three thousand men, and two or three hundred wagons. All the neighboring steam mills were torn down for material, two or three regiments of Maine men were set to work felling trees, and on the second day after my arrival in Alexandria from Grand Ecore, the work had fairly begun. Trees were falling with great rapidity, teams were moving in all directions, bringing in brick and stone; quarries were opened ; flatboats were built to bring down stone from above ; and every man seemed to be working with a vigor I have seldom seen equalled, while perhaps not one in fifty believed in the success of the un dertaking. These falls are about a mile in length, filled with rugged THE PASSAGE OF THE RAPIDS AT ALEXANDRIA. 683 rocks, over which, at the present stage of water, it seemed to be impossi ble to make a channel. "The work was commenced by running out from the left bank of the river a tree dam, made of the bodies of very large trees, brush, brick, and stone, cross-tied with other heavy timber, and strengthened in every way which ingenuity could devise. This was run out about three hundred feet into the river ; four large coal barges were then filled with brick and sunk at the end of it. From the right bank of the river cribs filled with stone were built out to meet the barges. All of which was successfully accomplished, notwithstanding there was a current running of nine miles an hour, which threatened to sweep every thing before it. " It will take too much time to enter into the details of this truly won derful work. Suffice it to say, that the dam had nearly reached com pletion in eight days working time, and the water had risen sufficiently on the upper falls to allow the Fort Hindman, Osage, and Neosho to get down and be ready to pass the dam. In another day it would have been high enough to enable all the other vessels to pass the upper falls. Un fortunately, on the morning of the 9th instant, the pressure of water became so great that it swept away two of the stone barges, which swung in below the dam on one side. Seeing this unfortunate accident, I jumped on a horse, and rode up to where the upper vessels were anchored, and ordered the Lexington to pass the upper falls, if possible, and immediately attempt to go through the dam. I thought I might be able to save the four vessels below, not knowing whether the persons employed on the work would ever have the heart to renew their enterprise. " The Lexington succeeded in getting over the upper falls just in time, the water rapidly falling as she was passing over. She then steered directly for the opening in the dam, through which the water was rushing so furiously that it seemed as if nothing but destruction awaited her. Thousands of beating hearts looked on, anxious for the result. The silence was so great as the Lexington approached the dam that a pin might almost be heard to fall. She entered the gap with a full head of steam on, pitched down the roaring torrent, made two or three spasmodic rolls, hung for a moment on the rocks below, was then swept into deep water by the current, and rounded-to safely into the bank. Thirty thou sand voices rose in one deafening cheer, and universal joy seemed to per vade the face of every man present. " The Neosho followed next ; all her hatches battened down, and every precaution taken against accident. She did not fare as well as the Lex ington, her pilot having become frightened as he approached the abyss and stopped her engine, when I particularly ordered a full head of steam to be carried ; the result was that for a moment her hull disappeared from sight under the water. Every one thought she was lost. She rose, how. ever, swept along over the rocks with the current, and fortunately escaped 684 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. with only one ho?e in her bottom, which was stopped in the course of an hour. "The Hindman and Osage both came through beautifully without touching a thing, and I thought if I was only fortunate enough to get my large vessels as well over the falls, my fleet once more would do good service on the Mississippi. "The accident to the dam, instead of disheartening Colonel Bailey, only induced him to renew his exertions, after he had seen the success of get ting four vessels through. " The noble-hearted soldiers, seeing their labor of the last eight days swept away in a moment, cheerfully went to work to repair damages being confident now that all the gunboats would be finally brought over. These men had been working for eight days and nights up to their necks in the boiling sun, cutting trees and wheeling bricks, and nothing but good humor prevailed amongst them. On the whole it was very for- tunate the dam was carried away, as the two barges that were swept away from the centre swung around against some rocks on the left, and made a fine cushion for the vessels, and prevented them, as it afterward appeared, from running on certain destruction. " The force of the water and the current being too great to construct a continuous dam of six hundred feet across the river in so short a time, Colonel Bailey determined to leave a gap of fifty-five feet in the dam, and build a series of wing dams on the upper falls. This was accomplished in three days time, and on the llth instant, the Mound City, Carondelet, and Pittsburg, came over the upper falls, a good deal of labor having been expended in hauling them through, the channel being very crooked, scarcely wide enough for them. Next day the Ozark, Louisville, Chilli- cothe, and two tugs, also succeeded in crossing the upper falls. Immedi ately afterward the Mound City, Carondelet, and Pittsburg, started in suc cession to pass the dam, all their hatches battened down, and every pre caution taken to prevent accident. The passage of these vessels was a most beautiful sight, only to be realized when seen. They passed over without an accident, except the unshipping of one or two rudders. This was witnessed by all the troops, and the vessels were heartily cheered when they passed over. Next morning at ten o clock, the Louisville, Chillicothe, Ozark, and two tugs, passed over without any accident, except the loss of a man, who was swept off the deck of one of the tugs. By three o clock that afternoon, the vessels were all coaled, ammunition re placed, and all steamed down the river, with the convoy of transports in company. A good deal of difficulty was anticipated in getting over the bars in lower Red river; depth of water reported only five feet ; gunboats were drawing six. Providentially, we had a rise from the back-water of the Mississippi, that river being very high at that time ; the back-water 1 MOVEMENT OF GENERAL STEELB. 685 extending to Alexandria, one hundred and fifty miles distant, enabling us to pass all the bars and obstructions with safety." On the 14lh of May, the army took up its line of march from Alexan dria for Simmsport, which place was reached on the 19th, the march having been a tiresome one, and the rear of the arrny continually harassed by the enemy, who were twice briskly engaged and driven off. The work of bridging the Atchafalaya was immediately commenced; General Banks troops crossed on the 20th, and marched to Morganzia, on the west bank of the Mississippi, above Port Hudson, which place they reached on the 21st, and General Smith s troops embarked, and returned to Vicksburg. At Morganzia, General Canby, who had in the meantime been appointed to the command of the military division of the Trans-Mis sissippi, assumed personal command. The fleet reached the Mississippi with a loss of one gunboat, the Covington, destroyed, and another, the Signal, captured. We have already referred to the march of General Steel e, with a co-op erative column of twenty-five thousand or thirty thousand men from Little Rock, with the intention of forming a juncture with General Banks at or beyond Shreveport, and also to General Thayer s moving southward, with a body of troops from the army of the frontier, by way of Washington, Arkansas. These, which left Fort Smith oil the 25th of March, were to join Steele at or near Camden, Arkansas, and had primarily in view, the defeat of Price, who was said to be in the vicinity of Washington, Arkan sas. The two columns effected a juncture in safety, without having en countered Price, and General Steele succeeded in occupying Camden without much difficulty, only to meet there the news of the failure of the main column under General Banks. About the 1st of May, General Steele, apprised of the retreat of the Union forces on the Red river, and of the definite abandonment of offensive operations in that quarter, and finding his rear threatened by Marmaduke, and a large force, commanded by General E. Kirby Smith in person, in his front, took up the line of march for Little Rock. The retreat was substantially a race with the enemy for his base, and was barely won by him with heavy loss of men and materiel. The insignificant and despised enemy, who two months before was threatened on all sides with destruction, having been forced into concentration, was now attempting the passive offensive measure of blockading the Arkansas, White, and Red rivers. The escape of Banks weakened and dispirited columns was due to the attention of the enemy being withdrawn from them, in the direction of the Arkansas forces. Thus ended ingloriously, though with less of disaster than had been feared at one time, this unfortunate campaign. The Department of the South had been the scene of a parallel, though less extensive disaster, during the winter, from a campaign prompted by other, but hardly more honorable motives than those which led to the 686 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. .Red rive,: blunder. After the President s proclamation of December 8th 1863, relative to the reorganization of States then in Rebellion, prominent Union politicians in Florida, as well as in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Ten nessee, resolved to bring their respective States under its provisions, with a view to secure to themselves seats in Congress, or other offices of honor and emolument. In Florida, the United States Government held most of the coast, and the lakes and swamps of the peninsula were for the most part uninhabited, but the northern portion of the State was still under Rebel control, and its broad savannas furnished pasturage to tens of thou sands of cattle, whose flesh largely contributed to the commissariat of the Rebel armies. The aspiring politicians to whom we have alluded, found in this circumstance a strong argument for the undertaking of an expedi tion, which, while it should cut off the Rebel supplies of beef, would also so far bring that section of the State under subjection, as to enable them to accomplish their purpose of restoring it to the Union, in name if not in fact, and would at the same time give them the opportunity of riding into power. They accordingly sought the ear of the general commanding the department, and by strong representations of the advantages which would result from such an expedition, induced him to favor it in good faith. Armed with his approval, they next hastened to Washington, and laid the matter before the President, carefully concealing their real motives under the plea of the public weal. The President, confiding in General Gill- rnore s approval, and unaware of the sinister purposes of the proposers, gave it his sanction. General Gillmore entrusted the command of the expedition to Brigadier- General Truman Seymour, an officer of great experience and military ability, who had already won a high reputation in some of the hardest fought actions in that department. It is said, on what seems to be good authority, that General Seymour, apprised of the motives which actuated the promoters of the expedition, regarded it with distrust, and avowed his opinion of its ill-advisedness to his superior. However this may be, he was too thorough a soldier to disobey orders, and a man of too high prin ciple to neglect any measure which might conduce to its success. Five brigades were designated for the expedition, but just before leaving Hilton Head, the best of the five Howell s was detached from it. The object of the expedition was to penetrate as far as Lake City, and to cut the railroad at Suwanee river. On the 5th of February, 1864, the expeditionary force, consisting of Barton s and Hawley s brigades, Montgomery s colored, and Henry s light brigade, with Generals Gillmore and Seymour, left Hilton Head, and landed on the 7th at Jacksonville without opposition, the Rebel outposts falling back into the interior. The Union forces did not delay at Jack sonville, but pushed directly into the country, and at first met with admirable success. They reached Baldwin, twenty miles from Jackson- THE BATTLE OF OLUSTEE, FLORIDA. 68T ville, on the 9th, and the light brigade arrived in the vicinity of Lake City on the llth. The advance was now delayed for several days, while a secondary base was established at Barber s, on the south forks of St. Mary s river, thirty miles from Jacksonville. The necessity of this arose from the fact that sufficient transportation could not be procured in the Department of the South to permit them to make Jacksonville their secondary base. This delay proved disastrous. General Gillmore had ordered a diversion to be made by General Schimmelpfennig with about forty-five hundred troops, to Holover Cut, and the vicinity of the Charles ton and Savannah railroad, to intercept and hold at that point any troops the Rebels might send to reinforce their army in Florida. This force held the position until the llth, skirmishing with the Rebels, when, under their instructions, they withdrew, and the Rebel brigades which they had held in check, immediately took the cars of the Savannah, and the Albany, Savannah and Gulf railroads, and by vigorous marching, reached the Suwanee in season to take part in the battle, and render the defeat of the Union troops certain. On the 15th, Major-General Gillmore returned to Hilton Head, and on the 20th, Brigadier-General Seymour, having ob tained some reinforcements and a battery, and having a sufficiency of transportation to move his supplies from his secondary base, moved for ward his army, consisting of four thousand five hundred infantry, five hundred cavalry, and twenty guns, arranged in four batteries. They left Barber s station at seven A. M., reached Sanderson, sixteen miles distant, about noon, and pushed on to Olustee, ten miles further, without halting. The information which General Seymour had received from his scouts led him to suppose that the enemy were in that vicinity. At about three P. M., they came suddenly upon the Rebel position, which was admirably chosen. On the right, their line rested upon a low and rather slight earthwork, protected by rifle-pits; their centre was defended by an. impassable swamp; while on the left their cavalry was drawn up on a small elevation behind the shelter of a grove of pines. The railroad intersected their camp, and on the embankment was placed a battery, which commanded the Union left and centre, while a rifled gun, mounted on a truck, prevented the Union troops from advancing along the line of the railroad. The Rebel force was about thirteen thousand. The Union position, from necessity, and not choice, was not desirable. They were compelled to approach and form their line of battle between two swamps, one in front, the other in rear. Their artillery was posted within one hundred yards of the Rebel line, and was thus within easy range of the Rebel sharpshooters, llawley s brigade led the attack, the seventh New Hampshire regiment being in advance. The left flank of the regiment, composed mostly of substitutes, who had not previously been under fire, and who were but indifferently armed, soon gave way under the terrible fire of the Rebel sharpshooters ; but the right, which was armed with the 688 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Spencer repeating rifle, maintained their position till their ammunition was exhausted. The regiment lost its colonel and three hundred and fifty men, killed or wounded. Barton s brigade was now brought up ; with the artillery, and eighth United States volunteers colored and they met the enemy with great firmness, and forced them back for some time ; but Colonel Fribley, commanding the eighth regiment, being killed, and the regiment for the first time under fire, they fought somewhat at random, and were finally withdrawn, to prevent their useless slaughter. Barton s brigade fought on, but were finally compelled, for want of ammunition, to fall back, which they did slowly and in good order ; two colored regiments, the fifty-fourth Massachusetts and first North Carolina, from Montgomery s brigade, covering their retreat. During the whole time that the battle lasted (about four hours), General Seymour was in the front, encouraging and cheering his troops. The retreat was made in the most perfect order, the Kebels not attempting to pursue. The Union troops were obliged to abandon their wounded on the field, and five guns, the horses having been killed. Their retreat was continued to Barber s station, and the next day to Baldwin, where such stores as could not be transported to Jacksonville were destroyed. On the afternoon of the 22d of February, the army reached its camping ground near Jacksonville, and soon commenced fortifying its position, which, by subsequent reinforce ments, was made too strong to be attacked by the enemy, and was held permanently as a Union post. The losses of the Union force in this expedition were two hundred and three killed, about eleven hundred wounded, and over five hundred and fifty prisoners. Five pieces of artillery, and a considerable quantity of small arms and commissary stores also fell into the hands of the enemy. The ill success of the expe dition, which, if well planned and conducted, might possibly have cut off a large portion of the supply of beef from the Rebel army, was a matter of serious regret in the Department of the South; but its failure, under the circumstances, was inevitable. The two expeditions, whose disastrous termination we have recorded in this chapter, were the last attempts which were made to carry out the "anaconda" policy. With the changes which took place in the control of the Union armies, about this time, the new policy of concentration was inaugurated, and resulted, within about. a twelvemonth, in the complete overthrow of the Rebellion. SHERMAN S MERIDIAN EXPEDITION. 689 CHAPTER LYI. SHERMAN S MERIDIAN EXPEDITION THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENTS AXD THEIR FAILURE THE MOVABLE COLUMN ADVANCE INTO THE ENEMY S COUNTRY RETURN GENERAL GRANT PROMOTED TO THE LIEUTENANT-GENERALSHIP, AND SHERMAN APPOINTED TO COMMAND THR MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI SKETCH OF SHERMAN OTHER CHANGES IN COM MANDS REORGANIZATION OF THE EASTERN AND WESTERN ARMIES IMPROVEMENT IN DISCIPLINE AND MORALE FORREST AND CHALMERS SET OUT ON AN EXPEDITION FOR PLUNDER AND MURDER ATTACK ON UNION CITY ON PADUCAH THE MASSACRE AT FORT e PILLOW ATROCITY OF THE CONDUCT OF THE REBELS THE REBEL GOVERNMENT PROMOTB FORREST AND CHALMERS FOR IT BUFORD s DEMAND FOR THE SURRENDER OF COLUMBUS, KENTUCKY FORREST S RETREAT IN the early part of the year 1864, the War Department, acting upon the suggestion of General Grant, determined upon a series of co-operative movements, looking to the repossession of Mississippi and Alabama, and the menacing of the strong Rebel position of Atlanta, the Gate City, as it was called, which commanded the entrance from the mountainous region of north Georgia into the rich and fertile plains of the central and southern portions of the State. The operations finally determined upon were, a naval attack on Mobile and its defences in the lower bay, under the direc tion of Rear- Admiral Farragut, to prevent the blockade-running which, in spite of the exertions of the West Gulf blockading squadron, was now and then successful ; an expedition across the country, east from Yicksburg, toward Selma and Montgomery, with a column of twenty or twenty-five thousand men, under the command of General Sherman, to hold Folk s army in check from reinforcing Mobile ; and a cavalry expedition from Memphis and La Grange, southward, along the line of the Mobile and Ohio railroad, to join Sherman at Meridian, under the command of General W. Sooy Smith, General Grant s chief of cavalry. Of these expeditions, two were unsuccessful, while the third, though proving very effective in destroying the enemy s property, and carrying terror and alarm into regions which had hitherto not been visited by the war, did not accomplish so much as it would have done had the cavalry column succeeded in effecting a junction with it. Admiral Farragut approached Forts Morgan, Powell, and Gaines, situ ated at the entrance of Mobile bay, with his squadron, and bombarded them for six days (February 23-29), but they could not, at that time, be reduced without the aid of a land force, and having become convinced of this, he withdrew, without having received or inflicted serious loss. The force detailed for General Sherman s expedition consisted of four divisions, of twelve regiments each, from the sixteenth army corps, under the command of General S. A. Hurlbut. and the whole of the seventeenth 44 690 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. army corps, under command of General James B. McPherson. The whole force numbered twenty-one thousand infantry, twelve hundred cavalry, forty pieces of artillery, with the full quota of artillery troops for them, and eight hundred wagons. The cavalry column, under General Smith s command, numbered about nine thousand mounted troops, with a light artillery train. General Sherman s command embarked at Memphis, about the 28th of January, for Yicksburg, where it arrived, without serious casualty (though fired upon several times by the Kebels), on the 1st and 2d of February. Here the troops were ordered to take twenty days rations, but no tents, either for officers or men, all bivouacking in the open air during the,entire campaign. It was the aim of General Sherman to bring his army into the lightest possible marching order, that they might move with the greater celerity and certainty in the enemy s country. It was the first attempt at a movement of such extent, with so large a force, and for so long a time, into the heart of the enemy s country without a base of supplies, and was destined to be the precursor of other and still more extended applications of the movable column. General Grant had, indeed, cut loose from his base for ten or twelve days, in his march from Grand Gulf to Jackson and the rear of Vicksburg, but he had at no time pene trated more than two or three days forced march into the interior, and that only for a brief period. General Lee, in his Gettysburg expedition, had given an example of the movable column on a large scale, but his distance from points of supply in his own territory was not great, and the lack of supplies had as much to do with his somewhat precipitate retreat across the Potomac, as the loss of men and ammunition. On the 3d of February, the Union army left its camps at Vicksburg, and the same evening reached and crossed the Big Black river, the left wing the sixteenth corps crossing at Messenger s ferry, and the right wing seventeenth corps at the railroad bridge, eight miles below. On the 4th, they met a Rebel cavalry force of about seven thousand men, under command of the Rebel General S. D. Lee, at Champion hills. The Union advance-guard was at first driven back, but their supports coming up, forced the Rebels back to the west side of Baker s creek, where they occupied a commandiag position, but were driven from it about sundown. The next morning, a brigade of McPherson s corps engaged them, and after a sharp action, defeated and drove them to Jackson, twenty-three miles distant, inflicting upon them a loss of one hundred and fifty killed and wounded, while their own loss was but thirty. McPherson s corps moved on to Jackson, where they were joined, on the evening of the 5th, by the sixteenth Hurlbut s corps the two having previously moved on different roads. The Rebel force made their escape from the capital with such precipitancy, that they had not time even to destroy their pontoon bridge. On the 6th of February, the Union troops destroyed all the ADVANCE INTO THE ENEMY S COUNTRY. 691 public stores and arms accumulated at Jackson for the use of the Rebel army, broke up and rendered useless the track of the Mississippi Central railroad for some miles, and put the pontoon bridge in complete order for crossing Pearl river. On the 7th, they resumed their march, and though the Rebel cavalry hovered on their flanks, they inflicted no serious loss. On reaching Brandon, they found and destroyed a large quantity of Rebel commissary stores. During the next day February 8th the Rebel cavalry continued to skirmish with the Union troops, but only lost a con siderable number of prisoners by doing so. At Moreton, thirty-six miles from Jackson, the Rebel troops were found drawn up in line of battle, but as the Union advance approached they retreated, and one hundred and fifty of their number were taken prisoners, and some papers of importance captured, showing that the Rebel troops had orders to fall back to Mobile. For the next two days, the Union army found, all along their route, abundant evidence of the precipitancy and disorderly character of the Rebel retreat, in the vast quantity of abandoned stores, and the great numbers of dead horses and mules. On the llth, at Lake station, on the southern Mississippi railroad (which leads from Yicksburg to Meridian), the Union troops destroyed the depot and machine shop, two locomotives, thirty-five cars, and three steam mills. On the 12th, the army reached Decatur, where they destroyed a large tannery; and a body of Rebel cavalry, under General Adams, attacked their train, but was driven off with but trifling loss. A part of the Union force here turned aside, and visited Quitman and Enterprise, destroying stores belonging to the Rebel Government in both places. On the 13th of February, they were together again on the banks of the Big Chunkey river, from whence they marched to Meridian, which they entered on the morning of the 15th, and from which General Polk and his army had re treated but half an hour previously. Meridian was of importance only as the point of junction of the Mobile and Ohio with the southern Missis sippi! and Alabama and Mississippi railroads, and as the principal depot of supplies quartermasters and commissary stores for the Rebel armies of Mississippi and Alabama. General Sherman gave orders at once to seize and use or destroy these stores, and to burn the store-houses, depots, officers quarters, and hospitals. The last named would have been spared f but for the uniform practice of the Rebels to destroy the Union hospitals, whenever they fell into their power. Among the stores captured was a large quantity of corn, and the grist mills in the vicinity were put in order, and this corn ground, and used by General Sherman s army during his stay at Meridian. Detachments were sent out in all directions to destroy the railroads and railroad bridges. General Smith s cavalry column was, as we have said, to have joined Sherman s army at this point, and for this purpose he had been ordered to leave Colliersville, near Memphis, on the 3d of February ; but he was delayed waiting for General 692 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Waring s brigade of cavalry until the llth, and this delay enabled Forrest, Rhoddy, and Chambers, to concentrate their forces in such positions as to check his progress. With the utmost exertion, and without opposition, he could not now reach Meridian till about the close of the time set for the junction of the two forces (the loth to the 19th of February) ; but, for some reason, General Smith made but slow progress, averaging not over fifteen miles a day, and did not reach Oakland, one hundred and twenty- seven miles from Meridian, and one hundred and thirty-five from Memphis, until the 18th, and on the 21st was at West Point, but twenty- nine miles farther. Here he encountered so large a Kebel force, so advan tageously posted, and offering him such determined opposition, that he was compelled to fall back on Memphis, which he reached on the 26th, having made the return march in four days. This failure to connect was greatly to be regretted, as, with the aid of this cavalry, General Sherman could have penetrated readily and safely to Selma and Montgomery, while without cavalry to cover his flanks, he could not go much farther than he had already done into the enemy s country, without encountering obstructions and resistance which an infantry column would find it difficult to overcome. Having waited till one day beyond the utmost limit set for effecting the junction of the two corps, and being unable to ascertain, through his scouts, any indications of General Smith s approach, General Sherman did not deem it wise to delay longer, but gave orders, on the morning of the 20th, to return to Yicksburg. Marching as far as Hillsboro, by the same route by which they had gone eastward, they diverged at that point to the northward, and, on the 26th, arrived at Canton, twenty -three miles north of Jackson, on the Mississippi Central railroad. At this point General Sherman left the army, the next day, in charge of General Hurlbut, and taking a small escort, proceeded at once to Vicksburg, and descended the river to New Orleans. The army remained at Canton for several days, in the hope of hearing from General Smith s cavalry. They had some skirmishes here with the Rebel General Adams cavalry, and in one of them lost sixteen forage wagons. The Union troops destroyed here twenty-one locomotives, a large number of cars, and other Eebel property ; but the town itself, and the property of private citizens, were uninjured, in consequence of the friendly conduct of the citizens. On the 2d of March, the Union troops resumed their march for Vicksburg, which they reached on the 4th. Their total loss during the expedition had been one hundred and seventy in. killed, wounded, and missing. On arriving at Vicksburg, General McPherson s corps went into camp there, while General Hurlbut s returned at once to Memphis. General Sherman made the following official statement of the results of the expedition: One hundred and fifty miles of railway rendered use less, thirty mills and ten thousand bales of cotton burned, two millions of SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN. 693 bushels of corn either used or destroyed, twenty-three locomotives, eighty- eight cars, sixty-seven bridges, and seven thousand feet of trestlework, were burned, or otherwise destroyed. The Union army also killed and wounded about three hundred Rebel soldiers, took two hundred prisoners, liberated nearly eight thousand negroes, and brought back several thou sand more horses and mules, and three hundred more wagons than they had when they left Yicksburg. They had subsisted almost entirely upon the country. General Sherman estimated the damage done to the Rebel cause from this expedition as more than fifty millions of dollars. On the 2d of March, Major-General Grant, then in command of the grand military division of the Mississippi, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and the command, under the President, of all the armies of the United States ; and, at the same time, Major-General Sherman was advanced to the command vacated by General Grant s promotion. Other changes were made about the same time, but before noticing them let us sketch briefly the life-history of this new general of the military division of the Mississippi, who was henceforth Grant s most efficient lieutenant in the prosecution of the war. Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on the 8th of February, 1820. He is a son of the late Hon. Charles R. Sherman, at the time of his death one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio. Soon after his father s death, in 1829, he was adopted by Hon. Thomas Ewing, and at the age of sixteen, after receiving a good preliminary education, appointed a cadet at West Point, where he graduated, June 30th, 1840, ranking sixth in his class. He was appointed immediately second lieutenant in the third artillery, and ordered to duty in Florida, where, in November, 1841, he was promoted to a first lieutenantcy. He was soon after assigned to duty at Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor, where he remained for several years. In 1846, he was ordered to Cali fornia, where he was made acting assistant adjutant-general, and performed his duties with such ability that he received a brevet of captain, dating from May 30th, 1848, "for meritorious services in California during the war with Mexico." In 1850, he was promoted to the rank of captain, and appointed commissary of subsistence, being assigned to the staff of the commander of the Department of the West, with headquarters at St. Louis. He was soon after transferred to the military post of New Orleans. In the duties of the office of commissary, he acquired his aptitude for bringing together the necessary supplies for an army, with a promptness which has never been surpassed by any military commander. On the 6th of September, 1853, he resigned his commission in the army, and for the next four years resided in California, as the manager of the banking house of Lucas Turner & Co., at San Francisco. In 1857, he was invited by some of the friends whom he had made in New Orleans to take the superintendency of the State Military Institute of Louisiana, then just 694 THE CIVIL WAR IX THE UNITED STATES. organizing, and accepted the post. The purpose of the founders of this military school was to educate young men for officers in the army of the Rebellion, the coming of which they foresaw and desired ; but this ulterior purpose was carefully hidden, and other reasons, plausible enough, assigned for the establishment of a military academy. When, in the winter of 1861, it began to be evident that the secession of -Louisiana was resolved upon, and that war would probably follow, Captain Sherman promptly resigned his superintendency, as incompatible with his views of loyalty, and came north to St. Louis. Soon after he visited "Wash ington, and warned the Government of the extent and fierceness of the struggle which was so soon to come, but found them incredulous on the subject. At the organization of the new regiments of the regular army in June, 1861, he. was appointed colonel of the thirteenth infantry, his commission dating from May 14th, 1861. In the battle of Bull Run he commanded the third brigade in the first (Tyler s) division, a brigade composed of some of the most celebrated regiments of volunteers in the subsequent history of the war, the thirteenth New York State militia, the sixty-ninth (Irish), the seventy -ninth (Highlanders) New York State militia, and the second Wisconsin. His conduct in that battle was not only brave, but skilful, and no troops in the field that day behaved better than those in his command. On the 3d of August he was confirmed a brigadier-general of volunteers, his commission dating from May 17th, 1861. Early in August, he was ordered to report to General Robert Anderson, then commanding the Department of the Ohio, and was by him made second in command, and soon after sent with a force of seven thou sand men, volunteers and Kentucky home-guards, to occupy Muldraugh s hill, a point of considerable strategic importance, south of the Rolling Fork of Salt river. The troops under his command proved entirely unreliable, the home-guards abandoning the camp for their homes; and the reinforce ments intended for his command being ordered elsewhere, he soon found himself with less than five thousand troops, badly armed, and wholly un tried, confronted by the Rebel General Buckner, with a force of twenty- five thousand men. At this juncture, the failure of General Anderson s health compelled his resignation, and, on the 8th of October, Sherman was appointed his successor. His position was a trying one. His force was entirely inadequate to cope with the greatly superior numbers of the enemy, and his appeals for more troops met with no favorable response from the War Department. Secretary Cameron and Adjutant-General Thomas had an interview with him at Louisville, in October, and among other questions, asked him how many troops would be required for a forward movement in his department. He replied, " Sixty thousand." "And how many," asked the Secretary, "for the entire western depart ment ?" " Not less than two hundred thousand," was the prompt reply. This seemed to the Washington officials very absurd, and they repeated SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL SHERMAN. 695 it publicly, with some ungracious comments. It did not require a twelve month to prove the accuracy of General Sherman s estimate, but at the time he was denounced as insaue for making it. Finding it impossible to obtain reinforcements, and General McClellan making inquiries which indicated an intention of giving up Louisville and Kentucky, General Sherman asked,to be relieved of his command. His request was granted, and General Buell put in his place, who was immediately reinforced to aii extent beyond what General Sherman had asked. Sherman himself was shelved by being ordered to duty at Benton Barracks, near St. Louis. Here, on assuming command of the western department, General Halleck found him, and knowing his abilities, detailed him to forward reinforce ments and supplies to General Grant, then besieging Fort Donelson ; and after the fall of that fortress, put him in command of the fifth division of Grant s army, with which he fought with great gallantry at the battle of Shiloh, April 6th and 7th, 1862. Of his conduct in this battle Colonel Bowman well says : " There was not a commanding general on the field who did not rely on Sherman, and look to him as our chief hope, and there is no question that but for him our army would have been destroyed." General Grant said in his report: "To General Sherman s individual efforts I am indebted for the success of that battle." In the siege of Corinth, his division was constantly in the advance, and carried, occupied, and reintrenched seven distinct Rebel camps. After the evacuation of Corinth, he was, at the urgent request of Generals Halleck and Grant, promoted to the rank of major-general, his commission dating from May 1st, 1862. On the 20th of June, he captured Holly Springs, Mississippi, and was soon after put in command of the district of Memphis, which he governed with skill and decision, breaking up the contraband trade, and suppressing the guerrillas. In the latter part of December, 1862, General Grant ordered him, with parts of two corps, to descend the river to Vicksburg, and attack thu works on Chickasaw bluffs, while he would approach from the rear, by way of Jackson, and co-operate in an assault upon the city. General Sherman obeyed the order, but the capture of Holly Springs, Grant s base of supplies, prevented his co-operation too late to recall Sherman, and the attack, though skilfully conducted, proved a failure. General Sherman had submitted a plan for the reduction of Arkansas Post, an important strategic point, to follow immediately his assault upon Chickasaw bluffs, and General McClernand having been sent down with additional troops to participate in this movement, and ranking General Sherman, took com mand of the expedition. There are but few generals who would, under the sting of disappointment and defeat for which they were not responsi ble, have submitted, with so good a grace, to serve under another, and he a civilian general, in the execution of their own plans ; but General Sher man had learned well that obedience is the first duty of a soldier, and he 696 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. rendered it heartily. Arkansas Post was taken, and Sherman returned to Grant s army, which, about this time, took position at Young s Point, for the operations against Yicksburg. In these, General Sherman was con spicuous for bravery, skill, and promptness of action. In the attempt made by Hear- Admiral Porter to penetrate to the upper Yazoo, through several of the interlacing creeks and bayous, it was due *o the extraordi nary energy and promptness of General Sherman, that the light-draft gunboats of the squadron escaped from the enemy, who had so nearly captured them. The forced march through the deep mud of the Yazoo country, which alone rescued them, was one of the most extraordinary of the war. When General Grant determined to assail Vicksburg from below, he left Sherman s corps behind, to demonstrate on Haines bluff, and draw the Eebel troops in that direction, while he landed his other corps below, and marched northward. Having been successful in this, General Sher man made a rapid march on the west side of the Mississippi, to a point opposite Grand Gulf, and crossing there, participated in most of the sub sequent battles of the Yicksburg campaign. He defeated one wing of Johnston s forces at Jackson, and marching, at General Grant s order, by the northern route to Yicksburg, crossed the Big Black river at Bridge port, and inarching rapidly, compelled the evacuation of the Rebel works on Walnut hills and Chickasaw bluffs, and divided the Rebel force in the outer defences of the city, before the remainder of the army came up. In the two assaults on Yicksburg, Sherman s corps alone made any con siderable gain; and when the city was surrendered, he started immediately for Jackson, and drove Johnston s army from the capital. After devoting the next two months to resting, refitting, and recruiting his force, he re ceived a telegraphic despatch on the 22d of September, ordering him to send a division to reinforce Rosecrans at Chattanooga ; and the next day, an order to follow, with the remainder of his corps. Both were promptly obeyed, and though delayed by the low state of the river, and by the order of General Halleck to repair the railroad, as well as by some hard fight ing, he made a march of most extraordinary celerity, and brought his advance-guard into Chattanooga on the 15th of November. It was while on this march, that he was apprised that he had been appointed comman der of the army of the Tennessee, Grant s previous command. His part in the battles of Chattanooga, we have already described, as well as his promptness in raising the siege of Knoxville, and his daring expedition into the heart of the enemy s country, in February, 1864. Promoted to the command of the military division of the Mississippi, he inspected every post and garrison in his command, displayed his matchless energy and executive ability in pushing forward, mainly over a single long rail road line, supplies for his army in such quantities as to be for weeks, in the subsequent campaign, practically independent of his base, and by the REORGANIZATION OF THE UNION ARMIES. 697 first week in May, had accumulated at Chattanooga an army of one Hun dred thousand men, fully equipped for a campaign such as had had no previous parallel. Of the campaigns from Chattanooga to Atlanta, the retrograde movement northward, the return to Atlanta, the departure thence to Savannah, the ability manifested in military and civil affairs there, the last and most marvellous march of all, through the Carolinas, moving for sixty days without a base of supplies through the enemy s country, the rest and refitting at Goldsboro, the new advance to Raleigh, and beyond, and the final surrender of Johnston s army, we have yet to speak; but in all we see displayed the ability, foresight, and strategic skill of a great commander. About the same time that Lieutenant-General Grant received his com mission, and Major- General Sherman his order to take command of the military division of the Mississippi, General Hal leek accepted the position of chief of staff to the President ; General McPherson was advanced to the command of the army of the Tennessee ; General Schofield was trans ferred from the command of the Department of Missouri to that of the Ohio, with headquarters at Knoxville, Tennessee ; and General Rosecrans succeeded him in Missouri ; and General Sigel was appointed to the com mand of the army of Western Virginia. Generals Burnside and Han cock were directed to recruit the ninth and second corps, respectively, up to fifty thousand men, and, as far as possible, to secure veteran soldiers for the purpose. The two months which followed, were months of great activity and in cessant preparation. Soon after taking command of the armies of the United States, General Grant returned to the West, and in a protracted interview with General Sherman, settled upon the outlines of the cam paign of the ensuing spring and summer, in the West, and then returning to the East, devoted himself with great assiduity to the reorganization of the armies of the Atlantic slope, and the marshalling and discipline of the large body of new recruits which were being constantly added to their ranks. Among these were two large divisions of colored troops, one in Burnside s (ninth) corps, of the army of the Potomac, the other in Gill- more s (tenth) corps, of the army of the James. The morale of the army was greatly improved ; vicious, intemperate, and "conditionally loyal " officers were dismissed with little ceremony, and straggling, malingering, and intemperance, among rank and file, severely and promptly punished. These great improvements were equally manifest in the army of the West, where General Sherman, with unsparing hand, weeded out the officers whose vices had hitherto been tolerated, but who were unfit to command. In both armies the pulse of patriotism beat high, and officers and men looked forward to the coming campaign with an eager ness and enthusiasm which betokened their confidence in the speedy triumph of their arms. 698 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. The Rebel Government and commanders were, perhaps, less sanguine of Buccess, but they were not less active and energetic in preparing for the coming campaign. A new conscription law called into the field all their white able-bodied male citizens between the ages of sixteen and fifty, authorizing details, where necessary, for special civil duty ; the army officers were empowered to impress provisions for the army ; arms and ammunition were purchased in England in large quantities, and run into Wilmington and Mobile, evading the blockade; great activity was dis played at the few points where cannon, fire arms, and ammunition were manufactured in their own territory ; desertion and evasion of the con scription, both extensively prevalent, were punished with terrible severity, and every preparation made for a sanguinary and desperate resistance. While these preparations were going on, the Eebel cavalry in the West, which, though recognized and commissioned as regular troops by the Rebel Government, was largely composed of felons, outlaws, and ruffians, more ready to commit murders and outrages than to engage in honorable warfare, was guilty of a series of disgraceful and infamous murders, which would stamp any government authorizing or sanctioning them with eternal dishonor. The leaders in these horrible deeds were General Forrest and General Chalmers, who had both attained a considerable notoriety as partisan and guerrilla officers, and had not, in their previous career, been free from the imputation of dishonorable deeds. General Sherman was receiving, in March, large reinforcements from Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and was, at the same time, using his railroad communications to their utmost capacity, in pushing forward supplies to Memphis, Johnsouville, Nashville, Stevenson, and Chattanooga. It was with a view to prevent these new troops from reaching his camps, and to alarm him for the safety of his communications, that Forrest was sent on his murderous raid. He had a force of about seven thousand cavalry, his own and Chalmers command, and his purpose was to attack the Union garrisons of Paducah, Union City, Columbus, and Fort Pillow, and to threaten Memphis. It had no effect, however, in luring General Sherman from the accomplishment of his plans, and atrocious as was the conduct of the raiders, they accomplished nothing of any benefit to the Rebel cause, while they lost from their own ranks more men than they murdered or killed in battle. Forrest first attacked Union City on the 24th of March. The town was garrisoned by five hundred men, under the command of Colonel Hawkins, of the seventh Tennessee Union cavalry. This force repulsed him several times, but finally yielded to his demand for surrender, though they might, perhaps, have held the town. They were taken prisoners, but were not treated with particular cruelty. From Union City he proceeded to Paducah, where was a garrison of six hundred and fifty-five men, under Colonel S. G. Hicks, and several FORREST S ATTACK ON FORT PILLOW. 699 gunboats lay along the river near the town. The Union forces retired into Fort Anderson, and successfully repelled the attacks of the Rebel cavalry. Failing to make any impression by fighting, Forrest next de manded an unconditional surrender, and closed his letter of demand with these words : "If you surrender, you shall be treated as prisoners of war; but if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quarter." Colonel Hicks replied, saying that he should not surrender ; that he had been placed there to defend that post, and that he should do so. Forrest then assaulted the fort three times, but was repulsed each time with severe loss, one of his brigadiers being killed in the last assault. He withdrew the next morning, March 26th, having lost over three hundred killed and about twelve hundred wounded. In his attack on Fort Anderson. Forrest was guilty of the same meanness and bad faith for which he nad been noted throughout the war. "While professedly negotiating, under flag of truce, for the surrender of the fort, he took advantage of the cessation of fire to creep up and secure a better position for making an assault, and also to plunder private stores and government property in the town. He seized the women and children, whom the officers of the fort and of the gunboats had advised to go down to the river, that they might be taken across out of danger, and placed them, and the female nurses of the hospitals, in front of his lines, while he was advancing toward the fort, in order to prevent the garrison from firing on him. No brave or gallant soldier would ever have stooped to such measures for protection in making an attack. The other fortified posts along the Mississippi Central and Mobile and Ohio railroads were each approached, but finding them watch ful and ready for him, and having no artillery, he soon relinquished the effort to capture them. His approach to Fort Pillow was made stealthily, before sunrise on the morning of the 12th of April. The garrison there consisted, at the time, of nineteen officers and five hundred and thirty -eight enlisted men, of whom two hundred and sixty-two were colored troops, comprising one battalion of the sixth United States heavy artillery (formerly called the first Alabama artillery), under command of Major L. F. Booth ; one section of the second United States light artillery, colored ; and one bat talion of the thirteenth Tennessee cavalry, white, commanded by Major W. F. Bradford. Major Booth was the ranking officer, and was in com mand of the post. The first intimation which the garrison had of the approach of the enemy was the driving in of their pickets. Fighting soon became general, and about nine o clock Major Booth was killed. Major Bradford succeeded to the command, and withdrew all the forces within the fort. They had previously occupied some intrenchments at a little distance, and further from the river. There were six pieces of artillery in the fort, viz : two six pounders, two twelve pounder howitzers, and two ten pounder 700 THE CIVIL WAK IN THE UNITED STATES. Parrotts. The fort was situated on a high bluff, which descended rapidly to the river s edge. The side of the bluff toward the river was covered with trees, bushes, and fallen timber. Extending back from the river, on either side of the fort, were ravines or hollows, the one below the fort con taining several private stores and some dwellings, constituting what was called the town. At the mouth of that ravine, and on the river s bank, were some government buildings, containing commissary and quarter masters stores. The ravine above the fort was known as Cold Creek ravine, and its sides were covered with trees and bushes. To the right, or below and a little to the front of the fort, was a level piece of ground, on which had been erected some log huts or shanties, which were.occupied by the white troops, and also used for hospital and other purposes. Within the fort, tents had been erected, with board floors, for the use of the colored troops. " The Rebels continued their attack, but, up to two or three o clock in the afternoon, they had gained no decisive success. The Union troops, both white and black, fought most bravely, and were in good spirits. The gun boat number seven (New Era), Captain Marshall, took part in the conflict, shelling the enemy as opportunity offered. There being but one gunboat there, no permanent impression appears to have been produced upon the Rebel force ; for, as they were shelled out of one ravine, they would make their appearance in the other. They would thus appear and retire as the gunboat. moved from one point to the other. About one o clock, the fire on both sides slackened somewhat, and the gunboat moved out into the river, to cool and clean its guns, having fired two hundred and eighty-two rounds of shell, shrapnell, and canister, which nearly exhausted its supply of ammunition. " The Rebels having thus far failed in their attack, now resorted to their customary use of flags of truce. The first flag of truce conveyed a demand from Forrest for the unconditional surrender of the fort. To this Major Bradford replied, asking to be allowed one hour to consult with his officers and the officers of the gunboat. In a short time a second flag of truce appeared, with a communication from Forrest, that he would allow Major Bradford twenty minutes in which to move his troops out of the fort, and if it was not done within that time an assault would be ordered. To this Major Bradford returned the reply that he would not surrender. " During the time these flags of truce were flying, the Rebels were moving down the ravine, and taking positions from which the more readily to charge upon the fort. Parties of them were also engaged in plundering the government buildings of commissary and quartermasters stores, in full view of the gunboat. Captain Marshall states that he refrained from firing upon the Rebels, although they were thus violating the flag of truce, for fear that, should they finally succeed in capturing the fort, they would justify any atrocities they might commit by saying that they were in THE MASSACRE AT FORT PILLOW. 701 retaliation for his firing while the flag of truce was flying. lie says how ever, that when he saw the Rebels coming down the ravine above the fort, and taking positions there, he got under way and stood for the fort, deter mined to use what little ammunition he had left in shelling them out of the ravine ; but he did not get up within effective range before the final assault was made. " Immediately after the second flag of truce retired, the Rebels made a rush from the positions they had so treacherously gained and obtained possession of the fort, raising the cry of No quarter 1 But little oppor tunity was allowed for resistance. The Union troops, black and white, threw down their arms, and sought to escape by running down the steep bluff near the fort, and secreting themselves behind trees and logs, in the bushes, and under the brush some even jumping into the river, leaving only their heads above the water, as they crouched down under the bank. " Then followed a scene of cruelty and murder without a parallel in civilized warfare, which needed but the tomahawk and scalping knife to exceed the worst atrocities ever committed by savages. The Rebels com menced an indiscriminate slaughter, sparing neither age nor sex, white or black, soldier or civilian. The officers and men seemed to vie with each other in the fiendish work; men, women, and even children, wherever found, were deliberately shot down, beaten, and hacked with sabres; some of the children, not more than ten years old, were forced to stand up and face their murderers while being shot ; the sick and the wounded were butchered without mercy, the Rebels even entering the hospital building and dragging them out to be shot, or killing them as they lay there unable to offer the least resistance. All over the hill-side the work of murder was going on ; numbers of Union men were collected together in lines or groups, and deliberately shot ; some were shot while in the river, while others on the bank were shot, and their bodies kicked into the water, many of them still living, but unable to make any exertions to save themselves from drowning. Some of the Rebels stood on the top of the hill, or a short distance down its side, and called to the Union soldiers to come up to them, and as they approached, shot them down in cold blood ; if their guns or pistols missed fire, forcing them to stand there until they were again prepared to fire. All around were heard cries of No quarter! No quarter ! Kill the damned niggers ; shoot them down ! All who asked for mercy were answered by the most cruel taunts and sneers. Some were spared for a time, only to be murdered under circumstances of greater cruelty. No cruelty which the most fiendish malignity could devise was omitted by these murderers. One white soldier who was wounded in one leg so as to be unable to walk, was made to stand up while his tormentors shot him ; others who were wounded and were unable to stand, were held up and again shot. One negro, who had been ordered by a Rebel officer to hold his horse, was killed by him when he remounted ; another, 702 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. a mere child, whom an officer had taken up behind him on his horse, was seen by Chalmers, who at once ordered the officer to put him down and shoot him, which was done. The huts and tents in which many of the wounded had sought shelter, were set on fire, both that night, and the next morning, while the wounded were still in them those only escaping who were able to get themselves out, or who could prevail on others less in jured than themselves, to help them out ; and even some of those thus seeking to escape the flames, were met by those ruffians and brutally shot down, or had their brains beaten out. One man was deliberately fastened down to the floor of a tent, face upward, by means of nails driven through his clothes and into the boards under him, so that he could not possibly escape, and then the tent set on fire ; another was nailed to the side of a building outside the fort, and then the building set on fire and burned. The charred remains of five or six bodies were afterward found, all but one so much disfigured and consumed by the flames that they could not be identified. " These deeds of murder and cruelty ceased when night came on, only to be renewed the next morning, when the demons carefully sought among the dead, lying about in all directions, for any of the wounded yet alive, and those they found were deliberately shot. Scores of the dead and wounded were found there the day after the mastacre, by the men from some of the Union gunboats, who were permitted to go on shore and collect the wounded, and bury the dead. The Eebels themselves had made a pretence of burying a great many of their victims, but they had merely thrown them, without the least regard to care or decency, into the trenches and ditches about the fort, or the little hollows and ravines on the hill-side, covering them but partially with earth. Portions of heads and face, hands and feet, were found protruding through the earth in every direction. The testimony collected by the Committee on the Conduct of the War, also establishes the fact that the Rebels buried some of the living with the dead, a few of whom succeeded afterward in digging themselves out, or were dug out by others." The whole number thus brutally murdered at Fort Pillow, was about four hundred, and a very considerable number subsequently died of their wounds at Mound City hospital, and elsewhere. Major Bradford, it ap peared, from the evidence obtained by the Committee on the Conduct of the War, was murdered the day after the capture of the fort, between Browns ville and Jackson, Tenneseee, and of the nearly two hundred who escaped death on that day, it is supposed that the greater part were subsequently murdered. Both Forrest and Chalmers undoubtedly ordered and sanctioned this massacre, and both subsequently justified it, and declared that they were under orders to kill every colored soldier, or " home-made Yankee" (the name they gave to the white Tennessee and Alabama unionists), they BUFORD DEMANDS THE SURRENDER OF COLUMBUS. 703 might capture. The Rebel press also justified and gloried in these butch eries, .and the Rebel Government made them the occasion for promoting both Forrest and Chalmers to a higher Tank in the army. Having thus escaped with impunity, after committing these atrocities, Forrest was emboldened to attempt further outrages. He accordingly sent the Rebel General Buford, the next day, April 13th, to Columbus, Kentucky, to demand the unconditional surrender of that post. This de mand was coupled with a threat, that if the post was not immediately surrendered, and he were compelled to storm it, he would show no quarter to the negro troops. Colonel Lawrence, the commander of the fortress, replied, that " surrender was out of the question, as he had been placed there by his Government to hold and defend the place, and he should do so." Buford, like his superior officer, took advantage of the flag of truce to steal a number of horses, but on receiving the patriotic reply of Colonel Lawrence, he made no attempt to attack the Union garrison, but retired to Forrest s camp. A considerable force of Union cavalry were now in pursuit of Forrest, and as his vocation was rather to steal and murder than to fight, he made all speed southward, and escaped into Mississippi. 704 THE CIVIL WAS IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER LYII. PREPARATIONS FOR TUB ADVANCE GENERAL GRANT S STRATEGY SIMULTANEOUS MOVEMENT THE NUMBERS IN THB OPPOSING ARMIES SITUATION OF THE SUBORDINATE ARMIES OF THE UNION AND THEIR NUMBERS GENERAL BUTLER S ADVANCE THE FEINT ON YORK RIVER ASCENT OF THE JAMBS TO CITY POINT AND BERMUDA HUNDRED THE ADVANCE OJT FORT DARLING THE TROOPS DRIVEN BACK ATTACK OF THE REBELS ON BERMUDA HUN DRED THEY ARE REPULSED DEPARTURE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CORPS THE ATTACK ON PETERSBURG ITS PARTIAL FAILURE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC CROSSING TIIE RAPIDAN THE BATTLES OF MAY 5TH AND 6TH LEE s CHANGE OF POSITION DEATH OF WADSWORTH SKETCH OF WADSWORTH FIGHTING OF MAY 7TH AND 8TH PARTIAL LULL ON THE 9TH DEATH OF GENERAL SEDGWICK DESPERATE FIGHTING ON THE 10TH THE RESULTS STILL INDECISIVE QUIET ON THE NEXT DAY GENERAL GRANT S DESPATCH "FIGHTING IT OUT ON THAT LINE" TIIE TERRTBLK BATTLE OF THE 12TH THE CHARGE OF THE SECOND CORPS DESPERATE FIGHTING WILCOX s DIVISION FORCED BACK SUCCESS TURNING TO THB UNION SIDE LOSSES OF THB EIGHT DAYS ON THE UNION SIDE LOSSES ON THE REBEL SIDE IMPOSSIBILITY OF MOVEMENTS DURING THE STORM SKETCH OF GENERAL SEDGWICK. THE notes of preparation had sounded loud and long, and all was ready for such a campaign between the opposing armies as had not been sur passed in any war of modern times. Under the control and at the bidding of the Lieutenant-General, Sherman s army in Georgia, Meade s army on the Rapidan, Butler s on the James, Sigel s in the Shenandoah valley, were each to seek their foe, and plunge simultaneously into the conflict. Hitherto it had been towns or cities which our armies sought to win ; now it was the opposing army itself, wherever it might retreaty which was the real objective. Not Atlanta, so much as Johnston s army, was the prize Sherman sought to win ; not Eichmond, so much as Lee s army, was the guerdon of the armies of the Potomac and the James. The old strategy consisted in driving the covering force of the foe from a city which it was deemed necessary to capture, and then reducing it, when it had but a slender garrison. Grant s strategy aimed at something entirely different ; he drove the army of his enemy into his capital, surrounded and held him there, striking first at one flank and then at the other, and wearied him by his pertinacity and his heavy blows, until the citadel and the army of the foe were surrendered together, and the war brought to an end, almost simultaneously with the reduction of the enemy s capital. The siege of the beleaguered city might be longer by this process, but when the surrender came, the results amply repaid the delay. The cam paigns of the spring and summer of 186-i, both in Virginia and Georgia, were on a far larger scale than those of any previous year of the war. The Union armies outnumbered their opponents in both States, but more largely in the latter than in the former, but they were to a greater extent new troops, and were to act on the offensive against an enemy on his own GENERAL BUTLER S MOVEMENTS ON RICHMOND. 705 territory, and with abundant intrenched positions, and these advantages fully counterbalanced any excess of numbers. In Virginia, by the most strenuous efforts, General Lee had assembled a Rebel army far superior in numbers, discipline, and equipment, to any he had hitherto commanded. His army, when much inferior in numbers, training, and equipment, to the present one, had indeed been defeated at Antietam and Gettysburg, but had always been successful on its own territory, and its able commander might well be hopeful of victory in the coming contest. But he had not reckoned upon the iron will, the stern persistence, the unyielding grip, of his antagonist. He had hitherto been matched against generals less skilled in strategy, less fertile in resources, less capable of wielding a great army effectively than himself. But he was now to contend against a general who could parry all his attacks, who was a greater master of strategy than himself, and who could work steadily on for months, or even years, if necessary, to accomplish his purposes. The army of the Potomac, under the command of Major-General Meade, numbering, including Burnside s reserves, which were at this time at Annapolis, about one hundred and sixty thousand men, occupied a position along the Rapidan, south and southeast of Culpepper Court House. Major-General Butler s command, afterward named the arrny of the James, consisted of the army of southeast Virginia and North Carolina, nearly or quite an ordinary army corps in numbers, the tenth (Gillmore s) corps, from the Department of the South, and the eighteenth corps from Louisiana ; it numbered about forty thousand, and was concentrated at Fortress Monroe and its vicinity. In the Shenandoah valley, Major- General Sigel was in command of a single corps of not far from ten thousand men, with orders to participate in the simultaneous movement, by attacking the forces of the enemy in the valley, and to strike at Lynchburg. Generals Crook and Averell were in West Virginia, and had assembled there a force of more than twenty thousand men, a part of whom were to be pushed forward to join Sigel. The forward movement commenced on the 4th of May. The tenth and eighteenth corps, of General Butler s command, having marched previously from Fortress Monroe to Yorktown and Gloucester Point, embarked, on the 4th of May, on transports, and made a feint of ascending York river, a small force being landed at West Point to build wharves, &c. Having deceived the enemy by this movement, General Butler secretly re-embarked his troops, and descended the York river by night, ascended the James, accompanied by a large squadron of gunboats, four monitors, and the iron-clad Atlanta. Landing a part of his troops at City Point, he went on with the remainder as far as Bermuda Hundred, four miles above Appornattox river, where, landing under the protection of the gun- 45 706 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. boats, they proceeded at once to intrench themselves. On the 6th, he ascertained the enemy s position by means of reconnoitering parties, and on the 7th made a demonstration, with a force of five brigades, toward Petersburg. After a sharp and severe fight, the Union troops succeeded in reaching and cutting the railroad, General Kautz meanwhile being sent with a cavalry force to burn the railroad bridge below Petersburg, thus temporarily dividing Beauregard s force, a part of which had not yet reached that city. Meanwhile, Colonel West, with two regiments of colored troops, moved from Williamsburg, and made a successful demon stration on Lee s lines north of the James. General Butler next sent reconnoissances in force toward Kichmond, on the south side of the James, which destroyed the railroad between that city and Petersburg for a considerable distance, busying the rest of his troops meantime, in fortifying the two positions at Bermuda Hundred and City Point. This accomplished, he proceeded at once to lay siege to Fort Darling, a work of considerable strength, situated on Drewry s bluff, an eminence overlooking the James, and which had previously repulsed an attack of the Union iron-clads on its river front. On the 13th of May, the outer line of earthworks around the fort was carried, after a brief but sharp battle, and the Union troops moved for ward toward the second line, and began to bring up their artillery to bear upon it, but committed the fatal mistake of neglecting to intrench their new position. On the 16th of May, the enemy, taking advantage of this blunder, made a sortie upon their lines, in a dense fog, (having been reinforced for the purpose by the greater part of Beauregard s army,) and attacking the Union right wing with great violence, forced it back with very heavy loss, flanking it so completely that the whole army was compelled to fall back to their intrench ments at Bermuda Hundred, which, however, they succeeded in reaching in good order. The Rebel force, satisfied with hav ing compelled them to raise the siege of the fort, did not pursue them to Bermuda Hundred. It is said that Beauregard sought, from the Rebel President, the loan of ten thousand of Lee s troops, in addition to his own, for thirty-six hours, promising, if he could have them, to annihilate But ler s force. Mr. Davis refused, because that reduction of Lee s troops, even for so short a time, would compel him to fall back to Richmond, and would add to Grant s prestige to such an extent, that the annihilation of Butler s force would not compensate for it. He insisted, however, that Beauregard could accomplish his object without reinforcement. The at tempt wa^ made, and Butler suffered heavy loss, nearly five thousand of his troops being killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, but he was very far from being annihilated. On the early morning of the 20th of May, after three days skirmishing, the Rebel army advanced, and attacked Bermuda Hundred, but were repulsed with severe slaughter, and retreated in con- THE ATTACK ON PETERSBURG. 707 siderable disorder, leaving two hundred and sixty-three of their dead and wounded on the field, and acknowledging a loss of over six hundred. The Union loss was very heavy, but they held their position, though sorely distressed by their protracted fighting, having had little food and no rest for forty-eight hours. On the night of the 21st, the Rebels again attempted to carry the Union lines, making a vigorous attack with both infantry and artillery. The whole heavens were lit up by the blaze of artillery and the bursting of shells. But the affair ended in a complete repulse of the enemy, who suffered severely. On the 2-ith of May, a brigade of Eebel cavalry, under command of General Fitzhugh Lee, approached the Union position on the north side of the James, at Wilson s wharf, which was held by two regiments of colored troops, under the command of General Wild, and demanded the instant surrender of their works, accompanying the demand with the statement that if they surrendered they should be handed over to the authorities of Richmond as prisoners of war; otherwise, he would not be responsible for the consequences, when he captured the post. General Wild replied, "We will try that." A battle of three or four hours ensued, and at the end of that time, having exhausted his ingenuity in attempting to carry the position, either by front or flank attack, General Lee found himself compelled to retire, leaving the ground in front of the works strewn with dead Rebel cavalry, and the colored troops masters of the field. On the 27th and 28th of May, the eighteenth corps, commanded by General William F. Smith, was withdrawn secretly, and embarked for White House, whither they were sent to reinforce Grant s army. For some days there was no further movement, all of Beauregard s troops which could be spared, having been sent to reinforce Lee. On the 10th of June, believing that Petersburg contained but a small garrison, General Butler ordered a combined attack upon it; General Gillmore, with about three thousand five hundred troops, approaching it from the north ; Gene ral Kautz, with a fine cavalry force, attacking it from the south ; while the remainder of the troops, commanded by General Butler in person, and supported by the gunboats, should assail it from the northeast and east. General Kautz approached on the south side, and after some severe fight ing, forced his way into the city, while the gunboats, and General Butler s troops, attacked vigorously on the east and northeast ; but General Gill- more, advancing toward the works on the north side, deemed them too strong to be assailed by his force, and withdrew without attacking, and General Kautz, after fighting some time, was compelled, in consequence, to withdraw also. This action ended the independent movements of this army, which, though maintaining thenceforward a distinct existence as the army of the James, was under the direct command of General Grant, 708 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and co-operated with the army of the Potomac in its subsequent siege of Kichmond and Petersburg, making with it but one grand army. We return now to the army of the Potomac, and its advance against Lee s principal force. In his reorganization of this army, Lieutenant- General Grant had consolidated its five infantry corps into three; the second, under command of Major-General W. S. Hancock, the fifth, com manded by Major-General G. K. Warren, and the sixth, by Major-General John Sedgwick. Beside these, he had organized a reserve corps, from the ninth (Burnside s old) corps, which had been recruited up to nearly forty thousand, one division of them colored troops. The cavalry also constituted a full corps, and was placed under the command of the bril liant and fiery Sheridan, whom Grant had ordered from the West for this very service. The reserves were yet at Annapolis, and were supposed by the Kebels to be intended to strike some southern point. The Lieutenant-General accompanied the army of the Potomac, and the principal movements were directed by him, though the method of carrying them out was left very much to Major-General Meade, who commanded the army. General Grant s immediate design was, by a series of movements on the right flank of Lee, to compel him to fall back toward Richmond, to protect his communications with the Kebel capital. Of course, with an antagonist so wary and skilful as Lee, and at the head of so formidable an army, he could not hope to effect a speedy destruction or surrender of his army, or such a weakening of it as to permit his ready entrance into Richmond ; but the region in which Lee s army was encamped was one exceedingly unfavorable for fighting, and every .mile he was compelled to fall back brought him nearer to better battle-grounds ; and it was, more over, a part of the Lieutenant-General s strategy to shut him up in Rich mond. While hoping, doubtless, to succeed in his first flanking movement without a battle, Grant was prepared to accept the chances of it without flinching. He soon found that his wary foe was prepared to fight him at almost his first advance on his right flank. Pontoon bridges were laid at Ely s and Germania fords, and on the morning of the 4th of May, Han cock s corps crossed at the former, and Warren s and Sedgwick s at the latter, the entire force being on the south side of the Rapidan by noon of that day. The region upon which they entered immediately was that same Wilderness in which the battle of Chancellorsville had been fought ; a rough, sparsedly inhabited country, covered for the most part with a heavy forest-growth, and having a wet and often marshy soil, which nourished a dense undergrowth of shrubs, brambles, and young trees, offering insu perable obstacles to the use of artillery, and rendering infantry movements exceedingly difficult. Gregg s division of cavalry was ordered to patrol the plank road lead- THE FIRST DAY S BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. 709 ing to Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg, while Wilson s division did the same duty toward Parker s store and Orange Court House, the sup posed base of the enemy. At all events, there should be no surprise, no unexpected attack, such as had stricken with panic the eleventh corps at Chancellorsville; that much, at least, was effectually guarded against. The second corps encamped on the old battle-field of Chancellorsville; the fifth around the old Wilderness tavern, and the sixth between that and Germania ford. Thus far they had proceeded without opposition, and at roll-call hardly a man was missing. On Thursday morning, May 5th, the reveille in the Union army was beaten long before daybreak, and the troops were ordered to move in the following order: Warren s fifth corps from its position on Belmont farm, near Wilderness tavern, along the Spottsylvania plank road, five mile to Parker s store;- Sedg wick s sixth corps to follow him on the plank road ; Hancock s second corps to move southwesterly from Chancellors ville toward Shady Grove church, on the Pamunkey road, and to form a junction with Warren s left; Sheridan s cavalry, having been collected at Piney Branch church, to make a sweeping reconnoissance on the left flank, and endeavor to find and engage Stuart s cavalry. The immediate object of these movements was to straighten the Union line, and bring it in a continuous front upon Lee s right flank. They were, however, inter rupted before they had attained their full consummation. The Union army had proceeded but a short distance, before there were indications of the approach of the enemy in strong force ; E well s corps moving along the turnpike from Old Yerdiersville on Mine Run, and A. P. Hill s from New Verdiersville along the Spottsylvania county plank road, the one on which Warren was advancing. Skirmishing soon commenced, and the cavalry skirmishers were driven in with some loss, but General Grant ordered the march to be continued until some rolling ridges in advance were gained, and then halting his troops, disposed them advantageously in line of battle, and quickly throwing up some hasty and rude breastworks, awaited the enemy s onset. In the line thus formed, Sedgwick held the right toward the Rapidan ; Warren the centre, on the plank road, near, but a little east of Parker s store ; and Hancock stretched out toward Shady Grove church, southeast of Warren, and formed the left wing. The Union line extended nearly five miles, the centre being thrown a little forward. About noon, Griffin s division of Warren s corps, whose advance had already skirmished with the enemy and been driven back, was ordered to push his division to the right and left of the turnpike to feel the enemy. He obeyed, moving Bartlett s brigade to the right, and Ayres (regulars) to the left, while Barnes brigade was held in reserve. Less than a mile s march, stretching across the turnpike, brought them in collision with E well s corps, well posted in a wooded acclivity. A sharp engagement ensued for an hour, but the presence of this overwhelming force (a full 710 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. corps) upon two brigades, and especially upon Ayres , could no longer be resisted, and the two brigades fell back, leaving two pieces of artillery, the horses of which had nearly all been killed, in the enemy s hands. Wadsworth s and Robinson s divisions, both of the fifth corps, advanced promptly and relieved Griffin, holding the enemy completely in check. After an hour more of musketry firing, with a little artillery, that partic ular locality being partially cleared, the enemy moved off to attack another point. The purpose of this desperate attack on the part of Lee, had been to pierce the right-centre, and thus destroy the Union army before it arrived in position. He had been foiled by the steadiness and firmness of Griffin s troops, and when they were at last forced back, by the prompt support accorded to them by Wadsworth and Robinson. Disappointed in this, the Rebel commander now transferred his troops to the left-centre, and attempted to force his way between Warren and Hancock. It was about three o clock when this effort was made, and Hancock, who had been recalled from his advance toward Shady Grove when the first attack was made, and had marched rapidly across to close the gap in the line of battle, had arrived but with no time to spare, as the Rebel advance were pushing on to insert themselves between the two corps. Getty s division of the sixth corps, had been temporarily detached and sent to the left beyond Warren, and the first brigade of Mott s division of the second corps, had just formed a junction with it, when A. P. Hill s corps came upon them with great force. The stubborn fighting of these two divisions enabled the remainder of Hancock s corps to arrive and form, and in a few moments Hancock burst upon their right with a hot fire of musketry. Birney, Barlow, and Gibbons, successively hurried their respective divisions into the fight. The contest that followed was one of extraordinary intensity and stubbornness. The Rebel comman der, massing his troops, poured in for hours a deadly hail of musketry, such as had not perhaps been surpassed in fury during the war. There was little or no play of artillery, owing to the dense undergrowth ; but on both sides the sharp crack of the rifle and musket, and the ringing of the volleys was incessant. The iron second corps, mostly composed of veterans, held nearly three times its own numbers at bay, but in order to relieve the terrible pressure which was steadily crowding upon them in spite of the splendid fight they were making, it was necessary to advance along the whole line. The advance was ordered, and while the darkness was fast gathering, Sedgwick s sixth corps, which had been engaged heavily since half-past three, and to some extent since half-past one, P. M., pressed upon the enemy, and drove him back, putting E well s corps in extreme peril. With this gain upon the Union right, the fighting, which had extended far into the night, closed. The losses in killed and wounded on each side had been about equal, but the Rebels had the ad vantage in the number of prisoners, they having captured nearly one THE SECOND DAY S BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. 711 thousand, while the Union troops had only three hundred. The battle was indecisive, and each army awaited the coming of the morrow to renew the contest. Still, General Grant had gained some advantage in the fight; he had learned the position and strength of Lee s army, information of great value to him; he had, in the face of the enemy, formed his troops advantageously, and had them well in hand for the next day s fighting, and the ninth (Burnside s) corps, his reserves, which had been ordered up when the advance was made, arrived in the evening after a forced march, and were distributed to the support of the other three corps. The line remained substantially as on the preceding day, stretching from north west to southeast, over a line nearly parallel with that from Germania ford to Chancellorsville. On Friday, May 6th, at the very dawn of day the battle was resumed. Sedg wick s corps, on the right, had been ordered to advance at five o clock A.M., but fifteen minutes before that time the enemy were upon them, making a desperate effort to turn their flank. This effort was re pulsed, and the Union line pushed forward a few hundred yards, but without gaining any material advantage. At eight o clock A. M., and again at half-past ten, the Rebels massed on the right, and repeated their efforts to turn Sedgwick s flank, but in vain, though heavy losses were experienced on both sides. Whenever there was a lull, the Union troops at once commenced throwing up breastworks, which proved of great advantage. Hancock, moving out at dawn, had encountered and driven back Hill s corps more than two miles, toward Parker s store. Here, being reinforced by Longstreet, they succeeded in holding their ground, leaving, howeve^ many prisoners in the hands of the Union troops. After a lull, the Rebels came up and assailed the left with great fury, fol lowing up their attack along the whole line with such vigor as to throw it into some confusion. Reinforcements from Burnside s corps coming up, order was restored, and the Rebels held in check. The entire line swayed back and forth with the shifting fortunes- of the terrific fight, and the dense and heavy thicket in contention was covered with the dead and wounded of both armies. The Union right and centre had gained a little ground under a hot fire ; but this only brought them in front of the enemy s intrenched line, posted on an extended ridge, and approached through a densely wooded swamp of considerable width, pro tected by a front and flank fire. "Warren s and a part of Sedgwick s corps assailed this twice, unsuccessfully, in the course of the morning, and in the second attack Brigadier-General James S. "Wadsworth, commanding one of the divisions in the fifth corps, was mortally wounded and taken prisoner.* * Brigadier-General James Samuel "Wadsworth was the son of Hon. James Wads- worth, of Genesee, one of the largest landholders of western New York, and a man of most noble and philanthropic spirit. General Wadsworth was born in Genesee, THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. A comparative lull took place about noon, and was improved by the Union commander, in concentrating his lines, and bringing Burnside s corps up to fill the gap between Hancock and Warren. Hancock s corps was also brought forward from the Brock road toward the centre. These changes had hardly been completed, when Longstreet and Hill again fell upon the left and centre with great fury, and pushed them back for a little distance. At the junction of the left and centre their attack was particu larly severe ; Crawford s division of the fifth corps, Carr s division of the second corps, and Stevenson s division of the ninth corps, sustaining the brunt of the attack. Stevenson s division at length gave way, but General Hancock sent Carroll s brigade, of the second division of his corps, to drive back the enemy, who were rushing into the gap, and they were re pulsed with severe loss. Finding himself foiled in all his efforts on the centre and left, Lee again, just at night, turned his attention to the right, and by a sudden and furious assault, turned and broke the. brigades of October 30th, 1807. He was educated at Harvard and Yale colleges, and studied law under Daniel Webster, being admitted to the bar in 1833. He did not practice his profession to any considerable extent, his extensive estates requiring his entire atten tion. He had become distinguished for his liberality, not only to his tenants, whose rents he remitted, when their crops were visited by the midge, to the amount of twenty-five thousand dollars in a single year, but to the cause of education, of which, like his father, he was a warm and bountiful friend; to the starving poor of Ireland, to whom, in 1847, he sent a thousand bushels of corn, and to every good object. Giving was to him a pleasure and delight. When, at the beginning of the war, the railroadn leading to Washington were obstructed and torn up, he freighted a vessel with pro visions, at his own expense, and set sail in it for Annapolis, whence he sent the supplies to Washington for distribution to the army. He was appointed in January, 1861, a member of the Peace Conference which met at Washington ; but finding all efforts to prevent the war were unavailing, he entered in earnest upon the contest. Governor Morgan appointed him major-general of New York State troops, but he declined the commission. He served as volunteer aid to General McDowell in the battle of Bull Run, and his conduct in that relation was highly commended by the general. Mr. Lincoln nominated him for brigadier-general of volunteers, and he was at once confirmed by the Senate. He commanded a brigade in the army of the Potomac till March, 1862, when he was appointed military governor of the District of Columbia, a post which he held during most of the remainder of the year. He was the Republican candidate for Governor of New York, in the autumn of 1862, but was defeated by Horatio Seymour. In the battle of Fredericksburg he was again engaged in active duty, having command of the first division of the first (Reynold s) corps, and participated in the hard fighting of that disastrous battle. He also took part in the battle of Chancellorsville, or rather, in the feint which preceded it on the left wing, and at Gettysburg distinguished himself for his coolness and bravery. He was greatly rejoiced at being able to participate in the battles of Grant s campaign, but on the second day of the battle, while leading a charge, was struck by a ball in the forehead, and fell into the hands of the enemy. He remained insensible till the 8th of May, when lie died. An Irishman, to whom he had rendered some service, recognized him, attended him till his death, buried him, and informed the Union troops of the place and circumstances of his death. GENERAL LEE S CHANGE OF POSITION. 713 Seymour and Shaler, on the extreme right, and captured both generals, with a considerable portion of their commands. By the most extraor dinary effort and personal exposure, General Sedgwick succeeded in rallying his corps and holding the position, which was in great peril at one time, and the flanking of which would have brought destruction upon the whole army. Had the enemy been fully aware how nearly they had succeeded, they would not, in all probability, have relinquished the attack as they did. The losses of this day had been very heavy, large numbers being wounded, and many prisoners captured. The Rebels had taken many more prisoners than the Union troops, but their casualties in killed and wounded had also been greater. The result was still indecisive, and the two armies seemed very evenly balanced. During the night, the right wing was drawn back and strengthened. At daybreak on Saturday morning, the Union forces opened the conflict again, with artillery, which they had planted in a favorable position to protect their right wing. This cannonading elicited no reply, and an ad vance being ordered, a series of brisk skirmishes ensued, in which the Union troops were generally victorious. About noon, it became evident that General Lee was falling back with his main force toward Spottsyl- vania Court House, having abandoned his strong line of intrenchments at Mine Run, for his second defensive line on or near the North Anna. His tactics in this movement were similar to those he practiced at Chancellors- ville, his purpose being to outflank his antagonist, while he was attempt ing to flank him, and compel him to change his front or have his lines broken and annihilated. There was a cavalry battle on Saturday after noon, between four brigades of Sheridan s cavalry, and Stuart s Rebel cavalry, in which Sheridan held the ground. The infantry meantime pursued Lee, who turned again and again to give battle, as the Union troops pressed him. On Saturday evening, Fredericksburg was occupied and made a depot for the Union wounded troops. Hancock s and Burn- side s corps pressed on as far as possible, and early on Sunday morning, May 8th, resumed the chase. Warren s corps remained till dark, Satur day evening, on the site of the battle-field of Friday, and then set out and rilnrched all night, taking the Brock road, past Todd s tavern, to Spottsyl- vania Court House. Soon after leaving Todd s tavern, Sunday morning, Bartlett s brigade of Griffin s division, fifth corps, being in advance as skirmishers, were fired upon by the enemy. Line of battle was formed at once, and the corps came into action. A severe battle was fought, and the enemy at last driven back, but the Union troops were so greatly exhausted that they could march no farther for the time. Toward evening, General Grant ordered an advance, which was attempted by the fifth and sixth corps, and resulted in another sharp battle. On Monday, May 9th, there was quiet in the morning, then skirmishing and artillery firing, but no general battle till evening. During the day 714 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. General Sedgwick, the commander of the sixth corps, was killed by a ball from the rifle of a sharpshooter, while superintending the mounting of artillery. The positions of the different corps had been changed on Sunday, with a view to prevent Lee s attempted flanking movement. Hancock now held the right, Warren the centre, and the sixth corps the left. Toward evening, General Grant ordered another advance on the enemy, and the second corps again led the attack, this time on the right, while Burnside offered battle on the left. The battle was one of great severity, artillery being used to a greater extent than in any previous battle of the campaign, and both sides alternately charging. The object of the battle was the possession of Spottsylvania Court House, but at the close of the night s fighting, the Rebels still held it, and Hancock s brave corps retired slowly, having largely increased their previous heavy losses. On Tuesday, May 10th, the incessant storm of battle culminated in the most terrific carnage of. the campaign. The position of the two armies was as follows : the Union army stretched along the Po for a distance of nearly six miles, from the vicinity of Corbin s bridge, nearly to Glady Run, Hancock s corps being on the south side of the Po, and the other troops on the north. Burnside occupied the extreme left, facing Spottsylvania Court House ; next, north, lay the sixth (Wright s) corps ; then Warren a, and finally Hancock s, on the extreme right ; both right and left were pro tected by several batteries of artillery, and the ground was more favorable than it had hitherto been for using them, though a dense forest lay directly in front of the Union army. The Rebels still held Spottsylvania, and the region north of the Court House. Their right rested on the Ny river ; their centre was thrown forward a little, and posted on commanding ground, and their left rested on Glady Run. Their whole line was strongly intrenched. In his counter flanking movement, Lee had been so far successful that his army lay east, or rather southeast, of the Union forces, instead of southwest of them, as at the beginning of the campaign. His position was not only well supported by breastworks, but along his cen tre was the forest and underbrush, lining a marsh partially drained by a creek. + The battle opened in the early morning, by a terrific cannonade of the Union artillery against the advancing lines of the enemy, and for the first time in the campaign was this arm brought into full and destructive use. Burn side s corps next skirmished cautiously on the extreme left. Mott s division, of Hancock s corps, was then transferred to the left, and the advance continued, pressing heavily upon the enemy s right. General Grant s orders were now to attack the Rebel centre, and accordingly, Gib bons and Birney s divisions, of the second corps, were drawn back from the south side of the Po, to connect with the fifth corps, the second and fourth divisions of which co-operated in the attack, and were supported by GRANT S DESPATCH TO SECRETARY ST ANTON. 715 the remainder of the fifth corps. The Union troops fought with great tenacity and fury for several hours, driving the enemy to his rifle-pits ; but, though Gibbons division, and especially Carroll s brigade, charged fiercely and repeatedly upon these, they could not capture them. General James C. Kice, commanding a brigade in the fourth division of the fifth corps, an officer of great promise, was killed. By this check of the Union centre, Barlow s the only remaining divi sion of the second corps on the right was thrown into extreme peril, and orders were given to withdraw it to the north side of the Po ; but the enemy had already attacked it in great force, and turned it. After severe fighting, its withdrawal was at length effected. Toward evening, a most energetic and gallant assault was made by the whole line. Upton s bri gade, of the first division of the sixth corps, and Russell s brigade, from the third division, led the forlorn hope, moving steadily forward amid a raking and murderous fire, without firing a shot, scaled the enemy s works in gallant style, and captured more than a thousand prisoners, and several guns ; but finding themselves far in advance of the enemy, and not properly supported, they were compelled to fall back, with their dearly won prisoners, from this daring assault. As on each preceding day, night closed on a hard fought but indecisive field. On Wednesday, May llth, the position of the two armies was much the same as on the previous day, and though there was some skirmishing, there was not much heavy fighting. A reconnoissance, intended proba bly as a feint, was sent out to investigate the condition of the enemy s left, and assaulting columns from the sixth and second corps were ordered to put themselves in readiness for attack, but the object having been accom plished, of drawing the enemy s force to that wing, the enterprise was delayed. In the afternoon, rain commenced, for the first time during the campaign, and the two armies desisted for the time from their hostilities, except occasional artillery firing. It was at this time that General Grant sent his famous despatch to Secretary Stanton. It was as follows : " We have now ended the sixth day of very hard fighting. The result to this time is much in our favor. Our losses have been heavy, as well as those of the enemy. I think the loss of the enemy must be greater. We have taken over five thousand prisoners in battle, whilst he has taken from us but few, except stragglers. I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." The fiercest battle, however, was yet in reserve. During Wednesday night, Hancock s corps, which since Sunday had been upon the right, was transferred to the left, between Wright s sixth and Burnside s ninth corps, thus leaving Warren s fifth corps on the right wing, while Wright s and Hancock s constituted respectively the right and left-centre, and Burnside s the left wing. At dawn of day on Thursday, May 12th, sheltered by the darkness and by a dense mist, the second corps moved 716 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. quietly and cautiously up from its position toward the enemy s lines. Barlow s and Birney s divisions formed the first line, and Gibbon s and Mott s the reserve. Barlow s advance marched in columns of battalions, doubled on the centre. As the corps surmounted gradually the rugged and woody space which intervened, the excitement increased, till it broke out in a splendid rush at the Kebel intrenchments, which the troops of that gallant division leaped with loud cheers, dashing into the enemy s camp and compelling their surrender in mass. Hardly a gun was fired, the charge being made entirely with the bayonet. It was a clear surprise, and resulted in the capture of an entire Kebel division (Edward Johnson s), of three thousand men, thirty or forty guns, and Major-General Johnson, and Brigadier-General G. H. Stewart, all of Ewell s corps. No sooner was the first line of rifle-pits carried than the second was stormed with great impetuosity, and, after a stout resistance, wrested from the enemy. This, the first considerable success of the campaign, inserted the second corps as a wedge between the enemy s centre and right, and if that wedge could be driven to its head, the result would inevitably be the dismember ment of Lee s army. The charge of the second corps was followed by a heavy cannonade all along the line, to which the Rebels promptly replied, and under cover of which the whole line moved up to support the second corps. Burn- side pressed in on the extreme left, converging toward the penetrated space, and speedily joined his right to Hancock s left division, closed the gap, and mingled his infantry fire with that of Hancock s corps. On the other side, the sixth corps also threw itself against Ewell s left, and on the extreme right Warren s corps became hotly engaged, and an incessant rattle and roar of battle arose along the whole line. The rain began again to descend with greater violence than on the preceding day, but it did not in the least cool the ardor of the combatants. By nine o clock A. M., the Bebels, fully roused to the value of the posi tion they had lost, began a series of desperate and furious charges against the second and ninth corps, in the hope of regaining their lines. For three hours the battle was as bloody and fierce as any battle of the war. The Kebel columns surged with unflinching determination against the Union lines, retiring each time with their heavily massed columns cut through and through by the cross and enfilading fires of artillery and musketry which were steadily brought to bear upon them. At length, about noon, the enemy, surfeited with slaughter, abandoned for a time their attempts to regain their lost position. But if they had not been successful in this, they had at least checked any further advance ; and of the captured cannon, the greater part lay covered by the guns of the sharpshooters, neither party being able to carry them off. The LTnion troops on the centre and right, emulating the success of the second corps, had charged the enemy s centre with great gallantry; but DESPERATE BATTLE AT SPOTTSYLVANIA. 717 the position was impregnable, and after repeated heroic attempts, the effort to capture it was abandoned. Finding that success lay most clearly in turning the enemy s right, General Meade, after a temporary lull, began, in the early afternoon, to crowd his troops down toward the left, shortening and massing his line, and again pouring a fierce musketry and artillery fire into the enemy, and pressing hard upon their right and right- centre. All through the afternoon, and till nightfall, the carnage went on with varying success along the line, the resistance of the Rebels being stubborn, and the whole field, from headquarters to the extreme front, being at times swept by their fire. Finding that the Union right had been merely holding them in front from reinforcing their right, and that the Union troops had now abandoned their front, the Rebels began to concentrate their troops upon the important point on the Union left, and every inch of the muddy soil, already slippery with gore, was fought over with desperation, and yielded only when it was impossible to hold it. The rival bayonets often interlocked, and a fierce and death-like grapple over the intrenchrnents lasted for hours, the Rebel flags now surging up side by side with those of the Union, and anon, torn and riddled, disappearing in the woods. The dead and wounded lay thickly strewn along the ground, and were fairly heaped up where the fight was deadliest. Exasperated at our Access on their right-centre, as well as at the per tinacity and determination with which Burnside s corps were forcing them back, and attempting to turn their right flank, the Rebels prepared a strong counter-movement on their extreme right, and massing their troops against Wilcox s division, forming the extreme left of the Union army, in spite of the most desperate fighting, bore it back, capturing three hun dred prisoners from Hartranft s brigade ; and leaving as large a number of dead and wounded on the ground, rushed forward in pursuit, but were checked and driven back with great loss, by a sweeping artillery fire, from batteries brought up and posted since the advance of the morning. The other divisions of the corps stood firm, and even penetrated to the enemy s intrench ments. Hard fighting continued, but the Union troops were obliged to content themselves with what they had already gained, and the Rebels to be resigned to their losses. After fourteen hours fight ing, night fell on a battle unsurpassed in severity during the war. For the first time in the campaign, a decided success had been achieved. A strong and permanent foothold had been gained in the enemy s lines, and the Union line pushed forward a mile beyond its morning position, and though five determined assaults had been made during the day, to expel them from the position they had won, they had all proved fruitless. During the night the enemy fell back to a new position, a little to the rear of the one they had previously occupied, and though there was some skirmishing, and the fifth and sixth corps were ordered to make another advance, and 718 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. surprise the enemy, if possible, by an attack at dawn, it was found that his new position was so strong as to offer no probabilities of success. The heavy and persistent rain which had now set in, rendered any intended movement impossible for some days. The position of the corps was changed again, Warren being on the left, Wright on the left-centre, Buruside on the right-centre, and Hancock on the right. There was now, for nearly a week, a lull in the fighting, and both armies improved it, to bring up as large a number of reinforcements as possible. The first act of the campaign was completed. After eight days of almost continuous fighting, the two armies paused to bury their dead, to care for their wounded, and to count up their gains and losses. These had been fearful on both sides. The Union losses, though not quite so large as at first reported, were sufficiently heavy, amounting, according to official returns, to two hundred and sixty-nine officers, and three thou sand and nineteen men, killed ; one thousand and seventeen officers, and eighteen thousand two hundred and sixty-one men, wounded ; and one hundred and seventeen officers, and six thousand six hundred and sixty- seven men, missing mostly prisoners making an aggregate of twenty- nine thousand three hundred and fifty hors du combat in the eight days. Among the officers slain were Major-General Sedgwick, commanding the sixth corps,* Brigadier-Generals Wadsworth, Hays, Bice, and Stevenson ; _ J * John Sedgwick, a major-general of volunteers, and at the time of his death commander of the sixth army corps, was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, about 1815. He was graduated at West Point in 1837, ranking twenty-fourth in a class of fifty members General Hooker, and the Rebel generals Bragg, Early, and Pemberton, being among his classmates. He entered the Mexican war as first lieu tenant of artillery, and was successively bre vetted captain and major for gallant conduct at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec. He also distinguished himself at the head of his command in the attack on the San Cosmo gate of the city of Mexico. At the commencement of the Rebellion he held the position of lieutenant- colonel of the second United States cavalry. He was promoted April 25th, 1861, to the colonelcy of the fourth cavalry; and on the 31st of August was commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers, and placed in command of a brigade of the army of the Potomac, which in the subsequent organization of the army was assigned to the second corps under General Sumner General Sedgwick assuming command of the third division of the corps. In this capacity he took part in the siege of Yorktown, and the subsequent pursuit of the enemy up the peninsula, and greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Fair Oaks, where the timely arrival of Sumner s corps, and his division of it, saved the day. In all the seven days fighting, and particularly at Savage s station and Glendale, he bore an honorable part; and at Antietam he ex hibited the most conspicuous gallantry, exposing his person greatly to the peril of his life. He was twice wounded in this battle, but refused to be removed from the field for two hours after receiving his second wound. On the 23d of December he was appointed major-general of volunteers, having previously been breveted brigadier- general in the regular army. In February, 1863, he was assigned to the command of the sixth army corps. At the head of his corps he carried Marye s heights, Fredericksburg, and subsequently fought the battles of Salem heights and Banks s OF GENERAL SEDGWICK. 719 several general officers wounded, and two brigadier-generals taken pris oners. The Rebel loss had not been less severe. Their killed, wounded, and missing, by their own admission, considerably exceeded thirty thou sand, and among the number were eight thousand prisoners. Eighteen cannon and twenty-two flags were also captured, and the Union forces had taken one major-general and one brigadier-general prisoners. They had also lost in these battles Major-General Samuel Jones, Brigadier- Generals Jenkins, John M. Jones, Daniels, Gordon, Perrin, and Stafford, while Lieutenant-General Longstreet was so severely wounded that he was unable to resume command for seven or eight months. So far, though there had been no decisive victory, success preponderated on the Union side. Their loss was somewhat less, though they were better able to bear a heavy loss than the Rebels; and they were pressing their enemy, slowly indeed, but surely, toward ^the Rebel capital. ford, in the first week of May ; and finally withdrew his command across the Rappa- hannock, in the face of a greatly superior force, after a day of obstinate fighting. He commanded the left wing of the army of the Potomac during the advance into Mary land in June, 1863, and also at the battle of Gettysburg, where he arrived on the second day, after one of the most extraordinary forced marches on record, and where his steady courage inspired confidence among his troops. During the passage of the Rapidan, November 7th, 1863, he succeeded by a well-executed manoeuvre in captur ing about fifteen hundred men of Early s (Rebel) division, with a number of guns and colors, for which he was thanked by General Meade in a general order. On the re organization of the army in the spring of 1864, he was retained in command of the sixth corps, which was greatly enlarged. In the commencement of the campaign whose history we are narrating, he had command of the Union right wing, and took part in the severe fighting of the first days of the campaign. He was killed on the 9th of May, a day of comparative quiet, falling by a shot from a sharpshooter, and dying instantly. He had more than once declined the command of the army of the Potomac, which had been tendered to him. 720 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER LVIII. CONTINUATION OF GRANT S CAMPAIGN BATTLES NEAR SPOTTSYLVANIA REINFORCEMENTS THE BATTLE OF THE 18TH OF MAY THE REPULSE ANOTHER FLANK MOVEMENT TO THK NORTH ANNA, AND BEYOND EWELL s RAID UPON THE UNION REAR HE IS REPULSED WITH LOSS FIGHTING NEAR THE NORTH ANNA STRENGTH OF THE REBKL POSITION ANOTHER FLANK MOVEMENT RECROSSING THE NORTH ANNA MARCH TO HANOVERTOWN CAVALRY ENGAGEMENT ON TOLOPATOMOY CREEK BATTLE OF TOLOPATOMOY CREEK, OR SHADY GROVF CHURCH TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY NORTH OF THE CHICKAHOMINY POSITION OF LEE S ARMY CAVALRY BATTLE FOR THE POSSESSION OF COLD HARBOR THE BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR DESPERATE FIGHTING OF THE SIXTH AND EIGHTEENTH CORPS FIGHTING ON OTHER PARTS OF THE LINE THE BATTLE OF THE CHICKAHOMINY INDECISIVE RESULTS OF THE GALLANT AND DESPERATE FIGHTING THE OPPOSING LINES VERY NEAR EACH OTHER LOSSES OF BOTH SIDES SINCE THE BATTLES OF THE WILDERNESS SKETCH OF GENERAL HANCOCK SHERIDAN S FIRST RAID RICHMOND THREATENED HIS FORCE SURROUNDED AT THE CHICKAHOMINY REBUILDING MEADOW BRIDGE GALLANT CHARGE ON THE ENEMY HIS ESCAPE HIS SECOND RAID THE BATTLES OF TREVILIAN STATION SHERIDAN WITH DRAWS, AFTER PUNISHING THE ENEMY SEVERELY, AND REJOINS THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC SOUTH OF THE JAMES RIVER. THE temporary cessation, or rather relaxation, of hostilities which took place from the 12th to the 18th of May, and which was only broken seriously by the fighting on Saturday, the 14th, (the result of the capture by the Union troops of a house near the Ny river, which had been occu pied by the enemy, and was dangerously near the Union lines, the desperate efforts of the Rebels to recapture it, and of the Union troops to recover it after losing it again,) was an absolute necessity for both armies. The heavy rains made extended locomotion, except on railroads, impossi ble ; and both contestants were so much exhausted as to require rest The burial of their dead, the removal of their wounded, the bringing up of reinforcements, and the intrenching and fortifying their position, fully occupied the time of those who were able to move. The rest improved very greatly the health and spirits of the Union troops, and when the order came again, with the return of fair weather, for the renewal of the conflict, they were eager for the fight. In all, during this and the suc ceeding week, about fifty thousand new troops were brought up, making Grant s army larger by twenty thousand than at the beginning of the campaign. On Tuesday, the 17th of May, extensive reconnoissances were made, and all the previous attacks having been made on the enemy s right flank, and having led him to concentrate his forces on his right, it was now deter mined to strike the left flank, in the hope of effecting a surprise there. A change of position was effected in some of the corps, and on Wednesday morning, when the new line was formed, Wright s sixth corps, occu- CONTINUATION OF GRANT S CAMPA)GN. 721 pied the right, Hancock joined him on the right-centre, Burnside was on the left-centre, and Warren on the extreme left. Wright, Hancock, and Burnside were to attack. The battle commenced by a heavy cannonade from the Union right, to which the enemy responded promptly, and be tween half-past four and five A. M., a general assault was made by the three corps, who dashed forward, drove back the enemy s skirmish line, and carried two lines of rifle-pits promptly, and with comparatively slight loss. These carried, a formidable, and, as it proved, insuperable barrier interposed, preventing farther advance. In front of the .whole Rebel line stretched abroad, dense and almost absolutely impenetrable abatis, behind which, in strong earthworks, lay a large body of riflemen and sharpshoot ers, too secure to be dislodged, and behind them batteries of heavy artillery. It was impossible to penetrate this triple defence without terrible slaughter, and it was equally impossible to stand longer under the murderous sweep of artillery, and the troops were therefore withdrawn in good order, and as promptly as possible. The assault was abandoned about eleven o clock, A. M v and all the troops recalled to their original positions, but it had cost, in killed and wounded, about twelve hundred men. There was no further fighting during the day, but with that promptness which characterized all his movements, General Grant sent Torbert s cavalry on Wednesday night^to Guinney s station, on the Fredericksburg and Richmond railroad, ten mileB southeasterly from Spottsylvania, and north of the Po, which receives the Ny, some distance above. This station was to the right and rear of Lee s position, and threatened his communications with Richmond. The cavalry destroyed the depot and warehouses, which contained large amounts of supplies, cut the telegraph wires, and broke up the railroad track. General Grant next ordered the preliminary changes of position for a new flanking movement, and on Thursday, a part of the sixth corps began to move from the right, and march across to the left. Lee at once comprehended this movement, and Ewell s corps was despatched to check it by a bold dash upon the rear of the Union army. A little after noon of Thursday, Ewell crossed the Ny, passed the Union right wing without discovery, owing to the withdrawal of the troops on the right, and about five o clock, struck the Fredericksburg wagon road in rear of the Union right flank. Here he attacked the wagons laden with commissary and ord nance supplies, and the ambulances with wounded, which were constantly passing on that road. The number of these passing that point at that time was fortunately small, heavier trains having passed just before toward the camp, and others being nearer Belle Plain than the secondary base of supplies, but the Rebels took possession of such as were within reach, and fired after the others. The distance of this point from the front was such that Ewell might well have hoped to plunder at will before the Union troops could be upon him ; but Union troops were nearer by far than he supposed. Tyler s division of heavy artillery, but armed as 46 722 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. infantry, had been sent down from the Washington defences a day or two previous, and were now approaching from Belle Plain, when the stam peded teamsters and ambulance drivers, rushing back, apprized them of the corning of the enemy. Forming his troops as soon as possible in line, General Tyler moved upon .the enemy, who were already fighting Tan- natt s brigade, which was in the advance, and after a short, but severe battle, they drove the Eebels from the road into and through the woods, repulsing them thoroughly, and in admirable style. Late in the evening, three divisions (one each from the second, fifth, and sixth corps) hurried up to support Tyler, but the enemy were already defeated. The enemy effected no capture of stores or animals. They killed a few horses, but destroyed nothing else of importance. In this sharp but brief battle the Union loss in killed, wounded, and missing, was about twelve hundred, and that of the enemy fully as great. While this attack was in progress, the Eebels advanced against the Union left, opening a very heavy can nonade against it at the same time, but after a brief engagement were driven back, and the cannonading ceased. The object of this advance was probably to cover Ewell s movement. About three o clock on Fri day morning, the three divisions from the second, fifth, and sixth corps, entered the wood silently and swiftly, and sweeping through them, attacked the rear of the enemy s column, and cut off about four hundred prisoners. Ewell immediately recrossed the Ny, and retreated to his earn p. On Friday night, the new flanking movement commenced in earnest. At midnight, Torbert s cavalry left Massaponax church, and advancing through Guinney s station, proceeded to Guinney s bridge, over the Po, just below its junction with the Ny, some two miles farther. At Downer s bridge, a mile or two farther down the Po, they found a body of Rebel cavalry threatening their further progress, but a sharp charge of the Union cavalry drove them back, and pushing them from the road, the cavalry column went on to Bowling Green, a village fifteen miles south east from Spottsylvania, and six miles below Guinney s ; and thence, still pushing the enemy before them, to Milford station, from which they drove out the Rebel garrison, a part of Pickett s division of Ewell s corps, cap turing about seventy men. The second corps followed on Friday night, and reached and crossed the Mattaponay, at Milford s bridge, on Saturday evening, forming line in a commanding position, about a mile from the bridge. Warren s fifth corps moved at ten o clock Saturday morning, and reached Guinney s station Saturday evening. The sixth and ninth corps followed, and before night of Saturday the entire army had left Spottsylvania. On Sunday, the Union army lay along and near the line of the Fredericksburg rail road, facing westward; its right at Guinney s station, its centre at Bowling Green, and its left at Milford station. Each corps had encountered some MARCH TO HANOVERTOWN. 723 opposition from the enemy s cavalry, but had easily driven it back. The enemy were evidently fully aware of the movement, and had anticipated it by removing their stores from every point on the route ; and General Grant had already become convinced that Lee was moving also, and had preceded him, in the direction of Hanover Court House. On Monday, the Union army were pushed on at a rapid rate, and by nightfall reached the North Anna river, in the neighborhood of Jericho bridge. The second and fifth corps were in the advance the fifth at the right of the second. Here the enemy were formed in a very strong position, but the second corps, under their gallant leader, Hancock, rushed upon their works, and by a desperate charge, carried the position, losing about three hundred men in so doing. The fifth corps crossed higher up the river, without difficulty, but were soon attacked with great vehemence. General Grant stated, in his despatch to Secretary Stanton, that he had never heard more rapid or massive firing, either of artillery or musketry. It resulted, how ever, in a most destructive repulse of the enemy. At night, the second and fifth corps were on the south side of the North Anna, and the sixth and ninth, on the north side, and by Wednesday, the 25th of May, the whole army were across, though this had not been accom plished without some severe fighting, the passage of the river at Taylor s, or Chesterfield bridge, and between that point and Jericho bridge and ford, being stoutly contested by the Rebels. After crossing, the position of the enemy was found to be one of great strength, their right resting on the deep and impassable Bull swamp, and their left on Little river, while their front was thrown forward toward Ox ford, of the North *Anna, so as to extend their line in the shape of a Y, the apex being thrust forward almost to the North Anna, and partially separating the Union right and left wings, and its own right and left wings protecting the Virginia Cen tral and Fredericksburg railroads, and especially the important position of Sexton s Junction, where they united. Port Royal, on the Rappahan- nock, was temporarily made the Union base of supplies and a depot for the wounded, but foreseeing that another flank movement would soon be required, General Grant ordered supplies shipped to White House, on the Pamunkey, the whilom base of General McClellan, in May and June, 1862. This precaution was wisely taken. The position of the enemy, which we have already described, near Sexton s Junction, proving too strong to be carried without incurring too heavy losses, General Grant again moved on the enemy s right flank. Two divisions of Sheridan s cavalry (Torbert s and Gregg s), were sent, on the 26th of May, to recross the North Anna, march southeastward, and take possession of Hanover ferry and Hanovertown, about twenty-five miles below the position the army were occupying on the Pamunkey river, while Wilson s division was employed in destroying the Virginia Central railroad, from the vicinity of Sexton s Junction westward. Still 724 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. better to cover the movement on which he had determined, a vigorous demonstration was made on the enemy s left on Thursday, the 26th, sev eral divisions of infantry attacking the enemy in position. Meanwhile, the two divisions of cavalry had arrived at their destination, where they found only a Rebel vidette, of which they captured seventy-five. The sixth corps had left its camp on Thursday night, and crossing the North Anna, followed the cavalry, marching rapidly but silently. On Saturday morning, May 28th, the infantry had possession of Han- overtown and the crossing of the Pamunkey. The cavalry now pushed on southward, the whole of Sheridan s cavalry corps co-operating, and the infantry followed as fast as they could. Near Howe s store, which is not far from Tolopatomoy creek, an affluent of the Pamunkey, Gregg s cavalry, which was in the advance, encountered Hampton s and Fitzhugh Lee s Rebel cavalry, and a severe cavalry engagement ensued. Gregg, being greatly outnumbered, but fighting gallantly, was on the point of being forced back, when Ouster s brigade of Torbert s division came up, and being armed with the Spencer repeating rifle, soon compelled the Rebels to retire before their concentrated and deadly fire, leaving their dead and wounded in the hands of the Union troops. The loss on each side was about four hundred. Aside from this battle, there was no fighting until Monday, May 30th. The Union troops continued to press forward on the Shady Grove church and Mechanicsville roads. The Rebels were posted on the south side of Tolopatomoy creek, their right resting on the Mechanicsville road, near Shady Grove church, and their left extending toward Atle^ s station, on the Virginia Central road. On Monday, May 30th, about noon, the enemy attacked and drove in the Union skirmishers on the road leading from Cold Harbor to Old Church tavern, making a desperate effort to effect a raid upon the rear of the Union army. Devens , Merritt s, and Custer s cavalry brigades came up successively, and after a brisk engagement, beat off the enemy and drove them back with a loss of eighty or ninety men. About five P. M., Warren s corps, which was moving out along the Mechanicsville road, was suddenly and fiercely attacked by a Rebel force, consisting of one division of Ewell s corps and two cavalry brigades; and Crawford s division, which was a little detached from the rest, and near Shady Grove church, was forced back so far as to endanger the turning of Warren s flank. The other divisions of the corps hastening up, prevented this disaster, and a severe engagement followed, in which General Meade, in order to relieve Warren s corps from the heavy pressure upon it, ordered an attack along the whole line. Only the second corps, however, received the order in time to attack before dark, and Hancock, without delay, dashed upon the enemy s skirmish line, captured their rifle-pits, and held them all night. At nightfall, the enemy had been driven at every point, and left his dead and wounded upon the field, but moved down a large force to prevent any further con- CAVALRY ENGAGEMENT AT TOLOPATOMOY CREEK. * 725 oentration upon his right. General William F. Smith, with the eighteenth corps, from the army of the James, had, however, been already ordered to White House by General Grant, and was moving down upon the right of the enemy ; and Burnside s corps was also marching toward the same point. This engagement is known by the names of Tolopatomoy creek, and Shady Grove church, though the former more properly belongs to the cavalry engagement of the 28th. There was a brief but somewhat sharp engagement toward midnight of Monday, between the Eebels and Burnside s corps, but it soon terminated The position of the two armies at this time, in connection with the topog raphy of the country in which they were fighting, is of some importance, as indicating the purposes of the movements of each army. The Chicka- hominy river, which maintains a nearly parallel course with the Pamun- key, and is about ten miles southwest of it, forms, from Winston s to Bottom s bridge, the outer line of defences of Kichmond on the north and northeast, and as such, was vigorously defended by General Lee, who saw clearly that to permit the Union army to cross it, would at once im peril the Rebel capital. The ground between the Pamunkey and Chicka- hominy is, for the most part, open, high, dry, and favorable for military manoeuvres. Near the Chickahominy, however, there are some swamps, of a similar character to those which proved so pestilential to the Union army in 1862 ; from this low ground the land rises soon to ridges, on which there are several roads running parallel to the Chickahominy, from near Atlee s station to Bottom s bridge. These roads, as well as the river bank, were firmly held by the Rebel commander, and every attempt to gain possession of them was repulsed promptly. Lee s main line extended from near Atlee s to Games mills and Cold Harbor. His cavalry, with perhaps some infantry supports, extended to Hanover Court House on the left, and on the right to Bottom s bridge. His line ran as follows : A. P. Hill s corps on the left, Longstreet in the centre, and Ewell on the right. Beauregard and Breckinridge were in reserve, so far as the army of the Potomac was concerned, but the former was engaged in holding the army of the James at bay. On Tuesday, May 3 1st, there was a brief but brilliant action, in which Birney s division of the second corps rushed at and carried a breastwork of the enemy on the south side of Tolopatomoy creek, capturing about forty prisoners. There were other desultory fights with small bodies of troops, at various points of the extended Hue, (of over six miles in length,) during the day. On the right, Wilson s cavalry division skirmishing suc cessfully, on the extreme right of the army, with Young s Rebel brigade of Wade Hampton s cavalry, and Ledlie s brigade of Burnside s corps, attack ing the enemy in its front, and advancing its skirmish line. The most im portant action, however, was that of Torbert s division of Sheridan s cavalry corps, in the vicinity of Cold Harbor, whither they had been sent by General 726 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Grant, to hold that position for the occupation of the infantry. It was the purpose of General Grant to extend his lines eastward, by removing bis corps successively from his extreme right, and force a passage across the Chickahominy, on the enemy s right. In attempting to occupy Cold Harbor, the cavalry found themselves opposed by a party of Fitzhugh Lee s cavalry, and Clingman s brigade of Hoke s North Carolina division. A sharp fight resulted, Merritt s regular cavalry brigade opening, and Devens and Custer s brigades quickly joining. The Union forces, after a somewhat severe struggle, held the desired ground, though with difficulty. On Wednesday, June 1st, the cavalry fighting, with artillery firing, was resumed on both flanks. There was heavy skirmishing also, all along the line. At Cold Harbor, the contest lasted longest, as the enemy were de termined to drive the Union troops out, while Sheridan s orders were to hold it. Hoke s division was completely repulsed by Sheridan s dis mounted cavalry, fighting with carbines. McLaw s division then rein forced Hoke, and other portions of Longstreet s corps coming up, the Union troops could only stand at bay, and hold their own, though fight ing with desperate bravery. The fighting died away about noon, and soon after, the sixth Wright s corps arrived, and deployed into line on the right of the Gaines mill road, relieving Sheridan s cavalry. At three o clock the eighteenth corps also came up, having been delayed by taking the wrong road, and at once deployed in line, though wearied by a long march. A charge was ordered immediately. In front was a ploughed field two-thirds of a mile wide, and beyond, a strip of pine forest, in which the enemy lay intrenched. The artillery on the Union left and rear fired sharply for an hour, and at length, about six o clock, the line dashed forward. Devens division of the eighteenth corps, and Ricketts of the sixth, were the assaulting force, and rushed forward across the ploughed land, through a patch of green plain and into the woods, while a deadly storm of artillery and musketry raked their ranks. The charge was made at the double- quickstep, and the men of both divisions dashed over the Eebel earth works with great spirit, taking and holding their first line 01 rifle-pits, and capturing about six hundred prisoners. In this charge, Drake s brigade, in the advance of Devens division, was badly cut up, and by the time it reached the abatis and entanglements in the woods, had hardly men enough left to surmount them. At this critical juncture Barton s brigade of the same division sprang forward, and gallantly crossing the open under the murderous fire, swept the obstacles and carried the rifle-pits, capturing two hundred prisoners in them. The enemy, however, still held his line on the Union right, and began to enfilade the rifle-trench. Henry s brigade of Brooks division, eighteenth corps, was next sent in to support Barton, and after a desperate struggle gained a lodgement in the line, but it was soon found that a redoubt in the enemy s second line completely commanded this position, and Henry was obliged to relinquish THE BATTLE OF THE CHICKAHQMINY. 727 it. The other divisions of the two corps were brought up, but no more ground was gained, though the struggle cost heavy losses. The Union troops held Cold Harbor after a fierce conflict, but they could not drive the Rebels from their position. During the night the enemy attempted, by a succession of desperate charges, to regain the territory they had lost, but they were repulsed promptly. The Union loss was not far from two thousand. That of the enemy was considerably less in killed and wounded, since they had fought behind breastworks, but they had also lost six hundred prisoners. The Union line now extended from Bethesda church, near Shady Grove, to Cold Harbor, and the corps were arranged thus : from right to left, Hancock, Burnside, Warren, Smith, and Wright. Cold Harbor, the object of this desperate fighting, consisted of only a single building, the Cold Harbor tavern, but it was important as the junction of the roads leading to White House on the east, Dispatch station and Bottom s bridge on the south, Richmond by way of Games mill on the west, and Hanovertown and New Castle on the north. While this heavy fighting was going on at Cold Harbor, there had been also hot work in front of the other corps. During the day, there had been artillery firing, and some skirmishing and musketry firing, on the extreme right of the Union army ; but the advance of Gibbon s division of the second, and Potter s of the ninth corps, intended to cover the with drawal of the second corps from the right to the left, to follow the sixth, roused the fury of the Rebels, and toward evening, massing their troops, they made a most desperate and determined attack along the whole line. Regardless of the gaps the Union artillery ploughed through their dense columns, they came on, till the leaden hail of the musketry delivered at very short range, swept them down in frightful numbers. Again and again they charged, but with the same result, and it was late in the night before they desisted, their retirement being immediately succeeded by the advance of the Union troops to their skirmish line. The loss of the Rebels in this attack was fully two thousand, while the Union troops, fight ing behind breastworks, lost probably less than half that number. The fighting of the day is known as the battle of Cold Harbor, though but a part of the conflict was in that vicinity. On Wednesday night, General Grant decided to follow up the occupa tion of Cold Harbor, by a serious attempt to push the enemy across the Chickahominy, and establish for the Union troops a place for fording. Accordingly, that night, the second corps was drawn off from the right, and marched across the lines to the extreme left, which point it reached about noon on Thursday, and with the troops already there, formed a very heavy force at that point. The attack was ordered for Thursday evening, June 2d, but a heavy thunder-storm, with torrents of rain, pre sented its execution, and gave the enemy the opportunity to perfect still ?28 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. farther their defensive preparations. The attack was then ordered for dawn, on Friday morning, June 3d. During the afternoon, on Thursday, the Rebels charged upon the fifth and ninth corps, incited thereto by a movement of some of the brigades, which they regarded with suspicion ; they were repulsed, however, with severe loss. The assault of the second corps on the enemy s lines on Friday morn ing, June 3d the bloody battle of the Chickahorniny was unsurpassed for daring, lofty courage, and stubborn persistance. even by the gallant action of the same corps at the battle of Spottsylvania. The divisions of Gibbon and Barlow, which were in the advance, swept over the enemy s works, drove Breckinridge s troops from the summit, and for a few min utes were masters of the position; but in their valiant zeal, they had been carried a considerable distance beyond their supporting columns, and the enemy, aware that every thing depended upon their retaining this position, pushed forward A. P. Hill s corps upon them, while an enfilading fire swept through their already decimated columns, and they were compelled to fall back upon their supports, which they did in perfect order, carrying back with them a captured color and three hundred prisoners, under a most deadly fire, and even then they would only retreat over the brow of the nearest ridge, where they formed anew, and intrenched, remaining all day within fifty yards of the enemy s breastworks. With no less gallantry, but with no better success, the sixth and eighteenth corps had made their assault. Charging through the under brush and across the open, they succeeded in carrying the first line of intrenchments, but it was only to be received bv- the murderous enfilading fire by which all the Union troops that day found their daring repaid. Tenaciously and obstinately they clung to their conquests, which were at length wrested from them, and they were finally forced back with great loss. They succeeded, however, as Ilancock had done on Ihe left, in holding and intrenching a position considerably in advance of the starting point, and very close to the enemy s works. The fifth and ninth corps pushed out their skirmishers, and kept up a heavy cannonade along their lines, but soon found that there was only a thin skirmishing line in front of them. They did not, however, as would perhaps have been better, move on to join the three corps on the left in the effort to break the enemy s line which he had so heavily massed in defence of the passes of the Chickahominy. At night the whole Union line was advanced to within fifty yards of the enemy s breastworks and intrenched there, and the fighting was maintained, furious assaults being made on one side or the other till about nine P. M. Wilson s cavalry division had also had a severe fight with Hampton s Rebel cavalry during the day, but without any decisive results. For the next nine days there were no more pitched battles, but the two armies looked each other in the face steadily, and every officer or soldier, SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL HANCOCK. 729 on either side, who exposed his head or body, was sure to be brought down by a sharpshooter s bullet Occasionally dashes were made from one side or the other, but they were repelled at once by heavy artillery and musketry fire. The carnage of the four weeks had been terrible on both sides, though a little less than in the first week of the campaign. Ou the Union side, two hundred and seventy officers, and three thousand seven hundred and thirty-one enlisted men, had been killed ; seven hundred and forty-seven officers, and seventeen thousand three hundred and eighty- one men wounded, and eighty-five officers, and twenty-nine hundred and twenty-seven men were missing, mostly prisoners ; making a total of twenty-five thousand one hundred and forty-one killed, wounded, and missing. The loss of the Rebels had been little, if at all less. In some of the actions they had lost more than the Union troops ; in others, fight ing behind fortifications, their killed and wounded had been less, but they had taken a smaller number of prisoners than the Union troops. t In all the battles of the campaign, the commander of the second corps had been conspicuous, among the many brave officers of the army, for daring, enthusiasm, and steady valor. Wherever there was the most dif ficult work to be done, and it was necessary that an attack should be made promptly, earnestly, and unflinchingly, there Hancock and his second corps were sure to be, ready to do and dare any thing that human courage and skill could undertake ; and if there was one post of greater danger than another, or requiring those special acts of gallantry which men will only attempt under the eye, and stimulated by the approbation of a beloved and honored commander, there Hancock was certain to be found, encouraging and urging his men to higher exertion, and the accomplishment of seeming impossibilities. A brief sketch of the life of this able and brilliant officer is appropriate in this portion of our history. Major-General Winfield Scott Hancock was born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1824. He entered West Point in ] 840, and graduated in 1844, not ranking very high as a scholar, but with an energy and activity in his manner which betokened his future success. He entered the army in July, 1844, with only the brevet rank of second lieutenant of the fourth infantry, and did not receive his commis sion as full lieutenant until the 18th of June, 1846, when he was ordered almost immediately to Mexico, where he distinguished himself for gallant conduct at Contreras and Churubusco, and was breveted first lieutenant therefor. He was also present and fought bravely at Molino del Key and Mexico. On his return to the United States, he was appointed regimental quartermaster, and retained that position till 1849, when he was promoted to be adjutant of the sixth United States infantry, and saw service on the plains, and afterward in California. In January, 1853, he received his commission as first lieutenant, and on the 7th of November, 1855, was 730 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. appointed assistant quartermaster-general, with the rank of captain, and assigned to duty in California. He remained on the Pacific coast till the breaking out of the Eebellion, and exerted a powerful influence in pre venting the secessionists from carrying the State out of the Union. When hostilities began, he returned to the east, and was appointed chief quarter master to General Anderson, then in command of the Department of the Ohio, but before he reached his post, was commissioned brigadier-general in the army of the Potomac. On the 9th of October, 1861, his brigade formed part of the forces that occupied Lewinsville, Virginia. During the winter of 1861-2, he was engaged in several reconnoissances, and was generally successful. He went to the Peninsula with General McClellan s army, and was breveted major in the regular army for his meritorious services at Lee s mills and Yorktown. At Willian.sburg, he led an in fantry charge, which turned the tide of battle, and was breveted lieuten ant-colonel from May 5, 1862. He was actively engaged in the seven days contests, especially in the battles of White Oak swamp and Gold- ing s farm, and was breveted colonel in the regular army from June 27th. He took part in the Maryland campaign, and commanded his brigade at Antietam, September 17, 1862. He was in command of a division of the second corps, at the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, and was wounded during the engagement, in which his division lost heavily. He was subsequently appointed major-general of volunteers, his commission dating from November 20, 1862. He commanded his division at the battle of Chancellorsville, and after the appointment of General Couch to the command of the Department of the Susquehanna, was pro moted to the charge of the second corps. With this corps he took an active part in the battle of Gettysburg, and on the third day of the battle, July 3, 1863, was severely wounded. He did not recover so as to resume command of his corps till the spring of 1864, and meantime it had been recruited to more than forty thousand men. During the earlier battles of the campaign, and indeed till late in the autumn, General Hancock re tained command of his corps, and distinguished himself on many fields, but his old wounds, received at Gettysburg, breaking out afresh, he was compelled to ask to be relieved, and was finally appointed to the com mand of the middle department, after fighting there had nearly ceased. At the reorganization of the army, in June, 1865, he was appointed to com mand the new middle department, comprising West Virginia, the greater part of Maryland, the line of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and the States of Delaware and Pennsylvania, which he still (November, 1865,) retains. We have not turned aside from our narrative of the movements of the army of the Potomac, to notice, at the time of their occurrence, the inde pendent, yet co-operative expeditions of the cavalry corps, lest we might thereby render complicated the narrative of the progress of the main SHERIDAN S RAID TOWARD RICHMOND. 731 array ; but the present seems a good opportunity to describe Sheridan s two great raids, which exerted a powerful influence in crippling Lee s forces and reducing his "supplies. On the 9th of May, the cavalry, which for four days previous had been engaged in guarding the army trains, and the ambulances containing the sick and wounded, as well as in protecting the flanks of the army, was relieved from that duty, and General Grant ordered General Sheridan to select the best mounted troops of his command, and start on an expedition to the rear of Lee s army, and cut off his communications and supplies, allowing him full discretion as to the best plan of effecting the object of the expedition. General Sheridan issued his orders at once for this im portant movement, selecting the staff officers who were to accompany him, directing the issuing of three days rations to his men, and leaving behind every thing in the way of a train, except the ammunition wagons, and two ambulances. The baggage actually indispensable was carried on pack mules. Thus freed from incumbrances, he perfected his arrangements and moved on the evening of the same day that he received the order, toward Fredericksburg, but before reaching that city turned southward on the Childsburg road, and after a short halt there, moved to Beaver Dam station, on the Virginia Central railroad, crossing the North Anna river at the fords. At Beaver Dam they found a Kebel provost- guard, with more than three hundred Union prisoners, who had been cap tured the day before at Spottsylvania ; these they promptly released, taking the Kebel guard prisoners. Thence they moved toward Kichrnond, sending a detachment to Ashland station, on the Fredericksburg railroad, who destroyed the track, trains, station-houses, and other Kebel Govern ment property, and then, after a sharp fight, rejoined the main column. On the llth of May, the cavalry had reached a point within six miles of Kichmond. Here they encountered the Kebel cavalry, under command of Lieutenant-General J. E. B. Stuart in person, and charging upon them promptly, a severe battle took place, in which General Stuart was killed, and some Kebel guns captured. The next morning before daybreak, a detachment was sent toward Kichmond to reconnoitre, and penetrate to the second line of defences of that city, within less than two miles of the capital, and having captured a Kebel courier, withdraw. Early in the morning of May 12, Sheridan s advance approached Meadow bridge, on the Chickahominy, where they again encountered the enemy, who had destroyed the bridge, and con structed defences commanding the railroad bridge, over which the Union troops must cross. Nothing daunted, Sheridan s gallant troopers dashed on ; and though compelled to traverse about half a mile of swampy ground, rushed on the Kebel works, and carried them, after the most de termined resistance. Meantime, another Kebel force had come up in his rear, and surrounded 732 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. his command. Though remarkably fertile in resources, the Union com mander had here a position which would call for his ablest generalship. To attempt to retreat would inevitably be fatal ; to go forward was to encounter a Eebel force greatly outnumbering his own, and to cross the river, a difficult one, on account of its swampy shores, under their con centrated fire. His decision was quickly made ; it was to reconstruct the Meadow bridge over the Chickahominy, and cross it with his force and train. This he accomplished, though under fire all the time, keeping the Rebels at bay with his artillery the while, and repelling their charges by fierce counter-charges. Once or twice his men were slowly pressed back, but he encouraged them, and fighting under his eye, they soon re gained their position. At length, the bridge was completed, and his ammunition train was to be taken across it; and if the Rebel fire con tinued, it could scarcely escape destruction from explosion, a destruction which would imperil his force, and render their capture or death inevita ble. The emergency did not appal him or deprive him of self-possession for an instant. When the train was ready to advance, he ordered up an ammunition wagon, supplied his men who had fallen back with fresh cart ridges, and placing himself at their head, said "Boys, do you see those fellows yonder ? They are green recruits, just from Richmond ; there s not a veteran among them. You have fonght them well to day, but we have got to whip them. We can do it, and we will I" The men responded with a rousing cheer, and with the order " Forward ! Charge !" in his clear ringing tones, he led them on in a charge which sent the Rebels flying back to their works, and his artillery immediately opened upon them, greatly to their terror. Under cover of this charge, the train passed in perfect safety. Pressing hard upon the now beaten and demoralized foe, amid a most terrific thunder-storm, in which it was difficult to distinguish between the artillery of heaven, and the thunder of his guns, he drove them back to Mechanicsville, and finally to Cold Harbor, capturing a con siderable number, and encamped with his wearied command near Gaines mills. The next day he moved down the north bank of the Cbickahom- iny to Bottom s bridge, and the day following to General Butler s head quarters, not being molested in any of his movements. He then opened communication with Yorktown, and thence with Washington. He returned to the army of the Potomac in season to take part in the movements from the North Anna, and in the battles of Cold Harbor and the Chickahominy. We have already spoken of the stubbornness with which he held Cold Harbor, until the sixth corps could come up and re lieve him. He next led the advance of the army of the Potomac in its passage to and across the James, and on the 8th of June, set out upon a second expedition into the heart of the Confederacy. This time his object was to penetrate northward and westward of Lee s lines, and cut the Virginia Central railroad at some point which should effectually L. SHERIDAN S WITHDRAWAL FROM TREVILIAN. 733 prevent the movement of supplies or troops from the Virginia and Ten nessee railroad toward Richmond. General "Hunter, then in command in Western Virginia, was ordered to co-operate with him, and had he been able to do so, Gordonsville and Charlottesville might both have been cap tured. Crossing the Pamunkey, he moved at once to Aylett s station ; thence the next day to the Fredericksburg railroad at Chesterfield station, where he seriously damaged the railroad ; thence to Childsburg, New- Market, and Mount Pleasant, and crossed E. NE. creek at Young s bridge. On the morning of the 10th of June, he moved forward again, and having crossed both branches of the North Anna river, encamped at Buck Childs, a small village three miles north of Trevilian station, on the Virginia Central railroad. It had been his intention to destroy the railroad from this point west for some distance, and then crossing to Keswick station, cut the railroad in both directions from Gordonsville and Charlottesville, which latter town was his ultimate objective. On arriving at Buck Childs, however, he found the Rebel cavalry in his front, and immediately pre pared to give them battle. He divided his force, and sent a part to attack the Rebels in rear, while he assailed them, the next morning, June llth, in front. The fighting was desperate, but he at last drove them back from line after line of breastworks, .through an almost impassable forest, to the station at Trevilian ; and here his detached troops attacking them in rear, their route was complete, and Sheridan established his headquar ters that night at Trevilian. The next morning, June 12th, the railroad from Trevilian station to Louisa Court House was completely destroyed, the ties burned, and the rails twisted and bent, so as to be utterly unserviceable. This occupied from daybreak to three P. M. The Rebels meantime had concentrated in considerable force at Gordonsville, and advancing toward Trevilian, com menced the construction of rifle-pits, at a distance of about four miles, to resist Sheridan s movements. After a careful reconnoissance, General Sheridan found the enemy too strongly posted to be effectively assailed by his light artillery, especially as his ammunition was running low, and he therefore decided not to make a general assault. On the extreme right, however, his troops assaulted and carried the enemy s lines again and again, but were eventually driven from them, by the long-range guns of the Rebel infantry ; and finding his ammunition giving out, and being unable to obtain forage for his horses, General Sheridan determined to withdraw ; but he carried out this determination in a characteristic way. Returning to Trevilian station, he ordered supper inviting his generals to sup with him, and having given orders for the removal of the wounded who could be moved, and detailed surgeons to stay with those who were most severely injured, and perfected his order of march, he partook quietly of his evening meal, and then set about the withdrawal of his force from a position in which it was confronted by nearly the entire 734 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. cavalry of the Kebel army. While the trains and the rear divisions were moving off with the wounded, he ordered forty rounds of canister to be fired at the Eebel position ; and when the enemy, severely cut up by this fire, attempted to take the battery by a bold, sudden dash, he charged upon them with a regiment of cavalry, at the same time pouring in a full round of canister at very short range, and compelled them to retire in confusion. While they were retiring, the gun was withdrawn, and as he found that the Rebels were still retreating, he moved quietly back, and followed the divisions which had already set their faces south ward. By day-dawn of the 13th, his men were well out of Trevilian sta tion, and he marched with them to Troyman s store, without encountering any opposition ; and on the 14th, reached the vicinity of Spottsylvania Court House, the scene of so many bloody battles a short month previ ous. Remaining here a day, to aid the wounded, who had been left in field hospitals, he arrived at Guinney s station on the evening of the 15th, and established his headquarters there for a few days, and then moved to White House. On the 23d of June, having marched from White House, he was attacked by the enemy at Jones bridge, over the Chickahominy, and on the 24th, near St. Mary s church, between the Chickahominy and the James. On both occasions the Rebels were in strong force, and en tirely confident of their ability to overwhelm and capture his troops. Sheridan acted entirely on the defensive, but produced such terrible havoc among the enemy with his artillery, firing at short range, that they were soon very willing to withdraw, and not further molest his progress. During the afternoon and night of June- 25th, he crossed the James river, five miks above Fort Fowhatan, on a pontoon bridge, protected on either side by gunboats, without loss, though the enemy were in heavy force near him. THE TROOPS IN WEST VIRGINIA. 735 CHAPTER LIX. THE TROOPS IN WEST VIRGINIA CROOK AND AVERELL DEFEAT THE REBELS ON NEW RIVER THE BATTLE OF NEW MARKET 8IQEL DEFEATED HE IS RELIEVED OF COMMAND, AND SENT TO MARTINSBURG AS POST COMMANDANT GENERAL HUNTER SUCCEEDS HIM BATTLE NEAR MOUNT CRAWFORD THE REBELS DEFEATED, AND THEIR GENERAL KILLED HUNTER CAP TURES STAUNTON AND LEXINGTON, AND BURNS THE LEXINGTON MILITARY INSTITUTE, AND GOVERNOR LETCHER S HOUSE, BUT FAILS TO JOIN SHERIDAN, AND is COMPELLED BY EARLY TO FALL BACK FROM LYNCHBURG INTO THE KANAWHA VALLEY, AFTER A LOSING FIGHT EARLY TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THIS TO DESCEND THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY TO THE POTO MAC HUNTER S EFFORTS TO RETRIEVE HIS BLUNDER ARMY OF THE POTOMAC CROSSING THE JAMES CAVALRY RECONNOISSANCE TO MALVERN HILL THE ATTACK ON PETERS BURG PARTIAL SUCCESS BUTLER CUTS THE RAILROAD THE ASSAULTS OF THE SECOND AND NINTH CORPS ON THE DEFENCES OF PETERSBURG INCOMPLETE SUCCESS THE REBELS RETIRE TO THEIR INNER LINE OF DEFENCES FAILURE OF THE ATTEMPT TO CARRY THESE THE ATTACKS ON THE WELDON RAILROAD THE DISASTROUS REPULSE OF JUNE 22D TUB POSITION NEARLY REGAINED, BUT NO ADVANCE MADE WILSON S AND KAUTZ s RAID ON THE WELDON AND SOUTESIDB RAILROADS GREAT DESTRUCTION OF RAILROAD TRACKS AND PROPERTY HEAVY LOSSES OF THE EXPEDITION IN ITS RETURN MARCH EARLY s FORAY INTO MARYLAND AND PENNSYLVANIA TERROR OF THE INHABITANTS THE BATTLE OF MONOCACY WALLACE DEFEATED THE SIXTH AND NINETEENTH CORPS ORDERED INTO MARYLAND GENERAL ORD SUCCEEDS GENERAL WALLACE RAILROADS BROKEN UP AND TRAINS CAPTURED BY THE REBELS WASHINGTON THREATENED REBELS DEFEATED BY GENERAL AUGUR THEIR RETREAT ACROSS THE POTOMAC FIGHTING AT SNICKER S AND ASHBY S GAPS AVERELL S BATTLE NEAR WINCHESTER DEFEAT OF THE REBELS BATTLE OF WINCHESTER, JULY 24TH CROOK DEFEATED, AND MULLIGAN KILLED SKETCH OF MUL LIGAN THE PANIC IN MARYLAND AND PENNSYLVANIA RENEWED ABSURD REPORTS BURNING OF CHAMBERSBURG MOSBY s LITTLE RAID GOVERNOR CURTIN CALLS A SPECIAL SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE THIRTY THOUSAND MILITIA CALLED OUT EARLY s RE TREAT FIGHTING NEAR CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND REBELS DEFEATED BY AVERELL AT MOOREFIELD, VIRGINIA THE* MINE AT PETERSBURG DEMONSTRATION ON THE ENEMY/S LEFT FIGHT AT DEEP BOTTOM EXPLOSION OF THE MINE FATAL BLUNDERING REPULSE AND HEAVY LOSS. WE have referred incidentally, in connection with other operations, to the movements of the army under Sigel, in the Shenandaah valley, and to those troops in Western Virginia, under Crook and Averell, whose office it was to threaten the Rebel communications by way of the Vir ginia and Tennessee railroad. The movements of these troops, though not, on the whole, successful, and perhaps contributing but little, one way or the other, toward the final result, was yet of sufficient importance to merit some notice. The force under Crook and Averell fought three battles about the mid dle of May, near the west line of the State, on New river, with the Rebel Generals Sam. Jones and A. G. Jenkins, and were successful ID all. In one of them General Jenkins fell into the hands of the Union troops 736 THE CIYIL WAS. IN THE UNITED STATES. mortally wounded ; and in the three, about six hundred of the Bebels were killed and wounded, and three hundred taken prisoners. Averell also succeeded in cutting the Virginia and Tennessee railroad, burning the bridge over New river, and destroying several miles of the track. The loss of these troops, who were, perhaps, one half of them, guerrillas and bushwhackers, was not a very serious one to Lee, and the injury done to the railroad was but temporary. General Sigel, in the Shenandoah valley, did not meet with success. He moved, early in May, up the valley as far as New Market, where, on the loth of May, he encountered a Kebel force of seven or eight thou sand, under the command of General Breckinridge, with Echols and Imboden under him as subordinate generals. General Sigel chose an untenable position, and after some hard fighting was defeated, with a loss of about six hundred killed and wounded, fifty taken prisoners, and five pieces of artillery. On receiving the report of this mishap, the War Department promptly relieved General Sigel of his command, and or dered him to Martinsburg, as post commander, while General David Hunter succeeded him in the command of the army of the Shenandoah valley. Breckinridge, after defeating Sigel, hastened, as we have seen, to rein force Lee, whose numbers had been seriously reduced by the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, and General Hunter found few Rebel troops to oppose his progress toward Staunton, which town he reached and captured on the 6th of June, having the previous day fought and defeated a Kebel force under General W. E. Jones near Mount Crawford. The Rebels were very heavy losers in this battle, their commander, General Jones, being killed, a large number of their troops killed or wounded, fifteen hundred prisoners, and three guns captured, and the remainder of their forces driven from Staunton to Waynesboro. On the 8th, a junction was effected between Hunter s force and those commanded by Crook and Averell, from Western Virginia. He had received instructions, after this reinforcement, to march toward Charlottesville, tearing up the track of the Virginia Central railroad as .he went, and driving the Rebels before him toward Charlottesville and Gordons ville, and there to form a junction with Sheridan, who, as we have seen, was pushing toward the latter point. Had he done so, the Rebels, somewhat too strong for either force separate, might have been driven out of Gordonsville by the combined force with heavy loss, and Lynchburg, one of the most important depots of supplies for the Rebels, have been captured. Owing to some misunderstanding, for we cannot in justice ascribe to so meritorious an officer as General Hunter any other motive, he failed to join the cavalry commander; and while he delayed, to destroy the Lexington Military Institute and Governor Letcher s house, Sheridan was compelled to fall back for want of support ; and when at MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 737 last he approached Lynchburg, it was too strongly fortified and gar risoned to make success- possible. Lee now sent General Early, who had taken command of Swell s corps in consequence of the illness of Ewell, to drive Hunter out of the valley. Early at once assumed the offensive, and marching out from Lynchburg with a large and well appointed force, he compelled Hunter to fall back and he adopted what he believed to be the most judicious course, but, as it proved, was a very unwise one. He abandoned the Shenandoah valley having previously had a fight with the Rebels, in which only a part of his troops were engaged, and in which he lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners, about six hundred, and several pieces of artillery and moved westward into the Kanawha valley, leaving the* Shenandoah valley open to the Rebel forces. Early took immediate ad vantage of this blunder, and marched at once down the valley, capturing Winchester, flanking Martinsburg, where General Sigel was in command, and compelling him to evacuate the town, and retreat to Harper s Ferry, on ttfe 3d of July. This in turn was evacuated by Colonel Mulligan, and Sigel took possession of Maryland heights, and the Rebels of the town and the Virginia side. Of Early s subsequent movements we shall speak by and by. Hunter saw his mistake too late, and made desperate efforts to retrieve it, and to reach the Potomac ; but in attempting to cross the mountains, the greater part of his train and seven cannon were lost, and his troops were placed on short allowance, and suffered severely. The blunders of Sigel and Hunter in this campaign were not the result of cowardice, for there were not two braver generals in the army, but they indicated a want of capacity and generalship for the somewhat difficult situations in which they were placed, and resulted in serious and exten sive disaster to Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania. We return to the army of the Potomac, which we left face to face with its enemy on the banks of the Chickahominy. Convinced that the small gains which could be made by a series of determined and persistent as saults upon the very strong positions occupied by the Rebels would only be purchased by a heavy and excessive sacrifice of life, and having, be sides, resolved, as a part of his plan for the utter overthrow of Lee s army, to approach it from the south and southwest, and by cutting off its commu nications compel it to surrender, General Grant now made the bold stroke of transferring the army of the Potomac to the south side of the James river. In this campaign he had already three times changed his base of supplies, to Belle Plain and Fredericksburg, to Port Royal, and to White House. He now proposed to change it again, to City Point, and at the same time to make a flanking movement with his whole army of about fifty-five miles around the enemy s base, and by routes nowhere more than six or eight miles distant from his fortified lines. It was in this case as in all the previous ones, the enemy s right which he flanked. The move- 47 738 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. ment was a daring and extremely hazardous one ; two rivers, both too deep for fording, and one a wide and formidable stream, were to be crossed; a difficult, swampy region, luxuriant in its undergrowth, and offering great facilities for ambushes, was to be traversed ; and if practica ble, this was to be done so quietly that the enemy should not become cognizant of it in season to offer any serious obstruction to his progress. The preparations for this transfer had been made with equal secrecy, promptness, and skill, in the period between the 3d and the 12th of June, and at the latter date, though frequent reconnoissances of the enemy had tes tified his uneasiness at the quiet which reigned throughout the Union lines, yet he had failed to discover the secret, and all was ready for an advance. On the night of Sunday, June 12th, the army began its march. As we have already stated in the preceding chapter, the enemy s line extended along the Chickahominy as far as Bottom s bridge, where it was intrenched. The Union forces lay north of the enemy, in a line generally parallel, and were also well intrenched opposite his right. Of course, Bottom s Bridge could not be used for crossing. The next two bridges below are Long bridge and Jones bridge, the former about seven, and the latter about twelve miles below Bottom s bridge. On Sunday night, Wright s sixth and Burnside s ninth corps marched to Jones bridge, crossed the Chickahominy, and moved rapidly thence to Charles City Court House, a mile from the James river, and nearly nine miles south of Jones bridge. At the same time, Hancock s second and Warren s fifth corps moved to Long bridge, crossed there, and took the road to Wilcox s wharf, on the James, about twelve miles, by the road, almost due south, and about one and a half miles west of Charles City Court House. Meanwhile, Smith s eighteenth corps marched to White House, there took transports to Fortress Monroe, and without pausing, passed directly up the river to Bermuda Hundred, oppo site City Point, and just above the Appomattox, on the south side of the James. This was the headquarters of Butler s army. The place desig nated for crossing the other four corps to the south side of the James, was Powhatan Point, near Wilcox s wharf. General Butler had carefully pre pared pontoon bridges for crossing. The whole movement was conducted with consummate skill. The men moved cautiously from their intrenchments, which for miles lay under the Rebel guns. Only a few shells thrown at the rear, as it moved off, indicated that the enemy had taken the alarm. All night and all day Monday, the troops moved forward, with hardly more skirmishing or impediment than they experienced in their first march from Culpepper to Chancellorsville. On Monday evening the advance had reached Wilcox s landing, where also headquarters were. Before noon of Tuesday the forces had all arrived at Charles City Court House and Wilcox s landing, having made their movement in perfect security, the only fighting being THE ATTACK ON PETERSBURG. 739 A little cavalry skirmishing at the close of their march. On Tuesday the crossing of the James was commenced, the army transfeired without diffi culty to the south side of the river, and the change in position fully con summated. General Grant, having thus skilfully brought his army across the James, was disposed to lose no time in attacking the enemy at his most vulnera ble points. On Wednesday, the 15th of June, the cavalry made a recon- noissance toward Malvern Hill, on the north side of the James, and ascertained that A. P. Hill s corps were holding the defences of Richmond in th#t region in strong force. The movement, however, on which the Union commander particularly relied for beneficial results, was one against Petersburg. At one o clock A. M. Wednesday morning, the eighteenth corps, which had arrived at Bermuda Hundred the previous evening on transports from White House ; marched for Petersburg, Kautz s cavalry being in the advance. Kautz moved out toward the Norfolk rail road and the Baxter road, on the extreme left, hoping to carry the position of the enemy there, but found it too strong, and after some hard fighting, reluctantly retired. The eighteenth corps, operating on the outer de fences of the city on the northeast and east, after fighting all day, carried the enemy s line of intrench merits, the outer defences, about two miles from the city, a little before sunset, by a determined assault, driving the Rebels out, and capturing sixteen guns, a battle-flag, and three hundred prisoners. General- Grant ordered up the other corps to their support as fast as they came in, the advance of the second corps coming up at dusk, and the entire corps being on the ground before morning. During the night, the enemy attempted to wrest these strong intrenchments from their captors, but failed, Birney s division of the second corps holding them firmly. The Rebels in the intrenchments in front of Butler s position at Bermuda Hundred, during Wednesday night, left their works and hurried to Petersburg, to prevent its capture, and early Thursday morning, Gene ral Butler took advantage of their absence to penetrate to and destroy the Richmond and Petersburg railroad, in the vicinity of Port Walthall Junction. Two miles of the track were torn up, and portions of the tele graph wire cut ; but Beauregard, who in the recent battles had been rein forcing Lee, hurried down from. Richmond with such a force as to compel the Union troops to retire, after having interrupted his transit one day at least. In front of Petersburg, the attempt of the Union picket-lines to push forward toward the inner defences of the enemy in the early morning was stubbornly resisted, and a heavy cannonade followed, which was briskly responded to by the Union troops. On attempting to advance, it was found that the Rebels had been so strongly reinforced during the night, that it was necessary to wait till Burnside s corps could come up. At six o clock P. M., an assault was ordered, and Burnside s troops being 740 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. on the ground, it was made promptly by the second and ninth corps, and maintained for three hours. Birney s division of the second corps carried the crest in his front, and held it firmly. Barlow s division of the second, and part of Potter s of the ninth, succeeded after a desperate and pro tracted struggle in gaining a foothold in the rifle-pits outside of the stronger works, but being greatly annoyed by the enemy s fire from the inner works, Barlow determined to assault them also, and Burnside made ready a column to help him ; but the enemy opened upon Burnside with so destructive a fire that he was forced to desist, and all further progress was suspended till morning. At four A. M. on Friday, the 17th, General Burnside ordered Potter s division to take the works in his front. Two of Potter s brigades moving at once with great rapidity, dashed gallantly upon the Rebel position, and carried it as by a whirlwind, capturing six guns, sixteen officers, four hun dred men, and a stand of colors. Brisk skirmishing, and a constant but moderate artillery fire was now maintained till afternoon, when Ledlie s division of the ninth corps, which had relieved Potter, was ordered to advance, under cover of a brisk artillery fire, and charging over a broad field under an oblique fire on either side, reached the enemy s intrerich- ments, and after a brief but bloody conflict, drove them out, and carried the position, the combatants fighting desperately across the breastworks for some time. Burnside was now a mile and a half from the city, into which he threw some shells from his batteries. Several attempts were made by the enemy to regain their lost intrenchments, but they were all vigorously repulsed. Burnside now occupied the left, Warren s fifth corps, having come up, and massed on his left and rear. The second corps, now commanded by Birney, in consequence of Hancock s illness, from the breaking out of his old wounds, occupied the centre, and the sixth corps the right, while Martindale s division of the eighteenth corps were on the extreme right, the remainder of that corps having returned to Bermuda Hundred. At nine o clock Friday night (17th), the Rebels, after trying at all points along the Union lines, made a sudden and desperate attack on Burnside, and succeeded in recapturing the works, taken by Ledlie s division in the afternoon, pushing the Union troops out. General Grant had determined to make a strong push on Saturday morning, and had ordered an assault along the entire line at four A. M., but upon sending out skirmishers, it was found that the enemy had aban doned the works in the immediate front of the Union lines for an inner series of defences. Having reconnoitered these, an advance upon them by the second, ninth, and fifth corps, was ordered at noon. The second corps made two assaults, but was driven back both times, notwithstanding their most strenuous efforts, by the murderous artillery fire of the enemy. The ninth corps pushed forward, and established their line firmly across the Petersburg and Norfolk railroad, driving the enemy before them for some THE ATTACK ON THE WELDON RAILROAD. 741 distance, but could not carry the enemy s lines. The fifth corps gained Borne ground in two assaults, but was only partially successful. Attempts made by the sixth, and part of the eighteenth corps, to advance on the right, had also met with but indifferent success. The losses in these four days had been heavy, eighty-five officers, and one thousand one hundred and thirteen men having been killed; three hundred and sixty-one offi cers, and six thousand four hundred and ninety-two men having been wounded, and forty-six officers, and fifteen hundred and sixty-eight men missing, most of them prisoners, making a grand total of casualities of nine thousand six hundred and sixty-five. After two days of comparative quiet, General Grant ordered another advance around the south side of Petersburg, to take possession of the Weldon railroad, one of the two principal lines of communication over which the Rebels now received their supplies. Over this road came the ammunition, fire-arms, shoes, and clothing, thrown into Wilmington from England by the blockade-runners, and if it could be possessed and firmly held by the Union troops, the Rebels would be reduced to a single line of communication for all their supplies, the Southside railroad, and goods from Wilmington could only reach this by wagon trains, driven a long distance. The movement toward this road was commenced on Tuesday, June 21st, Wilson s and Kautz s cavalry divisions marching out ten miles below Petersburg, and cutting the railroad at that point. This would, however, prove only a temporary blockade of the road, and accordingly, the same day, General Grant renewed his old tactics, extending the left flank of his army, by ordering the second corps, which formed the right- centre, to move out of its intrenchments to the extreme left, the ninth and a part of the eighteenth corps closing up the gap. The second corps moved out to the Jerusalem plank road, which bisects the region between the Norfolk and Weldon railroads, and near that road encountered the enemy in strong force, and their progress was not only checked, but they received a counter-attack from the enemy, and a severe skirmish ensued. The result of the action was indecisive, and during the night the sixth corps was brought up to the left of the second, while the fifth formed on their right, east of the Jerusalem plank road. The sixth corps, and Mott s and Barlow s divisions of the second, were ordered to advance at day break, Gibbon s division of the second being already up with the enemy on the right. There was some difficulty in regard to the movements of the two corps, each waiting for the other to lead off. At length each corps received orders to start at once, independently of the other, each being cautioned to protect its flank, in case connection was not made by the other. As they moved forward, Barlow s division began to open a gap between itself and the sixth corps, and he had hardly reached his position when Hill s (Rebel) corps having discovered this gap, came rushing through it. 742 TPIE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. rolling up in succession Barlow s flank, capturing several hundred pris oners, pushing back Mott, with the loss of about as many more, and finally falling upon Gibbon s front and rear at the same time, and driving his division out ot their intrenchments, sweeping off several entire regiments, and McKnight s battery. At length the tide of disaster was staid by the exertions of a single regiment, the twentieth Massachusetts, which, under the skilful handling of its commander, Captain Patten, and the coolness and courage of the men, checked the triumphant and dangerous advance of the enemy, and profiting by this, the reserve brigades were brought up, what remained of Gibbon s division rallied, and the line, being formed anew, dashed upon the enemy, and regained, before evening, considerable of the lost ground, and even at some points pushed the enemy back from his old line. Heavy firing continued through the night. On Thursday, the 23d, there was a slight further advance gained on the left; but the enemy proved to be strong in numbers, and to occupy a position of great advantage. The Vermont brigade of the sixth corps, attempting to seize and hold the railroad farther south, were pounced upon by Anderson s (Rebel) division, enveloped and repulsed, with a loss of several hundred of their number taken pris oners, and a considerable number killed and wounded. There was now for more than a month a lull in the fighting in front of Petersburg, except occasional artillery duels, the sharpshooting practised on both sides, and one or two attacks and reprisals at particular points of the line. On the 22d of June, General Grant had sent Brigadier-General Wilson, with his own cavalry division, and Kautz s brigade, his entire force num bering from six thousand to eight thousand men, with three batteries of four guns each, half rifled ordnance, and half light twelve pounders, and one battery of four small mountain howitzers, to break up the Weldon and Southside railroads. They left their camps, near Prince George Court House, on the morning of the 22d of June, and moved to the Petersburg and Weldon railroad, at Reams station. There they took up and burned the track for several hundred yards, as well as the water-tank, depot, and public buildings. Thence they marched to Sutherland s station, on the Southside railroad, and in the evening advanced to Ford s station, where they found two locomotives, sixteen cars, a depot, and a few stores, and destroyed several miles of the track. The next morning, General Kautz advanced toward Burkesville, the important junction of the Petersburg and Lynchburg, and the Richmond and Danville railroad. Here he de stroyed depots, cars, and similar property, and several miles of the track, east and west. Meanwhile, the main column followed, and in the after noon encountered a Rebel brigade near Nottoway. A sharp conflict ensued until night, when the enemy retired. On the 24th, the column reached Keysville, and bivouacked for the night, Kautz s men having de stroyed eighteen miles of railroad track, besides other property. The next EARLY S FORAY INTO MARYLAND. 743 day they reached the bridge over Staunton river, which they were very anxious to burn, but it was found to be too strongly guarded and de fended by the enemy. They now commenced their return march, but were harassed at every step by the enemy, who was thoroughly exasperated by their daring and success, and who, confronting them at every turn, hanging upon their rear, putting obstructions in their way, and fighting them whenever he could find opportunity, reduced them to extremity. The men and horses were worn and jaded beyond description, and only escaped into the lines by making wide detours. Their entire wagon train, the ambulance train their guns, (sixteen in number,) nearly all their caissons, and many horses, and about twelve hundred men, of whom about one thousand were pris oners, were lost, in efforts to regain the Union line. Still, the expedition had been to some extent, a success. More than fifty miles of the track of the Danville and Southside railroads had been destroyed, and their rolling- stock so much crippled that they could not, during the war, restore them to their former condition of efficiency. More than a thousand negroes had been collected, and followed the column, and though many of them had been recaptured by the Rebels, yet a considerable number found their way to the Union lines. The expedition had very seriously embarrassed the enemy, and rendered their supplies, never over-abundant, more scanty than they had been hitherto. The cavalry came in by squads, from the 30th of June to the 3d of July. An infantry force sent out by General Meade to relieve them, was too late to be of service. The intense heat and drought which prevailed at this time, rendered active movements almost impracticable, and greatly increased the sickness and suffering in the camps, while the exhaustion consequent on such continuous and superhu man exertions, impaired, in a marked degree, the morale of the army. While comparative quiet was maintained along the lines in the vicinity of Petersburg and Richmond, in consequence of this extreme heat and exhaustion, there was no lack of activity in other and not distant portions of the eastern departments. We have already noticed that Early, in com mand of what was Ewell s (Rebel) corps, the original " Stonewall" Jackson corps, had moved down the Shenandoah valley, after driving Hunter into the Kanawha valley ; that he had recaptured Winchester, so often the battle-ground of the war ; flanked Martinsburg, compelling Sigel to fall back to Harper s Ferry ; and had finally occupied the Virginia side of that town, while Sigel intrenched himself on Maryland Heights. Early now proceeded with his main column (a small detachment only having occupied Harper s Ferry), to move, by way of Martinsburg and North mountain, toward Hagerstown. The people, panic-stricken, fled with such property as they could hastily seize and remove. On the 5th of July, the government stores at Frederick, Md., were all put upon rail road cars, and preparations made for an immediate evacuation of the city. THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. On the same day, Hagerstown was occupied and the stores plundered, and a requisition made on the inhabitants for twenty thousand dollars. This amount was paid, and the raiders left. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad was held by the enemy as far down -as Sandy Hook, and much of the track torn up. On the 5th of July, the President issued a call for twelve thousand militia from Pennsylvania, twelve thousand from New York, and five thousand from Massachusetts. The Governors of those States issued proc lamations calling out the troops, and they began to assemble. On the 6th, there was some skirmishing between the Union and Rebel cavalry, between Hagerstown and Frederick, and the Federal troops fell back toward Chambersburg. On Thursday, July 7th, a reconnoitering force sent out by General Lewis Wallace, who was in command of the Depart ment of Annapolis, was quickly repulsed by the enemy. The Rebels occupied Boonsboro and Middletown, and approached near enough to Frederick to throw some shots into the city, but withdrew before morning of the next day. Small bands of Rebel soldiers scoured the region about Ilagerstown, plundering, stealing horses, and burning buildings. On the evening of the 8th, General Wallace withdrew with his force from Fred erick to Monocacy Junction, and at sunrise the next morning (July 9th) the Rebels entered, and levied a contribution on the inhabitants. About nine A. M. they advanced against General Wallace, who occupied a position on the east side of the Monocacy river, with his batteries protect ing the railroad and turnpike. They attacked his left, which was under the command of General Ricketts, and the battle continued with varying success, for several hours, but at last Ricketts division was forced to give way. At the same time, they had succeeded in out-flanking General Wallace s right, and pouring in a reverse fire upon his rear, swept oft about six hundred men and officers, including General Tyler. General Wallace now fell back, and the enemy pursued him some miles, toward Ellicott s Mills, on the Baltimore turnpike. In the battle, he lost about twelve hundred men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, and six pieces of artillery. He was greatly outnumbered in the fight, his entire command consisting of only five or six thousand men, while that of the Rebels was from fourteen to sixteen thousand. The object of Lee in sending this expedition under Early into Maryland was two-fold. The grasp of Grant upon the throat of the Rebellion was growing tighter and more oppressive every day, and the only chance of compelling him to relax that grasp, lay in threatening the capital of the Union. If that could be put in peril, he reasoned, the outcry from the President and Cabinet and the officials, for aid and protection, would be so strong that Grant would be compelled to march his army thither, and relinquish the siege of Richmond. With the generals previously in command of the army of the Potomac, such a result would probably have followed ; but he had not appreciated correctly WASHINGTON THREATENED. 745 General Grant s firmness, perseverance, and persistency. While a small body of troops (the sixth corps) were sent to take care of Early, and the nineteenth corps, then on its way from Louisiana to reinforce General Grant, was ordered to "Washington, the pressure upon the throat of the Rebellion was not relaxed for an instant; indeed, it was rather increased. But another object had in view by General Lee was the plunder of the rich granaries and the well supplied stables of southern Pennsylvania. His cavalry were poorly mounted, and his troops but scantily fed. If Early could obtain a good supply of superior horses to remount the cav alry, and an abundance of grain to feed his troops, it would greatly relieve his army, and meantime, while in the loyal States, they were living on the country they ravaged, not drawing their supplies from his compara tively scanty stores. The defeat of General Wallace created great excitement in Washington and the northern States. The arrival of the sixth and nineteenth corps did much to calm the minds of the citizens, and the change in command of the forces in Maryland, General Ord relieving General Wallace, aided in restoring a better state of feeling. Meantime, the enemy, after destroy ing the Baltimore and Ohio railroad for some distance below Frederick, turned their attention to the Northern Central railroad, which connects Baltimore and Harrisburg. They destroyed twenty-five miles of this railroad, and on Monday, July llth, a considerable force appeared on the line of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore road, and captured and set on fire the trains at Magnolia station, seventeen miles south of Havre de Grace. Major-General Franklin was on board of one of these trains, and was captured, but though suffering from wounds received in Louisiana, he made his escape soon after. The track was slightly dam aged, and the bridge over Gunpowder river partially burned. Having accumulated a large amount of plunder, the Rebel cavalry approached to within six miles of Baltimore, and finding a force there prepared to meet them, turned off, and joined a larger body of Rebels, who were in the vicinity of Washington. They approached within less than two miles of the city, taking a position in front of Fort Stevens, on Seventeenth street Here their sharpshooters became so annoying, and their presence and threatening position before the capital was felt to be so humiliating, that General Augur, the military commandant of the city, resolved to attempt to dislodge them. The garrison of the city was not large, the greater part of the troops being in Maryland; but a brigade of veteran infantry was sent out upon the continuation of Seventeenth street, which encountered them, and after a sharp battle drove them off. They left about a hundred dead and wouiided on the field, and departed during the night from that vicinity, after burning some fine residences. The Union loss was between two and three hundred. The number of the enemy who thus audaciously threatened the capital I 746 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. was undoubtedly much smaller than the Union troops supposed, and be fore morning they had joined the remainder of Early s force, which, pressed by a part of Ord s troops, was now making its way as rapidly as possible toward the Potomac, which it crossed in the vicinity of Harper s Ferry. General Wright, with the sixth corps, and a division of the nine teenth, crossed the Potomac at Edwards s ferry, and moved to Leesburg in pursuit ; while General Crook, with a part of the Union cavalry, cap tured a portion of one of the Rebel trains, and drove their rear through Snicker s gap, after a sharp fight. The enemy succeeded, however, in crossing the Snicker s gap ferry over the Shenandoah, and holding it, with a battery, against the Union cavalry. On the 18th, Wright s corps came up, and attempted to force a passage across the ferry ; but after a severe fight, a part of his troops having gained the west side of the Shenandoah, he was compelled to recross, and fall back toward Snicker s gap, with a loss of about three hundred. At Ashby s gap, the Union troops drove the enemy through the gap and across the river, but, crossing in pur suit, they were compelled to retire to the gap, with a loss of about two hundred. The Rebel commander now moved leisurely toward Winchester and Strasburg, and General Wright crossed the Shenandoah with the sixth corps, but soon halted, arid recrossing, returned to Leesburg ; and thence General Crook, with the nineteenth corps, moved to Harper s Ferry, and General Wright to Washington. On the 19th of July, General Averell moved from Martinsburg toward Winchester, and encountered a Rebel cavalry force near Darks ville. The next morning, July 20th, he pressed on toward Winchester, where he met the enemy, and a severe battle en sued for three hours and Averell captured four guns, several hundred small arms, and about two hundred prisoners. General Crook, after retiring toward Harper s Ferry, joined General Averell, and on the 23d of July there was considerable skirmishing at Kernstown, four miles beyond Winchester, and the Union cavalry were pushed back to the main army. On the 24th the enemy pressed his ad vantage, and the cavalry were driven in great disorder through Winches ter toward Bunker Hill. The breaking of his cavalry forced General Crook to retreat. His command consisted only of the two small divisions of cavalry under Generals Averell and Duffie, and two divisions of in fantry in all not far from ten thousand men. Early s force here exceeded somewhat fifteen thousand men, (he had taken about that number across the Potomac, and had left a considerable force to guard his rear,) and taking advantage of these numbers, he outflanked General Crook and compelled his retreat from point to point. After a brief battle, Early halted his main force about five miles north of Winchester, but his cavalry kept up a hot pursuit to Martinsburg. General Crook s loss in all was about twelve hundred, among whom was Colonel (acting Brigadier-Gen- SKETCH OF COLONEL MULLIGAN. 747 eral) Mulligan, mortally wounded.* On the next day a sharp artillery engagement occurred, but General Crook having gained time to get off most of his trains, again fell back, and on the succeeding day crossed the Potomac into Maryland, without molestation by the enemy. The losses in killed and wounded in these affairs were considerable. The enemy now held the west bank of the Potomac from Williamsport to Shepardstown, and the panic in northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania was re newed with still greater intensity. The most absurd reports were circu lated, and however extravagant they were, they were readily believed by the credulous. " Early was coming into Pennsylvania with forty thousand men ! No, it was Lee himself who was in command, with a hundred thousand and Longstreet s, Hill s, Early s, and Breckinridge s corps, were certainly known to have entered Pennsylvania !" Meantime, on the 27th of July, the Union troops hnd rallied, and found that the enemy had not crossed the Potomac. On the 28th, General Kelly crossed the Potomac into Virginia with a small body of Union troops and occupied Martins- burg, which the enemy had evacuated. On the 29th, a small body of the enemy, not exceeding twenty-five hundred, mostly cavalry, crossed the Potomac below Martinsburg, and advanced toward Chambersburg, Penn- * Colonel James A. Mulligan had acted so conspicuous a part during the war, that he deserves a brief notice. He was born at Utica, New York, June 25, 1830, and was of Irish family, his parents having emigrated to this country a few years before his birth. In the autumn of 1836, the family removed to Chicago, and after a few years residence he entered as a student in the University of St. Mary s of the Lake. He graduated in 1850, in the first graduating class of the university, and the same year commenced the study of the law. In 1851 he accompanied John L. Stephens, the celebrated author and traveller, on his expedition to the isthmus of Panama. After remaining at Panama about a year, he returned to Chicago, was admitted to the bar in 1855, and immediately commenced practice in the city. In the winter of 1857 he was appointed to a clerkship in the Department of the Interior at Washington. At the outbreak of the war he raised a regiment, mostly composed of Irishmen, the twenty-third Illinois infantry, afterward known as " Mulligan s brigade," and being appointed Colonel, left for the front in July, 1861. He was actively engaged in ser vice, first in Virginia, and afterward in Missouri, till September, when he was ordered to the defence of Lexington, Missouri. The particulars of that siege are given in the earlier portion of this work. For nine days he held the town against heavy odds, but not being reinforced, and his troops being cut off from water, and pressed by an over whelming force, he at length surrendered to the enemy. He was exchanged Novem ber 25th, and returned to Chicago, where he reorganized his regiment, and in January, 1862, was ordered to New Creek, Virginia. He was, during the remainder of his career, stationed in Western Virginia, a;ad participated in many hard-fought battles, being most of the time in command of a. brigade. He was offered a commission as brigadier- general, but finding it would taka him from his gallant troops, who almost idolized him, he declined it. In the battle of Winchester, and the retreat of General Crook, he was mortally wounded while leading a charge, but seeing that the colors of his brigade were endangered, he turned to his bearers, saying. " Lay me down and save the flag," and repeated the order till they obeyed him. Before their return he waa borne off by the enemy, and died soon after. 748 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. sylvania. On the 30th they dispersed some troops at Carlisle barracks, and their advance-guard of two or three hundred men entered Chambers- ourg, from which place a considerable number of the inhabitants had fled the previous day. The Eebels demanded a ransom of five hundred thou sand dollars, which not being paid, they set fire to the town, and about two thirds of it (about two hundred and fifty houses) was burned. The inhabitants who remained offered no opposition to the Rebels. During the forenoon the enemy withdrew, and within an hour General Averell, who had retreated before them two days previous, passed through the place in swift pursuit, and drove them back to their reserves, eight miles below McConnellsburg, where he skirmished with them till night. The next morning General Averell continued the pursuit to Hancock, on the upper Potomac, where the enemy checked his pursuit by felling trees and burning bridges. On the same day on which Chambersburg was burned, Saturday, July 30th, Mosby, the notorious partizan ranger, crossed the Potomac with about fifty men, at Cheat ferry, captured pickets, cut the telegraph wires, robbed a few stores, and retreated across the Potomac again, after a slight skirmish with a superior force at Conrad s ferry. This, and the burning of Chambersburg, increased the panic, and business was suspended, and public meetings called on Sunday, July 31st, to prepare for defence. On the 1st of August, Governor Curtin called a special session of the State Legislature for the 9th of August, to take prompt measures in so great a crisis. The defences on the Ohiouand Monongahela rivers were examined by General Couch, and the sixth corps, which was at Georgetown, D. C., on the 26th of July, marched with all haste toward Harper s Ferry to join the nineteenth, and Hunter s army of Western Virginia, and drive the Rebels from western Pennsyl vania, which they were said to be ravaging. They reached Halltown, three miles from Harper s Ferry, on the 30th, and made long and rapid marches on the 31st of July and 1st of August, notwithstanding the intense heat, but could find no enemy. On the evening of August 1st, they arrived at Frederick, Maryland, greatly exhausted, and rested for a day. The small force of the enemy which Averell had pursued to Han cock, moved, on the night of July 31st, toward Cumberland, Md., and approached that place on Monday, August 1st., in the afternoon, when they met a Union force under General Kelly, and fighting till dark, were repulsed by the Union troops, and fell back to Oldtown, leaving their killed and wounded, some wagons and ammunition. There was sharp skirmishing the next morning between them and Colonel Stough, who was posted at Oldtown, with about five hundred men, and whom they finally repulsed and routed, with considerable loss. On Thursday, August 4th, the enemy made an attack on General Crook, but were foiled, and retreated toward Moorefield, Va. There they were overtaken by General Averell, and routed, with the loss of their artillery, the larger portion of THE OPERATIONS BEFORE PETERSBURG. 143 their train, and five hundred prisoners. Meanwhile, the panic continued in Pennsylvania, and a proclamation was issued by Governor Curtin, calling out thirty thousand militia. The Rebels did not again cross the Potomac, but the experience of the month of July led to the organization of an efficient army of defence for that region, to be under a single commander, of which we shall have more to say hereafter. We return once more, and to describe a single movement, to the armies around Petersburg. General Grant had, in the latter part of June, at the suggestion of Lieutenant-Colonel Pleasants, of the forty-eighth Pennsyl vania regiment, who had been a mining engineer before the war, ordered the running of a mine under one of the enemy s largest forts in front of Petersburg. The mine had been commenced on the 25th of June. The distance to be mined was about five hundred feet. The tunnel rose as it advanced, the fort being situated on high ground, and when it reached the fort, was about twenty feet tbelow its foundations. Here wings were extended to right and left, so as to follow the outer walls of the fort. The charge was about four tons of powder, connected by a fuse with the exterior. It was completed about the 25th of July, and the attempts at concealment had been so well managed that the enemy had no suspicion of it, and only a small part of the Union troops were aware of it. General Grant now ordered a demonstration in strong force to be made on the north side of the James, to distract the attention of the Rebel commander, and lead him to draw off a part of his troops from Petersburg. The Union right extended to the north side of the James, and the ex treme right wing, consisting of Foster s division of the tenth corps, occu pied a strongly intrenched position at Deep Bottom, the valley of Deep run or creek, a small tributary of the James. The Rebels held Malvern Hill as the right of their forces, north of the James, but were prevented, by the Union occupation of Deep Bottom, from making any efforts to blockade the gunboats and transports by batteries on the river bank. The Union position also furnished a good base for threatening Richmond from the southeast, or making feints in that direction. Such a feint General Grant now proposed to make, to call as large a proportion of the troops in Petersburg to the north side of the James. One pontoon bridge, protected by gunboats, already crossed the James in the rear of General Foster s position ; but the proximity of the enemy prevented the crossing of any considerable force over that bridge with out a battle. A second pontoon was thrown over at Strawberry plains, a little lower down, on the 21st of July, and a brigade of the nineteenth corps crossed to support General Foster; there was heavy skirmishing for several days, and the enemy sent a division over to maintain their position. On the 26th of July, a heavy cannonading of the Rebel lines was com menced, and continued through the day, the Union gunboats joining in 750 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. it. Under cover of this fire, the second and fifth corps were, with great pretence of secrecy, marched across the bridges, which had been muffled with grass. On the 27th and 28th there was considerable fighting, and the Rebel force were driven back more than a mile, and compelled to abandon some strong positions. On the 29th of July, about four hundred empty wagons were driven across the lower pontoon, and the enemy, in great alarm, hurried a large body of troops to the James, to cross and oppose the Union force they supposed to be concentrating there. During the night, the second corps and the cavalry were withdrawn, and before morning had reached their old position in front of Petersburg, the fifth corps following rapidly. The early morning of the 3d of August was the time assigned for the explosion of the mine, which was to be followed immediately by an assault by the ninth corps, supported by the eighteenth, and having the second corps in reserve on the right, and the fifth on the left, the whole to be closely massed. The fuse was lighted at half-past three o clock A. M., but owing to dampness, it went out, without exploding the mine. It was lighted again after considerable delay, but did not explode till twenty minutes of five, when, after a heaving and trembling of the earth, huge masses of earth, and the fort, with all its contents, guns, caissons, and about two hundred Rebel soldiers, were suddenly thrown into the air. A crater, one hundred feet or more in length, fifty feet wide, and twenty feet deep, yawned where the fort had stood. The Union artillery immediately opened fire from a hundred guns; and the enemy, recovering from their surprise, soon began to respond. The assaulting column, headed by Marshall s brigade of Ledlie s division, ninth corps, now advanced, and the supporting brigades spread out, enveloping the flanking rifle-pits, and capturing about two hundred prisoners. Having gained the crater, the troops began to reform for the assault, but committed the fatal mistake of stopping to throw up intrench ments, and bringing two guns to bear upon the enemy. The Rebels rallied during this delay, and poured a terrible enfilading fire from all their adjacent forts and rifle-pits upon the assault ing column, and when it was ready to move, its onward progress was to be made under a front, fiank, and rear fire, which would speedily destroy every man of the devoted band. The charge was checked on the side of the crest: there was a halt, and finally the whole line, wavering under the terrible fire, recoiled to the fort. The colored division of the corps, which had been in reserve, was now, by the stupidity of some commander, despatched to attempt what the other three divisions had failed of accom plishing. It rushed forward over the four hundred yards which had separated it from the enemy, only to share the fate of its comrades, and when once broken, plunged headlong into the crater, upon which the enemy now concentrated their fire. Attempts were made by a division of the eighteenth, and another of the tenth corps, to distract the attention UNION LOSSES BEFORE PETERSBURG. 751 of the enemy, so as to enable the Union troops to save this ill-fated division, but in vain ; the crater was a complete slaughter-pen, from which all attempts to retreat were sure to result in death. After some hours, a f ew succeeded, in a lull of the enemy s fire, in escaping ; but the greater part not slain were captured. The whole affair had been badly managed, and the investigation of the Committee on the Conduct of the War indi cated that the blame was due to the disagreement of some of the com manding officers, and that General Meade was not altogether without fault in the matter. The Union loss in this disaster was four thousand and eight, of whom one thousand nine hundred and ten were missing, mostly prisoners, four hundred and nineteen killed, and one thousand six hundred and seventy-nine wounded. The losses in the previous battles before Petersburg, and north of the James, from June 20th to July 30th, had been five thousand three hundred and sixteen ; but there were gains as well as losses to count in these, while this assault had accomplished nothing. Tne enemy s loss was only about one thousand, of whom two hundred were prisoners. t52 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED fcTATES. CHAPTER LX. SHERMAN S ATLANTA CAMPAIGN SHERMAN S PREPARATIONS THE FORCE UNDER HIS COM MAND, AND THE SEVERAL ARMIES COMPOSING IT THE ARMY OF THE ENEMY ITS POSITION AND COMMANDER SKETCH OF JOHNSTON THE DEMONSTRATION ON ROCKY FACED RIDGE, AND BATTLES THERF FLANKING MOVEMENT THROUGH SNAKE CREEK GAP ON RESACA BATTLES AT RESACA FLANKING MOVEMENT TOWARD KINGSTON CAPTURE OF ROME CROSSING THE ETOWAH MOVEMENT TOWARD DALLAS BATTLES OF NEW HOPE CHURCH AND DALLAS SHERMAN MOVES TO THE LEFT OCCUPATION OF ALLATOONA PASS, AND BIG SHANTY THE PASS MADE A SECONDARY BASE OF SUPPLIES THE ENEMY DRIVEN FROM PINE AND LOST MOUNTAINS THE AFFAIR OF "THE KULP HOUSE" ASSAULT ON THE ENEMY ON KENESAW MOUNTAIN REPULSE FLANKING AGAIN THE REBELS COMPELLED TO FALL BACK TO THE CHATTAHOOCHIE OCCUPATION OF MARIETTA THE UNION ARMY CROSS THE CHATTAHOOCHIE BURNING OF ROSWELL FACTORIES. THE general order of the War Department of the 12th of March, 1864, vesting in General Grant, as Lieutenant-General, the chief control of the armies of the United States, also assigned to Major-General W. T. Sherman the command of the division of the Mississippi, the position previously held by Grant. This division, including the military Depart ments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and for a time, Arkansas, comprised a force of over one hundred and fifty thousand troops, commanded by such able lieutenants as Major-Generals Thomas, McPherson, Schofield, Hooker, Logan, Hurlbut, and Howard, besides many other corps and division commanders equally distinguished for skill and bravery, such as Kilpatrick, Stoneman, Palmer, Wood, Davis, Rous seau, Newton, Williams, Geary, and Baird. Sherman at once started upon a tour of inspection of the several armies and military posts within his command in Tennessee and Alabama, holding interviews with his generals, and arranging with them, in general terms, as to the lines of communication to be guarded, the strength of the respective armies and garrisons, etc., fixing upon the 1st of May as about the time when the advance was to be made. Leaving to these officers the completion of the details of organization and preparation, he returned to Nashville, and bent all his energies to the work of collecting at Chattanooga the im mense quantities of supplies necessary to his proposed undertaking. The time which remained to him before the 1st of May, seemed all too brief for the herculean task of concentrating at one point, arms, ammunition, and provisions ; of uniting, and reorganizing the various and widely scattered army ; corps of mounting his cavalry, and making all the preparations for a gigantic campaign. Yet his remarkable energy and executive ability, aided by that of his able subordinates, accomplished the work with such celerity and success that, on the 6th of May, the grand army of the SKETCH OF GENERAL JOHNSTON. 753 Mississippi, fully organized, equipped and provisioned, was ready for its share in the great movements which were to decide the fate of the Union. It numbered ninety-eight thousand, seven hundred and ninety-seven effective men, and two hundred and fifty-four pieces of artillery, and was divided as follows : The Army of the Cumberland, Major General Thomas commanding infantry, fifty -four thousand five hundred and sixty-eight; artillery, two thousand three hundred and seventy -seven; cavalry, three thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight; total, sixty thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, with one hundred and thirty guns. Arrny of the Tennessee, Major-General McPherson commanding infantry, twenty- two thousand four hundred and thirty-seven ; artillery, one thousand four hundred and four; cavalry, six hundred and twenty-four; total, twenty- four thousand four hundred and sixty-five, with ninety-six guns. Army of the Ohio, Major-General Schofield commanding infantry, eleven thousand one hundred and eighty-three ; artillery, six hundred and seventy- nine ; cavalry, one thousand six hundred and ninety-seven; total, thirteen thousand five hundred and fifty-nine, with twenty-eight guns. These numbers continued relatively the same during the campaign, the losses in battle and from sickness being about compensated by recruits, and returns from furlough and hospitals. The three Union armies on the 6th of May, occupied the following positions : that of the Cumberland, at or near Ring-gold ; that of the Tennessee at Gordon s Mills, on the Chicka- mauga ; and that of the Ohio near Red Clay, on the Georgia line, north of Dalton. In and about Dalton, lay the Rebel army, superior to the Union army in cavalry, and comprising three corps of infantry and ar tillery, viz : Hardee s, Hood s, and Folk s, numbering in all about sixty thousand men, the whole commanded by General J. E. Johnston.* * General Joseph Eccleston Johnston, the able commander of the Rebel forces which were opposed to General Sherman s army, was born in 1808, in Prince Edwards county, Virginia. He graduated at West Point in 1829, ranking high, and was appointed 011 the 1st of July of that year, brevet second lieutenant in the fourth artillery. In 1836 he was promoted to a first lieutenancy, and made commissary of subsistence. In 1838 he was transferred to the corps of topographical engineers, with the rank of first lieutenant, and served in that capacity in the Florida war, where he distinguished himself for bravery and skill, and was brevetted captain. His regular promotion to a captaincy came in September, 1846, and in February, 1847, he was brevetted lieuten ant-colonel of voltigeurs, and sailed for Mexico with General Scott s expedition. He was severely wounded in a daring reconnoissance on the advance to Mexico, near Cerro Gordo, but recovered sufficiently to take part in the concluding battles of the war. He distinguished himself at Chapultepec and Molino del Rey, and in the latter battle was again wounded. His regiment having been disbanded, he remained captain of topographical engineers, with a brevet of lieutenant-colonel, till March 3. 1855, when he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the first cavalry. In June, 1860, he was appointed quartermaster-general of the United States, with the rank of brigadier- general. This position he held at the outbreak of the war, and retained it, to the ad- 48 f54 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Dalton was in itself a position of great strength, being completely cov ered by a ridge or spur of the Chattoogata mountains, known as the Rocky Faced Ridge, through which a high and narrow defile, called Buzzard s Roost gap traversed by the railroad and wagon-road offered the only approach to the town from the northwest. This narrow pass, obstructed by abatis, flooded by water, caused by dams across Mill creek, and commanded thoughout its whole length by batteries stationed on the spurs on either side, effectually barred any attempt which the Union armies might make in that direction, and the town, on its northern aspect, was well defended by strong lines of defence behind Mill creek. On their left, however, General Sherman found in Snake Creek gap a crooked defile of the Chattoogata mountain an opportunity to reach and disturb the enemy s railroad communication at or near Resaca, eighteen miles south of Dalton. The plan which he quickly conceived and promptly put into execution, was to send McPherson s column, via Ship s gap, Vil- lanow, and Snake Creek gap, toward Resaca, or the railroad below Dalton, with orders to break up the road as thoroughly as possible, after which he was to fall back to some good defensive position on Snake creek, and await his opportunity to strike the enemy s flank, in case he should vantage of the Rebels, till April 22, 1861, when he resigned, and immediately went over to the Rebel army, where he was commissioned major-general, and placed in com mand of their army of the Shenandoah, where he confronted General Patterson, and eluding him, marched to Manassas, which he reached at noon of July 20th, the day before the battle of Bull Run. He took part in that battle, though under command of General Beauregard. He remained in command of the army of Virginia through the siege of Yorktown and the battle of Williamsburg, and at the battle of Seven Pines was severely wounded, and for three or four months was unable to resume com mand. In November, 1862, he was put in command of the Western army east of the Mississippi, having Bragg s, Kirby Smith s, and other armies, under his command. His health was not fully recovered, and he therefore directed rather than commanded in person. He commanded at Jackson, in the Vicksburg campaign, and it was owing to Pemberton s disobedience to his orders that he was shut up in Vicksburg, and finally compelled to surrender. Sherman compelled him to retreat from Jackson in July, 1863. Directing the movements of the Rebel troops in the West, he did not take active command till General Bragg fell into disgrace after the battles of Chatta nooga. In the Atlanta campaign he proved himself, as the narrative shows, a skilful and able strategist; his retreats were performed with great skill and success, and without loss of supplies or material, and his removal and supersession by General Hood, was regarded by General Sherman as a matter of congratulation. He was subsequently restored to command in the Carolina campaign, but the Rebel cause was past hope, and though he exhibited his abilities in the two battles of Averysboro and Benton- ville, he promptly made overtures for surrender on learning of Lee s capitulation. Of the conferences and propositions then submitted, we shall give a full account in the proper place. After his surrender, General Johnston indicated his disposition to return fully and heartily to his allegiance, and has entered upon his duties in civil life, in a spirit which does him credit OPERATIONS OF SHERMAN S ARMY. 755 retreat. Meanwhile, the enemy s attention at Dalton was to be diverted by a strong feint of attack in front from General Thomas force, and the approach of General Schofield s army from the north. In accordance with this programme, General Thomas, on the 7th, oc cupied Tunnel Hill, opposite Buzzard Roost gap, with but slight opposi tion, the enemy s cavalry retreating well ^ through the gap; General McPherson took possession of Snake Creek gap on the 8th, completely surprising a Rebel cavalry brigade which was on its way thither with similar intent ; while, on the 9th, General Schofield pushed down close on Dalton from the north. Then Thomas renewed his demonstra tion against Buzzard Roost and Rocky Faced Ridge, pushing it almost to a battle, in the course of which General Newton s division of the fourth corps General Howard s carried the ridge, and turning south toward Dalton, found the crest too narrow, and too well protected by rock epaul- ments, to permit their approach to the pass ; while General Geary s division (of Hooker s command) making a bold push for the summit, to the south of the pass, found the road to strongly held by the enemy to be carried. This action, which has received the name of the battle of Rocky Faced Ridge, was fought with great gallantry, and was attended with considerable loss, yet it was fully successful as a feint to cover the move ments of McPherson, who was thereby enabled to march within a mile of Resaca, almost unopposed. Finding, however, that Resaca was too strongly fortified to be carried by assault, and being unable to discover any road passable for his artillery, by which he could reach and destroy the railroad between Dalton and Resaca, he fell back to a strong position near the west end of Snake Creek gap. General Sherman, who, although appreciating the advantage gained, was not satisfied with any result which did not fully accomplish his plan of striking a decided blow upon the enemy s railroad communications, then sent Hooker s and Palmer s corps, of General Thomas s division, and the whole of General Schofield s command, through Snake Creek gap, to the support of McPherson, leaving only Howard s corps to threaten Dalton in front. On the 12th, the Union forces moved against Resaca ; and Johnston, finding that he was outflanked, fell back to that place from Dalton, over excellent roads which he had previously constructed, How ard following so closely on his heels, that he entered Dalton as the Rebels left it. Rasaca, strong by nature, had been rendered so impregnable by the six months labor which the enemy had bestowed upon its fortifications, that the main body of the Union army as they approached it saw that it was useless to attempt its capture by assault. Sherman therefore threw a pon toon bridge across the Oostanaula, at Lay s ferry, near Calhoun, over which he sent a division of the sixteenth corps to demonstrate against the town. General Garrard s division was also moved from Villanow 756 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. down to Kome, where, crossing the Oostanaula, they were instructed to destroy the railroad below Calhoun and above Kingston, if possible, thus compelling a further retreat, in any event, while, with the main army, Sherman pressed against Kesaca at all points, his lines extending from the Oostanaula below the town westward to Sugar valley, and then east ward in the form of a semcircle to the railroad the ground thus occu pied being mostly a dense forest, intersected with two or three creeks with deep and muddy bottoms. On the 13th, there was considerable fighting along the lines, chiefly by Schofield s corps ; and again the next day, when the fourth corps pushed the enemy vigorously toward Resaca. During the afternoon and evening of the 15th, a heavy battle ensued, in which General Hooker drove the enemy from several strong hills, and captured four hundred prisoners and four guns. The most thrilling epi sode of the day occurred in the afternoon, when Stanley s brigade, of one Ohio and two Indiana regiments, stationed on the extreme left, were apprised that two divisions of the Rebels were approaching, with the object of breaking their line. As they fell back from this superior force, the Rebels dashed from the woods, across a flat and tolerably open space, on the left of which were woods in which were concealed a large part of Hookers corps, just arrived, and Simonson s Indiana battery, of the fourth army corps. As the Rebels emerged upon the open ground, this battery opened rapidly upon them with grape and canister at short range; and before they could recover from their surprise, Hooker s men, from the edge of the wood, poured in volley after volley of musketry, until, appalled and staggered by the murderous fire to which they were exposed, the Rebel column broke and ran for cover. Riding to the battery, and in quiring whose it was, General Hooker threw himself from his saddle, and saying, " You are heroes, every one of you," shooK each man warmly by the hand. That same night, Johnston, finding himself in danger of being again flanked, evacuated Resaca, and escaped southward across the Oostanaula, his retreating columns being treated to a pretty vigorous shelling by McPherson. They left in Resaca a large amount of commissary supplies, and a four-gun battery, and burned four spans of the railroad bridge, besides making an unsuccessful attempt to burn the turnpike bridge over the river. The Union loss in these three days battles amounted to nearly thirty-five hundred in killed, missing, and wounded, while the Rebel loss was somewhat less, ow^ng to the fact that, except in the battle of the 15th, they fought behind intrenchments. As soon as Johnston s retreat was discovered, the whole army started in pursuit, General Thomas close upon his heels, General McPherson by Lay s ferry, while General Schofield made a wide detour by obscure roads on the left, by Fue s and Field s ferries, across the Connasauga and Coosawattee rivers. About nightfall of the 17th, General Newton s division, in the advance, !Fv S\ /// \ / f JONESBORO RENFREW 5) I// MOVEMENT TOWARD DALLAS. 75T overtook the Rebel rear-guard near Adairsville, and after a brisk action, drove them from a temporary lodgement which they had made in a house called " Oak Grove." Renewing the pursuit the next morning, they brought the Rebel army to bay at a point four miles beyond Kingston, on ground comparatively open and adapted to a general battl-e. Again declining battle, the enemy moved southward to Cassville, six miles east from Kingston, where they occupied intrenchments in a strong position. Upon being pressed, how ever, by our forces, they again retreated across the Etowah river, burning the bridges near Cartersville, and leaving the whole valuable region north of the Etowah in full possession of the Union army, which rested from its labors for six days, during which time General Sherman brought for ward supplies, and strengthened the communications with his base, by repairs of railroads, roads, etc. Meanwhile, General Jefferson C. Davis, who had been sent by General Thomas along the west side of the Oostanaula to take possession of Rome, had met with most gratifying success, capturing its forts, with eight or ten heavy guns, valuable mills, foundries, and various railroad communications. Sherman then seized and held two bridges over the Etowah, near Kingston, and having garrisoned that place, as well as Rome, and supplied his wagons with twenty days rations, he again set his army in motion toward Dallas, nearly south from Kingston, and fifteen mi]es west of Marietta. This circuit to the right was made for the purpose of turning Alla- toona pass, a gap in the mountains through which the railroad ran, and to which Johnston had retreated, in complete confidence that its impregnable position protected him perfectly from any attack in front. Crossing the Etowah river, at Oonasene creek, near Kingston, McPherson moved to his position north of Dallas, via Van Wert ; Davis s division marched directly from Rome to Dallas, via Van Wert ; General Thomas by Euharlee and Burnt Hickory, and Schofield moved along other roads to the eastward, designing to come well up on Thomas s left. The country was mountain ous, rugged, densely wooded, and with but few and obscure roads. Gen- eral Thomas s advance, skirmishing with the enemy s cavalry near Burnt Hickory, captured a courier with despatches from General Johnston, showing that he understood the movements of the Union army, and was prepared to meet them near Dallas. On the 25th, General Thomas, moving on Dallas, his troops on three roads, General Hooker in the advance, as he approached Pumpkin Vine creek, on the main road, met a considerable body of Rebel cavalry at a bridge on his left. Pushing them rapidly across the creek, and saving the bridge, which was already on fire, he drove them about two miles eastward, where he found infantry, whose pickets he pressed closely, until he met the enemy s line of battle, with which his leading division, General Geary s, had a smart encounter. He immedi- 758 THE CIVIL WAK IN TjIE LNITED STATES. ately called in General Hooker s other two divisions, which were on other roads, and as soon as that whole corps were well in hand, about four o clock P. M., it was ordered to make a bold push for the possession of "New Hope church," at the junction of the three roads from Ackworth, Marietta, and Dallas. Here ensued a hard battle, in which the enemy was driven back to the church, where they hastily intrenched themselves, and a dark stormy night intervening, General Hooker found himself un able to dislodge them. The next morning they were well intrenched, mainly across the road from Dallas to Marietta, and Hooker s corps being inveigled into a narrow pass, whose sides were lined with concealed batteries, was met with a terribly destructive enfilading fire, which told heavily on them especially on Geary s corps their loss being not less than four hundred and fifty. This compelled the Union commanders to make more extensive dispo sitions of their forces. General McPherson, with Garrard s cavalry, moved up to Dallas, General Thomas looked after New Hope church, and General Schofield, aided by Stoneman s cavalry, watched his opportunity to turn the enemy s right, while General McCook guarded the rear. The density of the forest, and the difficult nature of the ground, was such that several days were employed in deploying close to the enemy, and Sherman determined to work gradually toward the left, and, at the proper moment, make a push for the railroad east of Allatoona. While thus slowly developing his plans, several sharp encounters occurred with the enemy, and on the 28th, as the Union lines were working q-uietly to the left, with the purpose of enveloping the enemy s right, General McPher- son s men were suddenly attacked with great violence. Fortunately, however, having good breastworks, they gave a warm reception to the Rebels, who retired from the contest with a loss of over twenty-five hundred men, their own loss being but two hundred and eighty -six in killed, wounded, and missing. After a few days delay, until things should become somewhat quieted down, Sherman moved his lines successfully five miles farther to the left, and, by the 1st of June, they held all the roads leading back to Allatoona and Ackworth. General Stoneman s cavalry was now pushed rapidly into the east end of Allatoona pass, while General Garrard s cavalry were sent to its west end, and the original de sign of turning the pass was accomplished. Still continuing to move his lines farther and farther to the left, Sherman, by the 4th of June, had decided to leave Johnston in his in- trenchments at New Hope church, and occupy Ackworth, when suddenly Johnston abandoned his position, and moved toward Kenesaw, Pine, and Lost mountains. Sherman, therefore, moved to Ackworth, and taking certain positionaalong the railroad, proceeded to satisfy himself, by personal inspection, of the capabilities of Allatoona pass for the purposes of a secondary base. Finding it all that he desired, the repairs on the railroad THE ENEMY DRIVEN FROM PINE MOUNTAIN. 759 were rapidly completed,. and on the 8th, supplies were brought into camp by rail. On the same day, also, General Blair arrived at Ackworth, with two divisions of the seventeenth corps and a brigade of cavalry a rein forcement which amply compensated for Sherman s losses in battle, and the troops left in garrison at Resaca, Rome, Kingston, and Allatoona. On the next day, the 9th, with well secured communications to the rear, and with ample supplies for the advance, the entire army moved forward to Big Shanty, the next station on the railroad. Here they found themselves surrounded by scenery of peculiar and lofty beauty. They were on the broad and uneven plateau which reaches from the base of the easternmost hills of the Appalachain chain toward the Chattahoochee river. To their left, and on the east of the railroad, were Sweat mountain and Black Jack, while to the westward, and nearly in front of their position, rose Kenesaw, the bold and striking Twin mountain. To the right was the smaller hill, known as Pine mountain, and still more distantly to the right was Lost mountain. All these mountains, though links in a continuous chain, had sharp conical peaks, which rendered them peculiarly prominent in the vast and roughly-moulded landscape which surrounded them. Here they found the Rebel General Johnston holding a strongly fortified position on the northern slopes of Pine, Kenesaw, and Lost mountains the first named forming the apex, and the two latter the base, of a triangle, com pletely commanding the town of Marietta, and the railroad as far as the Chattahoochie. On each of these peaks the enemy had established signal stations, while the summits were crowned with batteries, and the spurs alive with men, busily engaged in felling trees, digging pits, and preparing for the impending crisis of battle. General Sherman says, in his official report : " The scene was enchanting ; too beautiful to be dis turbed by the harsh clamors of war ; but the Chattahoochie lay beyond, and I had to reach it." On a closer approach, he found that the enemy was holding a line full two miles long, and one which he could not properly maintain with the force at his disposal. With a view, therefore, to break this over-extended line at some weak point, General Sherman ordered General McPherson to move toward Marietta, with his right on the railroad, General Thomas on Kenesaw and Pine mountains, and Gen eral Schofield toward Lost mountain ; while General Garrard s cavalry hovered on the left, General Stoneman s on the right, and General McCook looked to the rear, and communications with the depot at Big Shanty. On the llth of Junp, having closed his lines well up to the enemy s position, Sherman prepared to break the line between Kenesaw and Pine mountain that point being apparently the weakest and for a few days there was some very severe and protracted skirmishing. On the 14th, Hooker s and Howard s corps opened a sharp cannonade upon the Rebels on Pine mountain, in the course of which the Rebel Lieutenant-General 760 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Polk was killed, and on the morning of the 15th, it was ascertained that the enemy had abandoned their position at that point, and had fallen back upon the line of rugged hills connecting Kenesaw and Lost mountains. McPherson was now thrown forward, gaining substantial advantages on the left, and constant pressure being firmly kept up on the enemy s lines, an assault was ordered by Sherman on the 17th; but the enemy had abandoned, that very morning, both Lost mountain and the long line of admirable breastworks which connected it with Kenesaw. Following him closely, so as to keep up an uninterrupted pressure upon his lines; skirmishing amid dense forests and difficult ravines, the Union army again came upon and found Johnston, strongly intrenched, with Kenesaw as his salient, his right wing covering Marietta, and his left behind Nose s creek, in position to protect the railroad as far as the Chattahoochie his lines being thus contracted and greatly strengthened. From his eyrie on the twin summits of Kenesaw, he could look down upon the Union camp, and watch every movement of the troops, whom he constantly cannonaded, although with little effect, owing to the extreme elevation of his position. Here, lying closely up against the mountain town, and under the constant fire of the enemy s guns, Sherman s army passed three weeks, during a season of heavy rains, which fairly flooded the whole surround ing country and rendered a general movement impossible. The men, however, kept daily working their way closer to the intrenched foe, main taining an incessant picket fire, and embracing every opportunity of advancing the general lines. Thus, slowly gaining, step by step, McPher son had reached within two miles of Marietta, Thomas had swung from the left, where he joined McPherson, around to the west and southwest of Kenesaw, and Schofield was steadily pressing southward and eastward along the old Sandtown road. Suddenly, on the 22d, the enemy, who were restive under this inter mitting pressure, rallied and attacked General Hooker, the blow falling chiefly on General Williams s division and a brigade of Schofield s army. The ground was quite open, and the enemy easily drove in the skirmish lines an advanced regiment purposely thrown forward by General Scho field as a temporary check to the assailants. Their point of attack was evidently a wooded ridge running in a southeasterly direction, and diagonally across the front of the Union lines, and which had been gained by Butterfield s division that morning after some severe and very deter mined fighting. It was occupied, at the moment of the attack, by Williams s division of the same corps, who had come upon it about noon, but before they had time to fortify it the Rebels dashed out upon them from the distant woods, moving at the quick-step, in three lines of battle. The danger was imminent ; but our batteries opened fiercely upon them, and as they came within short range, Williams s men, who had hitherto reserved their fire, delivered such rapid and deadly vollies that they fell ATTACK ON KENESAW MOUNTAIN. T61 back, their confusion greatly increased by a sudden enfilading fire, which came from some batteries placed in position by General Geary, of the same corps. They rallied, and made repeated attempts especially to drive Whit- taker s division of the army of the Ohio from its position of the morning, but each attempt was repulsed with very heavy loss, and they finally retired, leaving their dead and wounded in the hands of the Union troops. This action is known as the battle of "Kulp s house." With the return of fair weather, General Sherman determined to drive the foe from his stronghold, either by assault or by flanking. Either alternative presented its own difficulties and dangers. If he assaulted the Rebel lines at their weakest point, he might, by capturing Marietta, divide and defeat the enemy s force in detail. But then, the attempt to carry by arms a position so strong by nature, and so improved by military science, would be attended with uncertainty of success, and, in any event, with a heavy loss of life. If, however, he should, as the enemy and his own officers evidently expected him to do, flank the po sition by a detour to the right, and seize the railroad near the crossing of the Chattahoochie, he would commit his army to a single method of offence, which would involve much loss of time, and would be attended with peculiar hazards. The evident expectation of both friend and foe, that he would renew the flanking policy which had hitherto characterized his progress in this campaign, seems to have decided him to do just the opposite. Believing, as he says, that " an army, to be efficient, must not settle down to one single mode of offence, but must be prepared to exe cute any plan which promises success," he resolved to avail himself of the moral effect which would result, to friend and foe alike, from a suc cessful assault upon the enemy behind his breastworks, and at that point where success would yield the largest fruits of victory. This point, in his opinion, was the Rebel left-centre, through which, if he could push a strong column, it could reach the railroad below Marietta by a bold and rapid march of two and a half miles, thus cutting off from their line of retreat the enemy s right and centre, either of which could then be over whelmed arid destroyed. On the 24th of June, General Sherman ordered that two assaults should be simultaneously made on the 27th, one by General McPherson s troops near Little Kenesaw, and another by General Thomas s command, about a mile further south. The assaults were made in the time and manner prescribed, and both failed, in spite of the indomitable bravery and per severance of the troops engaged, with a loss of over three thousand killed and wounded, including Generals Harker and McCook. The Rebels, fighting behind breastworks, suffered a comparatively slight loss. Sherman, however, was not the man to allow his men to rest long under the influence of a mistake or a failure, and he accordingly ordered General Y62 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Schofield to work farther along toward the Rebel left; and relieving General McPherson in front of Kenesaw by General Garrard s cavalry, the former quickly moved his whole command by the right, down to Nickajack creek, which, as well as Turner s ferry, he threatened ; while Stoneman s cavalry was also sent to the river near Turner s ferry. General McPherson com menced his movement on the night of the 2d of July, and the effect was instantaneous. The next morning Kenesaw was abandoned by the Rebel hosts, and at early dawn our skirmishers had occupied its summits. General Thomas s whole line was immediately moved forward to the railroad, and turned southward to the Chattahoochie, in pursuit of the Rebels, while General Sherman rode into Marietta at eight o clock that morning, just as the Rebel cavalry left it. The rear-guard of McPherson s army, under Logan, was ordered back to Marietta, while McPherson and Schofield were instructed to cross Nickajack creek, attacking the enemy in flank and rear, and, if possible, to catch him in the confusion of crossing the Chattahoochie. Johnston, however, foreseeing this danger, had succeeded in covering his movements well by establishing a strongly intrenched tete de pont at the Chattahoochie, and an advanced line of intrenchments across the road at the Smyrna camp-meeting ground, five miles from Mari etta. Here, with his front well protected by good parapets, and his flanks behind the Nickajack and Rottenwood creeks, he was found by General Logan s advance-guard. Detailing a garrison for Marietta, and directing General Logan to rejoin his own army, then near the outlet of the Nickajack, General Sherman himself overtook General Thomas at Smyrna. On the 4th of July they pushed a strong skirmish line down the main road, capturing the entire line of the enemy s rifle-pits, at the same time making strong demonstra tions against Turner s ferry, and along the Nickajack creek and the next morning the enemy had fled across the Chattahoochie. The Union army, therefore, moved down to the river, General Thomas s left resting on it near Paice s ferry, General McPherson s right at the mouth of the Nickajack, while General Schofield s command was held in reserve. Opposite to them lay the enemy, behind an intrenched line of unusual strength, covering the railroad and pontoon bridges, and beyond the Chattahoochie ; and the heavy skirmishing along the whole front during the 5th, clearly demon strated the strength of the position, which could only be turned by cross ing the river, a deep and rapid stream, only passable at that point by bridges, and a few very difficult fords. Difficult as this was, however, General Sherman wisely deemed it best to attempt it while the enemy was still suffering from the partial demoralization incident to their rapid retreat, and before they should have time to oppose further obstacles, in the form of additional fortifications. Acting under his orders, General Schofield s corps, on the 7th, successfully crossed the Chattahoochie, near the mouth of Soap creek, capturing one gun, surprising the guard, laying BURNING OF ROSWBLL FACTORIES. 763 a good pontoon and a trestle bridge, and making a lodgement on the east bank, on high and commanding ground, with good roads leading east ward. While this was being done, General Garrard s cavalry captured Roswell, and destroyed the factories, which, during the war, had supplied the Rebel armies with cloths. Over one of these, the nominal owner had hoisted the French flag, as a ruse for its protection, but the building met the same fate as the others, General Sherman declining to recognize the right of neutrals, any more than our own citizens, to make cloth for hostile uses. A shallow ford near Roswell was then secured by Garrard, under Sherman s orders, and held until relieved by General Newton s division of Thomas s corps, who were shortly after relieved in turn by the whole of General McPherson s army, which had been transferred from the extreme right. Meanwhile, General Howard s corps had built a bridge at Powers ferry, two miles below Schofield s, and crossing over, had taken position on that general s right. This was effected on the 9th, and General Johnston find ing that the Union army had secured three good and safe crossings over the Chattahoochie, had no other resource, on the 10th, than to abandon his tete de pout, burn his bridges, and leave the country, north and west of the river, to the undisputed control of the Federal forces. 764 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER LXI. ROUSSEAU S EXPEDITION TO OPELIKA, AND THE WEST POINT AND MONTGOMERY RAILROAD THE POSITION OF THE UNION ARMY FIRST BATTLE OF PEACH TREE CREEK, JULY 20TH SECOND BATTLE OF PEACH TREE CREEK, JULY 22D DEATH OF MCPHERSON BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GENERAL MCPHERSON GARRARD S EXPEDITION TO COVINGTON 8TONEMAN AND MCCOOK UNDERTAKE CAVALRY EXPEDITIONS FAILURE OF STONEMAN PARTIAL SUC CESS OF MCCOOK BATTLE OF JULY 28TH BEFORE ATLANTA SIEGE OF ATLANTA ITS STRENGTH TENACITY OF HOOD IN HOLDING THE .RAILROAD LINES SHERMAN EXTENDS HIS LINE TO THE RIGHT, BUT HOOD HOLDS THE RAILROAD BOMBARDMENT OF ATLANTA WHEELER S RAID TO CUT SHERMAN S COMMUNICATIONS SHERMAN SENDS KILPATRICK TO CUT THE RAILROAD BELOW ATLANTA PARTIAL SUCCESS SHERMAN RAISES THE SIEGE, AND SENDS WILLIAMS BACK TO THE CHATTAHOOCHIE, WHILE THE MAIN ARMY MOVES TOWARD JONESBORO BATTLES NEAR JONESBORO HARDEE DEFEATED AND DRIVEN SOUTH WARD HOOD EVACUATES ATLANTA THE UNION ARMY TAKE POSSESSION OF THE CITY REMOVAL OF THE CITIZENS FROM THE CITY RESULTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. ATLANTA, with its fortifications, its magazines, stores, arsenals, work shops, foundries, etc., and especially its railroads, which converged there from the four cardinal points, was now only eight miles distant from the Union army; but General Sherman foresaw that much heavy fighting must ensue before he should be able to plant the flag of the Union upon its spires. The men, also, had been hard worked, and needed rest after their arduous labors ; so that he determined to give them a little breathing spell while he repaired the railroad and brought up his supplies for the final struggle of the campaign. Foreseeing this necessity of resting his army awhile, General Sherman had previously determined to employ the time in destroying the enemy s communications and supplies from Mont gomery, Ala., as well as from southern and central Alabama and Missis sippi. To this end he had collected at Decatur, Ala., a fine and well-equipped force of cavalry, two thousand strong, under command of General Lovell H. Rousseau, whom he had directed, on receiving orders by telegraph, to push rapidly south, cross the Coosa at the railroad bridge, or the Ten Islands, and make his way by the most direct route to Opelika, on the Montgomery, West Point, and Atlanta railroad, at its junction with the Columbus and Southwestern road, from which point he was to destroy the railroad in both directions. This being the only finished railroad which connected the channels of trade and travel between Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, its destruc tion would most effectually cut off the supplies of the Rebel army from that source. Rousseau received his orders on the 9th, and started on the 10th, fulfilling his instructions to the very letter, whipping the Rebel BATTLE OF PEACH TREE CREEK. 765 General Clanton, en route, passing through Talladega, and reaching the railroad on the 16th, about twenty-five miles west of Opelika. He broke it up well at that place, also at a point three miles west of the branch to Columbus, and at another two miles from West Point. Having thus accomplished his object, he returned to Marietta, where he arrived on the 22d, having, in the space of fifteen days, marched four hundred and fifty miles, captured and paroled two thousand prisoners, brought off eight hundred able-bodied negroes, and as many horses and mules, having also rendered thirty one miles of railroad useless, burned thirteen depots, a large number of cars, and two locomotives, and im mense quantities of cotton, tobacco, quartermaster s and commissary stores, all of which he had effected with a loss of less than thirty of his own command, in killed, wounded, and missing. All this time the main army was quietly encamped on the Chattahoochie, while supplies were being collected at Allatoona, Marietta, and Vining s station, piers, bridges, and roads improved, and railroad guards and garrisons strengthened. General Stoneman s and McCook s cavalry were sent on a scout down the river to a considerable distance, in order to divert the attention of the Rebels in that direction ; and all things being in readiness, Sherman issued his order for a general advance on the 17th of July ; Thomas, with the army of the Cumberland, crossing at Power s and Paice s ferry bridges, and marching by Buckhead; Schofield s army of the Ohio moving by Cross Keys ; and the army of the Tennessee, under McPherson, proceeding from Roswell directly against the Augusta road, at some point east of Decatur, near Stone mountain. With this latter division Garrard s cavalry acted in concert, while General Stoneman and McCook watched the river and the roads below the railway. Thus the evening of the 17th found the whole Union army in line along the Old Peach Tree road. Continuing on a general right wheel, McPher son, on the 18th, reached the Augusta railroad, at a point seven miles east of Decatur, and broke up a section of about four miles, while General Schofield pushed forward and captured the town. On the 19th, General McPherson entered the town by the railroad, while Schofield moved out by the distillery road toward Atlanta, and General Thomas s command crossed Peach Tree creek, by means of numerous pontoon bridges, and in the face of the enemy s line of intrenchments. Along the whole line heavy skirmishing at once commenced, strongly indicating a battle. At this juncture, the Rebel General Johnston, whose conduct of the campaign had not met with the approval of the Confederate authorities, was relieved of his command, which was given to General John B. Hood. This general possessed the reputation of being a bold leader, and desper ate fighter, but as events subsequently proved, he lacked the essential qualities of skilfulness and caution which the peculiar circumstances of the campaign demanded. He immediately inaugurated his assumption of 766 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the command, by planning a surprise, by which he hoped to arrest per manently the steady advance of the Union army. By this time (the 20th) all the Union armies had closed in, converging toward Atlanta, McPherson on the extreme left, Schofield on his right, both facing nearly to the west ; between Schofield s and Hooker s corps of the army of the Cumberland, was an interval of three miles distance, occupied only by pickets, and to the right of these the balance of the army of the Cumberland facing to the south. This gap between the army of the Cumberland and Schofield s, marked the position of the Rebel lines on the previous day along the Peach Tree creek ; and although apparently abandoned, was in reality occupied by them in strong force. Hoods plan, then, was, by making a feint on the left of the Union lines, to compel Schofield and McPherson to close up, and to occupy this gap in ambush with his main force. Then the army of the Cumberland was to be allowed to push forward, its advance upon Atlanta, without much opposition, and as soon as the two wings of the Union army were thus separated, the Rebel force, arising from ambush, should be hurled upon the flank of the left wing, cut off the bridges in its rear, and drive it routed back to the Chattahoochie. The plan was a most excellent one, and its progress at first was encouraging to the Rebel chief; his feint on the left compelled the closing up of Schofield s upon McPherson s column ; Thomas moved forward on Atlanta, picking up a few prisoners, who gave information that there were but few Rebel troops in the imme diate vicinity, and satisfied that his plans were working favorably, Hood, about four o clock p. M., threw his army boldly and fiercely upon Newton s division, which held the above mentioned three-mile gap, expecting to roll it up and destroy it with ease. Much to his surprise, the Union line met the assault like a rock of iron, for it so happened that a temporary defence of rails and earth had been thrown up by the men ; and only twenty N minutes previous to the assault, ten pieces of artillery had been brought over from the north side of the creek, which, together with two pieces already on the ground, opened a terrific storm of grape and canister upon the too confident Rebels. Their column, torn and shattered by the deadly vollies, which opened great gaps through their ranks, halted and fired wildly upon the batteries, with but little effect. Forming anew, they again advanced, but four guns of a Michigan battery united their welcome to those previously in position, and again dismayed, they fled from the field. Again and again, with desperate courage, they "hurled their force upon the Union lines, which now, reinforced, became each moment stronger and firmer, until, at length abandoning all hope, the Rebels re reated in confusion. While this was going on, General Hook er s corps were sustaining the impetuous attacks of other portions of the Rebel army, and though fighting uncovered, and on very open ground, SECOND BATTLE OP PEACH TREE CREEK. 767 not only repulsed the enemy, but drove him fairly back to his intrench- ments. In this melee, Butterfield s division, under temporary command of General Ward, met the Rebel force in a counter-charge on the crest of a hill, from which they drove them flying, and with terrible slaughter, while Williams division, unprotected by breastworks, maintained a des perate fight for nearly four hours, without giving a foot. The enemy left on the field over one thousand one hundred and thirteen dead, about one thousand severely wounded, seven stands of colors, and a large number of prisoners. His loss, probably, was not far from six thousand, while the Union loss was one thousand seven hundred and fifty killed, wounded, and missing, the larger part of which was sustained, in consequence of its more exposed condition, by General Hooker s corps. During the next day, July 21st, both armies seemed disposed to keep tolerably quiet, the Union force having made a slight advance along their lines, and the seventeenth corps, by some hard fighting, having occu pied a high hill southeast of the railroad, commanding the city. The other corps also felt the enemy in his intrenchments, which crowned the heights overlooking the valley of the Peach Tree creek. On the 22d, General Sherman, to his surprise, found that the whole of the enemy s line was abandoned, and that the Rebels were occupying their first line of finished redoubts, about a mile and a half nearer to Atlanta, and which covered all the roads leading to that city. These redoubts the Rebels were then busy in connecting with curtains, strength ened by rifle-pits, abatis, and chevaux de frise. The Union army now occupied a line in the general form of a circle of about two miles radius around the city, and immediately proceeded to take possession of the enemy s abandoned intrenchments ; which, as they faced outwardly, had to be somewhat changed to render them available defences against the foe. The contraction of the Union lines consequent on this advance, threw out of line the sixteenth army corps, temporarily commanded by General Dodge, who was ordered to move to the left, and take position on the flank of the somewhat more exposed seventeenth corps, General Blair s. This position would have taken him across and nearly two miles below the Augusta railroad, and he was on his way thither, when, about eleven o clock A. M. of the 22d, the left flank was attacked with great energy by the Rebel General Hardee. Had the blow fallen earlier, at daylight, as Hood s orders specified, the consequences would probably have been very disastrous. As it was, however, the delay was fatal to his hopes. His plan of attack may be best understood by a reference to the position of the Union forces at the time. McPherson, with the army of the Ten nessee, who, advancing along the railroad from Decatur to within two miles of Atlanta, had, with some desperate fighting, gained a high hill to the south and east of the railroad, which gave him a most commanding position within easy view of the very heart of the city, and was preparing 768 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. to fortify and occupy it with batteries, this being the position to which General Dodge was ordered. The sixteenth corps at this juncture was north of the railroad and turnpike, the fifteenth on either side of, and the seventeenth south of, the railroad, with its extreme left stretching some two miles below. At the right of the sixteenth, although not close up, was the twenty-third corps, and beyond, across the Western and Atlantic rail road, and with a southward curve to the Atlanta and Sandtown road, was General Thomas s army of the Cumberland. Hood s hope, therefore, was to repeat the manoeuvre of the 20th, by massing his force on McPherson s left, which would naturally draw the main part of Sherman s army to its support, and having turned this wing, to face suddenly upon the weakened right wing, and demolish it. In pur suance of this plan, Hardee s (Rebel) corps, about eleven o clock A. M., suddenly dashed out from the woods upon the seventeenth corps, who were holding a slightly built line of defence in an open field, and rushed upon them with the peculiar southern yell. Under the sudden and overpowering pressure of the Rebel column, massed in several lines, the Union troops, although bravely contesting every inch of ground, were slowly pushed back, and the movement un covered the trains of the corps, upon which the Rebels rushed in great fury. Fortunately, just at the moment when the rout of the entire seventeenth corps seemed most imminent, the fourth division, and a bri gade of the second, sixteenth corps, came upon the field, and gave the first decisive check to the enemy, and gave time also to the seventeenth to throw up a slight line of defence in the rear, which they held during the rest of the day. It was at this time, and quite early in the action, that General McPher- Bon was mortally wounded by a Rebel sharpshooter, as he was riding from General Dodge s column to the left and rear of General Giles A. Smith s position, being at the time accompanied only by an orderly, having dispatched all his staff officers on various errands to different parts of the field. The last order which he had ever given was to hurry Wangelin s brigade, fifteenth corps, across the railroad, to fill up a gap which intervened between the head of Dodge s column and General Blair s line. It came on the double-quick, and checked the advance of the foe in that direction. Hardee s attack in front was to have been ac companied with one by Stuart upon the Union front, but fortunately the two attacks were not made simultaneously. Sweeping over the hill which the Union troops were fortifying, and bearing down upon their left, the enemy came upon General G. A. Smith s division of the seventeenth corps, which was obliged to fight first from one side of the old rifle-para pet and then from the other, until, gradually withdrawing regiment by regiment, it was enabled to form a flank to General Leggett s division, which was holding the apex of the hill. Here, in this position, and aided SKETCH OF GENERAL McPHERSON. 769 by the sixteenth corps, the Union forces stubbornly held their own for nearly four hours, checking and repulsing six Rebel attacks, punishing them so severely that by four P. M. they virtually gave up the attempt to force that flank. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the absence of General Garrard s cavalry division, which had been despatched on a raid to Covington, thirty-four miles east of Atlanta, the Rebel cavalry General Wheeler made an attempt to cut off and capture the Union wagon trains at Decatur. In this, however, he was foiled by the tact and coolness of Colonel (since General) Sprague, who withdrew, and sent them to the rear of Generals Thomas and Schofield, with the loss of only three wagons, which had been deserted by their drivers, and their horses cut loose. To return to the battle. Up to four o clock, the enemy had captured eight guns ; and shortly after, breaking through the lines of the fifteenth army corps, they captured twelve guns more, and drove back Lightburn s brigade to a considerable distance. General Sherman immediately ordered forward some batteries from General Scho field s corps to a commanding position, from which such a constant fire was maintained upon the enemy s left flank as most effectually prevented his reinforcement. General Logan, who had succeeded the lamented McPherson in command of the army of the Tennessee, was ordered to cause the fifteenth corps to regain its old ground at any cost, which was promptly done, by the most des perate hand-to-hand fighting, in which, while Wood and Schofield swept the enemy s parapet with grape and canister, the fifteenth corps, at the point of the bayonet, regained its position, and all but two of the guns which it had lost. With this fierce struggle the battle closed, and night spread its sombre mantle over the retreating Rebel foe, leaving his dead and wounded upon the field. Three thousand two hundred and forty dead, and three thousand two hundred prisoners and wounded were left in the hands of the Union army, indicating a loss which General Sherman estimated as exceeding eight thousand, and General Thomas at over ten thousand. Three thousand seven hundred and twenty-two killed, wounded, and missing, was the Union loss ; and the loss of ten guns was offset in some degree by the capture of eighteen battle-flags. The greatest loss, however, which was entailed upon our arms by the second battle of Peach Tree creek, was the death of the gallant and beloved General McPherson. James Birdseye McPherson, born in Sandusky county, Ohio, November 14th, 1828, was admitted, at the age of twenty-one years, to the military academy at West Point, where his success, was of the most flattering character, ranking second in the fourth class of 1850, first in the third class of 1851, first in the second class of 1852, and graduating, June, 1853, at the head of his class. He immediately received the appointment of brevet second lieutenant of engineers, and assistant instructor of practical engineering at the academy, a compliment never before nor since awarded 49 770 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. to so young an officer. In September, 1854, be was made assistant engi neer in the defences of New York harbor, and on the improvement of the navigation of the Hudson river, which duties he fulfilled until December, 1856, when he was commissioned full second lieutenant of engineers. In 1857, he had charge of the construction of Fort Delaware, and also of fortifications on Alcatras Island, California, being also connected with the Pacific coast survey ; and in December, 1858, became first lieutenant of engineers. In August, he was ordered to the command of fortifications of Boston harbor, and was advanced to the junior captaincy of his corps. When, in November, 1861, General Halleck took command of the Department of the West, Captain McPherson became his aide-de-camp, with rank of lieutenant-colonel, and, until the beginning of 1862, was chiefly engaged on engineer duty in Missouri. He was next assigned to General Grant as chief engineer in the Forts Henry and Donelson expedi tions, in which his services recommended him to an appointment (dated February 16th, 1862) as brevet major of engineers. After the battle of Shiloh, he joined Halleck, who had assumed the command in the field, and for his services in that conflict was nominated for brevet lieutenant- colonel of engineers, and on may 1st, was made colonel on the staff. At the investment of Corinth, he had charge of the engineering department, in which his abilities and skill resulted in driving the enemy from the most valuable strategic point south of the Ohio, and west of the Tennessee rivers. In May, 1862, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volun teers, and in June following was appointed by General Grant the general superintendent of all the United States military railroads in the Depart ment of West Tennessee. At the battle of Corinth, his skill as a soldier was displayed in successfully conveying reinforcements to the besieged garrison, when the enemy was between him and the point to be reached, and gallantly routing them from the vicinity in the attack of the next day. For these and other services, he was nominated as major-general of volunteers. Shortly after, in November, 1862, he drove the Rebels out of Lagrange, and established his headquarters there; and on the llth of that month, making a strong reconnoissance, he met Price s Rebel army at Lamar, fought and defeated them, and having accomplished his object, returned safely to Lagrange. In this, the first battle in which he was the only responsible commander, McPherson displayed that sagacity and prudence, combined with impetuosity of attack, and indomitable tenacity of purpose, which his after life developed upon a broader field ; and in the advance which followed.through central Mississippi, McPherson com manded the entire right wing of Grant s army, with the utmost ability, always in the lead when advancing, and in the rear on the retreat. When, in December, 1862, General Grant made a division of his army into four corps, one of them, the " seventeenth," was awarded to McPher son, who, about the same time, was confirmed a major-general of volun- SKETCH OF GENERAL McPHERSON. 77 1 teers. In the campaign and siege terminating with the fall of Vieksburg, General McPherson filled a conspicuous part. At the battle of Port Gibson, it was under his direction that the enemy was driven, late in the afternoon, from a position which they had held all day against an obstinate attack. His corps, the advance, always under his immediate eye, were the pioneers in the movement from Port Gibson to Hawkinson s ferry. From the north fork of the Bayou Pierre to the Black river, it was a constant skirmish, the whole skilfully managed, the enemy being so closely pressed as to be unable to destroy their boat-bridge after them. From Hawkinson s ferry to Jackson, the seventeenth corps marched over roads not travelled by other troops, fighting the entire battle of Raymond alone, and the bulk of Johnston s army was fought by this corps, entirely under McPherson s management. At Champion s hill, the battle was fought by McPherson s corps, and a division of the thirteenth corps. In the assault of the 22d of May on the fortifications of Vieksburg, and during the entire siege, General McPherson and his command won unfading laurels ; and at the conference which preceded the capitulation of that Rebel stronghold, General McPherson was named by General Grant as one of the two, besides himself, who were to represent the national army, and was subse quently recommended by that general for the rank of brigadier-general in the regular army, which was awarded promptly by the Senate, in December, 1863. The officers of his corps also awarded him a medal of honor for the gallant manner in which he had commanded them during the siege of Vicksburg. After the capitulation of Vieksburg, he attacked and defeated the Rebels near Canton, Miss., with great loss of men and stores. During the winter of 1863-4, he had command of all the region bordering on the Mississippi, from Helena, Ark., to the mouth of the Red river, with headquarters at Vieksburg. In February, 1864, the general again entered the field at the head of his old corps, participating in Sherman s great raid to Meridian, Miss., bearing in this campaign, as in all others, the brunt of labors and fighting. In March following, Grant becoming Lieutenant-General, Sherman was raised to the command of the military division of the Mississippi, and General McPherson succeeded him in the command of the army of the Tennessee, which embraced the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth corps, (w.th one exception) all the veteran corps of Grant s old army of the Mis sissippi. Postponing his intended marriage, the general hastened to his new command, which, though widejy scattered, was concentrated and organized in an incredibly short time, and occupied its place on the right of Sherman 5 * army. Of his services in the campaign which followed, the reader has been informed in the preceding pages. Until his death on the battle-field of Peach Tree creek, he was the pride of the army, the right-hand of Sher man, the idol of his men. Lieutenant-General Grant, when he heard of 772 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. his death, exclaimed, " The country has lost one of its best soldiers, and I have lost my best friend," and retiring to his tent, gave way to those tears which only a soldier can shed. General Sherman says of him in his official report of the Atlanta cam paign, " He was a noble youth, of striking personal appearance, of the highest professional capacity, and with a heart abounding in kindness, which drew toward him the affections of all men." As a soldier, he was brave, almost to a fault, with tireless industry, and indefatigable energy, devotion of purpose, and quickness of perception. As a man he was affable, corteous, warm in his friendships, and forgiving toward his enemies. In short, he possessed all the virtues, and very few of the faults, of a gentleman and an officer. In the same battle the Eebels lost Major-General W. H. T. Walker, and Brigadier-General George M. Stevens. On the day succeeding the battle (the 23d) General Garrard returned from Covington, where he had destroyed the railroad bridges over the Ulcofau- hatchee and Yellow rivers (one of which was five hundred and the other one hundred feet long), besides burning a train of cars, two thousand bales of cotton, the depots and stores of Covington and Conyer s station, and bringing in two hundred prisoners, and a considerable number of horses, losing in all but two men, one of whom was killed by accident. The Augusta, and the West Point and Montgomery roads, being thus effectually crippled, General Sherman next turned his attention to the destruction of the Macon road, which now formed the only source of sup ply to the Rebel army at Atlanta. Feeling that Schofield and Thomas were perfectly competent to hold the enemy behind his inner line of intrenchments at the north of Atlanta, he shifted the army of the Tennes see again to the right wing, and ordered Schofield to extend up to the Augusta road. Shifting General Stoneman s division of cavalry to the left flank, he made good his place at the river near Sandtown, by General Rousseau s two thousand cavalry, which had just returned, somewhat jaded, from Opelika. Stoneman s command was then increased to an effective force of five thousand men, by the addition of Garrard s cavalry, and General McCook received the command, in addition to his own, of some new cavalry brought on by Rousseau, and Commanded by Colonel Harri son of the eighth Indiana cavalry, making in all about four thousand. To these two well mounted and appointed bodies was assigned the task of cutting the Macon railroad, on a designated night, the 28th of July, at or near Lovejoy s station. At the moment of starting, General Stoneman requested and received permission, after destroying the road and defeating Wheeler s (Rebel) cavalry, to push on with his own command to Macon and Andersonville, and there release the Union prisoners of war confined at those places. Both bodies of co.valry started at the same time, Stone man moving by the left around Atlanta to McDonough, and McCook by EXPEDITIONS OF STONEMAN AND McCOOK. 773 the right on Fayetteville. The expedition was only a partial success owing to the strange divergence of General Stonernan from his proposed route ; for, sending General Garrard to Flat Rock to cover his own move ment on McDonough, he immediately went to Covington, thence to Clin ton, sending off detachments to the east, which heavily damaged the ene my s railroad lines, by burning the bridges of the Walnut creek and Oconee, and destroying a large number of cars and locomotives, and appeared in force before Macon, from which the Union prisoners had been previously removed. He did not succeed in crossing the Ocmulgee at that point ; nor did he, for some reasons, attempt to go to Anderson ville. but finding himself surrounded and harrassed by Rebel cavalry, under General Iverson, he proposed to a council of officers to surrender to the foe. This proposition not meeting with their approbation, he consented that two thirds of his force should escape, if they could, while he with a remainder of seven hundred men and a section of light artillery, would hold the enemy in check. This strange plan was carried into effect, one brigade escaping almost intact, another surprised, scattered, and pretty well broken up in the retreat, while the general, after a sharp conflict, surrendered his small command, and was held as a prisoner by the Rebels until November, 1864. McCook, meanwhile, carried out his part of the programme, by tearing up a portion of the West Point road at Palmetto station ; then moving rapidly to Fayetteville, he found and burned five hundred wagons, and killed eight hundred mules belonging to the Rebels, besides taking others along, and capturing two hundred and fifty prison ers, and pushing on to Lovejoy s station, reached it at the appointed time. Here he vigorously plied the work of destruction until compelled to desist .by the accumulating numbers of the enemy ; and hearing nothing of General Stoneman, he moved south and west, to Newnan, on the West Point road, where he fell in with a large infantry force, whose progress from Mississippi to Atlanta had been stopped by his destruction of the railroad at Palmetto station. Finding himself hemmed in, he accepted the wager of battle, and dropping his prisoners and captures, managed to fight his way out of the position, with a loss, however, of five hundred officers and men, and reaching the Chattahoochie, crossed and reached Marietta without further loss. The raid, though General McCook s part was well carried out, was yet, owing to Stoneman s failure, only a partial success ; for the breaks made in the enemy s communications were so slight that they were soon repaired, while the slender advantages gained were more than counterbalanced by the heavy losses in men and horses sustained by the Union troops. In accordance with Sherman s general plan of operations, the army of the Tennessee, leaving its position near the Decatur road during the night of the 26th of July, moved the next day along the rear of the main THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. army to Proctor s creek, and prolonged its line due south, facing to the east. This movement, which was under the command of its new com mander General Howard, was made en echelon, the sixteenth corps, Gen eral Dodge, being on the left, nearest the enemy, the seventeenth, General Blair s, next on its right, reaching an old meeting-house known as Ezra church, near some large open fields near the Poor-house, on the Bell s ferry or Lickskillet road. Here the fifteenth corps, General Logan s, joined in, along a well wooded ridge, partially commanding the same fields. By ten o clock on the morning of the 28th, the army of the Tennessee was fully in position, and was busily engaged in rapidly throwing up a log barricade, and a temporary fortification. About eleven o clock the Union lines in the vicinity of Ezra church were somewhat vigorously shelled by the Rebel batteries, and about twelve o clock their right was assailed by a heavy column of Rebels, who, coming out of At lanta by the Bell s ferry road, advanced in magnificent style directly against the fifteenth corps, confidently expecting to take that flank " in air." They were, however, most bitterly and speedily undeceived. Coolly and steadily the Union troops delivered their fire, and swept their ranks with deadly missiles until, despite the entreaties and threats of their officers, the Rebels broke and fled. Six times they rallied to the attack, and six times were hurled back by the same resistless line of fire, the few who did reach the Union barricade alive, being hauled over the rails as prisoners. At length, about four P. M., the enemy disappeared, leaving his dead and wounded upon the field, their loss being over five thousand, besides prisoners, while that of the Union army, all told, was less than six hundred. Expecting that the enemy would try to repeat his game of the 22d, General Sherman had ordered General Davis s division of Palmer s corps, to move by Turner s ferry and Whitehall or East Point, and come in on the flank of General Howard s new line, so that, in case of an attack, it would catch the attacking Rebel force in flank or rear, in an unexpected moment. This excellent plan was rendered abortive by the sickness of General Davis, and the mistake of roads made by Brigadier-General Morgan, who assumed the command temporarily, by which his arrival at the point designated was delayed from noon until night. Had the division arrived in time, the terrible repulse which the enemy received would have become, in all probability, a crushing rout of the Rebel army. After the battle of Ezra church, Sherman found the enemy quite indis posed to interfere with his attempts to extend by the flank, which move ments were thereafter conducted with comparative ease ; although he met our extensions to the south by well though hastily constructed rifle-pits and forts, reaching to East Point, remaining, however, entirely on the defensive. Subsequent movements of General Sherman to extend his lines southward, by bringing Schofield s army of the Ohio, and Palmer s OPERATIONS BEFORE ATLANTA. 775 fourteenth corps, of the army of the Cumberland, further to the right, which were effected by the 1st of August, elicited no opposition from the enemy, who contented himself with a corresponding extension of his own lines and fortifications. About this time also, several changes of important commands took place, such as the promotion of General Howard to the command of the army of the Tennessee, as McPherson s successor, the appointment of General Slocum to the command resigned by General Hooker, of the twentieth army corps ; the appointment of General Jefferson C. Davis to the command of the fourteenth corps, vice General Palmer, resigned ; and the succession of General Stanley to the place of General Howard, at the head of the fourth corps. From the 2d to the 5th of August, Sherman continued the extension of his lines to the right, demonstrating strongly on the left, and along the entire line, and on the last named day, General Reilley s brigade of Cox s division, Schofield s corps, made an unsuccessful attempt to pierce the enemy s line about a mile below Utoy creek, which cost them about four hundred men. The next day, however, General Hascall turned the position, and Scho- field advanced his line closely to that of the enemy along the creek, although without gaining the desired foothold upon either the West Point or Macon railroads. These roads Hood had hitherto been able to con trol by means of a large force of State militia, and though his line frum Decatur to East Point was nearly fifteen miles long, yet his position was so masked by the natural advantages of the ground, as to conceal its weak points. So long as he could hold these roads, he felt confident that Sher man could not flank Atlanta, but Sherman had made up his mind with equal confidence that he must and would break them up in the most effectual and thorough manner. Satisfied that in order to do this he would have to move his whole army, he resolved, before beginning, to try the effect of four four-and-a-half inch rifled guns, which he ordered down from Chattanooga, in bombarding the city. These arrived on the 10th, and were served night and day, producing considerable annoyance to the enemy in the city, causing frequent fires and constant alarms. On the 16th of August, Sherman issued his orders for a grand move ment by the right flank, which was to begin on the 18th. This movement contemplated the withdrawal southward of the whole army, except the twentieth corps, General Williams, who was to occupy the intrenched position at the Chattahoochie bridge ; but it was postponed, in conse quence of the receipt of information that the Eebel cavalry Deader Wheeler, with a force variously estimated at from six thousand to ten thousand men, had struck the Union lines of communication near Adairs- ville, breaking the road at Calhoun, and capturing nine hundred of their beef cattle. Pleased at such a movement, which left the enemy deficient THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. in cavalry, while he was in a position to dispense with railroad communi cation with Chattanooga for several weeks without injury, he suspended his orders for a general advance for the time being, and despatched Gen eral Kilpatrick with a force of five thousand cavalry, on the 18th, to the West Point road, with orders to break it thoroughly near Fairborn, then cross to and tear up the Macon road, avoiding as far as possible any con flict with the enemy s infantry, but attacking the Rebel cavalry whenever the opportunity afforded. Kilpatrick started, and broke the West Point road; then reaching the Macon road near Jonesboro, whipped Boss s cavalry, and held the road for five hours, during which he did considerable damage. The sudden interference of a Rebel brigade of infantry obliged him to desist, and making a detour eastward, he again struck the railroad near Love- joy s station, where, being again annoyed by the enemy, he boldly charged upon their cavalry, capturing seventy prisoners, and a four gun battery, which he destroyed with the exception of one gun, which he brought safely in, and returning by a circuit north and east, reached Decatur on the 22d. Sherman, however, convinced that the damage done by this gallant officer, was not sufficient to produce the desired results, renewed his orders for the movement of the entire army. A train of three thousand wagons with supplies for fifteen days, and one thousand ambulances were in readi ness ; all surplus wagons and effects, with the sick and wounded, were sent back to a secure position at the Chattahoochie, under a force ample for their protection ; and on the night of the 25th, the movement com menced by the withdrawal of General Williams s corps to the Chattahoo chie, and the advance of General Stanley s fourth corps from their position on the extreme left to a point below Proctor s creek. On the night of the 26th, the second movement was made by the army of the Tennessee drawing out from their lines, and moving rapidly in a circuitous route toward Sandtown and across Camp creek, the army of the Cumberland, General Schofield, below Utoy creek, remaining in position. The third movement brought the army of the Tennessee to the West Point railroad above Fairborn, the army of the Cumberland well up to Red Oak, and General Schofield to Digs and Mins. All this was accomplished with the loss of only one man. One day s labor was then devoted to the destruction of the West Point road, result ing in the tearing up of twelve and a half miles, the ties being burned, and the rails heated and twisted into all conceivable shapes, with all the ingenuity which could be devised by old hands at the work ; while cuts in the road were filled up with trunks of trees, logs, rock, and earth in which loaded shells prepared as torpedoes, threatened explosion to any one who should attempt their removal, all of which was done under Gen eral Sherman s personal supervision, and to his entire satisfaction. BR *0 BATTLE OF JONESBORO. 77t On the following day, the army moved eastward on several roada, General Howard on the right toward Jonesboro ; Thomas, in the centre, by Shoal creek church to Couch s, along the Decatur and Fayetteville road, and General Schofield about Morrow s mills, on the left. The possession of these points gave to General Sherman the advantage of shorter and interior lines^owing to the peculiar course followed by the railroad from Atlanta to Macon, along the ridge dividing the Flint and Ocmulgee rivers, and making a wide bend eastwardly between East Point and Jonesboro. General Sherman was by no means slow to improve the advantage which he had thus obtained, and on the 29th, the columns of his army moved forward punctually. General Thomas, in the centre, reached Couch s early in the afternoon, having met with but little opposition, except such as arose from the narrowness of the roads ; Schofield nearer to the enemy, who were close to East Point, moved cautiously on a small circle around that place, coming into position at Rough-and-Ready. Gen eral Howard, having the outer circle, and consequently a greater distance to travel, met cavalry which he drove to Shoal creek crossing, where the enemy had artillery. Here, after some skirmishing, he pushed them on before him, and passing Renfro on the Decatur road, the position indicated for him in the orders of the day, wisely pressed on toward Jonesboro, saved the Flint river bridge, and halted only at nightfall, within half a mile of Jonesboro. The next morning, he found the enemy in front of him, in large force, and deploying the fifteenth corps, with the sixteenth and seventeenth on its flanks, he threw up temporary fortifications, and prepared to act offensively or defensively as the emergency might require. Sherman immediately sent to Renfro, a division of Davis s corps, and Stanley s and Schofield s corps marched toward Rough-and Ready, with orders to recon noitre and strike the railroad near that place. Meanwhile, Hood, who until the 29th of August had serenely imagined that Sherman was in full retreat across the Chattahoochie, suddenly had his eyes opened to his own real danger by the news of the Union operations on the West Point railroad. He found himself again flanked, and all efforts to delay Sherman s advance rendered futile, inasmuch as that general, having the interior lines, could easily keep ahead of any force which might be sent upon his track. Consternation reigned in Atlanta when the position of affairs became known, and catching, with the desperation of a drowning man, at the last hope, Hood resolved to push forward Lee s and Hardee s corps to Jonesboro, to hurl them upon the Union forces before they should have time to intrench, or to damage the railroad line irretrievably. Accordingly, on the morning of the 31st of August, Howard, who, as we have before seen, had reached Jonesboro the night before, found him- 7f8 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. self suddenly attacked by these two Rebel corps. He was, however, ad mirably prepared for the onset, and after a stubborn contest of over two hours, the foe retired, leaving over four hundred dead on the field, with some two thousand five hundred wounded, three hundred of whom were left in Jonesboro. While this was being done by Howard, the -left and centre were vigor ously pushed forward, and before four o clock P. M. Sherman had the satis faction of hearing that Howard had thoroughly defeated the Rebels at Jonesboro; Schofield had reached within a mile of Rough-and-Ready, breaking up the railroad as he advanced ; that Stanley, of Thomas s army, was destroying the same road to the south of Schofield s position, and that General Baird, of Davis s corps, was playing havoc on the same line of communication, still lower down, within four miles of Jonesboro. The whole army was immediately concentrated on Jonesboro ; General Howard keeping the enemy busy while Thomas came down from the north, with Schofield to his left, destroying the road as they went, Garrard s cavalry watched the road in the rear, on the north ; Kilpatrick went south, along the west bank of the Flint river, menacing the railroad below Jonesboro, and the whole army was expected to close upon that town by noon of the 1st of September. The programme was promptly carried out ; General Davis, having a shorter line to travel, came in on time, and deployed, facing south, his right connecting with Howard, and his left on the railroad ; Stanley and Schofield were steadily doing their work of destruction as they advanced along the Rough-and-Ready road and the railroad. General Blair s corps, thrown into reserve by the connection of Davis s line with Howard s, was sent to the right, below Jonesboro, acting against the flank with Kilpatrick s cavalry. At four P. M., General Davis assaulted the enemy s lines handsomely across an open field, and carried them, capturing Govan s brigade, with its commander, and two four gun batteries. Stanley and Schofield, however, owing to the difficult nature of the roads, and the absence of roads, failed to get in position before nightfall ; and the next morning the enemy had disappeared, having retreated southward. About two o clock that night, the Union army heard the sounds of heavy explosions in the direction of Atlanta, twenty miles distant, followed by a series of minor explosions, and by what seemed rapid vollies of cannon and musketry, continuing for nearly an hour. About four o clock A. M., there occurred another series of similar detonations, apparently nearer. At daybreak, finding the enemy s lines at Jonesboro abandoned, a general pursuit southward was ordered, General Thomas taking the left, and General Howard the right of the railroad, while Schofield kept off about two miles to the east. At Lovejoy s station, the enemy was over- RESULT OF THE CAMPAIGN. T79 taken, occupying a strongly intrenched position on Walnut creek, with the evident purpose of covering his communication with tfoe McDonough and Fayetteville road. News arriving at this juncture that Atlanta had been abandoned on the night of September 1st; that Hood had blown up his ammunition trains; that Stewart s corps had retreated toward McDonough, and the militia toward Covington, Sherman ordered the destruction of the railroad to cease, and held his army in hand for any movement which the news from Atlanta might warrant. He was not long in suspense. On the night of September 4th, a courier from General Slocum announced that he had entered Atlanta at eleven A. M. of the 2d, the enemy having evacuated it the night previous, retreat ing toward McDonough, having destroyed his stores, and burned and ex ploded seven trains of cars loaded with ammunition. His object being now fully attained, and deeming it idle to pursue the enemy in that wooded region of country, Sherman, on the 4th, ordered the army to move slowly back to Atlanta, and on the 8th the several corps reached the positions assigned them, the army of the Cumberland going into camp near Atlanta, the army of the Tennessee at East Point, and the army of the Ohio at Decatur. In this expedition, which formed the last grand move of the campaign, he had lost less than one thousand five hundred killed, wounded, and taken prisoners ; while the Rebel loss was fully double; and the Union army had captured <nore than three thousand prisoners, and twenty-seven guns. Having decided to make Atlanta a strictly military post, General Sher man issued an order, on the 14th of September, requiring the immediate removal from it of all families which had male representatives in the Rebel armies, to be sent within the Rebel lines, and for all non-combat ants to go North, and to expedite such removal, he entered into a ten days truce with General Hood, with whom he made arrangements for for warding the said citizens beyond the Federal lines. Wheeler s raid, which, as we have seen, was planned against Sherman s lines of communications about the middle of August, was practically abortive, and after a futile attempt to carry Dalton by assault, he was routed by General Stoneman, and fled to East Tennessee, but being hard pushed by several Federal generals, from point to point, finally passed southward, through Alabama. Other expeditions under Forrest, Morgan, and others were also planned, but all failed in the attainment of their ob ject, which was to force Sherman to loosen his grasp upon Atlanta ; while, on the contrary, several expeditions undertaken by Union forces against the Rebels, as an offset to their raids, were almost uniformly successful. Thus closed the Atlanta campaign, which, although it did not end the war, was at least "the beginning of the end," severing for a second time, the already divided Rebel Confederacy, so that henceforth neither frag* 780 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. ment could long maintain the pressure of the Union arms Starting from Chattanooga, a secondary base was held by force of arms in the heart of an enemy s country, and itself three hundred and thirty-six miles distant from Louisville, the real primary base ; dependent for supplies almost entirely upon a single line of railroad, General Sherman pushed his way one hundred and twenty-eight miles farther into the enemy s territory, whose topographical difficulties was sufficient to intimidate a less courageous commander, and with which his antagonist was perfectly acquainted, and forced that antagonist to evacuate successively six almost impregna ble positions by flank movements, which in boldness of conception, and successful execution, have never been surpassed in the history of any wars. Yet amid such herculean labors and difficulties, such was his fore sight, tact, and care for his soldiers, that his entire losses during the cam paign in killed, wounded, and prisoners, were only, killed, five thousand two hundred and eighty-four ; wounded, twenty-six thousand one hundred and twenty-nine ; missing, five thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, making a total of thirty-seven thousand one hundred and ninety-nine, and very many of the wounded returned to our lines before the close of the campaign ; while the Rebels lost during the last days of July alone, over thirty thousand, and during the entire campaign, over fifty thou sand men, of whom about thirteen thousand were prisoners, the Rebel army, according to the admission of the Rebel authorities, having been entirely changed within that time, the losses of veterans being made up by conscripts and militia. Atlanta, thus gained, was a most serious loss to the Confederate Government, and when it fell, they felt the walls of their temple reel and totter around them. From this point the doom of the Rebellion was sealed, and from this city Sherman commenced upon other campaigns, which, as he pithily expressed it, " crushed through the Confederacy, as through an egg-shell." THE DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA. 781 CHAPTER LXII. THE DEPARTMENT OK NORTH CAROLINA AND SOUTHEAST VIRGINIA CAPTURE OF THE UNDER WRITERATTACK OK NEWBERN ATTACK ON PLYMOUTH, NORTH CAROLINA DESPERATE FIGHTING BY THE GARRISON OF THE FORT CAPTURE OF PLYMOUTH THE ALBEMARLE s FIRST APPEARANCE SHE DRIVES THE UNION GUNBOATS FROM THE RIVER THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE ALBEMARLE AND THE SASSACUS DARING CONDUCT OF COMMANDER ROE THE ALBEMARLE CRIPPLED EXPLOSION OF THE BOILER OF THE SASSACUS THE HERO ISM OF THE CREW THE SASSACUS DISABLED RETREAT OF THE ALBEMARLE HER SUBSE QUENT FATE DARING EXPLOIT OF LIEUTENANT GUSHING MORGAN S LAST RAID INTO KENTUCKY CAPTURE OF CYNTHIANA, AND SURRENDER OF GENERAL HOBSON s TROOPS DEFEAT OF MORGAN BY GENERAL BURBRIDGE THE GUNBOAT DISASTER THE REBEL TRAP RETREAT OF STURGIS THE TRAIN IN A SLOUGH COMPLETE ROUT AND DISORDER, AND LOSS OF TRAIN AND GUNS BRAVERY OF THE NEGRO TROOPS FORREST S RAID ON MEM PHIS THE FORTS AT THE ENTRANCE OF MOBILE BAY FARRAGUT S ANXIETY FOR THEIR CAPTURE THE ATTACK ON THE FORTS THE BATTLE WITH THE RAM TENNESSEE HER SURRENDER RESULTS OF THE BATTLE SURRENDER OF THE FORTS SKETCH OF COMMAN DER CRAVEN SKETCH OF FARRAGUT. IN passing in rapid review the great events of the battle summer of 1864, we have necessarily omitted reference to several Union opera tions, intended to be subordinate, on the one side or the other, to the main campaigns, but occuring at a distance from them. We will now gather up these broken threads, before proceeding to a continuation of the general narrative. The Department of North Carolina and southeast Virginia had been subject, before the commencement of the May campaign, to occasional disturbances from the vigilant Rebels, ever on the alert for the opportu nity to do the Union troops, garrisons, or gunboats, a mischief. Thus they had on the 4th of February, 1864, captured the Union gunboat Underwriter, in the Neuse river, near Newbern, North Carolina, by a sudden surprise, and had intended with her to capture the other Union gunboats, and transports in the Neuse, but she grounded opposite Fort Stevenson, and the commandant of that fort, ascertaining that she was in Rebel hands, opened upon her with shell, and soon set her on fire, and the Rebels escaped in great haste, leaving some prisoners. They had during the two or three preceding days, made an attack in strong force on New- bern, but though they captured some of the outposts, and took two or three guns, they were, on their approach to the city, effectually repulsed, and though they tried to erect an earthwork about a mile west of Fort Roman, they were speedily driven off, by the shells from the steel guns of the monitor iron-clad car, which ran out toward them, and made terri ble havoc in their ranks. On the 17th of April, Hoke s Rebel division, about ten thousand strong, 782 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES approached Plymouth, N. C., and at first attacked Fort Gray, on the Roanoke, about two miles above the town, but were repulsed wLh con siderable loss, though they sunk a small Union gunboat in the river by their artillery fire. On Monday, the 19th, they fired all day at Fort Wes- sels, a small earthwork one mile from the town, having a garrison of sixty men and four thirty-two pounders, and on Monday night carried it by assault, after a most desperate fight, in which the little garrison killed more than their own number of the assailants. They next attacked Fort Williams, in which General Wessels had his headquarters, but were met by a fierce and determined resistance, one of the gunboats joining in the fight. After more than two hours of desperate fighting, they retired to the woods, having suffered very heavy losses. At about four o clock the next morning, the Eebel iron-clad ram Albemarle came down and drove the gunboats down the river, and lying in front of Plymouth, kept up a fire on the town during the day. Early the following morning five brig ades of the Rebels, under command of General Ransom, assaulted Cornfer redoubt, on the left of the town, garrisoned by two hundred men and four thirty-two pounders, and after a long and desperate fight carried it, and soon after entered the town. Wessels still held out with his garrison of two hundred men in Fort Williams, but finding further resistance useless, surrendered on Wednesday evening, April 21st, at ten o clock p. M. The entire Union force in Plymouth was not over two thousand. Of these one hundred and fifty were killed, about the same number wounded, and one thousand seven hundred surrendered. The Rebel force was full ten thousand, and their loss in killed and wounded was over one thousand five hundred. The Rebels shot many of the colored soldiers after the surrender. The Rebel iron-clad Albemarle now reigned supreme on the Roanoke, having driven the small Union gunboats into the sound, but her triumph was destined to be short. On the afternoon of the 5th of May, the Mat- tabesett, Sassacus, and Wyalusing, three of the double-ender side-wheel gunboats which had been commissioned to encounter and if possible destroy the Albemarle, cast anchor in Albemarle Sound, twenty miles south of Plymouth, and sent four or five of the small gunboats with the Miami to decoy the Rebel ram from under the protecting batteries of Plymouth into the open waters of the sound. They were successful in this, and soon after three P. M., the Mattabesett signaled to get under way, and the three double-enders proceeded up the sound in the order already named. The Albemarle was accompanied by two other Rebel gunboats not iron-clad, the Bombshell and the Cotton-Plant. As the Union gun boats approached, stripped for action, and under full steam, the Cotton- Plant was sent back to Plymouth. As she left, the other gunboat, the Bombshell, closed up on the ram s quarters, in position for the impending action. As the Mattabesett approached the enemy, she hauled up to allow BATTLE BETWEEN THE ALBEMARLE AND SASSACUS. 78S her to come up, followed by the Sassacus and Wyalusing in line, when the Miami, which was some distance astern, fired over, making a very good shot, which struck the Albemarle, and to which she quickly re sponded. When abreast of the ram the Mattabesett delivered her broad side, and passing around the stern, ran by the Bombshell as that vessel lay on the port-quarter of the ram. The Sassacus now approached ; and as she came up, the ram, having failed to get near the Mattabesett, turned her bow for her ; but the Sassacus, measuring the distance, sheered slightly, and passed about one hundred and fifty yards ahead of the mon ster, delivering as she went a whole broadside of solid shot, which bounded off from the iron armor of the foe without penetrating. Sweep ing around the stern of the Albemarle, she then poured into the hull of the Bombshell a full broadside, which brought its Rebel ensign down, and sent the white flag up. Orders were -given for the vanquished steamer to drop out of fire and anchor, which was promptly done, and the Sassacus moved on. Meantime, the Mattabesett had again passed the ram, delivering a well- directed fire ; and the Wyalusing, which had previously passed, serving its guns with a skill equal to that of its consorts, had now come up astern of the Sassacus, diverting the attention of the Albemarle from the latter, to which her whole side presented a fair mark. The ram was steaming slowly, as if awaiting events, but using her guns rapidly all the time, throwing shot and shell with spirit and energy. Fortune seemed pro pitious, and the intrepid commander of the Sassacus, determined to close with his antagonist, seized the opportunity without hesitation. Ordering the pre-arranged signal, "four bells," to be again and again repeated, the ship was headed straight for the weakest part of the ram, the point where her casemate or house joined the hull. With throttle wide open, under a pressure of thirty pounds of steam, the Sassacus dashed at her grim adversary, and with a speed of nine or ten knots, struck]her a fair, perfect, right-angled blow, without glance or slide. At the moment of the col lision, the Albemarle drove a hundred pound Brooke shot through and through her antagonist, from starboard-bow to port side. But the stern of the Union vessel was forced into the side of the ram, and as the Sas sacus kept up her headway, the Albemarle was careened down, and pushed forward, like an inert mass while in profound silence the gunners of the Sassacus were training their heavy ordnance to bear on the astonished enemy. The ram now protruded a black muzzle from its open port, and the loaders of the Sassacus s Parrott rifle, standing on the slide, served the gun within fifteen feet of that yawning cannon-mouth. Still the Sassacus pushed her adversary, broadside to, before her, press ing her bow deeper and deeper into her side, and still she gave way. The other vessels dared not fire, lest their shot should injure the Sassacus, and the interval which elapsed was too brief, though to her anxious crew Y84 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. seeming an age, to permit them to traverse the space which intervened between them and the ram. There was not a sound not a movement not a gun. All was quiet as the grave throughout the fleet. It was a grapple for life a silent but fearful struggle for the mastery relieved only by the sharp scattering volleys of musketry, the whizzing of leaden bullets, and the deep muffled explosions of hand-grenades, which the brave fellow in the foretop of the Sassacus was flinging into the enemy s hatch, driving back their sharpshooters, and creating consternation and dismay among the closely packed crew of the iron-clad. As yet, no one on board the Sassacus had fallen. Presently a movement was felt in the two ships. A crashing of timber was heard, as at the moment of col lision. The ram was swinging under the starboard bow of her antagonist, and the Sassacus trembled with the shock as her hundred pounder rifle and that of the enemy thundered, at each other with a simultaneous roar Then came another sound, more appalling than bursting shells or the roar of cannon the terrible sound of unloosed, unmanageable steam, rushing in tremendous volumes, seething and hissing as it spread, till both com batants were hidden and enveloped in a dense, suffocating cloud of stifling vapor. The shot of the ram had pierced the boiler of the Sassacus, and all was lost. No, not lost yet ! the sharp false stern which had cut deeply into the side of the ram, had given way, and the two vessels swung side by side. Then came the fierce duel for life. The guns were served and fired muzzle to muzzle, the powder from those of the Albemarle blackening the bows and side of the Sassacus, as they passed within ten feet of each other. A solid shot from the hundred pounder Parrott struck the port sill of the Albemarle, and crumbling into fragments, one piece rebounded to the deck from which it had been fired, while the rest flew into that threat ening port-hole and silenced the enemy s gun. A nine-inch solid shot and a twenty pounder shell followed through the same opening in rapid succession, as the ram drifted clear of its adversary ; while the starboard wheel of the Sassacus crushed and wrenched its iron braces in grinding over the quarter of the ram, smashing the launches she was towing into a shapeless mass of drift-wood, and grating over the sharp iron plates with a most dismal sound. As the Albemarle passed the wheel of her adversary, the crew of the after-guns of the latter, watching their moment, drove their solid shot into her ports. All this cool gunnery and precise artillery practice transpired while the ship, from fire-room to hurricane deck, was shrouded in one dense cioud of fiery steam. The situation was appalling. The shrieks of the scalded and dying, as they rushed up frantically from below, with their shrivelled flesh hanging in shreds upon their tortured limbs; the engine, beyond control, surging and revolving without guide or check, abandoned by all save one, who, scalded, blackened, sightless, still stood like a hero at DARING EXPLOIT OF LIEUTENANT GUSHING. 785 his post, alone, amid the mass of escaping steam and uncontrollable machinery, the chief-engineer of the Sassacus remained, calling to his men to return with him into the fire-room, and drag the fires from beneath the uninjured boiler, which was now in imminent danger of explosion. His calls were effectual, and the fires were removed in season to save two hundred lives from destruction. All this time the other vessels of the fleet, looking toward the two vessels in their deadly contest, could discern only a thick white cloud, lighted up incessantly by the flashes of the rapidly served guns of the Sassacus, as she rose gloriously above the storm of disaster that sur rounded her, and challenged the admiration of her anxious comrades by the stubborn thundering of her battery. The ship still moved, working slowly ahead, on a vacuum alone. The cloud of steam at last lifted, and revealed the grim enemy of the Sassacus gladly escaping from that em brace of death in which she had been held for nearly a quarter of an hour, and retreating, discomfited and demoralized, toward the port from which she had sallied so defiantly only a few hours before. The broad ensign which had waved so proudly over her casemate, now lay draggled and torn, with its shattered flag-staff on her deck. The Sassacus turned around, and again passed by her antagonist. The divisions still stood at their guns, and her brave commander, the gallant Roe, firmly enunciating his instructions and orders, and guiding every movement of his ship with a coolness, precision, and relentless audacity that have found no parallel since the days of Decatur and Bainbridge, kept his guns at work on the retiring foe as long as they could be brought to bear, till the Sassacus was carried by her disabled engine slowly, gracefully, and defiantly, out of range. The contest was manifestly a most unequal one. The Sassacus, a delicate river steamer, built rather for speed than strength, had assailed one of the most formidable iron-clads the Rebels had yet constructed, and exposed her slight wooden walls against the mailed and impenetrable sides of her antagonist, while, muzzle to muzzle, they had fought a battle hardly rivalled since that famous one of Paul Jones in the waters of the Texel; yet, as a result, the Albemarle was compelled to retreat, her guns disabled, her hull shaken, and her frame so racked that she leaked so badly as to be kept afloat with difficulty, and never ventured out again from her moorings. But, though unable to patrol the sound, or even the Roanoke river, she served to hold Plymouth in the possession of the Rebels. This the Union naval officers felt to be a reproach, and Lieu tenant W. B. Gushing, a young officer of decided genius and daring, volunteered to go in a picket boat and sink her with a torpedo, as she lay at her wharf. The attempt was one of great hazard, but it was accomplished successfully on the night of the 28th of October. Lieutenant Cushing and one of the crew of the picket boat escaped, though not 50 786 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. without severe exposure and terrible suffering ; one was drowned, and ten taken prisoners. Not long after, as a military necessity, the garrison being insufficient to hold it, and no troops being available for a sufficient reinforcement, Washington, N. C., was abandoned as a military post, and almost imme diately visited and plundered by Rebel guerrillas. In June, General Palmer, in command of the department, sent an expedition toward Kinston, which was partially successful, capturing some prisoners and several guns. During Sherman s Atlanta campaign, already described, the Rebel commander, General Johnston, who controlled the entire Rebel armies of the Mississippi valley, ordered several expeditions to be undertaken in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, with the intention of breaking Sherman s line of communications, or otherwise distracting his attention, and then compelling him to relinquish his campaign. These were all unsuccessful in effecting that object, but some of them were affairs of con siderable importance. One of these was a raid by Morgan, the notorious partizan chief, into the Blue Grass region, in Kentucky, as well as a number of the northern and central counties of the State, not usually reckoned as belonging to that region. In each successive summer during the war, Kentucky was visited by these prowling bands of rough raiders, and sometimes also by the better organized bands of the Rebel army. The object principally in view was plunder, and the horses, mules, and grain of the State were transported southward in large quantities. On the 12th of June, Morgan, at the bead of about three thousand of his cavalry, attacked two Ohio regiments, under command of General Hobson, at Cynthiana, Harrison county, Ky., and, after a severe engagement, compelled him to surrender, on condition that his men should be immediately exchanged. About twenty houses in the village were burned by the Rebels. Hobson s loss in killed and wounded was fifty-five, and the number surrendered some what more than twelve hundred. The following morning, General Bur- bridge came up with a large Union force, and attacked Morgan at Cynthiana ; after an hour s hard fighting, he completely routed the Rebel force, killing three hundred, wounding nearly as many, and taking four hundred prisoners, besides liberating one hundred of General Hobson s command. He also captured over one thousand horses. Burbridge s loss in killed and wounded was about one hundred and fifty. Morgan s band was completely demoralized and broken up. A serious disaster occurred to a body of Union troops under General Sturgis, which, on the 1st of June, had left Memphis on an expedition against the Mobile and Ohio railroad, in retaliation for the numerous raids of Forrest, Wheeler, Rhoddy, and S. D. Lee. The Union force com prised two brigades of infantry, two of cavalry, two regiments of colored DISASTER AT GUNTOWN, MISSISSIPPI. 787 infantry, and a company of light artillery, numbering in all about three thousand cavalry and five thousand infantry. They had with them also a train of more than two hundred wagons, heavily laden with supplies, and eighteen pieces of artillery. Having advanced as far as Salem, a detachment of three hundred men was sent on a raid through Kipley, Riga, and Danville. The main body remained at Salem for three days ; and, on the 9th of June, moved through Ripley in a southwest direction, camping for the night eight miles from Oldtown creek. The cavalry, under General B. H. Grierson, which was several miles in advance of the main body, crossed the creek on the following morning, and soon after became engaged with a small force of Rebel cavalry, which Forrest had put forward as a decoy, and which fell back after delivering a volley, closely pursued by Grierson. The Union infantry were thus left about five miles in the rear, but Grierson pushed forward for about two miles, near the little hamlet of Guntown, Miss., when he suddenly found him self in a trap, a strong Rebel force confronting him, and their flanks ex tending through the woods on both sides, so as to be able to pour front and enfilading fires into his lines. Unaware at first of their flank move ment, he pushed on boldly, and charged the force in front, but the cross fires soon threw his command into some confusion, and he gave the order to fall back. He succeeded in extricating himself from the difficult position, and retreated across Oldtown creek in tolerable order, though pursued closely by the Rebels, who somewhat outnumbered the entire Union force. He had hardly reached the western side of the creek when the Rebels appeared in full force on the eastern side. Grierson immedi ately formed in line of battle, and the infantry began to come up and take their places. The Rebel position was an admirable one, their troops being protected in a great degree by the heavy timber, while the position of the Union troops was open, and though otherwise desirable, afforded no such protection. Finding that in consequence of this the Rebels were making sad havoc with his lines, General Sturgis ordered a retreat ; but his large train was in the way. He ordered this faced about, and when it was well under way, the retreat commenced; but the enemy pursued rapidly, and heavy skirmishing was kept up for ten miles, when the retreating column came upon the train floundering in a swamp, through which the road led. Forming his line again, General Sturgis attempted to hold the enemy at bay, until the teams could emerge from the swamp ; but the Rebels charged upon them with such fury that they gave way, centre and flanks. Then commenced a fearful rout ; the two negro regi ments alone retained their organization, and fought like madmen, till they were literally pushed along by the surge of the indiscriminately mingled mass of pursuers and pursued. The animals were cut loose from the trains, and the wagons burned, the artillery spiked and abandoned, and the remainder of the column once more started in retreat, the accumulated 1 *i THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. mass of burning wagons and artillery delaying the Rebels for an hour or more ; but nearly a thousand killed and wounded were left on the field, and twelve or thirteen hundred more were prisoners. The retreating troops fled on, and still on ; all organization lost, and all thoughts, save that of self-preservation, banished. They only halted when, twenty-five miles distant from the first battle-field, they were too much exhausted to go further, and flung themselves upon the ground for sleep. In August, Forrest made a raid upon Memphis, and took a few prisoners and some plunder. In August, 1864, one of the most remarkable naval battles of the war was fought at the entrance to Mobile bay. The map shows the position of Mobile, at the head of the bay, about thirty miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The bay, a broad but not deep expanse of water, is almost en tirely land-locked by a sandy spit stretching westward from the eastern shore of the bay, and by Dauphin island, a similar sandy barrier, extending almost to its western shore. The strait between this island and the sandy cape we have already named, is the only one having sufficient water for large vessels. On the western extremity of this cape is Fort Morgan, and one of the largest, strongest, and best equipped forts in the United States and which was held by the Rebels with a large garrison, ample supplies and ammunition. It mounted sixty guns. Opposite to Fort Morgan, and about four miles distant, on the point of Dauphin island, is Fort Gaines, a strong work mounting twenty-six guns, and well equipped. A mile or more above Fort Gaines is Fort Powell, also a strong work, mounting eighteen guns, and connected with its sister fort by a water battery and some earthworks. Fort Morgan commands the ship channel which passes close to the point on which it is situated. A space of fifteen hundred yards of this channel had been left open, swept as it was in every foot of its distance by the guns of the fort, the remainder of the distance to Dauphin island being obstructed by piles, chains, and torpedoes. Inside the bay, and keeping still further guard over this entrance, were four Rebel war vessels, three of them the Gaines, Selma, and Morgan being gunboats of large size, and one the Tennessee one of the most formidable iron-clad rams built by the Rebels. Rear-Admiral Farragut, the able commander of the West Gulf block ading squadron, had long felt annoyed and dissatisfied at the holding of these forts by the Rebels. Mobile was one of the two ports entered most frequently by the blockade-runners, and notwithstanding the utmost vigi lance of the admiral, such was the protection afforded by the forts to the blockade-runners, that they would often slip into the pass or strait, where they were beyond his reach. If the forts were once captured, the port of Mobile would be hermetically sealed against blockade-running, and thus a grand step would be taken toward crushing the Rebellion. Fully im- ATTACK UPON THE DEFENCES OF MOBILE BAY 789 pressed with the necessity of this, Rear- Admiral Farragut had repeatedly urged upon the Government the importance of attacking and carrying the forts by storm, as soon as possible. Partial preparations for such an attack had been made at different times, but the pressure of other emer gencies had caused them to be abandoned. In February, 1864, the admi ral had bombarded the forts for five or six days, but they were held by such strong garrisons, that he became convinced that a co-operative land force would be necessary for their reduction. He was promised this in April, but the demands of the Red river expedition were considered para mount, and he was doomed to further disappointment. At length, General Cauby, commanding the Trans-Mississippi Department, promised him the necessary assistance, and on the 4th of August five thousand troops under command of General Gordon Granger, were landed on Dauphin island. The enemy thereupon threw a considerable number of additional troops into Fort Gaines, all of whom were captured a few days later. The early morning of the 5th of August was the time selected for the assault, and in anticipation of the severe fighting which would occur, Admiral Farragut had issued his orders for the protection of the wooden vessels by such means as former experience had proved desirable, and for rendering such assistance as might be needed to any vessel which should be disabled. It was his intention to lead the assault in his flag-ship, the Hartford, but the officers of the other gunboats, who valued the life of their noble com mander higher than he did, unanimously protested against his taking the risks of the torpedo strewn passage, and the commander of the Brooklyn claiming for that vessel the post of honor, the sturdy old viking, with great reluctance, yielded the point. The squadron consisted of fourteen gunboats and sloops of war, and four iron-clad monitors. By Admiral Farragut s order they were arranged as follows, the gunboats being lashed together two and two : the Brooklyn and Octorara, the Brooklyn being on the starboard side, or that nearest Fort Morgan ; the Hartford the flag-ship and the Metacomet ; the Richmond and Port Royal ; the Lack- awanna and Seminole ; the Monongahela and Kennebec ; the Ossipee and Itasca, and the Oneida and Galena; the first named of each pair being on the side nearest to Fort Morgan. Still nearer to the fort, and in single line, parallel to the double line of gunboats, moved the monitors, the Te- cumseh, Commander T. A. M. Craven, taking the lead, followed by the Manhattan, Commander Nicholson, the Winnebago, Commander Storms, and the Chickasaw, Lieutenant-Commander Perkins. The Rebel squadron, the Tennessee, the Selrna, Morgan, and Gaines, were drawn up in battle array, just beyond Fort Gaines. The Union fleet steamed steadily up the channel, the Tecumseh firing the first gun, at thirteen minutes before seven A. M. Fort Morgan replied at six minutes past seven, and the Brooklyn answered its fire, after which the action became general. f90 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. The Brooklyn soon checked her speed, for the monitor Tecumseh, near her, had struck a torpedo, and its explosion perforated her bottom, and caused her to careen and sink almost instantly. Sending boats from his consort, the Metacomet, to rescue the survivors of the ill-fated vessel (of whom all but twenty-three were drowned or killed by the explosion). Admiral Farragut, now crowding steam on the Hartford, took the lead, though the bay was thickly sown with torpedoes ; " yet," he says in his report, " believing that from having been some time in the water they were probably innocuous, I determined to take the chance of their explo sion." The admiral had mounted the rigging, and lashed himself near the maintop, a position of great danger, but one which enabled him the better to witness the conflict, and there he remained throughout the fight. Turn ing to the northwestward to clear the middle ground, the fleet were ena bled to maintain such heavy and well directed broadsides upon Fort Morgan, that its fire did them little injury. Just after they had passed the fort, however, about ten minutes before eight o clock, the ram Ten nessee came down at full speed, intending to strike the flag-ship Hartford/ but her pilot skilfully eluded the blow, and the fleet-captain gave her a full broadside as she passed, the admiral signaling at the same time to the iron-clads and gunboats to attack her. He also detached his consort, the Metacomet, to go in .pursuit of the Selrna, and ordered the Octorara, the Brooklyn s consort, to pursue one of the others. The Selma was captured, and the Gaines and Morgan driven up the bay, though the former was so much injured that her crew were compelled to run her ashore and destroy her. The combat which followed, and which re sulted in the capture of the Tennessee, is best told in the Admiral s own words : " Having passed the forts and dispersed the enemy s gunboats, I had ordered most of the vessels to anchor, when I perceived the ram Tennessee standing up for this ship. This was at forty-five minutes past eight. I was not long in comprehending his intentions to be the destruction of the flag-ship. The monitors and such of the wooden vessels as I thought best adapted for the purpose, were immediately ordered to attack the ram, not only with their guns, but bows on, at full speed ; and then began one of the fiercest naval combats on record. "The Monongahela, Commander Strong, was the first vessel that struck her, and in doing so, carried away his own iron prow, together with the cutwater, without apparently doing his adversary much injury. The Lackawanna, Captain Marchand, was the next vessel to strike her, which she did at full speed ; but though her stern was cut and crushed to the plank ends for the distance of three feet above the water s edge to five feet below, the only perceptible effect on the ram was to give her a heavy lift. " The Hartford was the third vessel that struck her ; but as the Ten nessee quickly shifted her helm, the blow was a glancing one, and as she SPANISH FORT ROSE ZEB \ SHARKS. LANDING HOWARDS v GREAT POINT C/O/?|0VYILLIAMSBURG i \\\\vNsSKx ~.n~wo ,. CAPTURE OF THE REBEL RAM TENNESSEE. 791 rasped along our side, we poured our whole broadside of nine-inch solid shot within ten feet of her casement. " The monitors worked slowly, but delivered their fire as opportunity offered. The Chickasaw succeeded in getting under her stern, and a fif teen-inch shot from the Manhattan broke through her iron plating and heavy wooden backing, though the missile itself did not enter the vessel. " Immediately after the collision with the flag-ship, I directed Captain Drayton to bear down for the ram again. He was doing so at full speed, when, unfortunately, the Lackawanna ran into the Hartford, just forward of the mizzen-mast, and cut her down to within two feet of the water s edge. We soon got clear again, however, and were fast approaching our adversary, when she struck her colors and ran up the white flag. " She was at this time sore beset ; the Chickasaw was pounding away at her stern, the Ossipee was approaching her at full speed, and the Monongahela, Lackawanna, and this ship, were bearing down upon her, determined upon her destruction. Her smoke-stack had been shot away, her steering chains were gone, compelling a resort to her relieving tackles, and several of her port-shutters were jammed. Indeed, from the time the Hartford struck her, until her surrender, she never fired a gun. As the Ossipee, Commander Le Roy, was about to strike her, she hoisted the white flag, and that vessel immediately stopped her engine, but not in time to avoid a glancing blow. "During this contest with the Rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee, and which terminated by her surrender at ten o clock, we lost many more men than from the fire of Fort Morgan." The Hartford, though seriously injured by the blow from the Lacka wanna, was not, as was at first feared, in a sinking condition. It is said that at the moment after the collision, when the men, supposing her sink ing inevitable, were calling out to each other to save the Admiral, even if all the rest went to the bottom, Rear- Admiral Farragut from his perch, satisfied that she would float long enough for the work he desired to accomplish, and thinking of that only, signalled to the chief engineer,* " Go on with speed ! Ram her again." The Tennessee proved a valuable prize. She was built with great strength and powers of resistance, though with little regard to the comfort of her officers and crew. Though disabled, her injuries were such as could be speedily repaired. Her commander, Admiral Buchanan, was severely wounded, and subsequently lost a leg by amputation. A considerable number of the crew of the Rebel vessel were killed and wounded. On learning Admiral Buchanan s condition, Admiral Farragut, as gentle and humane as he was gallant in fight, ordered that he should have the best attention, and finding that his case required the care and quiet which could only be obtained at a general hospital, he addressed a note to Briga dier-General Page, the commander of Fort Morgan, asking permission to V92 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. send the Rebel admiral and other wounded Rebel officers, with his own wounded, by ship, under flag of truce, to the general hospital at Pensa- cola, where they could be properly cared for. The request was granted, and the Metacomet was despatched at once on the errand of mercy. The Union losses in this engagement were about one hundred and- twenty killed, (eighty of them on the Tecumseh, including the lamented Commander Craven,*) and eighty-eight wounded. The immediate results were the capture and destruction of the Rebel fleet, except the gunboat Morgan, including among the captures, the armored ram Tennessee, and the gunboat Selma, with two hundred and eighty officers and men. On the next day, Fort Powell, with eighteen guns, was abandoned ; on the 8th of August, Fort Gaines surrendered with fifty-six officers, eight hundred * Commander Tunis A. M. Craven, of the monitor Tecumseh, was a native of New Hampshire, but received his appointment to the navy while a resident of the State of New York, in February, 1829. Since that time he had seen about twenty-two years of sea service, while much the larger portion of the remaining years of his life in the navy was spent in active duty on shore. He served in 1830 in the sloop-of-war Boston, of the Mediterranean squadron, and in 1834 joined the sloop-of-war St Louis, in West India waters. The following year he received his warrant as a passed mid shipman, and in 1836 was for a short time engaged at the National Observatory, but soon asked to be relieved, and was, at his own request, placed on the coast survey, for whose duties ne immediately displayed rare aptitude. In 1841 he was promoted to a lieutenantcy and was attached to the sloop-ojvar Falmouth till 1843, when he was transferred to the receiving-ship North Carolina, at New York. A short time after he was on the storeship Lexington, and from 1844 to 1847 was on furlough. In the latter year he was on the cruise made by Dale, of the Pacific squadron. From 1850 to 1858 he was employed on the coast survey, visited on official business the Isthmus of Darien, and leaving the coast survey in 1859, was appointed to the command of the steamer Mohawk, of the home squadron, stationed off the coast of Cuba to inter cept slavers. While in the coast survey he won an enviable reputation as a hydro- grapher, and did the country constant and valuable service. When the Rebellion broke out Lieutenant Commander Craven was placed in command of the Crusader, and had an important share in preserving for the Union the fortress of Key West. The Board of Underwriters of New York, presented his wife with a service of plate, and sent to him a complimentary letter, in appreciation of the desire he had always evinced to render such assistance to the commerce of our country, as could properly be extended in the performance of duty, and for rendering^ on several occasions, important services to American vessels in distress, in the vicinity of Key West, Florida. He received his commission as commander April 24, 1861, and in September, 1861, left the Crusader, and took command of the new screw sloop Tuscarora, which was despatched across the Atlantic to cruise for the Rebel pirates. Though his failure to take the Alabama caused him much annoyance, he did good service in blockading the Sumter at Gibraltar, and compelling the Rebels to abandon that vessel. He returned in July, 1863. Early this year he was ordered to the command of the Tecumseh, and sailed in her for Hampton Roads, to join Acting Rear-Admiral Lee s James river flotilla. He was among the first to reach City Point, and, after a somewhat lengthened stay in the James river, his vessel was ordered to join Rear- Admiral Farragut s squadron, and here she met the fatal torpedo. SKETCH OF VICE-ADMIRAL FARRAGUT. 793 and eighteen men, and twenty-six guns ; on the 23d of August, Fort Morgan, after a farther bombardment of twenty-four hours, capitulated, giving up sixty guns and six hundred prisoners. To have captured Mobile at this juncture, would have been of little service to the Union cause, as it would have required a large garrison to hold it, whose ser vices would have been of more value elsewhere ; but the capture of these forts put an effectual end to blockade-running, and diminished to a single port the opportunity of obtaining, by illicit means, the supplies the Rebels so much needed from abroad. It gave too, a new impulse to the nation, then somewhat disheartened by repeated repulses and disasters, and was justly regarded as the precursor of other and greater victories. Vice-Admiral David Glascow Farragut, the commander in this admira bly managed naval battle, and the hero of many gallant fights, was born July 5th, 1801, at Campbell s station, near Knoxville, Tennessee. His father had been a naval officer, and his predilections for the service were early manifested. He received a midshipman s warrant, December 17th, 1810. lie doubled Cape Horn with Commodore Porter in 1813 ; was in the fight in the harbor of Valparaiso, March 28th, 1814, and was wounded, and was soon after transferred to the Independence, seventy -four gun ship. For some years he was in the Mediterranean squadron, and was instructed by Rev. Charles Folsom, then chaplain of the flag-ship. In 1821, he was commissioned lieutenant, and ordered to the West India station. In 1824, he was assigned to duty on the receiving ship at Nor folk, Virginia. Here he married a lady of Norfolk, of excellent family. In 1828, he was ordered to the sloop-of-war Yandalia, then in the Brazil squadron. In 1830, he returned to Norfolk, where he remained till 1833. The death of his wife (to whom he was most tenderly attached), from pro tracted illness, accompanied with terrible suffering, plunged him in deep grief. In 1833, he was assigned to a command in the Brazil, and subse quently in the West India squadron, in which he remained till 1841, in which JQSLT he was commissioned commander, and assigned to the Decatur ; then in the Brazil squadron. He returned to Norfolk in 1842, and was on leave of absence until 1845, when he was ordered to the Norfolk navy- yard, where he remained till 1847. Meantime, he had again married a Norfolk lady of excellent family, and who proved worthy of the name she bore, that of " Virginia Loyal 1." In 1847, he was put in command of the Saratoga, on the home squadron, and took part in the naval engage ments growing out of the Mexican war. In 1851, he was assistant inspector of ordnance at the navy -yard. In 1854, he was made command ant of the new navy-yard on Mare s island, California, and remained there till 1858, having, in the meantime, been promoted to the rank of captain in the navy. In 1858, he was placed in command of the steam sloop-of-war Brooklyn, then on the home squadron, from which he was relieved in 1860. In April, 1861, when Norfolk sympathized with seces- 794 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. sion, and traitors seized the navy -yard, he was outspoken in his loyalty, and was compelled to leave the city at two hours notice, in consequence of his earnest devotion to the Union. He brought his family to Hastings, on the Hudson, New York, and asked the Government to employ him in its service in restoring the revolted portion of the country to its allegi ance. It was sometime before any position commensurate with his known ability could be assigned him, but in the autumn of 1861 he was order- en to organize a squadron foi the capture of New Orleans. After long delays, from the want of suitable vessels, supplies, ammunition, &c., he reached Pass L Outre, at the rnouth of the Mississippi, in April 1862, bombarded Forts Jackson and St. Philip for six days ; ran past the forts, destroying the Rebel fleet, after a most desperate engagement, April 24th, and captured New Orleans on the 26th of June. On the 27th of that month, he attacked, but did not capture, Yicksburg. He was put in com mand of the West Gulf blockading squadron, immediately after this en gagement, and on the llth of July, 1862, was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral. In November, 1862, he captured Galveston, Texas. On the 14th of March, 1863, he passed the batteries of Port Hudson, after a most desperate engagement, losing the Mississippi, steamship of the line, and leaving the Kineo, Richmond, and Monongahela, disabled below, but effecting the passage with the Hartford and Albatross. He rendered efficient service in other naval operations in the Department of the Gulf, beside maintaining throughout the very difficult cruising ground of his squadron, as complete a blockade as possible. The daring and gallant action which we have described in the present chapter, added new laurels to his already high reputation as a naval commander. In the autumn of 1864, he was called to Washington, to give his advice to the Government, in regard to some naval movements, and in November, 1864, resigned his command of the West Gulf squadron. On the 1st of January, 1865, the rank of Yice- Admiral, corresponding in the navy, to that of Lieutenant- General in the army, was created, and he was promoted to it. Since that time, he has been, under the President, commander-in-chief of the navy of the United States. Confessedly the ablest naval commander of the century, and knowing no fear in the performance of his duty, he is as modest as he is brave, and shrinks from notoriety or public applause for his great achievements. ORGANIZATION OF THE MIDDLE MILITARY DIVISION. 795 CHAPTER LXIII. THE MIDDLE MILITARY DIVISION ORGANIZED, AND GENERAL SHERIDAN APPOINTED ITS COM MANDER ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW ARMY OF THE SHENANDOAH SHERIDAN CONCEN TRATES HIS TROOPS ON THE LINE OF THE POTOMAC ADVANCING AND RETREATING "HARPER S WEEKLY" EARLY S MISCONCEPTION OF SHERIDAN S CHARACTER HIS MOVE MENT TO BERRYVILLE THE CAVALRY FIGHT AT DARKESVILLE THE BATTLE OF OPEQUAN CREEK, OR WINCHESTER EARLY " SENT WHIRLING" UP THE VALLEY BATTLE OF FISHER S HILL EARLY AGAIN DEFEATED AND ROUTED " SETTLING A NEW CAVALRY GENERAL" ROSSER S DEFEAT EARLY DEFEATED AGAIN AT LITTLE NORTH MOUNTAIN, ON THE 12TH or OCTOBER SHERIDAN VISITS WASHINGTON EARLY CREEPS UP ON THE LEFT FLANK OF THB UNION ARMY THE UNION TROOPS DEFEATED BADLY, AND DRIVEN TO MIDDLETOWN SHERI DAN COMES UP, MAKES THE FUGITIVES "FACE THE OTHER WAY," REORGANIZES THE ARMY, ATTACKS, DEFEATS, AND ROUTS EARLY, AND SENDS HIM ONCE MORE " WHIRLING" UP THR VALLEY, WITH THE LOSS OF HIS ARTILLERY, WAGONS, ETC. SUBSEQUENT OPERATIONS IN THE VALLEY, IN THE AUTUMN DESOLATING THE VALLEY TO REPRESS THE GUERRILLAS EARLY SENDS A PART OF HIS FORCE TO LEE, AND SHERIDAN RETURNS THE SIXTH CORPS TO THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SHERIDAN. IN the account given in a previous chapter of the expedition of the Rebel General Early into Maryland and Pennsylvania, it was noticeable that there was a want of harmony and consentaneous action on the part of the Union troops, strangely in contrast with their united and vigorous movements in Virginia. They were numerous enough at any time after the battle of Monocacy, to have driven the Rebels out of Maryland so hastily that they could not have taken a wagon-load of their plunder with them, yet they did nothing of the sort; they pursued the enemy in squads and small bodies of troops, and when they came up with them, more than once were borne back by the overwhelming numbers of the foe, who always took good care to have his troops massed. This want of concentration and efficiency resulted mainly from the con flicting commands, or departments, into which the territory in question was divided. Western Virginia, toward the Ohio, constituted one small department ; the Shenandoah valley, and the route of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, another ; Washington and its vicinity was a department by itself, and the Department of Annapolis covered Baltimore and part of northern Maryland ; while Pennsylvania was divided into the Departments of the Susquehanna and the Monongahela. The commanders of these several military districts did not co-operate harmoniously with each other, and being co-equal in authority, there was no end of jealousies and dis cords on questions of rank and precedence. General Grant had observed this difficulty and the disasters it had occasioned, and determined to rem edy it. He therefore suggested to the Government the organization of a 796 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Middle Military Division, analogous in character to the Military Division of the Mississippi, which should include all these departments, and have control over military affairs in the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. This suggestion being adopted, he nominated for the command of that division, Major-General Philip H. Sheridan, the chief of his cavalry corps, whose skill, caution, and daring, he had already tested in the West, and in his well conducted expeditions in Virginia in May and June. The new position required military genius of a high order ; but though Sheridan was the junior in years of nearly every major-general in his new division, General Grant was satisfied of his capacity for the command. On the 7th of August, General Sheridan received his appointment, and on the same day established his headquarters at Harper s Ferry. His first work was to concentrate his troops as rapidly as possible along the Potomac, in the immediate vicinity of the Shenandoah valley, whither General Early had withdrawn with his troops and his plunder. The force assigned permanently to Sheridan was, the army of West Virginia, Crook s corps, including the remainder of Hunter s troops (Hunter him self being relieved), and Averell s cavalry; the nineteenth Emory s corps, and the sixth Wright s corps, together with two divisions of cavalry from the army of the Potomac. These were the forces in the field. Beside these, the garrisons of Washington, Baltimore, Annapolis, Frederick, and other points in Maryland and Pennsylvania were subject to his control. General Ord, lately in command in Maryland, was sent back to the army of the James, and put in command of a corps there. When General Sheridan took command, his troops were widely scattered. Crook, and a part of his corps, were in Virginia, threatening the enemy at Snicker s and Ashby s gaps ; Wright s corps was at Washington, and along the Potomac, toward Harper s Ferry; and Emory s was still in Maryland, The cavalry from the army of the Potomac had not yet ar rived. It was to be commanded by General Torbert, a young cavalry officer, who had already achieved some reputation in southern Virginia. While awaiting the complete concentration of his troops along the line of the Potomac, General Sheridan gradually pressed the Rebels back from the important positions of Martinsburg, Williamsport, &c., garrisoning these as fast as they were relinquished, and establishing complete and ready communications between his headquarters and his advanced posts. He then began to make feints of an advance, in order to test the enemy s strength and fighting qualities. Early, suspecting that Sheridan meditated the invasion of the Shenandoah valley, and desiring to entrap him, fell back gradually, for the purpose of luring him on ; but Sheridan was more than a match for Early in astuteness, and understood too fully Early s plots, and the objects to be accomplished, to be hurried into any prema ture movement. As Early retired, however, without appearing to THE ^CAVALRY FIGHT AT DAEKESYILLE. 797 pursue him, he gradually occupied and secured every important position, seizing Winchester on the 12th of August, and throwing out a cavalry detachment to Front Royal, where it encountered and defeated, after a sharp battle, the Rebel cavalry. This accomplished, he fell back in turn, abandoning Winchester, and receiving and distributing from Harper s Ferry, his now rapidly increasing forces. As he expected, this brought Early and his troops northward again, and several sharp skirmishes took place, Sheridan s cavdlry, meantime, reconnoitering thoroughly the enemy s position, and taking note of all his movements. Finding that there was some danger of their moving southward to join General Lee, a measure seriously contemplated by Early about this time, under the renewed pressure brought to bear upon Lee by General Grant, and being deter mined to prevent this at all hazards, Sheridan again advanced, as if to give Early battle, and thus arrested his progress : and then again with drew toward Charlestown, to attract him nearer to the Potomac. Early, supposing that he had excited Sheridan s fears, indulged the hope that by skilful management he might flank hirn, and, entering Maryland again, reap another harvest of plunder. Accordingly, he moved east to Berry - ville, and issued a long general order to his troops, forbidding straggling and depredations upon the inhabitants of the Shenandoah valley. The Rebel press, meanwhile, made itself exceedingly merry over these advances and retreats of Sheridan, whose object they could not compre hend. Some wag, who deemed himself extremely witty, bestowed the sobriquet of " Harper s Weekly " upon Sheridan, in consequence of his frequent movements to and from Harper s Ferry. It proved a sorry joke ere long, and when it was too late, the Rebels found that Sheridan s move ments were only intended as manoeuvres for a favorable position to strike a telling and decisive blow. Early s movement to Berry ville was made on the 16th of September, and Sheridan was completely prepared to move upon him when it occurred. Lee was too fully occupied by the heavy and repeated blows Grant was inflicting, to be able to send Early any reinforcements, and Sheridan s force was more than a match for him. A part of Early s cavalrjr were west of Opequan creek, near Darkesville, about three miles south of Martinsburg, and upon these, Merritt s and Averell s cavalry divisions were hurled on the morning of the 18th, while the infantry attacking Early s main column at Berry ville, in flank and rear, pushed it westward over the Opequan toward Winchester. The cavalry attack at Darkes ville was a mere skirmish, the Rebel cavalry retreating like a flock of sheep toward Winchester. The main column of the Rebels at Berry- ville, finding itself attacked in rear and flank, moved off skirmishing, but not forming in line of battle till it had crossed the Opequan. Here it took up a strong position, and made evident preparations for a deter mined struggle the next day. Sheridan had now accomplished the object 798 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. for which he had been manoeuvering so long. He had pushed Early west of Opequan creek, and lay with his force directly between the Rebel army and their line of retreat toward Richmond. It remained now only to de feat them in this new position, and drive them into the Shenandoah valley, and into the rough and precipitous region which formed the western boundary of that valley, in order completely to demoralize and destroy them. This was the task which Sheridan undertook the next day. The attack was ordered at daybreak of the 19th of September, and was com menced by the cavalry soon after that time, but the infantry were detained, waiting for the nineteenth corps, and the delay had nearly been produc tive of serious disaster, for though falling back at first, yet finding them selves pressed by an inferior force, the Rebels turned and drove back the Union troops for some distance, but the infantry coming up at about noon, after about three hours of sharp and determined fighting, the Rebel left flank was turned, and they began to fall back toward Winchester, at first in good order, and stopping frequently to fight, but as they were pressed more and more closely, their retreat degenerated, after a time, into a rout, and they were driven into and through Winchester, or as Sheridan expressed it in his despatch " sent whirling through Winchester," and pursued relentlessly till, abandoning guns and knapsacks, cannon and trains, in their mad frenzy of flight, they reached their fortified posi tion on Fisher s Hill, thirty miles below Winchester, where they succeeded in rallying and making a stand. In this disastrous battle and retreat three of their ablest generals, Major-General Rhodes, and Brigadier-Gen erals Godwin and York were killed, and Brigadier-General Humphreys had fallen the previous day at B^rryville. Three others, among them Fitzhugh Lee, since Stuart s death the commander of the Rebel cavalry corps of the army of Virginia, were seriously wounded. About three thousand of their killed and wounded were left on the battle-field, and the Union troops captured twenty-two hundred uninjured prisoners, five thousand stand of arms, five pieces of artillery, and fifteen battle-flags. With the celerity which has always marked his movements, Sheridan marched at once to assault and dislodge the Rebels from their strong position on Fisher s Hill. To most generals this would have seemed an impossible task ; there are few points stronger by nature, or better fortified by art, than this, where Early, regarding himself as perfectly secure, was resting and re-forming his wearied and demoralized troops. His right rested upon the north fork of the Shenandoah river, just where the Massanutten mountain terminates in a precipitous bluff on its eastern shore- his left rested upon the equally precipitous, and as he believed impassable brow of the North mountain, and the slope of Fisher s Hill, steep, and covered with a heavy undergrowth, and swept at every point by his cannon, forbade approach in that direction. To Sheridan, however, these obstacles were only sufficient to give a zest to his enterprise of DESTRUCTION OF SUPPLIES IN THE SHENANDOAH. 799 dispossessing his foe of his stronghold. On the morning of the 21st, his army was in position to assail the enemy. The front was too formidable to be carried by a direct attack alone, and therefore he determined while demonstrating on that with his sixth corps, to send the eighth Crook s corps far to the right, to sweep around Early s left, and flanking him attack him in rear, and drive him o*ut of his intrenchments, and the nine teenth Emory s corps to assail him on his right flank, while Averell skirted along the southern base of the mountain. Confused and disorgan ized by attacks at so many different points, and disheartened at finding that Crook had already flanked them, and was pouring a destructive fire upon their rear, the enemy broke at the centre, and the sixth corps sepa rating their two wings, they fled in complete disorder toward Woodstock. Artillery, horses, wagons, rifles, knapsacks, and canteens were abandoned, and strewn along the road. Eleven hundred prisoners and sixteen pieces of artillery were captured. The pursuit was continued until the 25th of September, and terminated only when the enemy had been driven beyond Port Republic, and large numbers of them, sick of the conflict, and de termined to abandon it, had scattered in the mountains. The loss of the Rebels from the 19th to the 25th of September, in killed, wounded, miss ing, and prisoners, was certainly not less than ten thousand. The President commissioned Sheridan as brigadier-general in the regu lar army, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of the lamented McPherson, for his gallantry and skill displayed in these battles. Pausing for a few days at Port Republic, and making his headquarters there, General Sheridan sent his cavalry forward under General Torbert to Staunton. They succeeded in capturing the town, and destroyed all the storehouses, machine shops, and other buildings owned and occupied by the Rebel Government, and also the saddles, small arms, hard bread, and other military stores found in the place. They then proceeded to Waynes- boro, a town on the Virginia Central railroad, tore up seven miles of the railroad track, destroyed the depot, the iron bridge over the Shenandoah, a government tannery, and other stores. General Sheridan also improved his time, while holding possession of the upper Shenaudoah valley, to destroy all the grain, hay, and forage to be found there, excepting what was necessary for the subsistence of his own army. He thus effectually crippled both Early s and Lee s armies, as each had depended upon this fertile valley for the greater part of their stores of grain and forage. The whole valley being thus rendered untenable by the Rebel army, and the guerrilla movements, which had been encouraged by the inhabitants who had harbored them, sternly repressed, General Sheridan moved leisurely northward, and on the 6th of October made his headquarters at Wood stock. South of this point, over two thousand barns, filled with wheat and hay, and over seventy mills, stocked with wheat and flour, had been destroyed ; and a vast herd of stock, and more than three thousand sheep, 800 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. had been reserved for the supply of the army. The Luray valley, as well as the Little Fort valley, were subjected to the same devastation, the in habitants of both, like those of the Shenandoah, having, while professedly loyal, engaged in guerrilla operations, and the murder of Union soldiers. On the 8th of October, the Kebel General Kosser, a cavalry officer of considerable ability, who had just ben promoted to the rank of major- general, thinking that he had found an opportunity to achieve a reputa tion, began to harass Sheridan s rear. He did succeed in achieving a reputation by the movement, but it was not an enviable one, for Sheridan, facing about, offered battle, and rinding him unwilling to accept it, ordered his cavalry to attack by daylight on the morning of the 9th, one division charging along the Strasburg turnpike, while another, moving by a back road, took the enemy in flank. Rosser, after a short resistance, found himself severely beaten, and lost eleven pieces of artillery, several caissons, a battery forge, forty-seven wagons, and over three hundred pris oners. The Eebel cavalry fled in great terror at the charge of Sheridan s troopers, and were pursued on the jump" for twenty -six miles, the pur suit being continued beyond Mount Jackson and across the south fork of the Shenandoah. It would have seemed that Early had received sufficient punishment to dispose him to remain quiet for the rest of the season; but he evidently hoped for better fortune in making further attacks on his adversary, and on the 12th of October, having crept up quietly under cover of the forest on Little North mountain, he appeared in force on the wooded slope south of Cedar creek, fronting Snyder s gap, and com menced a heavy and rapid artillery fire on Sheridan s lines, the Union army having encamped on the banks of the creek. He had not, however, approached so stealthily that General Sheridan was unaware of his move ments, and with a promptness which showed that he was not surprised, he returned the artillery fire, shot for shot, and then ordering forward his troops, sprang upon the foe, and after a sharp action of three hours, terminating in a cavalry charge, drove Early once more in confusion up the valley. Having thus once more " settled" General Early, General Sheri dan made a flying visit of inspection to his various outposts, and employed a part of bis cavalry meantime in making a thorough devastation of Luray valley, from Front Royal to Sperryville, the inhabitants of that valley having harbored and aided the guerrillas and bushwhackers who were murdering the operatives along the Manassas Gap railroad, which General Sheridan was putting in repair. In this expedition sixty-five hundred head of cattle and five hundred horses were captured, and thirty- two large flouring mills, thirty distilleries, four blast furnaces, and over fifty barns were destroyed. By holding Front Koyal, and repairing the Manassas Gap railroad, General Sheridan could open a direct com munication with Washington, and thus transport his supplies and troops more expeditiously than he could do by way of Harper s Ferry. This EARLY S ATTEMPT TO FLANK THE UNION ARMY. 801 railroad was opened on the 15th of October, and General Sheridan passed over it to Washington. While he was thus absent, Early, still unsatisfied with his past expe rience in fighting the Union troops, planned another expedition against them, which had well nigh proved successful, and which was in all respects one of the most remarkable battles of the war. After the battle of October 12th, Early had fallen back to his strong hold on Fisher s Hill, where the dense forest screened his movements from the view of the Union troops ; and here, on the 18th of October, he had been reinforced by about twelve thousand fresh troops, gathered from southwestern Virginia and Carolina. Eight thousand of these were without arms, but they were organized and officered, and trusted to their good fortune for obtaining arms from the spoils of the battle-field. This, with previous reinforcements, brought his army up to twenty-seven thou sand, of whom nineteen thousand were already armed. He had learned of Sheridan s visit to Washington, and believed that the sixth army corps were gone also, and were on their way with Sheridan to join Grant s army. With this impression, he regarded the occasion as an auspicious one to make one more attack, and effectually avenge himself on the army which had thrice defeated him, and twice driven his legions southward in wild confusion almost to the sources of the Shenandoah. In point of fact, the sixth corps was still a part of the army of the Shenan doah, and in camp with the remainder of that army, in the vicinity of Cedar creek, and General Sheridan was returning from Washington, and on the night of the 18th of October had reached Winchester. Had Early been aware of this, it is very doubtful whether he would have attempted the daring enterprise in which he so nearly succeeded, only to fail most signally. The Union position was an echelon of three lines, posted on three separate crests of moderate height, on the south side of Cedar creek, in the vicinity of the point where the creek crosses the Strasburg and Win chester turnpike, three miles or more northeast of Strasburg. The army of Western Virginia the eighth corps occupied the left, or most ad vanced crest toward the east, the nineteenth corps came next on a crest half a mile in rear, and the sixth corps occupied the right, still farther in rear. The fronts and flanks in front of the army of Western Virginia and the nineteenth corps, were protected by breastworks of logs and earth, with batteries in position, while the right was guarded by Torbert a cavalry. The following diagram gives perhaps a mere distinct idea of their relative position, it being understood that the advanced position of the army of Western Virginia was also farthest south. TORBBRT S CAVALRY. SIXTH CORPS. NINETEENTH CORPS. ARMY OF WESTBRN VIRGINIA. 51 802 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. In front this position was impregnable, except by a surprise, and to turn either flank was an enterprise so rash and dangerous that it was con sidered impossible by most of the officers. In Sheridan s absence the command devolved on General Wright, of the sixth corps, as senior corps commander. The event proved that it was not safe to rely upon Early s timidity, or the difficulty and danger of a flank movement, as a safeguard against it. With a rashness that could only have been inspired by desperation, since at every point of his progress except the last, discovery would have been inevitable ruin, Early resolved to attempt, by a nocturnal movement, to turn the left flank of the Union army. To do this it was necessary to descend into the gorge at the base of the Massanutten mountain, ford the north fork of the Shenandoah, and skirt Crook s position for miles, pass ing in some places within four hundred yards of his pickets. Three days previous the movement would have been impossible, as a brigade of Union cavalry then held the road along which the Rebels now crept with out opposition. As it was, Early s enterprise was hazardous almost beyond parallel. Had the Union troops caught him in the midst of it they would have ruined him ; their infantry would have cut his in two, while their cavalry would have prevented his retreat to Fisher s Hill ; he would have lost half his army, and they could not have lost a thousand men. Before midnight of the 18th of October, Early s entire army was in motion. His cavalry and artillery had orders to advance upon the Union right, so as to occupy the attention of Torbert and the sixth corps. His infantry marched in five columns, in which Gordon s, Ramseur s, and Pe- gram s, were to place themselves, by daybreak of the 19th, on the left rear of the whole Union position, while Kershaw s and Wharton s should, at the same hour, be close to the intrenched crest held by the army of Western Virginia. The management of his troops was admirable; the canteens of the advance had been left in camp, lest they should reveal their approach, by clattering against the shanks of the bayonets, and the men, comprehending the necessity of quietness and secrecy, moved so noiselessly that the march was accomplished with an almost miraculous success. There was a moment, indeed, when the audacious column trod on the brink of destruction. About two o clock in the morning the pickets of the fifth New York heavy artillery, serving as infantry in Kitch ing s provi sional division, which was attached to the army of Western Virginia, heard a rustling of underbrush, and a muffled multitudinous trampling. Two posts were relieved and sent into camp with the information. General Crook ordered his command to be upon the alert, and most of the front line went into the trenches. But there was not a private in the army, and hardly an officer, who believed that the often defeated Early would venture REPULSE OF THE FEDERAL ARMY. 808 an attack. No reconnoissance was sent out to see if the alarm was well founded ; the gaps in the front line caused by the detachment of regiments on picket, were not filled up from the reserves, and when the assault took place, it found many muskets unloaded. An hour before daybreak the Rebel infantry, shivering with cold, but formed and ready for battle, lay within six hundred yards of the Union camps, which were either sleeping or only half awake with suspicion. On the extreme right was Gordon, diagonally in rear of the nineteenth corps ; on the left of Crook, facing Kitch ing s provisional division, which had been placed at right angles with Crook s main army to prevent any flanking movement, lay Ramseur, supported by Pegram ; in front of Crook was Kershaw, sup ported by Wharton. The second division of the nineteenth corps were under orders to move at daybreak for a reconnoissance of Fisher s Hill, but just as they were formed for the march, a terrific rattle of musketry burst forth with amazing suddenness, far away on their left, followed by scream on scream of the well known Kebel battle yell, revealing in an instant that Early in great force was assaulting the position of the army of Western Virginia. The men of that division were instantly ordered to move into the trenches. The enemy, with that terrible battle cry, had flung themselves upon the flank and rear of the army of Western Vir ginia with such fury that they had taken them entirely by surprise, and in fifteen minutes that veteran corps, the heroes of so many bloody battles, were rushing back, a mass of fugitives, upon the centre, where the nine teenth corps, forewarned, had sprung into the trenches, but found them selves almost immediately attacked in flank and rear, while the Rebel General Gordon had seized a position which completely commanded their camp. For an hour and more of desperate and determined righting, that corps held its position, the sixth corps, meanwhile, being unable to come to its help, since they could not at that early hour, and in the dim light, ascer tain what was the strength of the force (Early s cavalry and artillery) which had engaged them. At length Gordon s men, reaching onward along and beyond the flank of the nineteenth corps, turned it and fell upon its rear, and in its turn, it was compelled to abandon its position and retreat to ward Winchester, or rather toward Middletown, on the Winchester road. The sixth corps had by this time found what was the force in its front, and had turned them over to Torbert s cavalry, who were amply sufficient to take care of them, while it came up to the support of the nineteenth corps; but after hard fighting, it too was flanked by Gordon s interminable column, and though it moved back slowly and in good order, it was compelled to retreat to a position where it could fight to better advantage. The train had been, by skilful management, removed out of harm s way, and sent by by-roads toward Winchester ; but the army had been driven off the Strasburg and Winchester turnpike, and it was necessary for it to fall back until it could regain a position upon it, and thus secure its com- 804 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. munications. The enemy were in possession of all its camps, and at the expiration of five hours from the commencement of the attack, there was a lull in the fighting, the Rebel troops being engaged in plundering the camps, and those who were unarmed in the morning were procuring from the killed, wounded, and prisoners, the arms they needed. At this time, about ten o clock A. M., the army of the Shenandoah was for the first time defeated ; not routed, but badly beaten. The Eebels had all the camps and fortified positions; they had retreated full three miles, and their stragglers, a multitudinous host, had reached Winchester, a dozen miles farther. They had lost twenty-four guns, and twelve hundred prisoners, while all that three miles of their retreat was strewn thick with the killed and wounded who had fallen in the desperate struggle. It was just at this time that Sheridan, who had learned at Winchester of the disaster, came up the pike at full speed, his noble horse completely flecked with foam, swinging his cap, and shouting to the stragglers, " Face the other way, boys. We are going back to our camps. We are going to lick them out of their boots." The effect was magical. The wounded by the roadside raised their hoarse voices to shout ; the fugitives, but now hurrying forward toward Winchester, turned about at sight of him who had always led them to victory, and followed him back to the battle-ground, as hounds follow their master. Still riding rapidly, he reached the main army, ordered it to face about, form line, and advance to the position it had last quitted. They obeyed without hesitation, and for two hours he rode along the line, studying the ground, and encouraging the men. " Boys," he said, in his earnest, animated way, " if I had been here, this never should have happened. I tell you it never should have happened. And now we are going back to our camps. We are going to get a twist on them. We are going to lick them out of their boots." The sixth corps now held the turnpike and its vicinity. *0n its right the nineteenth corps was formed in double line, under cover of a dense wood, the first division on the right, the second on the left. The rearmost line threw up a rude breastwork of stones, rails, and trees, covered by the advanced line standing to arms, and by a strong force of skirmishers, stationed two hundred yards to the front, but still within the forest. For two hours all was silence, preparation, reorganization, and suspense. Then came a message from Sheridan to General Emory, that the enemy, in column, were advancing against the nineteenth corps. They came, and were received with so deadly a fire of artillery and musketry that they awaited no second fire, but fell back at once out of sight. Emory imme diately sent word to the commanding general that he had repulsed -the enemy. The delight of General Sheridan at this intelligence was evident. It assured him that his army had recovered its old courage and tone, and that he could now use it to defeat and rout the foe who had so sadly defeated them in the morning. Sending the message to Emory, that if DEFEAT AND ROUT OF THE REBEL ARMY. 805 they renewed the attack, he must meet them by a counter attack, drive them back, and follow them up, he watched the position of affairs, and at half-past three issued this order: "The entire line will advance. The nineteenth corps will move in connection with the sixth corps. The right of the nineteenth will swing toward the left, so as to drive the enemy upon the pike." The enemy s left was now his strong position, being supported by successive wooded crests, while his right ran out to the pike, across undulating, open fields, which offered no natural line of resistance. Sheridan s plan was to push them oft these crests by this swinging movement of his right, and then, when they were doubled up on the pike, to hurl his cavalry at them across the Middletown meadows. The Union infantry rose at once from the position where it had been lying, and advanced through the forest into the open ground beyond. " There was a brief silence of suspense ; then came a screaming, cracking, humming rush of shell ; then a prolonged roar of musketry, mingled with the long-drawn yell of the Union charge ; then the artillery ceased, the musketry died into spattering bursts ; and over all the yell rose triumphant. Every thing on the first Kebel line, the stone walls, the advanced crest, the tangled wood, the half-finished breastworks, had been carried." The first body of Kebel troops to break and fly was Gordon s division, the same which had so perseveringly flanked the Union army in the morning, and was now flanked in turn by the first division of the nineteenth corps. Desperate fighting now ensued, and the Kebels held their position with great tenacity ; while the Union soldiers, who had neither eaten nor drank any thing since the evening of the previous day, and had been fighting since five in the morning, were greatly exhausted ; but they forgot their hunger, their thirst, and their weariness forgot every thing, but that they were Sheridan s soldiers, and that they must drive the enemy back. Again they charged on the Rebel second line, over stone walls, over steep hill-sides, and through thickets ; Sheridan himself dashing along the front, cheering them with his confident smile, and his emphatic assurances of success, and giving his orders in person to brigade, division, and corps commanders. The result could not be doubtful ; the second charge carried the enemy s second line with the same rush, and with greater ease than the first ; and the cavalry swept on in magnificent line, and pushed the routed foe into more hopeless confusion and speedier flight than in the battle of the 19th of September. Desperate were the efforts of the Rebel officers to rally their men, and make another stand ; but they were utterly in vain, and Early s army was again "sent whirling" up the valley. The fighting soon swept far ahead of the tired infantry, who re sumed their position in their old camps, and hungry, thirsty, and weary, lay down amid the desolation, and the numerous dead bodies of their comrades and their foes, and slept quietly and peacefully. The cavalry, meantime, pushed Early s jaded legions on ; and still on, through Stras- 806 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. burg, past Fisher s Hill, where, after a brief rest, they remounted, and drove them to Woodstock, sixteen miles from the scene of the morning battle. In their terror and flight, the Rebels abandoned every thing; cannon, small arms, knapsacks, great coats, baggage wagons, caissons, ammunition wagons and ambulances, were all thrown away, as impeding their retreat. The twenty-four cannon which they had taken from the army of the Shenandoah in the morning, were all recaptured, and twenty- seven more of Early s own were also brought in. Beside these, there were fifty wagons, sixty-five ambulances, sixteen hundred small arms, several battle flags, and fifteen hundred prisoners. Two thousand of the Rebel killed and wounded were left upon the field. The Union losses in the morning had been very heavy; they amounted in all to about three thousand killed and wounded, and twelve hundred taken prisoners, in cluding about four hundred of the wounded. In all the records of modern history, there is no more remarkable instance of a battle retrieved than this. Marengo, Shiloh, and Stone river have been compared to it, but in the two former there were reinforcements brought up to change the fortunes of the day, while the first defeat was not so complete or over whelming, and in the latter, there was an interval of two days 7 rest, to reinspire the troops with courage. Here the delay was but for three or four hours, and the only reinforcement brought up or needed was one man Sheridan. On hearing the particulars of this victory, Lieutenant-General Grant telegraphed to Secretary Stanton, on the evening of the 20th of October, as follows : " HON. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War : "I had a salute of one hundred guns fired from each of the armies here, in honor of Sheridan s last victory. Turning what bid fair to be a disas ter into a glorious victory, stamps Sheridan, what I have always thought him, one of the ablest of generals. " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General" This magnificent victory led to General Sheridan s appointment to the rank of major-general in the regular army, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Major-General McClellan, and to an autograph letter of thanks from the President. For six weeks after the battle, there were occasional skirmishes of greater or less severity, between one or more divisions of Torbert s cavalry, and the Rebel cavalry officers Rosser and Lomax ; but Early, though moving uneasily up and down the valley from Mount Jackson or New Market to Fisher s Hill, carefully avoided every thing like a general engagement, and in December, sent a part of his forces to strengthen General Lee. Mean time, the guerrilla warfare continued with all its vexatious annoyances and stealthy murders, and General Sheridan found it necessary to desolate the SKETCH OF MAJOR-GENERAL SHERIDAN 807 valley of the Blue Ridge by his cavalry, as he had done the valleys west of it. In two expeditions undertaken for this purpose, property to tho amount of nearly seven and a half millions of dollars was either destroyed or captured, vast herds of cattle, sheep, and swine, and large numbers of horses and mules were brought in. Driven from this region, the guerrilla bands subsequently concentrated near the upper waters of the Potomac, and in the vicinity of Piedmont, New Creek, and other points, did some mischief, but their power for evil was greatly crippled by the stem and thorough measures adopted by General Sheridan. In December, the sixth corps was returned to the army of the Potomac, and the army of the Shenandoah for nearly two months acted principally as a corps of observation. Philip Henry Sheridan, the brilliant and able commander whose skilful management and decided strategic ability were so fully exhibited in this campaign of the Shenandoah valley, was born in Perry county, Ohio, in 1831. His parents were of Irish origin. He had the advantages of a good common school education, and was appointed to a cadetship at West Point in 1848. and graduated in 1853, very low in his class, his belligerent disposition reducing his standing in his studies, which was otherwise above mediocrity. He was attached to the first United States infantry as brevet second lieutenant, and ordered to Fort Duncan, Texas. In the spring of 1855, he was exchanged into the fourth infantry as full second lieutenant, and ordered to San Francisco via New York. In the latter city, he was for two months in command of Fort Wood. For six years he remained on the Pacific coast, and among the Indian tribes, whose confi dence he had won, and whom he could manage better than any other army officer. He was promoted to a first lieutenantcy in the winter of 1861, and when the war broke out to a captaincy in the thirteenth infan try, United States army, and ordered to join his regiment at Jefferson barracks, near St. Louis. He was first made acting quartermaster under General Curtis, but succeeded indifferently. During the Pea Ridge cam paign, he was ordered by General Blunt to impress a large amount of provender from the citizens of Arkansas, and refusing, was put under arrest, and ordered to report to General Halleck, who relieved him from arrest, made him his own chief quartermaster, but perceiving that he had a decided vocation for the cavalry, allowed him soon after to accept a commission as colonel of a Michigan cavalry regiment. On the 14th of July, 1862, with his regiment, he fought and defeated a Rebel brigade of cavalry, and for this was made brigadier-general of volun teers, his commission dating from July 1st, 1862 ; but his command was infantry, not cavalry, to which he was best adapted. He did well, how ever, in his new field of activity, exhibiting that combination of caution and daring, and that quick perception of the right course to pursue in an emergency, which made him a favorite, both with his superiors and his 808 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. own command. At Perryville, October 8th, 1862, he held the key of the Union position, and saved the Union army from defeat. In the battle of Stone river, his division fought with the utmost desperation on the first day, and aided greatly in staying the rout which the giving way of the right wing had caused ; all the brigade commanders were either killed or severely wounded, and seventy officers and half the men of the division fell on that bloody field ; but Sheridan finally brought off the remnant in good order, and re-forming it, did gallant service during the remainder of the battle. For his meritorious service here he was made major-general of volunteers. At Chickamauga, on the first day, he pre vented a serious disaster to Wood s corps ; and on the second day, though borne off the field by the sudden assault of the enemy upon the gap in the Union lines, he fought his way out, and re-forming his men, brought his division into the lines again before midnight. At Chattanooga, his bravery and daring were conspucious in the charge up Mission Ridge upon Fort Bragg ; his horse was shot under him, and his men were ready under bis leadership to dare and do any thing, however arduous or seemingly impossible. He was next with Sherman in the severe and ar- dous march to Knoxville, to raise the siege of that city. When General Grant became Lieutenant-General, he called Sheridan to the congenial post of chief of the cavalry corps of the army of the Potomac, and we have recorded in a previous chapter, the skill and abil ity, the courage and genius, with which he conducted the two expeditions around the rear of the "Rebel army. Promoted on General Grant s nomination to the command of the army of the Shenandoah, the present chapter shows how he won new laurels, and exhibited that most extraor dinary proof of good generalship, the turning defeat into victory. For the ability displayed in this field he was made first brigadier, and then major-general in the regular army. His subsequent career, as we shall see hereafter, was worthy of his previous brilliant record. In March, 1865. he ascended the Shenandoah valley to Staunton and Waynesboro, routed Early once more, and destroyed the railroads, canals, and other property of the Rebels, to the value of over fifty millions of dollars. Marching by way of White House, he joined General Grant on the 27th of March, and after two days rest, was ordered to the field in the closing campaign, where the capture of Five Forks, and the persistent pursuit, and eventual surrender of Lee, were due in a large measure, to his perse verance, bravery, and strategic skill. After the war on the Atlantic coast was over, he was sent in command of an army of about eighty thousand men to Texas ; and the Rebel General, E. Kirby Smith, having surren dered, he was allowed, after a few weeks guarding of the border, to reduce his army. On the 27th of June, he was appointed commander of the Military Division of the Gulf, comprising the Departments of Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida, with headquarters at New Orleans. INFLUENCE OF POLITICAL PARTIES DURING THE WAR. 809 CHAPTER LXIY. POLITICAL PARTIES, AND THEIR INFLUENCE DURING THE WAR " THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING" ITS SPEEDY TERMINATION FERNANDO WOOD S SOMERSAULTS THE PROFESSIONS OF THE PRO-SLAVERY DEMOCRATIC LEADERS THEIR DESIRE FOR A "MORE VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF THE WAR" " THE GREAT UNREADY" OPPOSITION TO EMANCIPATION NOMINALLY RE LINQUISHED THE SUSPENSION OF THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT, AND ARBITRARY ARRESTS THE CONSCRIPTION THEIR OBJECTIONS TO IT THEIR HOSTILITY TO THE FINANCIAL POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT SECRET ORGANIZATIONS OPPOSED TO THE GOVERNMENT THE PEACE PARTY AND ITS LEADER SKETCH OF VALLANDIGHAM HIS TREASONABLE ADDRESS AND HIS ARREST JUDGE LEAVITT S REFUSAL TO GRANT A WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS, AND HIS OPINION OF TREASONABLE UTTERANCES VALLANDIGHAM s TRIAL AND SENTENCE THE PRESIDENT COMMUTES IT TO TRANSPORTATION BEYOND THE UNION LINES PROTEST OF THE ALBANY COMMITTEE THE PRESIDENT S REPLY PROTEST OF THE COLUMBUS COMMITTEE THE PRESI DENT S PROPOSITIONS THE OBJECT OF THESE DEMONSTRATIONS VALLANDIGHAM NOMINA TED FOR GOVERNOR AND DEFEATED HIS ESCAPE TO CANADA AND RETURN TO OHIO CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF HIS ASSOCIATES IN CANADA HE ATTENDS THE CHICAGO CONVENTION THE PROCEEDINGS OF THIS CONVENTION ITS PLATFORM ITS NOMINEES GENERAL MCCLELLAND LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE HE ACCEPTS THE NOMINATION BUT RE PUDIATES THE PLATFORM, WHILE MR. PENDLETON ACCEPTS BOTH UTTER DEFEAT OF THE PEACE PARTY AT THE NOVEMBER ELECTION EFFORTS AT NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE THE JACQUES AND GILMORE MISSION A. H. STEPHENS APPLICATION TO GO TO WASHINGTON IN A REBEL WAR STEAMER THE GREELEY AND SANDERS CORRESPONDENCE "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN" THE PRETENDED INDIGNATION OF CLAY AND HOLCOMBE SUBSEQUENT REVELATIONS OF THEIR CHARACTER AND PURPOSES LEE S ANNOUNCEMENT TO JEFF. DAVIS F. P. BLAIR S MISSION REBEL COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED MR. SEWARD AND MR. LINCOLN MEET THEM THE CONFERENCE AT HAMPTpN ROADS THE DEMANDS OF DAVIS IMPOSSIBILITY OF CONCEDING THEM FAILURE OF THE CONFERENCE. AT the commencement of the war, the great masses of both political parties, those who had deprecated the war, and denounced every move ment of the Government looking toward the repossession of the seceded territory, as well as those who had been most earnest in their support of the administration, united most cordially in volunteering for service in the army, and in voting appropriations for arming, equipping, and main taining the volunteer troops and their families. There were, indeed, a few whose hostility to the war and sympathy with the Rebellion was, from the first, outspoken and bitter ; but these were the comparatively rare ex ceptions. As a general rule, party lines seemed obliterated, and those who, sixty days before, had declared that in the event of war they would fight on the side of the South, now seemed most anxious to efface such a record by their zeal for the war. As might have been expected, this "era of good feeling" did not last. The conversion of the pro-slavery Democratic leaders, who had for years relied upon the South to maintain them in power, was too sudden to be genuine ; and it was no matter for surprise that Fernando Wood, one of 810 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the most unscrupulous of the Democratic politicians, should lead the pro slavery Democrats in opposing the war. Mr. Wood had, in the winter of 1860-1, when mayor of New York, apologized to Mr. Toombs of Geor gia, for the seizure by the city police, under the orders of Government, of arms about to be shipped for the State of Georgia, assuring him that if he had the power he should summarily punish the authors of this ille gal and unjustifiable seizure of private property;" and though he had three months later pledged his honor, his fortune, and his life, to the national cause, yet it was perfectly in keeping with his character that he should endeavor by every means in his power to obstruct the action of the Gov ernment, to thwart its plans, and to give what indirect aid and comfort he could, to its enemies. The pro-slavery Democratic leaders had, however, the art to veil their real sympathy with the Kebellion under the guise of anxiety for the preservation of the Constitution and the Union as it was ; they deprecated any agitation of the status of the slaves, and insisted that they should be remanded to the care of their Rebel masters, if they escaped into the Union lines, and that in no case should they be set free. Under these limitations they had the impudence to clamor for " a more vigorous prosecution of the war," pretending that the President and Cabinet were responsible for the inactivity of General MeClellan, and on this plea suc ceeded, in New York, in the autumn of 1862, in carrying the election of one of their most artful politicians, Horatio Seymour, to the office of Governor of New York. They had taken full possession of General McClellan, and flattering him with the hope of the Presidency in 1864, led him to maintain, in defiance of the remonstrances of the President and his Cabinet, that masterly inactivity which led to his receiving the title of the " Great Unready." His removal from command in November, 1862, was a severe and unexpected stroke to their policy, and the Emancipation Proclamation which succeeded it on the first of January, 1863, was another crushing blow to their plans, and one which Wood artfully attempted to prevent. But though baffled in some of their schemes, they were not disheartened. They were fertile in resources, and unburdened by any conscientious scru ples, they no sooner found one scheme fail them than they resorted to another equally fallacious, but perhaps quite as specious, to enable them to maintain their attitude of hostility to the Government. Their opposi tion to emancipation had lost them many adherents, especially among those of the party who had actively participated in the war ; these saw in the measure a military necessity which could not be foregone; the leaders, therefore, professed to acquiesce in this, not very cordially, but as a meas ure which they could not prevent, and turned their attention to other acts of the Government. They had, from a very early period of the war, com plained of the suspension of the habeas corpus act, and very naturally, since, with that suspended, they could never be sure that the discovery ORGANIZATIONS OPPOSED TO THE GOVERNMENT. 811 of their treasonable schemes might not be followed by arrest, imprison ment, and even execution. This now became one of their chief grievances; another was the conscription, which could not be so arranged as to suit them. Before it was ordered, they had been strongly in favor of it, from the belief that it would bring odium on the Government; after it was ordered, it was all wrong, first, for exempting so many ; when this was modified, then it exempted too few. The provision for commutation, by the payment of three hundred dollars, was grossly unjust, as it discrimi nated against the poor and in favor of the rich. When this provision was repealed, and the price of substitutes rose to a thousand or twelve hundred dollars, the Government was roundly abused for not retaining it. We have already shown how riots occurred in New York and elsewhere to prevent the draft. The finances were another grievance with these dema gogues. Whatever Secretary Chase, who was then Secretary of the Treas ury, did, was wrong, of course. The first issue of Treasury demand notes were pronounced worthless, and some of the banks would only receive them on deposit after a written agreement from the depositors to receive their money in those notes only, an agreement which, when those notes rose to forty or fifty per cent, premium, the banks were very anxious to cancel. The legal tender notes, Democratic orators and brokers made every attempt to depreciate ; assuring the ignorant classes, and those of foreign birth especially, that they would soon become utterly worthless, and exhorting them to get rid of them, or they would fall upon their hands. The Government loans were systematically decried, and the price of gold forced up, by combinations, in which foreign speculators, in the in terest of the Rebels participated, and every means which could be adopted to ruin the national credit, was resorted to by these unscrupulous dema gogues without hesitation. There had been, even before the war, secret organizations in most of the States, pledged to extend and perpetuate slavery, even at the expense of the Union, known as " Knights of the Golden Circle." To these most of these leaders of the opposition belonged, but finding them in bad odor, they reorganized them under the names of " Sons of Liberty," " The Order of American Knights," &c., and drew into their secret circles, large numbers of those who, perhaps without any evil intent, were yet enamored of secret societies, and who soon found themselves pledged to treasonable measures. They also organized openly, a wing of the Demo cratic party, known distinctively as the Peace party, and though their num bers were small in Congress, they continued to delay action and occasion great annoyance to the loyal members of that body. Their leader in the House of Representatives in the Thirty-seventh Congress, was Clement L. Vallandigham,* a Representative fron? southern Ohio. His principal sup- * Clement L. Vallandigham was born in New Lisbon, Columbia county, Ohio, in 822. He is of Huguenot stock, and his father was a Presbyterian clergyman. He 812 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES porters were Daniel S. Yoorhees, of Indiana ; George H. Pendleton, of Ohio ; William A. Richardson, of Illinois ; Benjamin Wood, and James E Kerrigan, of New York ; Sydenham E. Ancona, and Jessie Lazear, of Pennsylvania, and Henry May, of Maryland ; while Messrs. Cox, Allen, and Noble, of Ohio; Knapp, Kobinson, Fouke, and Allen, of Illinois; Hoi man, Cravens, and Law, of Indiana, and Corning, Steele, and Vib- bard, of New York, were occasionally found advocating and sympathizing with his views. The Senate had a few members of the peace party, but none of them men of high abilities. Messrs. Powell, Saulsbury, Bayard, Pearce, McDougall, and Nesmith, were the most prominent. The efforts of Vallandigham and his associates to obstruct the action of Congress were so far successful as to cause some delay in the passage of important measures, but they were powerless to accomplish any con siderable harm. At the close of the second regular session of the Thirty- seventh Congress, Vallandigham returned to Ohio, and made a political canvass of his district, in the course of which he gave utterance to trea sonable doctrines. General Burnside, who was then in command of the Department of the Ohio, issued an order (No. 38) on the 13th of April, 1863, in which, after announcing that u hereafter all persons found within our lines who committed acts for the benefit of the enemies of our country, will be tried as spies or traitors, and if convicted, will suffer death," he added, " the habit of declaring sympathy for the enemy will not be allowed in this department. Persons committing such offences will be at once arrested, with a view to being tried, as above stated, or be sent beyond our lines into the lines of their friends. It must be distinctly received a good academic education ; spent one year in Jefferson College, Ohio, and two years as principal of an academy at Snow Hill, Maryland. He returned to Ohio in 1840 ; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1842 ; was elected to the State Legislature in 1845 and 1846 ; was editor of the Dayton Enquirer from 1847 to 1849, and for some years devoted his attention to his profession and to politics. In 1856, he was a member of the National Democratic Convention held in Cincinnati ; was Dem ocratic candidate for a seat in the Thirty-fifth Congress, against L. D. Campbell, whose seat he successfully contested ; was re-elected to the Thirty-sixth Congress, and catechised John Brown just before his execution at Charlestown, Virginia, in hope of making capital for his party. In the Thirty-sixth Congress he attempted by every means in his power to aid the Rebels, and to obstruct the action of Congress and the Government, and during his term of service in the Thirty-seventh Congress, to which he was re-elected, he continually insisted on peace at any price. He was not re-elected to the next (Thirty-eighth) Congress, having been arrested on the fifth of May, 1863, by order of General Burnside, and tried and convicted of using treasonable language, and by order of the President sent into the Rebel lines, from whence he escaped soon after to Canada. His party procured his nomination as Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio, but he was defeated by John Brough by one hundred thousand majority. After residing some time in Canada, he escaped, and returned to Ohio, in defiance of the United States authorities, and again made treasonable speeches. He was one of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago, in Sep tember, 1864, but has not been prominent since. ARREST OF MR. VALLANDIGHAM. 813 understood that treason, expressed or implied, will not be tolerated in thia department." On the 1st of May, Vallandigham delivered an address at Mount Vernon, Ohio, in the course of which he denounced the Govern ment of the United States, as aiming, in its conduct of the war, not to re store the Union, but to crush out liberty, and to establish a despotism ; he declared that the war was waged for the freedom of the blacks and the enslaving of the whites ; that the Government could have had peace long before if it had really desired it ; that the mediation of France should have been accepted, and that the Government had deliberately rejected propositions by which the Southern States could have been brought back into the Union. He also denounced General Burnside s order No. 38, and proclaimed his intention of disobeying it, and appealed to his hearers to resist and defeat its execution. For this speech, Mr. Yallandigham was arrested at Dayton, on the 4th of May, by order of General Burnside, and brought to Cincinnati for trial before a court-martial. On the 5th of May, he applied, through his counsel, to Judge Leavitt of the Circuit Court of the United States at Cin cinnati, for a writ of habeas corpus, to which General Burnside responded with a letter detailing the case and justifying his arrest. The application was argued at length, and was refused by the judge, who though a member of the Democratic party, was thoroughly loyal, and had no affinities with the peace party. In giving his decision, Judge Leavitt said that the legality of the arrest depended upon the extent of the neces sity for making it, and that was to be determined by the military com mander. He added : " Men should know and lay the truth to heart, that there is a course of conduct not involving overt treason, and not therefore subject to punishment as such, which, nevertheless, implies moral guilt, and a gross offence against the country. Those who live under the pro tection and enjoy the blessings of our benignant Government must learn that they cannot stab its vitals with impunity. If they cherish hatred and hostility to it, and desire its subversion, let them withdraw from its jurisdiction, and seek the fellowship and protection of those with whom they are in sympathy. If they remain with us while they are not of us, they must be subject to such a course of dealing as the great law of self- preservation prescribes and will enforce. And let them not complain if the stringent doctrine of military necessity should find them to be the legitimate subjects of its action. I have no fear that the recognition of this doctrine will lead to an arbitrary invasion of the personal security or per sonal liberty of the citizens. It is rare indeed that a charge of disloyalty will be made on insufficient ground. But if there should be an occasional mistake, such an occurrence is not to be put in competition with the pre servation of the nation ; and I confess I am but little moved by the elo quent appeals of those who, while they indignantly denounce violation of personal liberty, look with no horror upon a despotism as unmitigated gL4 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. as the world has ever witnessed." The trial before the military court then proceeded, and full liberty of introducing evidence being granted to his counsel, the trial occupied about ten days. The evidence having been heard, the court Brigadier-General B. B. Potter presiding found him guilty of the charge, and not guilty as to part and guilty as to part of the specification. He was therefore sentenced to be placed in close confinement in some fortress of the United States, to be designated by the commanding officer of the department, there to be kept during the con tinuance of the war. General Burnside designated Fort Warren, Boston harbor. The case having been laid before the President, he changed the punishment by the following order : " WASHINGTON, May 19, 1863. "To MAJOR-GENERAL BURNSIDE, Commanding Department of the. Ohio. " SIR : The President directs that without delay you send C. L. Val- landigham, under secure guard, to the headquarters of General Rosecrans, to be put by him beyond our military lines, and in case of his return within our lines, he be arrested and kept in close custody for the term specified in his sentence. " By order of the President : "E. B. S. CANBY, Brigadier- General and A. A. G." This order was executed, and created great excitement among the mem bers of the peace party and their friends. These opponents of the admin istration professed to regard Yallandigham as a martyr, and they called public meetings, in which the action of the Government was denounced as tyrannical, and dangerous to the public liberties. One of these demonstra tions was held at Albany, on the 16th of May, the very day on which the finding of the court was announced, and Governor Seymour ad dressed a letter to the meeting, in which, referring to the arrest of Yal landigham, he said: "If this proceeding is approved by the Govern ment, and sanctioned by the people, it is not merely a step toward rev olutionit is revolution. It will not only lead to military despotism it establishes military despotism. In this aspect it must be accepted, or in this aspect rejected. * * * The people of this country now wait with the deepest anxiety the decision of the Administration upon these acts. Having given it a generous support in the conduct of the war, we pause to see what kind of a Government it is for which we are asked to pour out our blood and our treasure. The action of the Admin istration will determine in the minds of more than one half the people of the loyal States, whether this war is waged to put down Rebellion at the South, or destroy free institutions at the North." The meeting, which was engineered by the peace party, and thus stimulated to treasonable utterances by Horatio Seymour, adopted a series of resolutions, which, while pledg ing the Democratic party of the State to the preservation of the Union, THE PRESIDENTS PROPOSITIONS. 815 denounced in the Btrongest terms, the arrest of Yallandigham, and the whole system of arbitrary arrests, as well as the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and ordered the resolutions sent to President Lincoln. The President replied in a clear, logical and forcible letter, in which he overthrew all the sophistries of their resolutions, and did it in such a kindly and courteous spirit, as to leave them no ground of complaint. Governor Seymour had proved a false prophet in his predictions. The action of the military court was approved by the Government and sanc tioned by the people, yet there were no evidences of a revolution, no traces of any military despotism, and more than one-half of the people of the loyal States declared, at the first fitting opportunity, their convic tions that the arrest and punishment of the abettors of treason did not determine that the war was waged to put down free institutions in the North. But the " Peace party" had not yet exhausted their efforts to make political capital out of the arrest and punishment of Mr. Yallandigham. On the llth of June, at their State convention at Columbus, they nominated him for Governor of Ohio, and addressed to the President, through a com mittee, a letter inclosing their resolutions, and demanding peremptorily that the sentence against their candidate should be revoked, and he returned to Ohio. There was no use in reasoning with such people, and the President did not attempt it. He explained to them, however, that Mr. Yallan digham was not within his power; that he had gone to the society of his friends ; but proposed that if the committee, which was composed of the most prominent opponents of the Administration in each congressional dis trict, would on their part sign certain propositions, which he inclosed, he would interpose no objections to Mr. Yallandigham s return. The propo sitions were as follows : 1. " That there is now a Rebellion in the United States, the object and tendency of which is to destroy the national Union: and that, in your opinion, an army and navy are constitutional means for suppressing that Rebellion. 2. "That no one of you will do anything which, in his own judgment, will tend to hinder the increase, or favor the decrease, or lessen the effi ciency of the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to suppress that Rebellion; and 3. " That each of you will, in his sphere, do all he can to have the officers, soldiers, and seamen, of the army and navy, while engaged in the effort to suppress the Rebellion, paid, fed, clad, and otherwise well pro vided for and supported." To have signed these propositions would have been equivalent to avow ing their repentance for their past treasonable conduct, and promising to do justly hereafter, and as the committee had no desire to do this, and had no idea of becoming bondsmen for Yallandigham s future good conduct, inasmuch as they did not really wish his release, but sought to make po- 816 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. litical capital out of his arrest and punishment, they were greatly annoyed at the President s propositions, and sent a rejoinder so impertinent and discourteous, that self-respect forbade any reply on his part. The canvass for Governor of Ohio was very animated, and the " Peace party" used every possible means to carry the State, and boasted confi dently, that they should do so, but on the day of the election the op posing candidate, John Brough, had a majority of one hundred thousand votes over the treason-loving Vallandigham, and the advocates of peace-at- any-price were for the time paralyzed by their defeat. Vallandigham him self, after spending a short time among the Kebels, and having interviews with Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet, escaped to Canada, via Nassau, on a blockade- runner, and after some months residence, in Canada, where he was on terms of the closest intimacy with Sanders, Jacob Thompson, Bev erly Tucker, and other prominent southern leaders who were plotting for the injury of the Union, he escaped to Ohio on the 15th of June. Dur ing the period of his residence in Canada, as well as subsequently, his chosen friends and associates were employing their willing agents to make raids upon the towns and villages of the border, to murder and rob, to seize and burn steamers, to set on fire the largest buildings of New York and Philadelphia, to set at liberty the Eebel prisoners at Chicago, Indianapolis, and elsewhere, and arming them and their com rades, the Order of American Knights, to sack, plunder, and burn Chi cago, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati, planning the poisoning of the Croton water, which supplies New York city, and sending through Dr. Black burn, their packages of clothing carefully infected with yellow fever and small-pox, to be sold in the principal cities, to destroy by the pestilence those who had escaped from the flames and poisons they had prepared for them. That Mr. Vallandigham was privy to and an actor in some of these schemes of fiendish wickedness, there can be no doubt, and there is pre sumptive evidence that he was cognizant of the others. On his return to Ohio, he made two or three public speeches, breathing a spirit of defiance toward the President and the Government, and boast ing of the number and strength of those who were associated with him, and of the terrible things they would do if they were middled with. His prestige was gone, however, and thenceforward he remained quiet, until the meeting of the Democratic National Convention at Chicago, when he participated actively in the debates, and made several speeches outside of the convention ; but the response of its nominee for the Presidency not being sufficiently hostile to the war or the Government to please him, he took but little part in the canvass, and sunk almost immediately into merited obscurity. The peace party were not yet satisfied of their powerlessness. Through the campaigns of the battle-summer of 1864, every Union victory de pressed them, but every defeat or repulse of the national armies was PLATFORM OF THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. 817 bailed by them with rejoicing ; and when, as for a time in July and the latter part of August, there seemed to be but little progress made in sub duing the Rebels, and occasionally disasters occurred, like the defeat of Wallace at Monocacy, the repulse of Sherman s assault on Kenesaw, or the mismanagement of the Petersburg mine explosion, their orators at once proclaimed that the war was a failure, and that the Government must be driven into making offers of peace to the Rebels such as they would be willing to accept. They boasted that they would control the coming convention at Chicago, and that their nominee there would be carried into the Presidency by acclamation. The convention met on the 29th of August, 1864. Governor Seymour, of New York, was chosen its president, and in his opening address he in dicated his complete sympathy with the peace party. The platform adopted by the convention, as reported by Mr. Guthrie, of Kentucky, gave evidence also that the peace men were exerting a controlling influ ence in* its councils. It was as follows : " Resolved, That in the future, as in the past, we will adhere with un swerving fidelity to the Union under the Constitution as the only solid foundation of our strength, security, and happiness as a people, and as a framework of government equally conducive to the welfare and prosperity of all the States, both northern and southern. "Resolved, That this convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretence of a military necessity or war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired -justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare, demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States. "Resolved, That the direct interference of the military authorities of the United States in the recent elections held in Kentucky, Maryland, Mis souri, and Delaware,* was a shameful violation of the Constitution ; and repetition of such acts in the approaching election will be held as revo lutionary, and resisted with all the means and power under our control. "Resolved, That the aim and object of the Democratic party is to preserve the Federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired; and they hereby declare that they consider that the administrative usurpation of * This referred to the stationing of the military near the polls in these States, at their congresssional elections, to prevent open and avowed Rebels from voting, or in terfering with loyal voters. No violence, and no influence for or against any candi date, was attempted or permitted 52 818 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. extraordinary and dangerous powers not granted by the Constitution ; the subversion of the civil by military law in States not in insurrection ; the arbitrary military arrest, imprisonment, trial, and sentence of Ameri can citizens in States where civil law exists in full force ; the suppression of freedom of speech and of the press ; the denial of the right of asylum ; the open and avowed disregard of State rights; the employment of un usual test oaths ; and the interference with and denial of the right of the people to bear arms in their defence,* is calculated to prevent a restora tion of the Union, and the perpetuation of a government deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed. "Resolved, That the shameful disregard of the Administration to its duty in respect to our fellow citizens who now are, and long have been, prison ers of war in a suffering condition, deserves the severest reprobation, on the score alike of public policy and common humanity. "Resolved, That the sympathy of the Democratic party is heartily and earnestly extended to the soldiers of our army and the sailors of our navy, who are, and have been, in the field and on the sea, under the flag of their country ; and in the event of its attaining power, they will receive all the care, protection, and regard, that the brave soldiers and sailors of the Re public have so nobly earned." This platform adopted, as the deliberate expression of their views and position with reference to the Government and the Rebellion, they nomi nated General George B. McClellan for President, and George H. Pendle- ton, of Ohio, the friend and supporter of Yallandigham, for Vice President. It was the first instance in the history of the nation, in which one of the two great parties composing its voting population, had avowed its hostili ty in such bitter terms, not only to the existing administration, but to the conflict in which it was engaged for the maintenance of the nation s life ; and had the party gone before the people with this platform, pure and simple, as the only issue between them and the party of the Union, they would have been buried so deep in the scorn and contempt of the nation, that they would never have found a resurrection ; but they had, with sin ister purpose, while repudiating the war and calling it a failure, nomina ted for the Presidency a general who had once possessed a large degree of popularity, a little of which yet clung to him, in spite of his affiliations with the " Peace party ;" and he, fallen as he was from his former high estate, could not so entirely forget his old record as to put himself squarely upon such a platform ; eight days later, he addressed a letter to the committee of this convention, in which, while accepting the nomination, he, though in somewhat ambiguous language, repudiated the resolutions of the con- * In one or two disloyal districts in the border States, on conclusive evidence that they were engaged in bushwhacking, or furnishing arms, &c., to bushwhackers ana guerrillas, the houses of known sympathizers with the Rebels had been searched, and their arms taken fron them. EFFORTS AT NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. 819 vention, and especially those which demanded the immediate cessation of hostilities, and the offer of peace to the States in rebellion. Mr. Pendleton, of course, accepted the platform as it stood. Yet, while General McClel- lan s position in relation to the platform, and his former personal popu larity, served to complicate the issue, and gained many thousand more votes for the ticket than it would otherwise have received, the party were most thoroughly and terribly defeated at the polls, in November, 1864. The entire vote polled was 4,000,850, of which Mr. Lincoln had 2,203,831, and General McClellan 1,797,019; Mr. Lincoln s majority being 406,812 on the popular vote. In the Electoral College, McClellan s defeat was still more marked. Of the two hundred and thirty -four electoral votes, he received but twenty-one ; Kentucky, New Jersey, and Delaware alone choosing Democratic electors. Thus decisively did the people indicate their disapprobation of the peace party and its principles. It should be acknowledged that the capture of Atlanta by Sherman, the successful battle of Chaffm s Farm, near Richmond, and Sheridan s re peated defeats of Early in the Shenandoah valley, all of which occurred within a very few weeks after the adoption of the Chicago platform, and practically demonstrated its falsity, infused new courage into the hearts of the friends of the Government, and depressed, in a corresponding degree, the leaders of the peace party, but even without these, the popular heart was on the side of the Government and the hearty prosecution of the war. There is one topic in connection with the resolutions of the Chicago Convention, which merits further elucidation. We refer to the matter of negotiations looking toward peace between the United States Government and the States in rebellion. While maintaining firmly the. position that there could be no peace, except through the submission of the leaders of the Rebellion and the relinquishment of all hostile purposes on their part, President Lincoln had always shown himself ready to enter into negotia tions with any parties duly accredited, and bearing propositions which embraced such terms as he could rightfully consider. Three efforts, nei ther of them successful, were made to bring about such negotiations in the summer of 1864. The first in point of time, though the three were almost simultaneous, was a private mission on the part of Colonel Jaques of Illinois, and Mr. J. R. Gilmore of Boston, a litterateur of some note, who sought and obtained a safe conduct to Richmond, to endeavor to induce Jefferson Davis to propose negotiations with the Government, looking toward peace and a restoration of the Union. Davis declined, insisting that the recognition of southern independence was a necessary prelimi nary to any negotiations, and that Mr. Lincoln would not grant this. On the 4th of July, 1864, Alexander H. Stephens, then Vice President of the so-called Confederacy, sent to the admiral of the north Atlantic squadron a message, requesting permission to go Washington in the Rebel war 820 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. steamer Torpedo, to deliver a communication from Jefferson Davis. This request was denied, very properly, as the presence of the Rebel war steamer in the Potomac river at the national capital was objectionable, and in no respect necessary, the ordinary channels of communication being ample for the purpose desired. But the most noted of these attempts at opening negotiations, was that through Hon. Horace Greeley, of the New York Tribune, about the mid dle of July, 1864. Mr. Greeley, who, from principle as well as from his natural constitution, entertained a strong aversion to war, had repeatedly sought to arrest the conflict, at almost any cost, except that of relinquishing the emancipation of the slaves. "While at Niagara Falls, early in July, he had fallen in with an adventurer by the name of William Cornell Jewett, who had made repeated efforts to render himself conspicuous in connection with the war. Jewett persuaded Mr. Greeley that Clement C. Clay, Jr., of Alabama, Professor James P. llolcomb of Virginia, and George N. San ders, a notorious southern adventurer, who were at the Clifton House, on the Canada side of Niagara Falls, were duly accredited from Richmond, as bearers of propositions looking to the establishment of peace ; and, without waiting to ascertain the facts from them, Mr. Greeley wrote to Washington, asking to be authorized to grant them safe-conduct, should such be the case. To this the President consented, and having received a letter from Sanders, announcing the willingness of himself and compan ions to go to Washington, under complete and unqualified protection, Mr. Greeley addressed a letter to Messrs. Clay and Holcomb, including also Jacob Thompson, who, as it afterward appeared, was not with them at the time, in which he stated that he was informed that they were duly accredited as the bearers of propositions, &c., and that if so, he was authorized to tender them safe conduct, and to accompany them. Messrs. Clay and Holcomb replied that they had not been accredited for any such purpose, but as they were in the confidential employment of their Government, they did not doubt that upon making known the cir cumstances disclosed by his correspondence at Richmond, they would be invested with the necessary authority, or other gentlemen, clothed with full powers, would be sent immediately to Washington to enter upon the negotiations. Mr. Greeley felt it necessary to report to Washington, before granting a safe conduct to men not accredited by their Government ; and the President, not exactly satisfied with the way in which Mr. Greeley had managed the matter, despatched his private secretary, Major Hay, at once to Niagara Falls, with the following qualified safe-conduct, which lie was authorized to deliver to Mr. Holcomb, in Mr. Greeley s presence : " EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, July 18, 1864. " To whom it may concern : "Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integ rity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which REBEL PEACE COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED. 821 comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now at war against the United States, will be received and considered by the Execu tive Government of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points, and the bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe conduct both ways. "ABRAHAM LINCOLN." This conditional safe-conduct brought the pretensions of the soi-disant Confederate commissioners to the test, and as they well knew that they were not accredited with any authority, even to discuss these questions, and did not desire it, their object being to visit the capital, and while amusing the President with some pretended propositions, avail themselves of the opportunity to confer with their fellow conspirators there, they replied, with well feigned indignation, to the President s statement of the necessary qualifications for peace commissioners. They professed to think that it would bean indignity to Jefferson Davis to transmit to him these terms, and that it would bring down upon them the well-merited scorn of their country men. In the light of subsequent revelations of the character, designs, and purposes of these men, their virtuous indignation, though a very pretty piece of acting, seems to have been somewhat overdone. They were implicated in the most nefarious schemes against the govern ment and people of the United States, ever concocted by human do pravity; intended plans for burning, sacking, and plundering Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, and New York city ; the robberies and murders at St. Albans, Vermont; the seizure and piracy of the steamer Chesapeake; the distribution of the yellow fever and small-pox infection in Newbern, Washington, New York, and Philadelphia, and finally the assassination of the President, and the attempts upon the lives of the Vice President and Cabinet, were among the projects in which these amiable and virtuous gentlemen were engaged, either as principals or accessories. Time brings changes in opinions, as well as in persons. The propositions these men so indignantly repudiated, were, almost word for word, those which nine months later, the Rebel General Johnston, with the advice and approval of John C. Breckinridge, then Rebel Secretary of War, offered to General Sherman, at Durham station. The President of the United States was sincerely desirous of peace, if it could be obtained on terms which would not dishonor the nation. The nation was pledged to the unity of the States, and could not permit for a moment the recognition of the South, as a separate and independent gov ernment ; it was pledged also most solemnly to the emancipation of the slaves and the abandonment of slavery, and it could not yield this point. All else was, in Mr. Lincoln s mind, of comparatively slight moment; the amnesty of individuals, the restoration of power and authority to the South ; all else, indeed, except these two vital points, he was at this time 822 THE CIVIL WAK Itf THE UNITED STATES. willing to allow the party in rebellion to make almost their own terms for, but in relation to the two vital points, he was as immovable as the Rocky mountains. But there were other overtures for peace made by the Rebel Govern ment a few months later, when the consciousness of its speedy decadence had somewhat mollified the bitterness of its hostility to the North, the history of which may properly be given at this time. In the latter part of December, 1864, General Lee had informed Mr. Davis and his cabinet that unless extraordinary measures were adopted, or there should be some unexpected change in the condition of their affairs, it would be impos sible for the Confederacy to last six months longer ; and it is said that he privately urged upon Mr. Davis to make the best terms possible with the United States Government while they were in a condition to do so. Davis himself, opinionated, self-willed, and stubborn, was not much inclined to treat this advice with respect, but the Yice President (Mr. Stephens), Judge Campbell, and some of the members of the Cabinet, were deeply impressed by it. Intimations were sent to Francis P. Blair, senior, who had formerly been a personal friend of some of the magnates of Rich mond, requesting him to visit that city with reference to some nego tiations on the subject of peace. On Mr. Blair s application to President Lincoln for permission to go to Richmond and return, he was furnished with a pass for that purpose, but with the special stipulation that he should in no way treat with the Rebels in behalf of the Government. On his return, Mr. Blair brought a letter from Mr. Davis, dated Jan uary 12th, 1865, in which he stated that he was willing to enter into negotiations for the restoration of peace, that he would appoint a com missioner, "and renew the effort to enter into a conference, with a view to secure peace to the two countries" The intent of this artfully worded letter was, evidently, to entrap Mr. Lincoln, should he respond by the appointment of a commissioner, into the acknowledgment of the assumed independence of the rebellious Confederacy. The attempt failed. Mr. Lin coln s reply was as follows : " WASHINGTON, January 18th, 1865. " F. P. BLAIR, ESQ. Sir : You having shown me Mr. Davis s letter to you of the 12th instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall continue, ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential person now resisting the national authority may in formally send me, with a view of securing peace to the people of our com mon country. Yours, etc., A. LINCOLN." Mr. Blah returned to Richmond with this letter, and Mr. A. H. Ste phens, then Yice President of the Rebel Government, being consulted upon the subject, most earnestly advised a conference, but thought the parties to it should be Mr. Davis and President Lincoln, and that the THE CONFERENCE AT HAMPTON ROADS. 823 utmost secrecy should be maintained, Generals Grant and Lee alone being cognizant of the interview. This advice was not followed, but Davis appointed Stephens, B. M. T. Hunter, senator in the Rebel Con gress, and a former member of Davis s cabinet, and Judge Campbell, then Assistant Secretary of War in the Rebel war department, as commissioners. Stephens and Campbell were known to be in favor of peace and conces sion, and Davis was desirous of throwing the odium of any failure on them ; while Hunter sympathized fully with Davis, and would make no concessions. The commissioners, however, decided to go, and applied through General Grant to the national Government for permission to enter the Union lines as quasi commissioners from the Eebel Government to confer informally with the President at Washington, in order to ascer tain upon what terms the war could be terminated honorably. Permission was granted, with the understanding that the parties named were not to be allowed to land, a fact which caused much annoyance to the Rebel com missioners, who were very desirous of visiting Washington. They were furnished quarters on board a steamer anchored in Hampton Roads, off Fortress Monroe, and the Secretary of State was sent by the President to meet them, with the following instructions : " EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 3d, L865. "IIo*. WILLIAM H. SEWAKD, Secretary of State. "You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and in for mally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq. of January 18th, 1865, a copy of which you have. You will make known to them that three things are indispen sable, to wit : "First. The restoration of the National authority throughout all the States ; Second. No receding by the Executive of the United Statesman the slavery question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message to Con gress, and in the preceding documents ; " Third. No cessation of hostilities short of the end of the war, and the disband, ing of all the forces hostile to the Government. " You will inform them that all propositions of theirs, not inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all they may choose to say and repeat it to me. You will not assume definitely to consummate any thing. "Yours, etc., A. LINCOLN." The next morning, February 1st, in order to prevent any attempt at trickery by the Rebels, the President sent a cipher despatch to General Grant, informing him that nothing then transpiring was to " change, hinder or delay" any of his military movements or plans. In reply, General Grant intimated to Secretary Stanton, that it might be as Well if the Presi dent oould be personally present at the conference, as he believed that the 824 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. commissioners were sincerely desirous to restore peace and union. Mr. Lincoln hereupon telegraphed to Secretary Seward : " Induced by a despatch from General Grant, I join you at Fortress Monroe as soon as I can come," and to General Grant : Say to the gentlemen, that I will meet them per sonally at Fortress Monroe, as soon as I can get there." The conference, however, accomplished nothing. The commissioners, though, as we have intimated, two of them were personally desirous of peace with such concessions as might have effected it, were bound by their instructions from Davis, and at the outset and throughout the conference, declared their entire lack of authority to make, receive, or consider any propositions whatever looking toward a close of the war, except on the basis of a recognition of the independence of the Confederate States as a preliminary condition. The President presented the subject to them in every conceivable form, suggesting the most liberal and considerate modi fications of whatever, in the existing legislation of the United States Government, might be regarded as specially hostile to the rights and interests, or wounding to the pride of the southern people, even going so far as to intimate that by a concession at that time, they might secure a fair compensation from the Government for the emancipated slaves ; but the commissioners plead that their instructions were peremptory, that they could not swerve a hair s breadth from their demand for recognition^ There could of course under the circumstances be no negotiation, for the recognition of their independence could not be thought of for a moment by the President, and the parties separated, distinctly understanding that the attitude of each Government was not in the slightest degree affected or changed by the conference. Davis, in a special message to his Congress, attempted to make capital out of the failure of this conference, whose discussions he misrepresented, but the attempt proved futile. The questions at issue were now left to the stern arbitrament of war, and were quickly decided. THE NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. 825 CHAPTER LXV. TUB NAVY OF THK UNITED STATES AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR ITS INADEQUACY FOR THE WORK TO BE DONE THE DUTY REQUIRED OF THE NAVY THE PURCHASK AND CONSTRUCTION OF VESSELS FOR THE NAVY THE NUMBER, CHARACTER, AND ARMAMKNT OF THK VESSELS OF THE NAVY DURING THE WAR AND AT ITS CLOSE THE IRON-CLADS PREF- KRENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE MONITORS THEIR EFFICIENCY IN NA^IL BATTLES THE RIVER IRON-CLADS, TURTLE-BACKS AND TIN-CLADS WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED BY THE RIVER SQUADRONS THE WORK OF THE BLOCKADERS OF THE ATLANTIC COAST TUB REBEL NAVY STOLEN VESSELS THEIR PRIVATEERS THEIR IRON-CLADS FATE OF THEIR VESSELS THE ANGLO-REBEL PRIVATEERS THEIR NAMES AND CHARACTER THE ATTEMPTS TO BUILD ARMED SHIPS FOR THE REBELS IN ENGLAND AND FRANCE THEIR FAILURE THE HISTORY OF THE ALABAMA HER PERFIDIOUS ATTACK ON THE HATTERAS SHE ENTERS TUB PORT OF CHERBOURG, AND FINDING ESCAPE WITHOUT A FIGHT IMPOSSIBLE, HER COM MANDER CHALLENGES THE KEARSARGE TO A BATTLE THE COMPARATIVE SIZE, ARMAMENT AND CRF.W OF THE TWO VESSELS, AND THEIR MEANS OF RESISTANCE CAPTAIN SEMMKS* " PREPARATIONS" THE DEERHOUND THE BATTLE DESPICABLE CONDUCT OF THE OWNER OF THE DEERHOUND SEMMES RECEIVES OVATIONS RAGE OF THE ENGLISH AT THE SINK ING OF THE ALABAMA CAUSES OF IT THE CAPTURE OF THE GEORGIA HISTORY OF THK FLORIDA HER CAPTURE COMMANDER COLLINS CENSURABLE FOR SEIZING HER IN A NEU TRAL PORT ACTION OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BRAZIL SATISFIED LIEU TENANT REED S ADVENTURES AS A PIRATE CAPTURING FISHING SMACKS AND COASTERS CUTTING OUT THE CUSHING CAPTURE OF THE LIEUTENANT AND HIS CREW THE SEIZURK OF THE CHESAPEAKE HER RE-CAPTURE CAREER OF THE TALLAHASSEE, THE OLUSTEE AND THE CHICKAMAUGA THE SHENANDOAH AND HER PIRACIES SHE COMES TO LIVERPOOL AND DELIVERS HERSELF UP TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT COURSE ADOPTED BY THAT GOVERN MENT THE CAREER OF THE STONEWALL OR OLINDE HER SURRENDER TO THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT AND FINAL TRANSFER TO THE UNITED STATES LOSSES OF THE MERCANTILE MARINE BY THE REBEL CRUISERS. WHEN the war commenced, the United States navy was almost power less to aid in the conflict. It had been for nearly fifty years on a peace footing, and was far below that of other commercial powers in the number and armament of its ships. Mr. Buchanan s Secretary of the Navy, sym pathizing fully with the Rebels in their schemes of secession, had sent all the best vessels to the Pacific or Indian oceans, on one errand or another, and of those that remained, several were destroyed at the burning of the Navy Yard at Portsmouth, Virginia ; and others were out of commission, and required extensive repairs. Only forty -two vessels of all sizes and qualities were found to be in a serviceable condition, or capable of being made so, and only sixty-nine were in existence, including ships upon the stocks, receiving ships, tenders, school ships, &c. After deducting those which must be kept on foreign stations, and the receiving ships, tenders, store ships, &c., there remained but little more than a dozen, and some of them of small size and armament, for all the service which would be 826 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. required of them. There was a blockade to be maintained along four thousand miles of coast ; forts were to be attacked; naval battles fought with such ships as the Eebels might be able to purchase or build ; and the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans to be cruised over, in pursuit of the privateers which bore the Rebel commission, though they never had entered a Rebel port. Of course, more vessels, many more, were needed, and needed at once. The blockade, once proclaimed, must be enforced with rigor, or it would not be recognized ; the national flag must be maintained in foreign seas, even if not with a full squadron, at least with one or two ships ; and the cruisers of the Union must be constantly on the alert. Then, too, England and France had their iron-clads ; and the Rebels were known to be exerting their energies to build armed ships for their own warfare, and the United States Government could not afford to be behind other nations in such provision for offensive and defensive naval warfare. The Secretary of the Navy, while ordering as much force as possible to be employed in building and fitting out war vessels in the government Navy Yard, and contracting with responsible private builders for iron clads and other war vessels, found it necessary to purchase, for blockading purposes, as many steam ships and sailing vessels as could be found adapted to his purpose ; and fitting them up as rapidly as possible, put them at once in commission. The greater part of the vessels thus pur chased, (one hundred and thirty-seven were bought during the year 1861,) proved to be staunch and efficient vessels ; some of them, at the close of the war, bringing more than their original cost, at auction ; a few were bad bargains, not generally from the negligence or connivance of the pur chasing agents, but from the fraudulent misrepresentations of the sellers. Beside the one hundred and thirty-seven purchased, fifty-two steamers, three of them iron-clads, were built during the year 1861, at a cost exceed ing ten millions of dollars. At the close of 1862, there were, including the river fleets, four hundred and twenty-seven vessels in commission. At the close of 1863, the number was five hundred and eighty-eight, of which forty-six were iron-clads for sea service ; twenty-nine, iron-clads for lake and river service ; two hundred and three, side- wheel steamers ; one hundred and ninety-eight, screw steamers ; and one hundred and twelve, sailing vessels. On the 10th of March, 1865, the number of vessels in commission was six hundred and eighty -three ; of these, seventy-one were iron-clads, four of them of the first class, or over thirty-three hundred tons ; six, including the Puritan and Dictator, of the second class, or from two thousand to thirty-three hundred tons; six, third rates, from twelve hun dred to two thousand tons ; and fifty-five, fourth rates, or under twelve hundred tons. Beside the iron-clads, one hundred and seventy-seven steam vessels had been built for the navy, and three hundred and twenty- three steamers, and a considerable number of sailing vessels, had been THE DUTY REQUIRED OF THE NAVY. 82T purchased or captured. This formidable navy carried four thousand seven hundred guns, a large proportion of them eleven and fifteen inch smooth bores and one hundred and two hundred pound rifles, making the weight of metal on their armament greater than that of any other navy in the world. This navy had cost for its construction and purchase over two hundred millions of dollars. After the close of the war most of the purchased vessels, and some others, were sold, those already built and building being sufficient for its service. The Secretary of the Navy had early perceived the necessity of constructing armored ships for the new exigencies of naval warfare, and though Congress, at first, was reluctant to appropriate money for this purpose, he succeeded in obtaining the means for building three during the first session of Congress, after the inception of the war. Of these, one, the first monitor, built on a plan entirely origi nal, and differing in all respects from any war vessel afloat, yet proved of the greatest possible service. Sent to Fortress Monroe on its first trip, it arrived just in time to defeat and drive back the monster Rebel iron clad, Virginia or Merrimac, and save the steamship Minnesota from the fate which had befallen the Congress and Cumberland the day before. The Galena, another of the three, proved less serviceable, her armor being less complete ; while the third, the New Ironsides, a ship of the line, pro tected by armor amidships, and firing its heavy armament in broadside, was not completed till several months later ; but performed valuable ser vice in the South Atlantic Gulf Squadron, and the bombardment of the forts in Charleston Harbor. There was no subsequent difficulty in ob taining appropriations for iron-clad ships, and the department ordered the construction of large numbers, and of various designs, giving the prefer ence to the monitors with such modifications as experience suggested ; though ordering some broadside ships. Of the latter, the Dunderberg was the largest and most costly, but was not completed till the close of the war. The Puritan and Dictator were gigantic monitors with two turrets, defended by iron plate bearing an aggregate thickness of twelve inches, and possessing excellent sea-going qualities. Other of the monitors, as for example, the Monadnock, possessed buoyancy and speed even in a rough sea ; but some of them failed in these particulars. In the earlier vessels there was defective ventilation, especially for hot climates, and other errors of construction, which were remedied when discovered. A class of light draught monitors, ordered in the latter part of the war, proved nearly worthless. Several of the older officers were prejudiced against the monitors from their novelty of structure, and could not be fully convinced of their good qualities. The earlier naval battles of the war were mostly fought with wooden vessels, as for instance, that of Roanoke Island, the capture of Port Royal and the Rebel forts, and the siege and passing of the forts on the Mississippi below New Orleans ; though, in the latter case, the Union fleet encountered 828 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Rebel armored ships and destroyed them. But in the attack on Fort McAllister, the repeated bombardment of the forts in Charleston Harbor, and the naval battle at the entrance of Mobile Bay, the monitors and other iron-clads took an active part, and in most cases with excellent effect. The armored vessels on the great western rivers were not, with one or two exceptions, monitors, but, as they were generally called, turtle-backs having a casemate heavily plated with iron, extending amidships, and protecting their machinery, as well as their guns. Those first built were not plated with more than two and a half or three inches of iron, and their armor was occasionally penetrated. Those built subsequently were generally better protected, though the light draft iron-clads, intended for the smaller rivers, were only covered with a light armor, sufficient to protect them from rifle balls, and the lightest artillery, and were popularly distinguished as tin dads. The armored river steamers were very efficient, and proved of great service throughout the war. Fort Henry was cap tured by them ; they rendered essential aid in the reduction of Fort Donel- son, and contributed to the fall of Nashville, and the restoration of the towns along the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers to Union authority. Island Number Ten was reduced, partly through their efforts, and Mem phis was captured by them alone ; at Shiloh, their bombardment of the enemy turned the scale from defeat to victory ; at Vicksburg and Grand Gulf, at Port Hudson and Baton Rouge, though not immediately success ful, they contributed largely to the success of the land forces. At Arkan sas Post, their bombardment aided materially in compelling a surrender, The Red river, the Arkansas, the Atchafalaya, and the other navigable waters of Louisiana, were frequent witnesses of their prowess; at Helena, at Milliken s Bend, and at Doualdsonville, they gained decisive victories over the Rebel land forces. At Nashville, in December 1864, and on the Tennessee, during the preceding spring and summer, they prevented the passage of the enemy, and silenced his batteries. On the Atlantic coast and its bays and rivers, the blockading squadron, except at Charleston, had been for the most part wooden vessels, and these had, at one point or another of the extended coast line, been almost constantly engaged in conflict, and won a high reputation for daring and skill, in both offensive and defensive warfare. The Rebels had comparatively few war vessels built or fitted up by themselves. At the commencement of the war they seized several revenue cutters and ocean and river steamers, which they converted into war vessels. Most of these were not well adapted to privateering, and nearly all of them were soon destroyed. The Lewis Cass, Dana, and Dodge, small coast survey or revenue steamers, did not go to sea, and were captured or blown up by the enemy. The Star of the West, originally an ocean Bteamer on the New York and New Orleans route, was seized, but used mainly as a blockade runner. The Sumter, originally a Mexican war THE REBEL NAVY. 829 steamer, under the name of the Marquis de ITabana, belonging to the Mexican General Miramon, and captured by the United States vessels, was seized by the Rebels at New Orleans, and converted into a steam sloop-of- war. This was the most successful and formidable of any of their vessels which sailed from an American port, making many captures of merchant vessels, but avoiding carefully all the Union cruisers. She attempted, on the 31st of August, 1863, after a career of two years, to run into Charleston, but was sunk in the harbor. The Jefferson Davis, a small ocean steamer, which, in a short career of two months, had done considerable mischief, was wrecked on St. Augustine bar, Florida. The Nashville, after a brief experience as a privateer, became a blockade runner. The Petrel, the Judith, and the Beauregard, all small river steamers, were captured or destroyed in the summer and autu-mn of 1861. The gunboats and iron clads built or fitted up on the western rivers, or on the eastern river ports, had invariably a very brief career, and no one of them ever succeeded in getting out to sea, though many attempted it. The Louisiana and Manassas, two iron rams built on the Mississippi, were destroyed in Admiral Farragut s great naval battle, near Fort Jackson. The Merrimac or Virginia, was blown up in Hampton Roads, and her consorts, the Rich mond and Jamestown, were never able to accomplish any mischief, but were destroyed, when Richmond surrendered, as was another iron-clad which had been long in preparation ; the Rebel squadron at Port Royal was destroyed when the forts were taken, and that at Charleston, only sufficed for an occasional fright to the wooden vessels of the blockading squadron. The Fingal or Atlanta, was captured below Savannah after an action of fifteen minutes, and two iron-clad rams and three gunboats blown up or sunk when Savannah was taken. The Tennessee was captured at the naval battle at the entrance of Mobile Bay, as well as one of the gun boats, and of the others, one was destroyed and the other escaped to Mobile, where that and six or eight more were surrendered, when the city was captured. The Arkansas was blown up and sunk by Commodore Porter s shells, and of the fifteen or twenty more on the waters of the Yazoo, Mississippi, Red, Atchafalaya and Teche rivers, every one came to grief. The Albemarle, after a single foray on the Union fleet in Albemarle sound, was so much crippled by the Sassacus, that she never ventured out again, and in October, 1864, was blown up by Lieutenant Gushing. Finding that they were not making much headway against the formid able Union navy, and appreciating the necessity of preying upon the commerce of the Union, as an effectual means of impairing the national strength, the Rebel President issued, at an early day, letters of marque and reprisal, commissioning privateers from the ships of other nations to assail the commerce of the United States. This measure, at the best only a legalized piracy, had been abolished by the principal nations of Europe o far as their wars with each other might extend, from a conviction of 830 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. its piratical character ; but it was specially piratical in an insurgent party where there were no ports accessible, into which its prizes could be taken, and no court before which they could be condemned and adjudicated. But notwithstanding these disabilities, the British Government had made haste to recognize them as belligerents, and among the large ship builders of Liverpool, they found no difficulty in procuring the construc tion of steamers, swift, easily handled, and capable of carrying a formidable armament, which they might arm and equip for cruising the ocean as privateers without their having ever entered a port of the insurgent territory. The Alabama was the first of these private ships, built and fitted out in an English port, by Laird & Sons, English shipbuilders, armed with British guns, manned with British seamen, and supplied with stores and ammunition by British subjects. The British Government was warned, by the American minister and consul, of the character of this vessel, and her purpose, but the British laws prohibiting the building and equipping a war vessel against a friendly power were too imperfect, or the administration of them too lax, to prevent her from slipping out of the port of Liverpool, on her errand of rapine and plunder, without any effort on the part of the British Government to arrest her. The United States Government repeatedly remonstrated with that of Great Britain for its disregard or neglect of the rights of a friendly nation, and its prompt assistance to the insurgents, whom, with unbecoming haste, and in violation of national etiquette and good faith, it had elevated to the rank of belligerents, and apprized that government in temperate lan guage that it should, at the proper time, press its claims for remuneration for the damages done to its commerce by the Alabama, and the other vessels which had been fitted out in British ports for these piratical pur poses. At first this demand was treated with contempt, then with threats of defiance, and finally, as its justice became too evident for denial, with a somewhat sullen consideration, but without any promise of redress ; but the end has not yet come, and it will eventually, probably be submitted to arbitration and the award be accepted, though reluctantly, by the British Government. The Alabama, being successful in her purpose, was followed by several other British built vessels, constructed as gunboats, with the design of driving from the seas the American mercantile marine. The Florida or Oreto, the Rappahannock, the Tallahassee, and the Shenandoah, as well as the Georgia, originally a British blockade runner, were also products of British skill. Laird & Sons, the Liverpool shipwrights, elated by their success, undertook to build another gunboat on the model of the Alabama, and two iron-clad rams of great power for the Rebels, which they hoped might be able to enter and destroy some of the American seaports. The British Government thought this was going a little too far, and finding that the navigation laws of the realm were capable of easy evasion the rams were seized, and though a decision was made against THE REBEL STEAMER ALABAMA. 831 the Government on technical grounds, the matter was finally settled by the purchase of the rams for the British navy. The French Government, at the same time, interposed to prevent the furnishing to the Rebels of two iron-clad rams, building for them by Armand, a French ship builder. These Armand ships were subsequently sold to the Danish Government, but one of them, proving unfit for their use, was returned upon the builder and, by some trickery, came into the possession of the Rebels, though too late to be of service to them. Let us now trace, briefly, the history of the English built, or as we might appropriately name them, the Anglo-Rebel privateers. The Alabama left Liverpool on the 29th of July, 1862, and though occasionally calling in at British colonial ports for supplies and coal, or to land its prisoners, was kept afloat most of the time for two years. During this period it com mitted serious havoc with the American commerce, having captured, plundered, and boarded or burned more than sixty merchant ships, destroying or stealing property to the amount of nearly seven millions of dollars. She carefully avoided, and by her great speed, succeeded in escaping from collisions with American war vessels, preferring to plunder the weak and defenceless, rather than to fight a vessel which was her match in size, crew, and armament. She had, indeed, attacked the gun boat Hatteras off Galveston, a vessel decidedly her inferior, but it was done with a perfidy in keeping with her entire career ; she hoisted English colors, and on being hailed, professed to be her majesty s ship Petrel, and invited an approach ; the Hatteras, unsuspicious of the deception, came nearer, and when she was sufficiently near and in position to be raked by it, the Alabama poured in a full broadside without warning, which sunk her almost immediately. The United States cruisers had sought for this piratical craft in every sea, and more than once had drawn so near to her in some of the foreign ports, that but for the provision which kept them from pursuing her for twenty-four hours after she left the port, they would have ended her career. A time finally came when she could no longer escape their pursuit. Early in June, 1864:, the Alabama put into the port of Cherbourg, France, asking the privilege of refitting there. The Kearsarge, an American steam sloop of war, ranking as a third rate, built in the first year of the war, and very nearly a match for the Alabama, though slightly inferior in size, tonnage, and the number of her guns, had been following the Ala bama for nearly a year most persistently, her commmander, Captain (now Commodore) John A. "Winslow, being determined if possible to bring the pirate to bay. On learning that the Alabama was at Cherbourg, Captain Winslow sailed at once for that port, and arrived there on the 14th of June. The commander of the Alabama, Captain Raphael Semmes, found him eelf cornered, and believing that a fight was inevitable, and that by adding 832 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. to his crew he would be an overmatch for the Kearsarge, resolved to put a bold face upon the matter, and accordingly sent a request to Captain Winslow "that he would not leave the port, as he would in a day or two, as soon as he could make the necessary preparations, come out of the harbor and fight him." Captain Winslow had no intention of leaving the port so long as the Alabama remained there, so he quietly waited for "the preparations " to be completed. These, which occupied five days, con sisted mainly in sending onshore his valuables, including upward of sixty chronometers, taken from American merchant ships, and in receiving from England trained gunners from her majesty s ship Excellent, officers and men, to serve his guns. The Deerhound, a steel vessel belonging to the royal yacht squadron, the property of a Mr. John Lancaster, arrived during this time, and acted as a tender to the Alabama, both before and after the engagement. The Alabama had been put in good repair during her stay at Cherbourg, and had taken in her supply of coal, three hundred and fifty tons, and her coal bunkers being between the frame and the ma chinery of the ship, protected the engines, boilers, and steam chest ; to this also the weight of the coal, which brought her low down in the water, contributed. The Kearsarge being light, stopped her chain cables up and down her sides, amidship, to partially protect her engines and boilers from the enemy s shot. The two vessels as we have said were nearly matched, though the Alabama had a slight advantage; her dimensions were, length over all, two hundred and twenty feet; lengthon the water line, two hun dred and ten feet; breadth of beam, thir ty- two feet ; depth, seventeen feet; she had two engines of three hundred horse-power each ; her tonnage was one thousand one hundred and fifty tons, she carried eight guns, one one hundred and ten pounder Blakely rifle, and one sixty-eight pounder English navy gun, which the British admiralty had not long before pronounced the best gun in existence for naval warfare, and six thirty- two pounders. The crew of the Alabama, including their additions just before the engagement, must have numbered about one hundred and sixty. The dimensions of the Kearsarge were, length over all, two hundred and fourteen and a quarter feet ; length on water line, one hundred and ninety- eight and a half feet ; breadth of beam, thirty-three feet ; depth sixteen feet ; horse-power, two engines of one thousand horse power each ; tonnage, one thousand and thirty-one tons. The armament of the Kearsarge was two eleven inch smooth bore guns, (Dahlgren) ; one thirty pounder rifle ; four thirty-two pounders. Her crew numbered one hundred and sixty-two men. Early in the morning of Sunday, June 19, 1864, the Alabama was ob served making preparations to cast loose from her moorings, with the evident design of putting out to sea. Hereupon, the Deerhound steamed up and left Cherbourg at nine A. M. An hour and a half later, the Ala bama followed, and the French iron-clad Couronne moved out and took a THE KEARSARGE AND ALABAMA. 833 position three miles from shore, to prevent fighting in neutral waters Captain Winslow, perceiving these movements, headed the Kearsarga seaward, and steamed out till he had attained a point about seven miles from the shore, the Alabama following in his wake, at a distance of about a mile and a half. The head of the Kearsarge was now turned short around, and the ship steered directly for the Alabama, Captain Winslow s purpose being to run her down, or, if circumstances should not warrant it, to close in with her. We can hardly do better than to allow the gallant captain of the Kear sarge to relate the story of the engagement in his own graphic words, every point being abundantly verified by the testimony of eye witnesses : " Hardly had the Kearsarge come round before the Alabama sheered, presented her starboard battery, and slowed her engines. On approach ing her at long range of about a mile, she opened her full broadside, the shot cutting some of our rigging and going over and alongside of us. " Immediately I ordered more speed ; but in two minutes the Alabama had loaded and again fired another broadside, and following it with a third, without damaging us except in rigging. " We had now arrived within about nine hundred yards of her, and I was apprehensive that another broadside nearly raking as it was would prove disastrous. Accordingly, I ordered the Kearsarge sheered, and opened on the Alabama. The position of the vessels was now broadside and broadside ; but it was soon apparent that Captain Semmes did not seek close action. I became then fearful, lest after some fighting, he would again make for the shore. To defeat this, I determined to keep full speed on, and with a port helm to run under the stern of the Alabama and rake her, if he did not prevent it by sheering and keeping his broad side to us. He adopted this mode as a preventive, and, as a consequence, the Alabama was forced with a full head of steam into a circular track during the engagement. The effect of this manceuvre was such that, at the last of the action, when the Alabama would have made off, she was near five miles from the shore ; and had the action continued from the first in parallel lines, with her head in shore, the line of jurisdiction would no doubt have been reached. The firing of the Alabama at the first was rapid and wild ; toward the close of the action her firing became better. Our men, who had been cautioned against rapid firing without direct aim, were much more deliberate ; and the instructions given to point the heavy guns below rather than above the water-line, and clear the deck with the lighter ones, was fully observed. " I had endeavored, with a port helm, to close in with the Alabama ; but it was not until just before the close of the action, that we were in position to use grape. This was avoided, however, by her surrender. The effect of the training of our men was evident ; nearly every shot from 53 834 THE CTYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. our guns was telling fearfully on the Alabama, and on the seventh rota tion on the circular track she winded, setting for etry sail and two jibs, with head in shore. Her speed was now retarded, and by winding, her port broadside was presented to us, with only two guns bearing, not having been able, as I learned afterward, to shift over but one. I saw now that she was at our mercy, and a few more guns well directed brought down her flag. I was unable to ascertain whether it had been hauled down or shot away ; but a white flag having been displayed over the stern, our fire was reserved. Two minutes had not more than elapsed before she again opened on us with the two guns on the port side. This drew our fire again, and the Kearsarge was immediately steamed ahead and laid across her bows for raking. The white flag was still flying, and our fire was again reserved. Shortly after this, her boats were seen to be lowering, and an officer, in one of them, came alongside, and informed us the ship had surrendered, and was fast sinking. In twenty minutes from this time the Alabama went down, her mainmast, which had been shot, breaking near the head as she sunk, and her bow rising high out of the water as her stern rapidly settled. " The fire of the Alabama, although it is stated she discharged three hundred and seventy or more shell and shot, was not of serious damage to the Kearsarge. " Some thirteen or fourteen of these had taken effect in and about the hull, and sixteen or seventeen about the masts and rigging. The casual ties were small, only three persons having been wounded ; yet it is a matter of surprise that so few were injured, considering the number of projectiles that came abroad. Two shot passed through the ports in which the thirty-twos were placed, with men thickly stationed around them, one taking effect in the hammock netting, and the other going through the port on the opposite side, yet no one was hit, the captain of one of the guns being only knocked down by the wind of the shot, as supposed. " The fire of the Kearsarge, although only one hundred and seventy- three projectiles had been discharged, according to the prisoners accounts, was terrific. One shot alone had killed and wounded eighteen men and disabled a gun. Another had entered the coal-bunkers, exploding, and completely blocking up the engine-room ; and Captain Semmes states that shot and shell had taken effect in the sides of his vessel, tearing large holes by explosion, and his men were everywhere knocked down." The boats of the Kearsarge were at once lowered to endeavor to save the crew of the Alabama from drowning, and the Deerhound coming up, Captain Winslow, supposing her to be a neutral, requested her to aid in picking up the drowning men. Her owner complied with the request, picking up forty-one men, and Semmes among them ; but having rescued them, he bore off at once for the English shore, where he landed them, and where Semmes was received with the honors due to a conqueror THE REBEL SEMMES RECEIVES OVATIONS. 835 ovations being tendered to him, and sympathy for his misfortune, all of which he accepted with great complacency. Such was the neutrality of Great Britain ! Captain Winslow, having rescued seventy of the crew of the Alabama, three of whom died of their wounds, returned to Cherbourg, where the wounded were placed in hospital, and the uninjured paroled, as he had no place in which he could, confine them. Semmes soon after returned, on a blockade runner, to the South, where he was put in com mand of a naval brigade, and was connected with Johnston s army at the time of the surrender. The casualties on the Alabama were probably about forty-eight killed or drowned, and fifteen wounded, who were saved by Captain Winslow. Great efforts were made by sympathizers with the Rebels in Great Britain to excite sympathy for the Alabama and its commander and crew by the grossest misrepresentations in regard to the size, armament, crew ; and management of the Kearsarge, but these were very thoroughly and completely refuted by Mr. Frederick Milnes Edge, who investigated with great care all the circumstances of the engagement, taking the testimony of the crews of both vessels and the statements of those who were spectators of the fight, and published the result of his examination in a pamphlet, which was extensively circulated. The loss of the Alabama was a serious blow to the Eebel cause, for though perhaps the ships she had captured gave up no portion of their spoil to the Rebel Government, yet it was much, that they had been able to drive a large proportion of the mercantile marine of the United States to seek protection under a foreign register and flag. But the blow was felt still more severely in Great Britain, where a large section of the nobility, the greater part of the army and navy officers, and most of the commercial class, were sympathizers with the Rebellion. The Alabama, as an English built ship, armed and equipped in England, and having an almost exclu sively British crew, was, they felt, their representative in the cause of the Rebellion, and their rage knew no bounds, when, after an hour s fight, the Kearsarge, her inferior in every respect, except in the weight of metal and admirable service of her large guns, sent her to the bottom of the channel, herself receiving such slight injuries as to be ready for further naval battles the next day. The rejoicing in the United States over the destruction of the Alabama was not over when news came that the Georgia or Japan, (most of these Anglo-Rebel priva^ers had an alias,) had been captured by Commander T. T. Craven of the United States steamer Niagara. This steamer, after a not remarkably successful career, as a privateer, had been nominally (perhaps realli-) sold to English parties, as a merchant vessel, but as she was, under international law, open to capture and condemnation as lawful prize of war, she was pursued by the Niagara, and captured off the coast 836 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. of Portugal. The officers and crew then on board, not being implicated in privateering, were set at liberty. The Florida or Oreto, another of the Eebel privateers, built, manned, and equipped in Great Britain, had succeeded once in running the blockade of Mobile harbor and entered that port, from which she soon after made her escape, to enter upon a course of piracy, more marked, though perhaps not quite as destructive, as that of the Alabama. Her commander, Capt J. N. Maffitt, had been an officer of the United States navy, but had failed to acquire there that high sense of honor, which should and generally does characterize the officers of the navy. His career during the two years in which he was in command of the Florida, was one of falsehood, petty tyranny and theft. In the summer of 1864, he left the vessel in Europe, and a Captain Morris was put in command of her ; a large part of her depredations had consisted in seizing, plundering, and burning small fishing vessels off the eastern coast of the United States, a class of vessels always previously left untouched by privateers, or the legitimate navy of contending powers, as being engaged in a calling which did not minister to the maintenance of war. After a few more seizures of this kind, the Florida, under her new captain, sailed for the South American coast, probably with the intention of effecting the destruction of the seal fishing and whaling fleet. On the 5th of October, 1864, she put into the Brazilian port of Bahia for some repairs, and at firs-t lay in the offing, the Wachusett, a United States sloop-of-war, being at the time in the harbor. The Bra zilian local authorities were very cordial to the Eebel ship, and invited her to come up to the harbor, though the United States Consul, Mr. Wilson protested against it. Early in the morning of the 7th of October, the Wachusett shipped her cables, and ran down upon the Florida under full force of steam, with the intention of crushing in her side and sinking her. She failed, however, to strike her amidships, but hit her in the stern and carried away her mizzen mast and mainyard. About one half of the Kebel crew were on shore, and the remainder were entirely unprepared for such an attack. There was, after the collision, some pistol shooting, but without effect, and Commander Collins called out to the lieutenant in command of the Florida, " Surrender, or I will blow you out of water." The lieutenant replied, " Under the circumstances, I surrender." The Wachusett s crew immediately boarded the Kebel steamer, made her fast to their own vessel, with a hawser, and turning their course seaward, towed her out. of the harbor at full speed, passing between the Brazilian war vessels in their passage. These challenged the two vessels, but received no reply, and opened upon them with the guns of the fort, but without effect ; the Brazilian naval commander immediately sent out two vessels of his fleet in pursuit, but they could not overtake the fleet Wachu sett, and she brought her prize in safety to Hampton Koads, where, how ever, it soon sank, from a leak which was said to have been increased by LIEUTENANT REED S ADVENTURE AS A PIRATE. 837 an accidental collision with a war transport. The conduct of Commander Collins in this matter, though prompted by patriotic motives, was liable to censure, for though the Florida was entitled to no consideration in the matter, yet respect was due to Brazil as a neutral power. The Govern ment of the United States, when the matter was brought to their cogni zance by the Brazilian minister, promptly suspended Commander Collins, and tried him before a court-martial, (which however, did not pass a very severe sentence upon him), and removed the Consul, who, it appeared, had counselled the attack. They also offered to salute the Brazilian flag and let the captured crew of the Florida at liberty i a foreign port ; at the same time the Secretary of State administered to the Brazilian Government a sharp reproof for her recognition of the Kebels as belligerents, and for the partiality manifested to them on this and other occasions. The Em peror of Brazil was fully satisfied with the amende, offered by the United States, though the prominent English newspapers in the interest of the Kebels officiously endeavored to incite the Brazilian Government to greater and unreasonable demands. It had been the habit of Captain Maffitt, when in command of the Florida, to fit out some of the vessels which he captured as privateers to prey upon the coast and fishing vessels. One of these, the Clarence, captured in May, 1863, was supplied with a crew and armament, and put under the command of Lieutenant Charles W. Keed, formerly a midshipman in the United States navy. After taking and burning several coasters, Lieutenant Eeed, on the 12th of June, captured the bark Tacony, off the capes of Virginia, and transferring his armament to her, abandoned the Clarence, and captured during the next twelve days a large number of coasting and fishing vessels. Learning that the United States cruisers were on his track, Lieutenant Eeed burned the Tacony, transferring his armament to the schooner Archer, one of his latest captures, and sailed for Portland, Maine, with the intention of burning two gunboats building there, and cutting out the revenue cutter Gushing, then lying in Portland harbor. He did not succeed in burning the gunboats, but boarded and captured the cutter and started for sea immediately. With commmendable promptness the collector of the port organized a volunteer force and sent them in pursuit on two ocean steamers, the Ches apeake and the Forest City, then in port. They overhauled the Gushing a short distance from the harbor, and as they had no heavy guns, made preparations to run her down and board her, when the Rebels set the cutter on fire and took to their boats. She blew up before the Union vessels could reach her, but they captured the Archer and the boats and put the Rebel oflbers and crew in confinement. The Rebels entertained a bitter hostility to the Chesapeake, an ocean steamer plying between Portland and New York, for the part which she had taken in this affair, and threats were freely made in regard to her, but they were not heeded. 838 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. On the 6th of December, 1863, a party of sixteen Eebels, some of them bearing commissions from the Eebel Government at Eichmond, who had shipped as passengers on the Chesapeake at New York, rose upon the officers of the ship, seized it, put the Captain in irons, killed the first mate and one of the passengers, and threw the body of the latter overboard. They retained the remainder of the crew and a part of the passengers on board for awhile, but finally sent them ashore in a boat, and sailed to the eastward. On the receipt of intelligence of her capture, a fleet of war vessels were immediately sent in pursuit of her, and on the 17th of De cember she was captured by the Ella and Anna, in Sambro harbor, and with a portion of her crew, carried to Halifax and delivered up to the provincial authorities. A mob gathered at once (Halifax being largely interested in blockade running,) and rescued and liberated the prisoners. The provincial court, on the demand of the owners, gave up the vessel to them. Several other attempts were made soon after in the Gulf of Mexico, and on the lakes, to seize steamers in the same way and transform them into Kebel privateers, but none of them met with much success. In August, 1864:, another of a new fleet of privateers built for the Kebels in Great Britain by their sympathizing friends, the Tallahassee, made her appearance on the coast of New England and the Middle States, and in ten days destroyed thirty-three vessels, mostly coasting and fishing vessels., Pursued by numerous cruisers, she finally managed to slip into Wilming ton, North Carolina, from whence she never came out again. In Novem ber, two others of the same fleet, the Olustee and Chickamauga, both iron vessels, built in the Clyde, and of great speed, appeared on the coast and did some mischief. The Chickamauga was soon compelled to take refuge in Wilmington, and the Olustee disappeared mysteriously. When Fort Fisher was taken, in January, 1865, both the Chickamauga and Tallahassee were blown up by the Eebels. The Shenandoah, or Sea King, which had been built at Glasgow in October, 1863, and on the 20th of September, 1864, transferred to a Eebel sympathizer in London, who authorized the captain of the vessel to sell her for fifteen thousand pounds, at any port out of the United Kingdom. She was then entered and cleared as a merchant vessel in ballast, for Bombay. Meantime, her armament and crew had been sent out in another vessel, the Laurel, and by agreement, the two vessels met at Madeira, where the armament and crew were put on board the Sea King and her name changed to the Shenandoah, and she started on a piratical cruise around the world. Her armament consisted of six guns, four of them sixty-eight pounders, and two thirty-two pounders. Her crew were all British sailors. She cruised first in the South- Atlantic, and then in the Bay of Bengal, and in February, 1865, entered the port of Melbourne, Australia, where, in accordance with British ideas of neutrality, she was coaled, provisioned, and received a reinforcement of men. After sometime spent there, and in that vicinity, THE CAREER OF THE STONEWALL OR OLINDE. 839 she sailed for the northwest coast and commenced making terrible havoc among the American whale ships. The President of the United States had made proclamation in April against her as a pirate, but the British Gov ernment delayed making any proclamation until June, and then gave a month s grace after she received the proclamation before she was to be considered as a pirate. Meantime, she destroyed twenty-five, and bonded four whaling vessels, from the beginning of April to the last of June, 1865, and several others subsequently. In the latter part of August, her captain, who had been repeatedly informed by the crews of the ships he had taken, that the Confederacy had ceased to exist, but refused to believe it until he had been so informed by British authority, left the Arctic ocean, and on the 6th of November, arrived in the Mersey, and delivered himself and his vessel up to a British man-of-war, lying in Liverpool harbor. The British Government, actuated probably by the same neutral spirit which had influenced them through the war, set the captain and crew at liberty, but decided that the vessel must be given up to the American consul. With the history of one other ship of war furnished to the Eebels by European neutrality, we close this record of the Eebel navy. The Olinde or Stonewall was one of the two iron-clad rams built by Armand, a French ship builder, for the Eebels, which the French Government com pelled him to sell to the Danish Government. She did not prove satisfac tory to that government, and was returned upon the hands of the builder. By some trickery, not creditable to Armand or others concerned in it, she was finally transferred to the Eebels, and on the 28th of January, 1865, sailed from Nantes, France. On the 4th of February, she put into the port of Ferrol, Spain, where the Niagara blockaded her for some time. On the 21st of March she came out, but the Niagara pursuing her she re turned, evidently fearing her formidable antagonist. On the 27th of March she escaped to Lisbon, but was ordered away from that port by the Portuguese authorities, and the Niagara and Sacramento, which had fol lowed her thither, were fired upon by the Portuguese forts, on the suppo sition that they intended following her before twenty-four hours after her departure had elapsed. Having thus escaped from her pursuers, she sailed for the Gulf of Mexico, taking Bermuda in her way, but finding the Niagara and Sacramento still in her wake, she put into Havana, and be coming convinced that there was no hope of her escape, and that the Eebel Confederacy had exploded, her captain surrendered her to the Captain-General of Cuba, who received her on deposit, and awaited in structions from the Spanish Government as to the future disposition to be made of her ; that Government ordered her to be given up to the United States, but requested the payment of indebtedness incurred by the Eebel commander in her behalf. This was granted, and the vessel transferred to the navy of the United States. 840 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. The number of merchant vessels destroyed by these Eebel cruisers during the war was more than three hundred, and the value of the ships and cargoes not far from thirty millions of dollars ; but this was by no means the only injury inflicted upon American commerce thereby ; the war risk for insurance was very greatly enhanced ; seven Lundred and fifteen American vessels, with a total capacity of four hundred and eighty thousand eight hundred and eighty-two tons were, during the war, trans ferred to the British or other foreign flags, to avoid capture by these cruisers, and the carrying trade, under the American flag, fell off two thirds in amount, while that under foreign flags increased in a like ratio. t! i . DISTURBANCES IX MISSOURI. 841 CHAPTER LXYI. DISTURBANCES IN MISSOURI TUB SMALL NUMBER OF TROOPS IN THE DEPARTMENT GENERAL ROSECRANS IN COMMAND THERE PRICE THINKS THE OPPORTUNITY FAVORABLE FOR AN OTHER INVASION OF MISSOURI MARMADUKE SENT TO TEST ITS FEASIBILITY HE IS REPULSED AND DRIVEN BACK TOWARD ARKANSAS PRICE S EXPEDITION IN SEPTEMBER THE NUMBER OF HIS TROOPS THE UNION FORCE COLLECTED TO OPPOSE HIM THE BATTLE OF PILOT KNOB FIGHT AT HARRISON S STATION SKILFUL MANAGEMENT OF GENERAL EWING ROLLA SECURELY GARRISONED GENERAL PLEASONTON TAKES COMMAND OF THK CAVALRY CONDITION OF ST. LOUIS AND JEFFERSON CITY PRICE MAKES A FATAL DELAY HE THREATENS JEFFERSON CITY, BUT FINDING IT TOO STRONGLY DEFENDED, TURNS ASIDE TO BOONEVILLE SANBORN FOLLOWS AND HARASSES HIM PLEASONTON JOINS IN THK PURSUIT THE BATTLES OF THK BIG BLUE LITTLE OSAGE CROSSING, AND MARAIS DES CYGNES PRICE COMPLETELY ROUTED HE IS DEFEATED ONCE MORE AT NEWTONIA RE SULTS INDIAN TROUBLES ON THE FRONTIER THE LEAGUE AMONG THE TRIBES OF THE SIOUX NATION GENERAL POPE S IDEAS OF THE BEST METHOD OF BREAKING THEIR POWER GENERAL SULLY SENT WITH A LARGE CAVALRY FORCE TO ATTACK THEM, AND POSTS ESTABLISHED ALONG THE FRONTIER HIS CAMPAIGN THE BATTLE NEAR THE LITTLE MIS. SOURI THE DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF THE INDIANS SULLY FALLS BACK TO HIS TRAINS AND PURSUES THEM TO THE " BAD LANDS" DESCRIPTION OF THE " BAD LANDS" HE ATTACKS AND DEFEATS THE INDIANS AGAIN THEY ARE COMPLETELY SCATTERED AND BROKEN GENERAL POPE S PLANS FOR PEACE WITH THEM IN FUTURE THE MASSACRE OF THK CHEYENNESBY COLONEL CHIVINGTON DETAILS OF THE SURPRISE AND SLAUGHTER INVESTI GATION BY THE COMMITTEE ON THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR CHIVINGTON ORDERED ARRESTED REBEL PLOTS AGAINST THE CITIZENS OF THE NORTHERN STATES THE SCHEME FOR THK RELEASE OF THE JOHNSON S ISLAND PRISONERS, AND THE BURNING OF BUFFALO, CLEVE LAND, ETC. HOW BAFFLED BLACKBURN S PLAN FOR DISSEMINATING YELLOW FEVER AND SMALL-POX JOHN T. BEALL S RAID UPON LAKE STEAMERS HIS CAPTURE, TRIAL, AND EXECUTION THE RAID ON ST. ALBANS ARREST AND DISCHARGE OF THE ROBBERS THB PLOT FOR RELEASING THE PRISONERS AND DESTROYING CHICAGO HOW DISCOVERED ATTEMPT TO BURN THE HOTELS IN NEW YORK ARREST TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF KENNEDY. DURING the summer and autumn of 1864, there were considerable dis turbances from the Rebels in Missouri. On the 30th of January, 1864, General Rosecrans had been assigned to the command of the Department of Missouri, relieving General Schofield, who was transferred to the Depart ment of the Ohio. The necessity of raising a large force for Sherman s Meridian expedition, and after that general became commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi, the gathering of the larger part of his troops for the campaign in Georgia, compelled the reduction of the force in Missouri to the lowest number which would suffice for holding the position. The old Missouri State militia, a part of which had proved un reliable, had been disbanded, and but few of the enrolled Missouri militia, a more loyal and efficient organization, were now in the service. In June, General Rosecrans entire effective force consisted of six thousand five hundred mounted men for field duty, scattered " over a country four hun- 842 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. dred miles long and three hundred broad, and a few partially organized new infantry regiments, and dismounted men. This was the entire force for the protection of the great depots at St. Louis, Jefferson city, St. Joseph, Macon, Springfield, Kolla, and Pilot Knob. The same force were also required to guard the railroad lines and bridges against invasion, and to protect, as far as possible, the lives and property of citizens from the guerrillas, who swarmed over the whole country bordering on the Missouri river. As the preservation of St. Louis and its vicinity from Rebel attack was of the first importance, General Eosecrans felt it necessary to concentrate the larger part of his force, in the neighborhood of that city, and along the line of the principal railroads radiating from it. The country south of the Maramec was thus left a prey to anarchy. This state of things was speedily known to the Kebel General Sterling Price, and though he had been so often repulsed, he thought he now saw before him the opportunity of invading Missouri with success, and of accomplishing what had long been his highest ambition, the subjugation of St. Louis, his own former residence. His long experience of the supe riority of the Union troops to his own, in pluck, endurance, and resolute courage, had made him cautious, and he accordingly sent Marmaduke forward with a mixed force, partly bushwhackers, of about six thousand infantry and oavalry and three batteries, about the first of June, 186-i, to penetrate into southern Missouri, and, if possible, reach the Missouri river and interrupt its navigation. Marmaduke pushed forward, and occupied Lake Village, from whence he began to annoy the boats on the Missouri, but his operations were speedily cut short. General A. J. Smith, (with portions of the sixteenth and seventeenth corps,) who was on his way from the disastrous Red river expedition, to join Sherman s army, was ordered to ascend the Mississippi and Missouri, and put an end to Marmaduke s foray. On the oth of June, this force, consisting of Mower s division of the sixteenth corps, and one brigade of the seventeenth, disembarked at Sunnyside, and marched rapidly upon Marmaduke, attacked, defeated, and drove him back toward Arkansas, and on the 7th of June re-embarked for Memphis. During the summer, Price remained tolerably quiet, but in September, attracted by the offers and promises of the Knights of the Golden Circle and other disloyalists in Missouri and Illinois, who pledged their co-operation and aid in killing off the Union citizens, and preventing the ballot for President, which was to take place on the 8th of November, he again made preparations to enter Missouri. He crossed the Arkansas river on the 21st of September, with two divisions of cavalry, and three batteries of artillery ; and at Batesville, Arkan sas, was joined by the Rebel General Shelby, who had previously been confronting General Steele. The combined Rebel force was about fifteen thousand men, the greater part cavalry. Their first movement northward, PRICE S EXPEDITION IN SEPTEMBER. 843 was a feint toward Springfield, Missouri, but after proceeding a shoit dis tance in that direction, they turned off toward Pilot Knob. St. Louis was, as we have said, Price s objective in this expedition. No sooner had Price commenced his march, than Steele followed, having been reinforced by Mower s division of the sixteenth corps, and Winslow s cavalry, which had been sent from Memphis by General Washburne. General A. J. Smith, who was on his way from western Arkansas to join Sherman s army, with a force of four thousand five hundred men, crossed to Browns ville, Arkansas, and thence by a severe march of three hundred and twelve miles, occupying nineteen days, reached Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and embarking his men on transports was conveyed to Jefferson City, Missouri. On the 23d of September, Price s advance, under Shelby, occupied JBloomfield, which had been evacuated by the Union troops two days before. Price now pushed on for Pilot Knob, which was occupied by the Union General Ewing, with two regiments of volunteers, and detach ments from three militia regiments. General Ewing had sent off his stores to St. Louis, which was now strongly garrisoned, having nearly ten thousand troops, the greater part of them militia and hundred days men, guarding it. But though he had secured his stores from danger, Ewing was too brave an officer to abandon his post, while there was a possibility of holding it. The Rebel advance was repulsed promptly, and then as their main body came up, he took his position in the fort, a strong one, mounting fourteen guns, but unfortunately, commanded by Shepherd s Mountain, an eminence near by. The Rebels assaulted the fort without delay, but the terrible fire of his artillery and musketry, re served till they came within short range, drove them back with heavy loss, and greatly enraged at their repulse, they presently moved off and occupied Shepherd s Mountain, and Ewing finding that he would be com pelled to evacuate the fort, spiked his guns, blew up his magazine, and fell back to Harrison station, on the southwest branch railroad, where were some breastworks previously occupied by militia. His retreat to this point was a running fight for the whole distance, and the enemy were only kept at bay by the skilful and constant use of his artillery. At Harrison, he made a brave stand and fought the enemy for a longtime, but they had cut the railroad on both sides of him, and were about sur rounding his little force, when Colonel Beveridge came up with a rein forcement of five hundred men, which the Rebels supposed to be the advance-guard of a large body of troops, and hesitated to attack. Avail ing himself of this hesitation, General Ewing marched rapidly for Rolla, where he arrived next morning. In this two days fight, the Rebels had lost over one thousand in killed aud wounded, and had been delayed, at a time when every moment was of great value to the Union commanders at St. Louis and Jefferson City, in hurrying forward their troops. Rolla, to which point General Ewing had retreated, was now strongly garrisoned ; 844 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. General Sanborn, who was stationed at Springfield, having ascertained that the enemy had no intentions on that place, had brought the greater part of his garrison to Eolla, to reinforce General McNeil. At St. Louis, General Pleasonton, one of the best cavalry officers in the army, had relieved General Frank P. Blair in command of the cavalry, and Senator B. Gratz Brown had been put in command of the militia, by General Kose- crans. St. Louis was by this time so strongly fortified and defended that Price durst not assail it. At Jefferson City, the enrolled militia were gath ered under command of General E. B. Brown, and General Clinton B. Fisk had drawn thither all the available troops from northern Missouri. These, with General A. J. Smith s veterans, forty-five hundred in number, made the State capital so strong that its capture would require more and better troops than Price had at command, while McNeil and Sanborn at Kolla were within reasonable supporting distance. Price committed the mis take of remaining for two or three days at Richwood, near Pilot Knob, and threatening St. Louis, while he issued a proclamation to the people of Missouri, in which he stated that he had come into the state with the intention of remaining ; that he desired to make friends, and not enemies, and that the depredations which he had committed were a military neces sity. About the 5th of October, he moved toward Jefferson City, and Generals McNeil and Sanborn, apprized promptly of his movements moved at once with all their available cavalry, and making forced marches, reached the capital a few hours before him, and finding himself confronted by so formidable a force, Price turned aside toward Boone- ville. General Pleasonton, who had taken command at Jefferson City, sent a cavalry force under General Sanborn in pursuit of him, and he, hanging upon Price s rear, harrassed him, driving in his rear-guard, and gleaning many prisoners. On the 17th of October, General Pleasonton, who had followed with the main body of his army, moved from Sedalia with the determination of bringing Price to an engagement. On the 19th of October, he formed a junction with Winslow s cavalry, which had followed Price from Arkansas, and now came up with his troops. This addition gave him sixty-five hundred mounted troops, beside a consid erable infantry force. On the 22d of October, Pleasonton overtook Price at the Little Blue river, and drove him thence to the Big Blue, at Independence, where he attacked his rear-guard, and captured two guns. Price s advance had met, on the 21st, General Blunt, with a small force, near the Big Blue, and had repulsed him, causing him to fall back to his reserves, which were under command of General Curtis, and had come from Kansas to attack Price. On the 23d, Curtis, who held Westport, was attacked by Shelby, who commanded Price s advance, and compelled to fall back, when Pleasonton came up and defeated Price s forces, and compelled them to retreat south- PRICE COMPLETELY ROUTED. 845 ward on the Fort Scott road. Pleasonton and Curtis, having joined forces, pursued briskly, and at daylight on the morning of the 25th, struck the foe and routed them, capturing their camp equipage, one cannon, twenty wagons full of plunder, and fifteen hundred head of cattle. Still following them, they attacked them again at the Little Osage crossing, after a march of sixty miles, where two advanced brigades, under the command of Colonels Benteen and Phillips, charged two Kebel divisions, routed them after a brief action, and captured eight guns, fifteen hundred stand of arms, one thousand prisoners, including Generals Marmaduke and Cabell, and six colonels. The pursuit was resumed, and the enemy were overtaken on the Marais des Cygnes. A sharp, brief battle ensued, and Price was again routed, and compelled to burn over two hundred wagons, and to explode all his artillery ammunition. His flight from this time forward was disorderly, and his troops abandoned most of their plunder, and every thing which could impede their progress. The Kansas troops now took the lead in the pursuit, together with Benteen s brigade, while Sanborn followed in a march more rapid than any other on record, mak ing one hundred and four miles in thirty-six hours. At Newtonia, near the southwestern border of Missouri, Price once more made a stand against the Kansas troops, which were getting worsted, when Sanborn came up and drove them, with the loss of their remaining guns, and nearly all their train, a demoralized mob, into Arkansas. Price, in a subsequent general order, endeavored to make the best of his expedition, claiming that he had been reinforced to an amount fully equal to his losses, by citizens of Missouri. It is possible that some of the Rebel bushwhackers of that State, finding it uncomfortable to reside there after the numerous outrages they had committed, did accompany him to Arkansas ; but the loyal citizens of Missouri would willingly have spared a much larger number of them if they would have promised never to return. But Price s losses, irrespective of such doubtful reinforcements as these, had been two thousand prisoners, nine hundred killed, and twenty -eight hundred wounded, ten guns (all he had), his entire ammuni tion train, and most of his wagons and plunder, and over four thousand stand of arms. The Union, loss was but little more than one thousand. This expedition ended the Rebel attempts to conquer Missouri, and the State thenceforth enjoyed a greater tranquillity than it had known since the commencement of the war. The Indians in the Department of the Northwest, not satisfied with the punishment they had received in the two preceding years, were still sullen and revengeful, and bent on mischief. The half-breeds and traders of the Selkirk and Red river settlements, in British Columbia, fostered this hostile feeling for the sake of winning their trade, and furnished them with arms and ammunition to continue their warfare during the summer of 186-4. 846 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. During thfe winter and spring of that year, the principal chiefs of the Yanktonnais, Unkpapas, and other tribes of the Sioux nation, which had been most active in their previous hostility to the whites, visited the other tribes, and by great exertions succeeded in uniting almost the entire nation in a league to fight and destroy the whites on the frontier ; and, with a forethought and self-denial remarkable in the Indian race, accumu lated a large stock of provisions, and assembled their warriors, to the number of about six thousand, in the vicinity of the upper Missouri. General Pope, the commander of the Department of the Northwest, had had early information of the extent of this conspiracy, and made no attempt to thwart it, from the conviction that if they concentrated their forces, and staked the result on one or more great battles, their power would be so thoroughly broken that they would never again be able to rally and seriously annoy the settlers on the frontier. He therefore made thorough preparations for an early campaign with a large force into their territory. His plan of operations, as determined in February, 1864, was to put into the field an active column of about twenty-five hundred men, entirely cavalry, under the command of Brigadier-General Alfred Sully, to advance against the Indians wherever they could be found, and deliver battle against them. At the same time he determined to follow up the movements of this column with a force of infantry sufficiently large to establish strong posts in the Indian country. These posts were to be so located as to cover the frontier lines of Iowa and Minnesota, and the frontier settlements of Dakota Territory at a long distance ; to interpose between the different tribes, so as to prevent con certed action between them ; to command the hunting-grounds of the Indians, so that they would be constantly under the supervision and in the power of the military forces, which, by concerted action, could easily and promptly march a heavy cavalry force upon any portion of the region in which the Indians are obliged to hunt for subsistence ; to command the Indian trails toward the frontier settlements, so as to detect the pas sage of even the smallest parties attempting to make raids upon the settlers, and to follow them up ; and so far as military necessities would allow, to protect an emigrant route from the upper Mississippi river to the Territories of Idaho and Montana. For the garrison duties, and for a part of his mounted force, General Pope received, though not until late in the summer, a considerable body (about two thousand in all) of men who had been Kebel prisoners of war, but who had taken the oath of allegiance, and been mustered into the United States service. As it was manifestly not desirable that they should be confronted with the Kebel armies to which they had formerly belonged, they were assigned to duty in the northwest, greatly to their satisfaction. General Sully collected the forces under his command from the various posts and stations in his district, early in the spring, and commenced to INDIAN TROUBLES ON THE FRONTIER. 84T move up the Missouri river, leaving only such detachments as were neces sary to cover the frontier from small Indian raids during his absence. He was reinforced by about fifteen hundred mounted men from Minne sota, leaving General Sibley with about seven hundred effective men to protect the frontier settlements of Minnesota during the summer. The mouth of Burdache creek, on the upper Missouri, was selected as the point where the Minnesota troops should join the forces of General Sully moving up the Missouri, and the junction of these forces was made on the 30th of June. The spring rise in the Missouri river did not come down until very late in the season, and Sully only reached the mouth of Cannon Ball river, at which point he was to establish a strong post, which was to be his depot of supplies, on the 7th of July. He estab lished Fort Bice at that point, distant from Sioux City four hundred and fifty miles, and garrisoned it with five companies of the thirtieth Wis consin volunteers. The Indians, who had been concentrated on and near the Missouri river about fifty miles above this post, had meantime crossed to the southwest side of the river, and occupied a strong position in a very difficult country near the Little Missouri river, due west and about two hundred miles from Fort Eice. On the 26th of July, General Sully marched upon these Indians, with the following forces : the eighth Minnesota volunteers (mounted), and six companies of the second Minnesota cavalry, with four light guns, under command of Colonel M. T. Thomas, eighth Minnesota volunteers; eleven companies sixth Iowa cavalry, three companies seventh Iowa cavalry, two companies Dakota cavalry, four companies Brackett s battalion cavalry, one small company of scouts, and four mountain-howitzers, the whole force numbering twenty-two hundred men. A small emigrant train for Idaho, which had accompanied the Minnesota troops from that State, followed Sally s forces. At the head of Heart river he corralled his trains, and leaving a sufficient guard with them, marched rapidly to the northwest, where the combined forces of the Indians were assembled. On the morning of July 28th he came upon them, between five and six thousand warriors, strongly posted in a wooded country very much cut up with high rugged hills, and deep impassable ravines. He had an hour s talk with some of the Indian chiefs, who were very defiant and impudent, after which he moved rapidly forward against their strong position. The action for a time was sharp and severe ; but the artillery and long- range small arms of the Union troops (many of whom were armed with repeating rifles) were very destructive, and the Indians began to give way on all sides. They were so closely pressed by Sully s forces that they abandoned their extensive camps, leaving all their robes, lodges, colts, and utensils of every description, and all the winter supply of provisions they had been so long collecting. The action resulted in a running fight of nine miles, the Indians finally scattering 3ompletely, and escaping with 848 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. nothing except their wounded, which, according to Indian custom, they carried off, together with as many of their killed as they could. One hundred and twenty-five dead warriors were left on the field. An im mense quantity of Indian goods and supplies were captured by General Sully in their deserted camps, and as he had no means of transportation for them they were destroyed. Finding the country almost impracticable, and having only a small supply of provisions, or means to carry them, and ascertaining that the retreat of the mass of the Indians was toward the southwest, General Sully returned to his train at the head of Heart river, and resumed his march westward through an unknown and unexplored region toward the Yellowstone, which he expected to reach near Fort Alexander, at which point it had been proposed to establish a military post. On the 5th of August he came in sight of the Bad Lands (Mauvaises Terres) which border the little Missouri on both sides. The country was exceedingly rugged and difficult, and so cut up with deep perpendicular ravines that it was with the utmost labor, and considerable loss of time, that a narrow winding way between the ravines, in places barely ten feet wide, was made for his wagons. The country was most remarkable in its character, and is thus depicted by General Sully : " I have not sufficient power of language to describe the country in front of us. It was grand, dismal, and majestic. You can imagine a deep basin, six hundred feet deep, and twenty-five miles in width, filled with cones, and oven-shaped knolls of all sizes, from twenty-five to several hundred feet in height, sometimes by themselves, sometimes piled up into large heaps, on top of each other, in all conceivable shapes and confusion. Most of these hills were of a gray clay, but many of a light brick color (of burnt clay), and with little or no vegetation. Some of the sides of the hills, however, were covered with a few scrub cedars. Viewed in the distance at sunset, it looked exactly like the ruins of an ancient city. It was covered with pieces of petrified wood, and on the tops of some of the hills we found petrified stumps of trees, the remains of a great forest. In some cases these trees were from sixteen to eighteen feet in diameter. Large quantities of iron ore, lava, and impressions in the rocks of leaves of a size and shape not known to any of us, were also found throughout this region." General Sully found it necessary to dig down the hills and make a road for his wagons, on the west as well as on the east side of the Little Mis souri ; and here, on the 6th of August, he found that a part of the Indians whom he had defeated on the 28th of July, were congregated. Carefully guarding his flanks and rear against surprise, he moved forward on the 7th of August, and attacking them, defeated them again, leaving over one hundred of them dead on the field, beside large numbers whom they car ried away. After this hopeless battle, in which they manifested none of GENERAL POPE S POLICY. 849 the spirit or audacity which characterized the fight of the 28th of July, the Indians scattered and broke up their combination entirely. The Tetons, separated into small fragments, fled toward the southwest ; the Yanktonnais, one of the most warlike and troublesome tribes of the Sioux nation, with other confederated tribes from the north and east of the Missouri, crossed that river and retreated rapidly into the British posses sions by way of Moose river. General Sully followed them nearly to the British line later in the season. Finding the country west of Fort Rice, in the direction of the Yellow stone, impracticable for wagon roads, the general decided not to establish a post so high up on that river, but placed a garrison at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and another at the trading post of Fort Berthold, lower down on the Missouri, and returned slowly, by way of the Missouri river valley, to Fort Rice, and leaving that post well garrisoned and in good condition, descended the river to Sioux City. The chiefs of the combined Sioux tribes west of the Missouri, which he had defeated, soon began to come in to the forts along the Missouri river and ask for peace, acknowledging that they could not fight against the whites, and that they had lost every thing, and would be in a starving condition. They were informed by the commanding officers of these posts that the only conditions of peace re quired from them were, that they would behave themselves, and not molest the whites. Surprised and gratified at such easy terms, they immediately returned to their tribes, to bring in the principal chiefs to meet General Sully at Fort Randall. Peace was made with the tribes west of the Missouri on this basis ; but with the Yanktonnais and other tribes of Sioux, north and east of the Missouri, there was more difficulty. They had gone, as we have already said, into British Columbia; and it suited the purposes of the half-breeds and traders there, who were desirous of securing their trade, to inflame their hatred of the people of the United States, and furnish them with arms and ammunition to aid them in carrying on the war. There were, however, no further troubles with them in either Dakota or Minnesota, the frontier being carefully guarded by General Sibley s force. It was the policy of General Pope, by frank and honest dealing with the Indians, treating them fairly and honorably, and requiring them to act in the same way toward the whites, to maintain peace and good order with them. The system of annuities and presents he regarded as entirely wrong in principle, and calculated to impress them with the belief that the whites desired to buy their favor. He was in favor of compelling the traders to locate themselves only at the military stations, in order that the Indians might make their homes so near the garrisons as to be constantly under their supervision and control. But while the commanding general of the department was seeking to establish these beneficent measures, looking to the complete pacification 54 850 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and future welfare of the Indian tribes, a subordinate officer, Colonel Chivington, of Colorado, commanding at Fort Lyon, in the southeastern part of Colorado territory, on the reservation of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, was guilty of a most inhuman massacre of a body of friendly and innocent Indians, the greater part of them women and children. A part of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes had been hostile to the whites ; but one band of the Cheyennes, under the command of Black Kettle, their head chief, and a part of the Arapahoes, under Little Eaven and Left Hand, their first and second chiefivhad been uniformly friendly, and could not be seduced into any measures of hostility against the Union garrisons. There had been some massacres and captures of whites in the territory, and these friendly chiefs succeeded in securing the prisoners, and came to Fort Lyon and offered to give them up. They were given up to Major Wynkoop soon after, and, at his suggestion, several of the chiefs and prin cipal men of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes went to Denver, and had an interview with Governor Evans and Colonel Chivington, and desired peace for their tribes. Governor Evans told them, Colonel Chivington assenting to it, that if they desired peace, they must bring in their families and seek the protection of the military posts on the reservations, as the whites could not discriminate between Indians on the plains. He further told them, that their going upon the military reservations would be the best evidence of their friendly feeling toward the whites. Accordingly, the friendly chiefs, with their followers and families, to the number of four or, five hundred, came to the reservation at Fort Lyon. Major Wynkoop treated them cordially, and allowed them some provision, as they were destitute of food; and they, in return, warned him of any scnemes of the hostile Indians for his injury. Major Wynkoop was soon after removed, and Major Anthony sent to the fort in his place. This officer told the Indians that he could not issue any provisions to them, as his orders forbade it, but expressed himself as friendly to them, and advised them to remove to Sand creek, about forty miles from the fort, where they would be able to hunt buffaloes for their subsistence. He promised them that their families should not be disturbed, and that he would represent their feelings to the higher authorities, who, he doubted not, would renew kindly intercourse with them. The Indian village, thus located at Sand creek, numbered about one hundred lodges, or five hun dred persons, of whom fully two thirds were women and children. On the 28th of November, Colonel Chivington reached Fort Lyon with somewhat more than seven hundred men of the first and third regiments Colorado cavalry, and ordering Major Anthony to join him with one hun dred and twenty-five men and two pieces of artillery, made a forced march that day and night to Sand creek, and early in the morning of the 29th of November, surprised the Indian village, and though the Indians made some resistance, butchered the women and children, and as many men as PLOTS OF THE REBELS IN CANADA. 851 he could reach. About seventy or eighty of the Indians, mostly women and children, were murdered, and their bodies mutilated as shamefully as the Indians in Minnesota had mutilated the bodies of those they murdered in 1862. Colonel Chivington had been repeatedly informed that these were friendly Indians, but paid no attention to it, and took every precau tion to prevent intelligence from reaching them of his intended attack. The result of this unrighteous and shameful massacre has been to create a feeling of bitterness and distrust in the minds of the Indian tribes throughout Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, which has led to abun dant murders and outrages. Colonel Chivington s commission had ex pired at the time of his committing this outrage, and he had no legitimate authority to engage in any military movement. The Congressional Com mittee on the Conduct of the War investigated this case very thoroughly, and presented their evidence to the public without comment; but the bare recital of the circumstances was sufficient to render the name of its perpetrator forever infamous. Congress made such restitution as was in its power, and the Government ordered the arrest of Chivington. The Eebels who had domiciled themselves in Canada, were, as we have already seen, active and zealous in their efforts to do injury to the Gov ernment and people of the United States. If they could not benefit the Eebel cause directly, they reasoned that they were benefiting it indirectly by every injury they inflicted, or caused to be inflicted upon the citizens of the loyal States. Halifax, St. Johns, Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto, were so many centres of Kebel activity, so many nests in which treason able and wicked schemes were hatched. In the autumn of 1863, these vile plotters set on foot a plan, under in structions from the Rebel Government at Richmond, to release twenty- five hundred Rebel officers who were imprisoned on Johnson s island, in Lake Erie, and then these, in conjunction with a body of Rebels in Canada, were to attack and destroy Buffalo, Cleveland, and other lake cities. The American Consul-General at Montreal, having received timely notice of this plot, laid the details before the Governor-General of Canada, by whom they were communicated, on the 4th of November, to the United States Government. The prompt measures taken by the latter to guard against the danger, prevented the plot from being carried into execution. The British Gov ernment, however, seems to have taken no measures to arrest and punish the participators in this scheme. But, though baffled, in this attempt, the Rebels in Canada did not relax their efforts for an instant to harass and injure the citizens of the Union. A Doctor Blackburn, one of their tools, visited the Bermudas, where yellow fever prevailed, and secured large quantities of clothing infected with the virus of the disease, and sent it to his agents in Baltimore, Washington, Norfolk, and Newbern, to be sold at auction, in order to disseminate the disease in those localities. He was sue- 852 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. cessful in communicating it in Newbern, and it was very fatal there. He also infected large quantities of clothing with the small-pox virus, and effected its distribution in the northern cities, and thus contributed un doubtedly to the spread of that loathsome and fatal disease in those cities. In September, 1861, John Y. Beall, an officer in the Eebel army, well- connected, both in Virginia and in England, organized a force in Canada to make a raid upon the lakes, and succeeded in capturing and destroying two steamboats owned by citizens of the United States. In the following December he crossed the Niagara river, and attempted to throw a passen ger railroad train from Buffalo to Niagara Falls, off the track, but was arrested in the act. He claimed to have perpetrated this act by virtue of his commission from the Rebel Government. For this, and his previous crime against the Government, in the destruction of the steamers, he was tried and executed as a pirate, spy, and murderer, on Governor s island, New York, February 24th, 1865. On the afternoon of October 19th, 1864, a body of forty well armed men, headed by one Young, suddenly attacked the village of St. Albans, Vermont, fifteen miles from the Canadian frontier, and after robbing the banks of over two hundred thousand dollars, and firing upon the defence less and thoroughly astonished inhabitants, one of whom was mortally wounded, they rode off to Canada, where nearly the whole gang was sub sequently arrested. They were brought before the court of Quarter Ses sions at Montreal, and discharged by Justice Coursol on the ground of a want of jurisdiction. Subsequently, on being re-arrested and tried before the Superior Court of Lower Canada, they were all discharged. The St. Albans banks recovered a part of the money stolen from them, but no reparation was made to the United States for this incursion upon their territory from a friendly State. There had been for some months a plot concocted for releasing the Rebel prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, about eight thousand in num ber, and then, with the aid of the Rebel sympathizers in Chicago, sacking and plundering the city, securing arms from its arsenals, and proceeding in a grand foray upon Indianapolis, setting at liberty the Rebels imprisoned there, and marching thence to Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis, burning and plundering everywhere. At first, the time set for the consummation of this fiendish plan was the day of the commencement of the session of the Democratic national convention at Chicago, in August, 1864, when it was thought there would be an unusually large number of Rebel sympa thizers there ; but whether owing to the fact that the superintendent of the Rebel prisoners there had received warning and had made such prepa rations as to render it impossible for the conspirators to carry out their schemes, or whether the more cautious of the Democratic leaders were opposed to such a movement as too perilous to their cause, is not now known. At all events, it was postponed to a more fitting opportunity, ATTEMPT TO BURN THE HOTELS IN NEW YORK. 853 but not relinquished. Sanders, Beverly Tucker, Jacob Thompson, and other of the Kebel refugees in Canada, were implicated in this plot, and it was strongly suspected and generally believed that Mr. Vallandigham was also cognizant of it. The time finally fixed upon was the day of the presi dential election, Tuesday, November 8th, 1864. All their preparations had been made, and the villains were rejoicing in the expectation that be fore evening of that day the fair Queen City of the lakes would be sacked, plundered, and burned, and their legion of ruffians well on their way southward, when, on the evening before the election, th,e ringleaders were arrested, parks of artillery drawn up around the prison, the guards in creased, and such precautions taken as showed conclusively that the whole conspiracy had been revealed. It was communicated to the superinten dent of the prison seventy hours before the time set for its consummation, by one of the pri^ners, who, though a Rebel, had too much manhood to be willing to participate in so diabolical a scheme. Some of the parties were tried and condemned to death, but their punishment was subse quently commuted to a life-long imprisonment. Another of the schemes of this nest of conspirators was that of firing the principal hotels and theatres of New York city. This was attempted on the night of November 25th, and had the attempt proved successful, might have resulted in a frightful sacrifice of property and life ; but the wretches selected to perpetrate the crime were either timid or unskilful, and the fires which they kindled were soon extinguished. One of them, a Captain Robert C. Kennedy, of the Rebel service, was subsequently arrested in Detroit, and his complicity in this plot being proved, he wa^ tried and executed at Fort Lafayette, in New York harbor, March 24, 1865. These are but specimens of the schemes which were hatched in the fertile brains of these conspirators, but very few of their plans reached fruition. The good providence of God, watchful over the Republic, turned, in many instances, their counsels to foolishness, and thwarted their most skilfully devised plans. We shall see, by and by, that another of their plots, more fiendish, if possible, than any which had preceded it, was per mitted by the wise Arbiter of human affairs to attain a partial consumma tion, and plunge the nation in gloom and sorrow; but even in this their purposes were not accomplished, and they only brought added infamy upon themselves by their connection with it. 854 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER LXVIL HOOD ATTEMPTS TO CUT SHERMAN S LINE OF COMMUNICATION, AND, MOTING FROM MACON, FIRST GOES TO DALLAS, AND THEN FALLS BACK UPON THE RAILROAD AT BIG SHANTY SHERMAN FOLLOWS, AND WITNESSES, AND DIRECTS THE BATTLE AT ALLATOONA PASS, WHERE THE REBEL TROOPS ARE DEFEATED BY GENERAL CORSE DESCRIPTION OF BATTLE OF ALLATOONA HOOD CAPTURES DALTON, BUT IS COMPELLED TO ABANDON IT, AND RETREATS BEFORE SHERMAN TO GADSDEN, ALABAMA SHERMAN PURSUES TO GAYLESVILLE, AND THEN DETACHING THOMAS TO NASHVILLE, AND SENDING HIM TWO CORPS, RETURNS TO KINGSTON DESTRUCTION OF THE RAILROAD RETURN TO ATLANTA ITS DESTRUCTION SHERMAN S TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCH HIS GENERAL ORDERS TO HI^ ARMY THE MARCH THE ENEMY DECEIVED AND CONFUSED THE REORGANIZATION OF HIS ARMY SKETCHES OF THE LEADERS OF THE TWO WINGS, GENERALS HOWARD AND SLOCUM DISPOSITION OF THE TROOPS FORAGING THE ROUTE OF THE TROOPS VEILED BY THE CAVALRY UNION OF THE COLUMNS AT MILLEDGEVILLE REST AND COLLECTION OF SUPPLIES SKIRMISHING AND FIGHTING AT BUCKHEAD CREEK AND WAYNESBORO THE ATTEMPT TO RESCUE THE UNION PRISONERS AT MILLEN IT IS FOILED BY THEIR REMOVAL APPROACH TO SAVANNAH THE POSITION OF THE TROOPS ASSAULT AND CAPTURE OF FORT MCALLISTER BY HAZEN s DIVISION COM MUNICATION OPENED WITH THE FLEET SHERMAN SUMMONS HARDEE TO SURRENDER, BUT HE DECLINES PREPARATIONS FOR A SIEGE OF THE CITY HARDEE EVACUATES IT AND ESCAPES TO CHARLESTON SAVANNAH OCCUPIED AND GOVERNED BY GENERAL GEARY THE QUIET AND GOOD ORDER OF THE CITY SHERMAN S CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO THE PRESIDENT SHERMAN S ENCOMIUMS ON HIS GENERALS AND TROOPS THE RESULTS OF THE CAPTURE OF SAVANNAH, AND OF THE CAMPAIGN SHERMAN S GENERAL ORDERS HIS INTERVIEW WITH THE LEADING MEN OF THE COLORED PEOPLE THE ASSIGNMENT OF THS SEA ISLANDS TO THE NEGROES DURING THE WAR. WHILE General Sherman s army, now encamped in and around Atlanta, were resting from the fatigues of the late campaign, the active mind of their commander was already occupied with new plans for annoying the enemy, and of strengthening his own position. Numerous changes occurred \n the composition of the armies under his command, owing to the expiration of the time of service of many of the regiments ; but the opportunity was speedily embraced to consolidate the fragments, reclothe and equip the men, strengthen garrisons, and perfect lines of communica tion in the rear, construct new lines of fortification at Atlanta, and make other preparations for the future campaign. Hood s first movement was to Macon, which seemed to be threatened by the Union forces, and from thence, September 26th, to Powder Springs, near Dallas, Ga., which he reached about the 1st of October. As soon as he became convinced, Septem ber 28th, that the enemy intended to assume the offensive, Sherman sent General Thomas, who was his second in command, as well as commander of the army of the Cumberland, to Nashville, for the purpose of organiz ing the new troops expected at that point. Then, on the 3d, having rein forced the garrisons along the line of the railroad between Atlanta and THE BATTLE AT ALLATOONA PASS. 855 Chattanooga, he started in pursuit of the Rebel force, whose cavalry by this time had cut the telegraph wires and railroad at Big Shanty, and with French s division of infantry, were moving against Allatoona. At this point were stored over a million of rations, the redoubts being garri soned by three small regiments, under the command of Colonel Tourtel- lotte, of the fourth Minnesota. In anticipation of this movement, how ever, General Corse had been signalled and telegraphed to reinforce this post from Borne, and reached Allatoona at the head of a brigade, during the night of the 4th, just in time to meet the attack by French s division on the morning of the 5th. The battle had commenced before Sherman s arrival at Kenesaw, eighteen miles distant, about ten A. M. of that day, and signalling to General Corse the fact of his presence in that vicinity, he ordered the twenty-third corps, Brigadier-General Cox in command, to move rapidly due west from the base of Kenesaw, with a view to reach the road from Allatoona to Dallas in the rear of the Rebel forces engaged in the attack on Allatoona. These consisted of French s division, supported by two other divisions in reserve, and to the summons for surrender, "to avoid a useless effusion of blood," which the Rebel general sent in to the garrison, with five minutes opportunity for an answer, the reply of General Corse was prompt and defiant. The attack which followed lasted five hours, and ended in the complete discomfiture of the Rebels, who left over two hundred dead and four hundred prisoners upon the field, and in the hands of the garrison. The retreat was also greatly accelerated by the approach of General Cox s division, which, as we have seen, had been despatched by General Sherman to fall upon their rear. This battle, although it has not been so prominently noticed as other battles of smaller consequence, was indeed a contest of no small importance. The post itself, aside from the vast stores of supplies which it held, was a vital link in the Union communications. And the tenacity with which the brave Union band of fifteen hundred only, fought not less than six thou sand Rebels from dawn until noon, is worthy of enduring remembrance. It was a hard, desperate fight, foot to foot and hand to hand, where the Union soldiers were driven, by desperate and overwhelming numbers of assailants, from their intrenchments to the hill, and from the hill to the fort, where, with half their number killed and wounded, and their brave leader bleeding, and at times insensible, they fought on with indomitable courage, until victory rested upon their banners. Well did that gallant leader deserve the words uttered by Sherman that morning, as he looked anxiously from a distance upon the conflict : " I know Corse ; so long as he lives, the Allatoona pass is safe." Crossing the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers by forced marches, Hood hastily attacked Dalton, which was foolishly surrendered by its cowardly commandant, but which the rapid approach of Sherman did not permit him tc retain long enough to effect much damage. Next, suddenly ap- 856 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. pearing before Kesaca, Hood ; in person, demanded its surrender ; but the place having already been reinforced from the army of the Tennessee, he was repulsed, although he succeeded in breaking the railroad between that place and Dalton. Sherman arrived at Kesaca on the evening of the 14th, and determined to strike Hood s flank ; or force him to battle ; but the enemy had fled. Impeding the advance of his pursuer as much as possible by obstructing Snake Creek gap, the most available pass through Eocky Face Kidge, Hood next moved through Ship s gap, in Pigeon mountain, and toward Lafayette, and avoiding the appeal to arms, which was several times offered him by the Union commander, encumbered with few trains, and marching with great activit}^, he retreated to the neighborhood of Gadsden, Ala., where he strongly intrenched himself in the Wells Creek gap of the Lookout range. Sherman, who fully compre hended the enemy s designs, followed him as far as Gaylesville, in the rich valley of the Chattooga, abounding in corn and meat, where he paused to watch his movements, and enjoy the excellent supplies gathered ad libitum by the numerous foraging parties which scoured the surround ing country. In all these movements, Hood s desire had been to cut Sherman s communications with his base, and then pushing forward into Tennessee, wrest it from the Union power, which had held it securely for two years, and thus compel Sherman to leave Georgia, under the penalty of losing Tennessee. Sherman, on the contrary, seeing that Hood s army, while it was sufficient to endanger his communications, was unable to meet him in open fight, was too wary to be thus decoyed away from Georgia by a foe whom there was little prospect of overtaking or defeating. As, however, it would have been bad policy to have kept his large and splendid army merely on the defensive, he resolved to carry out a design which he had previously submitted to the commander-in-chief, and which he again renewed from Gaylesville, although with certain modifications, suggested by more recent events. This plan involved substantially, (1), the destruction of Atlanta, which, being a railroad centre, had, since the demolition of the railroads, workshops, foundries, etc., lost all its strategic value ; (2) the destruction of the railroad back to Chattanooga, and, (3), the march of a great army from Atlanta through the very heart of Georgia, to capture one or more of the principal Atlantic seaports. By November 1st, Hood s army had moved from Gadsden, making a feint on Decatur, and had laid a pontoon bridge opposite Florence. Sherman then began his preparations for the march through Georgia, which had received the sanction of the commander-in-chief. His forces having been largely augmented by the levy of September, 1864, he found himself perfectly able to spare thirty thousand of his best veteran soldiers, which he placed under command of General Thomas, at Kingston, to attend to Hood in case he should attempt to carry into effect his threatened invasion of Tennessee and Kentucky. SHERMAN RE-ORGANIZES HIS ARMY. 857 The Rebel force, at that time, was estimated at about forty-five thousand, of whom ten thousand were cavalry. Thomas was instructed to draw Hood on, as far as possible, into middle Tennessee, so that at a distance from his base, he might be more effectually overwhelmed, when the moment arrived to strike him a heavy blow. With the balance of his army, comprising the fifteenth and seventeenth corps, known as the army of the Tennessee, and the fourteenth and twentieth, now designated as the army of Georgia, numbering in all about sixty thousand men, he repaired to Kingston on the 2d of November. From that point, all sur plus baggage and artillery, the sick and wounded, refugees, etc., were sent back to Chattanooga ; the Eebel barracks, guns, cotton, mills, warehouses, bridges, and supplies of evjry description captured at Eome were burned ; the railroads in and about Atlanta, and between the Etowah and Chatta- hoochie, were utterly demolished ; the garrisons from Kingston northward were ordered back to Chattanooga, carrying with them all public property and railroad stock from Resaca back, and leaving untouched only the rail road between the Etowah and Oostanaula, which, it was possible, might be again needed. Thus by the 12th of November, his army stood detached and cut off from all communication with the rear, and by the 14th moved rapidly and grouped around Atlanta. It consisted of four corps, the fifteenth and seventeenth forming the right wing, under Major-General Howard ; the fourteenth and twentieth, the left wing, under Major-General Slocuin. The cavalry division, five thousand five hundred strong, was under command of General Kilpatrick, who received his orders directly from the commander-in-chief. All the troops were provided with good wagon- trains, loaded with ammnuition and supplies, approximating twenty days bread, forty days sugar and coffee, a double allowance of salt for twenty days, and beef cattle for forty days supplies, besides three days forage in grain, to each wagon. While soldiers were strictly prohibited from all unnecessary trespass, a judicious system of foraging was to be maintained, in order that the army might live chiefly upon the country, which was known to abound in corn, sweet potatoes, and meats. Guerrilla depreda tions on the part of the enemy, were to be met with swift and severe retal iatory measures, although the inoffensive citizens of the country, and their property, were to be respected as much as, under the circumstances, was possible. Horses, mules and wagons, were to be taken, when needed, and able-bodied negroes were to be allowed to join the army, and employed in pioneer and other work. Each wing of the army had its own pontoon bridge. Sherman, on the 4th of November, had telegraphed to the Gov ernment, " Hood has crossed the Tennessee, Thomas will take care of him and Nashville, while Schofield will not let him into Chattanooga or Knox- ville. Georgia and South Carolina are at my mercy, and I shall strike. Do not be anxious about me. I am all right." On the 12th the right wing, under General Howard, moved out from Atlanta, followed, on the 858 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. 14th, by the left wing, under General Slocum. On the same day, the torch was applied to the public buildings, fortifications, depots, &c., of Atlanta, and turning his back upon its smouldering ruins, General Sher man and staff, in company with the fourteenth corps General Davis s took the road to Macou, and the " great march to the sea " had commenced. Compact, self-reliant and cheerful, the well appointed host, guided by a master-mind and led by able generals, moved grandly forward to the ful filment of its high mission. As it moved, the last message which flashed across the telegraph wire to General Thomas, ere communication was severed with the north,- was " All is well ;" and the last music which echoed along the burning streets of Atlanta was the noble anthem of "John Brown s soul goes marching on," played by the fine band of a Massachusetts colored regiment. We intermit, for a moment, the course of our narrative, to present our readers with brief sketches of Sherman s two able lieutenants, Generals Slocum and Howard, to whom so much of the success of this campaign was due. Major-General Henry W. Slocum, born in Delphi, New York, Septem ber 24, 1827, entered West Point in the year 1848, and graduated in June 1852, with the rank of seventh in his class. Entering the United States army as a brevet second lieutenant of the first artillery, he had, by the 3d of March, 1855, gained the rank of first lieutenant, but not alto gether satisfied with the prospects of further promotion, he resigned in October, 1856, retired from military service and engaged in business in Syracuse, New York. When the Eebellion broke out, however, he responded to his country s need, and was appointed Colonel of the twenty -seventh New York volunteers, May 21, 1861, with whom he participated in the battle of Bull Eun. In August, 1861, he was made a brigadier-general of volunteers, and occupied a position on the extreme left of General McClellan s army, beyond Alexandria, where he remained during the winter of 1861-62. When the army of the Potomac began to move in March, 1862, he held command of the third brigade of the first division of McDowell s corps, but this division being detached in April following, he became its acting major-general. During the advance up the Peninsula, in 1862, he moved up to West Point, Virginia, taking part in the affair at Brick House ; and then moved on to White House on the Pamunkey, where he helped to hold the railroad between West Point and Richmond. Afterward holding the advance of McClellan s extreme right wing, about the middle of June, he occupied the Virginia Central railroad bridge across the Chickahominy ; and took part in the early portion of the seven days fight, more especially at Games Mills. His division, also, was in the battles under Pope, in the latter part of August ; and in the Maryland campaign he had command of the first division of Franklin^ wing, and was engaged at Antietam, September SKETCH OF MAJOR GENERAL HOWARD. 859 17th, 1862. Subsequently; a new corps of raw troops, called the 12th, having been created, General Slocum was made a major-general of volun teers, commission dating from July 4th, 1862, and organized and led it to the field. At the battle of Fredericksburg it formed half of Sigel s reserve grand division, and when this was broken up, Slocum still retained the command of his corps. In Hooker s advance upon Chancellorsville, April, 1863, General Slocum commanded the three corps composing the right wing, and consisting of nearly sixty thousand men ; but when Hooker arrived at the front, Slocum resumed the command of his own corps, and during the battle days of Chancellorsville, from May 1st to 4th, fought with skill and bravery. At Gettysburg, he commanded on the right wing, and repulsed the furious and persistent assaults of Swell s corps, with a courage and resolution not surpassed in that terrible conflict. In September his corps, as well as the eleventh, was ordered to Chatta nooga, but he was detached from it and soon after placed in command of the important post of Yicksburg, where he remained till August 1864, when General Sherman called him to Georgia, to take command of the twentieth corps, formed by the consolidation of the eleventh and twelfth. He arrived in season to receive the surrender of Atlanta, after its evac uation by Hood, and his corps were the first to enter it. In the Savan nah campaign, General Sherman placed him in command of the left wing of his army, the fourteenth and twentieth corps, under the name of the army of Georgia, which command he also retained in the campaign of the Carolinas, in which he distinguished himself for bravery and skilful generalship. After the war was over, he was assigned to the command of the Department of the Mississippi, with headquarters at Yicksburg, but resigned his commission in the army, in September, 1865, to accept the nomination of the Democratic party in the State of New York to the office of Secretary of State. At the election in November, 1865, he was unsuccessful. Major-General Oliver Otis Howard, was born in Kennebec county, Maine, November, 8th 183Q, and, with his brothers, was educated at Bowdoin college, where he became first in his class, and in his senior year (1850), was admitted to West Point, graduating there in June, 1854, with the fourth rank in his class, he received the brevet of a second lieutenant of ordnance. He served for some time in Texas and Florida, then at the United States arsenal in Augusta, Georgia, and afterward in that in Maine. Promoted to a first lieutenancy, July 1st, 1857, he also received the appointment of acting assistant professor of mathematics at the mili tary academy, which position he held until the breaking out of the Eebellion. Eesigning his position in the regular army, he accepted the colonelcy of the third Maine volunteers, and led them into the battle of Bull Kun, July 21st, 1861. In September of the same year he was pro moted to a brigadier-generalship of volunteers, and ordered to McClellan s 860 THE CIVIL WAK IN THE UNITED STATES. army, where tie served on the Peninsula, and at Fair Oaks. May 31st, 1862, received a wound which caused the amputation of an arm. After his recovery he returned to his brigade, then in French s division, and which formed a part of Sumner s wing in the battle of Antietam, Septem ber 17th, 1862. We next find him in command of the first division of Couch s second army corps, and leading his men at Fredericksburg, December 13th, 1862, his brigade losing nearly one thousand men. In the ensuing spring he was made a major-general of volunteers, his com mission dating from November 29th, 1862, and was placed in command of the second division of the second corps of the army of the Potomac. Holding this position until April, 1863, he relieved General Sigel in the command of the eleventh army corps. His corps took part in the battle of Chancellorsville, May 1st to 4th, 1863, where a part of them broke and nearly caused a panic in the whole army ; but at Gettysburg, July 1st to 3d, 1863, they covered themselves with honor. In July, 1863, Gen eral Howard was placed in command of the second corps, whose leader, General Hancock, had been severely wounded at Gettysburg. In Septem ber, 1863, he was ordered with his corps to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to re inforce General Kosecrans, and arrived at Bridgeport, in company with the twelfth corps, in October: He took part in the battle of Wauhatchie, October 28th, and sent a part of his troops to aid Hooker in his famous battle on Lookout mountain, but was himself engaged with two divisions of his corps in Sherman s movement on Fort Buckner on the 25th of November. He also accompanied Sherman in his expedition to raise the siege of Knoxville. He took part in yearly every battle of the Atlanta campaign, commanding the fourth corps till the death of McPherson, when he was appointed, at General Sherman s instance, commander of the army of the Tennessee. In the final movements around Jonesboro, he displayed great energy and courage and skilful generalship. General Sherman, a capital- judge of men, prized him very highly and on the cam paign described in this chapter, as well as in that through the Carol inas, placed him in command of the right wing of his army. In the latter campaign he distinguished himself in the battles of Averysborough and Bentonville. After the close of the war, he was appointed by the Presi dent commissioner of the bureau of freedmen, refugees, and abandoned lands. A man of strong religious convictions and of most exemplary life, General Howard has never hesitated to avow his principles, and his consistent piety has won the respect even of the irreligious. Sherman s real destination was known only to himself, to the Lieuten ant-General, and the War Department. Rebels, and the people of the North, were alike mystified as to whether Savannah or Charleston was his "objective," while the idea of an army thus cutting boldly loose from its base, on a march of three hundred miles, through the very heart of a hostile country, fairly staggered their comprehension, and challenged their SHERMAN S AKMY AT MILLEDGEVILLE. 861 credulity. The mystery of his movements was still further obscured by the adroitness with which he used his large cavalry force to scour the country for a wide distance on either side of his line of march, thus veil ing the route of his infantry. His first object was, of course, to place his army in the very heart of Georgia, between Macon and Augusta, thus obliging the enemy to divide his forces in the defence of those points, as well as Millen, Savannah, and Charleston, and the event justified his ex pectations. Marching his army in three columns, with cavalry on his extreme right, upon eccentric lines, he diverted the enemy s attention so that they concentrated their forces upon the widely separated cities of Macon and Augusta, leaving the country open to the advance of the central column. Slocum and the twentieth corps arrived at Milledgeville on the twenty - second, preceding Davis, with the fourteenth corps, by one day. At the same time, Kilpatrick s cavalry reached the Macon and Western road, destroying the Walnut creek bridge, and the day following, Howard, with the fifteenth and seventeenth corps, arrived at Gordon, and began to tear up the Georgia Central railroad. While this was going on, Novem ber 22d, General Walcott, with a cavalry force and an infantry brigade, was sent forward to demonstrate near Griswoldville, and while occupying temporary breastworks, with a section of battery in position, he was sud denly attacked by a Rebel force of about five thousand from Macon, which attacked him furiously, but were coolly received with grape shot and musketry, at point blank range, and finally fled the field, with a loss of over twenty-five hundred in killed, wounded, and prisoners, among them General Anderson. The Union loss was about forty killed and wounded. Meantime, Howard and the right wing had moved to Milledgeville, the State capital, via Jackson, Monticello, and Hillsboro. Here he was joined, on the twenty-third, by the left wing, under General Slocum, which had destroyed the great railroad bridge over the Oconee, fifteen hundred feet in length, as well as many miles of railroad, shops, mills, stores, and cot ton, beside the line of railroad to Greensboro. At Milledgeville, whence the Governor, Legislature, and most of the white population had fled, General Sherman s army rested for a few days, during which no unneces sary destruction of property was allowed, but the time was occupied in securing large supplies of food and forage from the rich surrounding country ; and Thanksgiving day was kept by the soldiers in the midst of a profusion of good fare, and even delicacies. On the 2-ith, the left wing, under General Slocum, left Milledgeville", marching by two roads on Sandersville, where, on the 25th, he met and routed Wheeler s cavalry in a brief but sharp fight, and on the 28th struck the Georgia railroad at Tennille, breaking up every thing as they advanced to the Ogeechee. Kilpatrick, moving eastwardly from Milledgeville, was busily engaged in tearing up the railroad from Millen to Augusta, with the purpose of there 862 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. making an attempt to rescue our prisoners confined at the former place, the latter town being at the same time threatened by Davis s fourteenth corps. The right wing, also, had moved down the Georgia railroad from Gordon, crossed the Oconee river at Oconee, and skirmished briskly with the Rebel cavalry under Wheeler and Wagner. The possession of Waynesboro, after Millen the chief station on the Savannah and Augusta railroad, and the destruction of Walker s bridge, over Brier s creek, a tribu tary of the Savannah river, were now matters of importance to the Union commander, and Kilpatrick accordingly advanced from Louisville, skir mishing heavily with Wheeler s cavalry during the 27th, 28th, and 29th ; then falling back, he again advanced, December 1st, supported by an in fantry division, and after a sharp encounter with the enemy, succeeded in destroying the railroad south of the town. Having finally accomplished their designs against the bridge and railroad on the third, they returned to Millen, where the whole army again concentrated, except Osterhaus s command, of the right wing, which was yet south of the Ogeechee. In the period of eight days, between their leaving Milledgeville (November 24th) and reaching Millen (December 2d), they had secured an ample supply of forage and provisions for forty days, a large amount of available ammunition, with horses, mules, and wagons quite sufficient for all the wants of army transportation. They failed only in one cherished plan, viz, the liberation of their comrades imprisoned at Millen, owing to their removal from that place some time previous ; the officers being sent to Columbia, South Carolina, and the privates further south. The Union army now commenced the third stage of its progress sea ward, from Millen to Savannah, and, pivoted upon the former place, swung slowly around from its eastern course, until, by December 3d, it was in full motion southward, in six columns, upon parallel roads General Davis following the Savannah river road ; General Slocum on the middle road, via Springfield ; General Blair along the railroad, de stroying the track as he went ; and General Howard still south and west of the Ogeechee. Up to this time the enemy appears to have been com pletely deceived, and expecting an attack on Macon and Augusta, had concentrated at those points, and found themselves shut closely up there by the general destruction of railroads, bridges, and roads, caused by Sherman on his march. Suddenly they discovered that Sherman was marching straight upon Savannah, and that they were helpless to prevent him, or to do more than feebly harass his progress. As the Union army approached Savannah, the country became more marshy and difficult, and they came more frequently upon obstructions, in the shape of felled trees at the crossings of roads, swamps, or narrow causeways, which, however, were removed in an incredibly short time by the efficient pioneer corps. Without meeting any considerable opposition from the enemy, the heads of the several columns arrived within fifteen miles of Savannah, at which ASSAULT AND CAPTURE OF FORT McALLISTER. 863 point all the roads leading to the city were found to be obstructed by felled timber, with earthworks and artillery. These, however, were easily turned, and by the 10th of December the enemy was fairly driven within his lines, which substantially followed the course of a swampy creek emptying into the Savannah river some three miles above the city, and across to the head of another stream emptying into the Little Ogeechee. Both of these streams afforded the enemy a peculiarly favorable cover, as they were very marshy, and bordered by rice-fields flooded either by the tide-water or by inland ponds, the gates to which were controlled by heavy artillery. The only approaches to the city were five narrow cause ways, viz : two railroads, and the Augusta, Louisville, and Ogeechee roads, all commanded by heavy ordnance. Deeming it unwise to assault an enemy of unknown strength at such disadvantage, with an army which he had successfully brought, almost unscathed, for so great a distance, and knowing that he could surely attain the desired result by the opera tion of time, Sherman contented himself by establishing a complete investiture of the city from north to west, while he awaited the opening and establishing of communication with Admiral Dahlgren s fleet, which he knew to be waiting for him in Tybee, Wassau, and Ossabaw sounds. In approaching Savannah, the left wing, under General Slocum, had struck the Charleston railroad near the bridge, and occupying the river bank had captured two Eebel river-boats, and cut off two gunboats from communication with the city. The right wing, General Howard, had broken the Gulf railroad at Fleming s, occupying the line of the road, so that no supplies could reach Savannah, by any of the accustomed channels. The Union army, however, while thus cutting off supplies from the enemy, rejoiced in large herds of cattle, gathered on their march, while their wagons were loaded with ample quantities of bread-stuffs and other pro visions, and the fine rice-crops which bordered the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers yielded quantities of rice and rice-straw. In addition to this, they controlled the country west and south of the Ogeechee, as foraging ground. Although thus conveniently and advantageously situated, Sherman realized the vital importance of a communication with the fleet, from which he wished to obtain siege guns for the reduction of Savannah ; and the Ogeechee river, a navigable stream, close to the rear of his camps, was the proper avenue for this purpose but this was controlled by Fort McAllister, a strong enclosed redoubt, on the west side of the river, opposite to Savannah, and six miles above Ossabaw sound, manned by some two hundred troops, and mounting twenty-three guns en barbette, and one mortar. This fort, nearly two years before, had successfully withstood a lengthy bombard ment by three monitors, and its reduction now, was the next step to be taken in the operations against Savannah. Sherman decided that it must be carried by assault, and this undertaking he committed to the second, Hazen s division of the fifteenth corps, which he had himself commanded 864 .THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. at Yicksburg. Crossing to the west bank of the river, on the 13th of December, Hazen reached the vicinity of the fort about one o clock p. M., deployed his division with both flanks resting upon the river, posted his skirmishers judiciously behind the trunks of trees, whose branches had been used by the Kebels for alattis, and made all his dispositions for the desperate attempt in the most skillful manner. While this was going on, the signal officers who for two days had been anxiously watching for the appearance of the fleet, about the middle of the afternoon descried the smoke and the spars of a steamer creeping along over the salt marshes and rice fields, in the direction of Ossabaw sound ; and signals were speed ily and joyfully exchanged between the army and the vessels. About five, P. M.J as the sun was sinking slowly behind the tree-tops, General Sherman signalled to Hazen to assault at once, if possible. As the little fla^g ^fluttered back the reply, "lam ready, and will assault at once," a long line of blue coats and bright bayonets emerged from the woods sur rounding the fort, moving to the attack in three columns. Through the thick abattis, over the deep ditch, wrenching away the palisades with which its bottom was planted, Hazen s gallant troops rushed at the double- quick and though the Eebels gallantly defended their position, yet such was the dash and splendid daring of the Union troops, fighting as they well knew under the very eye of their great commander, that in less than thirty minutes from the start, the stars and stripes floated victoriously from the ramparts of McAllister. With a loss of less than a hundred men they had won this strong earthwork fortification, capturing its garrison, its full complement of heavy guns, large stores of subsistence and ordnance* together with all its camp and garrison equipage. As soon as Sherman saw the attacking party mount the parapet, he ordered his boat and started for the fort, where he briefly congratulated the successful General Ilazen, and then pursued his way to the fleet. Meeting with General Foster s vessel on the Ogeechee, the two officers proceeded down to Wassau sound, where, about noon of the following day, they met Admiral Dahlgren, with whom Sherman enjoyed a full and free conference, and then returned, on the 15th, to Fort McAllister, and the lines in the rear of Savannah. On the 17th, having received a number of thirty-pound Parrott guns from Port Eoyal, Sherman des patched, by flag of truce, a formal demand for the surrender of Savannah, to which, on the day following, he received a refusal from General Hardee. Further reconnoissances from the left, satisfied General Sherman that it would be both impracticable and unwise to push any large force across the Savannah river, inasmuch as it would be isolated by the enemy s iron clad gunboats, which held the river opposite to the city, and could destroy any pontoons which his men might throw across from Hutchinson s island to the South Carolina shore. He therefore ordered his siege guns to be placed in position, made arrangements for an assault, and opened a water RESULTS OF THK CAPTURE OF SAVANNAH. 865 base at King s bridge, on the Ogeechee, from which point his line stretched across to the Savannah, his left being about three miles above the city, thus cutting off all the railroad supplies by which the Rebel citi zens and soldiery were to be subsisted. The Rebel force thus locked up in Savannah, amounted to about fifteen thousand men, mostly militia, and although General Gustavus W. Smith, with a force of eight thousand Confederate troops, approached the Ogeechee, he was easily kept from coming any nearer to the beleaguered city, by Sherman s possession of Fort McAllister, and the Union gunboats in the river. Such was the atti tude of aftairs, when, on the morning of the 20th of December, it was dis covered that Savannah had been evacuated by Ilardee and his army on the previous night, under cover of a heavy fire which had been opened upon our lines, and soon its streets echoed to the tread of the veterans of General Blair s seventeenth corps. The sudden collapse of the Rebel defence of this important city and port, seems to have been due mainly to two causes : 1st, the moral influence produced on the enemy by the cap ture of Fort McAllister, by direct assault, which demoralized both citizens and soldiers to an extent which could not have been produced simply by a regular investiture of the city ; 2dly, their knowledge of a flank move ment, operating in connection with General Foster, by way of Black river, which, in two days, would have shut them up beyond all hope of escape. Ilardee, therefore, wisely concluded to withdraw while opportunity re mained, and did so through swamps hitherto considered impassable. The prize which the Union army had thus obtained was a magnificent one the city, with its valuable harbor and river ; the forts and heavy ordnance in its vicinity; eight hundred prisoners; one hundred and fifty-two guns; thirteen locomotives and one hundred and ninety cars, in good order; immense supplies of ammunition and materials of war; three steamers, and over thirty-eight thousand bales of cotton, and other supplies. On the morning of the 21st, General Sherman received the formal surrender of the city from its Mayor and municipal authorities, and immediately telegraphed to the President of the United States, offering him u as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah," with all its contents. General Geary, commanding a division in the 20fch corps, was made military gov ernor of the city ; and, under his judicious management, order, protection, and improved sanitary condition, and a general sense of comfort and security, delighted the citizens, and caused them to honor the Union name. The army, flushed with its triumph, well received by the inhab itants who yielded gracefully and gladly to the restoration of the National authority and enjoying superb quarters, fish, oysters and other good things, relished exceedingly the position of affairs, and plumed its wings afresh for other and no less glorious flights. The campaign through Georgia, which we have thus briefly sketched has no precedent in a military point of view, for the history of war 55 866 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. records no similar conditions. Its success was due not so much to any lack of force on the part of the enemy opposed to the Union army as to the masterly plan of operations, as developed in the direction of columns, the disposition of troops, and the selection of lines of travel, by which Sherman confused and deceived that enemy, so that concentration and effective resistance was only made when it was too late. In twenty-seven days, sixty thousand men swept across the State of Georgia, for a distance of three hundred miles, and in a track fifty miles wide, devastating and scarring all they touched. Railroads in every direction ; factories which had supplied the Rebel Government with arms, ammunition, railroad stock, clothing, &c., were utterly destroyed. Fifteen thousand cattle, and five thousand horses and mules, besides hogs, sheep, and poultry, were captured; corn and fodder along the -entire length of the route was con sumed, while at Savannah the enemy was obliged to destroy his iron clads, navy yards, ordnance and stores. Freedom was given to over twenty thousand negroes, who followed their deliverers to Savannah ; and Sherman, with good reason, estimated the damage done to the State of Georgia and its military resources at one hundred million dollars, of which eighty million was " waste and destruction," the balance having enured to the advantage of the army. And the army which had done this lived mainly on the enemy s country, and its entire loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, did not exceed one thousand six hundred ! Of the officers who commanded, their general, in his official report, speflks kindly and enthusiastically; while of the "rank and file," he says, "they seem so full of confidence in themselves that I doubt if they want a com pliment from me; but I must do them the justice to say that, whether called on to fight, to march, to wade streams, to make roads, clear out obstructions, build bridges, make corduroy, or tear up railroads, they have done it with an alacrity and a degree of cheerfulness unsurpassed. A little loose in foraging, they did some things they ought not to have done, yet, on the whole, they have supplied the wants of the army with as little violence as could be expected, and as little loss as I calculated. Some of these foraging parties had encounters with the enemy which would, in ordinary times, rank as respectable battles. The behavior of our troops in Savannah has been so manly, so quiet, so perfect, that I take it as the best evidence of discipline and true courage. Never was a hostile city, filled with women and children, occupied by a large army with less disorder, or more system, order, and good government." Four co-operative movements of the Union forces, which took place during this campaign, are worthy of our notice, of which, however, only two had much practical importance ; (1) General Foster s demonstration upon the Charleston and Savannah railroad ; and (2) a cavalry expedition from the Mississippi river to Selina, Ala., both unsuccessful ; (3) Stoneman s cavalry raid up the Tennessee valley, admirable and successful in its execution SHERMAN S GENERAL ORDERS. 867 and destructive results ; and (4) Thomas s management of Hood, which, in reality, assumed the dignity of a separate campaign. It will be recollected that when Sherman conceived the plan of his " march to the sea," he pro ceeded, in direct violation of that universally accepted axiom in the art of war, forbidding the division of forces in the face of an enemy, to detach a portion of his army to General Thomas, with orders to lure Hood into Tennessee. This Thomas successfully accomplished, and turning on him at the proper moment crushed him. All these operations formed separate links in the great chain of strategy, by which Lee, in the Kebel stronghold of Richmond, was bound hand and foot, and delivered into the hands of the national authority. On the 8th of January, 1865, General Sherman issued a congratulatory order to his troops, in which he reviewed their services during the two months previous, both in this campaign and in that under General Thomas, at Nashville (the troops in which, it will be remembered, belonged also to his military division of the Mississippi), and authorized the regiments in both armies to inscribe at their pleasure "Savannah" or "Nashville" on their colors, thus as was just, dividing the honors of the two great victories equally. On the 14th of January, he published another general order directing the adoption of measures for putting down guerillas, and providing for the protection and liberty of trade of farmers and others who were loyally inclined. This order met with very general approval by the citizens. But his most important action, while in Savannah, was that in reference to the freedmen. Though not technically an abolitionist, and indeed before the war regarded as pro-slavery in his views, General Sherman had been greatly impressed with the loyalty and fidelity of the negroes, whether slave or free, to the Union. He had found them, in his two Georgia campaigns, as well as in Mississippi, the warm and confiding friends of the Union army, and they manifested a most touching and implicit faith in him and his army. Secretary Stanton of the War Department visited Savannah while General Sherman was there, and taking advantage of his presence, the General assembled the leading men among the negroes men in whose integrity, intelligence and character, they themselves had perfect confidence, and in whom they were willing to recognize as their representatives, and had a free conference with them, as to their views concerning the future con dition and social position of these people, the Secretary taking part in the interview. It was found that they were uniformly desirous of colonizing the islands along the South Carolina and Georgia coast, and cultivating cotton, rice, and other crops for themselves. As a result of this interview, and for the purpose of responding to their views, the general issued, on the 18th of January, 1865, the following general order: 868 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. " HEAD-QUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OP THE MISSISSIPPI, IN THE, FIELD SAVANNAH, GA. January IGth, 1865. "I. The islands from Charleston, south, the abandoned rice-fields along the river, for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. Johns river, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the acts of war and the President of the United States. "II. At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine and Jacksonville, the blacks may remain in their chosen or accustomed avocations; but on the islands and in the settlements hereafter to be estab lished, no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers, detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside ; and the sole and exclusive management of affairs wrll be left to the freed people themselves, subject only to the United States military authority and the acts of Congress. By the laws of war, and orders of the President of the United States, the negro is free, and must be dealt with as such. He cannot be subjected to conscription or forced military service, save by the written orders of the highest military authority of the department, under such regulations as the President or Congress may prescribe. Domestic servants, blacksmiths, carpenters, and other mechanics, will be free to select their own work and residence ; but the young and able-bodied negroes must be encouraged to enlist as soldiers in the service of the United States, to contribute their share toward maintaining their own freedom, and securing their rights as citizens of the United States. Negroes so enlisted will be organized into companies, battalions and regiments, under the order of the United States military authorities, and will be paid, fed and clothed, according to law. The bounties paid on enlistment may, with consent of the recruit, go to assist his family and settlement, in procuring agricultural implements, seeds, tools, boats, clothing, and other articles necessary for their liveli hood. " III. Whenever three respectable negroes, heads of families, shall desire to settle on land, and shall have selected, for that purpose, an island or a locality clearly denned within the limits above designated, the Inspector of Settlements and Plantations will himself, or by such subordinate officer as he may appoint, give them a license to settle such island or district, and afford them such assistance as he can, to enable them to establish a peaceable agricultural settlement. The three parties named will subdivide the laud, under the supervision of the Inspector, among themselves, and such others as may choose to settle near them, so that each family shall have a plot of not more than forty acres of tillable ground, and when it borders on some water channel, with not more than eight hundred feet front, in the possession of which land the military authorities will afford them protection until such time as they can protect themselves, or until Congress shall regulate their title. The quartermaster DESTITUTION OF THE WHITES AT SAVANNAH. 8C9 may, on the requisition of the Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, place at the disposal of the Inspector one or more of the captured steam ers, to ply between the settlements and one or more of the commercial points heretofore named in orders, to afford the settlers the opportunity to supply their necessary wants, and to sell the products of their land and labor. " IV. When a negro has enlisted in the military service of the United States, he may locate his family in any of the settlements, at pleasure, and acquire a homestead, and all other rights and privileges of a settler, as though present in person. In like manner, negroes may settle their fami lies, and engage on board the gunboats, or in fishing, or in the navigation of the inland waters, without losing any claim to land, or other advan tages derived from this system. But none, except an actual settler, as above defined, or unless absent on government service, will be entitled to claim any right to land or property in any settlement by virtue of these orders. " Y. In order to carry out this system of settlement, a general officer will be detailed as Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, whose duty it shall be to visit the settlements, to regulate their police and general management, and who will furnish, personally, to each head of a family, subject to the approval of the President of the United States, a possessory title in writing, giving, as near as possible, the description of boundaries, and who may adjust all claims or conflicts that may arise under the same, subject to the like approval, treating such titles as altogether possessory. The same general officer will also be charged with the enlistment and organization of the negro recruits, and protecting their interests while so absent from their settlements, and will be governed by the rules and regu lations prescribed by the War Department for such purpose. " VI. Brigadier-General K. Saxton is Ijereby appointed Inspector of Settlements and Plantations, and will at once enter on the performance of nis duties. No change is intended or desired in the settlement now on Beaufort Island, nor will any right to property, heretofore acquired, be affected hereby. By order of Major-General W. T. SHERMAN." Soon after the promulgation of this order, an " Educational Associa tion" was formed among the freedmen, for the purpose of establishing schools for the education of their children. The first evening these poor people subscribed, in sums of three dollars each, more than seven hun dred dollars, and in a few days five hundred colored children were assem bled in their schools. There was found to be great destitution among the whites in Savannah, nee being almost the only article of food which was to be had in any considerable quantities. General Sherman gave of this twenty thousand bushels from his stores, and permitted a former officer of his army to visit THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. New York to exchange it for other articles of food. On his arrival the generous citizens of New York allowed it to be sold and the pro ceeds invested in food, but they added to the cargo of the government vessel which bore those supplies back, fifty thousand dollars worth of provisions for the suffering poor of Savannah. Generous contributions to the same object were also forwarded from Boston, Massachusetts, and other cities. THE NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN. 871 CHAPTER LXVIIL THE NASHVILLE CAMPAIGN SHERMAN S RESOLVE DAVIS S BOAST HOOD TRIES TO FULFIL IT THE OFFER TO GIVE HOOD HIS RATIONS MOVEMENTS OF GENERAL THOMAS S COMMAND THE FOURTH AND TWENTY-THIRD CORPS ASSIGNED TO GENERAL THOMAS SHERMAN S ORDER HIS INSTRUCTIONS A PART OF HOOD S FORCE CROSSES THE TENNESSEE THE NUMBER OF HOOD S TROOPS EFFECTIVE FORCE OF THOMAS CHEATHAM 8 CORPS CROSSES THE TEN NESSEE FORREST S RAID ON JOHNSONVILLE SCHOFIELD PASSES THROUGH JOHNSONVILLK TO PULASKI HOOD ADVANCES ON PULASKI SCHOFIELD s AND THOMAS S MEASURES FALL ING BACK TO COLUMBIA CALLING IN THE GARRISONS THE CROSSING OF DUCK RIVER HOOD ATTEMPTS TO FLANK SCHOFIELD AT SPRING HILL BUT FAILS TO DO SO CAUSES OF THE FAILURE THE RACE FOR FRANKLIN SCHOFIELD WINS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STAKE SCHOFIELD KEEPS THE REBELS AT BAY TILL HIS MEX HAVE THROWN UP TEMPORARY DEFENCES HOOD S ADDRESS TO HIS TROOPS HIS PLAN ITS PARTIAL SUCCESS HEROISM OF GENERAL STANLEY RESULTS OF THE BATTLE SKETCH OF GENERAL STANLEY SCHO FIELD FALLS BACK TO NASHVILLE, AND MILROY TO MURFREESBORO THOMAS S REINFORCE MENTS COME UP POSITION OF THE TWO ARMIES HOOD S BLUNDER THE EXPKDITION AGAINST MURFREESBORO ITS FAILURE THOMAS PREPARES TO ATTACK HOOD S LEFT, AT THE SAME TIME DEMONSTRATING UPON HIS RIGHT THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE FIRST DAY RESULTS HOOD S CONDITION AND HOPES gECOND DAY DISPOSITION OF THE TROOP8 CAVALRY ATTACK ON THE REAR THE GENERAL ADVANCE THE ASSAULT REPULSE ADVANCING AGAIN THE ENEMY S LINES BROKEN, AND HE COMPELLED TO FLY IN THE UTMOST DISORDER THE RETREAT THE PURSUIT ITS RELENTLESS CHARACTER RESULTS GALLANT CONDUCT OF COLONEL PALMER LYON s DEFEAT AND CAPTURE SKETCH OF GENERAL SCHOFIELD SKETCH OF HOOD THE CAMPAIGN OF GILLEM, BURBRIDGE, AND STONEMAN, IN EAST TENNESSEE AND WESTERN VIRGINIA BATTLES OF KINGSPORT, ABINGTON, AND MARION CAPTURE OF WYTHEVILLE AND SALTVILLE BURBRIDGE s RETURN TO KEN TUCKY. OUR narrative of Sherman s campaign from Atlanta to the sea, left Hood at Gadsden, Alabama, whither he had retreated from Sherman s pursuit, and where, behind strong fortifications, he awaited Sherman s attack. It was at this point, in accordance with his previously matured purpose, that Sherman determined not to be drawn out of Georgia, nor to suffer his communications to be longer at Hood s mercy. He had become satisfied that Hood had a force sufficient to trouble his communications, but not to meet and cope with him in battle. Jefferson Davis had boasted at Macon, that the soil wrested from the Rebels in Tennessee should be regained, and Hood was about to attempt the fulfilment of that boast, by an expe dition thither. The sailors have a proverb that "a stern chase is a long chase," and Sherman was well aware that if he attempted, with his large army, to pursue Hood, the chase would be a long and wearisome one, and Hood would be able to do a great deal of mischief before he could over take him. If, on the contrary he detached the skilful and resolute Thomas 872 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. to hold Tsnnessee with a sufficient force, to draw him on, till he was away from his base of supplies, and finally to grapple with and destroy his army, while Sherman himself, with the remainder of his army, cut loose from his base, and marched through Georgia to the sea, he would accomplish. far more for the overthrow of the Rebel power than he could do by re maining on the defensive. He had communicated his views and plans to the Lieutenant-General, who gave them his full approval. "If," said Sherman to his generals, at this stage of the contest, "Hood will go into Tennessee, I will give him his rations." To his comprehensive and astute intellect, it was already evident that, in this move of Hood s, prompted by the Rebel President, he had thrown away his last hope of success, his last chance even of prolonging the war, and that for this phantom of an invasion, he had relinquished the great and controlling advantage of interior lines of movement. Early in October, 1864, General Thomas, then commanding the army of the Cumberland, had disposed his forces in such, a way as to oppose the greatest resistance in his power to Hood s contemplated forward move ment from Gadsden, either upon Bridgeport or Chattanooga, both which were thought to be threatened. Decatur, Huntsville, Stevenson, and the rest of northern Alabama were left to the care of their ordinary garrisons, but General Thomas caused Rousseau to recall his mounted troops from their pursuit of Forrest, who was at his favorite work of making raids on the Union lines of communications, and concentrate them at Athens ; Croxton s brigade of cavalry was ordered to observe and protect the cross ings of the Tennessee river, from Decatur to Eastport; Morgan s division of Jefferson C. Davis s fourteenth corps, to move by rail to Chattanooga, where were already Morgan s and Newton s divisions of the fourth Stanley s corps; and Steedman was ordered to follow Morgan to Bridge port. On^the 14th of October, Morgan reached his designated position, and Steedman s destination was also changed to Chattanooga. Hood, how ever, did not move for some time, and, on the 26th of October, General Sherman detached the fourth corps, under Major-General Stanley, and ordered him to proceed to Chattanooga and report to General Thomas, at Nashville. On the 30th of October he also detached the twenty-third corps, Major-General Schofield, with the same destination. On the 28th of October he had delegated to General Thomas full power over the fourth and twenty-third corps, the two divisions of the sixteenth corps under command of General A. J. Smith, then in Missouri, but on their way to Tennessee, and all the garrisons in Tennessee, as well as all the cavalry of the military division of the Mississippi, except Kilpatrick s division. His special field order for this purpose was as follows : " In the event of military movements or the accidents of war separating the general in command from his military division, Major-General George H. Thomas, commanding the Department of the Cumberland, will exercise EFFECTIVE FORCE OF GENERAL THOMAS. 873 command over all the troops and garrisons not absolutely in the presence of the General-in-Chief." Brevet Major-General Wilson had been ordered from the army of the Potomac to report to General Thomas, and take command of the cavalry of his army, and he was sent back to Nashville with all dismounted de tachments, and with orders to collect as rapidly as possible the cavalry serving in Kentucky and Tennessee, to mount, organize and equip them, and report for duty at the earliest moment. These forces General Sherman believed sufficient to enable General Thomas to defend the railway from Chattanooga to Nashville, and Decatur, and to give him an army, capable of coping successfully with Hood, should he cross the Tennessee north ward. General Sherman also informed General Thomas of his entire plans for the campaign, and instructed him that he was expected to defend the line of the Tennessee river, to hold Tennessee in any event, and to pursue Hood should he follow Sherman. On the 26th of October, the enemy appeared in some force before Decatur, but, after skirmishing for three days, withdrew. On the 31st, in spite of all the efforts of Croxton s cavalry, which was, as we have said, guarding the river from Decatur to Eastport, the enemy succeeded in effecting a lodgment on the north bank of the Tennessee, about three miles above Florence. Only a small portion of Hood s army crossed at this time, the greater part remaining in Florence, perhaps because their commander was perplexed by the movements of Sherman, or, more prob ably, was engaged in making preparation for the advance into Tennessee, on which he was fully determined. Hood had caused the Mobile and Ohio railroad to be repaired, and he now occupied Corinth, so that his supplies could be brought by rail from Selma and Montgomery to that point, and thence by way of the Memphis and Charleston railroad to Cherokee station. His force now consisted of the remnant of his three old corps under Lee, Stuart, and Cheatham, estimated at from thirty to thirty-five thousand men, and Forrest s cavalry, supposed to number twelve thousand. General Thomas s effective force (A. J. Smith, with his ,two divisions, not having yet arrived, and only a small part of Wilson s cavalry being remounted) numbered twenty-two thousand infantry, and seven thousand seven hundred cavalry, exclusive of numerous detachments, garrisoning Murfreesboro , Stevenson, Bridgeport, Huntsville, Decatur, and Chatta nooga, and distributed along the railways to guard them. On the afternoon of the 12th of November, the last telegraphic despatch was received from General Sherman, and all railway and telegraphic com munication with his army thenceforth ceased. From that day until the 17th of November, was an anxious period for General Thomas, for he was uncertain whether he should be under the necessity of pursuing Hood, as would be the case if he followed Sherman, or whether he should 874 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. have to defend Tennessee against invasion ; but, on the 17th, Cheatham s corps crossed to the north side of the Tennessee, and suspense was at an end. The Rebel general could not now follow Sherman if he were dis posed to do so, for he was already three days march beyond Atlanta, on his way to the sea. On the 28th of October, Forrest had come from Corinth, with seven teen regiments of cavalry, and nine pieces of artillery, and having cap tured a gunboat and two transports, on the Tennessee river, and burned a third transport at Fort Heiman, seventy-five miles above Paducah, planted batteries above and below Johnsonville, which was an extensive depot of Union stores, and connected by railroad with Nashville. He had been compelled to destroy the gunboats he had captured, and one of the transports was recaptured. By the position of his batteries, he was able to isolate three gunboats, eight transports, and about a dozen barges. On the 4th of November, he opened with his artillery on the gunboats and transports, as well as upon the town, and the gunboats, which were wooden vessels, having become disabled, their officers, fearing they would fall into Forrest s hands, unwisely fired them and the transports, and the flames communicating to the government storehouses on the levee, which were filled with commissary and quartermaster s stores, those also were burned, involving a loss of about one and a half millions of dollars. The garrison of Johnsonville, however, showed no disposition to yield to Forrest, whose previous exploits at Fort Pillow and elsewhere, had caused his name to be greatly loathed, yid after a somewhat protracted bombard ment of the town, he withdrew, and crossing the river just above the town, hastened southward. General Schofield with the twenty-third corps, arrived at Johnsonville from Nashville, the night after Forrest s withdrawal, and leaving a rein forcement to the garrison at Nashville, went on to Pulaski, to join the fourth corps there. On the 19th of November, Hood began his advance northward, on parallel roads from Florence to Waynesboro . General Schofield, who had command of the two corps at Pulaski, had orders to obstruct and delay Hood s progress as much as possible, without bringing on a general engagement, in order to afford more time for the arrival of Smith s two divisions from Missouri, and to enable Wilson to remount and equip more completely his cavalry. Finding that Hood was approaching Pulaski, General Schofield removed the public property from that town, and sent back his trains to Columbia, preparatory to falling back thither with his troops. Two divisions of the fourth Stanley s corps had already been de tailed to proceed as far as Lynnville, fifteen miles north of Pulaski, to cover the passage of the wagons, and protect the railway. Capron s brigade of cavalry was at Mount Pleasant, covering the approach to Colum bia from that direction ; and in addition to the regular garrison, there was, WAYNESBORO **< LAWRENCEBURG:^ HOOD ADVANCES ON PULASKI. 875 at Columbia, a brigade of Kuger s division of the twenty-third corps. The two remaining brigades of Ruger s division, then at Johnsonville, were ordered to move, one by railway around through Nashville to Columbia, the other by turnpike by way of Waverly to Centreville, to occupy the crossings of Duck river near Columbia, Williamsport, Gordon s ferry and Centreville. About five thousand men, belonging to Sherman s column, had collected at Chattanooga, comprising convalescents and furloughed men returning to their regiments. These men had been organized into brigades, to be made available at such points as as they might be needed. General Thomas had also been reinforced by twenty new one year regiments, most of which, however, were absorbed in replacing old regiments, whose term of service had expired. On the 23d of November, General R. S. Granger, commander of the garrisons along the line of the Memphis and Charleston railroad, in accordance with instructions previously given him, commenced withdraw ing the garrisons from Athens, Decatur, and Huntsville, Alabama, and moved off toward Stevenson, sending five new regiments of this force to Murfreesboro, and retaining at Stevenson, the original troops of his command. This movement was made by rail with great rapidity, and without any opposition on the part of the enemy. General Schofield evacuated Pulaski, on the evening of the 23d of November, and reached Columbia on the 24th. The commanding officer at Johnsonville was directed to evacuate that post and retire to Clarks- ville. During the 24th and 25th, the enemy skirmished with General Schofield s troops at Columbia, and on the morning of the 26th his infantry came up and pressed Schofield s line strongly, during that day and the 27th, but without assaulting. As the enemy s movements showed an un doubted intention to cross Duck river, General Schofield withdrew to the north bank of that river, during the night of the 27th. Two divisions of the twenty-third corps were placed in line in front of Columbia, holding all the crossings in its vicinity ; while the fourth Stanley s corps, posted in reserve on the Franklin turnpike, was held in readiness to repel any vigorous attempt the enemy should make to force a passage ; and the cavalry, under Wilson, held the crossings above those guarded by their infantry. About two A. M., on the 29th, the enemy succeeded in pressing back General Wilson s cavalry, and effected a crossing on the Lewisburg turnpike; at a later hour, part of his infantry crossed at Huey s mills, six miles above Columbia, convinced that it was Hood s intention to attempt to flank him at Spring Hill. General Schofield now made preparations to fall back to Franklin, where his position would be much stronger. He sent General Stanley promptly in the early morning to Spring Hill fifteen miles distant, with one division of the fourth corps, to cover the trains, and hold the road open for the passage of the main force ; and dis 8f6 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. positions were made preparatory to a withdrawal; to meet any attack coming from the direction of Huey s mills. Hood had despatched Forrest, with the greater part of his cavalry, across Duck river, a few miles above Columbia, on the evening of the 28th, and on the morning of the 29th he followed with Stewart s and Cheatham s corps, and Johnson s division of Lee s, in light marching order, with only one battery to each corps, leaving the other divisions of Lee s corps in front of Schofield s troops at Columbia. His object was, of course to throw his force, or the greater part of it, upon the trains of the Union army, and cut it off, as well as the troops which guarded it, from the remainder of Schofield s force, which he hoped to hold at Columbia till this was accomplished. The plan was well conceived, and came near proving successful. General Stanley reached Spring Hill just in time to drive off Forrests cavalry, and save the trains ; but he found, in the after noon, that Cheatham s corps had come up, and renewing the attack in con nection with Forrest, they had at onetime nearly succeeded in dislodging him from his position. General Stanley, was, however, just the man for this emergency, firm and unyielding as well as daring, he withstood the fearful odds, and kept the roads open for the passage of the long train, notwithstanding the terrible pressure of the Kebel force. Hood, indeed, blamed Cheatham severely for his failure to crush Stanley at this time, and speaks of his attack as but feeble and partial ; but the failure was probably due to Stanley s splendid fighting powers, rather then to any lack of energy or zeal on the part of Cheatham. The divisions which Hood left in Schofield s front at Columbia, fought all day, attempting to cross Duck river, but were repulsed many times, and suffered severe loss : giving directions for the withdrawal of the troops from Columbia, so soon as the darkness would cover the movement, General Schofield started, late in the afternoon, with Kuger s division of the twenty-third corps to the relief of General Stanley, at Spring Hill, and when near that place came upon a body of Rebel cavalry, bivouacking within eight hundred yards of the road, but easily drove them off. Posting a brigade to hold the road at this point, against the coming up of the re mainder of his troops, General Schofield, with Kuger s division, pushed on to Thompson s station, three miles beyond, where he found the enemy s camp fires still burning, a cavalry force having occupied the place till dark ; when they were removed. General Hood states that, at dark, he furnished Lieutenant-General Stewart with a guide, and ordered him to move his corps beyond (or to the left) of Cheatham s and place it across the road beyond Spring Hill. Shortly after this, General Cheatham came to his headquarters, and when Hood informed him of Stewart s movement, he said that Stewart ought to form on his right ; Hood asked if that would throw Stewart across the turnpike. Cheatham answered that it would, and a mile beyond. Accordingly one of Cheatham s staff officers was sent to SCHOFIELD KEEPS THE REBELS AT BAY. 87 Y show Stewart where his right rested. In the darkness and confusion, Stewart did not succeed in getting the position desired, and about eleven P. M. went into bivouac. About twelve P. M., General Hood, ascertaining that the Union troops were moving past in great confusion (such are his words) artillery, wagons and troops intermixed sent instructions to General Cheatham to advance a heavy line of skirmishers against them, and still further impede and confuse their march. For some reason, Cheatham did not attempt this, and the column which left Columbia after nightfall on the evening of the 29th, passed Spring Hill about midnight, Generals Stanley and Schofield, with the divisions they commanded in person, having preceded them, and though within hearing of Hood s army nearly all night, were unmolested. The night march of twenty-five miles was made in safety, and the whole command were in position at Franklin, at an early hour on the morning of the 30th, the cavalry moving on the Lewisburg turnpike on the right of the infantry. Finding that Hood was pursuing him rather closely, General Schofield made a feint of an intention of giving battle on the hills four miles south of Franklin, but when the Rebels had paused and begun to deploy their troops for the attack, he fell back slowly to Franklin. This had been a race for the possession of Tennessee, of whose importance and moment both commanders were fully aware. Franklin once reached by Schofield and his troops put in order of battle there, the odds were strongly against Hood. The Union general was near his base Nashville and could without serious difficulty reach it, while his adversary was moving constantly farther from his base, and in the topography of the country, as well as in the large force which would then oppose him, his chances of success would be greatly dimin ished. If, on the contrary, he had been successful in dividing and defeating Schofield s army at Spring Hill, it would have been difficult and perhaps impossible to prevent him from overrunning Middle Tennessee and Kentucky, and though, in the end, this triumph might not have greatly prolonged the war, it would have caused immense losses in troops and property to have repelled the invasion. Franklin, which place General Schofield had reached with his troops without serious loss, is situated on the Nashville and Decatur railroad, eighteen miles south of Nashville, in a bend of the Big Harpeth river, an affluent of the Cumberland. The river encircles the town on three sides, and General Schofield stretchetl his army across the bend, and hastened the crossing of his trains over the bridge on the north side of the town, toward Nashville. In the position which he had selected for his line of battle, there were already some fortifications and rifle-pits, and General Schofield kept his skirmishers engaged in pushing back the advance-guard of Hood ? s army, while the troops were completing a line | of temporary defences. By their skilful manoeuvring, the enemy were gfg THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES kept at bay until four p. M., when Hood having massed his troops in front of Schofield s position, battle could be no longer delayed. Eiding along his lines, Hood encouraged his troops to make a desper ate attack; telling them that the Union force in their front was greatly in ferior to their own, and that if they once succeeded in breaking it, they could drive the Yankees out of Tennessee. His plan of battle was to hurl his force, massed as it was, upon the Union centre, break it, seize upon the trains, and if possible destroy the Union army before it could cross the Harpeth river. But Schofield s position was an admirable one, and though his force was greatly inferior to Hood s, it could and did repel his attacks, with terrible loss. At four p. M., Hood appeared with his troops, advancing out of the woods into the plain in front of the Union position, Schofield s skirmishers meantime falling back slowly toward the main army, and maintaining a sharp musketry fire as they retreated. As the Bebels advanced, the Union troops opened a heavy and destruc tive cannonade upon them, and as they came nearer, in dense lines, four deep, the deadly grape and canister, and the severe musketry fire at short range made fearful havoc with them. But though the .ieadly missiles cut wide swaths in their advancing columns, they struggled on, and at last Maury s division of Cheatham s corps reached the Union outworks, held by Wagner s division, and after a fierce struggle, drove it back upon the second and stronger line, held by Cox s and Eugers divisions of the twenty-third corps. Withdrawing a short distance, and reforming their lines, the Eebel troops flung themselves with great fury upon this second line, and after a desperate and terrible contest, forced their way inside of it also, and captured two guns. At this critical moment, when the tide of battle seemed turned against the Union forces, General David S. Stan ley, the commander of the fourth corps, put himself at the head of Opdyke s brigade, with Conrad s in support, and rushing with intense energy upon the enemy, after a fierce hand to hand encounter, with bayonets and clubbed muskets, succeeded in driving them out of the works, though not until he had himself been severely wounded. Infuri ated at this discomfiture, just at the moment of success, Hood and his corps commanders urged on their troops to renewed attacks, and for more than five hours they surged up, again and again, against the Union lines, but in vain. The Union soldiers stood like a wall of adamant, and their artillery, served with the utmost precision, and at short range, dealt de struction to the foe at each advance. At length, at ten o clock at night, finding that he was only sacrificing his men to no purpose, the Eebel com mander desisted, and fell back out of range. The Union trains were by this time well on their way to Nashville, and a part of them already Arrived there, and at midnight, Schofield withdrew with his army in per fect order, and marching swiftly over the excellent roads reached Nash ville on the morning of December 1st. . j HEROISM OP GENERAL STANLEY. 879 The battle of Franklin had been one of the severest actions for the time it occupied and the number of troops engaged, in the annals of the war. Hood reported it as a victory on his part, on the ground probably of Schofield s retreat to Nashville during the night, but it was a victory dearly bought and almost ruinous in its losses. His killed numbered, according to his official report, seventeen hundred and fifty, his wounded, three thousand eight hundred, and seven hundred and two of his officers and men were captured by the Union troops, making his total casualties six thousand two hundred and fifty-two. Among the killed, were Major- General Patrick E. Cleburne, one of his best division officers, and five brigadier-generals, viz : Williams, J. Adams, Gist, Strahl, and Granbury. Major-General Brown, and Brigadier-Generals Carter, Mauigault, Quarles, Cockerell, and Scott, were wounded ; and Brigadier-General Gordon cap tured. The Union losses were one hundred and eighty-nine killed, one thousand and thirty-three wounded, and one thousand one hundred and four missing, making an aggregate of two thousand three hundred and twenty-six. The Union troops captured thirty-three stands of colors, and seven hundred and two prisoners. Major-General Stanley* was the only Union general officer wounded. The Union army were compelled to leave their slain and severely wounded upon the field, but they were cared for by the people of Franklin. On the evacuation of Columbia, General Thomas sent orders to General * Major-General David S. Stanley, was born in Cedar Valley, Wayne county, Ohio, June 1st, 1828 ; he received a good english education, and commenced the study of medicine in 1847, but entered West Point the next year, and graduated in 1852, eighth in his class. He was appointed, July 1852, brevet second lieutenant of the second dragoons ; received his commission as full second lieutenant, in 1853 ; was promoted to be first lieutenant of the first cavalry, in March 1855 ; was assigned to duty on the frontier in New Mexico, Texas, Missouri (now Dakotah) territory, &c., and had several engagements with the Indians, from 1853 to 1861. On the 16th of March, 1861, he was promoted to tee captain of the fourth cavalry, and removed the United States garrisons in Texas, to Leavenworth, Kansas. He took part in the battles of Dug Spring and Wilson s creek, Missouri, in August 1861 ; was commis sioned brigadier-general of volunteers, September 28, 1861 ; commanded a brigade and ere long a division, and distinguished himself in the sieges of New Madrid, Island Number Ten, and Corinth ; and in the battles of luka, September 19, 1862, and Corinth, October 3d and 4th, 1862 ; was appointed by General Rosecrans his chief of cavalry, and won distinction in several minor engagements, and in the battle of Stone river, December 31st, 1862, to January 3d, 1863 ; was commissioned major-general of volun teers, dating from November 29th, 1862 ; participated in the pursuit of Bragg in June, 1863; in the battles of Chickamauga, September 19th, and 20th, 1863; Mission Ridge, November 25th, 1863, and Knoxville, December 4th, 1863. He continued to command a division in the fourth corps till August, 1864, when he succeeded General Howard as commander of that corps. He took part in all the battles of the Atlanta campaign, and, as we have seen, returned to Tennessee in November, and was severely wounded in this battle. He resumed the command of his corps late in the winter, but was unable to engage in active service. 880 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Milroy at Tullahoma to abandon that point and retire to Murfreesboro, joining forces wjth General Rousseau at the latter place, but to maintain the garrison at the block house at Elk river bridge. Nashville was placed in a state of defence, and the fortifications man ned by the garrison, reinforced by volunteers from the employees of the quartermaster s and commissary departments, who had previously been organized into a division, under brevet Brigadier-General J. L. Donaldson. This force, aided by railway employees, the whole under the direction of Brigadier-General Tower, worked dilligently in constructing addititional defences. Major-General Steedman, with the five thousand men isolated from General Sherman s column and a brigade of colored troops, started from Chattanooga by rail, on the 29th of November, and reached Cowan on the morning of the 30th, when orders were sent to him to proceed directly to Nashville. At an early hour on the morning of the 30th, the advance of Major-General A. J. Smith s command arrived at Nashville, on transports from St. Louis. Thus General Thomas had, with Schofield s army, an infantry force superior in numbers to that of Hood, though one fourth of them or more were new troops, while Hood s were all veterans ; the Rebel cavalry was, as yet, more numerous than that of the Union army, but Wilson was fast remounting his troops, having received an order from the War Department to impress horses in Kentucky and Ten nessee for the purpose, and in a few days he would be able to match Forrest both in numbers and efficiency. On the 1st of December, 1864, Schofield s army was drawn up in line of battle on the heights south of Nashville, connecting with the rest of the army under General Thomas s command ; A. J. Smith s corps occu pied the right, on the Cumberland river below the city ; the fourth corps temporarily commanded by Brigadier-General Thomas J. Wood, in con sequence of General Stanley s wound, the centre ; and Schofield s twenty-third corps, the left, extending to the Nolensville turnpike. The cavalry, under General Wilson, took post on the left of Schofield, thus securing the interval between that flank and the river, above the city. Nashville, it should be said, is situated in a bend of the Cumberland much as Franklin is in that of the Harpeth. General Steed man s troops reached Nashville on the evening of the 1st of December, and on the 3d. when the cavalry was moved to the north side of the river, to watch and protect the railroad against the Rebel cavalry, occupied the space on the left of the line which it had vacated. On the morning of the 4th, after skirmishing during the two preceding days, Hood succeeded in gaining a position, on a line of hills south of the Union lines, with his salient on the summit of Montgomery hill, within six hundred yards of the Union centre, his main line occupying the high ground on the southeast side of Brown s creek, and extending from the Nolensville turnpike, on which his extreme right rested, across the THE EXPEDITION AGAINST MURFREESBORO. 881 Franklin and Granny White roads, in a westerly direction to the hills south and southwest of Richland creek, and down that creek to the Hills- boro road, with cavalry extending from both flanks to the river. Hood had hitherto been notable for his reckless daring, and the fury of his sud den attacks upon an enemy, and had won a renown which such hardihood and daring deserves; but in this campaign he seemed anxious to imitate Sherman, but without possessing Sherman s clear head and magnificent strategic ability. He might, had he flung his troops against Nashville, when he first came up, before Steedman s division had arrived, and while Schofield s two corps were worn out with fighting by day and marching by night, have had some chance of success in breaking through Thomas s lines, and pushing him to and across the Cumberland. The outlook was but an indifferent one, even then, but when he neglected his opportunity, and sat down to besiege Nashville, with its river and railroad communi cations yet perfect, he forfeited all prospects of success, and was as really though not as tangibly defeated as when, a fortnight later, he commenced his winter flight toward the Tennessee. Between the 4th and 7th of December, Hood sent one division each from Cheatharn s and Lee s corps, and two thousand five hundred of Forrest s cavalry, to attempt the capture of the blockhouse at the railway crossing of Overall s creek, and Fort Eosecrans, at Murfreesboro, but they were repulsed at both points by Generals Milroy and Rousseau, who commanded the garrisons. The Rebel loss here was thirty killed, one hundred and seventy -five wounded, two hundred and seven prisoners and two guns. Buford s Rebel cavalry entered Murfreesboro, but was speed ily driven out by a regiment of infantry and a section of artillery, and on retiring moved northward to Lebanon, and along the south bank of the Cumberland, threatening to cross to the north side of the river, and inter cept the railway communications with Louisville, which was at that time the only source of supplies for Thomas s army, the river below Nashville being blockaded for transports, by Rebel batteries along the shore. The Union gunboats, under Lieutenant-Commander Le Roy Fitch, patrolled the Cumberland, above and below Nashville, and prevented the enemy from crossing. General Wilson also sent a cavalry force to Gallatin, to guard the country in that vicinity. General Thomas had been waiting impatiently for an opportunity to attack Hood and punish him for his temerity ; but the intense cold, which had covered the hills around Nashville with ice, prevented any military movements on either side. On the 14th of December, there being indi cations of a thaw and of milder weather, General Thomas called together his corps commanders, announced his intention of attacking on the mor row, should the weather prove propitious, and explained his plan of opera tions. A. J. Smith, holding the right, was to form on the Harding road, and make a vigorous attack on the enemy s left, supported by three divi- 56 882 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. sions of Wilson s cavalry, ready to assail the enemy as occasion might serve. Wood, with the fourth corps, leaving a strong skirmish line on Laurens hill, was to form on the Hillsboro road, supporting Smith s left, and act against the left and rear of the enemy s advanced post on Mont gomery hill. Schofield was to be in reserve, covering Wood s left. Steedman s troops from Chattanooga, the regular garrison of Nashville, under Brigadier-General Miller, and the quartermaster s, commissary s, and railway employees, under brevet Brigadier-General Donaldson, were to hold the interior line, constituting the immediate defences of the city, the whole under the command of Major-General Steedman. Hood s right was known to be his strongest point, and General Thomas s plan was to demonstrate so vigorously on this, as to lead him to bring still more of his troops to that wing ; and then, massing the Union forces upon the enemy s weakened left, overwhelm it, break his line, and^roll it back upon the centre, and if possible crush that also. This was the work he had assigned to the first day of the battle ; for the second day, he pro posed to break down Hood s right, and either envelope and capture his army, or if that could not be done, shatter it so thoroughly, that he would fly with his routed and demoralized troops south of the Tennessee river. On the 15th of December, every thing being favorable, the army took its position, and was ready at an early hour to carry out this programme. The formation of the troops was partially concealed from the enemy, by the broken nature of the ground, as well as by a dense fog, which only lifted toward noon. For some reasons Hood seemed to have been entirely unaware of Thomas s intention of attacking him and especially of his design upon his left wing. Before dawn, Steedman deployed with a heavy line of skirmishers, mostly colored troops, and thoroughly trained, and made a fierce demonstration against the Kebel right, east of the Nolensville turnpike, and soon after daylight, he pushed his line up to and across" this turnpike. The enemy s picket line resisted stoutly, but being strongly pressed fell back, and Steedman pursued, until he came within short range of a battery planted on the other side of a deep rocky cut of the Chattanooga railroad, which his troops could neither flank nor cross. After a sharp and somewhat obstinate action, having accomplished his object of impressing the enemy with the belief that the principal attack wae to be made at that point, and inducing him to draw rein forcements thither from his centre and left, General Steedman withdrew. As soon as Steedman had completed this movement. General A. J. Smith s corps and Wilson s cavalry moved out along the Harding turn- pike, and commenced the great movement of the day, by wheeling to the left, and advancing against the enemy s position across the Harding and Hillsboro road. Johnson s division of cavalry was sent, at the same time, to look after a Rebel battery on the Cumberland road, at Bell s THE BATTLE OF NASHVILLE. 883 landing, eight miles below Nashville, which had been preventing the pas sage of transports up the river to Nashville. The remainder of Wilson s cavalry, Hatch s division leading and Knipe in reserve, moving on the right of A. J. Smith, first struck the enemy along Richland creek, near Harding s house, and rapidly drove him back, capturing a number of prisoners ; and continuing to advance, while slightly swinging to the left, came upon a redoubt containing four guns, which was splendidly carried by assault, at one P. M., by a portion of Hatch s division, who fought dismounted, and the captured guns were turned upon the enemy. A second redoubt, stronger than the first, was next assailed and carried by the same troops that captured the first, and four more guns and about three hundred prisoners taken. In both these assaults, McArthur s division, of A. J. Smith s corps, participated with the cavalry, and reached the position about the same time. Finding that General Smith had not lapped so far upon Hood s right as he expected, though he had broken his right wing, General Thomas now directed General Schofield to move his twenty-third corps, which had thus far been in reserve, to the right of General Smith, and thus enable the cavalry to operate more freely upon the enemy s rear. This was rapidly accomplished by General Schofield, and his troops participa ted in the closing operations of the day. The fourth corps (Woods) formed on the left of A. J. Smith s corps, and as soon as the latter had struck the enemy s flank, assaulted and carried Montgomery hill, Hood s most advanced position at one P. M., capturing a considerable number of prisoners, connecting with Garrard s division, which formed Smith s left. The fourth corps continued to advance, car ried the enemy s entire line in its front by assault, and captured several pieces of artillery, about five hundred prisoners, and several stands of colors. By these movements, Hood was crowded out of his original line of works, and compelled to take a new position along the base of the Harpeth hills, still, however, retaining his line of retreat to Franklin by the main turnpike through Brentwood and by the Granny White road. During the day, sixteen pieces of artillery and twelve hundred prisoners had been captured from the enemy, and he had been forced back at all points with heavy loss, his strongest positions taken, and his right wing crushed. The Union casualties had been unusually light, and the behavior of General Thomas s troops was remarkable for steadiness and alacrity in every movement. Still, though the Union army was full of enthusiasm and confident that the next day would witness the destruction of the invading army, it was not to be denied that his new position, on the Overton hills, was a strong one. He had straightened and short ened his line by nearly one half, and the line of intrenchments which he occupied, had been previously constructed and fortified by him. He still held the two turnpikes, by which his retreat could be effected should he 884 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. be compelled to retreat. His position was very similar to that of Rose- crans at the close of the first day at Stone river ; and if, like that able commander, he should be able to turn his previous defeat into victory, and repulse with heavy loss the Union army, which had come out of Nash ville to attack him, there was still hope that his expedition into Tennes see might not prove wholly a failure. If, on the other hand, the disasters of that day were but the precursors of a thorough and overwhelming defeat on the morrow, his campaign would not only prove a failure, but there would remain for him only a rapid and ignominious flight, in which he could not hope to save his trains, or even the greater part of his army, and the cause on which he had staked every thing would be seriously perilled, if not lost. Gloomy as was the prospect, it served to nerve the Kebel commander to the energy of despair, and he attempted to infuse his own fiery spirit into his troops. General Thomas, on the other hand, was calm, quiet and self-possessed. Notwithstanding Hood s strong position, and the advantage which he still possessed, the Union commander felt that victory was in his hands, and that the evening of the next day would witness Hood s army flying, in haste and disorder, southward. His plans, deliberately formed, and slowly carried out, admitted no loophole for failure, no possibility of defeat. Hood s army was to be crushed that much, at least, he had settled. The Union army bivouacked in line of battle, during the night, on the ground occupied at dark, and preparations were made to renew the battle at an early hour next morning. At six A. M., on the 16th of December, Wood s corps pressed back the enemy s skirmishers across the Franklin road, to the eastward of it, and then, swinging a little to the right, advanced due south from Nashville, driving the Kebels before them until they came upon a new main line of works, constructed during the night on Overton s hill, about five miles south of the city and east of the Franklin road. General Steedman moved out from Nashville by the Nolensville turnpike, and formed his provisional corps on the left of General Wood, effectually protecting his flank, and made preparations to co-operate with him in the movements of the day. A. J. Smith s corps marched on the right of the fourth corps, and estab lishing connection with it, completed the new line of battle. Schofield s corps remained in the position which they had taken at dark the day before, facing eastward and toward Hood s left flank, the line of the corps running perpendicular to that of Smith s corps. General Wilson s cavalry, which had rested for the night at the six mile post on the Hillsboro road was dismounted and formed on the right of Schofield s command, and, by noon of the 16th, had succeeded in gaining the enemy s rear, and stretched across the Granny White pike, one of the two roads leading toward Franklin. As soon as these dispositions were completed, having visited the DISPOSITION OF THE TROOPS. 885 different commands, General Thomas gave directions that the movement against the enemy s left flank should be continued. Smith and Schofield who had been listening for the welcome sound of Wilson s cannon against the Rebel rear, had already heard it and were moving, when the order came. The troops were brought up at all points, to within six hundred yards of the Rebel lines. Here they halted, to await the result of an Dassault ordered at three P. M. The assaulting column was composed of Post s brigade of Wood s corps, supported by Streight s brigade, and Morgan s colored brigade of Steedman s provisional corps. The ground on which this column formed, being opened and exposed to the view of the enemy, he was enabled to draw reinforcements from his left and centre to the threatened points. The Union troops moved steadily forward up the hill, being met from the moment of starting by a severe fire of grape, canister, and musketry, and as they neared the crest, the enemy s reserves rose, and suddenly poured into the assaulting column a terribly destruc tive fire, causing it first to waver, and then to fall back, leaving dead and wounded, black and white, mingled indiscriminately in the dense and almost impenetrable abatis. General Wood at once reformed his command in the position it had previously occupied, preparatory to a renewal of the assault. Immediately following this effort of Post s and Morgan s brigades, General Smith s and Schofield s corps moved against the enemy s works in their respective fronts, carrying all before them, breaking his lines in a dozen places, and capturing all his artillery, and thousands^of prisoners, including four general officers. The Union loss was very light. All of the enemy that did escape were pursued over the top of Brentwood and Harpeth hills. General Wilson had dismounted his cavalry, and at tacked the enemy in rear simultaneously with the attack of Smith and Schofield in front, and gaining full possession of the Granny White turn pike, cut off his retreat by that route. Wood s and Steedman s troops, hearing the shouts of victory coming from the right, rushed impetuously forward for another assault on Overton s hill, and although the resistance was stern and the Rebel fire heavy, their onset was irresistible, and the enemy s artillery and troops fell into their hands. The Rebel army, hope lessly shattered, fled in confusion through the Brentwood pass, the fourth corps pursuing closely for several miles, when darkness closed the scene and the wearied troops rested from their chase. As the fourth corps pursued the enemy along the Franklin turnpike, General Wilson hastily mounted Knipe s and Hatch s divisions, and directed them to move rapidly on the Granny White road, and endeavor to reach Franklin in advance of the Rebel army. After proceeding about a mile, they came upon the enemy s cavalry under General Chalmers, posted across the road and behind barricades. The twelfth Tennessee cavalry, Colonel Spalding, charged upon and carried the position, scattering the Rebel troops in all directions, and capturing 886 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. a considerable number of prisoners, among them Brigadier-General E. W. Rucker. The pursuit was resumed the next morning, by Johnson s and Knipe s division of the cavalry, and Wood s corps, and these were followed, in slower marches, by Smith s and Schofield s corps, and the Kebel army were hunted down relentlessly, for the next fortnight, amid severe storms impracticable roads, and intense cold. At Hollow Tree gap, four miles from Franklin, the cavalry overtook their rear-guard on the 17th, and carried their position, taking four hundred and thirteen prisoners. The Rebels fled to Franklin, and attempted in vain to defend the crossings of the Harpeth river, but were again defeated and driven from the town, leaving their hospitals, containing over two thousand wounded, of whom two hundred were Union men, captured at the battle of Franklin. About five miles south of Franklin, the cavalry pressed them so closely, that they were compelled to make a stand again, but it was only to fly with still greater rapidity, when Wilson s cavalry charged upon them again. At this point, they abandoned nearly all their remaining artillery. Hood had formed a powerful rear-guard from the few regiments which retained their organization, and as much of Forrest s cavalry as was available ; and this rear-guard, consisting of seven or eight thousand men, half of them mounted troops, defended the flying army with considerable resolution ; the remainder of Hood s fine army of nearly fifty thousand troops, which, at the beginning of December, had undertaken so confi dently the siege of Nashville, had become a disheartened and disorgan ized rabble of -half armed or unarmed and barefoot men, who sought every opportunity to fall out by the wayside and desert their cause, to put an end to their sufferings. The few cannon which they had left were either captured by their pursuers, or thrown into the river, from which they were afterwards recovered, and their supply train was almost wholly captured and destroyed. General Thomas sent General Steedman by way of Murfreesboro to Decatur, to re-occupy those points in Alabama which had been evacuated in November, and to threaten the Eebel railroad communications, west of Florence, and at General Thomas s request Rear- Admiral S. P. Lee sent gunboats to Florence, to patrol the river and prevent Hood from crossing at or below that point. The Rebel com mander succeeded however in bringing the shattered debris of his army across the Tennessee in safety, on the 27th of December, at Bainbridge, a short distance above Florence. The results of this victory were ; the capture by the Union army of thirteen thousand one hundred and eighty-nine prisoners of war, including seven generals and nearly one thousand staff and line officers, eighty serviceable cannon, many thousand small arms and several scores of battle flags. Besides these, two thousand two hundred and seven deserters from the Rebel army came in and took the oath of allegiance. The number of GALLANT CONDUCT OF COLONEL PALMER. 887 Rebels killed and wounded cannot probably be ascertained with exactness, but from the best data to be obtained was estimated as exceeding eighteen thousand. General Thomas reported his own loss in killed, wounded and missing as not exceeding ten thousand. On the 29th of December, General Thomas ordered the pursuit discon tinued, and assigned to the different corps of his army their winter quarters, but on the following day Lieutenant-General Grant telegraphed his dis approval of the army s going into winter quarters, and General Thomas at once issued orders to Generals Schofield, Smith, and Wilson to concen trate their commands at Eastport, Mississippi, and to General Wood, to hold his corps in readiness at Huntsville, for a renewal of the campaign against the enemy, in Mississippi and Alabama. The gallantry and daring of Colonel W. J. Palmer, a young cavalry officer who continued the pursuit of Hood s retreating forces, after the other officers had given it up, deserves to be recorded in this connection. Colonel Palmer left Decatur on the 30th of December, with a force of six hundred mounted men, and followed the route of Hood, skirmishing with Rhoddy s cavalry and pressing it back toward the mountains, until he as certained the direction taken by Hood. Then avoiding the Rebel cavalry, and moving rapidly by way of La Grange and Russellville, he overtook and destroyed the enemy s pontoon train, consisting of two hundred wagons and seventy-eight pontoon boats, ten miles beyond Russellville. He learned there that a large supply train was on its way to Tuscaloosa, for the Rebel army, and started at once in pursuit. He overtook it on the 1st of January, near Aberdeen, Mississippi, and burned the wagons, one hun dred and ten in number and killed the mules which drew it. The Rebel cavalry now pursued him in large numbers, and near Russellville, Rhoddy, Riffles, Russell and Armstrong attempted to surround him, but he evaded them in the darkness, and when twelve miles from Moulton came upon Russell unexpectedly, attacked and routed him, capturing a number of prisoners and burning five of his wagons. He then returned to Decatur, which place he reached in safety on the 6th of January, having marched over two hundred and fifty miles, captured one hundred and fifty prisoners, and destroyed nearly one thousand stand of arms, three hundred and fifteen wagons., and seventy-eight pontoon boats. His loss was one killed and two wounded. ABrigadier-GeneralLyon, whom Hood had sent into Kentucky, while he was before Nashville, with about eight hundred cavalry and two guns to operate against the Union railroad communica tions with Louisville, succeeded in capturing Hopkinsville, Kentucky, about the middle of December. General Thomas had sent, on the 14th of December, McCook s division of cavalry to Bowling Green to protect the road. La Grange s brigade of this division met Lyon near Greens- burg, Kentucky, and, after a sharp fight, defeated him, capturing one of his guns, several prisoners, and a part of his wagon train ; but the Rebel 888 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. commander succeeded, by making a wide detour, in reaching the Cumber land river, and crossing at Burksville, from whence he proceeded by way of McMinnville and Winchester, Tennessee, to Larkinsville, Alabama. On the 10th of January he attacked the little Union garrison at Scotts- boro, but was again repulsed, and his command scattered. He finally succeeded, however, in escaping across the Tennessee river with about two hundred of his men and his remaining gun. Colonel Palmer now heard of his movements, and immediately set out in pursuit of him with the fifteenth Pennsylvania cavalry, and on the 14th of January overtook him near Red Hill, surprised, and captured him and about one hundred of his men, with their horses, and his gun. Put under guard, he treach erously murdered his guard and made his escape. We have already [Chap. LIL] given a sketch of General Thomas, the able commander of this campaign. It remains to give a brief portraiture of his accomplished and skilful lieutenant, to whose adroit and careful management the success of the earlier battles of the campaign is due, and who lured Hood to his destruction. Major-General John McAllister Schofield is the son of a clergyman, Rev. James Schofield, residing in Chautauqua county, New York, and was born in that county on the 29th of September, 1831. In 1843 his father removed to Bristol, Illinois, and in 1845 to Freeport, in the same State, where his youth was passed. At the age of eighteen he entered the military academy at West Point, and graduated in 1853, ranking seventh in his class. He was appointed a brevet second lieutenant, and attached to the second regiment of artillery. On the 30th of August, the same year, he was advanced to the rank of full second lieutenant in the first artillery ; and on the 1st of March, 1855, promoted to be first lieutenant in the same regiment. After serving for two years with his company in South Carolina and Florida, he was ordered to West Point, in the autumn of 1855, as Assistant Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. He held this position till June, 1860, when he obtained leave of absence for twelve months, to accept the chair of Physics in Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, intending to quit the army at the end of the leave. At the opening of the war, however, his views changed, and waiving the remainder of his leave, he reported at once for orders, and was assigned to duty as mustering officer at St. Louis. Shortly afterward, by permission of the War Department, he accepted the position of major of the first regiment of Missouri volunteers, and in that capacity participated with his regiment in the capture and dispersion of the nest of secessionists at Camp Jackson, on the 10th of May, under Captain, afterward Brigadier-General, Nathaniel Lyon. On the 14th of May, 1861, Lieutenant Schofield was advanced to the rank of captain in the regular army, and soon after became General Lyon s principal staff officer and served with that gallant commander throughout the campaign, which SKETCH OF GENERAL SCIIOF/ELD. 889 ended with his death. After this event he returned to his volunteer regiment, which had now been converted into one of heavy artillery, and with that regiment participated in the defeat of Jeff. Thompson at Frederick- town, Missouri. On the 20th of November Major Schofield was appointed, by the President, brigadier-general of volunteers, and at the same time received, from the Governor of Missouri, a corresponding commission in the Missouri militia, with orders to organize, equip, and command a force of ten thousand militia to be called into the service of the United States, within the limits of Missouri during the^war. His success in this under taking led Major-General Halleck to appoint him, in the spring of 1862, commander of the district of Missouri. In the autumn of that year he organized and took personal command of the army of the frontier, serv ing in the southwestern part of the State, and suppressed with great vigor the guerrilla warfare then raging in Missouri. On the 29th of November, 1862, the President appointed him major-general of volunteers, but some of the Missouri politicians, who were dissatisfied with his management, prevented the confirmation of the appointment by the Senate, and his com mission consequently expired by its own limitation on the 3d of March, 1863. Having been immediately relieved, at his own request, from duty in Missouri, he was now ordered to report to General Kosecrans, com manding the army of the Cumberland, and was by him assigned to the command of Thomas s old division of the fourteenth corps. In April, President Lincoln re-appointed him major-general of volunteers, and sent him back to St. Louis to relieve General Curtis as commander of the Department of Missouri. Here he rendered very efficient service to Gen eral Grant in the siege and capture of Vicksburg, sending him Herron s large and fine division of the army of the frontier, and as many other troops as could possibly be spared from Missouri. After the capture of Vicksburg, General Grant reinforced Schofield with Steele s division, formerly of Sherman s corps, and with this and his own troops, Schofield planned and carried into successful execution the Arkansas campaign, which drove the Eebels out of that State. In January, 1864, he was engaged in concerting a plan with General Banks, for a joint occupation of Shreveport, Louisiana, and the line of the Red river, when the President, wearied with the constant clamor of the Missouri politicians for Schofield s removal, sent General Rosecrans to relieve him from command, but on the 9th of February, at General Grant s request, appointed him to the command of the Department of the Ohio. Here, with his headquarters at Knoxville, he was engaged for some time in observing Longstreet s army, but with the opening of the spring made active preparations to join Sherman in his Atlanta campaign. In that campaign he commanded the army of the Ohio, a single large corps the twenty-third and distinguished himself throughout the cam paign by his steady courage, his remarkable efficiency, and his thoroughly 890 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. practical character. In November, 1864, he was, as we have seen, detached to reinforce General Thomas in this campaign of Nashville, and won yet higher fame as a commander. In January, 1865, he was sent eastward with his corps, and took part in the capture of Wilmington, and in the battle of Kinston, and joining his old chief, Sherman, at Goldsboro, was with him in the closing movements of the campaign and the war, and at its close was placed, permanently, in command of the Department of North Carolina ; in the autumn of 1865, obtaining leave of absence, he went to Europe for a year. The Rebel commander, whose defeat and rout we have chronicled, is also deserving of a brief notice. Lieutenant-General John B. Hood was born at Owensville, Bath county, Kentucky, June 29, 1831. He was educated at Mount Sterling, entered West Point in 1849, in the same class with Schofield, and graduated in 1853, without distinction. He was appointed brevet second lieutenant of the fourth regiment of infantry, in July 1853, and after serving for two years in California, was transferred to the second cavalry. He did duty with his regiment on the Texas fron tier, for several years, and, in 1856, was wounded in a fight with the Indians. He was ordered, we believe in 1858, to West Point, as instructor of cavalry, but was soon after, at his own request, allowed to return to his regiment at San Antonia, Texas. He resigned his commission in the army of the United States, April 16, 1861, and immediately entered the Rebel army with the rank of first lieutenant. He was soon after appointed captain of cavalry, and sent to Magruder, on the Peninsula. On the 30th of September, 1861, he was promoted to the colonelcy of an infantry regiment. On the 3d of March, 1862, he was appointed brigadier-general to succeed Wigfall, who was a Senator in the Rebel Congress. He took part in the battle of West Point, May 7th, 1862, in the battle of Games Mill, June 27th, 1862, where he distinguished himself in a charge upon the Union troops, and was promoted to the rank of major-general for his gallantry. He also took an active part in the battles of Yorktown and (second) Bull Run, August 29th and 30th, 1862, at Boonesboro or South Mountain, at Fredericksburg, and at Gettysburg, where he was severely wounded in the arm. He took part in the battle of Chickamauga, and on the second day was again desperately wounded, and lost a leg. He was soon after made lieutenant-general, but was unable to take the field until the spring of 1864, when he commanded one corps of Johnston s army. After Sherman s army crossed the Chattahoochie, Johnston was removed from command by the Rebel President, and Hood appointed his successor. Of his subsequent career, our pages have given a sufficient account. After the Nashville campaign, he was relieved of his command, on the 23d of January, 1865, but made great exertions to bring his troops forward to attack Sherman in his campaign through the Carolinas, but, we believe was not in any engagements in that campaign. CAPTURE OF WYTHEVILLB AND SALTVILLB. 891 Pending the struggle between Hood and Thomas, another campaign had been conducted in East Tennessee, with good results, though without so overwhelming a defeat of the Kebel forces. It had commenced indeed with a disaster. The Union troops in East Tennessee, aside from the garri son at Knoxville, were under the command of Generals Gillem and Am- men, the former having charge of the cavalry, the latter of the infantry. For some time it was not understood that these troops were under General Thomas s command, and hence there was no cordial co-operation between them and the Kentucky troops which belonged to his army proper. Against these East Tennessee troops, the Kebel Generals J. C. Breckin- ridge, Basil Duke, and Vaughn, were operating. On the 13th of Novem ber, Breckinridge attacked General Gillem, near Morristown, Tennessee, at midnight, routed him, and captured his artillery and several hundred prisoners. Breckinridge s force was estimated at three thousand, while Gillem s was one thousand five hundred, all Tennesseeans, with six guns. After this defeat, Gillem escaped, with the remainder of his force, about one thousand in number, to Strawberry plains, and thence to Knoxville. Breckinridge followed, passing through Strawberry plains to the immedi ate vicinity of Knoxville ; but, on the 18th, he withdrew, as rapidly as he had advanced, having heard intelligence which alarmed him. General Ammen, having received a reinforcement of one thousand live hundred men from Chattanooga, commenced pursuing him. Major-General Stone- man had started a few days before, from Louisville for Knoxville, to take the general charge of affairs in that section, having previously ordered General Burbridge to inarch, with all his available force in Kentucky, by way of Cumberland gap, to General Gillem s relief. When General Stoneman passed through Nashville, General Thomas instructed him to concentrate as large a force as possible, in East Tennessee, move against Breckinridge, and either capture and cut to pieces his force, or drive it into Virginia, and, if possible, destroy the salt works at Saltville, and the railroad from the Tennessee line as far into Virginia as he could go, without endangering his command. Finding himself pursued by so large a force, Breckinridge, about the 6th of December, fell back toward the Virginia line. General Stoneman, having concentrated his troops at Bean station, moved on Bristol, on the 12th, his advance, under General Gillem, striking a body of the enemy under Basil Duke, at Kingsport, and killing, capturing or dispersing the whole command. General Stoneman then sent General Burbridge to Bristol, where Vaughn had a considerable Rebel force, with which he skirmished till Gillem came up, when Vaughn retreated toward Marion, and Burbridge pushed on to Abingdon, having orders to cut the railroad at some point between Saltville and Wytheville, in order to prevent the Rebels from receiving reinforcements from Lynchburg. Gillem pushed on through Abingdon, on the 15th of December, in pursuit of Vaughn THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. who still retreated, and overtook him the next day, routed him and pur sued him to Wytheville, capturing all his artillery and trains and one hundred and ninety-eight prisoners. Wytheville, with its stores and supplies, was destroyed, together with the extensive lead- works near the town, and the railroad bridges over Reedy creek. General Stoneman then turned his attention toward Saltville, and its important salt-works, which had supplied the Rebel armies and commissary department largely with salt. At this place, also, were large quantities of supplies for the Rebel army of Virginia. The garrison of Saltville had been reinforced, by Giltner s, Crosby s, and Witcher s commands, and all that remained of Duke s, and was under the command of Breckinridge in person. This force had followed Stoneman as he moved on Wytheville, and, on return ing, General Stoneman met them at Marion, where he made preparations to give Breckinridge battle, and disposed his command to assault him in the morning; but, during the night, the Rebel commander retreated, and was pursued by the Union cavalry into North Carolina, where some of his wagons and caissons were captured. Moving now on Saltville, with his entire command, General Stoneman captured, at that place, eight pieces of artillery, and a large amount of ammunition of all kinds, two locomo tives, and a considerable number of horses and mules. The extensive salt-works were destroyed, by breaking the kettles, filling the wells with rubbish, and burning the buildings. This work accomplished, General Stoneman returned to Knoxville, accompanied by General Gillem s troops, General Burbridge s proceeding to Kentucky, by way of Cumberland gap. The route through which they passed was laid desolate, to prevent its being used again by the enemy. GRANT MAKES A FEINT AGAINST THE REBELS. 893 CHAPTER LXIX. THE ARMY OF THK POTOMAC AND THE ARMY OF THE JAMES GRANT MAKES A FEINT AGAINST THE REBEL FORCES NORTH OF THE JAMES, AND STRIKES THE WELDON RAILROAD SHARP FIGHTING THE ENEMY HANDSOMELY REPULSED AFTER A DESPERATE ENGAGEMENT REAMS S STATION FALLS INTO THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY FORT, OR BATTERY HARRISON CAPTURED FROM THE ENEMY, AND HELD THE REBELS MAKE STRENUOUS EXERTIONS TO RECAPTURE IT BATTLE OF CHAFFIN s FARM THE MOVEMENT ON POPLAR SPRING CHURCH ON THE LEFT CAPTURE OF FORT MCRAE BATTLE OF PEEBLES* FARM, REPULSE OF UNION TROOPS, FORT M*CRAE HELD KAUTZ S CAVALRY DEFEATED ATTEMPT TO TURN THE RIGHT FLANK OF THE UNION ARMY IT FAILS RECONNOISSANCE TOWARD RICHMOND AND YORK RIVER REPULSE OF THE UNION TROOPS THE ATTEMPT TO REACH THE SOUTHSIDE RAIL ROAD ON THE 27TH OF OCTOBER THE BATTLE OF HATCHER*S RUN MAHONE INTERPOSES BETWEEN THE SECOND AND FIFTH CORPS REPULSE OF THE UNION FORCES FAILURE OF THE ENTIRE MOVEMENT SKIRMISHING THE FIRST EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT FISHER GENERAL BUTLER S MANAGEMENT THE POWDER-BOAT THE REBELS HAVE NO IDEA WHY IT WAS EXPLODED GENERAL BUTLER S DEBARKATION, RECONNOISSANCE AND RE-EMBARK ATION HE IS RELIEVED OF HIS COMMAND THE SECOND EXPEDITION, UNDER COMMAND OP GENERAL TERRY HIS PLAN OF ATTACK FURIOUS BOMBARDMENT DESPERATE FIGHTING SAILORS REPULSED THE FORT CARRIED SKETCH OF GENERAL TERRY SKETCH OF ADMIRAL PORTER. WE resume the narrative of the operations of the Union armies below .Richmond, which we had suspended to bring up the history of the move ments which were taking place in other parts of the field. After the Petersburg mine disaster, the Rebels had sent, as we have seen, a very considerable body of troops down the Shenandoah valley under Early to create a diversion in Maryland and Pennsylvania, in the hope of com pelling Grant to relax his grip upon Lee s army. General Grant prepared to take advantage of this weakening of their force, by movements against their lines of communication. It was reported by spies and deserters from the Rebel lines that, early in August, three divisions had be en sent from Petersburg to reinforce Early in his raid on Maryland ; and partly to ascertain whether their strength had been so greatly reduced, and partly to draw a larger force to the north side of the James, and thus weaken the Rebel right while he should operate upon the railroads. General Grant ordered a strong de monstration to be made on the Rebel lines north of the James, on the night of the 13th of August, having previously made a feint of sending the second corps down the river in transports in the day time, but bringing them back at night. The tenth and second corps were both posted north of the James, and moved out upon Strawberry plains and encountered the enemy s skirmishers on the morning of Sunday, August 14th. They drove them back, and gained a considerable advance toward Richmond ; $94 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. -& compelling the enemy to send over a great number of troops to repel their attacks; but the Union force captured six pieces of artillery and several hundred prisoners, and ascertained that but one division of Rebels had yet departed northward, but that others were under orders to march soon. This demonstration, however, was only preliminary to a struggle on the enemy s right for the possession of the Weldon railroad. At four o clock A. M., on the 18th of August, the fifth corps moved from its camp with four days rations, and marched toward Reams s station, driving in easily the enemy s skirmishers, of whom a part were captured. Griffin s division reached the Weldon railroad and began to destroy it, five or six miles from Petersburg, while the other three divisions proceeded toward Petersburg, completing the work of destruction. At Yellow tavern, they encountered the Eebel cavalry under General Dearing, who fell back to Da vis s farm, two miles and a half from Petersburg. Here the Rebel General A. P. Hill advanced upon them, with the divisions of Mahone and Heth ; the former being east of the railroad and the latter west of it. The Union line was formed and halted in an open field ; Crawford s division confront ing Mahone, and Ayres opposing Heth, while Cutler s was in reserve. Ayres was attacked with great vehemence, and driven back about a mile to his intrenchments ; but being supported by Cutler, held the main line, which was greatly strengthened during the night, and against which the Rebels surged in vain. On Friday, August 19th, the Union troops occupied an intrenched line; their left being on the Boydtown plank-road, and their right, across the railroad, held the Jerusalem road, which it was necessary to connect with the main line at Petersburg. This was accomplished by sending Wilcox s division of the ninth corps to fill the gap. Between Ayres and Crawford s divisions ran the railroad, and between the right of the fifth corps, Craw ford s and Wilcox s divisions, the Jerusalem road, where there was still a dangerous gap. At four o clock P. M., in the midst of a heavy rain storm, Hill assailed the Union troops with great fury ; Mahone s division pressing through the gap separating Wilcox and Crawford, and getting upon Crawford s flank and capturing nearly one thousand of his men. On the left, Heth s impetuous attack carried the intrenchments, drove back the line, forced its way between Crawford and Ayres, and enveloped Hayes regular brigade. The first and second divisions of the ninth corps now came up, after a severe forced march, to reinforce the fifth corps, and form ing, quickly charged, capturing several hundred prisoners. This charge enabled Warren s hard pressed troops to rally; and the Rebels being in turn overlapped, were driven back with loss, and the disaster of the after noon retrieved. The darkness put an end to the conflict. The Union loss was about fifteen hundred killed and wounded, and about two thousand prisoners. DESTRUCTION OF THE WELDON RAILROAD. 895 That of the Rebels could Dot have been less in killed and wounded. The enemy held possession of the Weldon road as far as the Yellow Tavern, while Warren and the divisions of the ninth corps still held the section below. There was no fighting of importance on the 20th, but on the 21st the Rebels renewed the effort to drive the Union troops from the Weldon railroad. The Union lines remained very much as on Friday, and at four A.M. the Rebels opened a heavy artillery fire, first upon the left, then all along the line as far as the Appomattox river. About seven o clock they made a slight feint against the ninth corps, but it was not until nine o clock that the grand attack began. The Rebel columns emerged from the woods in fine style, and dashed across the open space intervening between the woods and breastworks. At the same moment, a heavy artillery fire burst from all their batteries, which was promptly answered by the Union troops. The Rebel flanking column on the left of the railroad fell upon the right of Ayres and the left of Cutler s division. The Union skirmishers were speedily driven in, and their pits taken ; but as the Rebels swept across the opening they were received with a staggering fire of musketry. Again and again they pressed for ward, but were as often repulsed, with fearful slaughter. On the right, they did not succeed in reaching the main works. On the left, the column which came down the Yaughan road was caught with a cross-fire, and a part of one brigade threw down their arms and surrendered, those who attempted to escape suffering great loss. The repulse of this brigade decided the battle in that direction ; and the Rebels hastily withdrew under a withering fire. An effort to flank the Union position was foiled with equal promptness. The battle was over in about two hours, but the fighting was very severe while it lasted, and the victory was as decided as the contest was desperate. The Rebel loss in killed and wounded ex ceeded twelve hundred, and the Union troops captured eight hundred prisoners. The entire Union loss did not exceed six hundred. Early on Monday morning, the 22d of August, it was found that the enemy had retired from the front of the fifth and ninth corps, and were intrenching themselves about three miles from Petersburg. The Union skirmishers were pushed forward, and both parties labored assiduously in erecting works, the picket lines frequently skirmishing ; but there was no general engagement. Meantime, on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the second corps, and part of the tenth, had recrossed the James, and were marching down upon the vicinity of the contest, covered by Gregg s cavalry ; and on Monday, Miles s, formerly Barlow s division of the second corps, was occupied in breaking up the Weldon railroad, as far as Reams s station, and was joined on Monday night by Gibbon s division of the same corps, who finished the work to a point two miles beyond Reams s station, a distance in all of 896 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. about eleven miles. Gregg s cavalry, which had, during the whole of this work of destruction, interposed between the enemy and the infantry who were engaged in it, had several sharp skirmishes with the Kebels, but beat them off with loss. On Thursday morning, August 25th, Gibbon s division of Hancock s corps moved down from Reams s station to prosecute the destruction of the railroad still further. They had not gone far when they encountered the enemy s skirmishers, and soon after the Rebel force in mass. Con siderable skirmishing ensued, but the enemy seemed reluctant to engage in a close battle. This was, in fact, only a demonstration on the part of the Rebel General A. P. Hill, to conceal his attack on Barlow s (no\v Miles s) division, which was still at Reams s station, and occupying the old intrenchments around the station. The enemy appeared soon after noon in front of this division, and General Hancock immediately ordered Gibbon to fall back and form a junction with Miles s left, in order to pro tect that flank. The cavalry followed, and covered the left flank and rear. At two o clock the Rebel skirmish line advanced, sweeping forward with the usual frantic yells of the southern soldiers. It was received with a combined fire of musketry and artillery, and fell back in confusion, having suffered far more loss than it inflicted. Sharp skirmishing now began on both sides, under cover of which the contending forces arranged their lines and fortified them. At half past three o clock, the Rebel column emerged from the woods in a heavy and close line of battle, and with fixed bayonets rushed upon the Union works. A galling fire from the infantry, and from four batteries withered their ranks, and, though they advanced to within twenty paces of the works, it was only to recoil broken to their cover after fearful loss. The Union troops suffered mainly from a musketry fire on the left, very destructive to men and horses in the bat teries. In front, the Rebels scarcely fired a shot during the charge. An hour later, a third assault was tried, and again the enemy was driven back with severe loss. A lull endued, and the axe-strokes of the Rebels were plainly audible, felling trees for planting batteries, and the Union artillery threw shells in the direction of the sound. At length, all being ready, the Rebel batteries opened a terrible concentric fire upon the Union troops, pouring shell and solid shot with fearful profusion, and without a mo ment s cessation, into their circular intrenchments. For twenty minutes this furious shelling was kept up, with very serious effect upon the Union lines. At the first pause in the fire, the hideous yells of the Rebels an nounced a fourth assault. The Rebel column rushed forward, overwhelm ing in numbers, solidly massed, and with a fierce impetuosity. Artillery and infantry greeted it with a hot and galling fire ; but in spite of the most determined resistance, the Rebels gained the breastworks after a bloody hand-to-hand contest, and broke the Union lines. The centre having given way, the entire line at this point was quickly routed, though THE BATTLE AT EEAMS S STATION. 897 some regiments remained fighting, with a determination almost unparal leled in the war. On this last attack against Miles, a part of Gibbon s division were hur ried across the circle, under heavy fire, to his support, a distance of more than a mile. The movement was gallantly executed. They succeeded in repulsing the enemy, though at a fearful cost of officers and men, while in the very moment of his triumph. General Miles, meanwhile, skilfully rallied his division, and the lines were partially restored. But at this juncture the Rebel commander hurled his force on the Union left, weak ened by the withdrawal of some of Gibbon s brigades, with the same reckless fury with which he had attacked the centre. Gibbon s troops were hurried back across the fatal open space, and hurled exhausted against the enemy. Overcome by its severe exertions, the gallant division was borne back by the sheer weight of the enemy, whose advance, how ever, was resisted to desperation by some unconquerable regiments which were cut to pieces on the ground they occupied. General Gregg, how ever, brought his dismounted cavalry to the assistance of the wearied and jaded infantry, and the enemy s farther progress was stayed. Soon after dark, Hancock withdrew, leaving Reams s station in the hands of the Rebels, This battle was one of the most desperate and obstinately fought in which the army of the Potomac had been engaged. The Rebel force brought into action undoubtedly outnumbered that of the Unionists. They had three divisions in their assaulting column, and another in support, while the Union force engaged consisted only of Miles s and Gibbon s divisions, and these had previously lost heavily. The casualties on the side of the Union forces were, in killed and wounded about one thousand, in prisoners two thousand and thirty, including eighty officers. They also lost seven stands of colors and five cannon. The Rebel loss was about fifteen hundred, killed and wounded. The Weldon railroad was however hopelessly destroyed for so long a distance, that the Rebels could not hope again to resume the use of its entire length, and indeed a considerably portion of it was thenceforth in possession of the Union army. On the 12th of September a branch railroad was completed from City Point to the Weldon road, bringing supplies directly to the army in their camps. The position of the Union army on the Weldon railroad, though dearly won, was firmly held; and, as General Grant had foreseen, it. required so great an extension of the enemy s line to maintain their connection with it below Reams s station, that they were compelled to withdraw a very considerable portion of the troops hitherto stationed north of the James to man it. No sooner was it evident that this had been done, and that they could not readily bring back their troops to the north side of the James, than General Grant threw a large body of troops across the river to dash upon the Rebel lines and gain a position nearer Richmond. General Ord, commanding the eighteenth corps, moved with his troops to 57 898 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Jones s Neck on the night of the 28th of September, crossed the river and the next morning advanced on the Kebel intrenchments at Chaffin a or Chapin s farm. These consisted of a strong earthwork known as Fort Harrison, and a long intrenched line extending westerly to the river. The fort mounted sixteen pieces of artillery, two of them one hundred pound ers, and one sixty- four pounder. These works did not form part of the defences proper of Richmond, but were covered by the fire of Eebel fortifications on the other side of the James, and by the Rebel gunboats in the river. The advanced line, composed of the brigades of Stannard, Burnham, Roberts, and Hickman, moved steadily forward under the ter rible artillery fire of the fort, and though losing about eight hundred in killed, wounded, and missing, swept over the parapet and drove out the garrison, capturing fifteen guns and all the intrenchments, as well as about one hundred and fifty prisoners. Simultaneously with this, the tenth Birney s corps, which had crossed the James at Deep Bottom, moved toward New Market, carried the Rebel fortifications on New Market heights, the Rebels losing five hundred in killed, wounded, and prisoners, and advanced upon their strong works on Laurel hill, at the junction of the Varina and New Market roads, six miles from Richmond. This position, called by them Fort Gillmore, was promptly assaulted, but proved too powerful to be carried with the limited force which Birney commanded, and at night he with drew his troops, after having suffered a loss of three hundred and thirty- six men, and occupied his intrenchments a little distance south of the fort, where he was soon after joined by the eighteenth corps, and both busied themselves in strengthening their position. Kautz s cavalry, which had taken part in the fighting of the previous afternoon, was also encamped here. At about two A. M., on the 30th of September, the Rebels, who had been reinforced by Hoke s division from Richmond, fell with great fury upon Stannard s brigade. The Rebels deployed in three strong columns at the edge of the wood, and the Rebel iron-clads in the river, and their batteries on the opposite side, having commenced a heavy artillery fire on the Union line to cover their approach, they charged with great prompt itude. As they advanced, a well directed rolling musketry fire sent them reeling back into the wood. Their officers rallied and reformed them again and again, and they charged upon the Union works twice with great resolution. But though they approached quite near, it was only to be repulsed with great slaughter. The Union troops had been instructed to lower their pieces as they fired, and as a considerable portion of tbem were armed with the Spencer repeating rifle, their fire was both incessant and murderous. They finally broke and fled, and the Union commander succeeded in capturing two hundred prisoners, including twenty officers. The entire loss of the Rebels in this battle was over one thousand, while that of the Union forces was less than two hundred. Fort Harrison and THE BATTLE OF PEEBLES FARM. 899 the other positions captured, threatened Richmond so strongly that Gen eral Grant determined to hold them, and did so, although the Rebels made several desperate efforts to dislodge him. for all which they paid dearly. On the morning of the 30th of September, General Meade sent Gregg s cavalry, with two infantry brigades, on a reconnoissance toward Poplar Spring church, on the right of the enemy, which he had reason to sup pose was weakened in the effort to hurry support to the left, and followed it by two divisions and a brigade of the fifth, and two divisions of the ninth corps. The cavalry encountered Hampton s cavalry, and received and repelled successfully his repeated charges, compelling him to retire discomfited and with heavy loss. Meantime, the four divisions named had marched toward the Southside railroad, and at Peebles farm, about three miles south of that road, encountered a considerable body of the enemy in a strong redoubt and intrenchments, known as Fort McRae, which they carried by assault, capturing one gun and about sixty prisoners. The Rebels fell back about half a mile to stronger works on the Squirrel Level road, where they were largely reinforced, and Porter s division (ninth corps), attempting to carry this by assault, were repulsed, and the Rebels charging them in turn, forced their way between the fifth and ninth corps and cap tured about nine hundred prisoners. The Union troops, however, retained possession of Fort McRae, and defeated the efforts of the Rebels to regain it. On Saturday, October 1st, the Rebels repeated their efforts to recapture this fort, but were repulsed with heavy loss at each charge. On the 8th of October, the fifth and ninth corps pushed a reconuoissance up to the vicinity of the railroad, with but trifling loss, and then returned to their intrenchments. We return to the Union right, north of the James. On the 1st of Oc tober, Generals Terry and Kautz made a reconnoissance toward Richmond with two brigades of infantry, a considerable cavalry force, and six pieces of artillery, and penetrated to within two miles of the city, meeting with but slight resistance. The Rebels were maddened at this, but at the moment all the troops they could possibly spare were at the right, fighting the fifth and ninth corps. As soon as they could withdraw a portion of them, they hurried back to the north side of the James, and on the 7th of October made a vigorous and partially successful effort to turn the right flank of the army of the James. The Union line was formed with the eighteenth corps on the left, the tenth on the centre and right, and Kautz s cavalry on the extreme right on the Darbytown road. The left was intrenched at Battery or Fort Harrison, about ten miles from Rich mond, and the right of the infantry was on the Charles City road, about five miles in a straight line from the Rebel capital. At early dawn on the 7th, the Rebel General Anderson, with one brigade of cavalry and 900 THE CIVIL WAR IX THE UNITED STATES. Hoke s and Field s divisions of infantry, advanced down the Darbytown and Charles City roads, and attacked Kautz s cavalry with such sudden ness and fury that they broke and fled, losing their cannon six pieces. This disaster gave the enemy possession of the Darbytown road, and pushing on in pursuit, they soon came upon the right-centre, Terry s division of the tenth corps. This corps held a strongly intrenched posi tion, its right flank, Terry s division being refused, and covering the New Market road. Terry s troops were in rifle-pits in heavy woods. The ground on the left of the line was open, and where the artillery was posted, four six gun batteries, which swept not only its own front, but shelled the ground by which the right could be approached. Forewarned of the danger by the stampede of the cavalry, General Terry made the necessary disposition of his troops with great skill, and before the enemy was on him, was ready for their coming. As the enemy approached he was greeted with a heavy cross fire of artillery from the left, in answer to which he got two batteries in position. These, however, were soon overmatched. Meanwhile, Field s (Kebel) division moved up in good order to assault Terry s position, dashing over the open space at the double-quick, and succeeded in gaining the woods at the Union right. But if the open was dangerous from being swept by artillery over every foot of its space, the woods were not less so from the extreme difficulty of penetrating them, half-felled as they were, and with their thick boughs interlacing at every conceivable angle, and locking in with the dense undergrowth below. The Union infantry remained quiet, till their assailants were well entangled in this impromptu abatis, and within very short range, when all four brigades, rising from their half- ambush, poured into them a sudden, destructive, and incessant fire from the deadly Spencer rifle. After struggling vainly against the overwhelm ing tide of death, for some time, the Kebels withdrew in great confusion along the Central road, and General Terry with his troops followed them closely. They finally relinquished the Central road, and fled toward Richmond on the Charles City road. The Union loss during the day, in cluding that of Kautz s cavalry, was not more than five hundred in killed, wounded, and prisoners, while that of the Rebels considerably exceeded one thousand. General Terry, who was now, in consequence of General Birney s illness, in temporary command of the tenth corps, after a few days of quiet had passed, undertook a reconnoissance in force toward Richmond, to ascertain the condition of the enemy V, lines. The move ment commenced on the evening of the 12th of October, but owing to the darkness of the night, the troops halted soon after moving out of camp. At daybreak on the 13th, they again moved forward, keeping to the right till they reached the Darbytown road. The cavalry, arriving at the Charles City road, dismounted and deployed as skirmishers. Brigadier- General Birney s division took their position on the left of the Central ATTEMPT TO REACH THE SOUTHSIDE RAILROAD. 901 road, and Brigadier-General Ames on the right, while Kautz s cavalry covered the extreme right, between the two roads. The Rebel videttea were soon encountered on the Charles City road, and driven back after a protracted skirmish, until they reached the line of their intrenchments two miles from the Union position. These works mounted two guns and were connected by rifle-pits, while the whole was protected by a broad slashing. General Terry now advanced with his infantry, but as soon as *hey came into range, the Rebels opened upon them with a sharp fire, which was promptly returned. The Union forces were halted, brought into position, and opened upon the enemy a rapid musketry charge, which was maintained for hours. It being General Terry s object to discover the length and strength of the enemy s line, brigades were pushed out, at different points, to recon noitre. They advanced to the slashings and then withdrew. Thus, the whole line of intrenchments was felt, without bringing on serious demon strations. On the right, it was thought that the Union line overlapped the enemy s works, and, accordingly, Pond s brigade was ordered forward to turn the enemy s left. They moved promptly, but soon found that the Rebel line extended far beyond them, and they were in a trap, where the enfilading fire of the Rebel batteries was making fearful havoc in their numbers. They withdrew as quickly as possible, but steadily and in good order. Encouraged by this success, the Rebels sallied forth from their breastworks, and made a spirited charge, with all their available force ; and for a short time the musketry fire was very sharp. At length, failing to accomplish their purpose, the Union lines remaining unbroken, they withdrew. The Rebel loss was two hundred men ; that of the Union troops four hundred and fourteen. Soon after Sheridan s victory of Middletown, and while Sherman was pursuing Hood into northern Alabama, General Grant deemed the time an auspicious one for another blow upon Lee s right; accompanying it, as usual, with a demonstration upon his left. It was by such blows only that he could hope to reach the vital point of his communications, tha Southside railroad, and reduce him to extremities, until the time when Sherman and Sheridan, drawing their lines, the one on the south and southwest, the other on the north and northwest, closely upon him, should render escape impossible, and further fighting hopeless. The preparations for this attack were more extensive and complete than on any previous attempt. All the sick, baggage, and incumbrances, com missary stores, etc., were sent, with profound secrecy, to City Point, under protection of the gunboats. Three days rations and forage were issued to the cavalry, and four days rations to the infantry. The long line of intrenchments was only occupied by a sufficient rear-guard. The troops north of the James were to make a demonstration, while those soutli of that river were to undertake a combined movement upon Hatcher s run, I I 902 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. a small stream or tributary of Rowanty creek, which is itself an affluent of Nottoway river. Along this run, and the Boydton plank road, and other roads partly parallel and partly crossing it, the Rebel lines of defence ran ; by which they protected the Southside railroad from attacks by the Union troops. That road was of vital importance to them, as their prin cipal means of communication with Wilmington, Danville, Lynchburg, and their other sources of supply. Obtaining possession of that road, General Grant could compel the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond within forty-eight hours. As might be expected, the Rebel defences which guarded it were of the strongest character. Whatever engineering skill could do, in a wooded and marshy country, to make the line impregnable, had been done ; and the only weak point in the defence was, that Lee was beginning to fail in men to maintain so long and strong a line as Grant was compelling him to keep up. It was on his knowledge of this weakness that General Grant based his attack, at this time. The first movement, in point of time, was the demonstration on the north of the James, It was not successful. At dawn of day on Thursday, October 27th, the tenth corps moved out on the Darbytown road, and extended their lines across in the direction of Charles City road. On reaching the hamlet of Darby- town, four and a half miles from Richmond, a skirmish line was thrown forward, a-nd a sharp encounter with the enemy took place. The Union skirmishers easily pushed the Rebels back ; but at length they came upon the Rebel breastworks, and were checked by a galling fire. After a little delay, at mid-day, all preparations having been made, an advance along the whole line was ordered, and the Union soldiers dashed upon the foe, driving them inside their intrenchments ; from which, however, they con tinued to keep up a brisk fire. The Union troops, with great stubborn ness, took and held a position well up to the enemy s lines, and maintained a most persistent fusilade until nightfall. Meanwhile, the eighteenth corps, accompanied by Kautz s cavalry, which led the way, followed the tenth corps for some distance, and then turning north, moved toward the old battle ground of " The Seven Pines." Thence a movement was made up the Williamsburg road, which was commanded by the enemy s works. The Rebels had laid a trap for the Union force. Ambushing both sides of the road, they placed a small force in front, who made but feeble resistance to the advance of the Union troops, and suffered themselves to be pushed back till, at the given signal, on approaching closely to their works, they opened a murderous cross fire, right and left, which made further progress impossible. The Union troops stood firm for some time, but were at length completely broken. Retreat was now hardly more practicable than advance, for the Rebel artillery and musketry swept the whole ground over which they must pass. In this moment of indecision, the disaster was completed by the Rebels sallying out of their intrenchments and capturing the greater part THE BATTLE OF HATCHER S RUN. 903 of the two advance brigades. The battery was also obliged to withdraw, most of the guns being disabled. Having received such indubitable proof that the Rebels were in sufficient strength there to repel any invading force, the troops were called out of range, and the next morning ordered by General Grant to withdraw to their camps. The entire Union loss in this disaster was about fourteen hundred, a large number of them prisoners. The Rebels lost no prisoners, and, as they claimed, less than two hundred in killed and wounded. The attack on the left was undertaken by the second Hancock s corps, aided by Gregg s cavalry; this force was to march round the enemy s right flank, turn it, and seize the line of defences on Hatcher s run, at the same time that the fifth and ninth corps approached and attacked these works in front. The second corps, therefore, drawing out of camp on Wednesday evening, October 26th, marched across to the Church road ; and at three and a half A. M., on Thursday, reached the Vaughan road, along which they moved to Hatcher s run, and came to the crossing of that stream at seven and a half A. M. The crossing was disputed by a small force, which they dispersed, and the corps proceeded on the west side of the run to the Boydton plank road, which they reached at eleven and a quarter A. M. Here Gregg s cavalry came up and joined them on the left, while Generals Grant and Meade came upon the field about the same time. Egan s division was then deployed on the right of the Boydton plank road, facing toward the bridge over Hatcher s run, and Mott s on the left of the road. De Trobriand s brigade connected with Gregg s cavalry, which held the extreme left. One brigade was left to look after any Rebel troops which might be in the rear. Rugg s brigade formed the advance of Egan s division ; and his skirmishers, at the word of command, rushed forward to Hatcher s run, seized the bridge, and crossed the creek The next movement was to carry the enemy s works beyond Hatcher s run. Egan s division was accordingly despatched, with Rugg s brigade on the left, Price in the centre, and Srnyth on the right ; with Beck s battery co-operating. McAllister s brigade of Mott s division was in support of Egan. The fifth corps was now heard rapidly firing on the right, and it was expected that they would sweep round and effect a junction with the second corps ; but owing to the uncertainty of the roads, which in that vicinity form a complete labyrinth, and the very per plexing character of the country, they were unable to do this, and the Rebels were prompt to see and seize their advantage. About four o clock p. M., as the second corps were preparing to advance, Mahone s division of Hill s corps broke in with great fury upon Hancock s right flank, sweeping off one section of Beck s battery ; and, crossing the Boydton plank road, bore down upon Egan s division. With commendable energy and prompt ness, Egan changed front with his own brigades and McAllister s, and with the aid of Beck s, Roder s, and Sleeper s batteries (the last commanded by 904 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Granger), succeeded, after a prolonged and desperate fight, in repulsing the enemy. In the fury of Mahone s first onset upon Smyth s brigade, it was driven back, several hundred prisoners captured, and the Union line so disordered that the enemy obtained partial possession of the plank road. A part of these prisoners were recaptured, by being conducted, by mistake, into the lines of the fifth corps. Hancock s prompt and skilful management, and the firmness of Egan s troops, soon arrested the disaster which was threatened. Egan now fell, in turn, upon Mahone s flank, and drove him back; Smyth s and McAllister s brigades distinguishing them selves by their bravery; while Mott promptly co-operated with De Trobriand s brigade. The enemy abandoned the guns he had captured, and began to retreat; leaving behind him three flags and five or six hun dred prisoners, who had crossed the plank road. The loss of the second corps and the cavalry, in this affair, was about nine hundred killed and wounded, and four hundred prisoners. This repulse placed these troops in a precarious position, as the ammunition and rations were growing scarce ; though orders had been given to serve out a supply for four days. The rain fell in torrents, and the second corps and the cavalry retraced their weary steps to their camp, leaving some of their wounded on the field. The operations of the fifth and ninth corps, during this time, may be briefly summed up. They left camp at daylight on the 27th, and during the forenoon got into position, with the ninth on the right and the fifth on the left, confronting the enemy s works at Hatcher s run. Here they made demonstrations, and skirmished sharply during the day ; returning to their camps at night. Their loss was about four hundred. The Rebel losses during the day had probably been not far from one thousand. The whole movement, on both sides of the James, which had promised so fairly, had proved a failure, and had cost the Union army about three thousand men, while it had effected nothing. From this time forward there was, for three months, only petty skirmishes and occasional small encounters along the lines of the army of the Potomac and the army of the James. The sixth corps having returned from the valley of the Shenandoah to the army of the Potomac, and his losses in the other corps being more than made good by the large numbers of new or re-enlisted troops which were pouring in, General Grant felt strong enough to undertake an enter prise on which he had ] ong set his heart, viz : the reduction of the Rebel forts at the entrance of Wilmington harbor and the sealing up of that port against blockade running; and, should circumstances prove favorable, he hoped to capture also the city itself, which had long been the chief mart for supplying the Rebel government and army with those goods which neutral England was so ready to furnish to the conspirators against our national life. Cannon, small arms, fixed ammunition, powder, shot, shell, clothing, shoes, artillery harness, army saddles, accoutrements for FIRST EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT FISHER. 905 cavalry, artillery, and infantry, whatever could aid or encourage the Rebels in keeping up their warfare, was sent in the greatest abundance in these blockade runners to Wilmington, and cotton taken out in return. True nearly three out of every five of these vessels were captured or sunk, but the profits of the traffic were so enormous that even with these losses it was lucrative. The harbor, thirty-four miles in length, to the city of Wilming ton, is formed by the estuary of the Cape Fear river, which here spreads out into a broad bay, nearly land-locked at its entrance by Smith s island, a huge sand barrier which extends across its mouth, and leaves but two comparatively narrow channels, nearly thirty miles apart, into the river. The sand bars all along the coast, and the distance between these two entrances, rendered the work of blockading the port one of great difficulty, and made a complete blockade impossible. The navy department had long been desirous of the capture of the forts which guarded the entrance? into the harbor, but it was a work which could hardly be accomplished by the navy alone. A land force was necessary to attack when the vigorous bombardment of the naval squadron had weakened the defences of the forts and demoralized their garrisons. About the first of Novem ber, General Grant agreed to furnish the required troops for the expedition, and Rear-Admiral D. D. Porter, in command of the North Atlantic squad ron, began to assemble at Fortress Monroe an armada, the most powerful perhaps, ever concentrated for the attack of a single fortress or port. As this attracted the attention of the enemy, and reports in relation to the plan of ope rations, etc., were circulated through the newspapers, it was deemed best to postpone the expedition for a while ; but General Grant having learned, on the 30th of November, that General Bragg had gone to Georgia, taking with him most of the troops about Wilmington, deemed it desirable that the attack should be made before his return, and went with General Butler to Fortress Monroe to consult with Rear-Admiral Porter in regard to the number of troops which would be needed. It was decided that six thousand five hundred would be sufficient, and that they should be taken from the army of the James, and General Weitzel was assigned to the command. General Butler, whose attention had been directed to the terrible effects then recently produced by the explosion of a powder magazine in the Erith marshes near London, in the shaking down of buildings shattering glass, etc., at a long distance, desired to have a strong vessel, heavily charged with powder, exploded as near to Fort Fisher as possible, in the belief that it would shake down the walls of the fort and greatly demoralize its garrison; and he was allowed to try the experiment. On the 6th of December, General Grant addressed to General Butler the following letter of instructions : " CITY POINT, YA., Dec. Bth, 1864. " GENERAL : The first object of the expedition under General Weitzel is to close to the enemy the port of Wilmington. If successful in this 906 THE CIVIL WA IN THE UNITED STATES. the second will be to capture Wilmington itself. There are reasonable grounds to hope for success, if advantage can be taken of the absence of the greater part of the enemy s forces now looking after Sherman in Georgia. The directions you have given for the numbers and equipment of the expedition are all right, except in the unimportant matter of where they embark and the amount of intrenching tools to be taken. The object of the expedition will be gained by effecting a landing on the main land between Cape Fear river and the Atlantic, north of the north entrance to the river. Should such landing be effected while the enemy still holds Fort Fisher and the batteries guarding the entrance to the river, then the troops should intrench themselves, and, by co-operating with the navy, effect the reduction and capture of those places. These in our hands, the navy could enter the harbor, and the port of Wilmington would be sealed. Should Fort Fisher and the point of land on which it is built fall into the hands of our troops immediately on landing, then it will be worth the attempt to capture Wilmington by a forced march and surprise. If time is consumed in gaining the first object of the expedition, the second will become a matter of after consideration. " The details for execution are intrusted to you and the officer immedi ately in command of the troops. " Should the troops under General Weitzel fail to effect a landing at or near Fort Fisher, they will be returned to the armies operating against Kichmond without delay. "U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General "MAJOR-GENERAL B. F. BUTLER." The expedition was detained for several days at Hampton roads awaiting the loading of the powder-boat. It was distinctly understood by General Grant that General Weitzel was to command the expedition, and he was not aware that General Butler intended to go until the evening before its departure, and he then supposed that he went rather to witness the effects of the explosion of the powder-boat than any thing else. Once under way, however, General Butler assumed the command of the expedition. The expedition finally got off on the 13th of December, and arrived at the place of rendezvous, off New Inlet, near Fort Fisher, on the evening of the 15th. Admiral Porter arrived on the evening of the 18th ; having put in at Beaufort to get ammunition for the monitors. The sea becoming rough, making it difficult to land troops, and the supply of water and coal being about exhausted, the transport fleet put back to Beaufort to replenish. This, with the state of the weather, delayed the return to the place of rendezvous until the 24th. The powder-boat was exploded on the morning of the 24th, before the return of General Butler from Beaufort ; but it would seem from the notice taken of it in the Southern newspapers, BOMBARDMENT OF FORT FISHER. 907 that the enemy were never enlightened as to the object of the explosion until they were informed by the northern press. At daylight of the 24th the fleet stood in, in line of battle, and shortly before noon took up their positions according to Admiral Porter s orders, the iron-clads, of which there were four, the New Ironsides being one, forming the first line, three fourths of a mile from the fort, each having a gunboat as a tender within supporting distance. A quarter of a mile behind the iron-clads was a line of heavy frigates, Comprising the Minne sota, Colorado, Wabash, and other vessels of that class, and behind these still another line of vessels, composed of the larger gunboats, the double- enders, etc. Each anchored intermediate between the vessels of the first line. Another division, consisting chiefly of gunboats, took positions to the south and southwest of the forts and to the left of the frigates, and still another was posted to the northward and eastward of the iron-clads for the purpose of enfilading the fort. About one o clock P. M. the New Ironsides opened fire against Fort Fisher, followed almost immediately by the monitors ; and within half an hour the Minnesota, followed soon after by her consorts in the second line, obtained the range and commenced a steady bombardment, in which, a little later, the third line joined, and all maintained a rapid, accurate, and terrible fire upon the fort. On the afternoon of the 25th (the bombardment having been continued through this day also), the transports arrived from Beaufort, and three thousand of the troops were landed, under cover of the fire of the fleet, five miles east of the fort. A reconnoissance was ordered at once, under Brevet Brigadier-General Curtis, General Weitzel accompanying it in person. It was pushed nearly up to the fort. General Weitzel reported that the fort was not seriously injured, as a defensive work, by the bom bardment, and that it was so strong that, under the circumstances, it would be butchery to order an assault. Other officers in the reconnoissance entertained a different opinion ; but General Weitzel was an able officer of engineers, of known bravery and daring, and his view, which coincided with that of General Butler, prevailed, and the men were ordered to re- embark, without making any effort to capture the fort. Bear-Admiral Porter was, naturally enough, greatly chagrined at this failure, and ex pressed himself in somewhat strong terms in regard to General Butler s management. Nor was General Grant any better satisfied. He claimed that General Butler should not have gone on the expedition, and that having, in opposition to his views, taken command of it, he violated his express instructions in ordering the hasty re-embarkation. For these reasons he requested the War Department to relieve General Butler from the command of the Army of the James, and to assign General E. 0. C. Ord to that command, and his request was complied with. General Butler justified himself by claiming that it would have been a 908 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. useless slaughter of his troops to have led them against the fort at that time, and adduced the testimony of the Eebel General Whiting, then in command of the fort, but afterward a prisoner, and mortally wounded, who stated, in the strongest terms, that at that time, and with the force General Butler had at command, the capture of the fort would have been impossible, and that the assailing force would have been wholly cut to pieces had they attempted it. The question was one admitting of doubt, and its discussion occasioned much unpleasant and bitter feeling. The com mander of the North Atlantic blockading squadron, Rear- Admiral Porter, was not, however, disposed to relinquish the struggle. He maintained the bombardment for some time longer, and sent a despatch to General Grant, informing him that he was still off Fort Fisher, and expressing the belief that, under a proper leader, it could yet be taken. General Grant an swered, asking the Admiral to hold on and he would send a force, and make another attempt to take the place. This time he selected brevet Major-General (now Major-General) Alfred H. Terry, who, as we have seen, had been much of the time during the autumn in command of the tenth corps, to command the expedition. The troops composing the expedition were the same that had gone with General Butler, not having disembarked after their arrival at Fortress Monroe, with the addition of a small brigade, numbering about fifteen hundred men, and a small siege train. General Grant communicated to General Terry the following instructions : " CITY POINT, YA., January 3, 1865. 11 GENERAL: The expedition intrusted to your command has been fitted out to renew the attempt to capture Fort Fisher, N. C., and Wilmington, ultimately, if the fort falls. You will then proceed, with as little delay as possible, to the naval fleet, lying off Cape Fear river, and report the arrival of yourself and command to Admiral D. D. Porter, commanding North Atlantic blockading squadron. "It is exceedingly desirable that the most complete understanding should exist between yourself and the naval commander. I suggest, therefore, that you consult with Admiral Porter freely, and get from him the part to be performed by each branch of the public service, so that there may be unity of action. It would be well to have the whole pro gramme laid down in. writing. I have served with Admiral Porter, and know that you can rely on his judgment and his nerve to undertake what he proposes. I would, therefore, defer to him as much as is consistent with your own responsibilities. The first object to be attained is to get a firm position on the spit of land on which Fort Fisher is built, from which you can operate against that fort. You want to look to the practicability of receiving your supplies, and to defending yourself against superior forces sent against you by any of the avenues left open to the enemy. If such a position can be obtained, the siege of Fort Fisher will not be aban FCRT ANDERSON U A RA N T I N E THE SECOND EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT FISHER. 909 cloned until its reduction is accomplished, or another plan of campaign is ordered from these headquarters. u My own views are, that, if you effect a landing, the navy ought to run a portion of their fleet into Cape Fear river, while the balance of it oper ates on the outside. Land forces cannot invest Fort Fisher, or cut it off from supplies or reinforcements, while the river is in possession of the enemy. " A siege train will be loaded on vessels and sent to Fortress Monroe, in readiness to be sent to you, if required. All other supplies can be drawn from Beaufort as you need them. "Keep the fleet of vessels with you until your position is assured. When you find they can be spared, order them oack, or such of them as you can spare, to Fortress Monroe, to report for orders. " In case of failure to effect a landing, bring your command back to Beaufort, and report to these headquarters for further orders. You will not debark at Beaufort until so directed. General Sheridan has been ordered to send a division of troops to Baltimore, and place them on sea-going vessels. These troops will be brought to Fortress Monroe and kept there on the vessels until you are heard from. Should you require them, they will be sent to you. " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General. 11 BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL A. H. TERRY." Fort Fisher, the strong earthwork against which this second attack was about to be made, was one of the most formidable fortifications on the coast. It had two faces, one fc landward, across the Federal Point, four hundred and eighty yards in length, twenty -five feet thick, an average of twenty feet in height, with twelve or fifteen traverses rising ten feet above the parapet and running back thirty or forty feet from the interior crest ; the other front seaward, running at right angles with the first, and of equal thickness and height with it, thirteen hundred yards in length, and par allel with the lee shore of the peninsula. This front was a succession of strong batteries, from the frowning bastion at the angle to the mound bat tery at its lower extremity, and all the batteries were connected by cur tains and strong infantry parapets. A deep ditch encircled the fort, and on the landward side, rows of palisades ; while lines of torpedoes, each containing a hundred pounds or more of powder, were sown thickly all along the two fronts and the approaches, and were connected with the fort by electric wires. It mounted on each front twenty-four heavy guns, five or six of which had been disabled in Admiral Porter s first bombardment. Above it, on the north, were Flag Pond and Half Moon batteries, each mounting two guns. The expedition under General Terry sailed from Fortress Monroe on the morning of the 6th of January, 1865, arriving on the rendezvous off 910 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Beaufort, on the 8th where, owing to the difficulties of the weather, it lay until the morning of the 12th, when it got under way and reached its des tination that evening. Under cover of the fleet, the disembarkation of the troops commenced on the morning of the 13th, and by three o clock p. M. was completed without loss. On the 14th, a reconnoissance was pushed to within five hundred yards of Fort Fisher, and a small advance work taken possession of and turned into a defensive line against any attempt that might be made from the fort. This reconnoissance disclosed the fact that the front of the work had been seriously injured by the navy fire, which had been maintained with great fury on the 13th and 14th, and was kept np with increased vigor on the 15th, from eleven. A. M. to half-past three p. M. General Terry finding that a considerable Kebel force under General Hoke had left Wilmington, and were intending to attack him in rear, established a strong intrenched line across the peninsula, about two miles from the fort, strengthened it as much as possible, and planted his siege cannon upon it to defend his troops from any assault in that direction, and manned it with Abbott s brigade. Then turning his attention to the fort, he came to the decision that it was better to assault at once, while the garrison were suffering from the effects of the terrible bombardment of the navy, than to attempt a siege in this inclement season. The guns of the fort had been silenced for the time, and a considerable number dis mounted or disabled by the fire of the fleet, and the electric wires con necting the torpedoes with the fort had also been broken, though the assailants were not aware of this at the time. Under cover of the fire from the ships, sixteen hundred sailors, armed with cutlasses, revolvers and carbines, and four hundred marines, the whole commanded by Fleet Captain K. R. Breese, were landed on the beach, and by digging zig-zags and rifle-pits, worked their way up to within two hundred yards of the fort. The attention of the garrison was occupied by these, and they were preparing to beat off this assault, which they believed to be the main one, while the land forces were creeping up in their rear, on the landward front of the fort. At half-past three the signal was made to the fleet to change the direction of the fire, that the troops might assault, and at the word of command the sailors rushed furi ously toward the parapet of the fort, which was soon manned with Rebel soldiers, who met them with a murderous fire of musketry. The marines, for some cause, failed to perform their duty of covering the assaulting party, and the sailors, after a gallant struggle, were forced back and retreated to the shore. But though unsuccessful in their direct assault, they had contributed largely to the success of the land forces. The Rebels, glowing with triumph at having beaten off their invaders, turned about to find the parapet already surmounted by the land forces, who were steadily pushing them back from one traverse to another. The fighting SKETCH OP GENERAL TERRY. 911 which followed was desperate in the extreme, and much of it hand to hand. No artillery could be used, and, indeed, the Rebel guns were mostly dismounted. An hour and a half of this terrible conflict had passed and nine of the traverses had been carried by hard fighting, but the brig adier-generals in command were all wounded, and the men were becoming sorely wearied, when General Terry, having obtained from Admiral Porter permission to use the sailors and marines, who were still on the shore, to man his rear defensive line, brought up Abbott s brigade of fresh troops to reinforce the assaulting column. With their aid the fight was renewed with unceasing fury, and at about ten P. M. the Rebels were driven from their last traverse, and falling back to Federal Point, surrendered about midnight unconditionally. The garrison numbered originally about two thousand three hundred men. Of these, two thousand and eighty-three, including one hundred and twelve officers, surrendered, the remainder were killed or severely wounded. The Union loss was, in the army, one hundred and ten killed, and five hundred and thirty-six wounded ; and in the navy, three hundred and nine killed and wounded. The next morning, by an explosion of one of the magazines of Fort Fisher, about one hundred and eighty soldiers and sailors were killed or severely wounded. On the 16th and 17th the enemy abandoned and blew up Fort Caldwell, and the works on Smith s island, which were immediately occupied by the Union troops. This gave the Union authorities the entire control of the mouth of Cape Fear river, and a considerable number of blockade-runners, unaware of the change of owners of the fort, ran in and were made prizes. Thus was secured, by the combined efforts of the army and navy, one of the most important successes of the war. Major-General Alfred Howe Terry, the successful leader of the land forces in this expedition, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, November 10th, 1827. He graduated at Yale College, studied law, and was admitted to the New Haven bar in 1848. He speedily took a high position in his profession, though manifesting a strong taste for military studies, and had, during the Crimean and Italian campaigns, made himself master of the theory of military movements. In 1854, he "had been chosen colonel of the second Connecticut regular militia. In April, 1861, at the outbreak of the war, he was commissioned, by Governor Buckingham, colonel of the second regiment Connecticut volunteers. His regiment took part in the battle of Bull Run, but was one of the few which did not run. Return ing home after the three months campaign, he was commissioned colonel of the seventh Connecticut volunteers ; took part in the reduction of Port Royal and the capture of Fort Pulaski ; was made brigadier-general of volunteers April 25, 1862. He was in the battle of Pocotaligo, in June, 1863 ; took part in the siege of Wagner and Sumter, July, August, and September, 1863, and by a feint on James island, on July 10th, drew the attention of the Rebels from Morris island. In May, 1864, he joined the .912 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. army of the James ; fought, as we have seen, in the battles of Deep Bun, Richmond Central railroad, etc. He was twice for several months in command of the tenth army corps, and after its consolidation with the eighteenth, as the twenty -fourth corps, commanded the first division. He was bre vetted major-general in July, 1864, and, as we have seen, was selected by General Grant to. lead the second assault on Fort Fisher. He subsequently, reinforced by Schofield, moved upon Wilmington, which was captured February 22d, 1865. Thence he marched to Goldsboro to join Sherman. After the close of the war he was appointed to command the Department of Virginia, having been promoted to be major-general of volunteers for his gallantry at Fort Fisher, and soon after made briga dier-general, and brevet major-general, in the regular army. Bear-Admiral David D. Porter, whose management of his squadron and protracted bombardment of Fort Fisher contributed so largely to its over throw, was born in Philadelphia about 1814; he was instructed at the naval school at Annapolis ; entered the navy as a midshipman February 2d, 1829; cruised in the Mediterranean for se\eral years; was rated as passed-rnidshipman July 3d, 1835 ; and was for some years connected with the coast survey. Promoted to be lieutenant, February 27th, 1841, he was ordered to the Mediterranean, and afterward to the Brazil squadron. He was assigned to duty at the Washington Observatory in 1845 ; took part in the capture of Vera Cruz in 1847 ; was next ordered to the naval rendezvous at New Orleans ; and thence again to the coast survey. From 1847 to 1853, he commanded the United States mail steamers Panama and Georgia; in 1855 he was made lieutenant-commander, and was first in command of the storeship Supply, and afterward on duty at Ports mouth navy yard. In 1861 he became commander, and was assigned to the Powhatan, on the West Gulf blockading squadron. In April, 1862, he commanded the mortar fleet below New Orleans. He was made acting rear- admiral, and placed in command of the upper Mississippi squadron, Octo ber 22d, 1862. He co-operated in the siege of Vicksburg, sending portions of his squadron up the rivers tributary to the Mississippi, attacking and running past the Yicksburg batteries, bombarding Grand Gulf, Haines s bluff, etc. He was commissioned rear-admiral July 4th, 1863. For some months following the fall of Yicksburg he patroled the Mississippi with his fleet, and in May, 1864, took part in the disastrous Bed river expedition. On the 1st of November, 1864, he was transferred to the North Atlantic squadron, where he planned and executed the naval portion of the two attacks on Fort Fisher, and subsequently aided in the reduction of Wil mington. After the close of the war, he was appointed superintendent of the naval academy at Annapolis. SHERMAN S GRAND MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS. 013 CHAPTER LXX. THE GOLDSBORO CAMPAIGN SHERMAN DETERMINES TO MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINV8 THE DIFFICULTIES TO BE ENCOUNTERED MOVEMENT OF THE FIFTEENTH AND SEVEN TEENTH CORPS TO HILTON HEAD CAPTURE OF POJjjOTALIGO BRIDGE, AND THE CHARLES TON AND SAVANNAH RAILROAD MOVEMENT OF THE LEFT WING TO PUREYSBURG AND SISTER S FERRY DELAYED BY FLOODS TROVER S DIVISION GARRISONS SAVANNAH GENERAL SHERMAN S ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUPPLIES TO BE SENT TO GOLDSBORO . j SAVANNAH AND ITS DEFENCES TRANSFERRED TO MAJOR-GENERAL FOSTER THE REBELS ADOPT THE 8ALKAHATCHIE AS THEIR DEFENSIVE LINE SHERMAN, BY A FEINT OX COMBAHEE FERRY, KEEPS THEM FROM INTERFERING WITH HIS ROUTE MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE SLOW PROGRESS OF THE LEFT WIN S CROSSING THE SALKAHATCHIE THE DEMONSTRATION AGAINST AUGUSTA THE ADVANCE UPON ORAXGK- BURG APPROACHING THE TOWN EVACUATION OF CHARLESTON THE APPROACH TC COLUMBIA SURRENDER OF THE CITY DESTRUCTIVE FIRE THE ADVANCE TO WINNS- BORO ^DESTRUCTION OF THE RAILROAD KILPATRICK s MOVEMENTS THE SPECULATIONS OF THE REBELS AS TO SHERMAN S OBJECTIVE THEY COMPEL DAVIS TO GIVE JOHNSTON THE COMMAND OF THEIR ARMIES IN NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA CHARLOTTE OR GOLDSBORO? WHICH? CROSSING THE WATEREE THE APPROACH TO, AND CAPTURE OF, CHERAW ADVANCE ON FAYETTEVILLE, N. C. HARDEE ABANDONS IT CAVALRY MOVE MENTS THE BATTLE OF SOLOMON S GROVE KILPATRICK SURPRISED, BUT RALLIES AND DEFEATS THE ENEMY SHERMAN S MESSAGES TO WILMINGTON AND NEWBERN SHERMAN S , LETTER TO THE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH WHEELER AND WADE HAMPTON PUSILLANIMITY AND COWARDICE OF SOUTH CAROLINA THE HORRORS OF WAR DEALT OUT TO HER IN FULL MEASURE NORTH CAROLINA SPARED THE LAST STAGE OF THE CAMPAIGN CROSSING THE CAPE FEAR RIVER THE CONCENTRATION OF THE REBEL FORCES HARDEE S ATTACK ON THE LEFT WING AT AVERYSBORO ITS OBJECT THB BATTLE OF AVERYSBORO ADVANCE TOWARD GOLDSBORO THE BATTLE OF BENTONVILLK THE ADVANCE TO GOLDSBORO MOVEMENTS OP SCHOFIELD AND TERRY MOWKIl s DARING FLANK MOVEMENT GOLDSBORO REACHED, AND THE ARMY RESTING AND RECEIV ING SUPPLIES GENERAL SHERMAN VISITS GENERAL GRANT S HEADQUARTERS GENERAL SHERMAN S SUMMING UP OF RESULTS. GENERAL SHERMAN had scarcely taken possession of Savannah, before, his active mind was again employed in planning another important move ment of the most vital importance to the national cause. Hood s army being now completely broken up, Tennessee and Kentucky fully con trolled by the Federal authority, and no considerable Rebel force except Lee s army in Virginia remaining in the southern Atlantic. States, the field of operations was virtually reduced to three States. In his own mind, therefore, General Sherman had decided and the plan met with General Grant s approval to sweep, with bis powerful army, through the two Carolinas, without halting or seeking a base, from Savannah to GolJs- boro, and at that point to open communication with the sea by the New- bern railroad. Thus, crippling and rendering useless the coast seaports, 58 914 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. by the destruction of interior lines of railroads, lie aimed to reach the theatre of war in Virginia by the time the season would admit of active operations in that quarter. If successful in this, he knew that the con-* centration of his own army with that of General Grant, before the Rebel capital, would speedily compel the capitulation of Lee s forces, and, con sequently, the entire collapse of the Rebellion. The plan was a masterly one, yet attended with risks not disproportionate to the prize which it offered. He would be obliged again to cut loose from his base, and enter upon a march of nearly five hundred miles, through a country intersected by numerous wide rivers, whose sedgy, oozy banks were lined for miles with dismal and impassable swamps, over which roads and causeways must be built ; his troops, in many cases, dislodging and fighting the enemy as they moved. The Rebel forces, although scattered, were stronger, both in numbers and condition, than the Georgia militia whom they had encoun tered in the previous campaign; and, under the command of General Johnston, who it was understood was again to be put in command, would be able to concentrate rapidly, and throw serious obstacles in the way of Sherman s advance, as his men toiled tediously through the mv rasses. But the conqueror of Atlanta, and the leader of the " march to the sea," was not the man to be easily deterred from the execution of any plan which promised destruction to the Rebellion especially if it gave him the opportunity to be " in at the death." So his preparations went rapidly, yet quietly forward. His first movement was to send the right wing of his army, cofnmanded by General Howard, and comprising Logan s fifteenth corps, and Blair s seventeenth corps, by transports to Beaufort, near Hilton Head, S. C. The object of this movement was to secure the important railroad bridge on the Savannah and Charleston railroad, at Pocotaligo, about forty-nine miles from the former, and fifty- five miles from the latter city. This bridge, which, with the trestle-work in the swamp, was a mile in length, was a most important point in the communication between the two cities, which the Union commanders of operations in that department had frequently endeavored to destroy, but without success. On the 13th of January, General Hatch s division moved out from Beaufort, and took position near the bridge, with their cannon commanding the railroad ; and the seventeenth corps, crossing on pontoons at Port Royal ferry, rapidly approached the railroad, and scattered the Rebel pickets. On the 15th, the seventeenth corps and General Hatch s division advanced, and gained the railroad a little south of the bridge, driving off the enemy s skirmishers, who were supported by light artillery The bridge thus gained, as well as the earthwork defences at its further end, was promptly carried by the seventeenth corps, with a rapidity which defeated the enemy s attempt to set it on fire, and with a loss of only fifty men. The rebel force were completely driven off, and the gallant seven- tecQth occupied the railroad from Coosawhatchie to the Tallahatchie ; a THK IHITHTLTIKS TO UK ENCOUNTERED. 915 depot of supplies being established near the mouth of Pocotaligo creek, with convenient communication, by water, to Hilton Head. Simultaneously with this movement, the left wing, under General Slocum, and General Kilpatrick s cavalry, received orders to rendezvous near Robertsville and Coosawhatchie, S. C., and establish a dSpot of sup plies at Pureysburg, or Sister s ferry, on the Savannah river. In order to carry out these orders, Slocum repaired and " corduroyed " the " Union causeway" leading through the low rice fields opposite Savannah, and also constructed a good pontoon bridge opposite the city. But before the time appointed for him to march, the January rains had swollen the river, broken up the pontoon bridge, and, overflowing the whole " bottom," so that the causeway was four feet under water, compelled him to seek a pas sage over the Savannah at some point higher up. He, therefore, moved up to Sister s ferry ; but even there, the river, with its overflowed bottoms, was nearly three miles wide; so that he did not succeed in getting his whole army across until the first week in February. Meanwhile, Savannah was garrisoned by Grover s division of the nine teenth corps, from Sheridan s army of the Potomac, and the troops previously serving in the Department of the South were placed under command of Major-General Foster thus leaving to Sherman, for his ex pedition, the entire army with which he had made the Georgia campaign. The twenty-third corps, Major-General Schofield commanding, was, as we have seen, also transferred from Tennessee to the reinforcement of t Generals Terry and Palmer, then operating on the North Carolina coast, to prepare the way for General Sherman s advance. That general, in order that no time might be lost in opening communication with the sea, on his arrival at Goldsboro, had also ordered Colonel W. W. Wright, superintendent of military railroads, to proceed to Newbern, North Carolina, in advance, and be fully prepared to extend the railroad from that place to Goldsboro by the 15th of March. At the same time, the chief quartermaster, and the commissary were directed to fill the depots of supplies at Sister s ferry and Pocotaligo, and follow his movements coastwise, with a view of forwarding supplies to him at Goldsboro, by March loth, via More- head City, North Carolina. All these preparations having been made, and the different movements in successful progress, General Sherman, on the 18th of January, trans ferred the city of Savannah and its defences to Major-General Foster, commanding the Department of the South, at the same time imparting to him his plans of the campaign, with instructions to follow the inland movements of the army, by such demonstrations as should secure to the Union arms the possession of Charleston and other points of military value along the seacoast. The capture, by the combined naval and land forces under Admiral Porter and General Terry, of Fort Fisher and the Rebel defences at the mouth of the Cape Fear river only four days before, 916 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. gave an additional feeling of security to General Sherman as, on the 19th, he gave the final order for a general advance. The campaign was now fairly opened, and Sherman, on the the 22d, embarked for Hilton Head, where he held a conference with Admiral Dahlgren, U. S. N., and Major-General Foster, and thence proceeded to Beaufort, from whence, on the 24th, he rode out to Pocotaligo, to the encampment of Blair s seventeenth corps. The fifteenth corps was somewhat scattered; two divisions being at Beaufort; another on the march, coastwise, from Savannah ; and a fourth still- at that city, storm and freshet bound. The enemy evidently supposed Charleston to be the objective at which the Union army was aiming, and under this impression had adopted the Salkahatchie as a defensive line. Sherman personally reconnoitered the line, and saw, that in consequence of the heavy rains, the river had become so swollen that the swamps, for a breadth of over a mile, were under water to a depth of from one to twenty feet. As he had not the slightest inten tion of approaching Charleston, he contented himself with making a demonstration against the Combahee ferry and railroad bridge across the river; and by the exhibition of a comparatively small force, in seeming preparations to cross over, he kept in his front a large force of the Rebels disposed to contest his advance on the city. On the 27th, General Hatch s division, on the Tullafinney and Coosawhatchie rivers, broke up camp and moved to Pocotaligo, with the purpose of keeping up the feints already began, so that the right wing could move higher up and cross the Salkahatchie near Rivers or Braxton s bridge. By the 29th, the subsidence of the flood permitted General Slocum to put his wing in motion, and as he approached Sister s ferry, the gunboat Pontioc was sent up to cover the crossing. In the meantime, three divisions of the fifteenth corps had closed up at Pocotaligo, and the right wing was in readiness for the advance. General Howard, with the seventeenth corps, now (February 1st) moved up the Salkahatchie to Rivers bridge, while the fifteenth corps marched by Hickory hill, Loper s cross-roads, Anglesey post office, and Beaufort bridge, leaving General Hatch s divi sion still at Pocotaligo, demonstrating against the Salkahatchie railroad bridge and ferry, until the movement of the Union army should turn the enemy s position and force him to fall behind the Edisto. The road northward, on which Sherman was now moving his army, had been hel I for several: weeks previously, by Wheeler s cavalry, who had diligently improved the time to fell trees, burn bridges, and prepare all possible obstructions to impede the progress of our troops. But so well organized was Sherman s pioneer corps enlarged, before leaving Savannah, by the addition of some thousands of intelligent and able-bodied negroes that under the direction of the efficient engineer-in-chief, bridges were rebuilt and obstructions removed with a rapidity which scarcely delayed the advance of the army a single day. Meanwhile, General Slocum, still harassed CROSSING THE SALKAHATCUIE. 917 by the high water in the Savannah river, had only crossed two divisions of the twentieth corps General Williams and Kilpatrick s cavalry, over to the east bank. Williams was sent, by Sherman s order, to Beau fort bridge via Lawtonville and Allandale ; and Kilpatrick to Blackville via Barn well. General Slocum was urged to hasten his crossing as fast as possible, and overtake the right wing on the South Carolina railroad. General Howard, with the right wing, was also ordered to cross the Saikahatchie, and strike the same road near Midway. The line of the Salkahatohie was held by the enemy in force, their infantry and artillery being intrenched at Eivers and Beaufort bridges. The former position was carried, on the 3d of February, by Mower s and Giles A. Smith s divisions of the seventeenth corps. The swamp here was nearly three miles wide, with water ranging from knee to shoulder deep, and the weather was bitterly cold. Disregarding, -however, these circumstances, Generals Mower and Smith gallantly led their divisions in person, on foot, waded the swamp under a heavy fire, effected a lodgment below the bridge and drove the Rebel brigade which guarded it in confusion toward Branch ville, with a loss of only one officer and seventeen men killed, and seventy wounded. Beaufort bridge, strong both in its natural position and artificial defences, was evacuated by the enemy immediately upon the successful crossing of the Union troops at Eivers bridge ; and the line of the Saikahatchie being thus broken the enemy at once retreated behind the Edisto, at Branchville. The Union army now held the peninsula formed by the Saikahatchie and Edisto rivers, and had the choice of moving on Augusta, Branchville and Charleston. Sherman, however, at once pushed the whole army to the South Carolina railroad at Midway, Bamberg (or Lowry s station), and Graham s station. The enemy, fright ened by a demonstration made by the seventeenth corps against Branch ville, burned the railroad bridge, and Walker s bridge across the Edisto ; and from the 7th to the 10th of February, the seventeenth corps de voted its whole energies to the destruction of the railroad track from the Edisto up to Bamberg; the fifteenth corps attending to that portion between Bamberg and Blackville. General Kilpatrick, by this time, had brought up his cavalry to Blackville, and turning toward Aiken, demon strated against Augusta, skilfully avoiding any regular battle, although he skirmished heavily with Wheeler s cavalry at Blackville, Williston, and Aiken. On the 8th, two divisions of Williams twentieth corps, reached Graham s station on the South Carolina railroad, and General Slocum arrived at Blackville on the 10th ; while the destruction of the railroad was continued from that point up to Windsor. By the llth, the entire army occupied the railroad from Midway to Johnson s station, thus dividing the enemy s forces, part of which were at Branchville and Charleston on the one side, and part at Aiken and Augusta on the other. The army was marching north and east, demonstrating upon Charleston 918 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. and Augusta, but really aiming at Columbia, the capital of the truculent State of South Carolina. Meanwhile, the citizens of the two former cities were in an agony of fear and suspense ; their newspapers filled with frantic appeals for resistance to the invader, and their minds and hands occupied with every possible plan and preparation for defence. The first step in the campaign was now an accomplished fact. It had been accomplished with little use of cavalry, and with less than half our infantry ; and, better than all, with but slight loss of life. Now commenced the movement on Orangeburg, a town of some three thousand inhabitants, situated upon the north bank of the Edisto river, thirteen miles from B ranch ville. At this point the state road, between Charleston and Columbia, intersects with the railroad between that place and Branch ville ; and Orangeburg, from its position upon the ridge of high lands on which the railroad runs, really possessed more importance than Branch ville, which the enemy had most carefully fortified. Sherman marched with the right wing, the seventeenth corps crossing the south fork of the Edisto at Binnaker s bridge, and moving directly on Orangeburg; while the fifteenth crossed at Holman s, and proceeded to Poplar Springs, to act as a support. The left wing and cavalry, still engaged on the railroad, had orders to cross the same stream at New and Guignard s bridges, and take position on the Orangeburg and Edgefield road, in readiness to support the right wing. On the 12th of February, the seventeenth corps skirmished heavily with the enemy, who were found intrenched in force in front of the Orangeburg bridge, on the north fork of the Edisto, and finally swept them away by a dash, pressing them across the bridge, which was partially burned. Behind the bridge was a battery in position, covered by a cotton and earth parapet, with wings as far as could be seen. General Blair now pressed Giles A. Smith s division closely up to the Edisto, at the same time moving the other two divisions to a point about two miles below, where he crossed Force s division by a pontoon bridge, holding Mower s in support. As Force s column emerged from the swamp, the enemy fell back, and Smith s division gained and crossed the bridge, and held the parapet. Tfie bridge was speedily repaired, and by four o clock of that afternoon, the whole corps was in Orangeburg, and had commenced to destroy the railroad. This was effected as far as Lewisville, and the enemy being pushed across the Congaree, were obliged, on the 14th, to burn the bridges. Up to this point, the enemy had been mystified as to the real destination of the Union army; but now perceiving clearly, for the first time, what was Sherman s objective, the Eebel General Hardee evacuated Charleston, retreating on Florence, parallel to Sherman s recent line of march, and General Gill- more s troops enterecf and occupied that city on the 18th. The different columns of the Union armv were now all en route to Columbia, fifty-one miles distant from Orangeburg ; the seventeenth corps on the state road. -!-\ CV CHESTERFIELD* SURRENDER OF THE CITY OF COLUMBIA. 919 and the fifteenth marching from Poplar Springs on a country road, which entered the state road at Zeigler s. The twentieth corps moved north, on a line west of the fifteenth, diverging toward Columbia ; the fourteenth moving on a parallel line still further west, with the cavalry on their left flank. On the 15th, the fifteenth corps discovered the enemy strongly posted at Little Congaree bridge, across Congaree creek, with a tete-du-ponl on the south side, and a well built fortification on the north, commanding the bridge with artillery. The ground in front was level and clear, but covered with a deep ajid fresh deposit of mud from a recent overflow. General C. K. Woods, commanding the leading division, turned the flank of the tete-du-pont, by sending a brigade through a cypress swamp to the left, and, pushing the retreating enemy, soon carried and held the bridge and fort beyoild. As it was necessary to repair the bridge before it could be used for the passage of the artillery, it was night before the head of the column reached the bridge across the Congaree, in front of Columbia. During the night, the Union camps were shelled by the enemy s battery on the east side of the Congaree, above Granby. Early the following morning, February 16th, the advance reached the bank of the Congaree opposite Columbia, although too late to save the fine bridge which spanned the river at that point, and which the enemy had fired. While they waited for the pontoons, they could easily see into the streets of Columbia, where the citizens were moving about in evident excitement ; and occa sionally small bodies of cavalry were seen, but no masses of troops. No white flag, or other token of surrender was visible ; and General Sherman limited the operations of his artillery to the firing of a single gun, aimed at the railroad depot, for the purpose of scattering the people who were seen carrying away sacks of corn and flour, which his army needed. While waiting, and within an hour after his arrival at the river, the head of column of the left wing, under General Slocum, also appeared ; where upon General Howard, with the right wing, moved three miles up the river to Saluda factory, and crossed on the 16th, skirmishing with the Eebel cavalry. The same night he constructed a flying bridge across Broad river, three miles above Columbia, and threw across a brigade of the fifteenth corps, under cover of which a pontoon bridge was laid on the morning of the 17th, thus approaching Columbia on the north. General Sherman, in his official report, thus describes the entrance to Columbia: "I was in person at the pontoon bridge (on the 17th), and at 11 A. M. learned that the mayor of Columbia had come out in a carriage, and made a formal surrender of the city to Colonel Stone, 25th Iowa infantry, commanding third brigade, first division, fifteenth corps. About the same time, a small party^ of the seventeenth corps had crossed the Congaree in a skiff, and entered Columbia from a point immediately west. In anticipation of the occupation of the city, I had given written orders to General Howard touching the conduct of the troops. These were to 920 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. destroy absolutely all arsenals and public property not needed for our own use, as well as all railroads, depots, and machinery useful in war to an enemy; but to spare all dwellings, colleges, schools, asylums, and harmless private property. I was the first to cross the pontoon bridge, and in company with General Howard, rode into the city. The day was clear, but a perfect tempest of wind was raging. The brigade of Colonel Stone was already in the city, and was properly posted. Citizens and soldiers were on the streets, and general good order prevailed. General Wade Hampton, who commanded the Confederate rear-guard of cavalry, had, in anticipation of our capture of Columbia, ordered that all cotton, public and private, should be moved into the streets and fired, to prevent our making use of it. Bales were piled everywhere, the rope and bagging cut, and tufts of cotton were blown about in the wind, lodged in the trees and against the houses, so as to resemble a snow-storm. Some of these piles of cotton were burning, especially one in the very heart of the city, near the court house ; but the fire was partially subdued by the labors of our soldiers. During the day the fifteenth corps passed through Columbia, and out on the Camden road. The seventeenth did not enter the town at all ; and, as I have before stated, the left wing and the cavalry did not come within two miles of the town. "Before one single public building had been fired by order, the smouldering fires set by Hampton s order were rekindled by the wind, and communicated to the buildings around. About dark they began to spread, and got beyond the control of the brigade on duty within the city. The whole of Wood s division was brought in, but it was found impossible to check the flamjs, which, by midnight, had become unmanageable, and raged until about 4 A. M., when, the wind subsiding, they were got under control. I was up nearly all night, and saw Generals Howard, Logan, Woods, and others, laboring to save houses, and protect families thus suddenly deprived of shelter and of bedding and wearing apparel. I disclaim on the part of my army any agency in this fire, but, on the con trary, claim that we saved what of Columbia remains unconsumed. And, without hesitation, I charge General Wade Hampton with having burned his own city of Columbia, not with a malicious intent, or as the manifesta tion of a silly Roman stoicism, but from folly and want of sense in filling it with lint cotton and tinder. Our officers and men on duty worked well to extinguish the flames ; but others, not on duty, including the officers who had long been imprisoned there, rescued by us, may have assisted in spreading the fire after it had once begun, and may have indulged in concealed joy to see the ruin of the capital of South Carolina. During the 18th and 19th, the arsenal, railroad depots, machine shops, foundries, and other buildings, were properly destroyed by detailed working parties, and the railroad track torn up and destroyed to Kingville and the Wateree bridge, and up in the direction of Winnsboro." THE ADVANCE TO WINNSBORO. 921 On the 16th, immediately on Slocurn s arrival at Columbia, he had been ordered to march by the left directly on Winnsboro. Crossing the Saluda, at Hart s ferry, and marching by Qakville and Rockville, he reached Broad river, near Alston, on the 17th; and, on the 19th, crossed the river, entered Alston, and began to break up the railroads in the vicinity. Having thoroughly destroyed the Spartansburg railroad for fourteen miles north of Alston, including the bridge over the Broad river, Slocum, on the 20th, crossed the Little river, and reached Winnsboro on the following day. Meanwhile, Sherman and the right wing, having de- Btroyed all in Columbia that could be of use for military purposes, marched, on the 20th, directly on Winnsboro; the fifteenth corps destroying the railroad as they went, and the seventeenth moving on a parallel road; Howard reaching Winnsboro on the 21st. While the main army was thus engaged, the cavalry, under Kilpatrick, had been acting separately on the extreme left flank ; concealing, as well as covering the movements of the infantry. Following the march of the infantry, Kilpatrick s troops reached Robertville on the 3d, Lawtonville on the 4th, Allandale on the 5th, and, on the 6th, demonstrated strongly against Augusta, driving before them a Rebel cavalry brigade. Then turning shortly to the right, he crossed the Salkahatchie just below Barn- well, in face of the enemy, about three hundred strong, who occupied a well chosen position behind earthworks on the opposite side of the stream, commanding the bridge, which was then on fire. But Colonel Hamilton s ninth Ohio cavalry, and Lieutenant Colonel Van Buskirk, with the ninety- second Illinois mounted infantry, dashed through the swamp, wading up to the men s armpits, crossed the stream on trees felled by the pioneer corps, and, disregarding the terrible fire to which they were exposed, drove the enemy, routed, back to Barnwell. The bridge was partially saved, and having been repaired, the Union troops entered Barnwell at four o clock, P. M. The next day, the 7th, the energetic Kilpatrick was at work destroying track on the Charleston and Atlanta railroad, at Black- ville, from which town he drove a brigade of Wheeler s cavalry. On the evening of the 8th, having moved up to Williston station, Colonel Spencer s brigade, while holding the Augusta road, was sharply attacked by Wheeler s cavalry, and a spirited fight ensued, in which the enemy were completely routed, with a loss of one officer and many men killed, a large number wounded, and several prisoners and five battle-flags captured. The routed enemy were so closely pursued by Colonel Spencer, for several miles, that they were finally compelled to scatter and take to the woods for safety. The next day, our troops moved along the railroad to Wind sor, and thence to Johnson s, tearing up track as they went. The move ments and manoeuvres of the cavalry from Blackville had been so skilfully planned by Kilpatrick, as to impress the Rebels with the ide# that his progress was simply the advance of the main army toward Augusta. 922 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Under this impression, Wheeler left the Edisto unguarded and Columbia uncovered, and, by marching day and night, reached Aiken at daylight of the morning of the llth, with his whole command. A carefully man aged reconnoissance revealed to Kilpatrick the certainty that his enemy had fairly got into the trap ; and, at eleven A. M. the same day, a mounted charge by Wheeler s entire command was received and handsomely re pulsed by the Union troops, with a loss to the Rebels of thirty-one killed, one hundred and sixty wounded, and sixty taken prisoners. Disgusted with this unexpectedly warm reception, Wheeler fell back to his former position at Aiken, without any further attempt at attack. At Johnson s, Kilpatrick remained, busily engaged in the demolition of the railroad, until the 12th, when he crossed the south fork of the Edisto, at Guig- nard s, and encamped four miles higher up the stream, throwing out pickets as far as Pine Log bridge. On the 15th, he crossed the north fork of the Edisto, and marching parallel with the left of the fourteenth corps, struck the Lexington and Augusta road, nine miles north of the former place. By this movement he intercepted Wheeler s cavalry, fifteen hun dred of whom had just passed over the road en route for Columbia Cheatham s infantry corps being similarly intercepted by our infantry. On the evening of the 18th, he reached Alston s, on Broad river ; having destroyed a portion of the track, the depots, and several bridges between that place and Pomaria station. On the 19th, he crossed the river, and the next day reached Monticello, and found that Wheeler was in advance of him, moving on Chesterfield. Winnsboro is situated on the Charlotte (N. C.) and South Carolina railroad, seventy miles south of the former place, and thirty-nine miles north of Columbia; Monticello being nearly opposite between Winnsboro and Broad river. The movements of Sherman s forces up to this date, and the massing of his infantry at Winnsboro, deluded the enemy with the idea that the Union army was aiming for Virginia by the inland route, via Charlotte. In the alarm caused by their new apparent danger, the Rebel authorities had forced from Jefferson Davis the re-appointment of General Johnston to the chief command of all the Rebel forces west of the Chattahoochie river, and south of Virginia ; and he had concentrated at Charlotte, N. C., the forces with which Beauregard had evacuated Colum bia, the local garrisons and militia of Georgia, and some reinforcements from Lee s army. The remnants of Cheatham s Rebel corps, however, had been cut off from reaching Johnston by Sherman s march and the burning of the bridges over the Saluda. The turning point of the cam paign had been the abandonment of Columbia; and Johnston, with a dispirited and deficient army, found himself sadly puzzled whether to choose Charlotte or Goldsboro as his next defensive point. They were apparentjy equally threatened by Sherman, but were too far distant, the one from the other, to warrant an attempt to defend both. If he decided DESTRUCTION OF THE RAILROAD. 923 to hold Goldsboro, he must seriously expose his flank and rear to a move ment from Newbern or the Roanoke, tfhile Sherman would quietly "walk over the course" through Charlotte to the James. If, on the contrary, he attempted to hold Charlotte, Goldsboro and the seaboard would be left to chance. In fact, the campaign was already lost, before Mr. Davis took any proper steps to restore it, and Sherman was not slow to push his ad vantage. On the 22d of February, General Slocum left Winnsboro for Charlotte; destroying the railroad as far as Blackstake s station, fifty-five miles from Charlotte, and then turning to the right, reached the Catawba or Wateree river that night, at the point called Rocky Mount. During the night, the twentieth corps came up, and laid a pontoon bridge, over which they passed during the 23d; followed, in the night, by Kilpatrick s cavalry, in the rnidst of a terrible rain. This cavalry was directed to move toward Lancaster, as part of the feint of a general movement on Charlotte, N. C., where General Beauregard, with a large force of cavalry, was stationed. From the 23d to the 26th, the roads and streams were well-nigh impassa ble from heavy rains ; but by the latter date, the twentieth corps had reached Hanging Rock, and waited for the fourteenth to get across the Catawba. When, in spite of the swollen streams, which broke the pon toon bridge, the fourteenth had crossed and closed up, the left wing was again put in motion toward Cheraw. The right wing, meantime, had crossed the Catawba at Peay s ferry, before the heavy rains set in, and was also moving on Cheraw ; the seventeenth corps, via Young s bridge, and the fifteenth by Tiller s and Kelley s bridges. Detachments from this latter corps burned the bridge over the Wateree at Camden, together with the depot, stores, etc. ; and a small force of mounted men was sent out to break up the railroad from Charleston to Florence; but, after a night skirmish with some Rebel cavalry at Mount Clio, was compelled to return without accomplishing their intent. Bad roads at Lynch s creek delayed the right wing about as long as the streams had delayed the left wing at the Catawba. On the 2d of March, the twentieth corps entered Chester field, skirmishing with Rebel cavalry ; and about noon of the day following, the seventeenth occupied Cheraw, the enemy retreating over the Great Pedee, and burning the bridge there. At Cheraw, our forces destroyed twenty-five guns and much ammunition, conveyed there by the Rebels in their retreat from Charleston ; also, the railroad trestles and bridges as far as Darlington. . An unsuccessful expedition of mounted infantry was also made in the direction of Florence. Once more the columns were put in motion, directed on Fayetteville, N. C. ; the right wing crossing the Great Pedee at Cheraw, the left wing and cavalry at Sneedsboro. The seventeenth corps led the right wing, and Davis s corps taking the right of the left wing, while Kilpatrick s cavalry kept well out on the left flank. Heavy rains prevailed, and the numerous 924 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. small streams along the line of march were swollen and difficult to pass ; while the roads, worked into quicksands of unknown depth by the travel of so many men and animals, became almost impassable. Yet Davis s fourteenth corps reached and crossed Love s bridge, over the Lumber river, on the 7th of March ; marched to within twenty miles of Fayette- ville on the 9th, and on the llth reached and occupied the town. The seventeenth corps, marching via Laurel Hill and Gilchrist s bridge over the Lumber river on the ninth, came into Fayetteville on the 12th. Be fore their advance, Hardee retired beyond the river, without offering serious opposition, and burned the bridge after him. Kilpatrick, meanwhile, on the left flank of the army, crossed the Lumber river at Love s bridge, and coming, at Solomon s Grove, upon the rear of Hardee s retreating force, determined to intercept Wade Hampton, whose cavalry was covering the Kebel rear. Hampton was moving on two roads, the Morgantown road and one parallel with it and three miles to the north. South and east from Solomon s Grove, Kilpatrick posted, on each of these roads, a brigade of cavalry ; and then, by a rapid night march, he placed Colonel Spencer s brigade, increased by four hundred dismounted men and a section of artillery, on a road still further north, on which it was possible the enemy s troops might move. But Hampton had managed, by eleven o clock that evening, to flank Atkins s division, and was encamped within three miles of Colonel Spencer ; and Kilpatrick actually rode into and through one division of the Eebel cavalry, luckily escaping with his staff) while his escort of fifteen men and one officer were captured. At 2 A. M. Hampton, with his entire command, suddenly and furiously charged upon the camp of Spencer s brigade, and the house in which General Kilpatrick and Colonel Spencer had their quarters. In an instant the artillery was captured, and the Union troops were in full flight ; Colonel Spencer and a large portion of the general s staff being taken prisoners. Kilpatrick, however, escaped on foot, rallied his men, also on foot, in a neighboring swamp, and turned upon the enemy, who were eagerly pillaging the captured camps. Inspired by the gallantry of their leader, the brave boys charged upon the foe, retook the artillery, turned it upon the enemy at scarcely twenty paces distance, and drove them headlong from the camp ; regaining horses, equipage, and every thing except some prisoners whom the enemy carried off) leaving their dead and wounded behind. Kilpatrick at once re-established his lines, and for an hour and a half successfully foiled Hampton s attempts to retake them; receiving no reinforcements until the battle was over. In this " surprise," the Union forces lost four officers, and fifteen men killed, sixty- one wounded, and one hundred and three, of all ranks, taken prisoners. On the llth of March, the cavalry reached Fayetteville, in advance of the fourteenth corps ; and, by the 12th, the whole army was massed at that place ; where the two succeeding days were spent in thoroughly demolish- MESSAGE FROM GENERAL SHERMAN TO WILMINGTON. 925 ing the Rebel (formerly United States) arsenal, together with all the machinery appertaining thereto. From Laurel Hill, on the 8th of March, Sherman had despatched a brief message, by two trusty scouts, whose route lay directly through the enemy s country, down the Cape Fear river to Wilmington, to notify the Union commander in North Carolina of his safe progress. Those despatches, which simply said, " We are all well, and have done finely. Details are, for olTvious reasons, omitted," reached Wilmington on the 14th, and were the first tidings which had been received from the army since it left Savannah and Beaufort. On the 12th, an army tug-boat reached Fayetteville from Wilmington, bringing full intelligence of events which had been transpiring in the outer world from which Sherman and his brave men had been so long shut out. On the same day, this boat carried back to General Terry at Wilmington, and to General Schofield at Newbern, full accounts of the movements and condition of Sherman s army ; together with an announcement of his intention to march on Golds- boro, feigning on Raleigh, with instructions to them to move directly on the same place, which he expected to reach on the 20th. The arrival of the gunboat Eolus. the same day, enabled him to keep up communication with Wilmington up to the very day of his actual departure. To the Lieutenant- General, Sherman wrote as follows : " The army is in splendid health, condition, and spirits, although we have ha.d foul weather, and roads that would have stopped travel to almost any other body of men I ever heard of. Our march was substantially what I designed I could leave here to-morrow, but want to clear my columns of the vast crowd of refugees and negroes that encumber me I hope you have not been uneasy about us, and that the fruits of this march will be appreciated." The country through which the army had passed was, for the most part, rich in forage and supplies, and the soldiers revelled in an abundance of turkeys, chickens, geese, ducks, nicely cured hams, potatoes, honey, and other luxuries which are not found among the usual "army rations." Plenty of corn and fodder, also, was found upon the plantations ; which, together with the comparatively short marches made each day, put the horses, mules, and beef cattle in the best possible condition. Not only was this delightful to the troops, but it saved millions of dollars to the Government ; a fact to which the Quartermaster-General bore emphatic testimony in a general order of his department; and it also enabled Sherman to provide for the wants of the twenty-five thousand refugees and contrabands who clung to the skirts of his army, and tremblingly yet joyfully marched, under his protection, to liberty and safety. During this march, General Howard received, from the Rebel General Wheeler, the following communication relative to the destruction of houses and cotton by our troops : 926 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. 11 GRAHAMS, S. C., February 1th, 1865. "GENERAL: I have the honor to propose that if the troops of your army be required to discontinue burning the houses of our citizens I will discontinue burning cotton. "As an earnest of the good faith in which my proposition is tendered, I leave at this place about three hundred bales of cotton unharmed, worth in New York over a quarter million, and in our currency one and a half millions. I trust my having commenced will cause yo\i to use your in fluence to insure the acceptance of the proposition by your whole army. " I trust that you will not deem it improper for me to ask that you will require the troops under your command to discontinue the wanton destruc tion of property not necessary for their sustenance. " Eespectfully, general, your obedient servant, J. WHEELER, Major- General C. S. A "MAJOR-GENERAL 0. O. HOWARD, U. S. Army, Commanding, &c? General Sherman returned the following pithy and characteristic reply : "HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OP THE MISSISSIPPI, IN THE FI^LD, "February 8th, 1865. GENERAL: Yours, addressed to General Howard, is received by me. I hope you will burn all the cotton, and save us the trouble. We don t want it, and it has proven a cu,rse to our country. All you don t burn I will. "As to private houses, occupied by peaceful families, my orders are not to molest or disturb them, and I think my orders are obeyed. Vacant houses, being of no use to anybody, I care little about, as the owners have thought them of no use to themselves. I don t want them destroyed, but do not take much care to preserve them. " I am, with respect, yours truly, " W. T. SHERMAN, Major- General Commanding. "MAJOR-GENERAL J. WHEELER, Commanding Cavalry Corps, C. S. A" Again, after a somewhat sharp correspondence between the two rival cavalry leaders, Kilpatrick and Wheeler, in regard to the murder of Union prisoners and foragers, Sherman addressed the following note to General Wade Hampton : " GENERAL : It is officially reported to me that our foraging parties are murdered, after being captured, and labelled, Death to all foragers. One instance is that of a lieutenant and seven men near , Chester, and another of twenty, near a ravine, eighty rods from the main road, and three miles from Easterville. I have ordered a similar number of prison ers in our hands to be disposed of in like manner. I hold about one thousand prisoners, captured in various ways, and can stand it as long as you can ; but I hardly think these murders are committed with your SHERMAN S CORRESPONDENCE WITH GEN. HAMPTON. 927 kaowledge, and would suggest that you give notice to your people at large that every life taken by them simply results in the death of one of yottr confederates. " Of course, you cannot question my right to forage in an enemy s country. It is a war right, as old as history. The manner of exercising it varies with circumstances, and if the country will supply my requisi tions, I will forbid all foraging ; but I find no civil authorities who can respond to calls for forage or provisions, and therefore must collect directly of the people. " I have no doubt this is the occasion of much misbehavior on the part of our men, but 1 cannot permit an enemy to judge or punish with whole sale murder. Personally, I regret the bitter feelings engendered by this war, but they were to be expected, and I simply allege that those who struck the first blow, and made war inevitable, ought not, in fairness, to reproach us for the natural consequences. I merely assert our war right to forage, and my resolve to protect my foragers to the extent of life for life. " I am, with respect, your obedient servant," &c. To this, General Hampton replied at considerable length, and with some acrimony ; denying that any such murders were committed within his knowledge, and without offering to investigate the circumstances declared his intention of executing two Federal prisoners, preferably commissioned officers, for every one put to death by Sherman. In this campaign, South Carolina suffered all the penalties of war, at the Lands of the Union troops. Looking upon her as the " original cradle of secession," and her people as the life-long enemies of the Union, the soldiers deemed it to be their duty to make the " Palmetto State " feel, to its utmost extent, the horrors, inconveniences and penalties of war. Consequently, from the moment they entered her borders, they exercised scarcely any restraint, and plundered and destroyed the property of the inhabitants without stint or remorse. The " bummers " who hung on the flanks, picked their fill of the choicest necessaries and luxuries of life ; while wide -spreading columns of smoke, and the flames of burning houses, marked the progress of the Union army. The justice of war, more stern than poetic, was meted out in full measure to the people who had dragged the other States into this causeless and wicked rebellion ; and who now, for the first time, began themselves to taste the poisoner] and bitter chalice which they had forced to the lips of others. And, i J the hour of trial, the conduct of the South Carolinians was as abject and cowardly as could well be imagined. Forgetful of oft-repeated threats that they would make their final stand " in the last ditch," they offered scarcely any resistance to the invader, but abandoned one after another of the strong natural positions with which their State abounded, and exhib ited to the world a spectacle of pusillanimity in remarkable contrast to 928 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. their previous boastfulness. In fact, they had, from the first, cunningly used Virginia and the other Southern States as battle-grounds, during the war ; and had fondly calculated that their own " sacred soil " would be entirely free from the invader s footsteps. But, when the war was brought suddenly home to their own doors, they showed a cringing helplessness and an agony of fear, which was in strong contrast to the conduct of Georgia, and which was duly appreciated by the brave heroes of the Unipn army, as they swept through the State with resistless force. Yet it is creditable to the character of the army, that from the moment of entering North Carolina, the whole demeanor of the Union soldiers changed ; and the very troops, whose disposition to plunder and avenge had been almost beyond the control of their officers; promptly and cheerfully yielded to the customary restraints of discipline. Sherman now entered upon the third and last stage of his progress to Goldsboro. Up to this period he had successfully interposed his largely superior army between the scattered fragments of the hostile force op posed to him ; but he now became aware that the fragments withdrawn from Columbia by Beauregard, had been reinforced by Cheatham s corps from the west, and the Augusta garrison, and that they had had sufficient time to move around upon his front and flank near Raleigh. Hardee, moreover, had crossed Cape Fear river, being thus enabled to make a connection with the forces under Johnston and Hoke in North Carolina. And the combined rebel forces, under the leadership of General Johnston, constituted an army undoubtedly superior to Sherman s in cavalry, and sufficiently formidable in artillery and infantry to justify him in exer cising extreme caution in this last stage of the campaign, which had hitherto resulted so successfully. General Schofield, as we have already seen, had been ordered to move directly from Wilmington on Goldsboro, where Sherman proposed to meet him on the 20th ; and while the de struction of the arsenal was going on at Fayetteville, two pontoon bridges had been laid across the Cape Fear river, one opposite to, and the other some three miles below the town. General Kilpatrick was ordered to move up the plank road to and beyond Averysboro, and was followed by four divisions of the left wing, General Slocum commanding, with as few wagons as possible ; while the rest of the train, escorted by the two remaining divisions, took a shorter and more direct road to Goldsboro. The right wing, General Howard s command, also despatched its trains, under escort, well to the right, toward Faison s depot and Goldsboro, holding four divisions in light marching order, in readiness to go to the aid of the left wing in case it should be attacked. By this movement the Goldsboro and Wilmington railroad was threatened, and Goldsboro and Raleigh equally menaced. The weather was execrable, and the roads speedily became quagmires, almost every foot having to be corduroyed for the passage of tbfe wheeled THE ADVANCE TO GOLDSBORO. 929 vehicles. Still, time was most important, and the march, was commenced with promptness. General Sherman accompanied the left wing, which, preceded by Kilpatrick s cavalry, moved up along the river or plank-road that day to Kyle s landing, the cavalry being constantly engaged in skir mishing heavily with the enemy s rear-guard ; and at Kilpatrick s request a brigade of infantry was sent forward to hold a line of barricades near Taylor s Creek Hole. Next morning, the 16th, the column advancing in the same order, discovered the enemy strongly posted, with artillery, infantry, and cavalry, in front of the point where the road branches off toward Goldsboro via Bentonville. It proved to be a force of some twenty thousand, under Hardee, who, in retreating from Fayetteville, had taken a stand in the narrow and swampy neck between the Cape Fear and South rivers, near Averysboro, with a view of saving time for John ston s armies to concentrate at some point in his rear, say Ealeigh, Golds boro, or Smithfield. Although the enemy was much stronger than had been anticipated, it was imperatively necessary to dislodge him, in order that the Union army might have the use of the Goldsboro road, in order to keep up the feint on Ealeigh as long as possible. To the left wing, therefore, fell the duty of forcing the position, difficult more especially from the nature of the ground, which was so soft that horses sank every where, and even the men could scarcely make their way over the common pine barren. The first infantry troops engaged "were two divisions of General Williams s twentieth corps, who dashed in, amid heavy showers of rain and fierce gusts of wind, to support the cavalry, which had come upon the Eebels strongly intrenched upon the brow of a hill skirted by a ravine and creek. Three or four hours of sharp fighting ensued, during which the Union artillery, at a distance of four hundred yards, silenced the enemy s guns. A brigade crossed their front by a circuit which turned their left flank, and by a vigorous charge broke their line, and they rapidly fell back to a stronger line of defence. Ward s division now moved on the new position, and the Eebels were completely routed ; and as Ward advanced, he developed the existence of still another and stronger line of defence, stretching from Black creek to the Cape Fear river, which at this point makes a bend to the east, and discovered that the rebel force opposed to him was composed of three divisions, commanded respectively by Butler, Ehett, and McLaws in addition to which, Hampton s and Wheeler s cavalry were posted on the extreme right of the Union troops, covering the enemy s left flank. The fourteenth corps, therefore, as soon as it came up, about noon, was put well forward on the left toward Cape Fear river, while Jackson s division was sent up to the right of Ward s command, and Kilpatrick drew ba9k his cavalry and massed it on the right, connecting with Jackson. He then sent a brigade forward as a "feeler" on the Goldsboro road, when it was attacked furiously by McLaws Eebel division, and although fighting bravely, was obliged to 59 930 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. fall back. Later in the afternoon the whole Union line advanced drove the enemy within his intrenched line, and pressed him so closely that he was obliged to retreat, during the stormy night, over the worst of roads, with a loss of three guns and two hundred and seventeen prisoners, sixty- eight of whom were wounded, and left in a house near by in charge of an officer and four men, and with five days rations. One hundred and eight Eebel dead were buried by the Union troops upon the field ; while the Federal loss was only twelve officers and sixty -five men killed, and four hundred and seventy-seven wounded. Pursuit, on the morrow, by Ward s division, revealed the fact that Hardee had retreated, not on Ealeigh, but on Smithfield ; and while that division kept up the show of pursuit, Slocum s column (the left wing) turned to the right, taking the Goldsboro road ; while Kilpatrick crossed to the north, toward Elevation, with orders to move eastward and watch that flank. Meanwhile, Howard s column (the right wing), with the wagon trains, wallowed along the miry roads toward Bentonville and Goldsboro ; the enemy s infantry retreating across the Union front in the same direc tion, and burning the bridges across Mill creek. The right wing, how ever, if troubled by bad roads, was fortunate in passing through a well-cultivated country, with rich farm lands skirting the roadside. The houses were well built, and the granaries full of oats and corn, and more forage than the troops could use, which proved quite acceptable to their animals, who for several days previous had been on rather short rations. Slocum s left wing, still accompanied by Sherman, encamped, on the night of the 18th, on the Goldsboro road, twenty-seven miles from that place, and five miles from Bentonville, at the junction of the road with the Clinton and Smithfield road. Two miles south of this point, at Lee s store, was Howard, with the right wing ; the pickets of both columns being thrown forward to the point where the two roads unite and become common to Goldsboro. Judging, from appearances, that he had nothing further to fear from the enemy, either in the way of opposition to his pro gress or a flank attack, General Sherman now directed Howard to set the right wing in motion, over the new Goldsboro road, by way of Falling Creek Church. He also joined that wing in person, with a view to open communication with General Schofield, coming up from Newbern, and General Terry, from Wilmington. He came up with the advance of Howard s column, which was well strung out in consequence of the bad roads, as it reached Falling Creek Church. At about six miles distance from General Slocum, he heard artillery in that direction ; but it was, for the moment, satisfactorily explained by the arrival of a staff officer, with word that Slocum s leading division had met and was handsomely driving a division of Kebel cavalry. Soon after, however, word was received that Slocum had developed the whole of the Kebel army, under General John ston himself, near Bentonville. Sherman immediately ordered Slocum to MOVEMENTS OF GENERALS SCHOFIELD AND TERRY. 931 hurry up the two divisions guarding his wagon trains, as well as Uazen s division of the fifteenth corps, still back at Lee s store, and with them to make a defensive fight until, with Blair s corps, then near Mount Olive station, and the remaining three divisions of the fifteenth corps, Sherman himself could fall upon Johnston s right from the direction of Cox s bridge. At the same time, the general received couriers from both Gen erals Schofield and Terry ; the former in possession of Kinston. and with a fair probability of reaching Goldsboro on the 21st, and the latter at or near Faison s depot. Schofield was immediately ordered to push for Goldsboro, and cross Little river toward Smithfield as far as Millard; Terry was directed to move to Cox s bridge, and establish a pontoon crossing there ; while Blair was to make a forced night march to Falling Creek Church, and as daylight dawned, Howard, with the right wing ; minus the necessary wagon guard, was in full motion on Bentonville. Meanwhile, the first attack of the enemy on Slocum had resulted in a temporary advantage to them; three guns and caissons falling into their hands, and the two leading brigades being driven back on the main army. So soon, however, as General Slocum realized that he had the whole Con federate army in his front, he deployed two divisions of Da vis s fourteenth corps, and on their left he placed two divisions of the twentieth corps General "Williams in whose front a line of barricades were hastily thrown up. General Kilpatrick, also, responding to the sound of guns, came up and massed his cavalry on the left. In this position, the Union forces received six distinct assaults by the combined forces of Hoke, Hardee, and Cheatham, under the immediate supervision of General Johnston himself, without giving an inch of ground, and doing excellent execution on the enemy s ranks, especially with the artillery, of which the enemy had but little. In fact, Johnston, availing himself of a new road unknown to our commanders, had moved, by night, from Smithfield, without unnecessary wheels, and with the utmost rapidity ; hoping to catch Sherman s left wing " in air," and ruin it, before it could be relieved by its co-operating columns. But Sherman, all the way from Fayette- ville, had been aware of the possibility of just such an attack, and the well conceived manoeuvre of the wily Kebel chief resulted only in his complete discomfiture. The arrival, on the night of the 19th, of the wagon trains and the two divisions which guarded it, and a division of the fifteenth corps, enabled Slocum to make his position quite impregnable. The right wing seventeenth and fifteenth corps leaving their trains to General Terry, who was advancing from Wilmington, arrived at Cox s bridge in the rear of the two other divisions of the fifteenth ; and the column, by early dawn, was upon the road from Cox s bridge to the cross- road where Johnston first struck the left wing this being the road by which Slocum was to have passed to join the right wing intending to cover the left flank until it reached the Neuse river. The advance, there- 932 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. fore, of the seventeenth and fifteenth corps, took Johnston in the rear; and the troops moved briskly forward, though many of them had marched twenty- five miles with empty stomachs. During the advance, the head of the column skirmished heavily all the way with the Kebel cavalry, until they arrived within half a mile of the cross-road, where they found the enemy in strong position behind temporary breastworks ; but quickly dislodged them, and secured the intersection of the road. General Logan, on moving forward the fifteenth corps, found that the enemy s left was thrown back* and that they had constructed a line of parapet, connecting with that toward General Slocum, in the form of a bastion ; its salient on the main Goldsboro road, and interposed between Slocum on the west and Howard on the east ; its flanks resting on Mill creek, and covering the Smithfield road. General Howard, acting under orders, proceeded with caution, until he had firmly completed his connection, on the left, with General Slocum ; so that, by four P. M. of the 20th, the Union line of battle con fronted the enemy in his intrenched position. Thus, Johnston, instead of catching Sherman s army " in air," as he had hoped, was himself placed on the defensive, with Mill creek and only a single bridge at his rear. As no object was to be obtained by a battle, Sherman contented himself with the free use of artillery upon the wooded space held by the enemy ; pressing him steadily with skirmishers, and strongly feeling his flanks, which were covered by the endless swamps in the neighborhood. lie also grouped the impedimenta of the army near the Neuse, south of Golds boro, sent the empty wagons to Kinston for supplies, and held his army well in hand, close up to the enemy, whom he was prepared to fight, if he should venture outside of his works. Such was the position of affairs around Bentonville on the 21st of March. On the same day, General Schofield entered Goldsboro, with little or no opposition, and General Terry had obtained possession of the Neuse river at Cox s bridge,* with a pontoon bridge laid, and a brigade thrown across ; so that the three armies were actually in connection, and the great object of the campaign was accomplished. During the 21st it rained steadily, and General Mower s division of the seventeenth corps, on the extreme right, succeeded in working well to the right, around the enemy s flank, and nearly reached the bridge across Mill creek, which, as we have before said, formed the enemy s only line of retreat. Fearing, however, that the Eebels would overwhelm Mower with all his reserves, Sherman at once ordered a general attack along the whole skirmish line ; and during the noisy battle which ensued, Mower regained his connection with his own corps, by moving to his left rear, with a loss of about a hundred men killed and wounded. His advance, however, caused quite a commotion in the Kebel ranks, and developed a weakness in the enemy s position, of which advantage would have been taken by Sherman on the following day. In this reconnoisance, Mower GEN. SHERMAN S SUMMING UP OF RESULTS. 933 pushed further than was expected ; had the movement been intended to bring on a general battle, he would have been supported by the other divisions of his corps ; and had the gallant seventeenth intrenched them selves on Johnston s line of retreat, an attack by the Union troops in front of the Eebel lines would have resulted in the total destruction of John ston s army. As it was, the movement carried consternation into the Rebel ranks, and Johnston, only too thankful at his narrow escape, retreated on Smithfield that very night, leaving his pickets to fall into the hands of the Union army, his dead unburied, and his wounded abandoned in the field hospitals. Pursuit was made, on the following day, for two miles beyond Mill creek, but was checked by General Sherman, who remained in full possession of the battle field. The losses of the left wing General Slocum at the battle of Benton- ville, were nine officers and one hundred and forty-five men killed, fifty- one officers and eight hundred and sixteen men wounded, and three officers and two hundred and twenty-three men missing, taken prisoners ; total, two thousand two hundred and forty-seven. The right wing General Howard lost two officers and thirty-five men killed, twelve officers and two hundred and thirty-nine men wounded, and one officer and sixty men missing ; total, three hundred and ninety- nine. Kilpatrick s cavalry, held in reserve, lost but few, if any. The aggre gate Union loss was one thousand six hundred and forty-three. Of the Confederates, two hundred and sixty-seven were buried on the field, and one thousand six hundred and twenty -five made prisoners by our troops. Leaving General Howard and the right wing, with Kilpatrick s cavalry, at Bentonville, during the 22d, to bury the dead and attend to the wounded, Sherman ordered all the armies to move, on the following day, into the camps assigned to them in the vicinity of Goldsboro, there to receive the clothing and supplies of which they stood in need, and to gain the repose which they had so nobly earned. He himself, on the 23d, went to Cox s bridge to meet General Terry, whom he then saw for the first time, and on the next day rode into Goldsboro to see General Scho- field and his army. The left wing followed him during the same day, and the next morning ; the right wing arrived on the 24th, and the cavalry moved to Mount Olive station, and General Terry back to Faison s. On the 25th, the Newbern railroad was completed, and supplies began to come in from Morehead City, where they had been accumulated by the foresight of General Grant. Leaving General Schofield in chief command, General Sherman pro ceeded by rail to Morehead City, and thence by steamer to City Point, reaching General Grant s headquarters on the evening of the 27th of March. Here, he had the good fortune to meet General Grant, the Presi- 934 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. dent, Generals Meade, Ord, and others of the army of the Potomac, and from them learned the general state of the military world, from which he had been so long cut off. Returning, by steamer, via Hatteras inlet and Newbern, he regained his headquarters at Goldsboro on the night of the 30th, and found all things in a satisfactory condition. In his official report, he thus sums up the result of the campaign : " I cannot even, with any degree of precision, recapitulate the vast amount of injury done to the enemy, or the quantity of guns and materials of war captured and destroyed. In general terms, we have traversed the country from Savannah to Goldsboro, with an average breadth of forty miles, consuming all the forage, cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry, cured meat, corn-meal, etc. The public enemy, instead of drawing supplies from that region to feed his armies, will be compelled to send provisions from other quarters to feed its inhabitants Of course, the abandonment to us by the enemy of the whole sea-coast, from Savannah to Newborn, North Carolina, with its forts, dock-yards, gunboats, etc., was a necessary inci dent to our occupation and destruction of the inland routes of travel and supply. But the real object of this march was to place this army in a position easy of supply, whence it could take an apppropriate part in the spring and summer campaign of 1865. .... In conclusion, I beg to express in the most emphatic manner my entire satisfaction with the tone and temper of the whole army. Nothing seems to dampen their energy, zeal, or cheerfulness. It is impossible to conceive a march involving more labor and exposure, yet I cannot recall an instance of bad temper by the way, or hearing an expression of doubt as to our perfect success in the end. I believe that this cheerfulness and harmony of action reflects upon all concerned quite as much real honor and fame as " battles gained " or "cities won," and I therefore commend all, generals, staff-officers, and men, for those high qualities, in addition to the more soldierly ones of obedience to orders and the alacrity they have always manifested when danger summoned them " to the front." SURRENDER OF REBEL FORTIFICATIONS. 936 CHAPTER LXXI. SURRENDER OF REBEL FORTIFICATIONS AT THE ENTRANCE TO WILMINGTON HARBOR GUNS CAPTURED THE TWENTY-THIRD CORPS SENT EAST TO AID IN THE REDUCTION OF WILMING TON, AND TO REINFORCE SHERMAN GENERAL SCHOFIELD PUT IN COMMAND OF THE DEPARTMENT OF NORTH CAROLINA HIS INSTRUCTIONS THE ADVANCE UPON FORT ANDER SON DIFFICULTIES THE REBELS ABANDON THE FORT, AND RETREAT OVER TOWN CREEK THE OPERATIONS OF THE FLEET GENERAL COX CROSSES TOWN CREEK, BOMBARDS EAGLE ISLAND CROSSES BRUNSWICK RIVER, AND DRIVES THE ENEMY OUT OF WILMINGTON RESULTS-THE MOVEMENT ON KINSTON AND GOLDSBORO CAUSES OF DELAY BATTLE AT SOUTHWEST CREEK CAPTURE OF UNION TROOPS FIGHTING NEAR KINSTON KINSTON EVACUATED, AND OCCUPIED BY SCHOFIELD ADVANCE TOWARD GOLDSBORO, AND ARRIVAL THERE GENERAL TERRY MOVES FROM WILMINGTON TO GOLDSBORO GENERAL GRANT DETERMINES TO CUT LEfi s COMMUNICATIONS ON THE NORTHWEST SHERIDAN S RAID ON LYNCHBURG, &C HE REACHES THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC GENERAL GRANT S INSTRUCTIONS TO GENERALS MEADE, ORD, AND SHERIDAN GORDON S ATTACK UPON FORT STEDMAN THE REASONS PROMPTING THE MOVEMENT HE CAPTURES THE FORT, BUT IT IS RETAKEN, AND THE REBELS DEFEATED WITH HEAVY LOSS, BOTH ON THE LEFT AND RIGHT GENERAL MEADE s CONGRATULATORY ORDER THE GENERAL ADVANCE UPON LEE s LINES GENERAL GRANT S INSTRUCTIONS TO GENERAL SHERIDAN GENERAL WARREN S REPULSE HIS CORPS PUT UNDER SHERIDAN S COMMAND SHERIDAN S BATTLE AT DIN- WIDDIE COURT HOUSE THE BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS ATTACK ON THE FORTIFICATIONS OF PETERSBURG BY THE SIXTH, NINTH, AND TWENTY-FOURTH CORPS PETERSBURG AND RICH MOND EVACUATED PURSUIT OF LEE BATTLES OF JETERSVILLE, FARMVILLE, HIGH BRIDGE, DEATONSVILLE, AND APPOMATTOX STATION CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN GRANT AND LEE SURRENDER OF LEE SKETCH OF GENERAL LEE. THE surrender or evacuation of the Rebel works on Smith s island and at Smithville, the gateways of the two entrances to Wilmington harbor, was completed on the 17th, and by it, eight additional batteries and fortifica tions, mounting, in all, eighty-three guns, nearly half of them of large calibre, came into the possession of the Union troops. The Rebels had fallen back to Fort Anderson and Wilmington, as the Union forces accu mulated in their front, and those points, under the command of General Bragg, were held with great resolution. Foreseeing the probability that further forces would be needed for the reduction of Wilmington, and for other operations on the coast, while the large force under General Thomas s command was not required on the line of the Tennessee, now that Hood, was so thoroughly discomfitted and routed, General Grant had, on the 7th of January, directed General Thomas to send Schofield and the twenty- third corps eastward. The advance of the corps arrived in Washington on the 23d of January, from whence it was sent at once to Fort Fisher and Newborn. The State of North Carolina was now consti tuted into a department, and General Schofield placed in command of it, THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. under the orders of General Sherman. The following instructions were given him : " CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, January 3lst, 1865. " GENERAL : * * * Your movements are intended as co-operative with Sherman s through the States of South and North Carolina. The first point to be attained is to secure Wilmington. Goldsboro will then be your objective point, moving either from Wilmington or Newbern z or both, as you deem best. Should you not be able to reach Goldsboro, you will advance on the line or lines of railway connecting that place with the sea-coast as near to it as you can, building the road behind you. The enterprise under you has two objedlls ; the first is, to give General Sher man material aid, if needed in his march north ; the second, to open a base of supplies for him on his line of march. As soon, therefore, as you can determine which of the two points, Wilmington or Newbern, you can best use for throwing supplies from to the interior, you will commence the accumulation of twenty days rations and forage for sixty thousand men and twenty thousand animals. You will get of these as many as you can house and protect to such point in the interior as you may be able to occupy. I believe General Palmer has received some instructions direct from General Sherman on the subject of securing supplies for his army. You can learn what steps he has taken, and be governed in your requisi tions accordingly. A supply of ordnance stores will also be necessary. " Make all requisitions upon the chiefs of their respective departments in the field with me at City Point. Communicate with me by every opportunity, and should you deem it necessary at any time, send a special boat to Fortress Monroe, from which point you can communicate by telegraph. " The supplies referred to in these instructions are exclusive of those required for your own command. "The movements of the enemy may justify, or even make it your im perative duty, to cut loose from your base and strike for the interior to aid Sherman. In such case, you will act on your own judgment, without waiting for instructions. You will report, however, what you purpose doing. The details for carrying out these instructions are necessarily left to you. I would urge, however, if I did not know that you are already fully alive to the importance of it, prompt action. Sherman may be looked for in the neighborhood of Goldsboro any time from the 22d to the 28th of February ; this limits your time very materially. 11 If rolling stock is not secured in the capture of Wilmington, it can be supplied from Washington. A large force of railroad men have already been sent to Beaufort, and other mechanics will go to Fort Fisher in a day or two. On this point I have informed you by telegraph. " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General. " MAJOR-GENERAL J. M. SCHOFIELD." THE ADVANCE UPON FORT ANDERSON. 93T Previous to giving these instructions, General Grant had visited Fort Fisher, in company with General Schofield, and had conferred with Gen eral Terry and Rear-Admiral Porter as to the best measures to be adopted. Schofield s corps numbered, at this time, about twenty -one thousand men ; while General Terry had about eight thousand at Fort Fisher, and Gen eral Palmer about four thousand more at Newbern. On the 9th of Feb ruary, General Schofield landed the third division of his corps, comman(k <l by General Cox, at the mouth of Cape Fear river, near Fort Fisher, followed soon after by Couch s division. At this time, General Terry held a line across the Peninsula, formed by the ocean and Cape Fear river, occupying also Smithville Fort Caswell, and with his flanks covered by the fleet, under Admiral Porter. The Rebels occupied Fort Anderson, on the west bank of the river, a strong earthwork, with a collateral line, strongly fortified, running to a large swamp about three fourths of a mile distant, and also a line on the Peninsula, north of Terry s position, extend ing from Cape Fear river to Masonboro or Myrtle sound. Their position was impregnable to a direct attack, and could only be turned by crossing Myrtle sound above his left wing, or passing around the swamp which covered his right. On the llth of February, General Schofield pushed forward Terry s line, supported by Cox s division, drove in the enemy s pickets, and intrenched in a new position, so near to the enemy s lines as to compel him to employ his entire fojce in holding his lines. February is emphatically a month of storms on this coast, and the peril of attempt ing to turn the Rebel left wing by a boat expedition was from this cause so great, that General Schofield preferred to attack on their right, and thus encounter only the difficulties incident to the land. Accordingly, Cox s and Ames s divisions were crossed over to Smithville, where they were joined by Moore s brigade, of Couch s division, which had just landed, and advanced along the main Wilmington road, until they encountered the enemy at Fort Anderson and its adjacent works. Here two brigades were intrenched, to occupy the enemy, while Cox, with the other two brigades of his division and Ames s division, moved around the swamp which covered the enemy s right, in order to strike the Wilming ton road in rear, and north of the fort. The distance to be marched was about fifteen miles. The enemy, finding himself in danger of being flanked, his cavalry having discovered Cox s movement, hastily aban doned his works on both sides of the river, during the night of February 19th, and fell back behind Town creek on the west, and behind a line of swamps in a corresponding position on the east. Fort Anderson and its adjacent defences, with ten pieces of artillery, and a large amount of am munition, thus fell into the hands of the Union troops without a conflict, and the approaches to Wilmington were greatly weakened. On the following day, General Cox pursued the enemy to Town creek, behind which he was found intrenched, having destroyed the only bridge. 938 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES Terry, who was on the east side of Cape Fear river ; also found the enemy in strong force in his new position, and Ames s division was brought over to the east bank to reinforce him on the night of the 19th of February. On the 20th, Cox crossed Town creek, below the Kebel position, and reaching their flank and rear, attacked and routed them, capturing two pieces of artillery, and three hundred and seventy -five prisoners. The next morning, he pushed on toward Wilmington without opposition. On the east side, Terry could not make as rapid progress ; but he held all of Hoke s force in his front, and prevented them from reinforcing the Kebel troops, which Cox was driving before him. The fleet, meantime, had been proceeding cautiously up the river, removing the torpedoes which were planted thickly along the shores, and in the main channel, by means of yawls connected to each other by drag-ropes. These being taken up or exploded, the squadron approached to a line of piles extend ing nearly across the river, the only opening left being protected by tor pedoes, and subjected to the concentrated fire from Fort French, a formidable work, clad with T railroad iron, a line of water batteries, a high shore battery on the east side, and Fort St. Philip, on Eagle island. Having hauled off the Montauk monitor, which had grounded, and buoyed out the channel, Admiral Porter continued up the river, and on the 20th of February commenced bombarding the forts. During the night, the enemy sent down two .hundred floating torpedoes, but fore warned of their approach, the admiral caused them to be caught with nets and ropes, and discharged in such a way as to do no material injury. On the afternoon of the 21st of February, General Cox reached Bruns- wick river, as the arm of the Cape Fear flowing west of Eagle island is called, and opening fire upon the enemy on Eagle island, caused them to burn the railway bridge which crossed Brunswick river, and cut adrift the pontoon bridge, setting it on fire at the same time. Securing a few of the pontoons, General Cox promptly crossed to Eagle island, skirmishing and establishing outposts on the causeway over the swamp, and within musket range of the city wharves. The Kebels opened upon them with two Whitworth guns, but Cox s troops soon brought up their artillery; and threw several shells into the city. The enemy continued to menace Terry s position during the afternoon and evening of the 21st, but during the night he set fire to the property of the Eebel Government in and about the city, consisting of one thousand bales of cotton, fifteen thou sand barrels of rosin, extensive cotton sheds and presses, and unfinished iron-clads, three large turpentine distilleries, and the adjacent wharves, the railroad and pontoon bridges, &c., and abandoned the city, and retreated toward Goldsboro. Fifty pieces of heavy ordnance, fifteen light pieces, and a large amount of ammunition, fell into the hands of the Union troops. The Union loss from February llth to the 22d (the day Wil mington was occupied), was not over two hundred officers and men in THE MOVEMENT ON KINSTON AND GOLDSBORO. 939 killed and wounded, while that of the Rebels in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was not less than one thousand. Meantime, General Palmer s force, at Newbern, about four thousand men, was under orders to move on Kinston, and thence march toward Goldsboro, at which point he would tap the main line of railroad between Richmond and the South. Goldsboro was, as we have seen from General Grant s instructions to General Schofield, as truly Schofield s objective as Sherman s, and all his energies were directed to obtaining possession of it at as early a date as possible, and now that he could, as should seem most advisable, make either Wilmington or Newbern his base of supplies for furnishing both Sherman s army and his own, he was doubly anxious to press forward. Having no rolling stock at "Wilmington, and very little wagon transportation, he was compelled to operate from ISTewbern, mainly, for the capture of Goldsboro ; the efficient superintendent of military rail roads for General Sherman s army being left in charge, with the assurance that he would, at the earliest possible date, have the railroad from Wil mington to Goldsboro so repaired and equipped as to be capable of doing the necessary business. To Newbern, therefore, General Schofield sent, in all haste, Ruger s division of the twenty-third corps, which had just ar rived at Fort Fisher, and urged upon General Palmer to move, with as little delay as possible, and with all his available force, upon Kinston, to protect the workmen who were repairing the railway. Couch s division was also ordered to remove, and a part of General Cox s. On the 25th, finding that General Palmer, instead of moving promptly, had come to Wilmington to consult in regard to details and difficulties, General Sco- field ordered General Cox to take command at Newbern, and push forward at once. The lack of wagons proved a serious hindrance, and it was not until the 6th of March that enough became available to move the two divisions (Couch s and Cox s) from Wilmington to Kinston. These two divisions then marched, by way of Onslow and Richlands, for Kinston, direct, instead of going, as had been at first intended, by way of Newbern. On the same day, General Schofield went by sea to Morehead City, and, on the 8th, joined General Cox beyond Kewbern. The force in front of Gen eral Cox (who had advanced to Wise s forks, about one and a half miles below Southwest creek, and was there awaiting the progress of the rail road) was supposed to consist of Hoke s division and a small body of reserves. They had fallen back behind Southwest creek, afcd General Cox had sent two regiments, under Colonel Upham, to secure the crossing of the creek on the Dover road. The enemy, having been reinforced by a portion of the old Confederate army of Tennessee, recrossed the creek some distance above the Dover road, came down in rear of Colonel Upham s position, and surprised and captured nearly his entire command, number ing about seven hundred men. The enemy then advanced, and endea vored to penetrate between Carter s and Palmer s divisions, respectively 940 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. occupying the Doyer road and the railway, but was checked by Ruger s division of the Twenty-third corps, which was just arriving upon the field. There was no further engagement during the day, beyond light skirmish ing, and the loss on either side, with the exception of the prisoners cap tured with Colonel Upham, was insignificant. It being evident that the enemy s force was at least equal to that of General Cox, and that rein forcements were reaching them as rapidly as they could be brought by rail, General Schofield directed General Cox to put his troops in position, intrench them securely, and await the arrival of General Couch. On the 9th of March, the Rebels pressed Schofield s line strongly, and sought opportunity to flank it. Heavy skirmishing was kept up during the day, but no assault was made. On the 10th, the enemy having been largely reinforced, and probably having learned of the approach of General Couch s column, made a heavy attack upon General Cox s left and centre, but were decisively repulsed, and with heavy loss. Both attacks were met, mainly, by Ruger s division of the twenty -third corps, a portion of which had been rapidly transferred from the centre to the left, to meet the attack there, and then returned to the centre in time to repel the attempt on that portion of the line. The enemy retreated in confusion, leaving his killed and wounded, as well as the greater part of his arms and intrenching tools, and. during the night, fell back across the Neuse and burned the bridge which spanned it. The loss of the Union army in this engagement was. about three hundred in killed and wounded; that of the Kebels, about fifteen hundred in killed, wounded an.d missing. General Couch arrived, with his two divisions of the twenty-third corps, on the llth, and effected a junction with General Cox. Having no pontoon train, General Schofield was unable to cross the Neuse until the bridge could be repaired, or the pontoons, which had just arrived from the north, could be brought by railway from Morehead City. The crossing was effected, without opposition, on the 14th, the Rebels having abandoned Kinston and moved rapidly toward Smithfield, to join the force under Johnston, who was then actively engaged in concentrating all his available force to oppose Sherman s advance from Fayetteville. Immediately upon the occupation of Kinston, General Schofield put a large force of troops to work upon the railroad, in aid of the construction corps, under Colonel Wright, rebuilt the wagon bridge over the Neuse, and brought forward supplies, preparatory to a further advance. lie moved from Kinston on the morning of the 20th, and entered Goldsboro, with but slight opposition, on the evening of the 21st. The portion of his command which had remained at Washington, under General Terry, moved from that point on the 15th of March, reached Faison s depot on the 20th, and, as we have said, these were, in accordance with Sherman s orders, moved from that point to Cox s bridge, and secured a crossing of GENERAL GRANT S INSTRUCTIONS TO SHERIDAN. 94] the Nense on the 22d. The subsequent history of these armies is com mingled with that of Sherman s grand army. General Grant now deemed it important, before making a general movement with the armies operating against Richmond, that all the com munications of the Rebel army in that city, with the region north of the James and west of the Fredericksburg railroad, should be completely and permanently severed. As the enemy had withdrawn the greater part of his force from the Shenandoah valley, and sent it south, or used it to re place troops sent from Richmond, and as it was desirable to reinforce Sherman with cavalry, his force in that arm of the service at that time being greatly inferior to Johnston, the Lieutenant-General determined to make a move from the Shenandoah valley, which should cut the commu nications of the Rebels, and might also reinforce Sherman. He accord ingly telegraphed General Sheridan as follows : " CITY POINT, YA., February 2Qth, 18651 p. M. " GENERAL : As soon as it is possible to travel, I think you will have no difficulty about reaching Lynchburg with a cavalry force alane. From there you could destroy the railroad and canal in every direction, so as to be of no further use to the Rebellion. Sufficient cavalry should be left behind to- look after Mosby s gang. From Lynchburg, if information you might get there would justify it, you could strike south, heading the streams in Virginia to the westward of Danville, and push on and join General Sherman. This additional raid, with one now about starting from East Tennessee, under Stoneman, numbering four or five thousand cavalry, one from Vicksburg, numbering seven or eight thousand cavalry, one from Eastport, Miss., ten thousand cavalry, Canby from Mobile bay, with about thirty-eight thousand mixed troops; these three latter pushing for Tuscaloosa, Selma, and Montgomery, and Sherman, with a large army, eating out the vitals of South Carolina, is all that will be wanted to leave nothing for the Rebellion to stand upon. I would advise you to over come great obstacles to accomplish this. Charleston was evacuated on Tuesday last. U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General. "MAJOR-GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN." On the 25th of February, General Sheridan telegraphed to General Grant inquiring to what point Sherman was aiming, and what were the points through which he would be likely to pass, after leaving Charlotte, N. C. General Grant replied, indicating in general terms Sherman s proposed route to Favetteville and Goldsboro. Having thus ascertained the move ments of the great commander with whom he hoped to co-operate, General Sheridan moved from Winchester on the 27th of February, with two divisions of cavalry, numbering about five thousand each. On the 1st of March he secured the bridge, which the enemy attempted to destroy, across the middle fork of the Shenandoah, at Mount Crawford, and 942 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. entered Staunton on the 2d, the enemy having retreated to Waynesboro. Thence he pushed on to Waynesboro, wl^ere he found the enemy in force in an intrenched position, under General Early. Without stopping to make a reconnoissance, an immediate attack \vas made, the position was carried, and one thousand six hundred prisoners, eleven pieces of artillery, with horses and caissons complete, two hundred wagons and teams loaded with subsistence, and seventeen battle-flags were captured. The prisoners, under an escort of one thousand five hundred men, were sent back to Win chester. Thence he marched on Charlottesville, destroying effectually the railroad and bridges as he went, which place he reached on the 3d. Here he remained two days, destroying the railroad toward Eichmond ami Lynchburg, including the large iron bridges over the north and south forks of the Kivanna river, and awaiting the arrival of his trains. This necessary delay caused him to abandon the idea of capturing Lynchburg. On the morning of the 6th, dividing his force into two columns, he sent one to Scottsville, whence it marched up the James river canal to New Market, destroying every lock, and in many places the bank of the canal. From here a force was pushed out from this column to Duguidsville, *to obtain possession of the bridge across the James river at that place, but failed. The enemy burned it on his approach. The enemy also burned the bridge across the river at Hardwicksville. The other column moved down the railroad toward Lynchburg, destroying it as far as Amherst Court House, sixteen miles from- Lynchburg ; thence across the country, uniting with the column at New Market. The river being very high, his pontoons would not reach across it ; and the enemy having destroyed the bridges by which he had hoped to cross the river and get on the South- side railroad about Farmville, and destroy it to Appomattox Court House, the only thing left for him was to return to Winchester or strike a base at the White House. Fortunately, he chose the latter. From New Market he took up his line of march, following the canal toward Rich mond, destroying every lock upon it, and cutting the banks wherever practicable, to a point eight miles east of Goochland ; concentrating the whole force at Columbia on the 10th. Here he rested one day, and sent through, by scouts, information > of his whereabouts and purposes, and a request for supplies to raeet him at White House, which reached -General Grant on the night of the 12th. An infantry force was immediately sent to get possession of White House, and supplies were forwarded. Moving from Columbia in a direction to threaten Eichmond, to near Ashland station, he crossed the Annas, and after having destroyed all the bridges and many miles of the railroad, proceeded down the north bank of the Pamunkey to White House, which place he reached on the 19th. After the long march which Sheridan s cavalry had made over Vir ginia roads in winter, it was necessary for them to rest and refit at White House. General Grant was at this time harassed by the fear that the INSTRUCTIONS TO MBADE, ORD, AND SHERIDAN. 943 / enemy would leave his strong lines about Petersburg and Richmond, for the purpose of uniting with Johnston, before he was driven from them by battle, or the Union army was in a position to make effectual pursuit, and he accordingly urged upon all his subordinates the necessity of prompt concentration. Sheridan responded to this wish of the Lieutenant-General at the earliest possible moment, moving from White House on the 24th of March, crossed the James river at Jones s landing, and formed a junction with the army of the Potomac in front of Petersburg on the 27th. During this movement, General Ord, commanding the army of the James, sent forces to cover his crossing of the Chickahominy. The time for a final move, which should finally overwhelm Lee s army and compel its surrender, was rapidly drawing nigh. On the 24th of March, Lieutenant-General Grant issued the following instructions to his three army commanders, Generals Meade, Ord, and Sheridan : " CITY POINT, YA., March 24tfi, 1865. " GENERAL : On the 29th instant the armies operating against Rich mond will be moved by our left, for the double purpose of turning the enemy out of his present position around Petersburg, and to insure the success of the cavalry under General Sheridan, which will start at the same time, in its efforts to reach and destroy the Southside and Danville railroads. Two corps of the army of the Potomac will be moved at first in two columns, taking the two roads crossing Hatcher s run, nearest where the present line held by us strikes that stream, both moving toward Dinwiddie Court House. "The cavalry under General Sheridan, joined by the division now under General Davies, will move, at the same time, by the Weldon road and the Jerusalem plank-road, turning west from the latter before cross ing the Nottoway, and west with the whole column before reaching Stony creek. General Sheridan will then move independently, under other instructions which will be given him. All dismounted cavalry belonging to the army of the Potomac, and the dismounted cavalry from the Middle Military Division not required for guarding property belong ing to their arm of service, will report to Brigadier-General Benham, to be added to the defences of City Point. Major-General Parke will be left in command of all the army left for holding the lines about Petersburg and City Point ; subject, of course, to orders from the commander of the army of the Potomac. The ninth army corps will be left intact to hold the present line of works, so long as the whole line now occupied by us is held. If, however, the troops to the left of the ninth corps are withdrawn, then the left of the corps may be thrown back so as to occupy the position held by the army prior to the capture of the Weldon road. All troops to the left of the ninth corps will be held in readiness to move at the shortest notice, by such route as may be designated when the order is given. 944 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. " General Ord will detach three divisions, two white and one colored, or so much of them as he can and hold his present lines, and march for the present left of the army of the Potomac. In the absence of further orders, or until further orders are given, the white divisions will follow the left column of the army of the Potomac, and the colored division the right column. During the movement, Major-General Weitzel will be left in command of all the forces remaining behind from the army of the James. " The movement of troops from the army of the James will commence on the night of the 27th inst. General Ord will leave behind the minimum number of cavalry necessary for picket duty, in the absence of the main army. A cavalry expedition from General Ord s command will also be started from Suffolk, to leave there on Saturday, the 1st of April, under Colonel Sumner, for the purpose of cutting the railroad about Hicksford. This, if accomplished, will have to be a surprise, and therefore from three to five hundred men will be sufficient. They should, however, be supported by all the infantry that can be spared from Norfolk and Ports mouth, as far out as to where the cavalry crosses the Blackwater. The crossing should probably be at Uniten. Should Colonel Sumner succeed in reaching the Weldon road, he will be instructed to do all the damage possible to the triangle of roads between Hicksford, Weldon and Gaston The railroad bridge at Weldon being fitted up for the passage of carriages, it might be practicable to destroy any accumulation of supplies the enemy mav have collected south of the Eoanoke. All the troops will move with four days rations in haversacks, and eight days in wagons. To avoid as much hauling as possible, and to give the army of the James the same number of days supply with the army of the Potomac, Gen eral Ord will direct his commissary and quartermaster to have suffi cient supplies delivered at the terminus of the road, to fill up in passing. Sixty rounds of ammunition per man will be taken in wagons, and as much grain as the transportation on hand will carry, after taking the specified amount of other supplies. The densely wooded country in which the army has to operate making the use of much artillery imprac ticable, the amount taken with the army will be reduced to six or eight guns to each divison, at the option of the army commander. " All necessary preparations for carrying these directions into opera tion may be commenced at once. The reserves of the ninth corps should be massed as much as possible. Whilst I would not now order an un conditional attack on the enemy s line by them, they should be ready, and should make the attack if the enemy weakens his line in their front, without waiting for orders. In case they carry the line, then the whole of the ninth corps could follow up, so as to join or co-operate with the balance of the army. To prepare for this, the ninth corps will have rations issued to them, same as the balance of the army. General GORDON S ATTACK UPON FORT STEDMAN. 945 Weitzel will keep vigilant watch upon his front, and if found at all practicable to break through at any point, he will do so. A success north of the James should be followed tip with great promptness. An attack will not be feasible unless it is found that the enemy has detached largely. In that case, it may be regarded as evident that the enemy are relying upon their local reserves, principally, for the defence of Richmond. Preparations may be made for abandoning all the line north of the James, except enclosed works; only to be abandoned, however, after a break is made in the lines of the enemy. " By these instructions, a large part of the armies operating against Richmond is left behind. The enemy, knowing this, may, as an only chance, strip their lines to the merest skeleton, in the hope of advantage not being taken of it, while they hurl every thing against the moving column, and return. It cannot be impressed too strongly upon com manders of troops left in the trenches not to allow this to occur without taking advantage of it. The very fact of the enemy coming out to attack, if he does so, might be regarded as almost conclusive evidence of such a weakening of his lines. I would have it particularly enjoined upon corps commanders that, in case of an attack from the enemy, those not attacked are not to wait for orders from the commanding officer of the army to which they belong, but that they will move promptly, and notify the com mander of their action. I would also enjoin the same action on the part of division commanders, when other parts of their corps are engaged. In like manner, I would urge the importance of following up a repulse of the enemy. "U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General "MAJOR-GENERALS MEADE, ORD, and SHERIDAN." While these preparations were making for a general crushing attack n the Rebel strongholds, General Lee, in his desperation, essayed a coun ter attack, anticipating the movement of the Union armies by three days ; and though success was hardly possible with such odds as he had to con tend with, yet the attack was well planned, and came near proving a success. Had it done so, it must have materially retarded, and for a time paralyzed, the intended Union movement. The Union armies were, at this time, holding a line of thirty miles in extent, and, large as their num bers were, they were at some points greatly attenuated. One of the points where this attenuation was greater than it should have been, was at Fort Stedman and its immediate vicinity. Fort Stedman was a square fort, covering about an acre of ground, and mounting nine guns, and sup ported by two mortar batteries, 9 and 10, on its right, and two on its left, numbered 11 and 12. It was the second regular fort in the line of Union fortifications confronting Petersburg, reckoning from the Appo- mattox river on the right Fort McGilvray, three fourths of a mile dis tant, being the first ; while on its left, three eighths of a mile distant, was 60 946 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Fort Haskell. Against Fort Stedman, before break of day, March 25th, Gordon s Eebel corps, consisting of three divisions, was massed for a charge, while the remainder of Lee s army, or at least that portion of it which lay in Petersburg, was arranged to co-operate in an attack on the Union centre. Lee s objects in this attack were twofold. If possible, he meant to break through the Union lines at Hare s hill, on which Fort Stedman was situated, by a bold dash ; to turn the guns he should capture upon the Union troops, wheel his troops to the right, and march down the line, taking Forts Haskell, Morton, Meikle, &c., in reverse, stripping off the guns and garrisons from the forts and batteries, and threatening the whole line. While one column should accomplish this work, another in its rear, crossing through the gap, would reach and destroy the military railroad from City Point to Petersburg, and perhaps march to City Point, and burn the Union depots and supplies at that place. This seizure of the Union base would effectually cut off the army of the James from that of the Potomac, and if successful, might have broken up the entire cam paign, and thrown a new aspect on the war. If this should prove too great a task to be accomplished with the force he had at command, he might, in any event, by this move prevent pursuit, and give his army the opportunity of evacuating Petersburg and Eichmond, and marching un molested upon Danville or Lynchburg. At daybreak, Gordon s troops rushed to the attack. The space between the opposing lines was only one hundred and fifty yards in width, and having cleared their own abatis, the Eebel troops charged across the inter val and up the acclivity to Fort Stedman, worked their way through the abatis in the front a little to the left, passed round a travelled road, and captured the fort at once by charging from the rear through the regular entrance. The Union line here was guarded by McLaughlin s brigade of Wilcox s (first) division of the ninth corps. In the fort were tho fourteenth New York heavy artillery, and so skilfully, boldly, and rapidly was this assault executed, that the garrison, numbering about five hun dred men, was captured with scarcely a show of resistance. The Eebels at once turned the captured guns against the rest of the line, and speedily occupied mortar batteries 9, 10, and 11, adjoining Fort Stedman. Their onward progress was now checked, however, by Fort Haskell ; and the other brigades of Wilcox s division having been rallied, a stubborn re sistance began to be offered to their further advance. At this juncture, Hartranft s (third) division of the ninth corps came up to the support of Wilcox, and the Union batteries from all quarters concentrated their fire upon Fort Stedman, to which the Eebels replied as briskly as they could from the guns they had captured. Under this terrific fire, Hartranft s division pressed up toward the captured fort to retake it. The Eebels at first resisted obstinately, and attempted to prevent Hartranft s advance, directing their fire upon him with great intensity, and killing or wound- THE REBELS DEFEATED WITH HEAVY LOSS. 947 ing nearly two hundred men in his column. Soon, however, the destruc tive fire of the Union artillery, and Hartranft s determined advance, disheartened them. They fell back from the mortar batteries into the fort, and then beyond the fort, down the hill, abandoning all the guns they had captured, and endeavoring only to regain their own lines. But the Union guns maintained their fire upon them with such severity as to prevent a large part of the retreating force from escaping from the fort, and one thousand seven hundred and fifty -eight prisoners fell into the hands of Hartranft s troops. Others were gleaned from the abatis and the space between the lines, making the whole number a little more than nineteen hundred. Their total loss in this engagement could not have been less than two thousand five hundred, while the Union loss was only sixty-eight killed, three hundred and thirty-seven wounded, and five hun dred and six missing, mostly prisoners. The Rebels, in this attack, did not fight with their accustomed fierceness. Many of their soldiers were only too glad to be captured, and a large number began at once to plun der the officers quarters in the captured fort, and thus prevented such a following up of their first success as was essential to a final victory. By ten A. M. the fighting in front of Fort Stedman was over, but General Meade at once ordered the other corps to advance and feel the enemy in their respective fronts. Pushing forward, they captured and held the enemy s strongly intrenched picket line in front of the second and sixth corps, and took eight hundred and thirty-four prisoners. The Rebels made desperate efforts to retake this line, but without success. The Union losses in this part of the field were fifty-two killed, eight hundred and sixty-four wounded, and two hundred and seven missing. The Rebel loss here was more than twenty-five hundred. During the day, ten battle-flags were taken from them. Major-General Meade addressed, the next day, a congratulatory order to his troops, in which, while he censured the repre hensible want of vigilance of the third brigade, first division, ninth corps, he paid due honors to the gallantry, energy, and skill of Brigadier-Gen eral Hartranft, and the good conduct of his division, and impressed upon the troops these two important lessons: "That no fortified line, however strong, will protect an army from an intrepid and audacious enemy, unless vigilantly guarded ; and that no disaster or misfortune is irreparable, when energy and bravery are displayed in the determination to recover what is lost, and to promptly assume the offensive." General Grant was fully impressed with the belief that it was Lee s intention to abandon Petersburg and Richmond, and attempt to join Johnston, as soon as General Sherman crossed the Roanoke ; and determining to prevent, or at least retard the consummation of his purpose, he resolved to anticipate somewhat his own previously ordered movement, in order to break up the Danville road, and thus cripple Lee s facilities for retreating. The narrative of what followed cannot be given more clearly and 948 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. intelligibly than in the graphic language of the Lieutenant-General s own report. " On the night of the 27th, Major-General Ord, with two divisions of ths twenty-fourth corps, Major-General Gibbon commanding, an one division of the twenty-fifth corps, Brigadier-General Birney commanding, and McKenzie s cavalry, took up his line of march in pursuance of the foregoing instructions, and reached the position assigned him, near Hatcher s run, on the morning of the 29th. On the 28th, the following instructions were given to General Sheridan : " CITY POINT, VIRGINIA March 28th, 1865. " GENERAL : The fifth army corps will move by the Yaughn road at three A. M. to-morrow morning. The second moves at about nine A. M., having but about three miles to march to reach the point designated for it to take on the right of the fifth corps, after the latter reaching Dinwiddie Court House. Move your cavalry at as early an hour as you can, and without being confined to any particular road or roads. You may go out by the nearest roads in rear of the fifth corps, pass by its left, and, passing near to or through Dinwiddie, reach the right and rear of the enemy as soon as you can. It is not the intention to attack the enemy in his intrenched position, but to force him out, if possible. Should he come out and attack us, or get himself where he can be attacked, move in with your entire force, in your own way, and with the full reliance that the army will engage or follow, as circumstances will dictate. I shall be on the field, and will probably be able to communicate with you. Should I not do so, arid you find that the enemy keeps within his main intrenched line, you may cut loose, and push for the Danville road. If you find it practicable, I would like you to cross the Southside road, between Peters burg and Burkesville, and destroy it to some etctent. I would not advise much detention, however, until you reach the Danville road, which I would like you to strike as near to the Appomattox as possible. Make your destruction on that road as complete as possible. You can then pass on to the Southside road, west of Burkesville, and destroy that, in like manner. " After having accomplished the destruction of the two railroads, wnich are now the only avenues of supply to Lee s army, you may return to this army, selecting your road further south, or you may go on into North Carolina and join General Sherman. Should you select the latter course, get the information to me as early as possible, so that I may send orders to meet you at Goldsboro. " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General " MAJOR-GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN. " On the morning of the 29th the movement commenced. At night the cavalry was at Dinwiddie Court House, and the left of our infantry line ARMSTRONGS MILL OABNEYS MILL f GRANT S INSTRUCTIONS TO GENERAL SHERIDAN. 949 extended to the Quaker road, near its intersection with the Boydton plank- road. The position of the troops from left to right was as follows : Sheridan, Warren, Humphreys, Ord, Wright, Parke. " Every thing looked favorable to the defeat of the enemy and the capture of Petersburg and Kichmond, if the proper effort was made. I therefore addressed the following communication to General Sheridan, having previously instructed him, verbally, not to cut loose for the raid contem plated in his orders until he received notice from me to do so: " GRAVKLLT CREEK, March 29M 1865. " GENERAL : Our line is now unbroken from the AppomattoxtoDinwid- die. We are all ready, however, to give up all, from the Jerusalem plank- road to Hatcher s run, whenever the forces can be used advantageously. After getting into line south of Hatcher s, we pushed forward to find the enemy s position. General Griffin was attacked near where the Quaker road intersects the Boydton road, but repulsed it easily, capturing about one hundred men. Humphreys reached Dabney s mill, and was pushing on when last heard from. " I now feel like ending the matter, if it is possible to do so, before going back. I do not want you, therefore, to cut loose and go after the enemy s roads at present. In the morning, push around the enemy, if you can, and get on to his right rear. The movements of the enemy s cavalry may of course modify your action. We will act all together as one army here until it is seen what can be done with the enemy. The signal officer at Cobb s hill reported, at half past eleven o clock A. M., that a cavalry column had passed that point from Richmond toward Petersburg, taking forty minutes to pass, " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General " MAJOR-GENERAL P. H. SHERIDAN. "From the night of the 29th to the morning of the 31st the rain fell in such torrents as to make it impossible to move a wheeled vehicle, except as corduroy roads were laid in front of them. During the 30th, Sheridan advanced from Dinwiddie Court House toward Five Forks, where he found the enemy in force. General Warren advanced and extended his line across the Boydton plank-road to near the White Oak road, with a view of getting across the latter ; but finding the enemy strong in his front, and extending beyond his left, was directed to hold on where he was and fortify. General Humphreys drove the enemy from his front into his main line on the Hatcher, near Burgess s mills. Generals Ord, Wright, and Parke made examinations in their fronts, to determine the feasibility of an assault on the enemy s lines. The two latter reported favorably. The enemy confronting us, as he did, at every point from Richmond to our extreme left, I conceived his lines must be weakly held, and could be penetrated, if my estimate of his forces was correct. I determined, 950 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. therefore, to extend my line no further, but to reinforce General Sheridan with a corps of infantry, and thus enable him to cut loose and turn the enemy s right flank, and with the other corps assault the enemy s lines. The result of the offensive effort of the enemy the week before, when he assaulted Fort Stedman, particularly favored this. The enemy s in trenched picket line, captured by us at that time, threw the lines occupied by the belligerents so close together, at some points, that it was but a moments run from one to the other. Preparations were at once made to relieve General Humphrey s corps, to report to General Sheridan; but the condition of the roads prevented immediate movement. On the morning of the 31st, General Warren reported favorably to getting pos session of the White Oak road, and was directed to do so. To accomplish this, he moved with one division, instead of his whole corps, which was attacked by the enemy in superior force, and driven back on the second division before it had time to form, and it, in turn, forced back upon the third division, when the enemy was checked. A division of the second corps was immediately sent to his support, the enemy driven back with heavy loss, and possession of White Oak road gained. Sheridan advanced, and with a portion "of his cavalry got possession of the Five Forks; but the enemy, after the affair with the fifth corps, reinforced the Rebel cavalry, defending that point with infantry, and forced him back toward Dinwiddie Court House. Here General Sheridan displayed great generalship. In stead of retreating with his whole command on the main army, to tell the story of superior forces encountered, he deployed his cavalry on foot, leaving only mounted men enough to take charge of the horses. This compelled the enemy to deploy over a vast extent of woods and broken country, and make his progress slow. At this juncture, he des patched to me what had taken place, and that he was dropping back slowly on Dinwiddie Court-House. General McKenzie s cavalry and one division of the fifth corps were immediately ordered to his assistance. "Soon after, receiving a report from General Meade that Humphreys could hold our position on the Boydton road, and that the other two divisions of the fifth corps could go to Sheridan, they were so ordered at once. Thus the operations of the day necessitated the sending of Warren, because of his accessibility, instead of Humphreys, as was intended, and precipi tated intended movements. On the morning of the 1st of April, General Sheridan, reinforced by General Warren, drove the enemy back on Five Forks, where, late in the evening, he assaulted and carried his strongly fortified position, capturing all his artillery and between five and six thousand prisoners. About the close of this battle, brevet Major-General Charles Griffin relieved Major-General Warren in command of the fifth corps. The report of this reached me after nightfall. Some apprehension filled my mind lest the enemy might desert his lines during the night, and, by falling upon General Sheridan before assistance could reach him, drive PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND EVACUATED. 951 him from his position, and open the way for retreat. To guard against this, General Miles s division of Humphrey s corps was sent to reinforce him, and a bombardment was commenced and kept up until four o clock in the morning (April 2d) ; when an assault was ordered on the enemy s lines. " General Wright penetrated the lines with his whole corps, sweeping every thing before him, and to his left, toward Hatcher s run, capturing many guns and several thousand prisoners. He was closely followed by two divisions of General Ord s command, until he met the other division of General Ord s, that had succeeded in forcing the enemy s lines near Hatcher s run. Generals Wright and Ord immediately swung to the right, and closed all the enemy on that side of them in Petersburg, while General Humphreys pushed forward with two divisions and joined Gen eral Wright on the left. General Parke succeeded in carrying the enemy s main line, capturing guns and prisoners, but was unable to carry his inner line. General Sheridan, being advised of the condition of affairs, returned General Miles to his proper command. On reaching the enemy s lines immediately surrounding Petersburg, a portion of General Gibbon s corps, by a most gallant charge, captured two strong, inclosed works the most salient and commanding south of Petersburg thus materially shortening the line of investment necessary for taking the city. The enemy south of Hatcher s run retreated westward to Sutherland s station, where they were overtaken by Miles s division. A severe engagement ensued, and lasted until both his right and left flanks were- threatened by the approach of General Sheridan, who was moving from Ford s station toward Peters burg, and a division sent by General Meade from the front of Petersburg, when he broke in the utmost confusion, leaving in our hands his guns and many prisoners. This force retreated by the main road along the Appomattox river. " During the night of the 2d, the enemy evacuated Petersburg and Rich mond, and retreated toward Danville. On the morning of the 3d, pursuit was commenced. General Sheridan pushed for the Danville road, keep ing near the Appomattox, followed by General Meade, with the second and sixth corps, while General Ord moved from Burkesville along the Southside road ; the ninth corps stretched along that road behind him. On the 4th, General Sheridan struck the Danville road near Jetersville, where he learned that Lee was at Amelia Court House. He immediately intrenched himself, and awaited the arrival of General Meade, who reached there the next day. General Ord reached Burkesville on the evening of the 5th. " On the morning of the 5th, I addressed Major-General Sherman the following communication : " WILSON S STATION, April 5th, 1865. " GENERAL : All indications now are that Lee will attempt to reach 952 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Danville with the remnant of his force. Sheridan, who was up with him last night, reports all that is left horse, foot and dragoons at twenty thousand, much demoralized. We hope to reduce this number one half. I shall push on to Burkesville, and if a stand is made at Danville, will, in a very lew days, go there. If you can possibly do so, push on from where you are, and let us see if we cannot finish the job with Lee s and John- ston s armies. Whether it will be better for you to strike for Greensboro or nearer to Danville, you will be better able to judge when you receive this. Rebel armies now are the only strategic points to strike at. " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General. 11 MAJOR-GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. " On the morning of the 6th, it was found that General Lee was moving west of Jetersville, toward Danville. General Sheridan moved with his cavalry (the fifth corps having been returned to General Meade on his reaching Jetersville) to strike his flank, followed by the sixth corps ; while the second and fifth corps pressed hard after, forcing him to aban don several hundred wagons and several pieces of artillery. General Ord advanced from Burkesville toward Farmville, sending two regi ments of infantry and a squadron of cavalry, under brevet Brigadier- General Theodore Read, to reach and destroy the bridges. This advance met the head of Lee s column near Farmville, which it heroically attacked and detained, until General Read was killed and his small force over powered. This caused a delay in the enemy s movements, and enabled General Ord to get well up with the remainder of his force, on meeting which, the enemy immediately intrenched himself. In the afternoon, General Sheridan struck the enemy south of Sailor s creek, captured six teen pieces of artillery, and about four hundred wagons, and detained him until the sixth corps got up, when a general attack of infantry and cavalry was made, which resulted in the capture of six or seven thousand prisoners, among whom were many general officers. The movements of the second corps and General Ord s command contributed greatly to the day s success. 11 On the morning of the 7th, the pursuit was renewed, the cavalry, except one division, and the fifth corps, moving by Prince Edward s Court House ; the sixth corps, General Ord s command, and one division of cavalry, on Farmville, and the second corps by the High Bridge road. It was soon found that the enemy had crossed to the north side of the Appomatox ; but so close was the pursuit that the second corps got possession of the common bridge at High Bridge before the enemy could destroy it, and immediately crossed over. The sixth corps and a division of cavalry crossed at Farmville to its support. "Feeling now that General Lee s chance of escape was utterly hopeless, I addressed him the following communication from Farmville : CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN GRANT AND LEE. 953 " April 1th, 1865. GENERAL : The results of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the army of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army, known as the army of Northern Virginia. " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General " GENERAL B. E. LEE. " Early on the morning of the 8th, before leaving, I received, at Farm- ville, the following : " April 1th, 1865. " GENERAL : I have received your note of this date. Though not entertaining the opinion you express on the hopelessness of further resist ance on the part of the army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless effusion of blood, and therefore, before considering your proposition, ask the terms you will offer on condition of its surrender. " K. E. LEE, General. " LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U. S. GRANT. 11 To this I immediately replied : " April 8th, 1865. " GENERAL: Your note of last evening, in reply to mine of same date, asking the condition on which I will accept the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia, is just received. In reply, I would say that peace being my great desire, there is but one condition I would insist upon, namely : That the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified for taking up arms against the Government of the United States until prop erly exchanged. I will meet you, or will designate officers to meet any officers you may name for the same purpose, at any point agreeable to you, for the purpose of arranging definitely the terms upon which the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia will be received. " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General " l GENERAL E. E. LEE. " Early on the morning of tne 8th, the pursuit was resumed. General Meade followed north of the Appomattox, and General Sheridan, with all the cavalry, pushed straight for Appomattox station, followed by General Ord s command and the fifth corps. During the day, General Meade- s advance had considerable fighting with the enemy s rear-guard, but was unable to bring on a general engagement. Late in the evening, General Sheridan struck the railroad at Appomattox station, drove the enemy from there, and captured twenty-five pieces of artillery, a hospital train, and four trains of cars, loaded with supplies for Lee s army. During the 954 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. day, I accompanied General Meade s column, and about midnight received the following communication from General Lee : " April 8th, 1865. " i GENERAL : I received, at a late hour, your note of to-day. In mine of yesterday I did not propose the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia, but to ask the terms of your proposition. To be frank, I do not think the emergency has arisen to call for the surrender of this army ; but as the restoration of peace should be the sole object of all, I desired to know whether your proposals would lead to that end. I cannot, there fore, meet you with a view to surrender the army of Northern Virginia; but as far as your proposal may affect the Confederate force under my command, and tend to the restoration of peace, I should be pleased to meet you, at 10 A. M. to-morrow, on the old stage road to Bichmond, between the picket lines of the two armies. " B. E. LEE, General " LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U. S. GRANT. " Early on the morning of the 9th, I returned him an answer, as follows, and immediately started to join the column south of the Appomattox : " April 9th, 1865. " l GENERAL : Your note of yesterday is received. I have no authority to treat on the subject of peace ; the meeting proposed for 10 A. M. to-day could lead to no good. I will state, however, General, that I am equally anxious for peace with yourself, and the whole North entertains the same feeling. The terms upon which peace can be had are well understood. By the South laying down their arms, they will hasten this most desirable event, save thousands of human lives, and hundreds of millions of pro perty not yet destroyed. Seriously hoping that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life, I subscribe myself, &c., " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General "GENERAL B. E. LEE. " On the morning of the 9th, General Ord s command and the fifth corps reached Appomattox station just as the enemy was making a desperate effort to break through our cavalry. The infantry was at once thrown in. Soon after, a white flag was received, requesting a suspension of hostilities pending negotiations for a surrender. " Before reaching General Sheridan s headquarters, I received the follow ing from General Lee : " April 9th, 1865. " GENERAL : I received your note of this morning on the picket line, whither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely what terms were embraced in your proposal of yesterday with reference to the surrender SURRENDER OF LEE SKETCH OF HIS CAREER. 955 of this army. I now ask an interview, in accordance with the offer con tained in your letter of yesterday for that purpose. " B. E. LEE, General " l LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U. S. GRANT.* "The interview was held at Appomattox Court House, the result of which is set forth in the following correspondence : " APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE, YA., April 9th. 1865. " GENERAL : In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit : Kolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be desig nated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Gpvernment of the United States until properly ex changed ; and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by United States authorities so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside. " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General. " < GENERAL K. E. LEE. "HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, April 9M, 1865. " GENERAL : I received your letter of this date, containing the terms of the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you. As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect. " E. E. LEE, General " LIEUTENANT-GENERAL U. S. GRANT. " The command of Major-General Gibbon, the fifth army corps, under Griffin, and McKenzie s cavalry, were designated to remain at Appomatox Court House until the paroling of the surrendered army was completed, and to take charge of the public property. The remainder of the army immediately returned to the vicinity of Burkesville. " General Lee s great influence throughout the whole South caused his example to be followed, and to-day the result is that the armies lately under his leadership are at their homes, desiring peace and quiet, and their arms are in the hands of our ordnance officers." Our narrative of this series of battles, and the pursuit and surrender, 966 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. would not be complete without a brief sketch of the Rebel leader, whose skilful generalship had protracted the war so long, and so often repulsed the best-planned attacks of the Union armies. Robert Edward Lee was born at his paternal estate of Stratford, Virginia^ in 1806. He was the son of General Henry Lee, better known as "Legion Harrj Lee," a friend of General Washington, and a member of his staff He entered West Point in 1825, and graduated in 1829, ranking second in his class. He was immediately appointed brevet second lieutenant of topographical engineers, and from that time until 1835, was principally employed on the coast defences ; but that year was appointed assistant astronomer, for the demarcation of the boundary line between the States of Ohio and Michigan. In 1832, Lieutenant Lee married a daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson of Mrs. Washington, and thus eventually became, through his wife, the proprietor of the Arlington estate, opposite the city of Washington, as well as of the White House, on the Pamunkey, a noted place in the war just closed. He was pro moted to be first lieutenant in September, 1836, and in July, 1838, was made captain. In 18M, he was appointed a member of the board of visitors to the military academy ; and on the 8th of September, 1845, he became a member of the board of engineers. In 18-16, he was attached to the central army of Mexico, as chief engineer, under General Wool, and retained that post, as well as a position on his personal staff, under General Scott. General Scott entertained a high opinion of his abilities and judgment, mentioning him in the highest terms in every report during the campaign, and at his instance he was brevetted successively major, lieutenant-colonel, and colonel, for gallant and meritorious conduct at Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec. In the spring of 1852, he was ordered with his regiment to New Mexico ; but in September of that year was appointed Superintendent of the military academy at West Point, and continued in charge of it till April 1st, 1855, when his transfer to the cavalry service incapacitated him, by law, for remaining in that position ; the superintendents being, by the organic law of -the institution, members of the engineer corps only. On his transfer to the second cavalry, he was made its lieutenant- colonel and served for three or four years in Texas and on the frontier. In 1859, however, he was at home on his estate of Arlington, and took part in the capture of John Brown and his comrades, at Harper s Ferry. On the 16th of March. 1861, he was promoted to be colonel of the first cavalry, having just previously returned from Texas. On the 20th of April, 1861, he resigned his com mission, on the ground that he must go with his State, and was immediately appointed by Governor Letcher, of Virginia, major-general in command of all the military forces in Virginia. He at once set himself to the work of organizing the Rebel troops of Virginia, and attempted, at first, the forti fication of Arlington Heights ; but finding that that position was likdy iurreiiuer of (ienoral Lcc. SKETCH OF GENERAL LEE. 957 to be occupied by an overwhelming force of Union troops, he withdrew. When Kichmond was made the Rebel capital, and the Rebel forces of the State of Virginia made a part of the Rebel army, Lee s rank was fixed as a brigadier-general. After the death of General Garnett, in Western Virginia) General Lee was appointed to succeed him ; and on the 12th of September, 1861, was defeated by General John F. Reynolds, at Cheat mountain, and compelled to retreat with heavy loss ; owing, it was said, to the failure of one of his subordinate officers to carry out his plans. He subsequently threatened Rosecrans position at Big Sewell, Western Vir ginia, but did no more fighting there. In December, he was transferred to South Carolina, and ordered to take charge of the coast defences of South Carolina and Georgia. He put the coast defences in good condition, and in March, 1862, was summoned to Richmond, and put in charge of the defences of Richmond. In the battle of Fair Oaks or Seven Pines, General J. E. Johnston, then in command of the Rebel army, was wounded severely, and General Lee was appointed to succeed him. In the subse quent battles of the seven days on the Peninsula, the Rebel army of Northern Virginia was under his command, and he led it also in the battles of Pope s campaign, crossed the Potomac, and commanded in person at Antietam ; and after the drawn battle there, retreated into Vir ginia, and took up his position on the Rappahannock, near Fredericks- burg. All the subsequent battles of the war, in Northern Virginia, and the battles of Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, and Falling Waters, Mary land, were fought under his personal direction. At Fredericksburg and Chancellors ville he displayed decided strategic ability; while the expedi tion into Pennsylvania, in June and July, 1863, terminating with the battles at Gettysburg, so disastrous to the Rebels, was perhaps less credit able to his military abilities, inasmuch as, with the full knowledge of the condition of affairs at Richmond, it was extremely hazardous on his part to undertake it. In the subsequent operations of the autumn of 1863, on the Rapidan, and north of it, he displayed much talent, though not always successful. In the great campaign of 1864, he managed his army with consummate skill, and though convinced that his cause was hopeless as early as December, 1864, he did not desist from the most strenuous exertions to defend his position, and to maintain the war. Early in January, 1865, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the entire military forces of the Rebels, and accepted the position reluctantly, from a convic tion that their cause was past salvation. On the 3d of April, 1865, he evacuated Richmond and Petersburg, and, on the 9th, surrendered to General Grant. He is still (December, 1865) on parole, but has been for eome months President of Washington College, Virginia. 958 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER LXXIL THE ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT THE CIRCUMSTANCES ATTEMPT TO MURDER OTHER HIGH OFFICERS OF GOVERNMENT THE SORROW AND GLOOM 07 THE NATION ARREST AND PUNISHMENT OF THE ASSASSINS SKETCH OF LINCOLN THE STABILITY OF THE GOVERN MENT DEMONSTRATED THE ADVANCE OF SHERMAN TO SMITHFIELD AND RALEIGH HIS ARMY RECEIVE THE INTELLIGENCE OF LEE S SURRENDER DISPOSITIONS MADE TO COMPEL JOHNSTON S SURRENDER JOHNSTON ASKS AN INTERVIEW HIS DESIRE FOR TERMS EMBRAC ING ALL THE REBEL ARMIES SECOND CONFERENCE THE " MEMORANDUM" DRAWN UP AND SENT TO WASHINGTON ITS TERMS ITS REJECTION BY THE CABINET GENERAL GRANT BEARS THE NEWS, AND IS AUTHORIZED TO TAKE COMMAND SHERMAN S PROMPT ACTION JOHNSTON SURRENDERS ON THE SAME TERMS AS LEE SHERMAN S VISIT TO SAVANNAH HIS FIELD ORDERS HE MARCHES HIS ARMY TO RICHMOND AND WASHINGTON, AND TAKES LEAVE OF IT DISBANDING OF THE FORCES STONEMAN*S EXPEDITION GENERAL OSBAND S EXPEDITION FROM VICKSBURG CANBY ? S SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF MOBILE SURRENDER OF THE REBEL FLEET GENERAL DICK TAYLOR S SURRENDER, AND THAT OF THE SUBORDINATE OFFICERS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY WILSON S CAVALRY EXPEDITION ITS NUMBERS AND ARMS THE MARCH CAPTURE OF MONTEVALLO AND RANDOLPH CROXTON S SEPA RATE EXPEDITION THE BATTLE AND CAPTURE OF SELMA ITS GREAT STRENGTH CAPTURE OF MONTGOMERY, WETUMPKA, ALA., AND COLUMBUS, GA. BATTLE AT WEST POINT, GA. ITS CAPTURE LA GRANGE, GRIFFIN, AND FORSYTH CAPTURED SHERMAN S ARMISTICE CAPTURE OF MACON DETENTION AT MACON CROXTON S RETURN TO THE MAIN ARMY HIS ACHIEVEMENTS THE SURRENDER OF ALL THE REBEL TROOPS EAST OF THE CHATTA- HOOCHIE DISTRIBUTION OF TROOPS PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS " THE POOR OLD MOTHER" AND HER BOOTS DISPOSITION MADE OF THE PRISONER RESULTS OF WILSON S CAMPAIGN KIRBY SMITH S SURRENDER SHERIDAN ON THE RIO GRANDE. WHILE Lee s surrender betokened to the minds of all the citizens of the Kepublic the speedy return of peace, and the intelligence of each hour brought new joy and hope that the four years struggle was ended, and that the beloved chief magistrate, twice chosen of the people, would soon, as he had promised in his first inaugural, repossess the forts and property of the nation, and rule over a united instead of a divided Re public, there fell upon the nation a terrible and crushing blow, like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, and wrapped the continent in gloom. President Lincoln, who had been at City Point during the last few days of the campaign which ended in the evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg and the surrender of Lee s army, and who had entered Rich mond and spent one day there, had returned to Washington, satisfied that the last days of the Rebellion had come, and that both the nation and him self were about to experience those halcyon days of peace and quietness, of which hitherto, during his administration, there had been no example. Cheered with this prospect, and rejoicing that, on the 14th of April, the national flag, which that day, four years before, had been lowered by Rebel orders, would again float over what remained of the battlements of THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 959 Sumter, Mr. Lincoln, on the evening of that day (Good Friday), at the earnest solicitation of friends, went to Ford s theatre with his wife, and the daughter and stepson (Major Rathbone) of Senator Harris, of New York, to witness the play of the " American Cousin." During the second scene of the third act of the play, about ten o clock, P. M., an assassin suddenly entered Mr. Lincoln s box, and discharged a pistol at the President, the ball taking effect in the back of his head, and passing upward and forward through the posterior portion of the brain. Major Rathbone attempted instantly to seize the desperado, and though severely wounded in the arm, clung to him ; but as the assassin leaped from the box upon the stage, his hold gave way. In this leap, the spur upon the boot of the murderer caught in the flag, and he fell ; but springing up, he flourished a bowie-knife, and shouting " Sic semper tyrannis" (the motto of Virginia), rushed across the stage, and out by a rear passage, where he had a horse in waiting, which he mounted, and on which he fled. The moment it was ascertained that the President had been shot, the most intense excitement prevailed. Mr. Lincoln was borne from the house, insensible, to a dwelling near, where he lingered, without return of con sciousness, till twenty-two minutes past seven in the morning of the 15th, when he expired. At the same hour, another assassin entered the resi dence of Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State who was very ill from injuries received from being thrown from his carriage a few days before and pretending to have been sent by his physician with some medicine for him, forced his way into his chamber, though not without great resistance, and having inflicted severe injuries upon three men, Messrs. Robinson and Hansell, the attendants of Mr. Seward, and Mr. Frederick W. Seward, son of the Secretary, attempted to cut Mr. Seward s throat ; but owing to the dressing upon his face, which had been fractured by his fall, he only succeeded in laying open the cheek and jaw. He also fled. It was soon ascertained that it had been intended by the con spirators to murder not only Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward, but Yice- President Johnson, Secretary Stanton, General Grant, and Chief Justice Chase : and the desperate plot had partially failed, through unexpected movements of some of the intended victims, and the cowardice of some of the conspirators. The intelligence of the murder of the President sent a thrill of horror through the entire nation, and overwhelmed it in the deepest grief. When the sad day (April 18th) came, in which the body of the Republic s most honored magistrate, martyred in its cause, was to be borne to its final resting-place in the distant Prairie State, a scene was witnessed such as had never before taken place in human history. The whole nation mourned with a depth and intensity of grief unparalleled in all the records of the past, the loss of its chosen head, its father and its friend. 960 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATED. Amid the stirring April days, while springing grass and greening boughs proclaimed that summer drew nigh, the procession left the capital, which never before had been so shaken with pain, and grief, and righteous rage. They took the same route which he had traversed when coming in life to his high place, and bore him forever from the scene of his eventful sway. And as they went, the great capitals of the land welcomed, with such demonstrations of honor as no preceding experience had wit nessed, the shrunken, discolored, and pulseless frame. The city through which he passed before in a sheltering privacy, now crowded tremulous, in tearful affection, around his bier. The great metropolis, whose mob then hated him, the leaders of whose fashion turned from him with con tempt, and whose authorities sought to insult him, now poured from every street and lane to witness the sad procession of his mourners. Its whole business was suspended ; its houses were hung from base to roof with funeral pomp ; its pavements were thronged with silent, patient, unmoving crowds ; its windows gleamed with pallid faces, as through the hushed, expectant avenues wound, hour by hour, while bells were tolling, and minute-guns, with measured boom, were counting the instants, that vast, uncounted, unparalleled procession. Not capitals only, but States them selves, became his mourners. Churches put off their Easter emblems to hide pillar and wall and arch in sable woe. Each railway was made a via Dolorosa. The spontaneous homage of millions was offered through the uncovered head, the crape, the wreath, through all the sombre insignia of grief, as the train, with its precious burden, sped on. The country shrouded its weeping face, and all the blooms of spring around could bring no flush to its changed countenance ; the song and sparkle, and the fresh impulse, of which the very air was full, could stir no pulse of glad ness or of hope while still that spectacle haunted its gaze. For over every loyal heart there brooded a sorrow as if the most revered had fallen, as if the shock of personal bereavement had smitten separately every household." While this sad procession was thus slowly drawing toward the final resting-place of the martyred President, the Vice President who had taken the oath of office as President and the Cabinet, were unwearied in their efforts to ascertain and bring to justice the miscreants who had been guilty of a deed so horrible. The murderer of the President was recog nized as one John Wilkes Booth, a profligate and desperate actor, who had availed himself of his knowledge of the theatre and his free access to it (having formerly performed there) to plan the details of his infamous crime. But the fact that the attempt was made to murder all the leading officers of the Government showed conclusively that the conspiracy was an extensive one, and involved others than the immediate actors. Payne, alias Powell, the attempted assassin of Mr. Seward, was arrested two days after, at the residence of a Mrs. Surratt, toward whom suspicion pointed as ARREST AND PUNISHMENT OF THE ASSASSINS. 961 having been extremely intimate with Booth ; and both he and Mrs. Surratt were at once placed in close confinement. Atzerot, a German, who was to have murdered Yice-President Johnson ; Arnold, whose com plicity had been ascertained by correspondence found in Booth s trunk ; O Laughlin, also implicated ; and Spang] er, an employee of the theatre who had aided Booth in escaping, were arrested, and the detectives were engaged in tracking Booth and Harold, a youth who had been his con fidant and companion. On the 26th of April they were brought to bay in a barn in Caroline county, Va., between Bowling Green and Port Royal on the Rappahannock, and Harold surrendered; but Booth refusing to sur render, the barn was set on fire, and Booth, attempting to fight his way out, was shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett, and died after three hours of fearful suffering. He had broken his leg in his leap upon the stage, and a Dr. Mudd, who had been one of the conspirators, had set it, but it had had no opportunity to unite. Dr. Mudd was arrested and brought to Washington for trial with the rest. The military court which was to try these cases, found that John H. Surratt, a son of Mrs. Surratt, had also been an active coadjutor in the conspiracy, but he had made his escape. There was also ample evidence implicating Jefferson Davis, the late Rebel President ; Mr. Seddon, the late Rebel Secretary of War; Clement C. Clay; Beverly Tucker ; Jacob Thompson, formerly Secretary of the Interior ; George N. Sanders and others, as accessories before the fact in the assas sination, and as having furnished the money and rewards for it. The parties already under arrest were tried by a military court, and with every advantage of counsel. Payne or Powell, Atzerot, Harold, and Mrs. Surratt were condemned to death, and were hung July 7th, 1865. Mudd f O Laughlin and Arnold were imprisoned for life on the Dry Tortugas, and Spangler for six years. t Let us, before proceeding farther, sketch briefly the remarkable career of this noble man, who, coming to the chief magistracy in troublesome times, by his wise conduct, his burning patriotism, and his unflinching integrity, as well as his martyrdom for his country s sake, endeared him self, above all other men of his generation, to the hearts of the people of the United States. Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, February 12th, 1809. His ancestors were Quakers. In 1816, his father removed to Spencer county, Indiana, and Abraham was thus early put to work with an axe to clear away the forest. In the next ten years, he received about one year s schooling in such schools as were taught in that new country. At the age of nineteen years, he made a trip to New Orleans, as a hired hand on a flat boat. In March, 1830, he removed with his father to Decatur, Illinois, and aided in building a cabin, settling the family in their new home, and providing for them during the ensuing winter. In 1831, he again made a trip to New Orleans, and on his return, became a clerk in 61 962 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. a store at Sangamon, Illinois. In 1832, he voluntered in the Black Hawk war, and was made captain of a company, but saw no fighting. On his return from the campaign, he was a candidate for the Legislature, but was unsuccessful. A store which he purchased, did not yield him an adequate support ; and after a short term of service as postmaster of New Salem, Illinois, studying at every leisure moment, he became a land-sur veyor, and won a good reputation for the accuracy of his surveys. In 1834, he was elected to the Legislature, and re-elected in 1836 and 1838. Having devoted all his leisure time to the study of law, he was admitted to the bar in 1836, and in 1837 removed to Springfield, Illinois, and opened an office in partnership with Hon. John T. Stuart. He soon rose to eminence in his profession, but did not withdraw from politics. In 1844, he was nominated as a Whig presidential elector, and canvassed the State for Henry Clay. In 1846, he was elected to Congress from the central district of Illinois, and in Congress maintained the reputation of an honest and able representative, acting generally with the more advanced wing of the Whig party. In 1849, he was a candidate for United States Senator, but the Legislature was Democratic and elected General Shields. In 1854, the passage of the Nebraska bill, and the repeal of the Missouri compromise, called him again into the field, and by his disinterested labors, Judge Trumbull was elected to the United States Senate. In 1856, at the Republican National Convention, he was urged for the Yice Presi dency, and received one hundred and ten votes. In 1858, he was nomi nated for United States Senator by the Republicans, v and in company with Judge Douglas, the Democratic candidate, canvassed the State, discussing with his antagonist the great principles which distinguished the two parties. Lincoln had a majority of the popular vote, but Douglas was elected by the Legislature by eight majority. On the 18th of May, 1860 Mr. Lincoln was nominated by the Republican National Convention at Chicago for the Presidency, and on the 6th of February following was elected, receiving one hundred and eighty out of three hundred and three electoral votes. It was the policy of those who where conspiring against the Union to divide the opponents of Mr. Lincoln as far as possible, in order that he might succeed by the votes of Northern States alone, and thus afford a pretext for secession, and therefore three other distinct Presi dential tickets were run, headed respectively by Messrs. Breckinridge, Douglas, and Bell. As soon as his election was known, measures were taken by political leaders in several of the Southern States to drag their States into secession, and when Mr. Lincoln left Springfield, Illinois, on the llth of February, to go Washington for his inauguration, six States had already seceded, and others were preparing to follow. A Southern Confederacy had been formed, with Davis and Stephens for President and Vice President. Nothwithstanding three or more attempts to assassinate him, he reached Washington in safety, and though still threatened, was 1 SKETCH OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 9G3 inaugurated March 4th, 1861. The condition of the Government through the imbecility, fraud, and treason of the preceding administration and cabinet, was deplorable its credit nearly ruined ; its army deprived of arms and paroled ; its navy sent to distant seas ; its arms removed to the arsenals of the States in insurrection, or sold and broken up ; its forts, vessels, custom-houses, and mints seized by the conspirators. Mr. Lincoln set himself to remedy this, when, on the 14th of April, 1861, Fort Sumter was captured, and the war commenced. He then called for seventy-five thousand men for three months, proclaimed a blockade of the southern ports, and summoned an extra session of Congress for July 4th, 1861. Large armies were soon required, and in the executive responsibilities of his position in a time of war with a great army to be maintained, disci plined, and kept at work, finances to be managed, the disloyal govern ment officers, civil and military, to be weeded out, the schemes of seces sionists to be thwarted, and later in the year, the difficult case of the seizure of Mason and Slidell to be adjusted he had his full share of the burdens of his official position. During 1862 these were rather increased than diminished. Compelled by his convictions of duty to assume, in fact, his titular position of commander-in-chief of the army and navy, he ordered an advance in February, 1862, which was made in March. The indecisive or disastrous battles of the Peninsula and Pope s campaign caused him great anxiety, and the conviction having been forced upon him by the course of events that the slaves in the Rebel States must be emancipated as a military necessity, he issued, on the 22d of September, soon after the more favorable battles of South Mountain and Antietam, his preliminary proclamation, announcing his intention of declaring free all slaves in Rebel States on the 1st of January, 1863. Several successes in the West had cheered him, and in 1863, with gome disasters, there were many and important victories east and west. Mr. Lincoln had been very desirous that the border States should adopt some plan of more or less gradual emancipation, and during the year West Virginia, Mary land, and Missouri, did so. In 1864, having called General Grant to the Lieutenant-Generalship, Mr. Lincoln divided with him a part of his burdens, which had become too oppressive to be borne. A great outcry had been made against him for the arrest of Vallandigham and other promoters of rebellion, but in two very able letters addressed to the New York and Ohio committees, he fully justified his course. The victories of Sherman, Thomas, Farragut, Terry, and Sheridan, and the persistency and resolu tion of Grant, had, at length, in the spring of 1865, prepared the way for the downfall of the Rebellion, and after a brief but desperate struggle, Petersburg and Richmond fell, and Lee surrendered his army. In the progress of these events, Mr. Lincoln, whose anxiety had been most insupportable, was at the front, and the day after the occupation of Rich mond by the Union troops he entered that city, not with the pomp of a 964 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. conqueror, but quietly and without display, and after spending one day there returned to City Point and thence to Washington. The war was to all intents and purposes closed, and with his mind intent on the great problem of pacification, his brow cleared, and he appeared in better spirits than usual. This was the time seized upon by the conspirators for his assassination, and on the 15th of April, just four years from the date of his proclamation calling the people to arms, he died by the hand of a wretched murderer. The circumstances of his assassination, and the distress and sorrow of the nation at his death we have already described. His character as a man and a chief magistrate, may be summed up in a few words. He was honest in the best sense of that word, patient, fore- bearing, and forgiving ; slow in arriving at conclusions, but when once settled in them, firm almost to obstinacy ; endowed with a wisdom and tact not acquired in the schools, but which guided him in administration, sustained him in despondency, and rendered him calm and self possessed in the hour of success ; he was, in short, a self-taught, large-hearted, clear headed, and thoroughly upright man. Never was a free government called before to undergo such an ordeal, and never did one demonstrate so fully, the strength of free institutions. In almost any one of the governments of Europe, the assassination of the ruler and his prime minister, would have been followed by an instant revolution, and it would be much, if blood did not flow like water, and those who were highest in station most speedily meet with a violent death; but here, though the heart of the nation was wrung with anguish, the forms of government did not lapse for an instant, nor its wheels stay their motion. President Lincoln died at twenty-two minutes past seven in the morning; at noon of the same day, Andrew Johnson was sworn into office as President, and proceeded at once in the exercise of his high functions. The chief clerk of the Secretary of State, a man of large experience and decided ability, became, in the absence and serious wound ing of both the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of State, Secretary ad interim. Every measure for the prosecution of the war to its final close, was adopted as promptly, and carried out as efficiently, as if there had been no change of rulers. A remarkable instance of this occurred in relation to the negotiations of the Kebel General Johnston with General Sherman in regard to terms of surrender. After General Sherman s army had encamped at Goldsboro, it required a period of nearly three weeks to refit and equip his troops, who, from their long and severe march from Savannah, were greatly in need of new uniforms and shoes. It was necessary also to accumulate supplies for another expedition into the interior in pursuit of Johnston s army. Promptly, at daybreak, on the 10th of April, General Sherman moved out of Goldsboro and marched upon Smithfield Major-General Slocum taking the two direct roads for that town ; Major-General Howard making SHERMAN S ADVANCE TO SMITHFIELD AND RALEIGH. 965 a circuit by the right, and feigning up the Weldon road, to disconcert the enemy s cavalry ; and Generals Terry and Kilpatrick moving on the west side of the Neuse river, aiming to reach the rear of the enemy between Smithfield and Raleigh. General Schofield followed General Slocum in support. All the columns met more or less cavalry within six miles of Goldsboro, behind the usual barricades, which were swept before them, and by ten A. M. of the llth of April, Davis s (fourteenth) corps entered Smithfield, closely followed by the twentieth corps, now under command of General Mower. Johnston had retreated rapidly across the Neuse river, and having the railway to lighten up his trains, he could fall back faster than Sherman could pursue. The rains had also set in, making the resort to corduroy roads necessary even for ambulances. The enemy had burned the bridge at Smithfield, but, as soon as possible, General Slocurn brought up his pontoons and sent over a division of the fourteenth corps. " Then," says General Sherman in his report, " we heard of the surrender of Lee s army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, which was announced to the armies in orders, and created universal joy. Not one officer or soldier of my army but expressed a pride and satisfaction that it fell to the lot of the armies of the Potomac and James, so gloriously to overwhelm and capture the entire army that had held them in check so long ; and their success gave us a new impulse to finish up our task." Without a moment s hesitation, Sherman gave orders to drop all trains, and the army marched rapidly in pursuit to and through Raleigh, reach ing that place at half past seven A.M. on the 13th, in a heavy rain. The next day, the cavalry pushed on through the rain to Durham s station, Logan s (fifteenth) corps following as far as Morrisville station, and Blair s (seventeenth) corps to John s station. On the supposition that Johnston would be compelled to adhere to the railway as a line of retreat, by Hills- boro, Greensboro, Salisbury, and Charlotte, General Sherman had turned the other columns across the bend in that road toward Ashboro. Kil patrick was ordered to keep up a show of pursuit toward the company s shops in Alamance county ; Howard, to turn the left, by Hackney s cross roads, Pittsburg, St. Lawrence, and Ashboro : and Slocum to cross Cape Fear river at Avon s ferry, and move rapidly by Carthage, Caledonia, and Cox s mills ; while Schofield was to hold Raleigh, and the road back, with spare force to follow by an intermediate route. By the loth of April, though the rains were incessant and the roads almost impracticable, Major-General Slocum had Davis s (fourteenth) corps near Martha s Vineyard, with a pontoon bridge laid across Cape Fear river at Avon s ferry, and Mower s (twentieth) corps in support; and Major-General Howard had Logan s (fifteenth) and Blair s (seventeenth) corps stretched out on the roads toward Pittsbcro ; while General Kil patrick held Durham s station and Chapel Hill University. Johnston s 966 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. army was retreating rapidly on the roads from Hillsboro to Greensboro, he himself being at Greensboro. On the 14th of April, after all these dispositions for an advance had been completed, General Sherman received a communication from Gen eral Johnston, by a flag of truce, requesting an armistice, and a statement of the best terms on which he could- be permitted to surrender the army under his command. General Sherman replied, saying that he was fully empowered to arrange with him any terms for the suspension of hostili- ! ties, as between the armies commanded by General Johnston and himself, and was willing to confer with him to that end. He continued : " That a basis of action may be had, I undertake to abide by the same terms and conditions entered into by Generals Grant and Lee, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on the 9th instant." While this communication made it probable that the intended advance of the army would not be necessary, General Sherman deemed it best to retain the troops in the attitude of readiness to move, in case the negotia tion should prove fruitless. At the same time, he wrote to General Grant, inclosing copies of his correspondence with Johnston, and informing him that he had invited Governor Yance to return to Raleigh, with the civil officers of the State. Owing to delay in the transmission of General Sherman s letter, Gen eral Johnston did not receive it until the morning of the 16th, when he replied immediately, asking an interview at Durham s station, to arrange terms of capitulation. Sherman accorded the interview desired, naming twelve o clock M. of the 17th of April, as the time. At this meeting, General Johnston acknowledged that the terms offered by General Sher man (the same accorded by General Grant to General Lee) were both fair and liberal, but asked the consideration of additional facts. He sug- 1 gested that the treaty between Generals Grant iind Lee had reference to a part only of the Confederate forces, whereas he proposed to conclude an agreement which should comprise all the remaining armies of the Confederacy, and that thus the war should be ended. He admitted, frankly and candidly, that there was BO longer any ground for hope of success on the part of the Confederacy ; that the cause was lost ; and that this admission included slavery, state rights, and every other claim for which the war had been inaugurated. And now, he desired the frag ments of the Confederate armies to preserve their company and regimental organizations, and that they should be marched to the States where they belonged in such order, that they might not be broken up into predatory bands, to overrun the country, and vex the inhabitants ; and he argued that this was a favorable occasion to inaugurate the beginning of a period of peace and good will between all the people destined to live under the same government. General Sherman, while recognizing the honorable motives of General Johnston, raised two questions in regard to any such DISPOSITIONS TO COMPEL JOHNSTON TO SURRENDER. %t agreement one, of doubt, whether General Johnston had the power to make a treaty which would be acknowledged as binding by the other commanders of Rebel armies ; the other, in regard to his own power to bind the Government of the United States to such terms. General John ston, in reply, offered to satisfy General Sherman in regard to his own powers in the matter in question, and quoted President Lincoln s repeated offers to negotiate a peace with any person or persons who could control the Rebel armies. Finally, the convention was adjourned to the next day at twelve o clock, at the same place. Meanwhile, the intelligence of the assassination of President Lincoln had been received at Sherman s headquarters, and was announced to the troops, in whose minds it produced the most intense distress and bitter ness. Still, General Sherman felt that this sad event only rendered the surrender of the Rebel armies and the entire cessation of hostilities more necessary and desirable, and in this view his army commanders coincided. The interview which he had had with the President about three weeks previous, and the earnestness with which he had urged the cessation of hostilities, at the earliest moment when the Rebels should be prepared to lay down their arms, had deeply impressed the general. He knew that President Lincoln had sanctioned an order recalling the Virginia legisla ture to Richmond, but had not learned that that order was subsequently revoked. On the 18th of April, the negotiations were renewed ; the Rebel Gene ral Breckinridge, who had been latterly Secretary of War in the Rebel Government, while it lasted, was present, by consent, and approved of the propositions drawn up by the two parties. These propositions, which were only to be binding on the approval of the principals on either side, were as follows : "Memorandum, or basis of agreement, made this, the 18th day of April, A. D. 1865, near Durham s station, in the State of North Carolina, by and between General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army, and Major-General William T. Sherman, commanding the Army of the United States, both present. " I. The contending armies now in the field to maintain the status quo until notice is given by the commanding general of either one to his opponent, and reasonable time, say forty-eight hours, allowed. "II. The Confederate armies now ia existence to be disbanded, and conducted to their several State capitals, there to deposit their arms and public property in the State Arsenal ; and each officer and man to execute and file an agreement to cease from acts of war, and to abide the action of both State and Federal authorities. The number of arms and munitions of war to be reported to the Chief of Ordnance at Washington City, sub ject to the future action of the Congress of the United States, and in the 968 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. meantime to be used solely to maintain peace and order within the borders of the States respectively. "III. The recognition, by the Executive of the United States, of the several State governments, on their officers and legislatures taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States; and where conflicting State governments have resulted from the war, the legitimacy of all shall be submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States. " IY. The re-establishment of all Federal courts in the several States, with powers as defined by the Constitution and laws of Congress. " V. The people and inhabitants of all States to be guaranteed, so far as the Executive can, their political rights and franchise, as well as their rights of person and property, as defined by the Constitution of the United States, and of the States respectively. " VI. The Executive authority of the Government of the United States not to disturb any of the people by reason of the late war, so long as they live in peace and quiet, abstain from acts of armed hostility, and obey laws in existence at the place of their residence. " VII. In general terms, it is announced that war is to cease ; a general amnesty, so far as the Executive of the United States can command, on condition of the disband ment of the Confederate armies, the distribution of arms, and the resumption of peaceful pursuits by officers and men hitherto composing the said armies. "Not being fully empowered by our respective principals to fulfil these terms, we individually and officially pledge ourselves to promptly obtain authority, and will endeavor to carry out the above programme. "W. T. SHERMAN, Major- General, "Commanding the Army of the United States in North Carolina. " J. E. JOHNSTON, General, "Commanding Confederate States Army in North Carolina. 11 The same evening, Major Hitchcock, of General Sherman s staff, started for Washington with despatches to the President, submitting the above terms to his consideration. They were received at a cabinet meeting held on the evening of the 21st of April, General Grant being present, and were at once repudiated ; the feeling of the Government, as well as of the higher army officers, being, at that time, wholly adverse to the making of any concessions to the Rebels while the nation was thus racked with anguish at the loss of the President. At any other time, they might have been received with greater favor; for though they were drawn too loosely, and placed too much dependence upon the good faith of the Rebel officers, comparatively few of whom were worthy of confidence, while they, rather by accident than design, left the subject of slavery untouched, they were not amenable to the severe animadversions bestowed upon them by Secretary Stanton in his published reasons for disregarding the truce. s f. 2 -< 1 2= - ifr= JOHNSTON SURRENDERS ON SAME TERMS AS LEE. 969 General Grant volunteered to go to Raleigh, bearing the despatch com municating their rejection, which was as follows : WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, April 1\st, 1865. "GENERAL: The memorandum or basis agreed upon between General Sherman and General Johnston having been submitted to the President, is disapproved. You will give notice of the disapproval to General Sherman, and direct him to resume hostilities at the earliest moment. " The instructions given to you by the late President, Abraham Lin coln, on the 8d of March, by my telegram, of that date, addressed to you, express substantially the views of President Andrew Johnson, and will be observed by General Sherman. A copy is herewith appended. "The President desires that you proceed immediately to the headquar ters of General Sherman, and direct operations against the enemy. " Yours truly, " EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. 14 To LIEUTENANT-GENERAL* GRANT." General Sherman by whose dictation, or with whose assent, they had been framed, in accordance with a presumed purpose of the lately mur dered President received the order of disapproval with commendable good grace. There was no hesitancy, no murmuring, nor any expression of dissatisfaction. The despatches of Secretary Stanton were received on the morning of the 24th of April, General Grant having sent them on in advance of his own arrival. General Sherman instantly gave notice to General Johnston, as follows : " You will take notice that the truce or suspension of hostilities agreed to between us, on the 18th inst., will close in forty-eight hours after this is received at your lines." At the same time, he wrote to General Johnston : "I have replies from Washington to my communications of the 18th. I am instructed to limit my operations to your immediate command, and not attempt civil negotiations. I therefore demand the surrender of your army, on the same terms as were given to General Lee, at Appomattox, Virginia, on the 9th April instant, purely and simply." Within an hour after the reception of General Grant s despatch, a courier was riding with all haste toward Durham s station, with this notice and demand for General Johnston. Immediately on the return of the messenger, General Sherman issued orders to his troops terminating the truce on the 26th, at twelve o clock, M., and ordered all to be in readi ness to march at that time, on routes previously prescribed, in his special field orders of April 14th. These dispositions were already made when 970 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. General Grant arrived at Raleigh. He then informed General Sherman that he had orders from the President to direct all military movements, and General Sherman explained to him the exact position of the troops. General Grant was so well satisfied with his arrangements that he decided at once not to interfere with them, but to leave their execution in the hands of General Sherman. As for General Johnston, he was powerless ; in his rear and on his right flank was Stoneman, with a cavalry force, who had destroyed the railroad betwen his position and Charlotte, and in front was Sherman s army. He could neither fight nor retreat ; and it is but fair to say, that whatever of sinister intent there may have been on the part of Breckin- ridge, in the suggestion of the phraseology of the " memorandum," Gene ral Johnston stands fully exonerated from any intention of a wrong or dishonorable purpose ; and in the whole matter of surrender, as well as subsequently, he showed himself an upright and honorable man. By the rejection of the " memorandum," he was placed in a position in which he must either disperse his army, or surrender it on the terms proposed. On the 25th of April, he invited General Sherman to another conference with a view to surrender. It was now the province of General Grant to take the lead in the negotiations, but he preferred that the entire business should be consummated by General Sherman. At his suggestion, General Sherman accorded General Johnston another interview at twelve M. on the 26th, the time designated for the termination of the truce. At this con ference, final terms were soon concluded, and the second great army of the Rebels was surrendered to the power of the United States upon the following terms : " Terms of a military convention entered into this twenty-sixth day of April, 1865, at Bennett s house, near Durham s station, North Carolina, between General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate army, and Major-General W. T. Sherman, commanding the United States army in North Carolina. " All acts of war on the part of the troops under General Johnston s command, to cease from this date. All arms and public property to be deposited at Greensboro, and delivered to an ordnance officer of the United States army. Rolls of all officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be retained by the commander of the troops, and the other to be given to an officer to be designated by General Sherman. Each officer and man to give his individual obligation, in writing, not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly released from this obligation. The side-arms of officers and their private horses and baggage to be retained by them. " This being done, all the officers and men will be permitted to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities so GENERAL STONEMAN S EXPEDITION. 971 long as they observe their obligations and the laws in force where they may reside. " W. T. SHERMAN, Major- General " Commanding the Army of the United Stales in North Carolina. " J. E. JOHNSTON, General, " Commanding Confederate States Army in North Carolina. "Approved. U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant- General. " Raleigh, N. C., April 26, 1865." While the paroling of the Rebel troops was going on, General Sherman, leaving the command of the Union army in the hands of General Scho- field, made a flying visit to Hilton Head and Savannah, to direct matters in the interior of South Carolina and Georgia. While at Savannah, he sent supplies to Augusta for General Wilson s cavalry force and perma nent garrisons to that place and Orangeburg, South Carolina. About twenty millions of dollars worth of property was surrendered to the Union forces at Augusta. Before leaving Raleigh, he had issued his special field orders pro viding for the future disposition of the vast army under his command. The tenth and twenty-third corps were to remain in North Carolina, and Kilpatrick s cavalry division also ; while the two brigades of Grover s division were to be sent back to the department of the South. General Stoneman s cavalry were to return to East Tennessee, and Wilson s, then in Georgia, to the Tennessee river, in the vicinity of Decatur, Alabama. General Howard s army of the Tennessee was to march for Richmond by way of Lewisburg, and Warrenton, North Carolina, and Petersburg. General Slocum s army of Georgia, to the same point, by way of Oxford, Boydton, and Nottoway Court House. From Richmond, after General Sherman s return from the South, these two armies marched to Washing ton, where they were reviewed on the 24th of May, and on the 30th of May, General Sherman took leave of his army in a very touching fare well order, and it was soon after disbanded, except a few brigades. We turn now to the movements of the other troops in General Sherman s military division of the Mississippi, not under his immediate command. The expedition under General Stoneman, from East Tennessee, which General Grant had directed General Thomas to send out, in his order of January 31st, did not get off until the 20th of March, moving by way of Boone, North Carolina, and struck the railroad at Wytheville, Chambers- burg, and Big Lick. The force striking it at Big Lick, pushed on to within a few miles of Lynchburg, destroying the important bridges, while with the main force he effectually destroyed it between New river and Big Lick, and then turned for Greensboro on the North Carolina rail road ; struck that road and destroyed the bridges between Danville and 972 THE CIVIL WAR iN THE UNITED STATES. Greensboro and between Greensboro and the Yadkin, together with the depots and supplies along it, and captured four hundred prisoners. At Salisbury he attacked and defeated a force of the enemy under General Gardiner, capturing fourteen pieces of artillery and one thousand three hundred and sixty-four prisoners, and burned large amounts of army stores. At this place he destroyed fifteen miles of railroad and the bridges toward Charlotte. Thence he moved toward Slatersville, and after Johnston s surrender returned, by General Sherman s order, to East Tennessee. Soon after General Sherman commenced his march from Atlanta, two expeditions, one from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and one from Yicksburg, Mississippi, were started by General Canby, to cut the enemy s line of communication with Mobile and detain troops in that field. The expedi tion from Vicksburg, under command of brevet Brigadier-General E. D. Osband (Colonel Third United States colored cavalry), captured, on the 27th of November, and destroyed the Mississippi Central Railroad bridge and trestle-work over Big Black river, near Canton, thirty miles of the road and two locomotives, besides large amounts of stores. The expedi tion from Baton Rouge was without favorable results. General Canby, who had been directed, in January, 1865, to make preparations for a movement from Mobile bay against Mobile and the interior of Alabama, commenced his movement on the 20th of March, 1865. The sixteenth corps, Major-General A. J. Smith commanding, moved from Fort Gaines by water to Fish river ; the thirteenth corps, under Major-General Gordon Granger, moved from Fort Morgan and joined the sixteenth corps on Fish river, both moving thence on Spanish Fort and investing it on the 27th ; while Major-General Steele s command moved from Pensacola, cut the railroad leading from Tensas to Mont gomery, effected a junction with them, and partially invested Fort Blakely. After a severe bombardment of Spanish Fort, a part of its line was carried on the 8th of April. During the night the enemy evacuated the fort. Fort Blakely was carried by assault on the 9th, and over three thousand prisoners captured ; the Union loss was nearly one thousand. These successes practically opened to them the Alabama river, and enabled them to approach Mobile from the north. On the night of the llth the city was evacuated, and was taken possession of by the Union forces on the morning of the 12th of April. The entire loss of the Rebels in this siege was over two thousand in killed and wounded, and four thousand prisoners, about one hundred and eighty guns, numerous battle-flags, and large quantities of ammunition and supplies, most of which, however, were destroyed soon after by an incendiary fire which reduced one third of the city to ruins. The Union loss was about twenty-five hundred in killed and wounded ; and the tor pedoes in the bay caused the destruction of eight vessels in all, two of WILSON S CAVALRY EXPEDITION. 973 them iron-clads, one a light armored vessel, called at the West, a " tin- clad," and the remainder tugs and transports. The Rebel iron-clads and gunboats fled up the Tombigbee river, pursued by the Octorara and Winnebago, and those of them not previously destroyed were surrendered, together with the rest of the Rebel navy in the waters of Alabama, to the Union squadron under Admiral Thatcher, at Nanna Hubba Bluff) on the Tombigbee, on the 9th of May. On the 19th of April, an officer of the Rebel General Richard Taylor, who commanded the Rebel troops between the Chattahoochie and the Mississippi, arrived at General Canby s headquarters, with a flag of truce, to arrange for the surrender of his army. The negotiations were pro tracted, for some cause, until the 4th of May, when the surrender took place at Citronelle, Alabama. About twenty thousand troops were sur rendered and paroled by this capitulation. Forrest s, Jeff. Thompson s, Sam Jones s, and all the other regular and irregular Rebel commands, east of the Mississippi, came in, and were paroled within a few days from this time. The cavalry expedition of brevet Major-General Wilson, which, at General Grant s direction, General Thomas had sent southward, into Ala bama and Georgia, played an important part in the closing scenes of the war. Among the many brilliant exploits of that arm of the service, there is none more remarkable for daring, skill, or admirable management, than this. For the first time in modern history, a cavalry force unaccompanied by infantry, and with only light artillery, attacked and carried strongly fortified towns, defended by large garrisons. The narrative of General Wilson is so full of interest, that we give portions of it, as describing more clearly and happily than can be done otherwise, some of the incidents of this remarkable expedition. The force with which he began the march, it should be remarked, was about thirteen thousand five hundred men, of whom fifteen hundred were dismounted, and a part of the others but indifferently mounted ; though all, except a few hundred, were armed with the formidable Spencer carbine, and had a supply of the fixed metallic cartridges. A light, canvas pontoon train, of thirty boats, with fixtures complete, accompanied the expedition, and the entire train numbered about two hundred and fifty wagons. "At daylight, on the 22d of March, all the preliminary arrangements having been perfected, and the order of march having been designated, the movement began. * The entire valley of the Tennessee, having been devastated by two years of warfare, was quite as destitute of army supplies as the hill coun try south of it. In all directions, for one hundred and twenty miles, there was almost absolute destitution. It was therefore necessary to scatter the troops over a wide extent of country, and march as rapidly as circum stances would permit. This was rendered safe by the fact that Forrest s 974 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. forces were, at that time, near "West Point, Mississippi, one hundred and fifty miles southwest of Eastport, while Koddy s occupied Montevallo, on the Alabama and Tennessee river railroad, nearly the same distance to the southeast. By starting on diverging roads, the enemy was left in doubt as to our real object, and compelled to watch equally Columbus, Tusca- loosa, and Selma. " Upton s division, followed by his train, marched rapidly by the most easterly route, passing by Barton s station, Throgmorton s mills, Kussell- ville, Mount Hope, and Jasper, to Sanders s ferry, on the west fork of the Black Warrior river. "Long s division marched by the way of Cherokee station and Frank fort ; but being encumbered by the pontoon train, and having mistaken the road by which it should have ascended the mountain, was considerably delayed in reaching Eussellville. From this place, it marched directly south, by the Tuscaloosa road, till it crossed Upper Bear creek ; thence turned to the eastward by the head of Buttahatchie creek, crossed Byler s road near Thorn hill, and struck Blackwater creek, about twenty-five miles from Jasper. The crossing of the last mentioned stream, and the road for six miles beyond, were as bad as could be, but, by industry, every thing was forced through to Jasper, and the ford on the Warrior, with but little loss of time. " M Cook s division pursued the same route to Bear creek on the Tusca loosa road, but instead of turning to the eastward at that place, continued the march toward Tuscaloosa as far as Eldridge, and thence east to Jasper. " In this order, the different divisions arrived at and crossed the two forks of the Black Warrior river. " The ford on the west branch was extremely difficult of approach, as well as of passage. The country on both sides, very rugged and six or seven hundred feet above the bed of the stream, was entirely destitute of forage ; the stream itself was at the time likely to become entirely im passable by the rain which threatened to occur at any moment. I had also heard at Jasper, on the 27th, that a part of Forrest s force, under Chalmers, was marching by the way of Bridge ville toward Tuscaloosa, and knew that if the true direction of our movement had been discovered, it would be but a short time till the balance of the Eebel cavalry would push in the same direction. I therefore directed my division commanders to replenish the haversacks, see that the pack animals were fully laden, to leave all the wagons except the artillery, and march with the greatest possible rapidity, via Ely ton, to Montevallo. I felt confident that the enemy would not relinquish his efforts to check the movement of the troops in the hope of destroying our supply train. I therefore left it between the two streams, with instructions to push on as far as Elyton, where it would receive further orders. By great energy on the part of command- CAPTURE OF MONTEYALLO AND RANDOLPH. 975 ing officers the two branches of the Warrior were crossed, each division losing a few horses but no men. "At Elyton, on the evening of the 30th, I directed General McCook to detach Croxton s brigade, with orders to move on Tuscaloosa as rapidly as possible, burn the public stores, military school, bridges, foundries and factories at that place, return toward the main column by the way of the Centre ville road, and rejoin it at or in the vicinity of Selma. Beside covering our trains and inflicting a heavy blow upon the enemy, I hoped by this detachment to develop any movement on his part intended to in tercept my main column. "General Upton s division encountered a few Rebel cavalry at Elyton, but pushed them rapidly across the Cahawba river to Monte vallo. The Rebels having felled trees into the ford and otherwise obstructed it, the railroad bridge near Hillsboro was floored over by General Winslow. General Upton crossed his division and pushed on rapidly to Montevallo, where he arrived late on the evening of the 30th. Long and McCook marched by the same route. In this region General Upton s division destroyed the Bed Mountain, Central, Bibb and Columbiana iron works, Cahawba rolling mill, five collieries, and much valuable property. All of these establishments were of great extent and in full operation. I arrived at Montevallo on the afternoon of March 31st, where I found Upton s division ready to resume the march. Directly after, the enemy made his appearance on the Selma road. By my direction General Upton moved his division out at once, General Alexander s brigade in advance. After a sharp fight and a handsome charge, General Alexander drove the Rebel cavalry, a part of Crossland s Kentucky brigade and Roddy s division, rapidly and in great confusion toward Randolph. The enemy endeavoring to make a stand at a creek four or five miles south of Mon tevallo, General Upton placed in position and opened fire, Rodney s bat tery I, fourth United States artillery, and pushing Winslow s brigade to the front, they again beat a hasty retreat, closely pursued and repeatedly charged by Winslow s advance. About fifty prisoners were taken, with their arms and accoutrements, and much other loose materials were abandoned. The gallantry of men and officers had been most conspicuous throughout the day, and had resulted already in the establishment of a moral supremacy for the corps. "Upton s division bivouacked fourteen miles south -of Montevallo, and at dawn of the next day, April 1st, pushed forward to Randolph. At this point, in pursuance of the order of march for the day, General Upton turned to the east for the purpose of going by the way of old Maplesville, and thence by the old Selma road, while General Long was instructed to push forward on the new road. "At Randolph, General Upton captured a Rebel courier just from Cen- treville, and from his person took two despatches, one from Brigadier- 976 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. General "W. H. Jackson, commanding one of Forrest s divisions, and one from Major Anderson, Forrest s chief of staff. From the first, I learned that Forrest, with a part of his command, was in my front ; this had also been obtained from prisoners ; that Jackson, with his division, and all the wagons and artillery of the Rebel cavalry, marching from Tuscaloosa, via Trion, toward Centreville, had encamped the night before at Hill s plan tation, three miles beyond Scottsboro; that Croxton, with the brigade detached at Elytown, had struck Jackson s rear-guard at Trion, and inter posed himself between it and the train ; that Jackson had discovered this, and intended to attack Croxton at daylight, April 1st. I learned from the other despatch that Chalmers had also arrived at Marion, Alabama, and had been ordered to cross to the east side of the Cahawba, near that place, for the purpose of joining Forrest in my front, or in the works at Selma. I also learned that a force of dismounted men were stationed at Centre ville, with orders to hold the bridge over the Cahawba, at that place, as long as possible, and in no event let it fall into our hands. " Shortly after the interception of these despatches, I received a despatch from Croxton, written from Trion the night before, informing me that he had struck Jackson s rear, and instead of pushing on toward Tuscaloosa, as he was ordered, he would follow, and endeavor to bring him to an en gagement, hoping thereby to prevent his junction with Forrest. " With this information in my possession, I directed McCook to strengthen the battalion previously ordered to Centreville by a regiment, and to fol low at once with La Grange s entire brigade, leaving all pack trains and wagons with the main column, so that he could march with the utmost possible celerity ; and after seizing the Centreville bridge, and leaving it under protection of a sufficient guard, to cross the Cahawba, and continue his march, by the Scottsboro road, toward Trion. His orders were to attack and break up Jackson s forces, form a junction with Croxton, if practicable, and rejoin the corps, with his entire division, by the Centre ville road to Selma. Although he did not leave Randolph till near eleven o clock A. M., and the distance to Scottsville was nearly forty miles, I hoped, by this movement, to do more than secure the Centreville bridge, and prevent Jackson from joining the force in front of the main column. " Having thus taken care of the right flank, and anticipated Forrest in his intention to play his old game of getting upon the rear of his opponent, I gave directions to Long and Upton to allow him no rest, but push him toward Selma with the utmost spirit and rapidity. These officers compre hended the situation, pressed forward and with admirable zeal and activity upon the roads which have previously been indicated. The advance of both divisions encountered small parties of the enemy, but drove them back to their main force at Ebenezer church, six miles north of Planters- ville. Forrest had chosen a position on the north bank of Bogler s creek, and disposed of his force for battle, his right resting on Mulberry creek, CROXTON S SEPARATE EXPEDITION. 977 and his left on a high wooded ridge, with four pieces of artillery to sweep the Randolph road, upon which Long s division was advancing, and two on the Maplesville road. He had under his command, in line, Armstrong s brigade of Chalmers s division, Roddy s division, Crossland s Kentucky brigade, and a battalion of three hundred infantry, just arrived from Selma, in all about five thousand men. Part of his front was covered by a slash ing of pine trees and rail barricades. "As soon as General Long discovered the enemy in strength close upon the main body, he reinforced his advance-guard (a battalion of the seventy- second Indiana mounted infantry) by the balance of the regiment, dis mounted, and formed it on the left of the road. Pushing it forward, the enemy was broken and driven back. At this juncture he ordered for ward four companies of the seventeenth Indiana mounted infantry, Lieu tenant-Colonel Frank White commanding. With drawn sabres this gallant battalion drove the enemy in confusion into the main line, dashed against that, broke through it, rode over the Rebel guns, crushing the wheels of one piece, and finally turned to the left, and cut its way out, leaving one officer and sixteen men in the enemy s hands, either killed or wounded. In this charge, Captain Taylor, seventeenth Indiana, lost his life, after having led his men into the very midst of the enemy, and en gaged in a running fight of two hundred yards with Forrest in person. " General Alexander s brigade had the advance of Upton s division, and when within three miles of Ebenezer church, heard the firing and cheers of Long s men on the right, pushed forward at the trot, and soon came upon the enemy. General Alexander hastily deployed his brigade, mostly on the right of the road, with the intention of connecting with Long s left, and as soon as every thing was in readiness, pushed forward his line, dis mounted. In less than an hour, although the resistance was determined, the position was carried by a gallant charge, and the enemy completely routed. Alexander s brigade captured two guns and about two hundred prisoners, while one gun fell into the hands of General Long s division. " Winslow s brigade immediately passed to the front and took up the pursuit, but could not again bring the Rebels to a stand. " The whole corps bivouacked at sundown about Plantersville, nineteen miles from Selma. With almost constant fighting, the enemy had been driven since morning twenty-four miles. " At daylight of the 2d, Long s division took the advance, closely fol lowed by Upton s. Having obtained a well-drawn sketch and complete description of the defences of Selma, I directed General Long, marching by the flanks of brigades, to approach the city, and cross to the Summers- ville road, without exposing his men, and to develop his line as soon as he should arrive in front of the works. General Upton was directed to move on the Range Line road, sending a squadron on the Burnsville road. Lieutenant Rendelbrook, with a battalion of the fourth United States 62 978 E CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. cavalry, was instructed to move down the railroad, burning stations* bridges, and trestle works, as far as Burnsville. By rapid marching, without opposition, the troops were all in sight of the town, and mostly in position, by four P. M. " As I approached the city, I perceived that my information was gene rally correct; I therefore made a reconnoissance of the works, from left to right, for the purpose of satisfying myself entirely as to the true point of attack, and the probable chances of success. I directed General Long to assault the enemy s works by moving diagonally across the road upon which his troops were posted, while General Upton, at his own request, with a picked force of three hundred men, was directed to penetrate the swamps upon his left, break through the line covered by it, and turn the enemy s right, the balance of his division to conform to the movement. The signal for the advance was to be the discharge of a single gun from Rodney s battery, to be given as soon as Upton s turning movement had developed itself. " Before this plan could be put into execution, and while waiting for the signal to advance, General Long was informed that a strong force of Rebel cavalry had begun skirmishing with his rear, and threatened a general attack upon his pack train and led horses. He had left a force of six companies, well posted, at the creek, in anticipation of this movement, afterward ascertained to have been made by Chalmers, in obedience to the instructions of Forrest. This force was at Marion the day before, and was expected on the road from that place. Fearing that this affair might compromise our assault upon the main position, General Long (having already strengthened the rear by another regiment), with admirable judg ment, determined to make the assault at once ; and, without waiting for the signal, gave the order to advance. The troops dismounted, sprang forward with confident alacrity, and in less than fifteen minutes, without ever stopping, wavering, or faltering, had swept over the works, and driven the Rebels in confusion toward the city. I arrived on that part of the field just after the works were carried, at once notified General Upton of the success, and ordered him to push on as rapidly as possible, directing Colonel Minty (now in command of the second division) to gather his men for a new advance ; ordered Colonel Vail, commanding the seventeenth Indiana, to place his own regiment, and the fourth United States cavalry, Lieutenant O Connel, and the Board of Trade battery, Captain Robinson commanding, and renewed the attack. The Rebels had occupied a new line, but partially finished, on the edge of the city. A most gallant charge, by the fourth United States cavalry, was repulsed, but rapidly reformed on the left. It was now quite dark. Upton s division advanc ing at the same time, a new charge was made by the fourth Ohio, seven teenth Indiana, and fourth cavalry, dismounted. The troops, inspired by the wildest enthusiasm, swept every thing before them, and penetrated THE BATTLE AND CAPTURE OF SELMA. 979 the city in all directions. During the first part of the action, the Chicago Board of Trade battery had occupied a commanding position, and steadily replied to the enemy s guns. " I regard the capture of Selma as the most remarkable achievement in the history of modern cavalry, and one admirably illustrative of its new powers and tendencies. That it may be fully understood, particular attention is invited to the following facts: " The fortifications assaulted and carried, consist of a bastioned line, on a radius of nearly three miles, extending from the Alabama river below to the same above the city. The part west of the city is covered by a miry, deep, and almost impassable creek ; that on the east side, by a swamp, extending from the river almost to the Summerville road, and entirely impracticable for mounted men at all times. General Upton ascertained, by a personal reconnoissance, that dismounted men might, with great difficulty, work through it on the left of the Range Line road. The profile of that part of the line assaulted is as follows : height of parapet, six to eight feet ; thickness, eight feet ; depth of ditch, five feet ; width from ten to fifteen feet ; height of stockade on the glacis, five feet ; sunk into the earth, four feet. The ground over which the troops advanced is an open field, generally level, sloping slightly toward the works, but intersected by one ravine, and marshy soil, which both the right and left of Long s line experienced some difficulty in crossing. The distance which the troops charged, exposed to the enemy s fire of artillery and musketry, was six hundred yards. Particular attention is invited to that part of General Long s report which describes the assault. He states that the number engaged in the charge was one thousand five hundred and fifty officers and men. The portion of the line assaulted was manned by Armstrong s brigade, regarded as the best in Forrest s corps, and reported, by him at more than one thousand five hundred men. The loss from Long s division was forty killed, two hundred wounded, and seven miss ing. General Long was wounded in the head, Colonels Miller and MeCormick in the leg, and Colonel Briggs in the breast. " The immediate fruits of our victory were thirty-one field guns and one thirty pounder Parrott, which had been used against us ; two thou sand seven hundred prisoners, including one hundred and fifty officers ; a number of colors, and immense quantities of stores of every kind. Generals Forrest, Armstrong, Roddy and Adams escaped, with a number of men, under cover of darkness, either by the Burnsville and river road or by swimming the Alabama river. A portion of Upton s division pursued on the Burnsville road until long after midnight, capturing four guns and many prisoners. I estimate the entire garrison, including the militia of the city and surrounding country, at seven thousand men. The entire force under my command, engaged and in supporting distance, was nine thousand men and eight guns. 980 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. "As soon as the troops could be assembled and got into camp, I assigned brevet Brigadier-General Winslow to the command of the city, with orders to destroy every thing that could possibly benefit the Rebel cause. I directed General Upton to march at daylight, with his division, for the purpose of driving Chalmers to the west side of the Cahawba, to open communication with McCook, expected from Centre ville, and, in conjunc tion with the latter, bring in the train. " The capture of Selma having put us in possession of the enemy s greatest depot in the southwest, was a vital blow to their cause, and secured to us the certainty of going in whatever direction might be found most advantageous. I gave directions to Lieutenant Heywood, fourth Michigan cavalry, engineer officer on my staff, to employ all the resources of the shops in the city in the construction of pontoons, with the intention of laying a bridge, and crossing to the south side of the Alabama river, as soon as I could satisfy myself in regard to General Canby s success in the operations against Mobile. On April 5th, Upton and McCook arrived with the train, but nothing definite had been heard of Croxton. McCook had been entirely successful in his operations against Centreville, but on reaching Scottsboro, he found Jackson well posted, with a force he thought too strong to attack. After a sharp skirmish he retired to Centreville, burned the Scottsboro cotton factory and Cahawba bridge, and returned toward Selma, satisfied that Croxton had taken care of himself and gone in a new direction. " On the 6th of April, having ordered Major Hubbard to lay a bridge over the Alabama with the utmost despatch, I went to Cahawba to see General Forre*st, who had agreed to meet me there, under a flag of truce, for the purpose of arranging an exchange of prisoners. I was not long in discovering that I need not expect liberality in this matter, and that Forrest hoped to recapture the men of his command in my possession. During our conversation, he informed me that Croxton had had an en gagement with Wirt Adams, near Bridgeville, forty miles southwest of Tuscaloosa, two days before. Thus assured of Croxton s success and safety, I determined to lose no further time in crossing to the south side of the Alabama. I had also satisfied myself, in the meantime, that Canby had an ample force to take Mobile and march to central Alabama. I therefore returned to Selma, and urged every one to the utmost exer tions. The river was quite full and rising, the weather unsettled and rainy ; but by the greatest exertion, night and day, on the part of Major Hubbard and his battalion, General Upton, General Alexander, and my own staff, the bridge, eight hundred and seventy feet long, was constructed, and the command all crossed by daylight of the 10th. So swift and deep was the river, that the bridge was swept away three times. General Alexander narrow]y escaped with his life, boats were capsized, and men precipitated into the stream ; but the operations were finally determined BATTLE AT WEST POINT, GEORGIA. 981 by complete success. Before leaving the city, General Winslow destroyed the arsenals, foundries, arms, stores, and military munitions of every kind. The enemy had previously burned twenty-five thousand bales of cotton. " Having the entire corps, except Croxton s brigade, on the south side of the river, and being satisfied that the Kebels could receive no advan tage by a tempting to again occupy Selma, so thoroughly had every thing in it beer destroyed, I determined to move by the way of Montgomery into Georgia, and after breaking up railroads and destroying stores and army supplies in that State, to march thence as rapidly as possible to the theatre of operations in North Carolina and Virginia. " Enough horses were secured at Selma, and on the march to that place, to mount all our dismounted men. In order to disencumber the column of every unnecessary impediment, I ordered the surplus wagons to be destroyed, and all of the bridge train except enough for twelve boats. The main object for which the latter was brought had been secured by our passage of the Alabama. " I also directed the column to be cleared of all contraband negroes, and such of the able-bodied ones as were able to enlist to be organized into regiments one to each division. Efficient officers were assigned to these commands, and great pains taken to prevent their becoming bur densome. How well they succeeded can be understood from the fact that, in addition to subsisting themselves upon the country, they marched (upon one occasion) forty -five miles, and frequently as much as thirty- five in one day. " In the march from Selma, La Grange s brigade, of McCook s division, was given the advance. The recent rains had rendered the roads quite muddy, and a small body of Eebel calvary, in falling back before La Grange, destroyed several bridges, so that our progress was necessarily slow. "At seven A.M., April 12th, the advance-guard reached Montgomery, and received the surrender of the city from the Mayor and Council. General Adams, with a small force, after falling back before us to the city, burned ninety thousand bales of cotton stored there, and continued his retreat to Mount Meigs, on the Columbus road. Five guns and large quantities of small arms, stores, &c., were left in our hands and destroyed. " General McCook assigned Colonel Cooper, fourth Kentucky cavalry, to the command of the city, and immediately began the destruction of the public stores. Major Weston, of the fourth Kentucky, with a small de tachment of his regiment, made a rapid march toward Wetumpka, swam the Coosa and Tullapoosa rivers, and captured five steamboats and their cargoes, which were taken to Montgomery and destroyed. Early on the 14th the march was resumed. I instructed brevet Major-General Upton to move with his own division directly upon Columbus, and to order La Grange, with his brigade, to make a rapid movement upon West Point 982 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. destroying the railroad bridges along the line of his march. I hoped to secure a crossing of the Chattahoochie at one or the other of these places. "Minty followed Upton by the way of Tuskegee. McCook, with a part of his division, remained a few hours at Montgomery, to complete the destruction of public stores. Shortly after leaving his camp near Montgomery, La Grange struck a force of Rebels under Buford and Clauton, but drove them in confusion, capturing about one hundred and fifty prisoners. " About two P. M. of the 16th, General Upton s advance a part of Alex ander s brigade struck the enemy s pickets on the road, and drove them rapidly through Girard to the lower bridge over the Chattahoochie at Columbus. The Rebels hastily set fire to it, and thereby prevented its capture. After securing a position on the lower Montgomery road, General Upton detached a force to push around to the bridge at the factory, throe miles above the city. He then made a reconnoissance in person, and found the enemy strongly posted in a line of works covering all the bridges, with a large number of gun? in position on both sides of the river. He had already determined to move Winslow s brigade to the Opelika of Summerville road, and assault the works on that side without waiting for the arrival of the second division. " I reached the head of Winslow s brigade of the fourth division at four o clock, and found the troops marching to the position assigned them by General Upton. Through an accident, Winslow did not arrive at his position till after dark ; but General Upton prepared to make the assault in the night, and coinciding with him in judgment, I ordered the attack. " Three hundred men of the third Iowa cavalry, Colonel Noble com manding, were dismounted ; and after a slight skirmish, moved forward, and formed across the road, under a heavy fire of artillery. The fourth Iowa and tenth Missouri were held in readiness to support the assaulting party. At half past eight P. M., just as the troops were ready, the enemy, at a short distance, opened a heavy fire of musketry, and with a four gun battery began throwing canister and grape. Generals Upton and Winslow in person directed the movement, the troops dashed forward, opened a withering fire* from their Spencers, pushed through a slashing abatis, and pressed the Rebel line back to their works, supposed, at first, to be the main line. During all this time the Rebel guns threw out a perfect storm of canister and grape, but without avail. "General Upton sent two companies of the tenth Missouri, Captain Glassen commanding, to follow up the success of the dismounted men and get possession of the bridge. They passed through the inner line ot works, and under cover of darkness, before the Rebels knew it, had reached the bridge leading into Columbus. " As soon as every thing could be got up to the position occupied by the dismounted men, General Upton pressed forward again, swept away "1 LA GRANGE, GRIFFIN, AND FORSYTE CAPTURED. 983 all opposition, took possession of the fort and railroad bridges, and stationed guards throughout the city. " Twelve hundred prisoners, fifty -two field guns in position for uso against us, and large quantities of arms and stores, fell into our hands. Our loss was only twenty-five killed and wounded. Colonel C. A. L. La/nar of General Cobb s staff; formerly owner of the "Wanderer" (slave-trader)] was killed. "The splendid gallantry and steadiness of General Upton, brevet Brigadier-General Winslow, and all the officers and men engaged in the first attack is worthy of the highest commendation. The Rebel force was over three thousand men. They could not believe they had been dislodged from their strong fortifications by an attack of three hundred men. " After much sharp skirmishing and hard marching, which resulted in the capture of fourteen wagons and a number of prisoners, La Grange s advance reached the vicinity of West Point at ten A. M., April 16th, with Beck s eighteenth Indiana battery, and the second and fourth Indiana cavalry. The enemy were kept occupied till the arrival of the balance of the brigade. Having thoroughly reconnoitered the ground, detachments of the first Wisconsin, second Indiana, and seventh Kentucky cavalry dismounted, and prepared to assault Fort Tyler, covering the bridge. Colonel La Grange describes it as a remarkably strong bastioned earthwork, thirty- five yards square, surrounded by a ditch twelve feet wide and ten feet deep, situated on a commanding eminence, protected by an imperfect abatis, and mounting two thirty -two pounders, and two field guns. " At one P. M. the charge was sounded, and the brave detachment on the three sides of the work rushed forward to the assault, drove the Rebel skirmishers into the fort, and followed, under a withering fire of musketry and grape, to the edge of the ditch. This was found impassable, but with out falling back, Colonel La Grange posted sharpshooters to keep down the enemy, and organized parties to gather material for the bridges. As soon as this had been done he sounded the charge again ; the detach ments sprang forward, laid the bridges, and rushed over the parapet into the work, capturing the entire garrison in all, two hundred and sixty- five men. General Tyler, its commanding officer, with eighteen men and officers, were killed, and twenty-eight severely wounded. Simultaneously with the advance upon the fort, the fourth Indiana dashed through the town, secured both bridges over the Chattahoochie, scattering a superior force of cavalry which had just arrived, and burned five engines and trains. Colonel La Grange highly commends the accuracy and steadiness of Captain Beck, in the use of his artillery. " Colonel La Grange destroyed at this place two bridges, nineteen locomotives, and two hundred and forty-five cars loaded with quartermaster s, commissary, and ordnance stores. Before leaving he established a hospital ; 984 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. for the wounded of both sides, and left with the major an ample supply of stores to provide for all their wants. " Early on the morning of the 17th, he resumed his march toward Macon, passing through La Grange, Griffin, and Forsyth, and breaking the railroads at those places. He would have reached his destination by noon of the 20th, but for delay caused by an order to wait for the fourth Kentucky cavalry, which had gone through Columbus. "The afternoon of the 17th, I directed Colonel Minty to resume his march with his division on the Thomaston road toward Macon, and to send a detachment forward that night, to seize the double bridges over Flint river. Captain Van Atwerp, of my staff, accompanied this party. He speaks in the highest terms of the dash with which Captain Hudson, fourth Michigan cavalry, discharged the duties assigned him. By seven A. M. the next day, he had reached the bridges, fifty miles from Columbus, scattered the party defending them, and took forty prisoners. " Before leaving Columbus, General Winslow destroyed the Rebel ram Jackson, nearly ready for sea, mounting six seven inch guns, burned fifteen locomotives, two hundred and fifty cars, the railroad bridge and foot bridges, one hundred and fifteen thousand bales of cotton, four cotton factories, the navy yard, foundry, armory, sword and pistol factory, ac coutrement shops, three paper mills, over a hundred thousand rounds of artillery ammunition, beside immense stores, of which no account could be taken. The Rebels abandoned and burned the gunboat Chattahoochie, twelve miles below Columbus. On the morning of the 18th, the whole command resumed the march on the route pursued by the second division. On the evening of the 20th, when within twenty miles of Macon, the advanced guard, composed of the seventeenth Indiana mounted infantry, Colonel White commanding, encountered about two hundred Rebel cavalry on the road, but drove them rapidly back toward the city, and saved the Echconnes and Tobesapke bridges." On the 20th of April, Colonel White, commanding General Wilson s advance, was met, about thirteen miles from Macon, Georgia, by a flag of truce, bearing a despatch from the Rebel General Howell Cobb, covering one from General Beauregard, announcing that an armistice had been concluded between General Johnston and General Sherman, and that hos tilities were to cease between the contending parties during the armistice. This 1 despatch was sent at once to General Wilson. Although General Wilson did not give full credence to this report, he proceeded at once, as rapidly as possible, to the front ; intending to halt his forces at the defences of the city, while he had an interview in person with General Cobb. But before he could reach Macon, his advance column had dashed into the city and received its surrender, after a slight show of resistance on the part of the garrison. General Cobb protested against this attack, which he professed to regard as a violation of the armistice ; but as General CROXTON S OPERATIONS. 985 Wilson had not been able to communicate with his subordinate officers, and had, meantime, no evidence that this was any thing more than a ruse of the enemy, there had been clearly no violation of the armistice. He telegraphed, after an interview with General Cobb, to General Sherman, in cypher, holding, meantime, the city and Rebel forces there as prisoners. He received no reply to his despatch, but the next day, April 21st, a des patch came to hand, professing to be a copy of General Sherman s telegram to him, communicated through Generals Johnston and Cobb, desiring him to desist from farther acts of war and devastation for a few days, as an armistice had been agreed upon. Being satisfied that this was substan tially authentic, General Wilson suspended operations until he should receive orders to renew them, holding Macon, meantime. General Cobb furnished him with forage and supplies, in order to prevent th necessity of foraging. On the 30th of April, he received notice of the final capitula tion of all the armies east of the Chattahoochie, and the next day, by the hands of Colonel Woodhull, the order of the Secretary of War, annulling the first armistice, directing the resumption of hostilities and the capture of the Rebel chiefs. On the 30th of April, General Croxton, with his brigade, of whom General Wilson had last heard through Forrest, arrived at Forsyth, Georgia, and the next day reached Macon. After having skirmished with Jackson s force, estimated correctly at twenty-six hundred men, near Trion, on the morning of April 2d, he determined to effect by strategy what he could not expect to do by fight ing, having with him only eleven hundred men. He therefore marched rapidly toward Johnston s ferry, on the Black Warrior river, forty miles above Tuscaloosa, threw Jackson completely off his guard by a simulated flight, crossed his brigade to the west side of the river, and turned toward Northport, where he arrived at nine P. M., April 4th. About midnight learning that his presence must become known, he surprised the force stationed on the bridge, and crossed into Tuscaloosa. He captured three guns, one hundred and fifty prisoners, and, after daylight, scattered the militia and State cadets, destroyed the military school, the stores, and public works. He remained at that place until the 5th, trying to commu nicate with General McCook, or to hear from General Wilson, but without success. Knowing that Jackson and Chalmers were both on the west side of the Cahawba, he thought it too hazardous to attempt a march by the way of Centre ville, and therefore decided to move toward Eutaw, in the hope of crossing the Warrior lower down, and breaking the railroad between Selma and Demopolis. Accordingly he abandoned Tuscaloosa, burned the bridge across the Black Warrior, and struck off to the south east. When within seven miles of Eutaw, he heard of the arrival at that place of Wirt Adams s division of cavalry, numbering twenty-six hundred men. Fearing to risk an engagement with a superior force, backed by 986 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the militia, he countermarched, and moved again in the direction of Tuscaloosa ; leaving it to the right, passed on through Jasper, recrossed the west fork of the Warrior river at Hadley s mill, marched nearly due east by the way of Mount Penson and Trussville, crossed the Coosa at True s and Collin s ferries, and marched to Talladega. Near this place he met and scattered a force of Kebels, under General Hill ; capturing one hundred and fifty prisoners and one gun, and moved on toward Blue mountain, the terminus of the Alabama and Tennessee railroad. After destroying all the iron works and factories left by us in northern Alabama and Georgia, he continued his march by Carrolton, Newnan and Forsyth, to Macon. He had no knowledge of General Wilson s move ments, except what he got from rumor, but fully expected to form a junction with him at Macon, or at Augusta. General Wilson, having distributed his troops so as to garrison the important points captured, and receive the surrender of the Eebel forces, now devoted his entire energies to capturing the Kebel President Jeff Davis and his attendants. Mr. Davis had left Eichmond on the 2d of April, and reached Danville the next morning, where he had endeavored to cheer the sinking spirits of the Eebels, by assuring them that tho evacuation of Eichmond and Petersburg was only an act of military strategy, and that now General Lee could act more vigorously than before, not having a large city to protect. The news of Lee s surrendei reached him on the evening of April 9th, and, at daylight the following morning, he left in a private conveyance for Greensboro, N. C., where he lingered for several days, in the hope of securing an amnesty through the negotiations of Johnston and Sherman. While here, he organized an escort of three thousand cavalry, under Generals Wade Hampton and Dibbrel, and moved southward with this escort and his family and staff, and a considerable amount of gold, hoping to escape from the Florida coast to Cuba. The cavalry, however, soon tired of escorting him, and demanding their pay from the gold he had with him,, deserted almost as soon as they received it. On the 2d of May, he was traced a short distance from Augusta, Georgia, and three days later at Powellton. General Wilson s cavalry were soon on his trail, and two regiments, moving by different routes, hunted him down at Irwinsville, Georgia, and on the morning of May llth, Lieu tenant- Colonel Pritchard, of the fourth Michigan cavalry, surprised and captured Davis, his wife, and her sister and brother ; the late Eebel Postmaster-General, Mr. Eeagan ; Davis s private secretary, Colonel Harrison, and other members of his staff, with a train of five wagons and three ambulances. Lieutenant-Colonel Harden, commanding the first Wisconsin cavalry, came up just before the capture, and supposing the fourth Michigan to be Davis s escort, commenced firing upon them, and near fifteen minutes elapsed before the mistake was dis covered. Meantime, Pritchard had effected the capture. He reports that RESULTS OF WILSON S CAMPAIGN. 98t Davis was brought to the door of his tent by his wife, clad in a loose dressing-gown, with his wife s water-proof cloak buckled around him, a shawl over his head, and a bucket on his arm, and Mrs. Davis requested the guard " to allow her poor old mother to go to the spring and get some water ;" the guard, however, having caught a glimpse of his boots, instantly suspected his sex, and arrested him, though not without some resistance on his part. He brandished a bowie knife, and showed fight, but yielded when the guard presented a revolver. He subsequently expressed great indignation at the energy with which he was pursued, and said he " had believed the United States Government was too magnanimous to hunt down women and children." He was brought under strong guard to Macon, and thence sent to Hilton Head, where he was put on board a government war steamer, and on arriving at Hampton roads, transferred to a strong casemate in Fortress Monroe, in which fortress he still remains (December 1865), and though strictly guarded, is treated with a humanity which affords a striking contrast to the atrocious cruelties inflicted by his sanction on the Union soldiers, officers and civilians, who were so unfor tunate as to be captured and imprisoned while he was in power. Alex ander H. Stephens, the Kebel Vice President, Mr. Mallory, the Rebel Secretary of the Navy, and B. H. Hill, Rebel Senator from Georgia, were also arrested by General Upton s division, of General Wilson s command, and sent north in accordance with the instructions of the Secretary of War. General Wilson then sums up the achievements of his troops in this great expedition : "Since leaving the Tennessee river, the troops under my command have marched an average of five hundred and twenty-five miles in twenty- eight days, captured five fortified cities, twenty-two stands of colors, two hundred and eighty-eight pieces of artillery, and six thousand eight hun dred and twenty prisoners, including five arsenals ; have captured and destroyed two gunboats, ninety-nine thousand stands of small arms, seven iron works, seven foundries, seven machine shops, two rolling mills, five collieries, thirteen factories, four nitre works, one military university, three Rebel arsenals and contents, one navy yard and contents, one powder magazine and contents, one naval armory and contents, five steamboats, thirty-five locomotives, five hundred and sixty-five cars, three railroad bridges, two hundred and thirty-five thousand bales of cotton, and im mense quantities of quartermaster and commissary and ordnance stores, of which no account could be taken, and have paroled fifty-nine thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight prisoners, including six thousand one hundred and thirty-four commissioned officers. Our total loss was thirteen officers and eighty-six men killed, thirty officers and five hundred and fifty- nine men wounded, and seven officers and twenty-one men missing." He adds that, when he left the Tennessee river, fifteen hundred of hia 988 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. men were not mounted, and many others but indifferently so, but that on arriving at Macon, every man was well mounted, and the command sup plied with all the surplus animals that could be desired ; having, as he says elsewhere, twenty-two thousand horses and mules to be supplied with forage on reaching that city. There now remained only the Trans-Mississippi Rebel army, under General E. Kirby Smith, yet in arms against the United States ; all the others had surrendered. As Smith, in a proclamation dated April 21st, 1865, had defied the United States Government, and manifested a determination to continue hostilities, General Sheridan was sent at once with a sufficient force to Texas, to subdue this last remnant of a Rebel army ; but before his arrival there, General Smith, finding his army de serting him, changed his views, and on the 26th of May, sent Generals Buckner, Brent and Carter to surrender his entire force to General Canby at New Orleans, and subsequently ratified the surrender with his own sig nature at Galveston. He was guilty of bad faith, however, in disbanding most of his army, and permitting an indiscriminate plunder of public property, pending his surrender ; and he and General Magruder escaped into Mexico. Sheridan s force was retained on the Rio Grande in con sequence of the disturbed condition of affairs there, and the escape of many of the late Rebel soldiers and officers into Mexico, carrying with them arms and other property rightfully belonging to the United States ; but after some months the greater part of it was withdrawn. Thus closed the struggle of four years, and the Government of the United States again held sway over its entire territory, and had repos sessed itself of all the property, the forts and places belonging to the nation. FINANCES OF THE WAR. 989 CHAPTER LXXIIL FINANCES OF THE WAR BANKRUPTCY OP THE GOVERNMENT AT THR BEGINNING OP THK WAR UNPROMISING STATE OP AFFAIRS WHEN MR. CHASE BECAME SECRETARY OP THE TREASURY HIS MEASURES THE CONFIDENCE OF CAPITALISTS AND THE PEOPLE SECURED THE FIRST SEVEN-THIRTIES THE FIVE-TWENTY BONDS LARGE AMOUNT ABSORBED BOND8 OF 1881 COMPOUND INTEREST NOTES TEN-FORTIES THE SEVEN-THIRTIES OF 1864 AND 1865 THEIR IMMENSE SALE THE EARLY GOLD DEMAND NOTES THE LEGAL TENDER NOTES FRACTIONAL CURRENCY CERTIFICATES OF INDEBTEDNESS NO PORTION OF THE DEBT NE GOTIATED, OR ITS PRINCIPAL OR INTEREST MADE PAYABLE ABROAD, YET FIVE HUNDRED MILLIONS HELD AS AN INVESTMENT IN EUROPE STATISTICAL TABLE OF THE DEBT TAXATION CUSTOMS INTERNAL REVENUE INCOME TAX WILLINGNESS OF THE PEOPLE TO BE TAXED AMOUNT OF REVENUE COLLECTED NECESSITY THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD CONTROL THE ISSUE OF PAPER MONEY THE NATIONAL BANKING SYSTEM NUMBER OF NA TIONAL BANKS AT DIFFERENT DATES SUSPENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENT AND RISE OF GOLD ITS FLUCTUATIONS IN THREE YEARS COMPARISON OF OUR NATIONAL DEBT AND THAT OF 1 GREAT BRITAIN IN 1815 PROBABLE TIME OF PAYMENT OF THE DEBT THE REBEL DEBT BEBEL LOSSES OF SLAVE PROPERTY LOSSES BY CAVALRY EXPEDITIONS AND RAIDS UNION LOSSES BY RAIDS AND BY REBEL PRIVATEERS GRANTS MADE BY THE STATE LEGISLATURES, COUNTIES, TOWNS, CITIES, AND WARDS, FOR BOUNTIES AND AID OF SOLDIERS* FAMILIES INDIVIDUAL GIFTS FOR THESE AND KINDRED PURPOSES THE CONTRIBUTION S FOR TUB SICK AND WOUNDED THE UNITED STATES* SANITARY COMMISSION THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION THE FREEDMEN s AID COMMISSION THE UNION COMMISSION OTHER DONATIONS THE EFFECT OF THIS LIBERALITY ON THE NATION. THE administration of Mr. Buchanan had been as complete a failure in its financial management, as in every other department of its policy. Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury, during the greater part of his term, and subseqaently, as we have seen, a Rebel general, had entered upon his position in a time of high financial prosperity in the country a period of peace. The small debt of the nation was quoted at sixteen or seventeen per cent, above par, and at that price he bought up a portion of it before it was due; but so miserable was his management, either from utter incapacity to comprehend financial matters, or from a determination to cripple the government he intended to betray, that, at the end of three and a half years, he had increased the national debt by forty millions of dollars, and had succeeded in so depreciating the national credit, that when he resigned, in order to join the Rebels, his successor, General John A. Dix, one of the ablest financiers of the nation, could not obtain an offer of more than eighty-eight cents on the dollar for a loan of twelve millions, and could not dispose of the whole even at that price. When Salmon P. Chase entered upon his duties as Secretary of the Treasury, in March 1861, the prospect before him was one from which most men would have shrunk in utter dismay. The treasury was bank rupt ; the national credit sunk so low that any prominent merchant or 990 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. banker could borrow on far better terms than the government. A war was pending, which must consume a vast amount of money. American bankers and capitalists were shy of government securities, and the English capitalists notified him in advance that it would be useless for him to apply to them for money, for they could not lend. Money must be had, however, and in the interim of the session of Congress, which alone could levy taxes, he was compelled to resort to a loan on the best terms which he could obtain. On the 2d of April, 1861, he offered in the New York market a loan of ten millions of dollars, twenty year bonds, with six per cent, interest. Bids were received for only three millions ninety-nine thousand dollars, at an average discount of 5.98 per cent. On the 25th of May, forty days after the proclamation of war, he was compelled to dispose of the remainder of this loan at an average discount of 14.65 per cent. On the 17th of July, he disposed of a further twenty-year loan of fifty millions, also six per cent, bonds, at a discount of 10.67 per cent. By this time, however, the capitalists and bankers had begun to respect the ability and resolute management of Mr. Chase, as a financier, and when, in the latter part of the summer, he came into the market with his first issue of three years treasury notes, bearing 7 rV per cent, interest, and convertible at the end of that time into twenty years six per cent, bonds, he disposed of one hundred and forty millions of them, at an average discount of less than three per cent. From this time forward, there was no discount beyond a simple broker s commission, varying from one half to three fourths of one per cent., paid on the placing of government securi ties. A loan of five hundred and eleven millions, at six per cent, interest in bonds redeemable after five, and payable in twenty years, known as five-twenty bonds, was disposed of in a little more than a year, at par, by Messrs. Jay Cooke & Co., of Philadelphia, by an extensive system of agencies and advertising. The people of the country, not the capitalists, purchased these bonds, as they did, subsequently, other government loans of still larger amounts. Seventy-five millions of twenty years six per cent, bonds were next offered and taken, at a premium of about four per cent., and five per cent, loans, in the shape of compound interest treasury notes of one and two years, and simple interest bonds, redeemable in ten, and payable after forty years, were issued at par, to the extent of some what more than two hundred and fifty millions, and six per cent, com pound interest notes at six per cent., due at the end of three years, to the extent of over seventeen millions. All these loans were gold-bearing, i. e., the interest was payable in gold. As gold had risen in price to one hundred, one hundred and fifty, and even, for a single day, one hundred and eighty-five per cent, premium, the interest became very large on the bonds, and they were regarded as a very desirable investment, and rose to a premium o* from fourteen to seventeen per cent. The Secretary of MR. CHASE S MEASURES. 991 the Treasury next put upon the market (the demands of the war being still very heavy, far beyond the amount which could be raised by taxa tion) a new description of three-year treasury notes, pay ing seven and three tenths interest in legal tender, and redeemable at the end of three years in five-twenty six per cent, bonds. Of these three series, bearing date at dif ferent times, and amounting in all to eight hundred and thirty millions of dollars, have been issued, almost exclusively to citizens of the United States. Certificates of indebtedness issued for one year and bearing interest at six per cent., were also paid to the government creditors in considerable amounts. In 1864, about one hundred and sixty millions of those were outstanding, but they have been rapidly reduced from the avails of the treasury notes, and on the 31st of October, 1865, somewhat less than fifty-six millions of dollars, payable in 1866, were all that were yet unpaid. At the beginning of the war, sixty millions of demand notes, redeem able in coin, without interest, were issued by the Government; but as these were receivable for custom duties, they were all called in and can celled before the close of 1864. By the act of February, 1862, and sub sequent acts, the issue of legal tender demand notes was authorized, and about four hundred and fifty millions were issued of all denominations. Of these, on the 31st of October, 1865, a little more than four hundred and twenty-eight millions were still outstanding. There have been in all nearly fifty millions of fractional currency issued, though never much more than half of that amount in circulation at one time. The amount of this in circulation now is somewhat larger than a year ago, being, October 31st, 1865, a trifle over twenty-six millions. No portion of this immense debt, amounting, on the 31st of October, 1865, to twenty-eight hundred and eight millions five hundred and forty- nine thousand four hundred and thirty -eight dollars has been issued as a foreign loan, or the principal or interest made payable abroad. The several Secretaries of the Treasury have been authorized to negotiate portions of it abroad; but they have always refrained, and wisely, from seeking foreign creditors, believing that it would tend far more to the permanence and stability of free institutions to have it distributed among the people of the United States. The twenty-year bonds, the five-twenties, and the later seven-thirties, have, however, been largely purchased by foreign capitalists for investment, and are regularly called at the stock boards of London, Paris, Frankfort, Hamburg, Berlin, and Vienna. It is believed that more than five hundred millions of these loans are held in Europe. The accompanying table shows the character of the debt, the interest it carries, and the amount at different periods. (See next page.) The value of these loans and the facility with, which they could be placed, depended very much upon the willingness of the people to bear severe taxation, by which the interest could be paid, and the ordinary s <44 CO^ tO CM_t^ oo" 10" os"c<f S to c t- ^ CM OrH OS OS O O rH O to to o o o o Ift ^ O> ^^ Q} ^5 o"r-^ io~ o to" GO" to ift o to co io rH_ O OS t- iO CM oo" to" ift" CM" r-T CM CM ift CO 05 ^ -n"oT to ift ift" CO" CM to i 1 ift ift o CM i 1 CO rH Tt 1 co o ic o ic r- O oo co^ o"c<f CM" OS rH CM t- OO O OS t- CO O to os T}< i C O iO OS eT-rf to"to" to ift ift ift rH CM CM CO to Tj<tO-^OO C^lOrHOO (MOCOtO (M OS C<) "H^ O tO tO rH tO I CO ift Ttf CO OS t- CM l^ OS CM O S3 CM OS os" to" O CM C<I co OO 1 io ^^ "^O^O^C^ OO"rH"to"co" rH i rH rH t rH O O rH O to os o co TjTto" -^ to i i too CO t-- CO O O T*l OS O O t tO CO rH^ O i-H_ io"t-^t-- CM O~ OS l rH OS t t t CO rH CO irTi-H os" CM CM ^ CM 1ft rH OS 00 -H ift CO O OS -H CO rH CM CM 1^ r-H CM rt ift CO tO "C OS OO rH ^^ O5 CO Tjl rH O CO f 00 CO ^^ co" CO rH urfoT to" : CO rH tO t- ift ift rH O CM (M t- O OS CO ift CM O ift"co" CMrH lO i-H^ CM" CM" CO CM S3 OS O O O O O OO O O O O ift "* to <M rH OJ (M i-Tc<r-^r GO O CO OS tO CM OO ift O ift r ?411,l 90,065 098,793,181 tO rH O O O iO 1ft rH rH O CO O 1ft OO ift" oT io" oo" o" to"t-^ rH Tt< rH OS O CO O OS OO rf OS O 00 OS i-T CM" oo" o" CM" oT ift rH 1C CM t- os rH t- r-t OS^ O~ rH* - QO t- CO t^" oT r-Tcfod 10 C^l rH CO CO OO 1 I rH rH O O > &H tO a> ra 1 d 13 *3 rS be fcct- 2 5 o <u a> a> ra t- ?3 O h-3 r-3 PH H PH 33 J - o to fl i 1 rH rH to to 14 toSto 00 ^ CO CO CO t CO CO <M CO rj< co ^o to to co 0000000000 THE AMOUNT OF REVENUE COLLECTED. 993 expenses of the Government borne. In this respect, the disposition of the nation has been such as to astonish the world. During the existence of the nation, with the exception of a moderate direct tax for a few years after the war of 1812, there had been no direct taxation by the Govern- ment of the United States, and never any income tax; but directly after the commencement of the war, and from that time to the present, the people have been far more willing to be taxed than their representatives in Congress were to tax them. The tariff was changed so as to make the duties on almost every article of import as heavy as could be borne, and the internal revenue bills taxed every article of manufacture and every luxury ; demanded a license for almost every employment, and laid a tax upon the income of every citizen of five per cent, upon all incomes of over six hundred dollars, seven and a half per cent, on all above five thousand, and ten per cent, on all incomes exceeding ten thousand dollars per annum. This taxation, after several modifications, has been so regu lated that the revenue from the business of 1864: will, probably, with the customs, amount to about three hundred and fifty millions of dollars, and that for the year 1865, to a considerably larger sum. This not only defrays the current expenditure of the year and the interest of the debt, but will leave seventy-five to a hundred millions to be applied as a sinking fund for the liquidation of the principal of the debt. It soon became evident that the circulation of paper money must be controlled by the Government. The demand and legal tender notes did, indeed, for the time, furnish the greater part of the circulating medium of the nation, though local banks and bankers, not under the control of the national government, sought to push their own notes into circulation as far as possible ; but these treasury notes were, from their nature, liable to the objection of being too abundant when their plentifulness only served to inflate prices, and insufficient when, as in the case of a reduction of the national debt, a large amount of currency was needed. If the currency were to be left, aside from this fluctuating amount, to the mercy of specu lators and bankers wholly irresponsible to the national government, the national credit would suffer, the prices of every article required would be enormously and indefinitely enhanced, while the ruin which would in evitably follow from the overthrow of a system so monstrous, and reared on so uncertain a basis, would prove frightfully destructive to the national prosperity. The only means of controlling and overcoming this difficulty seemed to Secretary Chase to be, the organization of a national banking system, which should be based on the government securities, and should embody the best features of the New York free banking system, together with others which should render it more safe to the bill holder, while they pro tected, at the same time, the rights of the depositor ; and the establishment of these banks to be speedily followed by such measures of taxation and 63 994 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. repression of the circulation of the local banks as should compel them either to come into the national system, or to cease to be banks of circu lation. The success of this system has surpassed even the largest anticipations of its friends. Though vehemently opposed at first by the local banks and their friends, it has triumphed over all opposition, and is to-day the prevalent system of banking in the United States. Ere long the banks chartered under State authority must all come into this system, or cease to be banks of issue. The rapidity of the organization or conversion of these banks is best illustrated by the following table : Date. No. of banks. Aggregate capital Dec. 11, 1863, . . .;?<4* 152 $18,000,000 Nov. 25, 1864, . .-4-*<- 584 108,964,000 June 24, 1865, .... 1,334 320,924,601 Oct. 31, 1865, .... 1,601 425,000,000 Of these sixteen hundred and one banks, six hundred and seventy-nine were original organizations, and nine hundred and twenty-two conversions from State institutions. It is worthy of remark, that the number of State banks and banking associations in the United States, in January, 1861, just before the outbreak of the Rebellion, was sixteen hundred and one, precisely the number of national banks on the 31st of October, 1865, and their capital was four hundred and twenty-nine million five hundred and ninety-three thousand dollars, differing very slightly from that of the national banks. The banks throughout the northern States suspended specie payments ibout the first of January, 1862. As a consequence of this suspension, and the increased amount of currency in circulation, the currency soon aegan to depreciate, or, as it was generally said, gold was enhanced in value. The increase of the national debt, as the war progressed, the occurrence of disasters to the national cause, unfortunate experiments in financial legislation, the existence of cliques commanding large amounts of capital, and sometimes connected with foreign banking houses in the Rebel interest, and the resort to all means, legitimate and illegitimate, to raise distrust in regard to the national solvency, all served to enhance the price of gold, and to produce those extraordinary fluctuatioos in its market value, which greatly deranged prices, and brought ruin to thousands, \tnile they made the fortunes of hundreds. The expansions and contractions of the currency, to which, for a long time, these fluctuations in the price of gold were attributed, had, it is now conceded, little or nothing to do with it. A brief sketch of these fluctuations may be interesting. On the 2d of January, 1862, gold was two per cent, premium. During the year 1862, . SUSPENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. 99* it gradually advanced to about thirty two, rising once to thirty-seven, and, subsequently, falling to twenty-nine. January 2, 1868, it was thirty -five, in February it was seventy-one, in April, it fell back to forty-six, and during the next two months, it ranged from forty -four to fifty ; in June, it fell to forty, and in August, to twenty-two; slowly increasing again, it touched fifty-seven in October, and ranged in the neighborhood of fifty for the remaining months of the year. January 2, 1864, it stood at fifty- two ; but advanced to sixty on the 18th, where it stood, with little varia tion, for two months, when it began a rapid advance, reaching eighty- three in the latter part of April ; and, after a slight fall, rose to ninety -four on the 30th of May; to ninety-nine on the 10th of June; to one hundred and thirty on the 22d; and to one hundred and eighty on the 1st of July. On the llth of July, it touched one hundred and eighty-five premium. From this point it receded to about one hundred and fifty-seven, at which point it remained throughout most of August, but fell on the 30th of that month to one hundred and thirty-one ; on the 27th of September to ninety- four ; and on the 1st of October to eighty-nine a reduction of nearly one Hundred per cent, in eighty days. During October, it commenced rising again, and, on the 1st of November, stood at one hundred and thirty-seven ; and on the 9th, at one hundred and fifty-four. For the remainder of the /ear, its fluctuations were very violent, often rising or falling ten or fifteen per cent, in a single day. On the 31st of December, 1864, it stood at one hundred and twenty-seven, and varied very little from that point for several weeks, but Sherman s victories in March, caused it to fall with great rapidity. On the 21st of March, it stood at fifty-three ; and on the 5th of April, after the evacuation of Richmond, it fell to forty -six. From this point it declined steadily, till it was below thirty, and then rallied again ; on the first of August, 1865, it was forty-five, and ranged from *brty-three to forty-eight from that time to the close of the year. The national debt, large and burdensome as it is, compares favorably, m every respect, with that of Great Britain in 1815, at the close of the Napoleonic wars. At that time her debt was four thousand one hundred and eighty -three millions of dollars, or nearly two hundred and thirty- three dollars per head to her population of eighteen millions, while her valuation in 1821, six years later, was but ten thousand six hundred and ninety-eight millions, six hundred thousand dollars. The property of the United States in 1860, deducting the valuation of the slaves, was reported in the census (though this estimate has since been demonstrated to have been far below the truth) as fourteen thousand one hundred and twenty- six millions five hundred and twenty-three thousand six hundred ancl seventy-six dollars, and the debt was but eighty-one dollars and forty- Ihree cents per head. Yet the debt of Great Britain, far from crushing her energies, has only stimulated her people to greater enterprise, and now, with her debt reduced only two or three hundred millions of dollars, she has a 996 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. valuation of about eighty-five thousand millions of dollars, or more than eight times the amount of forty years ago. She has, it is true, immense resources in her commerce, manufactures, and mines of coal, copper, iron, and tin ; but in none of these respects has she greater advantages, either present or prospective, than the United States ; while the vast mineral wealth of this country in gold, silver, quicksilver, petroleum, and other products, far surpasses that of Great Britain or any other country in the world ; and her agricultural staples of grain, maize, butter, cheese, beef, cotton, and wool, open to her the markets of all nations. The com merce of the United States, which suffered severely during the war from the devastations of the Anglo-Rebel privateers, is fast recovering from its depression, and will soon greatly exceed its former status, and it will not be long ere no sea on the globe shall rest unvexed by American keels ; no waters but shall be whitened by its sails. With its abundant ports on both the Atlantic and Pacific shores, it cannot fail to become the leading commercial nation of the globe, the common carrier for all nations. If there should be no foreign wars to derange its finances, and increase its indebtedness, the year of our Lord 1900 will undoubtedly see the nation free from its burden of debt. The destruction of property by the war, and the expenditures of the Rebel government during its four years struggle, should, in justice, be reckoned as a part of the losses of property by the nation, or at least by a section of it. The Rebel debt, according to their own statement, in January, 1865, was one thousand five hundred and fifty millions of dol lars, and this* after it had been reduced by a scaling process, which had cut down the value of their notes aud bonds more than one half. Besides this, they had two foreign loans, amounting to about fifteen millions in gold, which were partially secured by cotton already shipped. This debt, incurred mostly to their own citizens, is justly and rightfully repudiated by their complete defeat and surrender, and constitutes an actual destruo tion to nearly the full amount, of the property of southern citizens, the result of their mad attempt to overthrow the government of the United States. Add to this, the slave property emancipated in consequence of the war, and which in 1860, was valued by the marshals at one thousand nine hundred and seventy-six millions, four hundred thousand five hundred dollars; and add, still further, the property destroyed by the Union armies and cavalry expeditions in the insurgent States, including vessels, houses, public buildings, manufactures, arms and munitions of war, wagons, cattle, horses, mules, sheep, hogs and poultry, clothing, cot ton, tobacco, breadstuff s, forage, etc., and the vast quantities destroyed by the Rebels themselves to prevent its falling into Union hands, and you have a sum exceeding one thousand millions more, the destruc tion of the last eight months of the war being more than five hundred millions. r UNION LOSSES BY RAIDS. 997 Large amounts of property, though little as compared with this, was de stroyed or carried away by the Rebels, in their incursions into Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, and Penn sylvania, and, as we have shown elsewhere, the losses inflicted by the Anglo- Rebel privateers were of very considerable magnitude. Taking the whole amount of these various losses, together with the national debt, and the aggregate destruction of values (of which, how ever, a very considerable portion was expended in the maintenance of the more than two millions of men placed in the field by both sides), was not far from eight thousand millions of dollars. There was a class of expenditures made in consequence of the war, upon which, however, we can look with far greater complacency than upon the sad and ruinous waste of war, since it was for the most part the free gift of patriotic and loyal citizens. When the several calls were made for troops by the General Government, the Staie legislatures voted, almost unanimously, liberal bounties, in addition to those offered by the national authorities, and, in many instances, further stimulated enlistments by providing for the families of volunteers. Counties, and often cities, towns, and wards, also aided in this work to a vast amount in the aggre gate. Municipalities, also, in many instances, granted large sums for hand-money, for raising and equipping regiments, and, in some instances, for local or harbor defences. The aggregate of these appropriations is known to have considerably exceeded two hundred millions. The sums contributed by individuals for the same or similar objects, are less easily ascertained. In the case of the Union Defence fund in New York, or the great contribution in Philadelphia, they reached the amount of five or six hundred thousand dollars, and in single instances they amounted to from ten to fifty thousand dollars. In addition to bounties, and aid for soldiers families, one citizen gave to his country a vessel for a war steamer, then valued at eight hundred thousand dollars. Others gave their commissions, or salaries for services rendered the Government, to the amount of many thousand dollars. The heirs of one man of wealth, following out the wishes of their deceased relative, gave one million of dollars to found a Home for disabled soldiers, and others contributed their tens and hundreds of thousands to found homes for the children of deceased or disabled soldiers, or scholarships where young soldiers, or the children of the older ones, might obtain a collegiate education. Still more remarkable was the beneficence flowing from thousands and tens of thousands of small rills, which in the aggregate made up the over flowing stream of charity for the brave men who had fought the nation s battles, and who smitten by malaria in the pestilential swamps of the South, or wounded in the deadly strife, needed tender nursing, and the abundant delicacies to tempt the fickle appetite or administer to the enfeebled body strength and healing The Government, through it* 998 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Medical Bureau, endeavored to provide medicines and plain food for the - sick; but it was not always possible, especially on a rapid march, or in the event of an unexpected battle, to provide even these ; and there was still need of articles not provided by the diet tables of the Bureau, as well as of hospital furniture and clothing, beyond what the Department could furnish. The scurvy, too, was to be provided against, and that direful evil which has more than once wrought such destruction in large armies, presented once and again its fearful symptoms, in the Union armies, only to be beaten back by the free use of vegetable food, and sub-acids, furnished by the watchful care of the self-constituted guardians of the soldier s welfare. The discharged soldier who had left the hospital faint, weak, and unfit for travel, yet homeless and shelterless, was also to be cared for and pro tected from the harpies, who would prey upon the unwary; the wages, bounty, back pay, and pensions of the weak and disabled, to be collected ; and the watching, waiting, and suffering ones, who, at home, looked anx iously for intelligence of the condition of the sick or wounded husband, father, or brother, to be cheered by tidings of his convalescence ; or, alas, sometimes saddened by the intelligence of his death. This work was undertaken spontaneously in all parts of the country, by individuals and associations whose hearts prompted them to these noble deeds; but with so many irresponsible parties, many of them unex perienced, there was some clashing of interests and of labors; and while the intentions of all parties were pure and praiseworthy, the zeal with which their duties were performed, was not always according to knowl edge. Yet a vast amount of good was accomplished by these earnest laborers. The hospitals were visited constantly and with untiring inter est, and the sick and wounded received the ministrations of fair, highly educated and delicately reared women, who, moved to heroic deeds by their sympathy for the brave souls who had hazarded all for their country, gave themselves wholly to the work of caring for them ; and following in the wake of the armies, brought food and cordials and medicine to the wounded and dying on the battle-field, as well as those gentle ministrations which so often aided powerfully in their recovery. The scorching sun of a semi-tropical clime, and the icy cold of the winters in the mountain ous regions of Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, were alike braved by these noble women, who, in numerous instances, sacrificed their own lives in the effort to save those of their brave defenders. But as the war progressed, the necessity of gathering these diverse and somewhat intermittent efforts, into one common organization, grew more and more evident, and the Sanitary Commission, organized at the beginning of the war, for the systematic accomplishment of these and other measures of benefit to the soldiers and sailors, gradually drew the smaller associations, as well as many of the individual workers, into its own more comprehensive TUE SANITARY COMMISSION. 999 organization. Operating upon the loyal masses through its branches, and the twelve thousand auxiliary Ladies Aid or Soldiers Aid Societies^ scattered through every county and town of the loyal North, it reached the soldier in the camp, in the field, or in the hospital, ascertained his con dition and needs, and the attention he received, supplemented with a liberal though not too lavish hand, the supplies allowed him by the Government, received him, when discharged from the hospital, into its " Homes," until his health was so fully restored, as to enable him to return to his home* collected for him, without charge, arrears of pay and bounties, and pro tected him from being fleeced by sharpers. Its agents and directors marched with the armies in the field, and ministered to the wounded on the battle-ground, and to the sick in the field hospitals. Its Hospital Directory recorded the names of every one of the sick and wounded sol diers in the general, post, and field hospitals, and gave a brief history of the progress and termination of each case, so far as possible, and this information was freely at the service of any friend, who would inquire for it, either in person or by letter. They also furnished, so far as practicable, employment to the soldiers after the war, and procured, without charge, pensions for the families of those who had fallen in battle. In these various ways, the United States Sanitary Commission disbursed in money and supplies, about seventeen millions of dollars. The Western Sanitary Commission, a smaller, but exceedingly efficient organization, having its headquarters at St. Louis, operated mainly on the Mississippi river and its tributaries, and rendered, most efficient aid to the suffering soldiers in the West. It also took under its care the freedmen of the Mississippi valley, and for many mouths gave aid and shelter, and help also, to the white refugees from the South. It expended, in money and supplies, between three and four millions of dollars. There was a necessity also, for attention to the moral and intellectual welfare of the soldiers, and this, together with liberal supplies of physical comforts, was provided for by the United States Christian Commission, an organization having its headquarters in Philadelphia, but with branches and auxiliaries in all parts of the country. It sought to supply the religious and intellectual wants of the soldiers, by its chapels and chapel-tents, in which preaching and other religious services were held ; by its supplies of bibles, testaments, hymn-books, libraries newspapers, and magazines, in field, camp, post, and hospital ; and also ministered to the sick and wounded, aiding in all enterprises to promote their comfort and welfare. About four and a half mill ions of dollars have been expended by this Commission. The wants of the freedmen, many of whom came into the Union lines in a condition of great destitution, and who were in pressing need of clothing, instruction, and the necessary implements for obtaining a liveli hood, attracted the attention of the charitable, and numerous Freedmen s 1000 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. Aid Societies were organized throughout the country, to furnish them with teachers and with whatever else they needed. Near the close of the war, these several societies were consolidated into one organization, the Freedmen s Aid Commission, co-operating with the Freedmen s Bureau of the Government ; and in December, 1865, this organization fused with the American Union Commission, and the two henceforth form a single Commission, having for its object the promotion of the interest of both the freedmen and the white refugees. The American Union Commission had, previous to this consolidation, been actively engaged in the work of aiding, instructing, and endeavor ing to elevate the moral and intellectual nature of the whites who had fled from the South, and who were in great destitution and suffering. The love for the brave defenders of the Union, and the spirit of patriotism and loyalty which the war evoked, has led to great efforts to hallow and beautify the places where the sons of the nation, dead on the field of battle, are laid. At Gettysburg, at Antietam, at Ball s Bluff; at Chattanooga, at Perry ville, and at Stone river, cemeteries of considerable extent have been laid out, and the dead heroes have been laid there with all tenderness and love. The several States have borne their respective shares of the expense of these hallowed spots. But most sacred of all, his been that spot where, amid the horrors of cold, of nakedness, and of starva tion, worse crowded than were the victims of the Black Hole of Calcutta, the brave but hapless sons of the Union who had the misfortune to fall into Rebel hands, fourteen thousand in number, welcomed death as the release from the brutal inhumanity of their jailors. At Andersonville, so soon as access could be obtained to that vile lazar-house, a cemetery was laid out, and the graves, so far as could be ascertained, each received its head board, with the name of the quiet sleeper below. In this work of love and reverence, woman s hands assisted, and she* who had been the soldiers tenderest and most thoughtful friend in life, wept over the graves of those whose fate had been so cruel and inhuman. The philanthropy evoked by the war in other directions, has been noble and large-handed. The famine-stricken operatives of Lancashire, of Ireland, and of the manufacturing districts of France, have received from the citizens of the United States food to the value of half a million of dollars ; colleges have been founded or endowed with nearly ten millions of dollars, on the principle that a general diffusion of intelli gence is the best safeguard against anarchy and rebellion ; libraries, museums and scientific institutions have had their funds largely increased ; twelve millions of dollars have been expended in relieving churches from debt, or erecting new church edifices ; orphan asylums and homes for disabled and infirm soldiers have been established and supplied with * Miss Clara H. Barton, of Washington. EFFECTS OF ITS LIBERALITY. 1001 ample endowments, and the treasuries of every organization of Christian benevolence have been kept full to the overflowing, although they have greatly enlarged their operations. The nation had become during the long years of peace, like Great Britain, a nation of shopkeepers, but the rough hand of war has stripped the covering of selfishness from it, and has elevated and sublimated the motives and temper of the people in such a way as a century of peace could never have done. 1002 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER LXXIY. REVIEW OF THE WAR. THE narrative of the progress of the war given in the preceding pages has necessarily confined itself to its battles and minor engagements ; describing incidentally the tactics of particular battles or campaigns, but devoting less attention to the strategetic plans which prompted and guided its leading movements. It may be well to notice the principal campaigns of the war, and show how far they were the developments of a predetermined plan or plans of operations, having in view, as their grand purpose, the overthrow of the Rebellion. In the movements of the summer and early autumn of 1861, it would be difficult to discover any well defined plan of strategy. With the exception of the short, and, as compared with the late war, inconsiderable campaigns of the Mexican war, the country had been at peace for nearly fifty years, and its citizens, devoted to the arts of peace, were wholly un skilled in the exercises and discipline of the camp or battle-field. Assembling from motives of the highest patriotism, at the President s call, they reached the heights around Washington with the fewest possible ideas of military life and its duties, and required, to fit them for efficient service, a training of some months, a longer period than that for which they had enlisted. The venerable Lieutenant-General, bending under the weight of three score and fifteen years, and infirm with the wounds of his earlier victories, found himself called upon to plan the campaigns of a war vastly exceeding, in extent and the number of its troops, any conflict with which he had been familiar in his more vigorous days, and this almost wholly with raw and undisciplined troops, and surrounded by spies, who communicated his plans to the enemy as fast as they were formed. Some weeks were, of course, consumed in reducing the chaotic mass to order, in arranging in regiments, brigades, and divisions, the brave but unorganized troops which poured, day after day, into the Capital, and the other principal points of rendezvous. Commanders were to be selected for the brigades and divisions ; a delicate task, when hardly one of those who were placed in command had ever led any thing more than a company, or at most, a battalion, into battle. The Quartermaster- General s, Commissary-General s, and Surgeon-General s bureaus were to be reorganized and fitted for their greatly increased spheres of action. While this work was going on, and before the organization of the army was any thing like complete ; when not one man in fifty knew his brigade commaDder by sight, and not one in five hundred his division commander, REVIEW OF THE WAR. 1003 a popular clamor of "On to Richmond" was raised, which became, with each succeeding day, louder and more persistent. General Scott had at first devised other plans for a campaign, rightly deeming Richmond not the first objective in the war. But his plans were constantly exposod to the enemy, and at last he consented to a movement for which the troops were in no respect prepared. Two battles had been fought in Western Virginia, and both had been successful, the second resulting in the sur render of the Confederate force to General McClellan, who commanded the Union troops. These two actions, of no great magnitude, had given to the Union troops in the vicinity of Washington, who were, as yet, wholly without experience, an overweening confidence in their ability to defeat the Confederates without difficulty, and they were "eager for the advance. On the 21st of July, the battle of Bull Run was fought, and though the Union troops did better than raw troops could be expected to do, and up to the middle of the afternoon possessed the advantage, which they would have maintained, had not a large reinforcement from Johnston s force, under command of General E. Kirby Smith, come up at the critical moment ; yet the disgraceful panic and rout which followed was evidence enough of the lack of discipline and training among them. Most of the other fighting of the year 1861 was desultory in its charac ter ; and though some of it was creditable to the troops engaged, and gave evidence of minor strategic plans, still the commanding officers had not, as yet, any well considered or comprehensive plan for the manage ment of the war. The movements in Missouri, before and after the appointment of General Fremont to the command of the Western Depart ment, indicated a purpose to drive the Confederates out of the State, but hardly any thing beyond. The occupation of Cairo, urged by western men because it was a point of importance ; the subsequent seizure of Paducah and Smithland by General Grant, and the attack on Belmon^ were hardly more than isolated operations having reference to a possible future movement, but one not, as yet, fully digested. Nor was the miserable disaster at Ball s Bluff, nor the affair at Dranesville, of much greater moment in a strategic point of view. After the battle of Bull Run, General McClellan, became the active as he was, after November 1st, the actual general-in-chief of the army. He possessed rare talent for organizing and disciplining an army, and for several months his attention was bestowed almost exclusively upon this necessary work. In the autumn, the general plan of operations known, subsequently, as the "Anaconda System," was broached. It was said to have originated with General Scott, but met the approval of General McClellan. The features of the plan were the encircling the entire insurgent States by a cordon of posts and armies, those on the coast to be wrenched from their possession by joint land and naval expeditions, and the interior ones by a forward movement and intrenchments by the 1004 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. armies of the Union. This cordon was to be contracted gradually, till the [Rebellion was completely crushed by it, and the insurgent armies com pelled, by the cutting off of their supplies, to yield to avoid starvation. So vast was the territory to be thus encircled, that it was impossible to raise armies large enough to accomplish the work effectively. Yet upon this theory hinged all the operations of the succeeding two or three years. The first fruits of this system, were the fitting out of expeditions to capture Forts Hatteras and Clark, on the North Carolina coast, and Forts Beauregard and Walker, defending the fine harbor of Port Eoyal, both of which proved successful during the autumn. The Burnside expedition, which had for its object the capture of Eoanoke island, Plymouth, New- bern, and Fort Macon ; and the New Orleans expedition of Farragut and General Butler, both initiated during the autumn, though not carried to a successful termination till the next year, belonged to the same system. Key West and Fort Pickens, Florida, had been held from the beginning of the war, and the occupation of the Atlantic coast of Georgia and Florida was to be accomplished by a subordinate expedition, to be fitted out from Hilton Head. All of the Atlantic and Gulf coast, then, was provided for in the contemplated movements, except the four prominent ports of Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile. The blockade of these ports was maintained, though not with any great strictness, and the blockade runners managed, in spite of the utmost efforts of the blockading squadrons, to run into them with an annoy ing frequency. In the interior, the anaconda movement, though as yet not very formid able, yet promised fairly. General Halleck, who had succeeded General Fremont in command of the Western Department, had his armies in three columns, in connection with the upper Mississippi squadron, preparing to move forward over a line more than three hundred miles in breadth, from the Mississippi river on the west to eastern Kentucky on the east, under command of his faithful lieutenants, Grant, Buell, and Thomas, with Flag- Officer Foote in command of the naval force. In the East, there seemed a reluctance on the part of the general -in- chief to move forward. Until November or December the large force under his command were not perhaps sufficiently organized or trained, to be regarded as in fighting condition. After that time the condition of the roads was made the excuse for delay, though hardly a sufficient one, for the enemy, in greatly inferior numbers, lay less than thirty miles distant, a part of them, indeed, within less than ten miles, yet there was no forward movement. The order for an advance on the 22d of February, 1862, was given by the President, but no advance was made till the 8th of March, when it was ascertained that the Confederates had abandoned their camps at Manassas Junction and its vicinity, and moved southward toward the Rapidan. The lower Potomac had been blockaded, by the Confederates through the autumn and winter, and though the Union forces held REVIEW OF THE WAR. 1005 Fortress Monroe, Hampton, and Newport News, they had not been able to gain any further foothold on the adjacent coasts. Maryland was, as yet, in some portions, quasi rebellious and was held by Union troops near Baltimore and on the Eastern Shore. Returning from the fruitless march to Manassas, General McClellan embarked his main army on transports to descend the Potomac and Chesapeake bay to Fortress Monroe, and the Peninsula. A garrison was left for Washington. A small corps with General Banks in the Shenandoah valley, and another, under McDowell, marched toward Fredericksburg, to menace Richmond from the north, while a considerable body of troops from the west, under the command of General Fremont, in the Moun tain Department of Western Virginia, threatened the communications with that city from the west. The plan for the capture of the Confederate capital seemed to be judi cious and well arranged, and high hopes were entertained of its success. Yet the campaigns which followed during the spring and summer proved complete failures, from several causes. General McClellan took with him to the Peninsula, about one hundred and ten thousand men, and found at Yorktown, to which he presently advanced, some not very strong earth works, garrisoned by a Confederate force not exceeding, at first, twenty thou sand men. It would not have been difficult to have carried the position by assault, and then a rapid march on Richmond would have found it com- paratively weak, and it would have fallen an easy prey to the captor. But he preferred the slower operations of the siege, and the Confederate General Johnston had thus the opportunity to collect his forces for its defence, and the protection and fortifications of Richmond, which had been confided to General Lee. A month was consumed in the siege, and then Johnston finding that the place would soon be untenable, evacuated it, and retreated to Williamsburg. Here, on the 5th of May, a battle occurred between the Union and Confederate forces, in which from the want of proper reconnoissance in the beginning, the Union troops were caught in a slaughter pen, where they experienced fearful loss. The fol lowing morning, the Confederates had retreated toward Richmond, leaving, however, a considerable force near West Point, Virginia, who fought, on the 7th, a severe battle with the Union troops of Franklin s division. The pursuit of the .Confederates, toward Richmond, was conducted verv lei surely, three weeks having elapsed before the Chickahominy was crossed, though, in that malarious region, sickness was making sad havoc with the Union army. On the 30th of May, a small force having been thrown across the Chickahominy two days before, the Confederates came out of Richmond, and attacked them. The first day, the Union forces were repulsed and forced back with heavy loss, but reinforcements having come over in the evening, they assumed the offensive the next day, and drove the Confederates within two miles of Richmond, wounding Johnston 1006 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. severely, and, it was subsequently ascertained, could have entered that city, had they not been recalled by General McClellan. For nearly four weeks more, General McClellan continued to fortify the banks of the Chicka- hominy and to strengthen his position. Mr an while, in other portions of Virginia, important movements were taking place. General Banks, in the lower Sheuandoah valley, had driven the small Rebel force before him, and ascended the valley as far as New Market, but subsequently fell back to Strasburg and Front Royal. Here, on the 23d of May, he was attacked by " Stonewall " Jackson with a large force, and compelled to make a hasty, though skilful retreat to Martinsburg, and Williamsport on the Potomac. The object of this expedition of Jackson was not so much to punish Banks, as to create a panic in Washington, and compel the withdrawal of McDowell s and Fremont s forces from their position, which threatened, and endangered Richmond. It produced its intended effect. McDowell and Fremont were both ordered to go instantly in pursuit of Jackson. They did so, McDowell sending Shields, and Fremont going in person, came upon his rear near Front Royal, and followed him in his masterly retreat up the Shenandoah valley, where twice he paused to fight them and secure the safety of his trains, and the battles both being indecisive, he withdrew and made good his escape, having delayed an attack on Rich mond till Lee was largely reinforced and having recruited his own corps much beyond its losses, on his rapid march. General McClellan s army at this time numbered one hundred and fifty-eight thousand men, but thirty-eight thousand were sick, wounded, or deserters, and but one hun dred and twenty thousand effective. He had in some way gained the impression, since proved to be erroneous, that Lee s army greatly outnum bered his, and that, aside from Jackson s force, which he estimated at fifty thousand, Lee had two hundred thousand effective troops in Richmond and its vicinity. In fact, the Confederate army in and about Richmond, at this time, exclusive of Jackson s corps, did not much if at all exceed fifty thousand effectives, to which, on his return, in the latter part of June, Jackson added about forty thousand more. But, fully impressed with this belief, General McClellan, instead of using his fine army to carry Rich mond by assault, suffered it to lie idle in those malarious swamps, and constantly importuned the Government to send him more troops, a matter of impossibility to them, beyond the few who could be spared from McDowell s corps, who were sent promptly. After wasting much valua ble time in these useless complaints and importunities, he, on the eve of Jackson s return, fought two battles, in the second of which Jackson par ticipated, employing less .than half his force in either, and when his troops were defeated in the second, put in execution a plan he had for some time contemplated, of raising the siege of Richmond, and retreating with his army across the Peninsula to Harrison s Landing, fifteen miles by land from Richmond. The retreat was conducted with skill, but vast quanti- REVIEW OF THE WAU. 1007 ties of stores were sacrificed, very many of the wounded left in the hands of the enemy, and a number of severe battles fought, before the Union army could gain its new position, where it was covered by the gunboats. The loss of the army of the Potomac, in these seven days of fighting and retreating, in killed, wounded, sick, stragglers, and deserters, did not fall below thirty thousand men. The new position was not less sickly than the old, and though General McCiellan received a large part of Burnside s corps as reinforcements, he did not deem them sufficient to enable him to attack Richmond, and called for more. General Halleck, who had been, meantime, appointed general- in-chief, finally ordered him to remove his army to Aquia Creek and Alexandria, where their services were needed. General McCiellan pro tested, but, after some weeks delay, finally embarked with his army. Meanwhile, after Jackson s escape from pursuit, the Government decided to consolidate Fremont s, Banks , and McDowell s corps, or rather the remaining fragments of them, with Bayard s cavalry and some new recruits, into the army of Virginia, under the command of Major-General Pope, and this army, numbering not more than forty thousand troops, was sent forward to threaten Richmond from the north, and thus, by diverting Lee s attention, to give General McCiellan a better opportunity to capture Richmond. General Pope issued a somewhat grandiloquent proclamation to his troops on taking command, but his handling of the troops was remarkably skilful and able. He advanced to the Rappahannock, and threatened Lee s communications, but soon found that the Confederate general, entertaining no fears of an attack by General McCiellan upon Richmond, was marching with his whole force, of between ninety thousand and one hundred thousand men, upon him. The delay in the embarkation of the army of the Potomac, from which alone he could receive any con siderable reinforcements, compelled him to fight, with his greatly inferior force, a series of retreating battles, while with so great disparity of force, there was danger of his losing his trains, or being surrounded and com pelled to surrender. The retreat was a masterly one, and though his losses were heavy, and he was not so well supported as he should have been by the army of the Potomac, he succeeded in bringing his wearied and half-starved, but not demoralized heroes into the fortifications around Washington, in perfect order. Lee, having succeeded in pushing Pope s army out of his track, moved, by way of Leesburg, into Maryland, in tending to carry the war, which had hitherto, on his part, been defensive, into the Northern States. The army of the Potomac having reached Alexandria in the last of August, was ready, in connection with the remainder of the army of Virginia, to pursue the invader, and the whole force, being put un-lor the command of General McCiellan, marched northward. Harper s Ferry was shamefully surrendered to the Confederate General Hill by it.s gar 1008 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. rison, but the pursuing army overtook a part of the invaders at South mountain, on the 14th of September, and after a severe battle, drove them over the mountain. On the 17th, a severe battle, the bloodiest of the war thus far, was fought on the banks of Antietam creek. It was indecisive, though the advantage was slightly on the side of the Union army, which was, moreover, within reach of large reinforcements. On the morrow, Lee could not, and McClellan would not renew the battle, and on the day following, Lee withdrew across the Potomac, and made his way leisurely toward the Eapidan. General McClellan followed very slowly, and it was nearly three weeks before his army had wholly crossed the Potomac. His delays occasioned much dissatisfaction on the part of the Government, and on the 7th of November he was removed from command, and General Burnside appointed his successor. The selection was unfortunate, for General Burnside, though an excellent corps commander, and a man of great moral worth, was not so pre-eminent above the other corps com manders of the army, that they would receive his promotion without jealousy. He accepted the command with great reluctance, and moved forward, embarrassed and delayed from the first by jealousies, bickerings, and misunderstandings, and having determined to fight the Confederate army at Fredericksburg, crossed the Rappahannock- on the 12th of De cember, and on the 13th, fought the disastrous battle of Fredericksburg, in which his troops were hurled repeatedly against the massive walls of the Rebel defences, with no other result than their slaughter in fearful numbers, and were finally withdrawn across the Rappahannock to Fal mouth. The gloominess of this picture of the results of the war in the East, is somewhat relieved by the larger measure of su-ccess which had attended the Union armies in the West. The armies of the Western Department moved forward early in the year, in their work of forcing back the Rebel lion from Kentucky, which its waves had partially overflowed, and from Tennessee, which was completely submerged by it. The left wing of the grand army, under General Thomas, moved first, repulsing the Rebels at Camp Wildcat, and on the 19th and 20th of January, defeating and rout ing their forces at Lagan s Cross Roads and Mill Spring, under Zollicoffer and Crittenden, the first of these commanders being slain in the battle. The right wing, under Grant, and the naval force, under Flag-Officer Foote, moved next, capturing Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, after a brief action; compelling the "unconditional surrender" of Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland, with its garrison of thirteen thousand men, after a four days siege; flanking Columbus, Kentucky, where the Confederate General Polk had fortified himself till the place was a complete Gibraltar, and also rendering Bowling Green, Kentucky, where the Confederate commander- in-chief, General Albert Sydney Johnson, had gathered his principal army, untenable. As Polk retreated down the Mississippi, the squadron, REVIEW OF THE WAR 1009 under Flag-Officer Foote, pursued, and laid siege to Island Number Ten, where he again took possession of strong works ; while Buell, with the centre of the western army, pursued Johnston, who fled to and through Nashville, at whose gates Grant was already demanding admittance. The Confederate army found no resting place in Middle Tennessee, but passed on to Corinth, Mississippi, a point which, from its railroad connections, possessed great strategic importance. Thitherward the grand army fol lowed, the right wing, still under command of Grant (now major-general, for his brilliant victory at Fort Donelson), was in the advance, and ascending the Tennessee, disembarked at Pittsburg Landing, near Shiloh church, about twenty miles from Corinth. BuelPs army and Thomaafc followed, marching across the country, and greatly delayed by the very heavy condition of the roads. Johnston, the Confederate general, a very able commander, had collected the fragments of his army at Corinth, and gathered there a large body of new troops, and as his force largely out numbered Grant s, he resolved to attack him before Buell and Thomas could come up, and having crushed his army, repeat the operation with Buell when he came up. Buell was, however, nearer than he supposed, and the delay of one or two days, in consequence of the badness of the roads, rendered his skilfully planned attack a failure. His first onset was, however, successful ; approaching cautiously, and under the cover of a heavy fog, he struck the left flank of Grant s army on the morning of the 6th of April, and capturing a part of Prentiss s division, rolled up the left wing, and drove that and the centre back from their camps toward the river. There was severe fighting through the day, and a part of the Union troops stood their ground manfully, while others fled and skulked; but when the Rebel force had driven them within half a mile of the river, and were exulting in their victory, they came within range of the Union gunboats, which opened a most destructive fire upon them, and the Union troops rallying and massing their artillery, returned to the charge, and forced the Confederates back in turn. During the night, a part of Buell s troops and other reinforcements were brought up, and in the morning, Grant assumed the offensive, and drove the Confederate army back toward Corinth. Their commander, Johnston, was killed in the "first day s fight, and General Beauregard had taken his place. General Halleck now took command in person, and after a siege of several weeks, Beauregard evacuated Corinth as a matter of strategy, in ter-ding to compel a distribution of Halleck s army, which could not, in consequence of the unhealthiness of Corinth, be long retained in that vicinity, and then it was his purpose to strike them at one or more points above Corinth, and defeating them in detail, repossess Middle Tennessee. This plan was frustrated by the order of Jefferson Davis, relieving Beau- regard from command, and appointing Braxton Bragg his successor. Corinth was not long occupied, however, by any large body of troops. 64 1010 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. The command of General Grant, under the name of the army of the Ten nessee, was stationed near the Mississippi, where Island Number Ten, and Forts Wright and Pillow having been reduced, the Kebel fleet destroyed, and Memphis surrendered, the Union troops held with but little opposition, the whole of West Tennessee. General Buell s army, with which Thomas s had been consolidated, now called the " Army of the Ohio," was stationed along the line of the Memphis and Charleston railroad, occupying Huntsville, and the towns east as far as Stevenson. A part of the Kebel forces, under Van Dorn and Sterling Price, made a desperate effort to regain luka and Corinth in September, and the early part of October, but were defeated and routed with terrible loss by General Grant s army, and especially by the corps of Kosecrans, and McPherson s division. In Sep tember, Bragg resolved to make the effort to regain Middle Tennessee, cut Buell s communications, and lay Kentucky under tribute, and perhaps capture Louisville and Cincinnati. Sending his able lieutenant, E. Kirby Smith, in advance who passed through the Blue Grass region, established a pretended Confederate government at Frankfort, plundered Lexington, Winchester, Georgetown, and Cynthiana, and then threatened Cincinnati General Bragg followed, and approached Nashville, but was compelled to forego his siege of it by the closeness of Buell s pursuit. The Confederate force pushed on to Kentucky, doing a vast deal of mischief and compelling the smaller garrisons of the towns in their way to surrender. Buell pursued as rapidly as he could, but never overtook the Confederates, and finally passed on to Louisville. Bragg now turned back, to return with his plunder to Tennessee, and Buell again pursued, and at Perryville, Kentucky, pressed him so closely that he was compelled to give battle in order to give his trains time to escape. The battle was severe, but indecisive, and Bragg returned to Middle Tennessee, without further annoyance, while Buell fell back to Louisville, where he was relieved of command, and General Rosecrans appointed his successor. The new commander soon moved with his army to Nashville, and at the close of the year, marched upon Murfreesboro, where Bragg held a strong position, and near that town, the battles of Stone river were fought, and though at the first Rose crans right win g was crushed and his centre partially driven back, yet the sturdy valor of his troops enabled him to reform them in a new and impregnable position, and on the third day of the battle, to visit Bragg s right wing with such terrible destruction, that his army hastily withdrew from Murfreesboro, and retreated toward Shelby ville. The programme of the coast expeditions devised in the closing months of 1861, had been successfully carried out. Roanoke island, Newbern, Plymouth, Washington, North Carolina, Beaufort, North Carolina, More- head City, and Fort Macon, surrendered to the Union troops, and while an assault on the Confederates on James island, one of the outer defences of Charleston, had been badly managed, and proved unsuccessful, Fort REVIEW OF THE WAR. 1011 Pulaski, below Savannah, had been reduced by General Gillmore by a bombardment, at a range hitherto considered impossible. The greatest exhibition of naval prowess of the year, and one of the greatest of modern times, was the naval battle on the 24th of April, near Forts St. Philip and Jackson, on the Mississippi, seventy miles below New Orleans. After six days bombardment of the forts by his squadron, of seventeen gunboats and about twenty mortar scho"oners, Flag-Officer Far- ragut resolved to run past them, though in so doing he must encounter a boom and chain stretched across the river, floating torpedoes, and fire rafts, sent down by the Rebels for the destruction of his fleet, and the Confederate squadron, about equal in numbers to his own, and several of its vessels iron -clad. The battle was one of terrific grandeur and severity ; but, at its close, thirteen of the Rebel vessels were sunk or destroyed, including their most formidable iron -clad ram, the Manassas, while Far- ragut had lost but one vessel, though two others were partially disabled. Pursuing his way up the Mississippi, New Orleans surrendered to his squadron, and a day or two later the forts also capitulated. He ascended the Mississippi above Yicksburg, and, after an interview with Flag-Officer Davis, returned. Late in the year he captured Galveston, Texas, but it was retaken by the Confederates on the 1st of January, 1863, and two of the Union vessels and many brave men lost in the conflict. Arkansas had been the scene of several desperate battles, in which, however, the Union troops had been uniformly successful. The year 1863 opened with better auspices. The Union army was greatly enlarged, and more vigorous measures for the prosecution of the war resolved upon, and though the anaconda theory still held sway over the Government, there seemed a better prospect of success than at any time before. In the army of the Potomac, after making a plan for another flanking movement against Lee s army, which was thwarted by the intrigues of some of his jealous subordinates, General Burnside offered the Govern ment the alternative of sanctioning his removal of several of the corps and division commanders or relieving him of the command, and the latter alternative having been accepted, General Hooker was appointed to the command. Hooker greatly improved the morale, and discipline of the army ; organized, for the first time in its history, a really efficient cavalry corps, and planned a movement very similar to Burnside s to turn Lee s left flank at Chancellorsville, while at the same time he demonstrated on his right at Fredericksburg, and sent Stoneman with his cavalry to cut his communications with Richmond in rear. The plan was admirably conceived ; but Lee was fertile in resources, and met it by a counter-flank movement, sending " Stonewall" Jackson to pass around Hooker s right flank near Wilderness church, and roll up his right wing, crowding his centre from the Chancellorsville road toward the Rappahannock. This movement proved successful, the eleventh corps, which formed the right 1012 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. wing, being partially panic-stricken, and the whole line forced back and away from the Chancellorsville road, so that Lee s army could pass and repass ; and Hooker s sixth corps, commanded by the lamented Sedgwick, after carrying Fredericksburg by assault, were compelled to fight the whole of one day with Lee s entire army. Hooker finally returned across the Rappahannock after sustaining heavy losses, and without the gain of a foot of land. His cavalry had performed a successful raid, destroying a large amount of Confederate property, and penetrating within two miles of Richmond, but they were too late to be of any service to the Union army in the battle. Flushed with his success, Lee determined to try again the experiment of invading the northern States, and, early in June, commenced moving northward for that purpose. Hooker kept informed of his progress, and moving on interior lines, and having a strong cavalry force, he could, and did, crowd him west of the Bull Kun range, and compel him to cross the Potomac high up. All along his route, Hooker s cavalry harassed and annoyed him constantly. At last, it became evident that the two armies would come in collision at or near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. General Hooker was relieved of his command on the 27th of June, and General Meade appointed his successor ; and, on the 1st of July, the great battle commenced, and lasted for three days. The first day, the Rebels were partially successful ; but on the second and third days, though fighting with the utmost desperation, they were repulsed at all points, and finally compelled to retreat toward the Potomac, having suffered a loss of nearly or quite one third of their entire army of about one hundred and twenty thousand men. The pursuit on the part of General Meade was not so prompt, resolute, and persistent as it should have been, and, except a skirmish at Falling Waters, Lee was permitted to retire in safety to his former position on the Rapidan. Once during the autumn, an effort was made by each side to break the other s lines and sever the connection of their two wings, but in both cases it proved futile. On the coast, aside from some slight affairs in North Carolina, there had been an attempt to pass Fort Sumter and capture Charleston, by Rear- Admiral Dupont, in April, which proved a failure, and the occupation of Morris Island, the substantial reduction of Fort Sumter, the two bloody assaults, the siege and evacuation of Fort Wagner, and the bombardment of Charleston, by General Gillmore, in the summer. This campaign was brilliantry conducted, but it is a question if it was not a serious mistake. James island was at the time weakly defended ; it was more accessible than Morris island, and once captured, Charleston was at the mercy of its captor, and must have surrendered, while from its batteries, opposite Charleston, all the forts of the harbor were seen in reverse, and the city once taken, must have surrendered at discretion. It was found impossible, even after Sumter was only a heap of ruins, to move up the bay to assail REVIEW OF THE WAR 1013 Charleston with the iron-clads, and General Gillmore was obliged to con tent himself with a bombardment of the city, five miles distant. This was quite destructive, but the stubborn garrison would not surrender. In the West, Grant, after the unfortunate attack of Sherman upon Chickasaw Bluffs, a part of the defences of Vicksburg, just at the close of 1862 (an unfortunate attack, because, through the cowardice of one of Grant s officers in command at Holly Springs, that great depot of supplies for Grant s army was captured by the Rebels, and Grant was thus pre vented from co-operating with Sherman), the important post of Arkansas was captured by McClernand and Sherman, and the returning troops were landed at Milliken s Bend, where, and at Young s Point, Grant tasked his ingenuity to find a successful plan of operations against Vicksburg. At length, canals, passes, and attempts to enter the Yazoo, or its tributaries, higher up, having all failed, General Grant determined to run some of the gunboats and a number of transports past Vicksburg, and marching his men down the west side of the Mississippi, to cross at Briansburg, thirty miles below Vicksburg, and moving first upon the capital of the State, approach the city from the east. The campaign which followed was one of the most brilliant in history. Fighting six important battles in seventeen days, and defeating the enemy in each he sat down before Vicksburg, on the 18th of May, assaulted the city on the 19th and 22d, but without success, besieged it with great vigor till the 4th of July, and at last compelled its surrender with thirty thousand prisoners, and nearly four hundred guns. Port Hudson followed four days later, after a some what shorter siege by General Banks, and by the 9th of July the Missis sippi was once more open to navigation along its whole extent. Arkansas was, during the spring and summer, almost wholly cleared of Confederate troops, either as armies or garrisons. Rosecrans, after the battle of Stone river, remained for some months at Murfreesboro, recruiting his army, improving his cavalry, and preparing for another campaign. Early in June, he began to advance, drove Bragg s army out of the passes of the mountains, through Shelbyville, Decatur, and Tullahoma, toward Chat tanooga. He then commenced repairing thoroughly the railroads and bridges leading to Chattanooga, and in the latter part of August was ready to move forward. Chattanooga was too strongly fortified to be taken by any other than a flanking movement, and, therefore, moving his army by the right flank, he sent the three corps to cross Lookout mountain, by three passes, more than forty miles apart, and thence to ascend McLamore s cove from the south, and thus compel its evacuation. The plan succeeded, Bragg evacuated the city, and the Union troops occupied it, but Bragg having been largely reinforced from Virginia, resolved to attack Rose crans corps separately, before they could form a junction, and having defeated them, regain possession of Chattanooga. Rosecrans comprehend ing his intention, succeeded, by almost superhuman exertions, in bring- 1014 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. ing the three corps together in McLamore s cove, and there, on the 19th and 20th of September, occurred the terribly destructive battle of Cliicka- mauga. On the first day, the Union forces held their ground, though opposed by a largely superior force, and the fighting, though severe, was indecisive; but on the second day, an unfortunate misunderstanding of an order left a gap between two divisions, of which the Confederates promptly took advantage, and a considerable portion of the army, includ ing General Kosecrans and Generals Crittenden and McCook, corps com manders, were cut off from the remainder of the army, and being unable to force their way through, were compelled to fall back to Chattanooga. The Confederates now hurled themselves against the remainder of the army, commanded by General Thomas, in full confidence that with their superior force they should easily capture his small force, but the sturdy hero, setting his back against the mountains, fought them all day, and at last, bringing up his reserves, drove them back in a final conflict, and having witnessed their repulse, withdrew his little army to Rossville, where, the next morning, he drew them up in line of battle and awaited in vain, an attack, all the next day. But though Chattanooga was saved, by this desperate fighting, from again falling into the hands of the Confederates, the condition of the troops which held it was, for the next two months, precarious. They had been compelled, from want of sufficient force, to relinquish a position west of the city, which commanded the Tennessee river, and the Confederates had at once occupied it. A part of the railroad to Nashville was also in posses sion of Bragg s troops, who had captured a portion of their train ; they were compelled to haul their supplies sixty miles over the worst roads in the world, and were in serious danger of starvation, while their animals were perishing for want of forage. Two corps were sent to them from the army of the Potomac ; and two, constituting the army of the Tennessee, now commanded by General Sherman, from the Mississippi. General Kosecrans was relieved from his command, General Thomas appointed commander of the army of the Cumberland, and General Grant was made general of the grand military division of the Mississippi, and took com mand, in person, at Chattanooga. The battle of Wauhatchie, in October, restored the Tennessee river to the Union troops, and reduced the trans portation by wagons to ten miles. General Grant had brought his large army into working order, when Bragg, who had just despatched twenty thousand of his troops to besiege Knoxville, which had been occupied by Burnside since early in September, haughtily demanded the removal of the non-combatants from Chattanooga, as he was about to bombard the city. Grant replied by sending Hooker to drive the Confederates from Lookout mountain, and fight the battle " above the clouds ;" suggesting to Thomas the seizure of Orchard Knob ; directing Sherman to demonstrate strongly and persistently against Fort Buckner, and the cavalry to cut the REVIEW OF THE WAR. 1015 railroads above and east of Chattanooga ; and when Sherman s demon stration had drawn the Confederate troops from Forts Bragg and Breckin- ridge, hurling the fourth corps like a thunderbolt upon Fort Bragg, and driving the enemy from every part of Mission Ridge, and the next day over Pigeon mountain, till they took refuge in the fastnesses of the Chattooga or Rocky Faced Ridge. There had been no more complete and signal victory during the war. The year 1863 closed amid brighter prospects, and better hopes for success, but the " anaconda " policy was losing favor, from its immense cost of money and men, and its meagre results. As yet, Tennessee and Arkansas were the only States wholly rescued from the Confederates, and even these were held by a frail tenure. Portions of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana were, indeed, held, but the Government was only secure of these while they were actually occupied by its troops, and the Confederates had not yet relin quished their expeditions, yearly or oftener, into Missouri, Kentucky, Mary land, and Pennsylvania. General Grant, whose brilliant victories had made his opinion of great value in all matters pertaining to the conduct of the war, was understood to be strongly opposed to the anaconda system, and in favor of a policy of concentration ; striking directly at the vital seats of power in the Confederacy, and compelling the insurgents to bring their troops from all points for the defence of these. Crushing blows upon these large armies would, he contended, cripple the Confederate govern ment so much as to lead to its speedy overthrow. Still, the advocates of the old policy, who had hopes of benefit from it, were strong enough to compel the Government to fit out two expeditions in furtherance of it, in 1864. One that, terminating in the battle of Olustee, Florida, had for its object not only the crushing in the folds of the anaconda all the Rebels in Florida, but coralling their cattle in the same capacious receptacle. The expedition was initiated and ordered at the instance of some ambitious politicians, and proved a most cruel and disastrous failure. The other, the stupendous and disgraceful blunder of the Red river expedition, was ordered by the Government, on the decep tive and false representations of men interested in cotton speculations, and who sought to make of the national army a guard and safe-conduct for their successful transmission of cotton purchased from Rebel owners. The advance of this great army into the heart of the cotton region of Louisiana; its trains, transports, and gunboats laden with cotton; the bickerings among its officers; its badly managed battles, and its hasty re treat, with the sacrifice of some of its transports, gunboats, and its wounded men, all constituted a record which, for the honor of the country, we re joice to say, has had no parallel in its history. The expedition of General Sherman into the heart of Mississippi and Alabama, in February, 1864, did not belong to this policy. It was rather a recounoissance in 1016 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. force into the enemy s country ; and if, owing to the untoward circum stances which prevented the junction of the cavalry with it, it did not accomplish all that was expected from it, it was the precursor of other and more successful advances of the movable column in the heart of the enemy s country. With the promotion of Grant to the rank of Lieutenant- General and the virtual command of all the armies of the Union, and that of Sherman to the command of the military division of the Mississippi, in the spring of 1864, ended all new enterprises under the old policy, and the adoption, henceforth, of the policy of concentration. Henceforth, the destruction or capitulation of the great armies of the Confederacy was the one object sought. The armies of the east were concentrated on Rich mond and Petersburg, in order to hold Lee s army there until, by sturdy and oft repeated blows, it could be brought to surrender ; and Richmond, though the Rebel capital, was held to be of less importance than the army which defended it. Sherman s objective was Johnston s army, and the auxiliary forces which, from time to time, reinforced it. These he sought with the most indefatigable energy, and finally, having shattered them by his heavy blows and his matchless strategy, swept through the States of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, drawing them after him, until they had collected in sufficient force for him to strike them the final blows which led to their capitulation. Grant had requested Sherman to move as nearly as possible simultaneously with him ; and while the Lieutenant-General broke camp on the Rapidan, on the fifth of May, Sherman followed his example on the 7th. The two campaigns which followed, in Virginia and Georgia, were terribly destructive of human life, but every blow told on the final result. The fearful battles of the Wilderness, where, amid the low tangled undergrowth, the use of artillery was impossible, and the men of the two armies fought hand to hand for days ; the successive movements of the Union army by the left flank, to Spottsylvania Court House, to the North Anna, to Cold Harbor, to Mechanicsville, to the Chickahominy, each met promptty by counter-movements on the part of Lee, and each attended with a more terrible slaughter than has marked any series of battles in modern times, were yet necessary portions of the plan of operations by which the Lieutenant-General had undertaken to break the power of the Rebellion. He was criticised, by those who supposed Richmpnd to be the sole end and aim of the Union army, for attacking Lee on the Rapidan, and driving or pressing him southward, when, it was said, he might have reached his final position on the James more easily, by embarking hia troops and commencing his warfare there, and thus have avoided the terrible slaughter of the May battles ; but it was Lee s army, not Rich mond, which was Grant s objective, and it was his plan to find the enemy and strike him blow after blow, till he compelled him to yield, whether REVIEW OF THE WAR. 1017 the point where he yielded was at Richmond or in Florida. By pursuing this policy he effectually protected the Union capital from invasion. After crossing the James with the greater portion of his army, Grant, who had already crippled Lee s strength in men greatly by the losses he had inflicted (for though Grant s losses in these battles were heavier than Lee s, he could replace his men, which Lee could not, to any considerable extent), commenced harassing his enemy by his constant activity, striking sometimes the right, sometimes the left flank; sometimes both simultaneously, and always moving upon the point where he was least expected ; now sending his cavalry to cut Lee s communications, anon pushing forward his infantry to feel for them ; seizing and fortifying one railroad, which he had snatched from Lee, only to make it the base for reaching forward for another ; exploding a mine under his forts, and when that failed of expected success, from the mismanagement of some of his subordinates, pushing his cavalry suddenly up to the inner lines of the Richmond fortifications ; and all the while holding, as in a vice, Lee s troops, so that he could not send the needful aid to Johnston or Hood. The pressure upon the throat of the Rebellion began to be so severe as to be intolerable, but in vain Lee tried to shake it off. In despair he took advantage of a brief lull in Grant s activity, to send a few troops to join the irregular bands of northern and northwestern Virginia, in a raid upon Maryland and Pennsylvania, to threaten Washington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, in the hope that, alarmed for the safety of the capital and the northern cities, Grant might relax his hold ; but he had mistaken his man. Grant sent the nineteenth corps, just ordered on from the De partment of the Gulf, to the Shenandoah valley, and reinforced it tem porarily with the sixth corps, which he could well spare, and as soon as practicable nominated Sheridan for the command of the army of the Shen andoah ; but he, himself, did not relax the pressure upon Lee s lines for an hour. Sheridan, after thoroughly reconnoitering his field, struck Early s army a succession of fearful blows, sending him " whirling 1 through Winchester, on the 19th of September; driving him out of his strong position on Fisher s Hill, on the 22d ; pressing his pursuit up the valley, till Early s men were fain to take to the mountains ; routing and forcing him back on the 8th and 12th of October ; when, reinforced, he ao-ain ventured into battle with him, and on the 19th of October, sending him back in utter confusion, retreating twenty-six miles at night from the camp where, in the morning, he had fairly won a victory. Early completely discomfitted, Sheridan desolated, as with the besom of destruction, the fertile valley of the Shenandoah, and the adjacent Luray and Little Fort valleys, the inhabitants of all of which had sustained and encouraged the guerrillas in their acts of plundering and murdering unarmed Union men. Lee found that this attempt to shake off his persistent adversary did 1018 THE CIYIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. not succeed. He had, indeed, plundered a part of Maryland and southern Pennsylvania; had burned Chambersburg ; and had brought off a large number of horses and cattle ; but what had he gained ? E well s corps, or so much of it as Early had taken north, was almost destroyed, and the small remainder thoroughly demoralized. He had lost some hundred cannon and thousands of small arms, the latter a very severe loss, as he could not replace them ; the plunder Early brought into Virginia had most of it been recaptured, and the valley of the Shenandoah, his principal dependence for supplies, had been thoroughly stripped of its horses, cattle, and grain. Every battle (and the battles were frequent), but diminished his strength, even though he might be successful in repulsing the attacks of the Union troops, and when, on the 15th of January, after one unsuccessful attack, Grant had found the men who could carry Fort Fisher by assault, and thus hermetically seal the port of Wilmington, on which he was largely dependent for arms and munitions of war, brought in by the blockade runners, the Eebel general felt that the end was approaching. He notified the Rebel government that unless extraordinary measures were adopted, he could not hold out six months. The measures proposed were, forced levies of men, supplies, and money, and the arming of the negroes ; but the delay had already been fatal, and the proposed measures were resolved upon too late to be of service. Once more he succeeded in repulsing (February 4-6) Grant s efforts to reach the Southside railroad; once more he seized a favorable opportunity (March 25) to gain possession of a Union stronghold (Fort Stedman), only, however, to be driven from it with terrible loss, and his right pushed back, till the coveted railroad was almost within reach ; and then came the end. The left and left-centre of Grant s army, making a grand left wheel, swung round upon Dinwiddie Court House, Hatcher s Run, Quaker Road, and the Five Forks, and, after four days of hard fighting, isolated and routed the Confederate troops from all their strong positions, and drove them westward thoroughly, demoralized ; and, on the ensuing morning, the right and right-centre flung themselves with great fury upon the strong defensive works of Petersburg, breached and seized them, and reaching the Southside railroad, tore it up effectually. Lee had now no alternative; Richmond and Petersburg must both be evacuated instantly, and a desperate effort made to reach Danville. But here Grant had out- generalled him ; from Knoxville, a strong cavalry force, under General Stoneman, was proceeding eastward to check his retreat in that direction, and Sherman s great army was capable of preventing his progress south ward. The struggle which followed, though sharp, was short ; the pursuit was commenced on the morning of the 3d of April, and after skirmishing at various points, and severe battles at Deatonsville, Farmville, the high bridge over the Appomattox, and Appomattox Court House, Lee surren- REVIEW OF THE WAR. 1019 dered the remainder of his army, and one of the two great objects of the long campaign was gained. Sherman s career in the accomplishment of his share of the work was more brilliant, though, perhaps, no more sure of ultimate success. Break ing camp on the 7th of May, 1864, he found Johnston occupying an almost impregnable position at Buzzard Roost Gap, in the Chattooga, or Rocky Faced Ridge, with his rear resting on Dalton. Leaving Thomas to demonstrate on this, he moved by the right flank on Resaca, some miles below, and compelled Johnston to fall back to save this important position, though not without severe fighting ; he repeated the same move ment on Kingston, to compel the evacuation of Resaca, and giving him no rest till he had crossed the Etowah, and fallen back to Allatoona Pass, he directed his own march on Dallas. Threatening thereby the railroad nearer the Chattahoochie, after two sharp battles near Dallas, and a series of actions (one a somewhat disastrous assault) at Kenesaw and Little Kene- saw mountains, he again flanked and drove the Rebels from their position to and across the Chattahoochie, and, meantime, maintained his railroad communications to Chattanooga. Crossing the Chattahoochie, he drew nigh to the Rebel stronghold of Atlanta, which Hood, who had superseded Johnston, " thanked God could not be flanked." After three severe bat tles, in which Hood lost very heavily, and Sherman s ablest lieutenant, General McPherson, was killed, he attempted to reach the communications of Atlanta from below, by extending his right flank; but failing of suc cess in this, as well as in his cavalry movements for the same purpose, he apparently raised the siege of the city, and, sending his reserves to the banks of the Chattahoochie, moved south with his main army, and destroying the railroad from Rough and Ready to Jonesboro, and defeat ing the two corps Hood had sent to fight him, compelled the Confederate general to abandon Atlanta. Removing the inhabitants from the city, and making it a military post, he brought thither large quantities of supplies, and when Hood, recover ing from his defeat, sought to destroy his communications with Chatta nooga and capture his garrisons, he pursued him as far as Gaylesville ; Alabama; defeating him at Allatoona Pass, and driving him well west ward ; then sending Schofield s and Stanley s corps to General Thomas, at Nashville, and ordering other troops to his support, he left him to take care of Hood, and himself returned, with* four corps, to Atlanta, from whence, on the 14th of November, he set out, after destroying the rail road behind him, and dismantling and partly demolishing Atlanta, for the sea coast, with a force of sixty thousand men. The distance was two hun dred and ninety miles, and the march of a movable column of this size, without a base, for that distance, through the heart of an enemy s country was an enterprise unprecedented in history. It was safely accomplished, however, with very slight loss, and no serious fighting, and in thirty days 1020 THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES. the coast was reached at Savannah, Fort McAllister carried by assault, and, a week later, Savannah evacuated and surrendered. Meanwhile, Hood had advanced northward toward Nashville ; Schofield, who was at Pulaski with an inferior force, skilfully opposing and delaying his advance, yet luring him on ; resisting him at Columbia and Duck river with great tenacity ; fighting a very severe battle with him at Franklin, where Hood lost thirteen generals, and finally falling back by a night march to Nashville, which Hood, following, attempted to invest. After a fortnight, General Thomas, coming out of the city, completely defeated and routed Hood in a two days battle, and pursued him for thir teen days, till his army, which, all but a small rear-guard, was a mere disorganized mob, had made its escape across the Tennessee. Sherman remained for a month at Savannah, recruiting and supplying his troops, arranging for the future condition and comfort of the freed- men, and preparing for a still more gigantic enterprise with his fine army. About the middle of January, he moved northward with his army, in two columns, Goldsboro, N. C., four hundred miles distant, being his objective. By a series of feints, he deceived the Confederate forces at Augusta, Charles ton, Columbia, and elsewhere, in regard to his plans, and avoided them while he prevented their junction; captured Orangeburg, Columbia, and Winns- boro, and compelled the evacuation of Charleston, which the Union armies had so long labored in vain to conquer ; occupied Cheraw and Fayette- ville, fought and defeated a part of the Confederate army, now again under the command of Johnston, at Averysboro, and the whole of it at Benton- ville, and reached Goldsboro on the 24th of March, near which town he was joined by Schofield and Terry, who had captured Wilmington. Kemaining here till the 10th of April, to refit and supply his troops, he moved forward again that day, and entered Smithfield on the llth, and Raleigh on the 12th ; and the news of Lee s surrender reaching him there, he pushed on, determined to overtake and capture Johnston s forces. On the 14th, overtures were made by Johnston for surrender, and after two interviews, on the 17th and 18th, a memorandum was drawn up between the two generals, in regard to the surrender of the entire Confederate army in the field, and sent to Washington for approval. Being rejected there, the surrender of Johnston was arranged, on the 26th of April, on the same terms as Lee had received. Meantime, Mobile (the defences at the mouth of its bay having been captured in August, 1854, by the squad ron of Rear, now Yice-Admiral Farragut and General Gordon Granger s corps, in a most remarkable naval battle) was besieged in the latter part of March, 1865, by General Canby s army and Rear- Admiral Thatcher s squadron, and after a siege of somewhat more than two weeks, Spanish Fort was captured, Fort Blakely carried by assault, and the city evacuated and surrendered. Shortly after, General Richard Taylor, who commanded the remaining Rebel troops in Alabama, and Admiral Farrand, who com- REVIEW OF THE WAR. 1021 manded the Rebel squadron, signified their desire to surrender. Terms were granted them similar to those accorded to Lee and Johnston. Major- General Wilson, commanding the cavalry corps of Thomas s army, hud, in March, moved with a force of thirteen thousand five hundred cavalry, through Central Alabama and Georgia, capturing Selrna, Montgomery, Griffin, Columbus, West Point and Macon, the whole campaign forming the most brilliant cavalry campaign in history; and on the 10th of May, a detachment of his troops arrested the Rebel President, Jefferson Davis, who was endeavoring to escape from the country. There remained, at this time, but one more Rebel army in existence, that of General E. Kirby Smith, in Texas ; and on the 26th of May, this, together with the Rebel naval squadron in the waters of that State and the Red river, also surrendered. A large part of the army of the Union was now mustered out of ser vice, not more than two hundred thousand troops being still in the service on the 1st of August, 1865, and the number being still further reduced by the 1st of September. The army was reorganized, and the entire country laid out in five grand military divisions the Atlantic, the Mississippi, the Gulf, the Tennessee, and the Pacific under the command of Generals Meade, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, and Halleck ; each subdivided into two or more departments (there were eighteen departments in all), over which able generals were appointed. Thus closed a war, which, extended over a period of four years, had caused a more lavish expenditure of money, and had called into the field larger forces, than any war of modern times. The fighting had been desperate on both sides, and officers and soldiers had exhibited a courage and prowess equal to any on record. The war commenced with slavery in the ascendant, the great southern staple ruling the commercial world, the South boastful and defiant, and the governments of Europe predicting the speedy downfall of the American Republic, and its division into a number of petty states. It closed, with slavery effectually annihilated, the nations of the world freed from their thraldom to the southern staple, the South humbled, and though somewhat sullen, yet improving in tem per, and the European governments ready to acknowledge the power of republican institutions to pass through an ordeal which would have in- volved any government in Europe in ruin. AGENTS WABIT WE desire that every family in the United States should be supplied with the ataiidard History of the War. It is better adapted to the wants of the people than any other work on the subject. It imparts a vast amount of information, and is &fair and impartial record of events, entirely divested of political bias. Not a sentence was put in type for months after the close of the war, thus affording to the Author full, reliable and official data for the basis of the work. THE SECOND CANVASS. We are satisfied that the second Canvass will in many places be more successful than the first ; for, after this work has been distributed through the country, the public will have an oppor tunity to compare it with other Histories, and finding it so much more reliable, especially, than the first volume of the two volume Histories, that were so extensively circulated during the war, that they will lay these inferior works aside as unreliable and worth less, and secure this great History. We want reliable Agents to Canvass every county, township, and village, for this and other popular works, to whom the most liberal commission will be given. Send for Circulars and see our terms. Address as follows : For the New England States, Canada East and the British Pro vinces, JONES BROTHERS & CO., Boston, Massachusetts. For New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Western Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, California, and Canada West, JONES BROTHERS & CO., Philadelphia, Penn a For Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama, JONES BROTHERS & CO., Cincinnati, Ohio. For Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Northern Illinois, ZEIGLER, McCURDY & CO., Chicago, Illinois. For Southern Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Nebraska, and all territory West, ZEIGLER, McCURDY & CO., St. Louis, Missouri. AGENTS WANTED FOB THE SECRET SERVICE, THE FIELD, THE DUNGEON, AND THE ESCAPE. BY ALBERT D. KIOHARDSOK (Special War Correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune.) The most thrillingly interesting and exciting book of Army experience ever published. Abounding in personal adventures, deeds of noble daring, anecdotes, touching incidents, ingenious stratagems, life in camp and bivouac, &c. More absorbing in interest and re plete with useful information than any Historical work extant. Embracing Mr. Richardson s unparalleled experience for four years ; travelling through the South in the secret service of the " Tribune" at the outbreak of the war, with our armies and fleets, both East and West, during the first two years of the Rebellion ; his thrilling capture ; his confinement for twenty months in seven different rebel prisons ; his escape, and almost miraculous journey by night of nearly 400 miles. It abounds in stirring events, and contains more of the fact, incident, and romance of the war than any other work published. HORACE GREELEY says: " A great many books will yet be written concerning this War, in addi tion to the many already in print; but not one of them will give within a similar compass a clearer, fuller, more readable account, entirely from personal observation, of the nature, animus, purposes, tendencies, and instrumentalities of the Slaveholders Rebellion than does the unpretending narrative of Mr. Richardson." Disabled officers and soldiers, teachers, and energetic young men, in want of profitable employment, will find this a rare chance to make money. For proof of the above send for Circu lars and see our terms. ADDRESS JONES, BROTHERS & CO, Publishers Philadelphia, Pa, j Cincinnati, Ohio | or Boston, Mass, 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. "BRAKY USE J 10ec 63Jfl *W 2^m2 pPC O ^ MAR 2 b jg fi? uaM ,7 63-^ ... .*&\$ WM / ^ Dty : 63 . 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